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No / This paper presents an overview of generic database of sustainability criteria values for a range of noise reducing devices (NRDs) for surface transport developed as part of the research carried out in the EU project "Quietening the Environment for a Sustainable Surface Transport" (QUIESST) (1) and how these criteria can be used for sustainability assessment of noise barriers standards. The NRD Industry has been involved in this research and NRD's manufacturers have always shown a great interest in sustainability assessment. This is coupled with the new Construction Product Regulation (305/2011/EU -CPR) (2) that came into force in July 2013 that promotes a new approach in products qualification based on the declaration of performance against seven essential requirements. Sustainability has been specifically addressed with the new 7th basic requirement, 'sustainable usage of natural resources'. The method developed within this research is used to define evaluation procedures to meet sustainability as the 7th basic requirement as part of new standards. / EU 7th Framework Programme

As the instructional leader, principals must engage in on-going professional development training for their learning and to aid in improving student achievement (Grande, 2012). This quantitative study examined the present baseline of professional development offerings in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The research questions that were explored are as follows: What professional development programs do school divisions provide for principals in the Commonwealth of Virginia? What topics are included in the professional development programs? In what format are the topics delivered? What types of professional development programs are offered to support new principals in their role as the instructional leader? What types of professional development programs are offered to support veteran principals in their role as the instructional leader? To what extent are the professional development training/programs offered in the Commonwealth of Virginia aligned to the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) standards? How do the professional development offerings vary by superintendents' region, urbanicity and division size? Once the data were collected by surveying professional development coordinators or equivalent personnel, the researcher assessed the alignment of the school divisions' professional development offerings with the ISLLC Standards. These standards were designed to provide guidance to state policy makers as they worked to improve educational leadership preparation, licensure, evaluation, and professional development (CCSSO, 2008). The findings were: (1) professional development offerings for principals across the Commonwealth of Virginia are aligned with national standards; (2) school divisions in the Commonwealth provided professional development opportunities for principals with heavy emphasis on instruction as well as shared vision and school culture; (3) there is a low level of differentiation of professional development offerings for principals based on interest or individual need; (4) the professional development training sessions in the Commonwealth mostly consisted of "one shot" sessions with a few on-going learning opportunities; (5) the majority of the professional development sessions offered to principals were provided either by external or in-house presenters with few examples of internal and external partnerships;(6) school divisions across the Commonwealth of Virginia that provided professional development training sessions to principals relied heavily on face-to-face interaction and minimally utilized technology to transform the format of professional development opportunities; and (7) not all divisions maintained records of professional development for principals. / Ed. D.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: CHAPTER 1 provides literature based background information to emphasize the use of a sequential, multistep diagnostic schedule for couples in an assisted reproductive program as well as the clinical importance of sperm morphology as recorded by strict criteria during the diagnostic approach of the infertile couple. Furthermore, the chapter includes evidence underlining the growing need for the implementation of the physiologically induced acrosome reaction as an important contribution to the assisted reproductive program. The zona pellucida-induced acrosome reaction (ZIAR), sperm-zona interaction as well as computer-assisted semen analyses were investigated. CHAPTER 2 provides detailed experimental protocols of the materials and methods used in the study. CHAPTERS 3-6 each represent a separate study that was prepared as a scientific paper and encompass the experimental research undertaken in the reproductive biology research laboratory at Tygerberg Hospital