The scarce and overpopulated radio spectrum is going to present a major barrier to the growth and development of future wireless networks. As such, spectrum sharing seems to be inevitable to accommodate the exploding demand for high data rate applications. A major challenge to realizing the potential advantages of spectrum sharing is interference management. This thesis deals with interference management techniques in noncooperative networks. In specific, interference alignment is used as a powerful technique for interference management. We use the degrees of freedom (DoF) as the figure of merit to evaluate the performance improvement due to the interference management schemes. This dissertation is organized in two parts. In the first part, we consider the K-user multiple input multiple output (MIMO) Gaussian interference channel (IC) with M antennas at each transmitter and N antennas at each receiver. This channel models the interaction between K transmitter-receiver pairs sharing the same spectrum for data communication. It is assumed that the channel coefficients are constant and are available at all nodes prior to data transmission. A new cooperative upper-bound on the DoF of this channel is developed which outperforms the known bounds. Also, a new achievable transmission scheme is provided based on the idea of interference alignment. It is shown that the achievable DoF meets the upper-bound when the number of users is greater than a certain threshold, and thus it reveals the channel DoF. In the second part, we consider communication over MIMO interference and X channels in a fast fading environment. It is assumed that the transmitters obtain the channel state information (CSI) after a finite delay which is greater than the coherence time of the channel. In other words, the CSI at the transmitters becomes outdated prior to being exploited for the current transmission. New transmission schemes are proposed which exploit the knowledge of the past CSI at the transmitters to retrospectively align interference in the subsequent channel uses. The proposed transmission schemes offer DoF gain compared to having no CSI at transmitters. The achievable DoF results are the best known results for these channels. Simple cooperative upper-bounds are developed to prove the tightness of our achievable results for some network configurations.

The human protein kinase superfamily consists of over 500 members that individually control specific aspects of cell behavior and collectively control the complete range of cellular processes. That such a large group of proteins is able to uniquely diversify and establish individual identities while retaining common enzymatic function and significant sequence/structural conservation is remarkable. The means by which this is achieved is poorly understood, and we have begun to examine the issue by performing a comparative analysis of the catalytic domain of protein kinases. A novel approach for protein structural alignment has revealed a high degree of similarity found across the kinase superfamily, with variability confined largely to a single region thought to be involved in substrate binding. The similarity detected is not limited to amino acids, but includes a group of conserved water molecules that play important structural roles in stabilizing critical residues and the fold of the kinase domain. The development of a novel technique for identifying kinase substrates on a large scale directly from cell lysate has revealed that substrate specificity is not what discriminates the closely related p38α and β mitogen-activated protein kinases. Instead cellular localization appears to be their distinguishing characteristic, at least during myoblast differentiation. Together these results highlight the extent of conservation, as well as the minimal variability, that is found in the catalytic domain of all protein kinase superfamily members, and that while distantly related kinases may be distinguished by substrate specificity, closely related kinases are likely to be distinguished by other factors. Although these results focus on representative members of the kinase superfamily, they give insight as to how all protein kinases likely diversified and established unique non-redundant identities. In addition, the novel techniques developed and presented here for structural alignment and substrate discovery offer new tools for studying molecular biology and cell signaling.

No description available.

