Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Diagnosis of the building'

Le secteur du bâtiment représente 35% des la consommations énergétiques dans les pays membres de l’agence international de l’énergie en 2010 et 39,8% aux Etats-Unis en 2015. Plus de 50% de cette consommation a été utilisée pour la production de chaleur et de froid. Néanmoins cette consommation peut être réduite par l'amélioration la performance énergétique du bâtiment. La performance thermique de l'enveloppe du bâtiment joue un rôle primordial. Par conséquent, le diagnostic thermique de l'enveloppe du bâtiment est nécessaire pour, par exemple, la réception de nouvelles constructions, l'amélioration de la performance énergétique des anciens bâtiments, ainsi que la vente et la location des logements. Pourtant, il existe très peu de méthodes quantitatives pour la caractérisation des parois épaisses. L'objectif de cette étude est d'explorer des méthodes quantitatives innovantes de diagnostic thermique de l'enveloppe du bâtiment. Des mesures expérimentales ont été réalisées en laboratoire (à l’IFSTTAR à Nantes) et in situ (à l’IUT de Bordeaux). Différents capteurs et méthodes d'instrumentation ont été étudiés pour mesurer la densité de flux et la température de surfaces des parois, afin de procurer des recommandations pour le choix des capteurs ainsi que des protocoles de traitement de données. A partir des données mesurées (température et densité de flux des surfaces de l'enveloppe), trois approches numériques ont été proposées pour estimer des paramètres thermiques des parois multicouches épaisses : par méthode inverse, par réponse à un échelon et par réponse impulsionnelle. En outre, une méthode innovante non-destructive utilisant la rayonnement térahertz a été étudiée. Les mesures ont été effectuées au sein du laboratoire I2M. Cette méthode permet de caractériser le coefficient d'absorption des matériaux constructifs ordinaires comme isolation, plâtre, béton, bois… Elle pourrait postérieurement être combinée avec une méthode thermique pour apporter des informations complémentaires
Buildings represent a large share in terms of energy consumption, such as 35% in the member countries of IEA (2010) and 39.8% in U.S. (2015). Climate controlling (space heating and space cooling) occupies more than half of the consumption. While this consumption can be reduced by improving the building energy efficiency, in which the thermal performance of building envelope plays a critical role. Therefore, the thermal diagnosis of building envelope is of great important, for example, in the case of new building accreditation, retrofitting energy efficiency of old building and the building resale and renting. However, very few diagnostic methods exist for the characterization of thick walls. The present measurement standards that based on steady state heat transfer regime need a long time (several days). The classical transient technologies, such as flash method, are difficult to implement on the walls because of the large thickness of walls and the complex conditions in situ. This thesis aims to explore innovative methodologies for thermal quantitative diagnosis of building envelope. Two experimental cases were carried out: one is in laboratory (IFSTTAR, Nantes) and the other is in situ (IUT, Bordeaux). Different sensors and instruments were studied to measure the wall heat flux and surface temperature, and provided some guidelines for the choice of sensors and data processing protocols as well. Using these measured data, three estimation approaches were proposed to estimate the thermal parameters of the multilayer thick wall: pulse response curve method, step response curve method and inverse method, which can be applied for different diagnostic situations. In addition, an innovative NDE (non-destructive evaluation) method using terahertz (THz) radiation was also investigated. Measurements were carried out in I2M laboratory to characterize the absorption coefficient of standard building materials (insulation, plaster, concrete, wood ...). This THz method can be combined with a previous thermal method to provide some complementary information

The increasingly popular cloud-computing paradigm provides on-demand access to computing and storage with the appearance of unlimited resources. Users are given access to a variety of data and software utilities to manage their work. Users rent virtual resources and pay for only what they use. In spite of the many benefits that cloud computing promises, the lack of dependability in shared virtualized infrastructures is a major obstacle for its wider adoption, especially for mission-critical applications. Virtualization and multi-tenancy increase system complexity and dynamicity. They introduce new sources of failure degrading the dependability of cloud computing systems. To assure cloud dependability, in my dissertation research, I develop autonomic failure identification and diagnosis techniques that are crucial for understanding emergent, cloud-wide phenomena and self-managing resource burdens for cloud availability and productivity enhancement. We study the runtime cloud performance data collected from a cloud test-bed and by using traces from production cloud systems. We define cloud signatures including those metrics that are most relevant to failure instances. We exploit profiled cloud performance data in both time and frequency domain to identify anomalous cloud behaviors and leverage cloud metric subspace analysis to automate the diagnosis of observed failures. We implement a prototype of the anomaly identification system and conduct the experiments in an on-campus cloud computing test-bed and by using the Google datacenter traces. Our experimental results show that our proposed anomaly detection mechanism can achieve 93% detection sensitivity while keeping the false positive rate as low as 6.1% and outperform other tested anomaly detection schemes. In addition, the anomaly detector adapts itself by recursively learning from these newly verified detection results to refine future detection.

Heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems consume 43 % of the energy used by buildings. This percentage grows when the HVAC system operates with malfunctions. Fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) methods are developed to reduce abnormal events and down-times and to promote energy saving use of equipment. Most FDD methodologies for HVAC systems found in the literature revolve around first principle models and mathematical models. This dissertation describes a FDD solution based on process history data and artificial neural network (ANN) models. ANN models, of HVAC components, are built from fault-free operation data. Faulty data are then used with the ANN models to build various residuals and statistical residual transformations. From these residuals, unique residual patterns are assigned to discern between a variety of malfunctions. This FDD strategy is, firstly, applied to a static pressure control loop and secondly, applied to the overall power consumption of an HVAC system. In both studies, the FDD system successfully detected and classified unwanted anomalies - some deviating as little as 5% from normal operational standards. Finally, the FDD system is rated according to a common set of criteria reviewed in the literature study. This criterion shows the FDD strategy to be robust and adaptable, with low modelling and computational requirements.
Thesis (M.Ing. (Computer and Electronical Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.

Dans les systèmes de chauffage, de ventilation et de climatisation (CVC, en anglais HVAC pour « Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning »), les défauts des équipements et les erreurs de fonctionnement causent des problèmes de confort et un gaspillage d’énergie. Pour aider les gestionnaires d’installations à identifier et à corriger plus efficacement les défauts, il est essentiel de disposer d’un outil de détection et de diagnostic automatique de défauts (AFDD), capable de détecter automatiquement les problèmes de confort et d’énergie et d’en identifier les causes.Les méthodes AFDD existantes se concentrent principalement sur la détection et le diagnostic de défauts au niveau des équipements. Peu d’attention n’est accordée au diagnostic au niveau du bâtiment global, qui permet une détection plus efficace en s’appuyant sur l’interdépendance entre les équipements tout au long de la chaîne de distribution d’énergie. Cette thèse propose une nouvelle méthode AFDD pour les bâtiments, basée sur les données d’exploitation collectées par les systèmes de gestion technique du bâtiment (GTB, en anglais BMS pour « Building Management System »). Cette méthode est conçue autour d’un réseau bayésien qui permet de détecter les défauts des équipements HVAC en s’appuyant sur une meilleure décision basée sur la fusion des informations et des données provenant des différents niveaux de composants. Cela permet de réaliser un diagnostic de défaut intégré de la globalité du bâtiment. Une originalité importante de cette contribution porte sur l’exploitation des historiques de fonctionnement et des techniques d’apprentissage pour aider au paramétrage automatique de l’outil de détection. Notre méthodologie comprend les deux parties suivantes :1. Une nouvelle manière systématique de transférer des informations de topologie de systèmes de bâtiment et des connaissances d’experts pour la construction modulaire du réseau bayésien.2. Une nouvelle approche pour intégrer des détections de défaut au niveau des équipements dans un réseau bayésien de diagnostic du bâtiment complet. Nous utilisons une méthode de régression pour les équipements centraux (par exemple, groupe froid, chaudière et central traitement d’air), apprise sur des données de fonctionnement normal collectées lors d’un test de mise en service. Pour les équipements dans les zones d’usage, nous utilisons un modèle probabiliste des corrélations entre données de consigne et de mesure.Une fois le réseau mis en place et les données – mesures et prédictions – collectées, le réseau est à même de calculer la probabilité de différents défauts dans le système bâtiment complet, et d’en identifier les causes les plus probables.Nous avons testé ce nouvel outil de diagnostic des défauts sur des données provenant de simulation et de deux bâtiments réels afin de tester les performances en termes de détection. Les résultats montrent que notre approche est capable de gérer facilement un grand nombre d’équipements et d’identifier correctement les causes à partir des données mesurées et prédites au niveau des équipements.Par rapport aux approches de type AFDD existantes, cette nouvelle méthode offre les avantages suivants :1) La structure modulaire et la méthodologie généralisée permettent à cette méthode d’être appliquée à une grande variété de systèmes CVC et de bâtiments. 2) Cette approche relie les défauts d’équipement aux symptômes de confort du bâtiment perceptibles par les occupants.3) Le système HVAC est diagnostiqué dans son ensemble au lieu de le faire équipement par équipement.4) En connectant chaque violation de point de consigne de confort avec les défauts des équipements, et en recherchant les défauts racines pour chaque défaut d’équipement de zone, le nombre total d’alarmes est grandement réduit.5) Les gestionnaires d’installations peuvent utiliser l’outil de manière interactive, en mettant à jour les données de certains noeuds du réseau bayésien sur la base d’observations terrain
Heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) equipment faults and operational errors result in comfort issues and waste of energy in buildings. In order to help the facility managers to identify and fix faults more efficiently, it is essential to have an Automatic Fault Detection and Diagnosis (AFDD) tool, able to automatically detect comfort and energy issues and identify the root faults.Existing AFDD methods mostly focus on equipment-level fault detection and diagnostics. Almost no attention is given to building level fault diagnosis, considering inter-dependency between equipment through the energy distribution chain.This thesis proposes a new building AFDD method based on operation data collected by Building Management Systems (BMS). The method uses Bayesian Network to achieve building-level integrated fault diagnosis and equipment-level data-driven fault detection by information fusion of data collected from different equipment of HVAC systems. An important contribution relates to the use of operating data and learning techniques to automatically tune some parameters of the detection tool.Our methodology is composed of the following two parts:1. A new systematic way of transferring building system topology information and expert knowledge to a Bayesian Network.2. A novel approach for integrating equipment-level fault detection results into a building-level fault diagnosis Bayesian network. We use regression methods for central equipment (e.g. chiller, boiler, and Air Handling Unit), learned from normal operation data collected during a commissioning test. For room equipment, we use probabilistic models of correlations between control and measurement data.Once the fault diagnosis network is set up and all of the evidence is collected, the network is able to calculate the probability of different faults and identify the most probable root faults. We implemented the fault diagnostics Bayesian network on one simulation data set and two real building operation data sets to test the performance of the AFDD method. The results show that the method is able to easily handle large numbers of equipment, and correctly identify root causes with given evidences.Compared to existing AFDD methods, the new method provides the following benefits:1) The modular structure and generalized methodology allow the method to be applied to wide variety of HVAC systems.2) The method connects equipment faults to building comfort symptoms perceivable by occupants.3) The HVAC system is diagnosed as a whole instead of equipment by equipment.4) By connecting comfort set point violation with equipment fault, and tracing root fault of room equipment failure, the total number of alarms is reduced.5) Facility managers can use the tool in an interactive way, thanks to the capability to post evidence in the Bayesian network based on field investigation findings

