Thesis (M.S.)--Western Washington University, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 30-35). Also issued online.

Thesis (Ph.D)--Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008. / Committee Chair: Loh, Gabriel H.; Committee Co-Chair: Lee, Hsien-Hsin S.; Committee Member: Lim, Sung Kyu; Committee Member: Prvulovic, Milos; Committee Member: Yalamanchili, Sudhakar; Committee Member: Yoder, Douglas.

1.1 Background This thesis is presented as an investigation into the movement integration, performance processes and effects of anxiety on the skill acquisition of individuals diagnosed with Down syndrome or DS as it will be referred to in this thesis (a full description of this genetic condition is presented in the thesis introduction). The investigation of several features of motor control and performance pressure in individuals with DS is carried out through several related research projects which will be rationalised and outlined throughout. In both everyday life and in sporting situations, people are required to perform tasks quickly and accurately and these tasks vary in complexity. Some of these actions consist of one segment movements (e.g. turning on a light switch), whilst other actions have multiple segments (e.g. making a cup of tea) and the need to be fast whilst maintaining a high degree of accuracy is very important. Therefore understanding the basic principles behind these actions in individuals with DS and how performance pressure may affect speed and accuracy of movements will not just have theoretical implications, but also practical importance such as designing practice protocols to enhance functional independence. Motor skill control, learning and performance are imperative for everyday activities such as signing one’s name, dressing oneself and personal hygiene. The capability to perform these motor skills with or without support is of the upmost importance for individuals with DS. Discovering new channels of enhancement in motor skill control, learning and performance for individuals with DS is extremely important and vital step on the pathway to improving functional independence for personal and professional gains. 1.2 Outline of thesis This thesis attempts to investigate the issues relating to the programming of movements and the affects of anxiety on the motor skill learning of individuals with DS. The first experimental chapter focuses on the underlying mechanisms responsible for the planning, control and integration of multiple target aiming extension movements in individuals with DS. The aim of this chapter was utilise to the One Target Advantage (OTA) phenomenon in sequential extension movements to see if individuals with DS utilise similar movement planning and control strategies to typically developing (TD) individuals and individuals with an undifferentiated intellectual disability (UID). The second experimental chapter was designed to further understand the control of multiple directional movement actions in the DS population and the possible central and peripheral movement deficits. This experimental chapter aims to examine both the directional requirement of the second movement together with the effects of practice on the OTA phenomenon in persons with DS. Specifically, as in the first experimental chapter, we compare single-target movements with two-target extension sequences when the two-target responses are performed with a single arm and when there is a switch between the arms used to execute the first and second movement segments. However, in this chapter we also include sequences where the second movement in the sequence requires a reversal in direction to that of the first movement. The purpose of the third experimental chapter was to investigate the effects of environmental characteristics outside of those associated with the number of targets within a sequence. Specifically, the effects of performance pressure on the speed and accuracy of the movements of persons with DS. 1.3 Thesis format This thesis consists of a review of the literature, three research papers and a general discussion. All three manuscripts were written as stand-alone research articles and have been or are currently being prepared to be submitted for publication in international disability research journals. For consistency, all manuscripts have been written in the style of the American Psychological Association Publication Manual (Deckers, 2001) and the current recommendations adopted by the School of Sport, Health and Exercise Sciences, Bangor University for thesis preparation. For this purpose, all illustrations are numbered consecutively and citations are included in a single section at the end of this thesis. For ease of reading, all abbreviations are defined at their first appearance within each chapter of the thesis. Any contribution of co-authors is detailed in the ‘acknowledgements’ section of this thesis. All experimental chapters of this thesis are independent but linked, therefore at times there may be a necessary overlap in content between chapters.

Following up with China¡¦s WTO entry, China without doubt has become the ¡¥Must-go¡¦ place for any Taiwanese enterprise which is keen to turn its operation to be international or global. However, entering Chinese market would never be a promise to lead to a subsequent successful ¡¥going-global¡¦ story without taking account of certain points as follows. How Taiwanese enterprises enter Chinese market strategically? How to efficiently as well as effectively manage the subsidiaries following their entries? How to maintain and accumulate their ownership advantage afterwards? All of these questions have become the major challenges these days faced by those Taiwanese enterprises that attempt to enter the giant China. In today¡¦s knowledge-driven economy, for the capital-, technology-, as well as knowledge- intense pharmaceutical industry, it would be even more critical to effectively link foreign subsidiaries¡¦ organizational management and coordination to the foreign investment entry modes. Consequently, Taiwanese pharmaceutical enterprises are chosen as the samples in this current research.¡@Qualitative research is conducted for this current research using case study research method. Through in-depth interviews, data are gathered from two Taiwanese pharmaceutical enterprises, representing large and small scale enterprise respectively. Finally, findings obtained of this research as the following attempts to make some contributions to Taiwanese pharmaceutical enterprises¡¦ future investment in China. 1. Enterprise¡¦s characteristics, including business scale, years of China¡¦s investment, and internationalization experience, have influence on the ownership, location, and internalization advantage. 2. Features of pharmaceutical industry in China have influence on the development of the investment advantages in China. 3. Enterprise¡¦s characteristics and China¡¦s investment advantages have influence on the subsidiary¡¦s integration and control as well as the value chain activities.

