<p>Now a day, one of the most attractive research topics in the area of Intelligent Traffic Control is </p><p>Inter-vehicle communication (V2V communication). In V2V communication, a vehicle can </p><p>communicate to its neighbouring vehicles even in the absence of a central Base Station. The </p><p>concept of this direct communication is to send vehicle safety messages one-to-one or one-to- </p><p>many vehicles via wireless connection. Such messages are usually short in length and have very </p><p>short lifetime in which they must reach the destination. The Inter-vehicle communication system </p><p>is an ad-hoc network with high mobility and changing number of nodes, where mobile nodes </p><p>dynamically create temporary sensor networks and transferring messages from one network to </p><p>others by using multiple hops due to limitation of short range. </p><p> </p><p>The goal of the project is to investigate some basic research questions in order to organize such </p><p>sensor networks and at the same time highlight the appropriate routing protocol that support </p><p>mobile ad hoc networks in an efficient and reliable manner. </p><p> </p><p>In our investigation, we have answered the technical issues in order to construct a V2V </p><p>communication system. We have also studied some mobile ad hoc network routing protocols in </p><p>detail and then selected the DSR (Dynamic Source Routing) for our V2V communication and </p><p>then simulated it according to our system requirements. We are quite satisfied by the result of </p><p>DSR, but at the same time much more work is required to come up with an absolute application </p><p>for the end user.</p>

<p>This thesis provides a coherent theoretical account of the role of trust in strategic alliances from varied disciplinary perspectives and by establishing some common ground among these perspectives. Approaching the integration of the literature about trust and strategic alliances from the resource based view, the transaction cost view, the dialectical perspective, and the social network perspective is aimed at creating a new systematic explanatory scheme. The unique combination of these four perspectives provides overlapping explanations for strategic alliance behaviour and serves as a methodical device for analysing the dynamics of trust relationships. This theoretical-methodical foundation will serve as tool for sorting out and highlighting different research streams regarding the two key topics. An integrative framework of the notion of trust in strategic alliances is built around the key issue “culture of trust”. The culture of trust is addressed, because one of the main findings will be that collaborative relationships require some minimum social base with trust as its constitutive element. Arguments will be provided that inter-organizational ventures characterized by high interdependence, require the trust mechanism to make leadership effective. The tension between trust and control in strategic alliances is discussed and attention is drawn to the possibilities and key abilities of leaders in establishing trust as a constitutive element in strategic alliances.</p>

<p>The purpose of this essay is to discuss what a sensual interpretation of art is and what it should include. The discussion is based on an attempt to do a sensual interpretation of the Greek-British artist Helen Chadwick’s Cacao and Wreaths to Pleasure. Chadwick was an artist working with well-known materials in new and unexpected ways. An interpretation of her works should include the fact that her art affect us on different levels, both intellectually and sensually. The history of art includes very few examples of interpretations engaging all senses. Therefore this essay is based on literature in adjacent disciplines like aesthetics, inter art studies and synaesthesia. The thesis of The bad garden is that an art experience includes interplay between senses. This interplay which creates additive sensations, a fact that is not taken into consideration in an interpretation based on only vision. The conclusion is that a sensual interpretation should be a merge of traditional disciplines and must be characterised by subjectivity, contextuality, and intersensuality.</p>

Thesis (M.Th. (New Testament))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

