Institution: Halmstad University/School of Teacher Education (LUT) Course: C-level paper, 15 credits Term: Spring 2010 Title: Two Sides of the Same Coin - A study of EFL-teachers knowledge regarding the divergences between British and American English; and the challenges which arise from having more than one accepted variety of English in EFL teaching. Pages: 41 Writer: Linda Jensen Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to ascertain if Swedish EFL teachers have sufficient knowledge regarding the differences between BrE and AmE, the two major varieties of English. Furthermore, I aim to examine what challenges are created when two models of English, BrE and AmE, are accepted in upper secondary schools in Sweden. Method: A quantitative web-based survey.Material: Questionnaire filled in by 59 EFL teachers in upper secondary schools in Halland, Sweden. Main results: Upper secondary EFL teachers in Halland, Sweden do appear to have a basic knowledge of the differences between BrE and AmE and as such a majority placed themselves in the correct category. However, there is a lack of consistency and all the teachers mixed the two varieties to some extent. The challenges that arise from having two accepted varieties in Swedish schools are amongst other things the question of the consistency rule, dealing with the value system associated with British and American English and the question of whether Mid-Atlantic English should be accepted as a third educational standard. Keywords: British English, American English, Mid-Atlantic English, divergence, EFL, consistency, challenges, value system.

This thesis describes research on near degenerate quasi phase-matched opticalparametric oscillators (OPO) where volume Bragg gratings (VBG) are used toproduce narrow oscillation bandwidth. These OPOs are then used to pump a secondOPO to generate mid-infrared radiation. The atmospheric transmission windows in the 3.5 to 5 μm wavelength region areused for seekers on infrared homing missiles. These missiles are available to guerrillaand terrorist groups and have been used in a number of attacks on military and civilianaircraft. Laser sources at the same wavelengths are an important component incountermeasure systems for aircraft self-protection. Similar laser sources also haveapplications in laser surgery. At wavelengths longer than 4 μm crystal materials for multi-Watt level averagepower nonlinear devices is a problem. The best solution so far is to use ZnGeP2(ZGP). ZGP and the available alternatives all have a problem of near-infraredabsorption, and a mid-infrared OPO thus has to use a pump wavelength near 2 μm.This pump source can be a neodymium laser at 1.06 μm with a near degenerate OPO. Nonlinear devices for low to medium pulse energies are dominated by quasi phasematchedmaterials because of their higher effective nonlinearities and lack of walkoff.In addition they allow type I interaction where signal and idler from the OPOhave the same polarization, which has the advantage that both waves can be used topump the ZGP OPO. The drawback of this is that the near-degenerate interaction hasvery wide gain bandwidth. Efficient pumping of the second OPO demands narrowbandwidth output from the first OPO.Volume Bragg gratings that are glass materials with a periodic refractive indexmodulation have emerged as high quality narrow bandwidth reflectors. By using aVBG as one cavity mirror in an OPO the feedback bandwidth and hence the OPOoscillation bandwidth can be kept very narrow. Signal and idler bandwidths of 10 and20 GHz (FWHM) at 2122 and 2135 nm, respectively, have been demonstrated. Thisshould be compared to the several hundred nanometre bandwidth from an OPO usingdielectric mirrors. Very narrow bandwidth operation has been achieved so close todegeneracy that the signal and idler are not resolvable. The total output energy generated in the PPKTP OPO (signal and idler together)has been used to pump a ZGP OPO that produced mid-IR radiation. Tuning of thesignal from a ZGP OPO from 2.9 μm to degeneracy at 4.3 μm has been shown, with acorresponding idler wavelength tuneable up to 8 μm. The highest conversionefficiency that has been reached from 1.06 μm to the mid-IR was 12 %. This setupused a PPKTP OPO with 30 % conversion efficiency and 13 nm separation of signaland idler (2122 and 2135 nm). The pulse repetition frequency was 20 kHz and thegenerated output power in the mid-IR was 3.2 W. / QC 20100517

No description available.