This thesis presents techniques for improving building HVAC system performance in existing buildings generated using simulation-based tools and real data. Therefore, one of the aims has been to research the needs and possibilities to assess and improve building HVAC system performance. In addition, this thesis aims at an advanced utilization of building energy management system (BEMS) and the provision of useful information to building operators using simulation tools.

Buildings are becoming more complex systems with many elements, while BEMS provide many data about the building systems. There are, however, many faults and issues in building performance, but there are legislative and cost-benefit forces induced by energy savings. Therefore, both BEMS and the computer-based tools have to be utilized more efficiently to improve building performance.

The thesis consists of four main parts that can be read separately. The first part explains the term commissioning and the commissioning tool work principal based on literature reviews. The second part presents practical experiences and issues introduced through the work on this study. The third part deals with the computer-based tools application in design and operation. This part is divided into two chapters. The first deals with improvement in the design, and the second deals with the improvement in the control strategies. The last part of the thesis gives several rules for fault diagnosis developed using simulation tools. In addition, this part aims at the practical explanation of the faults in the building HVAC systems.

The practical background for the thesis was obtained though two surveys. The first survey was carried out with the aim to find the commissioning targets in Norwegian building facilities. In that way, an overview of the most typical buildings, HVAC equipment, and their related problems was obtained. An on-site survey was carried out on an example building, which was beneficial for introducing the building maintenance structure and the real hydronic heating system faults.

Coupled simulation and optimization programs (EnergyPlus and GenOpt) were utilized for improving the building performances. These tools were used for improving the design and the control strategies in the HVAC systems. Buildings with a hydronic heating system were analyzed for the purpose of improving the design. Since there are issues in using the optimization tool, GenOpt, a few procedures for different practical problems have been suggested. The optimization results show that the choice of the optimization functions influences significantly the design parameters for the hydronic heating system.

Since building construction and equipment characteristics are changing over time, there is a need to find new control strategies which can meet the actual building demand. This problem has been also elaborated on by using EnergyPlus and GenOpt. The control strategies in two different HVAC systems were analyzed, including the hydronic heating system and the ventilation system with the recovery wheel. The developed approach for the strategy optimization includes: involving the optimization variables and the objective function and developing information flow for handling the optimization process.

The real data obtained from BEMS and the additional measurements have been utilized to explain faults in the hydronic heating system. To couple real data and the simple heat balance model, the procedure for the model calibration by use of an optimization algorithm has been developed. Using this model, three operating faults in the hydronic heating system have been elaborated.

Using the simulation tools EnergyPlus and TRNSYS, several fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) rules have been generated. The FDD rules were established in three steps: testing different faults, calculating the performance indices (PI), and classifying the observed PIs. These rules have been established for the air cooling system and the hydronic heating system. The rules can diagnose the control and the component faults. Finally, analyzing the causes and the effects of the tested faults, useful information for the building maintenance has been descriptively explained.

The most important conclusions are related to a practical connection of the real data and simulation-based tools. For a complete understanding of system faults, it is necessary to provide real-life information. Even though BEMS provides many building data, it was proven that BEMS is not completely utilized. Therefore, the control strategies can always be improved and tuned to the actual building demands using the simulation and optimization tools. It was proven that many different FDD rules for HVAC systems can be generated using the simulation tools. Therefore, these FDD rules can be used as manual instructions for the building operators or as a framework for the automated FDD algorithms.

Denne avhandlingen presenterer noen fremgangsmåter for forbedring av ytelser for VVS-tekniske anlegg i eksisterende bygninger basert på bruk av simuleringsverktøy og virkelige måledata. Ett av målene har vært å undersøke behov og muligheter for vurdering og forbedring av ytelser for VVS-anlegg i bygninger. I tillegg har denne avhandlingen hatt som mål å fremme bruk av SD-anlegg samt å fremskaffe nyttig informasjon til driftspersonalet.

Bygninger blir stadig mer kompliserte systemer som inneholder flere og flere komponenter mens SD-anlegg håndterer en stadig større mengde data fra bygningsinstallasjoner. På den ene siden registreres det ofte feil og problemer med hensyn til ytelsene til de VVS-tekniske installasjonene. På den andre siden innføres det stadig strengere lovmessige pålegg og kost-nyttekrav motivert i energieffektiviseringen. SD-anlegg og databaserte verktøy bør derfor brukes mer effektivt for forbedring av ytelsene.

Avhandlingen består av fire hoveddeler hvor hver del kan leses separat. Den første delen, som er basert på literatturstudie, forklarer funksjonskontroll som begrep og prinsipper for oppbygging av verktøy for funksjonskontroll. Den andre delen presenterer praktisk erfaring og problemstillinger utviklet og behandlet i løpet av arbeidet med avhandlingen. Den tredje delen handler om anvendelse av databaserte verktøy for forbedring av ytelsen for VVS-tekniske installasjoner. Den tredje delen er delt opp i to kapitler, hvorav et handler om forbedring av systemløsninger og et om forbedring av styringsstrategier. Den siste delen presenterer flere regler for feilsøking og diagnostisering utviklet gjennom bruk av simuleringsverktøy. I tillegg gir denne delen en praktisk forklaring av feilene i de VVS-anleggene som er behandlet i undersøkelsen.

Det praktiske grunnlaget for avhandlingen er etablert gjennom to undersøkelser. Den første var en spørreundersøkelse som hadde til hensikt å kartlegge målsetninger for funksjonskontroll i norske bygninger. Gjennom dette ble det etablert en oversikt over de mest typiske bygninger med tilhørende VVS-anlegg og de mest forekommende problemene. En dypere undersøkelse ble utført på ett casebygg. Denne undersøkelsen viste seg å være nyttig både for kartlegging av betydningen av organisering av driften av bygningen og for avdekking av de virkelige feilene i det vannbårne oppvarmingssystemet.

En kobling mellom et simulerings- og et optimaliseringsprogram (EnergyPlus og GenOpt) har vært benyttet for forbedring av ytelsene for de VVS-tekniske installasjonene. Disse verktøyene har vært brukt for forbedring av både systemløsningene og styringsstrategiene for VVS-anlegg. Bygninger med vannbåren oppvarmingssystem har vært analysert for å forbedre systemløsningen. På grunn av begrensninger i bruken av optimaliseringsverktøyet GenOpt, har det blitt utviklet egne prosedyrer for håndtering av visse typer problemstillinger hvor denne begrensningen opptrer. Resultatene for optimaliseringen viser at valg av objektfunksjoner påvirker betydelig parametrene i det vannbårne oppvarmingssystemet.

Endringer i egenskapene til både bygningskonstruksjoner og utstyr som skjer på grunn av aldring over tiden, gjør det nødvendig med tilpassning av styringsstrategier slik at det virkelige behovet kan bli dekket. Denne problemstillingen har vært analysert ved bruk av EnergyPlus og GenOpt. Styringsstrategiene for to forskjellige VVS-anlegg, et vannbåret oppvarmingssystem og et ventilasjonsanlegg med varmegjenvinner har blitt behandlet. Den utviklete prosedyren for optimalisering av styringsstrategien består av følgende steg: innføring av optimaliseringsvariabler og objektfunksjon, samt utvikling av informasjonsflyt for behandling av optimaliseringsprosessen.

De virkelige data, både fra SD-anlegg og tilleggsmålinger, har vært benyttet for praktisk forklaring av feilene i oppvarmingssystemet. En prosedyre for modellkalibrering basert på bruk av en optimaliseringsalgoritme som kobler sammen de virkelige data og en enkel varmebalansemodell har blitt foreslått. Tre konkrete driftsfeil i oppvarmingssystemet har blitt belyst gjennom bruk av denne varmebalansemodellen.

Flere regler for feilsøking og diagnostisering har blitt utviklet ved hjelp av simuleringsverktøyene EnergyPlus and TRNSYS. Denne utviklingen har bestått av tre ulike steg: testing av bestemte feil, beregning av ytelsesindikatorer og til slutt klassifisering av de observerte ytelsesindikatorer. Reglene har blitt utviklet for et system av aggregater for luftkjøling og for et vannbåret oppvarmingssystem. Reglene kan diagnostisere både styringsfeil og komponentfeil. Til slutt presenteres informasjon som er nyttig for drift av VVS-tekniske installasjoner i bygninger basert på en analyse av årsakene for og virkningene av de feil som er behandlet.

