Today a lot of goods is transported on wood pallets because it’s practical and enabels a fast way to load cargo. The drawbacks with pallets are that they weight a lot, are big and are relatively expensive. Therefore IKEA has developed plastic lists that can replace the europallet in some applications. In this examwork an automatic handling equipment for plastic lists are design from a requirement specification to a finished machine. The task of the plastic list handler task is to automatically mount plastic lists under goods. To make the engineering design work easier the plastic list handler were divided in to modules. The examwork has been performed at Linköpings Tekniska Högskola, Institutionen för konstruktions- och produktionsteknik, and at TEXO Application in Älmhult. TEXO Application started in 2001 by Bo Lidbom in purpose to find new market areas for TEXO Holding. / Idag transporteras mycket gods på lastpallar eftersom det är praktisk och går snabbt att lasta. Den stora nackdelen med lastpallarna är att de väger mycket, är skrymmande och kostar mycket pengar. Därför har IKEA utvecklat plastlister som ska ersätta europapallen vid vissa transsporter. I det här examensarbetet beskrivs hur en plastlisthanterare konstrueras från kravspecifikation till färdig maskin. Plastlisthanterarens uppgift är att applicera plastlister under gods automatiskt. För att förenkla konstruktionsarbetet delades plastlisthanteraren upp i olika moduler. Examensarbetet har utförts vid Linköpings Tekniska Högskola, Institutionen för konstruktions- och produktionsteknik, och vid TEXO Application i Älmhult. TEXO Application startades 2001 av Bo Lidbom i syfte att hitta nya marknadsområden för TEXO Holding.

Researchers are in broad agreement that energy-conserving actions produce economic as well as energy savings. Household energy rating systems (HERS) have been established in many countries to inform households of their house’s current energy performance and to help reduce their energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. In Canada, the national EnerGuide for Houses (EGH) program is delivered by many local delivery agents, including non-profit green community organizations. Waterloo Region Green Solutions is the local non-profit that offers the EGH residential energy evaluation service to local households. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the determinants of household’s participation in the residential energy efficiency program (REEP) in Waterloo Region, to explain the relationship between the explanatory variables and REEP participation, and to propose ways to improve this kind of program. A spatial (trend) analysis was conducted within a geographic information system (GIS) to determine the spatial patterns of the REEP participation in Waterloo Region from 1999 to 2006. The impact of sources of information on participation and relationships between participation rates and explanatory variables were identified. GIS proved successful in presenting a visual interpretation of spatial patterns of the REEP participation. In general, the participating households tend to be clustered in urban areas and scattered in rural areas. Different sources of information played significant roles in reaching participants in different years. Moreover, there was a relationship between each explanatory variable and the REEP participation rates. Statistical analysis was applied to obtain a quantitative assessment of relationships between hypothesized explanatory variables and participation in the REEP. The Poisson regression model was used to determine the relationship between hypothesized explanatory variables and REEP participation at the CDA level. The results show that all of the independent variables have a statistically significant positive relationship with REEP participation. These variables include level of education, average household income, employment rate, home ownership, population aged 65 and over, age of home, and number of eligible dwellings. The logistic regression model was used to assess the ability of the hypothesized explanatory variables to predict whether or not households would participate in a second follow-up evaluation after completing upgrades to their home. The results show all the explanatory variables have significant relationships with the dependent variable. The increased rating score, average household income, aged population, and age of home are positively related to the dependent variable. While the dwelling size and education has negative relationships with the dependent variable. In general, the contribution of this work provides a practical understanding of how the energy efficiency program operates, and insight into the type of variables that may be successful in bringing about changes in performance in the energy efficiency project in Waterloo Region. Secondly, with the completion of this research, future residential energy efficiency programs can use the information from this research and emulate or expand upon the efforts and lessons learned from the Residential Energy Efficiency Project in Waterloo Region case study. Thirdly, this research also contributes to practical experience on how to integrate different datasets using GIS.

