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Protected areas have so far been the primary means to conserve biodiversity, an increasingly important environmental issue, but proposals to establish protected areas are often met by local resistance due to fears that user rights will be severely restrained. Nature conservation traditionally aims to preserve an ideal state of nature, in which interference by people is minimized through a number of regulations, and where central authorities are in charge. Increasingly, however, conservation policy emphasizes participation. Protected area designations are about institutional change where customary and legal rights to use and manage certain resources are renegotiated. Protected areas can be considered as multi-use and multi-level commons that may benefit from co-management where the state cooperates with user groups, municipalities, research institutions and others. This thesis analyzes the establishment phase of the co-management of multi-level, multi-use commons in order to characterize design principles common to the emergence of co-management processes which improve institutional robustness. The thesis is based on a quantitative survey study and a small-n comparative case study. Paper I compares national, regional and local public opinions about protected areas through a multi-level survey. Papers II to IV each presents a case study of a designation process within the Swedish mountain region. The qualitative case studies are based on the structured, focused comparison method and employ within-case analysis and process-tracing. The material examined consisted of written documenta­tion and 41 semi-structured interviews. The two studies contribute to commons theory; the focus on the establishment phase provides opportunities to acquire abundant information about how contextual and process factors influence the functioning of a co-management arrangement. Paper I suggests that national public opinion is an important contextual variable for natural resources of national interest, and shows that 65% of the Swedish population support local or co-management of protected areas. Papers II to IV reveal that the rigidity of the existing institutional framework is another important contextual variable that influences the degree of learning taking place. Further, the comparative analysis proposes that certain characteristics of a process (the co-management process principles) are essential for the realization of co-management arrangements of multi-level and multi-use commons. The principles are representation, reason(ableness), powers, accountability and learning.

While popular management literature discusses ‘exit’ as a successful outcome of entrepreneurship, empirical research have frequently considered exit as a negative outcome. This dissertation suggests that exit may be the outcome of both failing and successful venturing. Using advanced research designs and high-quality data that follow over 7,000 individual entrepreneurs and the evolution of their firms for 14 years, I show that while the resources and skills of entrepreneurs affect their possibilities to stay in business, exit is to a considerable extent a voluntary decision that entrepreneurs take if the performance of their venture is less than what they aspired to. The empirical evidence presented in the dissertation indicates that the high failure rates among new firms reported in both the academic and popular press may be, at least partially, misinterpreted positive exit decisions rather than failures. The dissertation contains five empirical studies that provide theoretical and empirical contributions to the research fields of entrepreneurship and organization studies. Taken together, the dissertation represents a comprehensive picture of entrepreneurial exit that highlights the importance of entrepreneur(s)’ skills and experiences, as well as contextual factors such as industry structure, geography, and social interaction among similar entrepreneurs. / <p>Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2009, Härtill 5 appendix</p>

This study starts out with the hypothesis that the integration process in Europe is connected to cross-border régionalisation, a process which supports the institutionalization of subnational cross-border cooperation - region-building. Cross-border régionalisation is characterized by the decentralisation of vertical links and enhanced opportunities for horizontal links across state borders. In addition, political integration is expected to have some impact on the cross-border institutional forms that emerge at the subnational level. Three different approaches are utilized in order to establish the empirical connection between political integration and region-building. These are: an analysis of the factors which determine the general pattern of cross-border cooperation in Europe, an analysis of the policy network related to the regional and structural policies of the European Union (EU), and case studies of cooperation in the heartland of Europe, the Regio Basiliensis along the external border of the EU, and the EUREGIO along one of the internal borders. Two institutional factors are found to have a significant impact on the number of subnational cross-border cooperations, EU-membership and centrality. Federal constitution was shown not to be significant. It is suggested that the interaction between actors at different politico- administrative levels creates network relations, which typically bring both private and public actors together. More precisely, region-building is described as the outcome of the interaction which takes place between actors. A closer examination of the emerging policy network shows that community initiatives, the Interreg-programme in particular, improve the prospects for multi­level interaction. The EU plays a crucial role in providing the incentives for cooperation by increasing resource dependency and by establishing direct ties between the European Commission and a large number of subnational actors through partnerships. It appears as if the Commission wishes to demonstrate its capacity to deal with problems relevant to individual citizens. By, in part, bypassing central governments, it seems to increase its own importance vis- à-vis member states. The modus vivendi of cross-border region-building and régionalisation is the degree to which institutional actors at different levels share the same objectives. As shown by the case studies, there is a common interest in cross-border cooperation up to the point were public statues are introduced. Interests seem to coincide as long as the structures and contents of cross-border cooperation do not ultimately challenge the authority of state institutions. Therefore, it is not surprising that it seems impossible to give cross-border regions any rights under international law. Functional cooperation, rather than regionalist manifestations of cultural or political unity across borders, constitutes the backbone of region-building. Activities transcending borders are less controversial than those that may contribute to the establishment of new borders. It is concluded that region-building is a process which is embedded in the institutionalization of a multi-level interaction pattern. More favourable multilevel relations have been achieved through the transfer of some authority to the supranational level. This is the main reason why traditional integration theory fails to explain why there is a connection between political integration and cross-border cooperation. / digitalisering@umu

