689 research outputs found
Subnational Determinants of Foreign Direct Investments in the Russian Federation
No full textOur purpose is to examine the determinants of subnational distribution of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in the key fifteen regions of Russia over the period of 2005-2011 using panel data. Within the most important economic regions of the country we found market seeking is still the main purpose of foreign inward investments. As a result, the size of the Russian consumer market presents a significant influence on the foreign economic activities alongside trade openness and government economic incentives. Our results from regression analysis indicate that gross regional product per capita, trade openness and the existence of special economic zones have significant positive impact on the regional distribution of FDI in the Russian Federation
Provenance-based trust for grid computing: Position Paper
No full textCurrent evolutions of Internet technology such as Web Services, ebXML, peer-to-peer and Grid computing all point to the development of large-scale open networks of diverse computing systems interacting with one another to perform tasks. Grid systems (and Web Services) are exemplary in this respect and are perhaps some of the first large-scale open computing systems to see widespread use - making them an important testing ground for problems in trust management which are likely to arise. From this perspective, today's grid architectures suffer from limitations, such as lack of a mechanism to trace results and lack of infrastructure to build up trust networks. These are important concerns in open grids, in which "community resources" are owned and managed by multiple stakeholders, and are dynamically organised in virtual organisations. Provenance enables users to trace how a particular result has been arrived at by identifying the individual services and the aggregation of services that produced such a particular output. Against this background, we present a research agenda to design, conceive and implement an industrial-strength open provenance architecture for grid systems. We motivate its use with three complex grid applications, namely aerospace engineering, organ transplant management and bioinformatics. Industrial-strength provenance support includes a scalable and secure architecture, an open proposal for standardising the protocols and data structures, a set of tools for configuring and using the provenance architecture, an open source reference implementation, and a deployment and validation in industrial context. The provision of such facilities will enrich grid capabilities by including new functionalities required for solving complex problems such as provenance data to provide complete audit trails of process execution and third-party analysis and auditing. As a result, we anticipate that a larger uptake of grid technology is likely to occur, since unprecedented possibilities will be offered to users and will give them a competitive edge
ASME 3rd International Conference on Microchannels and Minichannels, Parts A and B
No full textAndres Carrano (with James B. Taylor and Satish G. Kandlikar) is a contributing author, Characterization of the Effect of Surface Roughness and Texture on Fluid Flow: Past, Present, and Future (Keynote), pp. 11-18.
Proceedings of ASME 3rd International Conference on Nanochannels, Microchannels and Minichannels.https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/engineering-books/1053/thumbnail.jp
A quantitative data representation framework for structural and functional MR Imaging with application to prostate cancer detection
No full textProstate cancer (CaP) is currently the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States among men, but there is a paucity of non-invasive image-based information for CaP detection and staging in vivo. Studies have shown the utility of multi-protocol magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to improve CaP detection accuracy by using both T2-weighted (T2w), dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE), and diffusion weighted (DWI) MRI information. In this thesis, we present methods for quantitative representation of structural and functional imaging data with the objective of building automated classifiers to improve CaP detection accuracy in vivo. In vivo disease presence was quantified via extraction of textural signatures from T2w MRI. Evaluation of these signatures showed that CaP appearance within each of the two dominant prostate regions (central gland, peripheral zone) is significantly different. A classifier trained on zone-specific features also yielded a higher detection accuracy compared to a simpler, monolithic combination of all the texture features. While a number of automated classifiers are available, classifier choice must account for limitations in dataset size and annotation (such as with in vivo prostate MRI). A comprehensive evaluation of different classifier schemes was undertaken for the specific problem of automated CaP detection via T2w MRI on a zonewise basis. It was found that simple classifiers yielded significantly improved CaP detection accuracies compared to complex classifiers. Fundamental differences must be overcome when constructing a unified quantitative representation of structural (T2w) and functional (DCE, DWI) MRI. We present a novel technique, referred to as consensus embedding, which constructs a lower dimensional representation (embedding) from a high dimensional feature space such that information (class-based or otherwise) is optimally preserved. Consensus embedding is shown to result in an improved representation of the data compared to alternative DR-based strategies in a variety of experimental domains. A unified quantitative representation of T2w, DCE, and DWI prostate MRI was constructed via the consensus embedding framework. This yielded an integrated classifier which was more accurate for CaP detection in vivo as compared to using structural and functional information individually, or using a naive combination of such differing types of information.Ph. D.Includes bibliographical referencesIncludes vitaby Satish Easwar Viswanat
Fault Diagnosis of Semiconductor Random Access Memories
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Reason: Restricted to UIUC communityOpen Restriction set for Item 100821 on 2019-11-15T17:33:23Z with date null by [email protected] Services Electronics Program / DAAB-07-72-C-0259OpenCoordinated Science Laboratory was formerly known as Control Systems Laboratory"Author name appears as ""Satish Munkund Thatte"" in front matter
LCA comparison of 100% bio-based PET synthesized from different PTA pathways