Under deregulated electric market, electricity price is no longer set by the monopoly utility company rather it responds to the market and operating conditions. Offering the right amount of electricity at the right time with the right bidding price has become the key for utility companies pursuing maximum profits under deregulated electricity market. Therefore, electricity market clearing price (MCP) forecasting became essential for decision making, scheduling and bidding strategy planning purposes. However, forecasting electricity MCP is a very difficult problem due to uncertainties associated with input variables.<p> Neural network based approach promises to be an effective forecasting tool in an environment with high degree of non-linearity and uncertainty. Although there are several techniques available for short-term MCP forecasting, very little has been done to do mid-term MCP forecasting. Two new artificial neural networks have been proposed and reported in this thesis that can be utilized to forecast mid-term daily peak and mid-term hourly electricity MCP. The proposed neural networks can simulate the electricity MCP with electricity hourly demand, electricity daily peak demand, natural gas price and precipitation as input variables. Two situations have been considered; electricity MCP forecasting under real deregulated electric market and electricity MCP forecasting under deregulated electric market with perfect competition. The PJM interconnect system has been utilized for numerical results. Techniques have been developed to overcome difficulties in training the neural network and improve the training results.

This thesis examines the problems of building on Toronto’s main streets. These arterial mixed-use corridors that define much of the public face of the city are the subject of ongoing residential intensification efforts through the Official Plan policies of the City of Toronto. The form that this new development takes can either reinforce and improve existing streetscapes and housing stock, or it might –as is already happening– replace the long-established vital urban patterns of main streets with very different, less versatile, and less diverse building forms with a diminished standard of both urban and interior living space. Part I considers main streets at the urban scale, while Part II is a discussion of housing quality and architectural aims that informs a series of proposed prototypical building designs to be located on a site on Queen Street West as an example of site conditions found on main streets in a variety of locations throughout the city. To understand the urban implications of main street building, this study looks at the specific historical factors that have shaped Toronto’s main streets, and looks at why they continue to have value and have become a focus for intensification today. It revisits key episodes in Toronto’s redevelopment planning over the last four decades, particularly the St. Lawrence Neighborhood Plan, the Ataratiri Plan, and the Housing on Toronto’s Main Streets Initiative. The precedent historical research points to the need for small increments of development on main streets in order to maintain the economic, social, and visual diversity that have made them such a vital and dynamic component of the city in the past. This scale of development calls for new building types to respond to the very particular site conditions of main streets. Modern building types that are typically used in these situations are ill suited to respond to these conditions, provide a limited range of unit types, and are leading to compromises of urban and interior spatial quality when applied to these sites. The architectural discussion centers on the observation that traditional main street lot patterns, despite inherent rigidity and rationality, have nonetheless proven to be a functionally flexible urban structure that has accommodated and encouraged a remarkable diversity of uses, architectural forms, and individual interpretations over time. Comparable complexity and diversity of spatial qualities can be found in a variety of architectural design approaches, including those of Adolf Loos’ ‘Raumplan’, Rudolf Schindler’s ‘Space Architecture’, or Herman Hertzberger’s concept of ‘Polyvalent Form’. The spaces created by these architects are an architectural analogue of the dynamic, richly varied urban characteristics of Toronto’s existing main streets. Both create the opportunities for individual expression and continually varied spatial experience that better reflects the complexity of both urban and domestic life. These precedents of architectural form -imbued with qualities of multiplicity, heterogeneity and reinterpretability- propose a counterpoint to the standard of functionally rigid, spatially limited and typologically predictable buildings and living spaces currently available. The proposed building designs are intended to widen the options for dwelling within the city, while offering an update and intensification of main streets that reinforces rather than replaces desirable existing urban patterns.

Interest in the presence of environmental contaminants in the Canadian arctic and sub-arctic arises in part over concerns that Aboriginal people residing in these regions continue to rely on subsistence harvesting. Organochlorines (OCs) are a type of persistent organic pollutant (POP) that have a unique chlorine-carbon bond; this bond facilitates their unprecedented environmental longevity, lipophilicity and hydrophobic nature. OCs have been found in both the biotic and non-biotic compartments of northern ecosystems. This study examined patterns of differences with respect to body burden of organochlorines (lipid-adjusted) between the residents of the Ontario First Nations of Fort Albany (the site of MCRL Site 050), Kashechewan (no radar site), and Peawanuck (the site of MCRL 500) to assess whether geo-proximity to abandoned radar sites influenced organochlorine body burden with respect to the people of Fort Albany and Peawanuck. Correspondence analysis (CA-1) revealed people from Fort Albany had relatively higher pesticide concentrations (β-HCH and DDT, but not Mirex) and relatively lower CB (156 and 170) body burdens when compared to participants from Kashechewan and Peawanuck. CA- 2 revealed Peawanuck residents had relatively higher concentrations of CB180, DDE and hexachlorobenzene and relatively lower levels of DDT and mirex compared to participants from Kashechewan and Fort Albany. Results are suggestive but not conclusive that MCRL Site 500 may have influenced body burdens of Peawanuck residents.

