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2014 — Mutex Pair Detection for Improving Abstraction-based HeuristicsRésumé
Problem solving is a very important aspect of arti cial intelligence. This thesis focuses on problems that can be formulated as search problems in a state space. Since blindly searching in a large state space is usually not enough for solving real world problems, it is required to equip the search algorithms with heuristics (estimates of the distance from any state to the goal) to guide the search. Further, the more accurate the heuristic function the more e cient the heuristic search algorithm will be. A popular way for creating domain-independent heuristic functions is by using abstraction, an abstract (coarse) … Lire la suite
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2014 — American Dreams: Portrayals of Race, Class, and 21st Century Capitalism in David Simon and Ed Burns’ The Wire,Résumé
From 2002-2008, the television series, The Wire, realistically conveyed the inner city problems of Baltimore, with a particular focus on the drug trade and its social and psychological effects on Baltimore’s black underclass. This dissertation values The Wire as a major achievement in television, for its sophisticated and intricate approach in exposing and critiquing systemic problems of inequality, disenfranchisement of the inner city black community, and bureaucratic dysfunction, and, in doing so, portrays the American Dream as a fallacy. By utilizing a Marxist ideological critique of late market capitalism I examine how The Wire positions Baltimore’s underclass in contention with … Lire la suite
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2014 — The Political Philosophy and Historical Origins of the Second Amendment to the US ConstitutionRésumé
The Second Amendment to the US Constitution states that a well regulated militia and the right of the people to bear arms are necessary for the security of a free state. What were the philosophical and historical origins of this hallmark of American freedom? What was the ‘militia’ understood to mean for the founding generation of Americans? How have the courts and legislatures of the United States played a role in shaping the outcome of this right? The right to bear arms is derived from a graduation of historical ideas that culminated in the American War for Independence. It is … Lire la suite
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2014 — Predictors of Work Engagement Among Teachers in Regina and SaskatoonRésumé
There are numerous studies that explore employee work engagement; however, the research is lacking in the area of teacher work engagement in Saskatchewan. This study was based on archived research in which 745 teachers within two urban centers, Regina and Saskatoon, completed a survey regarding their work-life and work-related engagement. The goal of this study was to determine predictors of teacher work engagement. The results of correlational analyses revealed that both job-related control and recognition are correlated positively with work engagement. A hierarchical regression analysis determined that work-related resources are the strongest predictor of work engagement and resulted in a … Lire la suite
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2014 — The Performance of Realistic Simulation over Vehicular NetworksRésumé
Allowing a vehicle on road to communicate real-time information on speed, braking and lane changing activities with other vehicles can help avoid accidents and traffic congestion. Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET) is a network that involves moving vehicles within certain range of distance to communicate with each other, thus forming a network. A VANET turns every participating vehicle into a wireless router or node that allows them to communicate with each other. Although, a VANET provides safety measures and improves traffic efficiency, they are highly expensive to be used by all vehicles on roads. Several VANET simulators have been developed to … Lire la suite
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2014 — An Application of Artificial Neural Networks in Forecasting Future Oil Price Return VolatilitiesRésumé
This study focuses on a novel application of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) in Financial Engineering. Here Artificial Neural Networks are applied for simulating both direct and inverse of some financial models. This study comprises of four parts. In first two parts, the ANNs are applied to forecast via forward/direct functions the future volatilities of crude oil future prices. In parts three and four, the ANNs are to simulate the inverse functions of option and compound options pricing models. Considering the recent importance of commodities in the world economy, it is very important to have a precise prediction of the price … Lire la suite
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2014 — Plan “B” Strategies: A Qualitative Inquiry of High Schools’ Contingency Plans for Targeted School ViolenceRésumé
Targeted school violence (TSV), or armed attacks in schools, represent an essential part of school safety planning similar to fire drills (Lassiter & Perry, 2009), despite the rarity of both. Typically, schools use lockdown or evacuation procedures to respond to a TSV event. However, there are many types of violent events and variables within each situation. Therefore, it is argued that TSV emergency preparedness requires multiple plans (McDaniel & Ellis, 2008), or flexible responses that can accommodate diverse incidents, particularly what occurs during the event; once the perpetrator(s) enter(s) the premises until the arrival of law enforcement (Buerger & Buerger, … Lire la suite
