Digital Commons Network^™

Experiences With Virtual Learning Environments In Control Engineering Education, Aidan O'Dwyer

Conference papers

The twin pressures of the need for students to learn a wider variety of concepts, ideally in a self-learning mode, and the reduction in class contact time has led to the use of increased levels of information technology in control engineering education. This paper reports on, reflects on, and evaluates the author’s use of virtual laboratories (computer based laboratories available on the internet) in control engineering modules at DIT Kevin St. The use of the virtual laboratories helps in the ongoing evolution of the teaching approach from a traditional didactic lecture and laboratory course to a more learner-centred approach. The …

Stability Analysis And Control Synthesis Of Affine Fuzzy Systems, Ruiyao Gao, Aidan O'Dwyer

Conference papers

This paper presents an approach to stability analysis and control synthesis of affine fuzzy systems. The analysis is based on quadratic Lyapunov functions. The approach considers the nonlinear offset terms in affine fuzzy systems as non-vanishing perturbations added to the corresponding nominal linear blending systems. The affine fuzzy system is bounded by an ultimate limit if the corresponding linear blending system is exponentially stable. A state feedback controller with an extra term is designed with guaranteed global stability. The ultimate bounds are determined for both the open loop system and the compensated system.

Using Controller Tuning Formulae To Improve Performance, Aidan O'Dwyer

Conference papers

The proportional integral derivative (PID) controller is the most dominant form of automatic controller in industrial use today. With this device, it is necessary to adjust the controller parameters according to the nature of the process. Thus, for effective control of a HVDC system, for example, specific values need to be chosen for the P, I and D parameters, which will be different for the values required to control, for example, an induction motor drive. This tailoring of controller to process is known as controller tuning. Controller tuning is easily and effectively performed using tuning rules (i.e. formulae for controller …

Academic Change In Higher Education In Europe, Kevin Kelly, Mike Murphy

Conference papers

This paper analyses academic change in higher education internationally but mainly in Europe. It examines one College in Ireland as it faces major change and examines whether best practice change that has been successful elsewhere might be appropriate in this particular setting, with it’s own culture and history. Research is ongoing, using qualitative inquiry and fourth generation evaluation which seeks to address the concerns and issues of stakeholders. It is an illuminative evaluation project that seeks to allow senior management in the College see what is happening elsewhere and evaluate whether such methods might be appropriate in their own college. …

Diffusion And Fractional Diffusion Based Models For Multiple Light Scattering And Image Analysis, Jonathan Blackledge

Articles

This paper considers a fractional light diffusion model as an approach to characterizing the case when intermediate scattering processes are present, i.e. the scattering regime is neither strong nor weak. In order to introduce the basis for this approach, we revisit the elements of formal scattering theory and the classical diffusion problem in terms of solutions to the inhomogeneous wave and diffusion equations respectively. We then address the significance of these equations in terms of a random walk model for multiple scattering. This leads to the proposition of a fractional diffusion equation for modelling intermediate strength scattering that is based …

Optical Performance Of Non-Blocking 4x4 Optical Switch: Simulation And Experiment, V. Alex, A. Dubtsov, Yuri Panarin, T. Wilkinson

Articles

A prototype of pure non-blocking 4x4 optical LC switch was designed and built. This switch is based on conventional LCD technology, where the each pixel controlled the polarization state of the light beam. An addressing algorithm was described. The optical performance of the switch, such as cross-talk and insertion loss, was simulated and experimentally studied. The suggested approach offers several advantages over the conventional cross-point architecture such as: cost; complexity; size; adjustment; and optical performance.

