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Research Question: Which are the decisive factors that impact the adoption of business intelligence systems (BIS) among IT SMEs in Sweden? Purpose: This paper aims to examine Swedish SMEs and understand which decisive factors have an impact on the decision makers and their adoption of BIS. This study aims to study SMEs that have already adopted BIS. Method: A deductive qualitative approach was used to answer the study’s research question. The primary data was conducted through seven semi-structured interviews with Swedish IT SMEs. Empirical Findings: The empirical findings highlight that some factors had a greater influence on the adoption of BIS than others. These were possession of the right type of data, support of top management and service provider support. Conclusion: The presented study identified that small and medium sized enterprises are prone to BIS adoption when considering three decisive factors. First, the importance of possessing data and having the right type of data was a critical need and a factor for BIS adoption. Second, the use of service provider support for SMEs seemed to contribute with important value according to the findings. Third, working proactively with change management affected the perceived usefulness of technology and led to a higher chance of small and medium sized adopting BIS. / Frågeställning: Vilka är de avgörande faktorerna som påverkar antagande av business intelligence-system bland små och medelstora (SME) IT företag i Sverige? Syfte: Den här uppsatsen syftar på att undersöka svenska små och medelstora företag (SME) och förstå vilka faktorer som påverkar beslutsfattare och deras antagande av BIS. Uppsatsen syftar till att studera SME som redan har antagit BIS. Tillvägagångssätt: Denna studie använde en deduktiv kvalitativ metod för att besvara forskningsfrågan. Den primära datan samlades in genom sju semistrukturerade intervjuer med svenska SME inom IT-branschen. Bidrag: Resultaten visar att vissa faktorer hade ett större inflytande på antagande av BIS än andra. Dessa var innehav av rätt typ av data, stöd från högsta ledningen samt support från tjänsteleverantörer. Slutsats: Den presenterade studien identifierade att svenska SME är benägna att anta BIS när man överväger tre avgörande faktorer. För det första var vikten av att ha data och ha rätt typ av data ett kritiskt behov och en faktor för BIS antagande. För det andra verkade användningen av tjänsteleverantör stöd för små och medelstora företag bidra med ett viktigt värde enligt resultaten. För det tredje, att arbeta proaktivt med förändringsledning påverkade den upplevda användbarheten av teknik och ledde till en högre chans för SME att antagande BIS.

<div>Topology Optimization is an optimization technique used to synthesize models without any preconceived shape. These structures are synthesized keeping in mind the minimum compliance problems. With the rapid improvement in advanced manufacturing technology and increased need for lightweight high strength designs topology optimization is being used more than ever.</div><div>There exist a number of commercially available software's that can be used for optimizing a product. These software have a robust Finite Element Solver and can produce good results. However, these software offers little to no choice to the user when it comes to selecting the type of optimization method used.</div><div>It is possible to use a programming language like MATLAB to develop algorithms that use a specific type of optimization method but the user himself will be responsible for writing the FEA algorithms too. This leads to a situation where the flexibility over the optimization method is achieved but the robust FEA of the commercial FEA tool is lost.</div><div>There have been works done in the past that links ABAQUS with MATLAB but they are primarily used as a tool for finite element post-processing. Through this thesis, the aim is to develop an interface that can be used for solving optimization problems using different methods like hard-kill as well as the material penalization (SIMP) method. By doing so it's possible to harness the potential of a commercial FEA software and gives the user the requires flexibility to write or modify the codes to have an optimization method of his or her choice. Also, by implementing this interface, it can also be potentially used to unlock the capabilities of other Dassault Systèmes software's as the firm is implementing a tighter integration between all its products using the 3DExperience platform.</div><div>This thesis as described uses this interface to implement BESO and HCA based topology optimization. Since hybrid cellular atomata is the only other method other than equivalent static load method that can be used for crashworthiness optimization this work suits well for the role when extended into a non-linear region.</div>

Grammatical classification ("tagging") of words in language samples is a component of syntactic analysis for both clinical and research purposes. Previous studies have shown that probability-based software can be used to tag samples from adults and typically-developing children with high (about 95%) accuracy. The present study found that similar accuracy can be obtained in tagging samples from school-aged children with and without language impairment if the software uses tri-gram rather than bi-gram probabilities and large corpora are used to obtain probability information to train the tagging software.