De viktigste konklusjonene er knyttet til praktisk kombinasjon av virkelige måleverdier og simuleringsverktøy. Informasjon fra det virkelig liv er helt nødvendig for å få en god forståelse av feil som oppstår i anlegg. Det er også vist at potensialet som ligger i alle de data som er tilgjengelige gjennom SD-anlegg, ikke er fullt utnyttet. Gjennom bruk av simuleringsverktøy kan styringsstrategiene alltid bli bedre tilpasset og innjustert til de virkelige behov i bygningen. Simuleringsverktøy kan også brukes for utvikling av prosedyrer for feilsøking og diagnostisering i VVS-tekniske anlegg. Disse prosedyrene kan brukes enten som en veileder for manuell feilsøking og detektering eller som grunnlag for utvikling av automatiserte algoritmer.

Paper II, VI and VII are reprinted with kind permission from Elsevier, sciencedirect.com

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics
The purpose of this exploratory study is to identify a common path followed by social entrepreneurs, so as to build a comprehensive empirical model. The methodology used is qualitative interviews; in particular, semi-structured questions were addressed to a sample of ten social entrepreneurs, whose answers were transcribed and analysed. The main result is represented by a five-stage pattern followed by social entrepreneurs: each stage is firstly described and further linked to specific challenges that social entrepreneurs face and assets they need during the process. It is fundamental to highlight that some of these stages and challenges are peculiar to social entrepreneurship, differing from regular entrepreneurship. The key conclusion is that it is possible to identify a common pattern that could guide current and future social entrepreneurs. Furthermore, this research paper emphasises best practices and lesson learned from current social entrepreneurs by leaving a powerful heritage to who is interested in make a real change in society.

The thesis concerns with the development of novel measurement methods for characterisation and diagnosis of airborne sound transmission through building partitions. Using standard tests, the airborne sound insulation of partitions can be measured as the Sound Reduction Index ‘SRI’. While the SRI provides the frequency dependence of sound insulation (or transmission), the local/spatial sound transmission through various paths in the partition is not known. If the contributions of different paths in the partition can be measured then any weak paths of sound insulation can be diagnosed. This would be especially useful in the case of multi-layered partitions where the sound insulation depends on the sound transmission through point connections/ribs/studs/frame, etc. present in the structure. While different theoretical models are in place to predict the sound insulation in presence of such elements, the experimental diagnosis of their sound transfer contributions remains fairly unexplored. Similar diagnosis problems are encountered by automotive industry while dealing with structure borne sources in the vehicle. In practice, Transfer Path Analysis (TPA) methods are extensively used in such cases for diagnosing the contributions of different structure borne sources at vehicle interiors. Application of such TPA methods for diagnosing airborne sound transmission is challenging on various counts. Firstly, the airborne source applies a continuous excitation on the receiver as opposed to structure borne sources which are typically discrete. Secondly, for our study, the path contributions are desired which is difficult than measuring source characterisations. To address these issues, a novel TPA application Inverse-Airborne Source Contribution Analysis (I-ASCA) is devised which employs a patch based discretisation of the source receiver interface for the diagnosis of airborne sound transmission through partitions. Using such discretisation, the airborne excitation on the partition can be inversely characterised by blocked forces and the source contributions can be measured. Additionally, a new methodology Inverse Path Contribution Analysis (I-PCA) is outlined which allows for measurement of path contributions. These methodologies applied to the case of single and double layer partitions excited by airborne source and the accuracy of the methods was found to be within 2-3 dB of the measured response in general up to a maximum of 1 kHz under the tested grid size. The accuracy of the method is thus strictly linked to the discretisation size. A sampling criterion of λ_b/2 was found to be sufficient which is less demanding than sampling criterion utilised by finite element methods. The methods can be applied to >1 kHz range if the discretisation can be made finer. To improve the practical application of the methods, the Direct-Airborne Source Contribution Analysis (D-ASCA) is presented which allows for direct characterisation of the airborne excitation using contact pressures. The method is much faster than I-ASCA in providing source contributions however path contributions cannot be measured using this method and the accuracy of the method is also found to be within 2-3 dB. D-ASCA application has been presented for the case of commercial single and double casement windows. Using careful assumptions, it is possible to estimate the path contributions of the glazing and frame in the windows from the source contributions. The diagnosis allows comparing the path contributions in frequency regions up to 1 kHz and the weak path is identified. This shows the potential of the method in identifying the weak elements of sound insulation which can be used as a complement to the SRI data and can provide cues for improving the sound insulation of the partition. Lastly, an in-situ measurement method for airborne sound insulation measurement is presented which can be applied when a pressure doubling occurs at the surface. A novel approach has been presented to assess whether pressure doubling occurs on the surface and calculating the blocked pressures. This allows one to measure SRI in-situ using diagnostic measurements without the need of a separate standard test for measuring SRI. This showcases the versatility of the approaches in that the frequency dependence (SRI) and spatial dependence (path contributions) of sound insulation/transmission can be measured within a single approach.

The main purpose of this research project was to bridge the existing knowledge gap inthe empirical identification and understanding of how conflict occurs between keyproject parties within Saudi Arabia’s public sector building projects. Such conflict hasbecome an increasingly endemic feature within the last 20 years, and this researchproject provides a contribution in knowledge terms which will help to overcome theobstacles and challenges impeding growth and development in the field. This wasachieved by conducting an investigation to provide the theoretical background aboutthe antecedents of conflict, and presenting a number of project management suggestions to avoid or minimise.Both qualitative and quantitative research approaches were utilised in this study. Thequalitative research data was obtained from 30 in-depth semi-structured interviewswith four types of key project party, namely, project owners, consultants, contractors,and sub-contractors. This was followed by two separate questionnaire surveys. The firstwas a means of validating conflict data obtained from the interviews, and the secondwas used to test Project Management - PM data, . In this part of the study, 672questionnaires were sent to various people engaged in the Saudi Arabian constructionindustry. The response rate was 46.1% (n = 310 ).In terms of the interview data, a total of 349 data items were derived and from these data items, 30 general themes emerged concerning various causes of conflict and the latent conditions of conflict, providing descriptions of what and how conflicts arise within Saudi Arabian public building projects. From these general themes, 31 recommendations for strategic project management processes are made, with the intention of preventing or at least minimising conflict. The quantitative survey conducted to test these project management strategies (recommendations) revealed that all of them were supported. The study subsequently produced a cyclical framework of conflict avoidance, derived from the research methodology used in the study, and this is outlined to enable project building participants, whether individuals, groups, or organisations, to improve their project management strategy from project to project.The research recommends that: generally, certain project management strategiesshould be implemented in the earlier phases of a project in order to promote conflictavoidance behaviours or at least to effect a reduction in these. Furthermore, strategicactions are required to deal with the latent condition-related issues in respect of building projects in the Saudi Arabian context. In this case, reforms to current practices are required to improve the performance within the building industry. It is also recommended that further research be undertaken to explore other latent conditions of conflict and conflicts themselves in order to develop additional project management strategies aimed at managing the causes of conflict.

The current study spanning 6 years 8 months reviewed technologies developed for emergence of speech in non-vocal children with autism. A total 144 children were selected of whom 126 met the inclusion criteria and completed the study. Non-vocal children between ages 1.4-13.5 years participated in four experiments that used delayed multiple baseline design across subjects. Mastery criteria for vocalization for each participant was n=7 first instances of speech. Experiment 1 studied the role of stimulus-stimulus pairing (SSP) during sign-mand training on vocal emergence in 58 participants of whom 83% acquired vocal status. Experiment 2 studied the effect of prompt-delays during sign-mand training on 3 children who failed to acquire vocals one xperiment 1 for 9-33 weeks. Introduction of prompt-delays were effective in inducing vocals in all three children. Experiment 3 studied the additive effect of intraverbal training with paired auditory stimulus on 46 children who failed to acquire vocals after 12-40 weeks of sign-mand training and SSP. Results showed 80% children emerged with vocals after the introduction of intraverbal training. In Experiment 4 sign-mand training and intraverbal training with SSP were introduced together in 19 children. Results suggested 89% children emerged with vocals. Of the total 126 children across all experiments 105 emerged with vocals meeting the mastery criteria with permanent effects. Across all experiments mean IOA of the study was 89% (range 83%-94%) and treatment integrity 86% (range 57%-100%) . Retrospective data analysis suggested age of children was not a determinant for vocal acquisition and first instances of speech emerged across various verbal operants such as mands, echoic mands, echoics and intraverbals. Motivating operations accounted for 65% of initial vocals however 27% first vocals also emerged as intraverbal fill-ins. Time to vocalization, type of vocal emergence and relative successes of the technologies used are explored in this study.

