Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / I n order to provide effective control regarding neighborhood impacts, a town needs well-defined and clear laws and methods of assessment. The federal law known as the City Statute established the Neighborhood Impact Study (NIS). The document states that its development should follow minimum criteria to ensure quality in the environment where the study becomes necessary and that towns should legislate on the NIS to define which projects should be presented as a condition for its approval. Since the publication of the Law of Use and Occupation in 2009 to date, the specific laws, made at the municipal level in Santa Maria-RS, do not help the public agency to have an effective means of collecting and evaluating studies. Neither there is a definition of minimum items to be evaluated, whether in EIVs for new enterprises or establishments already set, which must be submitted with the technical reports evaluating the sound pressure level produced. The following research aims to develop a tool for analysis of NIS, to be used by municipal authorities in order to standardize the method of assessing these studies specifically in the area of noise. The research is characterized as applied to the nature and the objectives as exploratory. It brings a qualitative and quantitative approach taking into account many factors, like the items required in an NIS to secure the deployment of a project, without that entail damage to its surroundings. It also allows the evaluation of existing laws ruling the development of NISs. The technical procedure used was the case study, with data collection in the city of Santa Maria-RS, where with the help of the technical staff of the Office of the city was recorded a total of 108 NISs for 3 months, for a thorough detailing of the research. Still, as seen in both the identification of laws related to NISs as the data collection performed with the assistance of the Office of the city, were assessed deficiencies of these laws, where NISs, specifically for this work-related noise emissions, are not delimited their minimum items so difficult for the evaluation team and for the professionals responsible for their preparation either. Thus propose modifications of the laws to fill the gaps in them, addition to delimiting minimum items through a tool for analysis of NISs in the area of noise. This way it is expected to contribute not only to the quality and agility of NISs, but also achieve all objectives. / Para propiciar um controle efetivo em relação aos impactos de vizinhança um município precisa de uma legislação bem definida e métodos de avaliação claros. A Lei Federal conhecida como Estatuto da Cidade, instituiu o Estudo de Impacto de Vizinhança (EIV). O documento afirma que a sua elaboração deverá seguir critérios mínimos para garantir a qualidade no entorno onde o estudo se fizer necessário e que os municípios devem legislar sobre o EIV a fim de definir quais empreendimentos devem apresentá-lo como condicionante para a sua aprovação. Desde a publicação da Lei de Uso e Ocupação do Solo em 2009 até o momento, as legislações específicas, feitas em âmbito municipal em Santa Maria-RS, não auxiliam o órgão público a ter um meio efetivo de cobrança e avaliação dos estudos. Tão pouco existe a definição de itens mínimos a serem avaliados, seja nos EIVs para empreendimentos novos ou para estabelecimentos já fixados, onde devem ser encaminhados os laudos técnicos com a avaliação do nível de pressão sonora produzido. Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo desenvolver uma ferramenta para análise do EIV, a ser utilizada por Prefeituras Municipais, visando padronizar o método de apreciação desses estudos especificamente na área de emissões sonoras. A pesquisa caracteriza-se quanto à natureza como aplicada e quanto aos objetivos como exploratória. Apresenta uma abordagem qualitativa e quantitativa levando em conta diversos fatores, como os itens necessários em um EIV para garantir a implantação de um empreendimento, sem que este acarrete prejuízos ao seu entorno. A mesma também permite a avaliação das legislações existentes que regem a elaboração dos EIVs. O procedimento técnico utilizado foi o estudo de caso, com o levantamento de dados da cidade de Santa Maria-RS, onde com auxílio da equipe técnica do Escritório da Cidade foi contabilizado um total de 108 EIVs durante 3 meses, para um profundo detalhamento da pesquisa. Ainda, conforme verificado, tanto na identificação das leis ligadas aos EIVs quanto no levantamento de dados feito com auxílio do Escritório da Cidade, foram avaliadas as deficiências destas leis, onde os EIVs, especificamente para este trabalho os relacionados a emissões sonoras, não são delimitados seus itens mínimos, dificultado assim tanto para a equipe de avaliação como para os profissionais responsáveis por sua elaboração. Desta forma propõem-se modificações para preencher as lacunas existentes nas legislações, além de delimitar itens mínimos através de uma ferramenta para análise dos EIVs na área de emissões sonoras. Assim espera-se contribuir não somente com a qualidade e agilidade dos EIVs, mas também atingir todos os objetivos propostos.