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2014 — Exploring the Relationship Between Cheerleading Injury, Coping Skills, and Athlete Burnout with PerformanceRésumé
Cheerleading is transitioning from a dance-like activity to an acrobatic, gymnastic-like sport. In the process, injuries have increased substantially, including higher rates of catastrophic injury. To date, no studies have addressed the psychological wellness of performers in relation to injury rates among cheerleaders, or used these psychometric measures over short time-frames. This study has two main objectives. Objective #1 is to explore the difference in scores between the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire (ABQ; Raedeke & Smith, 2001) and the Athletic Coping Skills Inventory-28 (ACSI-28; Smith, Schutz, Smoll, & Ptacek, 1995) over a short duration, high-intensity performance timeframe. Objective #2 is to … Lire la suite
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2014 — An Unsettling Journey: White Settler Women Teaching Treaty in SaskatchewanRésumé
In 2008, Treaty education was mandated in every grade and every subject in Saskatchewan; this was done in an effort to increase understanding of the significance of the numbered treaties and honouring the promises made. Despite this mandate, many teachers remain ignorant to the monumental role that treaties played in the foundation of Canada and the importance of treaty education. Using Indigenous and narrative methodologies as a theoretical framework for my research, I conducted a multiple case study, including myself as a participant, which explores the experiences of white settler women who are engaged with learning and teaching about treaties. … Lire la suite
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2014 — Conversations With Coyote: Philosophizing Through StoriesRésumé
From the time of Plato, stories have been important epistemological tools that aid and promote understanding in Western culture. Today this tool is often relegated to the realm of the primitive with no contemporary value or power. In this thesis, I argue that the stories we tell inherently and irrevocably matter. Understanding one another can be aided by attending to the stories we have told and continue to tell. In Canada, stories have shaped (for good or for ill) our identities, institutions and ways of being in the world. Due to the ability of stories to shape social and political … Lire la suite
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2014 — Ordinary Ethics and the Ethics Code of the American Anthropological AssociationRésumé
The anthropological theory of “ordinary ethics” makes the established case that ethics involves judgements made in specific situations and using criteria acquired through social interaction, but emphasises that ethics are usually relatively implicit, becoming explicit in response to crisis, controversy, and change. One of the questions raised by this theoretical perspective concerns the relationship of implicit ethical judgments to more explicit forms of ethics, such as an ethics code. To address this question, this study applies the theory of ordinary ethics to the ethics code of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), the largest professional association for anthropologists. This thesis also … Lire la suite
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2014 — The March of Remembrance and Hope: Critical Pedagogy and Social Justice ActivismRésumé
The March of Remembrance and Hope is a nine day Holocaust genocide study that takes a diverse group of University students from across Canada to Germany and Poland. Together with survivors, academics, and social workers, the participating students engage in a critical, place-based study of the Holocaust. This thesis explores the experiences of nine individuals, including the researcher, on the 2010 March. Informed by critical theory with its focus on identifying and analysing structures of dominance, power and privilege, the research is attentive to the influence of critical pedagogical practices during the March for participants. More specifically, critical empathy and … Lire la suite
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2014 — Robust Mini-Fracturing/DFIT Modeling and Analysis Using Semi-Analytical StrategyRésumé
This thesis concentrates on mini-fracture propagation and closure, providing an innovative way to analyze this process. Source and sink function is implemented as a theoretical foundation to build the modeling strategy. A robust model is successfully developed to investigate fracture propagation by taking initial formation breakdown pressure, expansion of wellbore fluid after fracture initiation into consideration, which have always been ignored in literature by former researchers. Using injecting rate as the reference rate, dimensionless fracturing fluid leak-off rate normally described as flux term can be effectively coupled when source and sink function method is implemented. The dimensionless fracture volume growing … Lire la suite
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2014 — Evaluation of Low Saline “Smart Water” Enhanced Oil Recovery in Light Oil ReservoirsRésumé
