Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Methods to ensure quality'

The Diploma thesis is focused on possibilities of an assessment of a hydraulic switchboard and its manufacturing process. Furthermore, it analyses methods individually which are suitable for quality assurance and production reliability, which are described in details. The follow-up work focuses more on the Statistical Process Control (SPC) method which is applicable in the early warning system and the Failure mode, effects, and criticality analysis (FMECA) method, applicable in the planning system. These two methods are further applied to the newly introduced process of machining the hydraulic switchboard as an effective tool not only for assessing the reliability of production, but also for its subsequent securing and maintaining in a relevant condition.

Mobile crowdsourcing solves complex problems by utilizing the untapped power of a crowd, connected through the fantastic mobile devices we use in our daily life. These gadgets are equipped with a versatile set of sensor that could be used for gathering data about a specific location in combination with questions to the human carrier. Common problems in crowdsourcing systems is how to ensure that the contributed data from the crowd is of a high quality and how to do task allocation fairly. A large population of users is often needed to ensure a high quality of data and coverage, every participant is important and the system have to do be designed with the population in mind.In this thesis we discuss the responsibilities of the server in a crowdsourcing system and presents a system model which tries to tackle the problems of quality and fairness. A prototype of the system model was developed (CrowdS) to determine its potential, for both Android and iOS devices.A long running test was performed to evaluate the performance of CrowdS with the main focus on determine how well the system performed in terms of coverage of the search area and fairness of earnings and prices. The test was executed on both platforms for a couple of weeks. The vast majority of all completed tasks were finished within 10 minutes of being created, with a median time of 3 minutes and 32 seconds seconds. Jain’s fairness index measured an overall high fairness for both the price of tasks at 0.944 and the earnings made by participants at 0.941. The radius of the search area had to be extended to maximum of 800 meters for roughly on third of the tasks to find the required number of participants.
Mobil crowdsourcing löser komplexa problem genom att utnyttja kapaciteten av en grupp, sammankopplad med de mobila enheter vi använder dagligen. Dessa maskiner är utrustade med en mångsidig uppsättning av sensorer som kan användas för att samla in data om en specifik plats i kombination med frågor till den mänskliga bäraren. Vanliga problem med gruppbaserad problemlösning är hur man försäkrar att den insamlade informationen är av en hög kvalite´ och hur man utför uppdragsallokering rättvist. En stor användargrupp behövs för att uppnå en hög kvalite´ av data och täckning, varenda deltagare är viktig och systemet måste utformas med denna användargrupp i åtanke.I denna avhandling diskuterar vi ansvaret som en server har i mobil gruppbaserad problemlösning och presenterar en systemmodel som försöker hantera problemen med kvalite´ och rättvisa. För att utvärdera systemmodellen utvecklades en prototyp (CrowdS), för både Android och iOS-enheter.Ett långvarande test utfördes för att utvärdera Crowds prestanda med huvudfokus på att bestämmahur bra systemet presterade inom täckning för sökområdet och rättvishet för vinster och priser. Testet utfördes på båda plattformarna under ett par veckor. Den stora majoriteten av alla utdelade uppgifter var avklarade inom 10 minuter efter att de hade skapas, med en median tid på 3 minuter och 32 sekunder. Jain’s rättvise index användes för att få en uppfattning om hur rättvist vinster och priser var för uppgifter, det räknades till 0,944 respektive 0,941. Radien för sökområdet behövde utsträckas till dess maximum av 800 meter för cirka en tredjedel av uppgifterna för att hitta det tillräckligt många deltagare.

The production and consumption of electricity must be in balance in order to maintain the frequency in an electrical grid. During peak loads this may be troublesome to achieve due to lack of adequate production capabilities. Competitive electricity markets with price caps have a problem - insufficient revenues for peak production units which lead to mothballing or decommissioning of power plants. Inadequate production capability is solved through design of the electricity markets which renders in incentives to operate these power plants. This report analyzes the most common market designs with the Nordic countries of Finland, Norway, and Sweden in mind. The Nordic situation is used as the background for an evaluation of the impact of the chosen designs. The question of finding a market solution of the peak load problem is yet a prerequisite. The conclusions are that a clear definition of what a market solution is, is needed in order to determine which design to prefer. The view on what to address as the problem makes a difference - treating the symptoms or the root causes leads to usage of different market designs as solutions. The Nordic countries may be better off by waiting to see the effects of the full penetration of the Automatic Meter Reading systems, which may reduce the peak loads by increasing the demand responsiveness. The current market designs in the Nordic countries may also be sufficient while developing the market's demand response, and thereby not call for implementations of other market designs.

Yield curves are of great importance within the financial sector and are, among other things, used as indicators of future economic growth. A curve that is upward sloping implies that investors expect positive economic growth, whereas a downward sloping curve is considered as a warning of a forthcoming recession. It is critical that these curves are actual reflections of the market. Unexpected changes in some parts of the curves should only occur if there have been actual changes in the market, however, this is not always the case and the curves are therefore continuously monitored and maintained. A potential solution to further ensure the quality of the curves is by the application of deep neural networks. The purpose of this study is to examine whether deep architectures are capable of predicting yield curves accurately. If this can be shown, the predictions can be further used to detect anomalies in yield curves estimated by the banks. Three models are compared in short-term and long-term predictions of yield curves; the Random Walk approach (RW) serving as the baseline and a point of reference, a Long Short-Term Memory Network (LSTM) and a Temporal Convolutional Network (TCN). The latter two have shown state-of-the-art results within time series forecasting and sequences modelling tasks and were therefore chosen to further investigate in this study. According to the experiments of this study, the RW approach was most accurate in one-day-ahead predictions, however, the method was statistically outperformed by the deep architectures in longer forecast horizons. For instance, in the case of 120-days-ahead forecasts, the TCN showed an increase of 82% in performance (Root Mean Squared Error) in comparison with the RW approach and the LSTM network an increase of 56%. It was concluded that the RW approach should be the default option in case of one-day-ahead forecasts, but that deep architectures have great potential in providing further assurance of the quality of yield curves in case of longer forecast horizons.
Avkastningskurvor är viktiga inom finanssektorn och används bland annat som indikatorer av framtida ekonomisk tillväxt. En kurva som är uppåtsluttande antyder att investerare förväntar positiv ekonomisk tillväxt, medan en nedåtsluttande kurva betraktas som en varning för en kommande lågkonjunktur. Det är viktigt att dessa kurvor är faktiska reflektioner av marknaden. Plötsliga förändringar i vissa delar av kurvorna bör endast uppstå om det har skett faktiska förändringar på marknaden, men detta är inte alltid fallet. Därav övervakas och underhålls kurvorna kontinuerligt. En potentiell lösning för att vidare säkerställa kvaliteten av kurvorna är genom användning av djupa neurala nätverk. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka huruvida djupa arkitekturer är kapabla till att prediktera avkastningskurvor med bra precision. Om detta kan påvisas, skulle predikteringarna vidare kunna användas för att upptäcka avvikelser hos avkastningskurvor vilka estimerats av bankerna. Tre modeller jämförs, Random Walk-metoden (RW), vilken får utgöra referenspunkt, en Long Short-Term Memory Network (LSTM) och en Temporal Convolutional Network (TCN). De två sistnämnda har uppvisat state-of-the-art-resultat inom tidsserieprognoser och sekvensmodelleringsuppgifter och valdes därför för vidare tillämpning i denna studie. RW-metoden var mest precis i att generera prediktioner en dag framåt enligt experimenten av denna studie, men blev statistiskt överträffad av de djupa arkitekturerna i längre prognoshorisonter. Det temporära nätverket uppvisade en ökning av predikteringsprestandan (Root Mean Squared Error) på 82% i jämförelse med RW-metoden gällande prediktioner 120 dagar framåt och LSTM nätverket en ökning på 56% i jämförelse. Det drogs slutsatsen att RWmetoden bör vara standardalternativet i fallet av prediktioner en dag framåt, men att djupa arkitekturer har stor potential i att utgöra ytterligare försäkran av avkastningskurvors kvalitet i fall av längre prognoshorisonter.

