Nowadays, as oil industry gradually moves towards deep sea fields with water depth more than 1000 meters, they are subjected to several threats which can cause failure of the pipeline, of which the accidentally-dropped objects have become the leading external risk factor for subsea developments. In this thesis, a sample field layout introduced in Det Norske Veritas (DNV) guide rules is selected as the study case with 100 m water depth. Six different groups of dropped objects are used in this paper. The conditional hit probability for long/flat shaped objects will be calculated with the methods from both DNV rules and an in-house tool Dropped Objects Simulator (DROBS). The difference between the results will be discussed. Meanwhile, the sensitivity analysis on mass, collision area , the volume, added mass coefficient and drag coefficient of the objects are calculated.

Individuals with stroke often demonstrate impaired ankle-foot function, commonly termed dropped foot that affects their ability to walk safely at home and within their community. While interventions are available to improve gait function, they have inconsistency demonstrated positive effects due to the lack of evidence-based practice guidelines and a limited understanding of the mechanisms leading to dropped foot. The aim of this dissertation was to 1) determine the relationship between dropped foot gait deviations and impaired sensorimotor control, 2) compare gait biomechanics between stroke survivors with and without dropped foot impairment, and 3) evaluate the immediate effects of an ankle-foot orthotic (AFO) and functional electrical stimulation (FES) device among stroke survivors with dropped foot impairment. Our evaluation combined standardized clinical measures of ankle-foot function (i.e. sensorimotor control, strength, spasticity and range of motion) and gait analysis using advanced laboratory techniques (i.e. electromyography and electrical goniometers) to quantify mechanisms of dropped foot impairment. Fifty-five stroke survivors completed the assessment prior to discharge from inpatient rehabilitation. Individuals with poor generation of isometric dorsiflexor force and reduced passive ankle range of motion were likely to demonstrate greater plantarflexion in swing and limited stance phase ankle joint excursion, respectively. Results from the gait analysis revealed a delayed onset and reduced activation time of the ankle dorsiflexors, and decreased co-activation time in the stance phase as possible mechanisms leading to dropped foot. A detailed case series was performed with four stroke survivors with dropped foot currently using an AFO. Application of an AFO immediately improved peak dorsiflexion in the swing phase and limited ankle range of motion during stance. When walking with the FES device, individuals with moderate dorsiflexor muscle weakness improved their ankle position at initial contact and increased peak dorsiflexion during stance, while no significant changes were observed among individuals with greater impairment. Overall, the results highlighted individual differences in response to interventions aimed at improving dropped foot gait deviations. These findings contribute to a greater understanding of gait dysfunction post stroke, and may lead to the development of a more effective clinical assessment and intervention strategies to improve dropped foot impairment.

The dropped objects are identified as one of the top ten causes of fatalities and serious injuries in the oil and gas industry. It is of importance to understand dynamics of dropped objects under water in order to accurately predict the motion of dropped objects and protect the underwater structures and facilities from being damaged. In this thesis, we study nondimensionalization of dynamic equations of dropped cylindrical objects. Nondimensionalization helps to reduce the number of free parameters, identify the relative size of effects of parameters, and gain a deeper insight of the essential nature of dynamics of dropped cylindrical objects under water. The resulting simulations of dimensionless trajectory confirms that drop angle, trailing edge and drag coefficient have the significant effects on dynamics of trajectories and landing location of dropped cylindrical objects under water.

Individuals with stroke often demonstrate impaired ankle-foot function, commonly termed dropped foot that affects their ability to walk safely at home and within their community. While interventions are available to improve gait function, they have inconsistency demonstrated positive effects due to the lack of evidence-based practice guidelines and a limited understanding of the mechanisms leading to dropped foot. The aim of this dissertation was to 1) determine the relationship between dropped foot gait deviations and impaired sensorimotor control, 2) compare gait biomechanics between stroke survivors with and without dropped foot impairment, and 3) evaluate the immediate effects of an ankle-foot orthotic (AFO) and functional electrical stimulation (FES) device among stroke survivors with dropped foot impairment. Our evaluation combined standardized clinical measures of ankle-foot function (i.e. sensorimotor control, strength, spasticity and range of motion) and gait analysis using advanced laboratory techniques (i.e. electromyography and electrical goniometers) to quantify mechanisms of dropped foot impairment. Fifty-five stroke survivors completed the assessment prior to discharge from inpatient rehabilitation. Individuals with poor generation of isometric dorsiflexor force and reduced passive ankle range of motion were likely to demonstrate greater plantarflexion in swing and limited stance phase ankle joint excursion, respectively. Results from the gait analysis revealed a delayed onset and reduced activation time of the ankle dorsiflexors, and decreased co-activation time in the stance phase as possible mechanisms leading to dropped foot. A detailed case series was performed with four stroke survivors with dropped foot currently using an AFO. Application of an AFO immediately improved peak dorsiflexion in the swing phase and limited ankle range of motion during stance. When walking with the FES device, individuals with moderate dorsiflexor muscle weakness improved their ankle position at initial contact and increased peak dorsiflexion during stance, while no significant changes were observed among individuals with greater impairment. Overall, the results highlighted individual differences in response to interventions aimed at improving dropped foot gait deviations. These findings contribute to a greater understanding of gait dysfunction post stroke, and may lead to the development of a more effective clinical assessment and intervention strategies to improve dropped foot impairment.

