The purpose of this study is to provide a simple user interface with which everyone can design his/her own game, and play it on Game Boy Advance console. This project helps people develop games without having programming knowledge. Everything is done by means of a user interface and without any programming knowledge. It is magic, isn’t it? Game Boy Advance is a game console developed by Nintendo. In order to market their products, they must also develop games running on their products. Every time they develop a game for the Game Boy Advance console, they have to implement a low level C++ application over and over again. This makes things more complicated. However, if this software is used, everything becomes easier. This project can be seen as an interpreter that interprets the designed game, which is very high level, and converts it to a Game Boy Advance game. If this project is finished successfully, game design for Game Boy Advance will experience a revolution in its history. In brief, it is required to develop a visual, GUI‐based system that allows people to develop games for the Game Boy Advance console. This GUI system is required to implement and use the API (Game Engine) developed by Lypson.

Transfer pricing (TP) has for a long time been an important tax issue, however it is only within the past decade that it has gotten the attention it deserves. This since more and more corporations becomes globalized. When setting a TP within a multinational enterprise (MNE) it is important to consider the arm’s length principle. The reason for this is that all countries, involved in an internal transaction, are entitled to their fair share of tax revenues. The principle implies that when performing a transaction within a MNE, the price used shall be set on the same circumstances as if the transaction was performed between independent actors. Corporations which do not set their TPs in accordance with the arm’s length principle face the risk of adjustments and future audits. Setting a TP, which is in line with the arm’s length principle is, however, not an easy task, therefore the subject of advance pricing agreement (APA) has emerged. APA has existed since the middle of the 1980’s when it was first implemented in Japan. However, it was as recent as last year, 1st of January 2010, that a legislation concerning APA was implemented in Swedish tax legislation. The legislation implies that corporations which are a part of a MNE can apply for a binding agreement at the Swedish tax authority regarding future TP. This opportunity will provide for a foreseeable tax future. Due to this recent implementation of APA legislation in Sweden, we have chosen to conduct a cross-country analysis concerning regulations of APA, using countries which have had APA legislation for a substantial amount of time. The different countries which legislations we have studied in this thesis are Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the U.S. The purpose with this thesis is to examine if the Swedish legislation concerning APA will provide any advantages for Swedish MNEs. A qualitative research method with the focus on an abductive research approach has been used for this thesis. The abductive approach consists of both deductive and inductive research approaches. The deductive approach is used to answer our research questions and the inductive approach is used to answer the purpose with our thesis. The purpose of this thesis consists of two research questions, what the Swedish APA legislation implies and are there any differences between the Swedish APA legislation and other countries’ APA legislations. After analyzing this new Swedish legislation and performing the cross-country analysis we have come to the conclusion that in general APAs provides substantial benefits for Swedish corporations. With the main advantages being the increased predictability and the reduced administrative burden concerning TP issues. In order for the Swedish legislation to be fully beneficial for the corporations it is, however, in need of some adjustments. If adjustments to the legislation are made we conclude that APAs will only provide benefits for Swedish corporations.

The purpose of this study is to study the effect of water quality and quantity of raw water on advanced and conventional treatment processes. We are using data of water quality and quantity to investigate difference of quality of treated water in water treatment plant. Finally we compared items of ware quality ( turbidity, free residual chlorine, total hardness, conductivity, pH, NH3-N) whether passed the Taiwan¡¦s national standard of drinking water or not. We are hoping the treated drinking water will all fit the goal of high quality. Results show that high variation of turbidity was found from May to October in every year. The high turbidity was frequently occurred from 9.9% (2008) to 39.5% (2010). It indicated the worsen trend of water quality of raw water is increased yearly. In all monitoring items of water quality, turbidity, conductivity, NH3-N was greatly influenced in seasons from June to September. The rest items had no significant affect by season¡¦s variation. The removal efficiency in items of water quality of advanced and conventional WTP we found there were high value at hardness and TDS with 49.3% and 43.3% respectively. These items, water quality of treated water (such as turbidity, free residual chlorine, total hardness, conductivity, pH, NH3-N), were all pass the current drinking standard in Taiwan ( i.e., turbidity¡Õ2NTU¡BTDS¡Õ500mg/L¡B6.0¡ÕpH¡Õ8.5¡B0.2mg/L¡Õfree residual chlorine¡Õ1.0mg/L¡BNH3-N¡Õ0.1mg/L ).