The organizations of national and provincial parties in Canada are understood to be separated from one another. However, it is not known whether this separation extends to the constituency-level organizations of those parties. In order to provide a better understanding of how national and provincial parties are linked at the local level (if at all), this thesis describes and accounts for the local organizations of the national Liberal Party and the provincial Liberal parties in sixteen national constituencies selected from the provinces of British Columbia, Ontario, and New Brunswick. Information from interviews with local party activists and participant observation in the ridings is used to develop a continuum of constituency-level party organizations. Descriptions of the activist bases, constituency associations, and local campaigns in each riding allow for each local organization to be placed along this continuum between integrated local organizations, which share important linkages between the national and provincial levels, and differentiated local organizations, where no such linkages exist. The placement of local organizations along this continuum is accounted for by (1) similarities or differences between the national and provincial party systems in the three provinces studied; (2) the actions of incumbent members of the national Parliament and provincial legislatures; and (3) characteristics of the constituencies. The patterns identified lead to a classification of four types of local organizations – One Political World, Interconnected Political Worlds, Distinctive Political Worlds, and Two Political Worlds – that illuminate the different forms of linkages between national and provincial parties that exist at the constituency level. This examination of the local organizations of the Liberal Party calls into question the academic consensus on the separation of national and provincial parties in Canada. Instead, the Liberal Party is characterized as an unevenly integrated party, where the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary parties are separated from provincial counterparts, but where the national and provincial parties on the ground are oftentimes integrated.

A major criticism of the environmental behavior literature is the nearly exclusive focus on the role of attitudes and individual-level characteristics. Despite this concentration on individual-level causes, variation in environmental behavior remains. As individual behavior becomes an increasingly significant source of pollution, a better understanding of the influences individual behavior is critical to addressing environmental degradation. This research re-directs the focus on individual-level influences on environmental behaviors by building models examining the varying dimensions of environmental behaviors as influenced by community characteristics. This is accomplished by testing a series of hypotheses under the auspices of two theoretical frameworks: the neoclassical economic theory and a social contextual model of environmental actions. Using individual-level data from the 1993 and 2000 General Social Survey and MSA data from the U.S. Census and the Environmental Protection Agency, I estimate two-level hierarchical models for three environmentally sensitive behaviors (environmentally sensitive food consumption, environmentally sensitive automobile use, and environmental activism). Multi-level analyses yield models revealing significant associations between MSA measures and individual environmental behaviors. Objective environmental conditions, region of MSA and MSA education level are significantly associated with environmentally sensitive food consumption behaviors, environmentally sensitive automobile use, and environmental activism behaviors, though their influence assumes diverse forms. Among the community measures, MSA education level is the primary social process that produces change in all environmental behaviors. In each of the models, MSA education level exhibits effects on all three behavioral measures and significant cross-level effects on automobile use behaviors. Living in a well educated MSA, particularly in the West or Northeast suggests higher environmental participation. Region of MSA is also a characteristic that must be considered when evaluating environmental behaviors, particularly for those living in the West and Northeast. Theoretical conclusions suggest that individual environmental behavior decision making is not simply a market exchange, but social forces are at work in the individual decision-making process.

The incidence of adverse birth outcomes, such as low birth weight and preterm births, has steadily risen in recent years in Canada. Despite the fact that numerous individual and neighbourhood risk factors for low birth weight and preterm births have been identified and various person-oriented intervention strategies have been implemented, uncertainties still exist concerning the role that place and space play in determining adverse birth outcomes. In order to succeed in producing community-oriented health policy and planning guidelines to reduce both the occurrence and inequalities of adverse birth outcomes, the research presented in this thesis provides an approach to examining the pathways of various socio-economic, environmental, and psycho-social risks to LBW and preterm births. Using a modified multilevel binary-outcome mediational analysis method, case studies are conducted within three public health units in Ontario, namely the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Health Unit, the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, and the Halton Region Health Unit. Different pathways are investigated given the available data and the theoretical assumptions of three health inequality pathway models, namely the behavioural model, the psycho-social model, and the materialist model, and the geographical and planning perspectives of health inequalities. A local spatial analysis process is also used to identify spatial clusters of incidence and to assess possible associated reasons in order to support public health polices and planning in community-oriented health interventions. Using Bayesian spatial hierarchical analysis and spatial clustering analysis, local clustering of high risks of adverse birth outcomes and spatial variations of associated individual risks within the study areas are identified. The analysis is framed around five hypotheses that examine personal vs. spatial, compositional vs. contextual, psycho-social vs. material, personal vs. cultural, and global vs. local effects on the determinants of adverse birth outcomes. The results of testing these hypotheses provide evidence to assist with multi-component multi-level community-oriented interventions. Possible improvements of current prenatal care policies and programs to reduce the spatial and social inequalities of adverse birth outcomes are suggested. Potential improvements, including early stage prenatal health education, local healthy food provision, and cross-sector interventions such as the combination of social mixing strategies with bottom-up community-based health promotion programs, are also suggested.