With the depletion of natural driving forces responsible for pushing the oil from reservoirs and declining oil recovery after the secondary recovery stage, emphasis is now on EOR techniques. Low saline water (LSW) flooding is a type of EOR that has gained immense attention among researchers due to its ease of use, lower cost, and environmentally friendly nature. Previously, researchers have focused on the quantity and compatibility of water to be injected, but recently, it has been recognized that more OOIP can be displaced by decreasing the brine salinity. Though low salinity effects have been seen in various lab-scale core … Lire la suite
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2014 — Modeling Flocculation in Sedimentation Tank with Depth-Averaged MethodRésumé
Sedimentation tanks are engineering constructions commonly used at water and wastewater treatment facilities, especially the rectangular sedimentation tanks. The construction, design, and maintenance of settling tanks greatly influences the accuracy of predictions of removal efficiency, thickness of sediment depositions, and particle size distributions in effluent. A one-dimensional mathematical model has been created to simulate the rectangular sedimentation tank and evaluate flocculation influence by using depth-averaged method. The model could be used for unsteady flow and nonuniform particles, and predict important information such as removal efficiency, sludge thickness, particle and sludge size distribution. By using the depth-averaged method with finite difference … Lire la suite
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2014 — Marginalization, Empowerment and Multiple Performances: An Examination of Highly Identified, Displaced Female Sport FansRésumé
Although research shows women attend and consume sport events and products (Fink, Trail, & Anderson, 2002; James & Ridinger, 2002; Robinson & Trail, 2005), they continue to be marginalized as inauthentic sport fans because they are seen as exhibiting non-traditional characteristics and behaviours (Pope, 2011; Pope & Williams, 2011). They are assumed to lack knowledge about the sport and teams, and to attend sport events only to socialize (Crawford & Gosling, 2004; Dietz-Uhler, Harrick, End, & Jacquemotte, 2000; Gosling, 2007). Yet, being a sport fan is important for some women and plays a role in the construction of their identity … Lire la suite
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2014 — Unified Approach to Partially Linear Model and Cox Proportional Hazards Model with Missing CovariatesRésumé
In regression analysis the problem of missing covariate data is common in various fields of application. Many methods have been developed to deal with this problem in the past three decades. These methods are workable under most missing data scenarios. However, when missing covariate data appear in a general missing data pattern, many methods become too complicated in computation. In this thesis, we extend the unified approach of Chen and Chen (2000) and Zhao et al. (2013) to deal with partially linear model (Engle et al., 1986) and Cox proportional hazards model (Cox, 1972) with missing covariates. The unified approach … Lire la suite
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2014 — Climate Change: Vulnerability and Adaptation, A Case Study of Men and Women Farmers in EritreaRésumé
This study is based on qualitative research conducted by the writer using semi-structured interviews with key informants, including elderly male and female farmers. An analysis based on a theoretical framework of vulnerability and coping mechanisms was also conducted on the lived experience of farmers in Berik, in the Central Highlands, and Barentu/Sosona, in the lowlands of Gash Barka, related to climate change, including some practical recommendations they made to help them in their daily struggles for food security. Eritrea is a sub-Saharan African country suffering from food insecurity due to climate change. Subsistence-level rain-fed mixed crops and livestock comprised 95% … Lire la suite
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2014 — Paleoecological and paleohydrological reconstruction of Holocene deposits of the Cauca River based on diatoms and sedimentological analysesRésumé
Lithofacies and diatom analyses of the Holocene deposits of Sucre, Las Flores, and the San Nicolás core in the middle Cauca Valley, Colombia, indicate that these sedimentary successions were deposited between ~4,300 and <200 cal yr BP, under different hydrological conditions. Based upon a study of diatoms, dominated by aerophil and benthic taxa, and sedimentological analyses it is suggested that the Sucre section was deposited in a proximal environment as indicated by incipient soils, ephemeral swamps, and high-energy river pulses (i.e., massive layers of coarsening-upwards, fine sand beds), controlled by the periodic flooding of the river floodplain. A fluvio-lacustrine environment … Lire la suite
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2014 — SNAP® for Schools: Impact on Internalizing SymptomsRésumé
