Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Evaluation Of E-Government Information Systems Agility: A Method And Case Study, Soumia Aggoune, Maohamed Amine Riahla

Emirates Journal for Engineering Research

Development of e-government evaluation frameworks began around 2000s. Most of the developed approaches are technologically driven in which they focus on the “E” rather than the “Government”. Moreover, they tend to evaluate tangible measures (such as costs, benefits, etc.) and neglects important intangible measures (such as agility, sustainability, etc.). The state of the art tells that the evaluation of agility within e-government has been proved to be important but complex. However, the importance is due to the increasing need for governments to justify investments, assess impacts and monitor progress in the ever-changing environment. On the other side, the complexity comes …

Housing In Kibera's Soweto East Informal Settlement, Kenya: A Socio-Technical Evaluation, Tiernan Brennan

Masters

In 2003, the Kenya Slum Upgrading Programme (KENSUP) was launched in partnership with UN-Habitat and the Government of Kenya (GoK) to improve the livelihoods of people in Kenya by 2020 through the provision of improved shelter, infrastructure, land tenure and income generation. Kibera is an informal settlement in Kenya where varying housing typologies and traditional vernacular-style designs coexist with modern housing units. Soweto East was one of eighteen villages located in Kibera selected for KENSUP’s first major housing development initiative. Soweto East was selected from a screening of several housing projects that could be subjected to a socio-technical (STE). The …

Evaluation, Comparison, And Improvement Recommendations For Caltrans Financial Programming Processes And Tools, Wenbin Wei, Nigel Blampied, Raajmaathangi Sreevijay

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

The California Transportation Improvement Program System (CTIPS) is the main tool used by Caltrans’ Division of Financial Programming to support the business of transportation programming. It is a multi-agency joint-use project programming database system applied to develop and manage various state and federal transportation programming documents. The goal of this project is to evaluate CTIPS and explore various new options that will maintain the current functionality of CTIPS, meet legislative guidelines for ADA compliance, ensure security of the system, and have sufficient scalability and capabilities for integration with other systems in the future. The research is based on the review …

Towards More Task-Generalized And Explainable Ai Through Psychometrics, Alec Braynen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this work, we propose that adopting the methods, principles, and guidelines of the field of psychometrics can help the Artificial Intelligence (AI) community to build more task-generalizable and explainable AI. Three arguments are presented and explored. These arguments are that psychometrics can help by providing 1) a framework for formulating better datasets, 2) psychometric AI data that can lead to models of generalization in AI, and 3) explainable AI through more informative evaluations.

A review of psychometrics and psychological generalization is performed, along with an overview of evaluation, generalization, and explainability in AI. Various ideas are presented throughout for …

Systematic Evaluation Of Machine-Learning Methods For Identifying Human-Pathogen Protein-Protein Interactions, Huaming Chen, Fuyi Li, Lei Wang, Yaochu Jin, Chi-Hung Chi, Lukasz Kurgan, Jiangning Song, Jun Shen

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

In recent years, high-throughput experimental techniques have significantly enhanced the accuracy and coverage of protein–protein interaction identification, including human–pathogen protein–protein interactions (HP-PPIs). Despite this progress, experimental methods are, in general, expensive in terms of both time and labour costs, especially considering that there are enormous amounts of potential protein-interacting partners. Developing computational methods to predict interactions between human and bacteria pathogen has thus become critical and meaningful, in both facilitating the detection of interactions and mining incomplete interaction maps. In this paper, we present a systematic evaluation of machine learning-based computational methods for human–bacterium protein–protein interactions (HB-PPIs). We first reviewed …

Performance Evaluation Of Intermittently Cfrp Wrapped Square And Circularised Square Reinforced Concrete Columns Under Different Loading Conditions, Anh Duc Mai, M Neaz Sheikh, Muhammad N. S Hadi

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation on square and circularised square rein-forced concrete (RC) columns intermittently wrapped with carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP)under different loading conditions. Twelve RC specimens consisting of eight square RC specimenswith 150mm150mm cross-section and 800mm height and four circularised square RC specimenswith 212mm diameter and 800 mm height were tested under concentric axial load, eccentric axialload and four-point flexural load. The test results showed that intermittent wrapping increased thestrength and ductility of square RC specimens. The test results also showed that circularisation com-bined with intermittent wrapping significantly improved the strength and ductility of …

