During the last decades the problems caused by anthropogenic sound and noise in oceans have been recognized in public, by governments, and military. With the use of active sonar, different choices can be made to minimize the risk of damaging or disturbing marine mammals. For this purpose knowledge of sonar disturbance is crucial. There are methods for time or area planning, i.e. when and where to use active sonars, to avoid marine mammals. The purpose of this work is to find information in literature on marine mammal behaviour reactions to the sound of sonar pings, and to evaluate which of two different behavioural models used in risk assessment programs, the “varying response” model and the “avoidance” model, is more correct to use. Main focus is on sonars and marine mammals residing in Sweden, i.e. the harbour porpoise, grey seal, harbour seal and ringed seal. Behavioral results from other research areas such as bycatch, environmental, and strandings, together with other sound sources than sonars and other species, provide a broader picture of the situation in noisy oceans. For the harbor porpoise the “avoidance” model works well. It is a very shy species, which flees fast and far when it comes in contact with new things. With the seals however the “avoidance” model is probably less good, since their responses to sonar differ rather much. Hence, for these taxa we recommend to use the “various” model that takes into account such varying responses.

Since Google as the world's largest and most popular search engine encourages Internet users to browse their search results, it is naturally functioning as an advertising vehicle and has turned into the most profitable Internet company in world's history. Google's success, however, has been subject to strong criticism as one of the main concerns is linked to Google AdWords, which reveal keyword-triggered advertisements as well as sponsored links besides unsponsored search results. Courts both in Europe and the United States under different trademark legislation felt forced to address the collision of pre-Internet trademark infringement doctrines with modern technology.  As Google AdWords have changed the way consumers observe Internet advertisements and search engines, the boundaries of trademark law have continuously been pushed forward. This development, thus, raises the question of whether Google AdWords by now are considered to function as trade liberalizer or trade infringer under two different trademark jurisdictions.  What is certain as of now is, that if the current circumstances are to change, courts cannot solely rely on old doctrines to adapt to new situations. Instead, new rules should not be subject to isolated court proceedings by individual instances regarded that jurisdictions of courts are limited by territorial boundaries and Google AdWords have evolved as an element of borderless online sphere. Taking these new challenges into account, this paper argues that addressing trademark issues originated by AdWords will demand an international consideration and coordinated efforts between the EU and the United States to bring forward an international solution.

<p>Search advertising refers to the practice where advertisers place their text-based advertisement on the search engine's result page along with the organic search results. With its growing importance, search advertising has seen a recent surge in academic interest. However, the literature has been ignoring some practical yet important problems of advertisers, including the keyword selection problem. In my dissertation, I focus on the keyword selection problem, more specifically, the choice of branded keywords in search advertising.</p> <p>My dissertation begins with an observation on different patterns of branded keyword purchase behavior by the brand owner and its competitor. Under some branded keywords, we observe in the sponsored link, only the brand owner or only the competitor. However, under some other branded keywords, we observe both firms, or neither of them. Upon this phenomenon, I aim to understand what drives this puzzling pattern in a competitive environment. To this purpose, I develop a duopoly model where two firms compete in the product market with both horizontally and vertically differentiated products. Their products are evaluated by consumers whose perception is affected by what they see in search advertising. With this setup, Then I derive a subgame perfect equilibrium of the two stage game.</p> <p>In a pricing equilibrium, I find that any benefit a firm gets from search advertising either due to exposure benefit or due to contrast or assimilation, helps this firm charge higher price while forcing the other firm charge lower price. This result affects the incentive for each firm to buy the branded keyword in the advertising stage. Specifically, firms have an incentive to buy the keyword only when the cost of advertising is justified by the exposure benefit but even in that case, each firm buys only when the detrimental context effect is not present. If the quality difference between the brand owner and the competitor is large and thus there exists a contrast between the two firms, the competitor with low quality product refrains from buying the keyword, because the contrast effect hurts the competitor. On the other hand, if the quality difference is small and thus two brands are assimilated, the brand owner with high quality product refuses to buy the keyword, because it is hurt by the assimilation effect. If the quality difference is in the intermediate range so that neither context effect is harmful to neither firm, both firms buy the keyword at the same time. On probing further the underlying incentives, I find that in some cases, the brand owner may buy its own keyword only to defend itself from the competitor's threat. In contrast, I also identify the case where the brand owner chooses to buy its own keyword and precludes the competitor from buying it. My result also suggests that both firms may be worse off by engaging in advertising, as in the prisoner's dilemma case.</p> <p>On an extension, I provide an analysis on the impact of the insufficient advertising budget. If the budget is limited, both firms may have an incentive to hurt the other firm taking the higher slot, by increasing the bid amount and thus quickly exhausting the competitor's budget. The budget constraint also deprives the advertisers of the incentive to buy the keyword and thus, the budget-constrained advertisers may refuse to match the competitor's purchase of the keyword. Finally, the experimental investigation shows the existence of the exposure effect and the context effects. It also supports the model prediction based on estimated model parameters together with the empirical observation.</p> / Dissertation

