Environmental testing is essential to certify systems to withstand the harsh dynamic loads they may experience in their service environment or during transport. For example, satel- lites are subjected to large vibration and acoustic loads when transported into orbit and need to be certified with tests that are representative of the anticipated loads. However, tra- ditional certification testing specifications can consist of sequential uniaxial vibration tests, which have been found to severely over- and under-test systems needing certification. The recently developed Impedance-Matched Multi-Axis Test (IMMAT) has been shown in the literature to improve upon traditional environmental testing practices through the use of multi-input multi-output testing and impedance matching. Additionally, with the use of numerical models, predictive simulations can be performed to determine optimal testing pa- rameters. Developing an accurate numerical model, however, requires precise knowledge of the system's dynamic characteristics, such as boundary conditions or material properties. These characteristics are not always available and would also require additional testing for verification. Furthermore, some systems may be extremely difficult to model using numerical methods because they contain millions of finite elements requiring impractical times scales to simulate or because they were fabricated before mainstream use of computer aided drafting and finite element analysis but are still in service. An alternative to numerical modeling is data-driven modeling, which does not require knowledge of a system's dynamic characteris- tics. The Continuous Residue Interpolation (CRI) method has been recently developed as a novel approach for building data-driven models of dynamical systems. CRI builds data- driven models by fitting smooth, continuous basis functions to a subset of frequency response function (FRF) measurements from a dynamical system. The resulting fitted basis functions can be sampled at any geometric location to approximate the expected FRF at that location. The research presented in this thesis explores the use of CRI-derived data-driven models in predictive simulations for the IMMAT performed on a Euler-Bernoulli beam. The results of the simulations reveal that CRI-derived data-driven models of a Euler-Bernoulli beam achieve similar performance when compared to a finite element model and make similar decisions when deciding the excitation locations in an IMMAT. / Master of Science / In the field of vibrations testing, environmental tests are used to ensure that critical devices or structures can withstand harsh vibration environments. For example, satellites experience harsh vibrations and damaging acoustics that are transferred from it's rocket transport vehicle. Traditional environmental tests would require that the satellite be placed on a vibration table and sequentially vibrated in multiple orientations for a specified duration and intensity. However, these traditional environmental tests do not always produce vibrations that are representative of the anticipated transport or operational environment. Newly developed methods, such as the Impedance-Matched Multi-Axis Test (IMMAT) methods achieves representative test results by matching the mounting characteristics of the structure during it's transport or operational environment and vibrating the structure in multiple directions simultaneously. An IMMAT can also be optimized by using finite element models (FEM), which approximate the device to be tested with a discrete number of small volumes whose physics are described by fundamental equations of motion. However, an FEM can only be used if it's dynamic characteristics are sufficiently similar to the structure undergoing testing. This can only be achieved with precise knowledge of the dynamical properties of the structure, which is not always available. An alternate approach to an FEM is to use a data-driven model. Because data-driven models are made using data from the system it is supposed to describe, dynamical properties of the device are pre-built in the model and is not necessary to approximate them. Continuous Residue Interpolation (CRI) is a recently developed data-driven modeling scheme that approximates a structure's dynamic properties with smooth, continuous functions updated with measurements of the input-output response dynamics of the device. This thesis presents the performance of data-driven models generated using CRI when used in predictive simulations of an IMMAT. The results show that CRI- derived data-driven models perform similarly to FEMs and make similar predictions for optimal input vibration locations.

