This thesis will focus on spherical near-field antenna measurements and the methods developed or modified for the work of this thesis to estimate the uncertainty in a particular far-field radiation pattern. We will discuss the need for error assessment in spherical near-field antenna measurements. A procedure will be proposed that, in an automated fashion, can be used to determine the overall uncertainty in the measured far-field radiation pattern of a particular antenna. This overall uncertainty will be the result of a combination of several known sources of error common to SNF measurements. This procedure will consist of several standard SNF measurements, some newly developed tests, and several stages of post-processing of the measured data. The automated procedure will be tested on four antennas of various operating frequencies and directivities to verify its functionality. Finally, total uncertainty data will be presented to the reader in several formats.

This thesis will focus on spherical near-field antenna measurements and the methods developed or modified for the work of this thesis to estimate the uncertainty in a particular far-field radiation pattern. We will discuss the need for error assessment in spherical near-field antenna measurements. A procedure will be proposed that, in an automated fashion, can be used to determine the overall uncertainty in the measured far-field radiation pattern of a particular antenna. This overall uncertainty will be the result of a combination of several known sources of error common to SNF measurements. This procedure will consist of several standard SNF measurements, some newly developed tests, and several stages of post-processing of the measured data. The automated procedure will be tested on four antennas of various operating frequencies and directivities to verify its functionality. Finally, total uncertainty data will be presented to the reader in several formats.

This thesis will focus on spherical near-field antenna measurements and the methods developed or modified for the work of this thesis to estimate the uncertainty in a particular far-field radiation pattern. We will discuss the need for error assessment in spherical near-field antenna measurements. A procedure will be proposed that, in an automated fashion, can be used to determine the overall uncertainty in the measured far-field radiation pattern of a particular antenna. This overall uncertainty will be the result of a combination of several known sources of error common to SNF measurements. This procedure will consist of several standard SNF measurements, some newly developed tests, and several stages of post-processing of the measured data. The automated procedure will be tested on four antennas of various operating frequencies and directivities to verify its functionality. Finally, total uncertainty data will be presented to the reader in several formats.

This thesis will focus on spherical near-field antenna measurements and the methods developed or modified for the work of this thesis to estimate the uncertainty in a particular far-field radiation pattern. We will discuss the need for error assessment in spherical near-field antenna measurements. A procedure will be proposed that, in an automated fashion, can be used to determine the overall uncertainty in the measured far-field radiation pattern of a particular antenna. This overall uncertainty will be the result of a combination of several known sources of error common to SNF measurements. This procedure will consist of several standard SNF measurements, some newly developed tests, and several stages of post-processing of the measured data. The automated procedure will be tested on four antennas of various operating frequencies and directivities to verify its functionality. Finally, total uncertainty data will be presented to the reader in several formats.

Quality and error assessment is an essential part of spatial analysis which with the increasingamount of applications resulting from today’s extensive access to spatial data, such as satelliteimagery and computer power is extra important to address. This study evaluates the impact ofinput errors associated with satellite sensor noise for a spatial method aimed at characterisingaspects of landscapes associated with the historical village structure, called the HybridCharacterisation Model (HCM), that was developed as a tool to monitor sub goals of theSwedish Environmental Goal “A varied agricultural landscape”. The method and errorsimulation method employed for generating random errors in the input data, is implemented andautomated as a Python script enabling easy iteration of the procedure. The HCM is evaluatedqualitatively (by visual analysis) and quantitatively comparing kappa index values between theoutputs affected by error. Comparing the result of the qualitative and quantitative evaluationshows that the kappa index is an applicable measurement of quality for the HCM. Thequalitative analysis compares impact of error for two different scales, the village scale and thelandscape scale, and shows that the HCM is performing well on the landscape scale for up to30% error and on the village scale for up to 10% and shows that the impact of error differsdepending on the shape of the analysed feature. The Python script produced in this study couldbe further developed and modified to evaluate the HCM for other aspects of input error, such asclassification errors, although for such studies to be motivated the potential errors associatedwith the model and its parameters must first be further evaluated.