In today’s market it is possible to get a competitive advantage with right quality- and safety work to satisfy the customers in the automotive- and manufacturing industry. Today companies are also highly exposed with today’s media and social media which make the quality assurance even more important to avoid bad publicity. This report consists of an investigation about how the automotive- and manufacturing industry work with their suppliers’ to mutually achieve the required quality targets. Toyota Motor Corporation has single handily been a trademark for high quality for a long time in the automotive industry. Their successful organization is based on different principles which have created The Toyota Way. Thus the authors’ of this report has chosen to select some of these principles, which are thought to be appropriate for the reports purpose. The principles are investigated and described so that they can be compared to the case study at Volvo Cars Torslanda. The purpose is to find potential improvement possibilities and recommendations for both Volvo Cars and for the manufacturing industry. The findings and analysis has shown that a more cross-functional way of working in teams between different departments should be used in a greater extension. Thus to achieve greater knowledge in the decision making process concerning the organization and to improve the quality assurance work concerning the suppliers’. Another recommendation is to greater encourage job rotations among the quality engineers concerning the different quality reviews. The authors’ are sure that greater job rotation can encourage better motivation at work and support to become an even more learning organization in addition to achieve the greater quality assurance. With these findings and recommendations the authors’ believe and suggests that further research can be done with a deeper approach towards the specific recommendations to find further improvement possibilities concerning the automotive- and manufacturing industry.

This study investigated the phenomenon of effective management of Grade R sites to ensure quality foundational education. The aim was achieved firstly, by exploring the fundamental nature of quality education in Grade R through a literature review. Secondly, an empirical research was conducted to investigate the management of Grade R sites to ensure quality education. Finally, recommendations on how quality education can be managed in the Grade R sites were made. The literature review exposed a theoretical perspective of quality foundational education based on the development of systems of education that closely connect a child-centred learning environment with community development. As quality education is regarded as a transformative process of implementation, accountability and pursuit of excellence, continuous development of practitioners in order to meet the demands was found to be imperative. Quality education was, thus, found to be a function of actions aimed at enhancing quality educators, learners and the sites. The status of the communities in which the sites are, was found to be contributing to the quality of education offered in sites. The empirical research found that although learner attendance is monitored, the drop-out rate is high. The sites are negatively affected by community/social factors against attainment of goals and as a result learners struggle to achieve. Sites are not yet ready to pursue excellent quality as they encounter obstacles to basic functionality. Another reason for inability to pursue excellent quality, was managers' lack of knowledge regarding programmes offered in Grade R. Learners in sites are part of the nutrition programme. There is out-door equipment but it is not safe and secure for learners. Running water is accessible and flushable toilets are available. Recommendations focus mainly on ensuring that quality education in Grade R sites is addressed in a coordinated and well-planned manner. This includes the urgent need for the training of the Grade R practitioners.
M.Ed., North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2010

This thesis explores challenging topic of information system quality assessment and mainly process assessment. In this work the term Information System Quality is defined as well as different approaches in a quality definition for different domains of information systems are outlined. Main methods of process assessment are overviewed and their relationships are described. Process assessment methods are divided into two categories: ISO standards and best practices. The main objective of this work is application of gained theoretical knowledge in process assessment with CobiT 4.1 and CobiT 5.0 frameworks, and comparing results. The objective was achieved through consultation with processes owner and the completed questionnaires filled in by management of OnLine S.r.l. Additionally targeted level of capability in CobiT 5.0 is compared with actual, achieved level.

In this thesis, we have investigated several computational methods on data assimilation for air quality prediction, especially on the characteristic of sparse matrix and the underlying information of gradient in the concentration of pollutant species. In the first part, we have studied the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) for chemical species simulation in air quality forecast data assimilation. The main contribution of this paper is to study the sparse data observations and make use of the matrix structure of the Kalman filter updated equations to design an algorithm to compute the analysis of chemical species in the air quality forecast system efficiently. The proposed method can also handle the combined observations from multiple species together. We have applied the proposed method and tested its performance for real air quality data assimilation. Numerical examples have demonstrated the efficiency of the proposed computational method for Kalman filter update, and the effectiveness of the proposed method for NO2, NO, CO, SO2, O3, PM2.5 and PM10 in air quality data assimilation. Within the third part, we have set up an automatic workflow to connect the management system of the chemical transport model - CMAQ with our proposed data assimilation methods. The setup has successfully integrated the data assimilation into the management system and shown that the accuracy of the prediction has risen to a new level. This technique has transformed the system into a real-time and high-precision system. When the new observations are available, the predictions can then be estimated almost instantaneously. Then the agencies are able to make the decisions and respond to the situations immediately. In this way, citizens are able to protect themselves effectively. Meanwhile, it allows the mathematical algorithm to be industrialized implying that the improvements on data assimilation have directly positive effects on the developments of the environment, the human health and the society. Therefore, this has become an inspiring indication to encourage us to study, achieve and even devote more research into this promising method.

Context: The newest standard in video coding High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) should have an appropriate coder to fully use its potential. There are a lot of video quality assessment methods. These methods are necessary to establish the quality of the video. Objectives: This thesis is a comparison of video quality assessment methods. Objective is to find out which objective method is the most similar to the subjective method. Videos used in tests are encoded in the H.265/HEVC standard. Methods: For testing MSE, PSNR, SSIM methods there is special software created in MATLAB. For VQM method downloaded software was used for testing. Results and conclusions: For videos watched on mobile device: PSNR is the most similar to subjective metric. However for videos watched on television screen: VQM is the most similar to subjective metric. Keywords: Video Quality Assessment, Video Quality Prediction, Video Compression, Video Quality Metrics

In quality control applications, the most basic tasks are monitoring and fault diagnosis. Monitoring results determines if diagnosis is required, and conversely, diagnostic results aids better monitoring design. Quality monitoring and fault diagnosis are closely related but also have significant difference. Essentially. monitoring focus on online changepoint detection, whilst the primary objective of diagnosis is to identify fault root causes as an offline method. Several critical problems arise in the research of quality control: firstly, whether process monitoring is able to distinguish systematic or assignable faults and occasional deviation; secondly, how to diagnose faults with coupled root causes in complex manufacturing systems; thirdly, if the changepoint and root causes of faults can be diagnosed simultaneously. In Chapter 2, we propose a novel Bayesian statistical process control method for count data in the presence of outliers. That is, we discuss how to discern out of control status and temporary abnormal process behaviors in practice, which is incapable for current SPC methodologies. In this work, process states are modeled as latent variables and inferred by the sequential Monte Carlo method. The idea of Rao-Blackwellization is employed in the approach to control detection error and computational cost. Another contribution of this work is that our method possesses self-starting characteristics, which makes the method a more robust SPC tool for discrete data. Sensitivity analysis on monitoring parameter settings is also implemented to provide practical guidelines. In Chapter 3, we study the diagnosis of dimensional faults in manufacturing. A novel Bayesian variable selection oriented diagnostic framework is proposed. Dimensional fault sources are not explicitly measurable; instead, they are connected with dimensional measurements by a generalized linear mixed effect model, based on which we further construct a hierarchical quality-fault model to conduct Bayesian inference. A reversible jump Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm is developed to estimate the approximate posterior probability of fault patterns. Such diagnostic procedure is superior over previous studies since no numeric regularization is required for decision making. The proposed Bayesian diagnosis can further lean towards sparse fault patterns by choosing suitable priors, in order to handle the challenge from the diagnosability of faults. Our work considers the diagnosability in building dimensional diagnostic methodologies. We explain that the diagnostic result is trustworthy for most manufacturing systems in practice. The convergence analysis is also implemented, considering the trans-dimensional nature of the diagnostic method. In Chapter 4 of the thesis, we consider the diagnosis of multivariate linear profile models. We assume liner profiles as piece-wise constant. We propose an integrated Bayesian diagnostic method to answer two problems: firstly, whether and when the process is shifted, and secondly, in which pattern the shift occurs. The method can be applied for both Phase I and Phase II needs. For Phase I diagnosis, the method is implemented with no knowledge of in control profiles, whereas in Phase II diagnosis, the method only requires partial observations. To identify exactly which profile components deviate from nominal value, the variability of the value of profile components is marginalized out through a fully Bayesian approach. To address computational difficulty, we implement Monte Carlo Method to alternatively inspect between spaces of changepoint positions and fault patterns. The diagnostic method is capable to be applied under multiple scenarios.

Includes abstract.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-173).
The quality of South Africa’s over-stretched water resources is a matter of concern for all who depend on them for their survival and prosperity, so access to the relevant monitoring data is essential. Visualisation is a powerful method for analysing these data and communicating the results, because it unloads complex cognitive processes from the fairly restricted human numerical processing structures onto the highly developed visual perception system. Developments in the field of visualisation during the past two decades have yielded many practical methods that are applicable to the analysis and presentation of water quality data. Judicious use of visualisation aids aquatic scientists, water resource managers and ordinary consumers in assessing the quality of their water and deciding on remedial measures. To provide some insight into the possibilities of visualisation techniques, I analyse and discuss five visual methods that I have developed or contributed to: multivariate time-series inventory plots; multivariate map symbols; spatially-referenced inventory of water quality data; mass transfer summary plots; and the use of visual methods in communicating the ecological status of rivers to a wide audience.