to address important aspects of human acrosome processes. In the first study, we aimed to evaluate the regulatory role of the Gi-like protein during the AR of normal sperm donors and the role of intact acrosomes during sperm-zona binding. It seems that pertussis toxin-sensitive Gi-like protein in human spermatozoa plays an important regulatory role in the ZIAR and this underlines the importance of intact acrosomes during sperm-zona binding. In the second study, we aimed to evaluate the relationship between the ZIAR and the percentage normal spermatozoa as well as the sperm-ZP binding potential among men referred for a routine semen analysis. ZIAR testing should become part of the second level of male fertility investigations, i.e., sperm functional testing, since 15% of the andrology referrals revealed an impaired AR response to solubilized ZP. In the third study, we aimed to evaluate the possible relationships between the sperm morphology, the acrosome responsiveness to solubulized human ZP and the sperm-zona binding potential among consecutive andrology referrals and randomly selected IVF cases. ZIAR results provide further information regarding dysfunctional sperm and can be used as an additional diagnostic test since the results predicted fertilization failure during IVF treatment. In the fourth study, we aimed to evaluate changes in the sperm motion characteristics and the occurrence of hyperactivated motility after exposure to ZP among andrology referrals. Solubilized human ZP induces hyperactivated motility among sperm populations that have been capacitated under laboratory conditions. Capacitated spermatozoa have an elevated percentage hyperactivated cells that correlate with the percentage normal spermatozoa in the ejaculate. CHAPTER 7, the general discussion, is brief and concise to avoid unnecessary repetition, underlines the validity of a sequential, multistep diagnostic approach and concludes with the recommendation that the ZIAR should form part of the diagnostic tools in the assisted reproductive program. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: HOOFSTUK 1 bestaan uit ’n omvattende agtergrondstudie wat bestaan uit die ontwikkeling van diagnostiese toetse, die hantering van die egpaar in die reproduktiewe ondersteunings-program asook op die kliniese belang van spermmorfologie. Die toenemende behoefte aan die implementering van die fisiologies-geinduseerde akrosoomreaksie, as ’n belangrike bydrae tot die reproduktiewe ondersteuningsprogram, word ook beklemtoon. Die zona pellucida geinduseerde akrosoomreaksie (ZIAR), sperm-zonabinding asook rekenaar-bemiddelde semenanalises is ondersoek. HOOFSTUK 2 dek gedetailleerde eksperimentele protokolle van die materiale en metodes wat in die studie gebruik is. HOOFSTUKKE 3-6 behandel die eksperimentele navorsing wat in die laboratorium van die reproduktiewe biologie-eenheid te Tygerberg hospitaal uitgevoer is en wat as ses afsonderlike wetenskaplike publikasies aangebied word. Die doel van die eerste studie was om die regulerende rol van Gi-proteiene tydens die AR van normale spermdonors asook die rol van intakte akrosome tydens sperm-zonabinding te evalueer. Dit kom voor asof Gj-protei'ene in spermatozoa ’n belangrike regulerende rol in die ZIAR speel. Dit beklemtoon die belangrikheid van intakte akrosome tydens sperm-zonabinding. Die doel van die tweede studie was om die verhouding tussen die ZIAR en die persentasie normale spermatozoa asook die sperm-zonabindingspotensiaal tussen mans wat vir ’n roetine semenanalise verwys is te evalueer. ZIAR-toetsing moet deel uitmaak van die tweede vlak van manlike fertiliteitsondersoeke, d.w.s. funksionele toetsing, aangesien 15% van die andrologie pasiente ’n verswakte AR respons tot opgeloste ZP openbaar. In die derde studie was die doel om die moontlike verhoudinge tussen sperm-morfologie, die ZIAR en die sperm-zonabindingspotensiaal onder opeenvolgende andrologie-pasiente asook lukraak geselekteerde IVB-pasiente te evalueer. Die ZIAR-resultate bied verdere informasie aangaande disfunksionele spermatozoa en kan gebruik word as ’n addisionele diagnostiese toets aangesien hierdie resultate mislukte bevrugting tydens IVB behandeling voorspel. Die vierde studie het ten doel gehad om veranderinge in spermmotiliteitseienskappe asook hiperaktiwiteit na die blootstelling aan opgeloste zona onder andrologiepasiente te evalueer. Daar is afgelei dat opgeloste menslike zona hiperaktiwiteit induseer in spermpopulasies wat onder gunstige laboratoriumkondisies gekapasiteer is. Die gekapasiteerde spermatozoa het ’n verhoogde persentasie gehiperaktiveerde spermatozoa getoon wat met die persentasie normale spermatozoa in die ejakulaat korreleer. In HOOFSTUK 7 word aangetoon dat dit noodsaaklik is om die diagnostiese skedule by die hantering van die onvrugbare egpaar te gebruik asook dat die ontwikkeling van die funksionele toestand belangrik is vir die bepaling van ZIAR.

