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2008

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Articles 181 - 210 of 231

Full-Text Articles in Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering

Speculation And Hedging With Virtuals, Prasenjit Shil Jan 2008

Speculation And Hedging With Virtuals, Prasenjit Shil

Doctoral Dissertations

"Virtual bid" and "Virtual offer" are purely financial products offered in certain electricity markets. Theoretically, virtual bids and offers can change the electricity price as the bids and offers are stacked along with the demand and supply, respectively. This dissertation discusses how virtuals can be used to hedge and speculate in the electricity market. A statistical simulation model is developed based on the day-ahead (DA) demand and real time (RT) load data from Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator's (MISO) footprint and DA and RT price observed at Cinergy hub. The simulation models are intended to mimic the load and price …

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Evaluating The Performance Of Animal Shelters: An Application Of Data Envelopment Analysis, Brandy Heyde Jan 2008

Evaluating The Performance Of Animal Shelters: An Application Of Data Envelopment Analysis, Brandy Heyde

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this thesis is the application of data envelopment analysis to understand and evaluate the performance of diverse animal welfare organizations across the United States. The results include identification of the most efficient animal welfare organizations, at least among those that post statistics on their operations, and a discussion of various partnerships that may improve the performance of the more inefficient organizations. The Humane Society of the United States estimates that there are 4000 - 6000 independently-run animal shelters across the United States, with an estimated 6-8 million companion animals entering them each year. Unfortunately, more than half …

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Defining Risk Assessment Confidence Levels For Use In Project Management Communications, Gary Johnson Jan 2008

Defining Risk Assessment Confidence Levels For Use In Project Management Communications, Gary Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A review of the literature regarding risk management and effective risk communications identified that very few researchers have addressed risk assessment confidence levels when using risk scoring methods. The focus of this research is to develop a definition of risk assessment confidence levels for use in internal project management communications and to evaluate its usefulness. This research defines risk assessment confidence level as "The degree of certainty that the likelihood or consequence score (assigned by the risk assessor) reflects reality." A specific level of confidence is defined based on the types of analyses that were conducted to determine the risk …

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Application Of Artificial Neural Networks And Colored Petri Nets On Earthquake Resilient Water Distribution Systems, Nandini Kavanal Balakrishnan Jan 2008

Application Of Artificial Neural Networks And Colored Petri Nets On Earthquake Resilient Water Distribution Systems, Nandini Kavanal Balakrishnan

Masters Theses

"Water distribution systems are important lifelines and a critical and complex infrastructure of a country. The performance of this system during unexpected rare events is important as it is one of the lifelines that people directly depend on and other factors indirectly impact the economy of a nation. In this thesis a couple of methods that can be used to predict damage and simulate the restoration process of a water distribution system are presented. Contributing to the effort of applying computational tools to infrastructure systems, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is used to predict the rate of damage in the pipe …

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The Influence Of Acidity On Microbial Fuel Cells Containing Shewanella Oneidensis, Justin C. Biffinger, Jeremy Pietron, Orianna Bretschger, Lloyd J. Nadeau, Glenn R. Johnson, Cynthia C. Williams, Kenneth H. Nealson, Bradley R. Ringeisen Jan 2008

The Influence Of Acidity On Microbial Fuel Cells Containing Shewanella Oneidensis, Justin C. Biffinger, Jeremy Pietron, Orianna Bretschger, Lloyd J. Nadeau, Glenn R. Johnson, Cynthia C. Williams, Kenneth H. Nealson, Bradley R. Ringeisen

United States Navy: Publications

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) traditionally operate at pH values between 6 and 8. However, the effect of pH on the growth and electron transfer abilities of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 (wild-type) and DSP10 (spontaneous mutant), bacteria commonly used in MFCs, to electrodes has not been examined. Miniature MFCs using bare graphite felt electrodes and nanoporous polycarbonate membranes with MR-1 or DSP10 cultures generated >8W/m3 and ∼400μA between pH 6–7. The DSP10 strain significantly outperformed MR-1 at neutral pH but underperformed at pH 5. Higher concentrations of DSP10 were sustained at pH 7 relative to that of MR-1, whereas at pH …

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The Army Dietetic Mentorship Program: Making The Most Out Of Mentoring, M.A. Worley, M.B. Salgueiro, D.R. Hernandez, C.J. Buck Jan 2008

The Army Dietetic Mentorship Program: Making The Most Out Of Mentoring, M.A. Worley, M.B. Salgueiro, D.R. Hernandez, C.J. Buck

United States Army: Publications

To describe the Army’s Dietetic Mentorship Program and its effect on personnel and professional development of recent internship graduates.