As air pollution is a complex mixture of toxic components with considerable impact on humans, forecasting air pollution concentration emerges as a priority for improving life quality. In this study, air quality data (observational and numerical) were used to produce hourly spot concentration forecasts of ozone (O₃), particulate matter 2.5μm (PM₂.₅) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), up to 48 hours for six stations across Canada -- Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax. Using numerical data from an air quality model (GEM-MACH15) as predictors, forecast models for pollutant concentrations were built using multiple linear regression (MLR) and multi-layer perceptron neural networks (MLP NN). A relatively new method, the extreme learning machine (ELM), was also used to overcome the limitation of linear methods as well as the large computational demand of MLP NN. In operational forecasting, the continuous arrival of new data means frequent updating of the models is needed. This type of learning, called online sequential learning, is straightforward for MLR and ELM but not for MLP NN. Forecast performance of the online sequential MLR (OSMLR) and online sequential ELM (OSELM), together with stepwise MLR, all updated daily were compared with MLP NN updated seasonally, and the benchmark, updatable model output statistics (UMOS) from Environmental Canada. Overall OSELM tended to slightly outperform the other models including UMOS, being most successful with ozone forecasts and least with PM₂.₅ forecasts. MLP NN updated seasonally was generally underperforming the linear models MLR and OSMLR, indicating the need to update a nonlinear model frequently.
Science, Faculty of
Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of
Graduate

Chemometric methods have been used to explore and analyze information regarding potable and waste water quality in this Thesis. The analyzed data were obtained from (a) drinking water disinfection processes, (b) wastewater treatment processes, (c) water sensorial analysis, and (d) laboratory experiments. This Thesis attempts to improve our knowledge regarding common water quality problems, such as the formation of trihalomethanes (THMs) disinfection by-products (in the Sant Joan Despi Drinking Water Treatment Plant of Barcelona, SJD-DWTP) and the main factors affecting their formation. Furthermore, the Thesis illustrates how to facilitate the monitoring of water quality in a Wastewater Treatment Plant of Girona town (WWTP) by applying chemometric methods. Further objectives of the Thesis include the development of a chemometric method for source apportionment, where drinking waters with different origins were blended (as it usually occurs inside the Barcelona drinking Water Distribution System, WDS) using measured ultraviolet absorbance and physicochemical parameters. This Thesis additionally considered the problem of water taste by developing models, where water taste is explained and predicted based on the mineral content of tap and bottled waters using panelists. The chemometric methods, applied in this Thesis, have been applied to multi-parametric data matrices generated using different instrumental analyses techniques, such as laboratory UVVIS spectrophotometer, Gas Chromatograph with Electron Capture Detector (GC-ECD) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometer (ICP-OES). Additionally, data was obtained by implementation of standard methods for estimation of different physicochemical parameters or by multi-parametric data extractions from the Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS). Data was also acquired from an automatic multi-parametric station for online monitoring and from carefully designed sensorial experiments. In this Thesis, different linear projection based methods, such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Principal Component Regression (PCR) and Partial Least Squares regression method (PLS), have been used and shown as appropriate for handling data. Different linear regression methods have been compared to powerful nonlinear regression methods such as Kernel radial basis function Partial Least Squares (K-PLS) and Support vector machine regression (SVR) methods. Among the most significant findings of this Thesis was the identification of a set of parameters, which are highly relevant for the trihalomethanes formation, such as water temperature, organic matter fractions and concentration, chlorine concentrations, turbidity, bromide/chloride ions concentrations, pumped underground water and carbon filters age. Chemometric models, with low prediction errors for all THMs species, have been developed at SJD-DWTP. The most important physicochemical parameters for panellist water taste liking were found to be: HCO3- , SO42-, Ca2+, and Mg2+ at moderate concentration of the overall mineralization and pH. Temporal variation with a different data frequency (daily, monthly and annual cycles) were observed in WWTP water quality and suggested different plant management and operational procedures. A chemometric model was developed to predict source apportionment inside the Barcelona WDS. Five different water sources were detected in water blends. Finally, different chemometric techniques for visualization and data interpretation have been tested and evaluated for their usefulness for water quality analyses. The prediction ability of linear or nonlinear regression methods have been compared when they were used to develop empirical models and predict water quality parameters such as THMs concentrations in drinking waters, nitrates, phenols, organic matter in wastewaters, water source apportionments in water distribution system and panelists taste ratings of water samples. Last but not least, this Thesis had as an objective to demonstrate the advantages of using chemometric methods for water quality assessment. This work showed that complex problems can be resolved using a multivariate modeling methodology with a few experiments. Therefore, this methodology is a significant improvement over unvaried approaches which are based on expensive and time-consuming measurements.
En esta Tesis, se propone la utilización de diferentes métodos quimiométricos para la exploración, el análisis y la interpretación de la información presente en datos experimentales obtenidos en la determinación de la calidad de aguas potables y de aguas residuales. Los conjuntos de datos analizados fueron obtenidos en (a) procesos de desinfección de agua potable, (b) procesos de tratamiento de agua residual, (c) análisis sensoriales del gusto del agua mediante panelistas, y (d) experimentos en laboratorio que simulan procesos de desinfección. Los métodos quimiométricos empleados en esta Tesis incluyen el Análisis de Componentes Principales (PCA), la Regresión Lineal Múltiple (MLR), la Regresión de Componentes Principales (PCR) y el método de regresión de Mínimos Cuadrados Parciales (PLS). Se han comparado estos diferentes métodos de regresión lineal con los métodos de regresión no lineal, tales como el procedimiento ‘kernel’ de Mínimos Cuadrados Parciales (K-PLS) o el método de regresión basado en Máquinas de Soporte Vectores de Soporte (Support Vector Machine Regression, SVR). Los resultados más significativos de esta Tesis han sido: a) la identificación de un conjunto de parámetros fisicoquímicos ambientales y del proceso de desinfección del agua que tienen relevancia en la formación de trihalometanos; b) el desarrollo de modelos quimiométricos para la estimación de la estimación de los cambios de concentración de las cuatro especies de THM y de su suma en total en la planta de tratamiento de aguas ETAP-SJD con errores de predicción bajos; c) la identificación de que las especies HCO3-, SO42-, Ca2+, Mg2+ (a una concentración de mineralización total moderada) son los parámetros físico-químicos más relevantes para el gusto del agua; d) la detección de las variaciones temporales más importantes en la calidad del agua residual tratada en la planta de tratamiento de aguas EDAR de Trargisa en Girona, con una frecuencia diaria, mensual y estacional; e) el desarrollo de modelos de detección y de predicción de las fuentes u origines del agua potable dentro de la red de distribución de aguas, WDS, de la ciudad de Barcelona.

6 pp.
1. Drinking Water Wells; 2. Private Water Well Components; 3. Do Deeper Wells Mean Better Water; 4. Maintaining Your Private Well Water System; 5. Private Well Protection; 6. Well Water Testing and Understanding the Results; 7. Obtaining a Water Sample for Bacterial Analysis; 8. Microorganisms in Private Water Wells; 9. Lead in Private Water Wells; 10. Nitrate in Private Water Wells; 11.Arsenic in Private Water Wells; 12. Matching Drinking Water Quality Problems to Treatment Methods; 13. Commonly Available Home Water Treatment Systems; 14. Hard Water: To Soften or Not to Soften; 15. Shock Chlorination of Private Water Wells
This fact sheet is one in a series of fifteen for private water well owners. The one- to four-page fact sheets will be assembled into a two-pocket folder entitled Private Well Owners Guide. The titles will also be a part of the Changing Rural Landscapes project whose goal is to educate exurban, small acreage residents. The authors have made every effort to align the fact sheets with the proposed Arizona Cooperative Extension booklet An Arizona Well Owners Guide to Water Sources, Quality, Testing, Treatment, and Well Maintenance by Artiola and Uhlman. The private well owner project was funded by both the University of Arizonas Water Sustainability Program-Technology and Research Initiative Fund and the USDA-CSREES Region 9 Water Quality Program.

