958 research outputs found

    Under construction: infrastructure and modern fiction

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    In this dissertation, I argue that infrastructural development, with its technological promises but widening geographic disparities and social and environmental consequences, informs both the narrative content and aesthetic forms of modernist and contemporary Anglophone fiction. Despite its prevalent material forms—roads, rails, pipes, and wires—infrastructure poses particular formal and narrative problems, often receding into the background as mere setting. To address how literary fiction theorizes the experience of infrastructure requires reading “infrastructurally”: that is, paying attention to the seemingly mundane interactions between characters and their built environments. The writers central to this project—James Joyce, William Faulkner, Karen Tei Yamashita, and Mohsin Hamid—take up the representational challenges posed by infrastructure by bringing transit networks, sanitation systems, and electrical grids and the histories of their development and use into the foreground. These writers call attention to the political dimensions of built environments, revealing the ways infrastructures produce, reinforce, and perpetuate racial and socioeconomic fault lines. They also attempt to formalize the material relations of power inscribed by and within infrastructure; the novel itself becomes an imaginary counterpart to the technologies of infrastructure, a form that shapes and constrains what types of social action and affiliation are possible

    An analysis of current and future electricity production from biogas in Germany

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    In this work a process simulation model identifies the most profitable German biogas plant types and sizes. Small manure and large-scale biowaste plants are currently the most economically attractive installations whereas the valorization of energy crops turns out to be unprofitable. Future developments are assessed with the help of a regional optimization model under constraints. Capacity expansion concerns small-scale manure and biowaste installations rather than plants based on energy crops

    Security and Authenticity of AI-generated code

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    The intersection of security and plagiarism in the context of AI-generated code is a critical theme through- out this study. While our research primarily focuses on evaluating the security aspects of AI-generated code, it is imperative to recognize the interconnectedness of security and plagiarism concerns. On the one hand, we do an extensive analysis of the security flaws that might be present in AI-generated code, with a focus on code produced by ChatGPT and Bard. This analysis emphasizes the dangers that might occur if such code is incorporated into software programs, especially if it has security weaknesses. This directly affects developers, advising them to use caution when thinking about integrating AI-generated code to protect the security of their applications. On the other hand, our research also covers code plagiarism. In the context of AI-generated code, plagiarism, which is defined as the reuse of code without proper attribution or in violation of license and copyright restrictions, becomes a significant concern. As open-source software and AI language models proliferate, the risk of plagiarism in AI-generated code increases. Our research combines code attribution techniques to identify the authors of AI-generated insecure code and identify where the code originated. Our research emphasizes the multidimensional nature of AI-generated code and its wide-ranging repercussions by addressing both security and plagiarism issues at the same time. This complete approach adds to a more profound understanding of the problems and ethical implications associated with the use of AI in code generation, embracing both security and authorship-related concerns

    Tradition and Innovation in Construction Project Management

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    This book is a reprint of the Special Issue 'Tradition and Innovation in Construction Project Management' that was published in the journal Buildings

    Understanding Persistent-Memory Related Issues in the Linux Kernel

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    Persistent memory (PM) technologies have inspired a wide range of PM-based system optimizations. However, building correct PM-based systems is difficult due to the unique characteristics of PM hardware. To better understand the challenges as well as the opportunities to address them, this paper presents a comprehensive study of PM-related issues in the Linux kernel. By analyzing 1,553 PM-related kernel patches in-depth and conducting experiments on reproducibility and tool extension, we derive multiple insights in terms of PM patch categories, PM bug patterns, consequences, fix strategies, triggering conditions, and remedy solutions. We hope our results could contribute to the development of robust PM-based storage systemsComment: ACM TRANSACTIONS ON STORAGE(TOS'23

    Analysis, Design and Fabrication of Micromixers, Volume II

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    Micromixers are an important component in micrototal analysis systems and lab-on-a-chip platforms which are widely used for sample preparation and analysis, drug delivery, and biological and chemical synthesis. The Special Issue "Analysis, Design and Fabrication of Micromixers II" published in Micromachines covers new mechanisms, numerical and/or experimental mixing analysis, design, and fabrication of various micromixers. This reprint includes an editorial, two review papers, and eleven research papers reporting on five active and six passive micromixers. Three of the active micromixers have electrokinetic driving force, but the other two are activated by mechanical mechanism and acoustic streaming. Three studies employs non-Newtonian working fluids, one of which deals with nano-non-Newtonian fluids. Most of the cases investigated micromixer design