This thesis is concerned with measuring the fabric thermal performance of houses. This is important because the evidence shows that predictions of performance, based upon a summation of expected elemental performance, are prone to significant inaccuracy and in-situ performance is invariably worse than expected the so-called performance gap . Accurate knowledge of the thermal performance of houses could cause a shift in the way that houses are built, retrofitted and managed. It would enable quality-assurance of newly-built and retrofitted houses, driving an improvement in the energy performance of the housing stock. The current barrier to achieving these benefits is that existing measurement methods are impractically invasive for use on a mass-scale. The aim of this research is to address this issue by developing non-invasive fabric thermal performance measurement methods for houses. The co-heating test is currently the most used method for measuring whole-house fabric thermal performance; it is used to measure the Heat Loss Coefficient (HLC) of a house, which is a measure of the rate of heat loss with units of Watts per degree Kelvin. It has been used extensively in a research context, but its more widespread use has been limited. This is due to a lack of confidence in the accuracy of its results and the test s invasiveness (the house must be vacant for two weeks during testing, which has so far been limited to the winter months, and testing cannot be carried out in newly-built houses for a period of approximately one year due to the drying out period). To build confidence in the results of co-heating testing, the precision with which test results can be reported was determined by the combination of a sensitivity analysis to quantify measurement errors, and an analysis of the reproducibility of the test. Reproducibility refers to the precision of a measurement when test results are obtained in different locations, with different operators and equipment. The analysis of the reproducibility of the test was based upon a direct comparison of seven co-heating tests carried out by different teams in a single building. This is the first such analysis and therefore provides a uniquely powerful analysis of the co-heating test. The reproducibility and sensitivity analyses showed that, provided best practise data collection and analysis methods are followed, the HLC measured by a co-heating test can be reported with an uncertainty of ± 10%. The sensitivity analysis identified solar heat gains as the largest source of measurement error in co-heating tests. In response, a new approach for co-heating data collection and analysis, called the facade solar gain estimation method, has been developed and successfully demonstrated. This method offers a clear advancement upon existing analysis methods, which were shown to be prone to inaccuracy due to inappropriate statistical assumptions. The facade method allowed co-heating tests to be carried out with accuracy during the summer months, which has not previously been considered feasible. The demonstration of the facade method included a direct comparison against other reported methods for estimating solar gains. The comparison was carried out for co-heating tests undertaken in three buildings, with testing taking place in different seasons (winter, summer, and spring or autumn) in each case. This comparison provides a unique analysis of the ability of the different solar gain estimation methods to return accurate measurements of a house s HLC in a wide variety of weather conditions. Building on these results, a testing method was developed: the Loughborough In-Use Heat Balance (LIUHB). The LIUHB is a non-invasive measurement method, designed and tested in this study, which can measure the HLC of a house with an accuracy of ± 15% while it is occupied and used as normal. Measurements of energy consumption and internal temperature are discreetly collected over a period of three weeks, and combined with data collected at a local weather station to inform an energy balance, from which the HLC is calculated. This low impact monitoring approach removes the barriers to fabric thermal performance testing on a mass scale. The LIUHB has been successfully demonstrated in several comparative trials versus a baseline measurement provided by the co-heating test. The trials have included the application of extreme examples of synthetic occupancy conditions, testing in an occupied house, and quantification of the effects of a retrofit. Subject to further validation, the LIUHB has the potential to deliver many of the benefits associated with mass-scale measurement and quality assurance of housing performance.

Pharmacometric modelling is an increasingly used method for analysing the outcome from clinical trials in drug development. The model building process is complex and involves testing, evaluating and diagnosing a range of plausible models aiming to make an adequate inference from the observed data and predictions for future studies and therapy.

The aim of this thesis was to advance the approaches used in pharmacometrics by introducing improved models and methods for application in essential parts of model building procedure: (i) structural model development, (ii) stochastic model development and (iii) model diagnostics.

As a contribution to the structural model development, a novel flexible structural model for drug absorption, a transit compartment model, was introduced and evaluated. This model is capable of describing various drug absorption profiles and yet simple enough to be estimable from data available from a typical trial. As a contribution to the stochastic model development, three novel methods for parameter distribution estimation were developed and evaluated; a default NONMEM nonparametric method, an extended grid method and a semiparametric method with estimated shape parameters. All these methods are useful in circumstances when standard assumptions of parameter distributions in the population do not hold. The new methods provide less biased parameter estimates, better description of variability and better simulation properties of the model. As a contribution to model diagnostics, the most commonly used diagnostics were evaluated for their usefulness. In particular, diagnostics based on individual parameter estimates were systematically investigated and circumstances which are likely to misguide modelers towards making erroneous decisions in model development, relating to choice of structural, covariate and stochastic model components were identified.

In conclusion, novel approaches, insights and models have been provided to the pharmacometrics community.

Implementation of these advances to make model building more efficient and robust has been facilitated by development of diagnostic tools and automated routines.

Os efeitos conjugados das mudanças tecnológicas, das teorias de gestão flexível das empresas e da globalização dos mercados e da informação forçosamente resultaram em alterações profundas na esfera do trabalho humano. O presente estudo tem como objetivo descrever o atual plano de formação da Sines Tecnopolo, identificando, de forma clara, o plano e, com a ajuda da análise do diagnóstico de necessidades de formação, propor um ajuste no plano de formação, para que a academia supere as fragilidades e lacunas nele encontradas, (no plano atual.) Assim, de modo a atingir os objetivos delineados, foi utilizado, no presente relatório, como princípio organizador, o método de investigação-ação, projetado em três etapas: conhecer, investigar e identificar; Diagnosis of training needs assessment in an organizational context ABSTRACT: About the combined effects of the technological changes, the theories of flexible management of enterprises and the globalization of the markets, and the information led to big changes in the human word field. This study aims to describe the actual plan of building Sines Tecnopolo, identifying clearly the plan and, with the help of the analysing of building necessities diagnosis supporting an agreement about the building plan, such that the academy overcomes its weaknesses and gaps (in the actual plan). Like that, to achieve the planned objectives, A method of investigation-action (was used in this report as a main organizer) which was done in three steps: understanding, investigating and identifying.

With increasing knowledge about the indoor climate in recent years, preventive methods to avoid health problems caused by deficient building performance may become preferable to reactive methods. Benefits from preventive actions have been suggested for late building design phases, construction, and building operations, however, few data are available that demonstrate the benefits of preventive actions in early planning phases.

In a case study, expected building performance in respect to indoor air quality and thermal conditions in a large judicial facility in North America was evaluated retrospectively at the end of the schematic design and substantial completion phases. A process for evaluation of building performance at schematic design is developed from existing procedures for building diagnostics in operating buildings. Criteria for evaluation of expected building environmental quality at schematic design as available from standards and guidelines are presented.

The results of the study show that building diagnostics at schematic design can be an effective mean of prevention of occupant health problems. Further findings indicate that the assurance of indoor environmental quality can be improved, if the criteria for expected building performance are defined and complied with from early on. It is concluded that implementation of building diagnostics in early project phases can reduce the likelihood of adverse health effects in operating buildings.
Master of Science

This work demonstrates an application of Vibration-Based Occupant Inference (VBOI) in frailty analysis. The rise of both Internet-of-Things (IoT) and VBOI provide new techniques to perform gait analysis via footstep-induced vibration which can be analyzed for early detection of human frailty. Thus, this work provides an application of VBOI to passively track gait parameters (e.g., gait speed) using floor-mounted accelerometers as opposed to using a manual chronometer as it is commonly performed by healthcare professionals. The first part of this thesis describes the techniques used for footstep detection by measuring the power of the footstep-generated vibration waves. The extraction of temporal gait parameters from consecutive footsteps can then be used to estimate temporal features such as cadence and stride time variation. VBOI provides many algorithms to accurately detect when a human-induced vibration event happened, however, spatial information is also needed for many gait parameters used in frailty diagnosis. Detecting where an event happened is a complicated problem because footsteps waves travel and decay in different ways according to the medium (floor system), the number of people walking, and even the walking speed. Therefore, the second part of this work will utilize an energy-based approach of footstep localization in which it is assumed that footstep waves decay exponentially as they travel across the medium. The results from this approach are then used to calculate spatial and tempo-spatial parameters. The main goal of this study is to understand the applicability of VBOI algorithms in gait analysis for frailty detection in a healthcare setting.
Master of Science
Human frailty is responsible for one of the highest healthcare costs and the death of many people every year. Although anyone suffering from frailty has a higher chance of death, it is particularly dangerous for the elderly population and for those suffering from other comorbidities. Diagnosing frailty is hard because it usually happens slowly over time. However, it has been shown that changes in some walking parameters (such as gait speed) can be an early indication of frailty. Many technologies have been created in order to track gait parameters, many of which either require expensive equipment (e.g., force plates) or the use of wearable devices, which can introduce privacy concerns. It has been proposed in the literature that Vibration-Based Occupant Inference (VBOI) techniques could be used in healthcare applications. Such algorithms measure footstep-induced vibration waves in order to detect and track footsteps. This system can provide several advantages in frailty analysis because of its affordability, ease of use, and little impact on patients' privacy. Therefore, the aim of this study is to understand the applicability of VBOI algorithms in gait analysis for frailty detection to be used in a healthcare setting. This thesis will proceed as follows: 1- The demonstration of an energy-based footstep detection and localization algorithm in VBOI. 2 - The application of such algorithms for gait parameters extraction with simulated frail walkers. 3 - Finally, an analysis of the proposed VBOI techniques for deployment in a real hospital setting.

Art History
M.A.
This study presents a preliminary examination of the pottery from Building Kappa, a recently excavated building on the citadel of Mycenae. Resulting from a formal detailed analysis of a portion of the recovered ceramic assemblage, this research corrects several errors recorded in notebooks at the time of excavation before the pottery was washed and studied. The excavated area of Building Kappa contained three different levels: Stratum 4/6, a deposit associated with the structure that shows it went out of use in the LH IIIB period; Level 3, a deposit consisting of baulks left unexcavated by early expeditions in the 1890's, which consists of an LH IIIC level from habitation near this area after the building went out of use; and Deposit 2beta, a modern backfill containing both Bronze Age and Hellenistic pottery that was spread across the site in modern times. The importance of the study is that it clarifies the stratigraphy of the area of Building Kappa and allows preliminary observations about the nature of the occupation at this location. More importantly, this research indicates the need for a more detailed examination of the remainder of the unstudied ceramic assemblage.
Temple University--Theses