Rotorcraft optimization is a challenging problem due to its conflicting requirements among many disciplines and highly coupled design variables affecting the overall design. Also, the design process for a composite rotor blade is often ambiguous because of its design space. Furthermore, analytical tools do not produce acceptable results compared with flight test when it comes to aerodynamics and aeroelasticity unless realistic models are used, which leads to excessive computer time per iteration. To comply these requirements, computationally efficient yet realistic tools for rotorcraft analysis, such as VABS and DYMORE were used as analysis tools. These tools decompose a three-dimensional problem into a two-dimensional cross-sectional and a one-dimensional beam analysis. Also, to eliminate the human interaction between iterations, a previously VABS-ANSYS macro was modified and automated. The automated tool shortened the computer time needed to generate the VABS input file for each analysis from hours to seconds. MATLAB was used as the wrapper tool to integrate VABS, DYMORE and the VABS-ANSYS macro into the methodology. This methodology uses Genetic Algorithm and gradient-based methods as optimization schemes. The baseline model is the rotor system of generic Georgia Tech Helicopter (GTH), which is a three-bladed, soft-in-plane, bearingless rotor system. The resulting methodology is a two-level optimization, global and local. Previous studies showed that when stiffnesses are used as design variables in optimization, these values act as if they are independent and produce design requirements that cannot be achieved by local-level optimization. To force design variables at the global level to stay within the feasible design space of the local level, a surrogate model was adapted into the methodology. For the surrogate model, different ``design of experiments" (DOE) methods were tested to find the most computationally efficient DOE method. The response surface method (RSM) and Kriging were tested for the optimization problem. The results show that using the surrogate model speeds up the optimization process and the Kriging model shows superior performance over RSM models. As a result, the global-level optimizer produces requirements that the local optimizer can achieve.

The automobile industry is moving fast towards Electric Vehicles (EV); however this paradigm shift is currently making its smooth transition through the phase of Hybrid Electric Vehicles. There is an ever-growing need for integration of hybrid energy sources especially for vehicular applications. Different energy sources such as batteries, ultra-capacitors, fuel cells etc. are available. Usage of these varied energy sources alone or together in different combinations in automobiles requires advanced power electronic circuits and control methodologies. An exhaustive literature survey has been carried out to study the power electronic converter, switching modulation strategy to be employed and the particular machine to be used in an EV. Adequate amount of effort has been put into designing the vehicle specifications. Owing to stronger demand for higher performance and torque response in an EV, the Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine has been favored over the traditional Induction Machine. The aim of this thesis is to demonstrate the use of a multi level inverter fed Brush Less Direct Current (BLDC) motor in a field oriented control fashion in an EV and make it follow a given drive cycle. The switching operation and control of a multi level inverter for specific power level and desired performance characteristics is investigated. The EV has been designed from scratch taking into consideration the various factors such as mass, coefficients of aerodynamic drag and air friction, tire radius etc. The design parameters are meant to meet the requirements of a commercial car. The various advantages of a multi level inverter fed PMSM have been demonstrated and an exhaustive performance evaluation has been done. The investigation is done by testing the designed system on a standard drive cycle, New York urban driving cycle. This highly transient driving cycle is particularly used because it provides rapidly changing acceleration and deceleration curves. Furthermore, the evaluation of the system under fault conditions is also done. It is demonstrated that the system is stable and has a ride-through capability under different fault conditions. The simulations have been carried out in MATLAB and Simulink, while some preliminary studies involving switching losses of the converter were done in PSIM.

Under path dependent consideration, we discuss vulnerable option pricing problem. Two pricing models are proposed: Model(1) use stepwise regression and Monte Carlo simulation, and Model(2) is based on multi-level regression method. Since the option price was approximated by quadratic surface at each time point in Model(1), large mean square errors are induced. Therefore, we further propose a stepwise subset regression method to improve Model(1) approach. At present, this proposed method can compute the option price accurately for no credit risk options. For Model(2), we utilize a multi-level regression method to price vulnerable options, and simulation results show that the method can also obtain accurate option prices.