<p>It is well known that transportation means high and varying loads for products as well as packages. To develop corrugated boxes with optimal design and efficient use of raw materials is crucial. Vibrations and shocks acting on pallets during transportation are transferred to the corrugated boxes and considerably reduce the integrity and life time of the boxes. The development of experimental and analytical tools for measurement and prediction of the influence of dynamic loads on the box performance, such as stacking strength and conservation of stacking pattern would therefore be of large practical importance. In order to develop such tools, it is important to know the load distribution between different boxes. This master thesis presents a technique for investigating these stresses based on a pressure sensitive film, which gives many data points. A series of tests using random and sinusoidal vibration testing have been done utilising this technique and results are presented for different positions on the pallet and for different box filling methods. Investigations performed on the vibrations of the boxes also demonstrate a pitch type of motion. A level-crossing study on the forces existing between the boxes shows a Rayleigh force distribution. A mathematical model is also proposed for simulation of a stacking system. Advantages and disadvantages with this technique and with the model are described. Comparison between the experimental and numerical results shows a proper correlation. Using the pressure sensitive film as a quantitative sensor and applying the recorded data for the statistical study of the contact forces existing in a stack of boxes gives useful and important results for further analysis of the fatigue life and vulnerable positions of boxes.</p><p> </p>

This thesis concerns dimensions and projections of sets that could be described as fractals. The background is applied problems regarding analysis of human tissue. One way to characterize such complicated structures is to estimate the dimension. The existence of different types of dimensions makes it important to know about their properties and relations to each other. Furthermore, since medical images often are constructed by x-ray, it is natural to study projections. This thesis consists of an introduction and a summary, followed by three papers. Paper I, Anders Nilsson, Dimensions and Projections: An Overview and Relevant Examples, 2006. Manuscript. Paper II, Anders Nilsson and Peter Wingren, Homogeneity and Non-coincidence of Hausdorff- and Box Dimensions for Subsets of ℝn, 2006. Submitted. Paper III, Anders Nilsson and Fredrik Georgsson, Projective Properties of Fractal Sets, 2006. To be published in Chaos, Solitons and Fractals. The first paper is an overview of dimensions and projections, together with illustrative examples constructed by the author. Some of the most frequently used types of dimensions are defined, i.e. Hausdorff dimension, lower and upper box dimension, and packing dimension. Some of their properties are shown, and how they are related to each other. Furthermore, theoretical results concerning projections are presented, as well as a computer experiment involving projections and estimations of box dimension. The second paper concerns sets for which different types of dimensions give different values. Given three arbitrary and different numbers in (0,n), a compact set in ℝn is constructed with these numbers as its Hausdorff dimension, lower box dimension and upper box dimension. Most important in this construction, is that the resulted set is homogeneous in the sense that these dimension properties also hold for every non-empty and relatively open subset. The third paper is about sets in space and their projections onto planes. Connections between the dimensions of the orthogonal projections and the dimension of the original set are discussed, as well as the connection between orthogonal projection and the type of projection corresponding to realistic x-ray. It is shown that the estimated box dimension of the orthogonal projected set and the realistic projected set can, for all practical purposes, be considered equal.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the facilitators and barriers to women in STEM through comparison to men and non-STEM faculty members. The Pipeline Model and The Vanish Box model were examined to explain the underrepresentation of women in STEM. The current study, using the established facilitators and barriers to women in STEM by Bolton (2016), examined 12 categories that were identified through existing literature, critical incidents (CIs), and a subject-matter expert (SME). It was hypothesized that Teaching, Service, Research Funding, Mentoring, Professional Development, Administrative Leadership, Hiring Policies, New Child Leave/FMLA policies, and Promotion and Tenure Policies would be identified as barriers to academic careers in STEM disciplines more often than non-STEM disciplines and by women more often than by men. It was also hypothesized that Fairness of Policy Implementation and Practice, Other Policies, and Research Support other than Funding will be identified as a facilitators to women’s academic careers to academic careers in STEM disciplines more often than non-STEM disciplines and by women more often than by men. Two-hundred and forty-two participants completed a survey via Qualtrics that assessed facilitators and barriers to academic careers. Of those that completed the survey, only 134 were used in the analyses, as identification of sex and STEM status was essential for inclusion in the study. Results revealed that neither hypothesis was confirmed. Exploratory analyses examining the frequencies 12 categories as well as specific facilitators and barriers were conducted. The implications, limitations, and future directions for research were suggested.