Yes / We report the crystallization-driven self-assembly of diblock copolymers bearing a poly(L-lactide) block into cylindrical micelles. Three different hydrophilic corona-forming blocks have been employed: poly(4-acryloyl morpholine) (P4AM), poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and poly(N,N-dimethylacrylamide) (PDMA). Optimization of the experimental conditions to improve the dispersities of the resultant cylinders through variation of the solvent ratio, the polymer concentration, and the addition speed of the selective solvent is reported. The last parameter has been shown to play a crucial role in the homogeneity of the initial solution, which leads to a pure cylindrical phase with a narrow distribution of length. The hydrophilic characters of the polymers have been shown to direct the length of the resultant cylinders, with the most hydrophilic corona block leading to the shortest cylinders. / EPSRC and the University of Warwick, the Swiss National Science Foundation - Early Postdoc Mobility fellowship (Grant no PBNEP2-142949 to A.P.B.). The Warwick Research Development Fund. Some items of equipment funded by Birmingham Science City: Innovative Uses for Advanced Materials in the Modern World (West Midlands Centre for Advanced Materials Project 2), with support from Advantage West Midlands (AWM) and part funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Throughout history, utopian ideals have existed promoting nature as a necessary affect for better aesthetic and psychological being. Yet, as human populations climb so do stresses upon the natural environment - therefore, bringing "the city in harmony with nature" becomes more challenging. Fortunately, hope exists through the use of greenroof technology. Greenroofs are a green space created by continuous layers of drainage, protection, growing medium, and plants either onto or integral to a roofing system. This paper explores extensive greenroofs, characterized by low-maintenance and shallow growing medium. Greenroof benefits (ecological, economical, aesthetic, psychological) are classified as: Market and Human. Further exploration of human-driven benefits result in the definitions of active and passive sensation (the division of sensation): Active sensation is the immediate, present, unimagined engagement of a specific sense. Passive sensation is the imagined perception (sensing) of an object or element. As defined, Active Sensations are real and, therefore, have limits/defects/boundaries; yet, Passive Sensations are imagined, and therefore, limitless. As alluded by William James, "The philosophy which is so important in each of us is not a technical matter; it is our more or less dumb sense of what life honestly and deeply means. It is only partly got from books; it is our individual way of just seeing and feeling the total push and pressure of the cosmos." The remainder of the document explores human-driven greenroof design; emphasizing design as a form of inquiry. / Master of Landscape Architecture

ITC/USA 2007 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Third Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 22-25, 2007 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / CTEIP has launched the integrated Network Enhanced Telemetry (iNET) project to foster advances in networking and telemetry technology to meet emerging needs of major test programs. In the past these programs have been constrained by vendor proprietary equipment configuration utilities that force a significant learning curve on the part of instrumentation personnel to understand hardware idiosyncrasies and require significant human interaction and manipulation of data to be exchanged between different components of the end-to-end test system. This paper describes an ongoing effort to develop a measurement-centric data model of airborne data acquisition systems. The motivation for developing such a model is to facilitate hardware and software interoperability and to alleviate the need for vendor-specific knowledge on the part of the instrumentation engineer. This goal is driven by requirements derived from scenarios collected by the iNET program. This approach also holds the promise of decreased human interaction with and manipulation of data to be exchanged between system components.

The role of a purchaser has traditionally focused on acquiring standard items at the lowest possible cost. The ability to reduce unit cost has been the key performance indicator for purchasers. Most traditional purchasing strategies thus focus on optimizing this situation, focusing on the supplier interface only and not on customer value. However, for many manufacturing companies, the demand from their customers has changed lately. Not only low‐cost standard products but also customized products and short delivery lead times is increasingly required. In order to contribute to the focal actor’s competitiveness, purchasers need a purchasing strategy that supports customer value creation and thus differentiates between acquiring standard items and acquiring customized items. Accordingly, not only the focal actor’s interaction with the supplier needs to be regarded in the purchasing situation, but also the interaction with the focal actor’s customer. This is defined as customer‐driven purchasing in this research. The purpose of this research is to develop knowledge that contributes to increased competitiveness of manufacturing companies. The manufacturer can increase competitiveness by further utilizing knowledge available in manufacturing strategy in the purchasing situation. The main objective of this dissertation is to