ITC/USA 2006 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Second Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 23-26, 2006 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / Telemetry data are usually collected for analysis at some later time and can be monitored to follow the progress of a test. In the case of an Air Data System the signals from the sensors are sent to a computer that calculates the air data parameters for use on multiple LabView-generated displays, as well as to the Data Acquisition System. The readouts on the multiple displays need to be real-time so they are useful to the flight crew. Equations that control the different air data values are determined by what telemetry data are available and the preference of those doing the test planning. These systems need to display the information in a format useful to the flight crew and be reliable.

<p>The aim of this master's thesis is to implement and evaluate a method for estimating the indicated engine torque. The method is developed by IAV GmbH, Fraunhofer-Institut and Audi AG. The determination of the indicated torque is based on high resolution engine speed measurements. The engine speed is measured with a hall sensor, which receives the signal from the transmitterwheel mounted on the crankshaft. A transmitterwheel compensation is done to compensate for the partition defects that arises in the production and thus enable a more precise calculation of the angular velocity. The crankshaft angle, angular velocity and angular acceleration are estimated and the helpvariable effective torque is calculated using these signals as input. Through a relationship between effective torque and the indicated pressure the indicated pressure is extracted from a map. The indicated torque is then calculated from the pressure. </p><p>The method is validated with data from an engine test bed. Because of the low obtainable sample rate at the test bed, 4MHz, quantisation errors arises at engine speeds over 1000 rpm. Therefore the model is validated for low engine speeds and the result is promising.</p>

The aim of this master's thesis is to implement and evaluate a method for estimating the indicated engine torque. The method is developed by IAV GmbH, Fraunhofer-Institut and Audi AG. The determination of the indicated torque is based on high resolution engine speed measurements. The engine speed is measured with a hall sensor, which receives the signal from the transmitterwheel mounted on the crankshaft. A transmitterwheel compensation is done to compensate for the partition defects that arises in the production and thus enable a more precise calculation of the angular velocity. The crankshaft angle, angular velocity and angular acceleration are estimated and the helpvariable effective torque is calculated using these signals as input. Through a relationship between effective torque and the indicated pressure the indicated pressure is extracted from a map. The indicated torque is then calculated from the pressure. The method is validated with data from an engine test bed. Because of the low obtainable sample rate at the test bed, 4MHz, quantisation errors arises at engine speeds over 1000 rpm. Therefore the model is validated for low engine speeds and the result is promising.

