The Transmission of Control in Information Systems Projects

Control transmission represents a central problem in any type of organization. However, while prior research has extensively studied the factors influencing the choice of control modes as well as the effects and dynamics of control, the transmission of control from controller to controllee has been largely neglected in the project control literature. Our study addresses this gap by examining in-depth the transmission of control in a large IS project involving multiple control dyads. Our preliminary results suggest that outcome control transmits well through the entire project hierarchy (i.e., between senior managers and project managers as well as between project managers and project team members), while behavior control only transmits well between project managers and project team members

Partial Open Source HVDC Control

High voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission, with the help of cutting-edge power electronic technological advancements, is envisioned to be the leading mode of transmission of electric power, superseding the traditional alternating current (AC) transmission. HVDC transmission allows for the transmission of large amounts of power over much longer distances in a more efficient and environmentally friendly way than AC transmission. Moreover, HVDC technology paves the way for the integration of renewable energy sources (RES) into the electric power grid. The main attractive feature possessed by HVDC systems that allows for the integration of RESs into the electric power grid is the ability to connect two unsynchronized AC networks. This allows for a seamless transition to renewable energy power generation as opposed to traditional generation methods. HVDC systems will inevitably be responsible for the expansion of power systems in a more controlled and stable way. When it comes to the design and implementation of HVDC systems, several factors must be taken into account; namely, the architecture of the HVDC system (point-to-point or multi-terminal networks), the converter technology (voltage source converter, line commutated converter, hybrid VSC-LCC, etc.), and the VSC converter topology (2-level, 3-level, or multi-level converter topology). The main focus of this thesis revolves around the converter controls. It has been seen in several commissioned HVDC projects that interoperability plays a massive role in the successful operation of multivendor HVDC systems. Moreover, in multivendor HVDC systems, the converter control software pertaining to each vendor is kept closed. This inaccessibility of vendor-specific converter information leads to inefficient methods of handling interoperability issues. This thesis aims to propose a partially open converter control software that is hypothesized to ease investigations into converter control interactions, interoperability, and system stability issues. Functional models of the control systems are designed with the help of the software Modelio using the systems engineering language known as SysML in order to provide a higher-level perspective of the system, aiding in the understanding and proper navigation of complex HVDC converter control elementsObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::7 - Energia Assequible i No Contaminant::7.b - Per a 2030, ampliar la infraestructura i millorar la tecnologia per tal d’oferir serveis d’energia moderns i sos­tenibles per a tots els països en desenvolupament, en particular els països menys avançats, els petits estats insulars en desenvolupament i els països en desenvolupament sense litoral, d’acord amb els programes de suport respectiu

Malaria vector control at crossroads: public health entomology and the drive to elimination

Vector control has been at the core of successful malaria control. However, a dearth of field-oriented vector biologists threatens to undermine global reductions in malaria burden. Skilled cadres are needed to manage insecticide resistance, to maintain coverage with current interventions, to develop new paradigms for tackling ‘residual' transmission, and to target interventions as transmission becomes increasingly heterogeneous. Recognising this human resource crisis, in September 2013, WHO Global Malaria Programme issued guidance for capacity building in entomology and vector control, including recommendations for countries and implementing partners. Ministries were urged to develop long-range strategic plans for building human resources for public health entomology and vector control (including skills in epidemiology, geographic information systems, operational research and programme management) and to set in place the requisite professional posts and career opportunities. Capacity building and national ownership in all partner projects and a clear exit strategy to sustain human and technical resources after project completion were emphasised. Implementing partners were urged to support global and regional efforts to enhance public health entomology capacity. While the challenges inherent in such capacity building are great, so too are the opportunities to establish the next generation of public health entomologists that will enable programmes to continue on the path to malaria eliminatio

