Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Accumulated performance'

The response project and accompanying thesis aim to affirm the role of the dancer as an authority in revealing patterns and traces of accumulated lived experience, knowledge and ideas through the practice and performance of dance improvisation. The dancing body is investigated as a dynamical and complex system of research that is embedded in a process of continual response to the present. These bodily inscriptions and the process of active response form the seminal grounds for the physical and energetic exchange of improvised dance in performance.

Until recently there has been no generally accepted non-invasive method for determining energy expenditure during high intensity exercise. However, Medbø et al. (1988) have suggested that an individual's total energy (ATP) production from anaerobic metabolism may be determined by measuring the Accumulated Oxygen Deficit (AOD; ml O2 equivalents.kg-1 ). In recent studies it has been reported that there are strong correlations between AOD and anaerobic energy supply determined from changes in muscle metabolites during small muscle group (Bangsbo et al., 1990) and whole body cycle ergometer exercise (Medbø and Tabata, 1993; Withers et al., 1991). The purpose of the present thesis was: (i) to extend the limited information on AOD during running exercise for subjects with differing training backgrounds and particularly for women for whom no data are available; (ii) to investigate the relationship between AOD and human performance; and (iii) as determination of AOD is a time-consuming and costly laboratory procedure to develop a simple field test which accurately reflects AOD and thus anaerobic energy supply.

Dust accumulation on photovoltaic (PV) modules and its effect on their performance are of high concern for regions with a high rate of dust, low frequency and intensity of rain. In this thesis, the effect of dust on PV modules is investigated with respect to dust concentration and spectral transmittance. The measured spectral transmittance of the dust sample shows spectral attenuation effect that varies at different wavelengths. This effect is explained by the particle size distribution of the dust samples: At shorter wavelengths more light is scattered due to the effect of the smaller particles. This effect has a major impact on the PV module as it affects PV technologies with a wider band-gap more than those of a narrower band-gap. The effect of dust is accumulative, i.e. PV module performance is reduced by increasing deposition over time or until it's cleared manually or by rain. The tilt angle of the PV installation plays a major role in the amount of dust accumulated on the devices, where higher tilt angles result in decreased dust concentrations. This effect is demonstrated in outdoor measurements where tilted modules had lower losses in daily as well as total array yield. It is also shown that tilted modules benefit from precipitation more than horizontal modules. However over the exposure period the modules did not show any clear aging effect caused specifically from dust accumulation or exhibit any seasonal variation. Different tilt angles can produce varying non-uniform dust patterns on the device surface. This effect and its pattern over long and short periods of exposure are investigated by means of spatial three dimensional modelling. The simulations compare two dust accumulation patterns that represent a short exposure to a single dusty day (one day) and a long exposure of dust (3 months). Out of the two patterns, the long exposure patterns showed higher losses of 19.4% in comparison to 14.8% for the short exposure. The simulation also showed that dust accumulation that promotes high concentration of dust at the bottom of the PV modules where it covers a full cell has a high risk of triggering hot spots and thus risks permanent module damage. A dust correction model for energy prediction is developed. The model takes into consideration dust concentration, spectral attenuation effect of dust, PV technology, and various meteorological variables. The modified spectral transmittances of the dust were incorporated into the model in the form of pre-measured data. This means in this work samples collected in Kuwait were measured and used to generate the input. The model is compared against the outdoor measured data and a good agreement between measurements iv and simulations is demonstrated. Using this model two procedures were developed. The first evaluates the uncertainties associated with dust over long periods of time. The second is to find the optimised cleaning schedule and frequency of cleaning based on acceptable yield loss margins over the simulated period of time. The optimisation of the cleaning schedule showed that for Kuwait setting the daily energy losses in PV modules at less than 10% will set the cost of cleaning higher than the cost of energy lost due to dust.

Business Administration/Finance
D.B.A.
This dissertation explores the relationship between governance quality, accumulated wealth, and organizational performance in U.S. nonprofits. Accumulated wealth in nonprofits has been previously shown to reduce overall support contributions because donors perceive less need for financial resources. Further, the absence of owners leads to weaker monitoring mechanisms and greater agency problems. Despite the size of the nonprofit sector (5.5% of GDP and 9% of employment), the impact of governance in organizations with accumulated wealth has not been studied much. Using recent data on governance practices at nonprofits reported on IRS Form 990’s and structural equation modeling/partial least squares analysis, this study finds that the strength of governance practices in nonprofits reduces the negative impact of accumulated wealth in Arts, Education, Environment, Health, Higher Education, Hospitals, Human Services, International, and Religious organizations. This paper demonstrates how agency theory and stakeholder theory complement each other when the nonprofit business model has a traditional revenue structure similar to its for-profit counterpart. For practitioners, it shows that combining a strong governing body, governing policies, compensation policies, and transparency policies, helps hold management accountable. This is necessary for the more efficient and effective execution of a nonprofit’s mission.
Temple University--Theses

