This study presents a comprehensive overview of the current state of the Milne Ice Shelf and how it has changed over the last 59 years. The 205 ±1 km2 ice shelf experienced a 28% (82 ±0.8 km2) reduction in area between 1950 – 2009, and a 20% (2.5 ±0.9km3 water equivalent (w.e.)) reduction in volume between 1981 – 2008/2009, suggesting a long-term state of negative mass balance. Comparison of mean annual specific mass balances (up to -0.34 m w.e. yr-1) with surface mass balance measurements for the nearby Ward Hunt Ice Shelf suggest that basal melt is a key contributor to total ice shelf thinning. The development and expansion of new and existing surface cracks, as well as ice-marginal and epishelf lake development, indicate significant ice shelf weakening. Over the next few decades it is likely that the Milne Ice Shelf will continue to deteriorate.

This study presents the first comprehensive assessment of the Petersen Ice Shelf and the Petersen Bay epishelf lake, and examines their current characteristics and changes to their structure between 1959 and 2012. The surface of the Petersen Ice Shelf is characterized by a rolling topography of ridges and troughs, which is balanced by a rolling basal topography, with thicker ice under the surface ridges and thinner ice under the surface troughs. Based on thickness measurements collected in 2011 and area measurements from August 2012, the Petersen Ice Shelf has a surface area of 19.32 km2 and a mean thickness of 29 m, with the greatest thicknesses (>100 m) occurring at the fronts of tributary glaciers feeding into the ice shelf. The tributary glaciers along the northern coast of Petersen Bay contributed an estimated area-averaged 7.89 to 13.55 cm yr-1 of ice to the ice shelf between 2011 and 2012. This input is counteracted by a mean surface ablation of 1.30 m yr-1 between 2011 and 2012, suggesting strongly negative current mass balance conditions on the ice shelf. The Petersen Ice Shelf remained relatively stable until 2005 when the first break-up in recent history occurred, removing >8 km2 of ice shelf surface area. This break-up led to the drainage of the epishelf lake once the ice shelf separated from the southern coast, providing a conduit through which the freshwater from the lake escaped. More break-ups occurred in summers 2008, 2011 and 2012, which resulted in a >31.2 km2 loss in surface area (~63% of June 2005 area). While ephemeral regions of freshwater have occurred along the southern coast of Petersen Bay since 2005 (with areas ranging from 0.32-0.53 km2), open water events and a channel along the southern coast have prevented the epishelf lake from reforming. Based on these past and present observations it is unlikely that Petersen Ice Shelf will continue to persist long into the future.

Title: “A Study of Factors That Affect Green Purchase”   Due to the environmental issues, green products have got more attention during the latest years and the availability of such products is increasing in many food stores. The appearance of eco-label assists the consumers in the store to buy eco-friendly products which are less harmful to the environment. Eco-labels which are frequently available in the food stores are; The Nordic eco-label (Svanen), Krav, The Euro Flower, MSC label (Marine stewardship council) and Bra Miljöval.  Governments in some countries are supporting these labels to ensure the sustainable development and a better quality of life for everyone, and for the generations to come. A question, which arises here, is that what compels the consumers to choose eco-labelled products over conventional ones. We have short-listed several factors during literature review which can influence the consumers green purchase behavior and these factors are; Eco-motivation, Eco-knowledge, Gender, Peer influence, Price and Shelf space.    The purpose of this study is to get a deeper understanding of the factors that can affect green purchase of food products in the store. Thus our main research question that we want to answer with our study is: “Which are the most important factors that influence the purchase behavior of eco-labelled products?” Along with this main research question we are also interested to know if ‘shelf space’ is an important factor that can affect the consumer’s choice of eco-labelled products in the store. Due to lack of data there is still no clear understanding about the role of shelf space in the purchase decision of green products. To answer these questions we will investigate all these factors and try to understand their influence on consumer green purchase behavior.  This quantitative study is carried out in Umeå, Sweden with 150 respondents and focuses mainly on the food market consumers. We stand on objectivist position for this study and we believe that cross-sectional research design is most suitable to fulfill our research purpose. We developed several null hypotheses and for this purpose we distributed our research questionnaire at the entrance of different super markets in Umeå, Sweden to collect our data from the respondents. We applied convenience sampling with simple quota to this research. We evaluated the gathered data with help of SPSS. Results proved that eco-motivation and shelf space plays vital role (positive correlated) in the purchase decision of eco-labelled products. We have provided statistical evidence that eco-motivation and shelf space induce actual purchase of green products. Eco-knowledge shows to induce interest in eco-labelled product but does not help in actual purchase of eco-labelled products. Surprisingly price and gender has not shown any influence on the consumer green purchase. We believe that our findings and recommendations can contribute in the area of consumer’s ecological behavior research. Due to our sampling technique (convenience) and small size of our respondent we cannot generalize the results of this study.   Key words: Purchase decision, Green marketing, Eco-labeling, Shelf space, Eco-motivation, Eco-knowledge, Gender, Price, Peer influence

