107 research outputs found

    Applying project management techniques to improve due date performance: the case of a papua power plant construction in Indonesia

    Get PDF
    Obstacles can occur on a project causing nonconformance in terms of time and cost. A Power Plant in Indonesia is being constructed and the project was still underway, when a delay was anticipated. In this case, the construction progress was only 13.1% on day-92, while it should have been completed around 26.4% to finish within 184 days. This thesis purpose is to identify and analyze the delay causes, by applying Critical Path Method (CPM) and Project Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) methods. Data concerning project activities and three estimation times were collected from internal reports and semistructured interviews, as follows: optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic durations. A project schedule and the critical path were computed by using Microsoft-Excel and Microsoft-Project software to operationalize PERT/CPM methods. These results were analyzed using of s-curve, network diagram and probability calculation, to anticipate the due date achievement level. The delay causes were collected by subsequent interview and treated by the Fishbone Analysis, which enabled the following categorization of failures: labor, machine, material, environment and method. These provided support for managers to take action. Finally, a discussion concerning the traditional methods of Project Management, i.e., Design-Bid-Build, suggests that Building Information Modelling (BIM) could generate better synchronization among stakeholders, by eliminating the major source of delays. Also, the Life Cycle Assessment was found necessary to decrease carbon dioxide emissions, so the building could achieve more sustainable performances. Moreover, integrating BIM, Building Energy Modelling and LC Energy Analysis was suggested to improve project sustainability.Num projecto, há obstáculos que podem causar não-conformidades, no tempo e custo. No caso em apreço, antecipou-se um atraso numa Central Hidroelétrica em construção. No dia 92, o avanço da construção era de apenas 13,1%, enquanto deveria ter sido concluído 26.4%, para ser possível terminar o projecto em 184 dias. O objetivo desta dissertação é identificar e analisar as causas de atraso, aplicando o Critical Path Method (CPM) e a Progam Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT). Os dados relativos às atividades do projeto e às estimativas de tempos otimista, mais-provável e pessimista foram recolhidos em relatórios e entrevistas semi-estruturadas. O cronograma e caminho crítico foram calculados através do Microsoft-Excel e Microsoft-Project que operacionalizam os métodos PERT/CPM. Para antecipar o cumprimento da data de entrega prevista, esses resultados foram analisados através da s-curva, diagrama de rede e cálculo de probabilidades. As causas de atraso foram recolhidas por consequentes entrevistas e tratadas pela Análise-de-Espinha-de-Peixe, o que permitiu a categorização das falhas em mão de obra, máquina, material, ambiente e método. Finalmente, uma discussão sobre os métodos tradicionais de gestão de projetos, ou seja, DesignBid-Build sugere que o Building Information Modelling (BIM) poderia gerar melhor sincronização entre as partes interessadas, para eliminar a principal fonte de atrasos. Além disso, a Avaliação do Ciclo de Vida foi considerada necessária para diminuir as emissões de CO2, para que o edifício pudesse atingir um desempenho sustentável. Também foi sugerida a integração entre BIM, Building Energy Modeling e LC Energy Analysis para melhorar a sustentabilidade do projeto

