A smoke explosion is generally considered as a deflagration of the accumulated unburned fuel inside a closed compartment. However, the term smoke explosion has been widely misused for decades with a great deal of confusion, and very little research has been done towards this topic. The purpose of this research is to study the smoke explosion phenomenon in much more detail through the development of a fire scenario under various experimental conditions including ventilation size, fuel elevation and fuel mass, so that a more comprehensive understanding of this phenomenon can be achieved. A total of twenty experiments are carried out including both exploratory and final experiments. Thirteen experiments result in smoke explosions, among which there are five experiments result in more than one smoke explosion. A phenomenon referred as smoldering decay is observed in all experiments with smoke explosions, making it one of the precursors of the smoke explosion phenomenon. The smoldering decay is often indicated by an exponential decay of the temperature and is caused by the low oxygen concentration within the compartment. Based on the analysis, it is found that the vent size must be at least 50 mm in diameter in order for smoke explosions to occur. The fuel elevation has no influence on the occurrence of the smoke explosion. However when the fuel is placed near the ceiling, the temperature, the mass flow rate and the heat release rate are all lowered significantly. The size of the fuel also has no significant influence except for the duration of the experiment. The concentration of CO is scattered in the range of 1.9% and 4.3% when explosions occur. Hence, the accumulation of CO is considered not to be the direct cause for the smoke explosion. The triggering factor for smoke explosions is believed to be the flammable limit formed by the mixture of hydrocarbon and CO. The pressure difference caused by the explosion inside the compartment has to be at least 27 Pa for it to be considered as a smoke explosion.

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This thesis consists of three essays on optimal monetary policy. In the first essay I study time-consistent monetary policy in an small open economy model with incomplete financial markets. I demonstrate the existence of two discretionary equilibria. The model is capable of explaining periods of different exchange rate volatilities as well as the transition between those regimes. Following a shock the economy can be stabilised either `quickly' or `slow', where both dynamic paths satisfy the conditions of optimality and time-consistency. I also show that a policy of partially targeting the exchange rate results in far worse welfare outcomes relative to a strict inflation targeting policy. In the second essay, I analyse how a policy maker can avoid expectation traps and coordination failures. Using a framework developed by Schaumburg and Tambalotti (2007) and Debortoli and Nunes (2010) in which a policy maker may or may not default on past promises I show that already mild degrees of precommitment are sufficient to generate uniqueness of the Pareto-preferred equilibrium. In the last chapter, I examine optimal monetary policy from an empirical perspective. I estimate a simple small open economy model separately for a policy maker acting under commitment and discretion and find that the data favours the commitment approach. Furthermore, the data suggest that the Bank of Canada did not target the nominal exchange rate in the inspected time period.

86 Abstract Statutory liability of members and other persons for debts of business corporations (including supranational corporations) The thesis aims to introduce the economic rationale behind the legal concept of limited liability, including the risks for creditors attached thereto, and to analyse the legal instruments designed to remedy the impacts of its misuse or abuse. Accordingly, this thesis attempts to point to the shortcomings of the current legal framework and to offer a solution thereto. For this purpose the author uses the traditional methods of legal interpretation and draws upon the laws of the United Kingdom, which inspired the authors of the Czech Corporations Act 2012 in many respects. After the opening chapter, which introduces the current legal framework for limited liability of shareholders and defines legal relations of company's agents towards third persons, the historic development of limited liability in the United Kingdom will be outlined in the second chapter. The introduction of limited liability in 19th Century was accompanied by intense society-wide debate, the findings of which will help to understand the limited liability in its wider context and will form the ground for the following assessment of its benefits and risks for creditors of limited liability companies. Third...

This paper examines the 1958-1959 Berlin crisis as a diplomatic experience, conducted by the U.S. and U.S.S.R as an alternative to war. Both nations had nuclear weapon capabilities that could transform a local conflict into general war. The potential for disaster, plus other limits, made a series of diplomatic encounters the only productive option. The diplomatic course also shielded American and Russian interests indirectly related to the conflict. Each nation and its leader had pragmatic reasons for practicing restraint. These included conservation of assets, political stability, and most importantly, poor chances for sustainable gains. Limited war doctrine was influential in establishing these policies.

