An applied linguistic analysis of the simplification of narrative texts

Simplification of texts has traditionally been carried out by replacing words and structures with appropriate semantic equivalents in the learner's interlanguage, omitting whichever items prove intractable, and thereby bringing the language of the original within the scope of the learner's transitional linguistic competence. This kind of simplification focuses mainly on the formal features of language. The simplifier can, on the other hand, concentrate on making explicit the propositional content and its presentation in the original in order to bring what is communicated in the original within the scope of the learner's transitional communicative competence. In this case, simplification focuses on the communicative function of the language. Up to now, however, approaches to the problem of simplification have been mainly concerned with the first kind, using the simplifier’s intuition as to what constitutes difficulty for the learner. There appear to be few objective principles underlying this process. The main aim of this study is to investigate the effect of simplification on the communicative aspects of narrative texts, which includes the manner in which narrative units at higher levels of organisation are structured and presented and also the temporal and logical relationships between lower level structures such as sentences/clauses, with the intention of establishing an objective approach to the problem of simplification based on a set of principled procedures which could be used as a guideline in the simplification of material for foreign students at an advanced level.

A hybrid measurement systems analysis and uncertainty of measurement approach for industrial measurement in the light controlled factory

The uncertainty of measurements must be quantified and considered in order to prove conformance with specifications and make other meaningful comparisons based on measurements. While there is a consistent methodology for the evaluation and expression of uncertainty within the metrology community industry frequently uses the alternative Measurement Systems Analysis methodology. This paper sets out to clarify the differences between uncertainty evaluation and MSA and presents a novel hybrid methodology for industrial measurement which enables a correct evaluation of measurement uncertainty while utilising the practical tools of MSA. In particular the use of Gage R&R ANOVA and Attribute Gage studies within a wider uncertainty evaluation framework is described. This enables in-line measurement data to be used to establish repeatability and reproducibility, without time consuming repeatability studies being carried out, while maintaining a complete consideration of all sources of uncertainty and therefore enabling conformance to be proven with a stated level of confidence. Such a rigorous approach to product verification will become increasingly important in the era of the Light Controlled Factory with metrology acting as the driving force to achieve the right first time and highly automated manufacture of high value large scale products such as aircraft, spacecraft and renewable power generation structures.

Improving novice analyst performance in modeling the sequence diagram in systems analysis: A cognitive complexity approach

The Unified Modeling Language (UML) has quickly become the industry standard for object-oriented software development. It is being widely used in organizations and institutions around the world. However, UML is often found to be too complex for novice systems analysts. Although prior research has identified difficulties novice analysts encounter in learning UML, no viable solution has been proposed to address these difficulties. Sequence-diagram modeling, in particular, has largely been overlooked. The sequence diagram models the behavioral aspects of an object-oriented software system in terms of interactions among its building blocks, i.e. objects and classes. It is one of the most commonly-used UML diagrams in practice. However, there has been little research on sequence-diagram modeling. The current literature scarcely provides effective guidelines for developing a sequence diagram. Such guidelines will be greatly beneficial to novice analysts who, unlike experienced systems analysts, do not possess relevant prior experience to easily learn how to develop a sequence diagram. There is the need for an effective sequence-diagram modeling technique for novices. This dissertation reports a research study that identified novice difficulties in modeling a sequence diagram and proposed a technique called CHOP (CHunking, Ordering, Patterning), which was designed to reduce the cognitive load by addressing the cognitive complexity of sequence-diagram modeling. The CHOP technique was evaluated in a controlled experiment against a technique recommended in a well-known textbook, which was found to be representative of approaches provided in many textbooks as well as practitioner literatures. The results indicated that novice analysts were able to perform better using the CHOP technique. This outcome seems have been enabled by pattern-based heuristics provided by the technique. Meanwhile, novice analysts rated the CHOP technique more useful although not significantly easier to use than the control technique. The study established that the CHOP technique is an effective sequence-diagram modeling technique for novice analysts.