This study presents a comprehensive overview of the current state of the Milne Ice Shelf and how it has changed over the last 59 years. The 205 ±1 km2 ice shelf experienced a 28% (82 ±0.8 km2) reduction in area between 1950 – 2009, and a 20% (2.5 ±0.9km3 water equivalent (w.e.)) reduction in volume between 1981 – 2008/2009, suggesting a long-term state of negative mass balance. Comparison of mean annual specific mass balances (up to -0.34 m w.e. yr-1) with surface mass balance measurements for the nearby Ward Hunt Ice Shelf suggest that basal melt is a key contributor to total ice shelf thinning. The development and expansion of new and existing surface cracks, as well as ice-marginal and epishelf lake development, indicate significant ice shelf weakening. Over the next few decades it is likely that the Milne Ice Shelf will continue to deteriorate.

El proceso de construir software a partir del ensamblaje e integración de soluciones de software pre-fabricadas, conocidas como componentes COTS (Comercial-Off-The-Shelf) se ha convertido en una necesidad estratégica en una amplia variedad de áreas de aplicación. En general, los componentes COTS son componentes de software que proveen una funcionalidad específica, que están disponibles en el mercado para ser adquiridos e integrados dentro de otros sistemas de software. Los beneficios potenciales de esta tecnología son principalmente la reducción de costes y el acortamiento del tiempo de desarrollo, a la vez que fomenta la calidad. Sin embargo, numerosos retos que van desde problemas técnicos y legales deben ser afrontados para adaptar las actividades tradicionales de ingeniería de software para explotar los beneficios del uso de COTS para el desarrollo de sistemas.Actualmente, existe un incrementalmente enorme mercado de componentes COTS; así, una de las actividades más críticas en el desarrollo de sistemas basados en COTS es la selección de componentes que deben ser integrados en el sistema a desarrollar. La selección está básicamente compuesta de dos procesos principales: La búsqueda de componentes candidatos en el mercado y su posterior evaluación con respecto a los requisitos del sistema. Desafortunadamente, la mayoría de los métodos existentes para seleccionar COTS, se enfocan en el proceso de evaluación, dejando de lado el problema de buscar los componentes en el mercado. La búsqueda de componentes en el mercado no es una tarea trivial, teniendo que afrontar varias características del mercado de COTS, tales como su naturaleza dispersa y siempre creciente, cambio y evolución constante; en este contexto, la obtención de información de calidad acerca de los componentes no es una tarea fácil. Como consecuencia, el proceso de selección de COTS se ve seriamente dañado. Además, las alternativas tradicionales de reuso también carecen de soluciones apropiadas para reusar componentes COTS y el conocimiento adquirido en cada proceso de selección. Esta carencia de propuestas es un problema muy serio que incrementa los riesgos de los proyectos de selección de COTS, además de hacerlos ineficientes y altamente costosos. Esta disertación presenta el método GOThIC (Goal- Oriented Taxonomy and reuse Infrastructure Construction) enfocado a la construcción de infraestructuras de reuso para facilitar la búsqueda y reuso de componentes COTS. El método está basado en el uso de objetivos para construir taxonomías abstractas, bien fundamentadas y estables para lidiar con las características del mercado de COTS. Los nodos de las taxonomías son caracterizados por objetivos, sus relaciones son declaradas como dependencias y varios artefactos son construidos y gestionados para promover la reusabilidad y lidiar con la evolución constante.El método GOThIC ha sido elaborado a través de un proceso iterativo de investigación-acción para identificar los retos reales relacionados con el proceso de búsqueda de COTS. Posteriormente, las soluciones posibles fueron evaluadas e implementadas en varios casos de estudio en el ámbito industrial y académico en diversos dominios. Los resultados más relevantes fueron registrados y articulados en el método GOThIC. La evaluación industrial preliminar del método se ha llevado a cabo en algunas compañías en Noruega. / The process of building software systems by assembling and integrating pre-packaged solutions in the form of Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software components has become a strategic need in a wide variety of application areas. In general, COTS components are software components that provide a specific functionality, available in the market to be purchased, interfaced and integrated into other software systems. The potential benefits of this technology are mainly its reduced costs and shorter development time, while maintaining the quality. Nevertheless, many challenges ranging form technical to legal issues must be faced for adapting the traditional software engineering activities in order to exploit these benefits.Nowadays there is an increasingly huge marketplace of COTS components; therefore, one of the most critical activities in COTS-based development is the selection of the components to be integrated into the system under development. Selection is basically composed of two main processes, namely: searching of candidates from the marketplace and their evaluation with respect to the system requirements. Unfortunately, most of the different existing methods for COTS selection focus their efforts on evaluation, letting aside the problem of searching components in the marketplace. Searching candidate COTS is not an easy task, having to cope with some challenging marketplace characteristics related to its widespread, evolvable and growing nature; and the lack of available and well-suited information to obtain a quality-assured search. Indeed, traditional reuse approaches also lack of appropriate solutions to reuse COTS components and the knowledge gained in each selection process. This lack of proposals is a serious drawback that makes the whole selection process highly risky, and often expensive and inefficient. This dissertation introduces the GOThIC (Goal- Oriented Taxonomy and reuse Infrastructure Construction) method aimed at building a domain reuse infrastructure for facilitating COTS components searching and reuse. It is based on goal-oriented approaches for building abstract, well-founded and stable taxonomies capable of dealing with the COTS marketplace characteristics. Thus, the nodes of these taxonomies are characterized by means of goals, their relationships declared as dependencies among them and several artifacts are constructed and managed for reusability and evolution purposes. The GOThIC method has been elaborated following an iterative process based on action research premises to identify the actual challenges related to COTS components searching. Then, possible solutions were envisaged and implemented by several industrial and academic case studies in different domains. Successful results were recorded to articulate the synergic GOThIC method solution, followed by its preliminary industrial evaluation in some Norwegian companies.