The significant restructuring of international capital flows to developing countries – in particular to Latin American countries – observed in the last quarter century has generated significant research in the area to examine its potential impact on development efforts. The resurgence of foreign direct investment (FDI) and the increasing significance of remittances, both as shares of gross domestic product (GDP), have made these types of capital flows the most analyzed. Despite the large fraction of empirical studies that find a positive and significant relationship between FDI and economic growth, an important fact that has been so far overlooked in the literature is its impact on standards of living in host countries. This dissertation first establishes the strong complementary connection between FDI and economic growth in Latin America, measured by increases in GDP per capita growth rates, to then examine additional channels through which it could affect the welfare of the region. I first show that FDI has a positive effect on central government tax revenues, which is mainly channeled through its effect on taxes on goods and services. I then show that FDI has a positive and significant effect on the employment rates in these host countries, with female employment rate getting the largest impact – relative to males. Remittances are another capital flow that plays a large and important role in certain economies, exceeding 10% of GDP in some countries. The impact of remittances on the main macroeconomic measures of a small open economy is analyzed in the last section using a stochastic limited participation model with cash in advance constraints and costly adjustment of cash holdings. After verifying that the model responds adequately to standard shocks, a remittances shock is introduced to examine the dynamic response of the representative economy. The results show that a positive remittances shock forces the exchange rate to depreciate and lowers both output and consumption in the period of the shock. The positive shock lowers utility during the shock but raises it from the following period onwards, improving discounted utility after 10 years when remittances are 10% of GDP and there are no adjustment costs.

我國於2004年底完成「營利事業所得稅不合營業常規移轉訂價查核準則」之發布作業，其中內容對於預先訂價協議亦有詳細的規範，其目的在減少移轉訂價事後查核所引發的爭議及所造成的行政負擔。鑑於我國預先訂價協議制度，與其他先進國家及中國大陸之制度有很大的不同，因此，本研究透過國內外文獻及先進國家與我國對預先訂價協議處理之比較分析來檢視我國預先訂價協議制度可能遭遇的困難及解決之道，並對與中國大陸簽署雙邊APA之可行性加以探討。 / 本研究發現我國預先訂價協議制度和國外相比較有很大不同，其中包括設定苛刻及高門檻的申請條件、裁量權極大的初審機制、而無供雙向溝通之預備會談機制、亦無專設之小組專門處理APA之申請案、雙邊或多邊APA申請程序付之闕如，以及不能追溯以前年度尚未核定之案件等。這些不同，都將是日後推廣簽訂單邊、雙邊或多邊APA之障礙。 / In the end of the year 2004, our country issued “Regulations Governing Assessment of Profit-seeking Enterprise Income Tax on Non-arm’s Length Transfer Pricing (TP Regulations).” For the purposes of reducing the disputes and administrative burden caused by the post audits relating to transfer pricing issues, there are some provisions grouped into a proper chapter for regulating an APA program in TP Regulations. In view of the big differentials of the APA programs between in Taiwan and in some other progressed countries and in Mainland China, this study is expected to view and test our APA program to see if any difficulties to be encountered and resolved through comparing and analyzing domestic and foreign publications and also studies the possibilities to conclude bilateral APA with Mainland China. / This study lists some big differentials while comparing APA program in Taiwan with that in foreign countries. Such differentials include setting some conditions severe and high threshold for application, initial examination device solely controlled by tax authorities but no prefiling conferences for developing two ways’ communications, neither proper APA teams in a tax authority nor special procedures for dealing with bilateral and multilateral APA, as well as no rollback of transfer pricing method and etc. Those big differentials will limit the future development of unilateral, bilateral, and multilateral APA in Taiwan.

Advance directives are instructions given by patients – or potential patients – specifying what actions ought to be taken for their health in the event that they are no longer capable to make decisions due to illness or incapacity. Over the last decades, there has been a rising tide in favour of advance directives: not only is the use of such directives recommended by most medical and advisory bodies, they are also gaining increasing legal recognition in many parts of the world. This book, however, takes as its point of departure one of the most commonly discussed medical-ethical arguments against granting advance directives moral force: the Objection from Personal Identity. The adherers of this objection basically asserts that when there is lacking psychological continuity between the person who formulated the advance directive and the later patient to whom it supposedly applies, this seriously threatens the directive’s moral authority. And, further, that this is so because lacking sufficient psychological continuity implies that the author of the advance directive is numerically distinct from the later patient. Although this argument has some initial appeal, most philosophers in the advance directives debate maintain that the Objection from Personal Identity fails, but suggest different reasons as to why. Whereas some argue that the objection has no force because it rests on faulty beliefs about personal identity, others argue that we ought to grant advance directives moral authority even if the author and the later patient are numerically distinct beings. This book investigates some of the most influential of these arguments and reaches the conclusion that the Objection from Personal Identity has more to it than is usually recognized in the medical-ethical debate. Lacking sufficient psychological continuity between author and later patient, it is concluded, does threaten the moral authority of the advance directive.