Implementation of AMI Systems in CFE-Distribution, Mexico

The Smart Grid concept has been conceived as the integration of the electrical grid (generation, transmission and distribution) and the communications network of an electric utility. Although, traditional communications interfaces, protocols and standards has been used in the electrical grid in an isolated manner, modern communications networks are considered as the fundamental enabling technologies within a Smart Grid environment. Emerging communications technologies, protocol architectures and standards can help to build a common communications network infrastructure for data transport between customer premises, power substations, power distribution systems, utility control centers and utility data centers. The Smart Grid will support traditional applications such as supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), distribution automation (DA), energy management systems (EMS), demand site management (DSM) and automated meter reading (AMR), etc., as well as new applications like advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), substation automation (SA), microgrids, distributed generation (DG), grid monitoring and control, data storage and analysis, among others. To make this possible, the Smart Grid requires a two-way wide area communications network between different dispersed areas, from generation to consumer premises. An AMI system uses communication technologies for smart meter reading several times a day to get data consumption of electricity, as well as sending outage alarm information and meter tampering almost in real time, from the meter to the control center. Currently, there are various communication technologies to implement AMI systems. This paper presents an overview of the most relevant communications technologies that can be used to implement AMI communications infrastructure such as neighborhood area networks (NAN), field area networks (FAN) and wide area networks (WAN) using different transmission media such as fiber optics, spread spectrum radio frequency, microwave, WiMax, Wi-Fi, ZigBee, cellular, and power line carrier. In addition, a review of the current state of various AMI projects around the world, including the progress in the implementation of AMI systems in Mexico, besides the evaluation performance of CFE´s AMI networks

Cross-layer Optimized Wireless Video Surveillance

A wireless video surveillance system contains three major components, the video capture and preprocessing, the video compression and transmission over wireless sensor networks (WSNs), and the video analysis at the receiving end. The coordination of different components is important for improving the end-to-end video quality, especially under the communication resource constraint. Cross-layer control proves to be an efficient measure for optimal system configuration. In this dissertation, we address the problem of implementing cross-layer optimization in the wireless video surveillance system. The thesis work is based on three research projects. In the first project, a single PTU (pan-tilt-unit) camera is used for video object tracking. The problem studied is how to improve the quality of the received video by jointly considering the coding and transmission process. The cross-layer controller determines the optimal coding and transmission parameters, according to the dynamic channel condition and the transmission delay. Multiple error concealment strategies are developed utilizing the special property of the PTU camera motion. In the second project, the binocular PTU camera is adopted for video object tracking. The presented work studied the fast disparity estimation algorithm and the 3D video transcoding over the WSN for real-time applications. The disparity/depth information is estimated in a coarse-to-fine manner using both local and global methods. The transcoding is coordinated by the cross-layer controller based on the channel condition and the data rate constraint, in order to achieve the best view synthesis quality. The third project is applied for multi-camera motion capture in remote healthcare monitoring. The challenge is the resource allocation for multiple video sequences. The presented cross-layer design incorporates the delay sensitive, content-aware video coding and transmission, and the adaptive video coding and transmission to ensure the optimal and balanced quality for the multi-view videos. In these projects, interdisciplinary study is conducted to synergize the surveillance system under the cross-layer optimization framework. Experimental results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed schemes. The challenges of cross-layer design in existing wireless video surveillance systems are also analyzed to enlighten the future work. Adviser: Song C