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A Framework To Align Strategy, Improvement Performance, And Customer Satisfaction Using An Integration Of Six Sigma And Balanced, Adriana Rodriguez Jan 2008

A Framework To Align Strategy, Improvement Performance, And Customer Satisfaction Using An Integration Of Six Sigma And Balanced, Adriana Rodriguez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigated the development, implementation, and evaluation of a management methodology founded on the alignment among the strategy, performance, and customer to bring value to any organization. A case study/action research in a service organization, called Institution "Z," provided the opportunity to assess the effects of the proposed Six Sigma Scorecard (SSS) methodology in the productivity indicators (measured by cycle time, line capacity, and number of errors). The Case study/action research was conducted in three phases: Model and Concepts Design, Data Collection, and Findings. During the research, validity was pursued by using triangulation and theory to help maintain the …

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Information Retrieval Performance Enhancement Using The Average Standard Estimator And The Multi-Criteria Decision Weighted Set, Tareq Ahram Jan 2008

Information Retrieval Performance Enhancement Using The Average Standard Estimator And The Multi-Criteria Decision Weighted Set, Tareq Ahram

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Information retrieval is much more challenging than traditional small document collection retrieval. The main difference is the importance of correlations between related concepts in complex data structures. These structures have been studied by several information retrieval systems. This research began by performing a comprehensive review and comparison of several techniques of matrix dimensionality estimation and their respective effects on enhancing retrieval performance using singular value decomposition and latent semantic analysis. Two novel techniques have been introduced in this research to enhance intrinsic dimensionality estimation, the Multi-criteria Decision Weighted model to estimate matrix intrinsic dimensionality for large document collections and the …

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Generalized Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman Formulation-Based Neural Network Control Of Affine Nonlinear Discrete-Time Systems, Zheng Chen, Jagannathan Sarangapani Jan 2008

Generalized Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman Formulation-Based Neural Network Control Of Affine Nonlinear Discrete-Time Systems, Zheng Chen, Jagannathan Sarangapani

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, we consider the use of nonlinear networks towards obtaining nearly optimal solutions to the control of nonlinear discrete-time (DT) systems. The method is based on least squares successive approximation solution of the generalized Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (GHJB) equation which appears in optimization problems. Successive approximation using the GHJB has not been applied for nonlinear DT systems. The proposed recursive method solves the GHJB equation in DT on a well-defined region of attraction. The definition of GHJB, pre-Hamiltonian function, HJB equation, and method of updating the control function for the affine nonlinear DT systems under small perturbation assumption are proposed. …

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Stochastic Resource Constrained Project Scheduling With Stochastic Task Insertion Problems, Sandra Archer Jan 2008

Stochastic Resource Constrained Project Scheduling With Stochastic Task Insertion Problems, Sandra Archer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The area of focus for this research is the Stochastic Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (SRCPSP) with Stochastic Task Insertion (STI). The STI problem is a specific form of the SRCPSP, which may be considered to be a cross between two types of problems in the general form: the Stochastic Project Scheduling Problem, and the Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problem. The stochastic nature of this problem is in the occurrence/non-occurrence of tasks with deterministic duration. Researchers Selim (2002) and Grey (2007) laid the groundwork for the research on this problem. Selim (2002) developed a set of robustness metrics and used …

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Modeling Lane-Based Traffic Flow In Emergency Situations In The Presence Of Multiple Heterogeneous Flows, Amani Saleh Jan 2008

Modeling Lane-Based Traffic Flow In Emergency Situations In The Presence Of Multiple Heterogeneous Flows, Amani Saleh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, natural, man-made and technological disasters have been increasing in magnitude and frequency of occurrence. Terrorist attacks have increased after the September 11, 2001. Some authorities suggest that global warming is partly the blame for the increase in frequency of natural disasters, such as the series of hurricanes in the early-2000's. Furthermore, there has been noticeable growth in population within many metropolitan areas not only in the US but also worldwide. These and other facts motivate the need for better emergency evacuation route planning (EERP) approaches in order to minimize the loss of human lives and property. This …

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Automatic Generation Of Supply Chain Simulation Models From Scor Based Ontologies, Dayana Cope Jan 2008

Automatic Generation Of Supply Chain Simulation Models From Scor Based Ontologies, Dayana Cope

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In today's economy of global markets, supply chain networks, supplier/customer relationship management and intense competition; decision makers are faced with a need to perform decision making using tools that do not accommodate the nature of the changing market. This research focuses on developing a methodology that addresses this need. The developed methodology provides supply chain decision makers with a tool to perform efficient decision making in stochastic, dynamic and distributed supply chain environments. The integrated methodology allows for informed decision making in a fast, sharable and easy to use format. The methodology was implemented by developing a stand alone tool …

