Assessing Potential Laser Strike Protection Engineering Control for United States Coast Guard Aircraft

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Business Signage Control in Seattle's Chinatown International District, Pursuing Healthy Balance of Preservation and Commercial Vitalization in a Historic Commercial Districts

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

CABSYS BASE DE DATOS BIBLIOGRÁFICA SOBRE RELIGIÓN EN COSTA RICA, NORMALIZACIÓN Y VALORACIÓN DE CONTENIDOS

Esta base de datos contiene 30738 registros referenciales de la prensa religiosa costarricense, en formato CEPAL, elaborados utilizando el programa Microisis, en la Escuela Ecuménica de la Religión de la Universidad Nacional.Se presenta la experiencia y los procedimientos utilizados para la normalización de la base de datos Cabsys, desde la identificación y verificación de los artículos ingresados desde 1986, directamente de las fuentes originales: los periódicos religiosos, la complementación de los títulos, la elaboración de un archivo de autoridad de autor, la corroboración de los datos referenciales de ubicación; la normalización de los descriptores y la elaboración de un archivo de autoridad de materia.Se presentan cuadros ilustrativos sobre los artículos incluidos, por ejemplo: distribución de trabajos por autor, distribución por género, distribución por año de publicación, temas más representativos según descriptores asignados y correlación entre estos y las palabras del título de los artículos.

Bayesian analysis of a mastitis control plan to investigate the influence of veterinary prior beliefs on clinical interpretation

The fundamental objective for health research is to determine whether changes should be made to clinical decisions. Decisions made by veterinary surgeons in the light of new research evidence are known to be influenced by their prior beliefs, especially their initial opinions about the plausibility of possible results. In this paper, clinical trial results for a bovine mastitis control plan were evaluated within a Bayesian context, to incorporate a community of prior distributions that represented a spectrum of clinical prior beliefs. The aim was to quantify the effect of veterinary surgeons’ initial viewpoints on the interpretation of the trial results. A Bayesian analysis was conducted using Markov chain Monte Carlo procedures. Stochastic models included a financial cost attributed to a change in clinical mastitis following implementation of the control plan. Prior distributions were incorporated that covered a realistic range of possible clinical viewpoints, including scepticism, enthusiasm and uncertainty. Posterior distributions revealed important differences in the financial gain that clinicians with different starting viewpoints would anticipate from the mastitis control plan, given the actual research results. For example, a severe sceptic would ascribe a probability of 0.50 for a return of <£5 per cow in an average herd that implemented the plan, whereas an enthusiast would ascribe this probability for a return of >£20 per cow. Simulations using increased trial sizes indicated that if the original study was four times as large, an initial sceptic would be more convinced about the efficacy of the control plan but would still anticipate less financial return than an initial enthusiast would anticipate after the original study. In conclusion, it is possible to estimate how clinicians’ prior beliefs influence their interpretation of research evidence. Further research on the extent to which different interpretations of evidence result in changes to clinical practice would be worthwhile.

A Closed Loop Brain-machine Interface for Epilepsy Control Using Dorsal Column Electrical Stimulation

Although electrical neurostimulation has been proposed as an alternative treatment for drug-resistant cases of epilepsy, current procedures such as deep brain stimulation, vagus, and trigeminal nerve stimulation are effective only in a fraction of the patients. Here we demonstrate a closed loop brain-machine interface that delivers electrical stimulation to the dorsal column (DCS) of the spinal cord to suppress epileptic seizures. Rats were implanted with cortical recording microelectrodes and spinal cord stimulating electrodes, and then injected with pentylenetetrazole to induce seizures. Seizures were detected in real time from cortical local field potentials, after which DCS was applied. This method decreased seizure episode frequency by 44% and seizure duration by 38%. We argue that the therapeutic effect of DCS is related to modulation of cortical theta waves, and propose that this closed-loop interface has the potential to become an effective and semi-invasive treatment for refractory epilepsy and other neurological disorders.

Psychological Aspects in Children and Adolescents With Major Thalassemia: A Case-Control Study

Background: Thalassemia is an inherited blood disease. It is a serious public health problem throughout the Mediterranean region, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent, as well as in Southeast Asia. Objectives: Thalassemia is an inherited blood disease. It is a serious public health problem. In this study we assessed psychological aspects in Iranian children and adolescents with thalassemia major. Patients and Methods: In this case-control study sixty healthy subjects aged 7-18 years and Sixty Patients with confirmed diagnosis of major thalassemia were enrolled. After obtaining informed consent from parents of all participating thalassemia patients and healthycontrols, we assessed psychological aspects and quality of life by Pediatric Quality of LifeTM (PedsQL™), Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires (SDQ), State and Trait Anxiety, Children's Depression Inventory (CDI). Results: The results of this study indicate that there are significant changes in depression, anxiety, QOL and behavioral screening between children with thalassemia major compared with healthy subjects by means of both parents and children reports. According to the results, children with thalassemia major have more psychological problems than healthy ones. Patients with thalassemia have a lower QOL than their peers (P = 0.001), the rate of depression is higher in this group (P = 0.015), Also behavioral problems in these children are more than healthy subjects (P = 0.009). Conclusions: We recommend appropriate treatment and counseling procedures in addition to specific treatment of thalassemia. According to the results we suggest to establish pediatric psychiatric clinics beside thalassemic clinics to cure psychological aspects of the disease.

