Engineering Commons^™

Planer Ultra Wide Band Antennas And Band Rejection Characteristics, Waqas Jamshed, Faiz Khalid, Zeeshan Ahmed, Farooq Bhatti

Articles

No abstract provided.

An Investigation Into The Effectiveness Of Hedonic Features In Regression Models For Domestic Rental Prices, Peter Prunty

Dissertations

Housing is a fundamental human right. Increasing rents and rising unemployment contribute to increased rates of homelessness. Traditionally housing prices are determined by supply and demand. This project will investigate the relationship between hedonic features and domestic rental prices in California and New York, using multivariate regression models. The literature outlines a number of approaches taken to model real estate pricing using hedonic regression.

Two models were created to analyse the difference between California and New York. Features were selected using correlation analysis. Some features were derived using logarithmic and dummy feature transformations. The models themselves were evaluated by assessing …

Investigation Into The Predictive Capability Of Macro-Economic Features In Modelling Credit Risk For Small Medium Enterprises, Kevin Mctiernan

Dissertations

This research project investigates the predictive capability of macro-economic features in modelling credit risk for small medium enterprises (SME/SMEs). There have been indications that there is strong correlation between economic growth and the size of the SME sector in an economy. However, since the financial crisis and consequent policies and regulations, SMEs have been hampered in attempts to access credit. It has also been noted that while there is a substantial amount of credit risk literature, there is little research on how macro-economic factors affect credit risk. Being able to improve credit scoring by even a small amount can have …

Using A Knowledge Management Approach To Support Effective Succession Planning In The Civil Service, Mary O’Donohue

Dissertations

The modern workforce is highly mobile. The challenge facing organisations is how to safeguard key expertise and knowledge in the face of staff mobility and turnover. The Irish Civil Service is still recovering from the impacts of significant loss of staff, and their knowledge and expertise, as a result of cutbacks over recent years. This project will establish the potential of using a Knowledge Management approach to support effective succession planning in the Civil Service. The literature review charts the evolution of Knowledge Management from when the phrase was first coined in 1986 through to what is considered to be …

An Exploration Of The Relationship Between The Partisan-Business Cycle And Economic Inequality Within Developed Economies, Richard O'Doherty

Dissertations

Recent contributions to the study of inequality have provided strong evidence towards the presence of an established trend, over several decades, of growing economic inequality (with a particular focus on distribution within their tails; i.e. top 10%, 1%) across countries with developed economies and indications of similar trends across developing economies. While the causality and influencing factors to these trends has widely been discussed, and has range from declining domestic growth rates as economies move towards high mass consumption states to globalisation, political decision making and policy application been referred to as both contributory or an instrument for dampening such …

Source Separation Approach To Video Quality Prediction In Computer Networks, Ruairí De Fréin

Articles

Time-varying loads introduce errors in the estimated model parameters of service-level predictors in Computer Networks. A load-adjusted modification of a traditional unadjusted service-level predictor is contributed, based on Source Separation (SS). It mitigates these errors and improves service-quality predictions for Video-on-Demand (VoD) by :6 to 2dB.

Bs News May/June

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Physical And Digital Integration Strategies Of Electronic Device Supply Chains And Their Applicability To Eto Supply Chains, Claudia-Maria Wagner, Colm Ryan

Books/Book chapters

The growth in the manufacture and distribution of electronic devices presents a source of continuing innovation. Electronic devices are products that integrate physical forms (i.e. hardware) and virtual forms (e.g. software) to deliver value to customers. These forms are very different from a product design and supply chain perspective, but nevertheless they need to work closely together in order to create value for the customers. For electronic device manufacturers, it is important that processes are in place to facilitate the seamless integration of both forms throughout the engineering, production, distribution and support stages of the product lifecycle. This chapter examines …

Folded Meandered Monopole For Emerging Smart Metering & M2m Applications In The Lower Uhf Band Primary Tabs, Abraham Loutridis, Matthias John, Max Ammann

Conference Papers

A compact folded meander-line monopole for smart metering and M2M applications is presented. It operates over a tunable frequency range of 412-475 MHz. The miniaturization is based on a double-sided meandering structure and the rear positioning of the feeding and shorting strips. A sliding via connector is used for tuning. The proposed antenna is compact 15 mm (0.02 λ0) × 42.3 mm (0.058 λ0), low cost and easily fabricated. A 21-24% total efficiency was provided across the tunable band. Installed performance was evaluated in a meter housing placed on a concrete wall. Measured and simulated results are provided.

