Local thermodynamic models are practical alternatives to computationally expensive rigorous models that involve implicit computational procedures and often complement them to accelerate computation for real-time optimization and control. Human-centered strategies for development of these models are based on approximation of theoretical models. Genetic Programming (GP) system can extract knowledge from the given data in the form of symbolic expressions. This research describes a fully data driven automatic self-evolving algorithm that builds appropriate approximating formulae for local models using genetic programming. No a-priori information on the type of mixture (ideal/non ideal etc.) or assumptions are necessary. The approach involves synthesis of models for a given set of variables and mathematical operators that may relate them. The selection of variables is automated through principal component analysis and heuristics. For each candidate model, the model parameters are optimized in the inner integrated nested loop. The trade-off between accuracy and model complexity is addressed through incorporation of the Minimum Description Length (MDL) into the fitness (objective) function. Statistical tools including residual analysis are used to evaluate performance of models. Adjusted R-square is used to test model's accuracy, and F-test is used to test if the terms in the model are necessary. The analysis of the performance of the models generated with the data driven approach depicts theoretically expected range of compositional dependence of partition coefficients and limits of ideal gas as well as ideal solution behavior. Finally, the model built by GP integrated into a steady state and dynamic flow sheet simulator to show the benefits of using such models in simulation. The test systems were propane-propylene for ideal solutions and acetone-water for non-ideal. The result shows that, the generated models are accurate for the whole range of data and the performance is tunable. The generated local models can indeed be used as empirical models go beyond elimination of the local model updating procedures to further enhance the utility of the approach for deployment of real-time applications.

<p><strong>AIM</strong>: As global warming is a fact and the consumption of energy is continuously increasing, alternative sourcing of energy is a must. The use of oil and coal for heating is limited due to it is nature resource which is also limited. Everyone will be forced to evaluate their own usage of energy and look into the alternatives of how to be a part of solving this global issue. For many, alternatives such as sun panels and wind power stations could be an alternative power source.</p><p> </p><p>Today, there is only a limited availability in Sweden of small sized wind power stations and only small local producers or importers that sell the equipment – mostly through internet based market communications.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Method</strong>: The theoretical approach to this thesis is based on the MIO model in combination with several other models and tools such as, PESTEL, Marketing Mix, SWOT, Porter’s five forces, EVC and STP.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Result & Conclusions</strong>: There is a market for small wind power stations between 5 – 50 kW in Sweden.</p><p>The biggest reason why the market segment exist and will increase is due to continuously increasing energy prices and that wind power stations of this size are permitted to be connected directly to household consumption.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Suggestions for future research</strong>: How are other energy complements like solar panels influenced? What governmental decisions affect the business of small wind power stations?</p><p> </p><p><strong>Contributions to the thesis</strong>: Success in this segment requires a different approach to product offering than what the current competition is doing.</p>

<p>I have statistically worked up a material from 228 graves from the late Iron Age in the area of Mälardalen.</p><p>In my material I have gathered the incidence of combs, knifes, beads, weapons whetstones and torshammarsrings.</p><p>I have found that beads are overrepresented in graves of women and whetstones in graves of men. I only found weapons in graves from male.</p><p>I found no indication from my statistic hypothesis (Z-test) that a grave that contains more than three beads should define the grave of a woman. A grave that contains a lot of beads, more than 20, consider I as a female gender.</p><p>Combs, knifes and torshammarsring are considered as gender neutral.</p>

This thesis consists of four papers that deal with several aspects of the measurement of model fit for categorical data. In all papers, special attention is paid to situations with sparse data. The first paper concerns the computational burden of calculating Pearson's goodness-of-fit statistic for situations where many response patterns have observed frequencies that equal zero. A simple solution is presented that allows for the computation of the total value of Pearson's goodness-of-fit statistic when the expected frequencies of response patterns with observed frequencies of zero are unknown. In the second paper, a new fit statistic is presented that is a modification of Pearson's statistic but that is not adversely affected by response patterns with very small expected frequencies. It is shown that the new statistic is asymptotically equivalent to Pearson's goodness-of-fit statistic and hence, asymptotically chi-square distributed. In the third paper, comprehensive simulation studies are conducted that compare seven asymptotically equivalent fit statistics, including the new statistic. Situations that are considered concern both multinomial sampling and factor analysis. Tests for the goodness-of-fit are conducted by means of the asymptotic and the bootstrap approach both under the null hypothesis and when there is a certain degree of misfit in the data. Results indicate that recommendations on the use of a fit statistic can be dependent on the investigated situation and on the purpose of the model test. Power varies substantially between the fit statistics and the cause of the misfit of the model. Findings indicate further that the new statistic proposed in this thesis shows rather stable results and compared to the other fit statistics, no disadvantageous characteristics of the fit statistic are found. Finally, in the fourth paper, the potential necessity of determining the goodness-of-fit by two sided model testing is adverted. A simulation study is conducted that investigates differences between the one sided and the two sided approach of model testing. Situations are identified for which two sided model testing has advantages over the one sided approach.