Three different manufacturing lines are chosen to be investigated and different solutions are suggested which are all beneficial for the company. All three lines are considered from the Lean manufacturing point of view. The most common failures in the factory are caused by the system called Poka-Yoke. The three chosen line are being investigated from this aspect of view as well and different solutions are given in this project. The existing systems at these lines are compared to the FPS, which finds its roots back in Lean Production. The FPS is described in this project in a specific chapter. The readers can also find the history behind the FPS and Lean production and the comparison between the FPS and Toyota Production System in this project. The authors have also gone through different construction arrangement by the side of these three lines and have come up with some solutions from the Lean manufacturing point of view in order to make the VCT manufacturing one step closer to the FPS. One can claim that the main goal of this project is to show the connection between the FPS and Volvo manufacturing system and showing the fact that the whole concept behind the FPS is nothing but the Lean Production.
Uppsatsnivå: C

Abstract Introduction. Green mould, Penicillium digitatum (Pers.: Fr.) Sacc., causes economically important postharvest disease in citrus. Materials and methods. Ethiopian plant extracts of Acacia seyal (Del. Var. Seyal) and Withania somnifera (L.) Dual were used to test the control of green mould in wound-inoculated fruit, stored for 21 d at 7 °C and at > 85% RH. The chemical compositions of the two extracts were determined using high-performance chromatography. Thereafter, freshly harvested (naturally infected) fruit were subjected to different postharvest treatments and stored for 50 d to investigate the effects of the two plant extracts on fruit quality parameters. Treatments included (pre-wax + leaf extracts), (wax + leaf extracts incorporated into wax, Citrosol A®), (leaf extract alone), (fruit washed in chlorinated water at 5.25%), (untreated fruit) and (commercially treated fruit). Results. Extracts of A. seyal and W. somnifera reduced the incidence of green mould by 56.1% and 50%, respectively, in wound-inoculated fruit. A. seyal extract contained a high concentration of gallic acid (60.3 mg·mL–1) whilst W. somnifera contained low concentrations of caffeic acid (8.7 mg·mL–1), salicylic acid (6.3 mg·mL–1) and 3,4 dihydroxy benzoic acid (3.8 mg·mL–1). Green mould was absent in naturally infected fruit subjected to (pre-wax + leaf extracts), (wax mixed with leaf extracts) and (leaf extracts) treatments. (Pre-wax + leaf extracts) and (wax mixed with leaf extract) treatments significantly reduced weight loss; retained firmness and colour; and they maintained eating qualities and a maturity index (SSC/TA) similar to commercial treatment. Conclusion. Both extracts of A. seyal and W. somnifera showed potential to be used as an alternative in combined applications with wax application under low temperature storage to replace synthetic fungicides, to ultimately control green mould and retain overall fruit quality.

The production and distribution of counterfeit drugs is a critical health problem that plagues nations worldwide. The presence of counterfeit antimalarials has become especially worrying, as these drugs are most often needed by those living in nations whose resources to verify the medicine supply are lacking. Rapid analysis methods used for screening large quantities of poor quality antimalarials are critical in the battle to protect those in less developed regions of the world. Simple, cost effective analysis methods that can be used in the field must be developed so those whose governments cannot afford to maintain medicine regulatory agencies can still have faith in their medicinal supply. A very powerful screening method, Direct Analysis in Real Time Mass Spectrometry (DART-MS) has been used to investigate thousands of poor quality medicines. This method, however, is known to fragment molecules more readily than commonly used, 'softer' ionization methods, such as electrospray ionization. Excess fragmentation in 'harder' ionization sources is due to deposition of additional internal energy to the ionized molecules. This internal energy deposition can be measured, so the analyst can be knowledgeable as to what to expect when examining unknowns using this recently developed ionization source. Quantitation of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) in pharmaceuticals is crucial to the determination of what class a poor quality medicine fits into. Because poor quality drugs can be of different types, it is important to accurately classify them, in hopes of improving the supply of medicines available to those in less developed regions of the world. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is most commonly used to quantify the active pharmaceutical ingredient in poor quality medicines, however, this method is time consuming, preventing its use in high throughput settings. During the course of my research, hundreds of poor quality pharmaceuticals were analyzed using DART-MS. The active pharmaceutical ingredient was detected during the rapid screening for many of these drugs, however, a more in depth analysis would often reveal less than the expected quantity of active ingredient. A rapid non-chromatographic quantitation method was developed using a mass spectrometer as the detector. This method allows for both quantitative and qualitative information regarding a specific sample to be obtained simultaneously, saving the analyst time and resources. Utilizing this non- chromatographic mass spectrometric method, degradation products have been identified, thus increasing our ability to classify drugs into their respective divisions.

Thesis presents the research of voice frame losses in the GSM. The possibility of evaluation of quality of short duration signals using PESQ algorithm is analysed. New method for preparation of short duration signals for PESQ measurements is proposed. Original method based on quality classes for voice quality evaluation in mobile communications is presented.
Disertacijoje nagrinėjami GSM kanale vykstantys balso paketų praradimai. Nagrinėjama galimybė vertinti trumpų balso segmentų kokybę PESQ algoritmu. Pasiūlomas naujas, mažos trukmės balso signalų kokybės vertinimo PESQ algoritmu metodas. Pristatomas originalus balso kokybės vertinimo metodas mobiliojo ryšio sistemoms, paremtas balso kokybės klasėmis.

This thesis describes experimental work performed (1998-2001) during the author's involvement with the Brachytherapy group at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (PMCC), where he was employed by its Department of Physical Sciences and subsequent modeling and analytical studies. When PMCC added HDR brachytherapy to its radiation therapy practice, an existing operating suite was considered the ideal location for such procedures to be carried out. The integration of brachytherapy into the theatre environment was considered logical due to the relatively invasive nature of brachytherapy techniques and the availability of medical equipment. This thesis contains the detailed study of three key Research Questions involved in clinical aspects relating to quality assurance of an HDR brachytherapy practice. An investigative chapter is dedicated to the pursuit of each of the Research Questions. The first question asked… Is the novel approach to using modular shielding combined with time and distance constraints adequately optimized during HDR brachytherapy? In order to establish optimal clinical practices, this project evaluates the effectiveness of additional shielding added to the modular shielding system without modification of the previously determined time and distance constraints for PMCC staff, other patients, and member of the public. The DOSXYZnrc user code for the EGSnrc Monte Carlo radiation transport code has been used to model exposure pathways to strategic locations used for measurement in and around the operating theatre suite. Modeling allowed exposure pathways to various areas with the facility to be tested without the need to use real sources. The second Research Question asked… How well is dose anisotropy characterized in the near field range of the clinic's HDR 192Ir source? This study experimentally investigated the anisotropy of dose around a 192Ir HDR source in a water phantom using MOSFETs as relative dosimeters. In addition, modeling using the DOSRZnrc user code for the EGSnrc Monte Carlo radiation transport code was performed to provide a complete dose distribution consistent with the MOSFET measurements. Measurements performed for radial distances from 5 to 30 mm extend the range of measurements to 5 mm which has not been previously reported for this source construction. The third Research Question is aimed at the patient level. Is the dose delivered to in vivo dosimeters, located within critical anatomical structures near the prostate, within acceptable clinical tolerance for a large group of HDR prostate patients? An in vivo dosimetry technique employing TLDs to experimentally measure doses delivered to the urethra and rectum during HDR prostate brachytherapy was investigated. Urethral and rectal in vivo measurements for 56 patients have been performed in the initial fraction of four-fraction brachytherapy boost. In the absence of comparable in vivo data, the following local corrective action level was initially proposed: more than 50% of the prostatic urethra receiving a dose 10% beyond the urethral tolerance. The level for investigative action is considered from the analyses of dose differences between measured data and TPS calculation.