This thesis work’s purpose is to collect, analyze, and display data from a PV array located in Borlänge, Sweden. For the data analysis, MATLAB is used as an analysis tool, in order to have an idea of how the system is going in its entirety by drawing several different graphs such as daily irradiance or temperature but also to gather all the data that is available and regroup it in the same Excel sheet in order to simplify the usage of the program. For the display of the data, Excel Visual Basics for Applications (VBA) is used to establish a user-controlled interface which lets the choice to study a certain parameter over a certain period of time, and then display graphs and data automatically, all of this being chosen by the user, for example to create daily, monthly or yearly plots of the energy production as well as the efficiency of the system.

No description available.

Many websites and products rely heavily on consumers’ usage habits to maximize profit. Therefore, this project aims to aid product development by analyzing server traffic logs. The proposed solution is a monitoring system focusing on user analytics. The website for this monitoring system contains graphical presentations of statistics on user activity, browser usage, OS usage, browser version usage and OS version usage, most common requests, and the slowest requests over a chosen time interval. Statistical calculations are made in the backend code through connections to two databases. One database contains server traffic logs and is connected to the second database through indexing. Testing on the application proved proper functionality and fulfilled the requirements. The performance testing on the application showed effectiveness with relatively low latency for most statistics methods. This latency was further reduced by 50% using indexing. / Många webbplatser och produkter är mycket beroende av konsumenter och deras användningsvanor för att maximera vinsten. Därför syftar detta projekt till att hjälpa produktutvecklingen genom att analysera servertrafikloggar. Den föreslagna lösningen är ett övervakningssystem med fokus på användaranalys. Hemsidan för detta övervakningssystem innehåller grafiska presentationer av statistik över användaraktivitet, webbläsaranvändning, OS-användning, webbläsarversionsanvändning och OS-versionsanvändning, vanligaste förfrågningar och de långsammaste förfrågningarna under ett valt tidsintervall. Statistiska beräkningar görs i backend-koden genom kopplingar till två databaser. En databas innehåller servertrafikloggar och är kopplad till den andra databasen genom indexering. Testning på applikationen visade att den fungerade korrekt och uppfyllde kraven. Prestandatestningen på applikationen visade effektivitet med relativt låg latens för de flesta statistikberäknande metoder. Denna latens reducerades ytterligare med 50 % med hjälp av indexering.

Die Broschüre „Barrieren des Demografiemanagements überwinden und Wandel erfolgreich gestalten“ beinhaltet mit dem Barriereanalysetool einen Selbstcheck, mit dem Unternehmen testen können, welches Bewusstsein für das Demografiemanagement in ihrem Unternehmen herrscht und welche Instrumente des Demografiemanagements angewendet werden. Anhand der Auswertung des Selbstchecks können die Unternehmen ablesen, welche Relevanz die demografischen Entwicklungen (u.a. Fachkräftemangel, alternde Belegschaft) in ihrem Unternehmen aktuell haben. Darüber hinaus werden praktische Handlungsempfehlungen und Tipps für weitere Aktivitäten in dem jeweiligen Themengebiet vorgestellt.