Stop Now And Plan (SNAP®) is an empirically supported cognitive behavioural program for children identified as at-risk who present with externalizing problems. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effectiveness of the SNAP® Schoolbased program as a universal prevention program for non-identified children, specifically, the effectiveness of the program for reducing emotion dysregulation, intolerance of uncertainty, anxiety sensitivity, and other internalizing symptoms. It was hypothesized that the SNAP® School-based program would reduce emotion dysregulation, and would reduce internalizing constructs such as intolerance of uncertainty and anxiety sensitivity in non-identified, school-aged children. The sample included 65 children (Meanage= 8.05, … Lire la suite
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2014 — Commutative Differential Graded Algebra with LatticesRésumé
We define an invariant called the “commutative differential graded algebra with lattice” of a topological space X. The commutative differential graded algebra with lattice encodes the information of rational homotopy type of X and the “lattice structure of X”. We compute the quasi-isomorphism classes of several commutative differential graded algebra with lattices. Moreover, we define an integral Sullivan model. And we prove that, under some conditions, a commutative differential graded algebra with lattice has an integral Sullivan model. i Lire la suite
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2014 — Effect of Whey Protein and High-Volume Resistance Training on Muscle Mass and Strength in Postmenopausal WomenRésumé
The purpose was to examine the combined effects of whey protein supplementation and high-volume resistance training (HVRT) on muscle mass and strength in healthy postmenopausal women. Postmenopausal women (n=12, age: 57 ± 4.3 years, weight: 72 ± 13.4 kg, height: 163 ± 5.7 cm, body mass index: 27 ± 5.4) consumed whey protein (40 grams) or placebo immediately following unilateral resistance training 2 days per week (Monday, Thursday) and consumed the opposite beverage after training the other side of the body on alternating days (Tuesday, Friday) for 10 weeks. For training, participants performed 3 sets at 30% baseline 1-repetition maximum … Lire la suite
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2014 — Code-Switching and Language Ideology in a Northern Dene CommunityRésumé
This study explores the occurrence of and motivations for code-switching between Dene Sųłiné and English on the Buffalo River Dene Nation, a small community in northern Saskatchewan. The complex history of social scientific research in indigenous communities in North America, together with the bodies of scholarly literature on the language and language family, and on code-switching and language shift, provide the background and context for this study. A fusion of linguistic (language documentation and conversation analysis), ethnographic (participant observation) and sociolinguistic (semi-structured interviews) research methods is described. Evidence of language shift in the community is discussed, along with community members’ … Lire la suite
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2014 — Awakening in/to School, Self, Society and Animate Earth: An Autoethnographic Métissage of One Woman’s Journey with/in Liminal SpaceRésumé
This dissertation is the journey of one woman with and in liminal space as I awaken to the discourses of Modern Western School, society and self in order to understand the possibilities for changing educational provision. For most of my lifetime I had being trying to transform the existing system of education, motivated by the environmental devastation and social upheaval of our times and the impact these conditions have upon the lives of children. Being very influenced by liberal ideals of activism and the discourses of environmental education and critical theory, this dissertation began as an action research process, where … Lire la suite
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2014 — Situating the Immersive Experience: Exploring Intermedial Situations in Art/Cinema InstallationsRésumé
This thesis performs an analysis of three art/cinema case-studies in relation to a selection of cinematic, art historical and cultural theory. The text is split into three theoretical chapters with accompanying case-studies, each of which connects to the others in order to develop contemporary critical theory which corresponds to the experience of affective spectatorial engagement. The first chapter analyzes the 20th century philosophical, psychoanalytic and cultural theories of “aura” as per Walter Benjamin and filtered through Miriam Bratu Hansen, Henri Bergson's conception of “memory”, and Julia Kristeva's “chora” in regards to the creation of equivocal experiences in William Kentridge's The … Lire la suite
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2014 — Maceral Variations and Maceral Assemblages within the Upper and Lower Members of the Bakken Formation, Williston Basin, Saskatchewan, Canada.Résumé
Argillaceous rocks are most often considered to be homogeneous entities, because, at the macroscopic scale, they appear to be so. The Bakken Formation within southern Saskatchewan contains two black shale members, the Upper and Lower Bakken Formation. This study has examined the organic matter within the Upper and Lower members of the Bakken Formation using fluorescence light microscopy on samples taken from core, at closely-spaced intervals across southern Saskatchewan. The organic constituents, or macerals, vary significantly both along with depth within a given borehole (i.e. temporally) and from one well to another (i.e. spatially). The macerals present in the Upper … Lire la suite
