Technogenic pollution level with heavy metals (Cr, Pb, Ni, Cu, Zn) of different pedogenesis Luvisols by various physical chemical methods estimated. Their sorption capacity in soils clay fraction (< 0,005 mm) analyzed. The results obtained permitted to carry out the theoretical and experimental modeling of heavy metals sorption in clay fraction of Luvisols. There was determined that it’s heavy metals sorption capacity makes up to 2000 mg kg-1.

Pagrindinė šio darbo užduotis yra statybos investicijų efektyvumo analizė taikant matematinio modeliavimo metodus. Darbą sudaro trys pagrindiniai skyriai. Apžvalginiame skyriuje atlikta įvairių pasaulio šalių mokslininkų investicijų efektyvumo nustatymo modelių analizė. Pateikti vieni naujausių mokslinėje literatūroje aptinkamų metodų, taikomų investicijoms skaičiuoti. Apžvelgti finansinių (klasikinių) investicijų efektyvumo vertinimo metodų trūkumai. Apibrėžtos pagrindinės matematinio modeliavimo sąvokos, taikymo sritys bei pagrindiniai matematinių modelių sudarymo principai. Antrasis skyrius skirtas investicinių projektų sudėties ir jų vertinimo principų apžvalgai. Apibrė��ta bendroji bei investicijų statyboje koncepcija, statybos investicinių projektų klasifikacija. Pateikta uždavinių, padedančių nustatyti statybos investicijų efektyvumą, klasifikacija bei statybos investicijų efektyvumo nustatymo etapai. Toliau gilinamasi į bendruosius investicinio projekto vertinimo principus, pateikiama schema, apibrėžianti investicinių projektų vertinimo eigą. Trečiojoje dalyje, pereinant prie statybos investicinių procesų analizės, pateikiama rinkos ir statistinių duomenų apžvalga, kadangi būtent šių duomenų pagrindu sudaromas matematinis modelis, nuo jų tikslumo priklauso galutiniai skaičiavimų rezultatai. Statistinių duomenų apdorojimo programa MINITABTM, regresinės analizės metodu, sudaromas matematinis modelis, nustatantis statybos investicinio proceso efektyvumą. Remiantis... [to full text] / The main task of this project is the analysis of the construction investment efficiency, by applying of mathematical modeling methods. The model is created in order to define the effectiveness of the construction investment process. According to the model, it was calculated the yield of the process and the risk zones.

Einführung Die aktuelle Situation in der Produktentwicklung ist durch zunehmend dynamische und komplexe Aufgabenstellungen gekennzeichnet. Die Entwicklung eines Produktes ist kein linearer Prozess, der kontinuierlich über klar definierte Schritte zum Ziel geführt wird. Nur wenige Produkte werden neu konstruiert, meist handelt es sich dabei aber um Anpassungs-, Änderungs- oder Variantenkonstruktionen (Vajna 1982, Pahl & Beitz 1986). Ein weiterer Aspekt bei der Entwicklung ist, dass die dort verwendeten Prozesse schnell und ohne großen Aufwand in Prozessmanagementwerkzeuge eingebunden werden müssen. Diese Werkzeuge wiederum verwenden verschiedene Modellierungsansätze, wie z.B. die Netzplantechnik, die Design Structure Matrix (DSM) und die Containermodellierung. Gegenstand dieses Beitrages ist es, diese verschiedenen Ansätze zu analysieren und ihre Vor- bzw. Nachteile aufzuzeigen. Dabei hat sich herausgestellt, dass es vorteilhaft ist, eine Kombination der zuvor genannten Methoden zu verwenden. Des Weiteren werden auch die Schnittstellen von BPMN, DSM und Containermodellierung näher beleuchtet.

