This study adds to the existing research concerning ecological relationships between suicide rates, social integration, and urbanicity in the U.S. Age-sex-race adjusted five-year averaged suicide rates for 1993-1997 and various measures of urbanicity are used. Some proposed relationships held true, while others indicate that social integration and urbanicity are so intertwined in their effects on suicide that no clear, unidirectional pattern emerges. The religious affiliation measure captured unique variations in the role religion plays in this relationship; depending on how urbanicity was measured. Findings suggest closer attention needs to be paid to how both urbanicity and religious affiliation are measured. Overall, vast regional variation exists in suicide rates and the role of urbanization can be misunderstood if not properly specified.

<p>Real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS) has demonstrated certain advantages over conventional large-scale testing. In an RTHS, the system that is under study is partitioned into a numerical and a physical substructure, where the numerical part is comprised of those elements that are easier to model mathematically, while the physical part consists of those that present a complex behavior difficult to capture in a numerical model. The most complex part of this study is the isolation system, a technology used to protect structures against earthquakes by modifying how they respond to ground motions. Unbonded Fiber Reinforced Elastomeric Isolators (UFREIs) are devices that can accomplish this task and have gained attention in recent years because of their modest but valuable features that make them suitable for implementation in low-rise buildings and in developing countries because of their low cost. Our end goal for this work is to enable the testing of scaled versions of these elastomeric isolators to understand their behavior under shear tests and realistic loading. </p> <p>A testing instrument was designed and constructed to apply a uniaxial compressive force up to 22kN and a shear force of 8kN simultaneously to the specimens. A testing program was conducted where four primary sources of signal distortion were identified as caused by the servo-hydraulic system. From these results, a mechanics-based model was developed to understand better the dynamics that the sliding table can introduce to the measured signals accounting for inertial and dissipative forces. Two Bouc-Wen models were implemented to simulate the behavior of the UFREIs. The first only accounts for the hysteretic behavior of the isolator, and the second accounts for the additional nonlinearities found in the isolator’s behavior. These models were assembled in a virtual RTHS which is available to users interested in learning the applications of RTHS of a base-isolated structure with a nonlinear component.</p> <p>An RTHS experiment was conducted in the IISL where the control system comprised a delay compensator and a proportional-integral controller, which exhibited a good tracking performance with minimal delay and low RMSE. However, it can increase the distortion of the oil-column resonance in the measured signals. The simulation captures the behavior of the isolated structure for small displacements. However, it underestimates the displacement of the full-scale specimen for large displacements. The RTHS showed a better approximation of the displacement of the full-scale structure than the theoretical behavior approximated by the Bouc-Wen models.</p>

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Purpose – In recent decades the inflation- and interest rates have followed a long-termdeclining trend. Followed by central banks starting to use unconventional monetary policiesto cope with financial crises have led to increased amounts of liquidity in the financialsystems and available and looking for investment alternatives on the capital markets. At thesame time real estate property prices have set new highs corresponding to a longer-termtrend of declining cap rates. The traditional cap rate formula components the risk-free rateand risk premium less rental growth do not entirely explain the trend of declining cap ratesthat have led to very low cap rates. The purpose with this thesis quantitative study is to testif the newer cap rate determinants money supply and foreign investments percentage of allmarket transactions can explain