International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1993 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Information management is of essential importance during design and operation of flight test measurement systems to be used for aircraft airworthiness certification. The reliability of the data generated by the realtime- and post-processing processes is heavily dependent on the reliability of all provided information about the used flight test measurement system. Databases are well fitted to the task of information management. They need however additional application software to store, manage and retrieve the measurement system configuration data in a specified way to support all persons and aircraft- and ground based systems that are involved in the design and operation of flight test measurement systems. At the Dutch National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR) a "Measurementsystem Configuration DataBase" (MCDB) is being developed under contract with the Netherlands Agency for Aerospace Programs (NIVR) and in cooperation with Fokker to provide the required information management. This paper addresses the functional and operational requirements to the MCDB, its data-contents and computer configuration and a description of its intended way of operation.

This research investigates Destination Management Organisation (DMOs) in China, and looks at their functions and their adoption of Performance Measurement Systems (PMSs). A two-stage questionnaire survey has adopted to achieve the pre-determined aims of the research. Finally, ninety-three DMOs took part in the first stage survey and thirty-four DMOs were involved in the second stage survey. The key findings from the research are as follows. (1) Irrespective of their nature and level, Chinese DMOs attached most importance to the functions of “economic-driver”, “marketing” and “coordination & collaboration”. (2) DMOs attached a second level of importance to the functions of “operator”, “administrator”, “statistics” and “training”; however, particularly at municipality and city levels; also Chinese public DMOs paid more attention to these aspects. (3) Chinese public DMOs, particularly at provincial and city level, placed more emphasis on the functions of “regulator” and “legitimacy”. (4) Chinese higher-level public DMOs paid less attention to the function of “public awareness”, “funding” and “international relations”, however they did performed much better than non-public lower-level DMOs to these tasks. (5) Chinese governmental DMOs at higher-level, and private DMOs, were the best at adopting PMSs in their organisations. (6) The PMSs of Chinese DMOs paid greatest attention to measuring the aspects of “visitor”, “earning” and “marketing”, and medium levels of attention to the aspects of “stakeholder”, “operation” and “event”, and relatively low attention to evaluating their performance of the aspects of “employment” and “innovation” in their organisations. Finally, a refined PMS model that could be adopted by Chinese DMOs in the future was developed at the end. Based on the above findings, the refined model aimed to measure the performance of “stakeholders”, “employees” and “customers” by assessing the outcomes of the aspects of “management” and “marketing” for Chinese DMOs. The refined PMS model was developed and based on the top-down operation system that currently existed in China and was supposed to pursue every major aspect of the system for each stakeholder in the DMOs.

Although the research in the field of the performance measurement system for remanufacturing activities is partial, an amount of literature and research has been performed regarding the performance measurement applicable for remanufacturing activities. The success of applying a performance measurement system on Remanufacturing relies on the relationship and inclusion of all perspectives; from customers to financial, as well as the remanufacturing process, and all challenges facing a remanufacturing process. Since the retrieval of used products is essential to the remanufacturers, the successful management of those specific processes contributes to an effective and efficient outcome of a Remanufacturing business’s performance outcome.

Cell mechanics are directly related to the biological functionality of a cell, and therefore have been extensively studied. Current understanding of the unique relationships associated with mechanical loading conditions and the biological outcomes of a cell is far from complete [1]. The main objective of this thesis work was the design of a device capable of determining mechanical properties including stiffness and Young’s modulus of a biological cell. The device was implemented using micro-electro mechanical systems technology (MEMS), and the cell testing was limited to yeast cells for the purpose of this research. The design consisted of a micro-gripper which performed controlled cell squeezing with a spring of known stiffness. Differential displacements were obtained allowing for the calculation of cell mechanical properties. The incorporation of spatially periodic structures on the moving components of the gripper enabled measurements with 10 nm precision based on discrete Fourier transformation and phase [2].

The purpose of this study was to investigate the practice of performance measurement systems (PMS) in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) operating in the service sector in Brunei Darussalam. A further aim was to find the drivers and barriers of PMS adoption for such companies. Quantitative and qualitative methods were applied in this research. Documentary data, questionnaires, and interviews were used to collect the data. 357 questionnaires were sent out to service SME and a total of 62 responses were received. 29 managers from four case study companies were interviewed and semi-structured questions were used during the interviews. The results from the questionnaires showed that 26 per cent of the sample practice advanced PMS, 16 per cent still use a traditional PMS and the rest use a balanced system. The results of the interviews showed two additional drivers and one additional barrier to those found in the literature review. Business process and external stakeholders were identified as the additional drivers of PMS adoption and the former was also identified as the additional factor that could block such adoption. The additional findings indicated that organizational strategy, appropriate management style and management experience and qualifications were the core factors that could either drive or block the adoption of PMS. The lack of a clear mission and vision influenced all the other blocking forces. At the same time, the existence of a clear policy, such as a mission and vision statement, influenced the other driving forces. Furthermore, exercising an appropriate management style which takes into account the current organizational culture of the company has a significant positive impact on the acceptance of performance measurement. The employment of a qualified and experienced management team that understands the concept of performance measurement is also valuable in ensuring that the design of the PMS is appropriate and the implementation successful. A practical framework based on the findings was created to overcome the key identified problems associated with PMS adoption. From these findings, the research results offer both useful and actionable implications for practitioners such as managers and external consultants involved in PMS, particularly in Brunei. Consideration was given to the breadth of the interviews and the use of other documentary data, as well as the limitations of the case study method employed in the research. This should ensure the findings will be useful for companies currently implementing PMS or those intending to in the future. Given the context of this research, the findings will predominantly be of use in developing countries.

