A new ambiguity acceptance test threshold determination method with controllable failure rate

The ambiguity acceptance test is an important quality control procedure in high precision GNSS data processing. Although the ambiguity acceptance test methods have been extensively investigated, its threshold determine method is still not well understood. Currently, the threshold is determined with the empirical approach or the fixed failure rate (FF-) approach. The empirical approach is simple but lacking in theoretical basis, while the FF-approach is theoretical rigorous but computationally demanding. Hence, the key of the threshold determination problem is how to efficiently determine the threshold in a reasonable way. In this study, a new threshold determination method named threshold function method is proposed to reduce the complexity of the FF-approach. The threshold function method simplifies the FF-approach by a modeling procedure and an approximation procedure. The modeling procedure uses a rational function model to describe the relationship between the FF-difference test threshold and the integer least-squares (ILS) success rate. The approximation procedure replaces the ILS success rate with the easy-to-calculate integer bootstrapping (IB) success rate. Corresponding modeling error and approximation error are analysed with simulation data to avoid nuisance biases and unrealistic stochastic model impact. The results indicate the proposed method can greatly simplify the FF-approach without introducing significant modeling error. The threshold function method makes the fixed failure rate threshold determination method feasible for real-time applications.

A novel ambiguity acceptance test threshold determination method with controllable failure rate

Ambiguity validation as an important procedure of integer ambiguity resolution is to test the correctness of the fixed integer ambiguity of phase measurements before being used for positioning computation. Most existing investigations on ambiguity validation focus on test statistic. How to determine the threshold more reasonably is less understood, although it is one of the most important topics in ambiguity validation. Currently, there are two threshold determination methods in the ambiguity validation procedure: the empirical approach and the fixed failure rate (FF-) approach. The empirical approach is simple but lacks of theoretical basis. The fixed failure rate approach has a rigorous probability theory basis, but it employs a more complicated procedure. This paper focuses on how to determine the threshold easily and reasonably. Both FF-ratio test and FF-difference test are investigated in this research and the extensive simulation results show that the FF-difference test can achieve comparable or even better performance than the well-known FF-ratio test. Another benefit of adopting the FF-difference test is that its threshold can be expressed as a function of integer least-squares (ILS) success rate with specified failure rate tolerance. Thus, a new threshold determination method named threshold function for the FF-difference test is proposed. The threshold function method preserves the fixed failure rate characteristic and is also easy-to-apply. The performance of the threshold function is validated with simulated data. The validation results show that with the threshold function method, the impact of the modelling error on the failure rate is less than 0.08%. Overall, the threshold function for the FF-difference test is a very promising threshold validation method and it makes the FF-approach applicable for the real-time GNSS positioning applications.

Ambiguity Acceptance Testing : A Comparison of the Ratio Test and Difference Test

Integer ambiguity resolution is an indispensable procedure for all high precision GNSS applications. The correctness of the estimated integer ambiguities is the key to achieving highly reliable positioning, but the solution cannot be validated with classical hypothesis testing methods. The integer aperture estimation theory unifies all existing ambiguity validation tests and provides a new prospective to review existing methods, which enables us to have a better understanding on the ambiguity validation problem. This contribution analyses two simple but efficient ambiguity validation test methods, ratio test and difference test, from three aspects: acceptance region, probability basis and numerical results. The major contribution of this paper can be summarized as: (1) The ratio test acceptance region is overlap of ellipsoids while the difference test acceptance region is overlap of half-spaces. (2) The probability basis of these two popular tests is firstly analyzed. The difference test is an approximation to optimal integer aperture, while the ratio test follows an exponential relationship in probability. (3) The limitations of the two tests are firstly identified. The two tests may under-evaluate the failure risk if the model is not strong enough or the float ambiguities fall in particular region. (4) Extensive numerical results are used to compare the performance of these two tests. The simulation results show the ratio test outperforms the difference test in some models while difference test performs better in other models. Particularly in the medium baseline kinematic model, the difference tests outperforms the ratio test, the superiority is independent on frequency number, observation noise, satellite geometry, while it depends on success rate and failure rate tolerance. Smaller failure rate leads to larger performance discrepancy.