Engineering Science As Opposed To Natural And Applied Science, Eugene Coyle, Mike Murphy, William Grimson

Books/Book chapters

In exploring the epistemology of engineering science we propose a model of engineering. This model incorporates the goals of engineering, the approach to engineering (also called the engineering method) and the role of experience in engi-neering. The basis for understanding the nature of engineering science will be ex-plored, and will be contrasted with natural science. To begin, a large-scale engi-neering project that was successfully completed in Ireland many years ago is dis-cussed - specifically, the development of a megalithic passage tomb as an exemplar of the engineering method in structural design, project management and aesthetics. This exemplar firmly demonstrates that …

Internal Audit Sourcing Arrangement And The External Auditor's Reliance Decision, Steven M. Glover, Douglas F. Prawitt, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

This paper examines the effects of internal audit sourcing arrangement on the external auditor’s reliance decision in the presence of different levels of inherent risk and task subjectivity. We posit that external auditors will rely more on outsourced than in-house internal audit functions (IAFs) and that this difference will be more pronounced when inherent risk is high or when the work performed by internal auditors relates to a subjective task. Participants in the study were 127 external auditors from a Big 4 firm who completed an experimental case in which we manipulated internal audit sourcing, inherent risk, and task subjectivity. …

Will Legislation To Encourage Premarital Education Strengthen Marriage And Reduce Divorce?, Alan J. Hawkins

Faculty Publications

Many legislators are wondering whether there is a constructive role that government can play to strengthen marriages and reduce divorces. A handful of states have passed legislation providing incentives for couples to participate in formal premarital education. The purpose of this article is to examine the research that can help answer the question whether legislation to promote premarital education can strengthen marriages and reduce the divorce rate. Of course, there are numerous legal and policy issues related to marriage and divorce being discussed these days. The focus of this article however, is only on one. In the end, I conclude …

Engineering - An Inherently Philosophical Enterprise, William Grimson

Books/Book chapters

No abstract provided.

From Certificates To Doctorates, By Degrees: Dublin Institute Of Technology - A Photographic Memoir, Jimmie Robinson

Books

Jimmie Robinson has photographed visitors and events at Dublin Institute of Technology for 43 years. In this photographic memoir, he chronicles the development of DIT over its first 120 years from behind the lens.

Evolution Of Prehension Ability In An Anthropomorphic Neurorobotic Arm, G Massera

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

In this paper, we show how a simulated anthropomorphic robotic arm controlled by an artificial neural network can develop effective reaching and grasping behaviour through a trial and error process in which the free parameters encode the control rules which regulate the fine-grained interaction between the robot and the environment and variations of the free parameters are retained or discarded on the basis of their effects at the level of the global behaviour exhibited by the robot situated in the environment. The obtained results demonstrate how the proposed methodology allows the robot to produce effective behaviours thanks to its ability …

Ambiguous Women: Debates Within American Evangelical Feminism, A Syska

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

This article is an analysis of major debates within American evangelical feminism since its emergence in early 1970s. It examines ways in which American evangelical feminists negotiate their identity in the daily struggle between the mundane and the sacred, home setting and church practice, and their private and public lives. Through presentation of personal stories and lived experiences it argues that evangelical feminists' ambiguity is a significant and powerful force that not only forges distinctive self-awareness among evangelical feminists, but also shapes diverse understandings of evangelical feminism and shifts the boundaries of both evangelicalism and feminism in America.

Final Report: Critical Media Literacy In Ireland, Cliona Barnes, Farrek Corcoran, Flanagan Brian, Brian O'Neill

Reports

Critical Media Literacy (CML) is a matter of major public importance. The skill-set of CML is increasingly recognised at national and European level as essential to citizenship and to a healthy democracy. Attempts to foster Media Literacy have been a feature of Irish education for over thirty years. Extensive curriculum reform has taken place to ensure that opportunities for studying the media are available across the primary and secondary curriculum.

However, in 2007 the subject retains a low profile and provision for Media Education is uneven. The subject has a low status within the educational system and media exploration is …

Making Olsr Aware Of Resources, Karol Kowalik, Brian Keegan, Mark Davis

Conference papers

An important element of any routing protocol used for Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) is the link cost function used to represent the radio link characteristic. The majority of the routing protocols for WMNs attempt to accurately characterise the radio link quality by constructing the link cost function from the measurements obtained using active probing techniques which introduces overhead. In this paper we present a modified version of the Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR) protocol which uses the link cost function values provided the Resource Aware Routing for mEsh (RARE) module which employs passive monitoring to gather radio link information. This …

