In order to achieve the stated goal of reducing the final closing procedure time cycle for construction projects at the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Odessa District, several standard operating procedures (SOPs) for project construction control and management had to be revised. Seemingly unrelated tasks created posterior chains of events that resulted in bottlenecks in the process and delayed final project closing. Four specific SOPs were identified and analyzed to determine which tasks required modification and what was expected from these modifications. A mission for each specified SOP was conceived and written to give a clear view of the intent of the procedure. Afterwards, district policies were drafted to provide the means to fulfill the intent. The procedural changes, compatible with TxDOT statewide procedures, allowed the time spent in the processes to remain the same but redistributed it to reduce the end-loading of the control process. The new SOPs require an even time distribution cyclically throughout the project. Control procedures are done only once, shortening the final closing procedure for projects by doing one-time, short, cyclical, consecutive control tasks of the same procedure throughout the life of the project, rather than doing some of them once cyclically and then again at the closing procedure and others just at the closing procedure. These changes resulted in a shorter end-cycle time, which substantially reduced the final closing procedure time for each project, without affecting the integrity and safeguards of the project. The changes resulted in more efficient and timely financial, managerial, and engineering control of projects. The procedures revised were (1) Review and Approval of Change Orders; (2) Review and Approval of Monthly Progress Estimates; (3) Review and Approval of Interim and Final Audits and Final Estimate; and (4) Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plans (SW3P) Records Management and Auditing Procedures.

<p>A simultaneous measurement of three Standard Model cross-sections using 4.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is presented. Collision data were collected using the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The signal production cross-sections studied are for top quark pair production, charged weak boson pair production, and Drell-Yan production of tau lepton pairs with invariant mass greater than 40 GeV. A data sample is defined from events with isolated high-energy electron-muon pairs arranged in a phase space defined by missing transverse momentum and jet multiplicity. A binned maximum likelihood fit is employed to determine signal yields in this phase space. Signal event yields are in turn used to measure full cross-section values and cross-section values within a fiducial region of the detector, and unlike conventional measurements the signal measurements are performed simultaneously. This is the first such simultaneous measurement of these cross-sections using the ATLAS detector. Measured cross-sections are found in good agreement with the most precise published theoretical predictions.</p> / Dissertation

No description available.

Radiative penguin decays of B mesons are favour-changing neutral current (FCNC) processes, studies of which provide fertile ground for precision tests of the Standard Model. Because such decays must proceed through 1-loop or higher order processes, they are rare and their amplitudes are particularly sensitive to interference from other FCNC interactions beyond the SM. This thesis presents the search for the rare radiative penguin process b -> d gamma, carried out at the BABAR experiment.

Many aspects of economic analysis require judgements to be made about distributions. When agreement on a single criterion for judgement is not possible, it is necessary to examine whether one distribution is better than another from a number of perspectives. The problem of 'distributional dominance', which Part One addresses, is precisely this problem of ordering two distributions in relation to one or more objective functions, via use of a single 'dominance criterion'. Four themes are pursued. It is argued that welfare, poverty and inequality dominance criteria can be fruitfully analyzed within a single framework. The need to approach the problem of distributional dominance as a statistical one is stressed. Estimators and a method of inference are proposed and are themselves tested via a simulation study. The likely effect of aggregation on the attained ordering of distributions is assessed, also via a simulation study. A critical re-appraisal is presented of the most widely-used dominance criterion, second-order stochastic dominance, and alternative criteria are proposed. The usefulness of thinking of dominance criteria in terms of curves within bounds is emphasized. Part Two of the thesis is a study of the distribution of income in urban China in the eighties, using both aggregated, nationwide data and disaggregated data for two provinces. This study is both an application of the methods developed in Part One and a case-study of the dynamics of income distribution in a transitional economy. Evidence is found that cash-income inequality has grown over the decade, and this is linked to the reform process. However, inequality remains exceptionally low by international standards. Moreover, both the system of price subsidies and that of cash compensation introduced to replace the subsidies are shown to have exerted an equalizing influence on the urban distribution of income.

No description available.