Evaluación al sistema de control interno del departamento de producción del Centro Gráfico Salesiano de la Editorial Don Bosco

El trabajo que hemos desarrollado es una Evaluación al Sistema de Control Interno del Centro Grafico Salesiano de la Editorial Don Bosco. Esta investigación se desarrolló por la importancia que el Departamento de Producción tiene dentro de la Editorial; esto nos permitirá exponer las falencias, y dar sugerencias para mejorar su funcionamiento. Este estudio se enfoca en los procesos, procedimientos y tareas a cumplir por parte del personal, con productos de calidad, tiempos apropiados, sin desperdicio de materias primas, reducción de tiempos muertos y de costos de producción. En el CAPITULO I, se desarrollaron los conceptos del COSO 1, que serán útiles para nuestro estudio que describe las generalidades de cada uno de sus componentes y métodos de evaluación. En el CAPITULO II, realizamos una breve descripción de los aspectos generales de la empresa, para tener un mayor conocimiento del entorno. En el CAPITULO III realizamos la evaluación, del SCI al departamento productivo, utilizado técnicas de evaluación como las del flujograma, cuestionarios, y con la información obtenida realizamos un diagnóstico y emitimos un informe con conclusiones y recomendaciones. En el CAPITULO IV se finaliza con un planteamiento de conclusiones y recomendaciones que ayuden a mejorar el control de las actividades dentro del departamento de producción. Este estudio no solo servirá como fuente de observación por parte de la Editorial Don Bosco, sino también a empresas del mismo giro comercial, siendo capaz de dar lineamientos de observación de producción.

Development and Verification of Control and Protection Strategies in Hybrid AC/DC Power Systems for Smart Grid Applications

Modern power networks incorporate communications and information technology infrastructure into the electrical power system to create a smart grid in terms of control and operation. The smart grid enables real-time communication and control between consumers and utility companies allowing suppliers to optimize energy usage based on price preference and system technical issues. The smart grid design aims to provide overall power system monitoring, create protection and control strategies to maintain system performance, stability and security. This dissertation contributed to the development of a unique and novel smart grid test-bed laboratory with integrated monitoring, protection and control systems. This test-bed was used as a platform to test the smart grid operational ideas developed here. The implementation of this system in the real-time software creates an environment for studying, implementing and verifying novel control and protection schemes developed in this dissertation. Phasor measurement techniques were developed using the available Data Acquisition (DAQ) devices in order to monitor all points in the power system in real time. This provides a practical view of system parameter changes, system abnormal conditions and its stability and security information system. These developments provide valuable measurements for technical power system operators in the energy control centers. Phasor Measurement technology is an excellent solution for improving system planning, operation and energy trading in addition to enabling advanced applications in Wide Area Monitoring, Protection and Control (WAMPAC). Moreover, a virtual protection system was developed and implemented in the smart grid laboratory with integrated functionality for wide area applications. Experiments and procedures were developed in the system in order to detect the system abnormal conditions and apply proper remedies to heal the system. A design for DC microgrid was developed to integrate it to the AC system with appropriate control capability. This system represents realistic hybrid AC/DC microgrids connectivity to the AC side to study the use of such architecture in system operation to help remedy system abnormal conditions. In addition, this dissertation explored the challenges and feasibility of the implementation of real-time system analysis features in order to monitor the system security and stability measures. These indices are measured experimentally during the operation of the developed hybrid AC/DC microgrids. Furthermore, a real-time optimal power flow system was implemented to optimally manage the power sharing between AC generators and DC side resources. A study relating to real-time energy management algorithm in hybrid microgrids was performed to evaluate the effects of using energy storage resources and their use in mitigating heavy load impacts on system stability and operational security.

How to Efficiently Control the Title and Registration Mail-in Workload Backlog Processing

The Titles and Registration Mail-In Unit of the Department of Motor Vehicles only processes title and registration work that has been mailed in. During the time periods of May through June and November through January, the mail workload backlog becomes overbearing. This research will attempt to find out the cause of this increase backlog during those periods, determine what procedures or steps are currently in place and unnecessarily creating needless work that has a direct correlation with the backlog and deploy a recommendation that will totally eliminate peak time backlog work loads.