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Multiobjective Coordination Models For Maintenance And Service Parts Inventory Planning And Control, Oscar Martinez Jan 2008

Multiobjective Coordination Models For Maintenance And Service Parts Inventory Planning And Control, Oscar Martinez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In many equipment-intensive organizations in the manufacturing, service and particularly the defense sectors, service parts inventories constitute a significant source of tactical and operational costs and consume a significant portion of capital investment. For instance, the Defense Logistics Agency manages about 4 million consumable service parts and provides about 93% of all consumable service parts used by the military services. These items required about US$1.9 billion over the fiscal years 1999-2002. During the same time, the US General Accountability Office discovered that, in the United States Navy, there were about 3.7 billion ship and submarine parts that were not needed. …

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A Surrogate Measure Of Customer Satisfaction In The Manufacture Of Printed Wiring Boards, Adam Y. Maamoun Jan 2008

A Surrogate Measure Of Customer Satisfaction In The Manufacture Of Printed Wiring Boards, Adam Y. Maamoun

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this research is to determine and develop a model that is capable of accurately measuring customer satisfaction for different industries and in particularly for the Printed Wiring Boards (PWB) Manufacturers. The new model will incorporate data not being collected or utilized by the survey method of determining customer satisfaction. The method used is a weighted average of satisfaction among several researched categories with percentages that accurately represent the relative importance of multiple facets of the PWB manufacturers customer satisfaction. A very common term in quality assurance is that "What is not measured accurately can not be evaluated …

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Developmemnt Of A Modeling And Simulation Training Needs Model For Selected Defense Acquisition Workforce Communities, Lik Chun Peh Jan 2008

Developmemnt Of A Modeling And Simulation Training Needs Model For Selected Defense Acquisition Workforce Communities, Lik Chun Peh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The DoD Modeling and Simulation Steering Committee (M&S SC) identified Modeling and Simulation (M&S) as an educational objective for the Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (AT&L) workforce. Notably, past usages of M&S in system acquisitions for both DoD and commercial industry have demonstrated improvements in efficiency and effectiveness over traditional acquisition techniques. However, to achieve expected and consistent performance by this workforce in these new techniques, the M&S essential skill requirements for this workforce may be extensive. This research aims to validate the content and level of competency in selected M&S tools and technology necessary for consistent workforce performance. The notion …

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A Comprehensive Multi-Faceted Approach For Simultaneously Analyzing Organizational Performance Measures Essential For Company Su, Ana Ferreras Jan 2008

A Comprehensive Multi-Faceted Approach For Simultaneously Analyzing Organizational Performance Measures Essential For Company Su, Ana Ferreras

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Profit, ergonomics, safety, employee morale, quality, efficiency, and productivity are critical components that greatly impact company success within manufacturing organizations. Therefore, it is essential that a valid and reliable systematic approach that encompasses all of these factors be developed for use by top management in today's rapidly changing manufacturing environment. Organizational-level decisions made based upon a single goal or narrow perspective that only considers one of the aforementioned components, such as profit, while ignoring others, such as employee morale, have proven harmful to the long term viability and success of manufacturing companies. Often organizational leaders are not adequately equipped to …

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Drive-Based Modeling And Visualization Of Crew Race Strategy And Performance, Jeffrey Cornett Jan 2008

Drive-Based Modeling And Visualization Of Crew Race Strategy And Performance, Jeffrey Cornett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Crew race strategy is typically formulated by coaches based on rowing tradition and years of experience. However, coaching strategies are not generally supported by empirical evidence and decision-support models. Previous models of crew race strategy have been constrained by the sparse information published on crew race performance (quarterly 500-meter splits). Empirical research has merely summarized which quarterly splits averaged the fastest and slowest relative to the other splits and relative to the average speed of the other competitors. Video records of crew race world championships provide a rich source of data for those capable and patient enough to mine this …

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Ergonomic Analysis Of A Hair Salon, Joseph Keebler, David Schuster, Scott Ososky Jan 2008

Ergonomic Analysis Of A Hair Salon, Joseph Keebler, David Schuster, Scott Ososky

Publications

Cosmetology involves a number of diverse tasks that have been implicated in cumulative trauma disorders and in other workplace injuries. This case study presents an analysis of injury risk and prevalence in a salon. Individual, occupational, and organizational factors are considered, and potential areas where risk can be reduced are presented.