Orientador: Antonio Carlos de Moraes
Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Educação Fisica
Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-11T14:01:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Altimari_LeandroRicardo_D.pdf: 2753845 bytes, checksum: 72487f2f03add9833dd0a2e582f711e2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008
Resumo: O propósito do presente estudo foi investigar o efeitos da ingestão de cafeína (6 mg.kg-1) sobre o desempenho físico e mecanismos associados à fadiga de ciclistas em esforços supramáximos. Fizeram parte do estudo dez ciclistas com idade média de 27,5 ± 4,1 anos e tempo médio de prática na modalidade de 9,8 ± 4,7 anos. Os indivíduos foram submetidos a diferentes situações experimentais: 1) Determinação do consumo de oxigênio de pico (VO2pico) e limiar ventilatório (LV2); 2) Determinação da demanda acumulada de oxigênio (DEO2) (4 sessões de exercício submáximo - 60, 70, 80 e 90% do VO2pico), e 3) Teste retangular supramáximo (110% do VO2pico) para determinação do MAOD realizado em duas situações distintas (CAF - cafeína e PL - placebo/maltodextrina) aleatoriamente, em sistema duplo cego, com no mínimo 72 horas de intervalo entre os testes. Os sujeitos foram submetidos a mensuração de parâmetros antropométricos e anamnese nutricional para determinação do habito alimentar. Os sinais EMG foram coletados durante o teste retangular supramáximo (MAOD). O esforço percebido utilizando a escala de 6-20 pontos de Borg (1982) foi reportado a cada 30s de exercício no teste retangular supramáximo (MAOD). A concentração de lactato sangüíneo foi analisada em repouso (-60 min), imediatamente antes (0 min) e após (1, 3, 5, 7 e 10 min) o teste de MAOD nas condições CAF e PL. Os resultados demonstraram que o tempo de exaustão, a DEAO2 e o MAOD foram significantemente maiores na condição CAF comparada a PL (P<0,05). Não foram constatadas diferenças significantes na atividade EMG (RMS) dos músculos VL, VM, RF e QF integrados entre as condições CAF e PL em todos os períodos de tempo analisados (P>0,05). Quando comparado os slopes de FM dos músculos VL, VM, RF e QF integrados entre as condições CAF e PL estes se mostraram significantemente menores para ambos os músculos na condição CAF (P<0,05). O slope da PSE foi significantemente maior na condição CAF comparado a PL (P<0,05). Entretanto, o y-intercepto apresentou valor significantemente menor na condição CAF comparado a PL (P<0,05). Vale ressaltar que o valor de PSE inicial (30 s) medido durante o teste de MAOD na condição CAF foi significantemente menor comparado a PL (P <0,05). Não foram constatadas diferenças significantes nas concentrações de lactato sanguíneo entre as condições CAF e PL (P>0,05). Podemos concluir que a ingestão de cafeína (6 mg.kg-1) melhorou o desempenho anaeróbio pela atenuação da taxa de fadiga muscular causada por provável aumento na velocidade da condução dos impulsos nervosos para as fibras musculares
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the caffeine ingestion (6 mg.kg-1) on performance and mechanisms associated with the fatigue of cyclists in efforts supramaximum. Ten cyclists (age 27.5 ± 4.1 years; cycling experience 9.8 ± 4.7 years) were submitted to different experimental situations: 1) determination of the peak oxygen consumption (VO2pico) and ventilatory threshold (LV); 2) Determination of the accumulated oxygen demand (DEO2) (4 sessions of submaximum exercise - 60, 70, 80 and 90% of VO2pico), and 3) Supramaximum constant load test (110% of VO2pico) for determination of MAOD accomplished randomized in two different situations (CAF - caffeine and PL - placebo/maltodextrine), in double blind way, with an interval among tests with at least 72 hours. The subjects were submitted to anthropometric measurement and nutritional anamnesis for determination of the eating habits. The EMG signs were collected during the supramaximum constant load test (MAOD). The ratings of perceived exertion (PSE) were acquired using the 6-20 Borg scale (1982) being reported at each 30s of exercise during MAOD test. The blood lactate was analyzed in rest (-60 min), immediately before (0 min) and after (1, 3, 5, 7 and 10 min) during the MAOD test at CAF and PL conditions. The results demonstrated that the time of exhaustion, DEAO2 and MAOD were significantly larger in CAF than in PL condition (P < 0.05). Significant differences were not verified in the EMG activity (RMS) from Vastus Lateralis (VL), Vastus Medialis (VM), Rectus Femoris (RF) and integrated Quadriceps Femoris (QF) muscles among CAF and PL conditions during all of the analyzed periods (P > 0.05). When compared the mean power frequency (MPF) slopes of the muscles VL, VM, RF and QF integrated among the conditions CAF and PL these smaller significantly were shown for both muscles in the condition CAF (P < 0.05). The PSE slope was significantly higher during CAF when compare to PL condition (P < 0.05). However, the y-intercept presented significantly smaller value in CAF than in PL condition (P < 0.05). It is worthwhile to highlight that the initial value of PSE (30 s) measured during the MAOD test during CAF condition was significantly smaller than PL (P < 0.05). No significant differences were verified in the blood lactate concentrations between CAF and PL conditions (P > 0.05). It is possible to conclude that caffeine ingestion (6 mg.kg-1) improved anaerobic performance with the reduction of the rate of muscle fatigue, which could be explained by an increase in the firing rate of the neural impulse to muscles fibers
Doutorado
Ciencias do Desporto
Doutor em Educação Física

This research quantifies risk reduction and performance of the producer accumulator contract in corn and soybean markets. To quantify performance, we use three alternative theoretical pricing models to estimate historical producer accumulator contract specifications in corn and soybean markets. We then compare the performance of the producer accumulator to eight alternative agricultural marketing strategy portfolios that are also used in new generation grain contracts.

