Early maturity is an important objective for breeding flax adapted to the Western Canada. Crop canopy traits influence seed yield; however, studying its effects is challenging due to the complexity and limited knowledge of the genetics of this trait. The objectives of this research are : i) to characterize flax accessions from the Canadian gene bank collection for early flowering, maturity and canopy traits; ii) to identify SSR markers associated with plant branching and leaf area index (LAI); iii) to use Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to identify canopy variables with significant effects on yield. The flax core collection, consisting of approximately 381 accessions, was grown at the Kernen Crop Research Farm in 2010 and 2011. Additionally, 17 early and 17 late flowering accessions from the flax core collection were screened and their phenotypic responses in both growth chamber and field environments were measured. A large amount of phenotypic diversity was observed in long day and short day environments in these experiments. Some accessions appeared to be more photosensitive, while others were photoperiod insensitive. The genetic control of canopy traits such as LAI and plant branching were studied using association mapping. Genotyping of the core collection was conducted using 375 SSR markers. Population structure analysis assigned the 381 flax accessions in the core collection into four distinct groups. Model comparison revealed that the mixed linear model reduced spurious marker trait associations. A total of 26 markers were identified to be significantly associated with plant branching and LAI. The simultaneous examination of crop phenology and canopy traits to seed yield was performed using SEM analysis. The results indicated greater plant stand resulted in higher irradiance absorption and which resulted in greater seed yield. Days to flowering had a significant negative effect on seed yield and growing degree days to maturity had a significant effect on seed yield. Plant branching and plant height had a positive non-linear effect on seed yield. This study has provided several insights into molecular approaches and statistical methods to improve flax breeding.

The leaders of all countries of each sector and level of society are compelled to work together to address [social and environmental] challenges by maintaining sustainable human development and ensuring that the benefits of globalization are shared more widely. It is in the interests of businesses that these benefits continue both for companies and for others in society.   The Venture Capital is a financial capital provided to the startup firms in their early stages which has a high potential for growth but also entail high risk. The Venture capital firms typically look for new and small businesses with a perceived long term growth potential that will result in a high payout for investors. Venture capital is a subset of private equity of the firms. On other hand, Private equity is an asset class consisting of equity securities, which are not quoted in the stock market. An investment in private equity most often involves either an investment of capital in a mature firms as well as buyout firms.             The purpose of this study is to explore the gap between UK and U.S venture capital and private equity firms on the base of ESG criteria into investment decision making process. To find a relationship between venture capital and private equity firms mainstream investment with ESG criteria and also highlight new trends and the issues, which are potential barrier of ESG criteria implementation in UK and US firms. The authors used different academic literature, previous studies to find a gap and a relationship of ESG criteria into mainstream investment decision making process in UK and U.S firms.   The research is based on both primary & secondary data under descriptive nature of study. A technique with the name of content analysis was used to collect the quantitative data from the U.K and U.S Venture Capital and Private Equity firms. These firms are further categorized in the sample size under the umbrella of clean tech and non-clean tech. Total sample size is 120 firms (60 VC & 60 PE), where 56 are clean tech and 64 are Non-clean tech firms. The find a relationship between variables regression analysis technique is used through SPSS for verifying the validity and variability of collected Data.   We found that, an ESG criterion is on development stage, and there is no such technique and standards that are developed by the venture capital and private equity firms. We found, that firms are mostly focusing on responsible investment strategy; it is somehow same like whole ESG for purpose of their investment screening process. We found that ESG consideration in some UK and U.S venture capital and private equity firms exist, but vary from firms to firms. Some firms are considering just one factor while some other firms consider more than one.  Large firms have more focus on ESG as compared to small firms; due to the nature of business and size, and number of employees, focus is only limited towards investment options and development of strategies for the firm. The result of this study interpret that the U.S firms are focusing more on investment returns, and pay less attention towards ESG as compared to U.K firms, Where UK Venture capital and private equity firms results shows that, they are more focused towards ESG and feel free to incorporate ESG criteria into their investment strategies without incurring any cost in terms of risk and returns.

