This study investigates the response of lightning to the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in the vicinity of the U.S. Gulf Coast region and nearby adjacent waters of the Gulf of Mexico, for the years 1995-2002. The Gulf Coast region was selected for this study because of its high flash density (Orville and Huffines, 2001) and because it is an area where the ENSO fingerprint is very clearly demonstrated on both temperature and precipitation patterns (CPC, 2002). Additionally, this geographic domain roughly matches the only known study on this topic (Goodman et al., 2000). Winter is the season of greatest response to ENSO (CPC, 2004), and past studies show that summer has the most lightning activity (e.g., Orville and Huffines, 2001). The temporal domain of the study is restricted to 1995 and beyond, as this follows a system-wide upgrade of the National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) that improved overall flash detection efficiency (Cummins, et. al.1998; Wacker and Orville, 1999). Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed to explore the lightning data for ENSO teleconnections. Mean flash density maps were constructed for the complete period of record, individual months and the winter and summer seasons. Maps were visually examined for qualitative comparison with past climatologies and the Goodman et al., (2002) ENSO study. Additionally, monthly flash deviations are computed, visualized and correlated with the Niño 3.4 SST anomaly for all months in the study, seeking out variations in both the amount of flash deviation and spatial properties. Abundant literature exists on both ENSO and lightning individually. This study offers an insight into their intersection.

Masters Research - Master of Science / Recent flash floods and landslides in the Philippines have caused many fatalities, loss of livelihoods; destroyed infrastructures, damaged natural resources and displaced several communities. Investigation of five disaster cases of flash floods and landslides from 1991 to 2006 was undertaken to gain an understanding of the causes, behaviour, distribution and biophysical impacts of these recurrent natural hazards. Sustaining healthy and resilient communities and protecting the ecosystem from natural disasters is a key development goal. Therefore, communities at risk need to adequately prepare for, respond to, and recover from the impacts of these natural disasters. A theory model on community resilience called the Landslip-Disaster Quadrant Model was developed to examine the capacity for resilience and the vulnerability of threatened communities. Six building blocks comprise this Model. A community study of the February 17, 2006 landslides in St. Bernard, Southern Leyte, was conducted to test and refine this Model. Major findings of the study have revealed that flash floods and landslides have been frequent due to changing climatic patterns and greater interaction of natural processes. Extreme weather conditions have resulted in intense rainfall that seeps through fractures and cracks in the ground. Rains saturate and loosen soil particles, weaken slope resistance, triggering landslides that formed natural dams. Failure of these natural dams or log jams caused flash floods and debris flows. The rapidity and destructiveness of these hazards were influenced by the angular position of sliding materials, slope resistance, type of cascading materials caught in the flow, river channel configuration, and human structures that obstruct and/or intensify overflow. These were the physical conditions of vulnerability to disasters in the five cases of natural disaster investigated. Rural livelihoods and the economic base of the local people in Saint Bernard, Southern Leyte, were limited and subsistent. Though the local people have a high literacy rate, they have inadequate understanding of the natural processes associated with landslides. Natural observations such as receding water levels in the river, fractures and cracks in the ground on the mountain, excessive rains and landslides in nearby communities could have been used as early warnings by the local people and authorities for safe evacuation. Many lives in Guinsaugon village could have thus been saved from the deadly landslides of 17 February 2006. Political interests have affected progress of resettlement housing and development projects that obliged many local people to extend the period spent living in the evacuation centres. However, the local people were expressive of their faith and hope to rise from the tragedy. These ‘bouncing back’ attitudes of the local people were indicative of their strong cultural values that formed the core of their coping capacity for natural disasters. The results of the community study tested and refined the Landslip-Disaster Quadrant Model. Among the six blocks for building a disaster-resilient community, cultural values and local norms ranked first. This is followed by ecological security, then livelihood sufficiency and economic base, and further by human health and wellness. The last two blocks were structural networks and institutional arrangements, and political will and priorities. This Model could form the framework for a Comprehensive Landslide and Flash Flood Disaster Risk Assessment in the Philippines. The community assessment toolkit developed in this study could be expanded further into policy and planning guidelines of the National Disaster Coordinating Council of the Philippines.

