This study and research was conducted to understand the myriad tools utilized as part of downtown revitalization plans, strategies or efforts in Ontario’s mid-sized cities, what impacts municipalities are seeking in their downtown revitalization plans, strategies or efforts, and the implications for planning theory and practice. This study and research involved a mixed methods research strategy – known as triangulation- which included a literature review, a web-survey directed to municipal staff within each of Ontario’s mid-sized cities, and a case study of London Ontario’s downtown revitalization strategy. The findings of this study and research indicate that traditional revitalization tools are still favoured in Ontario’s mid-sized cities. Further, marketing and quality of life tools are highly used by municipalities in downtown revitalization. Municipalities appear to be tailoring their downtown revitalization programs or efforts to stimulate business, and are increasingly taking an entrepreneurial, business-like approach to revitalization city centres. Transportation featured prominently in downtown revitalization efforts within Ontario’s mid-sized cities. Parking in particular, was an element that was planned for as part of downtown revitalization. Finally, stimulating the local downtown housing market was of primary importance to Ontario’s mid-sized cities. The literature consistently notes the extreme importance of housing as a downtown revitalization strategy over time. It appears that Ontario’s mid-sized cities prescribe to the theory that downtowns cannot truly function and become centres with strong retail markets, and activity hubs with synergistic uses within proximity without housing. Further, Ontario’s mid-sized cities appear to be increasingly seeking to stimulate the private sector in constructing housing. “Increase Residential Population” and “Increase General Activity” are the most prevalent objectives of downtown revitalization in Ontario’s mid-sized cities. Given that the top-three objectives of the web-survey were increasing population within the downtown, increasing general activity within the downtown, and increasing employment within the downtown, a combination of objectives which are multi-dimensional, it appears that mid-sized municipalities are seeking multi-dimensional downtowns, with particular attention paid to increasing population levels. The web-survey and case study did not concretely confirm or deny the literature with regard to monitoring and evaluation. However, the web-survey and case study do suggest that plan evaluation is not a particularly robust element of downtown revitalization efforts in Ontario’s mid-sized cities. Recommendations based on the findings of this research are provided for municipalities, planning practitioners and academics. This research contributes to the limited but expanding literature on mid-sized cities, downtown revitalization of mid-sized cities, as well as monitoring and evaluation techniques and concepts for mid-sized cities to consider. Recommendations for further research are also provided.

Timber construction has increased in popularity in different countries in Europe thanks to a new material apparition and environmental stakes. In order to construct a timber structure we use different types of connections. The design of connections is complex since it is influenced by many different factors. However, the connection is the weak part of the structure and has high risk of collapse. Therefore the connection often determines the capacity of the structure.In 1975 the commission of the European Community decided to harmonize of technicalities and rules of design in the field of construction. The aim is to increase the competition between companies and simplify the trade of products and services within the European Union. The regulation for timber structures is Eurocode 5 (EC5).This study investigates how the EC5 can influence the design of a connection with a single shear plane for a steel-timber connection with nails or screws. This study is based on the comparison between the connection properties obtained using the EC5 and those recommended in a brochure from one of the large glulam manufacturers in Sweden based on the Swedish regulations.The outcome is that the new regulation has a strong impact on the design of the steel plates. The requirement in minimum spacing imposes a specific dimension and position of the fasteners. Moreover, the capacity of the connection is influenced by the distance between the fasteners parallel to the grain, which determines the effective number of fasteners involved in the connection.

This is an essay in the field of English literature didactics. It argues for the use of authentic texts in literacy acquisition. Specifically, the aim of this essay is to justify the use of the novel Push in an English language classroom in Sweden by presenting a literature lesson plan and validating it by three intrerview responses from teachers at a senior high school. I believe students may find the theme of the novel engaging and motivating. The lesson plan is outlined as a student writing project. In this writing project, students will practice reading, speaking and writing skills. The project also includes peer- response which is an activity mentioned in the Englsih 5 syllabus. The lesson plan aims to achieve the learning outcomes of what the Swedish curriculum and syllabus state. The project is validated by a questionnaire, sent by e-mail to teachers at a senior high school in Gävle, regarding the relevance of the proposed lesson plan. Since only three teachers found it possible to participate this essay should be considerate as a pilot case study. However their answers and my analysis provide practical teaching guidelines and indicate the relevance of this particular lesson plan.