Performance-Based Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) Acceptance Procedures for In-Place Soil Testing Phase 3

One of the objectives of this study was to evaluate soil testing equipment based on its capability of measuring in-place stiffness or modulus values. As design criteria transition from empirical to mechanistic-empirical, soil test methods and equipment that measure properties such as stiffness and modulus and how they relate to Florida materials are needed. Requirements for the selected equipment are that they be portable, cost effective, reliable, a ccurate, and repeatable. A second objective is that the selected equipment measures soil properties without the use of nuclear materials.The current device used to measure soil compaction is the nuclear density gauge (NDG). Equipment evaluated in this research included lightweight deflectometers (LWD) from different manufacturers, a dynamic cone penetrometer (DCP), a GeoGauge, a Clegg impact soil tester (CIST), a Briaud compaction device (BCD), and a seismic pavement analyzer (SPA). Evaluations were conducted over ranges of measured densities and moistures.Testing (Phases I and II) was conducted in a test box and test pits. Phase III testing was conducted on materials found on five construction projects located in the Jacksonville, Florida, area. Phase I analyses determined that the GeoGauge had the lowest overall coefficient of variance (COV). In ascending order of COV were the accelerometer-type LWD, the geophone-type LWD, the DCP, the BCD, and the SPA which had the highest overall COV. As a result, the BCD and the SPA were excluded from Phase II testing.In Phase II, measurements obtained from the selected equipment were compared to the modulus values obtained by the static plate load test (PLT), the resilient modulus (MR) from laboratory testing, and the NDG measurements. To minimize soil and moisture content variability, the single spot testing sequence was developed. At each location, test results obtained from the portable equipment under evaluation were compared to the values from adjacent NDG, PLT, and laboratory MR measurements. Correlations were developed through statistical analysis. Target values were developed for various soils for verification on similar soils that were field tested in Phase III. The single spot testing sequence also was employed in Phase III, field testing performed on A-3 and A-2-4 embankments, limerock-stabilized subgrade, limerock base, and graded aggregate base found on Florida Department of Transportation construction projects. The Phase II and Phase III results provided potential trend information for future research—specifically, data collection for in-depth statistical analysis for correlations with the laboratory MR for specific soil types under specific moisture conditions. With the collection of enough data, stronger relationships could be expected between measurements from the portable equipment and the MR values. Based on the statistical analyses and the experience gained from extensive use of the equipment, the combination of the DCP and the LWD was selected for in-place soil testing for compaction control acceptance. Test methods and developmental specifications were written for the DCP and the LWD. The developmental specifications include target values for the compaction control of embankment, subgrade, and base materials.

Reliability control of GNSS carrier-phase integer ambiguity resolution

This research investigates how to obtain accurate and reliable positioning results with global navigation satellite systems (GNSS). The work provides a theoretical framework for reliability control in GNSS carrier phase ambiguity resolution, which is the key technique for precise GNSS positioning in centimetre levels. The proposed approach includes identification and exclusion procedures of unreliable solutions and hypothesis tests, allowing the reliability of solutions to be controlled in the aspects of mathematical models, integer estimation and ambiguity acceptance tests. Extensive experimental results with both simulation and observed data sets effectively demonstrate the reliability performance characteristics based on the proposed theoretical framework and procedures.

Describing and validating functional requirements as use cases

Requirements engineering is an important phase in software development where customer's needs and expectations are transformed into a software requirements specification. The requirements specification can be considered as an agreement between the customer and the developer where both parties agree on the expected system features and behaviour. However, requirements engineers must deal with a variety of issues that complicate the requirements process. The communication gap between the customer and the developers is among typical reasons for unsatisfactory requirements. In this thesis we study how the use case technique could be used in requirements engineering in bridging the communication gap between the customer and development team. We also discuss how a use case description can be use cases can be used as a basis for acceptance test cases.

Straw Performance Studies and Quality Assurance for the ATLAS Transition Radiation Tracker

The Transition Radiation Tracker (TRT) of the ATLAS experiment at the LHC is part of the Inner Detector. It is designed as a robust and powerful gaseous detector that provides tracking through individual drift-tubes (straws) as well as particle identification via transition radiation (TR) detection. The straw tubes are operated with Xe-CO2-O2 70/27/3, a gas that combines the advantages of efficient TR absorption, a short electron drift time and minimum ageing effects. The modules of the barrel part of the TRT were built in the United States while the end-cap wheels are assembled at two Russian institutes. Acceptance tests of barrel modules and end-cap wheels are performed at CERN before assembly and integration with the Semiconductor Tracker (SCT) and the Pixel Detector. This thesis first describes simulations the TRT straw tube. The argon-based acceptance gas mixture as well as two xenon-based operating gases are examined for its properties. Drift velocities and Townsend coefficients are computed with the help of the program Magboltz and used to study electron drift and multiplication in the straw using the software Garfield. The inclusion of Penning transfers in the avalanche process leads to remarkable agreements with experimental data. A high level of cleanliness in the TRT s acceptance test gas system is indispensable. To monitor gas purity, a small straw tube detector has been constructed and extensively used to study the ageing behaviour of the straw tube in Ar-CO2. A variety of ageing tests are presented and discussed. Acceptance tests for the TRT survey dimensions, wire tension, gas-tightness, high-voltage stability and gas gain uniformity along each individual straw. The thesis gives details on acceptance criteria and measurement methods in the case of the end-cap wheels. Special focus is put on wire tension and straw straightness. The effect of geometrically deformed straws on gas gain and energy resolution is examined in an experimental setup and compared to simulation studies. An overview of the most important results from the end-cap wheels tested up to this point is presented.