Thèse préparée en cotutelle en anthropologie (Université de Montréal) et en ethnomusicologie (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales). / Cette recherche propose une recension socio-historique des contacts interculturels et du processus d’évangélisation chez les Noons de Thiès (Sénégal) afin d’y retracer la transmutation de symboliques culturelles depuis l’animisme au catholicisme, jusqu’à un état de vicariance entre les cultures en présence. Des travaux ont été effectués dans les archives des Spiritains, au Sénégal et à Paris; au Service historique de la Défense, à Vincennes; dans les Archives du Sénégal, à Dakar; et dans les archives de l’Abbaye de Keur Moussa. Des entrevues ont aussi été menées sur le terrain entre mars 2019 et mars 2020, enrichies d’une démarche renouvelée de bimusicalité selon Mantle Hood (1960), afin de mettre en lumière la perpétuation de symboles identitaires pendant la période coloniale jusqu’à aujourd’hui dans le mbilim, pratique musicale noon au coeur de la recherche. Cette recherche s’inscrit dans un contexte d’acculturation et de syncrétisme au sein d’une population faisant l’objet d’une exclusion systématique de la littérature historique écrite et s’inscrit dans la foulée d’une ethnomusicologie appliquée abordant le musical comme sujet holistique, observable et explicable selon diverses représentations de la communauté, une construction dynamique relevant de la rencontre entre plusieurs cultures dans le temps et se modulant selon l’utilisateur et le contexte d’utilisation (Berlioz et al., 1989). Je propose ainsi de reconsidérer le travail d’archives sur l’histoire et l’expérience coloniale et missionnaire afin de repenser les modèles classiques de syncrétisme et d’acculturation pour comprendre la construction d’une identité culturelle et musicale (ré)actualisée qui puisse permettre à la communauté visée de se projeter dans l’espace politique et socioculturel du Sénégal. / This research proposes a socio-historical review of cross-cultural contacts and of the evangelisation process among the Noons of Thiès (Senegal) in order to trace the transmutation of cultural symbolics from animism to Catholicism up to a state of vicariousness between the cultures in encounter. Work has been carried out in the archives of the Spiritans, in Senegal and Paris; at the Defense Historical Service, in Vincennes; in the National Archives of Senegal, in Dakar; and in the archives of Keur Moussa Abbey. Interviews were also conducted on the field between March 2019 and March 2020, enriched with a renewed approach of bi-musicality according to Mantle Hood (1960), in order to highlight the perpetuation of identity symbols during the colonial period until today in the mbilim, a musical practice of the Noons at the core of this research which is part of a context of acculturation and syncretism within a population subject to systematic exclusion from written historical literature. This research takes also part of an applied ethnomusicology approaching the musical as holistic subject, observable and explicable according to various representations of the community, a dynamic construction arising from the encounter between several cultures over time and modulating according to the user and the context of use (Berlioz et al., 1989). I thus propose to reconsider the work on the history and the colonial and missionary experience in the archives in order to rethink the classical models of syncretism and acculturation to understand the construction of a (re)actualised cultural and musical identity which can allow the community in question to project itself into the political and socio-cultural space of Senegal.

Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) is a significant hazard to electronic components and systems. Based on a specific processing technology, a given circuit application requires a customized ESD consideration that includes the devices’ operating voltage, leakage current, breakdown constraints, and footprint. As new technology nodes mature every 3-5 years, design of effective ESD protection solutions has become more and more challenging due to the narrowed design window, elevated electric field and current density, as well as new failure mechanisms that are not well understood. The endeavor of this research is to develop novel, effective and robust ESD protection solutions for both emerging technologies and modern complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) technologies. The Si nanowire field-effect transistors are projected by the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors as promising next-generation CMOS devices due to their superior DC and RF performances, as well as ease of fabrication in existing Silicon processing. Aiming at proposing ESD protection solutions for nanowire based circuits, the dimension parameters, fabrication process, and layout dependency of such devices under Human Body Mode (HBM) ESD stresses are studied experimentally in company with failure analysis revealing the failure mechanism induced by ESD. The findings, including design methodologies, failure mechanism, and technology comparisons should provide practical knowhow of the development of ESD protection schemes for the nanowire based integrated circuits. Organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) are the basic elements for the emerging flexible, printable, large-area, and low-cost organic electronic circuits. Although there are plentiful studies focusing on the DC stress induced reliability degradation, the operation mechanism of OTFTs iv subject to ESD is not yet available in the literature and are urgently needed before the organic technology can be pushed into consumer market. In this work, the ESD operation mechanism of OTFT depending on gate biasing condition and dimension parameters are investigated by extensive characterization and thorough evaluation. The device degradation evolution and failure mechanism under ESD are also investigated by specially designed experiments. In addition to the exploration of ESD protection solutions in emerging technologies, efforts have also been placed in the design and analysis of a major ESD protection device, diodetriggered-silicon-controlled-rectifier (DTSCR), in modern CMOS technology (90nm bulk). On the one hand, a new type DTSCR having bi-directional conduction capability, optimized design window, high HBM robustness and low parasitic capacitance are developed utilizing the combination of a bi-directional silicon-controlled-rectifier and bi-directional diode strings. On the other hand, the HBM and Charged Device Mode (CDM) ESD robustness of DTSCRs using four typical layout topologies are compared and analyzed in terms of trigger voltage, holding voltage, failure current density, turn-on time, and overshoot voltage. The advantages and drawbacks of each layout are summarized and those offering the best overall performance are suggested at the end