L'objecte d'estudi de la recerca és el patrocini que fa l'empresa i se centra en els factors que influeixen en el seu èxit. Aquest tema ha estat estudiat des de diferents àmbits acadèmics, però encara no ha generat resultats concloents. Aquesta recerca s'inscriu entre les investigacions que consideren que el patrocini és una activitat orientada a la consecució dels objectius estratègics de l'empresa, és a dir, que s'emmarca en l'àmbit de l'estratègia.Dins aquest àmbit, s'ha adoptat l'enfocament teòric de la resource-based view i, seguint la línia de recerques anteriors, la hipòtesi general de la recerca és que el grau d'alineament estratègic del patrocini influeix positivament en els seus resultats.La recerca empírica que s'ha realitzat s'ha orientat a l'alta direcció de les empreses fabricants i importadores d'automòbils de turisme que van dur a terme una activitat de patrocini a Espanya durant l'any 2005, i s'ha complementat amb una primera triangulació d'una mostra d'experts en patrocini i una segona a partir de dades d'impacte del mercat.Els resultats obtinguts avalen les hipòtesis establertes: les marques que han obtingut uns resultats satisfactoris dels seus programes de patrocini havien seleccionat patrocinis significativament més alineats amb les seves estratègies de negoci que les que hi han tingut menys èxit.S'espera que els resultats d'aquesta recerca siguin d'interès tant per al debat acadèmic, com per a l'alta direcció de les organitzacions patrocinadores i patrocinades. La tesi conclou amb una revisió de les limitacions de l'estudi i amb uns apunts sobre la direcció que haurien de prendre les recerques posteriors. / El objeto de estudio de la investigación es el patrocinio realizado por la empresa y se centra en los factores que influyen en su éxito. Este tema ha sido estudiado desde diferentes ámbitos académicos, pero aun no ha generado resultados concluyentes. La presente investigación se inscribe entre las investigaciones que consideran que el patrocinio es una actividad orientada a la consecución de los objetivos estratégicos de la empresa, es decir, que se enmarca en el ámbito de la estrategia.Dentro de este ámbito, se ha adoptado el enfoque teórico de la resourcebased view y, siguiendo la línea de investigaciones anteriores, la hipótesis general de la investigación es que el grado de alineamiento estratégico del patrocinio influye positivamente en sus resultados. La investigación empírica realizada se ha dirigido a la alta dirección de las empresas fabricantes e importadoras de automóviles de turismo con actividad de patrocinio en España durante el año 2005, y se ha complementado con una primera triangulación de una muestra de expertos en patrocinio y una segunda a partir de datos de impacto de mercado. Los resultados obtenidos avalan las hipótesis establecidas: las marcas que han obtenido resultados satisfactorios de sus programas de patrocinio habían seleccionado patrocinios significativamente más alineados con sus estrategias de negocio que las que han logrado menos éxito.Se espera que los resultados de esta investigación sean de interés tanto para el debate académico, como para la alta dirección de las organizaciones patrocinadoras y patrocinadas. La tesis finaliza con una revisión de las limitaciones del estudio y con unos apuntes acerca de la dirección que deberían tomar ulteriores investigaciones. / The object of study of this thesis is corporate sponsorship and it focuses on the factors influencing its success. This is a subject that has been studied from different academic fields in the past, but which has not yet generated conclusive results. This research falls into the body of research that considers sponsorship as an activity aimed at achieving strategic corporate objectives, that is, within the area of strategy.Within this area, the 'Resource-Based View' theoretical approach has been taken. And in line with previous research, the general hypothesis of the current research is that the degree of strategic alignment of sponsorship has a positive impact on its results.The empirical research conducted has concerned senior management of companies producing and importing cars, and which have been involved in sponsorship activities in Spain during 2005. This has been complemented with an initial triangulation on a sample of sponsorship experts and a second triangulation based on market impact data.The results obtained confirm the established hypotheses: Brands that have obtained satisfactory results for their sponsorship programmes had selected sponsorships that were significantly more aligned with their business strategy than those brands which were less successful.It is expected that the results of this research will be of interest in terms of academic debate as well as to senior management of the sponsoring and sponsored organisations. The thesis concludes with a review of the study's limitations and some notes on the direction that future research should take.

Consensus pattern problem (CPP) aims at finding conserved regions, or motifs, in unaligned sequences. This problem is NP-hard under various scoring schemes. To solve this problem for protein sequences more efficiently,a new scoring scheme and a randomized algorithm based on substitution matrix are proposed here. Any practical solutions to a bioinformatics problem must observe twoprinciples: (1) the problem that it solves accurately describes the real problem; in CPP, this requires the scoring scheme be able to distinguisha real motif from background; (2) it provides an efficient algorithmto solve the mathematical problem. A key question in protein motif-finding is how to determine the motif length. One problem in EM algorithms to solve CPP is how to find good startingpoints to reach the global optimum. These two questions were both well addressed under this scoring scheme,which made the randomized algorithm both fast and accurate in practice. A software, COPIA (COnsensus Pattern Identification and Analysis),has been developed implementing this algorithm. Experiments using sequences from the von Willebrand factor (vWF)familyshowed that it worked well on finding multiple motifs and repeats. COPIA's ability to find repeats makes it also useful in illustrating the internal structures of multidomain proteins. Comparative studies using several groups of protein sequences demonstrated that COPIA performed better than the commonly used motif-finding programs.