the decline and recently very low cap rates.Design/Methodology – The master thesis firstly conducts a literature review on previousstudies on cap rate determinants and subsequent conduct an own quantitative study byrunning dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) regression analysis on time series ofStockholm central business district commercial office cap rates and determinants chosen asindependent variables representing macro- and market fundamental factors driving caprates with the addition of money supply proxied by monetary aggregate M3 and foreigninvestments on the market proxied by the foreign share of investments on the Stockholmcommercial office market.Findings – The DOLS regression model (1)-(5) determinants are overall significant androbust. Of the newer cap rate determinants that are tested the monetary aggregate M3 andits included lags are of higher and stronger significance and impact on the cap rate than theforeign investment share. However, the foreign investment share time-series data used inthe study do not entirely correspond to the Stockholm central business district (CBD)commercial office market but rather against the larger Stockholm commercial office marketand hence the foreign investment share is assumed to be a relevant cap rate determinantwith support from studies referred to in the section theoretical framework.Research limitations/implications – To ensure high quality in statistical analysis andhypothesis testing large data samples corresponding to longer time-series data than waspossible to obtain for this thesis quantitative study is required. However, even though arelatively small sample has been used it performed well in tests conducted of the dataquality.Originality/value – The master thesis aims to measure and quantify the impact fromunconventional monetary policy and international real estate investments on commercialoffice cap rates. Executed on the Swedish capital Stockholms CBD office market. / Syfte – De senaste decennierna har inflationen- och räntorna följt en långsiktigtnedåtgående trend. Detta har följts upp av att centralbanker börjat använda okonventionellpenningpolitik för att hantera finanskriser, vilket lett till att en ökad penningmängd i definansiella systemen sökt investeringsmöjligheter på kapitalmarknaderna. Samtidigt harfastighetspriserna satt nya rekord ett flertal gånger vilket motsvarar en långsiktig trend avsjunkande kapitaliseringstakter. Den traditionella modellen för kapitaliseringstakt med riskfriränta och riskpremium med subtraktion av hyrestillväxt förklarar inte helt detta. Syftet meddetta examensarbetes kvantitativa studie är att pröva om de nyare potentielladeterminanterna penningmängd och andelen utländska investeringar kan förklaranedgången och de nyligen väldigt låga kapitaliseringstakterna.Design/Metodik – Examensarbetet börjar med en litteraturstudie inom konceptetkapitaliseringstakt och dess determinanter. Därefter görs en kvantitativ studie med DOLSregressionsanalys av kapitaliseringstakter för kontorsmarknaden i Stockholms centralaaffärsdistrikt och modeller av dess determinanter bestående av makro- ochmarknadsfundamentala faktorer som antas vara drivande för kapitaliseringstakten. Medtillägg av determinanterna penningmängd modellerad med måttet M3 och andelenutländska investeringar modellerad med andelen utländska investeringar påkontorsmarknaden i Stockholm.Undersökningsresultat – Kapitaliseringstakts determinanterna i modellerna (1)-(5) ärövergripande signifikanta och robusta. Av de två nyare determinanterna är penningmängdM3 och dess inkluderade laggade värden av högre och starkare signifikans och med störreinverkan på kapitaliseringstakten än andelen utländska investeringar. Dessvärre motsvararinte tidsserien av andelen utländska investeringar på kontorsmarknaden i Stockholm detmindre segmentet kontorsmarknaden för Stockholms centrala affärsdistrikt och därmedantas den motsvarande andelen utländska investeringar vara signifikant med stöd av tidigarestudier som lyfts fram i litteraturstudien.Begränsningar/implikationer – För att säkerställa hög kvalité på analys av statistik behövsstora stickprov vilket motsvarar data för långa tidsserier, vilket inte var möjligt att erhålla fördetta examensarbetes kvantitativa studie. Positivt är dock ändå att tidsserie data somanvänts, trots att de inte är så långa som önskat, presterat bra i de genomförda testerna avdatakvalitén.