Le diagnostic des défauts et la maintenance d'un système bâtiment est une tâche complexe à effectuer. Les outils existants pour la détection et le diagnostic de défauts dans les bâtiments permettent d'effectuer cette détection à l'aide d'une analyse des contraintes comportementales.La thèse de Mahendra Pratap Singh propose le concept de tests hétérogènes avec des contraintes de validité dans le contexte du diagnostic de défauts dans les bâtiments, mais l'approche proposée suppose que les capteurs sont fiables et ne s'intéresse qu'aux processus thermo-aérauliques et aux systèmes de chauffage. Les contraintes de validité sont mesurées avec des capteurs. Si ces capteurs sont défectueux, le résultat du diagnostic n'est pas garanti et il est nécessaire d'avoir une méthode permettant de prouver le test ainsi que le diagnostic global.Pour effectuer un test, il est nécessaire de disposer de données provenant de différentes parties: météorologiques, humaines et physiques. Cependant, les données manquantes constituent le type de défauts de capteurs majeur dans les bâtiments. Les mesures des capteurs ne sont pas échantillonnées de manière uniforme et il est nécessaire de décider à partir de quel retard le capteur devient défectueux.L'objectif de ce travail est de mettre en évidence ces défis et de fournir une stratégie sur la façon de les résoudre. Trois solutions pour le diagnostic du système bâtiment sont proposées1- Un niveau de complétude pour une formalisation de la validité lorsque les capteurs sont potentiellement défaillants.Pour le système bâtiment, il n'existe pas de modèle global précis mais il existe des modèles contextuels à validité limitée. L'espace de test consiste en un ensemble de mesures. Le niveau de complétude est proposé comme méthode pour prouver si un espace de test est entièrement couvert ou non c'est-à-dire pour évaluer le niveau de validité d'un test en présence de capteurs non fiables.2- Un niveau de confiance pour prouver un diagnostic globalUn test automatique est caractérisé par des seuils, c’est-à-dire que la contrainte comportementale est satisfaite ou non satisfaite. L'incertitude est liée aux contraintes de validité. En effet, il est difficile de définir un seuil pour le niveau de complétude à partir duquel on peut dire qu'un test est valide. Le résultat du diagnostic est calculé à partir d’un ensemble de tests, chacun défini par sonniveau de complétude. La contribution est de proposer une solution permettant de calculer le niveau de confiance d’un diagnostic global déduit d’un ensemble de tests dont certains ont un niveau de complétude inférieur à 1. Une méthode basée sur le raisonnement de logique floue est utilisée à cet effet.3- Seuillage automatique pour la détection de données de capteurs manquantesLe retard dépend de la valeur mesurée et de type du capteur. L'objectif est d'identifier à partir de quel retard un capteur devient défectueux. Deux techniques sont proposées: une analyse de séries temporelles et une approche statistique.Différentes applications ont été étudiées pour la validation: un bureau au laboratoire G-SCOP, un appartement Grenoblois et une plateforme à l'université de Danemark Sud
Fault diagnosis and maintenance of a whole-building system is a complex task to perform. Available building fault detection and diagnosis tools are only capableof performing fault detection using behavioral constraints analysis. The thesis of Mahendra Pratap Singh proposes to use heterogeneous tests with validity constraints in the context of building fault diagnosis but the proposed approach assumes that the sensors are reliable. Nevertheless, validity constraints are checked with potentially faulty sensors. If these sensors are faulty, the diagnostic result is not guarantee and there is a need for method to prove the test as well as global diagnoses.To make a test, data are required from different parts: meteorological, human and physical parts. However, the data gaps is the main sensor fault in buildings. Sensor values are not uniformly sampled and there is a need to decide from which delay the sensor becomes faulty?The objective of this work is to highlight these challenges as well as to provide a strategy about how to solve them. Three solutions for diagnosis in building are proposed1-A level of completeness for better formalizing validity.In this work, we make the hypothesis that there is no precise global model for a building system but there is contextual models with limited validity. The validity is measured with potentially faulty sensors. The completeness level is proposed as a method to prove if a test space is fully covered or not i.e to assess the level of validity of a test.2-A confidence level for proving global diagnosis.A test is characterized by thresholds i.e the behavioral constraint is either satisfied or unsatisfied. Uncertainty is related to the validity constraints. Indeed, it is difficult to set a threshold for the level of completeness from which one can say that a test is valid.Diagnostic results are calculated from a set of tests, each one defined by itscompleteness level. The contribution is to propose a solution to compute the confidence level of a global diagnosis deduced from a set of tests whose some of them have a completeness level lower than 1. A method based on fuzzy logic reasoning is used for this purpose.3- Automatic thresholding for sensor data gap detection.The delay depends on the measured value and the type of sensor. The objective is toidentify from which delay a sensor become faulty. Two techniques are proposed: a time series analysis and a statistical approaches.Different applications have been studied for validation: an office at G-SCOP lab,an appartement at Grenoble and a platform in the University of southern Denmark

Actuellement, l'inconfort intérieur dans les bâtiments est l'une des questions cruciales, ainsi que la consommation énergétique du bâtiment. En effet, les gens passent 60 à 90% de leur vie dans les bâtiments. Le confort intérieur est indispensable en termes de bienfaits sur la santé, la productivité et le bien-être des occupants. C'est pourquoi diverses stratégies d'optimisation fondées sur des règles, anticipatives ou prédictives ont été proposées pour atteindre le confort perçu en tenant compte de la consommation d'énergie. Dans la pratique, il existe un écart entre l'anticipation et la réalité. Habituellement, les plans anticipatifs sont synchronisés avec une période d'anticipation d'une heure et ne tiennent pas compte des différentes sources de conflits ainsi que des configurations d'enveloppes des bâtiments possibles. Il peut en résulter des conséquences négatives sur le coût et le confort. Pour résoudre ce problème, le système de gestion du bâtiment doit être conçu aussi comme réactif, de sorte à ce qu'il puisse répondre à toutes sortes de divergences par rapport au plan anticipatif, de manière réactive. Dans ce but, un système multi-échelle d'analyse de diagnostic réactif anticipatif (ARD- BMS) est proposé dans cette thèse. ARD-BMS est une gestion interne qui effectue trois actions importantes, c'est-à-dire la détection de défaut, l'isolement des causes et, enfin, les actions correctives. ARD-BMS permet ainsi une gestion réactive à court terme, à savoir 10 minutes pour analyser les tendances des défauts et la mise à jour de la dynamique du bâtiment et prendre ainsi les mesures correctives nécessaires pour maintenir le niveau de confort désiré. Cette thèse propose donc un modèle réactif à dynamique rapide simplifiée qui peut être utilisé pour estimer l'état actuel du bâtiment. Les bâtiments modernes sont un système très sophistiqué avec un grand nombre de capteurs, de contrôleurs et de CVC. La plupart des installations de construction utilisent des services prévus de maintenance préventive provenant des opérations périodiques des bâtiments. Ces problèmes imprévus puce causer des répercussions inexplicables sur le confort de l'occupant pendant le cycle de fonctionnement de 24 heures. Ces problèmes ne sont pas inadmissibles tels que les situations imprévues, les pannes de prévisions météorologiques. Le diagnostic des causes d'inconfort à court terme est encore un problème difficile au niveau de l'opération de construction intégrale. En outre, pour analyser cette situation, proposez une méthodologie diagnostique pour la détection et l'isolement des causes (fautes) dans les bâtiments. La méthodologie proposée comprend une HAZOP fondée sur les règles (analyse des risques et de l'optimisation) et une approche basée sur un modèle
Currently, indoor discomfort in dwellings is one of the crucial issues along with the building energy consumption. Indeed, people spend 60-90% of their lives in buildings. Indoor comfort plays a vital role in occupants health, productivity, and well-being. However, various optimization and rule-based anticipative or predictive building strategies have been proposed to achieve the perceived comfort taking into account the energy consumption. However, in practice, anticipation or plans are far from the reality. Usually, anticipative plans are synchronized with one-hour anticipation period and do not consider the various sources of discrepancies as well as current envelope configurations. Unbeknownst to many, discrepancies from different sources could cause big penalty over cost and comfort. To tackle this issue, building management system needs to be designed as reactive or almost with no planning so that it can respond to all discrepancies re-actively. To address this problem, a multi-scale Anticipative Reactive Diagnosing- Building Management System (ARD-BMS) is proposed in this dissertation. ARD-BMS is an internal management and performs three important actions i.e., Discrepancydetection, Cause isolation, and finally Corrective actions. ARD-BMS follow the short-time resolution i.e., 10-minute to analyze the fault trends and current the building dynamics and take necessary corrective actions to maintain the desired level of comfort. This thesis proposes a fast dynamics simplified reactive model that can be used to estimate the current status of the building. Modern buildings are very sophisticated system with a large number of sensors, controllers, and HVACs. Most of the building facilities are using a scheduled preventive maintenance services derived from periodic operations of the buildings. These preventive actions do not take into account the other inadmissible issues such as unplanned situations, weather prediction failures etc. These unplanned issues could cause unaccountable impacts over occupant’s comfort during the 24-hour operation cycle. Diagnosability of short-term discomfort causes is still a challenging job at whole building operation level. Furthermore, to analyze this situation the thesis proposes a diagnostic methodology for detection and isolation of cause (faults) in buildings. The proposed methodology includes a rule-based HAZOP (Hazard and Operability analysis) and model-based approach. Further, in order to oversee unplanned discomforts, a short-term reactive optimization has been proposed

The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the building technical and tructural condition of the structure in the areal of Kralovopolske a.s. In this work there are proposed and subsequently implemented diagnostic work for the assesment of existing structures.

In the last decades, earthen constructions have long been debated in the civil engineering and architecture community. Two are the focal points at the center of this debate: on one hand, the rediscovery of earth as an eco-friendly and easily available material, which can be used for the design of new constructions; on the other hand, the recovery, restoration and structural reinforcement of the existing buildings, particularly sensitive to degradation phenomena and vulnerable to seismic actions. Portugal has a significant heritage of earthen constructions. Currently, many vernacular buildings, especially in the district of Aveiro, are still in use and some of them have historical and artistic value. However, many of them are in poor state of conservation and many of the incurred problems are due to the lack of in depth knowledge of the materials and construction systems traditionally used. In this contest, the present study aims to increase the knowledge of adobe constructions in Portugal concerning the characterization of the material and its mechanical properties, such as the uniaxial compressive stress in some adobe samples and the shear strength of masonry joints, to have valid instruments for the recovery and conservation. These data are achieved through the development of some diagnostic testing carried out on site on a vernacular building in Aveiro region, which were integrated with laboratory tests in order to reach a better reliability of the obtained results. This research aims to prove the importance of tiling several diagnostic tests to optimize the knowledge of properties and mechanical characteristics of the tested material. This study also has the objective to draw up some guidelines and recommendations for future researches and to provide a valid contribution for all the future interventions of restoration, conservation and rehabilitation of earthen constructions, because earth is a not standardized material and still little investigated.