Performance Evaluation Of Non-Gps Based Localization Techniques Under Shadowing Effects, Ngoc M. Nguyen, Le Chung Tran, Farzad Safaei, Son Lam Phung, Peter James Vial, Nam N. Huynh, Anne N. Cox, Theresa Harada, Johan Barthelemy

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Non-GPS localization has gained much interest from researchers and industries recently because GPS might fail to meet the accuracy requirements in shadowing environments. The two most common range-based non-GPS localization methods, namely Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) and Angle-of-Arrival (AOA), have been intensively mentioned in the literature over the last decade. However, an in-depth analysis of the weighted combination methods of AOA and RSSI in shadowing environments is still missing in the state-of-the-art. This paper proposes several weighted combinations of the two RSSI and AOA components in the form of pAOA + qRSSI, devises the mathematical model for analyzing shadowing …

Performance Simulation And Evaluation Of Net Zero Energy Buildings In An Australian Coastal Climate, Joel Anderson, Duane A. Robinson, Zhenjun Ma

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Net zero energy buildings (NZEB) are becoming more common, and as new energy saving designs and technologies become available, the ability to estimate overall energy use and understand the impact on operation of building appliances will become important. This paper outlines simulation results of performance improvements achieved by modifying various components (glazing, lighting, thermal comfort settings) of two tertiary education NZEBs and a typical modern commercial building. The DesignBuilder models' thermal performance and energy consumption were validated using real data from case study buildings. The work shows validating models of smaller, less conven-tional, buildings is more difficult than for larger …

Experimental Evaluation Of Tensile Strength Test Methods For Steel Fibre-Reinforced Concrete, Hussam A. Goaiz, Nabeel Farhan, M Neaz Sheikh, Tao Yu, Muhammad N. S Hadi

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

This study presents an experimental evaluation of three different methods for determining the tensile strength of steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC). The test methods include the splitting test (ST), double punch test (DPT) and direct tensile test (DTT). The compressive strength of the concrete used in this study ranged between 30 and 80 MPa with 0%, 1·5% and 3% steel fibre by volume of the concrete. In total, 81 concrete cylinders were cast and tested for 28-d compressive strength, splitting tensile strength and double punch tensile strength of the concrete. In addition, 27 concrete prism specimens were cast and tested …

Study On Performance Evaluation Of Co2 Heat Pump System Integrated With Thermal Energy Storage For Space Heating, Zhihua Wang, Yuxin Zheng, Fenghao Wang, Mengjie Song, Zhenjun Ma

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

CO2 heat pumps have drawn a great deal of attention owing to their advantages of high efficiency and environmental friendly for heating water under low ambient temperature. However, the system performance is not desirable and shows a lower COP for space heating, especially for a radiator as heating terminal, due to the higher inlet water temperature at the gas cooler, which causes a large throttle loss when the refrigerant flow through the throttling device. To tackle this issue, a transcritical CO2 heat pump system integrated with thermal energy storage (TES) systems was developed in this paper. The heating performance of …

Evaluation Of Coal Seam Gas Drainability For Outburst-Prone And High-Co2-Containing Coal Seam, Lei Zhang, Ting X. Ren, Naj Aziz, Cun Zhang

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

This paper presents the results of an evaluation study of gas drainability in the Bulli seam in the Southern Coalfield of the Sydney Basin, NSW, Australia, where the coal seam gas (CSG) contains a high proportion of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). Historically the gas drainability in some particular areas of this coal seam was found to be particularly poor, which posed a significant challenge to gas predrainage. As a result, a large volume of greenhouse gases were released to the atmosphere during mining of the coal seam. Furthermore, the high gas content associated with the CO 2 -rich composition …

Experimental Performance Analysis And Evaluation Of A Novel Frost-Free Air Source Heat Pump System, Zhihua Wang, Fenghao Wang, Zhenjun Ma, Mengjie Song, Wenke Fan