In pursuit of negatively associated measures, this thesis focuses on certain negative correlation properties in matroids. In particular, the results presented contribute to the search for matroids which satisfy $$P(\{X:e,f\in X\}) \leq P(\{X:e\in X\})P(\{X:f\in X\})$$ for certain measures, $P$, on the ground set. Let $\mathcal M$ be a matroid. Let $(y_g:g\in E)$ be a weighting of the ground set and let $${Z = \sum_{X}\left( \prod_{x\in X} y_x\right) }$$ be the polynomial which generates Z-sets, were Z $\in \{$ B,I,S $\}$. For each of these, the sum is over bases, independent sets and spanning sets, respectively. Let $e$ and $f$ be distinct elements of $E$ and let $Z_e$ indicate partial derivative. Then $\mathcal M$ is Z-Rayleigh if $Z_eZ_f-ZZ_{ef}\geq 0$ for every positive evaluation of the $y_g$s. The known elementary results for the B, I and S-Rayleigh properties and two special cases called negative correlation and balance are proved. Furthermore, several new results are discussed. In particular, if a matroid is binary on at most nine elements or paving or rank three, then it is I-Rayleigh if it is B-Rayleigh. Sparse paving matroids are B-Rayleigh. The I-Rayleigh difference for graphs on at most seven vertices is a sum of monomials times squares of polynomials and this same special form holds for all series parallel graphs.

The Peng-Robinson equation of state (PR EOS) is incorporated with the infinite linear association model and the monomer-dimer association model as well as two different sets of mixing rules to result in four different forms of equations of state. The reformulated PR EOS have been used to represent the vapor pressures and liquid densities of pure associating compounds. The vapor pressure and liquid density values calculated by means of the reformulated PR EOS are in good agreement with the experimental data in the literature.<p>The application of the reformulated PR EOS could be extended to represent the VLE behavior of associating systems. The capabilities of different association-incorporated EOS are compared with the Hong-Hu equation, the AMH equation and the Wilson equation, respectively. The results show that, in general, the reformulated PR EOS are superior to the Wilson equation for all tested systems with the exception of alkanol-hydrocarbon systems and at least as good as the Hong-Hu equation, the AMH equation, although the number of tested systems from Hong and Hu and Nan et al. are less than the one from the present work.<p>The excess molar enthalpies of the ethanol-n-hexane and the ethanol-cyclohexane systems at 298.15 K were measured in an LKB 2107 microcalorimeter and compared with the experimental data in the literature. Additionally, new excess molar enthalpy data, measured at 298.15 K, have been reported for the ethanol-n-hexane-cyclohexane ternary system in the present work. Smooth representations of the results are described and used to construct contours of constant enthalpy on a Roozeboom diagram. The reasonable estimates of the excess enthalpies of the three constituent-binary mixtures can be obtained from both the Liebermann-Fried model and the Flory theory. <p>Finally, an attempt has been made to represent, simultaneously, both VLE and excess enthalpy behavior of the ethanol-n-hexane and ethanol-cyclohexane systems by using the Wilson equation and one of the reformulated PR EOS. Both the reformulated PR EOS and the Wilson equation could be extended to predict the ethanol-n-hexane-cyclohexane ternary system at 298.15 K with the binary interaction parameters determined from the experimental VLE data of the three constituent-binary mixtures. The calculated results show that the reformulated PR EOS is better than or as good as the Wilson equation in predicting the excess enthalpies of selected binary and ternary systems involving one associating species. However, quantitative discrepancies with the experimental data are observed.