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2014 — A Preliminary Investigation of Possible Occurrences of Transition Zones and Residual Oil Zones Below Oil-Water Contact in Matured Oil Fields, Southeast SaskatchewanRésumé
A transition zone (TZ) from oil to water formed by capillary force beneath traditionally defined producing oil-water contact (OWC) has been well known for years. Recent research and production activities in the Permian Basin and the Williston Basin in United States have revealed that under certain geologic and hydrodynamic conditions, a residual oil zone (ROZ) may exist below the traditional producing OWC with stranded oil that may be economically recoverable using tertiary recovery techniques (Koperna and Kuuskraa, 2006; Trentham, et al., 2012). The ROZ could be thick, extensive, and containing a significant amount of oil. ROZ is usually thought having … Lire la suite
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2014 — Analytical Modeling of Transient Heat Transfer Coupled With Fluid Flow in Heavy Oil Reservoirs During Thermal Recovery ProcessesRésumé
Tremendous resources of heavy oil are located in western Canada. Among the many heavy oil recovery methods proposed, thermal recovery methods which employing hot fluid injection or in-situ combustion, have been conventionally utilized to enhance heavy oil recovery. Temperature profiles in heavy oil reservoirs are important factors for making operation and production plans in thermal recovery processes. A significant factor in these processes is to study the heat energy transfer in the oil formations. In previous studies, heat transfer by conduction has been commonly considered as the main mechanism of heat transfer in porous media. However, this assumption is not … Lire la suite
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2014 — A Suite of Fast and Efficient Cryptographic Mechanisms for Wireless Ultra-Low Power Device NetworksRésumé
Mobile computing technology is reaching every corner of our lives. Smart phones, tablets, laptop computers are just a few examples of the most known applications. Recent advances in the ultra-low power technologies enabled the development of even smaller, more mobile, autonomous devices. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), Smart Dust, and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) are several examples of this trend and have been applied to a large number of areas and will be more and more popular for various applications. Security is a critical factor to many applications due to the impact on privacy, trust and control, and is also important … Lire la suite
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2014 — Analysis and optimization of Ozone Assisted Biological Filtration Systems Used in Surface Water Treatment,Résumé
Small and rural communities across Canada depend on potable water sources that are collected in farm dugouts or small reservoirs. In Saskatchewan, the village of Osage and Hamlet of Benson are two communities that depend on farm dugouts for their drinking water supply. Within the last 10 years both communities implemented ozone-assisted biological filtration for water treatment; however, both plants experienced low treatment efficiency, as indicated by presence of disinfection by products and in particular trihalomethanes at concentration that exceeds Saskatchewan Drinking water standards of maximum acceptable concentration (MAC) of 100 μg/L as a running annual average of seasonal samples. … Lire la suite
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2014 — Development of Inexact Optimization Methods for Planning Environmental Management Systems Under Multiple UncertaintiesRésumé
Environmental planning is becoming a key component in environmental management due to rapid socio-economic development and steadily increasing population. In real-world applications, uncertainties and complexities are frequently involved in environmental management systems, where decision makers need sound management approaches in order to allocate their limited resources to different competing end users. Thus, more innovative approaches are required to deal with multiple uncertainties. As well more in-depth information in regard to the individual and interactive effects among multiple input parameters on the system performance is needed. In this research, a dual-interval two-stage mixed-integer inexact-chance-constrained linear programming (DITMIC) method was developed for … Lire la suite
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2014 — A Novel Automatic History Matching Method and Upscaling Study of Cyclic Solvent Injection Process for Post-Chops Heavy Oil ReservoirsRésumé
Cyclic solvent injection (CSI) is one of the most promising processes for a post-CHOPS reservoir. This paper summarizes experimental results of nine CSI tests with three physical models with different scales. A typical western Canadian heavy oil sample with a viscosity of 4,830 cp at the reservoir conditions was used in these nine tests. Additionally, numerical simulation models were established to simulate the tests. A modified genetic algorithm (GA) based history matching method (MGA) was validated by history matching three tests. This MGA method was developed by integrating a population database and orthogonal array with the GA to improve the … Lire la suite
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2014 — Managing Constraints and Preferences: Constrained Tradeoffs-Enhanced Conditional Preference Networks (CTCP-NETS)Résumé