The diploma thesis deals with building survey of the New synagogue in Velké Meziříčí. It is focused on diagnostics of timber structures using non-destructive and semi-destructive testing methods, such as visual inspection, moisture content measurement, penetration depth of a steel pin measurement and endoscopy. The aim of the thesis is to evaluate the condition of the timber structures according to the results of the building survey.

This thesis deals with building survey and diagnostics of residential house in Brno, which since its construction showed extensive faults. The theoretical presents to the general issue of building technical surveys, diagnostics reinforced concrete structures and describes methods for diagnosis of reinforced concrete structures. Practical part deals with building survey and diagnostics of the object including static assessment. Overall assessment is given in the conclusion.

Thesis deals about the building structural condition of the building in Šlapanice, street Riegrova 1238/21. Methods of diagnostic survey are suitably chosen, then realized and evaluated. From these results is done structural calculation of bricks pillar in first-floor. We reached to the conclusion, that the most suitable solution is demolition of this existing object and build the new one.

This thesis addressed the need for improved analysis and interpretation of primary meter half-hourly energy consumption data. The current work offers a novel benchmarking technique that was tested for 6 types of municipal buildings. This approach is different from conventional annual benchmarking mainly because it uses electricity and gas data in half-hourly periods, together with outside temperature data. A survey to European local authorities’ metering and monitoring practices was conducted in order to assess municipal energy managers' current procedures and needs in terms of data analysis to assess building energy performance and to identify potential energy saving opportunities. The benchmarking approach was developed considering the energy managers’ needs, but also the state-of the art in terms of building energy monitoring techniques, particularly building energy signatures, and the analysis techniques used on electricity grid demand forecasting. The benchmarking approach is based on the use of a metric composed of several indicators that are related to the load demand shape profile and the building energy signature. The comparison of indicators for buildings of the same type using standard scores identifies uncommon load demand profile characteristics and/or gas dependency on outside temperature in specific buildings. The metric is able to support the identification of potential energy wastage, which is linked to the detection of opportunities to save energy. The benchmarking technique was tested in 81 municipal building owned by Leicester City Council. This methodology can be applied to any non-domestic building equipped with primary meters for registering half-hourly electricity and gas consumption. In theory, this approach can also be applied to residential buildings, and to other short time series data types, for example quarter-hourly or 10 minutes interval data. The main contribution of this thesis is to improve the objectivity of building primary meter half-hourly electricity and gas consumption data analysis and interpretation by using quantitative parameters, instead of subjective visualisation techniques. The interpretation of building consumption data in short time series periods can now be streamlined, automated and perhaps incorporated in existing energy analysis software. This thesis raises questions that can lead to future research projects aiming to improve the metric and also to enlarge the scope of its application to national and European scale, to other building types and to other utilities.

This thesis deal with survey and diagnostics of industrial building in Chropyne. The theoretical presents to the general issue of building technical surveys, diagnostics reinforced concrete structures and describes methods for diagnosis of reinforced concrete structures. Practical part deals with building survey and diagnostics of the object including static assessment.

This thesis deals with the exploration and evaluation of historic masonry building. The researched building was built in the 20th 20th century. Is located in the premises of the Philosophical Faculty of Masaryk University in Brno. During preparation for the planned modernization of the survey was conducted several objects of the university complex. In this work, however, we consider only the building named "C". It will be processed by selected diagnostic method. The findings will then serve as a basis for static analysis and follow-up activities associated with modernization.

Beim Entwurf großer Netzwerke der Automation ermöglichen Methoden der Leistungsbewertung den Test und die Dimensionierung eines Netzwerkes bereits vor der Inbetriebnahme und erlauben damit einen effizienten, qualitätsorientierten Entwurf. Es ist jedoch sehr wissensintensiv und aufwendig, entsprechende Analyse- oder Simulations-Modelle aufzustellen und die Ergebnisse auszuwerten, weshalb die Methoden in der Praxis der Automation selten verwendet werden. Viel vertrauter sind dem Entwerfer hingegen die speziellen Software-Tools, mit denen in der Automation Netzwerke entworfen werden. Auf Basis der Datenbanken dieser Tools werden in dieser Arbeit verschieden Verfahren zur automatischen Systemmodellierung, Verkehrsmodellierung, Leistungsbewertung und Fehlerdiagnose zu einem Control Network Performance Engineering kombiniert, welches die Qualitätsbewertung und -beratung nahtlos und ohne Mehraufwand in den Netzwerkentwurf integriert. (Die Dissertation wurde veröffentlicht im Jörg Vogt Verlag, Voglerstr. 20, 01277 Dresden, Internet: http://www.vogtverlag.de/, email: info@vogtverlag.de, ISBN 978-3-938860-10-6)
During the design of large automation networks, performance analysis methods can be used for testing and dimensioning the network before implementation and are essential for an efficient and reliable design process. However, setting up the necessary analytical or simulative models is time-consuming, requires in-depth knowledge, and is therefore often not applicable in practice. The network designers are much more used to the design tools used to develop automation networks. Based on these tools' databases various methods for automated system and traffic modeling, performance analysis and diagnoses are combined in the control network performance engineering that seamlessly integrates quality analysis and consulting into network design without requiring additional effort. (This manuscript is also available - in the form of a book - from Jörg Vogt Verlag, Voglerstr. 20, 01277 Dresden, Germany world-wide web address: http://www.vogtverlag.de/, electronic-mail address: info@vogtverlag.de, ISBN 978-3-938860-10-6 )

Scopo della tesi è quello di osservare come l'adozione di un sistema BEMS (Building Energy Management System) sia in grado di migliorare l'efficienza energetica di un impianto tecnologico già esistente. Individuate le funzioni di monitoraggio e regolazione che generano un impatto sui sistemi energetici, si sono raccolti i dati di campo utili a creare un computo generale dei consumi termici ed elettrici. Ciò consente di ideare proposte di soluzioni impiantistiche alternative che consentono di abbattere le spese energetiche. Il risparmio in termini qualitativi e quantitativi verrà poi valutato in funzione dello stato attuale.

L’objectif de ce travail de thèse est de fiabiliser et rendre pertinent le diagnostic de performance énergétique d'un projet de rénovation de bâtiments. Le contexte réglementaire actuel est trop simplifié pour permettre de massifier les rénovations énergétiques performantes. Actuellement, les diagnostics sont réalisés de façon à rendre comparable la performance des bâtiments sans tenir compte de l’usage, du fonctionnement et de l’environnement extérieur. Le résultat obtenu est une performance standardisée et non une image de la performance réelle du bâtiment. Les travaux préconisés à l’issue de ce diagnostic ne sont donc pas spécifiques au bâtiment et les économies qui en découlent sont entachées d’erreurs. Pour changer cela il est proposé de repenser le diagnostic énergétique en prenant en compte l’environnement extérieur, les usages, le fonctionnement réel des bâtiments ainsi que l’ensemble des incertitudes qui y sont associées. En plus des actions à mener sur l’enveloppe du bâtiment et ses équipements techniques, le diagnostic proposé intégrera aussi une analyse des usages afin de mettre en évidence un potentiel d’économies d’énergie avant travaux.Dans un premier temps, il est nécessaire de disposer d’informations sur le bâtiment :- Des informations physiques : plans, coupes, métrés, matériaux utilisés, équipements techniques en place.- Des données de consommation et d’usage : elles sont récupérées via un système d’instrumentation du bâtiment.Ces données seront par la suite utilisées pour alimenter deux outils de diagnostic. Le premier, étant une amélioration du diagnostic de performances énergétiques réglementaires. Le second portant sur l’analyse des données de consommation et d’usage du bâtiment.Afin d’améliorer le résultat de l’outil de diagnostic les postes de consommations non pris en compte seront ajoutés et les méthodologies de calculs existantes sur les postes de consommations conservés seront modifiées, au besoin, pour atteindre le niveau de précision souhaité. Les données issues du système d’instrumentation seront elles aussi réutilisées pour obtenir des informations précieuses sur le niveau de service du bâtiment (température, rendement…) mais aussi sur son environnement extérieur. L’intégration de ces données dans l’outil de diagnostic permettra de le calibrer et d’obtenir une image précise de la performance réelle du bâtiment. Des garde-fous seront aussi mis en place pour permettre d’identifier rapidement les faiblesses du bâtiment. Une fois calibré, le modèle créé sera utilisé pour réaliser une analyse de sensibilité et d’incertitude. L’objectif est de fiabiliser le résultat de l’outil de diagnostic énergétique mais aussi d’identifier les paramètres sensibles et influents sur cette performance.Les données de consommation et d’usages seront analysées pour comprendre comment est consommée l’énergie dans le bâtiment et mettre en évidence un potentiel d’économies d’énergie sur l’usage de ce dernier sans mener de campagne de travaux. Pour cela les données seront traitées à l’aide d’outils statistiques. Dans un premier temps la méthode de clustering développée permettra de regrouper les jours ayant des profils de consommations semblables. Ensuite parmi les regroupements réalisés, ceux identifiés comme une dérive du bâtiment seront isolés afin de mettre en évidence le dit potentiel. Le potentiel ainsi mis en évidence est relatif au jeu de données considéré, on ne connait pas la performance optimale du bâtiment (en l’état) et ce potentiel mis en évidence ne sera peut-être pas suffisant pour l’atteindre. Cependant, pour que ledit potentiel soit pertinent, le traitement de ces données devra bien entendu s’effectuer sur une période représentative du fonctionnement du bâtiment, il faudra aussi prendre en compte ses usages (occupation, période de chauffe, période estivale…) ainsi que les différents facteurs pouvant influer sur les consommations d’énergie
The main objective of this thesis is to make more reliable and relevant building’s energy performance diagnostic. The current regulatory context is too simplified to allow massification of efficient building retrofit. Currently, building’s energy performance diagnostic is made in order to make comparable building’s performance without taking into account the use, the functioning and the external environment. The result is a standardized performance and not a representative performance of the building. Finally, renovations recommended are not specific to the building and the resulting savings are tainted with errors. In order to change this, it is proposed to rethink the building’s energy performance diagnostic by taking into account the external environment, the uses, the actual functioning of the building and all the uncertainties associated with them. In addition to renovations to achieve on the building envelope, and technical equipment, the proposed diagnosis will also include an analysis of uses to highlight potential energy saving before retrofit.At first, we must have information on the building:- Physical information: plans, sections, materials used, technical equipment in place.- Consumption data: they are retrieved from a building instrumentation system.Those data will be used into two different diagnostic tools. The first is an improvement of regulatory building’s energy performance diagnostic. The second allows the analysis of consumptions patterns of the building.In order to improve the result of the regulatory building’s energy performance diagnostic, the energy consumption sources that are not taken into account will be added and the calculation of existing energy consumption sources will be improved to reach a higher level of precision. The data from the instrumentation system will also be used to get information on consumptions patterns of the building, performance of technical equipment and the external environment. Those data will also allow to get the correct calibration of the global energy performance from the new building’s energy performance diagnostic. Once calibrated, the results will be compared with threshold values to identify building’s weaknesses and subject to a sensitivity and uncertainty analysis. The main objective is to make the result of the new building’s energy performance diagnostic more relevant and identify sensitive and influential parameters.Consumptions data will be analyzed to highlight different consumption patterns of the building to finally extract a potential energy saving without carrying out renovation. In order to do that, statistical tools will be used. At first, the clustering method developed will allow to get together days with similar consumptions profiles. Next, among all the groups realized, those identified as a drift of the building’s consumptions will be analyzed to highlight the potential. This potential is relative to the dataset considered. We don’t know the optimal performance of the existing building and this potential may not be sufficient to reach it. To be relevant, this potential must take into account several parameters (occupation, heating period, summer period…) and all factors that can affect the building’s energy consumption.The ultimate goal is to have these two tools interact to improve the accuracy of building’s energy performance diagnostic. The improvement of energy performance does not necessarily involve renovation work, different solutions are possible:- The optimization of the existing: the energy savings potential will be used to optimize the building's performance.- Unit Actions / Heavy Renovation: dialogue between the building’s energy performance diagnostic and the results of the potential for energy savings will be needed.Energy savings generated by this analysis are double. We play both on the building, its equipment and their uses. Energy savings generated are then more precisely controlled