Die erweiterte CSP-CASL Syntax wird dazu verwendet, sowohl positive als auch negative Testfälle zu generieren. Auf diese Weise wird sichergestellt, dass erwartetes und unerwünschtes Verhalten in den Testfäallen enthalten ist. Ferner werden Testterminologien für die CSP-CASL Spezifikation beschrieben, welche Softwareverfeinerungen und Erweiterungen untersuchen. Anschliessend wird die formale Definition von Softwareeigenschaften verwendet, um die Wiederverwendbarkeit von Testbestandteilen zu überprüfen. Diese Definitionen beschreiben die grundlegenden Eigenschaften im vorgeschlagenen Produkt und Prozessqualitäts- Framework. Ferner wird die Möglichkeit untersucht, die vorgeschlagenen Formalismus für die Entwicklung eines CMMI Prozesskonformen Frameworks zu verwenden. Dabei werden die Kernaspekte des CMMI Prozessmodells berücksichtigt. Das CMMI Compliance Bewertungssystem wurde entwickelt, um den Grad der Konformit ät der eingesetzten Softwareentwicklungsmethoden mit formalen Methoden zu bewerten. Ein generischer Algorithmus wird vorgeschlagen, um das Compliance Level der CMMI Prozessfelder und ihrer Komponenten zu ermitteln. Das Framework wird durch ein Tool unterstützt. Dieses Tool erlaubt es, die theoretischen Aspekte der vorgeschlagenen Theoreme praktisch zu unterstützen. Die Verwendbarkeit des vorgeschlagenen Frameworks wird an einem Anwendungsbeispiel aus der Medizintechnik gezeigt. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wird das Verständnis der Anwendung von formalen Methoden auf das Organisatorische Prozessmodell CMMI erweitert. Das komplette Framework wird repräsentiert durch die formale Spezifikationssprache CSP- CASL sowie der Prozessmodell CMMI. Ähnliche Ergebnisse können auch mit anderen formalen Methoden und Prozessverbesserungsmodellen erzielt werden. Diese Forschungsarbeit dagegen bildet einen Startpunkt für eine Prozessmodellkonformit ät mit einen auf formalen Methoden basierenden Softwaresystems sowie deren Entwicklung und Wartung.
The proposed formalisms and the other properties of formal methods are used to propose a framework of CMMI process model compliance. The core aspects of the CMMI process model are the process areas. A process area is a collection of best practices in a selected area. The CMMI compliance grading scheme is developed to evaluate the level of compliance with formal method based software development. A compliance algorithm is proposed to evaluate the process model through the evaluation of its components. The CMMI process areas are evaluated with a proposed algorithm. The compliance evaluation result is presented in the thesis. The complete framework is supported with a developed tool. This tool allows us to practically support our theoretical concepts. As a proof of concept, we explore our proposed framework for a medical instrument development and maintenance. In this thesis, the understanding of formal methods applicability is extended to the organizational process model, CMMI. The complete framework is presented for a formal specification language, CSP-CASL and process model, CMMI. However, similar result can be achieved with other formal methods for the compliance of other process models. This research is a starting point of process model compliance with formal methods. This has significant potential to automate the achievement of process and product quality goals of software systems.

Thesis (DTech (Electrical engineering))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, 2007
Telemedicine has been identified as a tool to distnllUte medical expertise to medically underserved rural community. However, due to the underdeveloped or non-existent telecommunication infrastructure, which is needed as the platform for telemedicine, the full benefits of telemedicine are yet to be realized in most parts of South Africa and Africa as a whole. This study aims to explore ways on how to provide lP-based lCI system that can be used as a communication platform for telemedicine in rural areas. In order to emulate the onsite face-to-face consultation experience, the rural telemedicine system must be able to provide quality video transmission. Quality video is also important in order for the physician at the distant end to be able to make correct diagnosis. Hence the main focus of this study is on ways ofproviding quality video over lP-based multiservice network. A conceptual model of a rural area network that can be used for rural telemedicine has been deVeloped, and different access technologies that can be used for rural areas are presented. Techniques for compesating IP best effort datagram delivery are provided. Factors that can affect the quality of video transmission on an lP-based packet network are identified, and a holistic approach to mitigate them is proposed. That includes adopting coding techniques that will provide coding efficiency, high quality video that is consistent at high and low bit rates, resilience to transmission errors, scalability, and network friendliness, which will result in perceived quality improvement, highcompression efficiency, and possibility of transportation over different networks. Secondly, it also includes mechanisms to compensate for packet networks idiosyncrasy, especially JP best-effort debilities, in order to meet the latency and jitter requirements of real-time video traffic. For video coding, H.264 is proposed as it meets most of the encoding requirements listed above, and for prioritising and protecting.video traffic from JP network's best-effort debilities a combination of differential services (DiflServ) and multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) have been adopted, where DiflServ is used for traffic classification and MPLS is used for traffic engineering and fast-rerouting in the event of route failure. To verify and validate the proposed solutions, modelling and simulation has been used, where the Network Simulator (NS-2.93) has been used to simulate network functions, and PSNR, VQM score and double stimulus impairment scale (DSIS) have been used for evaluating video quality.

In:

SIGIR 2003 : proceedings of the 26th Annual International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval, July 28 to August 1, 2003, Toronto, Canada / edited by Jamie Callan ... - New York, 2003

Though essential for informed decision-making, it is challenging to estimate the public health impacts of air quality because it must address the complicated atmospheric processes of air pollutants: emissions, dispersion, chemistry, and removal. Employing a chemical transport model (CTM) is the most rigorous way to address these atmospheric processes. The first part of this thesis analyzed the potential risk of ammonia emissions from post-combustion carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology using a CTM. It was found that, if not controlled properly, CCS ammonia may create a serious public health problem, substantially compromising the benefit of reducing carbon dioxide. The results will guide the level of appropriate control for a wide range of future scenarios. CTMs are expensive from a computational standpoint and, therefore, beyond the reach of policy analysis for many types of problems. On the other hand, current tools used for policy analysis fall short of the rigor of CTMs and may lead to biased results. To address this gap, we developed the Estimating Air Pollution Social Impacts Using Regression (EASIUR) method, which builds parameterizations that predict per-tonne social cost and intake fraction at any location in the United States like a CTM with negligible computational costs. With tagged CTM simulations, the EASIUR method builds a dataset of air quality impacts for a large number of representative emissions sources in the United States and then derives parameterizations for those results. We used an “average plume,” a generic PM2.5 plume generated from CTM results, to describe the exposed population over large receptor areas around an emissions source. The parameterizations have intuitive functional forms with population and common atmospheric variables; their coefficients explain key underlying mechanisms. Out-of-sample evaluations meet the ‘excellent’ criteria of a common air quality model performance metric in most cases, with some exceptions meeting the ‘good’ criteria. We found that the average seasonal per-tonne social costs in the United States are $150,000-180,000/t EC, $21,000-34,000/t SO2, $4,200-15,000/t NOx, and $29,000-85,000/t NH3. It is hoped that the EASIUR model will be of great use in policy research that involves changes in air quality.