The performance measures we compare are: average bushel price that would be received by the producer, daily portfolio risk, and the Sharpe ratio. The period we examine performance was between 2008 and 2017. We investigate performance of the producer accumulator executed during each year, month, whether the contract was executed during the growing season or non-growing season, and beginning and following an uptrend, neutral trend, and downtrend ranging in length from 25 to 100-days. Specific to the producer accumulator, we also quantify bushels accumulated during the contract period.

We find the average price the producer would expect to receive adopting an accumulator to slightly underperform the average price they would receive with a long futures portfolio in corn and slightly outperform long futures in soybeans. Nevertheless, the accumulator significantly reduces daily risk compared to the long futures portfolio. Indeed, producer accumulator portfolios produced average daily Sharpe ratios exceeding all other simulated risk management strategies in corn and soybeans on an average annual and average aggregate basis from 2008-2017. Consequently, the producer accumulator portfolio offered corn and soybean producers the best risk adjusted return to hedge production during this time-frame.

In this thesis, we discuss the implementation of a low latency decoding algorithm for turbo codes and repeat accumulate codes and compare the implementation results in terms of maximum available clock speed, resource consumption, error correction performance, and the data (information bit) rate. In order to decrease the latency a parallelized decoder structure is introduced for these mentioned codes and the results are obtained by implementing the decoders on a field programmable gate array. The memory collision problem is avoided by using collision-free interleavers. Through a proposed quantization scheme and normalization approximations, computational issues are handled for overcoming the overflow and underflow issues in a fixed point arithmetic. Also, the effect of different implementation styles are observed.

Les travaux de cette thèse visent le développement d’un accumulateur au plomb-acide aux propriétés améliorées en combinant l’utilisation d’additifs et la mise en compression des cellules. L’utilisation d’additifs poreux vise à favoriser la diffusion de l’électrolyte au sein de la matière active positive et l’utilisation d’additifs de conductivité tend à optimiser le réseau de conduction des matériaux actifs. Le maintien de la cohésion des matières en cyclage est assuré par la mise en compression des électrodes. Dans cet objectif, un protocole de fabrication d’électrodes positives a été développé au laboratoire. Un comportement de référence a ensuite été définit en déterminant les performances électriques et les caractéristiques des électrodes témoins soumises à des pressions allant de 0 à 1bar. Puis les effets des additifs ont été évalués lors d’applications en compression. Notre but étant également une meilleure compréhension du système plomb-acide et du mode de fonctionnement des additifs, des mécanismes pour expliquer l’évolution texturale des matériaux actifs positifs en compression et l’interaction entre les additifs et l’application d’une pression ont été proposés