Improving diurnal errors in surface-based heating processes in models might be a promising step towards improved seasonal simulation of the North American Monsoon (NAM). This study isolates model errors in the surface energy budget and examines diurnal heating implications for seasonal development of the NAM 500hPa anticyclone and 850-500hPa thickness ridge using observations and multi-model output. Field data from the 2004 North American Monsoon Experiment (NAME) and satellite estimates are used to evaluate land-atmosphere interactions in regional and global models as part of the North American Monsoon Model Assessment Project 2 (NAMAP2). Several key findings about heating in the NAM emerge: ? Models exhibit considerable differences in surface radiation of the NAM, beginning with albedo (Fig. 3.1). All models have highly-biased albedo throughout summer (Fig. 3.2). ? Observed net surface radiation is around 125 Wm-2 over land in the NAM region in summer (Table 3.5). Models overestimate it by an average of about 20 Wm-2, despite their high albedo, apparently due to deficiencies in cloud radiative forcing. ? Partitioning of this net radiation into latent and sensible fluxes to the atmosphere differs substantially among models. Sensitivity of this partitioning to rainfall also varies widely among models, and appears clearly excessive in some models relative to observations (Fig. 4.10). ? Total sensible heating exceeds latent heating in the NAM (Table 4.1), since it covers a much larger area than the rainy core region (Fig. 4.11). ? Inter-model differences in sensible heating can be traced consistently from surface heat flux (Table 5.1), to PBL diurnal evolution (Fig. 5.1), to diurnal thickening of the lower troposphere (Fig. 5.2). ? Seasonal biases in the NAM?s synoptic structure correspond well to diurnal heating biases (Fig. 5.3, Fig. 5.5), suggesting that diurnal cycle studies from a single field season may suffice to inform physical process improvements that could impact seasonal simulation and forecasting. These NAMAP2 results highlight the range of uncertainty and errors in contemporary models, including those defining US national weather forecasting capability. Model experimentation will be necessary to fully interpret the lessons and harvest the fruits of this offline inter-comparison exercise.

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Although it is accepted that Phoenician colonization occurred on Sardinia by the 9th century B.C., it is possible that contact between Sardinia‟s indigenous population and the Levantine region occurred in the Late Bronze Age (LBA). Eastern LBA goods found on the island are copper oxhide ingots and Aegean pottery. Previously, it has been suggested that Mycenaeans were responsible for bringing the eastern goods to Sardinia, but the presence of Aegean pottery shards does not confirm the presence of Mycenaean tradesmen. Also, scholars of LBA trade have explained the paucity of evidence for a Mycenaean merchant fleet. Interpretations of two LBA shipwrecks, Cape Gelidonya and Uluburun, indicate that eastern Mediterranean merchants of Cypriot or Syro-Canaanite origin, transported large quantities of oxhide ingots from the Levant towards the west. It remains possible that similar itinerant merchants conducted ventures bringing eastern goods to Sardinia while exploring the western Mediterranean. Trade in eastern goods may have stimulated the advancement that occurred in Nuragic culture in the LBA, resulting in the emergence of an elite social stratum in the Nuragic society. Archaeological evidence, such as elitist burials and increasingly complex architecture, supports the idea of cultural change due to internal competition. This „peer-polity‟ effect may have been incited because of limited accessibility to the exotic eastern goods and the „ownership‟ to the rights of this exchange.

L’eau est vitale dans toutes les économies. C’est à cause de son rôle prépondérant pour la survie que les tensions politiques autour des basins et des fleuves internationaux tendent à être particulièrement très épineuses. Actuellement, la mauvaise répartition de cette ressource pose un sérieux problème du fait qu’elle est gérée en fonction de stratégies politiques et non en fonction des réalités hydrologiques régionales. Nous expliquons à l’aide de la « Enhanced Power Matrix Model » (La Matrice de FREY et NAFF améliorée) que les tensions autour des bassins et des fleuves au Moyen – Orient n’aboutiront pas à des conflits armés mais à une situation de non guerre et de non paix, très peu propice à la coopération. Pour sortir de cette situation de blocage, nous proposons aux décideurs politiques et aux négociateurs, sur base de l’article 6 de la Convention de New York de 1997 sur « les cours d’eau internationaux à d’autres usages que la navigation », un modèle de répartition de la ressource hydrique entre les différents riverains d’un cours d’eau international. Face à cette situation, beaucoup de pays de la région tentent de mettre de façon unilatérale des modèles de gestion macroéconomique : réduction de la demande ou l’augmentation de l’offre de l’eau. Ces modèles se heurtent à des obstacles de nature économique, politique, sociologique et culturelle. Dans un objectif de conception de nouveaux modèles de gestion de l’eau, nous proposons un modèle coopératif, les projets de transfert inter – bassin, pour faire face à la mauvaise répartition de cette ressource au Moyen – Orient. Nous appuyons sur la méthodologie multicritère d’aide à la décision pour opérationnaliser l’article 6 de la Convention de New York et pouvoir comparer les différents projets de transfert inter - bassin. Cette méthodologie fait appel à un logiciel d’aide à la décision « Décision Lab 2000 ». Le commentaire des résultats fournis par ce logiciel nous a permit de tirer l’enseignement suivant : seuls les projets qui présentent une faisabilité politique élevée arrivent en tête de classement. Ce qui nous fait dire que la question de l’eau au Moyen – Orient est, avant tout, une question politique.