Oakland (1989b) argues that following the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century we are presently in the midst of the quality revolution. In the United Kingdom quality took on a new significance in 1979 with the publication of the British Standard for Quality BS5750. Since that date the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has been actively promoting quality improvements. In 1989, the DTI specially supported the implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) in its Managing in the `90s Program. The benefits of TQM are widely recognised following reports of its successful implementation in many large companies. It has led to these companies becoming highly competitive both locally and internationally through the production of quality products that meet customer requirements at the lowest cost, significantly increasing their market share and profitability. As part of the Sheffield Regeneration effort, this thesis examines the current position of Small and Medium manufacturing Enterprises (SMEs) in Sheffield. The thesis aims to facilitate the implementation of TQM in SMEs by enabling them to benchmark their progress. The thesis examines three hypotheses: 1. SMEs do not understand the definitions or implications of TQM. 2. SMEs can be encouraged to implement TQM by a combination of training and mentoring (Uncle Concept). 3. It is possible to benchmark management styles and the relative position of a company on route to TQM using the biological classification system, Cladistics. The characteristics of SMEs and principles of TQM were closely researched to develop a TQM model based on 5 Pillars that would specifically cater to the needs of SMEs. A questionnaire was developed based on these 5 Pillars to assess the level of TQM implementation in 30 Sheffield and 10 Singapore manufacturing SMEs. The survey results based on interviews with senior management confirmed the first hypothesis that SMEs do not understand the definitions or implications of TQM. This led to the second hypothesis that SMEs can be encouraged to implement TQM through a Framework comprising a combination of training and mentoring (Uncle Concept) by a company that had already implemented TQM. The TQM Framework was applied to six SMEs in South Yorkshire. Customer and Employee surveys conducted as the prerequisite to TQM implementation provided valuable information to the companies about actions they needed to undertake in their implementation programme. All six companies proceeded to TQM Facilitator Training which was conducted by Avesta Sheffield Limited, who having successfully implemented and sustained TQM fulfilled the role of the Uncle. However, the second hypothesis was proved to be incorrect. The companies ‘cherry picked' facets of TQM and the implementation programs failed in each case. This thesis also reviews the evolution of management styles through a study of management pioneers and their principles and theories on management, organisation structures and motivation. The evolution of the bureaucratic, authoritarian and impersonal management style of Frederick W. Taylor to the flexible, open and participative management style of TQM was applied to the classification technique Cladistics to determine if it was possible to benchmark management styles and the relative position of a company along its route to TQM (Hypothesis 3). A Management Style Survey Questionnaire was developed and a structured interview was conducted with ten companies from South Yorkshire and one company from Japan. The results supported Hypothesis 3.

Operators have a crucial role in case of an emergency in a process facility. When an abnormality occurs in the process, the operator has a limited time to take corrective actions before system safety devices shut down the operation. It is crucial that system designers and safety professionals know about this required time frame before operations are initiated. Specific research goals for this project include the following: * Estimating the standard time data for operators to take corrective actions in emergency situations. * Developing a modeling system, to allow design/process engineers to find the standard time required for the operator(s) to respond in emergency situations. Current standard time data for carrying out tasks cover normal, steady state cases. However, the time required to take action in emergency situations is different than normal cases. Because of the possibility of a process incident and danger, operators make corrective actions faster compared to normal cases. Therefore, current standard time data do not meet the requirement for emergency situations. Shorter standard time data for emergency situations needs to be estimated. Standard time data for emergency situations is estimated by using time studies. Various time study methods were introduced and discussed. MODAPTS is a predetermined time standard method and stands for Modular Arrangement of Predetermined Time Standards, and was used in this project because it is reliable, easy to use and consistent. The methodology adopted for the study required observing several emergency case videos. The operations were decomposed into basic motions (such as walking, hand movement, bend and arise, etc.) by using a video player’s frame by frame feature. The amount of time required to take these basic motions was estimated. These estimated times were then compared to calculations based on MODAPTS, which is a predetermined time standard system. By comparing MODAPTS’s standard time intervals with those estimated from emergency situations, ratios or coefficients have been estimated for the various basic motions (e.g., factors such as 0.9, 0.75, etc.). The estimated coefficients for emergency situations, which are generally around 0.65, were used in developing a modeling system. The user of this modeling system can estimate the required time to take corrective actions in emergency situations as long as he/ she knows the actions need to be taken. Consequently, the time required to take necessary actions in emergency operations will be designed and evaluated in a systematic way to reduce the potential, as well as duration, of an incident.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 345-357). / Microfiche. / xix, 357 leaves, bound ill., map 29 cm

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Auburn University, 2005. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references (ℓ. 98-99)