Ce projet de thèse porte sur la recherche de nouveaux électrolytes et additifs dans le but d’améliorer la cyclabilité d’une électrode négative composite de formule Si0.32Ni0.14Sn0.17Al0.04C0.35 et d’obtenir une interface électrode|électrolyte stable. En effet, comme la plupart des matériaux à base de silicium, ce composite de grande capacité (plus de 600 mA.h.g-1) souffre actuellement d’une faible durée de vie provenant essentiellement des expansions volumiques qu’il subit lors de sa lithiation et de sa SEI défaillante. Deux types d'électrolytes ont été évalués : (i) un mélange de carbonates d’alkyles EC/PC/3DMC auquel a été ajouté un sel de lithium (LiPF6, LiTFSI, LiFSI ou LiDFOB) ainsi que des additifs aidant à la formation de la SEI tels que le carbonate de vinylène (VC) ou le carbonate de fluoroéthylène (FEC), (ii) des liquides ioniques (LI) contenant un cation ammonium quaternaire (N1114+), imidazolium (EMI+) ou pyrrolidinium (PYR+), associé à un anion à charge délocalisée comme le bis(trifluorométhanesulfonyl)amidure (TFSI-) ou le bis(fluorosulfonyl)amidure (FSI-). L’analyse du diagramme d’ionicité de Walden a permis de mettre en évidence la bonne dissociation de LiFSI et LiPF6 dans EC/PC/3DMC assurant ainsi des conductivités ioniques supérieures à 12 mS.cm-1. Bien que possédant des propriétés de transport a priori moins intéressantes dans ce mélange ternaire que les autres sels, LiDFOB forme en réduction une SEI permettant au composite de fournir les meilleures performances en cyclage sans additif avec 560 mA.h.g-1 pour un rendement coulombique de 98,4%. L’ajout d’additif est cependant nécessaire pour atteindre les objectifs fixés par le projet en termes de rendement coulombique (>99,5%). Dans ce cas, l’ajout de 2%VC+10%FEC au mélange ternaire est le plus intéressant avec LiPF6. Le matériau fourni ainsi des capacités de 550 mA.h.g-1 durant une centaine de cycles à un régime de C/5 avec un rendement coulombique de 99,8%. En milieu LI, les performances optimales sont atteintes avec le [EMI][FSI] et 1 mol.L-1 de LiFSI. Le composite atteint alors une capacité de 635 mA.h.g-1 durant 100 cycles à un régime de C/5 avec un rendement coulombique très proche de 100%, tout en s’affranchissant de l’ajout d’additifs. Malgré une viscosité bien plus élevée que celles des mélanges de carbonates d’alkyles, cette formulation permet de générer une SEI plus stable dont la nature, principalement minérale, est issue majoritairement des produits de réduction de FSI-
This study focuses on new electrolytes and additives in order to improve the cyclability of a Si0.32Ni0.14Sn0.17Al0.04C0.35 negative composite electrode (Si-Sn) and to obtain a stable electrolyte|electrolyte interface. Indeed, like most silicon-based materials, this high-capacity Si-Sn composite (over 600 mA.hg-1) currently suffers from a short cycle life due to volume expansion during charge-discharge processes leading to the degradation of the SEI. To improve the quality of the interface, two kinds of electrolytes were evaluated: (i) mixtures of alkyl carbonates EC/PC/3DMC in which a lithium salt (LiPF6, LiTFSI, LiFSI or LiDFOB) and additives like SEI builder (vinylene carbonate (VC) or fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC)) were added, (ii) ionic liquids (IL) based on quaternary ammonium (N1114+), imidazolium (EMI+) or pyrrolidinium (PYR+) cation, associated with delocalized charge anions such as bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (TFSI-) or bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide (FSI-). The Walden diagram confirms the efficient dissociation of LiFSI and LiPF6 in EC/PC/3DM ensuring ionic conductivities as high as 12 mS.cm-1. Although possessing limited transport properties in such a ternary mixture compared to other salts, LiDFOB forms, without additional additives, an high quality SEI allowing the composite to provide the best performances in half cells (560 mA.hg-1 and 98.4% coulombic efficiency). The use of additive is however necessary to reach the objectives fixed by the ANR research project in terms of coulombic efficiency (>99.5%). In this case, the addition of 2%VC+10%FEC to the ternary mixture is the most interesting composition with LiPF6 as lithium salt. So, the Si-Sn nanocomposite material reaches 550 mA.h.g-1 during 100 cycles at C/5 with 99.8% efficiency. In IL, the best performances are achieved in [EMI][FSI]/LiFSI (1 mol.L-1). The performances of the Si-Sn composite reaches 635 mA.h.g-1 for 100 cycles at C/5 with coulombic efficiency close to 100%, without additives. This electrolyte formulation generates a stable SEI which the mainly mineral composition, is predominantly derived from the reduction products of FSI-

Ce travail de thèse porte sur le développement d’une technologie Pb-acide de type AGM, avec une conception innovante reposant sur des collecteurs de courant constitués de feuille/grille de titane (électrode positive) et de carbone flexible (électrode négative) couverts d’une couche mince de matériaux actifs. Cette nouvelle approche permet d’augmenter la densité d’énergie et la puissance spécifique de la batterie sans pénaliser sa cyclabilité et sa durée de vie. Des paramètres tels que la résistance électrique et l’utilisation de la matière active ont été évalués avec succès en laboratoire (cyclage profond, cyclage partiel, voltampérométrie cyclique et spectroscopie d’impédance). Ceci en utilisant des cellules plomb-acide et plomb-carbone-acide de petites tailles compressées avec des séparateurs poreux en fibre de verre (AGM). L’épaisseur, la porosité et la quantité d’expandeur sont les paramètres clefs influençant l’évolution de l’utilisation de la matière active négative. Le processus réversible de stockage d’hydrogène à l’intérieur du carbone activé, utilisé comme additif principal dans la plaque négative, est en compétition avec le système Pb/PbSO4 et inhibe son fonctionnement pour une fraction massique supérieure à 9,3 %m. L’utilisation de titane recouvert de SnO2 comme collecteur de courant élimine l’apparition de la corrosion responsable de la défaillance de la cellule. Des modèles multiphysiques basés sur ces données permettront de déterminer la géométrie optimale correspondante à chaque type d’application (énergie, puissance)
The aim of this work is to present and proof new concept of high performance lead-acid cells using new thin-plate electrodes. The new approach allows increasing the energy density and the specific power of the battery without a penalty for its cycle and calendar lifetime. Flexible carbon support electroplated with lead and thin surface-modified titanium mesh/foil are used as current collectors. Parameters like electric resistance and active materials utilization have been evaluated successfully in long-term laboratory tests (deep-cycling, micro-cycling, cyclic voltammetry, impedance spectroscopy) using small-scale compressed lead-acid and lead-carbon cells with absorptive glass mat (AGM) separators. The thickness, the porosity and the expander loading are the key parameters which influence the evolution of the negative active material utilization. It has been found that the process of reversible hydrogen storage within the activated carbon used as main dopant of the negative plate competes with the Pb/PbSO4 electrode inhibiting its operation at carbon loading higher than 9.3 %m. The use of SnO2 coated titanium as positive current collector eliminates completely the appearance of corrosion-related battery failure. Multiphysics modeling based on these data will allow fitting to all the battery applications (power, energy)