An increasing number of manufacturing firms are developing new business models to improve sustainability in the face of growing environmental and social challenges. Product-service systems (PSS) are regarded as promising sustainable business models with significant potential to synergise economic, environmental and social value, together termed ‘sustainable value’. This research investigates ways in which manufacturing firms can identify opportunities for sustainable value creation in PSS business models. The research aims to make theoretical and practical contributions to the fields of sustainable business models, sustainable PSS and sustainable value. The research adopts a qualitative theory building approach, in which theory can be transformed into practice. It involves eight case studies and one focus group formed of manufacturers who provide PSS solutions. A practical-research tool, the Sustainable Value Analysis Tool, is developed to collect data and to provide business support. The key research findings and contributions to theory and practice are: · The research proposes a new PSS classification system based on the ownership of products and changes in ownership. This classification distinguishes the potential for sustainability of each PSS type more clearly than existing PSS classifications. · The research introduces a new concept, value uncaptured, and identifies four forms of this. The introduction of this concept provides a novel perspective of studying value exchange in business models. · The research identifies 26 sources of value uncaptured throughout the product life cycle. These can be used to help industrial practitioners to identify value uncaptured in a structured way. · The research proposed that the act of turning value uncaptured into value opportunities is an effective approach for improving sustainable value creation in business models. This has been empirically demonstrated. · The research proposes a model to understand how and where value uncaptured can be turned into value opportunities. This model comprises two mechanisms, two directions, and fourteen key tactics. The model improves theoretical understanding of the sustainable value creation system and can be applied in practice to help companies search for value opportunities in a systematic and strategic way. · The challenges of turning value opportunities into value are identified. The findings have been used to develop a framework for sustainable value creation in PSS business models. The proposed tool has been validated and used in workshops for purposes including research, consultancy, business education and university education. This research thus makes contributions to both academic knowledge and industrial practice.

Thesis (MEng)--University of Stellenbosch, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Recent advances in semiconductor device development pushed a large number of network devices onto the market. These devices can solve network problems more effectively and economically than ever before. Network planners need tools to analyse and implement such devices to help solve the largest network problem in South Africa: voltage regulation. Rural networks experience the majority of voltage-regulation problems in South Africa. The networks are long sub-transmission and reticulation networks and are modelled by two generic networks, namely a radial network and a two-source ring network. The equations describing voltage regulation for the generic networks are developed and implemented in PSAT, a software analysis tool. The voltage regulation for two case studies that represent the two generic networks are analysed. Four generic network devices are defined and various control methods for these devices are developed to solve the network problem. The aim of PSAT is to help the network planner to quickly evaluate a number of possible solutions and to choose the best solution for further studies. This is demonstrated with the aid of the case studies. PSAT provides a sturdy platform on which future developments, such as stability analyses, can be built. However, PSAT can already function as a stand-alone analysis tool to solve voltage regulation as a network problem. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Onlangse vooruitgang in halfgeleier ontwikkeling het 'n groot aantal netwerktoestelle op die mark geplaas. Hierdie toestelle kan netwerk probleme doeltreffender en meer ekonomies oplos as ooit vantevore. 'n Behoefte aan 'n pakket wat netwerkbeplanners in staat stelom die netwerktoestelle te analiseer, is geïdentifiseer. So 'n pakket sal hulle help om die vernaamste netwerkprobleem in Suid-Afrika, nl. spanningsregulasie, op te los. Die oorgrote meerderheid spanningsregulasie probleme word op die platteland ondervind. Plattelandse netwerke word gekenmerk deur lang sub-transmissie en retikulasie netwerke. Hierdie netwerke word met behulp van twee generiese netwerke gemodelleer. 'n Radiale netwerk en 'n dubbelbron ringnetwerk word aangewend om enige plattelandse netwerk te analiseer. Vergelykings is vir spanningsanalise ontwikkel en in PSAT, 'n analitiese sagteware pakket, geïmplementeer. Twee gevallestudies is gedoen om die twee netwerke afsonderlik voor te stel en die vergelykings van PSAT te evalueer. Alle netwerktoestelle is in een van vier generiese kategorieë geklassifiseer. Modelle is vir elk van die kategorieë ontwikkel vtr spanningsregulasie analise. Die doel van PSAT is om die netwerk beplanner te help om vinnig en effektief soveel moontlik opsies te ondersoek as oplossings vir 'n spesifieke netwerk probleem. PSAT is reeds 'n alleenstaande pakket wat in die toekoms uitgebrei sal word om na die analise van stabilitietsprobleme te kyk.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Expressed sequence tag database is a rich and fast growing source of data for gene expression analysis and drug discovery. Clustering of raw EST data is a necessary step for further analysis and one of the most challenging problems of modem computational biology. There are a few systems, designed for this purpose and a few more are currently under development. These systems are reviewed in the "Literature and software review". Different strategies of supervised and unsupervised clustering are discussed, as well as sequence comparison techniques, such as based on alignment or oligonucleotide compositions. Analysis of potential bottlenecks and estimation of computation complexity of EST clustering is done in Chapter 2. This chapter also states the goals for the research and justifies the need for new algorithm that has to be fast, but still sensitive to relatively short (40 bp) regions of local similarity. A new sequence comparison algorithm is developed and described in Chapter 3. This algorithm has a linear computation complexity and sufficient sensitivity to detect short regions of local similarity between nucleotide sequences. The algorithm utilizes an asymmetric approach, when one of the compared sequences is presented in a form of oligonucleotide table, while the second sequence is in standard, linear form. A short window is moved along the linear sequence and all overlapping oligonucleotides of a constant length in the frame are compared for the oligonucleotide table. The result of comparison of two sequences is a single figure, which can be compared to a threshold. For each measure of sequence similarity a probability of false positive and false negative can be estimated. The algorithm was set up and implemented to recognize matching ESTs with overlapping regions of 40bp with 95% identity, which is better than resolution ability of contemporary EST clustering tools This algorithm was used as a sequence comparison engine for two EST clustering programs, described in Chapter 4. These programs implement two different strategies: stringent and loose clustering. Both are tested on small, but realistic benchmark data sets and show the results, similar to one of the best existing clustering programs, 02_cluster, but with a significant advantage in speed and sensitivity to small overlapping regions of ESTs. On three different CPUs the new algorithm run at least two times faster, leaving less singletons and producing bigger clusters. With parallel optimization this algorithm is capable of clustering millions of ESTs on relatively inexpensive computers. The loose clustering variant is a highly portable application, relying on third-party software for cluster assembly. It was built to the same specifications as 02_ cluster and can be immediately included into the STACKPack package for EST clustering. The stringent clustering program produces already assembled clusters and can apprehend alternatively processed variants during the clustering process.