South Carolina Office of the State Treasurer Department of Internal Audit Policies and Procedures Manual

The purpose of this project is to develop a Policy and Procedures Manual as a written guidance for applicable and required procedures to identify processes which will improve the effectiveness of risk management, control, and governance process through the Department of Internal Audit of the South Carolina Office of the State Treasurer's Internal Audit functions.

Design and testing of innovative, artificial intelligence-based techniques to model and control the combustion process and to reduce the Co2 emissions in modern, high-performance, gasoline direct injection engines

This work deals with the development of calibration procedures and control systems to improve the performance and efficiency of modern spark ignition turbocharged engines. The algorithms developed are used to optimize and manage the spark advance and the air-to-fuel ratio to control the knock and the exhaust gas temperature at the turbine inlet. The described work falls within the activity that the research group started in the previous years with the industrial partner Ferrari S.p.a. . The first chapter deals with the development of a control-oriented engine simulator based on a neural network approach, with which the main combustion indexes can be simulated. The second chapter deals with the development of a procedure to calibrate offline the spark advance and the air-to-fuel ratio to run the engine under knock-limited conditions and with the maximum admissible exhaust gas temperature at the turbine inlet. This procedure is then converted into a model-based control system and validated with a Software in the Loop approach using the engine simulator developed in the first chapter. Finally, it is implemented in a rapid control prototyping hardware to manage the combustion in steady-state and transient operating conditions at the test bench. The third chapter deals with the study of an innovative and cheap sensor for the in-cylinder pressure measurement, which is a piezoelectric washer that can be installed between the spark plug and the engine head. The signal generated by this kind of sensor is studied, developing a specific algorithm to adjust the value of the knock index in real-time. Finally, with the engine simulator developed in the first chapter, it is demonstrated that the innovative sensor can be coupled with the control system described in the second chapter and that the performance obtained could be the same reachable with the standard in-cylinder pressure sensors.

New knowledge, diagnostic and control tools to limit the impact of viral nervous necrosis (VNN) in the Mediterranean aquaculture sector

The role of aquaculture in satisfying the global seafood demand is essential. The expansion of the aquaculture sector and the intensification of its activities have enhanced the circulation of infectious agents. Among these, the nervous necrosis virus (NNV) represents the most widespread in the Mediterranean basin. The NNV is responsible for a severe neuropathological condition named viral nervous necrosis (VNN), impacting hugely on fish farms due to the serious disease-associated losses. Therefore, it is fundamental to develop new strategies to limit the impact of VNN in this area, interconnecting several aspects of disease management, diagnosis and prevention. This PhD thesis project, focusing on aquatic animals’ health, deals with these topics. The first two chapters expand the knowledge on VNN epidemiology and distribution, showing the possibility of interspecies transmission, persistent infections and a potential carrier role for invertebrates. The third study expands the horizon of VNN diagnosis, by developing a quick and affordable multiplex RT-PCR able to detect and simultaneously discriminate between NNV variants, reducing considerably the time and costs of genotyping. The fourth study, with the development of a fluorescent in situ hybridization technique and its application to aquatic vertebrates and invertebrates’ tissues, contributes to expand the knowledge on NNV distribution at cellular level, localizing also the replication site of the virus. Finally, the last study dealing with an in vitro evaluation of the NNV susceptibility to a commercial biocide, stress the importance to implement proper disinfectant procedures in fish farms to prevent virus spread and disease outbreaks.

Analysis and development of interface components and procedures for the design and commissioning toolchains in automation systems

The objective of the thesis project, developed within the Line Control & Software Engineering team of G.D company, is to analyze and identify the appropriate tool to automate the HW configuration process using Beckhoff technologies by importing data from an ECAD tool. This would save a great deal of time, since the I/O topology created as part of the electrical planning is presently imported manually in the related SW project of the machine. Moreover, a manual import is more error-prone because of human mistake than an automatic configuration tool. First, an introduction about TwinCAT 3, EtherCAT and Automation Interface is provided; then, it is analyzed the official Beckhoff tool, XCAD Interface, and the requirements on the electrical planning to use it: the interface is realized by means of the AutomationML format. Finally, due to some limitations observed, the design and implementation of a company internal tool is performed. Tests and validation of the tool are performed on a sample production line of the company.

On The Distinct Molecular Architectures Of Dipping- And Spray-lbl Films Containing Lipid Vesicles.

The introduction of spraying procedures to fabricate layer-by-layer (LbL) films has brought new possibilities for the control of molecular architectures and for making the LbL technique compliant with industrial processes. In this study we show that significantly distinct architectures are produced for dipping and spray-LbL films of the same components, which included DODAB/DPPG vesicles. The films differed notably in their thickness and stratified nature. The electrical response of the two types of films to aqueous solutions containing erythrosin was also different. With multidimensional projections we showed that the impedance for the DODAB/DPPG spray-LbL film is more sensitive to changes in concentration, being therefore more promising as sensing units. Furthermore, with surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) we could ascribe the high sensitivity of the LbL films to adsorption of erythrosin.