BACKGROUND: Despite decades of research aimed at prevention, preterm birth remains an enormous leading cause of infant mortality in the United States and worldwide. Of concern, racial disparities in preterm birth remain an intractable public health issue. In an effort to reduce preterm birth, organizations such as the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) released policy statements in 2009 aimed at reducing early elective deliveries. Subsequently, the incidence of preterm birth in the United States has decreased, but whether this decrease is due to a reduction in iatrogenic or "medically-indicated" preterm birth is unknown. Further, the effect of the reduction in early elective deliveries on racial disparities is unknown. Our hypotheses were that 1) after 2009, preterm births would be less likely to be medically-indicated than due to spontaneous causes and 2) black-white differences in preterm births would be unchanged. OBJECTIVES: 1) Determine the proportion of preterm deliveries at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) from 2004-2013 that were medically-indicated versus spontaneous. 2) Due to persistent disparities, determine if shifts in type of preterm delivery varied by race/ethnicity. METHODS: We reviewed the first 87 deliveries in 2013 and randomly selected 15% of the records for each year from 2004-2013. Additionally, we reviewed 69 charts to oversample black women's deliveries. We manually abstracted data from BIDMC's online medical record and designated each delivery as either medically-indicated (preeclampsia, poor fetal growth, hypertension, or other fetal/maternal condition) or spontaneous (preterm labor, preterm premature rupture of membranes or cervical incompetence). Two reviewers independently reviewed 18 records for concordance of medically-indicated versus spontaneous preterm birth typing. If the first reviewer could not phenotype the delivery, then a neonatologist and obstetrician were consulted. We reviewed 971 out of the 5,566 preterm deliveries and included 930 that were confirmed preterm and had a clear medically-indicated or spontaneous phenotype. We dichotomized the time period into early (2004-2009) and late (2010-2013). Statistical methods included comparisons of early versus late using Chi-Square tests, logistic regression models to adjust for potential confounding variables, and stratified analyses (singletons and black versus white). RESULTS: There were 46,981 deliveries at our institution during the study period, 5,566 of which were preterm. Among the 930 preterm deliveries sampled from the 10-year period, 45.6% were medically-indicated with a non-significant, subtle difference between the early (48.3%) and late (41.9%) (P=0.05) time periods. The odds ratios of medically-indicated versus spontaneous preterm birth in late versus early were 0.77 (P=0.05) and 0.73 (P=0.03) for all participants, unadjusted and adjusted, respectively. While not statistically significant, a higher proportion of preterm deliveries among black women were medically-indicated in the early (50.4%) versus late (40.6%) periods (P=0.19). There was a similar trend among white women between the early (50.0%) and late (46.9%) periods (P=0.48). The odds ratios of medically-indicated versus spontaneous preterm birth from late versus early were 0.67 (P=0.19) and 0.63 (P=0.14) for black participants, unadjusted and adjusted, respectively. For white participants, the odds ratios were 0.88 (P=0.48) for unadjusted and 0.80 for adjusted (P=0.20). Overall at BIDMC, the preterm delivery rate was significantly higher in the early period (12.3%) compared to the later period (11.2%) (P=0.0003). While we observed a reduction of preterm birth among all women, black women experienced a 20.8% decrease (from 16.2% in the early period to 12.8% in the late) in preterm birth, while white women experienced just a 4.9% decrease (from 12.4% to 11.7%), resulting in a narrowing of the racial disparity of preterm birth in our institution. CONCLUSION: At a Massachusetts birth hospital we found a reduction in the incidence of preterm deliveries over a 10-year period that coincided with policy efforts to reduce early elective deliveries. There was a reduction in the proportion of preterm births that were medically-indicated from 48.3% to 41.9%. The reduction in medically-indicated preterm birth was most evident among black women at BIDMC with concurrent decrease in the overall preterm birth rate among black women resulting in a near elimination of the racial disparity in preterm birth at BIDMC. Future work includes statistical analysis to account for the oversampling of deliveries in 2013 as well as oversampling of black women's deliveries using inverse probability weighting. We also plan to analyze which underlying conditions (preeclampsia, intrauterine growth restriction, fetal distress, etc.) were responsible for the reduction of the medically-indicated deliveries.

<p>The importance of control systems and diagnostics in vehicles are increasing and has resulted in several new methods to calculate better control signals. The performance can be increased by calculating these signals close to optimum, but that also require more and precise information regarding the system.</p><p>One of the wanted control signals are the crankshaft torque and the thesis presents two different methods to estimate this torque using engine speed variations. These methods are Modeling of the Crankshaft and Frequency Analysis. The methods are evaluated and implemented on for a four cylinder SAAB engine. Measurements are made in an engine test cell as well as a vehicle.</p><p>The results show that the Modeling of the Crankshaft method does not produce a satisfying estimation, with a difference of about 200% between estimated and calculated torque. On the other hand, the Frequency Analysis provides an accurate estimation of both mean and instantaneous indicated torque, with a maximum difference of ±20% between estimated and calculated torque.</p>

