A study has been made of a few different freely available Quantum Computer simulators. All the simulators tested are available online on their respective websites. A number of tests have been performed to compare the different simulators against each other. Some untested simulators of various programming languages are included to show the diversity of the quantum computer simulator applications. The conclusion of the review is that LibQuantum is the best of the simulators tested because of ease of coding, a great amount of pre-defined function implementations and decoherence simulation support among other reasons. / ICG QC

Speech enhancement has been an active research problem for decades and continues to be an important problem. This is made even more true by the proliferation of portable devices having audio input capabilities. In the presence of noise, both the quality and intelligibility of speech signals have been significantly deteriorated. The proposed research are the frameworks for improving the quality/intelligibility of the degraded speech: 1) a single-channel noise suppression system based on perceptual speech detection 2) multi-sensor noise suppression system for acoustic harsh environments based on non-air conductive sensors 3) a speech bandwidth extension system for telephone speech Significant improvement in both speech intelligibility and quality from the proposed frameworks are indicated from extensive experiments, inlcuding MOS, DRT, speech recognition task, and log spectral distortion.

Since 1989 government due to the economic liberalization and internationalization policy operation, the privatization of public enterprises as one of its specific policies. So state-owned enterprises to seek business strategy that towards the diversification of development. Brand extension of the approach is state-owned enterprises typically use the marketing strategy. For example, Taiwan Sugar Corporation entered the biotech cosmetics industry, the introduction of Stanlen series of cosmetic products. CPC Corporation branched out into health food industry, in petrol station sale of a series of health food stations. State-owned enterprises in the introduction of extension products is often accompanied by promotional activities conducted. According to scholars, Mela, Gupta and Lehmann (1997) found that long-term use of price promotion strategy (e.g.: discounts), may have a negative impact on the brand. Therefore, this study is to investigate the marketing activities with the brand extension strategy for the extension of product attitude and purchase intention impact, and the extension fit whether interfere with or affect the effectiveness of brand extension strategy. This study adopt 2 (state-owned brand attitude: good attitude, bad attitude) X2 (Promotion Type: Price promotions, non-price promotion) X2 (extension fit: high, low) experimental method. Discussing independent variable state-owned brand attitude and Promotion Type, interfere with variable extension fit , to dependent variable purchase intention and extension of product attitude interaction effect. state-run business of Taiwan Sugar Corporation and Taiwan Water Corporation, which produce the packaging water as the brand of experimental. And promote type (price, non-price) and the extension fit (high, low) composed of four kinds of scenario, each scenario sample number of 41 ~ 43, the total valid sample size was 167, mainly test on three university of the students in Kaohsiung. The results showed, the subjects of the original state-owned brand attitude will be transferred to the extension product, thereby affecting the purchase intention and extension product attitude. The subjects which to price promotion have more purchase intention than non-price promotions, but do not affect the extension product's brand attitude. Different extent ion fit will interfere purchase intention and it will effect different attitude, promote type, extension product's attitude.

Enterprises can adopt branding extension strategies to decrease the expense on developing the awareness of new products as well as to attract consumers. However, not all of them succeeded. From previous researches, most of them focus on brand extensions of tangible products and regard Fit as the main driver to the success of brand extensions. Overall, the higher the Fit between parent brands and extension products, the more possibly brand extensions succeed. However, if Goal Congruency can be a substitute factor for Fit between them, maybe the different goals they possess offer more value to Consumers. Thus, I extend the scope of brand extensions to service industry, studying on the effect of ¡§goal congruency¡¨ on brand extensions and further on the interaction of ¡§goal congruency¡¨ and ¡§advertisement framing¡¨. This research uses situation experiment to manipulate well-known brand to extend new service products. In experiment 1, the real enterprises Friday restaurant and 104 job bank separately launch new extended products to study the effects of ¡§goal congruency" on ¡§perceived value¡¨,¡¨ brand extension attitude¡¨ and ¡§consumers¡¦ mood¡¨. In experiment 2, it adds one more factor, advertisement framing, to study the two- way interaction of consumers¡¦ mood influenced by ¡§goal congruence¡¨ and ¡§advertisement framing¡¨ on ¡§brand extension attitude¡¨. First, it shows the incongruent brand extensions are perceived higher brand extension evaluation than congruent ones. Second, when compared with negative advertisement framing, positive advertisement framing with incongruent brand extensions receives higher brand extension evaluation. The consuming goal can be an important factor on evaluation of brand extensions.

