<p>A fast and energy-efficient multiplier is always needed in electronics industry especially DSP, image processing and arithmetic units in microprocessors. Multiplier is such an important element which contributes substantially to the total power consumption of the system. On VLSI level, the area also becomes quite important as more area means more system cost. Speed is another key parameter while designing a multiplier for a specific application.</p><p>These three parameters i.e. power, area and speed are always traded off. Speaking of DSP processors, area and speed of MAC unit are the most important factors. But sometimes, increasing speed also increases the power consumption, so there is an upper bound of speed for a given power criteria. Considering the battery operated portable multimedia devices, low power and fast designs of multipliers are more important than area.</p><p>The design of a low power, high speed and area efficient multiplier is thus the goal of my thesis work. The projected plan is to instantiate a good design and modify it for low power and speed and prepare its layout using 90nm technology in Cadence®. For that purpose study has been performed on a number of research papers presented in section 7 and selected one of the architecture presented by Jung-Yup Kang and Jean-Luc Gaudiot. They presented a unique technique for power reduction in Wallace tree multipliers. They have proposed a method to calculate 2’s complement of multiplicand for final Partial Product Row (PPR) if using MBE technique. This method has been used in the design for speed enhancement and power reduction.</p><p>The ultimate purpose is to come up with such an architecture which is energy and area efficient than a conventional multiplier at the same performance level. This report describes the design and evaluation of new energy-efficient 32-bit multiplier architecture by comparing its power, performance and chip area to those of a conventional 32-bit multiplier. The report throws light on the basic principles and methods of binary multiplication process and also the power consumption issues related to multipliers. The new algorithm, which reduces the last negative signal in the partial product row is discussed to develop the new architecture. A power performance comparison is shown. The simulation results show that the new architecture is 46 % energy-efficient than a conventional multiplier at the same performance level. The number of transistors used is 34% less and also it consumes 25% less chip area in 90nm CMOS technology.</p>

<p>The Fisher Equation suggests that the spread between nominal and real interest rates is equal to the inflation expectations. In Sweden, where both nominal and inflation linked bonds exist the fisher equation implies that the yield spread could provide investors and policymakers with important information about markets inflation expectations. The aim of this thesis is therefore to estimate whether the yield spread between Swedish nominal and real interest rates - widely referred to as the Breakeven Inflation (BEI) - is a market based measure of inflation expectations. A sample based on historical bond prices between year 2000 and 2007 is used and adjusted for 3 distortions: i) The mismatch in cash flow structure arising from different bond characteristics. ii) The inflation indexation and bond finance implications (carry). iii) The seasonality in Consumer Price Index (CPI). In the absence of “true” inflation expectations, the benchmark used for the evaluation and comparison of the unadjusted and adjusted BEI series is the survey based, Prospera Money Market Players inflationary expectations, i.e. professional forecasters. The evaluation uses two statistical measures to estimate the errors, the Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) to estimate the size of the forecast error and the Mean Error (ME) to measure the bias or the tendency for the forecast error to point in a particular direction. The general conclusion of the study is that both the unadjusted and the adjusted BEI series have improved significantly throughout the sample period as predictors of inflation expectations.</p><p>Further, in the first half of the sample, the MEs show that the BEI tends to underestimate inflation expectations, while in the second part of the sample the direction of the errors are less univocal. However, the carry adjusted and in some extent the carry and seasonality adjusted BEI seem to improve the BEI somewhat, although the conclusions are not very convincing. When using BEI to measure inflation expectations the conclusions should also be balanced against the possible bias associated with survey based expectations.</p>

The Fisher Equation suggests that the spread between nominal and real interest rates is equal to the inflation expectations. In Sweden, where both nominal and inflation linked bonds exist the fisher equation implies that the yield spread could provide investors and policymakers with important information about markets inflation expectations. The aim of this thesis is therefore to estimate whether the yield spread between Swedish nominal and real interest rates - widely referred to as the Breakeven Inflation (BEI) - is a market based measure of inflation expectations. A sample based on historical bond prices between year 2000 and 2007 is used and adjusted for 3 distortions: i) The mismatch in cash flow structure arising from different bond characteristics. ii) The inflation indexation and bond finance implications (carry). iii) The seasonality in Consumer Price Index (CPI). In the absence of “true” inflation expectations, the benchmark used for the evaluation and comparison of the unadjusted and adjusted BEI series is the survey based, Prospera Money Market Players inflationary expectations, i.e. professional forecasters. The evaluation uses two statistical measures to estimate the errors, the Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) to estimate the size of the forecast error and the Mean Error (ME) to measure the bias or the tendency for the forecast error to point in a particular direction. The general conclusion of the study is that both the unadjusted and the adjusted BEI series have improved significantly throughout the sample period as predictors of inflation expectations. Further, in the first half of the sample, the MEs show that the BEI tends to underestimate inflation expectations, while in the second part of the sample the direction of the errors are less univocal. However, the carry adjusted and in some extent the carry and seasonality adjusted BEI seem to improve the BEI somewhat, although the conclusions are not very convincing. When using BEI to measure inflation expectations the conclusions should also be balanced against the possible bias associated with survey based expectations.