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Las guías coaxiales se emplean frecuentemente en la alimentación e interconexión de un elevado número de dispositivos de microondas y ondas milimétricas utilizados en numerosas aplicaciones prácticas (filtros, diplexores, multiplexores, etc.). Por ello, la caracterización rigurosa y eficiente de la excitación coaxial de dispositivos implementados en tecnología guiada es un tema de investigación muy importante que ha sido tratado ampliamente en la literatura técnica. Sin embargo, el número de contribuciones que se dedican a investigar este tema desde un punto de vista multimodal es realmente reducido. El objetivo fundamental de este trabajo consiste en la caracterización multimodal eficiente de la excitación coaxial de dispositivos implementados en guía rectangular utilizando el método BI-RME (Boundary Integral - Resonant Mode Expansion) 3D. En concreto, en este trabajo se caracterizan dos tipos de configuraciones ampliamente utilizadas en la práctica: la excitación coaxial clásica, y la excitación coaxial en configuración colineal. Este último tipo de excitación se emplea comúnmente en los denominados filtros en configuración comb-line, los cuales también son objeto de investigación en el presente trabajo. En particular, se ha desarrollado una herramienta de análisis y diseño muy eficiente desde un punto de vista computacional que permite caracterizar de forma precisa este tipo de filtros. Otro de los objetivos del presente trabajo es el análisis y el diseño de uniones en guía rectangular compensadas con postes conductores de geometría cilíndrica utilizando la técnica BI-RME 3D. Las uniones diseñadas (codos rectos, uniones en T, uniones T mágica y uniones turnstile) presentan una respuesta eléctrica óptima y, además, el trabajo desarrollado demuestra que la posición relativa del poste en la estructura es un parámetro de diseño muy importante que no se había considerado previamente en la literatura técnica dedicada a este tema. / San Blas Oltra, ÁA. (2008). Análisis y diseño de dispositivos pasivos de microondas y milimétricas en guía de ondas con excitación coaxial [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/8308

