This research investigates the ways in which firms in the cluster approach the process of internationalization through exploring the influence of business clustering and how it benefits firms in entering foreign markets. The purpose was to understand this process to enable firms to develop successful international strategies to expand in foreign markets. The focus of the study is on the Yarra Valley Wine Industry Cluster, the oldest wine growing region in Victoria, Australia. This research examined of Australian wineries to join together in order to achieve greater competitiveness in collaboration when entering foreign markets due to ever increasing global competition. This paper was an exploratory study that used qualitative information gathered from the case study firms to provide practical framework for the execution of the research using a multiple-case study design. The findings show the following: first, some of the wineries gain their perceptions of the foreign markets from their relationships with, as well as, by the input and suggestions of the distributors, agents, and partners in a particular market, while others seem to distance themselves from their international environments and only focus on serving domestic/local markets exclusively. Second, personal networks play an important role when it comes to the internationalization process of the wineries because they provide access to market knowledge. Third, cooperation among cluster firms plays a very limited role in assisting wineries in foreign market expansion; it has only been of benefit when it came to dealing with local issues. The cluster has played only a minor role, if any, when it comes to the internationalization of the cluster firms. Clustering has been identified as a place where wineries exchange knowledge, and techniques, in regards to wine production, or come together in a joint effort to sort out local issues. However, the cluster does not provide assistance to individual wineries entering international marketplaces. In conclusion there was a distinctive lack of active support and organization from the cluster with regard to the international expansion due to the lack of leadership and joint direction among cluster members. This is where local government could take more proactive role to facilitate better usage of geographical clusters. The findings could improve the company decision-making process. Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of clustering as a means for the future international expansion can be useful in helping to develop international strategies for firms. This would be of great significance to business practitioners because this may have a crucial impact on the competitive advantage of firms in foreign markets. In addition to having significant implications for practice, the investigation has implications for international business research because it provides a better understanding of the role of a cluster in the internationalization.

Over the last decade, 135 extrasolar planets have been discovered, the vast majority found by ongoing radial velocity searches. Of the stars sampled in these searches, 1% have `Hot Jupiter' planets associated with them. Having masses equivalent to Jupiter yet orbital periods of only a few days, this new class of planet is clearly unlike anything in our Solar System.¶ Hot Jupiters present us with an intriguing prospect. If the orientation of the planetary orbit is close to edge-on, the planet will periodically transit across the face of its star, resulting in a small drop in brightness. This transit phenomenon has been successfully used for planet detection over the last couple of years, allowing determination of the planetary radius and accurate mass estimates when coupled with radial velocity observations.¶ To aid understanding of the effect stellar environment plays on Hot Jupiter formation and survivability, this thesis presents the results of a wide-field search for transiting Hot Jupiters in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae. This cluster presents many thousands of stars in a moderate field of view and provides the perfect target for a search of this nature. One previous transit search has been made in the central core of 47 Tuc; using the HST for 8.3 continuous days, Gilliland et.al (2000) expected 17 transits yet found none. This null result suggests that either system metallicity or stellar density may be inhibiting Hot Jupiter formation or survivability in the cluster.¶ This thesis presents a search for transits with a field of view 250 times larger than the HST search and samples the uncrowded outer halo of the cluster (previously unsampled for transits), providing important constraints on the effect of environment on Hot Jupiter formation. If planets are found, then stellar density would seem responsible for the Gilliland et.al (2000) core null result. If no planets are found to a significant level, the survey would provide strong evidence that system metallicity is the dominant factor. Using the ANU 40'' (1m) telescope at Siding Spring Observatory, a 30.4 night observing run was executed and photometry was derived via differential imaging. The dataset numbers 109,000 cluster (and field) stars for photometric analysis, of which 22,000 are suitable for the transit search. With a custom-written transit detection algorithm and extensive Monte Carlo simulations to model the dataset, seven planets should be detectable if the occurrence rate of Hot Jupiters is the same in the cluster as in the Solar Neighbourhood.¶ Despite a detailed search, no transit signatures were identified. This result strongly indicates that the low metallicity of the cluster is the dominant factor inhibiting planet formation in 47 Tuc. Current results in the Solar Neighbourhood show that planet frequency is strongly biased towards stars of high metallicity. This thesis shows that the metallicity trend is likely a universal phenomenon, not only limited to the immediate Solar Neighbourhood and raises questions of whether planets were much rarer in the earlier Universe.¶ As a side result of the search, 100 variable stars were identified in the field, 69 of which are new discoveries. Subsequent analysis reveals a strong period segregation among the cluster eclipsing binaries, indicating previously unobserved dynamical effects in the cluster. Distance estimates for both 47 Tuc and the SMC are in agreement with previously published values and an independent identification of the binary period-colour relation was observed. Two binaries seem to have low-luminosity companions worthy of followup and one variable is likely a star in the early phases of planetary nebula formation. All of the results presented in this thesis have been published in three separately refereed research papers.

