Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Inaccurate'

In self-report data, participants who provide incorrect responses are known as intentional inaccurate responders. This dissertation provides statistical analyses for address intentional inaccurate responses in the data. Previous work with adolescent self-report, labeled survey participants who intentionally provide inaccurate answers as mischievous responders. This phenomenon also occurs in clinical research. For example, pregnant women who smoke may report that they are nonsmokers. Our advantage is that we do not solely have self-report answers and can verify responses with lab values. Currently, there is no clear method for handling these intentional inaccurate respondents when it comes to making statistical inferences. We propose a using an EM algorithm to account for the intentional behavior while maintaining all responses in the data. The performance of this model is evaluated using simulated data and real data. The strengths and weaknesses of the EM algorithm approach will be demonstrated.

Psychology
Ph.D.
Conceptual development and achievement are embedded in social relationships. Research on self-fulfilling prophecies in the classroom has shown teachers' inaccurate perceptions about a child's ability shape schoolchildren's intellectual development in the direction of the misperception (Jussim & Harber, 2005; Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968; Sorhagen, 2013). This contrasts with prior research on the influences of parents' misperceptions, which has shown that parents with accurate perceptions of their child's abilities, compared to those with misperceptions, have children with advanced conceptual development and higher achievement (Hunt & Paraskevopoulos, 1980; S. A. Miller, Manhal, & Mee, 1991; Sorhagen, 2014a, 2014b). Taken together, the literature on adult misperceptions of child abilities paints discrepant pictures of how adults' inaccurate beliefs may influence children's achievement trajectories. There is evidence for conditional direct and indirect effects of misperceptions within both literatures. Perhaps if moderating conditions were the same at school and at home, the effects of teacher and parent misperceptions would be the same. The present dissertation used prospective data to address the conflicting evidence on the effects of teachers' and mothers' misperceptions of abilities, focusing on differences in the magnitude and direction of adult misperceptions by the levels of environmental control (i.e. rigidly structured and intrusive versus autonomy-supporting). The results confirmed and extended the prior literature by showing that children's reading and math achievement in high school were differentially affected by the accuracy of adults' perceptions of the children's abilities depending on whether the adult is a teacher or mother. Children's high school performance benefited most when their teachers overestimated their abilities and when their mothers' accurately estimated their abilities in in third-grade. Furthermore, there was evidence for mediation through adults' differential treatment in the reading models. Evidence for moderation was also seen in the reading models, but only for the influence of teachers' misperceptions on teacher attention, which indirectly led to differences in child achievement (i.e. conditional indirect effects). The effects of teachers' misperceptions were more profound at low levels of environmental control compared to highly controlled classrooms. Thus environmental control did not lead to similar influences of teacher and mother misperceptions. This supports the notion that there are different consequences of teacher and mother misperceptions on child achievement. The results of additional analyses found child characteristics (i.e. child birth order, gender, ethnicity, family SES, child social competencies, and prior abilities), as well as teacher's self-efficacy predicted the degree of accuracy of the adults' perceptions of children's reading and math abilities. Furthermore, the results showed that teachers' and mothers' perceptions were often accurate, but when one adult was inaccurate, it was likely that the other adult's perception was similar. As we become increasingly aware of the importance of social influences on cognition, the results of the present dissertation suggest that it is important to consider differences between socializing agents.
Temple University--Theses

Thesis (M.S. in Operations Research)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2003.
Thesis advisor(s): Robert A. Koyak, Samuel L. Buttrey. Includes bibliographical references (p. 67-68). Also available online.

To make intelligent decisions, robots often use models of the stochastic effects of their actions on the world. Unfortunately, in complex environments, it is often infeasible to create models that are accurate in every plausible situation, which can lead to suboptimal performance. This thesis enables robots to reason about model inaccuracies to improve their performance. The thesis focuses on model inaccuracies that are subtle –i.e., they cannot be detected from a single observation– and context-dependent –i.e., they affect particular regions of the robot’s state-action space. Furthermore, this work enables robots to react to model inaccuracies from sparse execution data. Our approach consists of enabling robots to explicitly reason about parametric Regions of Inaccurate Modeling (RIMs) in their state-action space. We enable robots to detect these RIMs from sparse execution data, to correct their models given these detections, and to plan accounting for uncertainty with respect to these RIMs. To detect and correct RIMs, we first develop algorithms that work effectively online in low-dimensional domains. An execution monitor compares outcome predictions made by a stochastic nominal model, to outcome observations gathered during execution. The results of these comparisons are then used to detect RIMs of stateaction space in which outcome observations deviate statistically-significantly from the nominal model. Our detection algorithm is based on an explicit search for the parametric region of state-action space that maximizes an anomaly measure; once the maximum anomaly region is found, a statistical test determines whether the outcomes deviate significantly from the model. To correct detected RIMs, our algorithms apply corrections on top of the nominal model, only in the detected RIMs, treating them as newly-discovered behavioral modes of the domain. To extend this approach to high-dimensional domains, we develop a search-based Feature Selection algorithm. Based on the assumption that RIMs are intrinsically low-dimensional, but embedded in a high-dimensional space, this best-first search starts from the zero-dimensional projection of all the execution data, and searches by adding the single most promising feature to the boundary of the search tree. Our lowdimensional algorithms can then be applied to the resulting low-dimensional space to find RIMs in the robot’s planning model. We also enable robots to make plans that account for their uncertainty about the accuracy of their models. To do this, we first enable robots to represent distributions over possible RIMs in their planning models. With this representation, robots can plan accounting for the probability that their models are inaccurate in particular points in state-action state. Using this approach, we enable robots to effectively trade off actions that are known to produce reward with those that refine their models, potentially leading to higher future reward. We evaluate our approach on various complex robot domains. Our approach enables the CoBot mobile service robots to autonomously detect inaccuracies in their motion models, despite their high-dimensional state-action space: the CoBots detect that they are not moving correctly in particular areas of the building, and that their wheels are starting to fail when making turns. Our approach enables the CMDragons soccer robots to improve their passing and shooting models online in the presence of opponents with unknown weaknesses and strengths. Finally, our approach enables a NASA spacecraft landing simulator to detect subtle anomalies, unknown to us beforehand, in their streams of high-dimensional sensor-output and actuator-input data.

Routing is one of the most essential functions in computer and telecommunications networks. As the network grows in size, complexity and mobility, it becomes more dicult to precisely determine the routing metrics due to networks' dynamic nature. As a result the information available for decision making of Quality of Service (QoS) routing is always inaccurate. This thesis considers that network routing metrics are naturally uncertain due to the inaccurate information. A novel concept, fuzzy non-dominance multipath routing is developed for the network routing discovery and routing optimisation. The fuzzy non-dominance multipath routing de nes network routing problem in a fuzzy weight graph. The term fuzzy non-dominance routing used in this thesis is distinct from the conventional sense of fuzzy routing. Fuzzy non-dominance routing leads to the fuzzy Pareto-optimal multipath. A labelling setting algorithm is developed to nd out the limited as well as full non-dominated set of routes for network packets forwarding. This approach provides an alternative way to deal with the network routing and multipath routing optimisation problem with less computational and management costs. This thesis proposed a framework for adopting fuzzy non-dominance routing into conventional structure networks. The simulation results covered fuzzy nondominance routing discovery by considering di erent network topologies, scales, fuzzy number designs and the grade of fuzziness. The thesis also addressed fuzzy non-dominance routing for general trac-engineering. Compare to conventional Open Shortest Part First routing, fuzzy non-dominance routing allows the network to cope with at most 60 % more demand. In addition, the thesis also studied the fuzzy non-dominance routing for optimising network routing convergence, quality of service routing and its applications in Mobile ad-hoc networks.

It has been observed that the current best-effort IP packet delivery service in the global Internet is sometimes not good enough for emerging real-time multimedia applications. These resource intensive applications normally have more stringent requirements on bandwidth, delay, delay jitter etc. The quality of service (QoS) requirements of these applications raise new challenges for the development of new routing mechanisms. QoS routing can provide increased network utilisation compared to best-effort routing by efficiently regulating and managing resource sharing across a network. However, the benefit of QoS routing comes with complex routing computation costs and increased routing protocol overhead. It is impractical to collect detailed global state information and keep it up-to-date in large-scale dynamic networks, such as the Internet. As a result, inaccurate link-state information increases the flow blocking probability and makes source nodes select non-optimal paths. To maximise the link utilisation and meet application QoS requirements, routing algorithms need accurate link-state information to make routing decisions. This thesis investigates the statistical properties of time series of link utilisation. In particular, the evaluation focuses on the presence of autocorrelation in the time series. Further study under various link-state update policies, network and traffic configurations identifies the factors that may affect the statistical properties of the time series. Based on this analysis, a prediction-based link-state update policy is proposed to reduce the effect of inaccurate link-state information. The approach predicts the link-state utilisation trend based on past values. By advertising trend rather than instantaneous link utilisation, the routing algorithms may have more valuable information to make routing decisions instead of being affected by short lived sudden changes. An appropriate model that can satisfactorily fit the actual model is identified, estimated and validated. Finally, the performance of the proposed prediction-based link-state update policy is validated by simulation and compared with conventional update policies under a variety of network configurations. the results show that this approach is effective in improving routing performance.