Recentemente o setor da construção civil no Brasil vem apresentando um ritmo intenso de crescimento, cujo dinamismo se deve às mudanças institucionais e a evolução do cenário macroeconômico. O volume crescente das obras tem pressionado os setores de insumos e alguns reflexos disto já foram sentidos, como problemas localizados de abastecimento e de variação dos preços de alguns materiais. Neste cenário insere-se a presente pesquisa, de caráter exploratória, que se propõe a realizar o diagnóstico do setor de produção e comercialização de insumos (materiais) da Cadeia Produtiva da Construção Habitacional, segundo os princípios do conceito de prospecção tecnológica. O método básico de pesquisa correspondeu às pesquisas bibliográfica e descritiva, utilizando-se da pesquisa de campo para a obtenção de dados atualizados. Para realizar o diagnóstico foi adotado um modelo conceitual de prospecção tecnológica de análise de cadeias produtivas, proposto por Castro & Lima (2001). Os principais resultados obtidos foram modelagem, análise de desempenho, identificação dos fatores críticos, respectivas forças impulsoras e restritivas e, por fim, a determinação de gargalos do setor. O estudo mostra que todos os segmentos deste setor estão direcionando seus esforços na busca da eficiência produtiva, como meio de garantir o fornecimento de seus produtos ao setor da construção. Quanto ao método adotado, pode-se concluir que apresenta forte potencial de ser utilizado para análise dos setores e cadeias produtivas que compõe o complexo industrial de materiais de construção.
The Brazilian construction sector has recently been showing intense growth, and its dynamism is due to institutional changes and evolution in the macroeconomic scenario. The increasing volume of new constructions has put pressure on the construction materials sectors and some consequences of this situation have already been noticed, such as local supply problems and variation in the price of some materials. This explorative research is inserted in this scenario and aims to make a diagnosis of the production and sales sectors of materials in the house construction production chain, using the concept of technological foresight. The method is based on bibliographical and descriptive researches, also using field data collection to gather up-to-date information. The conceptual model proposed by Castro & Lima (2001) of technological foresight for production chain analysis was adopted. The main results were the modeling, performance analysis, identification of critical factors, their respective driving and restrictive forces and, finally, the determination of bottlenecks in the sector. The study shows that all segments of the construction sector are focusing their efforts to obtain production capacity efficiency, so as to guarantee the supply of their products. It can be concluded that the adopted method shows strong potential to be used to analyze production chains in the construction materials industry.

This thesis deals about the methodology, implementation and evaluation of diagnostic work of units and structural elements of the residental building built on Gorkého street in Brno. The building is located in the premesis of the vicinity of The Faculty of Arts, where was the extensive reconstruction and also the final extension. The survey was conducted for this reason . The experimantal part of the thesis include a static assessment of the mansory wall.

This thesis deals with the diagnosis of a residential building from the late nineteen twenties for the needs of reconstruction. The methods generally used in the diagnosis of structures are briefly described in the theoretical part. More deeply this section describes the methods that were used during this particular research. The practical part deals with the diagnosis of the object itself. The first section describes the layout of the villa, its design solution, its faults and defects detected during the inspection. The next section deals with evaluating the current state of construction materials. Static reports of several structural parts were calculated in the last section.

Diagnosis based on vibration analysis is a method that has many benefits to offer. It is easy to implement the method on existing transmissions by attaching accelerometers outside the gearbox housing. If you have knowledge of the gearbox geometry, such as number of tooth on the gears and types of bearings, and any unwanted frequencies can be filtered out a good estimation of the gearbox condition can be achieved. In this thesis a number of condition indicators have been tested to identify and isolate different faults that may appear. All analysing have been done in the time domain on different synchronously averaged signals. The condition indicators have been used together with diagnosis theory from the division of Vehicular systems to create a diagnosis system able to find faults on a number of modelled signals.

The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the building technical and structural condition of the family house in Brno Lisen. The part of the thesis are the plan of methodology, implementation and evaluation of the diagnostic work. Selected components were statically evaluated and the possibly variant of the static ensure of building reconstruciton was designed.

Cette étude porte sur l‘identification de modèles dynamiques pour l‘évaluation des performances et le diagnostic énergétique de bâtiments existants. Le travail de thèse se place donc dans un contexte d‘économie d‘énergie et d‘efficacité énergétique accrue qui sont d‘intérêt primordial aujourd‘hui. Nous nous adressons à des bâtiments de bureaux occupés mais relativement bien instrumentés. Nous disposons des mesures horaires de température extérieure, de rayonnement solaire, de puissance de chauffage, de puissance électrique et de température de l‘air intérieur. L‘objectif étant de proposer une démarche méthodologique permettant de quantifier les performances énergétiques de l‘enveloppe du bâtiment à partir des données disponibles, d‘une part, et de préconiser des voies pour leur amélioration, d‘autre part. Les étapes majeurs de la démarche d‘évaluation/diagnostic proposée s‘ajuste pour l‘essentiel sur celles d‘une procédure classique d‘identification : a) analyse préliminaire des données disponible ; b) choix des structures mathématiques susceptibles de reproduire convenablement le comportement dynamique du bâtiment ; c) estimation du modèle et validation ; et exploitation du modèle pour des fins d‘évaluation et de diagnostic. Grâce aux résultats obtenus par une première approche « boîte noire » nous effectuons une tentative de diagnostic énergétique approfondi en s‘appuyant sur une modélisation physique du bâtiment (« boîte blanche »)
This study concerns the identification of dynamic models for performance evaluation and energy diagnosis of existing buildings. The work of this PhD takes place in a context of energy conservation and energy efficiency which are of essential interest today. We are dealing with occupied office buildings but relatively well instrumented. We have hourly measurements of outdoor temperature, solar radiation, heating power, electrical power and indoor air temperature. The aim is to propose a methodological approach to quantify the energy performance of building envelope from the available data, on the one hand, and to recommend ways to improve them, on the other. Major steps of the process evaluation / diagnosis given for the most fits with those of a standard procedure of identification: a) preliminary analysis of available data, b) choice of mathematical structures for well describing the building behavior c) model estimation and validation, and operation of the model for evaluation and diagnosis. With the results obtained by a first approach "black box" we make a tentative of detailed diagnosis based on physical building model ("white box")

This thesis deals with the methodology, implementation and evaluation of diagnostic work units and structural elements of the historic schoolhouse building. Includes a static assessment of the horizontal structure and conceptual design layout adjustments for potential revitalization in case the object.

For years research has demonstrated a varying incidence of medical disorders manifesting with psychiatric symptoms. A relatively conservative estimate of such so called "medical masquerades" is around 10%. It is important to ascertain whether health care professionals are aware of possible medical masquerades perhaps most especially in a mental health center outpatient setting where non-medically trained clinicians are the first line therapists for treatment in the majority of cases. This study set about to find out how aware three types of health care clinicians (psychiatrists, nonpsychiatrically trained medical doctors, and non-medically trained mental health psychotherapists) are of the prevalence of medical masquerades, and whether these three types of clinicians perform differently on three types of clinical vignettes (psychiatric, somatoform, and medical masquerades). Results revealed that all health care professionals surveyed are aware that there are a percentage of medical masquerades in the clinical population. Results also revealed that the three types of clinicians performed differently on the case vignettes.