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

To tackle the problem of frosting occurred on the outdoor coil surface when an air source heat pump (ASHP) is operated in winter, a novel frost-free ASHP system has been developed. However, the dehumidification performance and the frost-free time of the system operated are highly dependent on the electronic expansion valve (EEV) opening of the 1st stage throttle. In addition, the coefficient of performance (COP) of the systems is controlled by the EEV opening of the 2nd stage throttle. Therefore, the objective of this study is to investigate the effect of the EEV opening on the system thermodynamic performance in …

Performance Evaluation And Lubrication Mechanism Of Water-Based Nanolubricants Containing Nano-Tio2 In Hot Steel Rolling, Hui Wu, Jingwei Zhao, Liang Luo, Shuiquan Huang, Lianzhou Wang, Suoquan Zhang, Sihai Jiao, Han Huang, Zhengyi Jiang

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Hot rolling tests of a low-alloy steel were conducted at a rolling temperature of 850 °C under different lubrication conditions, including benchmarks (dry condition and water) and water-based nanolubricants containing different concentrations of nano-TiO₂ from 1.0 to 8.0 wt%. The effects of nanolubricants on rolling force, surface roughness, thickness of oxide scale, and microstructure were systematically investigated through varying nano-TiO₂ concentrations. The results show that the application of nanolubricants can decrease the rolling force, surface roughness and oxide scale thickness of rolled steels, and refine ferrite grains. In particular, the nanolubricant containing an optimal concentration (4.0 wt%) of …

A Two-Level Clustering Strategy For Energy Performance Evaluation Of University Buildings, Kehua Li, Zhenjun Ma, Duane A. Robinson, Jun Ma

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

This paper presents a clustering strategy to evaluate the energy performance and identify typical daily load profiles of buildings. The cluster analysis included intra-building clustering and inter-building clustering. The intra-building clustering used Gaussian mixture model clustering to identify the typical daily load profiles of each individual building. The inter-building clustering used hierarchical clustering to further identify the typical daily load profiles of a stock of buildings based on the typical daily load profiles identified for each individual building. The performance of this strategy was tested and evaluated using the two-year hourly electricity consumption data collected from 40 buildings on a …

Performance Evaluation Of Full-Duplex Energy Harvesting Relaying Networks Using Pdc Self-Interference Cancellation, Jiaman Li, Le Chung Tran, Farzad Safaei

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

In this paper, throughput and bit error performance of an in-band full duplex (IBFD) relaying system assisted by the radio frequency energy harvesting technique and the polarization-enabled digital self-interference cancellation (PDC) scheme are investigated. In particular, the relay node harvests power from the wireless radio frequency signal transmitted from the source node and uses this power to amplify and forward signals to the destination. Meanwhile, the PDC scheme is used at the relay node to cancel the self-interference signal in order to facilitate the concurrent in-band transmission and reception. The impact of both energy harvesting and self-interference cancellation on the …

Thermal Comfort Evaluation Of A Mixed-Mode Ventilated Office Building With Advanced Natural Ventilation And Underfloor Air Distribution Systems, Xiang Deng, Georgios Kokogiannakis, Zhenjun Ma, Paul Cooper

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

This study uses field monitoring and post occupancy evaluation (POE) surveys to investigate the indoor thermal comfort of an office building that is located in subtropical zone. The building is special as it combines advanced natural ventilation (ANV) strategies and underfloor air distribution (UFAD) systems. A comparison between a static thermal comfort model and a dynamic thermal comfort model is also conducted. The results show that the thermal comfort conditions in the case study building are satisfactory in summer while in winter there is evidence of thermal discomfort. For the case study building, the static thermal comfort model gives outputs …

A Framework To Assess Newmark-Type Simplified Methods For Evaluation Of Earthquake-Induced Deformation Of Embankments, Mojtaba E. Kan, Hossein Taiebat, Mahdi Taiebat

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The simplified procedures for evaluation of the earthquake induced displacement in earth and rockfill dams are widely used in practice. These methods are simple, inexpensive, and substantially less time consuming as compared to the complicated stress-deformation approaches. They are especially recommended to be used as a screening tool, to identify embankments with marginal factor of safety, assuming that these methods always give conservative estimates of settlements. However recent studies show that application of these methods may not be conservative in some cases, especially when the tuning ratio of a dam is within a certain range. In this paper the fundamental …

Proeva: Runtime Proactive Performance Evaluation Based On Continuous-Time Mardov Chains, Guoxin Su, Taolue Chen, Yuan Feng, David Rosenblum

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Software systems, especially service-based software systems, need to guarantee runtime performance. If their performance is degraded, some reconfiguration countermeasures should be taken. However, there is usually some latency before the countermeasures take effect.

