Renewable energy systems have received considerable attention as a sustainable technology in the building sector. Specifically, the use of ground-source heat pump (GSHP) and air-source heat pump (ASHP) for heating and cooling of buildings is increasing rapidly, and the combination with photovoltaic (PV) systems and heat pump systems provide energy savings and environmental benefits. This study investigates the feasibility of replacing conventional heating and cooling systems in a multifamily, residential building with GSHP and ASHP systems and their combination with PV. The integration of PV with GSHP and ASHP systems presents an opportunity for increased solar energy usage resulting in a reduction of electricity demanded and a reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases. To analyze different heat pumps systems with and without PV, system modeling and computer simulations are performed with RETScreen Expert software.<div><br></div><div>A multifaceted verification and validation study is conducted for the system model and computer simulation. The important objective of this part of the study is to understand and develop confidence for modelling individual studies in RETScreen Expert software. To accomplish this, RETScreen Expert is used for modeling and simulating the performance of PV systems in several geographical locations, including Fort Wayne, IN. A comparison is made to performance predictions from System Advisory Model (SAM) software. In addition, a study is done to compare predictions from both software to previously published data.<br></div><div><br></div><div>In the further phase of the study, eQUEST software, a tool for building energy simulation is used to predict outputs such as electricity consumption, heating loads, and cooling loads for the multifamily residential building considered in this study. These outputs, as well as, building parameters are used as inputs to RETScreen Expert. Since, this study focuses on modeling and simulating the heating and cooling systems coupled with PV for feasibility analysis, only a few minor modifications to the eQUEST default settings are made.<br></div><div><br></div><div>The outputs from eQUEST are used as inputs to RETScreen Expert and analysis of ASHP and GSHP systems, as well as their combination with a PV system are performed. The results include the technical performance and financial model of each system, which can be used to indicate feasibility. The results show that both GSHP and ASHP systems are environmentally friendly and reduce energy consumption. These systems are economically feasible, with payback periods of under 10 years, when electricity prices are high. When combined technology is preferred, PV-GSHP systems are more environmentally friendly and have fuel savings far better than any other proposed systems. But the feasibility of the both the GSHP and PV-GSHP systems strongly depends on loop installation cost.<br></div>

In many text mining applications, knowledge bases incorporating expert knowledge are beneficial for intelligent decision making. Refining an existing knowledge base from a source domain to a different target domain solving the same task would greatly reduce the effort required for preparing labeled training data in constructing a new knowledge base. We investigate a new framework of refining a kind of logic knowledge base known as Markov Logic Networks (MLN). One characteristic of this adaptation problem is that since the data distributions of the two domains are different, there should be different tailor-made MLNs for each domain. On the other hand, the two knowledge bases should share certain amount of similarities due to the same goal. We investigate the refinement in two situations, namely, using unlabeled target domain data, and using limited amount of labeled target domain data. / When manual annotation of a limited amount of target domain data is possible, we exploit how to actively select the data for annotation and develop two active learning approaches. The first approach is a pool-based active learning approach taking into account of the differences between the source and the target domains. A theoretical analysis on the sampling bound of the approach is conducted to demonstrate that informative data can be actively selected. The second approach is an error-driven approach that is designed to provide estimated labels for the target domain and hence the quality of the logic formulae captured for the target domain can be improved. An error analysis on the cluster-based active learning approach is presented. We have conducted extensive experiments on two different text mining tasks, namely, pronoun resolution and segmentation of citation records, showing consistent ii improvements in both situations of using unlabeled target domain data, and with a limited amount of labeled target domain data. / When there is no manual label given for the target domain data, we re-fine an existing MLN via two components. The first component is the logic formula weight adaptation that jointly maximizes the likelihood of the observations of the target domain unlabeled data and considers the differences between the two domains. Two approaches are designed to capture the differences between the two domains. One approach is to analyze the distribution divergence between the two domains and the other approach is to incorporate a penalized degree of difference. The second component is logic formula refinement where logic formulae specific to the target domain are discovered to further capture the characteristics of the target domain. / Chan, Ki Cecia. / Adviser: Wai Lam. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-02, Section: B, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 120-128). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