This master thesis deals with the performance calculations of a 9MW linear Fresnel CSP plant withdirect steam generation built by the Solar Division of the CNIM Company. The aim was to calculate theannual electricity production taking into account the weather conditions as well as some steam storage.At first, a steam accumulator model was developed with Excel, in order to estimate the pressureevolution in the tanks during the charging, storage and discharging processes. The data obtained withthis model was then integrated to the thermodynamic cycle model, programmed with Excel, whichcalculated the electrical power production knowing the thermal power available in the solar field. Theelectricity production calculations were made every 600 seconds during one year.To improve the results accuracy, the influence of the plant location slope was estimated, calculating theequivalent azimuth and elevation angles in a new spherical coordinates system. For an average slope of4.21° at the plant location, the annual thermal energy gain is 14.4% (with a gain up to 60% duringwinter days) and the annual electricity production is increased by 12.59%. The influence of frost on themirrors during cold and humid nights was also estimated with a simple model of the energy needed toheat up a constant layer of ice. Depending on the assumptions, the electricity production losses werebetween 1.27 and 2.84% of annual electricity production. The losses due to plant shutdowns set by theelectrical network manager RTE during the snowmelt months were also estimated. The annualelectricity production could decrease by 8.02 to 11.57 % because of the load management, dependingon the days during which the plant is shutdown.Finally, an economic optimisation was led with prices estimated by CNIM, which gave an optimal solarfield design with 31 lines and 5 steam accumulators. The payback time would then be 9.887 years.

The theme of this diploma thesis are the issue of energy evaluation of buildings and the reduction of energy consumption in the Czech legal system in the theoretical part, an analysis of energy consumption of the judged building in an old and new state in the calculation part and an energy audit of the main building of SRC Lihovar in Třemošnice according to Decree no. 480/2012 Coll. The three-storey main building of sports and rehabilitation center is located on the southern edge of city Třemošnice and it used to be a distillery until it has been renovated in 2013. There is a restaurant with a bowling room, hotel with two conference lounges, wellness, fitness and a swimming pool. The heat source for this building are two gas boilers, three heat pumps and solar collector array. There is partly forced and partly natural ventilation installed in the building.

Speeding up addition is the key to faster digital signal processing (DSP). This can be achieved by exploiting the properties of redundant number systems. Their expanded symbol (digit) alphabet gives them multiple representations for most values. Utilising redundant representations at the output of an adder permits addition to be performed without carry-propagation, yielding fast, constant time performance irrespective of the word length. A resource efficient implementation of this fast adder structure is developed that re-purposes the fast carry logic of low-cost field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Experiments confirm constant time addition and show that it outperforms binary ripple carry addition at word lengths of greater than 44 bits in a Xilinx Spartan 3 FPGA and 24 bits in an Altera Cyclone III FPGA. Redundancy also provides other properties that can be exploited for performance gain. Some redundant representations will have more zero-symbols than others. These maximise the opportunities to exploit the multiplicative absorbing and additive identity properties of zero that when exercised reduce superfluous calculations. A serial recoding algorithm is developed that generates a redundant representation for a specified value with as few nonzero symbols as possible. Unlike previously published methods, it accepts a wide specification of number systems including those with irregularly spaced symbol alphabets. A Markov analysis and analysis of the elementary cycles in the formulated state machine provides average and worst case measures for the tested number system. Typically, the average number of non-zero symbols is less than a third and the worst case is less than a half. Further to the increase in zero-symbols, zero-dominance is proposed as a new property of redundant number representations. It promotes a set of representations that have uniquely positioned zero-symbols, in a Pareto-optimal sense. This set covers all representations of a value and is used to select representations to optimise the calculation of a dot-product. The dot-product or vector-multiply is a fundamental operation in DSP, since it is employed in filtering, correlation and convolution. The nonzero partial products can be packed together, substantially reducing the calculation time. The application of redundant number systems provides a two-fold benefit. Firstly, the number of nonzero partial products is reduced. Secondly, a novel opportunity is identified to use the representations in the zero-dominant set to optimise the packing further, gaining an extra 18% improvement. An implementation of the proposed dot-product with partial product packing is developed for a Cyclone II FPGA. It outperforms a quad-multiplier binary implementation in throughput by 50% . Redundant number systems excel at increasing performance in particular DSP subsystems, those that are numerically intensive and consist of considerable accumulation. The conversion back to a binary result is the performance bottleneck in the DSP algorithm, taking a time proportional to a binary adder. Therefore, redundant number systems are best utilised when this conversion cost can be amortised over many fast redundant additions, which is typical in many DSP and communications applications.