Education For Sustainable Development- The Irish Construction Sector And The Need For A Sustainable Approach, Conor Mcmanus

Masters

This study explores the path to be taken towards achieving Sustainable Development. It examines the impact the construction industry has on the environment as a result of a knowledge and skills gap and considers how our present way of thinking facilitates this. It then goes on to show how a change in construction education can bring about change in the industry and facilitate the implementation of sustainable development. The study examines how the singular emphasis on technology, the introduction of the ‘expert’ into the domestic building process and the narrow focus on operational energy conservation raises questions about Ireland's present …

The Welfare Effects Of Nationalization In A Mixed Duopoly Public Transport Market, Feifei Qin, Xiaoning Zhang, Eoin Plant

Articles

Recently, many cities have launched new rail transit lines. Once these new rail transit lines start commercial operation, they will play important roles as competitors to conventional bus services. In this paper, the effects of nationalization on equilibria have been studied in a mixed duopoly public transport market, in which one publicly-owned rail transit operator competes with one private bus operator. Two numerical case studies show the nationalization of a rail transit company is always socially desirable both in Bertrand pricing game in the short run and in Nash non-cooperative game in the long run.

Thermal Mass Behaviour Of Concrete Panels Incorporating Phase Change Materials, Dervilla Niall, Roger West, Sarah Mccormack, Oliver Kinnane

Conference papers

Phase Change Materials (PCM) have been incorporated into a range of building envelope materials with varied success. This study investigates two different methods of combining concrete and phase change materials to form PCM/concrete composite panels. The first method involves adding microencapsulated paraffin to fresh concrete during the mixing process. The second method involves vacuum impregnating butyl stearate into lightweight aggregate which is then included in the concrete mix design. The primary aim of the study is to determine which method is the most effective way to improve the thermal mass characteristics of a concrete panel in the context of a …

A Techno-Economic Analysis Of Wind Generation In Conjunction With Compressed Air Energy In The Integrated Single Electricity Market., Brendan Cleary

Doctoral

The Integrated Single Electricity Market (I-SEM) is the proposed wholesale electricity market for Ireland and it is intended to replace the current Single Electricity Market (SEM) by 2018. Subsequently, substantial modifications will be required to the SEM and this has led to significant uncertainty for stakeholders. The SEM currently features no forecast risk for renewables such as wind and there is no concept of balance responsibility. Under the I-SEM, wind generation will be exposed to forecast risk and the requirement to be balance responsible. The use of Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) could represent a better system configuration which would …

Bs News March/April

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Amorphous Silicon Solar Vivaldi Antenna, Oisin O'Conchubhair, Kansheng Yang, Patrick Mcevoy, Max Ammann

Articles

An ultra-wideband solar Vivaldi antenna is proposed. Cut from amorphous silicon cells, it maintains a peak power at 4.25 V which overcomes a need for lossy power management components. The wireless communications device can yield solar energy or function as a rectenna for dual-source energy harvesting. The solar Vivaldi performs with 0.5 - 2.8 dBi gain from 0.95 - 2.45 GHz and in rectenna mode, it covers three bands for wireless energy scavenging.

Evaluating A Microbial Water Quality Prediction Model For Beach Management Under The Revised Eu Bathing Water Directive, Zeinab Bedri, Aisling Corkery, John O'Sullivan, Louise Deering, Katalin Demeter, Wim Meijer, Gregory O'Hare, Bartholomew Masterson

Articles

The revised Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC) requires EU member states to minimise the risk to public health from faecal pollution at bathing waters through improved monitoring and management approaches. While increasingly sophisticated measurement methods (such as microbial source tracking) assist in the management of bathing water resources, the use of deterministic predictive models for this purpose, while having the potential to provide decision making support, remains less common.

This study explores an integrated, deterministic catchment-coastal hydro-environmental model as a decision-making tool for beach management which, based on advance predictions of bathing water quality, can inform beach managers on appropriate management …

Daylighting And Thermo-Electrical Performance Of An Autonomous Suspended Particle Device Evacuated Glazing, Aritra Ghosh

Doctoral

Suspended particle device (SPD) glazing is an AC powered switchable glazing. PV powered SPD evacuated (vacuum) glazing was proposed with the potential of reducing the heating demand, cooling demand and artificial lighting demand of a building. To achieve an autonomous SPD vacuum glazing, semi empirical simulation and outdoor characterisation was explored in this thesis. Transmission of SPD glazing (area 0.058 m2) varied from 5% when opaque to 55% when transparent in the presence of 110 V, 0.07 W AC supply was characterised in outdoor test cell in Dublin. The SPD glazing has variable spectral transmission in the presence of variable …

Estimating The Electricity Prices, Generation Costs And Co2 Emissions Of Large Scale Wind Energy Exports From Ireland To Great Britain, Brendan Cleary, Aidan Duffy, Bjarne Bach, Aisma Vitina, Alan O'Connor, Michael Conlon

