Engineering Commons^™

Investigation Of The Visual Aspects Of Business Intelligence, Niall Cunningham

Dissertations

As the need for Irish firms to move into knowledge economy increases knowledge management is being more important. Among its central aims is for knowledge creation and development to enhance knowledge and inspire innovations. One of the ways knowledge management achieves these aims is through the development of knowledge management tools for the firm. Among these tools is the option to use business intelligence to enhance knowledge in the firm by exposing hidden knowledge and building on it. In particular data mining has been highlighted as being effective within business intelligence and knowledge management in discovering hidden knowledge. This dissertation …

The Knowledge Side Of The Web, Max Kudrenko

Dissertations

The World Wide Web has become a household name long before its official sixteenth birthday last August (2007), not lastly because of its Knowledge potential encompassed in its vast Knowledge resources and its suitability for Knowledge activities. Out of the three main types of Web usage, which are Procedural, Leisure and Knowledge, this work will concentrate on the Knowledge one and try to analyse the rationale behind its growing popularity among both producers and consumers of Web content. The extensive Knowledge usage of the Web both demands and offers a specific type of Knowledge, Web Knowledge, which will be assessed …

Knowledge Swapshop: Implementing A Small But Scalable Knowledge Management Initiative In A Software Development Team., Glenn Higgins

Dissertations

Never before have so many organisation relied on their IT infrastructure for their survival and growth. In this environment the need for organisations to efficiently and cost effectively manage their computer systems is very clear. Knowledge management is increasingly being called upon to aid in the search for efficiency in the software development industry. This project proposes the introduction of a Knowledge management initiative in a small software development team. The initiative culminates in the introduction of an automated knowledge sharing system which is intended to facilitate easier collaboration among members of the team, while at the same capturing knowledge …

Knowledge Visualisation Of Wikipedia, Jinhui Wang

Dissertations

Wikipedia is a popular online encyclopaedia, in which articles are created together by anyone who is willing to contribute. There is debate on the quality, reliability and consistency of articles due to its openness. Besides, it is hard to see the growing path of articles because there is no centralised control in Wikipedia. The history of articles is available but in form that is difficult to process to get a picture of article evolution. Knowledge visualisation addresses the problem by providing analysis and comprehension of large amounts of data to gain insights and to facilitate knowledge creation and sharing. However, …

Referring Expression Generation Challenge 2008 Dit System Description, John D. Kelleher, Brian Mac Namee

Conference papers

This section describes the two systems developed at DIT for the attribute selection track of the REG 2008 challenge. Both of theses systems use an incremental greedy search to generate descriptions, similar to the incremental algorithm described in (Dale and Reiter, 1995). The output of these incremental algorithms are, to a large extent, determined by the order in which the algorithm tests the target object’s attributes for inclusion in the description. Indeed, the major difference between the two systems described in this section is the mechanism used to order the attributes for inclusion.

Autopilot: Simulating Changing Concepts In Real Data, Patrick Lindstrom, Sarah Jane Delany, Brian Mac Namee

Conference papers

An increasingly important area in supervised incremental learning is learning in the presence of changing concepts. Research into concept drift is hampered by the lack of availability of controllable `real life' datasets. In this paper we propose an approach for generating real life data over which we have control of the concept and can generate data exhibiting different types of concept drift. The approach uses a 3-D driving game to produce a data stream of instances describing how to drive around a track. The classification problem is learning the driving technique of the driver, which can be affected by changes …

The Annotation Of Traditional Irish Dance Music Using Matt2 And Tansey, Bryan Duggan, Brendan O'Shea, Mikel Gainza

Conference papers

Currents estimates put the canon of traditional Irish dance tunes at least 7,000 compositions. Given this diversity, a common problem faced by musicians and ethnomusicologists is identifying tunes from recordings. This is evident even in the number of commercial recordings whose title is gan ainm (without name). This work attempts to solve this problem by developing a Content Based Music Information Retrieval (CBMIR) System adapted to the characteristics of traditional Irish music. A system is presented called MATT2 (Machine Annotation of Traditional Tunes) whose primary goal is to annotate recordings of traditional Irish dance music with useful meta-data including tune …

Sweetening The Dataset : Using Active Learning To Label Unlabelled Datasets, Rong Hu, Brian Mac Namee, Sarah Jane Delany