Association mapping (AM), based on linkage disequilibrium, is a complementary strategy to traditional quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping for describing associations between genotypes and phenotypes in crop plants. Yellow endosperm colour, an important quality trait in durum wheat (<i>Triticum turgidum L. var. durum</i>), was studied to determine the potential of AM to (1) identify previously reported QTL using a genome wide scan and (2) to determine allelic association of the phytoene synthase 1 (Psy1) gene using a candidate gene analysis. At present, a number of QTL for endosperm colour have been identified, and phytoene synthase, the initial enzyme of the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway, has been associated with QTL on the group 7 chromosomes which are considered to play a significant role in expression of yellow pigment concentration. CIE 1976 b*, a light reflectance measurement, and water-saturated butanol extracted pigments were assessed on a collection of 93 elite accessions from a variety of geographic origins, and genotyped with 245 markers. Population structure was assessed using genetic distance and Bayesian model based approaches, identifying five sub-populations consistent with breeding origin and pedigree. Association analysis identified significant associations with yellow endosperm colour on all chromosomes, including several previously identified QTL as well as new regions for genomic dissection. Pairwise LD mapping of Psy1-B1 and Psy1-A1 located the genes to chromosomes 7B and 7A respectively, to regions which have previously been identified for yellow pigment concentration QTL. The results of this study indicate that AM can be used to complement traditional QTL mapping techniques, and identify novel QTL for further study.

In contemporary Sweden political participation among foreign-born Swedes is viewed as low and it is well known that foreign-born individuals do not use their voting rights to the same extent as the general population. At the same time there are numerous ethnic associations around the country who work with various activities involving political, democratic and integration issues. This study aims to study how four members of a Somali association regard, relate to and work with politics, democracy and integration. The study is based on these four people, but also on their relationship with authorities and other agencies in the community. The conclusion of this study shows in brief that the desire to participate politically is great, but that democracy and politics is accessible to all, depending on the level of language skills and what political knowledge the individual has. The study problematizes the concept of integration, whether it should be seen as an immigrant question that should be conducted by the immigrants or not. The informants have a vision that the democratic and political work they are engaged in in Sweden will be used to establish a democracy in their home country Somalia in the future. / I dagens Sverige ses politiskt deltagande, bland utlandsfödda svenskar som lågt och det är välkänt att utlandsfödda inte nyttjar sin rösträtt i samma utsträckning som befolkningen i övrigt. Samtidigt finns det åtskilliga etniska föreningar runt om i landet som genom aktiviteter arbetar med politisk, demokratisk och integrerande verksamhet. Denna undersökning syftar till att studera hur fyra medlemmar ur en somalisk förening ser på, förhåller sig till och arbetar med politik, demokrati och integration. Studien utgår ifrån dessa fyra personer, men handlar även om deras relation till myndigheter och andra instanser i samhället. Slutsatsen av denna studie visar i korthet att viljan att deltaga politiskt är stor, men att demokratin och politiken är mer eller mindre tillgänglig för alla, beroende på vilka färdigheter individen har i språk och samhällskunskaper. I studien problematiseras begreppet integration och huruvida det ses som en 'invandrarfråga' som bör bedrivas av invandrare eller inte. Det finns även en vision från informanternas sida att arbetet de bedriver kring demokratin och politiken i Sverige i framtiden ska kunna användas för att upprätta en demokrati i hemlandet Somalia.

Polymer solutions in which there are strong specific interactions between the polymer and the solvent are of interest in a number of biological applications. Of particular interest are polymer solutions in which supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2) is the solvent, because polymer processing with CO2 is an important application of green chemistry. Unfortunately, experimental data on the phase behavior of polymer - CO2 systems are relatively scarce, as are models that describe the phase behavior of such systems. The focus of this research is therefore on developing a thermodynamic model based on lattice theory for calculating phase behavior of high pressure polymer solutions with specific intermolecular interactions. A new model, termed the LELAC (Lattice-based Extended Liquid Activity Coefficient) model is proposed based on the gART-L model of Sukhadia and Variankaval. The new model incorporates the compressibility effect at high pressures. The parameters of the model are (1) the equilibrium constant for association between a polymer segment and a solvent, (2) the specific interaction energy between a polymer segment and a solvent, and (3) the dispersion interaction energy. The dispersion interaction energy is calculated using Regular Solution Theory and therefore depends on the pure component properties. One or both of the remaining parameters is obtained from independent measurements such as FT- IR spectra. Alternatively, the two parameters can be obtained by fitting data. Cloud point curves of polymer - CO2 systems have been successfully correlated (1.3 % error) with the new model. Also, using fitted parameters from cloud point data, the sorption behavior of CO2 in polymers has been predicted. The polymer investigated include PBMA, PVAc and Polyacrylates. Comparison of cloud points with those obtained using the SAFT model revealed that the new model performs better than the SAFT model (3.6% error) with two adjustable parameters. The use of FT-IR to investigate interactions between CO2 and a number of polymers has been studied. The results confirm that complexes are formed between CO2 and PMMA, PEMA, PBMA, PVMK, and PVAc. A complex of PVC and CO2 is reported and a new mechanism involving a carbon oxygen triple bond is postulated for this system.