AIM: As global warming is a fact and the consumption of energy is continuously increasing, alternative sourcing of energy is a must. The use of oil and coal for heating is limited due to it is nature resource which is also limited. Everyone will be forced to evaluate their own usage of energy and look into the alternatives of how to be a part of solving this global issue. For many, alternatives such as sun panels and wind power stations could be an alternative power source.   Today, there is only a limited availability in Sweden of small sized wind power stations and only small local producers or importers that sell the equipment – mostly through internet based market communications.   Method: The theoretical approach to this thesis is based on the MIO model in combination with several other models and tools such as, PESTEL, Marketing Mix, SWOT, Porter’s five forces, EVC and STP.   Result &amp; Conclusions: There is a market for small wind power stations between 5 – 50 kW in Sweden. The biggest reason why the market segment exist and will increase is due to continuously increasing energy prices and that wind power stations of this size are permitted to be connected directly to household consumption.   Suggestions for future research: How are other energy complements like solar panels influenced? What governmental decisions affect the business of small wind power stations?   Contributions to the thesis: Success in this segment requires a different approach to product offering than what the current competition is doing.

A lot of mine waste rock and tailings arise from all mining processes and have to be stored in an appropriate way. Tailings are deposited in impoundments retained by tailings dams. The objective of tailings dams is to retain the slurry from the mining process and in that way prevent spill into the surroundings that might be harmful for the environment. Tailings dams are often constructed as staged embankments so that construction costs and demand of materials are spread more evenly over the period of deposition. The objective of this thesis has been to compile information about and evaluate events at Swedish tailings dams and also to develop a collective database for all Swedish mining companies for all tailings dams and all events that occur at tailings dams. Information about 60 events at Swedish tailings dams has been gathered and evaluated. The evaluation has been performed by comparison between and analysis of individual parameters and also by use of a multivariate statistical method called PLS. The statistical analysis shows a decrease in the numbers of events during the last five years, which indicates improved dam safety within the mining industry. The analysis also shows that severe events and the human factor might be related when it comes to the initiating cause of the event. Further relations between the parameters and the severity of the events can be seen from the PLS-analysis, for example that low and short tailings dams to a greater extent are subjected to severe events. To be able to draw more reliable conclusions further studies with a more complete basic data are needed. This work has shown a need of a collective database within the Swedish mining industry for tailings dams and occurring events at tailings dams so that more complete basic data could be obtained for future studies. A structure for such a database has been developed in Microsoft Access 2000. The aim of the database is to facilitate feedback within the mining industry and to gather comprehensive data for future statistical evaluations. / Vid alla gruvprocesser skapas stora mängder restprodukter i form av gråberg och anrikningssand som måste tas om hand på lämpligt sätt. Anrikningssanden deponeras tillsammans med vatten från gruvprocessen i magasin omgärdade av dammvallar, s.k. gruvdammar. Gruvdammar har som syfte att hålla kvar anrikningssand och vatten och måste vara stabila så att de skyddar omgivningen från utsläpp av anrikningssand som skulle kunna vara skadligt för miljön. En gruvdamm byggs ofta upp i etapper eftersom byggkostnaderna och behovet av dammfyllnadsmaterial då sprids över tiden. Syftet med arbetet har varit att sammanställa och utvärdera händelser vid svenska gruvdammar samt att utforma ett för gruvindustrin gemensamt dammregister och felrapporteringssystem. 60 händelser vid svenska gruvdammar har sammanställts och utvärderats. Utvärderingen har genomförts dels genom att enskilda parametrar jämförts och analyserats och dels med hjälp av den multivariata analysmetoden PLS. Den statistiska analysen visar på en minskning i antal händelser under de senaste fem åren, vilket tyder på ett förbättrat dammsäkerhetsarbete inom gruvindustrin. Analysen har kunnat uppvisa ett samband mellan allvarliga händelser och den mänskliga faktorn när det gäller vad det är som initierat händelserna. Genom PLS-analysen har ytterligare samband mellan de undersökta parametrarna och allvarlighetsgraden av händelserna kunnat utläsas, bl.a. visar analysen att låga och korta dammar i större utsträckning drabbas av allvarliga händelser jämfört med höga och långa dammar. För att säkra slutsatser ska kunna dras krävs dock vidare studier med ett mer komplett statistiskt underlag. Examensarbetet har påvisat ett behov av ett branchgemensamt damm- och felrapporteringsregister för att ett mer komplett underlag ska kunna erhållas i framtiden. En färdig databasstruktur för ett sådant dammregister och felrapporteringsregister för svenska gruvdammar har utformats. Databasen är uppbyggd i Microsoft Access 2000 och är tänkt att underlätta erfarenhetsåterföring inom branschen samt att ge ett underlag för framtida statistiska undersökningar.