Orientador: João Mauricio Rosario / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Mecanica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-15T00:29:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Carvalho_MarcosCorreade_M.pdf: 12573489 bytes, checksum: ef9faf7fa22617d76e44ea3d342a5073 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Resumo: Automação Predial é uma área da Engenharia que envolve a integração de diferentes conhecimentos, e através do crescimento explosivo da Internet e investimentos em infra-estrutura de comunicações, tem estimulado a incorporação de soluções tecnológicas inovadoras para automação em novos e já existentes empreendimentos, baseadas na busca do conforto, segurança, entretenimento e acessibilidade que se tornam disponíveis a um grande número de usuários. Neste contexto, este trabalho tem como principal objetivo apresentar uma proposta de metodologia para integração de sistemas de automação predial, baseados em conceitos já utilizados para sistemas automatizados industriais, direcionando a área de Automação Predial, a partir da integração dos sistemas independentes e modulares, visando a melhoria da qualidade de vida através da sistematização e planejamento de recursos, otimização de tempos, segurança, racionalização de serviços, qualidade, utilização do espaço, e uso eficiente de energia e recursos naturais. A comprovação experimental deste trabalho será realizada através de três aplicações industriais que mostram vantagens e benefícios dos conceitos apresentados, estruturação do problema, especificação de sensores e atuadores, sistema de supervisão e controle remoto (WeLlab) e integração de soluções em automação predial. / Abstract: Building automation is an engineering area that integrates others such as the ones of electrical, mechanics, electronics and computer science. It is thanks to the internet vast growth and communication infrastructure investments that innovative technical solutions for automation have taken place in the search for guaranteeing user's comfort, security, entertaining and accessibility. From the previous perspective, this work establish as main objective, the presentation of a methodology for systems integration in building automation based on industrial automation concepts applied to the building area. This allows the integration of independent and modular systems for offering an improved life quality thanks to the time, space and security handling and planning through the efficient use of natural and energetic resources. The experimental validation is done through three industrial applications which allow analyzing from the proposed methodology, how the problem structure, sensor and actuator selection, supervisory system and remote control (WebLab) can be integrated within a building automation solution. / Mestrado / Mecanica dos Sólidos e Projeto Mecanico / Mestre em Engenharia Mecânica

Sensorimotor integration processes play a central role in daily life and require that different sources of sensory information become integrated: i.e. the information related to the object being under control of the agent (i.e. indicator) and the information about the goal of acting. Yet, how this is accomplished on a neurophysiological level is contentious. We focus on the role of theta- and beta-band activities and examine which neuroanatomical structures are involved. Healthy participants (n = 41) performed 3 consecutive pursuit-tracking EEG experiments in which the source of visual information available for tracking was varied (i.e. that of the indicator and the goal of acting). The initial specification of indicator dynamics is determined through beta-band activity in parietal cortices. When information about the goal was not accessible, but operating the indicator was required nevertheless, this incurred increased theta-band activity in the superior frontal cortex, signaling a higher need for control. Later, theta- and beta-band activities encode distinct information within the ventral processing stream: Theta-band activity is affected by the indicator information, while beta-band activity is affected by the information about the action goal. Complex sensorimotor integration is realized through a cascade of theta- and beta-band activities in a ventral-stream-parieto-frontal network.

In recent years, software tools used for Global Software Development (GSD) processes (e.g., continuous integration, version control and bug tracking) are increasingly being deployed in the cloud to serve multiple users. Multitenancy is an important architectural property in cloud computing in which a single instance of an application is used to serve multiple users. There are two key challenges of implementing multitenancy: (i) ensuring isolation either between multiple tenants accessing the service or components designed (or integrated) with the service; and (ii) resolving trade-offs between varying degrees of isolation between tenants or components. The aim of this thesis is to investigate how to architect the deployment of cloud-hosted service while guaranteeing the required degree of multitenancy isolation. Existing approaches for architecting the deployment of cloud-hosted services to serve multiple users have paid little attention to evaluating the effect of the varying degrees of multitenancy isolation on the required performance, resource consumption and access privilege of tenants (or components). Approaches for isolating tenants (or components) are usually implemented at lower layers of the cloud stack and often apply to the entire system and not to individual tenants (or components). This thesis adopts a multimethod research strategy to providing a set of novel approaches for addressing these problems. Firstly, a taxonomy of deployment patterns and a general process, CLIP (CLoud-based Identification process for deployment Patterns) was developed for guiding architects in selecting applicable cloud deployment patterns (together with the supporting technologies) using the taxonomy for deploying services to the cloud. Secondly, an approach named COMITRE (COmponent-based approach to Multitenancy Isolation Through request RE-routing) was developed together with supporting algorithms and then applied to three case studies to empirically evaluate the varying degrees of isolation between tenants enabled by multitenancy patterns for three different cloud-hosted GSD processes, namely-continuous integration, version control, and bug tracking. After that, a synthesis of findings from the three case studies was carried out to provide an explanatory framework and new insights about varying degrees of multitenancy isolation. Thirdly, a model-based decision support system together with four variants of a metaheuristic solution was developed for solving the model to provide an optimal solution for deploying components of a cloud-hosted application with guarantees for multitenancy isolation. By creating and applying the taxonomy, it was learnt that most deployment patterns are related and can be implemented by combining with others, for example, in hybrid deployment scenarios to integrate data residing in multiple clouds. It has been argued that the shared component is better for reducing resource consumption while the dedicated component is better in avoiding performance interference. However, as the experimental results show, there are certain GSD processes where that might not necessarily be so, for example, in version control, where additional copies of the files are created in the repository, thus consuming more disk space. Over time, performance begins to degrade as more time is spent searching across many files on the disk. Extensive performance evaluation of the model-based decision support system showed that the optimal solutions obtained had low variability and percent deviation, and were produced with low computational effort when compared to a given target solution.

Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) welding is extensively used in aerospace applications, due to its unique ability to produce higher quality welds compared to other shielded arc welding types. However, most TIG welding is performed manually and has not achieved the levels of automation that other welding techniques have. This is mostly attributed to the lack of process knowledge and adaptability to complexities, such as mismatches due to part fit-up. Recent advances in automation have enabled the use of industrial robots for complex tasks that require intelligent decision making, predominantly through sensors. Applications such as TIG welding of aerospace components require tight tolerances and need intelligent decision making capability to accommodate any unexpected variation and to carry out welding of complex geometries. Such decision making procedures must be based on the feedback about the weld profile geometry. In this thesis, a real-time position based closed loop system was developed with a six axis industrial robot (KUKA KR 16) and a laser triangulation based sensor (Micro-Epsilon Scan control 2900-25).

Sales market in process industry, especially for chemical, pharmaceutical and food industry, is becoming more and more volatile. Furthermore, the global availability of alternative products shortens the product life cycle. At the same time, the requested volumes depend on strong regional and temporal fluctuations, which are increasingly difficult to predict. To be able to bring product innovations successfully to market, rapid series-production readiness of the prototype is needed. However, the competition after successful approval is increasingly getting tougher. As soon as the product has been accepted by the market, the time necessary to reach sufficient product quantities with required product quality is essential for its profitability. By the end of the product life cycle, the production should be close to the largest remaining sales markets, which means that the production can be shifted accordingly. Classical production processes in process industry do not fulfil these requirements jet. Conti-systems are optimized for a certain production quantity per unit of time, which should not be changed for years, if possible. The higher flexibility of conventional batch plants is associated with unproductive times, for example during conversion. However, modularization of process plants with flexible combinatory design would allow faster turnover times and higher productivity. Individual modules realize standardized production steps and can be combined according to the requested product. Changes to the product are achieved by the exchange of modules, the production quantity can be increased by adding more of the same modules. The integration of a module into an upper classic process control system is laborious using the information models and tools available today. Various aspects of automation, such as human machine interfaces, statuses of sequences or interlocks must be added manually for the visualization and guidance of the module in an upper process control system. However, today's control systems are not prepared to provide the required flexibility of a system based on different modules. This drawback requires a modular plug-and-production methodology. Therefore, an outright modeling of information, beginning with modular and function-oriented integrated engineering is needed. On the one hand, this work considers with a selection of integration aspects, a detailed modeling of this aspects in an information carrier and the integration into the process control level. On the other hand, the concrete selection of one or more descriptive formats is analyzed. For this purpose, a uniform integration architecture and an integration process is described, this allows integration into an upper process control system level. This analysis shows that, with the available descriptive formats, a mapping of the individual integration aspects into an information carrier is possible. It is important to distinguish whether a separate mapping is chosen for each aspect, as chosen by GrapML in the second practical implementation, or whether a uniform format is used for the entire information carrier. The evaluation of the description formats suggests for the use in the information carrier AutomationML. The practical implementation and investigation with AutomationML are already in the scope of the Namur MTP developments and couldn’t therefore investigated deeply in this work. For the most important aspects, the human machine interface as well as the process management, detailed information modeling is available and was checked during implementation. Two different possibilities were presented and discussed for the selection of description formats. To allow flexible extensibility, it is advantageous to choose a description means in which the integration aspects are described separately from each other, independently of the specifically chosen format. A uniform interface within automation systems is required for the needs of the so-called industry 4.0 for the networking and consistency of all components involved throughout the entire life cycle. This work provides the first building blocks of this approach and enables application in process industry but also manufacturing industry.

Active Approaches provide chances for individual, comprehension-oriented learning and can facilitate the acquirement of general mathematical competencies. Using the example of pinboards, which were developed for different areas of the secondary level, workshop participants experience, discuss and further develop learning tasks, which can be used for free activities, for material based concept formation, for coping with heterogeneity, for intelligent exercises, as tool for the presentation of students’ work and as basis for games. The material also allows some continuous movements and can thus prepare an insightful usage of dynamic geometry programs. Central Part of the workshop is a work-sharing group work with learning tasks for grades 5 to 8. The workshop will close with a discussion of general aspects of material-based learning.