Provisional Question for the thesis to address: Indicated and selective prevention of common mental health problems in later life: Is there a theoretical rationale for an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy approach? Background The burden of late life depression and anxiety is significant. Even subthreshold symptoms result in great individual, community, economic and societal cost. However, common mental health problems in later life are under‐recognised and under‐treated despite evidence in support of pharmacological and psychological intervention. Previous research regarding psychological therapy for late life mental health problems has been dominated by cognitive behavioural therapy. However, the effectiveness of this approach has been questioned, leading researchers to explore alternative approaches. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy has received increasing attention from researchers keen to explore an alternative and some have argued that this approach is particularly suited to older people. In the context of demographic change and a significant increase in the proportion of community dwelling elderly there is a need to provide evidence to support the use of alternative management strategies for late life mental health problems, for example, focusing on prevention. Methods A systematic review will evaluate the current evidence for the use of ‘indicated’ and ‘selective’ prevention interventions for older people at risk of developing a major depressive or anxiety disorder due to the experience of subsyndromal symptoms or the presence of significant physical, socioeconomic, and psychosocial risk factors. This paper will be followed by an empirical article in which the relationship between psychological processes and ageing will be explored. Specifically, this study will explore psychological flexibility, the use of Selection, Optimisation and Compensation strategies, and the presence of psychopathology in a non clinical sample of community dwelling older people. Results Findings of the systematic review provide preliminary evidence for indicated and selective prevention of late life depression, however there is no clear evidence of benefits of these interventions in late life anxiety. The relationships between variables in the empirical study were explored using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and conditional process modelling. Although the study did not find age to be a specific predictor of variance in psychological variables explored, the study did provide empirical support for the potential to use Acceptance and Commitment Therapy with older people. Discussion The systematic review article provided preliminary evidence for the efficacy of selective and indicated prevention interventions for late life depression. However, further research is required to consolidate these findings. The empirical paper found significant relationships between the perception of positive health, reduced psychopathology and theoretical variables including cognitive fusion, engagement in valued living, and the use of Selection, Optimisation, and Compensation strategies. Cognitive fusion was found to mediate these relationships and as such, findings provide support for the use of an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy approach with older people. The theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed in detail.

The importance of control systems and diagnostics in vehicles are increasing and has resulted in several new methods to calculate better control signals. The performance can be increased by calculating these signals close to optimum, but that also require more and precise information regarding the system. One of the wanted control signals are the crankshaft torque and the thesis presents two different methods to estimate this torque using engine speed variations. These methods are Modeling of the Crankshaft and Frequency Analysis. The methods are evaluated and implemented on for a four cylinder SAAB engine. Measurements are made in an engine test cell as well as a vehicle. The results show that the Modeling of the Crankshaft method does not produce a satisfying estimation, with a difference of about 200% between estimated and calculated torque. On the other hand, the Frequency Analysis provides an accurate estimation of both mean and instantaneous indicated torque, with a maximum difference of ±20% between estimated and calculated torque.

No description available.

Orientador: Caio Glauco Sanchez / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Mecanica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-07T22:05:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Silva_NerivaldoRodriguesda_M.pdf: 4894128 bytes, checksum: 69ef45ea8aa8986f3f2bb33a0866b270 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Resumo: Neste trabalho buscou-se desenvolver um método para a determinação da potência indicada em motores de combustão interna e medição da pressão de combustão com um osciloscópio. Para isto é necessário conhecer a curva de pressão de combustão do cilindro em função d posição angular do virabrequim e os dados da geometria do mecanismo biela-manivela. Utilizou-se a pressão de combustão do cilindro para calcular o trabalho transferido pelo gás ao pistão do motor. A pressão de combustão foi medida com um transdutor de pressão piezoelétrico. O efeito piezoelétrico é devido ao fenômeno que ocorre com o cristal de quartzo que quando submetido a uma pressão gera uma carga elétrica. Essa carga é convertida em um sinal de tensão linear e proporcional. Este sinal pode ser analisado por um osciloscópio ou ser condicionado por um sistema de aquisição de dados. Obtidos os dados, estes foram analisados através dos diagramas Log P-Log v, para verificar sua qualidade e se representavam o fenômeno físico medido. A curva da pressão do cilindro versus volume calculado foram plotadas, gerando os diagramas P-v. A área do diagrama P-v durante o tempo de compressão e expansão, que corresponde ao trabalho indicado liquido, foi determinada por integração numérica. A pressão média indicada calculada foi comparada com o valor obtido com o indicador de pressão Indiset 620 da AVL e apresentou resultado satisfatório. Os demais resultados obtidos foram analisados e comparados com os dados da revisão da literatura e apresentaram uma boa concordância. As tecnologias disponíveis para medição da pressão de combustão e os métodos para avaliação da performance são de maior importância para o estudo do processo da combustão, visando o desenvolvimento de motores com alta potência, baixo consumo de combustíveis e baixas emissões tóxicas dos gases de escapamento / Abstract: In this thesis, we were looking for a method to determinate the indicated power in a combustion engine and measurement of combustion pressure using an oscilloscope. To achieve that, it was necessary to know the curve of combustion pressure for each cylinder according to the crankshaft 's angular position and geometric data of connecting rod and crank shaft¿s mechanism. We used the cylinder¿s combustion pressure to calculate the work transferred by the gas to the engine¿s piston. The combustion pressure was measured by a piezoelectric pressure transducer. The piezoelectric effect occurs when a crystal of quartz, that under a certain pressure, generates an electrical signal. This signal is converted to a proportional and linear signal that can be analyzed by an oscilloscope or a data acquisition system. Once we obtained the data, we analyzed it thru a Log P-Log v diagram, verifying its quality and if it represents the measured physical effect. The curve of cylinder¿s pressure versus calculated area was plotted, generating the P-v diagrams. The diagram P-v area, during a certain time of compression and expansion, which correspond to the work indicated, was originated of a numerical integration. The indicated and calculated average pressure was compared to the value obtained from an AVL¿s Indiset 620 pressure indicator, showing satisfactory results. All the other results obtained were analyzed and compared to literature¿s revision data showing a good concordance. The available technologies to measure the combustion pressure and the methods to check performance, are very important to study the combustion process, aiming the development of higher power engines, lower consumption of fuel and lower toxic gas emission / Mestrado / Termica e Fluidos / Mestre em Engenharia Mecânica