Middle-line managers (MLMs) are becoming increasingly important for an organization. Coordination forms (immediate coordination and in-advance coordination) are used in the organization. In this thesis, four variables: organizational type, the degree of decentralization of organization, qualification and uncertainty are analyzed for investigating what are main factors influencing the use of coordination forms in Chinese organizations from MLM’s perspective.The empirical data for the study was gathered by a survey questionnaire, which involved a quota sampling of 158 MLMs in Chinese organizations. The interesting results justify the tendency to use in-advance coordination is greater for organizations that are characterized by a high level of uncertainty, especially learning and goal-setting; and the tendency to use in-advance coordination is greater for organizations that are characterized by a high level of decentralization.

The existence of Gravitational Waves from binary black holes is one of the most interesting predictions of General Relativity. These ripples in space-time should be visible to ground-based gravitational wave detectors worldwide in the next few years. One such detector, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) is in the process of being upgraded to its Advanced sensitivity which should make gravitational wave detections routine. Even so, the signals that LIGO will detect will be faint compared to the detector noise, and so accurate waveform templates are crucial. In this thesis, we present a detailed analysis of the accuracy of hybrid gravitational waveforms. Hybrids are created by stitching a long post-Newtonian inspiral to the late inspiral, merger, and ringdown produced by numerical relativity simulations. We begin our investigation with a study of the systematic errors in the numerical waveform, and errors due to hybridization and choice of detector noise. For current NR waveforms, the largest source of error comes from the unknown high-order terms in the post-Newtonian waveform, which we first explore for equal-mass, non-spinning binaries, and also for unequal-mass, non-spinning binaries. We then consider the potential reduction in hybrid errors if these higher-order terms were known. Finally, we investigate the possibility of using hybrid waveforms as a detection template bank and integrating NR+PN hybrids into the LIGO detection pipeline.

Subject of the master work: The peculiarities of education ways use in a development centre of nursing workers. Scientific supervisor: doc.dr. M.Gaigalienė. The subject of research: The use of education ways in a development centre of nursing workers. The aim of research: To open the peculiarities of education way use, improving a qualification of nursing workers. The tasks of research: 1. To analyse a pedagogical and medical literature in aspect of researching problem. 2. To overwiev tendencies of nursing workers qualification development in Lithuania and other countries. 3. To open the peculiarities of nursing workers and nursing teachers into an advance of qualification and a value of development method. 4. To analyse possibilities of education way use in a development centre of nursing workers. 5. To give recommendations for a teaching and program directress of nursing workers development centre. Methods of research: theoretical, diagnostic, mathematical. The analysis of scientific literature has opend, that te practise of professional nursing mentions by not automatically doing and elementar skills, but by way of use of cognitive ability and takes components of biomedicine, social science and pedagogical components, that allow for tenders to develop and expand competences of varial fields, that give studies and gets proffesional qualification by development in accordance to a step of nursing and practise. There are organised a lot of various classes for nursing workers:... [to full text]

The existence of Gravitational Waves from binary black holes is one of the most interesting predictions of General Relativity. These ripples in space-time should be visible to ground-based gravitational wave detectors worldwide in the next few years. One such detector, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) is in the process of being upgraded to its Advanced sensitivity which should make gravitational wave detections routine. Even so, the signals that LIGO will detect will be faint compared to the detector noise, and so accurate waveform templates are crucial. In this thesis, we present a detailed analysis of the accuracy of hybrid gravitational waveforms. Hybrids are created by stitching a long post-Newtonian inspiral to the late inspiral, merger, and ringdown produced by numerical relativity simulations. We begin our investigation with a study of the systematic errors in the numerical waveform, and errors due to hybridization and choice of detector noise. For current NR waveforms, the largest source of error comes from the unknown high-order terms in the post-Newtonian waveform, which we first explore for equal-mass, non-spinning binaries, and also for unequal-mass, non-spinning binaries. We then consider the potential reduction in hybrid errors if these higher-order terms were known. Finally, we investigate the possibility of using hybrid waveforms as a detection template bank and integrating NR+PN hybrids into the LIGO detection pipeline.