Conference papers

Supervised machine learning approaches assume the existence of a large collection of manually labelled examples of the problem under consideration. However, in many cases such a collection does not exist and creating one is time consuming and expensive. This can be a barrier to the use of supervised learning in certain situations, particularly when the doubt as to whether the system will work or not makes the cost of creating a dataset unjustifable. Active learning is a machine learning technique that has been used widely to create classification systems in the absence of large numbers of labelled examples, but that …

Physics-Based Table-Top Mixed Reality Games, Qingqing Dong, Zhongyi Sun, Brian Mac Namee

Conference papers

Mixed reality applications use techniques from computer vision, augmented reality and virtual reality to allow real and virtual objects interact physically together on a user’s computer screen. This paper will describe two mixed reality applications which allow the user to play games that appear to take place on top of their physical desk. The games described are a desktop racing game and a desktop based game of ten pin bowling. In the desktop racing game virtual cars, controlled by the user, interact with both virtual objects (such as trees, walls and lampposts) and real ones (such as ramps and blocks). …

Machine Annotation Of Sets Of Traditional Irish Dance Tunes, Bryan Duggan, Brendan O'Shea, Mikel Gainza, Padraig Cunningham

Conference papers

A set in traditional Irish music is a sequence of two or more dance tunes in the same time signature, where each tune is repeated an arbitrary number of times. A turn in a set represents the point at which either a tune repeats or a new tune is introduced. Tunes in sets are played in a segue (without a pause) and so detecting the turn is a significant challenge. This paper presents the MATS algorithm, a novel algorithm for identifying turns in sets of traditional Irish music. MATS works on digitised audio files of monophonic flute and tin-whistle music. …

C-Saw---Contextual Semantic Alignment Of Ontologies: Using Negative Semantic Reinforcement, Brendan Tierney, Mike Jackson

Conference papers

Understanding the meaning of each term in an ontology is essential for successfully integrating and aligning ontologies. Much ontology integration research to date is focused on syntactic, structural and semantic matching where the actual meaning of the concepts is disregarded. The C-SAW approach to ontology alignment is based on the Contextualizing the concepts by using a set of Semantic Alignment Words (C-SAW). The C-SAW approach is enhanced by Negative Semantic Reinforcement (NSR), where additional semantic meaning can be added to the set of Semantic Alignment Words, by considering words which are unrelated to the concept.

Swelling Effects In Dynamic Equi-Biaxial Testing Of Epdm Elastomers By The Bubble Inflation Method, John Hanley

Doctoral

The thesis describes the effect of oil swelling on the fatigue life of EPDM under conditions of multi-axial fatigue using bubble inflation. The motivation for the research is outlines, along with a review of previous research conducted on the topic. Initial test results are presented and the evolution of the procedure for the final set of tests is described. One principal requirement identified when carrying out the fatigue tests was the need for constant stress control. Following development of the final test procedure, specimens were subjected to varying degrees of swelling in reference oils and cycled at constant engineering stress …

Learning Styles Of First Year Level 7 Electrical And Mechanical Engineering Students At Dit, Aidan O'Dwyer

Conference papers

This paper investigates the learning styles of first year, Level 7, mechanical and electrical engineering students at DIT, using the index of learning styles survey as developed by Felder and Soloman [1]. Student learning styles on these programmes are compared with the results from other such surveys. The correlation between student performance and their individual learning styles is examined in outline. Knowledge of the strongly visual learning style of these cohorts of students may be used to improve the learning environment.

Teaching And Assessment Of Students Taking A First Year, Level 7 Subject: Analysis And Actions, Aidan O'Dwyer

Conference papers

This contribution critically analyses the teaching and assessment strategies used on the core Electrical Systems subject in the first year of a three-year, Level 7, degree programme in Electrical Engineering at Dublin Institute of Technology. The author has the responsibility for development and instruction in the subject since 2004. In the 2004-5 and 2005-6 academic years, the didactic teaching approach and the assessment strategy ensured good educational outcomes. This was not the case in the 2006-7 academic year. The contribution will analyse the reasons for this, taking an evidence-based approach (i.e. analysing the assessment data in detail). Two conclusions that …

Sequence Analysis Based Dsp Controller For Dynamic Voltage Restorer (Dvr), N. G. Jayanti, Malabika Basu, Iurie Axente, Kevin Gaughan, Michael F. Conlon

Conference papers

The paper examines the behaviour of a dynamic voltage restorer (DVR) under balanced/unbalanced supply voltage sag condition, and restricted DVR injection capability (e.g. limited to 50% of the supply voltage injection). Sequence components of the supply voltage are extracted to generate the reference injected voltage for the DVR. The control determines the maximum possible positive sequence injection within the capacity of the compensator to achieve balanced voltage conditions at the load terminals. The control is verified through simulation and experimentation. The control algorithm has been implemented in a TI320F2812 fixed point DSP and the effectiveness of the controller is verified …