We discuss main facts of symmetric Nash equilibrium (SNE) of position auction proposed by Varian (2007). Then we describe more features in detail, such as (1) non-zero surplus of each bidder, (2) allocative and also Pareto efficiency in SNE and (3)the condition of existence of honest strategy in SNE. After that, we propose a best-response bidding strategy for repeated simultaneous position auction of incomplete information with simulation. This approach offers an explanation that how bidders may follow public information to achieve the same equilibrium of lower bound of SNE in the static model. Furthermore, the best-response bidding strategy has following merits: (1) non-zero surplus of each bidder in each round, (2) low information requirement for each bidder¡¦s calculation, (3) much lower increasing rate of rounds than increasing rate of positions and (4) easier rule for bidders to get started with.

This study examined Erikson&rsquo / s proposition that &ldquo / generativity&rdquo / plays an important role in adult lives and caring for one&#039 / s children is the ultimate expression of this particular developmental task. Thus, the general goal of the current study is to explore the connection between parental experiences and individual development especially generativity development in mid-adulthood within both qualitative and quantitative studies. Qualitative examination attempted to record the midlife parent experiences in order to verify the existence of parental generativity themes. This study conducted within a retrospective semi-structured interview schedule with 13 mothers and 10 fathers aged 37 to 61. All parents had at least one child at 17 or older. Overall, the results revealed that the most important theme of life for most of the midlife adults was parenthood. However, mothers&rsquo / role identities with respect to maternal role were much more stronger than fathers&rsquo / . The qualitative part of the present study contributes further to understanding of the connections between the perception of parental role, parents&rsquo / active involvement in childrearing, and adult development. In the quantitative study, the importance of parental behaviors in adult development and generativity both for females and males were tested within a proposed model. In the proposed model, both direct and indirect relationships between general well-being, marital satisfaction, self perception of the parental role, parental belief, parental involvement and societal generativity in gender-differentiated groups of mid adulthood were examined. 274 females and 207 males who were in a work settings participated in this study. The results with Lisrel analyses revealed that perceived parental role and more strongly parental involvement which were determined by parents&rsquo / marital satisfaction, categoric belief, perspectivistic belief (but not for male sample) and general psychological well-being (but not for female sample) predicted the societal generativity and played some important mediating roles in the model. Both mothers&rsquo / and fathers&rsquo / parenting were related to societal generativity. Therefore, the direct influences of parental experiences on generativity indicate that parenting contributes to one&rsquo / s sense of caring for the next generation or generativity development.

The New Ulus Tunnel will be constructed within the andesitic terrain at Hidirliktepe (Ankara). Excavation of the tunnel will be accomplished through blast and drill method. Emprical methods will be consulted during the design of the support systems as well as the slope of the portal rock face. Therefore it is essential to perform detailed rock mass characterization studies. In this thesis it is aimed to determine the rock mass characteristics in order to design the rock slope of the portals and to assess the reliable support systems for the tunnel. For this purpose laboratory tests and field investigations were conducted. Field investigations involved detailed discontinuity measurements and borehole drillings. In respect of laboratory tests / point load index, unit weight and uniaxial compression strength tests were used. The field and laboratory test results were utilized in the Rock Mass Classification Systems (RMR, Q-system) in order to ascertain the rock mass characteristics. By all accounts, necessary tunnel support systems were determined. As for the portal areas, the rock face design was accomplished through kinematical analyses. Consequently, no failure is expected at the portal rock slopes.

In this thesis, we present an ontology-based information extraction and retrieval system and its application to soccer domain. In general, we deal with three issues in semantic search, namely, usability, scalability and retrieval performance. We propose a keyword-based semantic retrieval approach. The performance of the system is improved considerably using domain-specific information extraction, inference and rules. Scalability is achieved by adapting a semantic indexing approach. The system is implemented using the state-of-the-art technologies in SemanticWeb and its performance is evaluated against traditional systems as well as the query expansion methods. Furthermore, a detailed evaluation is provided to observe the performance gain due to domain-specific information extraction and inference. Finally, we show how we use semantic indexing to solve simple structural ambiguities.