    Taamneh v. Twitter

    Get PDF
    PETITION FOR PANEL REHEARING AND REHEARING EN BAN

    Hyperlink-extended pseudo relevance feedback for improved microblog retrieval

    Get PDF
    Microblog retrieval has received much attention in recent years due to the wide spread of social microblogging platforms such as Twitter. The main motive behind microblog retrieval is to serve users searching a big collection of microblogs a list of relevant documents (microblogs) matching their search needs. What makes microblog retrieval different from normal web retrieval is the short length of the user queries and the documents that you search in, which leads to a big vocabulary mismatch problem. Many research studies investigated different approaches for microblog retrieval. Query expansion is one of the approaches that showed stable performance for improving microblog retrieval effectiveness. Query expansion is used mainly to overcome the vocabulary mismatch problem between user queries and short relevant documents. In our work, we investigate existing query expansion method (Pseudo Relevance Feedback - PRF) comprehensively, and propose an extension using the information from hyperlinks attached to the top relevant documents. Our experimental results on TREC microblog data showed that Pseudo Relevance Feedback (PRF) alone could outperform many retrieval approaches if configured properly. We showed that combining the expansion terms with the original query by a weight, not to dilute the effect of the original query, could lead to superior results. The weighted combine of the expansion terms is different than what is commonly used in the literature by appending the expansion terms to the original query without weighting. We experimented using different weighting schemes, and empirically found that assigning a small weight for the expansion terms 0.2, and 0.8 for the original query performs the best for the three evaluation sets 2011, 2012, and 2013. We applied the previous weighting scheme to the most reported PRF configuration used in the literature and measured the retrieval performance. The P@30 performance achieved using our weighting scheme was 0.485, 0.4136, and 0.4811 compared to 0.4585, 0.3548, and 0.3861 without applying weighting for the three evaluation sets 2011, 2012 and 2013 respectively. The MAP performance achieved using our weighting scheme was 0.4386, 0.2845, and 0.3262 compared to 0.3592, 0.2074, and 0.2256 without applying weighting for the three evaluation sets 2011, 2012 and 2013 respectively. Results also showed that utilizing hyperlinked documents attached to the top relevant tweets in query expansion improves the results over traditional PRF. By utilizing hyperlinked documents in the query expansion our best runs achieved 0.5000, 0.4339, and 0.5546 P@30 compared to 0.4864, 0.4203, and 0.5322 when applying traditional PRF, and 0.4587, 0.3044, and 0.3584 MAP when applying traditional PRF compared to 0.4405, 0.2850, and 0.3492 when utilizing the hyperlinked document contents (using web page titles, and meta-descriptions) for the three evaluation sets 2011, 2012 and 2013 respectively. We explored different types of information extracted from the hyperlinked documents; we show that using the document titles and meta-descriptions helps in improving the retrieval performance the most. On the other hand, using the meta- keywords degraded the retrieval performance. For the test set released in 2013, using our hyperlinked-extended approach achieved the best improvement over the PRF baseline, 0.5546 P@30 compared to 0.5322 and 0.3584 MAP compared to 0.3492. For the test sets released in 2011 and 2012 we got less improvements over PRF, 0.5000, 0.4339 P@30 compared to 0.4864, 0.4203, and 0.4587, 0.3044 MAP compared to 0.4405, 0.2850. We showed that this behavior was due to the age of the collection, where a lot of hyperlinked documents were taken down or moved and we couldn\u27t get their information. Our best results achieved using hyperlink-extended PRF achieved statistically significant improvements over the traditional PRF for the test sets released in 2011, and 2013 using paired t-test with p-value \u3c 0.05. Moreover, our proposed approach outperformed the best results reported at TREC microblog track for the years 2011, and 2013, which applied more sophisticated algorithms. Our proposed approach achieved 0.5000, 0.5546 P@30 compared to 0.4551, 0.5528 achieved by the best runs in TREC, and 0.4587, 0.3584 MAP compared to 0.3350, 0.3524 for the evaluation sets of 2011 and 2013 respectively. The main contributions of our work can be listed as follows: 1. Providing a comprehensive study for the usage of traditional PRF with microblog retrieval using various configurations. 2. Introducing a hyperlink-based PRF approach for microblog retrieval by utilizing hyperlinks embedded in initially retrieved tweets, which showed a significant improvement to retrieval effectiveness

    Agent Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE) Approach to Game Development Methodology

    Get PDF
    This thesis investigates existing game development methodologies, through the process of researching game and system development models. The results indicate that these methodologies are engineered to solve specific problems, and most are suitable only for specific game genres. Different approaches to building games have been proposed in recent years. However, most of these methodologies focus on the design and implementation phase. This research aims to enhance game development methodologies by proposing a novel game development methodology, with the ability to function in generic game genres, thereby guiding game developers and designers from the start of the game development phase to the end of the implementation and testing phase. On a positive note, aligning development practice with universal standards makes it far easier to incorporate extra team members at short notice. This increased the confidence when working in the same environment as super developers. In the gaming industry, most game development proceeds directly from game design to the implementation phase, and the researcher observes that this is the only industry in which this occurs. It is a consequence of the game industry’s failure to integrate with modern development techniques. The ultimate aim of this research to apply a new game development methodology using most game elements to enhance success. This development model will align with different game genres, and resolve the gap between industry and research area, so that game developers can focus on the important business of creating games. The primary aim of Agent Oriented Agile Base (AOAB) game development methodology is to present game development techniques in sequential steps to facilitate game creation and close the gap in the existing game development methodologies. Agent technology is used in complex domains such as e-commerce, health, manufacturing, games, etc. In this thesis we are interested in the game domain, which comprises a unique set of characteristics such as automata, collaboration etc. Our AOAB will be based on a predictive approach after adaptation of MaSE methodology, and an adaptive approach using Agile methodology. To ensure proof of concept, AOAB game development methodology will be evaluated against industry principles, providing an industry case study to create a driving test game, which was the problem motivating this research. Furthermore, we conducted two workshops to introduce our methodology to both academic and industry participants. Finally, we prepared an academic experiment to use AOAB in the academic sector. We have analyzed the feedbacks and comments and concluded the strengths and weakness of the AOAB methodology. The research achievements are summarized and proposals for future work outlined

    BIM-based integrated management workflow design for schedule and cost planning of building fabric maintenance