It has been assumed that mathematics testing indicates the development of mathematics concepts, but the linguistic demands of assessment have not been evaluated, especially for children with mild intellectual disabilities. 244 children (grades 2 – 5) were recruited from a larger reading intervention study. Using a multilevel longitudinal SEM model, baseline and post-intervention time points were examined for the contribution of item linguistic complexity, child language skills, and their potential interaction in predicting item level mathematics assessment performance. Item linguistic complexity was an important, stable, and negative predictor of mathematics achievement with children’s language skills significantly and positively predicting mathematics achievement. The interaction between item linguistic complexity and language skills was significant though not stable across time. Following intervention, children with higher language skills performed better on linguistically complex mathematics items. Mathematics achievement may be related to an interaction between children’s language skills and the linguistic demands of the tests themselves.

I dagens samhälle är bolagsstyrningen ett aktuellt ämne. Begreppet bolagsstyrning avser tankegångar och bestämmelser om hur bolag skall ägas och styras. När obalans råder mellan dessa bestämmelser skapas icke-fungerande näringsliv samt marknadens förtroende för bolagen och deras förvaltning drastiskt minimeras. I Sverige implementerades år 2005 Svensk kod för bolagsstyrning – ett ramverk med målet att bidra till en bättre och effektivare bolagsstyrning samt för att stärka förtroendet för bolag på kapitalmarknaden samt den svenska och internationella allmänheten. Syftet med uppsatsen var att undersöka i vilken utsträckning användes Svensk kod för bolagsstyrning i svenska börsnoterade bolag år 2011, samt se om det fanns samband mellan undersökta bolagens ägarstruktur och deras tillämpning av Koden.  För att fullgöra uppsatsens syfte har en kombination av kvantitativa och kvalitativa ansatser används. Den deduktiva metoden bidrog till att studien utgick från de relevanta till bolagsstyrningen teorier för att sedan besvara de aktuella frågorna. Undersökningens slutsats kom fram till att det fanns samband mellan undersökta bolagens ägarstruktur och deras tillämpning av Koden. Främst visade det sig att alla segment valde att avvika från samma punkter i Kodens bestämmelser.