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Wavelength Selection Using The Measure Of Topological Relevance On The Self-Organizing Map, Francesco Corona, Satu Pia Reinikainen, Kari Aaljoki, Annikki Perkiö, Elia Liitiäinen, Roberto Baratti, Olli Simula, Amaury Lendasse Jan 2008

Wavelength Selection Using The Measure Of Topological Relevance On The Self-Organizing Map, Francesco Corona, Satu Pia Reinikainen, Kari Aaljoki, Annikki Perkiö, Elia Liitiäinen, Roberto Baratti, Olli Simula, Amaury Lendasse

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In This Work, We Investigated the Possibility to Perform Wavelength Selection by Exploiting the Metric Structure of the Spectrophotoscopic Measurements. the Topologically Preserving Representation of the Data is Performed using the Self-Organizing Map (Som) Where the Inputs' Significance to the Output is Computed with the Measure of Topological Relevance (MTR) on Som. the MTR on Som is a Metric Measuring the Similarity between Local Distance Matrices and We Found that Spectral Inputs with a Topology, Which Is, Close to the Outputs Are Also Associated to the Wavelengths that Chemically Explain the Influence of the Spectra to the Property of Interest. …

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Emergence Of Networks In Distance-Constrained Trade, Kumar Venkat, Wayne W. Wakeland Jan 2008

Emergence Of Networks In Distance-Constrained Trade, Kumar Venkat, Wayne W. Wakeland

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Long-distance trade has been rapidly increasing in recent years. As traders from around the world exchange goods, they form networks with traders as nodes and transactions as links. We use an agent-based model of a simple artificial economy to examine the emergence of trade networks when the distance between traders matters. Distance can become an issue if fuel for transportation becomes expensive or if greenhouse gas emissions from transportation become a major concern. We model the distance constraint as a transaction cost proportional to the amount of goods traded and the distance that those goods must be transported. We find …

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Development Of A Data Acquisition And Interface Module For A Fuel Cell Power Station, Kenan Baltaci Jan 2008

Development Of A Data Acquisition And Interface Module For A Fuel Cell Power Station, Kenan Baltaci

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Fuel cell stacks containing hundreds of individual cells are capable of generating high voltage and current values needed for transportation, commercial, residential, portable and industrial power applications. Although majority of hydrogen produced today comes from reformulated natural gas generated through a process that creates a significant amount of carbon dioxide, fuel cell is still a viable energy source for the future electrical power applications. One of the hard cases of the fuel-cell power systems is proper monitoring, instrumentation and data acquisition of system parameters such as fuel flow into the system, AC and DC voltage values, load current, humidity, power, …

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Guidelines For Deploying Wireless Sensor Network In Manufacturing: Star Topology Study Using The Rssi To Test The Network Performance, A. Hameed Madwar Jan 2008

Guidelines For Deploying Wireless Sensor Network In Manufacturing: Star Topology Study Using The Rssi To Test The Network Performance, A. Hameed Madwar

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are varying in kinds and can be used for many purposes. It can be extensively used in monitoring, reporting, and decision routines. Therefore, WSNs are very important to integrate with manufacturing since they can help not only in monitoring and decision making but also they can increase productivity and decrease the wiring costs. However, WSNs are facing some challenges in manufacturing as they need to resist the interferences that could be generated by the electrical and mechanical fields created during the manufacturing processes. Some of these interferences could be due to the high temperatures, blocks of …

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Using Agent Based Simulation And Game Theory Analysis To Study Information Sharing In Organizations – The Infoscape, Richard Donald Jolly, Wayne W. Wakeland Jan 2008

Using Agent Based Simulation And Game Theory Analysis To Study Information Sharing In Organizations – The Infoscape, Richard Donald Jolly, Wayne W. Wakeland

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Information sharing in organizations, especially the impact of sharing freely versus not sharing, was studied using game theory and agent based simulation. A game theoretic analysis was performed, and Netlogo simulations were carried out wherein some agents hoarded information while others shared information. As expected, sharing was found to greatly increase the overall amount of information within the organization. Unexpectedly, agents who share acquire more information than hoarders. This is due to the synergy that develops between groups of agents who are sharing with each other. The density of the agents is important-as the density increases, the probability increases that …

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Application Of Product Family Design For Engineered Systems In Changing Market Space, Mohit Goswami Jan 2008

Application Of Product Family Design For Engineered Systems In Changing Market Space, Mohit Goswami

Masters Theses

"The focus of this paper is on the design of an engineered system for a changing market space. Due to the dynamic nature of the customer requirements, the specification of product offerings in a particular market may change. Manufacturers need to strategically design their product portfolio in such a way that their profitability is maximized, while deploying the right number of platforms necessary for deriving product variants. Depending on the system architecture, subsystems can be classified into one of the two types: scalar subsystems and modular subsystems. Each subsystem is defined by various parameters, performance criteria, and physical compatibility constraints. …