Recent large earthquakes put in evidence the need of improving and developing robust and rapid procedures to properly calculate the magnitude of an earthquake in a short time after its occurrence. The most famous example is the 26 December 2004 Sumatra earthquake, when the limitations of the standard procedures adopted at that time by many agencies failed to provide accurate magnitude estimates of this exceptional event in time to launch early enough warnings and appropriate response. Being related to the radiated seismic energy ES, the energy magnitude ME is a good estimator of the high frequency content radiated by the source which goes into the seismic waves. However, a procedure to rapidly determine ME (that is to say, within 15 minutes after the earthquake occurrence) was required. Here it is presented a procedure able to provide in a rapid way the energy magnitude ME for shallow earthquakes by analyzing teleseismic P‑waves in the distance range 20-98. To account for the energy loss experienced by the seismic waves from the source to the receivers, spectral amplitude decay functions obtained from numerical simulations of Greens functions based on the average global model AK135Q are used. The proposed method has been tested using a large global dataset (~1000 earthquakes) and the obtained rapid ME estimations have been compared to other magnitude scales from different agencies. Special emphasis is given to the comparison with the moment magnitude MW, since the latter is very popular and extensively used in common seismological practice. However, it is shown that MW alone provide only limited information about the seismic source properties, and that disaster management organizations would benefit from a combined use of MW and ME in the prompt evaluation of an earthquake’s tsunami and shaking potential. In addition, since the proposed approach for ME is intended to work without knowledge of the fault plane geometry (often available only hours after an earthquake occurrence), the suitability of this method is discussed by grouping the analyzed earthquakes according to their type of mechanism (strike-slip, normal faulting, thrust faulting, etc.). No clear trend is found from the rapid ME estimates with the different fault plane solution groups. This is not the case for the ME routinely determined by the U.S. Geological Survey, which uses specific radiation pattern corrections. Further studies are needed to verify the effect of such corrections on ME estimates. Finally, exploiting the redundancy of the information provided by the analyzed dataset, the components of variance on the single station ME estimates are investigated. The largest component of variance is due to the intra-station (record-to-record) error, although the inter-station (station-to-station) error is not negligible and is of several magnitude units for some stations. Moreover, it is shown that the intra-station component of error is not random but depends on the travel path from a source area to a given station. Consequently, empirical corrections may be used to account for the heterogeneities of the real Earth not considered in the theoretical calculations of the spectral amplitude decay functions used to correct the recorded data for the propagation effects. / Starke Erdbeben in letzter Zeit zeigten deutlich den steigenden Bedarf nach einer Verbesserung und Entwicklung von stabilen und schnellen Methoden, um die Magnitude eines Erdbebens korrekt innerhalb kürzester Zeit nach dessen Auftreten zu ermitteln. Das bisher bekannteste Fallbeispiel in diesem Zusammenhang stellt das Sumatra-Erdbeben vom 26 Dezember 2004 dar. Dieses außergewöhnliche Ereignis zeigte deutlich die