On May 29th 2008 two earthquakes with moment magnitude of Mw ~6 occurred in the southwestern part of Iceland. The second earthquake struck within only seconds after the first, on a fault ~5 km west from the first fault. The aftershock sequence was recorded by 14 seismic stations during the subsequent 34 days. The recorded earthquakes were detected and located with a Coalesence Microseismic Mapping (CMM) technique. The output data from this program has been used as basis for the tomography algorithm PStomo_eq, which simultaneously inverts for both P- and S-wave velocities and relocates the events. Within the study area of 46×36 km the three-dimensional velocity structure has, successfully but not conclusively, been modeled to depths of ~10 km. The Vp/Vs ratio varies from 1.74 to 1.82 within the study area. The velocity increases with depth starting from 2 km where the P-wave velocity is 4.6 km/s and the S-wave velocity is 2.7 km/s, at a depth of 10 km the P-wave velocity is 6.9 km/s and S-wave velocity is 4.0 km/s. In the horizontal slices a high velocity area is seen in the northwestern part of model. This is interpreted to be caused by a magma body rising up from below and lithifying at high pressure. From cross-sections a large low velocity zone is seen in the western part of model area concentrated above the seismicity. The low velocity anomaly is found between depths of 2 km to 4 km, stretching from 21.5° to 21.2° W. It is interpreted to be caused by high porosity within the area. The depth to the brittle crust is increasing from the western part of the model towards the eastern part, right in the middle of the model it abruptly decreases again. The depth to the base of the brittle crust is increasing from 7 km in west to 9 km in the middle of model. / Den 29:e maj 2008 inträffade två jordbävningar med magnitud Mw ~6 på sydvästra Island. Den första jordbävningen följdes tätt av en andra jordbävning på en förkastning ~5 km väster om den första. Påföljande efterskalvssekvens registrerades av 14 seismiska stationer under 34 dagar efter huvudskalven. De registrerade skalven har detekterats och lokaliserats med en Coalesence Microseismic Mapping (CMM) teknik. Utdata från detta program har använts som grund för tomografin som genomförts med PStomo_eq, en algoritm som inverterar oberoende för både P- och S-vågs hastigheter och samtidigt omlokaliserar eventen. Inom det undersökta området på 46×36 km har en tredimensionell hastighetsmodell, om än inte slutgiltigt, modellerats för djup ned till 10 km. Vp/Vs kvoten varierar mellan 1.74 och 1.82 inom studieområdet. Hastigheterna ökar med ökande djup, på ett djup av 2 km är P-vågs hastigheten 4.6 km/s och S-vågs hastigheten 2.7 km/s och vid 10 km är P-vågs hastigheten 6.9 km/s och S-vågs hastigheten 4.0 km/s. I den nordvästra delen av modellen återfinns en höghastighetszon. Denna tolkas vara orsakad av en magma kropp som stigit och kristalliserat under högt tryck. De vertikala tvärsnitten visar en låghastighetsanomali i västra delen av modellen, koncentrerat ovan seismiciteten. Denna anomali sträcker sig från ett djup på 2 km ned till 4 km, från 21.5° till 21.2° V. Den tolkas vara orsakad av en hög grad av porositet. Djupet för den bräckliga jordskorpan ökar från väster till öster i modellen, för att i mitten abrupt minska igen. Basen av den bräckliga skorpan ökar från 7 km i väst till 9 km i mitten av modellen.

This thesis examines the problems of building on Toronto’s main streets. These arterial mixed-use corridors that define much of the public face of the city are the subject of ongoing residential intensification efforts through the Official Plan policies of the City of Toronto. The form that this new development takes can either reinforce and improve existing streetscapes and housing stock, or it might –as is already happening– replace the long-established vital urban patterns of main streets with very different, less versatile, and less diverse building forms with a diminished standard of both urban and interior living space. Part I considers main streets at the urban scale, while Part II is a discussion of housing quality and architectural aims that informs a series of proposed prototypical building designs to be located on a site on Queen Street West as an example of site conditions found on main streets in a variety of locations throughout the city. To understand the urban implications of main street building, this study looks at the specific historical factors that have shaped Toronto’s main streets, and looks at why they continue to have value and have become a focus for intensification today. It revisits key episodes in Toronto’s redevelopment planning over the last four decades, particularly the St. Lawrence Neighborhood Plan, the Ataratiri Plan, and the Housing on Toronto’s Main Streets Initiative. The precedent historical research points to the need for small increments of development on main streets in order to maintain the economic, social, and visual diversity that have made them such a vital and dynamic component of the city in the past. This scale of development calls for new building types to respond to the very particular site conditions of main streets. Modern building types that are typically used in these situations are ill suited to respond to these conditions, provide a limited range of unit types, and are leading to compromises of urban and interior spatial quality when applied to these sites. The architectural discussion centers on the observation that traditional main street lot patterns, despite inherent rigidity and rationality, have nonetheless proven to be a functionally flexible urban structure that has accommodated and encouraged a remarkable diversity of uses, architectural forms, and individual interpretations over time. Comparable complexity and diversity of spatial qualities can be found in a variety of architectural design approaches, including those of Adolf Loos’ ‘Raumplan’, Rudolf Schindler’s ‘Space Architecture’, or Herman Hertzberger’s concept of ‘Polyvalent Form’. The spaces created by these architects are an architectural analogue of the dynamic, richly varied urban characteristics of Toronto’s existing main streets. Both create the opportunities for individual expression and continually varied spatial experience that better reflects the complexity of both urban and domestic life. These precedents of architectural form -imbued with qualities of multiplicity, heterogeneity and reinterpretability- propose a counterpoint to the standard of functionally rigid, spatially limited and typologically predictable buildings and living spaces currently available. The proposed building designs are intended to widen the options for dwelling within the city, while offering an update and intensification of main streets that reinforces rather than replaces desirable existing urban patterns.