The field study explores the experiences that Chinese students at Beijing Normal University have fromCareer Orientation (CO) and examines the purpose that career teachers at the university have in theCO-work. Interviews with three career teachers and five students were done.The results show that all of the students had experiences from CO in different forms. However, mostof the experiences that the students had from CO were connected to lectures about work possibilitiesand preparations rather than one-on-one career guiding sessions with a career teacher. Furthermore,the experiences also showed that the work that was done by the career teachers was much focused tothe end of the student’s education and the transmission from education to labor market.

The purpose of this study is to do a comparison between luxurious fashion stores and normal/regular ones, describe the differences in terms of the store design and discuss the influences and their impact on the customer experience. The second purpose is to give suggestions to normal/regular fashion stores from Sweden regarding improvements that they might need to enhance the customer’s shopping experience. In order to complete this study, both primary and secondary data were collected. Primary data was collected by performing three different methods. First was an observation, which was done in both luxurious and normal/regular fashion stores. An interview was performed with the manager of H&M Västerås. Last but not least method was to apply a questionnaire in order to find out the customer’s opinion concerning their shopping experience. The secondary data was gathered from Mälardalen’s University data bases and library and also from online resources. Conclusion:               The luxurious fashion stores have a unique way of displaying their garments, which gives an idea of neatness, comfort and order. They also have special services that add to the customer’s shopping experience, enhancing it. Even thought normal/regular fashion stores are different from luxurious, they give a big importance to the quality, the price and displaying their garments in a specific order. When it comes to the shopping experience customers’ encounter, most of them considered that it is important to have helpful staff, right temperature, appropriate music and light and clean environment. Overall it can be seen, that even thought they are completely different, the normal/regular fashion stores still try to offer the best experience to their customers.

We study numerical stability for interior-point methods applied to Linear Programming, LP, and Semidefinite Programming, SDP. We analyze the difficulties inherent in current methods and present robust algorithms. <br /><br /> We start with the error bound analysis of the search directions for the normal equation approach for LP. Our error analysis explains the surprising fact that the ill-conditioning is not a significant problem for the normal equation system. We also explain why most of the popular LP solvers have a default stop tolerance of only 10^-8 when the machine precision on a 32-bit computer is approximately 10^-16. <br /><br /> We then propose a simple alternative approach for the normal equation based interior-point method. This approach has better numerical stability than the normal equation based method. Although, our approach is not competitive in terms of CPU time for the NETLIB problem set, we do obtain higher accuracy. In addition, we obtain significantly smaller CPU times compared to the normal equation based direct solver, when we solve well-conditioned, huge, and sparse problems by using our iterative based linear solver. Additional techniques discussed are: crossover; purification step; and no backtracking. <br /><br /> Finally, we present an algorithm to construct SDP problem instances with prescribed strict complementarity gaps. We then introduce two <em>measures of strict complementarity gaps</em>. We empirically show that: (i) these measures can be evaluated accurately; (ii) the size of the strict complementarity gaps correlate well with the number of iteration for the SDPT3 solver, as well as with the local asymptotic convergence rate; and (iii) large strict complementarity gaps, coupled with the failure of Slater's condition, correlate well with loss of accuracy in the solutions. In addition, the numerical tests show that there is no correlation between the strict complementarity gaps and the geometrical measure used in [31], or with Renegar's condition number.

Conformational selection is the idea that proteins traverse positions on the conformational space represented by their potential energy landscape, and in particular positions considered as local energy minima. Conformational selection a useful concept in ligand binding studies and in exploring the behavior of protein structures within that energy landscape. Often, research that explores protein function requires the generation of conformational ensembles, or collections of protein conformations from a single structure. We describe a method of conformational ensemble generation that uses joint-constrained rigid-body dynamics (an approach that allows for explicit consideration of rigidity) and the elastic network model (providing structurally derived directional guides for the rigid-body model). We test our model on a selection of unbound proteins and examine the structural validity of the resulting ensembles, as well as the ability of such an approach to generate conformations with structural overlaps close to the ligand-bound versions of the proteins.

Recombinant Bovine Somatotropin (rBST) is a biotechnology for increasing milk production in dairy cattle. The purpose of this research was to investigate and to build a better understanding of the complexities and controversies around this product in Canada. To accomplish this, I examined the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestrys inquiry into rBST and the drug approval process. I compared and contrasted the testimony of witnesses and Senators and I uncovered emerging issues, patterns, and themes. This research was an exploratory and qualitative exercise that analyzed how the participants of this Senate inquiry conceptualized and contested the meaning of science, safety, and the states regulatory functions. <p> This research revealed several commonalities between Health Canada management, the human safety panel, and industry representatives. These witnesses argued that the drug approval process must be efficient, standard-driven, and based upon available scientific studies. These witnesses stated that they had confidence in the neutrality and competency of internal standard setting-agencies. They emphasized transparency rather than public participation in the drug approval process. Health and safety were conceptualized as static phenomena to be measured and evaluated by experts. <p>In contrast, Health Canada employees had several commonalities with the Senators, dairy representatives, and witnesses from citizen interest groups. Their testimony supports the argument that health and safety are dynamic social constructs. These actors transformed the boundaries of science to accommodate their precautionary framing of safety. They highlighted several problems with Canadas science-based regulatory framework and demanded that they have a decisive voice in the rBST decision. They challenged the hegemony of industrial capitalism by combining both scientific and lay knowledge to expose the limits and contradictions of industrialized agriculture.