While shoaling from deepwater in a stratified ocean, an interfacial solitary wave (ISW) may experience waveform inversion on a continental margin. Although many oceanographers have believed that the inversion from depression to elevation may commence at the turning point where the upper and bottom layers are equal in depth, this phenomenon has not been fully verified in field observations nor in a laboratory. In this study, a series of laboratory experiments and numerical modeling were conducted on the evolution of an ISW of depression across uniform slope joining a horizontal plateau which resembles pseudo slope-shelf topography, in order to clarify this fascinating phenomenon and the variations of wave properties associated with the process. In the laboratory experiments, a depression ISW was produced by a collapse mechanism in a stratified two-layer fluid system within a steel-framed wave flume (12 m long, 0.7 m high by 0.5 m wide) at the National Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan. The fluid density in the upper (fresh) and bottom (brine) layers was 996 and 1030 kg/m3, respectively. A series of experiments were conducted upon varying the magnitude of the most important physical factors (i.e., nominal thickness of pycnocline, depth ratio between upper and bottom layer, front gradient and shape of pseudo slope-shelf), from which the results are now discussed in four separate chapters in this thesis. Present laboratory results indicate that the process of waveform inversion took place after an ISW had experienced internal run-down, hydraulic jump, vortex motion and surge-up on the front slope, prior to its propagation onto the plateau. Moreover, the fundamental wave period of leading wave on the plateau was significantly smaller than that in the preceding sections on the front slope and the incident stage earlier, thus representing frequency downshift. Amongst the factors involved, the depth ratio between the upper and bottom layer was the most significant one for waveform inversion. Only when the upper layer was thicker than the bottom layer on the plateau of pseudo slope-shelf, waveform inversion could occur, besides the length of the plateau. On the other hand, the front gradient and shape of pseudo slope-shelf also affected the magnitude of the transmitted wave over the plateau as the wave across this specific topography. In the case of a steeper front gradient, waveform inversion became insignificant due to stronger wave reflection and intense energy dissipation caused by turbulent mixing while a depression ISW propagated over a slope-shelf; particularly against a submerged vertical cliff. As a depression ISW across pseudo slope-shelf with short plateau, intense wave breaking might occur again with vortex motion at its rear end as the newly inversed waveform reentering deep water. In this region, the upper layer was smaller than the bottom layer, hence it could not support the continuous existence of an ISW in elevation. Again, energy dissipation occurred due to turbulent mixing beyond the rear end of a short plateau. Finally, a different mode of ISW appeared within pycnocline, while its nominal thickness was larger than the amplitude of the incident wave. In addition to the laboratory investigations, numerical model was also adopted to study the variations in the flow field as an ISW propagated over a pseudo slope-shelf, in order to complement the experimental results. The results of numerical modeling revealed that the horizontal velocity in the bottom layer increased when the wave encountered the front slope, even if the depth of upper layer was thinner than that of the bottom layer on the plateau. Consequently, the velocity in the upper layer became less than that in the bottom layer when the former was thicker than that of the latter on the plateau. On the other hand, the vertical velocity within the self-generated vortex switched direction as waveform inversion commenced after the wave across the shoulder of pseudo slope-shelf where the local depth of the upper layer was larger than that of bottom part. Overall, the significance of the four pertinent factors (i.e., nominal thickness of pycnocline, water depth ratio, front slope, and plateau length) that affected a depression ISW across pseudo slope-shelf is discussed in detail in this thesis, as well as the variation of flow field calculated by the numerical mode presented.

