Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Set up'

Set-up for nanosized powder synthesis and set-up for deposition of composite and multilayer films were described. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/35609

Field measurements from a cross shore array of two pressure sensors to measure waves and eight manometer tubes to measure mean water elevation are used to examine set-down/up across the surf zone. The manometer tubes are connected to differential pressure transducers onshore allowing continuous set- down/up measurements. Flume measurements of set-down/up are also examined. Measured values are compared with numeric set-up values incorporating roller theory describing wave breaking. The model has two free parameters, B representing the vertical fraction of the wave covered by the roller and psi a scaling parameter for wave steepness. Optimal values of both are chosen by model fitting. Inclusion of the surface roller improves the set-up model fit to both beach and flume measurements

Existing research on phrasal verbs is ample due to their prevalent existence in the English language and the difficulties they bring out as a result of their lack of transparency (Liu, 2011, p. 661). However, more research is necessary to cover new generations of English learners who cross paths with phrasal verbs. This study will provide empirical information on (i) whether Swedish students in 7th -9 th grade understand frequently used phrasal verbs better than nonfrequent ones, (ii) if phrasal verbs are easier to understand in productive- or perceptive tasks, (iii) if the students’ first languages (L1) interfere with this understanding, or (iv) if there is a difference in understanding phrasal verbs which are more common in AmE or BrE. The factors of second language acquisition taken into account in the analysis are explicit and implicit exposure of English, English varieties, crosslinguistic influences and idiomaticity. Chameliec & Weiss (2008, p. 381) define a phrasal verb as “a simple verb combined with an adverb or a preposition, or sometimes both, to make a new verb with a meaning that is different from that of the simple verb, e.g., go in for, win over, blow up”. The data was elicited with a questionnaire in three parts: one part about the participants background information and two parts on phrasal verb understanding, both in contextualized examples and without context. In the analysis, factors such as the construction of the questionnaire and choice of phrasal verbs need to be considered. The results demonstrate that Swedish junior high school students understand about 50% of the tested phrasal verbs in both parts of the questionnaire. More frequent ones are easier to understand, more so the AmE PVs, and the perceptive task generated a slightly higher percentage of correct answers. The textbooks did not have explicit sections on phrasal verbs, or even formulaic expressions in general. However, the books contained vocabulary boxes with a few different phrasal verbs, which also occurred in the texts. Since no explicit teaching method has been applied in these classes, doing so might increase the general frequency of correct answers. Furthermore, no conclusive results can be made regarding crosslinguistic influences, however, hypotheses on positive transfer can be made.

The thesis falls into the field of machine olfaction and accompanying experimental set up for chemical gas sensing. Perhaps more than any other sensory modality, chemical sensing faces with major technical and conceptual challenges: low specificity, slow response time, long term instability, power consumption, portability, coding capacity and robustness. There is an important trend of the last decade pushing artificial olfaction to mimic the biological olfaction system of insects and mammalians. The designers of machine olfaction devices take inspiration from the biological olfactory system, because animals effortlessly accomplish some of the unsolved problems in machine olfaction. In a remarkable example of an olfactory guided behavior, male moths navigate over large distances in order to locate calling females by detecting pheromone signals both rapidly and robustly. The biomimetic chemical sensing aims to identify the key blocks in the olfactory pathways at all levels from the olfactory receptors to the central nervous system, and simulate to some extent the operation of these blocks, that would allow to approach the sensing performance known in biological olfactory system of animals. New technical requirements arise to the hardware and software equipment used in such machine olfaction experiments. This work explores the bioinspired approach to machine olfaction in depth on the technological side. At the hardware level, the embedded computer is assembled, being the core part of the experimental set up. The embedded computer is interfaced with two main biomimetic modules designed by the collaborators: a large-scale sensor array for emulation of the population of the olfactory receptors, and a mobile robotic platform for autonomous experiments for guiding olfactory behaviour. At the software level, the software development kit is designed to host the neuromorphic models of the collaborators for processing the sensory inputs as in the olfactory pathway. Virtualization of the set up was one of the key engineering solutions in the development. Being a device, the set up is transformed to a virtual system for running data simulations, where the software environment is essentially the same, and the real sensors are replaced by the virtual sensors coming from especially designed data simulation tool. The proposed abstraction of the set up results in an ecosystem containing both the models of the olfactory system and the virtual array. This ecosystem can loaded from the developed system image on any personal computer. In addition to the engineering products released in the course of thesis, the scientific results have been published in three journal articles, two book chapters and conference proceedings. The main results on validation of the set up under the scenario of robotic odour localization are reported in the book chapters. The series of three journal articles covers the work on the data simulation tool for machine olfaction: the novel model of drift, the models to simulate the sensor array data based on the reference data set, and the parametrized simulated data and benchmarks proposed for the first time in machine olfaction. This thesis ends up with a solid foundation for the research in biomimetic simulations and algorithms on machine olfaction. The results achieved in the thesis are expected to give rise to new bioinspired applications in machine olfaction, which could have a significant impact in the biomedical engineering research area.<br>Esta tesis se enmarca en el campo de bioingeneria, mas particularmente en la configuración de un sistema experimental de sensores de gases químicos. Quizás más que en cualquier otra modalidad de sensores, los sensores químicos representan un conjunto de retos técnicos y conceptuales ya que deben lidiar con problemas como su baja especificidad, su respuesta temporal lenta, su inestabilidad a largo plazo, su alto consumo enérgético, su portabilidad, así como la necesidad de un sistema de datos y código robusto. En la última década, se ha observado una clara tendencia por parte de los sistemas de machine olfaction hacia la imitación del sistema de olfato biológico de insectos y mamíferos. Los diseñadores de estos sistemas se inspiran del sistema olfativo biológico, ya que los animales cumplen, sin apenas esfuerzo, algunos de los escenarios no resueltos en machine olfaction. Por ejemplo, las polillas machos recorren largas distancias para localizar las polillas hembra, detectando sus feromonas de forma rápida y robusta. La detección biomimética de gases químicos tiene como objetivo identificar los elementos fundamentales de la vía olfativa a todos los niveles, desde los receptores olfativos hasta el sistema nervioso central, y simular, en cierta medida, el funcionamiento de estos bloques, lo que permitiría acercar el rendimiento de la detección al rendimiento de los sistemas olfativos conociodos de los animales. Esto conlleva nuevos requisitos técnicos a nivel de equipamiento tanto hardware como software utilizado en este tipo de experimentos de machine olfaction. Este trabajo propone un enfoque bioinspirado para la ¿machine olfaction¿, explorando a fondo la parte tecnológica. A nivel hardware, un ordenador embedido se ha ensamblado, siendo ésta la parte más importante de la configuración experimental. Este ordenador integrado está interconectado con dos módulos principales biomiméticos diseñados por los colaboradores: una matriz de sensores a gran escala y una plataforma móvil robotizada para experimentos autónomos. A nivel software, el kit de desarrollo software se ha diseñado para recoger los modelos neuromórficos de los colaboradores para el procesamiento de las entradas sensoriales como en la vía olfativa biológica. La virtualización del sistema fue una de las soluciones ingenieriles clave de su desarrollo. Al ser un dispositivo, el sistema se ha transformado en un sistema virtual para la realización de simulaciones de datos, donde el entorno de software es esencialmente el mismo, y donde los sensores reales se sustituyen por sensores virtuales procedentes de una herramienta de simulación de datos especialmente diseñada. La propuesta de abstracción del sistema resulta en un ecosistema que contiene tanto los modelos del sistema olfativo como la matriz virtual . Este ecosistema se puede cargar en cualquier ordenador personal como una imagen del sistema desarrollado. Además de los productos de ingeniería entregados en esta tesis, los resultados científicos se han publicado en tres artículos en revistas, dos capítulos de libros y los proceedings de dos conferencias internacionales. Los principales resultados en la validación del sistema en el escenario de la localización robótica de olores se presentan en los capítulos del libro. Los tres artículos de revistas abarcan el trabajo en la herramienta de simulación de datos para machine olfaction: el novedoso modelo de drift, los modelos para simular la matriz de sensores basado en el conjunto de datos de referencia, y la parametrización de los datos simulados y los benchmarks propuestos por primera vez en machine olfaction. Esta tesis ofrece una base sólida para la investigación en simulaciones biomiméticas y en algoritmos en machine olfaction. Los resultados obtenidos en la tesis pretenden dar lugar a nuevas aplicaciones bioinspiradas en machine olfaction, lo que podría tener un significativo impacto en el área de investigación en ingeniería biomédica