The prevalence of event clusters in autobiographical memory was examined with an event-cueing task in two parallel experiments. Event clusters are theoretical memory structures that bind specific personal events in narrative-like configurations. Prior research has shown that young adults report fewer event clusters when cued with childhood events than high school events (Brown, 2005). Experiment 1 tested whether the reduced prevalence of event clusters in childhood is due to forgetting. Experiment 2 used the same event cueing task with 4th grade children. Keeping event age constant, children reported a comparable amount of event clusters to adults recalling childhood events. Childrens relational judgments between event pairs differed from adults and may have inflated their responses. Together, these findings suggest that event clusters are consequences of other cognitive processes implicated in the development of autobiographical memory.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2005. / "August, 2005." Includes bibliographical references. Online version available on the World Wide Web. Library also has microfilm. Ann Arbor, Mich. : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [2005]. 1 microfilm reel ; 35 mm.

Galaxy clusters are powerful tools for studying various astrophysical principles. Gas accreting onto the cluster is heated to 10^7-10^8 K through adiabatic compression and shocks, making clusters highly luminous in X-ray imaging. Measurements of the gas density and temperature profiles can be used to calculate the gas mass fraction f_gas, which is expected to closely match the cosmic baryon fraction Ω_b/Ω_m. Recent observations have found entropy profiles in cluster outskirts that are shallower than predicted and values of f_gas that are higher than the Universal baryon fraction inferred from the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). Abell 133 was an ideal candidate for studying this phenomenon, since it had recently been observed in a wide (R≈30') Chandra mosaic with an exposure time of ∼2 Ms. The X-ray imaging was combined with existing optical imaging from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) and spectroscopy obtained from the Magellan telescope, to search for any possible gas clumps and to study their properties. The photometric analysis yielded over 3200 red sequence galaxies to a depth of r'=22.5, which were used to create a Gaussian smoothed intensity map and a significance map of the cluster (compared to CFHT Legacy Survey data). About 6 significant overdensities were detected in the significance map, although these did not fully correspond to contours obtained from the X-ray image. Spectroscopy obtained on the cluster yielded ∼700 secure redshifts, of which about 180 were cluster members. This included data from the NOAO Fundamental Plane Survey (NFPS) and the 6 Degree Field Galaxy Survey (6dFGS). We found a cluster redshift of z=0.0561±0.0002 and a velocity dispersion of σ=743±43 km/s. The dynamical analysis gave a virial radius of r_v=1.44±0.03 Mpc and a virial mass of M_v=(5.9±0.8)×10^14 M_sun. We also found values of R_500=1.21±0.07 Mpc and M_500=(5.3±0.9)×10^14 M_sun for γ=1/3 and R_500=0.99±0.05 Mpc and M_500=(2.9±0.5)×10^14 M_sun for γ=1/2, where γ is a parameter related to the assumed density profile and the velocity anisotropy. About 30 overdensities with a radius R_c≥30" were detected as gas clumps on the X-ray image. The galaxy distribution in these clumps was analyzed, both for the stacked signal as well as the individual clumps, in ten parallel colour-magnitude bands to find any significant red sequences associated with them. Most of these clumps appeared to be background systems, some consisting of 1-2 galaxies, others being small groups or clusters. Only 2-3 clumps appeared to be associated with the cluster itself. This suggests that the cluster density profile is actually quite smooth, which may not agree with recent numerical simulations. Further studies are required to determine if the cluster density distribution is consistent with what is predicted and the nature of the background systems.