Non-repudiation techniques are to ensure any communication taking place between two or more parties will be undeniable. Therefore it is crucial to include digital signatures of the involving parties while the communication is taking place. In medical practices, involved parties include; patient(s), doctor(s), pharmacist(s), who are involved in series of visits, diagnosis, prescriptions, and possible operations. To avoid possible conflicts, deploying non-repudiation techniques help immensely. This thesis considers this issue in a wireless medium and studies the Quality of Service (QoS)/Security requirements in terms of network parameters and performance metrics. In terms of research contributions, this thesis embodies a thorough research on layered and cross-layer QoS and security schemes, in particular, featuring an adaptive Forward Error Correction (FEC) at the application layer, adapting to channel conditions. This leads to a cross layer design, which considers various QoS and security parameters export and import to and from various layers with a special focus on the application layer. The aim of this thesis is to consider a practical implementation and associated complexities of a non-repudiation system, including analytical and experimental testbeds and results. The security schemes are based on Suite-B cryptographic algorithms, including: The Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) for key agreement, the Advanced Encryption Standard - Galois/Counter Mode (AES-GCM) for encryption and authentication, the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) for digital signatures, and the Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) for integrity. A key aspect of Suite-B is the deployment of Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC). The non-repudiation aspect of this thesis is based on the Suite-B’s digital signature scheme; ECDSA. The digital signature and the hashing function target the entire multimedia data (i.e., text, video, and voice) and the challenge is to offer such extensive security treatment, while guaranteeing certain Quality of Service settings. These settings include: minimum round trip delay, maximum overhead, and minimum bandwidth allocation.

In this thesis we explore several algorithms for automatic real-time tracking of a tennis ball. We first investigate the use of background subtraction with color/shape recognition for fast tracking of the tennis ball. We then compare our solution with a cascade of boosted Haar classifiers [68] in a simulated environment to estimate the accuracy and ideal processing speeds. The results show that background subtraction techniques were not only faster but also more accurate than Haar classifiers. Following these promising results, we extend the background subtraction and develop other three improved techniques. These techniques use more accurate background models, more reliable and stringent criteria. They allow us to track the tennis ball in a real tennis environment with cameras having higher resolutions and frame rates. <p>We tested our techniques with a large number of real tennis videos. In the indoors environment, We achieved a true positive rate of about 90%, a false alarm rate of less than 2%, and a tracking speed of about 20 fps. For the outdoors environment, the performance of our techniques is not as good as the indoors cases due to the complexity and instability of the outdoors environment. The problem can be solved by resetting our system such that the camera focuses mainly on the tennis ball. Therefore, the influence of the external factors is minimized.<p>Despite the existing limitations, our techniques are able to track a tennis ball with very high accuracy and fast speed which can not be achieved by most tracking techniques currently available. We are confident that the motion information generated from our techniques is reliable and accurate. Giving this promising result, we believe some real-world applications can be constructed.

With widespread use of pesticides in modern agriculture, the impacts of spray drift have become a topic of considerable interest. The drifting of sprays is a highly complex process influenced by many factors. Advances in aerial application technology and in our ability to measure drift, coupled with the adoption of new technologies for regulating pesticide application have necessitated further research in the pesticide application process. Experiments were conducted to quantify spray drift and describe its movement from aerial applications of pesticide. The effects of spray quality, atomizer type and ground cover were examined. Initial airborne drift amounts were greater than downwind deposits, thus not all of the drifting spray was deposited in the measuring area. Total off-target movement of spray was significantly greater for Fine compared to Coarse sprays. Rotary and hydraulic atomizers, both producing Fine sprays, produced statistically similar off-target movement of sprays. Similarly, no significant statistical differences in spray drift between applications to bare ground and applications to a headed barley crop canopy were not identified. Contrary to expectations, aerial application to bare ground seemed to result in less off-target movement than application to a crop canopy. The vertical spray cloud profiles were similar for all applications with the greatest amount of spray present at the height of release. Spray concentrations diminished from that height upward with diffusion and downward with deposition. The empirical data disagreed with the mechanistic model AgDISP which is currently used in the Canadian regulatory process. The model over-predicted drift deposition by a factor of two to five. Variability in spray deposit values could not be attributed to average differences in meteorological conditions at the time of application. Experiments with appropriate protocols for increased sensitivity may be required to more accurately report subtle differences in drift at distances greater than 200 m from the target area.