Improving Novice Analyst Performance in Modeling the Sequence Diagram in Systems Analysis: A Cognitive Complexity Approach

The Unified Modeling Language (UML) has quickly become the industry standard for object-oriented software development. It is being widely used in organizations and institutions around the world. However, UML is often found to be too complex for novice systems analysts. Although prior research has identified difficulties novice analysts encounter in learning UML, no viable solution has been proposed to address these difficulties. Sequence-diagram modeling, in particular, has largely been overlooked. The sequence diagram models the behavioral aspects of an object-oriented software system in terms of interactions among its building blocks, i.e. objects and classes. It is one of the most commonly-used UML diagrams in practice. However, there has been little research on sequence-diagram modeling. The current literature scarcely provides effective guidelines for developing a sequence diagram. Such guidelines will be greatly beneficial to novice analysts who, unlike experienced systems analysts, do not possess relevant prior experience to easily learn how to develop a sequence diagram. There is the need for an effective sequence-diagram modeling technique for novices. This dissertation reports a research study that identified novice difficulties in modeling a sequence diagram and proposed a technique called CHOP (CHunking, Ordering, Patterning), which was designed to reduce the cognitive load by addressing the cognitive complexity of sequence-diagram modeling. The CHOP technique was evaluated in a controlled experiment against a technique recommended in a well-known textbook, which was found to be representative of approaches provided in many textbooks as well as practitioner literatures. The results indicated that novice analysts were able to perform better using the CHOP technique. This outcome seems have been enabled by pattern-based heuristics provided by the technique. Meanwhile, novice analysts rated the CHOP technique more useful although not significantly easier to use than the control technique. The study established that the CHOP technique is an effective sequence-diagram modeling technique for novice analysts.

Energy systems analysis of transboundary river basins in a nexus approach: the Sava river basin study case

Resource management policies are frequently designed and planned to target specific needs of particular sectors, without taking into account the interests of other sectors who share the same resources. In a climate of resource depletion, population growth, increase in energy demand and climate change awareness, it is of great importance to promote the assessment of intersectoral linkages and, by doing so, understand their effects and implications. This need is further augmented when common use of resources might not be solely relevant at national level, but also when the distribution of resources ranges over different nations. This dissertation focuses on the study of the energy systems of five south eastern European countries, which share the Sava River Basin, using a water-food(agriculture)-energy nexus approach. In the case of the electricity generation sector, the use of water is essential for the integrity of the energy systems, as the electricity production in the riparian countries relies on two major technologies dependent on water resources: hydro and thermal power plants. For example, in 2012, an average of 37% of the electricity production in the SRB countries was generated by hydropower and 61% in thermal power plants. Focusing on the SRB, in terms of existing installed capacities, the basin accommodates close to a tenth of all hydropower capacity while providing water for cooling to 42% of the net capacity of thermal power currently in operation in the basin. This energy-oriented nexus study explores the dependency on the basin’s water resources of the energy systems in the region for the period between 2015 and 2030. To do so, a multi-country electricity model was developed to provide a quantification ground to the analysis, using the open-source software modelling tool OSeMOSYS. Three main areas are subject to analysis: first, the impact of energy efficiency and renewable energy strategies in the electricity generation mix; secondly, the potential impacts of climate change under a moderate climate change projection scenario; and finally, deriving from the latter point, the cumulative impact of an increase in water demand in the agriculture sector, for irrigation. Additionally, electricity trade dynamics are compared across the different scenarios under scrutiny, as an effort to investigate the implications of the aforementioned factors in the electricity markets in the region.

Synthesis of the contribution of the GiESCO (group of International Experts of vitivinicultural Systems for CoOperation) to the study of terroirs.

2010

New Trends in Public Facility Location Modeling

The past four decades have witnessed an explosive growth in the field of networkbased facility location modeling. This is not at all surprising since location policy is one of the most profitable areas of applied systems analysis in regional science and ample theoretical and applied challenges are offered. Location-allocation models seek the location of facilities and/or services (e.g., schools, hospitals, and warehouses) so as to optimize one or several objectives generally related to the efficiency of the system or to the allocation of resources. This paper concerns the location of facilities or services in discrete space or networks, that are related to the public sector, such as emergency services (ambulances, fire stations, and police units), school systems and postal facilities. The paper is structured as follows: first, we will focus on public facility location models that use some type of coverage criterion, with special emphasis in emergency services. The second section will examine models based on the P-Median problem and some of the issues faced by planners when implementing this formulation in real world locational decisions. Finally, the last section will examine new trends in public sector facility location modeling.

