The Utilization of Building Information Modeling in Computer-Controlled Automatic Construction: Case Study of a Six-Room Wooden House

In the current context, Building Information Modeling (BIM) is belatedly providing the construction industry with a tool to reach higher levels of efficiency, quality and convenience. However, human errors in both management and construction job site control may cause a construction project to go over budget or behind schedule. Lastly, a construction project requires the collaboration of various parties to achieve the end goals of the various stakeholders. BIM provides one method of integrating the whole process of sharing information between those parties. Extensions to the current BIM methods may allow machines, such as construction robots to take over some of the human tasks. The aim of this study is to study future methods to reduce the human effort in construction and to improve the cost efficiency and quality for construction projects. In this thesis to look to integrate the construction processes of design, manufacture, shipment and installation and using data extracted from a BIM model, a conceptual computer-controlled, automatic construction process is developed for a pseudo robot. The pseudo robot is merely a development tool to look at the development of the conceptual phases for a real robot. Meanwhile, following the Plan-Do-Check-Action (PDCA) management cycle, the workflow of the process is designed in pseudocode. A case study of a six-room wooden house is used to illustrate the function of the automatic construction system and to verify that which information can be provided by BIM. Location control is identified in the study as the key criterion for attempting robotic construction. An object positioning solution of using a laser technique is suggested from this research. The results show that the program provides adequate information to allow the completion of the construction process. A two-level method is developed for accurate positioning of building components. Further research may focus on more complicated and special projects, more effective and accurate sensing and tracking technology

Aspect-based Sentiment Analysis in Document -- FOMC Meeting Minutes on Economic Projection

The Federal Open Market Committee within the Federal Reserve System is responsible for managing inflation, maximizing employment, and stabilizing interest rates. Meeting minutes play an important role for market movements because they provide the birds eye view of how this economic complexity is constantly re-weighed. Therefore, There has been growing interest in analyzing and extracting sentiments on various aspects from large financial texts for economic projection. However, Aspect-based Sentiment Analysis is not widely used on financial data due to the lack of large labeled dataset. In this paper, I propose a model to train ABSA on financial documents under weak supervision and analyze its predictive power on various macroeconomic indicators

Myoglobin Post-translational Modifications and Fresh Beef Color Stability

Surface color of fresh beef is the major trait influencing consumers’ purchase decisions. Fresh beef color is determined by the myoglobin (Mb) redox stability. Post-translational modifications (PTMs) play a critical role in regulating Mb structure and functionality. This thesis focuses on the PTMs in Mb and their impact on fresh beef color stability. In the first experiment, Mb PTMs in beef longissimus lumborum (LL) muscle during postmortem aging and their influence on fresh beef color stability were examined. Beef LL muscle from nine (n = 9) beef carcasses (24 h postmortem) were subjected to wet-aging for 0, 7, 14 and 21 d. On each aging day, steaks were fabricated. Instrumental color and biochemical attributes of aerobically packaged steaks were evaluated on d 0, 3, and 6 of storage. Mb PTMs were analyzed on 0, 7, 14 and 21 d of wet-aging using two-dimensional electrophoresis and tandem mass spectrometry. Aging decreased (P \u3c 0.05) surface redness, color stability, and Mb concentration. Gel image analyses identified six Mb spots with similar molecular weight (17 kDa) but different isoelectric pH. Tandem mass spectrometry identified multiple PTMs (phosphorylation, methylation, carboxymethylation, acetylation, and HNE alkylation) in these isoforms. The amino acids susceptible to phosphorylation were serine, threonine, and tyrosine, whereas other PTMs are detected in lysine, arginine, and histidine residues. Overall, Mb PTMs increased with aging. The aging-induced PTMs, especially those occurring close to hydrophobic heme pocket, could disrupt Mb tertiary structure, influence heme affinity, and compromise oxygen binding capacity, leading to surface discoloration. The second experiment was carried out to characterize the influence of vitamin E supplementation to beef cattle on the Mb PTMs in post-mortem LL muscle. Beef LL muscle samples (24 hours postmortem) were obtained from the carcasses of nine (n = 9) vitamin E-fed (VITE; 1000 IU vitamin E for 89 days) and nine (n = 9) control (CONT; diet without supplemental vitamin E) heifers. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was used to separate Mb from other sarcoplasmic proteins of beef LL muscle. Tandem mass spectrometry identified multiple PTMs (phosphorylation, acetylation, alkylation, methylation, dimethylation, trimethylation, and carboxymethylation) in protein bands (17 kDa) representing Mb. Differential occurrence of acetylation, methylation, dimethylation and trimethylation were identified in Mb from CONT and VITE samples. Additionally, PTMs at lysine residues (K87, K96, K98 and K102) were unique to CONT, whereas PTMs at K118 were unique to VITE. Overall, supplementation of vitamin E decreased the numbers of post-translationally modified residues in myoglobin. These findings suggested that dietary supplementation of vitamin E in beef cattle might protect residues in Mb, especially those located spatially close to proximal histidine, from undergoing PTMs, and thereby improving Mb redox stability

FINE-GRAINED ACCESS CONTROL ON ANDROID COMPONENT

The pervasiveness of Android devices in today’s interconnected world emphasizes the importance of mobile security in protecting user privacy and digital assets. Android’s current security model primarily enforces application-level mechanisms, which fail to address component-level (e.g., Activity, Service, and Content Provider) security concerns. Consequently, third-party code may exploit an application’s permissions, and security features like MDM or BYOD face limitations in their implementation. To address these concerns, we propose a novel Android component context-aware access control mechanism that enforces layered security at multiple Exception Levels (ELs), including EL0, EL1, and EL3. This approach effectively restricts component privileges and controls resource access as needed. Our solution comprises Flasa at EL0, extending SELinux policies for inter-component interactions and SQLite content control; Compac, spanning EL0 and EL1, which enforces component-level permission controls through Android runtime and kernel modifications; and TzNfc, leveraging TrustZone technologies to secure third-party services and limit system privileges via Trusted Execution Environment (TEE). Our evaluations demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed solution in containing component privileges, controlling inter-component interactions and protecting component level resource access. This enhanced solution, complementing Android’s existing security architecture, provides a more comprehensive approach to Android security, benefiting users, developers, and the broader mobile ecosystem