Thesis (MScAgric)--Stellenbosch University, 2013.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The two white seedless table grape cultivars, Regal Seedless and Thompson Seedless fulfil a very important role in securing foreign income not only for the South African table grape industry, but the South African economy as a whole. These two cultivars, however, are like so many other white table grape cultivars, also prone to browning, especially netlike browning on Regal Seedless and internal browning on Thompson Seedless grapes. This leads to huge financial losses every year, since there is no established way to assess at harvest, during storage or during packaging, whether the grapes will eventually turn brown. In other words, there is no well-known protocol of assessing the browning risk of a particular batch of grapes prior to export. Numerous studies have been undertaken to determine the exact cause of browning and how it should be managed, but to date, no chemical or physical parameter has been firmly associated with the phenomenon. The overall aim of this study was thus to find an alternative way to deal with the problem by investigating the potential of near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy as a fast, non-destructive measurement technique to determine the browning potential of whole white seedless table grapes. A secondary aim was the determination of optimal ripeness of table grapes. In this way harvest maturity and quality indicative parameters namely total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity (TA), pH, glucose and fructose, also associated with the browning phenomenon, was quantified using models based on infrared spectra. Three different techniques (a) Fourier transform Near Infrared (FT-NIR), (b) Fourier transform – Mid Infrared (FT-MIR) and (c) Fourier transform – Mid Infrared Attenuated Total Reflectance (FT-MIR ATR) spectroscopy were investigated to determine these parameters. This was done so that a platform of different technologies would be available to the table grape industry. The grapes used in this study were harvested over two years (2008 and 2009) and were sourced from two different commercial vineyards in the Hex River valley, Western Cape, South Africa. Different crop loads (the total amount of bunches on the vines per hectare) were left for Regal Seedless (75 000, 50 000 and 35 000) and for Thompson Seedless (75 000 and 50 000). Three rows were used for Regal Seedless and two rows for Thompson Seedless. Each row had six sections which each represented a repetition for each crop load. In 2008 these cultivars were harvested early at 16°Brix, at optimum ripeness (18°Brix) and late at 20°Brix. In 2009 they were harvested twice at the optimum ripeness level. Berries from harvested bunches were crushed and the juice was used to determine the reference values for the different parameters in the laboratory according to their specific methods. The obtained juice was also scanned on the three different instruments. Different software (OPUS 6.5 for the FT-NIR and FT-MIR ATR instruments and Unscrambler version 9.2 for the FT-MIR instrument) as well as different spectral pre-processing techniques were also evaluated before construction of the models for all the instruments. Partial least squares (PLS) regression was used for the construction of the different calibration models. Different regression statistics, that included the root mean square error for prediction (RMSEP); the coefficient of determination (R2); the residual prediction deviation (RPD) and the bias were used to evaluate the performance of the developed calibration models. Calibration models which are fit for screening purposes were obtained on the FT-NIR and FTMIR ATR instruments for TSS (11.40 - 21.80°Brix) (R2 = 85.92%, RMSEP = 0.71 °Brix RPD = 2.67 and bias = 0.03°Brix), pH (2.94 - 3.9) (R2 = 85.00%, RMSEP = 0.08 RPD = 2.59 and bias = -0.01) and TA (4.3 - 13.1 g/L), (R2 = 90.77%, RMSEP = 0.48 g/L RPD = 3.30 and bias = -0.03 g/L). Models for fructose (46.70 – 176.82 g/L) (R2 = 74.66%, RMSEP = 9.28 g/L RPD = 2.00 and bias = 1.10 g/L) and glucose (20.36 – 386.67 g/L) (R2 = 70.71%, RMSEP = 11.10 g/L RPD = 1.87 and bias = 1.64 g/L) were obtained with the FT-NIR and FT-MIR ATR instruments that were in some instances fit for screening purposes and in some instances unsuitable for quantification purposes. The FT-MIR instrument gave models for all the parameters that were not yet suitable for quantification purposes. Combined spectral ranges used for calibration were often similar for some parameters, namely 12 493 - 5 446.2 for TSS and pH, 6 101.9 - 5 446.2 for TSS, TA and fructose and 4 601.5 - 4 246.7 for pH and fructose on the FT-NIR instrument, 2 993.2 - 2 322.3 for pH, TA and glucose and 1 654.3 - 649.4 for pH and glucose on the FT-MIR ATR instrument and sometimes they were adjacent (3 996.6 - 3 661.2, 3 663.5 - 3 327.7 and 3 327.2 - 2 322.3 for TSS and glucose, 1 988.3 - 1 652.8 and 1 654.3 - 649.4 for TSS, pH and TA. Other times they were overlapping (1 654.3 - 649.4 and 1 318.8 - 649.4) for pH, TA and fructose on the FT-MIR ATR instrument. This is a very good sign for transfer of this technology to a handheld device, where adjacent and/ or overlapping wavenumbers are crucial. Instruments which have to determine different parameters over large spectral ranges are not only impractical, because the instrument has to be big, but because it is also very expensive. Another advantage of implementing especially FT-NIR spectroscopy as a fast, accurate and inexpensive technique for determining harvest maturity and quality parameters is because no sample preparation is necessary and very little waste (few single berries tested) is produced. This is a pre-requisite which is highly recommended in the green era that we are currently living in and will do so for aeons to come. A platform of technologies has now been made available through this study for the determination of the respective parameters in future table grape samples by just taking their spectra on one of the instruments. Indeed something that has not been possible or available for the South African table grape industry before. Berries for the browning experiments were scanned on a FT-NIR instrument immediately after harvest (before cold storage) and again after cold storage. Before cold storage they were scanned on each side of the berry and after cold storage they were scanned twice on a brown spot if browning was present and twice on a clear spot, irrespective of whether browning was present or not. Inspection of the berries for the incidence of browning after cold storage revealed that Regal Seedless had a higher incidence of browning (68% in 2008 and 66% in 2009) than Thompson Seedless (21% in 2008 and 25% in 2009). Regal Seedless was also more prone to external browning, specifically netlike browning, whereas Thompson Seedless was more prone to internal browning, despite the different phenotypes of browning that were present on both. Principal component analysis (PCA) done on the spectra obtained before and after cold storage revealed that NIR can capture the changes related to cold storage with the first principal components explaining almost 100% of the variation in the spectra. Classification models also build using PCA was based on spectra of berries that remained clear before and after cold storage and those that turned brown after cold storage. Classification models of berries based on spectra obtained after cold storage (browning present) had a better total accuracy (94% for training- and 87% for test datasets), than the classification models based on spectra obtained before cold storage (79% for training- and 64% for test datasets). The implication of this is that the current models will be able to classify berries in terms of those which have turned brown already and those that remained clear better after cold storage than before cold storage, which is the critical stage where we want to actually know whether the berries will turn brown or not. The potential, however, to use NIR spectroscopy to detect browning before harvest already on white seedless grapes is still present, since all these models were built using the whole NIR spectrum. No variable selection was thus done and all the different browning phenotypes were also used together. Further analysis of the data will thus be based on using variable selection techniques like particle swarm optimization (PSO) to select certain wavelengths strongly associated with the browning phenomenon and only on the main types of browning (netlike on Regal Seedless and internal browning on Thompson Seedless). This study has major implications for the table grape industry, since it is the first time that the possibility to predict browning with other methods than visual inspection, especially before cold storage, is shown.