The thesis is focused on optimizing business processes based on process analysis in connection with a particular company in the segment of small businesses. The goal is optimization of selected major processes of KSB Ltd. The theoretical part explains the difference between procedural and operational procedures, describes the basic methods of process modeling, process modeling standards and selection of appropriate methods for the practical part, with regard to the character of the company KSB Ltd. In the practical part is compiled process analysis of the company and design changes of processes by modifying the methods of the modeling and optimization.

<div>Dynamic treatment regimes (DTRs) are often considered for the medical care of chronic diseases and complex conditions. They consist of multistage treatment decisions, each based on the individual's health information and their treatment and response history. In this dissertation, we consider this setting with binary responses (i.e., either respond favorably or unfavorably to a treatment) and highlight one type of heterogeneity, specifically the existence of subgroups of patients who respond favorably to only a distinct subset of study treatments. </div><div>Currently, most works employ model-free approaches to find the optimal DTR. In contrast, we propose a model-based approach, which focuses more on describing heterogeneity in treatment responses. We first consider the scenario when baseline covariates are not included. A mixture of mixed logit models is proposed along with an EM alogorithm to estimate these subgroup proportions and the probabilities of a favorable response. We describe how an optimal dynamic treatment regime can be determined given the model information. We also discuss the necessary identifiability conditions (i.e., what sets of parameters are necessary for DTR determination). </div><div><div>Then, we extend the proposed model to incorporate baseline covariates. Specifically, we include certain baseline covariates in the logistic model for the probabilities of a favorable response and develop a multivariate Bernoulli model to incorporate the remaining covariates in the determination of subgroup proportions. Furthermore, time effects are considered in the model to allow for a potential overall decline in response effectiveness over time. </div><div>In each setting, simulation studies are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in both parameter and DTR estimation. We also compare our approach with another competing method, Q-learning, and provide the scenarios when our mixture model outperforms Q-learning in terms of finding the optimal DTR.</div></div>

Einführung Die aktuelle Situation in der Produktentwicklung ist durch zunehmend dynamische und komplexe Aufgabenstellungen gekennzeichnet. Die Entwicklung eines Produktes ist kein linearer Prozess, der kontinuierlich über klar definierte Schritte zum Ziel geführt wird. Nur wenige Produkte werden neu konstruiert, meist handelt es sich dabei aber um Anpassungs-, Änderungs- oder Variantenkonstruktionen (Vajna 1982, Pahl & Beitz 1986). Ein weiterer Aspekt bei der Entwicklung ist, dass die dort verwendeten Prozesse schnell und ohne großen Aufwand in Prozessmanagementwerkzeuge eingebunden werden müssen. Diese Werkzeuge wiederum verwenden verschiedene Modellierungsansätze, wie z.B. die Netzplantechnik, die Design Structure Matrix (DSM) und die Containermodellierung. Gegenstand dieses Beitrages ist es, diese verschiedenen Ansätze zu analysieren und ihre Vor- bzw. Nachteile aufzuzeigen. Dabei hat sich herausgestellt, dass es vorteilhaft ist, eine Kombination der zuvor genannten Methoden zu verwenden. Des Weiteren werden auch die Schnittstellen von BPMN, DSM und Containermodellierung näher beleuchtet.