ITC/USA 2014 Conference Proceedings / The Fiftieth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 20-23, 2014 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, CA<br>Many systems in use today to generate the set up information for Data Acquisition Units (DAUs) and for Telemetry Ground Stations are tailored around the requirements for a particular set of supplier's hardware. This makes adding support for a new supplier a costly operation. An attempt is under way to enable development of a system that could be used to set up a DAU and a Telemetry Ground Station with equipment from the currently existing suppliers as well as future suppliers. The goal is to reduce the impact of adding a different supplier's hardware into a system. As the first step in this process it was necessary to agree upon a Concept of Operations that could meet the needs of multiple companies. Once the Concept of Operations was developed then the standards necessary to enable the development of this type of a system could be considered. This paper discusses the Concept of Operations that was developed and the rationale behind the decisions that were made.

Infrastructure is a common word used to express the basic equipment and structures that are needed e.g.  for a country or organisation to function properly. The same concept applies in the field of computer science, without infrastructure one would have problems operating software at scale. Provisioning and maintaining infrastructure through manual labour is a common occurrence in the "iron age" of IT. As the world is progressing towards the "cloud age" of IT, systems are decoupled from physical hardware enabling anyone who is software savvy to automate provisioning and maintenance of infrastructure. This study aims to determine how a generic environment can be created for applications that can run on Unix platforms and how that underlying infrastructure can be provisioned effectively. The results show that by utilising OS-level virtualisation, also known as "containers", one can deploy and serve any application that can use the Linux kernel in the sense that is needed. To further support realising the generic environment, hardware virtualisation was applied to provide the infrastructure needed to be able to use containers. This was done by provisioning a set of virtual machines on different cloud providers with a lightweight operating system that could support the container runtime needed. To manage these containers at scale a container orchestration tool was installed onto the cluster of virtual machines. To provision the said environment in an effective manner, the principles of infrastructure as code (IaC) were used to create a “blueprint" of the infrastructure that was desired. By using the metric mean time to environment (MTTE) it was noted that a cluster of virtual machines with a container orchestration tool installed onto it could be provisioned under 10 minutes for four different cloud providers.

Thesis (M. S.)--Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009.<br>Committee Chair: Thadhani, Naresh; Committee Member: Das, Suman; Committee Member: Fajardo, Mario; Committee Member: Zhou, Min.

Well stimulation techniques are applied on a regular basis to enhance productivity and maximize recovery in oil and gas wells. Among these techniques, matrix acidizing is probably the most widely performed job because of its relative low cost, compared to hydraulic fracturing, and suitability to both generate extra production capacity and to restore original productivity in damaged wells. The acidizing process leads to increased economic reserves, improving the ultimate recovery in both sandstone and carbonate reservoirs. Matrix acidizing consists of injecting an acid solution into the formation, at a pressure below the fracture pressure to dissolve some of the minerals present in the rock with the primary objective of removing damage near the wellbore, hence restoring the natural permeability and greatly improving well productivity. Reservoir heterogeneity plays a significant role in the success of acidizing treatments because of its influence on damage removal mechanisms, and is strongly related to dissolution pattern of the matrix. The standard acid treatments are HCl mixtures to dissolve carbonate minerals and HCl- HF formulations to attack those plugging minerals, mainly silicates (clays and feldspars). A matrix acidizing apparatus for conducting linear core flooding was built and the operational procedure for safe, easy, and comprehensive use of the equipment was detailed. It was capable of reproducing different conditions regarding flow rate, pressure, and temperature. Extensive preliminary experiments were carried out on core samples of both Berea sandstone and Cream Chalk carbonate to evaluate the effect of rock heterogeneities and treatment conditions on acidizing mechanisms. The results obtained from the experiments showed that the temperature activates the reaction rate of HF-HCl acid mixtures in sandstone acidizing. The use of higher concentrations of HF, particularly at high temperatures, may cause deconsolidation of the matrix adversely affecting the final stimulation results. It was also seen that the higher the flow rate the better the permeability response, until certain optimal flow rates are reached which appears to be 30 ml/min for Berea sandstone. Highly permeable and macroscopic channels were created when acidizing limestone cores with HCl 15%. In carbonate rocks, there is an optimum acid injection rate at which the dominant wormhole system is formed.

In practice, the radiation efficiency of antennas is often measured by the anechoic chambers. For this method, it takes plenty time and cost. In order to bring down the measurement costs, another alternative method was proposed and published by H.A. Wheeler in 1959. The Wheeler Cap method can measure the radiation efficiency of the antenna quickly and easily during the design and development stage. It has the many benefits, such as simple construction, easy and fast to implement, lower cost and accurate enough compared to other methods. Moreover, it is a reliable and extensively used method for measuring the antenna’s radiation efficiency. The basic concept about Wheeler’s method is to use the "radiansphere" which is the boundary between the near field and the far field of any small antenna to measure the radiation efficiency of antenna under test. The radiation efficiency is obtained by performing measurement in two steps i.e. measuring the antenna under test (AUT) without and with conducting radiation metal shield. The main objective of this thesis work is to design and construct a Wheeler cap test set-up. This thesis is performed to study a modified Wheeler cap method which is based on constant power loss principle and according to this principle the loss resistance of AUT remains constant whether the Wheeler cap is placed or removed, it means the AUT has zero or finite radiation resistance. Thus, the radiation efficiency can be measured using the return loss magnitude with or without Wheeler cap. The equivalent RLC circuits of AUT in the free space and with a Wheeler cap have been theoretically reviewed and analyzed. At the same time, the mathematical expressions of radiation efficiency were presented in terms of return loss using equivalent RLC circuits. In this thesis, four types of antenna have been selected to find their radiation efficiency by the Wheeler cap method using HFSS software. To compare the simulation and measurement results of radiation efficiency, lossless wire monopole antenna and lossy loop antenna are simulated, fabricated and measured. It is found that the measurement results correlates with the simulation results.

Technical advances in the past decade have enabled the development of very fast but expensive component placement machines for the production of Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs). However, when these fast machines have to assemble small volumes of many different types of circuit boards, the machine set-up time becomes much more important than the assembly rate of each board. In order to minimize this set up time, we must try to solve the set-up/sequencing decision problem according to either the MCS (Minimizing Component Switches) or MSI (Minimizing Switching Instants) performance criterion, or both. We examine the set-up/sequencing decision problem for a single machine (work cell) which has high mix low volume production schedules. We compare and improve methods which attempt to solve this problem, and we develop our own heuristics for solving this problem when both performance criteria are of great importance. We use lower bounds to determine how good our results are, and we discuss how to adapt methods which we have looked at to different manufacturing environments.