Trust is a prevalent concept in human society that, in essence, concerns our reliance on the actions of other entities within our environment. For example, we may rely on our car starting to get to work on time, and on our fellow drivers, so that we may get there safely. For similar reasons, trust is becoming increasingly important in computing, as systems, such as the Grid, require integration of computing resources, across organisational boundaries. In this context, the reliability of resources in one organisation cannot be assumed from the point of view of another, as certain resources may fail more often than others. For this reason, we argue that software systems must be able to assess the reliability of different resources, so that they may choose which of them to rely on. With this in mind, our goal is to develop mechanisms, or models, to aid decision making by an autonomous agent (the truster), when the consequences of its decisions depend on the actions of other agents (the trustees). To achieve this, we have developed a probabilistic framework for assessing trust based on a trustee's past behaviour, which we have instantiated through the creation of two novel trust models (TRAVOS and TRAVOS-C). These facilitate decision making in two different contexts with regard to trustee behaviour. First, using TRAVOS, a truster can make decisions in contexts where a trustee can only act in one of two ways: either it can cooperate, acting to the truster's advantage; or it can defect, thereby acting against the truster's interests. Second, using TRAVOS-C, a truster can make decisions about trustees that can act in a continuous range of ways, for example, taking into account the delivery time of a service. These models share an ability to account for observations of a trustee's behaviour, made either directly by the truster, or by a third party (reputation source). In the latter case, both models can cope with third party information that is unreliable, either because the sender is lying, or because it has a different world view. In addition, TRAVOS-C can assess a trustee for which there is little or no direct or reported experience, using information about other agents that share characteristics with the trustee. This is achieved using a probabilistic mechanism, which automatically accounts for the amount of correlation observed between agents' behaviour, in a truster's environment.

The present paper pretends to open the debate about the limits of responsibility of State suppliers on the presentation of false or inexact documentation on the selection procedures as a participator on the frame of the public procurement law, considering that the burden of proof has been translated to the governed, punishing in a more severe way the infringement to the due of veracity on the documentation that is provided by suppliers to public entities.
El presente trabajo pretende plantear el debate respecto de los límites de la responsabilidad de los proveedores del Estado en la presentación de documentación falsa o inexacta en los procedimientos de selección en los que participen en el marco del régimen de contratación estatal, habida cuenta que en el mismo se ha trasladado el peso de la verificación documentaria al administrado, sancionándose cada vez de manera más drástica la infracción al deber de veracidad de la documentación que presenten los proveedores ante las Entidad Públicas.

Research on college student use of caffeine combined with alcohol (CAC) and public health concern over such use has been hampered by the absence of psychometrically sound measures of caffeine and CAC use. The present study examined agreement between survey (CAS) and interview (TLFB) methods for collecting data on caffeine, alcohol and CAC use. Participants were N=50 college students randomized to complete CAS followed by TLFB or the reverse. Qualitative follow-up interviews with N=15 participants were used to identify factors contributing to CAS-TLFB discrepancies. Responses varied by method of administration, with largest discrepancy magnitudes found for CAC, followed by caffeine, then alcohol use. Rates of reporting use by only one method were highest for CAC (65.5%). Lack of knowledge about caffeine was common, with over half (56%) having at least one caffeine misreport. Largest discrepancies were found for CAC use, an area of public health concern, particularly among college students.

When animals explore a new environment, they do not acquire a precise map of the places visited. In fact, research has shown that learning is a recurring process. Over time, new information helps the animal to update their perception of the locations it has visited. Yet, they are still able to use the fuzzy and often incomplete representation to find their way home. This process has been termed the cognitive mapping process. The work presented in this thesis uses a mobile robot equipped with sonar sensors to investigate the nature of such a process. Specifically, what is the information that is fundamental and prevalent in spatial navigation? Initially, the robot is instructed to compute a “cognitive map” of its environment. Since a robot is not a cognitive agent, it cannot, by definition, compute a cognitive map. Hence the robot is used as a test bed for understanding the cognitive mapping process. Yeap’s (1988) theory of cognitive mapping forms the foundation for computing the robot’s representation of the places it has visited. He argued that a network of local spaces is computed early in the cognitive mapping process. Yeap coined these local spaces as Absolute Space Representations (ASRs). However, ASR is not just a process of partitioning the environment into smaller local regions. The ASRs describe the bounded space that one is in, how one could leave that space (exits) and how the exits serves to link the ASRs to form a network that serves as the cognitive map (see Jefferies (1999)). Like the animal’s cognitive map, ASRs are not precise geometrical maps of the environment but rather, provide a rough shape or feel of the space the robot is currently in. Once the robot computes its “cognitive map”, it is then, like foraging and hoarding animals, instructed to find its way home. To do so, the robot uses two crucial pieces of information: distance between exits of ASRs and relative orientation of adjacent ASRs. A simple animal-like strategy was implemented for the robot to locate home. Results from the experiments demonstrated the robot’s ability to determine its location within the visited environment along its journey. This task was performed without the use of an accurate map. From these results and reviews of various findings related to cognitive mapping for various animals, we deduce that: Different animals have different sensing capabilities. They live in different environments and therefore face unique challenges. Consequently, they evolve to have different navigational strategies. However, we believe two crucial pieces of information are inherent in all animals and form the fundamentals of navigation: distance and orientation. Higher level animals may encode and may even prefer richer information to enhance the animal’s cognitive map. Nonetheless, distance and orientation will always be computed as a core process of cognitive mapping. We believe this insight will help future research to better understand the complex nature of cognitive mapping.

A literatura de autoria feminina nos países que se comunicam através da língua portuguesa conta com excelentes representantes. Um olhar, ainda que superficial sobre essa produção revela que notadamente a partir da última metade do século passado, década de 40-50, ela veio gradativamente chamando a atenção de pesquisadores e conquistando, cada vez mais, o prestígio do público-leitor. Maria Archer, no entanto, parece encontrar-se em quase completo esquecimento De 1955 a 1977, Maria Archer (1899- 1982),escritora portuguesa, veio cumprir um largo exílio em terras brasileiras. Aqui, como nos continentes luso-africano, tornou-se um dos nomes de mulher mais importantes pela contribuição à imprensa de Língua Portuguesa. O objetivo primeiro deste trabalho é ressaltar as experiências e a contribuição desta escritora para a imprensa de Língua Portuguesa, problematizando-as à luz da hegemonia masculina que marcou a produção de conhecimentos e a reflexão pública sobre a resistência dos portugueses à ditadura do regime salazarista vigente no Portugal da época.
The literature as of authorship female at the countries that if communicated via the Portuguese language account along as good as gold delegates. Um look , Although amateurish on the subject of that creation reveals than it is to notadamente from the última half as much from the century bygone , decade as of 40-50, she came gradativamente calling the attention as of browsers AND acquiring , further and further , the prestige from the audience - lecturer. Maria Archer , all the same , it looks encounter - in case that by nearly all-inclusive forgetfulness As of 1955 the one 1977, Maria Archer (1899-1982,escritora) Portuguese , he came abide by um broad exílio well into lands Brazilians. Herein , as a at the continents luso - African , lathe - in case that one of names as of chick more important pela contribution at the inaccurate as of Portuguese language. THE ONE objetivo first one of this I work is jut the experiences AND the contribution of this female writer for the inaccurate as of Portuguese language problematizando - the at the light from the hegemonia masculine than it is to he marked the creation as of background AND the reflection public above the endurance of the Portuguese at the dictatorship from the regime salazarista vigente at the Portugal of the time.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2003.
Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains x, 95 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 87-90).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2004.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 127-129).
It is critically important for inventory-carrying facilities to provide high availability of products at the minimal operating cost. To achieve this objective, many companies have automated their inventory operations and rely on the information system in critical decision makings. However, if the information is inaccurate, it may lead to high out-of-stocks and/or excess inventory. This thesis examines what the primary causes of the inaccuracy are, how and to what extent they degrade the inventory system performance, and what can be done to compensate for the inaccuracy. Analytical and simulation modelling demonstrate that the inventory system performance is highly sensitive to the inaccuracy caused by stock loss, which is the disappearance of items (such as due to theft) not detected by the information system. That is, even a small level of stock loss accumulated over time can lead to inventory inaccuracy that disrupts the replenishment process and creates severe out-of-stocks. In fact, revenue losses due to out-of-stocks can far outweigh the property losses due to the disappearing items.
(cont.) One way to deal with the inaccuracy problem is the use of RFID-based automatic product identification technology under development at the Auto-ID Center, which can provide the real-time and accurate information regarding the location and quantity of objects in supply chain. It is found that even when this technology provides imperfect measurement of the stock quantity, dramatic performance improvement can be achieved using an inventory control scheme based on dynamic programming. Various other methods of compensating for the inventory inaccuracy are presented and evaluated. Analysis of each method reveals that the inventory inaccuracy problem can be effectively treated even without automatic identification technology in some situations. However, each method has weaknesses.
by Yun Kang.
Ph.D.