<p></p><p></p><p>Peatlands are the most efficient natural carbon sink on the planet. They are the most carbon-intensive storages than any other vegetation types. However, recent studies indicate that global peatlands can potentially release 6% of the global soil carbon into the atmosphere when they are drained or deforested. They cover only about 3% of the total global land area, but sequester over 30% of the Earth’s soil organic carbon. Peatlands in northern mid-to-high latitudes (45°-90°N) occupy ~90% of the global peatland area and account for ~80% of the total global peat organic carbon stock. Those peatlands are mainly located in Canada, Russia, and the USA. Peatlands in tropical regions cover ~10% of the global peatlands area and store 15-19% of the global peat organic carbon. They are mainly distributed in Southeast Asia and South and Central America. The temperature at the global scale has been rising since the middle of the last century and has accelerated during the last 40 years and the warming will continue in this century. The large storage of soil organic carbon within the peatlands can significantly respond to the changing climate by varying the roles between their carbon sink (from atmosphere to soil) and source (from soil to atmosphere) activities. This dissertation focuses on quantifying the soil organic carbon dynamics in North America and South America using mechanistically-based biogeochemistry models. </p><p></p><p>Peatlands in Alaska occupy 40 million hectares and account for ~10% of the total peatland area in northern mid-to-high latitudes. The regional soil organic carbon dynamics and its response to climate are still with large uncertainty. Most of the studies on peatlands to date are based on short-term site-level observation. This dissertation first used an integrated modeling framework that coupled the dynamics of hydrology, soil thermal regime, and ecosystem carbon and nitrogen to quantify the long-term peat carbon accumulation in Alaska during the Holocene. Modeled hydrology, soil thermal regime, carbon pools and fluxes and methane emissions were evaluated using long-term observation data at several peatland sites in Minnesota, Alaska, and Canada. The model was then applied for a 10,000-year (15 ka to 5 ka; 1 ka = 1000 cal yr before present) simulation at four peatland sites. The model simulations matched the observed carbon accumulation rates at fen sites during the Holocene (R^2= 0.88, 0.87, 0.38 and -0.05 for four sites respectively using comparisons in 500-year bins from 15 ka to 5 ka). The simulated (2.04 m) and observed peat depths (on average 1.98 m) also compared well (R^2 = 0.91). The early Holocene carbon accumulation rates, especially during the Holocene thermal maximum (HTM) (35.9 g 〖C m〗^(-2) yr^(-1)), were estimated up to 6-times higher than the rest of the Holocene (6.5 g 〖C m〗^(-2) yr^(-1)). It suggested that high summer temperature and the lengthened growing season resulted from the elevated insolation seasonality, along with wetter-than-before conditions might be major factors causing the rapid carbon accumulation in Alaska during the HTM. The sensitivity tests indicated that, apart from climate, initial water-table depth and vegetation canopy were major drivers to the estimated peat carbon accumulation. </p><p></p><p>To further quantify the regional long-term soil organic carbon accumulation rates and the current carbon stocks in Alaska, the second part of my research focused on quantifying the soil organic carbon accumulation in multiple Alaskan terrestrial ecosystems over the last 15,000 years for both peatland and non-peatland ecosystems. Comparable with the previous estimates of 25-70 Pg carbon (C) in peatlands and 13-22 Pg C in non-peatland soils within 1-m depth in Alaska using peat core data, our model estimated a total SOC of 36-63 Pg C at present, including 27-48 Pg C in peatland soils