In case a tumour grows in a tissue close to the lymphatic system, biopsies of the first draining lymph nodes connected to the tumour, also known as sentinel lymph nodes, allow determining if the cancer has already metastasized. Lymph node mapping is used in oncology surgery to find the patients lymph nodes connected to the tumour. The fluorescence marker indocyanine green (ICG) has shown successful results to trace the lymph nodes and arise to replace the currently used radioactive tracers. Because the ICG fluorescence is in the near infrared region and not visible to the human eye, imaging systems are used to visualise the fluorescence. A preliminary spectroscopy measurement system was developed at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Linköping University. The aim of this thesis was to develop a combined spectroscopy and imaging set-up for simultaneous recordings of ICG fluorescence and suggest further developments. The combined system consisted of a fibre-optical based spectroscopy system together with a camera imaging system. An optical phantom that mimicked breast tissue (μs = 4.66 mm-1) was developed for the measurements. Phantoms with different ICG concentrations of 6.45 μM, 64.5 μM and 645 μM simulated different concentrations of fluorescence dye in the lymph system. The set-up and the settings of the devices were adjusted to enable simultaneous measurements with both systems. The phantoms were solidified with agar to measure the fluorescence decay (photobleaching) of ICG. To simulate a lymph node deep in the tissue, a tube containing pure ICG was covered with different layer thicknesses of breast tissue-like phantom. Measurements at the same time with both systems were possible when the probe was positioned in an 80 degree angle with 5 mm distance relative to the phantom surface and the camera in 10 cm distance with a 30 degree angle. To visualise the ICG fluorescence emission with the excitation light (4 mW) and an integration time of 600 ms was necessary for the camera. Higher laser power caused saturation in the spectrometer. The spectroscopy measurements and camera images showed maximum fluorescence intensity at an optimal ICG concentration (10-16 μM) in the phantom. Also the photobleaching measurements showed to be dependent on the ICG concentration and associated with the optimal concentration. ICG concentrations equal and lower than the optimal concentration decayed with exposure to the excitation light. The fluorescence intensity of higher concentrations initially increased and decayed after reaching a maximum intensity when exposed to the excitation light. The detection depth in the simulated tissue was limited to 0.3 mm for spectroscopy. A detection depth of 2 mm was achieved with the camera while using the maximum excitation power of 50 mW and integration time of 700 ms. Simultaneous measurements were possible with the set-up on the same phantom. An optimal concentration of ICG was found for the developed phantom. The ICG fluorescence intensity was concentration dependent and showed a relatively slow photobleaching. The fibre-optical based spectroscopy system was able to measure low ICG emissions. Subtracting the background spectrum of surrounding tissue might increase the detection of weak ICG signals in depth. High excitation power and an increased integration time were needed to record ICG fluorescence emission with the camera. The obtained results allowed suggestions for the further improvement of set-up and its intraoperative use.

Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) is the most common malignant brain tumor in adults, displaying fast growth, vascular proliferation, diffuse infiltrative nature into the brain parenchyma and necrosis areas. Despite optimal multimodal therapeutical treatment including surgical resection followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy, the prognosis of patients remains still dismal, with a median survival of 14 months. One hypothesis seems to be related to the existence in the brain of the Cancer Stem Cells (CSCs). These cells are so-called Glioma Stem Cells (GSCs) and are described as a sub population of undifferentiated tumor-cells with stem-like properties, self-renewal, multi-lineage differentiation ability, maintained proliferation and highly tumorigenic potential in immune-deficient mice. GSCs seem to be play a key role in GBM initiation and progression, contributing to chemotherapy and radiotherapy resistance and tumor recurrence. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop novel therapeutic approaches, to selectively target GSCs. In this study, we focus on two different therapeutical approaches: - the use of Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) as delivery vehicles for brain tumor therapy, exploiting their inherent tumor-tropism probably related to the effect of cytokines and chemokines, secreted by infiltrated tissues. - Virotherapy, employing the R3616 as neuroattenuated Herpes Simplex Virus type1. R3616 is a HSV1 mutant deleted for both copies of the gene γ34.5, important for viral replication and neurovirulence. The effect of these deletions inhibits autophagy, blocks virus-induced host protein shutoff, and attenuate virus replication in GSCs, minimizing neurotoxicity. GSCs employed for this study have been isolated from GBM specimens obtained during surgical procedures of tumor removal and cultured in adhesion under normoxic and hypoxic conditions or in suspension as neurospheres under normoxic conditions. Neuropheres were phenotypically characterized for some of stemness markers, such as CD133, Nestin, Sox2 and CD44. In order to choose the best cell candidate for cell delivery experiments, we investigated between hMSCs isolated from human bone marrow of healthy donors (BM-MSCs) and glioma patients adipose tissue (AT-MSCs) obtained during GBM surgical resection. hMSCs from both sources were phenotypically characterized and cultured under hypoxic and normoxic conditions in order to mimic the peculiar and heterogeneous GBM microenvironment towards cells would be further delivered. The BM-MSCs retained: a.) faster growth, b.) a greater in vitro multilineage differentiative potential and c.) increased migratory ability than AT-MSCs, especially in hypoxic conditions; thus suggesting to be the most suitable vehicles for our future analyses. Moreover, we evaluated BM-MSCs tropism to GBM derived cells modulated by oxygen levels or by the presence and absence of soluble factors shown to be able to stimulate astro-glial and neuronal differentiation, such as BMP2 and WNT3a respectively. Indeed, BMPs are members of the Transforming Growth Factor-β (TGF-β) Superfamily shown to stimulate both proliferation and mitotic arrest, to promote astro-glial differentiation reducing cell growth and increasing portion of GFAP+ cells. Wnt3a ligand mediates neuronal differentiation and proliferation inhibition of GBM cells and this phenomenon is enhanced under hypoxic conditions. hMSCs tropism was assessed both when primary GBM –derived cells were pre-treated alternatively with BMP2 or WNT3a and when such factors were delivered towards GBM cells. Our data demonstrated pro-differentiating molecules as enhancing agents of hMSCs migratory properties, especially in hypoxia. Experiments involving viruses were performed both on HSV1 wild type and R3616 to test the ability to replicate in and to kill GSCs. As expected for a neuroattenuated virus, R3616 replication in GSCs was widely impaired and the killing ability were decreased compared to the wild type. Both viruses were also employed to test their replication capacity and cytotoxicity in BM-MSCs. Compared to HSV1 wild type, R3616 retained impaired replication efficiency and attenuated killing ability in hMSCs. BM-MSCs inherent tropism was also investigated in GSCs infected with HSV1 wild type or R3616. Interestingly, we found that GSCs R3616 infected significantly increased the migratory properties of BM-MSCs. In conclusion, these findings support the use of BM-MSCs as a promising cell vehicle candidate for tumor-specific delivery and open the way to the development of engineered BMPs-expressing MSCs to further assays in GBM -derived cells. Additionally, the R3616 ability to kill GSCs encourages next efforts to combine both methods to obtain an efficient strategy to selectively target GSCs. Our preliminary data have already demonstrated that co-treatment of R3616 and BMP2 increases the differentiation markers expression. Accordingly, BM-MSCs retained a preferential inherent homing towards more differentiated cells.<br>Il Gliobalstoma multiforme (GBM) è il più comune e maligno dei tumori cerebrali nell’adulto, caratterizzato da una rapida crescita, proliferazione vascolare e diffusa infiltrazione nel parenchima cerebrale. Nonostante negli ultimi anni siano stati fatti notevoli progressi terapeutici che includono la rimozione chirurgica della massa, seguita da radioterapia e chemioterapia, la prognosi ancora oggi permane particolarmente infausta con una sopravvivenza media di circa 14 mesi dalla diagnosi. Ciò pare sia associato anche all’esistenza nel cervello di una popolazione di cellule definita “Cancer Stem Cells” (CSCs). Tali cellule vengono definite Glioma Stem Cells (GSCs) e, al pari delle normali cellule neuronali staminali, sono caratterizzate da capacità di auto-rinnovamento, sono multipotenti, nonché tumorigeniche in vivo. Inoltre, le GSCs sembrano svolgere un ruolo importante nell’insorgenza e la progressione del GBM, contribuendo appunto alla resistenza alla chemioterapia e alla radioterapia, oltre ad essere responsabili delle recidive di tale tumore. A fronte di tutto ciò, si rende quindi necessario più che mai lo sviluppo di nuove strategie terapeutiche che siano particolarmente selettive e mirate a colpire la popolazione delle GSCs. In questo lavoro di tesi, abbiamo posto la nostra attenzione in particolare a due strategie: - L’uso delle Cellule Staminali Mesenchimali (MSCs) come sistemi di delivery cellulari per composti attivi contro i tumori cerebrali sfruttando il loro intrinseco tropismo per il letto tumorale per effetto di citochine e chemochine rilasciate dai tessuti infiltrati. - L’utilizzo di un virus oncolitico di tipo herpetico, R3616, ingegnerizzato per colpire selettivamente le cellule tumorali e non causare neurovirulenza, essendo stato deleto dei geni γ34.5 responsabili dell’insorgenza di encefalite. L’effetto di queste delezioni inoltre comporta inibita autofagia e attenuata replicazione anche nelle stesse GSCs. Le GSCs utilizzate per i nostri esperimenti sono state derivate da biopsie di pazienti affetti da GBM e coltivate in adesione al 21% che al 2% di O2 o in sospensione al 21% di O2 come neurosfere secondo i parametri previsti da protocolli accettati in letteratura. Le cellule cresciute come neurosfere sono state caratterizzate fenotipicamente con alcuni dei più comuni marcatori di staminalità, tra cui il CD133, la Nestina, Sox2 e il CD44. Per gli esperimenti di delivery cellulari sono state inizialmente valutate le hMSCs isolate dai campioni di midollo osseo derivanti da donatori sani (BM-MSCs) e da tessuto adiposo (AT-MSCs) cerebrale prelevato durante l’intervento di rimozione chirurgica di GBM dello stesso paziente. Le MSCs appartenenti ad entrambe le fonti sono state immuno-fenotipicamente caratterizzate e coltivate in ipossia e in normossia al fine di valutarne la capacità e l’efficienza di crescita ricreando il tipico microambiente del GBM verso cui poi le cellule dovrebbero essere fatte migrare. Saggi a.) di crescita, b.) di differenziamento in vitro e c.) di migrazione hanno evidenziato come le BM-MSCs migrino in maniera più efficiente e selettiva delle AT-MSCs verso le cellule tumorali, specie in condizioni ipossiche. Pertanto, le BM-MSCs sono state scelte come modello di delivery cellulare per proseguire i nostri esperimenti. Inoltre abbiamo visto come questa migrazione avvenga anche verso cellule tumorali pre-trattate con fattori morfogeni ad effetto pro-differenziativo nei gliomi, quali BMP2 e WNT3a. Le BMPs sono membri della Famiglia del Transforming Growth Factor-β (TGF-β), e sono in grado a livello cerebrale di portare ad arresto del flusso mitotico, blocco della proliferazione cellulare e ad un’azione di differenziamento in senso gliale aumentando la percentuale di cellule a fenotipo GFAP+. Il Wnt3a è noto essere invece un ligando in grado di promuovere il differenziamento in senso neuronale e inibire la proliferazione cellulare, specie in ipossia. Per gli esperimenti di Virotherapy si è innanzitutto valutata la capacità di replicazione e di morte cellulare del virus deleto R3616 paragonandola all’ efficienza dell’HSV1 wild type nelle GSCs. R3616 ha dimostrato un’efficienza di replicazione e di uccisione attenuata rispetto all’HSV1 wild type. Entrambi i virus sono stati poi testati per valutare la capacità di replicazione e di killing nelle BM-MSCs. Rispetto all’ HSV1 wild type, R3616 ha riportato una minore citotossicità e compromessa capacità di replicazione. L’efficienza di migrazione delle BM-MSCs è stata poi valutata in GSCs infettate sia con HSV1 wt, sia con R3616. In entrambi i casi è trovato un aumentato tropismo delle BM-MSCs, specie quando le GSCs erano state infettate con R3616. In conclusione in questo lavoro, proponiamo l’utilizzo di cellule staminali mesenchimali come veicolo per trattare il Glioblastoma con molecole fisiologiche ad azione pro-differenziativa così da aumentarne la risposta agli attuali trattamenti chemioterapici. Inoltre, l’aumentata efficienza di migrazione insieme alla capacità di uccisione selettiva delle GSCs riscontrata nell’utilizzo di R3616, incoraggiano a un trattamento di combinazione dei due possibili approcci. Risultati preliminari hanno già evidenziato come GSCs infettate con R3616 e trattate con BMP2 siano in grado di aumentare l’espressione dei canonici marcatori di differenziamento cellulare e ciò incoraggia a valutare se tale effetto possa stimolare ulteriormente l’efficienza e aumentare la selettività di migrazione delle BM-MSCs.

The use of biotechnology in avian field has been increased in the last decade especially on the track of the complete sequencing of chicken genome and on the global threat of avian flu pandemic which alerted the scientific community worldwide. Nevertheless, it is still on the whole a minor and spotty approach in avian field. Matter-of-factly, birds can be roughly divided into two groups on a research point of view: poultry and non-poultry (companion and wild birds). The economic impact of the latter is usually scarce if compared to the former and to other veterinary and human contexts. Thus, routine use of laboratory diagnostic tools including biotechnological methods is usually limited to the more expensive psittacines species (i.e. DNA-based determination of sex, diagnosis of chlamydiosis etc.) or to endangered species. As for poultry, extensive use of biotechnology is performed in vaccine research and genetic selection with a secondary role in avian and comparative pathology. Besides, chicken has historically assumed the role of avian model. Consequently, birds are often considered an uniform class but they are not, and a deep knowledge of the huge diversity which can exist among the several avian species is fundamental to correctly approach and interpret avian research no matter using biotechnology or not. For all these reasons it seemed an unique occasion to match the documented experience and activity in avian field (acquired during a previous doctorate) to biotechnological methods as the subject of this doctoral thesis. After a brief introduction revising fundamental principles of the molecular methods used, this thesis is divided into two parts. The first is focused on avian immunity and in particular on the TIR8-SIGIRR receptor which has been thoroughly investigate in chickens as a model for avian species and with an importance in itself as an ubiquitously diffused food production animal. The second part is made up of some diagnostic challenges arisen during the routine diagnostic activity of the Section of Avian Pathology of the Department of Veterinary Science and Public Health.