En la actualidad, como consecuencia del desarrollo del comercio a nivel global, resulta sumamente compleja la gestión de las empresas, cualquiera sea la naturaleza de su actividad, así son muchos los desafíos que éstas tienen que enfrentar, algunos de ellos relacionados con el costo de las materias primas, los niveles de producción, la misma que ha de estar de acuerdo con la demanda prevista, la estructura de la planta, que debe contar con adecuados canales de comercialización, así como, para asegurar óptimos niveles de rentabilidad para su inversión. / At the present time, as consequence of the development of the trade at global level, it is extremely complex the administration of the companies, anyone is the nature of their activity, they are this way many the challenges that these have to face, some of them related with the cost of the matters cousins, the production levels, the same one that must agree with the foreseen demand; the structure of the plant, to have appropriate commercialization channels, as well as, to assure good levels of profitability for their investment.

This study and research was conducted to understand the myriad tools utilized as part of downtown revitalization plans, strategies or efforts in Ontario’s mid-sized cities, what impacts municipalities are seeking in their downtown revitalization plans, strategies or efforts, and the implications for planning theory and practice. This study and research involved a mixed methods research strategy – known as triangulation- which included a literature review, a web-survey directed to municipal staff within each of Ontario’s mid-sized cities, and a case study of London Ontario’s downtown revitalization strategy. The findings of this study and research indicate that traditional revitalization tools are still favoured in Ontario’s mid-sized cities. Further, marketing and quality of life tools are highly used by municipalities in downtown revitalization. Municipalities appear to be tailoring their downtown revitalization programs or efforts to stimulate business, and are increasingly taking an entrepreneurial, business-like approach to revitalization city centres. Transportation featured prominently in downtown revitalization efforts within Ontario’s mid-sized cities. Parking in particular, was an element that was planned for as part of downtown revitalization. Finally, stimulating the local downtown housing market was of primary importance to Ontario’s mid-sized cities. The literature consistently notes the extreme importance of housing as a downtown revitalization strategy over time. It appears that Ontario’s mid-sized cities prescribe to the theory that downtowns cannot truly function and become centres with strong retail markets, and activity hubs with synergistic uses within proximity without housing. Further, Ontario’s mid-sized cities appear to be increasingly seeking to stimulate the private sector in constructing housing. “Increase Residential Population” and “Increase General Activity” are the most prevalent objectives of downtown revitalization in Ontario’s mid-sized cities. Given that the top-three objectives of the web-survey were increasing population within the downtown, increasing general activity within the downtown, and increasing employment within the downtown, a combination of objectives which are multi-dimensional, it appears that mid-sized municipalities are seeking multi-dimensional downtowns, with particular attention paid to increasing population levels. The web-survey and case study did not concretely confirm or deny the literature with regard to monitoring and evaluation. However, the web-survey and case study do suggest that plan evaluation is not a particularly robust element of downtown revitalization efforts in Ontario’s mid-sized cities. Recommendations based on the findings of this research are provided for municipalities, planning practitioners and academics. This research contributes to the limited but expanding literature on mid-sized cities, downtown revitalization of mid-sized cities, as well as monitoring and evaluation techniques and concepts for mid-sized cities to consider. Recommendations for further research are also provided.

The purpose of the study was to explore the overall perceptions that resource room teachers had of the required SMART goals, rubric outcome sampling, and the collaborative effort of Personal Program Planning team. This study included a descriptive, embedded single-case study having three sub-units. Each subunit consisted of one resource room teacher who was teaching in a central Saskatchewan urban school division at the elementary level. Each resource room teacher was asked to select one student with a cognitive, behavioural, or multiple disability and a previous PPP document written for him or her (i.e., this is not the students first year of meeting the criteria for Intensive Supports) by that particular resource room teacher. Each resource room teacher participated in three separate focus open-ended interviews designed to explore their perceptions of SMART goals, rubric outcome sampling, and the collaborative nature of the PPP process.<p> Pattern-matching and exploration building were the two analytic techniques used in this study. Numerous themes were identified in the data. The themes present in data collected from at least two of the participants included: the need to be flexible with parents; resource room teachers have large workloads; concern over EAs not being able to attend PPP meetings; the need for rubrics to be discussed within the context of a PPP meeting; the effect of having different knowledge bases and levels of expertise represented in a PPP team; the use of visual aides during the PPP meeting; and working with the dual role of resource room teacher and vice principal.

With the economic reform and liberalization that accompany the increasing demand in energy, China has surpassed Japan, becoming the second largest energy consuming nation all over the world. Energy from the Middle East and Africa should be delivered through the ocean route from Indian Ocean to the Strait of Malacca. China imported 203.8 million tons of oil in 2009, for an increase of 14.8%, having surpassed Japan and leaving the United States as the second largest oil consuming nation. For oil delivery and energy supply safety, China has much room for improvement in the capability of safeguarding long-distance delivery; a sophisticated cross-ocean navy has not yet been established. On one hand, China has built strongholds along the oil delivery route connecting the Middle East to China, which is the so-called ¡§string of pearls¡¨ strategy. The nations with diplomatic relations with China along the route, including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Cambodia have cooperated with China to give it the right to build ports or to use their important ports to improve oil delivery safety. Developing a command of the sea has remained the ambition of China¡¦s navy in recent years. The substantial measures to gain control of the seas require a naval fleet equipped with long-term offshore combat capability. If conflicts occur in the South China Sea and Indian Ocean, China¡¦s surface vessels probably can not handle them since they lack air superiority. Therefore, China proactively builds its cross-ocean naval fleet, including ushering in large surface vessels and submarines imported from Russia, or self-developed. China has also recently stated that the development of a functional aircraft carrier is part of the future direction for its cross-ocean naval force.