Au Burkina Faso, le taux populationnel de césariennes reste encore faible (2% en 2012). Cependant, depuis l’exemption partielle (80%) pour les familles du paiement à l’acte en 2006, et la mise à disposition de médecins généralistes, sages-femmes et infirmiers formés à la pratique des césariennes dans les hôpitaux les plus reculés, on observe une augmentation constante des taux de césariennes dans les établissements de santé et il est difficile de savoir si toutes ces interventions sont réellement utiles. L’objectif principal de cette thèse est d’identifier les déterminants d’une césarienne de qualité en Afrique de l’Ouest pour orienter les politiques de santé reproductive dans les pays concernés. Les résultats des travaux menés dans le cadre de cette thèse montrent que le niveau de qualification du personnel de santé travaillant dans les hôpitaux du Burkina Faso et son expérience professionnelle déterminent globalement son niveau de connaissance en matière de gestion du travail et de l’accouchement compliqué. De plus, une supervision régulière de son travail semble améliorer sa performance. Le niveau de qualification du personnel de santé au Burkina Faso influence également la pratique de césariennes non médicalement justifiées. Mais l’environnement social joue aussi un rôle dans cette pratique abusive. Les résultats de cette recherche montrent enfin que la pratique systématique d’une césarienne après une césarienne antérieure n’est pas justifiée dans ce contexte. Les résultats de cette thèse ont permis de développer et de mettre en œuvre un essai d’intervention visant à réduire des césariennes sans raison médicale en Afrique de l’ouest. / In Burkina Faso, the national caesarean section rate is still low (2% in 2012). However, since the introduction of caesarean user fee exemption in 2006 and the availability of trained staff to perform a caesarean section in the most remote hospitals, the institutional caesareans rates have risen steadily and it is unclear whether all of these interventions are necessary. The main objective of this thesis is to identify the determinants of an optimal practice of caesarean section in three western African countries that favour access to caesarean section. The results of the work carried out in the framework of this thesis show that the level of qualification of the health personnel working in Burkina Faso hospitals and his professional experience determine globally his level of knowledge in the management of labor and complicated childbirth. . In addition, regular supervision of his work by daily review of clinical records (partograms) seems to improve his performance. The level of qualification of health personnel in Burkina Faso also influences the practice of non-medically justified caesareans. But the social environment also plays a role in this abusive practice. The results of this research show that the systematic practice of cesarean section after an anterior caesarean section is not justified in this context. The results of this thesis led to the development and implementation of a multi-faceted intervention trial aimed at reducing caesareans without medical reason in West Africa.