This thesis explores the use of statistically valid process improvement tools in low-volume applications. Setting out the following research questions: How can the Six Sigma Measure and Analyse phases of a chronic quality problem be statistically validated in a low-volume process? How can a statistically valid approach for process control be implemented in a low-volume process? And how can this tool be extended to fit multivariate processes and can the calculation of control parameter adjustments be automated? In answer, the thesis presents an enhanced PROcess VAriation Diagnosis Tool (PROVADT) method, driving a Six Sigma improvement project through the Measure and Analyse phases. PROVADT provides a structured sampling plan to perform a Multi-Vari study, Isoplot, Gage R&R and Provisional Process Capability in as few as twenty samples and eighty measurements, making the technique suited to low-volume applications. The enhanced PROVADT method provides a Gage R&R without confounded variation sources, as was the case in the original method, and its practical application was demonstrated through two case studies. Process control tools for low-volume, high-variety manufacturing applications were developed. An adjustable traffic-light chart, with control limits linked to tolerance and simple decision rules, was used for monitoring univariate processes. This tool, the Set-Up Process Algorithm (SUPA), uses probability theory to provide 98% confidence that the process is operating at a pre-specified minimum level of Cp in as few as five samples. SUPA was extended to deal with high-complexity applications, resulting in multivariate SUPA (mSUPA). mSUPA maintains SUPA’s principles, but presents the information about multiple process features on one chart, rather than multiple univariate charts. To supplement the mSUPA tool, a theoretical method for calculating optimal process adjustment when a multivariate process is off-target was introduced, combining discrete-event simulation and numerical optimisation to calculate adjustments.

Nella presente tesi è stato sviluppato un sistema di acquisizione automatico finalizzato allo studio del breast microwave imaging. Le misure sono state eseguite in configurazione monostatica, in cui viene acquisito un segnale da diverse posizioni lungo il perimetro dell’area di indagine. A questo scopo, è stato installato un motore ad alta precisione che permette la rotazione del fantoccio e l’esecuzione automatica delle misure da un numero di posizioni fissato. Per automatizzare il processo di acquisizione, è stato inoltre sviluppato appositamente un software in ambiente LabView. Successivamente, è stata eseguita una intensa sessione di misure finalizzate alla caratterizzazione del sistema sviluppato al variare delle condizioni di misura. Abbiamo quindi utilizzato dei fantocci di tumore di diverse dimensioni e permittività elettrica per studiare la sensibilità della strumentazione in condizione di mezzo omogeneo. Dall’analisi delle ricostruzioni multifrequenza effettuate tramite diversi algoritmi di tipo TR-MUSIC sul range di frequenze selezionato, abbiamo notato che il tumore è ricostruito correttamente in tutti gli scenari testati. Inoltre, abbiamo creato un ulteriore fantoccio per simulare la presenza di una disomogeneità nel dominio di imaging. In questo caso, abbiamo studiato le performances del sistema di acquisizione al variare della posizione del tumore, le cui caratteristiche sono state fissate, e della permittività associata al fantoccio. Dall’analisi dei risultati appare che le performances di ricostruzione sono condizionate dalla presenza della disomogeneità, in modo particolare se il tumore è posizionato all’interno di essa. Infine, abbiamo studiato delle performance di due algoritmi di ricostruzione 3D: uno di essi è basato sulla sovrappo- sizione tomografica e sfrutta metodi di interpolazione, l’altro si basa sull’utilizzo di un propagatore 3D per il dipolo Hertziano in approssimazione scalare.

The accelerated development of industry in many countries has led to a significant rise of the use of pipelines in the transportation of chemicals in recent years. These pipelines may lay over hundreds of kilometers, a hallway is usually constructed and it is often used for more than one pipe. The relatively small space between the pipes in the same hallway involves a certain risk associated to the potential interaction between the pipelines. Since in many cases the transported fluids are flammable, an accidental loss of containment could lead to an accident with severe consequences on people, equipment and environment. A particular type of accidental scenarios, called domino effect, can multiply the scale of an accident and the gravity of its consequences. The most severe scenarios that can occur is the development of a jet fire, in this situation the thermal flux reaching another pipe is very high and it can damage the secondary target enlarging the scale of the accident and this scenario has not been sufficiently analyzed yet. For this purpose, a laboratory experimental set-up was designed to obtain data concerning propane jet fires impinging on a pipe conveying a gas or a liquid in order to quantify the thermal response of a “secondary” object in the different possible situations. The aim of this thesis is to design a system to obtain and collect data from these different devices in order to give information on the conditions under which the pipe is subjected in case of a fire. Initially, a data acquisition system was designed according to previous studies considering the available instrumentation and space of the experimental site. Subsequently, preliminary tests were performed to characterize the jet fire condition, to identify the best position for the equipment, to adjust the instrumentation and to test the operation of the all system elements. Based on these results, a set-up of the data acquisition system was assembled.

The stringent demands for accuracy in radiosurgery impinge on all aspects of the radiosurgical procedure. A computer program, used to determine target coordinates from planar stereotactic image pairs, has been developed. Digital subtraction angiography images, obtained with a localizer attachment affixed to the stereotactic frame, are analyzed with the program for the localization of certain malformations. During treatment set-up verification, the center of the radiation distribution is determined using portal linear accelerator images of the collimated radiosurgery beam, with the patient in the final treatment position and without removal of the radiosurgical collimator. A custom portal localizer attachment has been developed in-house for this purpose. Localization results obtained with a test phantom show a maximum deviation of 0.4 mm from the known target locations. The program has also been shown to be effective in detecting a misalignment between a localized target and the treatment radiation center during set-up verification.

The ability to locate people and objects is a primary issue in daily life, and a new context of spatially aware applications has developed, ranging from security and protection services, to assisted navigation of hospitals, from industrial automation to virtual reality. In this framework, the problem of positioning represents the first step to be taken within the wider process of localization. This Thesis addresses the problem of positioning in anchor-based systems. Short and mid range scenarios were addressed, in which methodologies were proposed for the design of the systems and set-ups developed for their use in different applications. In detail, simulation tools have been proposed, and are still being improved, which allow to obtain useful information on the design of positioning systems; this represents an original contribution of the Thesis with respect to the current state of the art. After that, in both contexts, systems based on magnetic elds (short-range) and systems based on Ultra-Wide Band (mid-range) have been used in various industrial and medical applications. Finally, a first preliminary activity aimed at a smart management of the energy consumption of the positioning systems was carried out on Bluetooth Low Energy devices.

A system for visual guidance in patient set-up for external-beam radiotherapy procedures was developed using augmented reality. The system uses video cameras to obtain views of the linear accelerator, and the live images are displayed on a monitor in the treatment room. A 3D model of the patient's external surface, obtained from planning CT data, is superimposed onto the treatment couch in the camera images. The augmented monitor can then be viewed, and alignment performed against the virtual contour. The system provides an intuitive method for set-up guidance, and allows non-rigid deformations to patient pose to be visualised. It also allows changes to patient geometry between treatment fractions to become observable, and can remain in operation throughout the treatment procedure, so that patient motion becomes apparent. Coordinate registration between the camera view and the linac is performed using a cube which is aligned with the linac isocentre using room lasers or cone-beam CT. The AR tracking software detects planar fiducial tracking markers attached to the cube faces, and determines their positions in order to perform pose estimation of the 3D model on-screen. Experimental results with an anthropomorphic phantom in a clinical environment have shown that the system can be used to position a rigid-body with a translational error of 3 mm, and a rotational error of 0.19 degrees, 0.06 degrees and 0.27 degrees, corresponding to pitch, roll and yaw respectively. With further developments to optimise the system accuracy and its interface, it could be made into a valuable tool for radiotherapy clinics. The outcome of the project has been encouraging, and has shown that augmented reality for patient set-up guidance has great potential.

L'Imaging a Risonanza Magnetica (MRI) è una tecnica di imaging ampiamente utilizzata in ambito medico. La ricerca in questo campo si sta focalizzando sullo sviluppo di scanner a campi molto intensi, come lo scanner a 7 T utilizzato in questa tesi. La risoluzione delle immagini e l'entità degli artefatti creati dai movimenti involontari del paziente sono proporzionali all'intensità di campo magnetico e diventano rilevanti ad intensità molto elevate. Le tecniche di Motion Correction, nota la cinetica dei movimenti, permettono di correggere queste distorsioni. La tesi è inserita in un progetto che ha come scopo la misura indiretta dei movimenti della testa durante la scansione MRI. In particolare, mi sono concentrata sui miglioramenti da apportare al set-up e sulla caratterizzazione dei tre strumenti usati per la misura: la telecamera di campo magnetico (Clip on Camera Head, CCH) formata da 16 sonde fissate in una struttura cilindrica posizionata attorno alla testa del paziente; la telecamera ottica (Moiré Phase Tracking System, MPT) che misura i movimenti tramite l'immagine di un marker olografico supportato da un bite tenuto nella bocca del volontario; il dispositivo (Physlog) dello scanner che fornisce i parametri fisiologici (respirazione e battito cardiaco). La comunicazione hardware degli strumenti avviene grazie a un segnale di trigger, di cui ho ottimizzato la sincronizzazione. Inoltre, abbiamo acquisito dataset completi di tre volontari, a diverse condizioni. I dati sono stati sincronizzati e analizzati, tramite analisi multivariate, per caratterizzare la risposta e la stabilità del sistema e la variabilità individuale dei pazienti. L'analisi ha permesso di capire meglio le proprietà dello strumento e ha consentito di associare le misure del campo magnetico al di fuori del cranio ai valori fisiologici dei volontari.

<p>Background and purpose: Aspects such as the character of the organization and the composition of the work force have an impact on the company’s choice of how to reward and evaluate the employee. In large companies with employees from different professions and at different levels problems connected with the evaluation and the compensation of the employee may arise. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how this type of companies evaluate and reward the employees. Further we will look into the problems that may arise connected to the evaluation and the compensation of the employee. </p><p>Results: In the process of evaluation the greatest difference between the employees from different professions and operations can be found in the goals that are set and the measures that measure the fulfilment of the goals. In regard to the evaluation of employees at different levels the greatest differencecan be found in the character of the measures. When rewarding employees companies tend to have a homogeneous policy for employees from all operations and professions. The difference is greater between employees at different levels. As the number of operations and levels of the company increases it gets harder to set goals that are relevant to each operation and individual as an increasing number of aspects related to these operations must be considered. In addition it is difficult to design rewards which are cost efficient and valued by all employees. These difficulties arise as individuals’ preferences are affected by their working environment and as different preferences are created in different operations and at different levels.</p>

During the past 60 years, United States prisons have become one of the primary institutions caring for mentally ill individuals. Factors such as privatization of mental health care with a focus on profit-maximization, ineffective jail diversion programs, and unsuccessful mental health courts have contributed to prisons having an increased population of mentally ill inmates. In fact, about 20% of people who are currently incarcerated suffer from a major mental illness (Mason, 2007). Other elements outside of the justice system such as a lack of mental health awareness and a lack of resources have led to damaging interactions between the mentally ill and law enforcement and have added to this growing rate of mentally ill incarcerated. Given the harsh realities of prison, this overrepresentation of those suffering from mental illness is even more concerning and is worsened by aspects of prisons such as solitary confinement. This issue coupled with the lack of appropriate mental health care services being provided and the lack of support after release has led those suffering from mental illness to be potentially worse off than when they entered prison. This paper focuses on mental health care in prisons from admittance to post-release and provides evidence for the need to overhaul how those suffering from mental illness are treated. The responsibility of mental health care has been placed on prisons due to the escalation of inmates with mental illness, the failure of programs inside the justice system, and the lack of post-release follow-up. The physical setting, behavioral interactions, and personnel influences in prisons have led to worsening symptoms and have inhibited the ability to effectively treat these inmates. Given 95% of inmates will be released, these issues need to be addressed more comprehensively for the benefit of our society as a whole (Binswanger, Nowels, Corsi, Long, Booth, Jutner, & Steiner, 2011).

Advertisers setting up search engine advertising campaigns for the first time need to place bids on keywords, but typically lack experience and data to determine ranks that maximize a keyword's profit (generally referred to as a cold-start problem). This article aims at solving the problem of bidding on keywords in newly set-up search engine advertising campaigns. We suggest that advertisers collect data from the Google Keyword Planner to obtain precise estimates of the percentage increases in prices per click and clickthrough rates, which are needed to calculate optimal bids (exact approach). Together with the profit contribution per conversion and the conversion rate, the advertiser might then set bids that maximize profit. In case advertisers cannot afford to collect the required data, we suggest two proxy approaches and evaluate their performance using the exact approach as a benchmark. The empirical study shows that both proxy approaches perform reasonably well-the easier approach to implement (proxy 2) sometimes performs even better than the more sophisticated one (proxy 1). As a consequence, advertisers might just use this very simple proxy when bidding on keywords in newly set-up SEA campaigns. This research extends the stream of literature on how to determine optimal bids, which so far focuses on campaigns that are already running and where the required data to calculate bids is already available. This research offers a novel approach of determining bids when advertisers lack the aforementioned information.

This project deals with study, procurement and installation of some vacuum apparatus for performing experiments in vacuum laboratory. This lab was proposed to be used for graduate and post graduate students. Four experimental set ups were designed as a part of this project. It includes pumping speed measurement of diffusion pump, pumping speed measurement of turbomolecular pump, measurement of conductance of different vacuum elements, and calibration of vacuum gauges. As part of project work, vacuum systems and components were studied, bills of materials were prepared, required components were purchased and installation of experimental set up was done. Pumping speed measurements of high vacuum pumps (diffusion pump and turbomolecular pump) was done by constant volume method. For getting more accuracy Vacuum chamber was tested for leak rate using a MSLD (Mass spectrometer leak detector). Conductance of vacuum elements was measured for different piping arrangements by measuring corresponding changes in effective pumping speed of pumps. Conductance was calculated in low vacuum range using rotary vane pump. Calibration of vacuum gauges was done in low vacuum range by using the method of direct comparison with standard gauge.

碩士<br>元智大學<br>機械工程研究所<br>88<br>The quality of steel strip has decisive influence for finish mill in the process of hot strip mill. Therefore, it is very important to keep the mill machine work smoothly. The large reduction ratio or high deformation resistance materials, however, usually cause the rolling force extremely high and consume large rolling power. Consequently, the hydraulic system will be locked and the work-roller driving motor will reach the saturation condition. In order to distribute the rolling force and the rolling power of each stand, the engineering optimization method is adopted in this paper to maintain the process smooth. For the demand of equal distribution of rolling force and rolling power of each stand, the problem becomes to multi-objectives optimization problem which takes the rolling force and the rolling power as objective functions, constrained by mass conversation and finish temperature and solved by using Goal Attainment Method. In the latter part of this paper, two methods using mill parameters to setup the mill machine is discussed. One of them applies rolling force ratio and mass conversation and the other applies rolling power correction, finish temperature, and mass conversation to setup the mill machine. The regulation of rolling force is the main task for rolling force ratio method, but, the rolling power distribution can not have good results. Similarly, the rolling power correction method which corrects the rolling power demand can not regulate the rolling force effectively. The optimization setup method, however, can choose rolling force or power as the objective function of distribution, and dodge the operation limit of regulator. The optimization setup method, therefore, is better than the former discussed ones and has been proved to be valid in this paper.