This master's thesis is focused on conceptual design of glider with electric propulsion system following the CS-22 regulation. Statistical analysis of the glider with an auxiliary electric engine has been carried out in order to determine basic design parameters for conceptual design. Based on analytical drag polar, the flight performance parameters are calculated, in particular flight range and influence of the solar panels on the flight range. This thesis also includes preliminary design solution of accumulator placement within the wing.

Dans ce travail nous avons réalisé la synthèse de nitrures structure 2D Li3-2xCoxN et de structure 3D Li7MnN4 par méthode céramique, sous atmosphère contrôlée. Après avoir acquis la maîtrise des paramètres de synthèse, nous réalisons la caractérisation structurale et l'étude des propriétés électrochimiques de chaque matériau (capacité spécifique, rechargeabilité...). Dans le cas des matériaux 2D, des affinements par la méthode de Rietveld nous ont permis de déterminer précisément les formules de ces composés. Une étude par spectroscopie diélectrique met en évidence la présence d'une faible proportion de Co+ parmi les Co2+ à l'origine de propriétés de conduction électronique. Nous montrons pour une étude DRX in-operando que le volume de maille ne varie que de 1,5% lors de d'un cycle expliquant la stabilité des capacités de 180mAh g-1 à 300 mAh g-1 selon les conditions. Dans le cas des matériaux 3D, Li7MnN4 a montré les meilleures performances avec des capacités réversibles jusqu' 300mAh g-1. Une étude DRX in-operando a montré que le mécanisme de désinsertion du lithium se déroulé en deux biphasage et une étape de solution solide. Une optimisation des performances est possible en réduisant la taille des particules par mécanobroyage : des capacités de 250 et 120 mAh g-1 sont obtenus à régime C et 5c. L'ensemble de ces nitrures présentent une forte réactivité avec l'humidité mais leur structure a pu être préservée sous air sec

S tím, jak se neustále vyvíjejí nové technologie pro energeticky náročná průmyslová odvětví, stávající zařízení postupně zaostávají v efektivitě a produktivitě. Tvrdá konkurence na trhu a legislativa v oblasti životního prostředí nutí tato tradiční zařízení k ukončení provozu a k odstavení. Zlepšování procesu a projekty modernizace jsou zásadní v udržování provozních výkonů těchto zařízení. Současné přístupy pro zlepšování procesů jsou hlavně: integrace procesů, optimalizace procesů a intenzifikace procesů. Obecně se v těchto oblastech využívá matematické optimalizace, zkušeností řešitele a provozní heuristiky. Tyto přístupy slouží jako základ pro zlepšování procesů. Avšak, jejich výkon lze dále zlepšit pomocí moderní výpočtové inteligence. Účelem této práce je tudíž aplikace pokročilých technik umělé inteligence a strojového učení za účelem zlepšování procesů v energeticky náročných průmyslových procesech. V této práci je využit přístup, který řeší tento problém simulací průmyslových systémů a přispívá následujícím: (i)Aplikace techniky strojového učení, která zahrnuje jednorázové učení a neuro-evoluci pro modelování a optimalizaci jednotlivých jednotek na základě dat. (ii) Aplikace redukce dimenze (např. Analýza hlavních komponent, autoendkodér) pro vícekriteriální optimalizaci procesu s více jednotkami. (iii) Návrh nového nástroje pro analýzu problematických částí systému za účelem jejich odstranění (bottleneck tree analysis – BOTA). Bylo také navrženo rozšíření nástroje, které umožňuje řešit vícerozměrné problémy pomocí přístupu založeného na datech. (iv) Prokázání účinnosti simulací Monte-Carlo, neuronové sítě a rozhodovacích stromů pro rozhodování při integraci nové technologie procesu do stávajících procesů. (v) Porovnání techniky HTM (Hierarchical Temporal Memory) a duální optimalizace s několika prediktivními nástroji pro podporu managementu provozu v reálném čase. (vi) Implementace umělé neuronové sítě v rámci rozhraní pro konvenční procesní graf (P-graf). (vii) Zdůraznění budoucnosti umělé inteligence a procesního inženýrství v biosystémech prostřednictvím komerčně založeného paradigmatu multi-omics.

The thesis investigated a method of determining accumulated oxygen deficit (AOD) in children and quantified the anaerobic performance of children in a variety of ways. The first of the studies investigated the developmental profile of anaerobic performance using AOD in three groups of male children classified as pre-pubertal, pubertal or post-pubertal. The second study investigated the potential differences in the oxygen uptake when discrete and continuous incremental submaximal protocols were used to determine the relationship between submaximal oxygen uptake and exercise intensity. This second study also aimed to investigate the repeatability of oxygen uptake during continuous incremental submaximal exercise. Study Three compared AOD of pre-pubertal males using running and cycling as the modes of exercise.