Den här rapporten behandlar ett system som använder en databas som lagringsplats för loggar. En bra metod för att hämta ut dessa loggar saknades och databasdesignen behövde förbättras för sökningar i loggarna. En applikation för att hämta och söka i loggposter från databasen skapades. En undersökning om hur databasdesignen kunde förbättras genomfördes också. Båda delarna gjordes i ett projekt för att de hörde ihop. Applikationen skulle använda databasen. Då jag inte kunde göra vilka ändringar jag ville i databasen gjordes relativt begränsade ändringar i den. Större ändringar utreddes teoretiskt. Applikationen gjordes mot den existerande databasdesignen, med ett undantag: en vy lades till. Rapporten undersöker index och andra metoder att göra sökningar i en databas snabbare. En metod för att hämta data inom ett intervall i en databas utvecklades och den beskrivs i rapporten. Metoden söker efter all data som har värden på en kolumn som faller inom ett intervall och där databasen är ordnad, eller nästan ordnad, på den kolumnen. Metoden ger oexakta svar om databasen är nästan ordnad på den kolumnen. Den är snabbare än en motsvarande exakt sökning.
This report considers a system where a database is used as the back-end storage for logging. A suitable method for extracting information from the logs was missing and the database design needed an improvement for log searching. An application for extracting and filtering the logs was created. An evaluation of how the database could be improved was also performed. Both parts were done in one project since they were heavily connected. The application would use the database. Since I couldn’t make arbitrary changes to the database only relatively limited changes were made in practice. Larger changes were evaluated theoretically. The application was made against the existing database, with one exception: a view was added. The report handles indexes and other methods for speeding up database searches. A method for fetching data inside an interval in a database was developed and is described in the report. The method searches for all data where the value of a column is inside an interval and the database is ordered, or almost ordered, on that column. The method gives inexact answers if the database is almost ordered on that column. It is faster than a corresponding exact search.

Personality disorders offer clinicians a unique diagnostic challenge. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between literature size and diagnostic accuracy for personality disorders. The data used in this study were taken from the Blashfield & Intoccia (2000) and Blashfield & Herkov (1996) studies. The data were analyzed using a combination of correlations and single subject experimental designs. The results indicated that from 1980 to 1987 as literature size increased diagnostic accuracy increased across personality disorders. When examining literature growth three personality disorders (borderline, schizotypal, antisocial) appear to be carrying the literature growth for the group. These three personality disorders have a top five diagnostic accuracy rating. Possible explanations for this relationship as well as implications for future research are discussed.

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2017.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 157-162).
In a typical transform-based image and video compression system, an image or a video frame is predicted from previously encoded information. The prediction residuals are encoded with transforms. With a proper choice of the transform, a large amount of the residual energy compacts into a small number of transform coefficients. This is known as the energy compaction property. Given the covariance function of the signal, the linear transform with the best energy compaction property is the Karhunen Loeve transform. In this thesis, we develop a new set of transforms for prediction residuals. We observe that the prediction process in practical video compression systems is usually not accurate. By studying the inaccuracy of the prediction process, we can derive new covariance functions for prediction residuals. The estimated covariance function is used to generate the Karhunen Loeve transform for residual encoding. In this thesis, we model the prediction inaccuracy for two types of residuals. Specifically, we estimate the covariance function of the directional intra prediction residuals. We show that the covariance function and the optimal transform for directional intra prediction residuals are related with the one-dimensional gradient of boundary predictors. We estimate the covariance function of the motion-compensated prediction residuals. We show that the covariance function and the optimal transform for motion-compensated prediction residuals are related with the two-dimensional gradient of the displaced reference block. The proposed transforms are evaluated using the energy compaction property and the rate-distortion metric in a practical video coding system. Experimental results indicate that the proposed transforms significantly improve the performance in a typical transform-based compression scenario.
by Xun Cai.
Ph. D.

The use of polls during election campaigns has become increasingly commonplace, its main purpose being to predict elections results. Some literature highlights evidence that pre-electoral polls increase their predictive accuracy as the time between the interview and Election Day decreases. Understanding why some polls get it right and others get it wrong is important to better ascertain the evolution of election campaigns and voting intentions across time. A considerable literature shows how the quality of poll predictions is affected by a variety of methodological decisions taken by pollsters. This raises the question that underlies this thesis: under what conditions are polls inaccurate as predictors of voters’ behaviour? In order to answer this question, we analyze the last three Italian general elections. The aim of this thesis is to estimate what has the greatest impact on inaccuracy in Italian polling between the house effect and voters sentiment change. To do that, we firstly revise the well-established accuracy measures used so far in order to fit the Italian case and the new accuracy measure proposed for multi-party systems (Bw). Then, we estimate the house effect using OLS and multivariate regression models, where the days and polling houses and the methodologies employed by pollsters are the explanatory variables respectively. To estimate the extent of voters sentiment change in Italian voters, we apply the autoregressive model. The evidence provided by the accuracy measures shows a high presence of inaccuracy in Italian polling. Moreover, the OLS models provide strong evidence of the house effect, whereas the autoregressive model does not confirm the hypothesis of voters sentiment change across time. Therefore, the greater cause of inaccuracy in Italian polling is the house effect rather than any movement in voting intentions in the last three general elections.

To meet the needs and demands of the costumer, accurate information about how much is available in stock is necessary. When the information in the system does not match the physical inventory, inventory inaccuracy occurs. Inventory inaccuracy is common among companies and may contribute to increased labor cost, excess inventory, production disruptions, waste of time, late deliveries, poor service and lost customers. The purpose of this study is to identify contributing factors to inventory inaccuracy for business with outdoor storage. The study also aims to investigate how efficiency factors can reduce the inventory inaccuracy for business with outdoor storage. A case study was conducted to answer the purpose. A company in the steel industry was chosen to examine inventory inaccuracy on business with outdoor storage. During the case study a series of interviews was conducted with employees and managers. Together with information from observations and documents the information from the interviews was compiled into flowcharts. Inventory inaccuracy affects companies with in many ways and leads to inefficiency. Incorrect inventory leads to unnecessary work and costs and can also contribute to a reduced efficiency for business with outdoor storage. Inventory inaccuracy may be reduced with continuous inventory checks, simplified processes, more automation, enhanced information and communication. Improved routines can also help reduce inventory inaccuracy. To increase efficiency, the staff must be seen as an important resource.

This study examined the attitudes of foreigners towards inaccurately-translated signs in China. Three categories of signs were explored, including menus, restaurants' names and product labels. The researcher studied foreigners' reactions when they saw inaccurately-translated signs, the foreigners' preferences toward the bilingual signs and the factors that probably affect foreigners' perspectives on the bilingual signs. The instrument was a questionnaire, with questions about participants' backgrounds and attitudes towards bilingual signs in China. The data was analyzed through descriptive, inferential, and content analyses. The results of the study showed that the participants' Chinese-culture backgrounds most affected their attitudes toward signs most--the participants who had more Chinese background had more willingness to accept inaccurately-translated English on signs. The English translation affected the participants' choices--better English translation could attract more customers. Otherwise, the factor of design and the quality of pictures affected the participants' choices as well.

The two elements of a tender sum are the cost estimate and the mark-up. Variations in tenders can be attributed to inaccuracy in the estimate and variations in the applied mark-up. The weaknesses of current published literature are that the causes of the inaccuracy in the estimate or the variability in a mark-up are not defined in such a way that they can be analysed and evaluated. The inaccuracy of a cost estimate results from combining the inaccuracy of its constituent elements. Thus the inaccuracy of each element needs to be evaluated. The consequences of estimating inaccuracy and mark-up variability are inadequately described in current literature, which tends to assume that mark-up variability is negligible. This research addresses these weaknesses.

Les xarxes IP tradicionals utilitzen el model de transmissió "best-effort" per transportar tràfic entre clients de la xarxa. Aquest model de transmissió de tràfic no és el més adequat per les aplicacions en temps real com per exemple, vídeo sota demanda, conferències multimedia o realitat virtual que per altra banda tenen cada cop més adeptes entre els clients de la xarxa. A fi de garantir el correcte funcionament d'aquest tipus d'aplicacions, l'estructura de la xarxa ha de ser substancialment modificada amb l'objectiu final de poder optimitzar els seus propis recursos i així poder fer front a aquells tipus de tràfics i de clients que requereixen certes garanties de "Qualitat de Servei" (QoS) per a la seva correcta transmissió.

Aquestes modificacions o millores de la xarxa poden ser perfectament realitzades sota l'entorn d'Enginyeria de Tràfic (Traffic Engineering, TE). Dos són els principals aspectos relacionats amb el funcionament de la xarxa en aquest entorn de TE: els mecanismes de commutació i els mecanismes d'encaminament. Així, per una banda es necessita un mecanisme de commutació molt ràpid en els nodes interns de la xarxa a fi de que els paquets de dades puguin ser processats amb el menor temps possible. En xarxes IP aquest objectiu s'aconsegueix amb el Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS). Per altra banda, a fi de garantir certa QoS, les decisions d'encaminament s'han de realitzar tenint en compte quines són les restriccions de QoS sol·licitades per el node client que origina el tràfic. Aquest objectiu s'aconsegueix modificant els esquemes d'encaminament tradicionals, incorporant-hi els paràmetres de QoS en les decisions d'encaminament, generant el que es coneix com algorismes d'encaminament amb QoS (QoS routing).

