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In this thesis, an efficiency method for reducing the rotation ROM size in table-based architecture is proposed. The original rotation can be divided into two stages, coarse stage and fine stage. Our approach modifies the previous two-stage rotation method and proposes a multi-stage architecture and discuses three-stage phase calculation. The effect of table reduction is more apparently for higher accuracy requirement in the three-stage architecture. The total area of the previous two-stage architecture is larger than the proposed table-reduced three-stage architecture because the table size takes a significant ratio of the total area especially when the required bit accuracy is large. In the proposed three-stage design, there are two different types of architectures, depending on the rotation angles in the first and second rotation stages. Comparison of different types of architecture with the previous method shows that our designs indeed reduce the table size and the total area significantly.

<p> </p><p><em>Purpose</em></p><p>Our purpose is to develop a model, based on theoretical framework regarding expansion strategies and cultural differences and see if it can explain the establishment of Swedish staffing companies in Oslo, Norway.</p><p><em>Theoretical Framework</em></p><p>The theoretical framework presents theories within the field of cultural and social beha-vior, internationalization in general and two different approaches of international expan-sion. Each theory is explained and referred to entrepreneurial expansion.</p><p><em>Method</em></p><p>This study has been based on three Swedish staffing companies and their expansion to Oslo, Norway. The research done has been both quantitative with surveys and qualita-tive with semi-structured interviews.</p><p><em>Findings</em></p><p>According to the study, reasons to expand to Oslo for a Swedish staffing company are mainly due to the cultural similarities and the lucrative possibilities within the market. Expansion is preferable done with an incremental approach in line with the Uppsala model. Furthermore, no major barriers exist. The models of International New Venture and Born Globals are not applicable, while the theory of Hofstede is partially supported. Scott‟s theory is unworkable to consider due to lack of differences, while the intervie-wees support the theory of Rundh in terms of internationalization. It is the belief of the authors that their own model, supported by the empirical findings, also can be used by other companies, acting in other industries, in order to get a comprehensive overview of the factors that should be taken into account before going international. One should though keep in mind, that the cultural differences normally are bigger than in the case with Sweden and Norway.</p><p> </p> / <p> </p><p><em>Syfte</em></p><p>Vårt syfte är att utveckla en modell som bygger på teori gällande expansionsstrategier och kulturella skillnader för att se om det kan förklara etableringen av svenska bemanningsföretag i Oslo, Norge.</p><p><em>Teori</em></p><p>Författarnas teoretiska ramverk presenteras genom teorier om kulturella och sociala skillnader, samt internationalisering i allmänhet som presenteras genom två olika strategier. Varje teori förklaras och återknyts till företagsexpansion.</p><p><em>Metod</em></p><p>Den här studien är baserad på tre svenska bemanningsföretag och deras expansion till Oslo, Norge. Undersökningen som utförts har varit både kvalitativ, i form av semistrukturerade intervjuer, samt kvantitativ genom en undersökning.</p><p><em>Resultat</em></p><p>Enligt studien är skälen till att svenska bemanningsföretag väljer att expandera till Norge främst de kulturella likheterna länderna emellan, samt de lukrativa möjligheter som finns inom den norska marknaden. Expansion till Norge görs vanligtvis med ett successivt tillvägagångssätt i linje med Uppsala-modellen. Inga större hinder med expansion har påvisats. Vidare visar studien att modellerna International New Venture och Born Globals inte är tillämpliga, medan teorin av Hofstede får visst stöd. De två intervjuade deltagarna stödjer dock Rundh‟s teorier angående internationalisering. Författarnas uppfattning är den egna modellen, utvecklad med hjälp av det empiriska materialet, även kan användas av företag i andra branscher för att få en överskådlig bild av de faktorer som kan komma att påverka valet gällande en eventuell utlandsexpansion. De måste dock vara medvetna om</p><p> </p>

Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Alberta, 2010. / A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Medical Sciences - Orthodontics. Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on November 29, 2009). Includes bibliographical references.