La presente investigación trata sobre la creación y aplicación de una Metodología para solucionar problemas resolubles de manera determinista mediante técnicas sencillas y en un tiempo razonable, como puede ser, por ejemplo la resolución de ecuaciones lineales, la realización de pronósticos basados en la ecuación de la línea, pudiendo acortar el tiempo de resolución, más o menos largo, de una manera aceptable Se presenta una nueva metodología, que utiliza la clase Box-Jenkins, para la predicción de la demanda de llamadas, que efectúan los clientes a los centros de llamadas más conocidos como call-center. Se registró, en el trabajo de campo, los aportes y los modelos de solución de diversos autores: orientación del asesor, aporte de investigadores de la UNMSM, investigaciones desarrolladas en diversas organizaciones y las propuestas del autor. El propósito de la Tesis es generar un modelo de consenso con mayor eficiencia que las alternativas existentes y aplicar este modelo en la realidad administrativa. El estudio concluye que la propuesta metodológica para rediseñar procesos de atención al cliente, dentro del contexto de los modelos empresariales, empleando herramientas de serie de tiempos funciona de manera eficiente y reporta excelentes resultados en su aplicación, lo que ha de redundar en la mejora de la eficiencia y competitividad derivado de un uso racional de un recurso escaso clave, el humano. / --- This research is about creating and implementing a methodology to solve problems deterministically solvable through simple techniques and a reasonable time, as can be, for example, solving linear equations, the performance of forecasts based on the equation of the online and can shorten the resolution time, more or less long, in a manner acceptable We present a new methodology, which uses the Box-Jenkins class, for prediction of demand for calls, which make customers call centers known as call-center. Was recorded in the field, contributions and solution models from various authors: guidance counselor, contribution of researchers from San Marcos University, research conducted in various organizations and the author's proposals. The purpose of this thesis is to generate a consensus model more efficiently than existing alternatives and apply this model in the administrative reality. The study concludes that the proposed methodology to redesign customer processes within the context of business models, using time series tools works efficiently and provides excellent results in their application, which would be in improving efficiency and competitiveness from a rational use of a scarce resource key, the human.

Beginning with a former grocery store building, “An Affordable Living Community,” explores the possibilities of redesigning big box buildings. Here, the building is transformed into an affordable living community - a place for people to live, work, learn, and interact. The renovation creates a place for not only its residents, but also the surrounding neighborhoods. The building provides the challenges of breaking the generic, window-less facade, as well as bringing light into the building. This model would encourage the health, learning, and support of its community.

The Eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) is one of the most common reptiles in North America, but is soon to be threatened due to increased urbanization, disease, and the pet and food trades. In order to assist resource managers in choosing suitable sites for relocation studies, more information on the winter ecology of this species is necessary. We examined the temperature tolerance, microhabitat and degree of philopatry to hibernacula for juvenile and adult E. box turtles for two consecutive winters in Charles City Co, VA. The turtles were tracked via radio telemetry to record point locations during the active and inactive seasons. iButton data loggers were attached to each turtle to record temperature throughout winter. Vegetation data were collected and analyzed to determine if there are microhabitat differences between adult and juvenile turtles, and between occupied and random plots. Philopatry to wintering hibernacula was determined by measurements in the field and using ArcGIS. Adults had significantly higher minimum temperatures than juveniles during the first winter (P=0.027), but not during the second winter (P=0.327). Shrub and canopy cover were marginally higher for random plots than for occupied turtle hibernacula plots (P=0.066 and P=0.092, respectively); however there were no significant differences for any of the vegetation variables between adults and juveniles. Some of the turtles demonstrated site fidelity of their hibernacula. The temperature data from this study suggests that juveniles may have poorer hibernacula selection and therefore lower minimum temperatures compared with adults, but this was not seen in our second season suggesting that juvenile turtles may learn to choose better hibernacula or to dig deeper. The difference in findings for the two winters could be attributed to illness by several of the turtles the first winter, by increased maturity in the juveniles the second winter or by the significant difference in ambient temperature for the two winters (P=0.0001). Juveniles do not differ from adults in microhabitat selection, therefore resource managers may not need to plan differently for juveniles and adults in relocation studies. We also conclude that both age groups of T. c. carolina exhibit site fidelity of hibernacula.

Box turtle (Terrapene carolina) populations have been declining over the last several decades, and one major cause is increasing urbanization. As a result of habitat fragmentation, wildlife managers are frequently turning to new and alternative management strategies. Traditional box turtle management has included relocation, which has been met with limited success. This study aims to combine these strategies with another less-studied one: forcing turtles to overwinter on site by penning them in an outdoor enclosure. Two sets of juvenile box turtles were released at the Virginia Commonwealth University Rice Center: one penned on site in a pen for one year, the other allowed to move freely. Our objective was to compare a variety of factors between these two groups to see if penning was as effective as traditional approaches. Movement and location patterns were tracked using radio transmitters for two years and analyzed using GPS technology. Body condition and health status of all turtles were measured and compared over time as well. Finally, a life history model was developed to determine the effectiveness of management programs. While the penning treatment significantly reduced activity areas, it appears that all juvenile turtles had high site fidelity (87.5%) regardless of treatment. The eastern box turtle seems to be a prime candidate for penning used in conjunction with other management options.