Four full-size statically indeterminate reinforced concrete frames with two symmetrical bays were tested to obtain sufficient data to evaluate the adequacy of the current ACI-ASCE Committee 352 design recommendations, as well as to determine whether a relaxation of some of the limits in these guidelines can be justified. Each specimen contained three 8.5-foot-long columns, connected at mid-height by two 9-foot-long beams. Initially, a constant axial load was applied to each column. The specimens were then subjected to a displacement-controlled loading schedule to simulate the type of displacements a frame may experience during a severe earthquake. In designing the specimens, the latest recommendations of the ACI-ASCE Committee 352 and the ACI building code ACI 318-83 were satisfied except for the following modifications: (1) the flexural strength ratio (M(R)) in the second specimen was reduced from 1.4 to 1.2, (2) the shear-stress factors (γ) in the joints of the third specimen were increased from 12 and 15 to 15 and 20 for the exterior and interior joints respectively, and (3) the number of the transverse reinforcements inside the right exterior joint in the fourth specimen was reduced from 4 to 2 sets of hoops. The conclusion inferred from the results indicate that for drift levels within the elastic range, the elongations and the rotations of the beam regions near the faces of the columns, in addition to the joint shear strains, were not affected by the design values for the primary variables in the last three specimens. For larger excursions into the inelastic range, the relaxation of the current Committee 352 design recommendations in the last three specimens not only showed a significant effect in reducing the elongations and the rotations of the beams, or in increasing the joint shear strains but led to lower energy dissipation of the specimens. Consequently, the current design guidelines by the ACI-ASCE Committee 352 yield statically indeterminate frames which exhibit sufficient ductility.

This study assesses the growing field of green building for its potential impact on the field of historic preservation. It is designed to provide a starting point for building owners and professionals in the industry seeking to gain LEED-EB certification on a historic structure. The potential impact of each LEED-EB credit to adversely affect historic fabric is evaluated for preservation, rehabilitation and reconstruction projects as defined by the Secretary of the Interior. Strategies for gaining certification for historic structures are discussed. Recommendations for further growth between the fields of historic preservation and green building are given. Early projects that combine historic preservation and green building are briefly discussed. / Department of Architecture

Standards may be argued to be important enablers for achieving interoperability as they aim to provide unambiguous specifications for error-free exchange of documents and information. By implication, therefore, it is important to model and represent the concept of a standard in a clear, precise and unambiguous way. Although standards development organisations usually provide guidelines for the process of developing and approving standards, they are usually more concerned with administrative aspect of the process. As a consequence, the state-of-the-art lacks practical support for developing the structure and content of a standard specification. In short, there is no systematic development method currently available: (a) For developing the conceptual model underpinning a standard; and/or (b) to guide a group of stakeholders to develop a standard specification. Semantic interoperability is considered to be an essential factor for effective interoperation – the ability to achieve semantic interoperability effectively and efficiently being strongly equated with quality by some. Semantics require that the meaning of terms, their relationships and also the restrictions and rules in the standards should be clearly defined in the early stages of standard development and act as a basis for the latter stages. This research proposes that ontology can help standards developers and stakeholders to address the issues of improving conceptual models and providing a robust and shared understanding of the domain. This thesis presents OntoStanD, a comprehensive ontology-based standards development methodology, which utilises the best practices of the existing ontology creation methods. The potential value of OntoStanD is in providing a comprehensive, clear and unambiguous method for developing robust information standards, which are more test friendly and of higher quality. OntoStanD also facilitates standards conformance testing and change management, impacts interoperability and also assists in improved communication among the standards development team. Last, OntoStanD provides an approach that is repeatable, teachable and potentially general enough for creating any kinds of information standard.

Besides ABT with higher order transform, a transform based template matching is also investigated. A fast method of template matching, called Fast Walsh Search, is developed. This search method has similar accuracy as exhaustive search but significantly lower computation requirement. / In this thesis, the development of simple but efficient order-16 transforms will be shown. Analysis and comparison with existing order-16 transforms have been carried out. The proposed order-16 transforms were integrated to the existing coding standard reference software individually so as to achieve a new ABT system. In the proposed ABT system, order-4, order-8 and order-16 transforms coexist. The selection of the most appropriate transform is based on the rate-distortion performance of these transforms. A remarkable improvement in coding performance is shown in the experiment results. A significant bit rate reduction can be achieved with our proposed ABT system with both subjective and objective qualities remain unchanged. / Prior knowledge of the coefficient distribution is a key to achieve better coding performance. This is very useful in many areas in coding such as rate control, rate distortion optimization, etc. It is also shown that coefficient distribution of predicted residue is closer to Cauchy distribution rather than traditionally expected Laplace distribution. This can effectively improve the existing processing techniques. / Three kinds of order-l 6 orthogonal DCT-like integer transforms are proposed in this thesis. The first one is the simple integer transform, which is expanded from existing order-8 ICT. The second one is the hybrid integer transform from the Dyadic Weighted Walsh Transform (DWWT). It is shown that it has a better performance than simple integer transform. The last one is a recursive transform. Order-2N transform can be derived from order-N one. It is very close to the DCT. This recursive transform can be implemented in two different ways and they are denoted as LLMICT and CSFICT. They have excellent coding performance. These proposed transforms are investigated and are implemented into the reference software of H.264 and AVS. They are also compared with other order-16 orthogonal integer transform. Experimental results show that the proposed transforms give excellent coding performance and ease to compute. / Transform is a very important coding tool in video coding. It decorrelates the pixel data and removes the redundancy among pixels so as to achieve compression. Traditionally, order-S transform is used in video and image coding. Latest video coding standards, such as H.264/AVC, adopt both order-4 and order-8 transforms. The adaptive use of more than one transforms of different sizes is known as Arbitrary Block-size Transform (ABT). Transforms other than order-4 and order-8 can also be used in ABT. It is expected larger transform size such as order-16 will benefit more in video sequences with higher resolutions such as nap and 1a8ap sequences. As a result, order-16 transform is introduced into ABT system. / Fong, Chi Keung. / Adviser: Wai Kuen Cham. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-04, Section: B, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