Introduced species cause both considerable ecological and economic damage every year. However, not much is known about how certain species are able to establish and spread beyond the site of initial introduction, whereas others do not. Species undergoing range expansion following an introduction may prove to be a valuable resource to invasion biology, but may also be informative in light of species' responses to changing environments (i.e. global climate change). Here, I took advantage of an ongoing range expansion of an introduced vertebrate species. House sparrows (Passer domesticus) were introduced to Mombasa, Kenya in the 1950s and have subsequently expanded their range northwest-ward and now occupy most major cities in Kenya. By comparing older, established populations (i.e. those in Mombasa) with more recently colonized populations at the range edge, it might be possible to determine some of the mechanisms that underlie range expansion in some species and/or populations. In Chapter 1, the background and ideas that motivated the rest of the dissertation is summarized. In Chapter 2, I studied how exploration and glucocorticoids (a hormone released in response to stressors) changed throughout the range expansion. Exploration was greater at the range edge, which is likely to ensure greater discovery of novel resources. Glucocorticoids released in response to restraint were also highest at the range edge, which might facilitate resolution of stressors in unpredictable environments. However, chronically elevated levels of glucocorticoids are often considered maladaptive, unless an individual can appropriately cope with them. Therefore, in Chapter 3, I characterized glucocorticoid receptors (i.e. mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) and glucocorticoid receptor (GR)) in the hippocampus, an area responsible for negative feedback of glucocorticoids as well as induction of behavioral and physiological response to stressors. I found that MR density was lower relative to GR density at the range edge compared to the site of introduction (Mombasa). I speculate this pattern is a mechanism to resolve the elevated levels of glucocorticoids at the range edge. Taken together, these results indicate that individuals at the range edge have a strong glucocorticoid response to stressors to induce a rapid, strong response to resolve stressors. Subsequently, in Chapter 4, I examined the potential mechanisms of phenotypic change among Kenyan house sparrows. Typically, following an introduction event, genetic diversity undergoes a bottleneck and is greatly reduced compared to the source population; as such, genetic evolution as the main driver of changing phenotypes throughout the range expansion is unlikely. We therefore hypothesized that epigenetic mechanisms (e.g. DNA methylation) may compensate for the expected reduced genetic diversity following an introduction. Although there was no pattern of epigenetic variation among cities (i.e. variation did not increase nor decrease further from the site of introduction), epigenetic variation increased as genetic inbreeding increased (a sign of reduced genetic diversity and bottlenecks), suggesting epigenetic modifications may compensate for reduced genetic diversity following an introduction event. Overall, patterns of phenotypic variation emerged dependent on age of the population- these patterns may prove to be important in other vertebrate range expansions as well. Surprisingly, epigenetic diversity did not correlate with phenotypic variation among populations; however, within-individual studies may reveal epigenotypes are related to certain behavioral or physiological phenotypes. In the future, studies should be designed to address how phenotypic differences arise despite relatively low genetic diversity and overall high genetic admixture among individuals. In Kenyan house sparrows, maintenance of high levels of flexibility and differential developmental influences may be important factors that lead to varying phenotypes dependent on time since colonization.

As more renewable resources are added into the grid and environmental regulations are imposed to reduce emissions, there will be dramatic changes in the generation portfolio. Assessing the impact of these changes is important for policy makers, market participants, and general public to understand trends in the electricity market. This paper addresses this issue by analyzing how the ERCOT market is affected by CO2 penalty and wind penetration. In order to assess the future power system, the study model should represent the long term dynamics of various factors to find out how investment decisions are made economically in a competitive market with appropriate assumptions. Another important aspect is the short term market dynamics from real operation of power system. For this study, AURORAxmp, a commercially available market simulator, is utilized to capture both long term and short term dynamics. This study runs 5 different scenarios: two base cases with and without CO2 price, 20%, 27%, and 33% wind penetration level. The result shows that, increasing wind penetration reduces production and capacity of both coal and gas units, electricity market prices, and amount of emissions. However, increasing wind penetration has greater impacts on a decrease in generation from thermal units than reduction in thermal capacity, resulting in 11.4% capacity value of wind power. The study also confirms that CO2 price impacts capacity and generation of coal (negatively) and gas (positively) units in opposite ways, and reduces emission, but increases power prices and generation cost. Especially, the impact on retirement of coal units is noticeable. Almost half of the current coal capacity (19 GW), 9,390 MW, is retired by 2040 in this study. / text