This thesis studies the non-linear (Barkas) effects on stopping of fast moving molecular ions through solids. We model the solid target by a rigid lattice of positive ion cores surrounded by a gas of electrons. To model the electron gas we use a hydrodynamic model with a Thomas-Fermi-von Weizsacker expression for the internal energy. The disturbance to the charge density and velocity profile of the gas due to the intruder is assumed small and a perturbation expansion is used. The gas is assumed to be initially at rest. A derivation for the first and second order stopping force on an projectile due to the induced charge density of the target is given. Structure factors are introduced to capture the physics relating to the structure of the projectile and to allow maximum flexibility and generalization. The second order stopping force is calculated using a novel ”holepunch” integration method and is compared to other available methods. Results are obtained for the case of a dicluster of protons which are colinear with their direction of motion as well as for a dicluster of protons which are randomly oriented incident on an aluminum target and compared to the single proton case.

This thesis studies the non-linear (Barkas) effects on stopping of fast moving molecular ions through solids. We model the solid target by a rigid lattice of positive ion cores surrounded by a gas of electrons. To model the electron gas we use a hydrodynamic model with a Thomas-Fermi-von Weizsacker expression for the internal energy. The disturbance to the charge density and velocity profile of the gas due to the intruder is assumed small and a perturbation expansion is used. The gas is assumed to be initially at rest. A derivation for the first and second order stopping force on an projectile due to the induced charge density of the target is given. Structure factors are introduced to capture the physics relating to the structure of the projectile and to allow maximum flexibility and generalization. The second order stopping force is calculated using a novel ”holepunch” integration method and is compared to other available methods. Results are obtained for the case of a dicluster of protons which are colinear with their direction of motion as well as for a dicluster of protons which are randomly oriented incident on an aluminum target and compared to the single proton case.

Purpose - The thesis is based around on of the most commonly used scientific terms in economics today, cluster. Many actors tend to claim that their regions are working clusters and when the Logkomp project was initiated, the authors wanted to research whether a logistics cluster existed in the Jönköping-Nässjö-Vaggeryd region. Methodology - This research is purely based on the involved actors’ perception whether a cluster exists or not, rather than based on calculations. The actors were interviewed with both short questions with rating from 1-10 and deeper questions where they were allowed to elaborate their answers more freely. Since the project is ran by the municipalities in the region, the municipalities role in the cluster was examined thoroughly and the companies’ perception of cooperation with the municipalities were compared to the municipalities’ perceptions of their own performance. Conclusions - Based on the interview results, the authors were able to compare the perceived situation in the region with academic definitions and models, thus evaluating the level of clusterness. It can be shown that the region is slowly becoming a logistics cluster but there is several important factors that need to be taken into consideration before this can happen. It is also apparent that all involved actors need to pull their weight and there is potential for improvement by all actors.

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Very recently, Rotello¡¦s research group synthesized nanoparticles bearing terpyridine (terpy) ligands and studied their self-assembly using a variety of transition metals. This paper describes a synthetic pathway to ferrocene- and biferrocene-functionalized terpyridine octanethiols, and the studies of self-organization of ferrocene- and biferrocene-functionalized terpyridine octanethiols chemisorbed on Au nanoparticles.