Data mining algorithms discover knowledge from data. The knowledge are commonly expressed as dependency relationships in various forms, like rules, decision trees and Bayesian Networks (BNs). Moreover, many real-world problems are multi-class problems, in which more than one of the variables in the data set are considered as classes. However, most of the rule learners available were proposed for single-class problems only and would produce cyclic rules if they are applied to multi-class ones. In addition, most of them produce rules with conflicts, i.e. more than one of the rules classify the same data items and different rules have different predictions. Similarly, existing decision trees learners cannot handle multi-class problems, and thus cannot detect and avoid cycles. In contrast, BNs represent acyclic dependency relationships among variables, but they can handle discrete values only. They cannot manage continuous, interval and ordinal values and cannot represent higher-order relationships. Consequently, BNs have higher network complexity and lower understandability when they are used for such problems. / This thesis has studied in depth discovering dependency relationships in various forms by Evolutionary Computation (EC). Through analysis of the reasons leading to the disadvantages of rules, decision trees and BNs, and their learners, we have proposed a sequence of EAs, a novel functional dependency network (FDN) and two techniques for dependency relationship learning and for multi-class problems. They are the multi-population Genetic Programming (GP) using backward chaining procedure and the GP employing co-operating scoring stage for acyclic rules learning. The dependency network with functions can manage all kinds of values and represent any kind of relationships among variables, the flexible and robust MDLGP to learn the novel dependency network and BN. Based on the FDN we have further developed the techniques to learn rules without conflict and acyclic decision trees for multi-class problems respectively. The new self-organizing map (SOM) with expanding force for clustering and data visualization for data preprocessing have also been given in the appendix. / Shum Wing Ho. / "May 2007." / Adviser: Kwong-Sak Leung. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-01, Section: B, page: 0436. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 221-240). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

An extension of wrapper adaptation is developed to collectively extract information from multiple Web pages. There exists mutual influence between text fragments of different Web pages and hence they should be considered collectively during extraction. Extending from the dependence model, a framework which can consider the dependence between text fragments within a single Web page and the dependence between text fragments from different pages. One characteristic of this model is that additional information can be incorporated into the model and multiple tasks earl be tackled simultaneously. As a result, a global solution which can optimize the quality of the tasks, at the same time, eliminate the conflict between them can he obtained. Experiments on product feature extraction and hot item mining from multiple auction Web sites have been conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of this framework. / One problem of most existing Web information extraction methods is that the extraction knowledge learned from a Web site can only be applied to Web pages from the same site. This thesis first investigates the problem of wrapper adaptation which aims at adapting a wrapper previously learned from a source site to new unseen sites. A dependence model that can model the dependence between text fragments in Web pages is developed. Under this model, two types of text related features are identified. The first type of features is called site invariant features. These features likely remain unchanged in Web pages from different sites in the same domain. The second type of features is called site dependent features. These features are different in Web pages collected from different Web sites, while they are similar in Web pages originated from the same site. Based on this model, two frameworks are developed to solve the wrapper adaptation problem. The first framework is called Information Extraction Knowledge Adaptation using Machine Learning approach (IEKA-ML). Machine learning methods are employed to derive site invariant features from the previously learned extraction knowledge and items previously collected or extracted from the source Web site. Both site dependent features and site invariant features in new sites are considered for learning of new information extraction knowledge tailored to the new unseen site. / The second framework, called Information Extraction Knowledge Adaptation using Bayesian learning approach (IEKA-BAYES), solves the problem of wrapper adaptation as well as the issue of new attribute discovery. The new attribute discovery problem aims at extracting new or previously unwell attributes that are not specified in the wrapper. To harness the uncertainty, a probabilistic generative model for the generation of text fragments and layout format related to attributes in Web pages is designed. Bayesian learning and expectation-maximization (EM) techniques are developed under the proposed generative model to accomplish the wrapper adaptation task. Previously unseen attributes together with their semantic labels earl be discovered via another EM-based Bayesian learning on the generative model. Extensive experiments on over 30 real-world Web sites in three different domains and comparison between existing works have been conducted to evaluate the IEKA-ML and IEKA-BAYES frameworks. / Wong Tak Lam. / "October 2006." / Adviser: Lam Wai. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-09, Section: B, page: 6095. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 126-135). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

The aim of this research was to explore the lived experience of educational psychologists (EPs) working as expert witnesses in the family court and to capture some of their tacit knowledge. The research was conducted during a 'perfect storm' of reforms in family justice, austerity measures and following the publication of 'The Ireland Report' (Ireland, 2012) which was highly critical of the quality of psychological reports prepared for the family courts and captured the attention of the national media at a time when several high profile cases involving expert witness malpractice were also under scrutiny. Adopting Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as the methodology, two EP expert witnesses were interviewed using in-depth conversations based around two semi-structured interview prompts. Interview transcripts were then analysed using IPA, firstly within individual interviews and cases and then across interviews and cases. Superordinate themes emerged as five main focus points: 1) The role of being an EP and an expert witness, 2) Maintaining a phenomenological attitude, 3) Personal and professional identity, 4) The context of court and 5) The experience of the interview. Findings indicate that the widely accepted Fallon, Woods and Rooney (2010) definition of who EPs are and what EPs do also holds in the context of the family court, with the scientist-practitioner identity being further illuminated in this milieu, especially with regard to formulation, maintaining a phenomenological attitude and reflexivity.