Real time applications over IP network became widely used in different fields; social video conference, online educational lectures, industrial, military, and online robotic medical surgery. Online medical surgery over IP network has experienced rapid growth in the last few years primarily due to advances in technology (e.g., increased bandwidth; new cameras, monitors, and coder/decoders (CODECs)) and changes in the medical care environment (e.g., increased outpatient care, remote surgeries). The purpose of this study was to examine and analyze the impact of IP networks parameters; delay, jitter, throughput, and drop packet on the performance of real-time medical surgery videos sent across different IP networks; native IPv6, native IPv4, 6to4 and 6in4 tunneling transition mechanisms and compare the behavior of video packets over IP networks. The impact of each parameter over IP networks is examined by using different video codecs MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4. This study has been carried out with two main parts; theoretical and practical part, the theoretical part of this study focused on the calculations of various delays in IP networks such as transmission, processing, propagation, and queuing delays for video packet, while the practical part includes; examining of video codecs throughput over IP networks by using jperf tool and examining delay, jitter, and packet drops for different packet sizes by using IDT-G tool and how these parameters can affect quality of received video. The obtained theoretical and practical results were presented in different tables and plotted into different graphs to show the performance of real time video over IP networks. These results confirmed that video codecs MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4 were highly impacted by encapsulation and de-capsulation process except MPEG-4 codec, MPEG-4 was the least impacted by IPv4, IPv6, and IP transition mechanisms concerning throughput and wastage bandwidth. It also indicated that using IPv6-to-4 and IPv6-in-4 tunneling mechanisms caused more bandwidth wastage, high delay, jitter, and packet drop than IPv4 and IPv6.

Syftet med studien är att försöka lösa passformsproblem på trikåmodeller till dam som har en förlängd axel. Studien skrivs i samarbete med ett stort svenskt klädföretag och undersöker ett problem som företaget själva har identifierat. Problemet gäller passformen på några av företagets trikåmodeller till dam som alla har en förlängd axel och en lösare passform. Passformsproblemen som trikåmodellerna upplevs ha uppstår vid just axeln, ärmhålet och överärmsvidden. Inom forskning och litteratur saknas det information kring passformsproblem och åtgärder vid konstruktion av trikåplagg med en förlängd axel. I dagsläget har inte företaget tid att själva testa och utveckla trikåmodellerna och studien har därför fokuserat på att försöka lösa problemet med passformen åt dem. För att uppnå syftet har en experimentell metod använts. Denna har utförts via digital mönsterkonstruktion, uppsömnad av provplagg och verifierats genom avprovningar på provpersoner och på provdocka. Resultatet av studien visar att en medel- till hög ärmkulle behövs till plagg med en förlängd axel för att uppnå en god passform på ärmen och kring ärmhålet. / The purpose of the study is to try to solve fit problems on women’s jersey models with a dropped shoulder. The study is written in collaboration with a large Swedish clothing company and investigates a problem that the company itself has identified. The problem concerns the fit of some of the company's jersey sweaters for ladies, each with a dropped shoulder and a looser fit. The fit problems that the jersey models are having occurred at the shoulder, the armhole and bicep. In research and literature there is no information about fitting problems and how to adjust the construction of jersey garments with a dropped shoulder. At present, the company does not have time to test and develop the jersey models, and the study has therefore focused on trying to solve the problem of the fit for them. To achieve the aim, an experimental method has been used. This has been done through CAD-based pattern construction, sewing test prototypes and verified by fittings on human fitting models and on a dummy. The result of the study shows that a medium to high sleeve crown is needed for clothes with an extended shoulder to achieve good fit on the sleeve and around the armhole.

Radio frequency system optimization and troubleshooting remains one of the most challenging aspects of working in a cellular network. To stay competitive, cellular providers continually monitor the performance of their networks and use this information to determine where to improve or expand services. As a result, operators are saddled with the task of wading through overwhelmingly large amounts of data in order to trouble-shoot system problems. Part of the difficulty of this task is that for many complicated problems such as hand-off failure, clues about the cause of the failure are hidden deep within the statistics of underlying dynamic physical phenomena like fading, shadowing, and interference. In this research we propose that Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) be used as a method to infer signature statistics about the nature and sources of faults in a cellular system by fitting models to various time-series data measured throughout the network. By including HMMs in the network management tool, a provider can explore the statistical relationships between channel dynamics endemic to a cell and its resulting performance. This research effort also includes a new distance measure between a pair of HMMs that approximates the Kullback-Leibler divergence (KLD). Since there is no closed-form solution to calculate the KLD between the HMMs, the proposed analytical expression is very useful in classification and identification problems. A novel HMM based position location technique has been introduced that may be very useful for applications involving cognitive radios. / Ph. D.