and 9-15 Pg C in non-peatland soils. Current living vegetation stored 2.5-3.7 Pg C in Alaska with 0.3-0.6 Pg C in peatlands and 2.2-3.1 Pg C in non-peatlands. The simulated average rate of peat soil C accumulation was 2.3 Tg C yr^(-1) with a peak value of 5.1 Tg C yr^(-1) during the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM) in the early Holocene, four folds higher than the average rate of 1.4 Tg C yr^(-1) over the rest of the Holocene. The accumulation slowed down, or even ceased, during the neo-glacial climate cooling after the mid-Holocene, but increased again in the 20th century. The model-estimated peat depths ranged from 1.1 to 2.7 m, similar to the field-based estimate of 2.29 m for the region. The changes in vegetation and their distributions were the main factors to determine the spatial variations of SOC accumulation during different time periods. Warmer summer temperature and stronger radiation seasonality, along with higher precipitation in the HTM and the 20th century might have resulted in the extensive peatland expansion and carbon accumulation. </p><p>Most studies on the role of tropical peatlands have focused on Indonesian peatlands. Few have focused on the Amazon basin, where peatlands remain intact and have been a long-term carbon sink. To address the problem, my third study quantified the carbon accumulation for peatland and non-peatland ecosystems in the Pastaza-Marañon foreland basin (PMFB), the most extensive peatland complex in the Amazon basin from 12,000 years before present to 2100 AD. Model simulations indicated that warming accelerated peat carbon loss while increasing precipitation accelerated peat carbon accumulation at millennial time scales. The uncertain parameters and spatial variation of climate were significant sources of uncertainty to modeled peat carbon accumulation. Under warmer and presumably wetter conditions over the 21st century, the warming effect on increasing peat carbon loss might overwhelm the wetter effect on increasing peat carbon accumulation. Peat soil carbon accumulation rate in the PMFB slowed down to 7.9 (4.3~12.2) g C m^(-2) yr^(-1) from the current rate of 16.1 (9.1~23.7) g C m^(-2) yr^(-1) and the region might turn into a carbon source to the atmosphere at -53.3 (-66.8~-41.2) g C m^(-2) yr^(-1) (negative indicates source), depending on the level of warming. Peatland ecosystems showed a higher vulnerability than non-peatland ecosystems as indicated by the ratio of their soil carbon density changes (change of soil carbon/existing soil carbon stock) ranging from 3.9 to 5.8). This was primarily due to larger peatlands carbon stocks and more dramatic responses of their aerobic and anaerobic decompositions in comparison with non-peatland ecosystems under future climate conditions. Peatland and non-peatland soils in the PMFB might lose up to 0.4 (0.32~0.52) Pg C by 2100 AD with the largest loss from palm swamp. The carbon-dense Amazonian peatland might switch from a current carbon sink into a source in the 21st century.</p><p>Peatlands are important sources and sinks for greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide and methane). Their carbon (C) balance between soil and atmosphere remains unquantified due to the large data gaps and uncertainties in regional peat carbon estimation. My final study was to quantify the C accumulation rates and C stocks within North America peatlands over the last 12,000 years. I find that 85-174 Pg C have been accumulated in North American peatlands over these years including 0.37-0.76 Pg C in subtropical peatlands in this region. During the 10- 8 ka period, the warmer and wetter conditions might have played an important role in stimulating peat C accumulation by enhancing plant photosynthesis. The enhanced peat decomposition due to warming through the Holocene slows down carbon accumulation in the region.</p><div><br></div><p><br></p>