    Get PDF
    The operation and maintenance (O&M) is the longest and costliest phase during the entire building lifecycle. In recent decades, with the rapidly increasing costs of new constructions, the effective maintenance has become more important to the existing buildings, particularly to their fabric components, which include both architectural and structural items for maintaining physical characteristics and ensuring normal performance of the existing building over its lifecycle. However, building maintenance costs are also increasing dramatically and this situation mainly results from the delay of maintenance work due to inefficient maintenance planning for the facility management purpose. The inefficient maintenance planning is caused due to lack of effective methods and techniques for predicting the uncertainties including schedule and costs during the maintenance stage. Therefore, this paper proposes an innovative management workflow design which integrates Building Information Modelling (BIM) with digital programming to implement efficient schedule and cost planning of building fabric maintenance. Through this BIM-based workflow design, the knowledge gap between maintenance theories and practical maintenance management can be narrowed by a consistent and sustainable building information flow, which is highly linked with the design and construction phase. This study makes a contribution to integrating the traditional maintenance management with digital technologies to improve the management performance and maintenance efficiency of the O&M phase in the future

    A Formal Approach to Computer Aided 2D Graphical Design for Blind People

    Get PDF
    The growth of computer aided drawing systems for blind people (CADB) has long been recognised and has increased in interest within the assistive technology research area. The representation of pictorial data by blind and visually impaired (BVI) people has recently gathered momentum with research and development; however, a survey of published literature on CADB reveals that only marginal research has been focused on the use of a formal approach for on screen spatial orientation, creation and reuse of graphics artefacts. To realise the full potential of CADB, such systems should possess attributes of usability, spatial navigation and shape creation features without which blind users drawing activities are less likely to be achieved. As a result of this, usable, effective and self-reliant CADB have arisen from new assistive Technology (AT) research. This thesis contributes a novel, abstract, formal approach that facilitates BVI users to navigate on the screen, create computer graphics/diagrams using 2D shapes and user-defined images. Moreover, the research addresses the specific issues involved with user language by formulating specific rules that make BVI user interaction with the drawing effective and easier. The formal approach proposed here is descriptive and it is specified at a level of abstraction above the concrete level of system technologies. The proposed approach is unique in problem modelling and syntheses of an abstract computer-based graphics/drawings using a formal set of user interaction commands. This technology has been applied to enable blind users to independently construct drawings to satisfy their specific needs without recourse to a specific technology and without the intervention of support workers. The specification aims to be the foundation for a system scope, investigation guidelines and user-initiated command-driven interaction. Such an approach will allow system designers and developers to proceed with greater conceptual clarity than it is possible with current technologies that is built on concrete system-driven prototypes. In addition to the scope of the research the proposed model has been verified by various types of blind users who have independently constructed drawings to satisfy their specific needs without the intervention of support workers. The effectiveness and usability of the proposed approach has been compared against conventional non-command driven drawing systems by different types of blind users. The results confirm that the abstract formal approach proposed here using command-driven means in the context of CADB enables greater comprehension by BVI users. The innovation can be used for both educational and training purposes. The research, thereby sustaining the claim that the abstract formal approach taken allows for the greater comprehension of the command-driven means in the context of CADB, and how the specification aid the design of such a system

    EG-ICE 2021 Workshop on Intelligent Computing in Engineering

    Get PDF
    The 28th EG-ICE International Workshop 2021 brings together international experts working at the interface between advanced computing and modern engineering challenges. Many engineering tasks require open-world resolutions to support multi-actor collaboration, coping with approximate models, providing effective engineer-computer interaction, search in multi-dimensional solution spaces, accommodating uncertainty, including specialist domain knowledge, performing sensor-data interpretation and dealing with incomplete knowledge. While results from computer science provide much initial support for resolution, adaptation is unavoidable and most importantly, feedback from addressing engineering challenges drives fundamental computer-science research. Competence and knowledge transfer goes both ways

    What Is the Relationship Between Language and Thought?: Linguistic Relativity and its Implications for Copyright

    Get PDF
    To date, copyright scholarship has almost completely overlooked the linguistics and cognitive psychology literature exploring the connection between language and thought. An exploration of the two major strains of this literature, known as universal grammar (associated with Noam Chomsky) and linguistic relativity (centered around the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis), offers insights into the copyrightability of constructed languages and of the type of software packages at issue in Google v. Oracle recently decided by the Supreme Court. It turns to modularity theory as the key idea unifying the analysis of both languages and software in ways that suggest that the information filtering associated with the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis may be a general strategy for managing complex systems that is not restricted to language. It also examines Jerry Fodor’s application of modularity theory to cognition and his Language of Thought Hypothesis to see what they reveal about the idea-expression dichotomy

    Fundamental Approaches to Software Engineering

    Get PDF
    This open access book constitutes the proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Fundamental Approaches to Software Engineering, FASE 2020, which took place in Dublin, Ireland, in April 2020, and was held as Part of the European Joint Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software, ETAPS 2020. The 23 full papers, 1 tool paper and 6 testing competition papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 81 submissions. The papers cover topics such as requirements engineering, software architectures, specification, software quality, validation, verification of functional and non-functional properties, model-driven development and model transformation, software processes, security and software evolution
    corecore