Software control for an airborne real-time data acquisition and recording system

Includes bibliographical references.A real-time microprocessor based airborne data acquisition system is described with emphasis on the real-time control software. The system is being currently used by a wide number of airlines in their jetliners for monitoring aircraft performance during flight and recording such data on what is commonly known as the "black box" recorder. The system was primarily developed for use in the new generation of airliners by Boeing Aircraft Company, namely the Boeing 767 and the Boeing 757. At the time of writing this report however, its use has extended to some European aircraft manufacturers, namely Airbus Industries and Fokker. The entire project was a team effort, especially in the design of the hardware. The author's part in this project was the complete design, development and implementation of the real-time control software, including some involvement at a systems level in the hardware design

U.S. monetary policy and herding: Evidence from commodity markets

This paper investigates the presence of herding behavior across a spectrum of commodities (i.e., agricultural, energy, precious metals, and metals) futures prices obtained from Datastream. The main novelty of this study is, for the first time in the literature, the explicit investigation of the role of deviations of U.S. monetary policy decisions from a standard Taylor-type monetary rule, in driving herding behavior with respect to commodity futures prices, spanning the period 1990-2017. The results document that the commodity markets are characterized by herding, while such herding behavior is not only driven by U.S. monetary policy decisions, but also such decisions exert asymmetric effects this behavior. An additional novelty of the results is that they document that herding is stronger in discretionary monetary policy regimes.N/

How to motivate and engage generation 'clash of clans' at work? Emergent properties of business gamification elements in the digital economy

Organisations are currently lacking in developing and implementing business systems in meaningful ways to motivate and engage their staff. This is particularly salient as the average employee spends eleven cumulative years of their life at work, however less than one third of the workforce are actually engaged in their duties throughout their career. Such low levels of engagement are particularly prominent with younger employees, referred to as Generation Y (GenY), who are the least engaged of all groups at work. However they will dedicate around five cumulative years of their life immersed playing video games such as ‘Clash of Clans’, whether for social, competitive, extrinsic, or intrinsic motivational factors. Using behavioural concepts derived from video games, and applying game design elements in business systems to motivate employees in the digital economy, is a concept which has come to be recognised as Business Gamification. Thus, the purpose of this research paper is to further our understanding of game design elements for business, and investigate their properties from design to implementation in gamified systems. Following a two year ethnographic style study with both a system development, and a communication agency largely staffed with GenY employees, findings suggest properties in game design elements are emergent and temporal in their instantiations

Handbook of the Economics of Finance

Behavioral finance argues that some financial phenomena can plausibly be understood using models in which some agents are not fully rational. The field has two building blocks: limits to arbitrage, which argues that it can be difficult for rational traders to undo the dislocations caused by less rational traders; and psychology, which catalogues the kinds of deviations from full rationality we might expect to see. We discuss these two topics, and then present a number of behavioral finance applications: to the aggregate stock market, to the cross-section of average returns, to individual trading behavior, and to corporate finance. We close by assessing progress in the field and speculating about its future course.

Nanoindentation analysis as a two-dimensional tool for mapping the mechanical properties of complex surfaces

Instrumented indentation (referred to as nanoindentation at low loads and low depths) has now become established for the single point characterization of hardness and elastic modulus of both bulk and coated materials. This makes it a good technique for measuring mechanical properties of homogeneous materials. However, many composite materials are composed of material phases that cannot be examined in bulk form ex situ (e.g., carbides in a ferrous matrix, calcium silicate hydrates in cements, etc.). The requirement for in situ analysis and characterization of chemically complex phases obviates conventional mechanical testing of large specimens representative of these material components. This paper will focus on new developments in the way that nanoindentation can be used as a two-dimensional mapping tool for examining the properties of constituent phases independently of each other. This approach relies on large arrays of nanoindentations (known as grid indentation) and statistical analysis of the resulting data.French Ministry of Public Work

Effects of pre-treatment using waste quarry dust on the adherence of recycled tyre rubber particles to cementitious paste in rubberised concrete

This research is focused on improving the mechanical response of rubberised concrete, with the objective of enhancing its weak Interfacial Transition Zone (ITZ). Pre-treatment of recycled tyre rubber particles by another material that is otherwise considered as waste, Waste Quarry Dust (WQD), diminished the hydrophobicity of rubber and subsequently eliminated excessive fluid repelling during mixing, key in reducing the gaps observed at the interface via SEM imaging. The pre-treatment consequently allowed for improved compressive strength; results indicate an increase of 282% and 276% in the 7 and 28-day compressive strength, respectively, for the selected rubberised concrete mixture

Rubberised concrete refinement by cement substitution and rubber particle pretreatment

Re-use of End-of-life tyre components into concrete is a viable solution to the environmental issue of tyre waste that can result in promising, high added value concrete applications. End-of-life tyre particles are added to conventional concrete by replacement of a percentage of its aggregate content, improving concrete deformability. The material is currently in the initial stages of research for structural applications, with weakness observed over the interfacial transition zone between the rubber and cement paste. This paper examines the potential of cement substitution by a combination of micro and nanoscale silica particles as well as the effect of rubber pre-treatment by coating with a Diabase quarry dust slurry for surface modification; aiming to refine the rubber/cement paste interface in rubberised concrete, thus improving its compressive strength and consequently structural performance. The effectiveness of cement substitution and rubber treatment methods is measured by comparison of the samples compressive strength at 7 and 28 days and detected in microscopic observations of hardened rubberised concrete samples. It is indicated the rubber pre coating method investigated is a promising procedure, proven to be effective in reducing the porosity at the rubber-cement paste interface and increasing the 28-day concrete compressive strength more than twice