Nowadays, accounting standards available and employed in the world can be categorized in three difference sources: first of all, International Accounting Standards (IAS)/International Financial Reporting Standards(IFRS) issued by International Accounting Standards Board(IASB); second, U.S. GAAP issued by Financial Accounting Standards Board(FASB);and the last, accounting standards issued by individual country¡¦s accounting standards institution. The global trend is highly developing in international capital markets and multinational businesses operating strategies. As such, the investors in international capital markets have demands eagerly on clear and understandable financial statements for better investment analyses, and decisions. Therefore, a set of internationally-unified accounting principles is necessary in such economic environments. In these years, convergence to or direct adoption of IFRS have been an international hot topic and popularly discussed worldwide, and it seems an irrevocable trend to converge from local accounting principles to IFRS. R.O.C. Financial Supervisory Commission has announced the time schedules and structures of IFRS adoption, and set up several steps for public companies to adopt IFRS starting from 2013. There are still some significant differences existed between R.O.C. accounting principles and IAS/IFRS. Thus, this study was intended to assist Taiwan companies to understand the differences, make decisions on accounting policies while adopting IFRS, and evaluate the influences on financial statements and business operation activities, so that Taiwan companies can converge from ROC GAAP to IFRS with the international trend smoothly and successfully. This thesis contains five chapters. Chapter One is the introduction. Chapter Two is description of accounting organizations and literature, including the development of organization establishing IFRS and the application of IFRS in the world. Chapter Three is the comparison between R.O.C. accounting standards and IFRS, which firstly illustrates the current situation of R.O.C. accounting standards; secondly, compares the concept of IFRS to the R.O.C. accounting standards, and then uses the literature analysis method to identify the differences item by item. Chapter Four is the analysis of impacts and strategies, and various considerations while adopting IFRS. Chapter Five is the conclusion and research suggestion. The conclusion of the thesis includes as below, In the early years, the R.O.C. accounting standards were initially formed based on U.S. GAAP. However, ROC accounting standards are updated or revised based on IFRS gradually while more and more countries adopt IFRS, which contains ¡§principle-based¡¨ accounting standards. Such ¡§principle-based¡¨ standards can avoid specific detailed exception rules under ¡§rule-based¡¨ ones, and it also can reduce the possibility that companies create special arrangements in form to bypass the economic recognition in substance and qualify the standard requirements at the meantime. There are still several differences between IFRS and R.O.C. accounting standards. Therefore, the key point for companies to implement IFRS successfully is to understand the principles and concept structures of IFRS, and to compare the differences between IFRS and R.O.C. accounting standards. Since ROC accounting standards will be converged to IFRS by direct adoption, Taiwanese companies should evaluate the differences of measurement, classification, and disclosure requirements between IFRS and R.O.C. accounting standards. And, companies should prepare well their convergence plans in consideration of possible impacts and management changes, which will be also helpful for local companies to develop global operation strategies.

This paper explores how corporations can choose technical standards used throughout its organization. A methodology for choosing the standard is introduced. It is based on the methods that professional standards organizations use to create new standards for industries. The steps to choose an external standard as well as create new internal standards are consensus, development, approvals, and maintenance. Questions about standards from Applied Materials are answered: what technical standard should be used for engineering drawings, should the company use metric units, what tolerance scheme should be used, and how are standards chosen when a merger or acquisition is performed? Applied Materials should use the ASME Y14.5M-1994 standard. The move to metric should be done if the customers request it. Simple parts and complex assemblies should not be toleranced the same way. When mergers and acquisitions are done, the consensus, development, approval, and maintenance method should be used to choose which standards should be used. / text