A topic of research that is frequently studied in Structural Biology is the problem of determining the degree of similarity between two protein structures. The most common solution is to perform a three dimensional structural alignment on the two structures. Rigid structural alignment algorithms have been developed in the past to accomplish this but treat the protein molecules as immutable structures. Since protein structures can bend and flex, rigid algorithms do not yield accurate results and as a result, flexible structural alignment algorithms have been developed. The problem with these algorithms is that the protein structures are represented using thousands of atomic coordinate variables. This results in a great computational burden due to the large number of degrees of freedom required to account for the flexibility. Past research in dimensionality reduction techniques has shown that a linear dimensionality reduction technique called Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is well suited for high dimensionality reduction. This thesis introduces a new flexible structural alignment algorithm called FlexSADRA, which uses PCA to perform flexible structural alignments. Test results show that FlexSADRA determines better alignments than rigid structural alignment algorithms. Unlike existing rigid and flexible algorithms, FlexSADRA addresses the problem in a significantly lower dimensionality problem space and assesses not only the structural fit but the structural feasibility of the final alignment.

With the rapid advances in process technologies, the performance of state-of-the-art integrated circuits is improving steadily. The drive for higher performance is accompanied with increased emphasis on meeting timing constraints not only at the design phase but during device operation as well. Fortunately, technology advancements allow for even more precise control of the timing of digital signals, an advantage which can be used to provide solutions that can address some of the emerging timing issues. In this thesis, circuit and architectural techniques for the precise timing of digital signals are explored. These techniques are demonstrated in applications addressing timing issues in modern digital systems. A methodology for slow-speed timing characterization of high-speed pipelined datapaths is proposed. The technique uses a clock-timing circuit to create shifted versions of a slow-speed clock. These clocks control the data flow in the pipeline in the test mode. Test results show that the design provides an average timing resolution of 52.9ps in 0.18μm CMOS technology. Results also demonstrate the ability of the technique to track the performance of high-speed pipelines at a reduced clock frequency and to test the clock-timing circuit itself. In order to achieve higher resolutions than that of an inverter/buffer stage, a differential (vernier) delay line is commonly used. To allow for the design of differential delay lines with programmable delays, a digitally-controlled delay-element is proposed. The delay element is monotonic and achieves a high degree of transfer characteristics' (digital code vs. delay) linearity. Using the proposed delay element, a sub-1ps resolution is demonstrated experimentally in 0.18μm CMOS. The proposed delay element with a fixed delay step of 2ps is used to design a high-precision all-digital phase aligner. High-precision phase alignment has many applications in modern digital systems such as high-speed memory controllers, clock-deskew buffers, and delay and phase-locked loops. The design is based on a differential delay line and a variation tolerant phase detector using redundancy. Experimental results show that the phase aligner's range is from -264ps to +247ps which corresponds to an average delay step of approximately 2.43ps. For various input phase difference values, test results show that the difference is reduced to less than 2ps at the output of the phase aligner. On-chip time measurement is another application that requires precise timing. It has applications in modern automatic test equipment and on-chip characterization of jitter and skew. In order to achieve small conversion time, a flash time-to-digital converter is proposed. Mismatch between the various delay comparators limits the time measurement precision. This is demonstrated through an experiment in which a 6-bit, 2.5ps resolution flash time-to-digital converter provides an effective resolution of only 4-bits. The converter achieves a maximum conversion rate of 1.25GSa/s.