Articles

The share of wind generation in the Irish and British electricity markets is set to increase by 2020 due to renewable energy (RE) targets. The United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland have set ambitious targets which require 30% and 40% of electricity demand to come from RE, mainly wind, by 2020, respectively. Ireland has sufficient indigenous onshore wind energy resources to exceed the RE target, while the UK faces uncertainty in achieving its target. A possible solution for the UK is to import RE directly from large scale onshore and offshore wind energy projects in Ireland; this possibility has recently been …

Measuring The Effectiveness Of Software-Based Training To Improve The Spatial Visualization Skills Of Students In Stem Disciplines In Higher Education Institutions, Peter Cole

Dissertations

This research investigates how software can be used to teach spatial skills leading to greater success in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematical (STEM) fields. Existing research indicates that spatial skills can be taught and that good spatial skills are common to people who succeed in STEM fields. In this work, a software-only testing system with a direct targeted, training intervention module was implemented to measure and teach spatial skills using mental rotations, which are believed to be one of the most significant indicators of success in STEM fields. Spatial skills were tested using a standardized and validated test that measures …

Forecasting Bike Rental Demand Using New York Citi Bike Data, Wen Wang

Dissertations

The idea of this project is from a Kaggle competition “Bike Sharing Demand”① which provides dataset of Capital Bikeshare in Washington D.C. and asked to combine historical usage patterns with weather data in order to forecast bike rental demand. This dissertation will extend this work, working with a broader range of project not only just focusing on the phrase of model building but all phases of KDD (Knowledge Discovery in Databases). This dissertation focuses on Citi Bike which is one of the biggest bike share projects in the world, collects Citi Bike data, weather data and holiday data from three …

An Evaluation Of Gamification To Assess Students’ Learning On Their Understanding Of First Year Computer Science Programming Module, Daniel Gebremichael

Dissertations

This research examines the use of gamification to develop an assessment tool, to assess students’ learning of a first year computer science module. The students’ undertaking of the first semester Programming and Algorithms module in 2015 were assessed on their knowledge of the programming language Python. The incorporation of gamification when assessing students can have various potential benefits. The research aims to identify these benefits and issues. Assessments and games have almost opposite effects on opinions on people, as games are usually expected to have an entertainment value but this is not the case for assessments. The research examines if …

How Do Teachers And Students Perceive The Utility Of Blackboard As A Distance Learning Platform? (Case Study From Taibah University, Saudi Arabia), Suad Alaofi

Dissertations

This research explores the role of Knowledge Management within the education field with a specific focus on the use of Learning Management Systems in the Distance Learning (e-learning) process. The aim of this study is to thoroughly examine how teachers and students perceive the utility of the Blackboard system as a distance learning platform. To achieve this, the study conducted qualitative interviews and quantitative questionnaire surveys with the teachers and students of Taibah University, Saudi Arabia. Questions in both data collection tools were geared towards gaining insight about how these two groups of Blackboard users view its usefulness as a …

Porous Silica Coated Spherical Microresonator For Vapor Phase Sensing Of Ammonia At A Sub-Ppm Level, Arun Kumar Mallik, Gerald Farrell, Dejun Liu, Vishnan Kavungal, Qiang Wu, Yuliya Semenova

Conference Papers

A new type of fiber optic sensor for detection and quantification of ammonia (NH3) vapors is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. This sensor is based on a spherical silica micro resonator coated with porous silica gel. Whispering gallery modes (WGMs) in the micro resonator are excited by evanescent coupling to a tapered fiber with a 3.3 µm waist diameter. The optical properties of the porous silica layer change when it is exposed to ammonia vapor, leading to a spectral shift of the WGM resonant wavelengths. The sensitivity of the proposed sensor has been tested by exposing it to different low level …

On-Chip Integratable All-Optical Quantizer Using Strong Cross-Phase Modulation In A Silicon-Organic Hybrid Slot Waveguide, Zhe Kang, Jinhui Yuan, Xianting Zhang, Xinzhu Sang, Kuiru Wang, Qiang Wu, Binbin Yan, Feng Li, Xian Zhou, Kangping Zhong, Guiyao Zhou, Chongxiu Yu, Gerald Farrell, Chao Lu, Hwa Yaw Tam, P. K. A. Wai