Master of Science / Department of Industrial & Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Malgorzata J. Rys / According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2015), urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most commonly reported healthcare-associated infection (HAI), of which approximately 75% of infections are attributed to the presence of a urinary catheter. Urinary catheters are commonplace within hospitals as approximately 15-25% of patients receive a urinary catheter during their hospitalization, introducing the risk of a catheter associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) during their stay (CDC, 2015). In recent years there have been efforts to reduce CAUTI in U.S. hospitals; however, despite these efforts, CAUTI rates indicate the need to continue prevention efforts. Researchers have investigated the use of human reliability analysis (HRA) techniques to predict and prevent CAUTI (Griebel, 2016), and this research builds on that topic by applying the Human Error Assessment and Reduction Technique (HEART) to develop a model for a patient’s probability of CAUTI. HEART considers 40 different error-producing conditions (EPCs) present while performing a task, and evaluates the extent to which each EPC affects the probability of an error. This research considers the task of inserting a Foley catheter, where an error in the process could potentially lead to a CAUTI. Significant patient factors that increase a patient’s probability of CAUTI (diabetes, female gender, and catheter days) are also considered, along with obesity which is examined from a process reliability perspective. Under the HEART process, human reliability knowledge and the knowledge of eight expert healthcare professionals are combined to evaluate the probability that a patient will acquire a CAUTI. In addition to predicting the probability of CAUTI, HEART also provides a systematic way to prioritize patient safety improvement efforts by examining the most significant EPCs or process steps. The proposed CAUTI model suggests that 7 of the 26 steps in the catheter insertion process contribute to 95% of the unreliability of the process. Three of the steps are related to cleaning the patient prior to inserting the catheter, two of the steps are directly related to actually inserting the catheter, and two steps are related to maintaining the collection bag below the patient’s bladder. An analysis of the EPCs evaluated also revealed that the most significant factors affecting the process are unfamiliarity, or the possibility of novel events, personal psychological factors, shortage of time, and inexperience. By targeting reliability improvements in these steps and factors, healthcare organizations can have the greatest impact on preventing CAUTI.

This study is a presentation of an instantaneous and simultaneous velocity and concentration measurement technique and its applications on car park fire scenarios. <p>In this actual chapter 1 general introduction is given to each chapter. Chapter 2 is dedicated to a detailed description of the instantaneous and simultaneous velocity and concentration measurement technique and its associated error assessment methodology. The name of the new technique is derived from the names of the acquired parameters (VELocity and COncentration) and shall be hereafter referred to as VELCO. After having validated and performed an error assessment of this technique, it is applied to an investigation of full-scale car park (30 m x 30 m x 2.6 m – Gent / WFRGENT) fire cases in chapter 3. The measurements were carried out with the financial support of IWT-SBO program. In the full-scale measurements only the velocity part is applied of VELCO, yet it can be considered as its application since the special data treating was developed and implemented in the Rabon (see: §2.1.2) program, which is the software of the new technique along with Tucsok (see: §2.1.1) and they will be both discussed in the related chapter. Here it is enough to mention that the concentration and velocity information can be obtained independently as well. During the full-scale measurements, beyond of VELCO the smoke back-layering distances (SBL) are also derived from the temperature values, which were measured by thermocouples under the ceiling in the midline of the car park. The critical velocity, which is an important measure of fire safety, can be obtained from the SBL results. In chapter 4, isothermal fire modeling is surveyed in order to present how full-scale fires are modeled in small-scale. In this part of the study the theory of fire related formulae and an isothermal model are described. Here it is important to stress the fact that the fire modeling is not directly related to the VELCO technique. However it connects the full-scale to the small-scale measurements, which the technique is applied on. Chapter 5 discusses small-scale measurements (1:25 – Rhode Saint Genese / VKI) on the car park introduced in chapter 3 and their validation. After the validation, more complex car parks scenarios are also investigated due to the easy to change layout in the small-scale model with respect to the full-scale car park. In this chapter the smoke back-layering distances are obtained by VELCO. Finally, in chapter 6 important conclusions are drawn with the objective of increasing fire safety. <p> / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished