Engineering Commons^™

Accessibility Of Health Data Representations For Older Adults: Challenges And Opportunities For Design, Peterson Jean, Emma Murphy, Enda Bates

Books/Book Chapters

Health data of consumer off-the-shelf wearable devices is often conveyed to users through visual data representations and analyses. However, this is not always accessible to people with disabilities or older people due to low vision, cognitive impairments or literacy issues. Due to trade-offs between aesthetics predominance or information overload, real-time user feedback may not be conveyed easily from sensor devices through visual cues like graphs and texts. These difficulties may hinder critical data understanding. Additional auditory and tactile feedback can also provide immediate and accessible cues from these wearable devices, but it is necessary to understand existing data representation limitations …

Zno Varistors – The Ideal Microstructure And Characteristics, And Methods Investigated And Developed To Achieve These, Maura Kelleher

Books/Book Chapters

ZnO-Bi2O3-Sb2O3 varistors have been extensively studied since their discovery 5 decades ago. Their function in protecting increasingly sensitive electronic components by absorbing random surges of energy is even more important today. Also, the metal oxides from which they are made from are becoming even more precious. Their electrical characteristics are highly dependent on their microstructural characteristics which are highly dependent on their composition and methods used. The purpose of this article is to explain the ideal microstructure required to obtain the ideal electrical characteristics, the powder preparation methods investigated and developed to achieve it, and some future directions are outlined.

Análisis Por Confiabilidad Del Modelo De Diseño Aashto 93 Para Pavimentos Flexibles En El Valle De Aburrá, Mario Santiago Hernández, Juan Pablo Osorio, Juan Camilo Viviescas

Books/Book Chapters

La necesidad de construir pavimentos con mejores especificaciones técnicas y mayores períodos de servicio requiere de una modelación rigurosa de la variabilidad en las propiedades geotécnicas con el fin de garantizar la confiabilidad de estas estructuras. Por lo tanto, se realizó un análisis basado en la confiabilidad del método Aashto-93, considerando la variabilidad geotécnica del suelo, asociada al módulo resiliente de la subrasante. Los diseños por confiabilidad fueron efectuados de acuerdo con las categorías, parámetros y estructuras establecidas por el Manual de diseño de pavimentos asfálticos en vías con medios y altos volúmenes de tránsito, de 1998, del Instituto Nacional …

Zechipc: Time Series Interpolation Method Based On Lebesgue Sampling, Luis Miralles-Pechuán, Muhammad Atif Qureshi, Matthieu Bellucci, Brian Mac Namee

Books/Book Chapters

In this paper, we present an interpolation method based on Lebesgue sampling that could help to develop systems based time series more efficiently. Our methods can transmit times series, frequently used in health monitoring, with the same level of accuracy but using much fewer data. Our method is based in Lebesgue sampling, which collects information depending on the values of the signal (e.g. the signal output is sampled when it crosses specific limits). Lebesgue sampling contains additional information about the shape of the signal in-between two sampled points. Using this information would allow generating an interpolated signal closer to the …

Valve Health Identification Using Sensors And Machine Learning Methods, Muhammad Atif Qureshi, Luis Miralles-Pechuán, Wood, Galway Technology Park, Parkmore, Galway, Ireland, Brian Mac Namee

Books/Book Chapters

Predictive maintenance models attempt to identify developing issues with industrial equipment before they become critical. In this paper, we describe both supervised and unsupervised approaches to predictive maintenance for subsea valves in the oil and gas industry. The supervised approach is appropriate for valves for which a long history of operation along with manual assessments of the state of the valves exists, while the unsupervised approach is suitable to address the cold start problem when new valves, for which we do not have an operational history, come online.

For the supervised prediction problem, we attempt to distinguish between healthy and …

Where There Is No Engineer - Designing For Community Resilience, Liam Mccarton, Sean O'Hogain

Books/Book Chapters

Where There Is No Engineer – Designing for Community Resilience” is a design initiative coordinated by the Development Technology in the Community (DTC) Research Group, Technological University Dublin (DIT) and Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Ireland.

The programme is delivered in partnership with various development partners and Engineers Ireland. It provides participants with the opportunity to learn about design, teamwork and communication through real, inspiring, sustainable and crosscultural development projects. By participating in the programme, students and professionals will have the opportunity to design creative solutions to real life development projects. This initiative formed part of the DIT team submission which …

Bespoke Mobile Application Development: Facilitating Transition Of Foundation Students To Higher Education, Nevan Bermingham, Mark Prendergast

Books/Book Chapters

Smartphone usage by students has increased rapidly over the last number of years, and it is expected that the utilisation of mobile applications in educational environments will continue to increase. This chapter focuses on a bespoke mobile application which aims to facilitate the transition of Foundation students to Higher Education in an Irish setting. Foundation students comprise of Access and International Students participating on pre-degree foundation courses. These students experience a major life change in making this transition and it is important that efforts are made to ensure a successful adjustment experience. Research suggests that mobile technologies can play a …

Where There Is No Engineer Chapter 06, Liam Mccarton, Sean O'Hogain

Books/Book Chapters

This chapter summarises the learning outcomes from the design program.

A Comparison On The Classification Of Short-Text Documents Using Latent Dirichlet Allocation And Formal Concept Analysis, Noel Rogers, Luca Longo

Books/Book Chapters

With the increasing amounts of textual data being collected online, automated text classification techniques are becoming increasingly important. However, a lot of this data is in the form of short-text with just a handful of terms per document (e.g. Text messages, tweets or Facebook posts). This data is generally too sparse and noisy to obtain satisfactory classification. Two techniques which aim to alleviate this problem are Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) and Formal Concept Analysis (FCA). Both techniques have been shown to improve the performance of short-text classification by reducing the sparsity of the input data. The relative performance of classifiers …

Development Of Magnetorheological Elastomers (Mres) For Strength And Fatigue Resistance, J. Mcintyre, Stephen Jerrams

Books/Book Chapters

Natural rubber (NR)-based magnetorheological elastomers (MREs) exhibiting a reasonable switching effect were fabricated and tested. They were strong enough for use in automotive applications but still needed protection against ageing. Ethylene–propylene–diene rubber (EPDM) is a cost-effective material that is frequently used in the automotive industry because of its advantageous range of properties. With these applications in mind, it was a logical progression to the development of EPDM-based MREs. Unlike strain-crystallising NR, EPDM requires reinforcement to render its tensile and fatigue strength suitable for use in most applications. While small amounts of carbon black were sufficient for the NR-based MREs, a …

Marco, Micro, Structure, Agency: Analysing Approaches To Engineering Ethics, Eddie Conlon

Books/Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Enhancing Building Performance And Environmental Learning: A Case Study Of Virginia Beach City Public Schools, Shannon Chance, John Timothy Cole

Books/Book Chapters

School buildings directly affect their natural and socio-cultural environments. They do this through their construction, maintenance, operation, and demolition. Most of the school buildings we have in stock today drain natural resources and inadvertently perpetuate a culture of environmental, social, and long-term economic ignorance and misuse. When approached thoughtfully, however, the design of school buildings can help inform and enrich society. Well-designed buildings can impart environmental knowledge and values. They can foster more effective behaviors among the people who learn in and from them. Effectively designed buildings can also conserve natural resources and—at their best—even help replenish the natural environment. …

Improving Safety In Medical Devices From Concept To Retirements, Martin Mchugh, Fergal Mccaffery, Silvana Macmahon, Anita Finnega

Books/Book Chapters

As with many domains the use of software within the healthcare industry is on the rise [1, 2] within the last 20 years.

Chapter Green Nanotechnology: Development Of Nanomaterials For Environmental And Energy Applications, Rachel Fagan, Changseok Han, Joel Andersen, Suresh Pillai, Polycarpos Falaras, Anthony Byrne, Patrick S.M. Dunlop, Hyeok Choi, Wenjun Jiang, Kevin O’Shea, Dionysios D. Dionysiou

Books/Book Chapters

This book chapter discusses the syntheses of various nanomaterials, for green nanotechnology applications in detail. Special attention is given to the development of emerging areas, such as environmental as well as energy materials. Various approaches for preparing nanostructured photocatalysts, such as titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, iron oxide, and metal sulfides, different conventional methods and novel methods, including sol-gel methods, hydrothermal methods, microwave-assisted methods and sonochemical methods are introduced. The use of nanomaterials as photocatalysts, supporting materials for solar cells, and disinfectants is reported for environmental remediation and energy applications. Advanced applications of nanomaterials for water detoxification, air purification, and the …

Argumentation Theory In Health Care, Luca Longo, Bridget Kane, Lucy Hederman

Books/Book Chapters

Argumentation theory (AT) has been gaining momentum in the health care arena thanks to its intuitive and modular way of aggregating clinical evidence and taking rational decisions. The basic principles of argumentation theory are described and demonstrated in the breast cancer recurrence problem. It is shown how to represent available clinical evidence in arguments, how to define defeat relations among them and how to create a formal argumentation framework. Argumentation semantics are then applied over the built framework to compute arguments justification status. It is demonstrated how this process can enhance the clinician decision-making process. A encouraging predictive capacity is …

Argumentation Theory For Decision Support In Health-Care: A Comparison With Machine Learning, Luca Longo

Books/Book Chapters

This study investigates role of defeasible reasoning and argumentation theory for decision-support in the health-care sector. The main objective is to support clinicians with a tool for taking plausible and rational medical decisions that can be better justified and explained. The basic principles of argumentation theory are described and demonstrated in a well known health scenario: the breast cancer recurrence problem. It is shown how to translate clinical evidence in the form of arguments, how to define defeat relations among them and how to create a formal argumentation framework. Acceptability semantics are then applied over this framework to compute arguments …

Engineering Project Appraisal (2nd. Ed), Martin G. Rogers, Aidan Duffy

Books/Book Chapters

In most cases of civil engineering development, a range of alternative schemes meeting project goals are feasible, so some form of evaluation must be carried out to select the most appropriate to take forward. Evaluation criteria usually include the economic, environmental and social contexts of a project as well as the engineering challenges, so engineers must be familiar with the processes and tools used.

The second edition of Engineering Project Appraisal equips students with the understanding and analytical tools to carry out effective appraisals of alternative development schemes, using both economic and non-economic criteria. The building blocks of economic appraisal …

Formalising Human Mental Workload As Non-Montonic Concept For Adaptive And Personalised Web-Design, Luca Longo

Books/Book Chapters

Web Design has been evolving with Web-based systems becoming more complex and structured due to the delivery of personalised information adapted to end-users. Although information presented can be useful and well formatted, people have little mental workload available for dealing with unusable systems. Subjective mental workload assessments tools are usually adopted to measure the impact of Web-tasks upon end-users thanks to their ease of use and are aimed at supporting design practices. The Nasa Task Load Index subjective procedure has been taken as a reference technique for measuring mental workload, but it has a background in aircraft cockpits, supervisory and …

Trust And Reputation For Successful Software Self-Organisation, Pierpaolo Dondio, Jean Marc Seigneur

Books/Book Chapters

Abstract An increasing number of dynamic software evolution approaches is com- monly based on integrating or utilising new pieces of software. This requires reso- lution of issues such as ensuring awareness of newly available software pieces and selection of most appropriate software pieces to use. Other chapters in this book dis- cuss dynamic software evolution focusing primarily on awareness, integration and utilisation of new software pieces, paying less attention on how selection among different software pieces is made. The selection issue is quite important since in the increasingly dynamic software world quite a few new software pieces occur over time, …

The Significance Of Equi-Biaxial Bubble Inflation In Determining Elastomeric Fatigue Properties, Stephen Jerrams, Niall Murphy, John Hanley

Books/Book Chapters

It is well documented that for the effective modelling of the static and dynamic behaviour of elastomeric components using the finite element (FE) method it is essential to obtain material parameters that are derived from a range of physical tests. For a conventional linear solid, uniaxial testing suffices to fully characterise the material, but for rubber it is necessary to test in at least two deformation modes. Also, the determination of fatigue lives of rubber components is still in its infancy and a reliable, repeatable fatigue test for rubber will have important consequences for component design, functionality, maintenance and cost. …

Human-Computer Interaction And Human Mental Workload: Assessing Cognitive Engagement In The World Wide Web, Luca Longo

Books/Book Chapters

Assessing the cognitive engagement of a user while seeking and consuming information over the World Wide Web is a key challenge for studying the quality of interactions. Indicators of cognitive engagement are useful for enhancing usability of interfaces, designing adaptable systems but also for analysing user behaviour and performance. For this purpose, we aim to adopt the multifaceted concept of Human Mental Workload, mainly applied in psychology and cognitive sciences, to study individual performance and user engagement in the context of Web. We aim to design a framework in which mental workload can be measured, analysed and explained. This will …

Trust-Based Techniques For Collective Intelligence In Social Search Systems., Pierpaola Dondio, Luca Longo

Books/Book Chapters

A key-issue for the effectiveness of collaborative decision support systems is the problem of the trustworthiness of the entities involved in the process. Trust has been always used by humans as a form of collective intelligence to support effective decision making process. Computational trust models are becoming now a popular technique across many applications such as cloud computing, p2p networks, wikis, e-commerce sites, social network. The chapter provides an overview of the current landscape of computational models of trust and reputation, and it presents an experimental study case in the domain of social search, where we show how trust techniques …

The Loughcrew Hills And Passage Tomb Complex, Frank Prendergast

Books/Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

A Computational Analysis Of Cognitive Effort, Luca Longo, Stephen Barrett

Books/Book Chapters

Cognitive effort is a concept of unquestionable utility in understanding human behaviour. However, cognitive effort has been defined in several ways in literature and in everyday life, suffering from a partial understanding. It is common to say “Pay more attention in studying that subject” or “How much effort did you spend in resolving that task?”, but what does it really mean? This contribution tries to clarify the concept of cognitive effort, by introducing its main influencing factors and by presenting a formalism which provides us with a tool for precise discussion. The formalism is implementable as a computational concept and …

Passive All-Fiber Wavelength Measurement Systems: Performance Determination Factors, Ginu Rajan, Yuliya Semenova, Agus Hatta, Gerald Farrell

Books/Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Agent Based Modeling In Computer Graphics And Games, Brian Macnamee

Books/Book Chapters

As graphics technology has improved in recent years, more and more importance has been placed on the behavior of virtual characters in applications set in virtual worlds in areas such as games, movies and simulations. The behavior of virtual characters should be believable in order to create the illusion that these virtual worlds are populated with living characters. This has led to the application of agent-based modeling to the control of these virtual characters. There are a number of advantages of using agent-based modeling techniques which include the fact that they remove the requirement for hand controlling all agents in …

3d Engineering With Prototyping, Jerome Casey, David Copperwhite, Barry Duignan

Books/Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Down Survey Of Ireland, Frank Prendergast

Books/Book Chapters

No abstract provided.