The private equity industry has had a fluctuating history. In the years between 2003 and  2007 the private equity industry expanded tremendously, yet in 2008 a financial turmoil  caused significant deviation in the activity of the industry. During the credit crunch the  liquidity in the market decreased affecting the sources of capital available. When several  firms compete about the capital available, fundraising becomes increasingly difficult and  competition intensifies. Sweden is one of the largest private equity markets in Europe and  has among the Nordic countries been able to raise the largest amount of funds. The  purpose of this study is to examine the fundraising process implemented by private equity  firms, nevertheless the relationship that emerges between the fund manager and the  investor. The authors’ objective is to provide an adequate interpretation of the private  equity industry in Sweden.   The authors have implemented a qualitative method, as the objective has been to obtain a  profound picture of how private equity firms manage their fundraising. The abductive  approach has been used in order to collect empirical data and semi-structured interviews  have been carried out with representatives from four private equity firms. In addition, a  smaller survey has been performed with two institutional investors to add to the objectivity.  Subsequently, the empirical data has been analysed in regards to theory and compared in  relation to the sources to end up in a conclusion.  The authors have through the study concluded that private equity firms in Sweden with a  focus in buyouts not have a common fundraising model. Private equity funds are selective  in their choice of investors and prefer professional, loyal investors with a long-term  perspective and strong capital base. It has from the analysis emerged that good reputation,  history, team and experience is valuable in fundraising. Firms that are successful in their  operations and management appeal to investors. The investors are typically institutionalised  and invest in different asset classes, hence the diversification is mainly in the hands of the  investor.

This thesis proposes a distributed beamforming technique in wireless networks with half-duplex amplify-and-forward relays. With full channel state information, it has been shown that transmit beamforming is able to achieve significant diversity and coding gain. However, it takes large amount of overhead. First, we adopt the Generalized Lloyd Algorithm to design codebooks which minimize average SNR, and reduce the feedback rate by quantizing the channel state information. Furthermore, we utilize the correlation property of time-varying channels to compress the size of feedback message required to accomplish distributed beamforming. We model time-varying channels as a first-order finite-state Markov chain, namely the emph{channel state Markov chain}. Then, we propose two methods to compress the feedback bits according to the property of the transition probabilities among different channel states. One method is to compress the feedback by discarding some channel states which is less likely to be transited given current state. In the other method, we reserve all channel states and adopt Huffman coding to compress the feedback bits based on the transition probabilities. Simulations also show that distributed beamforming with compressed feedback performs closely to the beamforming with infinite feedback.

The present study had three purposes. The first was to examine the score reliability of instruments purported to be appropriate in the assessment of students with limited English proficiency (LEP). The second was to investigate the criterion-related validity of the Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test (UNIT) with a sample of lowperforming, Hispanic students. The third purpose was to explore the contribution of language proficiency in the dominant language (L1) and the language proficiency in the subordinate language (L2) in the prediction of reading achievement in L1. Participants included first and third grade students of Hispanic origin who scored below the median for their district on a state-approved, district-administered measure of literacy in first grade. Satisfactory internal consistency estimates were achieved with a sample of LEP students (n=24) on the UNIT, the Woodcock-Muñoz Language Survey (WMLS) in English and in Spanish, and the Batería Woodcock-Muñoz: Pruebas de Approvechamiento-Revisada (Batería-R APR). For first grade students, scores from the UNIT demonstrated satisfactory concurrent validity with those from the Woodcock Johnson III: Tests of Achievement (WJ-III ACH) for a sample of Hispanic, non-LEP students (n=89). However, the concurrent validity of the UNIT was not upheld for a sample of Hispanic, LEP students administered the Batería-R APR (n=56). Regarding predictive validity, results from simple linear regression analyses suggested that performance on the UNIT in first grade accounted for a negligible portion of the variance on the Texas high-stakes reading test in third grade for a group of LEP students (n=51) as well as for a group of non-LEP students (n=77). Language proficiency in L1 emerged as a positive predictor of reading achievement in L1. However, language proficiency in L2 was not shown to be a statistically significant, independent contributor to this relationship with reading achievement on the Batería-R APR (n=79), WJ-III ACH (n=14), TAKS Spanish (n=54), or TAKS English (n=12). Findings are discussed with respect to the restriction of range due to selection criterion and sample size, the use of the Abbreviated battery of the UNIT in the prediction of reading achievement, and the contribution of language proficiency in L2 for low performing, LEP students in the third grade.

Zugl.: Bonn, Univ., Diss., 2009

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 56-59).