As Extension begins to develop educational program delivery strategies for Emergency Preparedness and Management education, the major challenge will be to establish a culture among county agriculture and natural resources (ANR) Extension agents to integrate this educational programming into ongoing programming to ensure added value to this innovation and its unit of adoption. The attitudes and perceptions of these ANR agents in overall programming efforts will be extremely important for adoption and further dissemination of Emergency Preparedness and Management education to all clientele; therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine what Extension ANR agents perceived as advantages and obstacles associated with the organization and implementation of Emergency Preparedness and Management education and the necessity for establishing local animal issues committees. The study population was Texas AgriLife Extension Service ANR agents. The agents were from both rural and urban counties, in various stages in their careers and various stages of the organization, facilitation and implementation of Emergency Preparedness and Management education and animal issues committee establishment. An online instrument was developed based on a review of related literature. The instrument had 19 total question sets pertaining to the 4 objectives of the study and included matrix, multiple choice and yes/no questions. Questions to obtain demographic information (gender, age, Extension affiliation, years of employment with Extension, and county size) were also asked. Results indicated ANR agents felt Extension should be involved in the organization, planning and implementation of educational efforts in Emergency Preparedness and Management and also the establishment and maintenance of Animal Issues Committees. ANR agents indicated Extension?s best approach would be to help identify innovators, adopters and the resources needed for Emergency Preparedness and Management and Animal Issues Committees. The success or failure of educational programming for Emergency Management depends on the help or assistance that is provided by the key stakeholders and agencies in counties. From this study, it is apparent local stakeholder and agency involvement has been an advantage and obstacle for Texas AgriLife Extension ANR agents in the state of Texas.

Volunteers play a critical role to Extension by assisting with program planning, provide input and guidance in what direction local Extension programs should take, and provide assistance with program implementation and evaluation. Extension volunteers have been utilized in Extension for over 50 years, serving on program area committees to develop programs that meet the needs of local clientele. This study evaluated Agriculture and Natural Resource Program Area Committee (Ag/NR PAC) members located in 36 Texas counties. The selection of counties was based upon Texas AgriLife Extension Service county categories. A quantitative, ex post facto, survey instrument was developed that consisted of Likert type statements that focused on the purpose, responsibilities, qualifications, time obligations, County Extension Agent interaction, subject matter specialist interactions and assisting with educational event implementation and evaluation. The survey was mailed with a postage paid return envelope and return surveys were accepted for 45 days. The data was analyzed using SPSS 16.0 for Windows software. The findings of this study showed that Ag/NR PAC members have an overall understanding of the purpose, responsibilities and qualifications of PAC's. Overall, the data shows that County Extension Agents are remaining involved with the program area committees. However, 42 percent of the respondents disagreed or remained neutral to subject matter specialists being utilized in committee meetings. The open ended questions show that program area committee members consider personnel education as a motivational factor for serving on the Ag/NR committees. Committee members feel strongly about assisting with program planning and attending the educational programs but are not remaining actively involved in the evaluation or interpretation phase of the programs. The findings of this study resulted in seven associated recommendations related to working with Ag/NR PAC's. In addition, six areas were identified for areas of research to be considered for the future. The results found that Ag/NR PAC's are still a crucial part of Texas AgriLife Extension Service and they play an important role in identifying issues at the local level. The information found within the study will contribute to working with volunteers to enhance the program planning process.