analyze the competitiveness in customer‐driven purchasing and to develop a method for customerdriven purchasing by aligning supplier interaction with customer‐driven manufacturing. The method for customer‐driven purchasing (the CDP method) was developed in collaboration with Combitech AB, Ericsson AB, Fagerhult AB, Husqvarna AB, Parker Hannifin AB, and Siemens Turbomachinery AB. The CDP method consists of three phases, divided into twelve steps. The first phase focuses on identifying strategic lead times and differentiating between varying circumstances for the purchased items. The second phase focuses on analyzing customer‐driven manufacturing while the third phase focuses on analyzing supplier interaction. The method is concluded with the implementation of customer‐driven purchasing. When applying the three phases of the CDP method, the case companies have experienced a better alignment between customer expectations and supplier performance since the competitive priorities to pursue in a supplier interaction are identified and taken action upon. Direct visible results of implementing the model are, for example, shortened supply lead time for customized items, and reduced inventory levels for standard items. The CDP method has also helped the companies to identify critical suppliers and how the supplier interaction should be affected by the customer demand for the purchased item. Several indirect results have also been reported, such as, improved internal communication, and a better balance between short supply lead time and low cost. Thus the need to differentiate and balance the goals and key performance indicators for purchasers has become evident. Applying the CDP method has been seen as an important learning process in which the objectives of purchasing and manufacturing are aligned for improved competitiveness. This contributes to establishing purchasing as a strategically important competitive function and to support a holistic view of the focal actor’s competitiveness. / Traditionellt har inköparens roll varit att anskaffa standardartiklar till lägsta möjliga kostnad. Förmågan att reducera kostnaden per inköpt artikel har också ofta varit det viktigaste nyckeltalet för inköp. De flesta inköpsstrategier fokuserar därför på att optimera denna situation och därmed endast på gränssnittet mot leverantör, inte på att skapa kundvärde. För många tillverkande företag har dock efterfrågan från kunderna ändrats; numera efterfrågas inte bara standardartiklar till lägsta möjliga kostnad utan även kundanpassade artiklar som kan levereras med kort leveransledtid och med bibehållen låg kostnad. För att kunna bidra till företagets konkurrenskraft behöver inköparna därför få tillgång till en inköps‐strategi som stöder skapandet av kundvärde och därför skiljer inköpssituationer där standardartiklar ska anskaffas från situationer där kundanpassade artiklar ska anskaffas. En sådan inköpsstrategi tar därför inte bara hänsyn till samverkan med leverantören utan även till det tillverkande företagets kund. Detta definieras som kunddrivet inköp i denna avhandling. Syftet med denna forskning är att utveckla kunskap som bidrar till ökad konkurrenskraft för tillverkande företag. Tillverkaren kan öka sin konkurrenskraft genom att skapa sig ett helhetsperspektiv på produktion och inköp där inköpsstrategier och leverantörsrelationer ligger i linje med aktuella produktionsstrategier. Målet med denna avhandling är att anlysera konceptet kunddrivet inköp och att utveckla en metod för kunddrivet inköp genom att samordna inköpsstrategier och produktionsstrategier. Metoden för kunddrivet inköp (KDI‐metoden) har tagits fram i samverkan med Combitech AB, Ericsson AB, Fagerhult AB, Husqvarna AB, Parker Hannifin AB och Siemens Turbomachinery AB. KDI‐metoden består av tre faser uppdelade på 12 steg. Första fasen fokuserar på att identifiera strategiska ledtider och att differentiera mellan olika förutsättningar för de inköpta artiklarna. Den andra fasen fokuserar på att analysera förutsättningarna för kunddriven produktion, och tredje fasen fokuserar på att analysera förutsättningarna för leverantörssamverkan. Metoden avslutas med att kunddrivet inköp implementeras på företaget. Vid implementeringen av KDI‐metoden har de medverkande företagen upplevt ett tydligare fokus på strategisk nivå gällande ledtider och uppdelning mellan prognosdrivna och kundorderdrivna artiklar. Detta har lett till en ökad samordning mellan kundkrav och leverantörsprestationer eftersom kritiska konkurrensfaktorer har identifierats och kommunicerats. Implementeringen av metoden har fått både direkta och indirekta resultat. Exempel på direkta resultat är minskad ledtid för kundanpassade artiklar och reducerade lagernivåer för standardartiklar. KDI‐metoden har också hjälpt företagen att identifiera vilka leverantörer som är avgörande för konkurrenskraften och hur samverkan med dessa leverantörer bör påverkas av kundefterfrågan på den inköpta artikeln. Exempel på indirekta resultat är bland annat förbättrad intern kommunikation och en företagsgemensam insikt att mål och mätetal för inköpare måste differentieras med hänsyn till typ av artikel som köps in. Detta har lett till en förbättrad balans mellan strävan efter korta ledtider och strävan efter låg inköpskostnad. Implementeringen av KDI‐metoden har hos de medverkande företagen setts som en viktig lärprocess genom vilken företaget har tydliggjort och samordnat de interna målen gällande ledtid och kostnad. Genom att skapa denna helhetssyn får inköp och produktion samma förutsättningar för att bidra till kundvärde. Företagets konkurrenskraft får därför direkt stöd av KDI‐metoden.

