With about 3.6 million adults in the United States having visual impairment or blind- ness, assistive technology is essential to give these people grocery shopping independance. This thesis presents a new method to detect and localize nutrition facts tables (NFTs) on mobile devices more quickly and from less-ideal inputs than before. The method is a drop- in replacement for an existing NFT analysis pipeline and utilizes multiple image analysis methods which exploit various properties of standard NFTs.In testing, this method performs very well with no false-positives and 42% total recall. These results are ideal for real-world application where inputs are analyzed as quickly as possible. Additionally, this new method exposes many possibilities for future improvement.

This research suggests a novel voltage control scheme that can compensate for voltage sag and swell conditions in three-phase power systems. Faults occurring in power distribution systems or facilities in plants cause the voltage sag or swell. For sensitive loads, even voltage sags of short duration can cause serious problems in the entire system. In order to mitigate power interruptions, this research proposes a scheme called Voltage Sag Supporter utilizing a PWM (Pulse Width Modulation)-Switched Autotransformer. The proposed scheme is able to quickly recognize the voltage sag or swell condition, and it can correct the voltage by either boosting the input voltage during voltage sag events or reducing the input voltage during voltage swell events. Among existing methods, the scheme based on the inverter system such as dynamic voltage restorers (DVR) require an inverter, a rectifier, and a step-up down transformer, which makes the system expensive. AC converters can be used for the purpose of the research. However, they consist of two solid-state switches per one phase and include energy storage devices such as reactors and capacitors. The switching device for the high voltage application is relatively expensive so that this research suggests a scheme utilizing only one switch for the output voltage control, which makes the system more stable and cost effective. The proposed scheme can be applied at any voltage and provides cost and size advantages over existing methods due to the reduced number of switching components and no need of energy storage devices. Simulations and experiments have been carried out to verify the validity of the proposed scheme, and prototype experiments are being done to confirm the control scheme.

Zugl.: Erlangen, Nürnberg, Universiẗat, Diss., 2007.

No description available.

Growing awareness of the environmental risks associated with modernity has contributed to an increasing demand for information about the environment. Conservation and other environmental organisations receive many such requests for information. The research reported here was motivated first, by the view that these requests presented an opportunity for environmental education, and second, by a concern that this potential was not being realised. The research question was thus "How can environmental education be supported by optimally responding to requests for environmental information?" It is argued that social change is the raison d' etre of environmental education as a response to environmental risks. Further, it is proposed that this might be best achieved through an approach described here as socially critical environmental education. The study comprised an historical review of the Enviro Facts Project, a recent attempt to meet the need for environmental information; a questionnaire survey; interviews; and workshops. Results were collected from 115 questionnaire responses; 23 telephone interviews and nine face-to-face interviews; and six workshops. The research design was participative. It aimed to answer the research question through co-developing practical solutions with participants. Further, it endeavoured to be of practical relevance to those participants. Conclusions are drawn as to how the research question might be answered. Recommendations are made as follows. Responses to environmental information requests might best support socially critical environmental education through an approach characterised by: * a recognition of the importance of responding optimally to environmental information requests, as well as a recognition of existing structures and resource materials with which to respond; * the mobilisation of those structures and resource materials through, for example, the effective marketing and distribution of resource materials; informed and focused networking to make existing resources and capacities more accessible; and the effective use of libraries to provide environmental information; * the enhancement of the capacities of local sources of environmental information. The findings of this study could usefully inform both resource development in environmental education, and those who in their line of work respond to requests for environmental information.

This session will present games that use materials you already have to help your students develop fluency in all operations.

No description available.

Metaphysical grounding has received a great deal of attention in the metaphysics literature within the last decade, offering what many see as an attractive theoretical alternative to other attempts to analyze the nature of fundamentality, e.g., dependence, supervenience, identity, conceptual analysis, etc. Still, a number of commentators note a bevy of issues facing the notion of grounding, leading some to believe it cannot perform the relevant work it has been tasked to do. One such issue is the purity dilemma, posed by Ted Sider, which follows from a plausible constraint placed on our theorizing about fundamentality, viz., that the fundamental bedrock of the world contains nothing but purely fundamental phenomena. It is argued that purity creates a problem for metaphysical grounding in that it makes it increasingly difficult to see what might ground the facts about what grounds what. In this paper, I explicate the purity dilemma, and an attempt made by Shamik Dasgupta to sidestep the challenge, and provide a secure grounding foundation for such facts. I then proceed to defend Dasgupta's view from objections made by Sider, and conclude that, at the very least, the crucial notion (autonomy) on which the former's view rests is intelligible, if it is not tenable. / Master of Arts / In this paper I discuss an ongoing debate over the nature of metaphysical grounding. Metaphysical grounding (or, “grounding”) is of interest to metaphysicians due to the satisfying way in which it handles a number of long-standing problems in the field. As Johnathan Schaffer (2009) notes, metaphysics has often concerned itself with what the most basic nature of reality is like, and grounding promises to furnish many of our metaphysical theories with the tools to answer such questions. Still, there remains a number of problems with characterizing grounding. The relevant problem I tackle in this paper has to do with whether or not grounding can be understood in its own terms. Ted Sider, for example, has suspicions that it cannot. I argue, on the behalf of Shamik Dasgupta, that there is an intelligible way to understand grounding in its own terms, and work to provide constructive answers to some of Sider’s objections.