by Shum Kam Hong.<br>Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1992.<br>Includes bibliographical references (leaves 125-131).<br>Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1<br>Chapter 1.1 --- Background --- p.1<br>Chapter 1.2 --- Outline of the thesis --- p.6<br>Chapter 1.3 --- Current Art in Packet Switching --- p.9<br>Chapter 2 --- Management of Control Information --- p.17<br>Chapter 2.1 --- Inter-node Exchange of Link Congestion Status --- p.21<br>Chapter 2.2 --- Consistency of Control Information --- p.24<br>Chapter 2.3 --- Alternate Format of Control Information --- p.26<br>Chapter 3 --- Traffic Flow Control --- p.29<br>Chapter 3.1 --- Control of Traffic Influx into the Network --- p.29<br>Chapter 3.2 --- Control of Traffic Loading from the Node --- p.30<br>Chapter 3.3 --- Flow Control for Connection Oriented Traffic --- p.32<br>Chapter 3.4 --- Judgement of Link Status --- p.38<br>Chapter 3.5 --- Starvation-free and Deadlock-free --- p.42<br>Chapter 4 --- Call Set-up Algorithm Traffic Modelling --- p.47<br>Chapter 4.1 --- Basic Algorithm --- p.47<br>Chapter 4.2 --- Minimization of Bandwidth Overhead --- p.48<br>Chapter 4.3 --- Two-way Transmission --- p.51<br>Chapter 4.4 --- Traffic Modelling --- p.52<br>Chapter 4.4.1 --- Aggregate Traffic Models --- p.53<br>Chapter 4.4.2 --- Traffic Burstiness --- p.57<br>Chapter 5 --- Parameters Tuning and Analysis --- p.76<br>Chapter 5.1 --- Scheme I : Scout Pumping --- p.76<br>Chapter 5.2 --- Scheme II : Speed-up Scout Pumping --- p.85<br>Chapter 5.3 --- Blocking Probability --- p.90<br>Chapter 5.4 --- Scout Stream Collision --- p.92<br>Chapter 6 --- Simulation Modelling & Performance Evaluation --- p.96<br>Chapter 6.1 --- The Network Simulator --- p.96<br>Chapter 6.1.1 --- Simulation Event Scheduling --- p.97<br>Chapter 6.1.2 --- Input Traffic Regulation --- p.100<br>Chapter 6.1.3 --- Actual Offered Load --- p.101<br>Chapter 6.1.4 --- Static and Dynamic Parameters --- p.103<br>Chapter 6.2 --- Simulation Results --- p.107<br>Chapter 7 --- Conclusions --- p.123<br>Chapter A --- List of Symbols --- p.132

碩士<br>東吳大學<br>國際經營與貿易學系<br>103<br>According to the Global Spa (2010) survey, the sales of the global SPA & Wellness industry reached USD2 trillion, with the global revenue estimated to reach USD7,720 million in 2015. Such figure shows the SPA & Wellness industry is not a niche market anymore, and consumers place more and more importance on health and beauty. The researcher reviews the industry’s development history of two decades, which has transformed from the traditional sauna to the current trend that combines different industries such as SPA & Wellness, medical beauty and fitness industry. Some still keep the original operation patterns, while some are transforming to satisfy consumer demands with a complete range of services. In view of this, the study sets the expansion and operations management of the SPA & Wellness industry as the study objectives. The study adopts the quantitative study method. The researcher has served as a SPA therapist, business manager and educational director in this industry while assisting the owner in completing business expansion. With an in-depth review of the past two decades of the industry, the researcher collects the related literature data, market survey data, international online data and information collected at home and abroad to conduct a comprehensive research and analysis for the SPA & Wellness industry. With the changes and transformations that occurred in the industry, it is necessary for enterprises to possess market competitiveness. However, how should the enterprises cope with the various development trends, manage the operations and expand the business? We believe the enterprises should construct a complete operations management model, organizational architecture, performance management, related resource management, and other quality management systems, for constant improvement and business enhancement. During the said development process, the enterprises should also draw lessons from their experiences and share such insights, so as to reduce mistakes and development obstacles for future expansion. Moreover, efficient management should be realized so as to achieve customer satisfaction and establish a competitive operations model. During the research period, the researcher finds that the operation management and quality management data related to the SPA & Wellness industry are so rare. In order to perform well in this era of global competition, the enterprises should enhance their market competitiveness. Thus, the study aims to build a standard operating system for the SPA & Wellness industry, which can be a reference used by related enterprises. By maintaining and innovating the said business model, it can guarantee the provision of consistent service quality, improve customer satisfaction and help the companies achieve their long-term goals.

碩士<br>國立中山大學<br>劇場藝術學系碩士班<br>100<br>There are about 1500 wind bands in Taiwan, which are separated in primary, junior high, senior high school, universities and communities etc. In Taiwan, the population who learn the wind instrument are more than one hundred thousand population, however, there are only five professional orchestras, including National Symphony Orchestra, Taipei Symphony Orchestra, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Kaohsiung City Symphony Orchestra and Evergreen Symphony Orchestra, and no a professional wind band. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to understanding the availability and possibility to fund a Professional Wind Band in Taiwan via evaluating the market of musical performing and the status of audience involvement. The study methods contain conducting interviewing the key person of the wind band and designing a survey with the factors of Human Resource, Financial Plan, and Operation Status.

碩士<br>國立交通大學<br>物理研究所<br>106<br>The Ion source is the heart of Accelerator instrument which can convert the gas to the plasma. With high voltage, ion beam is extracted from the plasma and applied to various fields. To test ion source, we set up an experimental station, which includes ion source system, extract system and focus system. During the experiment, ion beam is accelerated by high voltage and collected by the faraday cup, which absorb and show how many current ion beam have. The measured data showed the two major information, the first is whether the current verify space charge limited charge (SPCLC) on different extractor voltage. Second is whether the current increases on focusing voltage. Finally we compare it with ion beam simulation data, and analyze the result.

碩士<br>國立臺北科技大學<br>車輛工程系所<br>95<br>The emissions of engine cause the serious air pollution and damage the environment. Furthermore, the energy crisis influence the fuel of engine in consequence the replace power source of vehicle is needed. The zero emission’s Pure Electric Vehicle (PEV) could solve those problems. However, there still have some technical problems of PEV. The drawbacks of PEV the power source provide the mileages and the performance could not similar to engine vehicle. Therefore, the Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) has engine and motor power. Those two powers could use particularly or together. The HEV could lower the emission of engine, increase the mileages of electric motor and the performance could similar to engine vehicle. In this study use a parallel hybrid power system. The power sources of hybrid power system use a 1.3 liter engine and a motor/generator combines by a power integration mechanism. The Electrical Continuously Variable Transmission helps system operate more efficiently.