<p>A GL(2,R)-structure on a smooth manifold of dimension n+1 corresponds to a distribution of non-degenerate rational normal cones over the manifold. Such a structure is called k-integrable if there exist many foliations by submanifolds of dimension k whose tangent spaces are spanned by vectors in the cones.</p><p>This structure was first studied by Bryant for n=3 and k=2. The work included here (n=4 and k=2,3) was suggested by Ferapontov, et al., who showed that the cases (n=4,k=2) and (n=4, k=3) can arise from integrability of second-order PDEs via hydrodynamic reductions.</p><p>Cartan--Kahler analysis for n=4 and k=3 leads to a complete classification of local structures into 54 equivalence classes determined by the value of an essential 9-dimensional representation of torsion for the GL(2,R)-structure. These classes are described by the factorization root-types of real binary octic polynomials. Each of these classes must arise from a PDE, but the PDEs remain to be identified. </p><p>Also, we study the local problem for n >= 5 and k=2,3 and conjecture that similar classifications exist for these cases; however, the interesting integrability results are essentially unique to degree 4. The approach is that of moving frames, using Cartan's method of equivalence, the Cartan--Kahler theorem, and Cartan's structure theorem.</p> / Dissertation

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A friction stir welding equipment with high rotation speed and constant load is successfully developed in this study to weld the multi-laminated silicon steel sheets widely used on regular transformers. This equipment consists of a spinning unit, a loading unit, and a feeding unit. A WC round rod with 3 mm diameter is used as welding tool. Under different operating conditions, such as the normal load(140~480 N), the spindle speed (12000~24000rpm), the feeding rate (0~1.58 mm/s), the welding characteristics and the welding mechanism of multi-laminated silicon steel sheets, and the welding feasibility of the transformer are investigated. Firstly, the contour map of welding depth in terms of spindle speed,normal load, and depth of point welding is established for dwell welding time 15 seconds. Secondly, based on this contour map, two experimental conditions of the long-pass welding tests are selected to investigate the effect of normal load (Fd), the spindle speed (Ns), and the feeding rate (f) on the failure load of weld under the shear. According to the experimental results, the empirical formula is obtained as Ff =40.6(Fd¡DNs)1.123(f)-0.791. In this formula,(Fd¡DNs)1.123(f)-0.791 is proportional to the frictional work per unit moving distance. With the larger frictional work, this represents the heat generation of the workpiece material is higher with more uniform friction stir, so that the bonding strength of the material increases and the failure load of weld is larger. According to the micrograph observations, the thermo-mechanically affected zone is significantly influenced by high heat action generated from the friction between the tool and the weld surface region, so that the plastic flow of the workpiece material occurs to cause the multi-laminated silicon steel sheets bonding together. Finally, the transformer is successfully welded under the experimental conditions of the long-pass welding tests with the smaller welding depth and the better failure load.

This dissertation describes a minimum distance method for density estimation when the variable of interest is not directly observed. It is assumed that the underlying target density can be well approximated by a mixture of normals. The method compares a density estimate of observable data with a density of the observable data induced from assuming the target density can be written as a mixture of normals. The goal is to choose the parameters in the normal mixture that minimize the distance between the density estimate of the observable data and the induced density from the model. The method is applied to the deconvolution problem to estimate the density of $X_{i}$ when the variable $% Y_{i}=X_{i}+Z_{i}$, $i=1,\ldots ,n$, is observed, and the density of $Z_{i}$ is known. Additionally, it is applied to a location random effects model to estimate the density of $Z_{ij}$ when the observable quantities are $p$ data sets of size $n$ given by $X_{ij}=\alpha _{i}+\gamma Z_{ij},~i=1,\ldots ,p,~j=1,\ldots ,n$, where the densities of $\alpha_{i} $ and $Z_{ij}$ are both unknown. The performance of the minimum distance approach in the measurement error model is compared with the deconvoluting kernel density estimator of Stefanski and Carroll (1990). In the location random effects model, the minimum distance estimator is compared with the explicit characteristic function inversion method from Hall and Yao (2003). In both models, the methods are compared using simulated and real data sets. In the simulations, performance is evaluated using an integrated squared error criterion. Results indicate that the minimum distance methodology is comparable to the deconvoluting kernel density estimator and outperforms the explicit characteristic function inversion method.

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