Vision-aided Monitoring and Control of Thermal Spray, Spray Forming, and Welding Processes

Vision is one of the most powerful forms of non-contact sensing for monitoring and control of manufacturing processes. However, processes involving an arc plasma or flame such as welding or thermal spraying pose particularly challenging problems to conventional vision sensing and processing techniques. The arc or plasma is not typically limited to a single spectral region and thus cannot be easily filtered out optically. This paper presents an innovative vision sensing system that uses intense stroboscopic illumination to overpower the arc light and produce a video image that is free of arc light or glare and dedicated image processing and analysis schemes that can enhance the video images or extract features of interest and produce quantitative process measures which can be used for process monitoring and control. Results of two SBIR programs sponsored by NASA and DOE and focusing on the application of this innovative vision sensing and processing technology to thermal spraying and welding process monitoring and control are discussed

Measuring New Zealand students' international capabilities: an exploratory study

Executive summary: This exploratory study considers the feasibility of measuring New Zealand senior secondary (Years 12/13) students’ \u27international capabilities\u27. Building on background work undertaken by the Ministry’s International Division, the methodology had three components. An analysis of New Zealand and international literature pertinent to assessment of international capabilities was undertaken. Small-group workshops were conducted with 13 secondary school staff, 21 senior secondary students, and 10 adults with relevant expertise and perspectives about expression of international capabilities in post-school life. The third component was a visit to the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) to discuss similar assessment challenges in their work. What are international capabilities and why measure them? Broadly speaking, international capabilities can be described as the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values that enable people to live, work, and learn across international and intercultural contexts. These capabilities, or aspects of them, are described by a range of terms in the literature, including international knowledge and skills, global competence, global/international citizenship, global/international mindedness, and intercultural competence. The Ministry’s background work suggests international capabilities can be seen as “the international and intercultural facet of the key competencies”. Focusing on development of New Zealand students’ international capabilities could, among other things: help make more explicit what the key competencies look like when they’re applied in intercultural or international situations provide a way to open a conversation with schools about internationalisation of education support New Zealand schools to better understand, analyse, and talk about the intercultural/internationalising learning activities they already do  open conversations about cultural diversity in New Zealand schools and communities and the opportunities this can provide for intercultural learning  create an opportunity for schools to revisit parts of The New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007) vision, including the notion of students being “international citizens”  encourage schools to connect with businesses and the wider community to develop learning opportunities that help students to develop innovation and entrepreneurial capabilities and connect these capabilities with intercultural and international contexts. Measuring New Zealand students’ international capabilities could help us to better understand how the schooling system helps to “increase New Zealanders’ knowledge and skills to operate effectively across cultures.” It could feed into ongoing developments within educational policy and practice to better align curriculum, assessment, and pedagogy with the high-level goals of The New Zealand Curriculum. Looking further into the future, knowledge about how our schools support the development of students’ international capabilities could assist with longer-term redesign of educational policy, curriculum, assessment, and qualifications to keep pace as demands and pressures on learning and schooling continue to change through the 21st century

A multigrid continuation method for elliptic problems with folds

We introduce a new multigrid continuation method for computing solutions of nonlinear elliptic eigenvalue problems which contain limit points (also called turning points or folds). Our method combines the frozen tau technique of Brandt with pseudo-arc length continuation and correction of the parameter on the coarsest grid. This produces considerable storage savings over direct continuation methods,as well as better initial coarse grid approximations, and avoids complicated algorithms for determining the parameter on finer grids. We provide numerical results for second, fourth and sixth order approximations to the two-parameter, two-dimensional stationary reaction-diffusion problem: Δu+λ exp(u/(1+au)) = 0. For the higher order interpolations we use bicubic and biquintic splines. The convergence rate is observed to be independent of the occurrence of limit points

UPAYA ORANG TUA DALAM MEMBANTU PERKEMBANGAN SOSIAL EMOSIONAL ANAK PRASEKOLAH

Permasalahan dalam penelitian didasari oleh masih ada anak prasekolah yang ada di lembaga PAUD secara sosial sudah mampu bersosialisasi, akan tetapi dalam hal berinteraksi dengan teman sebaya dan guru, kurang percaya diri, kurang mandiri, kurang bisa mengendalikan emosi serta kurang disiplin. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui upaya orang tua dalam membantu perkembangan sosial emosional anak prasekolah di lembaga PAUD Melati Desa Cibukamanah Kecamatan Cibatu Kabupaten Purwakarta. Metode penelitian yang di gunakan adalah metode deskriptif. Populasi dalam penelitian ini adalah orang tua dari anak prasekolah di lembaga PAUD Melati berjumlah 30 orang. Sampel dalam penelitian ini adalah sampel total. Teknik pengumpulan data berupa angket. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa upaya orang tua dalam membantu perkembangan sosial emosional anak prasekolah yaitu dengan cara menjelaskan, mengajak, mengingatkan, mendampingi, memberikan contoh dan memberikan kesempatan. Rekomendasi untuk orang tua dan lembaga PAUD agar lebih aktif berinteraksi dengan anak dan memberikan motivasi serta pengawasan secara menyeluruh terkait dengan pekembangan sosial emosional anak.----------The problem of this research in the underlying by there are still children’s of preschool in the PAUD institutions are be able to socializing but in their interaction with their friends of the same age and teacher too, they feel lack of confidence, less independent, less control emotions and lack of discipline too. The aim of the research are to know the effort of parents in helping of the social emotion development from the childrens of preschool in the Melatis’s PAUD Institutions in the Cibukamanah Cibatu Purwakarta. The method of this research is a descriptive, the populations in this research is a parents from the childrens of preschool in the Melati’s PAUD there is about 30 persons, and the sample tobe investigated is a totality’s sample, the technique of collecting data is questionnaire. The result of the research show that the efforts of parents in helping of the social emotion development from the childrens of preschool with the explain, ask, remind, accompany, give an example and give chance too. The recomanded to the parents of PAUD’S institutions must be give more interast active with their childrens and give the all of motivation about the social emotion development