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die twee wit pitlose tafeldruif kultivars, Regal Seedless en Thompson Seedless onderskeidelik, speel 'n baie belangrike rol in die verkryging van buitelandse inkomste, nie net vir die Suid- Afrikaanse tafeldruif industrie nie, maar ook vir die Suid-Afrikaanse ekonomie as 'n geheel. Hierdie twee kultivars is egter, soos baie ander wit kultivars, ook geneig tot verbruining. Dit is veral netagtige verbruining op Regal Seedless en interne verbruining op Thompson Seedless wat pertinent is. Hierdie belangrike kwaliteitsprobleme lei jaarliks tot groot finansiële verliese, aangesien daar huidiglik geen gevestigde prosedure is om voor oes, tydens opberging of tydens verpakking te bepaal of die druiwe uiteindelik gaan verbruin nie. Met ander woorde, daar is geen gevestigde protokol vir die beoordeling van die verbruinings risiko van 'n bepaalde groep druiwe voor dit uitgevoer word nie. Talle studies is alreeds onderneem om vas te stel wat die presiese oorsaak van hierdie verskynsel is en hoe dit bestuur moet word, maar geen enkele aspek wat bestudeer is kon tot op hede, herhaaldelik ge-assosieer word met die presiese oorsaak van verbruining nie. Die oorkoepelende doel van hierdie studie was dus om 'n alternatiewe manier te kry om hierdie probleem aan te spreek. ‘n Ondersoek na die potensiaal van naby infrarooi (NIR) spektroskopie as 'n vinnige en nie-vernietigende metings tegniek om die verbruinings potensiaal van ‘n wit pitlose tafeldruifkorrel wat nog heel is te bepaal, is onderneem. 'n Sekondêre doel was om die bepaling van optimale rypheid van tafeldruiwe te onderosek. Op hierdie manier is oesrypheid, en die kwaliteitsfaktore, naamlik totale oplosbare vastestowwe (TOVS), titreerbare suur (TS), pH, glukose en fruktose, wat ook gekoppel word aan die voorkoms van verbruining, deur middel van infrarooi (IR) spektroskopie modelle gekwantifiseer. Drie verskillende infrarooi metodes naamlik (a) die Fourier transform naby infrarooi (FT-NIR), (b) Fourier transform - Mid Infrarooi (FT-MIR) en (c) Fourier transform - Mid Infrarooi Verswakte Totale Refleksie (FT-MIR VTR) spektroskopie is gebruik om die aspekte te bepaal. Dis gedoen sodat 'n platform van tegnologie beskikbaar sou wees vir die tafeldruif industrie. Die druiwe wat in hierdie studie gebruik is, is oor twee jaar (2008 en 2009) en van twee verskillende kommersiële wingerde in die Hexriviervallei, Wes-Kaap, Suid-Afrika ge-oes. Verskillende oesladings (die totale aantal trosse op die wingerdstokke per hektaar) is vir Regal Seedless (75 000, 50 000 en 35 000) en Thompson Seedless (75 000 en 50 000) gelaat. Daar is drie rye gebruik Regal Seedless en twee vir Thompson Seedless. Elke ry het ses vakkies gehad wat dan verteenwoordigend was van ‘n herhaling vir elke oeslading. In 2008 is hierdie kultivars by vroeë rypwording (16°Brix), by optimale rypheid (18°Brix) en by laat rypheid (20°Brix) geoes. In 2009 is dit twee keer by die optimale rypheidsgraad geoes. Vir die bepaling van oesrypheid, en die kwaliteitsapekte is verskillende sagteware (OPUS 6.5 op die FT-NIR en FT-MIR VTR instrumente en Unscrambler weergawe 9.2 vir die FT-MIR instrument) sowel as verskillende spektrale voor-verwerking tegnieke ëvalueer voor die konstruksie van die kalibrasie modelle op die verskillende instrumente. Parsiële kleinste kwadraat (PKK) regressie is gebruik vir die opstel van kalibrasiemodelle vir die bepaling van laasgenoemde aspekte. Verskillende statistieke gegewens is gebruik om die kalibrasie modelle te evalueer, naamlik die bepalingskoëffisiënt (R2), die vierkantswortelgemiddelde- kwadraat fout vir voorspelling (VGKV), relatiewe voorspellingsafwyking (RVA) en sydigheid. Kalibrasie modelle wat geskik is vir keuring is verkry op die FT-NIR en FT-MIR VTR instrumente vir TOVS (11.40 – 21.80°Brix) (R2 = 85.92%, VGKV = 0.71°Brix, RVA = 2.67 en sydigheid = 0.03°Brix), pH (2.94 – 3.9) (R2 = 85.00%, VGKV = 0.08 g/L, RVA = 2.59 en sydigheid = -0.01 g/L), en TS (4.3 – 13.1 g/L), (R2 = 90.77%, VGKV = 0.48 g/L RVA = 3.30 en sydigheid = -0.03 g/L). Modelle vir fruktose (46.70-176.82 g/L) (R2 = 74.66%, VGKV = 9.28 g/L RVA = 2.00 en sydigheid = 1.10 g/L) en glukose (20.36 – 386.67 g/L) (R2 = 70.71%, VGKV = 11.10 g/L RVA = 1.87 en sydigheid = 1.64 g/L) is verkry met die FT-NIR en FT-MIR VTR instrumente wat in sommige gevalle gepas was vir keuringsdoeleindes en in sommige gevalle nie geskik was vir kwantifiserings doeleindes nie. Die FT-MIR-instrument het modelle vir al die aspekte gegee wat nog nie vir kwantifiserings doeleindes of vir keuringsdoeleindes geskik was nie. Gekombineerde spektrale reekse is gebruik vir die kalibrasies wat dikwels soortgelyk was vir sommige aspekte naamlik 12 493 - 5 446.2 vir TOVS en pH, 6 101.9 - 5 446,2 vir TOVS, TS en fruktose en 4 601.5 - 4 246.7 vir pH en fruktose op die FT-NIR instrument, 2 993.2 - 2 322.3 vir pH, TA en glukose en 1 654.3 – 649.4 vir pH en glukose op die FT-MIR VTR instrument. Andersyds, was dit aangrensend (3 996.6 - 3 661.2, 3 663.5 - 3 327.7 en 3 327.2 - 2 322.3) vir TOVS en glukose, 1 988.3 - 1 652.8, 1 654.3 – 649.4 vir TOVS, pH en TS en ander tye was dit weer oorvleuelend 1 654.3 – 649.4 en 1 318.8 – 649.4 vir pH, TS en fruktose op die FT-MIR VTR instrument. Dit is 'n baie goeie teken vir die oordrag van hierdie tegnologie na ‘n handgedraagde instrument, waar aanliggende en/of oorvleuelende golfnommers noodsaaklik is. Instrumente wat verskillende aspekte oor groot spektrale reekse moet bepaal is nie net onprakties, omdat die instrument groot moet wees nie, maar dit is ook baie duur. Nog 'n voordeel van die implementering van veral FT-NIR spektroskopie as 'n vinnige, akkurate en goedkoop tegniek vir die bepaling van oesrypheid, en die kwaliteit aspekte van druiwe is omdat daar geen monster voorbereiding nodig is nie en baie min afval (paar enkele korrels word gemonster) geproduseer word. 'n Voorvereiste wat sterk aanbeveel kom in die groen era waarin ons tans leef en nog vir eeue van nou af gaan doen. ‘n Platform van tegnologie is nou beskikbaar gestel deur middel van hierdie studie vir die bepaling van die onderskeie aspekte in toekomstige tafeldruif monsters deur net op een van die instrumente hulle spektra te neem. Inderdaad iets wat nie voorheen moontlik of beskikbaar was vir die Suid- Afrikaanse tafeldruif industrie nie. Korrels vir die verbruiningseksperimente is geskandeer direk na oes (voor koelopberging) en weer na koelopberging. Dit was voor koelopberging op elke kant van die korrel skandeer en na koelopberging was dit twee maal skandeer op 'n bruin vlek indien verbruining teenwoordig was en twee keer op 'n helder plek, ongeag of verbruining teenwoordig was of nie. Inspeksie van die korrels vir die voorkoms van verbruining na koelopberging het aan die lig gebring dat Regal Seedless 'n hoër voorkoms van verbruining (68% in 2008 en 66% in 2009) as Thompson Seedless (21% in 2008 en 25% in 2009) gehad het. Regal Seedless was ook meer geneig om eksterne verbruining, spesifiek netagtige verbruining te vertoon, terwyl Thompson Seedless meer geneig was om interne verbruining te vertoon, ten spyte van die verskillende fenotipes van verbruining wat teenwoordig was op beide kultivars. Hoofkomponente analise (HKA) is op die spektra gedoen voor en na koelopberging en naby infrarooi spektroskopie het aan die lig gebring dat die veranderinge wat verband hou met koelopberging met die eerste hoofkomponent (HK) verduidelik kan word met byna 100% van die variasie in die spektra wat daarin vasgevang is. Klassifikasiemodelle is ook deur die gebruik van HKA gebou en was gebaseer op die spektra van korrels wat vekry is voor en na koelopberging asook die wat verkry is nadat korrels verbruin het na koelopberging. Klassifikasiemodelle van korrels wat gebaseer was op spektra na koelopberging (verbruining teenwoordig) het 'n beter algehele akkuraatheid (94% vir opleidingsdata en 87% vir toetsdata), getoon as die klassifikasiemodelle wat gebaseer was op spektra van korrels voor koelopberging (79% vir opleidings data en 64% vir toetsdata). Die implikasie hiervan is dat die huidige modelle in staat sal wees om korrels beter te klassifiseer in terme van diegene wat alreeds verbruin het en die wat nie verbruin het na koelopberging as daardie voor koelopberging, wat juis die kritieke stadium is waar ons wil weet of die korrels wel gaan verbruin of nie. Daar is wel potensiaal wat verder ontgin kan word, aangesien al hierdie modelle gebou is deur gebruik te maak van die hele NIR spektrum. Geen veranderlike seleksie is dus gedoen nie en al die verskillende verbruiningsfenotipes is ook saam gebruik in die opstel van die modelle. Verdere analise van die data sal dus gebaseer word op die gebruik van veranderlike seleksie tegnieke soos deeltjie swerm optimisasie (DSO) wat sekere golflengtes kies wat sterk verband hou met die verbruining verskynsel en slegs die belangrikste tipes van verbruining (netagtig op Regal Seedless en interne verbruining op Thompson Seedless) sal gebruik word. Hierdie studie het 'n baie belangrike implikasie vir die tafeldruifbedryf, want dit is die eerste keer dat die moontlikheid om verbruining te voorspel met ander metodes as visuele inspeksie, veral voor koelopberging, getoon word.
The Postharvest and Innovation Programme, for financing this study