No full textIn this study, environmental impacts of bio-based poly ethylene terephthalate (PET) resin with scenarios of three different purified terephthalic acid (PTA) production methods, which are pathways through muconic acid; isobutanol; and benzene, toluene and xylene (BTX) as intermediates, were compared. Although each scenario contains a certain amount of estimation due to the lack of information in each category, valuable environmental impact data could be obtained. In the case of the PTA 1 scenario which goes through muconic acid as intermediate, the unit process of muconic acid production was dominant for all impact categories except for aquatic eutrophication. This unit process was found to be a relatively sensitive process in the pathway to synthesize PTA, according to the sensitivity analysis. This means LCA results from the PTA 1 scenario might contain data limitations to some extent; therefore, further sophisticated LCI data will be useful to provide more accurate comparisons. In the case of the PTA 2 scenario which goes through butanol as intermediate, the unit process of isobutanol production seemed to have large impacts for each environmental index category. In the case of the PTA 3 scenario which goes through BTX as intermediate, even if the data uncertainty (LCIA data output deviation) was considered, this scenario had less impact in the global warming index than that of the other 100 % bio-based PTA scenarios according to a limited Monte Carlo simulation. Finally, the environmental impacts estimated from the above three 100 % bio-based resin scenarios were compared with those of petro-based resin scenarios. The values obtained from 100 % bio-based resin scenarios were found to be lower than those of petro-based resin for mineral extraction index.Thesis (M.S.)--Michigan State University. Packaging, 2013Includes bibliographical references (pages 137-141
A preliminary comparison of attributional and consequential life cycle assessment as specified in Ecoinvent V3.0 for packaging made of renewable and non-renewable plastic
Get PDFThe aim of this study was to determine the environmental footprint (EFP) of clamshell packaging containers made of poly(lactic acid), -PLA- a bio-based polymer, and poly (ethylene terephthalate) -PET- a petroleum-based polymer using attributional and consequential life cycle assessment (ALCA and CLCA). The main objective was to determine the EFP of these clamshell packaging containers using the newly developed Ecoinvent V3 database by the Swiss Centre for Life Cycle Inventory, and provided by SimaPro v8.2 applying ALCA and CLCA methods. A functional unit of the study was selected as 1000 clamshell containers of 1 lb capacity. The system boundary was from cradle-to-grave, and the temporal coverage was from 2008 to 2014. IMPACT 2002+ v2.11 midpoint indicator was used as the impact assessment methodology. The EFP for 10 midpoint impact categories for PET calculated according to ALCA were higher than CLCA. For PLA, 11 of 15 midpoint impact categories calculated according to ALCA were higher than CLCA. After normalization, only four midpoint impact categories: carcinogens, respiratory inorganics, global warming and non-renewable energy, were significantly different between ALCA and CLCA. The major differences in the EFP between ALCA and CLCA were the environmental benefit and the resin production stages.Thesis (M.S.)--Michigan State University. Packaging, 2015Includes bibliographical references (pages 110-114
Comparison of recycling systems at Michigan State University and Hunan University
No full textABSTRACTCOMPARISION OF RECYCLING SYSTEMS AT MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY AND HUNAN UNIVERSITYByLe KangDue to the great increase of municipal solid waste in the past decade, China is trying to develop an effective and feasible waste recycling system and keeps on seeking better recycling solutions. The United States, which is one of the developed countries with a relatively complete and advanced recycling system, is considered to be setting a good example for China to improve its own recycling system. This article compares and discusses the differences and similarities in both countries by selecting two universities, Hunan University and Michigan State University, as a starting point to explore the positive suggestions for China\u2019s recycling system. It was found that the recycling system in Hunan University is highly dependent on the instructions of its local government due to China\u2019s current recycling legislation and management system. Also, the current recycling situation in Hunan University will not change fast due to the lack of technological and financial capability of constructing a complete MRF recycling system that can continue to function as designed. The residents in Hunan University lack the recycling awareness to firmly support the improvement of the current recycling system as well. It is suggested that Hunan University take advantage of the rapid development of the Internet to increase its residents\u2019 recycling awareness, and open its recycling market for getting advanced technologies from cooperation with professional recycling companies. Also, it will be a more economical and feasible option for Hunan University to join a regional comprehensive MRF system in Changsha rather than establish its own MRF facility on campus in the near future.Thesis (M.S.)--Michigan State University. Packaging, 2015Includes bibliographical references (pages 67-73
The relative importance of selfishness and social capital motives in explaining recycling beahviors
No full text"Based on previous studies on social capital, this thesis aims to further understand social capital motives and their application in recycling behaviors in a university community."--From abstract.Thesis (M.S.)--Michigan State University. Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics, 2013Includes bibliographical references (pages 62-64
Comparing the environmental impacts of PET, PP, coated paperboard, and molded fiber frozen meal trays : a review
Get PDFIncreased public awareness of environmental impacts associated with packaging has caused companies to seek out more sustainable materials to package their goods. Investigation into the comparative environmental impact of frozen meal trays was conducted due to a perceived environmental benefit associated with a switch from traditional plastics to fiber packaging materials. Life cycle assessment (LCA) provides a highly defensible method for comparing the full life cycle impact of alternatives, but consumer perception of packaging sustainability largely focuses on material attributes associated with the end of life phase, such as recyclability and compostability. A preliminary review of published life cycle literature and a detailed look at the end of life section of the life cycle with a specific focus on consumer access to waste management infrastructure in the United States were used to better understand the comparative environmental impact of frozen meal trays produced from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polypropylene (PP), coated paperboard, and molded fiber. General trends in comparative impact between plastic and fiber alternatives were identified in published literature, but a lack of studies focused on the target package and materials indicates a need for further life cycle assessment to elucidate the comparative impact of the frozen meal trays. Analysis of consumer access to waste management showed that the ability of a package to be handled by an end of life option deemed preferable does not automatically imply associated environmental benefits will be achieved.Thesis (M.S.)--Michigan State University. Packaging, 2019Includes bibliographical references (pages 74-85
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