Energy saving in coal power plants is a popular topic in present days with the global energy crisis. Internal electricity demand or auxiliary power consumption is an energy portion related with equipment supportive to the main equipment, which is unavoidable but with a proper investigation, some amount of this energy can be saved either by introducing thermally efficient auxiliary equipment or improving efficiencies of available equipment. Out of the various auxiliary equipment, the driving motor of boiler feed pump is the largest power consumer of internal electricity demand in 3x300 MW sub-critical Lakvijaya Power Station in Sri Lanka. So it is obvious that prime movers of feed pumps could be contributed for a large percentage of the losses. So it was decided to find out how to minimize the losses related to Boiler Feed Pump (BFP) system using small steam turbine to drive the BFP. The widely used alternatives for the BFP drivers are condensing type and back pressure type steam turbines. Eleven (11) different configurations of Condensing type, back pressure type and also extraction back pressure type turbines were considered and software programs for each configuration were implemented using Engineering Equation Solver (EES) software. The considered configurations are different to each other by inlet steam thermodynamic parameters, steam flow rate, exhaust thermodynamic steam parameters and intermediate extraction parameters etc. Thermodynamic analysis ended up with interesting solutions while all the configurations are giving improved efficiencies than existing electrical motor driven mode. But some of them had not improved their net output and hence there were no gain in net generator power output although the efficiencies are higher. Out of other configurations with improved net output and efficiency, the case with back pressure turbine arranged parallel to the HP turbine had the highest net output gain with better improvement in efficiency without changing the input power to the boiler. Considering the CO2 , SOx and NOx emissions, it was cleared that power plant with suggested BFP modes will give more clean energy than existing power plant. Considering the partial loads behavior it was observed that power plant with Back pressure turbine, steam extracted from HP turbines inlet for prime movers of boiler feed pumps is more thermodynamically economical than existing power plant. Annual financial saving with BFP configurations with positive net output gain and zero boiler input gain were calculated and it will be in between 0.46 and 2.72 UDS million / Year.

This non-experimental, census survey included the elementary, middle, and high school principals at the comprehensive schools within a large, suburban school division in Virginia. The focus of this study was the factors that influence building administrators in using data to make instructional decisions. The purpose was to discover if there is a difference in the perceptions of elementary, middle, and high school principals of data use to make instructional decisions within their buildings. McLeod’s (2006) Statewide Data-Driven Readiness Study: Principal Survey was used to assess the principals’ beliefs about the data-driven readiness of their individual schools. Each principal indicated the degree to which they agreed or disagreed with statements about acting upon data, data support systems, and the data school culture. Twenty-two items aligned with four constructs identified by White (2008) in her study of elementary school principals in Florida. These four constructs or factors were used to determine if there was a significant difference in principal beliefs concerning teacher use of data to improve student achievement, principal beliefs regarding a data-driven culture within their building, the existence of systems for supporting data-driven decision-making, and collaboration among teachers to make data-driven decisions. For each of the survey items a majority of the responses (≥62%) were in agreement with the statements, indicating the principals agreed slightly, agreed moderately, or agreed strongly that data-driven decision-making by teachers to improve student achievement was occurring within the building, a data-driven culture and data supporting systems exists, and teachers are collaborating and using data to make decisions. Multiple analyses of variance showed significant differences in the means. Some of these differences in means were based on the principals’ assignment levels. While both groups responded positively to the statement that collaboration among teachers to make data-driven decisions, the elementary principals agreed more strongly than the high school principals. When mediating variables were examined, significance was found in principals’ beliefs concerning teacher use of data to improve student achievement depending on the years of experience as a principal. Principals with six or more years of experience had a mean response for Construct 1 of 4.84 while those with five or less years of experience had a mean of 4.38, suggesting that on average those principals with more experience had a stronger belief that teachers are using data to improve student achievement. There is significance between the means of principals with three or fewer years versus those with more than three years in their current assignment on two of the constructs – a data-driven culture and collaboration among teachers. Principals with less time in their current position report a slightly higher agreement than their less experienced colleagues with statements about the data-driven culture within their school. Significant difference was also found between principals’ beliefs about teacher collaboration to improve student achievement and their beliefs regarding collaboration among teachers using data-driven decision-making and the school’s AYP status for 2008-2009. Principals assigned to schools that had made AYP for 2008-2009 moderately agreed that teachers were collaborating to make data-driven decisions. In comparison, principals assigned to schools that had not made AYP only slightly agreed that this level of collaboration was occurring in their schools.