The subject of my thesis is "The role of coaching in organization". My study compares management of various companies through interviews and questionnaires to find out the reality about coaching in Czech republic. The result of this thesis is an expert analysis for companies that are not knowledgeable in this field and need quick orientation that will help them to decide if they need coaching. The theoretical part introduces the concept of coaching in organizations. This includes a basic knowledge of coaching, coaching in management, how coaches look at management, shows differences in types of coaches and also coaching models that currently exist. The central part of the thesis is the practical part. It contains three parts and final practical. In first part I mention existence of numerous studies and from those I selected three to focus on. Second part reveals the real situation in companies through structured interviews with management. The third part describes evaluation of coaching from the perspective of the target group. The main conclusion and contribution of this thesis is in the practical part. It includes expert analysis and recommendations for various types of companies according to their size and financial possibilities.

A intensa adoção dos sistemas eletrônicos em praticamente todas as atividades humanas gera grande quantidade de evidências digitais que devem ser utilizadas pelos juízes para entender os fatos ocorridos e assim se sentirem mais seguros ao julgar os processos judiciais conforme o seu convencimento íntimo. Em contrapartida, a coleta e análise dessas evidências são tarefas cada vez mais caras e demoradas porque essas evidências se tornam rapidamente mais complexas, sem fronteiras e escondidas por recursos protetores de privacidade. São típicos os embates que ocorrem entre autoridades policiais, juízes, fabricantes e consumidores quando são frustradas as determinações judiciais para quebra do sigilo telemático em função de criptografia das comunicações e dos dados armazenados, situação que tende a se agravar em função de novas tecnologias como serviços em nuvem, Internet das Coisas, inteligência artificial, robôs e drones. Nesse contexto, os investigadores forenses precisam de laboratórios cada vez mais sofisticados, capazes de realizar a quebra judicial da criptografia por mecanismos como força-bruta ou chip-off, entre muitas outras técnicas de forense computacional. Ocorre que os laboratórios atuais não têm sido suficientes para atender a crescente demanda e, adicionalmente, eles estão concentrados nos principais centros econômicos, portanto distantes dos milhares de comarcas onde tramitam os processos judiciais. A volatilidade dos dados e a complexidade dos exames exigem a participação dos representantes dos autores e réus no processo judicial, para que possa ocorrer o imprescindível contraditório técnico e debate entre os especialistas das partes, evitando o cerceamento de defesa. Porém, esse acompanhamento é prejudicado e até impossibilitado pela produtividade insuficiente dos laboratórios frente à demanda e pela distância entre a comarca, os peritos aceitos pelo juiz e os laboratórios forenses. A velocidade dessa revolução e a escassez de laboratórios habilitados sobrecarregam os serviços periciais, provocam erros e confundem processos judicias que com isso correm o risco de absolver culpados ou, pior, condenar inocentes. Para enfrentar esse problema, propõe-se que os laboratórios forenses passem a adotar a tecnologia de laboratórios utilizáveis remotamente, denominada WebLab, e que esses laboratórios passem se integrar em federações de WebLabs Forenses, de modo a proporcionar ao delegado, juiz, promotor, advogados, perito nomeado pelo juiz e representantes das partes realizar ou acompanhar remotamente via Web os exames periciais forenses, maximizando a utilização dos laboratórios mais equipados nacionalmente e internacionalmente e proporcionando a concomitante e imprescindível fiscalização pelo Poder Judiciário e pelas partes nos processos judiciais. Em síntese, esta pesquisa propõe um modelo de referência que possibilita a utilização dos laboratórios forenses via Web. / The massive adoption of electronic systems in virtually every human activity generates a great amount of digital evidence, which must be used by judges to understand facts that took place and feel more confident when judging legal processes as per one\'s inner belief. In contrast, evidence collection and analysis are increasingly expensive and time-consuming activities, as said evidence quickly become more complex, borderless and safeguarded by privacy protection features. Conflicts between police authorities, judges, manufacturers and consumers are common when legal provisions for breaking telematics secrecy are thwarted due to encryption of communication and stored data, a situation that tends to escalate due to new technologies such as cloud services, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, robots and drones. In this context, forensic investigators require increasingly sophisticated laboratories capable of carrying out the legal encryption breach through mechanisms such as brute force or chip-off, among many other computing forensics techniques. It happens that current laboratories are not sufficient to supply the increasing demand and, in addition, said laboratories are concentrated on the main economic centers, therefore, away from thousands of districts in which legal processes are treated. Data volatility and test complexity require participation from authors and defendants in the legal process, so that invaluable technical adversarial proceedings and debates between specialists from the parties may take place, avoiding curtailment of defense. However, this monitoring is hampered, and even prevented, by poor productivity of the laboratories in face of the demand and distance between the district, expert approved by the judge and forensic laboratories. The speed of this revolution and scarcity of qualified laboratories overburden expert services, cause mistakes and confusion among legal processes, leading to the risk of acquitting guilty parties or, even worse, convicting innocent parties. In order to address this issue, it is proposed that forensic laboratories adopt a technology for remotely usable laboratories, called WebLab, and that these laboratories are therefore integrated in federations of Forensic WebLabs, as to provide the police chief, judge, prosecutor, attorneys, expert assigned by the judge and representatives of the parties to perform or remotely follow expert forensic tests, maximizing national and international utilization of better equipped laboratories and providing simultaneous and crucial supervision by the Judiciary and the parties of legal processes. In summary, this study proposes a reference model that enables use of forensic laboratories via the Web.