Steering feel and quality are terms commonly used in the automotive industry when describing passenger car steering systems. However, a procedure for the quantification of these terms does not exist, let alone a concise definition of what they constitute. This thesis puts forward a hypothesis by which steering quality and feel are described by the input/output relationships of the steering system and how they are perceived by the driver. Good control properties are postulated for these relationships and an experiment is conducted, where they are altered in a manner proposed to affect quality. A methodology for the objective assessment of the control properties is developed, employing vehicle dynamic testing and representation by a mathematical model. This is put into practice to evaluate the outcome of the experiment. It was found that the methodology was successful in detecting and quantifying the alteration in the vehicle control properties. A subjective evaluation was performed to assess the experiment in terms of the quality and feel perceived by the driver. The subjective judgement delivered a result, where the deviation in quality agreed with the objective quantities hypothesised to describe quality. The thesis provides a significant step in the understanding of what is termed steering feel and quality. The methodology, successful in quantifying the experimental results with respect to quality, constitutes a scientific advancement in the current procedures for the assessment of steering quality.

In manufacturing processes, the quality of a product often depends on its surface, and careful control of surface properties is critical to meet customer requirements. A thin layer of polyethylene (PE) is applied to paperboard to increase barrier functionality and high optical quality of the product. For PE-coated paperboard, product quality inspection is performed at the end of the manufacturing process by taking a portion of the reel to the laboratory for quality inspection. These associated offline characterization methods are destructive and time consuming and are representative of only a small portion of the product. The overall goal of this thesis is to provide new methods to characterize the Surface properties of PE-coated paperboard. Specifically, to determine imaging techniques for measuring surface parameters that affect its barrier functionality and surface roughness. In this thesis, two methods for surface characterization of PE-coated paperboard are presented to quantify the two most important product-related quality parameters, i.e. barrier functionality and optical quality, which are affected by the presence of defects in the coating and by the surface roughness of the product, respectively. First, a full-Stokes imaging polarimeter (FSIP) is used to detect the presence of PE-coated material and to distinguish between coated and uncoated samples at the pixel level. Second, a three-dimensional scanning electron microscope (3D SEM) is employed to calculate the Surface roughness of PE-coated paperboard. These surface characterization techniques offer an advantage over the industry standard due to the high speed and non-contact nature of the measurement, while increasing the throughput of the sample surface parameters studied. A classification accuracy of 99, 74% is achieved using a FSIP to distinguish between PE- and non-PE-coated paperboard at pixel level. Using the 3D SEM technique to measure the topography of PE-coated samples results in a faster method that is comparable in accuracy to a chromatic confocal microscope (CCM). The surface roughness measured with the 3D SEM differs from the standard method by up to 6% and good agreement with statistical parameters is found. In general, surface analysis of PE-coated is often a complex and difficult task for imaging techniques and suitable methods need to be evaluated for their sensitivity to measure the desired surface parameters. The presented characterization techniques inspect larger areas of PE-coated paperboard compared to current industry standards. These methods provide a quantitative solution for surface characterization to inspect the surface parameters necessary to assure the product’s quality.

Thesis (MTech (Electrical Engineering))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2009
The purpose of this project is to develop methods for distribution network power quality' variations monitoring. Power quality (PO) has become a significant issue for both power suppliers and customers. There have been important changes in power system regarding to power quality requirements. "Power quality" is the combination at voltage quality and current quality. The main research problem of the project is to investigate the power quality of a distribution network by selection of proper measurement, applying and developing the existing classic and modern signal conditioning methods for power disturbance's parameters extracting and monitoring. The research objectives are: To study the standard lEC 61000-4-30 requirements. to investigate the common couplings in the distribution network. To identity the points for measurement, to develop MySQL database for the data from the measurement and to develop MATLAB software tor simulation of the network To develop methods based on Fourier transforms for estimation of the parameters of the disturbances. To develop software for the methods implementation, The influence of different loads on power quality disturbances are considered in the distribution network. Points on the network and meters according to the lEC power quality standards are investigated and applied for the CPUT Bellville campus distribution network. The implementation of the power quality monitoring for the CPUT Bellville campus helps the quality of power supply to be improved and the used power to be reduced. MATLAB programs to communicate with the database and calculate the disturbances and power quality parameters are developed.

L'introduction des nouvelles technologies numériques de traitement et de codage de contenus visuels dans l'industrie du film a permis de réaliser de grandes avancées dans le monde du cinéma. En effet, l'automatisation de certaines tâches lourdes et la maîtrise des outils numériques ont ainsi permis de réaliser des gains de productivité de qualité considérables et des conditions de travail de plus en plus flexibles et maîtrisables. Dans ce travail de thèse, nous poursuivons cet effort de développement de solutions de traitement automatique pour améliorer la qualité des films numériques haute définition. La qualité d'image est un facteur important dans l'industrie du film qu'il convient de maîtriser. Nous nous intéressons ainsi à quelques artéfacts et limitations des outils et processus de production qui affectent la qualité de l'image. Il s'agit des artéfacts de codage tels que les effets de blocs et l'effet de Gibbs (ringing), le bruit de grain et le cas d'une distorsion couleur appelée "écho d'étalonnage". Pour chaque distorsion ou artéfact, un traitement adaptatif, respectant la fidélité d'image et la cohérence visuelle, est proposé et évalué au moyen de mesures objectives. Les résultats obtenus sont très prometteurs et démontrent l'efficacité des méthodes proposées. Des perspectives réalistes sont envisages pour améliorer et étendre les solutions développées à d'autres types contenus multimédia
The introduction of new digital processing and coding techniques of visual contents in the film industry has allowed filmmakers to achieve great technological and commercial advancements. Indeed, the automation of certain complex tasks has enabled to achieve productivity gains and has made advances in terms of reliability and technical accuracy. The picture quality is one of the most important factors in the #lm industry. The main objective of the thesis work is then to propose new methods for improving the quality of high de#nition video in the context of digital cinema. Here we focus on some known annoying artifacts and distortions. A new and less studied artifact occurring during the color processing of the film is also analyzed. All the proposed solutions are developed in a highly constrained environment dictated by the cinema post-production framework. The performances of the developed methods are evaluated using some objective measures and criteria. The obtained results show that the proposed methods can provide efficient solutions for improving HD film quality. Some perspectives for extending these solutions to other visual contents are considered

Product specifications that include descriptors of sound qualities are most helpful when a description contains adequate detail and utilises understandable wording. Good specifications require that any descriptions used are familiar to users and that these descriptions are interpretable as acoustical quantities. The objectives of the studies reported upon in this thesis were to investigate how musicians use verbal descriptions of musical sounds and to interpret the descriptions in terms of some commonly used acoustical quantities. Interviews were made with saxophone players and the results were analysed with respect to how frequently different words were used. The most frequently used words were evaluated through listening tests using binaurally recorded test sounds of two saxophone players playing on two saxophones of different brands. Two groups of subjects participated in the listening tests, saxophone players and non-saxophone players. The subjects were asked to judge how well words selected from the interviews described the timbre of the test sounds. Data from the listening tests was analysed to examine how 3 factors: musician, saxophone, and type of listener influenced subject judgements. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to find the most significant perceptual dimensions for the test sounds. Results from factorial analysis of variance and PCA were used to select the most appropriate verbal descriptions that best described significant perceptual dimensions. A small set of words (9 words) suitable for describing the variations in the analysed sounds was developed. To interpret the perceptual dimensions in terms of physically measurable indices, a number of acoustical quantities were added one by one to the set of perceptual variables. PCA of these extended data sets, resulted in a suggestion as to how the perceptual dimensions could be defined in terms of acoustical quantities. The procedure resulted in two significant perceptual dimensions being developed and described. A bipolar scale was used to describe Dimension 1 where items on the scale ranged from sharp/keen/rough to soft/warm/full-toned. Dimension 2 was described by a unipolar scale using the term E-like. The acoustical quantities sharpness, tonality, loudness, specific roughness (5-6 Bark and 21-22 Bark) and specific loudness (8-14 Bark) correlated with sharp/keen/rough. Roughness and specific roughness (13- 14 Bark and 20-21 Bark) correlated with soft/warm/full-toned. Specific loudness (10-11 Bark ) correlated negatively with E-like/large and specific loudness (9-10 Bark) and specific roughness (7-9 Bark) correlated positively with E-like/large. These findings demonstrate that it is possible to subjectively describe sound quality and to relate acoustical quantities to the descriptions. This suggests that it is practical to develop sound description terminology useful for work such as preparation of specifications and subsequent product standardisation.
Godkänd; 2004; 20070111 (biem)

Reducing substandard care and improving healthcare quality is an NHS priority. Maternity care is a key area where improvements can be made. Through risk management strategies multiple quality-monitoring tools exist, including the clinical dashboard. Maternity dashboards were nationally recommended for use by all UK maternity units in 2008. However, it is unclear to what extent units have implemented dashboards or any associated issues with their use and quality monitoring as a whole.

Much attention has been directed at off-line quality control techniques in recent literature. This study is a refinement of and an enhancement to one technique, the Taguchi Method, for determining the optimum setting of design parameters in a product or process. In place of the signal-to-noise ratio, the mean square error (MSE) for each quality characteristic of interest is used. Polynomial models describing mean response and variance are fit to the observed data using statistical methods. The settings for the design parameters are determined by minimizing a statistical model. The model uses a multicriterion objective consisting of the MSE for each quality characteristic of interest. Minimum bias central composite designs are used during the data collection step to determine the settings of the parameters where observations are to be taken. Included is the development of minimum bias designs for various cases. A detailed example is given.