Centrant-nos en aquest darrer aspecte, la majoria dels algorismes d'encaminament amb QoS existents, realitzen la selecció de la ruta a partir de la informació d'estat de l'enllaç emmagatzemada en les bases de dades d'estat de l'enllaç contingudes en els nodes. Per poder garantir que els successius canvis en l'estat de la xarxa estiguin perfectament reflectits en aquesta informació d'encaminament, el protocol d'encaminament ha d'incloure un mecanisme d'actualització que faci possible garantir que la selecció de les rutes es fa a partir d'informació acurada de l'estat real de la xarxa. En un entorn IP tradicional, el qual inicialment no inclou paràmetres de QoS, els canvis produïts en la informació d'encaminament són tan sols deguts a modificacions en la topologia i connectivitat de la xarxa. En aquest entorn, donat que la freqüència en la qual s'espera rebre missatges advertint d'aquestes modificacions no és elevada, la majoria dels mecanismes d'actualització es basen en la inclusió d'un cert període de refresc. Així, les bases de dades s'actualitzen periòdicament mitjançant la distribució d'uns missatges que informen a la resta de nodes de l'estat de la xarxa,a fi de que cada node pugui actualitzar la seva base de dades.

No obstant això, hem de tenir en compte que en aquelles xarxes IP/MPLS altament dinàmiques amb requeriments de QoS, aquest mecanisme d'actualització basat en un refresc periòdic no serà útil. Això és degut a la rigidesa que presenta aquest mecanisme, la qual fa que no sigui aplicable a un entorn que presenti contínues variacions del paràmetres dels enllaços cada cop que s'estableixi o s'alliberi una connexió (ara a més de la topologia i connectivitat, s'inclouen paràmetres de QoS, com ampla de banda, retard, variació del retard, etc.). Per tot això, s'haurà de generar un mecanisme d'actualització molt més eficient que sigui capaç de mantenir les bases de dades dels nodes perfectament actualitzades reflectint els continus canvis en l'estat de la xarxa. L'alta granularitat d'aquest mecanisme provocarà una sobrecàrrega de la xarxa, degut a l'enorme quantitat de missatges d'actualització que seran necessaris per poder mantenir informació actualitzada en les bases de dades d'estat de l'enllaç en cada node.

Per reduir aquesta sobrecàrrega de senyalització apareixen les polítiques d'activació (triggering policies) que tenen per objectiu determinar en quin moment un node ha d'enviar un missatge d'actualització a la resta de nodes de la xarxa advertint-los de les variacions produïdes en els seus enllaços. Desafortunadament, l'ús d'aquestes polítiques d'activació produeix un efecte negatiu sobre el funcionament global de la xarxa. En efecte, si l'actualització de la informació de l'estat de l'enllaç en els nodes no es fa cada cop que aquesta informació es veu modificada, sinó que es fa d'acord a una certa política d'activació, no es podrà garantir que aquesta informació representi de forma acurada l'esta actual de la xarxa en tot moment. Això pot provocar una selecció no òptima de la ruta seleccionada i un increment en la probabilitat de bloqueig de noves connexions a la xarxa.
Las redes IP tradicionales utilizan el modelo de transmisión best-effort para transportar tráfico entre clientes de la red. Es bien sabido que este modelo de transmisión de tráfico no es el más adecuado para las aplicaciones en tiempo real, tales como video bajo demanda, conferencias multimedia o realidad virtual, que cada vez son más de uso común entre los clientes de la red.

Para garantizar el correcto funcionamiento de dichas aplicaciones la estructura de la red debe ser modificada a fin de optimizar la utilización de sus propios recursos y para poder hacer frente a aquellos tráficos que requieran ciertas garantías de Calidad de Servicio (QoS) para su correcta transmisión.

Estas modificaciones o mejoras de la red pueden ser perfectamente realizadas bajo el entorno de Traffic Engineering (TE). Dos son los principales aspectos relacionados con el funcionamiento de la red en el entorno de TE: los mecanismos de conmutación y los mecanismos de encaminamiento. Así, por una parte, se necesita un mecanismo de conmutación muy rápido en los nodos intermedios de la red a fin de que los paquetes de datos puedan ser procesados con el menor tiempo posible. En redes IP este objetivo se consigue con el Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS). Por otra parte a fin de garantizar cierta QoS, las decisiones de encaminamiento se deben realizar acorde con los parámetros de QoS requeridos por el cliente que origina tráfico. Este objetivo se consigue modificando los esquemas de encaminamiento tradicionales e incorporando parámetros de QoS en las decisiones de encaminamiento, lo que deriva en la generación de encaminamiento con QoS (QoS routing).

Centrándonos en este último aspecto de encaminamiento, la mayoría de los algoritmos de QoS routing existentes realizan la selección de la ruta a partir de la información de estado del enlace que está almacenada en las bases de datos de estado del enlace contenidas en los nodos. A fin de garantizar que los sucesivos cambios en el estado de la red estén perfectamente reflejados en dicha información, el mecanismo de encaminamiento debe incorporar un mecanismo de actualización cuyo objetivo sea garantizar que las decisiones de encaminamiento se realizan a partir de información fidedigna del estado de la red. En un entorno IP tradicional, el cual no incluye parámetros de QoS, los cambios producidos en dicha información son los debidos a modificaciones en la topología y conectividad. En dicho entorno dado que no son esperadas frecuentes variaciones de la topología de la red, la mayoría de los mecanismos de actualización están basados en la inclusión de un cierto periodo de refresco.

Sin embargo, en redes IP/MPLS altamente dinámicas con requerimientos de QoS, este mecanismo de actualización no será adecuado debido a su rigidez y a las continuas variaciones de los parámetros de los enlaces (que ahora incluirá parámetros de QoS, tales como, ancho de banda, retardo, variación del retado, etc.) que se producirán cada vez que se establezca/libere una conexión. Por tanto, se deberá generar un mecanismo de actualización mucho más eficiente que sea capaz de actualizar las bases de datos de los nodos a fin de reflejar las constantes variaciones del estado de la red. La alta granularidad de este mecanismo provocará una sobrecarga de la red, debido a la enorme cantidad de mensajes de actualización necesarios para mantener información actualizada del estado de la red. Para reducir esta sobrecarga de señalización aparecen las políticas de disparo (triggering policies), cuyo objetivo es determinar en qué momento un nodo debe enviar un mensaje de actualización al resto de nodos de la red advirtiéndoles de las variaciones producidas en sus enlaces.

Desafortunadamente el uso de dichas políticas de disparo produce un efecto negativo sobre el funcionamiento global de la red. En efecto, si la actualización de la información de estado del enlace en los nodos no se realiza cada vez que dicha información es modificada sino de acuerdo con cierta política de disparo, no se puede garantizar que dicha información represente fielmente el estado de la red. Así, la selección de la ruta, podrá ser realizada basada en información inexacta o imprecisa del estado de lo red, lo cual puede provocar una selección no óptima de la ruta y un incremento en la probabilidad de bloqueo de la red.

Esta Tesis se centra en definir y solucionar el problema de la selección de rutas bajo información inexacta o imprecisa de la red (routing inaccuracy problem). Se consideran dos escenarios de trabajo, las actuales redes MPLS y las futuras redes WDM, para los cuales se propone un nuevo mecanismo de encaminamiento: BYPASS Based Routing (BBR) para redes IP/MPLS y BYPASS Based Optical Routing (BBOR) para redes WDM. Ambos mecanismos de encaminamiento se basan en un concepto común denominado "bypass dinámico".

El concepto de "bypass dinámico" permite que un nodo intermedio de la red encamine el mensaje de establecimiento que ha recibido del nodo fuente, a través de una ruta distinta a la calculada por el nodo fuente (y explícitamente indicada en el mensaje de establecimiento), cuando detecte que inesperadamente el enlace de salida no dispone de recursos suficientes para soportar las garantías de QoS requeridas por la conexión a establecer. Estas rutas alternativas, denominadas bypass-paths, son calculadas por el nodo fuente o de entrada a la red simultáneamente con la ruta principal para ciertos nodos intermedios de la misma. En redes IP/MPLS el mecanismo BBR aplica el concepto de "bypass dinámico" a las peticiones de conexión con restricciones de ancho de banda. En cambio, en redes WDM, el mecanismo BBOR aplica el concepto de "bypass dinámico" a la hora de asignar una longitud de onda por la cual se va a transmitir el trafico.
Traditional IP networks are based on the best effort model to transport traffic flows
between network clients. Since this model cannot properly support the requirements demanded by several emerging real time applications (such as video on demand, multimedia conferences or virtual reality), some modifications in the network structure, mainly oriented to optimise network performance, are required in order to provide Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees.

Traffic Engineering is an excellent framework to achieve these network enhancements.