Functionally graded materials (FGMs) are advanced composites with graded properties that are novel concepts in the structural design of materials and have extensive applications in the aerospace engineering, aircrafts and automotive industry. FGMs with the continuous variation of microstructures and properties are expected to have the reduction of residual and thermal stresses. In case of metal-ceramic FGMs advancement over heat and corrosion resistance of ceramics and mechanical strength of metals in such applications as thermal or chemical barriers. FGMs can also be designed to take.an improved adhesive bonding strength between metals and ceramics. Multifunctional metal-ceramic structures are suitable for applications where toughness and hardness are two essential requirements for engineering and scientific research applications. The objective of the research paper is to fabricate graded metal-ceramic composites in bulk manufacturing processes for commercial applications. This paper aims at control of the evolution of mechanical properties through the use of a nanoparticle sintering aid and fabrication of graded metal-ceramic composites using pressureless sintering and bulk molding technology. A new sintering aid TiO2 was introduced to control the evolution of mechanical properties of graded Nickel-Alumina composites. The evolution of mechanical properties was then used in a recently developed two-dimensional micro thermo-mechanical analysis to determine the effects of develop gradient architectures. Finally, a laboratory-scale FGM setup is designed based on a powder metallurgy (PM) and Rapid Prototyping (RP) technology to process geometrically complex gradient structures.

碩士<br>國立中山大學<br>海洋環境及工程學系研究所<br>105<br>The calculation of run-up is usually estimated by the offshore maximum wave height. Nevertheless, the higher wave height with the same period result in larger wave steepness. A wave will break earlier by the shoaling effect with larger wave steepness. On the contrary, A wave will break later with smaller wave steepness. Therefore, the major issue of this study is to analysis whether the wave result in larger run-up and set-up with larger wave steepness or not. A computational fluid dynamics software called “FLOW-3D” is used to simulate this study. There are three kinds of slope 1/10, 1/20 and 1/30 used for impermeable bottom. An impermeable embankment is set at the end of the slope. Observe and record related data such as mean water level, run-up, etc. by changing period, wave height and slope. According to the results of FLOW-3D, the ratio of mean water level in front of embankment to incident wave height for smaller breaking depth is larger than larger breaking depth. The most former research indicates that slope is a crucial parameter for wave run-up. Nevertheless, slope effects wave run-up slightly on a gentle slope. Wave run-up displays positive correlation to wave period on a steep slope. On a gentle slope, wave run-up is not related to wave period. The consequences of the comparison between model and experience indicate each experimental equation may show the exacter solution at specific slope. Keywords: wave break, wave set-up, wave run-up, numerical simulation, FLOW-3D

碩士<br>國立清華大學<br>工業工程與工程管理學系<br>93<br>On worldwide supply chain management, Taiwan Enterprises play leading role in manufacturing area, and therefore have to expand the existing organization to anywhere if there is any opportunity. Nevertheless when multi-organization has been set up, only performance can regard as an indicator conducting organization to achieve target. This is the solution that can integrate the limited resources to achieve optimal result. The research contains 4 perspectives of balance scorecard - Financial, Customer, Internal-business process, Learning and growth perspectives to restructure strategy-focus base organization and to set up strategy map. It surely will refer to the special background and environment between China and Taiwan. By interviewing with chief of Taiwan Enterprises, we may understand more about Taiwan method that can achieve the target and can measure the organization performance and problems, and that will finally construct any suggestions and advisements appropriately.

碩士<br>世新大學<br>財務金融學研究所(含碩專班)<br>94<br>These years, it is estimated that ten percent of insurance claim is fraud. Insurance fraud is not simply property fraud since it is sometimes related to homicide case and the others. Fraud does not only cause capital loss of insurance company, but also impacts the stability of financial system, the authority of government, and the society ethics. How the fraud emerges is very complicated, and it is costly to verify the case of it occurs. Therefore, if we can use the verdict existed, and try to find out the impure motive before hand, we might be able to avoid the fraud incentive at the beginning and save more social cost. This research reveals the uncertainty of the explanation process of environment, and this process will affect people’s motive and behavior; in addition, we can find the perception accepted through common practice give wrong information to clients, and which may make the incorrect common knowledge between the insurance company and the client, so the fraud incentive is brought out. Through the analysis of the features of insurance fraud, the author hopes to help the insurance company build a standard procedure, and release that the insurance company known insurance fraud and the information of taken precautions, so that build the effective common knowledge between insurance company and client. There is a big uncertainty existing in whether the motive formed or not. Hence, even though the author tries to conclude that the incorrect common knowledge might cause the motive of insurance fraud, it is impossible to remove the uncertainty of the existence of motive establishment. Consequently, what the author could do are to suggest building a standard control procedure to do management on the uncertainty, to make use of mass media declare correct moral and insurance concepts, so as to build the correct common knowledge between insurance company and client, and anticipate to contribute to fraud prevention.

碩士<br>東吳大學<br>法律學系<br>94<br>Diverse culture is the central value of a modern democratic society. To make sure that students develop their personality independently, creating an educational environment full of diversity is very important. Private schools provide another choice of education in addition to the public, or even the regular, educational system. Thus, the government shall ensure the existence of the private school system and the development in its own right to meet individuals’ different learning needs and to make it possible for each school-founder to advocate his remarkable educational ideals. This article believes that, out of respect for diverse education, the right to establish private schools should be protected by our Constitution, though it is not explicitly stated in it.  The right to establish private schools, to be brief, means the freedom to set up private schools, to run their affairs and the autonomy of the private schools. Since our Constitution does not prescribe the right to set up schools, what is the constitutional basis for the right to establish private schools still awaits further discussion. Besides, the substantial content of this right and its relationship with other relevant fundamental rights also need further elucidation. These issues will be expounded upon in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3.    Regarding the legal position of private schools, the most important opinion shall be Judicial Explanation No. 382. The grand judges hold that private schools are authorized by the government to implement educational authority, and when they enroll students, verify school rolls, reward and punish students, or issue diplomas or graduation certificates, they are in the same legal position as the government organizations. By this interpretation, the private schools would be weakened to be one of the government organizations, and such an opinion may contravene the constitutional safeguarding of the right to set up private schools. Because our grand judges’ former opinion copied a German practical conception of “admitted schools”, this article first introduces the forming of this particular conception in comparison with our practical opinion, and gives some personal comments in the later sections.      According to Article 162 of the R.O.C. Constitution, our government has the authority to supervise educational affairs. This prescription is regarded by some scholars as the constitutional basis for the government to monopolize specific educational power. However, the fact that the government has the supervision authority does not mean that it also has a monopoly of education. Since our Constitution protects people’s rights to set up private schools, there exists a conflict between the government’s supervision authority and people’s fundamental right. How we can strike a balance between these two and what is the essence of the government’s supervision authority will be further discussed in Chapter 5.

碩士<br>大葉大學<br>電機工程學系<br>99<br>We have built an universal dynamometer testing platform that is capable of measuring motor speed, torque, current, voltage, power and efficiency capabilities. It can provide complete motor characteristic reports and verify the actual motor performance. The testing platform consists of seven units, including hysteresis brake(HD-800), hysteresis controller(DSP-6000), power analyzer(WT210/WT230), distribution control box(Terminals and control switches), personal computer (control human-machine interface), interface card(GPIB IEEE 488.2) and cooling system (Air compressor). Hysteresis brake dynamometers (HD 800) are versatile and ideal for testing in the low to middle power range. Hysteresis brakes do not require speed to create torque, and therefore can provide a full motor ramp from free-run to locked rotor; Model DSP-6000 high-speed programmable dynamometer controller employs state-of-the-art digital signal processing technology to provide superior motor testing capabilities. The programmable dynamometer controller and human machine interface software work with dynamometer to help determine the performance characteristics of a motor under test. In the motor test system, data is collected on a PC using human machine interface software, DSP-6000 programmable dynamometer controller, and requisite interface cards and cables. The controller computes and displays mechanical power in addition to torque and speed. Finally, the testing platform had measured five different types of motors. Print out the characteristics data was compared with manufacturer providing specification. The Universal motor dynamometer testing platform has the merit of high accuracy and fast measurement.