Linux network application framework can help programmers developing network service applications on Linux. Programmers can concentrate on the business logic of applications, and do not have to care about network transmission and serialization between client and server. In addition, application¡¦s client and server can be implemented by different programming languages and communicate with each other according to the programming languages supported by framework. This paper chooses Thrift and Etch to be the topic of Linux network application framework, and introduces their interface definition language, serialization and network architecture. This paper also makes experiments on the implementation of MongoDB, choosing of serialization and situation of multiple clients to a single server to get the performances of two frameworks. In general, Thrift has richer features and slightly better performance than Etch.

Training activities on the Fort Hood Military Installation have imposed serious impacts to its grass-dominated landscape. Six decades of tracked vehicle impacts have caused soil compaction and vegetation reduction which has lead to severe surface erosion. This investigation examined two conservation practices directed at improving and creating sustainable training conditions on Fort Hood training lands, contour ripping and the application of composted dairy manure. The application of composted dairy manure may increase vegetation, while contour ripping may decrease discharge, both of which will lead to a decrease in erosion. Three small 0.30 ha watersheds were established on Fort Hood in January 2005. Each watershed had 0.46 m berms installed on all four sides with a 0.305 m H-flume and was equipped with automated storm sampling equipment. Soil samples were collected prior to any treatments, and twice after compost applications. Discharge and precipitation was collected continuously on each watershed. Stormwater samples were collected during storm events and analyzed for water quality parameters. Water quality samples, discharge and precipitation records were collected between January 2005 and July 2007. Three composted dairy manure application rates at 0, 28 and 57 m3 ha-1 were applied on watersheds C0, C1 and C2, respectively; watersheds were evaluated for effects on NO3 and soluble reactive phosphates (SRP) concentrations and loadings in storm events and on stormwater discharge. Twenty two months after the initial compost application, the two previously composted watersheds (C1 and C2) were treated with contour ripping and C2 received a second compost application. The compost application caused the spikes in NO3 and SRP concentrations and loads immediately after application. Both NO3 and SRP concentrations decreased as the number of days from application increased. Compost application did not appear to have an effect on the discharge from watersheds. Contour ripping had a significant effect on stormwater discharge. Contour ripping decreased discharge by 74 and 80% on C1 and C2, respectively when compared to the untreated control (C0).

In embedded system, multimedia application is more important than before, And these products appearing more often. In addition, handholding devices are more and more popular, so these products¡¦ price is usually chip than others, and they concern more about power consumption. So in our design, we can¡¦t only focus on performance, low power and low cost are become the one of the most important factors. The main contribution of this thesis is that in MP3 multimedia application we analyzed ¡Bestimated and optimized our hardware and software to achieve low power and low cost issues. In software part, we used the skill of optimization to optimize our complied assembly codes. In hardware part, we analyzed the MP3 decode algorithm, found the critical part, and implement them with hardware to hope we can use the smallest hardware cost, to achieve highest acceleration. And we hope that through our research, we can establish a fundament about development a special application platform.

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Characterized as rich mineral substances, low temperature, few bacteria, and stability with numerous implementation aspects on aquaculture, food, drinking, and leisure, the development of deep sea water (DSW) has become a governmental policy and a new industry. The eastern region in Taiwan owns outstanding pumping DSW conditions and a prosperity on its industry applications is expected if the development project goes well. However, a design on the inspection mechanism is critical to the industry development due to water's indifference characteristics. This study aims at inspection problems relevant with certification mechanism to construct an overall certification operation system. An investigation is designed to understand the current inspection system status while implementation for the use of lab function requirements, inspection operation, and product inspection process considerations. A management conceptual mechanism is also provided for DSW industry development in the future