Cross-layer Optimized Wireless Video Surveillance

A wireless video surveillance system contains three major components, the video capture and preprocessing, the video compression and transmission over wireless sensor networks (WSNs), and the video analysis at the receiving end. The coordination of different components is important for improving the end-to-end video quality, especially under the communication resource constraint. Cross-layer control proves to be an efficient measure for optimal system configuration. In this dissertation, we address the problem of implementing cross-layer optimization in the wireless video surveillance system. The thesis work is based on three research projects. In the first project, a single PTU (pan-tilt-unit) camera is used for video object tracking. The problem studied is how to improve the quality of the received video by jointly considering the coding and transmission process. The cross-layer controller determines the optimal coding and transmission parameters, according to the dynamic channel condition and the transmission delay. Multiple error concealment strategies are developed utilizing the special property of the PTU camera motion. In the second project, the binocular PTU camera is adopted for video object tracking. The presented work studied the fast disparity estimation algorithm and the 3D video transcoding over the WSN for real-time applications. The disparity/depth information is estimated in a coarse-to-fine manner using both local and global methods. The transcoding is coordinated by the cross-layer controller based on the channel condition and the data rate constraint, in order to achieve the best view synthesis quality. The third project is applied for multi-camera motion capture in remote healthcare monitoring. The challenge is the resource allocation for multiple video sequences. The presented cross-layer design incorporates the delay sensitive, content-aware video coding and transmission, and the adaptive video coding and transmission to ensure the optimal and balanced quality for the multi-view videos. In these projects, interdisciplinary study is conducted to synergize the surveillance system under the cross-layer optimization framework. Experimental results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed schemes. The challenges of cross-layer design in existing wireless video surveillance systems are also analyzed to enlighten the future work. Adviser: Song C

Ultrasonic Data Steganography

What started off as a question on the possibly of data transmission via sound above the level of human hearing evolved into a project exploring the possibility of ultrasonic data infiltration and exfiltration in an information security context. It is well known that sound can be used to transmit data as this can be seen in many old technologies, most notably and simply DTMF tones for phone networks. But what if the sound used to transmit signals was in in the ultrasonic range? It would go generally unnoticed to anyone not looking for it with tools such as a spectrum analyzer. This could provide an unnoticed means of transmitting overhead data without the use of radio signals or physical connections, or, more clandestinely, a means to inject or retrieve data virtually undetected for espionage, control, or other malicious activity. As expected, there would obviously be issues with signal quality as the open air is heavy with environmental interference, but in specific cases as seen in the following research, a discrete sonic means of data transmission may not only be practical, but necessary for the task at hand. This project is an exploration of the practicality of ultrasonic data transmission between computers. It will include research into the topic in general from scientific, technological, and security perspectives. There will be inclusions from other research projects as well as practical applications already in existence. Interestingly, there are already some suspected, but unconfirmed planned systems as well security incidents using this technology. Finally, a short series of semi-formal (in a scientific sense) experiments conducted to provide firsthand accounts and results of the ultrasonic data transmission concept

An Assessment of PIER Electric Grid Research 2003-2014 White Paper

This white paper describes the circumstances in California around the turn of the 21st century that led the California Energy Commission (CEC) to direct additional Public Interest Energy Research funds to address critical electric grid issues, especially those arising from integrating high penetrations of variable renewable generation with the electric grid. It contains an assessment of the beneficial science and technology advances of the resultant portfolio of electric grid research projects administered under the direction of the CEC by a competitively selected contractor, the University of California’s California Institute for Energy and the Environment, from 2003-2014

Transmission Expansion in Argentina 5: The Regional Electricity Forum of Buenos Aires Province

This paper supplements analyses of Argentine transmission expansions at the federal level by looking at experience in Buenos Aires province. A Regional Electricity Forum of distribution companies has drawn up and begun to implement a ten-year transmission expansion plan. Contrary to previous fears, getting agreement between the members on investment and cost sharing has not been unduly problematic. More challenging was getting approval of the provincial government on funding. Deferring tariff reductions and using the revenues for investment facilitated the process, and now some innovative financing arrangements are underway. Again contrary to some previous suggestions, the controversial Area of Influence method was extended rather than replaced. This overcame concerns about free-riding. Progress and investment have been severely curtailed by the economic crisis in 2001 and subsequent federal government policy. The arrangements nonetheless appear to be working well, and to be conducive to more efficient transmission expansion. This confirms that it is practicable and advantageous to allow users rather than the transmission company or the regulator to propose and determine transmission investment, even in a meshed rather than radial system. An appropriate regulatory framework is needed to approve that part of the total budget to paid by distribution business consumers, but this does not require the regulator to lead or monitor the detail of the process