As novas tecnologias FACTS aplicadas ao sistema de transmissão, com base em eletrônica de potência, podem também ser úteis à distribuição. Para tal é preciso conduzir um procedimento de consolidação da utilização e do desempenho destas, para sua aplicação sem riscos. Neste trabalho, dois aspectos serão contemplados. O primeiro se refere à aplicação do dispositivo FACTS atuando como um capacitor série. Em se tendo controle de módulo e da fase da tensão inserida em série com a linha pode-se fazê-la comportar-se como uma queda em uma reatância série capacitiva ou indutiva. O controle dessa reatância série (aumentando/diminuindo) permitirá a aplicação do conceito de compensação série em qualquer ponto do sistema de distribuição, provendo benefícios de um controle contínuo da tensão e também do controle do fluxo de carga no sistema independente da corrente. O segundo aspecto refere-se ao uso dos dispositivos na conexão de alimentadores controlando a potência ativa entre eles. Para esta operação outro dispositivo UPFC, com conceito similar ao descrito acima, entretanto atuando na fase da tensão entre 2 barras, comporta-se como um transformador defasador com variação contínua de ?taps?, podendo controlar a potência ativa entre os alimentadores. A aplicação destas tecnologias propiciarão vários benefícios para a expansão da distribuição tais como, flexibilização do uso da rede, interligação de alimentadores permitindo manobras de blocos de energia sem ?pisca?, ajuste contínuo do suporte de reativos durante a operação, controle dinâmico do fluxo de potência. O objetivo deste trabalho é estudar a aplicabilidade da tecnologia FACTS e estender este conceito para aplicação em sistemas de distribuição e conduzir simulações digitais em redes de distribuição (15kV) identificando o desempenho e os benefícios atingidos. O programa de simulação utilizado é o ATP (Alternative Transients Program). / The new FACTS technologies applied to the transmission system, based on power electronics, can also be useful to the distribution. For that, it is necessary to drive a procedure to consolidate the use and the performance for their application without risks. In this work two aspects will be approached. The first refers to the application of a FACTS device acting as series compensator. This device will be able to control the voltage in module and phase in order to act as a voltage drop in a serie reactance with capacitive or inductive features. The control of this series reactance (increasing/ decreasing) will allow the application of series compensation concept to any point of the distribution system, providing the benefits of continuous control of the voltage added to the load flow control in the system independent of the current. The second aspect refers to its use in the connection of two feeders controlling the active power between them. For this operation other device, UPFC, with similar concept as described previously, acts mainly in the phase of the injected voltage in the line, performing as a phase-shift with continuous taps variation and is able to control the active power flow between feeders. The application of this technology will provide several benefits for the distribution expansion, such as, a greater flexibility in the use of the network, connection of feeders without load flow interruption, continuous adjust of reactive power during the operation and dynamic control of power flow. The purpose of this work is to study the applicability of the FACTS technology, to extend this concept for the application in the distribution system by using digital simulations in distribution network up to 15kV identifying the performance and the reached benefits.

Cette Thèse traite de la modélisation des réseaux électriques comportant des compensateurs statiques de puissance réactive (SVC). La modélisation est basée sur des modèles d'ordre réduit utilisant la réduction par troncature des valeurs singulières de Hankel et l'identification dynamique N4Sid. Pour le cas de réseaux comportant plusieurs SVC ou composants FACTS (Flexible AC Transmission Systems), on a proposé une structure de modélisation par sous-systèmes calculée par des techniques d'ordre réduit. Ces modèles réduits permettent de calculer des lois de commande type LQG (Linear Quadratic Gaussian Regulator) et des commandes robustes d'ordre réduit qui ont des performances supérieures par rapport aux correcteurs traditionnels des SVC (commande proportionnelle). Avec la structure en sous-systèmes, on a proposé des méthodes de calcul des correcteurs décentralisés appliqués aux réseaux électriques. D'autre part, on a proposé une technique d'analyse de la robustesse des réseaux en utilisant la théorie d'analyse des valeurs singulières structurées, permettant de déterminer les frontières de stabilité basées en le calcul des fonctions de transfert de l'ensemble système-commande. Les différentes techniques développées dans le cadre de cette thèse sont appliquées à un réseau test de 11 nœuds et à un grand réseau électrique et donnent des résultats très satisfaisants.