Scholarly work on international mediation suggests that how third parties mediate influences the resolution of armed conflicts. However, our understanding of what explains mediator style is limited. This dissertation addresses this gap by offering the first systematic study on explanations for mediator styles at the level of the individual. It explores the research question: what explains mediator styles of individuals mediating for peacemaking organizations in armed conflicts? Mediator style is studied as themes in goals and behaviors along two dimensions: directiveness and orientation. Directiveness covers a mediator's use of leverage and varies from non-directive to directive, while orientation covers a mediator's prioritized type of outcome and varies from relationship-oriented to settlement-oriented. The dissertation develops a theoretical framework on the effects of conflict context and mediator characteristics on mediator style. It formulates a set of theoretical expectations concerning how context in the form of conflict intensity, and characteristics such as the mediator's background profile and personality, influence mediator style. The framework is evaluated and developed based on the findings of a mixed-method design combining a survey experiment and 46 semi-structured in-depth interviews with a broad variety of IGO and NGO mediators. The results on context suggest that high-intensity conflicts make mediators on average more directive than low-intensity conflicts as a result of heightened humanitarian concerns. Furthermore, on characteristics, high-profile mediators are shown to be overall more settlement-oriented than low-profile mediators as a result of their views on conflict causes and mediator accountabilities. These findings are complemented with evidence for contingent relationships between conflict intensity, mediator personality and directiveness as well as conflict intensity, mediator profile and orientation. The study thus contributes with a refined understanding of the mediator styles of international mediators that both facilitates its further scholarly exploration and provides input to the practice of peacemaking.

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The focus of this thesis is the investigation of thin-film transistors (TFTs) based on amorphous oxide semiconductors (AOSs) in two circuit applications. To date, circuits implemented with AOS-based TFTs have been primarily enhancement-enhancement inverters, ring oscillators based on these inverters operating at peak frequencies up to ~400 kHz, and two-transistor one-capacitor pixel driving circuits for use with organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDS). The first application investigated herein is AC/DC rectification using two circuit configurations based on staggered bottom-gate TFTs employing indium gallium oxide (IGO) as the active channel layer; a traditional full bridge rectifier with diode-tied transistors and a cross-tied full-wave rectifier are demonstrated, which is analogous to what has been reported previously using p-type organic TFTs. Both circuit configurations are found to operate successfully up to at least 20 MHz; this is believed to be the highest reported operating frequency to date for circuits based on amorphous oxide semiconductors. Output voltages at one megahertz are 9 V and ~10.5 V, respectively, when driven with a differential 7.07 Vrms sine wave. This performance is superior to that of previously reported organic-based rectifiers. The second AOS-based TFT circuit application investigated is an enhancement-depletion (E-D) inverter based on heterogeneous channel materials. Simulation results using models based on a depletion-mode indium zinc oxide (IZO) TFT and an enhancement-mode IGO TFT result in a gain of ~15. Gains of other oxide-based inverters have been limited to less than 2; the large gain of the E-D inverter makes it well suited for digital logic applications. Deposition parameters for the IGO and IZO active layers are optimized to match the models used in simulation by fabricating TFTs on thermally oxidized silicon and patterned via shadow masks. Integrated IGO-based TFTs exhibit a similar turn-on voltage and decreased mobility compared to the shadow masked TFTs. However, the integrated IZO-based TFTs fabricated to date are found to be conductive and exhibit no gate modulation. Due to the conductive nature of the load, the fabricated E-D inverter shows no significant output voltage variation. This discrepancy in performance between the integrated and shadow-masked IZO devices is attributed to processing complications. / Graduation date: 2009

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This work presents steps in creation of remote position tracking application. Document introduces history of geographical positioning and navigation, and describes development of navigation from primitive utilities to complex radio navigation systems. Global Positioning System is described in more detail including NMEA protocol used by GPS receivers. This work also presents several current navigation applications. Based on obtained information work presents analysis, object-oriented design and implementation of remote position tracking system.