There are two main aspects in this context that strongly interact with network performance: switching mechanisms and routing mechanisms. On one hand, a quick switching mechanism is required to reduce the processing time in the intermediate nodes. In IP networks this behaviour is obtained by introducing Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS). On the other hand, a powerful routing mechanism that includes QoS attributes when selecting routes (QoS Routing) is also required.

Focusing on the latter aspect, most QoS routing algorithms select paths based on the information contained in the network state databases stored in the network nodes. Because of this, routing mechanisms must include an updating mechanism to guarantee that the network state information perfectly represents the current network state. Since network state changes (topology) are not produced very often, in conventional IP networks without QoS capabilities, most updating mechanisms are based on a periodic refresh.

In contrast, in highly dynamic large IP/MPLS networks with QoS capabilities a finer updating mechanism is needed. This updating mechanism generates an important and nondesirable

signalling overhead if maintaining accurate network state information is pursued. To reduce the signalling overhead, triggering policies are used. The main function of a triggering policy is to determine when a network node must advertise changes in its directly connected links to other network nodes. As a consequence of reduced signalling, the information in the network state databases might not represent an accurate picture of the actual network state.

Hence, path selection may be done according to inaccurate routing information, which could cause both non-optimal path selection and an increase in connection blocking frequency.

This Thesis deals with this routing inaccuracy problem, introducing new mechanisms to reduce the effects on global network performance when selecting explicit paths under inaccurate routing information. Two network scenarios are considered, namely current IP/MPLS networks and future WDM networks, and one routing mechanism per scenario is suggested:

BYPASS Based Routing (BBR) for IP/MPLS and BYPASS Based Optical Routing (BBOR) for WDM networks. Both mechanisms are based on a common concept, which is defined as dynamic bypass.

According to the dynamic bypass concept, whenever an intermediate node along the selected path (unexpectedly) does not have enough resources to cope with the incoming MPLS/optical-path demand requirements, it has the capability to reroute the set-up message through alternative pre-computed paths (bypass-paths). Therefore, in IP/MPLS networks the BBR mechanism applies the dynamic bypass concept to the incoming LSP demands under bandwidth constraints, and in WDM networks the BBOR mechanism applies the dynamic bypass concept when selecting light-paths (i.e., selecting the proper wavelength in both wavelength selective and wavelength interchangeable networks).

The applicability of the proposed BBR and the BBOR mechanisms is validated by simulation and compared with existing methods on their respective network scenarios. These network scenarios have been selected so that obtained results may be extrapolated to a realistic network.

This thesis is focused on a simulation modelling approach to address the inventory inaccuracy problems in a warehouse operation. The main motivation which led to this research was a desire to investigate the inventory inaccuracy issues that have been highlighted by a logistics company. Previous and current research into inventory inaccuracy issues is largely related to the development of RFID technology as a possible solution to inventory problems. Since the inventory inaccuracy related to RFID technology is focused on the overall measurement of inventory management and retail business, there are differences between this existing research and the research presented in this thesis which is focused on issues of inventory inaccuracy in a warehouse operation. In this thesis, warehouse operation is studied as a detailed sequence of processes that are involved in the flow of items physically in parallel with related information being stored in the computer system. In these processes there are many places where errors can occur in counting or recording details of inventory, or in physically moving, storing or picking items incorrectly. These details of a warehouse operation are used to develop a conceptual model of inventory inaccuracy in warehouse operations. The study also found that typically a product needs to be considered differently at different stages of its progress through a warehouse (and therefore within different sections of the conceptual model). This is because initially batches of a product are likely to be delivered from a supplier, therefore if errors occur soon after the product is delivered to the warehouse, the error might involve the whole batch (for example the batch may be misplaced and put in an incorrect storage location), or the error might involve just part of the batch (for example poor transportation by forklift truck may damage the packaging carton and some of the items within the carton). When the product is stored ready for meeting customer orders, it needs to be considered as individual items (and errors can occur in counting of individual items or individual items may be misplaced or stolen). Finally, when a customer order is received, the product will be picked and grouped to meet the requirements of the order (for example, one order may require 10 of the product whilst another order may require 20 of the product). Errors might again occur to the whole group or to just part of the group. (Continued ...)

Esta dissertação teve como objetivo desenvolver uma metodologia e aplicá-la em uma indústria de bebidas, a fim de mensurar o impacto da imprecisão da previsão de demanda nos processos logísticos de gestão de estoque, distribuição física e vendas, demonstrando a importância que a previsão possui no planejamento e na execução dos processos logísticos. Para atingir os objetivos propostos acima, foi realizada uma breve revisão conceitual dos principais métodos de previsão de demanda e de cada um dos três processos logísticos em estudo. Em seguida, foram detalhadas as etapas da metodologia e aplicadas aos dados de 3 depósitos da empresa analisada. Como desdobramento da aplicação da metodologia, foram identificadas oportunidades de melhoria e elaboradas propostas de mudanças para o processo de previsão atual. A aplicação da metodologia e a implementação das alterações propostas permitiu à empresa aumentar o nível de precisão da previsão de demanda de todos os principais SKUs e melhorar a comunicação entre todos os elos da cadeia de valor. Com esta maior precisão da previsão de demanda será possível melhorar a alocação dos recursos físicos e humanos, reduzir os custos operacionais e atingir os requisitos de nível de serviço requeridos pelos clientes.
This thesis has the objective of developing and applying a methodology to measure the impact of demand forecast inaccuracy in the supply chain of a beverage industry, specifically in the inventory management, physical distribution and sales processes. The purpose is to create an awareness of the importance of forecasting area in the logistics planning and execution activities. To achieve these goals, a conceptual review of the major demand forecasting methods and of the three logistics processes under analysis has been made. After that, a methodology was defined and applied to three different warehouse data sets of the company analyzed. As a result of the methodology application, some opportunities for process improvement were identified and some changes were proposed for the current demand forecasting process. The results of methodology application and proposed actions implementation allowed the company to increase the demand forecasting accuracy for the major SKUs and to improve communication among the different links of the supply chain. Based on more accurate forecasts, the company will be able to better allocate physical and human resources, reduce operational costs and achieve the required customer service level.

Heavy-duty trucks are important links in the logistic chains of transport. Critical components in trucks include fuel injectors in which inaccuracies can lead to severe financial damage and higher emissions. Intelligent and efficient ways to detect such scenarios are thus of high importance. This thesis applies machine learning algorithms to measured or estimated engine data, focused on gas exchange signals, to detect inaccuracies in fueling quantities. The fueling inaccuracies considered were of low deviations from the nominal curve, with magnitudes not covered by the currently used fueling diagnostics. The data used for the models was generated from Scania test cell engines where different setups of injectors were deliberately set to over- or underfuel.  Seven different machine learning models were used on the data and evaluated on how well they could detect deviations from nominal fueling. The tests were mainly done with a pure data-driven approach but also improved through different data selection techniques and using domain knowledge. An investigation to connect the findings within the thesis to real customer data was initiated in order to make the results useful for e.g. predictive maintenance. The complications connected to why this was not ultimately achieved were discussed.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Cincinnati, 2009.
Advisor: Sam Anand. Title from electronic thesis title page (viewed Jan. 15, 2010). Includes abstract. Keywords: Direct Metal Laser Sintering; Volumetric Error; Optimization; Genetic Algorithm; .STL. Includes bibliographical references.

This dissertation addresses the problem of setting due dates to minimize completion inaccuracy penalties in a general job shop environment. In this simulation study, lateness penalties are generated by four defined functions: lateness variance, mean squared lateness, mean absolute lateness, and semi-quadratic lateness. Each of these functions assigns positive penalties to both early and late job completions. The study proposes and demonstrates the benefits of an iterative simulation-regression procedure in determining allowance policies. Advantages of operation-based dispatching rules over job-based dispatching rules, as well as improvements to traditional methods of setting operation due dates, are demonstrated. Characteristics and benefits of incorporating shop congestion variables in due date setting procedures under different combinations of expected shop utilization and processing time assumptions are evaluated.

A solution for the automation of inventory taking and location of prod-ucts in a store or warehouse is presented. Radio Frequency Identifica-tion (RFID), an automatic identification technology, and mobile robotics are combined in the design of an inventory robot. The navigation of the robot is commanded by an algorithm that takes as input the progress of new identifications. Such algorithm is essential for the robot to deliver an accuracy higher than 99% and for an optimal inventory duration. An interface for the interaction with the robot and a set of procedures for its operation are implemented. The location of items is implemented using two different approaches. The first approach applies clustering to streams of identifications and assigns the known location of a reference item to all the members of a cluster. The second approach applies Bayesian Re-cursive Estimation after the computation of an identification model. A methodology for the assessment is proposed and the data set generated for the analysis shared openly. Inventory accuracy and location are as-sessed in real scenarios. The proposed solution is demonstrated valuable and ready for the market.
Es presenta una solució per a l'automatizació de l'inventari i la localització dels productes de tendes i magatzems. Radio Frequecy Identification (RFID), una tecnologia d'identificació automàtica, i la robòtica mòbil es combinen per dissenyar un robot per a inventaris. La navegació del robot està comandada per un algoritme que escolta el progrés de les noves identificacions. L'algoritme és essencial per tal que el robot obtingui una exactitud superior al 99% i per tal que la duració de l'inventari sigui òptima. S'implementen una interfície d'interacció i el conjunt de procediments necessaris per a operar amb el robot. La localització dels productes s'aborda de dues maneres. La primera consisteix en aplicar clústering a les cadenes d'identificacions dels productes i després assignar la localitzacio coneguda d'un producte de referència a tots els membres del clúster. El segon mètode de localització consisteix en aplicar Bayesian Recursive Estimation després d'haver computat un model d'identificació. Es proposa una metodolgia per a l'avaluació dels inventaris i el dataset generat per a l'anàlisi és compartit obertament. L'exactitud dels inventaris i la localització s'avaluen en escenaris reals. Es demostra que la solució proposada és de valor i està llesta per entrar al mercat.