A hydraulic damper plays an important role in tuning the handling and comfort characteristicsof a vehicle. Tuning and selecting a damper based on subjective evaluation, by considering theopinions of various users, would be an inefficient method since the comfort requirements of usersvary a lot. Instead, mathematical models of damper and simulation of these models in variousoperating conditions are preferred to standardize the tuning procedure, quantify the comfortlevels and reduce cost of testing. This would require a model, which is good enough to capture thebehaviour of damper in various operating and extreme conditions.The Force-Velocity (FV) curve is one of the most widely used model of a damper. This curve isimplemented either as an equation or as a look-up table. It is a plot between the maximum forceat each peak velocity point. There are certain dynamic phenomena like hysteresis and dependencyon the displacement of damper, which cannot be captured with a FV curve model, but are requiredfor better understanding of the vehicle behaviour.This thesis was conducted in cooperation with Volvo Cars with an aim to improve the existingdamper model which is a Force-Velocity curve. This work focuses on developing a damper model,which is complex enough to capture the phenomena discussed above and simple enough to beimplemented in real time simulations. Also, the thesis aims to establish a standard method toparameterise the damper model and generate the Force-Velocity curve from the tests performedon the damper test rig. A test matrix which includes the standard tests for parameterising andthe extreme test cases for the validation of the developed model will be developed. The final focusis to implement the damper model in a multi body simulation (MBS) software.The master thesis starts with an introduction, where the background for the project is described and then the thesis goals are set. It is followed by a literature review in which fewadvanced damper models are discussed in brief. Then, a step-by-step process of developing thedamper model is discussed along with few more possible options. Later, the construction of a testmatrix is discussed in detail followed by the parameter identification process. Next, the validationof the developed damper model is discussed using the test data from Volvo Hällered ProvingGround (HPG). After validation, implementation of the model in VI CarRealTime and Adams Caralong with the results are presented. Finally the thesis is concluded and the recommendations forfuture work are made on further improving the model. / En hydraulisk stötdämpare spelar en viktig roll för att fordonets hantering och komfort. Attjustera och välja en stötdämpare baserat på subjektiv utvärdering, genom att beakta olika användares åsikter, skulle vara en ineffektiv metod eftersom användarnas komfortkrav varierarmycket. Istället föredras matematiska modeller av stötdämpare och simulering av dessa modellerunder olika driftsförhållanden för att standardisera inställningsförfarandet, kvantifiera komfortnivåerna och minska testkostnaden. Detta skulle kräva en modell som är tillräckligt bra för attfånga upp stötdämparens beteende under olika drifts- och extrema förhållanden.Force-Velocity (FV) -kurvan är en av de mest använda stötdämparmodellerna. Denna kurvaimplementeras antingen som en ekvation eller som en uppslagstabell. Det är ett diagram somredovisar den maximala kraften vid varje maxhastighetspunkt. Det finns vissa dynamiskafenomen som hysteres och beroende av stötdämparens förskjutning, som inte kan fångas med enFV-kurvmodell, men som krävs för att bättre förstå fordonets beteende.Denna avhandling genomfördes i samarbete med Volvo Cars i syfte att förbättra den befintligastötdämparmodellen som är en Force-Velocity-kurva. Detta arbete fokuserar på att utveckla enstötdämparmodell, som är tillräckligt komplex för att fånga upp de fenomen som diskuteratsovan och tillräckligt enkel för att implementeras i realtidssimuleringar. Avhandlingen syftarockså till att upprätta en standardmetod för att parametrisera spjällmodellen och generera ForceVelocity-kurvan från de test som utförts på stötdämpartestriggen. En testmatris som innehållerstandardtest för parametrisering och extrema testfall för validering av den utvecklade modellenkommer att utvecklas. Det sista fokuset är att implementera stötdämparmodellen i en multi-bodysimulation (MBS) programvara.Examensarbetet inleds med en introduktion, där bakgrunden för projektet beskrivs ochdärefter definieras målen med arbetet. Det följs av en litteraturöversikt där några avanceradestötdämparmodeller diskuteras i korthet. Därefter diskuteras en steg-för-steg-process för attutveckla stötdämparmodeller tillsammans med några fler möjliga alternativ. Senare diskuteraskonstruktionen av en testmatris i detalj följt av parameteridentifieringsprocessen. Därefterdiskuteras valideringen av den utvecklade stötdämparmodellen med hjälp av testdata från VolvoHällered Proving Ground (HPG). Efter validering presenteras implementeringen av modellen iVI CarRealTime och Adams Car tillsammans med resultaten. Slutligen avslutas rapporten medslutsatser från arbetet och rekommendationer för framtida arbete görs för att ytterligare förbättramodellen.