Psychological research on cross-modal auditory-visual perception has focused predominantly on the manipulation of sensory information by visual information. There are relatively few studies of the way auditory stimuli may affect other sensory information. The Sound-induced Illusory Flash is one illusory paradigm that involves the auditory system biasing visual information. However, little is known about this cross-modal illusion. More research is needed into the structure of the illusion that investigates the different conditions under which the Sound induced Illusory Flash manifests and is enhanced or reduced. The research conducted for this thesis investigates the effect of new auditory stimulus variables on the Sound-induced Illusory Flash. The variables to be discussed concern the formation of a contrast in the auditory stimuli, with the contrast creating a rhythm that emphasises the discontinuous nature of the auditory stimuli, and therefore emphasises the illusory percept. The auditory stimulus contrasts include pitch separation with the octave interval, using the frequencies of 261.5 and 523Hz; and spatial separation in the auditory stimuli, presenting the monophonic auditory stimuli binaurally so that individual tones alternate between the left and right channels. I furthered this concept of auditory stimuli separation biasing an illusory percept, by investigating pitch and spatial presentation and localisation of the visual stimuli presentation, when multiple dots were presented. I also conducted analyses to determine if factors other than the auditory stimuli biased the illusory percept. These included the use of non-illusory trials and determining if their inclusion biased the illusory trial percept; and the impact of physical factors such as handedness, eye dominance, corrected vision, and musical experience on the illusory percept. My ultimate aim is to develop the illusory effect as a basis for new intermedia techniques to create the perceptual synchronisation of sound with images. These would be perceived as visually spliced according to the rhythm of the music on the micro time scale. / Master of Arts (Honours)

<p>Arbetet har bestått i att utföra en informativ webguide över en anläggning i Västerås som tillverkar biogas och biogödsel av matrester. Beställaren heter VafabMiljö. Mina kontaktpersoner, Caroline Eklöv och Åsa Lindén, är skolinformatörer. Guiden ska publiceras på VafabMiljös hemsida för skolklasser på Internet och där fungera som en förlängning av informatörernas arbete i skolorna. Målgruppen är barn i årskurs 3-5. En uttalad förebild fanns: Göteborgsföretaget Gryaabs guide om vattenrening Vart tar bajset vägen? (http://www.gryaab.se/).</p><p> </p><p>Under arbetets gång har design- och funktionsbesluten fattats med stöd av:</p><ul type="square"><li>Intervju med kund och besök på anläggningen</li><li>Omvärldsanalys, mestadels på Internet</li><li>Egna erfarenheter</li><li>Kontinuerliga utprovningar</li><li>Litteratur</li></ul><p> </p><p>Arbetet har utförts i Illustrator och Adobe Flash.</p><p> </p><p>Eftersom det var många delar i processen som skulle illustreras var det nödvändigt att arbeta snabbt. Önskemål från kunden var att låta enkelt, tydligt och roligt gå före korrekt återgivning. Detta har lett till ett manér där jag använt mig mer av symboler än verklighetstrogen avbildning. I rapporten beskrivs intressanta designbeslut där min målsättning varit att låta begriplighet gå före realism.</p>

<p>Detta examensarbete är gjort för Goodwill Reklambyrå i Norrköping. Uppgifterna var att skapa en hemsida och en företagsportal åt företaget. Med företagsportal menas en applikation upplagd på Internet där företagets anställda kan läsa, uppdatera, radera och skapa poster som är lagrade i databaser. I huvudsak har Flash använts för att skapa hemsidan och ASP (Active Server Pages) för att bygga upp företagsportalen. Resultatet blev en underhållande och informativ hemsida och en säker och användbar företagsportal. I denna rapport får läsaren en utförlig redogörelse för arbetet. </p> / <p>This degree project is made for Goodwill Reklambyrå in Norrköping. The task was to create a homepage and a business community for the company. By business community we mean an application on the Internet where the company staff are able to read, update, delete and create posts which are stored in databases. Mainly have Flash been used to create the homepage and ASP (Active Server Pages) to build the business community. The final result was an entertaining and informative homepage and a secure and useable business community. In this report the reader gets a detailed statement of our work.</p>