A análise de solo é considerada ferramenta essencial para fins de recomendação de calagem, adubação e manejo do solo. Entretanto, com a demanda crescente por alimentos e a necessidade do aumento sustentável da produtividade agrícola, é fundamental seguir progredindo em termos de qualidade, custos e o tempo demandado para a obtenção dos resultados destas análises. Neste sentido, as técnicas de sensoriamento remoto, incluindo as escalas laboratoriais, de campo, aéreas e orbitais, apresentam vantagens, principalmente no que se refere à avaliação de áreas de grande extensão. A qualidade das determinações laboratoriais é fundamental para as recomendações de manejo do solo, levando ao questionamento do grau de variabilidade analítica entre diferentes laboratórios e quantificações via espectroscopia de reflectância. Objetivou-se avaliar as incertezas relacionadas às determinações da análise de solo, e como isso pode afetar nos modelos de predição espectrais (350-2.500 nm). Com isso, espera-se entender as vantagens e limitações das metodologias, permitindo assim decisões mais adequadas para o manejo do solo. Amostras de solos sob cultivo extensivo de cana de açúcar foram coletadas de 29 municípios situados no estado de São Paulo. Para a coleta dos solos foram abertos 48 perfis com aproximadamente 1,5 m de profundidade, foi retirado de cada perfil aproximadamente 10 kg de terra, nas profundidades de 0-0,2 e 0,8-1,00 m, totalizando 96 amostras primárias. Para as determinações químicas foram analisados os seguintes atributos: potencial hidrogeniônico (pH), matéria orgânica (MO), fósforo resina (P), potássio trocável (K+), cálcio trocável (Ca2+), magnésio trocável (Mg2+), alumínio trocável (Al3+), acidez potencial (H + Al), soma de bases trocáveis (SB), capacidade de troca de cátions (CTC), saturação da CTC por bases (V%) e saturação por Al3+ (m%). No que se refere às determinações granulométricas, foram analisadas as frações areia, silte e argila. Para obtenção dos espectros de reflectância, foram utilizados quatro espectrorradiômetros (350-2.500 nm). As variações das recomendações de calagem de diferentes laboratórios também foram avaliadas. Laboratórios foram avaliados com base em índices de imprecisão e inexatidão. As determinações com maiores erros em ordem decrescente, considerando a média de todos os laboratórios, foram m%, Al3+, Mg2+ e P. Esses erros influenciaram significativamente nas calibrações dos modelos de predições via sensor. Além disso, foi observado que as incertezas analíticas muitas vezes podem influenciar na recomendação de calagem. Para esta recomendação, um dos laboratórios estudados apresentou resultados com erro maior a 1 t ha-1. Os modelos de predição calibrados com os dados do laboratório com menor quantidade de erros apresentaram valor de R2 maior que 0,7 e RPD maior que 1,8, para os atributos MO, Al, CTC, H+Al, areia, silte e argila. A metodologia empregada possibilitou a quantificação do nível de incertezas aceitáveis nas determinações laboratoriais e a avaliação de como os erros analíticos laboratoriais influenciaram nas predições dos sensores. A espectroscopia de reflectância mostra ser alternativa complementar eficiente aos métodos tradicionais de análises de solo.
Soil analysis is an essential tool for liming recomendation, fertilization and soil management. Considering the increasing demand for food and the need for a sustainable increase in agricultural productivity, it is essential to promote the quality of soil analysis, as well as reducing costs and time required to obtain such analysis. In this sense, remote sensing techniques, including laboratory, field, aerial and orbital levels, have advantages especially regarding the assessment of areas of large extension. The quality of laboratory measurements is critical for soil management recommendations, which makes important to question the degree of analytical variability between different laboratories and measurements via reflectance spectroscopy. This study aimed to evaluate the uncertainties related to traditional soil analysis, and how they can affect the spectral prediction models (350-2500 nm). It is expected to understand the advantages and limitations of both methodologies, allowing proper decision-making for soil management. Soil samples under extensive sugar cane cultivation were collected from 29 municipalities in the state of São Paulo. For soil sampling, 48 soil profiles were opened in a depth of approximately 1.5 m and 10 kg of soil was collected from the depths 0-0.2 and 0.8-1.0 m, resulting in 96 primary samples. For chemical analysis the following attributes were considered: potential of Hydrogen (pH), Organic Matter (OM), phosphorus (P), exchangeable potassium (K+), exchangeable calcium (Ca2+), exchangeable magnesium (Mg2+), exchangeable aluminum (Al3+), potential acidity (H + Al), total exchangeable bases (SB), Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC), CEC saturation by bases (V%) and saturation by Al3+ (m%). Regarding the particle size measurements, the fractions sand, silt and clay were analyzed. Four spectroradiometers (350-2500 nm) were used in order to obtain the reflectance spectra. The variations of liming recommendations from different laboratories were also evaluated. Laboratories were evaluated based on imprecision and inaccuracy rates. The soil attributes that presented highest errors in the traditional analysis, based on the average of all laboratories, were in descending order m%, Al3+, Mg2+ and P. These errors significantly influenced the calibrations of the prediction models through sensors. Furthermore, the analytical uncertainties can often influence liming recommendations. For this recommendation, one of the laboratories presented results with errors greater than 1 t ha-1. The prediction models calibrated with laboratory data with fewer errors presented R2 value greater than 0.7 and RPD greater than 1.8 for OM, Al3+, CEC, H + Al, sand, silt and clay. The methodology allowed the quantification of the level of acceptable uncertainty in the laboratory measurements and the evaluation of how the laboratory analytical errors influenced the predictions of the sensors. The reflectance spectroscopy is an efficient complementary alternative to traditional methods of soil analyses.

Contrairement à un système d'identification plus traditionnel tel que le code à barres, la nouvelle technologie RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) utilise des ondes radio fréquence pour transmettre des données entre une étiquette et un lecteur pour pouvoir identifier, localiser ou suivre une entité dans une chaîne d'approvisionnement. Cette propriété lui procure certains avantages (facilité d'accès à l'information, suivi continu, amélioration de l'exactitude des données, détection du vol et de la contrefaçon, etc..) par rapport à d'autres systèmes d'identification et de capture de données. Nous partons du constat que l'utilisation de cette nouvelle technologie permettra aux acteurs de la chaîne logistique de pouvoir partager une information de meilleure qualité, plus exhaustive et fiable concernant le flux physique et le suivi de la localisation produits. Or, l'hypothèse implicite considérée dans la plupart des modèles classiques de gestion de stock est que l'on a une connaissance parfaite du flux entrant et sortant. L'objectif de recherche sera d'intégrer dans ces modèles des dégradations venant fausser le flux nominal et d'en analyser les conséquences (en termes de coût additionnel). Un accent fort sera mis sur le développement de solutions combinant efficacité et simplicité. L'accent sera mis aussi sur le mode de partage du coût de cette technologie entre plusieurs acteurs de la chaîne logistique : serait-il mieux de partager les bénéfices de cette technologie dans un environnement de coordination ou dans un environnement de compétitivité entre acteurs? Les résultas de cette thèse porte sur l'élaboration de modèles théoriques -de type gestion de stock – concernant la production, la distribution et l'approvisionnement dans une chaîne logistique et faisant intervenir et le coût et les gains potentiels de cette nouvelle technologie d'identification automatique.

In today‟s manufacturing environment, different parts manufactured in-house and bought from suppliers are often assembled together into a finished product. Competition has made it very important for companies to deliver a customized product on a promised date. However, when inventory items are missing at the time of production, lead times for products become uncertain and this makes it difficult to fulfill a customer order on the promised date. It is thus important to explore the causes of missing items at the time of production in order to solve such a problem. This Master of Science thesis carried out through a case study at Fläkt Woods in collaboration with Jönköping University is about the problem of not finding specific inventory items in the locations specified by the computer system. It is delimited to inventory items which are physically within the company premises or which according to the computer system are within the premises of the company. The questions at issue have been what the causes of the problem of missing items within the company are and how to effectively reduce the problem. The thesis has been carried out over an entire academic semester as a full-time work in the company. The sources of the problem have been found to be the result of the work procedure, the underlying software used during work (the in-house developed ERP system), stealing from orders, ineffective barcode scans, re-sequencing at the component manufacturing department (called pre-manufacturing in the company) due to the need to fulfill multiple objectives, set-up times at the component manufacturing department and human errors among others. The suggestions given include: modification of the work procedure and the underlying software used at work, increasing effective scanning and using some checks at critical points in the material flow. Areas for further research are given to further reduce the impact of the problem on the production system.