The thesis presents the outcomes of a study on the accumulated performance of a solar thermal powered adsorption refrigeration system. The solar-powered solid adsorption refrigeration system has numerous advantages including no moving parts during operation, using solar energy as the only heat input to run the whole system and being environmentally benign. The methanol and activated carbon selected as a working pair are due to advantages of their ice-making capacity, high efficiency and low price. The system, in its simplest form, runs according to the intermittent daily solar cycle, only making cooling at night and not during the daytime. The previous research mainly focuses on the individual daily cycle under the assumption that the system restores back to its original point every day, regardless of a real climate condition. In reality, for such a refrigeration system, its real performance depends not only on the current day’s weather condition but also on the previous day’s situation. However, the accumulated performance of the system over a period has only been little studied, which brings out three research questions that remain to be answered: How should a new configuration be modified, in order to make the system accumulate cooling capacity without removing ice daily? How many situations should be involved in the new accumulated cycles with consideration of real daily and hourly climate conditions? How should the mathematical models be established, in order to simulate the accumulated performance of the system more realistic and accurately? Therefore, the aim of the research is to develop a better understanding of an accumulated performance of an activated carbon/methanol refrigeration system if running over a period, e.g. days or weeks, by developing two validated simulation models. The thesis complies with the graduation by publication format of the University of Adelaide, which consists of one published journal article and one submitted journal article which is currently under review. The two articles are able to demonstrate the outcomes of the study and also form the main part of the thesis. Additional introduction and a literature review are provided to establish the context and significance of this work. The main outcomes of the study include: The new configuration of such a system, which can accumulate the cooling capacity without removing ice daily, has been established. In the configuration, the receiver and evaporator must be separated by adding separation valves between them. Possible cycles of such a system have been identified with consideration of realistic daily climate conditions. The mathematical model using daily weather data, with consideration of possible leftover liquid in the receiver, has been developed. The model has been validated against the published experimental data with an acceptable agreement. A desktop case-study for 50 consecutive days has been used to demonstrate the difference in the simulation of accumulated performance by two models, i.e. the model using daily climate conditions and the model under ideal assumptions. It has been concluded that the developed model using daily climate conditions is more accurate than the model under the ideal assumptions. The second mathematical model using hourly weather data has been developed based on seven possible cycles. These cycles, which are involved in the initial heating process and condensing process during the daytime, have been identified. The mathematical model using hourly climate conditions has been validated against the published experimental data with a more accurate agreement, compared to that of the model using daily climate conditions. A desktop case-study for three climatic days has been conducted to demonstrate the difference in the simulation of performance when the model using daily climate conditions and hourly climate conditions respectively. The daily performance (i.e. daily-evaporated methanol liquid) simulated from the new model could be 31.3% more than that from the first mathematical model in a special climatic day.
Thesis (MPhil) -- University of Adelaide, School of Mechanical Engineering, 2019

碩士
國立成功大學
工程科學系專班
96
When electronic components or chemical materials are subjected to a high temperature environment for a long period of time, the operation lives of the components and the balance stability of the chemical materials inside a working machine will be affected. Currently, the air or water cooling is commonly used in the practical application of heat dissipation. Fins, which can increase the cooling area, are often utilized to raise the heat-dissipation efficient of these two cooling methods. In this thesis, water cooling with fins is used to transfer the heat accumulated in a working machine and the heat-dissipating performance is evaluated. In this work, an experimental model is built, which is a close system of cuboid shape. A heater, which is used to simulate the heat source, is fixed on or moved up and down repeatedly along an internal vertical surface of the cuboid. Four primary subjects are studied: (1) the comparison of heat-dissipating performances for different inlet water temperatures and heights of homemade water cooling module, (2) the comparison of heat-dissipating performances for homemade and bought water cooling modules, (3) the comparison of heat-dissipating performances for the water cooling module with electrical fans installed on the vertical surface of the cuboid or a fan on the module, (4) Evaluation of heat-dissipating performances for a heater moving up and down repeatedly. From the evaluation results of the heat-dissipating performance, it can be found that the cooling module with a fan on it is the best, the cooling module with fans installed on the vertical surface of the cuboid is the second best and the cooling module alone is the worst. Under the same working conditions, the thermal resistance of the best one is one half of that for the worst one and the best one is six times the decrease in air temperature of the cuboid of the worst one. In the heat-dissipation process, the condensed water is attached to the fins, which hinders the heat transfer in the worst one. The condensed water can be removed by the fan installed on the module so that the best one has the highest performance. With the same working conditions, the performance of the fixed heater is almost the same as that of the moving heater.