Soil Fertility And Productivity Relationships In Rice Production System, Bangladesh, S Rahman, Rj Parkinson

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

This paper presents an econometric analysis of the influence of soil fertility status on productivity and resource use in rice production utilizing survey data from 21 villages in three agro-ecological regions of Bangladesh. Detailed crop husbandry input-output data were collected from 380 paddy rice (Oryza sativa) farmers. Data collected included fertilizer, pesticide, labour, animal power services, irrigation, farm capital assets and rice yield. The soil fertility status in each region was determined by analysis of soil organic carbon, available nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium concentration. Analysis was based on a profit function, where the selected soil fertility parameters were incorporated as …

Risk Reduction Through Technological Control Of Personal Information, Shirley Atkinson

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

Abuse and harm to individuals, through harassment and bullying, coexist with Identity Theft as criminal behaviours supported by the ready availability of personal information. Incorporating privacy protection measures into software design requires a thorough understanding about how an individual's privacy is affected by Internet technologies. This research set out to incorporate such an understanding by examining privacy risks for two groups of individuals, for whom privacy was an important issue, domestic abuse survivors and teenagers. The purpose was to examine the reality of the privacy risks for these two groups. This research combined a number of approaches underpinned by a …

A Study Of Linear Error Correcting Codes, Cen Jung Tjhai

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

Since Shannon's ground-breaking work in 1948, there have been two main development streams of channel coding in approaching the limit of communication channels, namely classical coding theory which aims at designing codes with large minimum Hamming distance and probabilistic coding which places the emphasis on low complexity probabilistic decoding using long codes built from simple constituent codes. This work presents some further investigations in these two channel coding development streams. Low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes form a class of capacity-approaching codes with sparse parity-check matrix and low-complexity decoder Two novel methods of constructing algebraic binary LDPC codes are presented. These methods …

Towards A Conceptual Framework Of Corporate Branding In Retailing, Edmund O'Callaghan

Conference proceedings

The view that corporate brand building in retailing is different to any other context (Burt and Sparks, 2002) is predicated in the belief that ‘goods’ retailers need to manage a range of corporate components, its multiple relationships with customers and its dependence on employees to personify and deliver much of the corporate identity. These differences in operations are perceived as adding a degree of complexity to an already challenging process of corporate brand development. This paper proposes a conceptual framework for the corporate brand building process within an SME retail context. It develops on the work of Hatch & Schultz’s …

Does Understanding National Business Cultures Help Build Regional Development?, Amanda Ratcliffe, Thomas Cooney Dr.

Conference proceedings

An EFER report in 1995 observed that little of the growth ofEurope’s top 500 companies came from existing products in existing markets, but almost two-thirds of the growth came from entering new markets. A large majority of Europe’s 500 are active in export markets, with exports accounting for 40% of their turnover as opposed to the 10% export share for SMEs overall. One of the critical reasons for the poor performance of SMEs within the international arena is their ignorance of local business cultures. Yet for a country – or a specific region – to achieve strong economic growth, it …

Improving The Prediction Of The Behaviour Of Masonry Wall Panels Using Model Updating And Artificial Intelligence Techniques, Chengfei Sui

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

Out-of-plane laterally loaded masonry wall panels are still much used in modem structures. However due to their anisotropic and highly composite nature, it is extremely difficult to understand their behaviour and to date there is no analytical method that is capable of accurately predicting the response of masonry panels to the applied loadings. This is one of the major obstacles in analysing and designing masonry structures. This research studied a new method that accurately predicts the response of laterally loaded masonry wall panels. In this dissertation, the method of using corrector factors developed by previous researchers was further studied using …

The Impact Of Business-To-Business E-Marketplaces As Extended Media In The Procurement Supply Chain Of Airlines, Claudia-Maria Wagner

Doctoral

In recent years, a growing number of companies in many industry sectors have decided to include e-Business as an integral part of their strategy to enhance competitive advantage. The airline industry, having always been a great instigator and guarantor for innovative changes, is one of the industries where developments in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in general have proven to be an inevitable factor of success. Among recent innovative developments are B2B e-Marketplaces, which have been hypothesised to optimise procurement processes and to add significant value in airlines’ supply chains. However, while e-Marketplaces have been analysed in more detail from …