The thesis examine if the uncovered interest rate parity holds over a 10 year period between Japan and Australia/Norway/USA. The data is collected between February 2001 - December 2010 and is used to, through regression and correlation analysis, explain if the theory holds or not. In the thesis it is also included a simulated portfolio that shows how a carry trading strategy could have been exercised and proof is shown that you can indeed profit as an investor on this kind of trades with low risk. The thesis shows in the end that the theory of uncovered interest rate parity does not hold in the long term and that some opportunities for profits with low risk do exist. / Uppsatsen undersöker om det icke kurssäkrade ränteparitetsvilkoret har hållit på en 10-års period mellan Japan och Australien/Norge/USA. Månadsdata från februari 2001 till december 2010 används för att genom regressionsanalys samt undersökning av korrelationer se om sambandet håller eller inte. I studien finns också en simulerad portfölj som visar hur en carry trading portfölj kan ha sett ut under den undersökta tidsperioden och hur man kan profitera på denna typ av handel med låg risk. Studien visar i slutet att teorin om det kursosäkrade ränteparitetsvilkoret inte håller i det långa loppet och att vissa möjligheter till vinst existerar.

Fast addition is essential in many DSP algorithms. Various structures have been introduced to speed up the time critical carry propagation. For high throughput applications, however, it may be necessary to introduce pipelining. In this report the power consumption of four different adder structures, with varying word length and different number of pipeline cuts, is compared. Out of the four adder structures compared, the Kogge-Stone parallel prefix adder proves to be the best choice most of the time. The Brent-Kung parallel prefix adder is also a good choice, but the maximal throughput does not reach as high as the maximal throughput of the Kogge-Stone parallel prefix adder.

A fast and energy-efficient multiplier is always needed in electronics industry especially DSP, image processing and arithmetic units in microprocessors. Multiplier is such an important element which contributes substantially to the total power consumption of the system. On VLSI level, the area also becomes quite important as more area means more system cost. Speed is another key parameter while designing a multiplier for a specific application. These three parameters i.e. power, area and speed are always traded off. Speaking of DSP processors, area and speed of MAC unit are the most important factors. But sometimes, increasing speed also increases the power consumption, so there is an upper bound of speed for a given power criteria. Considering the battery operated portable multimedia devices, low power and fast designs of multipliers are more important than area. The design of a low power, high speed and area efficient multiplier is thus the goal of my thesis work. The projected plan is to instantiate a good design and modify it for low power and speed and prepare its layout using 90nm technology in Cadence®. For that purpose study has been performed on a number of research papers presented in section 7 and selected one of the architecture presented by Jung-Yup Kang and Jean-Luc Gaudiot. They presented a unique technique for power reduction in Wallace tree multipliers. They have proposed a method to calculate 2’s complement of multiplicand for final Partial Product Row (PPR) if using MBE technique. This method has been used in the design for speed enhancement and power reduction. The ultimate purpose is to come up with such an architecture which is energy and area efficient than a conventional multiplier at the same performance level. This report describes the design and evaluation of new energy-efficient 32-bit multiplier architecture by comparing its power, performance and chip area to those of a conventional 32-bit multiplier. The report throws light on the basic principles and methods of binary multiplication process and also the power consumption issues related to multipliers. The new algorithm, which reduces the last negative signal in the partial product row is discussed to develop the new architecture. A power performance comparison is shown. The simulation results show that the new architecture is 46 % energy-efficient than a conventional multiplier at the same performance level. The number of transistors used is 34% less and also it consumes 25% less chip area in 90nm CMOS technology.

The main idea of this thesis is studying the importance of the carry-over effects and interaction effects in statistical models. To investigate it, a hand-milking experiment in Burkina Faso was studied. In many no electricity access countries, such as Burkina Faso, the amount of milk and milk compositions are still highly  relying on hand-milking techniques and milkers. Moreover, the time effects also plays a important role in stockbreeding system. Therefore, falling all effects, carry-over effects and interaction effects into a linear mixed effects model, it is concluded that the carry-over effects of milker and hand-milking techniques cannot be neglected, and the interaction effects among hand-milking techniques, different milkers, days and periods can be substantial.