Grenzen der bisher gängigen und von den meisten Behörden zu dieser Zeit verwendeten Methoden zur Ermittlung der Erdbebenmagnitude. So konnte für dieses Beben mit den gängigen Ansätzen zeitnah die Magnitude nicht korrekt bestimmt werden / um eine angemessene Frühwarnung und entsprechende Gegenmaßnahmen einzuleiten. Die Energiemagnitude ME steht in direkter Verbindung mit der abgestrahlten seismischen Energie ES und stellt somit eine guten Abschätzung für den Hochfrequenzanteil dar, der von der Quelle ausgestrahlt wird und in die seismischen Wellen einfließt. Eine Methode, welche eine schnelle Ermittlung von ME ermöglicht (d.h. innerhalb von maximal 15 Minuten nach dem Erdbeben) wäre in diesem Falle benötigt worden. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wird eine Methode vorgestellt, die eine solche schnelle Ermittlung der Energiemagnitude ME für oberflächennahe Erdbeben ermöglicht, indem teleseismische P-Wellen im Bereich von 20°-98° analysiert werden. Um den Energieverlust der seismischen Wellen von deren Quelle bis zu den Empfängern angemessen zu berücksichtigen, werden spektrale Amplituden-Abnahmefunktionen verwendet, welche aus numerischen Simulationen von Greenschen Funktionen basierend auf dem durchschnittlichen globalen Modell AK135Q abgeleitet werden. Die vorgestellte Methode wurde mit einem umfangreichen globalen Datensatz (ca. 1000 Erdbeben) getestet, und die zeitnah ermittelten ME-Abschätzungen wurden mit anderen Magnitudenskalen verschiedener Behörden verglichen. Ein Vergleich mit der Momentenmagnitude MW war hierbei von besonderem Interesse, da diese Skala heutzutage weitverbreitet ist und häufig zum Einsatz kommt. Es zeigt sich jedoch, dass MW alleine nur begrenzte Informationen über die seismischen Herdeigenschaften liefern kann, und dass Organisationen des Katastrophenmagements von einer kombinierten Nutzung von MW und ME gerade hinsichtlich der unmittelbaren Evaluierung des tsunamigenen Potentials und der Erschütterungswirkung eines Erdbebens profitieren könnten. Die verwendete Methode zur Ermittlung von ME kommt ohne Wissen über die geometrischen Eigenschaften der Verwerfungszone aus (diese sind meist erst Stunden nach einem Erbeben verfügbar). Entsprechend wird die Eignung dieser Methode durch Eingruppierungen der analysierten Erdbeben nach ihrem Wirkungsmechanismus (Scherbruch, Abschiebung, Aufschiebung, etc.) diskutiert. Für die schnelle Abschätzung von ME ist kein klarer Trend unter Verwendung der verschiedenen Herdflächenlösungen erkennbar. Für ME-Werte, welche standardmäßig vom U.S. Geological Survey mit speziellen Korrekturwerten für die Abstrahlungscharakteristika ermittelt werden, trifft dies jedoch nicht zu. Weitere Untersuchungen sind nötig, um die Auswirkungen solcher Korrekturen auf die ME-Abschätzungen zu verifizieren. Indem die Redundanz der Informationen des analysierten Datensatzes ausgenutzt wurde, konnte die Varianz bei den Einzelstations-ME-Abschätzungen untersucht werden. Die größte Abweichung zeigt sich aufgrund von Intra-Stations-Fehlern (record-to-record), wenngleich auch der Inter-Stations-Fehler (station-to-station) nicht vernachlässigbar ist; so nimmt er für einige Stationen mehrere Magnitudeneinheiten an. Des Weiteren konnte gezeigt werden, dass der Intra-Stations-Anteil des Gesamtfehlers nicht zufällig ist, sondern abhängig vom Wellenweg von einem Quellgebiet zu einer bestimmten Station. Folglich können empirische Korrekturen dazu benutzt werden, den Heterogenitäten der realen Erde gerecht zu werden, welche heutzutage nicht in den theoretischen Kalkulationen der spektralen Amplituden-Abnahmefunktionen zur Korrektur der aufgezeichneten Daten verwendet werden.

No description available.