Diagnostic systems become more and more an important within the field of vehicle systems. This is much because new rules and regulation forcing the manufacturer of heavy duty trucks to survey the emission process in its engines during the whole lifetime of the truck. To do this a diagnostic system has to be implemented which always survey the process and check that the thresholds of the emissions set by the government not are exceeded. There is also a demand that this system should be reliable, i.e. not producing false alarms or missed detection. One way of producing such a system is to use model based diagnosis system where thresholds has to be set deciding if the system is corrupt or not. There is a lot of difficulties involved in this. Firstly, there is no way of knowing if the signals logged are corrupt or not. This is because faults in these signals should be detected. Secondly, because of strict demand of reliability the thresholds has to be set where there is very low probability of finding values while driving. In this thesis a methodology is proposed for setting thresholds in a diagnosis system in an experimental test engine at Scania. Measurement data has been logged over 20 hours of effective driving by two individuals of the same engine. It is shown that the result is improved significantly by using this method and the threshold can be set so smaller faults in the system reliably can be detected.

Abstract Due to the recent financial crisis, global economy downturn forces corporate to downsize, shut down unprofitable plants and layoff which have increased unemployment rate dramatically. Franchising creates a lot of employment opportunities as well as dream come true for many people who dream of becoming a boss. For those reasons, franchising operation model is one of the quickest ways to increase business scale and conquer market share in both Mainland China and Taiwan in a short time. In a value chain, a franchising system not only can increase economy of scale and operation efficiency through ship in/out logistic, production process, marketing, after sale service but also through supporting activities such as infrastructure, human resource, training, purchasing, research and development. However, how to survive or even stand out in such a competitive market, key successful factors plays a very important role. This research paper focuses on beverage franchising chain policy, aiming at understanding key factors which effect a franchisee to choose best fit franchiser and to understand beverage market trend in both mainland China and Taiwan. This research paper chooses a couple franchising policy factors among mainland China and Taiwan and uses analytical hierarchy process to understand franchisee¡¦s decision making process. The interviewees include industrial experts among mainland China and Taiwan, academic representatives and franchisees from both mainland China and Taiwan (9each). By having in depth discussion with each interviewee, qualitative and quantitative AHP survey data was collected for analysis in order to understand franchising industry development trend in mainland China and Taiwan. This research paper further understands the relationship between franchising key policies and future development trend in mainland China and Taiwan through collecting qualitative and quantitative AHP survey data at the same time. By comparing perception differences between the 3 types of interviewees through ANOVA analysis, a more specific proposal can be provided for franchisee, franchiser and related government department for reference. Keyword: Franchising, Chain, beverage market , human resource, analytical hierarchy process, AHP, ANOVA statistic analysis

Destination Math was a program utilized by Xcellence ISD. A determination if usage of the software had a significant positive effect on math performance was needed. In this study, the researcher created a student database that included the usage data from the comprehensive mathematics software program, Destination Math, and the math residual value, an added value statistic that was derived from the math scores of the 2006 Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test. An analysis was performed to determine if time spent using the Destination Math software resulted in differences between student usage level groups in regard to the math residual value (MRV). The researcher also looked at the usage levels of teachers and campuses to determine if there were differences in the MRV for different classifications of usage. Certain student classifications were added as independent variables. Since Destination Math was offered in Spanish, it was theorized that the program might be beneficial to students who were designated as Limited English Proficient (LEP). Therefore, this student classification was included as an independent variable. Because research existed that provided evidence that some software contained a gender bias, the student classification of gender was also included as an independent variable. The population for this study included every student in Xcellence ISD in grades 3-11 who took the math portion of the TAKS test during the week of April 18-21, 2006. Altogether, 3177 students were included in the data analysis for this study. This represented 53% of the tested population. Students with no usage data reported by Destination Math were eliminated from the study. While there are a number of cited studies that document score gains with Destination Math, this researcher did not find that residual math scores were significantly different among teacher or campus usage groups. While there was a significant difference between the student usage groups, High users exhibited negative MRVs. The results of this study are consistent with another large quantitative study that involved Destination Math. This researcher feels that there are an ample number of studies that provide evidence that Destination Math can have a positive effect on student math performance. However, the program should not be purchased with the intent to improve significantly the residual math scores.

<p>Diagnostic systems become more and more an important within the field of vehicle systems. This is much because new rules and regulation forcing the manufacturer of heavy duty trucks to survey the emission process in its engines during the whole lifetime of the truck. To do this a diagnostic system has to be implemented which always survey the process and check that the thresholds of the emissions set by the government not are exceeded. There is also a demand that this system should be reliable, i.e. not producing false alarms or missed detection. One way of producing such a system is to use model based diagnosis system where thresholds has to be set deciding if the system is corrupt or not. There is a lot of difficulties involved in this. Firstly, there is no way of knowing if the signals logged are corrupt or not. This is because faults in these signals should be detected. Secondly, because of strict demand of reliability the thresholds has to be set where there is very low probability of finding values while driving. In this thesis a methodology is proposed for setting thresholds in a diagnosis system in an experimental test engine at Scania. Measurement data has been logged over 20 hours of effective driving by two individuals of the same engine. It is shown that the result is improved significantly by using this method and the threshold can be set so smaller faults in the system reliably can be detected.</p>