It is my proposal that unused building shells of the past serve as cocoons for the future, providing the precedence from which grows "a building within a building". The tension created between old and new encourages a didactic relationship between building and city, cognizant of the past while looking towards the future.
Master of Architecture

What is good diagnostic practice? The answer is elusive for many medical students and equally puzzling for those trying to build effective medical decision support systems. Much of the problem lies in the difficulty of 'getting at' diagnosis. Expert diagnosticians find it difficult to introspect on their own strategies, thus making it difficult to pass on their expertise. Traditional knowledge acquisition methods are designed for gathering static domain knowledge and are inappropriate for the acquisition of knowledge about the diagnostic 'task'. More advanced knowledge acquisition methodologies, particularly those which focus on the modelling of problem-solving knowledge seem to hold more promise, but are not sufficiently practicable to allow anyone other than a knowledge engineer to operate directly. Given the difficulty experts have in accessing their own diagnostic strategies, what is needed is a tool which would enable diagnosticians themselves to directly formulate and experiment with their own methods of diagnosis. This research describes the development of a knowledge acquisition methodology geared specifically towards the exposition of medical diagnosis. The methodology is implemented as a toolkit enabling exploration and construction of medical diagnostic models and production of model-based medical diagnostic support systems. The toolkit allows someone skilled in diagnosis to articulate their diagnostic strategy so that it can be used by those with less experience.

Models are of great interest in many fields of engineering as they enable prediction of a systems behaviour, given an initial mode of the system. However, in the field of model-based diagnosis the models are used in a reverse manner, as they are combined with the observations of the systems behaviour in order to estimate the system mode. This thesis describes computation of diagnostic systems based on models implemented in Dymola. Dymola is a program that uses the language Modelica. The Dymola models are translated to Matlab, where an application called Fault Diagnosis Toolbox, FDT is applied. The FDT has functionality for pinpointing minimal overdetermined sets of equations, MSOs, which is developed further in this thesis. It is shown that the implemented algorithm has exponential time complexity with regards to what level the system is overdetermined,also known as the degree of redundancy. The MSOs are used to generate residuals, which are functions that are equal to zero given that the system is fault-free. Residual generation in Dymola is added to the original methods of the FDT andthe results of the Dymola methods are compared to the original FDT methods, when given identical data. Based on these tests it is concluded that adding the Dymola methods to the FDT results in higher accuracy, as well as a new way tocompute optimal observer gain. The FDT methods are applied to 2 models, one model is based on a system ofJAS 39 Gripen; SECS, which stands for Secondary Enviromental Control System. Also, applications are made on a simpler model; a Two Tank System. It is validated that the computational properties of the developed methods in Dymolaand Matlab differs and that it therefore exists benefits of adding the Dymola implementations to the current FDT methods. Furthermore, the investigation of the potential isolability based on the current setup of sensors in SECS shows that full isolability is achievable by adding 2 mass flow sensors, and that the isolability is not limited by causality constraints. One of the found MSOs is solvable in Dymola when given data from a fault-free simulation. However, if the simulation is not fault-free, the same MSO results in a singular equation system. By utilizing MSOs that had no reaction to any modelled faults, certain non-monitored faults is isolated from the monitored ones and therefore the risk of false alarms is reduced. Some residuals are generated as observers, and a new method for constructing observers is found during the thesis by using Lannerheds theorem in combination with Pontryagin’s Minimum Priniple. This method enables evaluation of observer based residuals in Dymola without any selection of a specific operating point, as well as evaluation of observers based on high-index Differential Algebraic Equations, DAEs. The method also results in completely different behaviourof the estimation error compared to the method that is already implemented inthe FDT. For example, one of the new observer-implementations achieves both an estimation error that converges faster towards zero when no faults are implementedin the monitored system, and a sharper reaction to implemented faults.

Thesis (M. Arch)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1987.
MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 41).
The section of the Medieval city of Cairo centered around Shari' AI Moe'iz which connects the Northern gate of Bab AI Futuh with the Southern gate Bab Zowayla, is now known as AI Gamaliya. From the time the city of Cairo was laid-out, in 969 A.D. to the arrival of European colonialism with the Napoleonic Campaign. AI Gamaliya has been the site for buildings that serve as superb examples of the formal beliefs. technical capabilities and social patterns of the respective eras that built them. For this project, I have elected to inhabit the now empty pockets that riddle this dense and seemingly homogeneous environment. in an effort to place an architecture of the late twentieth century among the historic struCtures of Shari' Al Moe'iz. Fundamental to this effort is a definition of a contemporary formal vocabulary that would be in harmony with those historic vocabularies which exist. Many of the elements of the various styles. From Fatimid to Mamluke, such as arches and vaults were a direct result of technical limitations, others such as the distinctive mashrabiya screens were an accommodation of social patterns, while the gilt inscription band carried from one building to the other down Shari' Al Moe'iz served as religious icon. The power of such elements lies in their historic integrity as direct expressions of climatic. technological and social conditions of their time. The mere replication of existing or historic formal vocabularies or the reorganization of such vocabularies in a pastiche of iconic elements to house current uses totally alien to them, does not adequately satisfy the conditions of our time. The issues involved are simultaneously simpler and more profound Climate remains a powerful factor but the availability of materials and technology offers opportunities until recently unknown. The cultural or behavioural patterns which simultaneously inspired and resulted from these historic struCtures prompts a recognition of formal, particularly dimensional concerns. and the exigencies of modem life, as mundane as vehicular access and parking on streets designed only for pedestrians, present an additional set of requirements to which we must respond. This thesis is an attempt to manifest an understanding of these conditions. as a result of observation, and, based on such understanding. to develop formal principles, which offer a transformation of the traditional as well as a reflection of the contemporary.
by Hassan Abouseda.
M.Arch

The modern VLSI circuit designs manufactured with advanced technology nodes of 65nm or below exhibit an increasing sensitivity to the variations of manufacturing process. New design-specific and feature-sensitive failure mechanisms are on the rise. Systematic yield issues can be severe due to the complex variability involved in process and layout features. Without improved yield analysis methods, time-to-market is delayed, mature yield is suboptimal, and product quality may suffer, thereby undermining the profitability of the semiconductor company. Diagnosis-driven yield improvement is a methodology that leverages production test results, diagnosis results, and statistical analysis to identify the root cause of yield loss and fix the yield limiters to improve the yield. To fully leverage fault diagnosis, the diagnosis-driven yield analysis requires that the diagnosis tool should provide high-quality diagnosis results in terms of accuracy and resolution. In other words, the diagnosis tool should report the real defect location without too much ambiguity. The second requirement for fast diagnosis-driven yield improvement is that the diagnosis tool should have the capability of processing a volume of failing dies within a reasonable time so that the statistical analysis can have enough information to identify the systematic yield issues. In this dissertation, we first propose a method to accurately diagnose the defects inside the library cells when multi-cycle test patterns are used. The methods to diagnose the interconnect defect have been well studied for many years and are successfully practiced in industry. However, for process technology at 90nm or 65nm or below, there is a significant number of manufacturing defects and systematic yield limiters lie inside library cells. The existing cell internal diagnosis methods work well when only combinational test patterns are used, while the accuracy drops dramatically with multi-cycle test patterns. A method to accurately identify the defective cell as well as the failing conditions is presented. The accuracy can be improved up to 94% compared with about 75% accuracy for previous proposed cell internal diagnosis methods. The next part of this dissertation addresses the throughput problem for diagnosing a volume of failing chips with high transistor counts. We first propose a static design partitioning method to reduce the memory footprint of volume diagnosis. A design is statically partitioned into several smaller sub-circuits, and then the diagnosis is performed only on the smaller sub-circuits. By doing this, the memory usage for processing the smaller sub-circuit can be reduced and the throughput can be improved. We next present a dynamic design partitioning method to improve the throughput and minimize the impact on diagnosis accuracy and resolution. The proposed dynamic design partitioning method is failure dependent, in other words, each failure file has its own design partition. Extensive experiments have been designed to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed dynamic partitioning method.

Technological advances in prenatal screening and diagnosis mean that it is now possible to test for a wide range of congenital conditions (Hewison et al., 2007). Traditionally testing has been carried out during pregnancy (prenatal diagnosis, PND). However, advances in technology have made it possible for diagnosis of an embryo created through in vitro fertilisation, prior to implantation into the womb (pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, PGD). This means that women can avoid the birth of a child with a genetic condition without the stress of terminating a pregnancy. This raises questions about what women want from reproductive technologies, as it means they are making decisions based not only on the condition diagnosed but also on the technology used to test. Two studies were carried out to examine this further. In the first study, 216 participants completed a questionnaire either based on PND or PGD. Participants were asked whether they would terminate a pregnancy (PND condition) or avoid implantation (PGD condition) following diagnosis of five different genetic conditions, ranging in severity. The results suggest an interaction between the technology (PND or PGD) and the severity of the genetic condition diagnosed, such that for the most and least severe conditions, the number of people choosing to terminate/avoid implantation was similar for the PND and PGD groups. However for conditions in the middle range of severity significantly more people said they would avoid implantation. A within subjects interview study was carried out to explore this further and thematic analysis identified a number of themes that influenced participants’ responses. Overall, the results suggest that PGD may be more acceptable for women in some cases. Women considering diagnoses are likely to benefit from detailed information about both PND and PGD in order to make a fully informed decision as to which is best for them.

I guess my concern is for building. This thesis became a search for form. It did not start that way. The start was a search for reasons, for methods, for a way. It was, however, the pursuit of an understanding of the essence of an object that proved the most rewarding. How l design has come from investigating WHAT I design. The thesis has not left me with answers, but with questions. And what are those questions? The thing: The thing as OBJECT: it seems to boil down to - how is it made? The thing as EVENT: it seems to boil down to - what is it like to be there? The thing as DESIGNED: it seems to boil down to what do I want its nature to be? What will inform my forms?
Master of Architecture