Using isolation and noise immunity techniques, this thesis designs and constructs a low cost measurement system to safely and accurately measure high voltage, high frequency pulses in harsh EM environments. High voltage pulses apply to medical, plasma, and food industries. The difficulty of accurately measuring high voltage pulses continues to pose an issue. Measuring high voltage systems can cause damage to the system, the measurement system, and the user. High voltage and high frequency pulses create a harsh environment of electromagnetic fields that can disrupt the circuitry of the measurement system and harm the user. Implementing isolation from the high voltage system protects the measurement and user. An ideal pulse has sharp rising and falling edges, introduction high frequencies that prove difficult to sense and characterize. The measurement system requires a sufficiently large bandwidth to accurately measure the pulse edges. Commercial off the shelf pulse measurement systems such as oscilloscopes and multimeters cost thousands of dollars. Cheaper but simpler designs fail to provide isolation for safety. The measurement system in this thesis addresses all of these issues, allowing people to measure and characterize high voltage pulses. Technologies used in this measurement network include optocouplers, transimpedance amplifiers, and analog-to-digital converters. The development process describes design, simulations, characterizations, construction, testing, and troubleshooting. Simulations show expected operations of components and characterizations assist in determining performance parameters of the system. Testing involves performing a low voltage test and a high voltage test and identifying limitations of the design. Finally, this thesis suggests future work to improve performance and lower cost of the measurement system.

A critical and important part of the medical diagnosis is the montioring of the biopotential signals. Patients are always connected to a bulky and mains-powered instrument. This not only restricts the mobility of the patients but also bring discomfort to them. Meanwhile, the measureing time can not last long thus affecting the effects of the diagnosis. Therefore, there is a high demand for low-power and small size factor ambulatory biopotential measurement systems. In addtion, the system can be configured for different biopotential applications.The ultimate goal is to implement a system that is both invisible and comfortable. The systems not onlyincrease the quality of life, but also sharply decrease the cost of healthcare delivery. In this paper, a continuously tunable gain and bandwidth analog front-end for ambulatory biopotential measurement systems is presented. The front-end circuit is capable of amplifying and conditioning different biopsignals. To optimize the power consumption and simplify the system architecture, the front-end only adopts two-stage amplifiers. In addition, careful design of the critical transistors eliminates the need of chopping circuits. The front-end is pure analog without interference from digital parts like chopping and switch capacitor circuits. The chip is fabricated under SMIC 0.18 μm CMOS process. The input-referred noise of the system is only 1.19 μVrms (0.48-2000Hz).Although the power consumption is only 32.1 μW under 3V voltage supply, test results show that the chip can successfully extract biopotential signals.

In order for the benefits of a behavior management skills training program to reach clients, caregivers must use the behavior management skills in the natural environment. The current study took place at a large residential facility for adults with disabilities, in which caregivers had received prior training in which they demonstrated behavior management skills and maintained those skills in contrived role plays. The current study represents a preliminary analysis of generalization of these skills in the natural environment; thus, a measurement system for when caregivers should demonstrate the tools was developed. The specific purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a program to establish stimulus control over observers' measurement of appropriate behaviors. Researchers systematically developed and validated a measurement system of "good behaviors" that could be used across clients. The process of development and refinement of the measurement system is described. When the system was finalized, three observers' accuracy in using the system was assessed by comparing measured values to that of the code writer. Following feedback on individual instances of behavior, all observers scored the three target behaviors accurately. Ecological validity was assessed by surveying professionals at the facility and ecological validity results suggested a valid measurement system was developed.

A major method in object tracking systems and other inertial measurement devices resolves around the use of one, two, or three axis accelerometers. A leader in the field such devices is Microstrain Incorporated. They have developed a three axis accelerometer that uses a three axis magnetic sensor array to compute the pitch, roll, and yaw of a compact inertial measurement unit. In researching such devices, it became apparent that data collected using such units is extremely sensitive both to local magnetic fields and human interactions with the devices. It is therefore of great importance to ensure the device or devices are properly calibrated. In the construction of an effective calibration program, it is necessary to measure and zero out even minor discrepancies, as even small misalignments have deleterious effects on device performance.

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