Articles

High performance all-optical quantizer based on silicon waveguide is believed to have significant applications in photonic integratable optical communication links, optical interconnection networks and real-time signal processing systems. In this paper, we propose an integratable all-optical quantizer for on-chip and low power consumption all-optical analog-to-digital converters. The quantization is realized by the strong cross-phase modulation and interference in a silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) slot waveguide based Mach-Zehnder interferometer. By carefully designing the dimension of the SOH waveguide, large nonlinear coefficients up to 16,000 and 18,069 W−1/m for the pump and probe signals can be obtained respectively, along with a low pulse …

Agarose Coated Spherical Micro Resonator For Humidity Measurements, Arun Mallik, Vishnu Kavungal, Yuliya Semenova, Dejun Liu

Conference Papers

A new type of fiber optic relative humidity (RH) sensor based on an agarose coated silica microsphere resonator is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Whispering gallery modes (WGMs) in the micro resonator are excited by evanescent coupling using a tapered fiber with ~3.3 μm waist diameter. A change in the relative humidity of the surrounding the resonator air induces changes in the refractive index (RI) and thickness of the Agarose coating layer. These changes in turn lead to a spectral shift of the WGM resonances, which can be related to the RH value after a suitable calibration. Studies of the repeatability, …

First Outdoor Characterisation Of A Pv Powered Suspended Particle Device Switchable Glazing, Aritra Ghosh, Brian Norton, Aidan Duffy

Articles

Suspended particle device (SPD) switchable glazing is a candidate intervention to adaptively control solar heat gain. A high voltage low alternating current (AC) to operate a large area SPD applications, can be provided by a photovoltaic (PV) array. The first outdoor characterisation of side-by-side comparison of PV-powered SPD glazing has been conducted. Using an inverter to convert direct current (DC) power from PV to AC a 40 Wp PV device continuously powered a 0.07 W SPD glazing. High inverter power losses were found due to high PV inverter sizing ratio, inverter high self-consumption, and low solar radiation. Low sizing ratio …

State-Of-The-Art Review Of Cathodic Protection For Reinforced Concrete Structures, Aimee Byrne, Niall Holmes, Brian Norton

Articles

Cathodic protection (CP) limits the corrosion of a metal surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell. This can be achieved either by using a more active sacrificial anode to create a driving current, or by using inert anodes and impressing a current onto the cathode surface using an external direct current (DC) source. Impressed current cathodic protection (ICCP) is preferred where widespread protection is required, particularly in reinforced concrete structures. ICCP needs a constant DC power supply that is usually provided through a grid connection or independent generators. This paper presents the currently available CP systems for …

Statistical Models To Infer Gas End-Use Efficiency In Individual Dwellings Using Smart Metered Data, Ronan Oliver, Aidan Duffy, Ian Kilgallon

Articles

Residential buildings can significantly contribute to the European Union's 2020 efficiency energy targets. For this reason, energy distributors and suppliers are required to provide assistance to householders to reduce energy end-use. This paper develops statistical modelling methods that can be used by suppliers to infer the gas fuel efficiency of buildings in their residential portfolio, in order to deliver improved energy management services to consumers. The study begins by estimating individual statistical building energy models for a sample of consumers and presents the resulting distribution of independent parameters. These parameter distributions are then characterised by regression models using descriptive household …

Identifying Market Indicators And Content Quality From A Financial Micro-Blog Platform, Siobhán Mcnamara

Dissertations

Investment platforms and discussion platforms have come to change the face of finance. The stock market is open to both professional and non-professional investors via online financial channels. Information too comes via a shared domain as both professionals and non-professionals log onto online communication platforms to share, search and discuss market trends. Due to their growing role in finance, understanding online communities has become the focus of much stock market research. Determining who is influential in a network, how information spreads and what translates to buy or sell decision is potentially very lucrative. In this research paper a dataset from …

A Protocol For A Randomised Clinical Trial Of The Effect Of Providing Feedback On Inhaler Technique And Adherence From An Electronic Device In Patients With Poorly Controlled Severe Asthma, Imran Sulaiman, Martin Holmes, Shona D'Arcy, Viliam Rapčan, Desmond Michael Murphy, Gloria Crispino, Isabelle Killane, Rw Costello, Richard B Reilly, Jansen Seheult, Gregory Diette, Elaine Machale, Terence Taylor

Articles

ntroduction In clinical practice, it is difficult to distinguish between patients with refractory asthma from those with poorly controlled asthma, where symptoms persist due to poor adherence, inadequate inhaler technique or comorbid diseases. We designed an audio recording device which, when attached to an inhaler, objectively identifies the time and technique of inhaler use, thereby assessing both aspects of adherence. This study will test the hypothesis that feedback on these two aspects of adherence when passed on to patients improves adherence and helps clinicians distinguish refractory from difficult-to-control asthma. Methods This is a single, blind, prospective, randomised, clinical trial performed …