Um estudo sobre as principais causas de quedas de chamadas em célula de rede móvel GSM é realizado por meio da análise estatística do tráfego. O objetivo é minimizar o efeito dessas causas, por meio da alteração de parâmetros de cobertura, como controle dinâmico de potência, borda de cobertura entre células e definição correta de células vizinhas. Para uma operadora celular reduzir a taxa de queda de chamadas (TQC), por intermédio da otimização de parâmetros de cobertura, alterados via comandos remotos, elimina os custos com alterações físicas, como altura das antenas e instalações de novas estações rádio base. Entretanto, alterações de parâmetros devem ser cuidadosamente realizadas, pois podem degradar outros indicadores e acarretar redução da área de cobertura e do tráfego. As duas principais causas da TQC são as quedas repentinas, ocasionadas por falha nos equipamentos envolvidos, ou comportamento dos assinantes e falha na execução do handover e as quedas devido ao nível baixo de sinal na interface aérea. Neste trabalho, com base em dados estatísticos do tráfego na rede GSM, foi escolhida uma célula operando em 900 MHz que apresentava alta TQC. Ajustando os parâmetros de cobertura, a TQC mensal passou de 8,6% para 1,6% e não houve degradação nos demais indicadores de desempenho. / A study about the main causes of dropped calls in mobile network cell GSM is made by means of statistical traffic analysis. The aim is to minimize the effect of these causes through coverage parameters changes, such as dynamical potency control, coverage border between cells, correct definition of neighboring cells. The reduction of dropped call rate by means of optimization of coverage parameters, changed via remote commands, eliminates costs with physical changes, such as the height of the antennas and installation of new radio base station. Parameter changes, however, must be carefully made because they can degrade other indicators and bring coverage area and traffic reduction. The two main causes of dropped call are sudden loss of connection, due to failure in the equipment used, behavior of subscribers and the failure in handover and drops due to the low signal strength in the air interface. In this study, based on statistical data of GSM traffic, a cell operating in 900 MHz that presented high dropped call rate was chosen. Adjusting the coverage parameters, the monthly dropped call rate went from 8.6% to 1.6% and there wasn\'t any degradation of any other performance indicators.

Um estudo sobre as principais causas de quedas de chamadas em célula de rede móvel GSM é realizado por meio da análise estatística do tráfego. O objetivo é minimizar o efeito dessas causas, por meio da alteração de parâmetros de cobertura, como controle dinâmico de potência, borda de cobertura entre células e definição correta de células vizinhas. Para uma operadora celular reduzir a taxa de queda de chamadas (TQC), por intermédio da otimização de parâmetros de cobertura, alterados via comandos remotos, elimina os custos com alterações físicas, como altura das antenas e instalações de novas estações rádio base. Entretanto, alterações de parâmetros devem ser cuidadosamente realizadas, pois podem degradar outros indicadores e acarretar redução da área de cobertura e do tráfego. As duas principais causas da TQC são as quedas repentinas, ocasionadas por falha nos equipamentos envolvidos, ou comportamento dos assinantes e falha na execução do handover e as quedas devido ao nível baixo de sinal na interface aérea. Neste trabalho, com base em dados estatísticos do tráfego na rede GSM, foi escolhida uma célula operando em 900 MHz que apresentava alta TQC. Ajustando os parâmetros de cobertura, a TQC mensal passou de 8,6% para 1,6% e não houve degradação nos demais indicadores de desempenho. / A study about the main causes of dropped calls in mobile network cell GSM is made by means of statistical traffic analysis. The aim is to minimize the effect of these causes through coverage parameters changes, such as dynamical potency control, coverage border between cells, correct definition of neighboring cells. The reduction of dropped call rate by means of optimization of coverage parameters, changed via remote commands, eliminates costs with physical changes, such as the height of the antennas and installation of new radio base station. Parameter changes, however, must be carefully made because they can degrade other indicators and bring coverage area and traffic reduction. The two main causes of dropped call are sudden loss of connection, due to failure in the equipment used, behavior of subscribers and the failure in handover and drops due to the low signal strength in the air interface. In this study, based on statistical data of GSM traffic, a cell operating in 900 MHz that presented high dropped call rate was chosen. Adjusting the coverage parameters, the monthly dropped call rate went from 8.6% to 1.6% and there wasn\'t any degradation of any other performance indicators.