    Integration of Flywheel Energy Storage Systems in Low Voltage Distribution Grids

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    A Flywheel Energy Storage System (FESS) can rapidly inject or absorb high amounts of active power in order to support the grid, following abrupt changes in the generation or in the demand, with no concern over its lifetime. The work presented in this book studies the grid integration of a high-speed FESS in low voltage distribution grids from several perspectives, including optimal allocation, sizing, modeling, real-time simulation, and Power Hardware-in-the-Loop testing

    Accounting in action in the New Zealand health reform process: an analysis informed by a specific case study of a major health provider

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    This thesis constitutes an empirical study of accounting in action, focussing attention on patient based cost systems. The thesis contributes an in depth understanding of the mobilisation of casemix and related information systems at a large regional hospital, Health Waikato (HW), in the centre of the North Island of New Zealand. The field research consisted of primarily unstructured and semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis. I present the research in the later part of the thesis from a constructionist, interpretive perspective. This consists of richly descriptive case studies of aspects of the change process as it has impacted upon the research site. The themes of the analysis are related, at the macro level, to the resurrection of neoclassical economics policies and the relative ascendancy of free market solutions. The process through which areas of knowledge and in this case particularly public policy become problematised is explicated. My research attempts to describe the experiences and perceptions of medical and managerial\financial staff at a work unit level within a single hospital. A part of this process has involved investigation of the implementation of traditional accounting technologies in unfamiliar environments. The research is primarily concerned to elaborate upon the social context of accounting systems implementation using theoretical insights derived from Latour (particularly: 1987, 1993). The research has sought to explicate the change process as a process of translation. Traditional accounting techniques have been explicated as “black box” technology with which the organisation has been redefined in economic terms. In the study, the power of accounting in the translation and inscription of data (the fabrication of accounting systems per Preston et al, 1992), is central to understanding the role of accounting systems as technology. Drawing from the work of Latour helps to provide a frame of reference to allow an assimilation of disparate changes and influences as they have come to affect the health sector at a national level, within New Zealand, and also at an organisational level, within a large regional health provider. The research contributes in explicating the relevance of Latour’s rules of method, and underlying theoretical framework for an organisational analysis focusing upon accounting. Latour uses a very general conception of technology which encompasses anything emerging from what he terms the process of “translation”. In this context Latour uses the term to refer to the production or “fabrication” of “quasi-objects”. This is most easily seen as consisting of the physical objects which “populate our western societies”, but for Latour also includes inscriptions and “facts/artefacts”. I regard accounting and information systems as consisting of mixtures (or perhaps “collectives”) of technological quasi-objects in this very general sense. The focus of the research has been upon the identification of problems, the choice of accounting techniques and their implementation. Together with other devices the use of accounting techniques may be seen as a central part of the process through which change is made acceptable within the organisation. Supporters are enrolled into the change process in part by being exposed to the accounting inscriptions which are used to represent the cost and profit “reality” of their unit and the whole organisation. The research process has involved detailed investigation on a case by case basis to enable a thorough description of the accounting techniques being put in place. The title of the thesis is based on Latour (1987) "Science in Action". Conventions developed in Actor Network Theory might suggest my title would be better understood as "Accounting as Actant" but it seems to me that Latour was clearly aware of this same point when he chose this title for his book

    7° Jornadas ITEE 2023

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    En esta publicación se reúnen los trabajos y resúmenes extendidos presentados en las VII Jornadas de Investigación, Transferencia, Extensión y Enseñanza (ITEE), de la Facultad de Ingeniería de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata, organizadas por la Secretaría de Investigación y Transferencia de dicha facultad, que tuvieron lugar entre el 25 y el 27 de abril de 2023.Facultad de Ingenierí

    Operational Research: methods and applications

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    This is the final version. Available on open access from Taylor & Francis via the DOI in this recordThroughout its history, Operational Research has evolved to include methods, models and algorithms that have been applied to a wide range of contexts. This encyclopedic article consists of two main sections: methods and applications. The first summarises the up-to-date knowledge and provides an overview of the state-of-the-art methods and key developments in the various subdomains of the field. The second offers a wide-ranging list of areas where Operational Research has been applied. The article is meant to be read in a nonlinear fashion and used as a point of reference by a diverse pool of readers: academics, researchers, students, and practitioners. The entries within the methods and applications sections are presented in alphabetical order. The authors dedicate this paper to the 2023 Turkey/Syria earthquake victims. We sincerely hope that advances in OR will play a role towards minimising the pain and suffering caused by this and future catastrophes
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