碩士
國立宜蘭大學
機械與機電工程學系碩士班
104
Electrospinning was based on high polymer material oriented. It is the processing technology to coordinated with the organic solvent and modulate electrospinning solution to make micro fiber even nanofiber, have low processing costs and material characteristics diversification. Nowadays, electrospinning used in Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) has been tracked in current study. But almost research only modified on proton exchange membrane and electrode plates. Only a few research combined with electro-Fenton-reaction to discuss. In this study, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) polymer as a composite plate material by adding grapheme film composite plate as a catalyst and Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) as a composite fiber stage. Used in Bio-Electro-Fenton Microbial Fuel Cell (BEFMFC) system cathode plates by adding 0wt%, 2wt%, 4wt%, 6wt% and 8wt% of graphene to composite with PVA and prepare the electrospinning nanofiber. Discuss with the BEFMFC’s power performance and efficiency of Fenton system. Experimented with (1)composited fibers morphology and state by contact angle measurement instrument hydrophilic composite fibers were measured. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) to analysis the graphene and PVA electrospun fibers functional group binding state, and then to a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and a transmission electron microscope (TEM) to confirm the status of binding with the case of electrospinning PVA composited fibers with graphene. (2) To analysis the graphene/PVA electrospinning laminated ITO composited electrode’s electrochemical capacity, electrical resistivity and electrical conductivity, use the four-point probe measured the electrical conductivity of graphene/PVA composite electrode. Use electrochemical measuring instrument to measuring Cyclic voltammetry (CV) in different individual electrode electrochemical capacity. (3) Finally, a composite measure of the plate prepared in this study on BEFMFC’s Power performance and efficiency of azo dyes(Reactive Black5, RB5) decolorization by bio-electro-fenton system. The results showed that by measuring the contact angle of the hydrophilic contact angle with increasing graphene additive amount is gradually reduced, at the time 8wt% added amount can be reduced to 10.71 °. Using fourier transform infrared spectroscopy confirmed that graphene can be successfully combined with the PVA and the added amount of graphene characterized its functional group was obvious at 4wt% of graphene. SEM can be observed with the addition of fiber diameter graphene content to enhance and gradually decreased when adding 8wt% fiber diameter can reduced to 103.74nm. Resistivity and the electrical conductivity measured with the 8wt% graphene contents has the best electrical conductance 1.46 × 10-6 (S/m).The CV in electrochemical activity scanning at 4wt% graphene contents have the best electrochemical activity. BEFMFC in a series of energy measurement showed the composite ITO plate graphene addition amount of 4wt% has the best power density 74.1mW/m2 and the open circuit voltage (OCV) of 0.42V.Cyclic voltammetry analysis has the best effect of also 4wt% amount of graphene. The RB5 decolorization at 4wt% graphene additive amount has the highest rate of 60.25%, showing that bio-electro-Fenton reaction efficiency is best at 4wt% amount of graphene/PVA composited electrode. Also, the graphene addition amount of 4wt% with PVA to produce the composited electrode should has the best electrochemical reaction.

ABSTRACT Male subjects are invariably used to study the physiological determinants of middle distance running performance. Studies that do include females have examined only the aerobic contribution to middle distance running performance. The aim of the present study was to investigate aerobic, anaerobic and muscle function factors that could be used to predict middle distance running performance in female runners. This study was performed at an altitude of 1800m. Eleven middle distance female runners aged 18-20 were selected for the study. Aerobic capacity was assessed by measuring the maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max), running velocity at maximal oxygen consumption (vVO2max), running economy (RE) and onset of blood lactate accumulation (OBLA). The blood lactate curve of each subject was constructed by relating the oxygen consumption, to the plasma lactate concentrations. Anaerobic capacity was determined by measuring the maximum accumulated oxygen deficit (MAOD) on a treadmill. Muscle function was assessed by having the subjects cycle as fast as possible against changing brake weights ranging from heavy to light using a Monark cycle ergometer. The brake force (kg) was related to velocity (rpm).

碩士
國立交通大學
電子工程系所
94
This thesis presents the design methodology of a high-performance reconfigurable multiplier-accumulator (MAC) capable of supporting sub-word parallelism (SWP) and additional features such as mixed-mode operation and flexible sub-word combination and mode assignment scheme. In order to perform SWP on the proposed scalar MAC, a new SWP partial product array and a novel speed-optimized SWP partial product reduction tree are proposed. With slight delay and some area overhead, the SWP MAC utilizes essentially the same hardware as the proposed scalar MAC. The whole design is dynamically reconfigurable, fully-synthesizable, reusable, and verifiable. The proposed designs and previous relevant works are implemented and compared. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed SWP MAC design theoretically and practically improves and outperforms previous works in terms of critical path delay, area cost, and power consumption.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
This thesis is comprised of two distinct sections with different background, aims and implications, but which share the same methodology – analysis of three cognitive tasks with the Linear Ballistic Accumulator (LBA) model. In the first section, I investigate the across task consistency of LBA parameter estimates to address an untested assumption that the estimates capture general, underlying cognitive processes, which are more than just task specific. I find that there is indeed consistency in the estimates across three similar but distinct tasks and therefore proceed to develop a novel approach which incorporates this shared information, providing more efficient and precise estimation. I fit the LBA to two tasks simultaneously by including a covariance matrix for two tasks into the hierarchical Bayesian estimation procedure. Despite the additional constraint this matrix imposes, the combined model adequately estimates both the individual and group parameters, as well as the estimates of across task covariance. In the second half, I then use this new “combined modelling” approach to investigate cognitive deficits in schizophrenia and find that across the tasks there are some consistent differences between people with and without schizophrenia, such as poorer sensitivity, and some that are task and context specific, such as adjustments of caution. Across both fields of cognitive modelling and cognition in schizophrenia, this new method of combined modelling of multiple tasks is a valuable addition as it allows more precise measurement with fewer data points.