The effect of the sulfates and alkalis on the durability of Portland cement systems was investigated through a series of cube and prism mixes. Durability was assessed using expansion of mortar prisms and the compressive strength of mortar cubes. The study covered a large range of both alkali and sulfate contents using 5 different Portland cements. The alkali contents ranged from 0.27 to 3.8%, the sulfate content (as SO3) ranged from 2.54 to 5%. Doping was done using Terra Alba gypsum and potassium hydroxide. In addition to physical measurements, SEM, XRD, chemical analysis and heat of hydration calorimetry were used for further analysis. Mixing, curing and testing were done at room temperature. The results show that sulfate contents up to the levels used in this study, at low alkali contents and ambient temperature curing, did not adversely affect durability of Portland cement mortars up to 360 days. A correlation was established between expansion and ettringite formation. Increasing the alkali content always resulted in loss of compressive strength, and in some cases, excessive expansion. Excessive expansion was only experienced at the 3.8% level. Alkali levels of up to 2% and sulfate levels of 5% did not result in excessive expansion at room temperature-cure up to the ages reported here. The effect of alkali depended on thecement mineralogical composition, especially C3S content. The addition of alkalis seems to impact the nature of the microstructure and the nature of other hydration products. The addition of sulfates seems to counteract the effect of alkalis, especially on the loss of compressive strength. However, these sulfates may result in other problems as they may be available at any time to form ettringite which may, under certain conditions, result in excessive expansion. It was concluded that sulfate levels on the order of 3-3.6%, did not pose any major durability drawbacks under normal curing temperatures and low alkali contents (<1%). Alkali levels above 1% will adversely affect the durability of Portland cement systems.

Print culture was a fundamental site in which new ideas about England’s role in world affairs were debated in the latter half of the sixteenth century. Print changed the ways in which new discoveries, proposals, grievances, and questions were assessed, and not always to the desired effect. In the face of the sphinx-like power of the press, a wide array of strategies emerged to control it. But people at many levels of the publishing process could use the rhetoric of the text, and of the printed book, to rearrange the relationships between authors and readers, to upset the thrust of a particular line of argument, to alter the aesthetic, moral, or pragmatic judgment a reader might exercise, or in a more subtle way to change the terms of the issue at hand. In view of the diversity of these possibilities, this report follows figures known to the London print world, some authors, some printers, and examines how they acted, reacted, and worked through, issues that arose from being on the cusp of England’s relationship with a wider world. / text

In electronic structure calculations the computational cost is of great importance because large systems can contain a huge number of electrons. One effective method to make such calculations is by density matrix purification. Although, the cost for this method is relatively low compared to other existing methods there is room for improvements. In this paper one method proposed by Emanuel Rubensson and one method proposed by Jaehoon Kim &amp; Yousung Jung was compared to each other with respect to efficiency, simplicity and robustness. Both are improved methods to compute the density matrix by accelerated polynomial expansion. Rubensson’s method consists of two different algorithms and results showed that both performed better than Kim &amp; Jung’s method in terms of efficiency, which is the property both methods directs their main focus on. The major differences between them was identified in terms of adaptivity. The methods require different inputs that demands separate levels of knowledge about the system. Kim &amp; Jung’s method which require less knowledge can however benefit efficiency-wise from more information in order to optimize the algorithm for the system. Results also showed that both methods were stable, but since they only were tested with arbitrarily assumed input arguments no conclusion about their general stability could be drawn.

It was determined in the mid- 1990s that Highway 95 in southern Nevada had experienced a tremendous increase in traffic and increased safety hazards for motorists due to growth in population and commerce in the Southwest. Federal, state, and local governments worked to find a solution to the impacts of increased traffic and have chosen a number of alternatives related to highway expansion. This is an American Indian ethnographic study for the Big Springs Highway 95 Corridor Project. The study area included the Big Spring Complex and associated American Indian sites potentially impacted by the westward expansion of U.S. 95 north of its junction with U.S. 15. The study does not include an analysis of U.S. 95 impacts to the east of the Big Springs complex towards what is known as Lorenzi Park. This report is based on interviews with American Indian representatives from six Southern Paiute tribes and the Las Vegas Indian Center. Each tribe and organization chose to send one or more tribal members to evaluate the potential impacts to American Indian cultural resources that would occur if Highway 95 were to be expanded to incorporate a portion of the current Big Spring location. This report provides the Southern Paiute evaluations of the proposed expansion.