Performance Evaluation Of A Novel Frost-Free Air-Source Heat Pump Integrated With Phase Change Materials (Pcms) And Dehumidification, Zhihua Wang, Fenghao Wang, Zhenjun Ma, Chun Li, Yibo Xu

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Air-source heat pump (ASHP) has been widely used in domestic and commercial buildings because of its energy savings, high efficiency and environmental friendliness. However, the heating capacity of an ASHP system is greatly influenced by the frost accumulation on the surface of the outdoor exchanger. To solve this problem, a novel frost-free ASHP system, integrating with Phase Change Materials (PCMs) and dehumidification, has been developed. In this paper, the schematic design of this system is first presented. The effect of the match relationship between the desiccant materials and PCM thermal energy storage on the performance of the novel system is …

Thermal Performance Evaluation Of An Integrated Photovoltaic Thermal-Phase Change Material System Using Taguchi Method, Haoshan Ren, Wenye Lin, Zhenjun Ma, Wenke Fan

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

This paper presents the performance evaluation of an integrated photovoltaic thermal (PVT) collector-phased change material (PCM) thermal energy storage (TES) system. The PVT collectors can generate both electricity and low-grade thermal energy during the daytime, and the thermal energy generated can be temporarily stored in the PCM TES unit and used for space heating during the night-time. Taguchi method and analysis of variance are used for the simulation design and data analysis, respectively. The thermal performance of the proposed system was evaluated in terms of the useful energy stored in the TES system. The results showed that the outlet air …

A Method And A Case Study For The Selection Of The Best Available Tool For Mobile Device Forensics Using Decision Analysis, Shahzad Saleem, Oliver Popov, Ibrahim Baggili

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

The omnipresence of mobile devices (or small scale digital devices - SSDD) and more importantly the utility of their associated applications for our daily activities, which range from financial transactions to learning, and from entertainment to distributed social presence, create an abundance of digital evidence for each individual. Some of the evidence may be a result of illegal activities that need to be identified, understood and eventually prevented in the future. There are numerous tools for acquiring and analyzing digital evidence extracted from mobile devices. The diversity of SSDDs, types of evidence generated and the number of tools used to …

Development And Performance Evaluation Of A Liquid Desiccant Air Conditioning System With Hybrid Electrodialysis And Thermal Regeneration, Yi Guo, Zhenjun Ma, Ali Hussein Al-Jubainawi, Paul Cooper, Long D. Nghiem

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Liquid desiccant air conditioning (LDAC) systems have gained increasing attention due to the improved energy performance and reduced environmental impacts. This paper presents an LDAC system using electrodialysis (ED) as well as low grade heat generated from a hybrid photovoltaic thermal and evacuated tube (PVT-ET) collector for liquid desiccant regeneration. As ED regenerator is a key component in the proposed system, a modified mathematical model is used to simulate the mass transfer of the ED stack. The performance of the model was validated using the experimental data generated based on a lab-scale experimental setup. It is shown that the model …

Biomethane Potential Evaluation Of Co-Digestion Of Sewage Sludge And Organic Wastes, Richard Wickham, Brendan Galway, Heriberto A. Bustamante, Long D. Nghiem

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Co-digestion of organic rich wastes and wastewater sludge to enhance biogas production has become an attractive economic possibility for water utilities. The suitability of the organic rich waste depends on its ability to produce biogas as well as its influence on the overall anaerobic digestion process. Biomethane potential evaluation was conducted to screen seven organic wastes and dehydrated algae. All co-substrates increased the bio-methane yield by three to six times compared with conventional anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge. Maximum co-digestion ratios were identifiable for most solid co-substrates including algae (6% wt/wt), undiluted food waste (5% wt/wt), bakery waste (5% wt/wt), …

An Evaluation Of The Dynamics Of Diluted Neural Network, Lijuan Wang, Jun Shen, Qingguo Zhou, Zhihao Shang, Huaming Chen, Hong Zhao