Software Architecture For Data Storage Concepts Within Future Mobile Telecommunication Systems, Andreas Diehl

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

In current mobile telecommunication networks, databases and the subscriber data is distributed among multiple network domains and database systems. The heterogeneous data storage concept is based on the permanent evolution of the mobile networks and the support of different kinds of network technologies. Dependent on the particular network domain and the dedicated technology, distributed subscriber data has to be accessed via specialised protocols.This thesis proposes a novel software architecture for the next generation profile register (NGPR) - an approach to provide subscriber information using a logically centralised register for subscriber data from several mobile network domains. The NGPR subscriber data …

Dynamic Adaptation Of Streamed Real-Time E-Learning Videos Over The Internet, Aruna Thakur

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

Even though the e-learning is becoming increasingly popular in the academic environment, the quality of synchronous e-learning video is still substandard and significant work needs to be done to improve it. The improvements have to be brought about taking into considerations both: the network requirements and the psycho- physical aspects of the human visual system. One of the problems of the synchronous e-learning video is that the head-and-shoulder video of the instructor is mostly transmitted. This video presentation can be made more interesting by transmitting shots from different angles and zooms. Unfortunately, the transmission of such multi-shot videos will increase …

International Writing Centers Association Information

The Writing Center Journal

No abstract provided.

Announcements

The Writing Center Journal

No abstract provided.

Increasing Effectiveness Of Public Private Partnerships In The Irish Construction Industry, Louis Gunnigan

Doctoral

By 2003 the first Irish Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects had reached the operational stage. Media reports were emerging of significant differences in the effectiveness of these projects.

This research set out to find a means by which effectiveness of PPPs could be increased and to develop a model that would assist PPP practitioners with this task in the future. Through a literature review, the Irish PPP process was mapped, the changes encountered in the introduction of PPP were investigated and a conceptual model – based on a traditional process model - was proposed. The model was tested by examining …

Security Policy Enforcement In Application Environments Using Distributed Script-Based Control Structures, Klaus-Peter Fischer-Hellmann

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

Business processes involving several partners in different organisations impose demanding requirements on procedures for specification, execution and maintenance. A framework referred to as business process management (BPM) has evolved for this purpose over the last ten years. Other approaches, such as service-oriented architecture (SOA) or the concept of virtual organisations (VOs), assist in the definition of architectures and procedures for modelling and execution of so-called collaborative business processes (CBPs). Methods for the specification of business processes play a central role in this context, and, several standards have emerged for this purpose. Among these, Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL, …

Optimized Fatigue And Fracture Performance Of Friction Stir Welded Aluminium Plate: A Study Of The Inter-Relationship Between Process Parameters, Tmaz, Microstructure, Defect Population And Performance, Hannalie Lombard

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

Friction stir welding (FSW) is an exciting new solid-state welding process with the potential to advantageously impact many fabrication industries. Current take-up of the process by industry is hindered by lack of knowledge of suitable welding parameters for any particular alloy and sheet thickness. The FSW process parameters are usually chosen empirically and their success is evaluated via simple mechanical property testing. There are severe drawbacks with such methods of determining manufacturing conditions. These include indirect relationships between tensile and fatigue properties, particularly for welds, and a high probability of totally missing real optimized conditions. This research is therefore undertaken …

Statistical Contributions To Medical Research In The South West Peninsula, Hilary Patricia Sanders

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

The papers on which this thesis is based are the result of original research work undertaken in collaboration with healthcare researchers in the South West Peninsula. Modern healthcare research involves large scale multidisciplinary projects and the Statistician's role In these projects, from concept through design and execution to the production of published papers, is crucial. Funding bodies, and in particular the Medical Research Council (MRC), expect a Statistician to be part of the project team and the statistical input and expertise included plays a key role in determining whether or not projects are funded and are subsequently successful. The selection …