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Code clone Discovery Based on Functional Behavior by Ronald M Krawitz 2012 Legacy programs are used for many years and experience many cycles of use-maintenance-use-maintenance-use-etc. Source code or source code functionality is frequently replicated within these programs when it is written, as well as when it is maintained. Over time many different developers with greater or lesser understanding of the source code maintain the source code. Maintenance developers, when they have limited time or lack understanding of the program, frequently resort to short cuts that include cutting and pasting existing code and re-implementing functionality instead of refactoring. This means a specific functionality is often repeated several times, sometimes using different source code. Blocks of replicated source code or source code functionality are called code clones. Removing code clones improves extensibility, maintainability, and reusability of a program in addition to making the program more easily understood. It is generally accepted that four types of code clones exist. Type-1 and Type-2 code clones are comparatively straightforward to locate and tools exist to locate them. However, Type-3 and Type-4 code clones are very difficult to locate with only a few specialized tools capable of locating them with a lower level of precision. This dissertation presents a new methodology that discovered code clones by studying the functional behavior of blocks of code. Code Clone Discovery based on Functional Behavior (FCD) located code clone by comparing how the blocks of code reacted to various inputs. FCD stimulated the code blocks with the same input patterns and compared the resulting outputs. When a significant portion of the outputs matched, those blocks were declared to be a code clone candidate. Manual analysis confirmed that those blocks of code were code clones. Since FCD discovered code clones based on their black-box behavior, the actual source code syntax was irrelevant and manual inspection further confirmed FCD located code clones that included Type-3 and Type-4 code clones which are frequently excluded from code clone detection tools. FCD recognized the code clones regardless of whether or not they use identical code, similar code, or totally dissimilar code. This new technique allows for an improvement in software quality and has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of software over its lifetime.

Memoria de título para optar al Título Profesional de Bioquímica / La pérdida de homeostasis proteica (proteostasis) es una de las características principales de la enfermedad de Alzheimer (EA), asociada con la generación de estrés del retículo endoplásmico (RE) y la agregación anormal de proteínas. El estrés de RE activa una vía de señalización conocida como la respuesta a proteínas mal plegadas (UPR), la cual disminuye el estrés de RE mediante programas adaptativos, que restauran la proteostasis, o pro-apoptóticos, que eliminan las células dañadas permanentemente. IRE1α es un sensor de estrés de RE que media estos programas bajo condiciones de estrés de RE activando a XBP1, un factor de transcripción descrito como relevante en la patología de la EA. Para definir su importancia en la EA, investigamos el impacto de la expresión de XBP1s en un modelo murino transgénico de la EA conocido como 5xFAD, evaluando las principales características de la enfermedad: el deterioro cognitivo y la agregación proteica de depósitos de péptido β-amiloide (βA). Observamos que la sobreexpresión de XBP1 en el cerebro reduce el deterioro cognitivo y la agregación proteica de βA. Por otro lado, al entregar localmente XBP1s en el cerebro a través de virus adeno-asociados (AAVs), observamos también una mejora cognitiva pero no una reducción en la carga de βA, sugiriendo que la expresión ectópica de este factor tiene efectos neuroprotectores a través de mecanismos independientes de la UPR. Nuestros resultados sugieren un rol importante de XBP1s en la patogénesis de la EA, ofreciendo un posible nuevo blanco terapéutico para la intervención de la enfermedad / The loss of protein homeostasis (proteostasis) is a salient feature of Alzheimer´s disease (AD), associated with the generation of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and the abnormal protein aggregation. ER stress activates a signaling pathway known as the unfolded protein response (UPR), which alleviates ER stress through adaptive programs, that restore proteostasis, or pro-apoptotic programs, which eliminate terminally damaged cells. IRE1α is an ER stress sensor mediating both programs under ER stress conditions activating XBP1, a transcription factor described as relevant in the AD’s pathology. To define its importance in AD, we investigated the impact of XBP1 expression in a transgenic mouse model of AD known as 5xFAD, evaluating the salient features of the disease: the cognitive impairment and the protein aggregation of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide deposits. We observed that the overexpression of XBP1s in the brain reduces the cognitive impairment and the Aβ protein aggregation. The local delivery of XBP1s in the brain through adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) also shows a cognitive improvement, but not a reduction in Aβ protein load, suggesting that the ectopic expression of this factor has neuroprotective effects through UPR independent mechanisms. Our results suggest an important role of XBP1 in the pathogenesis of AD, offering a possible novel therapeutic target for disease intervention