LNG-fueled vessels in the Norwegian short-sea market : a cost-effective response to environmental regulation

The objective of this thesis is to assess the environmental and economic advantages of using LNG as fuel for ships. Air emissions from ships are an increasing environmental concern. Since the shipping sector can expect to face more stringent environmental regulations in the future, LNG’s potential as a response to these regulations is analyzed. This study offers an overview of present environmental regulations as well as a description of the properties of LNG. The aim of the final analysis is to identify the cost position of LNG-fueled vessels within different sectors of the Norwegian short-sea shipping market. Net present value (NPV) analysis sets the technical framework for the economic evaluation. The analysis comes to the conclusion that using LNG as fuel for ships offers the potential for significant environmental improvement, regarding both air quality and climate protection, in all sectors subject to the analysis. Economically, LNG as fuel can compete with conventional marine fuel (MGO), at oil prices around approximately 60 $/bbl. Hence, the results of this study indicate that from both an environmental- and economic perspective the investment in LNG powered ships is strongly recommendable. The study also presents some potential barriers with regards to commercial viability and technological feasibility that need to be overcome before LNG becomes fully competitive with other fuels

Konkurranseutsetting av kommunal revisjon: En analyse av kostnadsutviklingen i norske kommuner 2000 - 2012

Denne masteroppgaven studerer hvordan organisering av kommunal revisjon påvirker revisjonskostnadene i norske kommuner. Norsk offentlig sektor har de siste tiår vært preget av debatten om ny offentlig styring. Kommuneloven fra 1992 åpnet for større frihet for kommunene til selv å organisere og administrere virksomheten. Staten definerte allikevel i stor utstrekning hva kommunene skal gjøre. Fra 1. juli 2004 ble kommune gitt mulighet til å konkurranseutsette kommunal revisjon etter eget tiltak. Den frihet kommunene har fått til selv å organisere sin virksomhet kombinert med et økende antall lovpålagte plikter innenfor kommunenes ansvarsområde har gitt et generelt større fokus på kontrollarbeid. Oppgavens teoretiske rammeverk er transaksjonskostnadsanalyse. Oppgaven er bygget opp av innsamlet datamaterialet fra 224 norske kommuner, i tillegg benyttes data for undersøkelsen til Åge Johnsen mfl. fra 2000, samt data fra Statistisk sentralbyrå. Resultatene fra undersøkelsen viser at majoriteten av norske kommuner fortsatt velger ulike samarbeidsløsninger når valget på organisasjonsform for den kommunale revisjonen skal tas. I dag har 53 norske kommuner helt eller delvis konkurranseutsatt sin kommunale revisjon. Kommuner som velger å konkurranseutsette sin kommunale revisjon har lavere kostnad per innbygger når kostnadene kontrolleres for kommunestørrelse, organisasjonsform og politisk regime. Kostnader knyttet til kommunal revisjon har gått ned i perioden 2000 til 2012.This master thesis evaluates how deregulation of municipal auditing gives different organizational opportunities which influence the audit costs. Norwegian public sector has in recent decades been characterized by a debate about new public management. The local Government Act was changed in 1992. The reform allowed the local authorities greater freedom to organize and manage the public services. National government still defines the main tasks for the municipalities. In 2004 the local authorities were allowed to reorganize and contract out municipal auditing on their own motion. The freedom local authorities achieved combined with increasing statutory duties has given a generally greater focus on control and audit. The theoretical framework is transaction cost analysis and agent theory. This thesis was put together by collecting data from 224 Norwegian municipalities. In addition to data form the survey conducted by Åge Johnsen et al in 2000, and data form Statistisk sentral byrå. The results from the survey shows that the majority of Norwegian municipalities still prefers to use cooperative organizational structures to perform the local audit. Today 53 Norwegian municipalities have chosen to use the method of contracting out their local audit. The municipalities that have chosen the contracting out method, either hole og partly, have lover cost per capita than the other municipalities, controlled for municipality size, organizational form og political regime. Cost per capita has decreased in the period 2000 to 2012.Master i styring og ledels

The Financial Services Cluster of the Twin Cities Microeconomics of Competitiveness: Firms, Clusters and Economic Development

The Twin Cities financial services cluster is an important regional financial center, and ranked eighth in the country among U.S. metropolitan areas in financial services employment in 2008. On the national level, New York and Chicago maintain a durable advantage as the nation’s top financial centers due to their stock exchanges and agglomeration economies that have developed due to their historical prominence in the industry. Although not employing as many financial services workers as the largest metropolitan areas, the state of Connecticut’s financial services industry has recently emerged as a leader due to its close proximity to traditional financial centers and an effort to offer lower costs and a better quality of life. The Twin Cities ’ competitive advantage rests in its highly educated population and high quality of life, which has led to the development and retention of a large number of Fortune 500 and Fortune 1,000 companies and results in the need for a sophisticated financial services industry. Twin Cities ’ depository institutions and securities brokerages may not have large job creation potential due to the local and regional nature of the demand for their services. In contrast, the insurance subcluster has a much greater opportunity for employment growth because it exports its products across the country. Minnesota’s strong concentration of health insurance carriers