Problem Description. The Universities participating in this Laboratory XL Project are testing a new environmental management regulatory model which they have championed on behalf of the Laboratory Consortium for Environmental Excellence (LCEE), a Boston-based group of laboratory organizations and academic institutions organized to address environmental management issues in laboratories. To understand the nature of this project, it is useful to consider its regulatory context. The management of chemicals in laboratories is primarily regulated by two Federal statutes: The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). While the Occupational Safety Health Administration recognized laboratories as unique settings and developed a performance-based standard to allow laboratories to more efficiently and effectively meet health and safety requirements, the requirements of RCRA are less readily adapted to such a setting. This is in large part because the RCRA program was not designed for a laboratory environment, but rather for those organizations where it has been and is quite successful--manufacturing and industrial operations. The requirement for a hazardous waste determination and the management and handling provisions of RCRA are effective in a manufacturing environment where large quantities of a small number of hazardous wastes are consistently produced. In contrast, university laboratories typically generate relatively small quantities of many different hazardous wastes on a discontinuous basis. Furthermore, there are specific handling and management requirements for “hazardous wastes” under RCRA which may not apply to the larger universe of hazardous chemicals used in the laboratories which are subject to OSHA. Thus, university laboratories are essentially required to implement and track two parallel and not always consistent chemical management systems within the laboratory setting; one under RCRA which includes externally imposed requirements governing the management and handling of “hazardous waste,” and one under OSHA which is a performance-based, internally-developed management system governing the management and handling of “hazardous chemicals.” Such distinctions between, for example, sulfuric acid and waste sulfuric acid are generally “artificial” to laboratory workers who are trained in recognizing and understanding chemical hazards and managing such chemicals in a manner that minimizes these hazards. The implementatio...
Problem Description. Reasons for Request for Regulatory Flexibility The Universities have identified two principal regulatory problem areas, described below:
Problem Description. In order to better motivate the generalization process that led to the design of protocol presented in this paper, let us introduce a model that we will show to encompass various practical problems, and an example situation for which solutions in literature (to the best of our knowledge) do not give satisfactory results.
Problem Description. Suppose we want to create a WCF service with code contracts. A straightforward approach to combine both tech- nologies would be as follows: , , using System.ServiceModel; using System.Diagnostics.Contract; [ServiceContract] public interface IService { [OperationContract] double squareRoot(double d); } public class IServiceImpl : IService { public double squareRoot(double d) { Contract.Requires(d >= 0); return Math.Sqrt(d); }
Problem Description. There has not yet been a consensus on the evaluation and interpretation of word embeddings. There are mainly two types of assessments: intrinsic evalu- ations and extrinsic evaluations. Intrinsic evaluations often investigate the nature of semantics by comparing embedding relations and human cognitive sciences, which include both conscious and subconscious sciences [3, 26, 7]. Meanwhile, extrinsic evaluations focus on the engineering perspective where word embeddings are used as input to downstream tasks and evaluate the performance of embeddings on specific tasks [3]. On the other hand, the task of imparting interpretability has been tackled in various ways in the literature. Some researchers modified the training processes of embeddings to encourage interpretable dimension embedding learning [24, 20], while others suggested mapping from uninterpretable embedding to embeddings with more interpretable dimensions [2, 10]. Although the approaches mentioned above provide better understandings and interpretations to the word embeddings, many intrinsic evaluations have become ineffective due to the emergence of context-based word embeddings, which required contextual information as input. Moreover, we want to explore the possibilities of interpreting word embedding dimensions directly rather than trying to modify the current dimensions. This thesis aims to evaluate and understand context-based word embedding, mainly in the field of word sense disambiguation. We offer a hypothesis that some dimensions do not play a role in representing a word sense. In this work, we propose an algorithm to analyze and visualize the functionalities of specific dimensions to word meanings.
Problem Description. This paper targets a two-echelon green supply chain consisting of a risk-neutral manufacturer and a loss-averse retailer. The manufacturer is assumed as the leader in the market and the retailer, a follower. The two parties are in a Stackelberg game of complete information. The manufacturer first determines the green emission reduction level of a product, and then the retailer decides on the order quantity of the product. Let and be the unit wholesale price and the unit production cost of the manufacturer, respectively, and , and g be the unit retail price, unit salvage value and unit shortage cost of the retailer, respectively. Here, it is assumed that > > > .
Problem Description. We consider a film supply chain composed of one distributor and one e xhib itor (theater) that sign a revenue- sharing contract for the screening of a movie. Movies can be divided into two types: hit movies or flop movies. Hit movies attract a large number of viewers and generate high revenue, such as Marvel movies. Conversely, flop movies generate low revenue, such as art films or independent movies. The box office performance of a movie is influenced by many factors, such as word of mouth, movie cast, and movie theme. Thus, before a movie is released in the cinema, the distributor and the e xh ibitor can foresee the probability of the movie being a hit or a flop one. The e xhibitor decides the number of movie screening considering the perishable nature of the movie. The movie revenue differs from one period to another, and thus, the e xhibitor can change the number of movie screening in each period. Considering the diverse characteristics of the movie, the theater can adopt various promotional efforts to stimulate the box office performance and thus increase its revenue. Therefore, the distributor and the e xhib itor can benefit from the promotional efforts. In this section, we construct a model based on the revenue-sharing contract considering promotional efforts.
Problem Description. The main objective of this thesis is to focus on uncertainties, using real option theory and apply that in decision processes to choose infrastructure solutions in gas pipeline system. It presents a framework of how to make decisions under uncertainties by using different options. Real option analysis helps managers to deal with the concept of a hub system in developing gas infrastructure for a new area. We use Ormen Xxxxx Project at Nyhamna as a case study to see if real options give support to develop Nyhamna as a hub. We focus on cost efficiency to analyze Nyhamna as a hub. We also look into the alternative where the real option can be waited until new capacity will be available in an alternative hub, Åsgard. We will try to quantify the project’s value under different alternatives, using real option analysis. We had interviews with the head leader of Xxxxx Xxxxx Project (Xx. Xxx Xxxxx Hollen ) and a representative of Gassco (Xx. Xxxx Xxxx Xxxx). Since they need time to work on this project and decide whether Nyhamna could be developed as a hub, part of this information is confidential and not available for us as students. For some extent, we have found data on relevant projects on the internet. After getting these data, we have tried to construct them as good as possible. Hence, this thesis emphasizes on analyzing the values of different options at Nyhamna based on some assumptions. In addition, we have tried the data to apply the options at Nyhamna in competition with an existing hub at Åsgard.
Problem Description. The suitability of a biomass type for a specific conversion technology is determined by different parameters that can ot be directly deduced from the current lignocellulosic biomass classification used in WP1. In other words, based on this current classification we cannot determine if a specific biomass type is suitable for a specific conversion system and to what extend it is suitable and therefore what the value of that biomass type is for a specific conversion system. Therefore we need a system that can classify biomass based on relevant characteristics for determining its suitability for conversion technologies. Such a classification system should help to determine what type of conversion systems are needed to effectively utilise the available biomass types in Europe under competitive conditions. Less suitable biomass will also have to find an energy application. The current international classification system for solid biofuels (ISO 17225 series) should also be taken into account, because this is used in trade.