Cloud computing provides business new working paradigm with the benefit of cost reduce and resource sharing. Tasks from different users may be performed on the same machine. Therefore, one primary security concern is whether user data is secure in cloud. On the other hand, hacker may facilitate cloud computing to launch larger range of attack, such as a request of port scan in cloud with virtual machines executing such malicious action. In addition, hacker may perform a sequence of attacks in order to compromise his target system in cloud, for example, evading an easy-to-exploit machine in a cloud and then using the previous compromised to attack the target. Such attack plan may be stealthy or inside the computing environment, so intrusion detection system or firewall has difficulty to identify it. The proposed detection system analyzes logs from cloud to extract the intensions of the actions recorded in logs. Stealthy reconnaissance actions are often neglected by administrator for the insignificant number of violations. Hidden Markov model is adopted to model the sequence of attack performed by hacker and such stealthy events in a long time frame will become significant in the state-aware model. The preliminary results show that the proposed system can identify such attack plans in the real network.

In terms of the importance of information literacy for future education; the efficacy of information learning is hardly assessed; therefore, the main purposes of this research were ¡]1¡^to assess the efficacy of information literacy education at case school;¡]2¡^to know what influences information literacy of students at case school;¡]3¡^to implement remedial courses based on Keller Plan ;¡]4¡^to assess whether Keller Plan is effective in improving information literacy educa- tion. In order to achieve this goal, information indicators of case school were used as a tool to assess the efficacy of information literacy education at case school and Keller Plan was adopted to improve students¡¦ information literacy. Finally, the production of graduation CD would be used to reassess teaching efficacy after the introduction of Keller Plan. Conclusions of this research were made as follows: ¢°¡B In the pretest, the efficacy of students¡¦ information learning did not corre- spond to information literacy indicators established by case school. ¢±¡B Gender, father¡¦s educational level, information equipment and habits of use did not make a significant impact on students¡¦ information literacy at case school. ¢²¡B Programmed Project based on Keller plan could improve general and inferior students¡¦ information literacy at case school. ¢³¡B Modified version of Keller Plan can be used to elevate students¡¦ information literacy. Suggestions of this research were listed below: ¢°¡B For school administration¡G ¡]a¡^ To establish certification mechanism for information literacy. ¡]b¡^ To adopt spiral curriculum for information literacy education. ¡]c¡^ To open information literacy courses for parents. ¢±¡B For teachers¡¦ teaching¡G ¡]a¡^ To adopt project-based teaching. ¡]b¡^ To integrate cooperative learning into information literacy education. ¡]c¡^ To teach skills before related concepts. ¢²¡B For students¡¦ learning¡G ¡]a¡^ To learn how to screen useful information. ¡]b¡^ To do extracurricular learning. ¢³¡B For future research¡G ¡]a¡^ To expand sampling locally or nationally. ¡]b¡^ To establish national certification system. Key words: information literacy, Keller Plan, action research

This thesis studies three asset allocation strategies under a defined-contribution pension plan: Buy-and-hold (BH), constant mix (CM), and time-invariant portfolio protection (TIPP). First in this paper, the actuarial assumptions follow Frees et al (1998), as well as Chang and Lin (1999): the age of the beneficiaries is between 25 to 65 and follows the uniform distribution. As to the investment environment, the portfolio includes a risk-free asset, certificate deposit (CD), and a risky asset--the stock. The interest rate of CD is fixed and the return of stock varies according to 14 scenarios. Then the concept of an open-ended fund is applied to compute the NAV (Net Asset Value) of three strategies for each month and a model of defined-contribution pension funds was developed. Moreover, this thesis also discussed the relationship between the trends of the stock and the changes of stock weights, as well as the terminal wealth of pension fund and the income-replacement ratio under each asset allocation strategy. The characteristics and timing of each strategy can be investigated clearly. Finally, the input parameters derived from the data of historical stock market in Taiwan is used to implement Monte Carlo simulation so that the study of the performance of asset allocation strategies can go more close to reality. The endeavor and results of this thesis will be a useful reference to facilitate both the government and private sector to manage the pension fund.