Wet Reagent Profile Sensor Visualization Tool

Indiana University Purdue University IndianapolisThe Wet Reagent Profile Sensor is a system that Roche Diabetes Care Indy uses in its diabetes test strip manufacturing process. The current system they are using involves a laser sensor that projects onto a wet reagent material after it is coated onto a substrate. The machine that applies the reagent uses averages of 800 measurement points taken by the laser sensor to determine whether or not the reagent is within acceptable limits. If the reagent applied to a given section of the material is not within acceptable limits, then that section is marked for rejection and later taken out of the roll. The current system does not store the data that is collected, display it in an easily accessible manner, nor provide direct access to the 800-point profiles. No variable option currently exists for the data collection rate and the sponsor would prefer a variable option, if possible. The objective of this project is to store and display all 800 points of data in a profile, change the frequency at which data is collected, and display a 3-D visual of the profiles. These changes and additions should be accomplished while avoiding interference with the normal production process. During the first phase of this project, the student engineers have begun analyzing the system, making design decisions and choosing between different components, planning hardware and software connections, and designing an interface for the system. In the second phase of this process, students began working with Excel, which is the software that was chosen at the end of the first phase, as well as working with the controller in order to communicate serially to a computer. Due to the change of circumstances that occurred in the middle of the second phase, students could no longer test communication options with the controller. The testing and verifying stages of the project were concluded at this point and students were asked to focus on documentation. Students created a new document that discussed all of the decisions that were made throughout the project, if the decision was used, and why or why not. Test plans were revised and updated as well.Electrical Engineering Technolog

Law Enforcement Agencies as Multiproduct Firms: An Econometric Investigation of Production Costs

In this paper we study the relationship between costs, input prices and activity levels in a sample of approximately thirty medium sized city police departments for the years 1968, 69, 71, and 73. Our interest lies in determining the functional structure of law enforcement production technology

Law Enforcement Agencies as Multiproduct Firms: Correcting Some Misconceptions

The comment by Pyle and Deadman [PD] on our paper deals with several points which arise regularly in empirical applications of economic theory and especially in applications in which firms do not operate in traditional market places. Their first point concerns the appropriate definition of output in law enforcement agencies: Is the final output deterrence of future crimes, solving existing crimes, both, or something else? PD argue that deterrence {crime prevention) is the primary output of law enforcement agencies, and from society\u27s perspective, this is undoubtedly true. But as we attempted to make clear in our paper, we were interested in modeling the decision process of an individual agency. Conversations, both with academics working in the area of law enforcement and with practitioners, convinced us that on a day to day basis, police departments were much more likely to be interested in solving crimes than in deterrence

The multi-output translog production cost function: the case of law enforcement agencies

In this paper we study the relationship between costs, input prices and activity levels in a sample of approximately thirty medium sized city police departments for the years 1968, 69, 71 and 73. Our interest lies in determining the functional structure of law enforcement production technology

Acquisition, utilization, and retention of foundational fraction concepts by middle grade students

This study investigated the acquisition, utilization, and retention of five fraction domains by middle grade students. Based on research findings, the five fraction domains that formed the conceptual analysis framework used in this study were: (1) unit fractions, (2) the whole, (3) modeling fractions, (4) comparing and ordering, and (5) benchmarks and estimation. Students who participated in the study had exhibited difficulties in mathematics and consequently were enrolled in a sixth-grade Tier II Response to Intervention (RtI) mathematics course. RtI provides additional instruction for students who have shown gaps in their learning. This RtI course was conducted utilizing a specially designed fraction curriculum. Data for the study were obtained from written records including independent student work from student booklets, preassessment and post-assessment responses, and one-on-one interviews a year later. Results from the data analysis revealed that students who were struggling with fraction concepts retained knowledge of the whole, but became confused with the multiple meanings of the whole. When modeling fractions, they understood that the partitions of the model had to be equal, but were unable to precisely draw equal partitions. The notion that fractions can be compared by the size of the partitions created by the denominator was retained over the year period. But, the students also retained the idea that the numerator was not important when comparing and ordering fractions. Finally, benchmarks and estimation were not strongly developed and, consequently, were not often used when operating on fractions.

Do management forecasts of earnings affect stock prices in Japan?

One of the major differences that has attracted a great deal of attention is the relatively high average price/earnings (PE) ratio for the stocks listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. A question sometimes raised in the popular press is whether the difference in PEs suggests that US stocks are undervalued or Japanese stocks are overvalued.1 Of course, such conjectures are not well-founded unless we understand the differences in the institutional characteristics of the two markets. Some of the differences raise subtle but important questions, such as whether a particular institutional arrangement can be adopted in other environments. Just as we have seen the transfer of US accounting practices to non-US companies active in international capital markets, certain institutional characteristics of Japan's capital markets might lead to related changes in other countries. This paper considers one such characteristic, management forecasts, which we believe to be a likely candidate for such a global transfer

How relationships between reporters and editors affect productivity in the newsroom

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on September 6, 2013).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Thesis advisor: Dr. Jeanne AbbottIncludes bibliographic references.M.A. University of Missouri--Columbia 2013.Dissertations, Academic -- University of Missouri--Columbia -- Journalism."May 2013"This study looked at the types of relationships between editors and reporters, how they regard each other personally, the desired level of editor involvement in a reporter's work, how reporters and editors define productivity and how their relationships affect productivity. Twenty staff members at three newspapers of varying circulation and staff size were interviewed and observed during one week at each newspaper. This study found that while productivity is often measured on different scales, editors look favorably on reporters' productivity when the relationship is positive. Reporters look to editors for guidance and support, which they believe improves productivity. More communication, more personal interaction and more mindful partnerships could result in even more productivity

Technical and allocative efficiency: preliminary ideas toward discrimination between the hypotheses

Two levels of efficiency lie behind the supply and demand equations of neoclassical economic theory. First, firms are assumed to be technically efficient, in that maximum output is obtained from any given mix of inputs. Second, firms are assumed to be allocatively (or price) efficient, in that input and output mixes are chosen such that profits are maximum. Although it has often been argued that firms must be efficient in a competitive economy, only a very limited amount of work has been directed to measuring the extent of any inefficiencies. In this paper we provide a framework for such measurements with a special emphasis on decomposing observed inefficiencies into technical and allocative components