Για να ικανοποιηθούν οι ερευνητικοί στόχοι, οδηγηθήκαμε στη διαμόρφωση του ερευνητικού και θεωρητικού πλαισίου της μελέτης, έχοντας ως οδηγό τη διεθνή και ελληνική βιβλιογραφία που αναφέρεται στην Διαδικασία Επιλογής Ανθρωπίνων Πόρων - Ανάπτυξη και Εκπαίδευση Ανθρώπινου Δυναμικού. Στο πλαίσιο αυτό εντάσσονται και ερευνώνται οι αιτίες που μπορούν να οδηγήσουν την επιχείρηση στη διαδικασία της αξιολόγησης της εκπαίδευσης. Δηλαδή εξετάζονται οι εξωγενείς παράγοντες, όπως είναι για παράδειγμα η είσοδος νέων ανταγωνιστών στο επιχειρηματικό πεδίο της επιχείρησης, αλλά και ενδογενείς παράγοντες, όπως ο αποτελεσματικότερος έλεγχος του κόστους και των αποτελεσμάτων της εκπαίδευσης. Παράγοντες δηλαδή που μπορεί να αποτελέσουν αίτια ώστε η επιχείρηση να εξετάσει το ενδεχόμενο να αξιολογήσει τις εκπαιδευτικές της δραστηριότητες. Παράλληλα μελετώνται οι τρόποι με τους οποίους η επιχείρηση εκπαιδεύει τους Ανθρώπινους Πόρους της, δηλαδή οι μέθοδοι εκπαίδευσης, το περιεχόμενο των εκπαιδευτικών προγραμμάτων και οι εκπαιδευτικοί φορείς με τους οποίους συνεργάζεται. Ακόμη μελετώνται οι στρατηγικές αξιολόγησης που μπορεί να επιλέξει μια επιχείρηση εφόσον έχει αποφασίσει την υλοποίηση του προγράμματος της αξιολόγησης. Μελετώνται τα κριτήρια εκείνα, που λαμβάνονται υπόψη ώστε, η Διοίκηση να επιλέξει τη μέθοδο εκείνη που θα διευκολύνει την πραγματοποίηση της αξιολόγησης με το ελάχιστο δυνατό κόστος. / To meet the research objectives, we were led to the formation of research and theoretical study, using the guidance of international and Greek literature refers to the Selection Process - Training and Development of Human Resources. Examples of this, are investigated and the causes that can lead the company in the process of education’s evaluation. External factors, such as for example the entry of new competitors in the field of business enterprise, but also internal factors such as effective control of costs and outcomes of education are taken under consideration. At the same time the thesis is studying the ways in which the company educates its human resources, i.e. training methods, content of courses, training providers. Assessment strategies are also studied that can be chosen in case a company decides to implement the program evaluation. Finally the appropriate criteria are studied, that the Administration of the company has to choose in order to decide about the proper method that should facilitate the evaluation at minimum cost.

In competitive golf, the player’s ability to hit the ball a long distance affects the score in a positive way. Swing kinematics is considered an important factor in driver performance; one way of improving swing kinematics is through strength and power training. Subsequently, high-level golfers and their coaches often explore novel ways of increasing the distance of a shot, in particular driver carry distance (CD). This licentiate thesis presents two studies with the overall aim of studying how swing kinematic and physical characteristics are associated with driver performance among intercollegiate golf players. The studies report swing kinematics associated with driver performance (study 1) and the impact of isokinetic rotational training on driver performance and swing kinematic variables (study 2). The methods used were (1) a cross-sectional correlation study (n=15) and (2) an open trial intervention study (n=20). The studies investigated (1) the relationship between golf swing kinematics and driver performance, and (2) the impact of strength training on swing kinematics and driver performance variable. The results show variables that were distinctive for the club head speed (CHS) were mainly during the downswing: greater X-factor stretch; and higher pelvis peak speed. Whilst, factors distinctive to the regression model for CD were mainly at impact: reduced thorax rotation; and greater thorax lateral bend. Nine weeks of isokinetic training increased seated rotational force and power, peak arm speed and arm acceleration, ball speed, and CD more compared to isotonic training. Even though isokinetic training did not increase CHS, it did result in greater CD. This licentiate thesis contributes to the understanding of which variables influence driver performance, in particular CD, among high-level golfers. Segmental interactions (pelvis-thorax), lead arm speed and acceleration, isokinetic and isotonic training. These results may guide training interventions aiming to improve driver and golf performance among high-level golfers, particularly those with a background of strength training. Future studies could investigate how the interaction between swing kinematics, clubhead trajectory, and driver performance variables differ between male and female golfers.

The main aim of this diploma thesis is to determine the buying atmosphere of the selected business unit and develop suggestions for improvement based on a marketing research. The first part of the thesis is devoted to literary research to define terms like a trade, a wholesale and a customer behaviour. Then a buying atmosphere and her elements are described. In the next part of the thesis is presented the selected wholesaler - Makro in České Budějovice. Information about buying atmosphere, customers and services of Makro are given. The second part of this work focus on the marketing research specifically on the questionnaire survey and an interview with shop manager Ing. Hana Galisová. The data from survey was acquired online and also in person directly in the store. The survey was attended by 254 respondents and their responses were evaluated using graphs.