Location models in the public sector

The past four decades have witnessed an explosive growth in the field of networkbased facilitylocation modeling. This is not at all surprising since location policy is one of the mostprofitable areas of applied systems analysis in regional science and ample theoretical andapplied challenges are offered. Location-allocation models seek the location of facilitiesand/or services (e.g., schools, hospitals, and warehouses) so as to optimize one or severalobjectives generally related to the efficiency of the system or to the allocation of resources.This paper concerns the location of facilities or services in discrete space or networks, thatare related to the public sector, such as emergency services (ambulances, fire stations, andpolice units), school systems and postal facilities. The paper is structured as follows: first,we will focus on public facility location models that use some type of coverage criterion,with special emphasis in emergency services. The second section will examine models based onthe P-Median problem and some of the issues faced by planners when implementing thisformulation in real world locational decisions. Finally, the last section will examine newtrends in public sector facility location modeling.

UER technique: conceptualisation for agent oriented development

The problem of conceptualisation is the first step towards the identication of the functional requirements of a system. This article proposes two extensions of well-known object oriented techniques: UER (User-Environment-Responsibility) technique and enhanced CRC (Class-ResponsibilityCollaboration) cards. UER technique consists of (a) looking for the users of systems and describing the ways the system is used; (b) looking for the objects of the environment and describing the possible interactions; and (c) looking for the general requirements or goals of the system, the actions that it should carry out without explicit interaction. The enhanced CRC cards together with the internal use cases technique is used for dening collaborations between agents. These techniques can be easily integrated in UML (Unied Modelling Language) [2], dening the new notation symbols as stereotypes.

An integrated dynamic whole life costing analysis for air distribution systems

Air distribution systems are one of the major electrical energy consumers in air-conditioned commercial buildings which maintain comfortable indoor thermal environment and air quality by supplying specified amounts of treated air into different zones. The sizes of air distribution lines affect energy efficiency of the distribution systems. Equal friction and static regain are two well-known approaches for sizing the air distribution lines. Concerns to life cycle cost of the air distribution systems, T and IPS methods have been developed. Hitherto, all these methods are based on static design conditions. Therefore, dynamic performance of the system has not been yet addressed; whereas, the air distribution systems are mostly performed in dynamic rather than static conditions. Besides, none of the existing methods consider any aspects of thermal comfort and environmental impacts. This study attempts to investigate the existing methods for sizing of the air distribution systems and proposes a dynamic approach for size optimisation of the air distribution lines by taking into account optimisation criteria such as economic aspects, environmental impacts and technical performance. These criteria have been respectively addressed through whole life costing analysis, life cycle assessment and deviation from set-point temperature of different zones. Integration of these criteria into the TRNSYS software produces a novel dynamic optimisation approach for duct sizing. Due to the integration of different criteria into a well- known performance evaluation software, this approach could be easily adopted by designers in busy nature of design. Comparison of this integrated approach with the existing methods reveals that under the defined criteria, system performance is improved up to 15% compared to the existing methods. This approach is interpreted as a significant step forward reaching to the net zero emission building in future.

Designing teams for first-of-a-kind, complex systems using the initial phases of cognitive work analysis: Case study

We present a technique for team design based on cognitive work analysis (CWA). We first develop a rationale for this technique by discussing the limitations of conventional approaches for team design in light of the special characteristics of first-of-a-kind, complex systems. We then introduce the CWA-based technique for team design and provide a case study of how we used this technique to design a team for a first-of-a-kind, complex military system during the early stages of its development. In addition to illustrating the CWA-based technique by example, the case study allows us to evaluate the technique. This case study demonstrates that the CWA-based technique for team design is both feasible and useful, although empirical validation of the technique is still necessary. Applications of this work include the design of teams for first-of-a-kind, complex systems in military, medical, and industrial domains.