O surgimento e o uso crescente de novas tecnologias têm levado à produção e armazenamento de grandes volumes de dados biomédicos. Tais dados são provenientes de diferentes técnicas, armazenados em formatos de representação diversos e utilizados por diferentes ferramentas. Esta heterogeneidade representa um empecilho ao maior uso desses dados em abordagens integrativas de pesquisa como, por exemplo, a biologia sistêmica. Neste cenário, artefatos de modelagem conceitual, tais como ontologias, têm sido utilizados para organizar e integrar dados heterogêneos de uma forma coerente. A OBO Foundry representa, atualmente, o maior esforço no desenvolvimento de ontologias biomédicas de forma colaborativa. Dentre as ontologias desenvolvidas pela OBO Foundry, destaca-se Ontologia de Relacionamentos (RO-OBO). A RO-OBO provê definições formais para um conjunto de relacionamentos de propósito geral utilizados nas ontologias biomédicas e busca promover a criação de ontologias mais corretas e integráveis. Um perfil UML foi proposto para representar formalmente o conjunto de conceitos e relacionamentos existentes na RO-OBO. Este perfil permite desenvolver modelos UML utilizando os conceitos presentes nesta ontologia, bem como torna possível o desenvolvimento de suporte à validação sintática dos modelos criados em relação a um conjunto de restrições formalmente definidas. Adicionalmente, percebe-se na literatura que o suporte à integração de modelos UML e ontologias OBO, em particular as ontologias representadas na linguagem OBO File Format, é limitado. Neste sentido, este trabalho teve como objetivo geral investigar o suporte ao desenvolvimento de ontologias biomédicas na linguagem UML. De forma específica, investigou-se o desenvolvimento de um editor gráfico, chamado OBO-RO Editor, para o suporte à construção de ontologias utilizando o perfil UML proposto, bem como a integração de ontologias desenvolvidas utilizando UML e ontologias desenvolvidas na linguagem OBO File Format. De forma a atingir nossos objetivos, uma arquitetura de referência foi definida e um processo de desenvolvimento orientado a modelos foi utilizado. A arquitetura definida é composta por uma série de artefatos inter-relacionados os quais são transformados (semi) automaticamente em código de aplicação, possibilitando a obtenção de ciclos de desenvolvimento mais rápidos e confiáveis. O OBO-RO Editor disponibiliza um conjunto de elementos gráficos de modelagem definidos a partir do perfil UML proposto, bem como provê mecanismos para a validação sintática (semi) automática de uma ontologia desenvolvida segundo as restrições definidas neste perfil. Adicionalmente, o OBO-RO Editor também provê suporte à integração de modelos UML a outras ontologias da OBO Foundry, permitindo o reuso e o desenvolvimento menos propenso a erros de ontologias no domínio biomédico. / The development and increasing use of new technologies has resulted in the production and storage of a huge amount of biomedical data. These data are produced using different techniques, stored in different formats and consumed by different (software) tools. This heterogeneity hinders effective data usage in integrative research approaches, including systems biology. In this scenario, conceptual modeling artifacts, such as ontologies, have been used to organize and integrate heterogeneous data in a coherent manner. Nowadays, the OBO Foundry represents the most important effort for the collaborative development of ontologies in the biomedical domain. The OBO Relation Ontology (OBO-RO) can be considered one of the most relevant ontologies in the domain. This ontology provides formal definitions for a number of general purpose relationships used in biomedical ontologies, thus facilitating the integration of existing ontologies and the development of new ontologies in the domain. An UML profile has been proposed to formally define the different types of concepts and relationships provided by the OBO-RO. This profile enables the creation of UML models using such concepts and allows the development of support for the automatic validation of these models based on formal constraints. Additionally, the support for the integration between UML models and OBO ontologies, particularly ontologies represented using the OBO File Format, is limited. In this sense, this project aimed at investigating the support for the development of biomedical ontologies using UML. In particular, we investigated the development of a graphical editor, named OBO-RO Editor, to support ontology development using the proposed UML profile. Additionally, we also investigated the integration of ontologies developed using UML and ontologies developed using the OBO File Format. In order to achieve our goals, we have defined a reference architecture and a model-driven development process. The reference architecture consists of a number of related artifacts that are transformed to application code (semi) automatically. Such characteristic allowed us to obtain faster and more reliable development cycles. The OBO-RO Editor provides a number of graphical elements defined in the proposed UML profile for the modeling of biomedical ontologies and support the (semi) automatic syntactic validation of such ontologies against the contraints defined in the profile. Additionally, OBO-RO Editor also provides support for the integration of developed UML models and other OBO ontologies, allowing the reuse and the accurate development of biomedical ontologies.