Student Number : 9710738R - MSc (Eng) dissertation - Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment / This dissertation investigates the use of digital modeling methods for selected medical applications. The digital methods include the design of a cranial implant, auricular prosthesis and the duplication of an oral prosthesis. The digital process includes imaging, image processing, design and fabrication steps. Three types of imaging used are contact and non-contact measurement systems and CT scanning. The investigation uses a Phantom haptic device for digital design. The implants and prostheses are fabricated using a Thermojet printer and investment casting. Traditional and digital processes are compared using four case studies on selected criteria. The conclusions of the investigation are that a digital process can be used and is equal to or better than traditional methods in prosthesis and implant design.

La boucle à verrouillage de phase est essentielle dans la génération et la synthèse de fréquence, présent dans les communications RF, l’instrumentation, les capteurs ainsi que beaucoup d’autres domaines. Il existe deux types de dispositifs: la PLL numérique et la PLL analogique. La PLL numérique est essentiellement utilisée dans le domaine de l’instrumentation et dans la génération d’horloge, où les fréquences sont relativement faibles. Quant à la PLL analogique, elle est plus utilisée dans les communications sans fil ainsi que dans les transmetteurs à haut débit, dont la fréquence de fonctionnement est de l’ordre du GHz. Etant donné qu’une PLL est au moins du second ordre, elle peut être sujette à une instabilité pouvant mener à un disfonctionnement du système. Ainsi la méthodologie de conception d’un tel système comporte plusieurs étapes : 1) modélisation linéaire, 2) modélisation comportemental, 3) simulation niveau transistor. Les simulations électriques du comportement transitoire d’une PLL sont très gourmandes en temps. En effet des calculs dont la complexité croit avec le facteur de division sont effectués à chaque itération du signal de référence. Cela constitue un frein technologique, et rend la conception d’une PLL très difficile. Cette thèse se focalise sur le modèle comportemental des PLL analogiques fonctionnant avec des pompes de charge commandées en tension, dont la caractéristique du temps de démarrage qui est hautement non linéaire et même des fois chaotique est sujet critique. L’objectif principal est d’établir une méthodologie de conception efficiente pour les PLL analogiques et leur caractérisation en utilisant la technique évènementielle. / The Charge-Pump Phase Locked Loop (CP-PLL) is a mixed-signal system and the important block for the frequency generation or frequency synthesis in radio frequency communications, instrumentations, metrology, sensors and so on. There are two types of devices: a full digital PLL and an analog PLL. The fully digital PLL is mainly used in instrumentation field and in clock and data recovery circuits where moderate frequency operation is used. For wireless communication or high data-rate optical transceiver analog CP-PLL is the most used architecture where the operating frequency is in the range of GHz. Since a PLL is at least a second order system, it is subjected to an instability that can lead to non-functional device. Thus, common design methodology contains several steps including i) Linear models ii) Behavioral modeling iii) and transistor level simulations. Electrical simulation (like SPICE) of the transient operation of PLL is time consuming and may take up to several weeks. In fact, the simulator must perform, for each time step of the reference signal, calculations where complexity increases with the division factor. This is known as technological bottleneck, designing a PLL at transistor level is very hard in a reasonable time. In this thesis the work is focused on the behavioral modeling of CP-PLL operating with voltage switched charge-pump (VSCP), where the characterization of its transient time “off-locking” and highly non-linear and even in chaotic mode remains a critical issue. The main objective is to establish a fast and efficient modeling and design methodology of high order CP-PLL and its characterization using the event driven technique.

Agile principles for software development are now the industry standard for innovative projects. Agile is often hailed for being flexible, but there is also a commonly held 'truth' that agile principles and software security do not work well together. For this reason it is not uncommon to place all security responsibilities with a separate team, which goes against the agile principles of being team-centered and may affect flexibility or timeframe of a project. Additionally, software security is difficult and requires extensive experience and knowledge, something that varies a lot among software developers. This study presents a threat modeling process tailored for the specific needs and capabilities of the agile developer team. The process combines features of attack trees and abuser stories with other supplementary techniques in a pedagogical instruction manual to create an accessible and easy-to-get-started method intended to be driven by the developers themselves. The process has been developed through extensive review of extant threat modeling methods and the circumstances of the agile team, and trialed through user tests at an agile ITorganization in the financial services. / Agila principer för mjukvaruutveckling är nu industristandard för innovativa projekt. Agila metoder hyllas ofta för sin flexibilitet men det finns också en vidspridd uppfattning att agila metoder och mjukvarusäkerhet inte går bra ihop. Av den anledningen är det inte ovanligt att säkerhetsansvar och -uppgifter drivs av en separat säkerhetsgrupp, vilket går emot de agila principerna om fokus på utvecklarteamet. Detta kan få effekter både för projektets flexibilitet och dess tidsram. Dessutom är IT-säkerhet ett svårt ämne som kräver både erfarenhet och avsevärd kunskap, något som funnits variera mycket bland mjukvaruutvecklare. Den här studien presenterar en hotmodelleringsprocess som skräddarsytts för utvecklarteamets specifika behov och styrkor. Processen kombinerar funktioner från attackträd och abuser stories med andra, komplementära tekniker i en pedagogisk instruktionsmanual för att leverera en lättillgänglig och snabbstartad metod menad att drivas av utvecklarna själva. Processen har utvecklats genom omfattande studier av etablerade hotmodelleringsprocesser, samt den agila teammiljön, och testats och vidareutvecklats genom användartester hos en agil IT-organisation inom finansbranschen.