The birth rate in Taiwan has declined year by year, which not only implies a potential decline in the economic growth momentum but also delivers a warning signal to the education system. Facing the difficulties derived from reduced classes and insufficient enrollment, schools realize the importance of establishing a distinctive and attractive image, which would help increase the public understanding of their intrinsic values and meanwhile broaden the sources of top-tier applicants. These in turn would ensure schools sustainable growth and development. This paper discusses the influence of art and culture events held by universities and colleagues on their school image, to explore whether holding such events would benefit schools in terms of establishment of brand image and thereby brand identification for students, parents, alumni and community colleges. In this paper, a questionnaire survey is conducted by using the measurement dimensions of Keller¡¦s Brand Knowledge in 1993. The paper reveals that demographic variables explain the differences in school image. Moreover, positive school image is attributable to the benefits of brand association and the attitude of brand association, of which the latter is considered more influential compared to the former. Lastly, on the basis of the research findings, this paper investigates the implications to the education system, aiming at providing references for the purpose of strategy formulation in the future.

The smartphone market compete closely in Taiwan. there are many companies not only develop the function of product actively, they pay attention to value added of brand and wish it can raise their profit. Because brand association is the core value of brand. So this object of study is smartphone and we want to know the relationship between brand association and purchase intention in whole smartphone market by consumer view point. Furthermore we analysis what different with dissimilar brands and the effect of consumer characteristics This study adopted the research of questionnaire as study method. The target is the resident in Taiwan and uses convenience sampling method. We try to understand what kind of relationship of brand association¡Bconsumer characteristics and consumer purchase intention in consumer¡¦s mind. There are 224 usable responses and we used SPSS soft ware to access the methods of statistic analysis and testifies hypothesis of this research. It has the following conclusions 1. This research find brand association are significantly correlated with consumers purchase intention in smartphone market 2. There are the remarkable differences with brand association and purchase intention in dissimilar brands 3. It shows that consumer characteristics have the remarkable difference with some research variables. This research not only testifies hypothesis but also collects the management means to be the reference. Wish these references could be helpful for academic and business practice. It has the following management means 1. Deepen importance of brand association and the effects of brand association to consumer purchase intention is also suitable to smartphone market 2. In order to creative and maintain competition advantage¡Athe companies must inspect what different between their own brand association and opponent¡¦s own constantly.

After 1978, Chinese government initiated the transformation of the relationship between state and society. It was a process that the actor of state retreated gradually from market and society, meanwhile market and society developed slowly in the space which released by state. The state had different attitude toward market and society, as a result the market made a quicker development than the society. The society developed in the state and the market. The trade association in China could be divided into three types: state-led, spontaneous and eclectic. All of them are founded in the space released by state and the market. It reflected that in planned economy the trade associations still could be driven by the market. The trend of trade promotion associations¡¦ development are the state-led trade promotion associations will become more independently, and it would turn into the modern trade management system. Also the spontaneous promotion associations would develop fast. At that time, it would be hard to differentiate these two kind trade associations. According to the analysis above, the conclusion of this study are: First, Chinese government should continue to reform the SOEs, abolish the unsuitable privilege of administration department and rebuild the state-led trade associations. Second, give support to the newly build trade promotion associations and encourage the creative thinking. Third, cancel the dual management system and implement the systematic management. Fourth, allow the rational competition and regularize the behaviors of trade promotion associations. Finally, complete the supervised system, make the specific rules for trade promotion associations and develop other economical NGOs to make the balance effect.