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Business Risk In Early Design: An Approach, Rahul Basavaraj Patil Jan 2008

Business Risk In Early Design: An Approach, Rahul Basavaraj Patil

Masters Theses

"The Business Risk in Early Design (B-RED) method is a tool used to determine the potential risks in business, in the early business development stages. In order to launch a successful business in today's competitive market environment, the business should equip itself to face the risks involved in business. If the potential risks are identified even before the launch of the business, then there is an opportunity to avert risks with little or no impact to the budget and schedule. The B-RED method presented in this thesis helps entrepreneurs and people with little or no experience in business to identify …

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Formulating Hedging Strategies For Financial Risk Mitigation In Competitive U.S. Electricity Markets, Karthik Viswanathan Jan 2008

Formulating Hedging Strategies For Financial Risk Mitigation In Competitive U.S. Electricity Markets, Karthik Viswanathan

Masters Theses

"The challenges currently facing participants in the competitive electricity markets are unique and staggering: unprecedented price volatility, fluctuations in the demand, a lack of historical market data on which to test the new modeling approaches, increased competition and continuously changing regulatory structure...Electricity plant owners and purchasers of electricity may benefit from various techniques to manage price volatility. For electricity, however, no futures market is actively traded. The electricity forward market in NYMEX is in its nascent stage and is low in liquidity. Producers and purchasers of electricity may find cross-hedging electricity with natural gas futures contracts to be effective in …

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A Systematic Approach To Project Portfolio Selection For Economic Development In Municipalities: A Case Study In Vienna, Missouri, Amanda Danielle Alpaugh Jan 2008

A Systematic Approach To Project Portfolio Selection For Economic Development In Municipalities: A Case Study In Vienna, Missouri, Amanda Danielle Alpaugh

Masters Theses

"Economic development is essential for the survival of all municipalities in the United States. Economic growth, created through project implementation, brings new capital into municipalities by increasing the tax base. Smaller municipalities often struggle to implement projects that promote economic growth. These municipalities run into problems because they lack resources to hire an economic consultant and capabilities to independently complete the strategic planning process. This thesis describes an easy-to-use and easy-to-implement systematic ten-step approach to project portfolio selection for economic growth within smaller municipalities...The ten-step approach was employed in a case study performed in Vienna, Missouri. The case study involved …

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Carbon Credits And Energy Subsidies In Economic Decision Making For Confined Animal Feedlot Operation Waste Treatment, Taresh Grover Jan 2008

Carbon Credits And Energy Subsidies In Economic Decision Making For Confined Animal Feedlot Operation Waste Treatment, Taresh Grover

Masters Theses

"Released waste into the environment has always had a societal cost. Current issues with swine waste suggest that improved treatment is needed as agricultural production has become more industry-like and also as we now globally value the mitigation of global warming. The current need for and the economic support of advanced waste treatment has converged for animal agriculture, and now improved waste treatment is possible with concurrent economic benefit through alternative energy and carbon emissions. Recent changes have resulted in renewal of interest in anaerobic digestion (AD) technology with methane capture and energy production. An economic model was constructed to …

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Human Systems Integration: Training And Education Needs Analysis, Hao Zhang Jan 2008

Human Systems Integration: Training And Education Needs Analysis, Hao Zhang

Masters Theses

"Over the past decade, the military (both US and foreign) has developed a wide range of tools, techniques, and technologies for integrating human factors into systems engineering. Human Systems Integration (HSI) came forth as a new multidisciplinary field of study composed of several basic areas including Human Factors Engineering, System Safety, Health Hazards, Personnel Survivability, Manpower, Personnel, Training, and Habitability. An online survey was designed to examine education and training in HSI. 19 HSI experts responded to the survey. The feedback showed that there is a lack of high qualified practitioners in HSI. Many HSI practitioners are lacking of required …

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Forecasting Using The T-Method, Parthiv Akshay Shah Jan 2008

Forecasting Using The T-Method, Parthiv Akshay Shah

Masters Theses

"The T-method is a technique developed by Genichi Taguchi to calculate an overall prediction based on the signal-to-noise ratio without the use of Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization. The Taguchi Methods, also known as robust design principles, is used to determine the optimal levels of control factors through planning and conducting experiments, and evaluating their results. The primary goal of Robust Design is to minimize variance in the presence of noise factors to achieve a robust process. T-Method is one of the techniques evolved from Taguchi Methods. This thesis illustrates the use of the T-method and outlines it steps using four forecasting case …

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