The relationship between media and religion has been influenced by many factors in history. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has received a great deal of media attention throughout the world in the past five years. In Italy, the Church National Council of Public Relations worked to provide the media with the necessary information to report accurate news about the Church. This thesis collected the information provided to the Italian media by the Church National Council and analyzed the main topic and the level of accuracy reported by the Italian media on Church-related news. The results show that Italian media tend to use the information provided by the Church only when discussing the Church in Italy, but still report a great deal of inaccurate or misleading information when discussing the Church in the world.

Introdução: O tema medicalização emerge como objeto de estudo no campo da sociologia da saúde, a partir da década de 70, nas vozes de Irving Zola, Ivan Illich, Peter Conrad e Michel Foucalt; as quais indicaram a crescente influência da medicina em campos que até então não lhe pertenciam. E, no decorrer dos anos, o termo vem sendo apropriado por vários campos: na saúde, na educação, na psicologia, entre outros. Esta configuração levou alguns estudiosos da primeira década do século XXI, a se preocupar com o uso impreciso e vago do conceito de medicalização na produção científica. Neste sentido, este estudo busca olhar para os processos de medicalização, tomando-o em sua pluralidade a fim de discernir as principais forças motrizes e coteja-las com as mudanças na contemporaneidade. Objetivo: Recuperar as forças motrizes contidas nas principais contribuições dos autores primários sobre os processos de medicalização. Método: Realizou-se um exercício hermenêutico composto pelos seguintes passos: leitura profunda do texto, fichamento dos aspectos centrais que caracterizam as diversas concepções sobre medicalização. Interpretação do conteúdo por meio da abstração dos núcleos de sentido e dos referenciais teóricos que lhe dão suporte. Resultados: A partir deste movimento reflexivo e crítico conseguiu-se desvelar quatro conceitos nucleares que representam as principais forças motrizes: a indústria, as instituições, o Estado e a sociedade. Zola oferece indícios que o Estado e a indústria teriam levado a sociedade à dependência da medicina. Para Illich, a medicina, por si só, detém o poder comparada as outras instituições. Para Michel Foucault, a medicina deixou de ser uma ciência pura e transformou-se numa instituição subordinada a um sistema econômico e de poder, enfim a uma lógica subjacente aos princípios e regras de governo. Em contrapartida, para Conrad a medicalização não constitui um empreendimento exclusivo da medicina, prevalecendo os interesses de outras instituições e organizações sociais. O sentido com que cada um desses conceitos é usado difere entre os autores e a distinção desses aspectos é chave para compreender a contribuição efetiva de cada um. Da mesma forma, ocorre quando os autores discutem as consequências e os efeitos causados pelos processos de medicalização. Alguns autores direcionam seus efeitos para os indivíduos, num processo de exacerbação da individualização; enquanto que outros focam os efeitos da medicalização nas políticas de saúde e na questão econômica associada ao oneroso custo financeiro para a sociedade e o país. Considerações finais: A recuperação e a compreensão dos significados subjacentes às principais forças motrizes presentes nas contribuições de cada autor apresentadas nesta investigação constituem-se em passo importante para subsidiar a reflexão sobre processos concretos de medicalização no início do século XXI, um período marcado por aceleradas transformações, no qual, entre outros aspectos, a medicina e várias instituições têm sido crescentemente, capturadas para satisfazer, de um lado o consumismo, e de outro, a avidez pelo lucro do mercado capitalista; ao mesmo tempo em que forças desagregadoras atravessam os sujeitos impactando sua autonomia e identidade política, social e econômica.
Introduction: The theme medicalization rises as an object of study in the sociology of health field, starting in the 70s from Irving Zola, Ivan Illich, Peter Conrad and Michel Foucault; which indicated the growing influence of medicine on groups not yet belonged by it. And, as years went by, the term has been appropriated by several fields: health, education, psychology, and so forth. This configuration took some scholars from the first decade of the 21st century to worry about the inaccurate and vague use of the concept of medicalization in the scientific production. Hence, this study focus on looking at the process of medicalization, taking it in its pluralities in order to discern the main driving forces and collate them with the changes in contemporaneity. Goal: Recover the driving forces contained in the main contributions from the primary authors about the process of medicalization. Methodology: It was performed an hermeneutic assignment made by the following steps: deep reading of the text, indexing of main aspects that characterize the various conceptions about medicalization, and interpretation of the content by the abstraction of the core of senses and theoretical references that support it. Result: From that reflexive and critic movement it was able to unveil four core concepts that represent the main driving forces: the industry, the institutions, the state and society. Zola offers clues showing that the state and the industry had taken society to a dependence of medicine. As for Illich, medicine by itself holds the power compared to the other institutions. For Michel Foucault, medicine stopped being plain science and became an institution subordinate to an economic and power system, therefore to an underlying logic to the government\'s rules and principles. In contrast, for Peter Conrad medicalization doesn\'t consist in a medicine exclusive enterprise, prevailing the interests of other social institutions and organizations. The meaning of which each of these concepts is used differs among the authors and the distinction of these aspects is the key to understanding an effective contribution of each one. Accordingly, it happens when the authors discuss the consequences and effects caused by the medicalization process. Some authors aim its effects to individuals, in a process of aggravation of individualization; whereas others focus the effects of medicalization on health policies and the economic aspect associated with the onerous financial cost to society and to the country. Final considerations: The recovery and understanding of the underlying meanings to the main driving forces contained within each authors contribution shown in this investigation consist in an important step to support the reflection about the factual process of medicalization at the beginning of the 21st century, a period marked by fast transformations which, among other aspects, medicine and several institutions have been increasingly taken to satisfy on the one hand consumerism, and on the other hand the greed for profit of the capitalist market, at the same time that disintegrating forces cross the subjects, impacting its political, social and economic autonomy and identity.

Aim of this work is to study the impact of inaccuracy in execution of required task (inaccuracy in subject’s behavioral response to experimental stimulation) by person who undergoes fMRI examination. The work is solved in several stages. First, theoretical analysis of inaccuracy in fMRI experiment was performed, and simulations with synthetic data were created. Several variables in general linear model and t-statistics were followed. We found that estimated effect size depends linearly on covariance between the corresponding columns of X and D matrices or their linear combination. The component of residual variance caused by inaccuracy is negligible at real-life noise levels. In such case, moreover, the dependence of t-statistics on inaccuracy becomes linear. Next, our theoretical results (dependencies/characteristics of variables) were verified using real data. All results were confirmed. Last, I focused on possible practical use of the uncovered characteristics and dependencies. Optimization of experimental design with respect to inaccuracy, correction of inaccurate results and reliability of inaccurate results are introduced and discussed. Especially, the calculation of maps of maximal tolerable inaccuracy can be useful to find robust or weak (tending to be not detected or to be significantly different from accurate value) activation in real fMRI experiments.

The objective of this diploma thesis is the design of a device that measures the vehicle’s centre of gravity height position. The first part defines individual methods of measurement using various measuring equipment. The next part deals with the definition of requirements for the device and the definition of the design. A stress-strain analysis was executed for selected components. This diploma thesis describes the preparation process of the vehicle and the device for the measurement. The next part is dedicated to the design of the measuring chain and to the evaluation of the results. The thesis concludes with a theoretic analysis of the measurement inaccuracy.

