A haptic system is a robotic computer interface which aims to provide tactile feedback for human operators when they manipulate virtual environments (VEs) or remote environments (REs). The tactile feedback is emulated by applying forces, vibrations, or motions to the human users through a haptic device/interface, e.g. a robot arm. Transparency and stability are two important criteria for designing a haptic system. Transparency is related to the realism of user's touch sensation and stability guarantees the safety of the user while interacting with VEs/REs. Because of the nature of the human tactile sensory system, a transparent haptic system demands an update rate greater than 500 Hz, i.e. most commercial haptic devices work at 1 KHz. On the other hand, many haptic applications are multirate systems. The multirate property of a haptic system is due to either the slow update rate of the VE or the impairments of computer networks such as limited transmission bandwidth or packet loss. Wave transformation is wildly used in teleoperation to cope with both constant and varying time delays. This work aims to use wave transformation to tackle the challenges imposed by multirate property of a haptic system. First, passive multirate wave variables control (PMWVC) is introduced. PMWVC guarantees the passivity of the communication channels through which the fast haptic device is connected to the slow VE/RE. It is shown that to maintain the passivity of the system, aliasing should be avoided in the communication channels, i.e. by using anti-aliasing filters. Next, PMWVC strategy is applied to two different applications: i) multiuser cooperative haptics and ii) haptic interaction with an unknown VE. In the first application, two users at two different locations manipulate a common virtual object simulated on a central server. The users are connected to the central server through a LAN network. The second application is a single user application in which PMWVC is used to connect the haptic device to an unknown slowly updated VE. Since in this application the VE is unknown, the computational delay of the VE significantly affects the stability of the overall system. To tackle this problem, a nonlinear algorithm based on passivity analysis is proposed. In both examples, numerical and experimental results validating the analytical results are provided. The results show that by using PMWVC, it is possible to significantly improve the performance of a multirate haptic system in terms of transparency and stability. The second half of this work is devoted to improving the performance of PMWVC in all frequency ranges. In order to study the performance of PMWVC, lifting is used to convert the multirate haptic system to a unirate system. By using this technique, it is shown that velocity estimation plays a critical role in a haptic application with PMWVC, especially in high frequencies. Considering this fact, a method for designing a passive velocity filter in wave domain is proposed. Finally, a filter bank structure is introduced which enables utilizing a local model in conjunction with PMWVC. In this structure, the outgoing signal sent to the VE is split into two frequency ranges. Low frequency content of the signal is fed to the original VE and high frequency content of the signal is sent to the local model. By using lifting the performance of the proposed structure is studied. The results show that the proposed method improves the transparency of the system in all frequency ranges and unlike utilizing a local model in power domain, it does not impose any restriction on the stability of the system. / Graduate / 0548 / 0544 / 0771 / nyasrebi@uvic.ca

Recent research has shown that variation in the gene encoding for the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) contributes to individual differences in social-cognitive and emotional functioning in both clinical and non-clinical populations. OXTR has been associated with prosocial behavior, positive and negative emotionality, empathy, maternal sensitivity, and stress reactivity. To date, no study has investigated OXTR in the context of behavioral and emotional reactions to betrayals in trust. The present study examined how variation in 10 SNPs on OXTR may contribute to individual differences in behavior, emotional reactions, and perceptions following a betrayal in trust in an iterated prisoner’s dilemma game. Following correction for multiple testing, one SNP (rs237887) and two haplotypes (A-rs237887, C-rs2268490; G-rs237887, C-rs2268490) were significantly associated with positive emotional reactions to betrayal. In addition, one haplotype (C-rs9840864, T-rs2268490) was significantly associated with negative emotional reactions to betrayal. The present findings suggest that variation on OXTR may contribute to individual differences in emotional reactions to betrayals in trust.

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国立情報学研究所で電子化したコンテンツを使用している。

<p>This paper addresses the issue of the primary Prototype Carbon Fund objectives , which are High-Quality Emmissions reductions / knowledge dissermination / Public-private parterships. The researcher further invesigates whether, eight years after its creation, the Prototype Carbon Fund is a success.</p>

Doctor of Philosophy / Buyer-supplier relationships have been increasingly considered a critical part of contemporary supply chain management. In response to dynamic and unpredictable market changes, buyers and suppliers enter into cooperative relationships to pursue individual goals and joint goals for better economic and non-economic performance of the supply chain. On the other hand, cooperation between channel members is surrounded by uncertainty, which can create a detrimental impact on the performance of a supply chain. Previous research has focused on various aspects of uncertainty that could affect supply chain member behaviour. The present research contends that relationship behavioural factors play an important role in increasing or mitigating channel members’ perceived uncertainty in their supply or purchase decision-making. Specifically, the purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of retailer-supplier cooperation and retailer/supplier’s decision-making uncertainty (DMU) on retail supply chain performance from the perspectives of both the retailer and the supplier. A holistic model was developed as the theoretical framework for this conceptualisation. A sample of 202 retailers and 64 suppliers in the sporting goods retail business in Taiwan was used to separately test a number of hypothesised relationships by using structural equation modelling (SEM). The findings indicate that both cooperation and DMU are the key determinants of retail supply chain performance, including financial performance and non-financial performance (i.e., supply flexibility and customer service). Financial performance is positively affected by retailer-supplier cooperation and negatively affected by DMU in both the retailer model and the supplier model. The five dimensions of retailer-supplier cooperation (i.e. trust, guanxi, dependence, coercive power and non-coercive power) have significant effects on cooperation. However, apart from guanxi with the retailer/supplier, neither other relationship dimensions nor retailer-supplier cooperation have any influence on retailer’s DMU or supplier’s DMU. The results also indicate that differences and similarities exist across retailers and suppliers with respect to the effects of several relationship dimensions on cooperation and uncertainty. 2 The holistic empirical model developed for this research contributes further to understanding the links, which have been lacking in the extant channel relationship literature and supply chain management literature, between buyer-supplier relationships, DMU, and supply chain performance. The findings that a retailer/supplier’s DMU can erode the performance of a supply chain in various aspects highlight the need for improvement in some areas of supply chain efficiency and effectiveness, through cooperation-enhancing actions between the retailer and the supplier. From a managerial perspective, the performance improvement in the supply chain, in turn, will motivate more reciprocal commitment and efforts from the retailer and the supplier to maintain their working relationship. As such, mutual trust and enriched guanxi, dependence and non-coercive power help both the retailer and the supplier to have less uncertainty in their purchase/supply decision-making process. It creates a win-win position for both parties in the supply chain.

Thesis (D.Min.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2006. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 96-98).

Thesis--Tübingen. / Vita. Bibliography: p. vii-xxv.

Thesis (M.A.)--Bowling Green State University, 2009. / Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 60 p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wollongong, 2002. / Typescript. Bibliographical references: leaf 343-373.