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The Monte Carlo adaptation rule has been proposed to design asymmetric neural network. By adjusting the degree of the symmetry of the networks designed by this rule, the spurious memories or unwanted attractors of the networks can be suppressed completely. We have extended this rule to design full-connected neural networks and diluted neural networks. Comparing the dynamics of these two neural networks, the simulation results indicated that the performance of diluted neural network was poorer than the performance of full-connected neural network. As to this point, further research is needed. In this paper, we use the annealed dilution method to …

Fibre Bragg Grating Sensing Technology For The Evaluation Of Physical Properties Of Dental Resin Composites, Ginu Rajan, Paul Shouha, Ayman Ellakwa, Jiangtao Xi, Gangadhara B. Prusty

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The characterization of the physical properties of dental resin composites is fraught with difficulties relating to significant intra and inter test parameter variabilities and is relatively time consuming and expensive. The main aim of this study was to evaluate whether optical fibre Brag grating (FBG) sensing system may become a viable tool to study dental material characteristics. Of particular focus was the potential for the system to demonstrate a multi parameter all-in-one feature. A miniature FBG was embedded in six different dental resin composites and employed as a sensor to evaluate linear polymerization shrinkage, thermal expansion and water sorption. This …

Incorporating Environmental Evaluation And Thermal Properties Of Concrete Mix Designs, Mehdi Robati, Timothy J. Mccarthy, Georgios Kokogiannakis

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

One of the main challenges in sustainable design of buildings is to improve the energy efficiency of the building during its lifetime along with reducing the environmental impact of the design. Recent advances in concrete technology offer lower embodied emission through the application of supplementary cementitious materials and recycled aggregates. There are also improvements to thermal properties with the application of admixtures. However, the relationships between the environmental impact (Cradle to Gate) and thermal performance of concrete mix designs have not been researched adequately. The Green House Gas (GHG) emissions associated with each individual concrete component and its production need …

Evaluation Methodology And Implementation For Natural Ventilation Control Strategies, Massimo Fiorentini, Georgios Kokogiannakis, Warwick Jackson, Zhenjun Ma, Paul Cooper

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

This paper describes a methodology for evaluating the effectiveness of various control strategies for the operation of window actuators to control the indoor climate, and their implementation in a full scale case study building. In this study, the effectiveness of a control strategy is considered in terms of the capability of the controller for maintaining the indoor thermal comfort in a prescribed variable range, and its effect on the minimisation of the operational energy consumption of the building, due to a lower thermal energy demand to be met by the heating and cooling system. A model of the case study …

An Analytical Evaluation Of Radial Consolidation With Respect To Drain Degradation, Thanh Trung Nguyen, Buddhima Indraratna, Cholachat Rujikiatkamjorn

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

No abstract provided.

Thermal Performance Evaluation And Optimal Design Of Buildings With Integrated Air-Based Photovoltaic Thermal Collectors And Phase Change Materials Using The Hooke-Jeeves Pattern Search Method, Wenye Lin, Zhenjun Ma, Paul Cooper

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Over the last several decades, many low energy technologies have been developed and deployed to reduce building energy consumption. Among various solutions, solar photovoltaic thermal (PVT) collectors and phase change materials (PCMs) are among the most promising methods receiving increasing attention. This paper presents a thermal performance evaluation and optimal design of buildings integrated with air-based solar PVT collectors and PCMs embedded in the building envelope by using The Hooke-Jeeves pattern search method. The Hooke-Jeeves generalized pattern search is used to search for optimal solutions of the optimization problem. The variables optimized include the PVT air flow rate, additional wall …

Bus Route Operational Efficiency Evaluation In Milwaukee County, Ebtesam Hazbavi

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

BUS ROUTE OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY EVALUATION IN MILWAUKEE COUNTY

by

Ebtesam Hazbavi

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2015

Under the Supervision of Professor Yue Liu

Public transit systems are expanding in the majority of cities in the United States due to the increasing numbers of people who use public transportation as their main commute facility. Evaluating the efficiency of public transit systems results in providing better services for the residents on one hand and reduces the unnecessary costs on the other hand.

In this research, the efficiencies of bus routes options in County are evaluated. After reviewing different literature, Fuzzy AHP …