Sammanfattning Kurs: Examensarbete i Logistik för Civilekonomprogrammet, 30 hp, 4FE19E.  Författare: Jakob Bergman och Jim Andersson. Examinator: Peter Berling Handledare: Peter Berling  Medbedömare: Hana Hulthén Titel: Saldoavvikelser i producerande företag, en fallstudie på Getinge Disinfection AB. Bakgrund: En välfungerande lagerhållning är en väsentlig grundsten för ett företags framgångar. I takt med att lagerhållningen blivit mer automatiserad och effektiviserad ställs högre krav på att informationen om lagersaldon stämmer överens med verkligheten. Saldoavvikelser är ett utbrett problem som kan påverka många olika delar av en verksamhet, såsom felaktiga underlag för inköp, den dagliga driften och företagets servicegrad. Fallföretaget Getinge Disinfection AB upplever främst att saldoavvikelser på företaget får effekt på den dagliga driften, något som denna studie ämnar undersöka. Syfte: Studien syftar till att identifiera konsekvenser och orsaker till saldoavvikelser på Getinge Disinfection AB samt ge förbättringsförslag som kan reducera saldoavvikelser på företaget. Metod: Denna studie har en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi. Vidare är studiens forskningsdesign en fallstudie då den endast undersöker ett fall ingående och detaljerat. Resultat: Studien fann att saldoavvikelser kan uppstå i alla steg i den studerade processen, med varierande primära orsaker i de olika stegen i processen. Bland de konsekvenser som funnits är de främsta icke-värdeskapande aktiviteter, opålitliga underlag för inköpsbeslut, OOS och ökade ledtider. Majoriteten av orsakerna grundar sig i den mänskliga faktorn, det vill säga att anställda inte följer rutiner eller gör misstag i processen. Dessa misstag kan ske i olika aktiviteter i processen och det finns olika primärorsaker beroende på var i processen misstaget sker. Vidare har författarna tagit fram förbättringsförslag för att effektivisera Getinge Disinfection ABs produktionsprocess. De mest lämpliga förbättringsförslagen är att skapa förståelse om saldoavvikelser bland de anställda, införa Cycle counting, digitalisera olika aktiviteter och utvärdera det nuvarande artikelsortimentet. Nyckelord: Saldosäkerhet, Saldoavvikelser, Producerande företag, Medicinteknik, Life Science, Assemble to Order, ATO, Cycle Counting, RFID, Streckkoder.
Abstract  Course: Degree project in Logistics, the Business Administration and Economics Programme, 30 credits, 4FE19E.    Authors: Jakob Bergman and Jim Andersson. Examiner: Peter Berling.  Tutor: Peter Berling. Co-judger: Hana Hulthén Title: Inventory record inaccuracies in manufacturing companies, a case study on Getinge Disinfection AB. Background: Effective inventory management is of considerable importance for most successful businesses. Without it, companies would be hard-pressed to meet the demands of consumers that place a high value on fast deliveries and product availability. As a result, businesses have turned to increased automation of their inventory management. This automation relies heavily on information such as inventory records being accurate and up to date. Inventory record inaccuracies result in purchases or decisions being made on incorrect assumptions of the companies’ actual inventory status, which has a negative effect on many aspects of the business. However, most studies on this subject focus on inventory record inaccuracies in a retailing context, whereas this study focuses on a large manufacturing company (Getinge Disinfection AB) using an Assemble to Order model. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify the different causes and consequences of inventory record inaccuracies (IRI) at Getinge Disinfection AB. Furthermore, the study aims to offer proposals on how to improve inventory record accuracy at Getinge Disinfection AB.    Methodology: This paper adopts a qualitative research strategy with a case-study approach.  Findings: The study concluded that inventory record inaccuracies can arise in all areas of the studied process, with different primary reasons for different stages of the process. Most of the causes of IRI can be attributed to the human factor, such as incorrect identification of the items, unregistered movements of goods, and transaction errors. The consequences of (IRI) were mainly the resulting non-value adding activities, purchasing decisions being made based on unreliable inventory data, stockouts and longer lead times. The study also gives suggestions on how Getinge could reduce these inventory record inaccuracies. Improvement measures such as Cycle counting, bar coding of the items and locations and increased staff training are discussed. Keywords: Inventory Record Accuracy, Inventory Record Inaccuracy, Manufacturing, Health Care, Life Science, Assemble to Order, ATO, Cycle Counting, RFID, Bar coding.

This doctoral thesis widely analyses the process of investment decision-making. In its individual parts, it researches models used for planning, analysing and evaluation of investments projects, but also models used for final decision about realization of the investment. Investing activity is present in world economic cycle in all it’s phases. Capital sources used for financing if the investment projects are scarce and must be handled with care. For this reason, there are many supportive methodologies and models employed in managing of the investments as well as instruments developed to miti-gate the potential project risks. However, even utilization of these instruments and models can’t guarantee the expected results. There are uncertainties, errors and in-accuracies in the process that can thwart investment decisions. The aim of the thesis is to analyse the investment decision-making process (from the initial idea to the realization of the investment project) and to identify the main un-certainties – factors influencing the success / error rate of models for investment project planning as well as the decision on their realization. The main outcome of the thesis is an overview of these factors and recommenda-tions on how to work with these factors and make the process as effective as possi-ble. Another output is an analysis and recommendations for the use of financing sources and mix of the instruments that should be used to mitigate the potential impact of risks that are connected to all investment projects.

Research report to SBL, Unisa, Midrand.
Credit risk has been identified as the main risk that can result in the failure of a bank due to ineffective credit decisions. It is, therefore, critical for the banks to conduct credit risk assessment on new applicants and existing customers in order to determine the level of affordability and mitigate credit risk. Consumer credit information plays a very important role in credit risk assessment because it can accurately detect and predict default. The aim of this study was to investigate the consequences of inaccurate credit information on bank’s secured lending division. The investigation was conducted using various methods to achieve the objectives of this research. This was done through the exploration of literature review relating to research of the management of consumers credit information in developed and developing countries, and secured lending and inaccurate credit data. A quantitative research methodology was adopted. It was observed that credit risk is seen as the key risk that banks are faced with. It was found that inaccurate consumer credit data can have a negative impact on bank’s operations in terms of consumer’s disputes, higher pricing and consumer overindebtedness. In addition, inaccurate consumer credit data impede access to credit by consumers. One of the general recommendations of this research is that banks should assist in training the consumers to improve their knowledge of credit report. Further studies in the area of corporate or business clients are also recommended as the focus of this research was on individual bank’s clients.

碩士
淡江大學
資訊工程學系資訊網路與通訊碩士班
98
Coverage of wireless sensor networks has been studied intensively in recent year based on the assumption that each sensor knows its own accurate location. However, accurate location information of sensors is difficult to be obtained by applying most existing range-free localization technologies. Sensors with inaccurate location may result in incorrect estimation of coverage and hence reduce the monitoring quality. This paper considers a given wireless sensor networks which has been localized by applying Bounding Box mechanisms. Each sensor is aware of its inaccurate location information, denoted by a rectangle box, which represents that the sensor is located in the box. Consequently, coverage problem is a new challenge. This paper proposes a novel coverage estimation method to estimate the coverage of the given WSN. A decentralized algorithm is further proposed for adjusting sensor’s sensing range so that the probability of full coverage satisfies the user''s demand.

碩士
淡江大學
資訊工程學系資訊網路與通訊碩士班
96
Location information has been proven to be very useful in the design of sensor network infrastructures. First of all, a sensor network is “data-centric”. The data sensed by sensor networks are meaningless if we don’t know where the data are from. Location information can also help routing. However, it is still a big challenge to provide each sensor with accurate location information. Many localization mechanisms developed based on the bounding box concept have been proposed. Each sensor that receives the location beacons from mobile anchor can construct a rectangle box representing its possible location region. However, the bounding box approaches can not identify the relative locations for neighboring sensors based on the inaccurate location information. Furthermore, the well-known location-aware routing can only be applied in the network environment where each sensor has accurate location information. The performance of location-aware routing will be significantly dropped when it is applied in an inaccurate location environment. This paper aims to improve the location accuracy of each sensor and help the neighboring sensors to identify their relative locations by using the unused location beacons. In addition, a location-aware routing mechanism that is operated in an inaccurate location environment is proposed to improve the routing performance. Simulation study reveals that the proposed localization mechanisms improve the location accuracy and identify the relative location of sensors while the proposed location-aware routing mechanism reduces the average route length and hence prolongs the network lifetime.

There are concerns regarding the risk of the inaccurate responses in the personality data. The inaccurate responses negatively affect in the individual selection contexts. Especially, in the military context, the personality score including inaccurate responses results in the selection of inappropriate personnel or allows enlistment dodgers to avoid their military duty. This study conducted IRT-based person-fit analysis with the dichotomous military dataset in the Korean Military Personality Inventory. In order for that, 2PL model was applied for the data and person-fit index l_(z) was used to detect aberrant respondents. Based on l_(z) values of each respondent, potentially inaccurate respondents was identified. In diagnosing possible sources of aberrant response patterns, PRCs was assessed. This study with the military empirical data shows that person-fit analysis using l_(z) is applicable and practical method for detecting inaccurate response patterns in the personnel selection contexts based on the personality measurement.

博士
國立臺灣大學
會計學研究所
98
This dissertation consists of two parts; the first part investigates how the public inaccurate information affects the capital market. In 1995-2007, the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation (TWSE) announced the ex-right reference price formula which generated inaccurate public information within the stock market. The focus of this study is to demonstrate how investors use this inaccurate public information and how this affects the ex-day stock prices. We use differences between the accurate/inaccurate ex-right reference price and the ex-day price, model selection criteria, regression analysis and non-nested test to compare the explanatory power between the accurate ex-right reference price and the inaccurate ex-right reference price on the ex-day price. Results show that the inaccurate ex-right reference price has a higher explanatory power than the accurate one on the ex-day price, indicating the market fails to identify and reflect the accuracy of information on the stock price. The second part investigates how an audit client’s preference over an audit report affects its willingness to retain the auditor. Furthermore, how this affects auditor’s decisions in the audit report, i.e., the audit independence. In addition, we also examine the effect of the auditor mandatory rotation. We use the multi-period signaling game, assuming that there exists information asymmetry among manager, auditor and investors. We analyze the audit quality through the optimal strategies of auditors and managers. Results show that in equilibrium, auditors lower their audit quality (independence) in order to maintain their competitive advantage. In addition, auditors may be over-conservatism under dismissal threats and mandatory rotation can not mitigate this situation.