In this thesis, a new framework for constraint and preference representation and reasoning is proposed, including the related definitions, algorithms and implementations. A Conditional Preference Network (CP-Net) is a widely used graph model to present the preferences among various outcomes. It allows users to describe their preferences of values over different variables. However, a CP-Net does not express the relations between variables, thus making the orders of outcomes incomplete. Because of this limitation, an extension of the CP-Net called Tradeoffs-enhanced Conditional Preference Network (TCP-Net) has been proposed to express the relative importance between variables. Nonetheless, TCP-Nets have the following drawbacks. … Lire la suite
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2014 — Petrography and Diagenesis of Cambrian Dolomite in Tabei Uplift, Northern Tarim Basin, ChinaRésumé
The Tabei Uplift, located in the northern Tarim Basin, northwest China, contains the most productive hydrocarbon reservoirs. The late Cambrian strata in the Tabei Uplift present a succession of restricted platform and platform margin carbonates, which are mostly dolomitized. Based on an integrated multidisciplinary approach which incorporated one hundred and fourteen meters of core descriptions from seven wells, one hundred and fifty-two thin-section petrography studies, cathodoliuminescense microscopy examination, trace element analysis, stable and radiogenic isotopic analysis and fluid inclusion analysis, the dolomites are interpreted as: Type 1 dolomite is microcrystal to very fine-crystalline replacement dolomite associated with mudstone, wackestone and … Lire la suite
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2014 — Estimation of Relative Permeability and Capillary Pressure for Hydrocarbon Reservoirs Using Ensemble-Based History Matching TechniquesRésumé
Reservoir simulation is generally used in modern reservoir management to make sound reservoir development strategies, requiring a reliable and up-to-dated reservoir model to predict future reservoir performance in an accurate and efficient way. It is the history matching that is able to provide a reliable reservoir model by using the observed data to calibrate the reservoir model parameters. In this study, assisted history matching techniques have been developed to inversely and accurately evaluate relative permeability and capillary pressure for the hydrocarbon reservoirs. An assisted history matching technique based on the confirming Ensemble Kaman Filter (EnKF) algorithm has been developed, validated, … Lire la suite
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2014 — Development of Two-Stage Fractional Programming Methods for Environmental Management Under UncertaintyRésumé
Due to the increasing contamination and resource-scarcity issues, environmental systems management is essential to socio-economic development. However, formulating relevant policies and strategies is often associated with a variety of complexities. It is necessary for decision makers to identify desired management plans to reflect multiobjective features that involve a trade-off between environmental protection and economic development. Moreover, these complexities will be further intensified by multiple formats of uncertainties existent in the related factors and parameters, as well as their interrelationships. Therefore, efficient system analysis techniques for supporting multiobjective environmental systems management under such complexities are required. In this dissertation research, a … Lire la suite
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2014 — A Web-Based Learning Support System for Rough SetsRésumé
Web-based learning is gaining popularity due to its convenience, ubiquity, person- alization, and adaptation features compared with traditional learning environments. The learning subjects of Web-based learning systems are mostly for popular sciences. Little attention has been paid for learning cutting edge subjects and no such systems have been developed for rough sets. Rough set theory has obtained signi cant attention as a mathematical approach to data representation and analysis in recent years. To realize Web-based learning for this subject,Web-based learning support systems can provide a reasonable framework. Web-based learning support systems sustain teaching as well as learning by making use … Lire la suite
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2014 — Inexact Fractional Optimization for Multicriteria Resources and Environmental Management Under UncertaintyRésumé
A set of inexact-fuzzy nonlinear programming (IFNP) and inexact fractional mathematical programming (IFMP) methods have been developed for the first time for supporting multi-criteria resources and environmental management under various uncertainties. They include the following methods: (a) an interval-parameter fuzzy robust nonlinear programming (IFRNP) approach for water quality management, (b) a simulation-based interval-fuzzy nonlinear programming (SIFNP) approach for seasonal planning of water quality management, (c) a stochastic linear fractional programming (SLFP) method for waste management, (d) a dynamic stochastic fractional programming (DSFP) approach for capacity-expansion planning of an electric power system, (e) an inexact linear fractional programming (ILFP) method for … Lire la suite