Apoiando a construção de testes de aceitação automatizados a partir da especificação de requisitos

Automation has become increasingly necessary during the software test process due to the high cost and time associated with such activity. Some tools have been proposed to automate the execution of Acceptance Tests in Web applications. However, many of them have important limitations such as the strong dependence on the structure of the HTML pages and the need of manual valuing of the test cases. In this work, we present a language for specifying acceptance test scenarios for Web applications called IFL4TCG and a tool that allows the generation of test cases from these scenarios. The proposed language supports the criterion of Equivalence Classes Partition and the tool allows the generation of test cases that meet different combination strategies (i.e., Each-Choice, Base-Choice and All Combinations). In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed solution, we used the language and the associated tool for designing and executing Acceptance Tests on a module of Sistema Unificado de Administração Pública (SUAP) of Instituto Federal Rio Grande do Norte (IFRN). Four Systems Analysts and one Computer Technician, which work as developers of the that system, participated in the evaluation. Preliminary results showed that IFL4TCG can actually help to detect defects in Web applications

Project and Development of ErgoCoIn Version 2.0

Usability evaluation (UE) methods may have several purposes: identify and diagnose usability problems; evaluate the implementation, comparing the one under evaluation with other systems, and also perform acceptance test. These methods are usually expensive, time-consuming and complex. In this context, the ErgoCoIn 1.0 has being used as an accessible system that can be used by several people all over the world, even if they are not usability experts or evaluators. This paper aims to present a new version of this environment considering that its basic objective is to propose a higher quality for the questions. Additionally, a new presentation questionnaire window small enough to be used both in web browsers and mobile devices is proposed.

Efeito de diferentes sais de ferro sobre as características sensoriais do iogurte de soja

The soy-yogurt was used as food vehicle due to its therapeutic and nutritionalproperties and lower cost. The aim of this work was to develop an enriched soy-yogurt with 12 mg of elementary iron/1, with suitable sensory and technological properties. Four iron sources were tested: FeSO 4.7H 2O, NaFeEDTA, Ferrochel® and microencapsulated FeSO 4.7H 2O. The products were evaluated by fermentation time, pH, titratable acidity, viscosity, consistency, iron concentration and sensory properties (difference from the control and acceptance tests). Viscosity and consistency data were submitted to analysis of variance and Tukey's test. Difference from the control data was evaluated by analysis of variance and Dunnett's test and the acceptance test was evaluated by analysis of variance and Tukey's test. For all iron salts used in the enrichment process, only the FeSO 4JH 2O did not work out because of the undesirable sensorial characteristics of the final products. The others sources used in the enrichment process (NaFeEDTA, Ferrochel® and microencapsulated FeSO 4.7H 2O) did not alter the fermentation time, titratable acidity and sensory and reologics properties of the soy-yogurt.

Aspectos sensoriais e físico-químicos de iogurtes de soja com espessantes/estabilizantes à base de fécula de inhame (Dioscorea alata), amido modificado e gelatina

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Estudo da viabilidade sensorial do enriquecimento com ferro de vários produtos derivados de soja e a quantificação de seus teores em isoflavonas

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

O emprego da metodologia de superfície de resposta no desenvolvimento de um novo produto simbiótico, fermentado com Enterococcus faecium CRL 183 e Lactobacillus helveticus ssp jugurti 416, à base de extratos aquosos de soja e de Yacon (Smallanthus sonchifolius)

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Estudo da viabilidade da levedura de descarte da indústria cervejeira na obtenção da aguardente de Licor de Laranja

Pós-graduação em Alimentos e Nutrição - FCFAR

Avaliação do processo de produção de cachaça em pequenas empresas em relação às boas práticas de fabricação

Pós-graduação em Alimentos e Nutrição - FCFAR