Cette thèse vise à contribuer à l’approche DDL (Data-Driven Learning) dans l’enseignement du lexique en FLE. Dans le cadre de l’approche DDL, on fait appel aux corpus pour enseigner différentes composantes d’une langue. Le lexique, étant un des premiers besoins d’un apprenant, car il donne accès à la communication en langue étrangère, fait l’objet de nombreux travaux de recherche actuels en linguistique et en didactique. L’idiomaticité, trait constitutif de toutes les langues, se manifeste sous forme d’expressions variées. Elle relève du champ de la lexicologie, et plus spécifiquement de la phraséologie. La linguistique de corpus permet d’observer ce fait de langue dans un cadre structure/sens. Les expressions idiomatiques en général, et en particulier les collocations, sont mises au centre de la démarche didactique dans cette thèse. Les collocations à verbe support restent une source d’erreurs importante même aux niveaux avancés d’apprentissage. Le matériel didactique présenté aux lecteurs de cette étude cherche à promouvoir l’exploitation directe des corpus bilingues par les apprenants en classe afin d’identifier ces collocations en L1 et en L2, de les comprendre, de trouver des correspondances et de les employer de manière appropriée. L’approche comparative français-russe renforcée par une observation des lignes de concordance issues de corpus authentiques devraient permettre une meilleure acquisition des faits linguistiques visés. Ce travail s’inscrit dans une perspective d’apprentissage déductif et d’autonomisation des apprenants. / This thesis aims to contribute to the DDL (Data-Driven Learning) approach in French vocabulary teaching. In the framework of the DDL approach we use corpora to teach different language phenomena. Vocabulary, one of the immediate needs of a language learner because it makes a communication in a foreign language possible, has become a popular research theme in the fields of linguistics and language teaching. Idiomaticity, an inherent part of all languages, manifests through various expressions. Phraseology studies different ways of expressing idiomaticity. Corpus linguistics permits to observe this language phenomenon in a structure/sense framework. Idiomatic expressions in general and collocations in particular are the heart and the main focus of the teaching perspective described in this thesis. Even advanced language learners make errors in light verb constructions. The teaching material presented in this study seeks to promote the search in bilingual corpora in the classroom in order to identify these collocations in L1 and in L2, to understand them, to find equivalents and finally, to use them correctly. A comparative French-Russian approach reinforced by a study of concordance lines from authentic corpora might contribute to better understanding of a particular language feature. This study falls in line with deductive learning practices and with the learners’ autonomisation perspective.

The seven compositions that comprise this dissertation are represented by the following files: text file (pdf), seven video performances (mp4), and corresponding zipped files of custom software and affiliated files (various file types). / This Digital Portfolio Dissertation presents seven compositions including text documents that explain the synthesis techniques, data mapping and routing, visual elements, the software used, all software needed to reproduce these works, and a video recording of all seven compositions. The unifying thread in my seven works is magic. The sense of magic in a live performance is the connection between artist and audience that lies beyond the immediate understanding of any work. I use this insight to create a new world inspired by sound and visuals. I perform each of these works by combining my understanding of data-driven instruments and my experience as a classically trained musician. The combination of sound design, visual composition, and a sense of magic allows me to realize these seven works. My goal is to contribute to the extensive library of electroacoustic works through my performance of my music with data-driven instruments.