<p dir="ltr">Microfluidic techniques have been widely adopted in biomedical research due to the pre- cise control of fluids, small volume requirement, low cost and etc, and have boosted the development of biomolecular interaction analysis, point-of-care diagnostics, and biosensors.</p><p dir="ltr">Protein-protein interaction plays a key role in biological, biomedical and pharmaceutical research. The technical development of biosensors, new drugs and vaccines, and disease diagnostics heavily rely on the characterization of protein-protein interaction kinetics. The current gold standard assays for measuring protein-protein interaction are surface plasmon resonance (SPR), and bio-layer interferometry (BLI). These commercial devices are accurate but expensive, however.</p><p dir="ltr">Here, I have developed new microfluidic techniques and models in protein-protein in- teraction kinetics measurement, rotational diffusion coefficient modeling, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy-based biosensors, and two-phase porous media flow models. Firstly, I applied particle diffusometry (PD) in the streptavidin-biotin binding kinetics measurement, utilizing a Y-junction microchannel. Secondly, to reduce solution volumes used in an analysis experiment, I designed a low-volume chip and coupled it with PD to measure the binding kinetics of human immunodeficiency virus p24 antibody-antigen interactions. Thirdly, con- sidering the Brownian motion of the non-symmetric particles, I developed a new model to efficiently compute particles’ rotational diffusion coefficients. Fourthly, to make economic biosensors to detect multiple biomarkers, I created a new chip, enabling hundreds of tests in a single droplet (∼ 50 μL) on one chip. Finally, to understand the liquid flow in porous media, such as nitrocellulose in lateral flow assays, I built a new two-phase porous media flow model based on the Navier-Stokes equation and compared it with experiments. These techniques and models underwent rigorous experimental and computational validation, demonstrating their effectiveness and performance.</p>

This thesis provides a means to estimate the physical and performance characteristics of a preliminary cruise ship design. The techniques utilized to estimate these characteristics are showcased in the user-friendly interface known as the Cruise Ship Analysis Tool (CSAT). Using the CSAT, the implications that design feature decisions in the preliminary design stage have on a cruise ship’s profitability is analyzed. Then, the most profitable design feature assemblage among a finite number of varying design feature combinations is estimated and compared among cruise ship designs with different passenger carrying capacities. Profitability is analyzed using the measure of merit (MOM) known as net present value (NPV). If a preliminary cruise ship design has a positive NPV at a reliable rate of return and ship operating life, the design is considered to be a profitable investment if implemented. The greater the NPV, the more profitable the investment is considered to be.