4-H members quit. It is part of every 4-H program, and according to the research, it is even part of growing up. If only we knew why they quit, we could possibly do something about it. To date, the reasons youth join 4-H have been more thoroughly researched than the reasons they quit. This study explores why youth choose to discontinue membership in 4-H, and goes a step further, asking current members what they know about the discontinuers, to explore whether current 4-H members can provide information to guide programmatic adjustments to decrease discontinuance. This study identified a need for better communication and implementation of 4-H enrollment procedures, as 51.9% of discontinuers indicated they were in 4-H, while Texas 4-H enrollment records indicated otherwise. This study also revealed a divergence from the literature. The more active a 4-H member is the more likely they are to re-enroll, according to the literature. In contrast, this study found that 54% of discontinuing 4-H members described themselves as active in their 4-H club, and another 45% describe themselves as active at the county level. The literature also suggests that youth may not be interested in 4-H programs, finding them un-cool or old fashioned, while this study found less than 8% of discontinuing 4-H members described 4-H as un-cool or old fashioned. This study asked whether any or all of nine different factors influenced the discontinuer to leave, and none was found to be a significant trigger for discontinuance on its own. Most discontinuers agreed with one to four of the factors, implying it takes no more than four factors for a decision to discontinue. There is no one single reason for discontinuance, but it only takes a few reasons to decide to leave. Responses from current 4-H members about why others leave statistically failed to accurately identify the reasons for discontinuance. This study developed a model of "knowingness" that provides a foundation for understanding how well a current member needs to know a discontinuer in order to accurately describe their reasons for leaving.

Recently, Dawson and Feinstein showed that a Banach algebra integral extension B of a commutative Banach algebra A of topological stable rank one is again of topological stable rank one. In this thesis, we provide a partial converse to this statement: If an Arens-Hoffman extension A® of a commutative C*-algebra A has topological stable rank one then A has topological stable rank one.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the development and initial use of Texas Cooperative Extension’s (TCE) White-tailed Deer Management Module (WDMM) delivered over the Internet. The results of this study will provide suggestions about future online wildlife management modules. Data were collected from two populations using questionnaires. A sample of six county Extension agents (CEA’s) and four Extension specialists were selected by an Extension wildlife specialist who perceived them to be professionals in the fields of wildlife and range management. This first sample is also referred to as change agents. The second sample, also known as early users, consisted of 27 anonymous CEA’s and landowners within TCE’s District 10. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to collect and analyze data. The results are as follows: Thus, the development of WDMM was the responsibility of the Extension specialist and researcher. The Extension specialist and researcher did seek professional opinions on content and layout information. Results suggested that CEA’s and Extension specialists agreed the WDMM would be a beneficial educational tool for new landowners. Overall, WDMM was perceived to be user friendly, visually appealing, and provided useful content. Although most change agents responded positively to most questions, there were a few that would like to see more educationally challenging questions. For example, there were a few questions that respondents felt were of the “elementary” and “kindergarten” level. They would like more questions concerning management. The majority of early users were in support of WDMM. Data gathered from the WDMM Feedback Questionnaire agreed with data gathered from change agents. In general, most early users said that they were pleased with the WDMM. Recommendations were made based on these findings to expand the WDMM. Some of these include: 1) Expanding WDMM; 2) Replicating this study using random sampling; 3) Collecting computer knowledge and skills and demographics on future studies; 4) Developing similar modules to see if they gain the same positive response.

On étudie la théorie et l'application pour plusieurs méthodes dans le domaine de l'estimation de la puissance spectrale. Dans le cas 1D, les deux approches de Levinson et Burg sont exposées dans le même contexte théorique et numérique. Dans le cas 2D, et plus généralement le cas ND, de nouvelles méthodes sont proposées pour l'estimation de la puissance spectrale. Ces méthodes conduisent à des extensions répondant à un critère de positivité et d'une maximisation d'une entropie adaptée à la puissance spectrale : la matrice de corrélation ND doit être définie positive et doit vérifier un critère de maximum d'entropie. Aussi, les systèmes de corrélation ND Toeplitz sont exposés dans le contexte des coefficients de réflexion généralisés pour le cas bloc Toeplitz, et le cas Toeplitz bloc Toeplitz. Dans les deux cas, on propose des nouveaux algorithmes pour la solution du système linéaire autorégressif. La structure ND Toeplitz de la matrice de corrélation est étudiée sous deux conditions. La première est que le support d'extension positive est infini avec une propriété de « matching » approximative. La deuxième est l'extension positive avec une propriété de maximum d'entropie. Suivant la deuxième condition, on formalise une théorie de positivité fondamentale, qui établit la correspondance entre un groupe minimal des coefficients de réflexion généralisés et la matrice de corrélation ND avec le même degré de liberté.