Factors Influencing Members¡¦ Commitment and Participation in the Union Abstract Due to the special situation of Taiwan economical and political development in the past, unions were unable to provide their member the function they ought to do. However Government declared martial law ended in 1989, it offered Taiwan unions a new opportunity to perform their function. Recently Human Resource Management School suggests that company never need union if they have offered work conditions satisfied by their employees. So far, neither union operation nor human resource management can coordinate Labors-Employer relation completely. Thus, it is hard to decide which way is suitable for Taiwan¡¦s situation. Therefore, the extent of Taiwan labor¡¦s commitment and participation in the union is crucial in deciding the way of coordinating Labor-employer Relation. First, this study selected some of demographics in order to realize if there are differences among members with different demographics. Second, the study also selected some factors, including Recognizing and Evaluating of Union, Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment and Union Instrumentality to realize if there are any effects among the factors of Union Commitment and Participation. The critical findings of this research are as follows: 1. There are significant differences among gender, age, married status, company run by state or local people, work tenure, union tenure and some factors of union commitment and participation dimension. But there are no significant between education and union commitment and participation dimension. 2. Some factors of recognizing and evaluating of union, job satisfaction, organizational commitment have relation in some factors of union commitment and participation dimension. Some factors of recognizing and evaluating of union, job satisfaction, organizational commitment have significant effects in some factors of union commitment and participation dimension. 3. Union instrumentality has significant positive relation and effects in union commitment and participation. Keyword: union commitment, union participation, union instrumentality, job satisfaction, organizational commitment.

A Mandarin keyword spotting system based on MFCC, discrete-time HMM and Viterbi algorithm with DTW is proposed in this thesis. Joining with a dialogue system, this keyword spotting platform is further refined to a prototype of natural speech patient registration system of Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital. After the ID number is asked by the computer-dialogue attendant in the registration process, the user can finish all relevant works in one sentence. Functions of searching clinical doctors, making and canceling registration are all built in this system. In a laboratory environment, the correct rate of this speaker-independent patient registration system can reach 97% and all registration process can be completed within 75 seconds.

Multiple Pseudacteon phorid fly species, including P. tricuspis and P. curvatus, have been released in the southern United States beginning in 1997 and 2003 (respectively) to serve as biological control agents against red imported fire ants Solenopsis invicta Buren (hereafter referred to as RIFA). Field research in the United States on phorid/RIFA interactions has addressed establishment and spread of released species. Additionally, studies are needed on phorid biology and ecology with respect to spatial distribution and phenology, phorid/habitat associations and phorid-mediated affects on RIFA foraging patterns. A suite of manipulative laboratory and field experiments/observations were conducted to 1) develop a novel phorid sampling device to provide uniform and repeatable sampling of flies, 2) assess spatial distributions and phenology of Pseudacteon tricuspis and P. curvatus, 3) assess P. tricuspis and P. curvatus habitat associations and 4) assess phorid-mediated affects on RIFA foraging patterns and caste ratios. PTS Traps (developed for this research) are significantly more effective than previous sampling methods in terms of mean number of flies collected, efficiency of use and % trap success. Data collected with these traps allowed for the determination of patterns of species-specific phenology and relative densities through time and speciesspecific numerical/spatial superiority (Chapter IV). P. curvatus was significantly more abundant than P. tricuspis in only one of the habitat types sampled (df (160) = 4.57, P < 0.005). P. tricuspis densities did not differ significantly among habitat type. Llaboratory experiments revealed that phorid-exposed RIFA colonies foraged less intensively diurnally (df = 1,558; P < 0.05) and more intensively nocturnally (df = 778; P < 0.05) relative to control colonies. Field data regarding this compensatory nocturnal foraging shift did not corroborate those of the laboratory work. In the field there was no significant difference in foraging intensity during nocturnal (df (18) = -0.486, P = 0.633) and diurnal (df (18) = 1.375 P = 0.186) sampling periods. Lastly, chi-square analysis of RIFA forager size-classes revealed significant differences between phorid-infested (treatment) and phorid-free (control) sites (X 2 = 6811.85, df = 3, P < 0.05) with a significantly greater proportion of small RIFA foragers at the phorid-infested site.