Active fire protection systems are an essential fire safety management tool, particularly in potentially high financial and risk consequence scenarios. In the UK and Europe over recent decades regulatory changes have been successful in creating an environment in which more innovation can take place. Increased numbers of fixed firefighting system types are now available to the user. However, not all systems offered are equal in terms of; suitability, cost, maturity of supporting knowledge, and overall performance or in-service reliability. Understanding of the systems performance and its limitations and how to match this to the assessed fire risk is incomplete among users. Experts are observing increasing numbers of what they consider to be poor fixed firefighting system choices leading to weaker fire safety designs, which is a cause of concern. Therefore the research aim is to verify that these concerns are founded and, that being the case, to develop a decision support system and related supporting resources to further this aspect of fire safety education and enable users to make better informed system selections. Thus, the focus of this research has been to develop a fixed firefighting system selection tool to complement existing legislation, which incorporates logic, rules and fire safety educational resources in a variety of formats to aid the fire safety design process. A variety of largely heuristic techniques have been used to aggregate data to form knowledge to underpin fixed firefighting system selection tool. In this form, the tool has been validated by experts as being a useful resource. The developed tool also provides ample opportunity for useful ongoing future development. The work recognises that cost and benefit are critical in the selection process. Supporting resources have been incorporated into the tool to assist users in evaluating the levels of reliability they might expect from a system in their circumstances. This tool has now been exposed to a wider audience of experts as part of an evaluation process. Findings include: that the tool is an innovative approach to promoting good fire safety designs, the tool efficiently provides useful fire safety education to users and the developed supporting resources which consider firefighting system reliability are helpful. This thesis and reference papers summarise the key stages of this research and tool development. The thesis concludes by outlining the progress achieved by this work and recommendations arising.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Background: Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing (ESBL) and carbapenemaseproducing Gram-negative bacilli showing resistance to cephalosporins and carbapenems respectively, have been reported from several countries globally and recently among Libyan combatants who have been transferred to European countries for advanced medical care. However, there is a lack of data about their presence in Misrata and in Libya in general. This is the first documented study aimed at investigating the prevalence and resistance mechanisms of ESBL and carbapenemase-producing K. pneumoniae isolates from Misrata. Materials and Methods: Two hundred Gram-negative bacillus isolates were collected and identified from hospitals and pathology laboratories in Misrata. Following antimicrobial susceptibility screening, those showing resistance to cephalosporin and carbapenem were tested for ESBL activity using the Modified double disc synergy test, Sensititer ESBL confirmatory MIC plates and MAST AmpC detection sets D52C and D68C. Carbapenemase activity was detected using RAPIDEC CARBA NP test, Modified Hodge test (MHT), carbapenem inactivation methods (CIM), carbapenem combined test (CCT), and by MAST carba puls set. ESBL and carbapenemases genes were detected using multiplex PCR. Results: K. pneumoniae was the predominant species (85/200) of the 14 species identified, with 56 (65.8%) showing carbapenem resistance, 16 (18.8%) were cephalosporin-resistant carbapenem-susceptible and 13 (15.2%) were susceptible to all antibiotics except ampicillin. OXA-48 was the only carbapenemase detected, with SHV, TEM and CTX-M group 1 found in almost all carbapenem and cephalosporin resistant K. pneumoniae. Rep-PCR analysis revealed multiple clones and some K. pneumoniae strains were genetically related or indistinguishable despite differences in ESBL genes or carbapenemase activity. Conclusion: The findings of this study show that carbapenemase- and ESBL-producing K. pneumoniae are prevalent in Misrata and emphasize the urgent need for optimized infection control and antibiotic stewardship programmes in the Libyan hospitals to prevent further spread of these organisms.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries / Department: Computer Science.