Structural Division Procedure For Efficient Ic Analysis, Michael Brutscheck, St. Berger, M. Franke, Andreas Schwarzbacher, St. Becker

Conference papers

The efficient and structured analysis of unknown CMOS integrated circuits (ICs) has become a topic of great relevance in recent years. Up until now, different invasive [1], [2] and non-invasive [3], [4] strategies have been developed for procedure of analysis. However, invasive procedures always lead to the destruction of system under investigation. The non-invasive approaches published so far have the disadvantage that ICs are analysed by using complex algorithms. Here, no subdivision exists to avoid extensive analysis times in the case that only simple structures are investigated. Moreover, traditional procedures cannot automatically distinguish between input and output pin types, which …

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Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Investigation Of Millimetre Wave Generation By Stimulated Brillouin Scattering For Radio Over Fibre Applications, Markus Junker

Doctoral

The rising demand for greater bandwidth and increased flexibility in modern telecommunication systems has lead to increased research activities in the field of Millimetre Wave-Photonics. The combination of an optical access network and the radio propagation of high data-rate signals provides a solution to meet these demands. Such structures are also known as Radio Over Fibre Systems. They implement the optical Millimetre Wave generation in a central station and the transmission of radio waves via a remote antenna unit to the radio cell. The expected data rate is very high, due to the fact that both the optical and the …

Unified Power Quality Conditioner: Protection And Performance Enhancement, Iurie Axente

Doctoral

The proliferation of power electronics-based equipment has produced a significant impact on the quality of electric power supply. Nowadays, much of the equipment is based on power electronic devices, often leading to problems of power quality. At the same time this equipment is typically equipped with microprocessor-based controllers which are quite sensitive to deviations from the ideal sinusoidal line voltage. Conventional power quality mitigation equipment is proving to be inadequate for an increasing number of applications, and this fact has attracted the attention of power engineers to develop dynamic and adjustable solutions to power quality problems. One modern and very …

Unified Power Quality Conditioner For Grid Integration Of Wind Generators, Jayanti Navilgone Ganesh

Doctoral

A Unified Power Quality Conditioner (UPQC) is relatively a new member of the custom power device family. It is a comprehensive custom power device, with integrated shunt and series active filters. The cost of the device, which is higher than other custom power/FACTS devices, because of twin inverter structure and control complexity, will have to be justified by exploring new areas of application where the cost of saving power quality events outweighs the initial cost of installation. Distributed generation (such as wind generation) is one field where the UPQC can find its potential application. There has been a considerable increase …

Antennas For Portable Communications In The Uwb And Gps Spectra., Giuseppe Ruvio

Doctoral

The thesis describes a study of antennas for solutions in emerging systems. An account of the fundamental principles of these antennas is given together with an outline of the basic electromagnetic theory on which the designs are based. While the main focus is on antennas for Ultra Wideband (UWB) systems, some additional work was carried out on enhancing performance of circularly polarised antennas for satellite navigation systems. The study focussed on the design of highly efficient broadband antennas with particular requirements for size compactness, gain stability, phase-linearity, and the use of low-cost materials. These requirements are particularly important for UWB …

Improved High-Temperature Stability And Sun-Light-Driven Photocatalytic Activity Of Sulfur-Doped Anatase Tio2, Suresh Pillai, Declan Mccormack, Pradeepan Periyat, John Colreavy, Steve Hinder

Articles

No abstract provided.

A Mobile Ecg Monitoring System With Context Collection, Jin Peng Li

Masters

An objective of a health process is one where patients can stay healthy with the support of expert medical advice when they need it, at any location and any time. An associated aim would be the development of a system which places increased emphasis on preventative measures as a first point of contact with the patient. This research is a step along the road towards this type of preventative healthcare for cardiac patients. It seeks to develop a smart mobile ECG monitoring system that requests and records context information about what is happening around the subject when an arrhythmia event …

Object Detection And Classification With Applications To Skin Cancer Screening, Jonathan Blackledge, Dmitryi Dubovitskiy

Articles

This paper discusses a new approach to the processes of object detection, recognition and classification in a digital image. The classification method is based on the application of a set of features which include fractal parameters such as the Lacunarity and Fractal Dimension. Thus, the approach used, incorporates the characterisation of an object in terms of its texture.