Syfte: Syftet med vår studie är att utreda och analysera hur två kommunala bostadsföretag arbetar med kundorientering idag jämfört med för tio år sedan. Vårt mål är att utifrån en uppföljande studie redogöra för hur kundorienteringstankarna har utvecklats under den senaste tioårsperioden. Arbetar de kommunala bostadsföretagen mer kundorienterat idag jämfört med för tio år sedan? Vi vill även öka kunskapen kring kundorientering och belysa vilka fördelar som finns att vinna hos de kommunala bostadsföretag som väljer att arbeta kundorienterat.   Metod: För att genomföra studien har vi samlat information från litteratur och från två intervjuer. Intervjuerna har utförts personligt på respektive respondents kontor. Intervjuerna spelades in på band. Därefter har materialet analyserats och bearbetats.     Slutsats: Vi anser att de två kommunala bostadsföretag vi granskat har utvecklat sin kundorientering mycket, särskilt de fem senaste åren. De kan därmed ses som kundorienterade i en högre utsträckning idag jämfört med för tio år sedan. Bostadsföretagen utgår mer från kundernas behov och önskemål när olika beslut tas och använder sig dessutom av omfattande kundundersökningar.   Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Förslagsvis kan man utföra fördjupande studier inom området, t.ex. mer ingående analysera hur en ökad kommersialisering av kommunala bostadsföretag påverkar deras kundorientering. Vi föreslår även att man utför jämförelser med ett större urval av kommunala bostadsföretag. Det vore också av stort intresse att utföra studier som jämför skillnader mellan kommunala bostadsföretags kundorientering gentemot ett kommersiellt fastighetsföretag.   Uppsatsens bidrag: Vi tror att den här studien kan vara till nytta för andra studenter som läser till fastighetsekonomer, och för andra kommunala bostadsföretag för att se hur de kommunala bostadsföretag vi undersökt arbetar med kundorientering. Vi tror dessutom att andra företag med liknande eller andra produkter och tjänster som är relaterade till fastighetsbranschen kan använda sig av vår studie för att utveckla sin kundorientering. / Purpose: The purpose with our study is to analyze and conduct an inquiry of how two municipal housing companies work with customer focus today compared to ten years ago. We also want to pay attention to how the thoughts of costumer alignment have been developed during the last ten years with a follow up study. Do the municipal housing companies work more with customer alignment today than a decade ago? We also want to increase knowledge about customer alignment and illustrate the benefits that could be done by municipal housing companies who choose to work with customer alignment. Method: In order to implement this study we have gathered data from literature and from two interviews. The interview has been personally performed at each respondents´ offices. The interviews were also recorded on tape. The material we gathered was analyzed and processed to this thesis. Conclusions: We consider that the municipal housing companies in Sweden have developed their customer alignment very much, especially during the last five years. They are thereby customer alignmented in a higher extent today compared to ten years ago. The companies are using a lot of extensive customer surveys and work on the supposition from costumers when making various decisions.   Suggestions for future research: We consider that it could be of interest to carry out continued studies within the area. As a suggestion, one can carry out deepening studies within the area but also how an increased commercialization of the municipal housing companies influences their customer alignment. We also suggest that one can carry out comparisons with a bigger selection of the municipal housing companies. We also consider that it could be of interest to carry out studies that compare differences between the municipal housing companies´ customer alignment compared with a commercial real estate company.   Contribution of the thesis: We think that this study can be useful for other real estate economist students, also for other municipal housing companies in order to see how a non-profit real estate companies carries out their customer alignment. We also believe that other companies with similar or other products and services that are related within the real estate sector can use our study in order to develop their customer alignment.

Some viral metagenomic serum samples contain a huge amount of Anellovirus, which is a genetically diverse family with a few conserved regions making it hard to efficiently characterize. Multiple sequence alignment of the Anelloviruses found in the sample must be constructed to get a clear picture of Anellovirus diversity and to identify stable regions. Using available multiple sequence alignment software directly on these fragments results in an MSA of a very poor quality due to their diversity, misaligned regions and low-quality regions present in the sequence. An efficient MSA must be constructed in order to characterize these Anellovirus present in the samples. Pairwise alignment is used to align one fragment to the database sequences at a time. The fragments are then aligned to the database sequences using the start and end position from the pairwise alignment results. The algorithm will also exclude non-aligned portions of the fragments, as these are very hard to handle properly and are often products of misassembly or chimeric sequenced fragments. Other tools to aid further analysis were developed, such as finding a non-overlapping window that contains the most fragments, find consensus of the alignment and extract any regions from the MSA for further analysis. An MSA was constructed with a high percent of correctly aligned bases compared to an MSA constructed using MSA softwares. The minimal number of genomes found in the sampled sequence was found as well as a distribution of the fragments along the database sequence. Moreover, highly conserved region and the window containing most fragments were extracted from the MSA and phylogenetic trees were constructed for these regions.

Consensus pattern problem (CPP) aims at finding conserved regions, or motifs, in unaligned sequences. This problem is NP-hard under various scoring schemes. To solve this problem for protein sequences more efficiently,a new scoring scheme and a randomized algorithm based on substitution matrix are proposed here. Any practical solutions to a bioinformatics problem must observe twoprinciples: (1) the problem that it solves accurately describes the real problem; in CPP, this requires the scoring scheme be able to distinguisha real motif from background; (2) it provides an efficient algorithmto solve the mathematical problem. A key question in protein motif-finding is how to determine the motif length. One problem in EM algorithms to solve CPP is how to find good startingpoints to reach the global optimum. These two questions were both well addressed under this scoring scheme,which made the randomized algorithm both fast and accurate in practice. A software, COPIA (COnsensus Pattern Identification and Analysis),has been developed implementing this algorithm. Experiments using sequences from the von Willebrand factor (vWF)familyshowed that it worked well on finding multiple motifs and repeats. COPIA's ability to find repeats makes it also useful in illustrating the internal structures of multidomain proteins. Comparative studies using several groups of protein sequences demonstrated that COPIA performed better than the commonly used motif-finding programs.