Enhancing performance of power electronics converters has always been an interesting topic in the power electronics community. Over the years, researchers and engineers are developing new high performance component, novel converter topologies, smart control methods and optimal design procedures to improve the efficiency, power density, reliability and reducing the cost. Besides pursuing high performance, researchers and engineers are striving to modularize the power electronics converters, which provides redundancy, flexibility and standardization to the end users. The trend of modularization has been seen in photovoltaic inverters, telecommunication power supplies, and recently, HVDC applications. A systematic optimal design approach for modular power converters is developed in this dissertation. The converters are developed for aerospace applications where there are stringent requirement on converter form factor, loss dissipation, thermal management and electromagnetic interference (EMI) performance. This work proposed an optimal design approach to maximize the nominal power of the power converters considering all the constraints, which fully reveals the power processing potential. Specifically, this work studied three-phase active front-end converter, three-phase isolated ac/dc converter and inverter. The key models (with special attention paid to semiconductor switching loss model), detailed design procedures and key design considerations are elaborated. With the proposed design framework, influence of key design variables, e.g. converter topology, switching frequency, etc. is thoroughly studied. Besides optimal design procedure, control issues in paralleling modular converters are discussed. A master-slave control architecture is used. The slave controllers not only follow the command broadcasted by the master controller, but also synchronize the high frequency clock to the master controller. The control architecture eliminates the communication between the slave controllers but keeps paralleled modules well synchronized, enabling a fully modularized design. Furthermore, the implementation issues of modularity are discussed. Although modularizing converters under form factor constraints adds flexibility to the system, it limits the design space by forbidding oversized components. This work studies the influence of the form factor by exploring the maximal nominal power of a double-sized converter module and comparing it with that of two paralleled modules. The tradeoff between modularity and performance is revealed by this study. Another implementation issue is related to EMI. Scaling up system capacity by paralleling converter modules induces EMI issues in both signal level and system level. This work investigates the mechanisms and provides solutions to the EMI problems. / Ph. D. / As penetration of power electronics technologies in electric power delivery keeps increasing, performance of power electronics converters becomes a key factor in energy delivery efficacy and sustainability. Enhancing performance of power electronics converters reduces footprint, energy waste and delivery cost, and ultimately, promoting a sustainable energy use. Over the years, researchers and engineers are developing new technologies, including high performance component, novel converter topologies, smart control methods and optimal design procedures to improve the efficiency, power density, reliability and reducing the cost of power electronics converters. Besides pursuing high performance, researchers and engineers are striving to modularize the power electronics converters, enabling power electronics converters to be used in a “plug-and-play” fashion. Modularization provides redundancy, flexibility and standardization to the end users. The trend of modularization has been seen in applications that process electric power from several Watts to Megawatts. This dissertation discusses the design framework for incorporating modularization into existing converter design procedure, synergically achieving performance optimization and modularity. A systematic optimal design approach for modular power converters is developed in this dissertation. The converters are developed for aerospace applications where there is stringent v requirement on converter dimensions, loss dissipation, and thermal management. Besides, to ensure stable operation of the onboard power system, filters comprising of inductors and capacitors are necessary to reduce the electromagnetic interference (EMI). Owning to the considerable weight and size of the inductors and capacitors, filter design is one of the key component in converter design. This work proposed an optimal design approach that synergically optimizes performance and promotes modularity while complying with the entire aerospace requirement. Specifically, this work studied three-phase active front-end converter, three-phase isolated ac/dc converter and three-phase inverter. The key models, detailed design procedures and key design considerations are elaborated. Experimental results validate the design framework and key models, and demonstrates cutting-edge converter performance. To enable a fully modularized design, control of modular converters, with focus on synchronizing the modular converters, is discussed. This work proposed a communication structure that minimizes communication resources and achieves seamless synchronization among multiple modular converters that operate in parallel. The communication scheme is demonstrated by experiments. Besides, the implementation issues of modularity are discussed. Although modularizing converters under form factor constraints adds flexibility to the system, it limits the design space by forbidding oversized components. This work studies the impact of modularity by comparing performance of a double-sized converter module with two paralleled modules. The tradeoff between modularity and performance is revealed by this study.

The proposed study examined whether negative urgency and positive urgency are dynamic traits that hold bi-directional relationships with binge and prolonged alcohol use across time. Individuals between the ages of 18-30 were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk; n = 179) and university student (n = 66) pools. Participants completed three batteries of self-report assessments approximately 30 days apart, each containing measures assessing negative and positive urgency, as well as drinking frequency and binge behavior during the prior month. Latent variable cross-lagged panel models examined the effects of alcohol use from the previous month on negative and positive urgency while controlling for concurrent and autoregressive effects. Results of the current study indicated that for the full sample, there was not an effect for the influence of binge/prolonged drinking on either negative or positive urgency during the subsequent month. However, when examined separately by sample (Turkers vs. university) and gender (male vs. female), significant effects were found more for individuals who were Turkers, male, and/or heavy drinkers, suggesting that increases in positive and negative urgency at Time 2 could be partially explained by variance in drinking patterns at Time 1 for these individuals. However, these relationships were not replicated again between Time 2 and Time 3 due to a decrease in all drinking behaviors during these times. Lastly, the study found that while urgency scores were related to psychosocial problems and dependence symptoms associated with drinking, there was no evidence to support that urgency scores had substantial relationships to specific frequency and/or bingeing behavior across the overall sample, although positive urgency had support for a relationship with bingeing, particularly among heavily drinking men. Thus, while the primary findings did not indicate any effects for a general sample of young adults, the effects observed among heavy male drinkers in the present study add to a growing body of literature indicating potential for interactive effects among personality, environmental, and sociobiological factors across the trajectory of the human lifespan. Future research that continues to examine urgency and how it relates to alcohol use in longitudinal contexts, utilizing diverse samples, is warranted.