The principal issues associated with object recognition are presented which includes two novel fast segmentation algorithms for which C++ code is provided. The self-learning procedure for designing a decision making engine using fuzzy logic and membership function theory is also presented and …

Audio Data Verification And Authentication Using Frequency Modulation Based Watermarking, Jonathan Blackledge, Omar Farooq

Articles

An approach to watermarking digital signals using frequency modulation - ‘Chirp Coding’ - is considered. The principles underlying this approach are based on the use of a matched filter to reconstruct a ‘chirp stream’ code that is uniquely robust. The method is generic in the sense that it can, in principle, be used for a variety of different signal (the authentication of speech and biomedical signals, for example). Further, by generating a bit stream that is signal dependent, chirp coding provides a method of self-authentication, which has a wide range of applications including copyright protection and digital rights management. However, …

V-Shaped Electro-Optic Response Observed In A Chiral Ferroelectric Smectic Liquid Crystal, V. Manjuladevi, Yuri Panarin, Jang-Kun Song, B. K. Sadashiva

Articles

We report on the observation of V-shaped switching in a ferroelectric liquid crystal cell over a wide range of temperatures. Results of the optical transmittance in the visible region give us the helical pitch for various temperatures of the ferroelectric liquid crystalline compound used. We show that the helical pitch, in addition to the spontaneous polarization (PS) and thickness of the alignment layer of the cell, is an important factor in giving V-shaped switching. A longer or helical compensated mixture gives a better V-shaped switching. © 2008 American Institute of Physics.

Experimental Study Of High-Temperature Smectic-C*F12 Phase In Chiral Smectic Liquid Crystals That Exhibit Phase-Sequence Reversal, K. L. Sandhya, J. K. Song, Yuri Panarin, J. K. Vij, S. Kumar

Articles

We report the results of an experimental study of a recently observed phase sequence reversal of smectic-C*FI2 [SmC*(qT=1/2); a four layer antiferroelectric] phase appearing in the temperature range above the smectic-C* (SmC*) phase from the results of optical birefringence, spontaneous polarization, selective reflection, conoscopy, and dielectric spectroscopy. The SmC*FI2 phase is observed in an antiferroelectric liquid crystalline compound, 10OHF, in a temperature range above that of SmC*A phase and is found to be thermodynamically monotropic, i.e., it appears only upon cooling from SmC*A phase. This is also unstable as if it is once transformed to SmC* by the application of …

Extended Nonnegative Tensor Factorisation Models For Musical Sound Source Separation, Derry Fitzgerald, Matt Cranitch, Eugene Coyle

Articles

Recently, shift-invariant tensor factorisation algorithms have been proposed for the purposes of sound source separation of pitched musical instruments. However, in practice, existing algorithms require the use of log-frequency spectrograms to allow shift invariance in frequency which causes problems when attempting to resynthesise the separated sources. Further, it is difficult to impose harmonicity constraints on the recovered basis functions. This paper proposes a new additive synthesis-based approach which allows the use of linear-frequency spectrograms as well as imposing strict harmonic constraints, resulting in an improved model. Further, these additional constraints allow the addition of a source filter model to the …

Analysis Of Financial Data Using Non-Negative Matrix Factorization, Ruairí De Fréin, Konstantinos Drakakis, Scott Rickard, Andrzej Cichocki

Articles

We apply Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) to the prob-lem of identifying underlying trends in stock market data. NMF is arecent and very successful tool for data analysis including image andaudio processing; we use it here to decompose a mixture a data, thedaily closing prices of the 30 stocks which make up the Dow Jones In-dustrial Average, into its constitute parts, the underlying trends which govern the financial marketplace. We demonstrate how to impose ap-propriate sparsity and smoothness constraints on the components of thedecomposition. Also, we describe how the method clusters stocks to-gether in performance-based groupings which can be used for …

Investigation On The Performance Of Upqc-Q For Voltage Sag Mitigation And Pq Improvement At A Critical Load Point, Malabika Basu, S. P. Das, Gopal Dubey

Articles

The unified power quality conditioner (UPQC) is one of the major custom power solutions, which is capable of mitigating the effect of supply voltage sag at the load end or at the point of common coupling (PCC) in a distributed network. It also prevents the propagation of the load current harmonics to the utility and improves the input power factor of the load. The control of series compensator (SERC) of the UPQC is such that it injects voltage in quadrature advance to the supply current. Thus, the SERC consumes no active power at steady state. The other advantage of the …