<h2><em>Sammanfattning</em></h2><p>Syftet med detta examensarbete har varit att, genom att kombinera kunskaperna inom interaktionsdesign med kunskaperna inom visuell kommunikation, ta fram en designlösning åt Norrköpings Visualiseringscenter C som presenterar innehållet i deras utställning “Att visa det man inte kan se“ på deras hemsida.</p><p>För att nå detta syfte har utvalda teorier och metoder använts och i uppsatsen beskrivs designprocessen steg för steg - hela vägen från uppdragsbeskrivning, genom teorier och metoder till den färdiga designlösningen.</p><p>Teorierna i denna uppsats handlar om interaktionsdesign, gränssnittsdesign, användbarhet, visuell kommunikation och teknik. Metoderna för att få reda på användarnas åsikter behandlar användartester, Card sorting, LoFi- och HiFi-prototyper.</p><p>Resultatet av rapporten beskriver hur Adobe Flash kan användas för att skapa en interaktiv design för en webbsideapplikation med kontroll över interaktion, visuell kommunikation och användbarhet.</p><p>Resultatet visar också hur användarnas återkoppling under användartesten påverkade slutresultatet. Resultatet visar även att en designprocess är olik från gång till gång men att det finns vissa riktlinjer som kan hjälpa en designer genom processen på ett kontrollerat sätt.</p> / <h2><em>Abstract</em></h2><p>The goal of this thesis is to combine knowledge from interaction design with knowledge from visual communication in order to create a design solution for Norrköping Visualization Center C and their exhibition “To show what can’t be seen“ for their website.</p><p>To reach this goal, theories and methods have been used and in this thesis the design process is described - step by step - all the way from the clients brief to the final design solution.</p><p>The theories in this thesis are concerned with interaction design, interface design, usability, visual communication and technology. The methods employed are usability tests, card sorting, and LoFi- and HiFi-prototypes.</p><p>This thesis report describes how Adobe Flash can be used to create an interactive design for a website application that establishes control over the interaction, visual communication and usability. It also shows how the users feedback on the user tests affected the end result.</p><p>This thesis also shows that a design process can vary from time to time but there are some guidelines that can help a designer through the process in a controlled way.</p>

<p>Ett community är en mötesplats på Internet där människor kan hålla kontakt, lära känna nya människor, diskutera osv. Det finns idag en mängd olika communities med många olika inriktningar. Communityn är idag mycket populära sidor på nätet och vissa har enormt mycket besökare och tjänar stora pengar. Det kan därför vara svårt att locka medlemmar om inte communityt innehåller nyheter som inte redan finns. Målet med det här arbetet har varit att skapa en tilltalande och användarvänlig design till ett community med ett sommar, fest och rese- tema. Delvis används en enkätundersökning för att ta reda på hur viktig det är med en design som sticker ut för att locka medlemmar. Resultatet av arbetet har blivit att en design med ett tema till sommar, fest och resor har skapats. Designen går i huvudsak i färgerna gul, blå och vit. Designen är till största del uppbyggd av CSS, ASP.NET och HTML.</p>

Modern problems in astrophysics tend to require large, complex computational frameworks to solve many aspects of the system simultaneusly. Calculation of the energy production through nuclear reactions is typically one of those aspects. The use of standard nuclear burning algorithms will take up the majority of the computational time with all but the smallest of networks. The explicit asymptotic method has shown promise in computing large networks faster than existing methods in various environments while retaining accuracy. The purpose of this thesis is to show that this method can be successfully used to solve complex systems using a network of realistic size in a reasonable amount of time, and to investigate some problems in the flame propagation for a Type Ia, which have never been investigated with a realistic network.

In this work, a fully differential Operational Amplifier (OpAmp) with high Gain-Bandwidth (GBW), high linearity and Signal-to-Noise ratio (SNR) has been designed in 65nm CMOS technology with 1.1v supply voltage. The performance of the OpAmp is evaluated using Cadence and Matlab simulations and it satisfies the stringent requirements on the amplifier to be used in a 12-bit pipelined ADC. The open-loop DC-gain of the OpAmp is 72.35 dB with unity-frequency of 4.077 GHz. Phase-Margin (PM) of the amplifier is equal to 76 degree. Applying maximum input swing to the amplifier, it settles within 0.5 LSB error of its final value in less than 4.5 ns. SNR value of the OpAmp is calculated for different input frequencies and amplitudes and it stays above 100 dB for frequencies up to 320MHz. The main focus in this work is the OpAmp design to meet the requirements needed for the 12-bit pipelined ADC. The OpAmp provides enough closed-loop bandwidth to accommodate a high speed ADC (around 300MSPS) with very low gain error to match the accuracy of the 12-bit resolution ADC. The amplifier is placed in a pipelined ADC with 2.5 bit-per-stage (bps) architecture to check for its functionality. Considering only the errors introduced to the ADC by the OpAmp, the Effective Number of Bits (ENOB) stays higher than 11 bit and the SNR is verified to be higher than 72 dB for sampling frequencies up to 320 MHz.

When a malfunction occurs in a traffic signal controller cabinet, the signal is automatically placed into malfunction flash mode as a safety precaution. During this event, drivers are presented with one of two possible scenarios: flashing yellow on the major street and flashing red on the minor street, or flashing red on all the approaches. Volumes and percentages of car stopping were collected at fifty-one study intersections in the Atlanta regions. By means of the VISSIM microsimulation software a sample of intersections was simulated under the two malfunction scenarios and the signalized one. Based on output data such as delay and queue, the performances of each simulated intersection is compared and recommendations on which mode of flash must be used in case of malfunction are provided.