Abstract Water-born sediments can be transported from land to the ocean. Subsequently, waves and currents influence the sediments in their transport processes and distribution, leading to the change of the nearshore morphology and bedforms. The purpose of this study is to analyze the coastal sediments transport patterns in southern Taiwan. Two major approaches are used in this study. One is a statistical method called McLaren Model and it¡¦s derivative Transport Vector, and another is in situ process-response observation. McLaren Model uses three granulo-metric parameters to analyze net sediment transport vectors in coastal area near the Tsengwen River mouth and Kaohsiung Harbor. Transport Vectors represent the time-averaged trends. The another method is to make in situ observation on the Kaoping continental shelf. Between December 12 and December 28, 2004, an instrumented tetrapod was deployed with an upward-looking ADCP and two LISST-100s. Another downward-looking ADCP was mounted at 2 m above bed (mab). Water samples were pumped at 1 and 0.5 mab hourly on December 13, December 20 and December 27 for suspended sediment concentration (SSC) analysis. The echo intensity (EI) can reflect the SSC. The volume concentration of thirty-two grain sizes were observed by LISST-100, so we can transform the volume concentration to suspended sediment concentration by linear correlation equation. The residual sediment transport patterns for the north of Tsengwen River are directed towards the north-west along the coastline, and the sediments around the Tsengwen River mouth are transported offshore in a radial pattern. The transport directions of sediments north of Kaohsiung Harbor are also directed towards the northwest along the coastline and southeastwards south of the harbor. The observed SSC fluctuations on Kaoping continental shelf are dominated by waves and currents. The cross-correlation of EI with current shear velocity is better than with other shear velocities. The results indicate that the SSC fluctuations are dominated by currents. In this area, the net sediment transport is northwestward, in which the amount of grain-size of 63-250£gm (very fine sand and fine sand) is the greatest. This indicates that very fine-grained and fine-grained sediments are more easily transported by currents.

Probiotics are viable microorganisms that show beneficial effects on the health of the host by improving their intestinal microflora. The microorganisms applied as probiotics mainly include Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium species. Probiotics can inhibit the bacterial pathogens, reduce serum cholesterol levels, improve lactose tolerance and stimulate the immune response. They also have other properties such as / tolerance to acid and bile salts, adherence to gastrointestinal cells for colonization, resistance to antibiotics and &beta / -galactosidase acitivity. The properties of probiotic products are determined by the characteristics of the microorganisms they contain. For that reason, isolation and characterization of new strains having probiotic properties is an important issue. New strains are generally isolated from their natural habitats which are fermented dairy products such as kefir. In order to exert beneficial health affects in the digestive system, commercial probiotic products should contain adequate numbers of viable cells. Probiotic microorganisms should protect their viability during their shelf storage. Therefore, the viability of probiotics is especially important for food manufacturers that search for new probiotic strains with good survival and stability properties upon storage. In this study, probiotic microorganisms were isolated from traditional kefir grains known as a &lsquo / complex probiotic&rsquo / . The isolates were firstly identified using biochemical tests, then the putative species belonging to &lsquo / Lactobacillus acidophilus group&rsquo / were identified with 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Analysis of sequencing resulted in differentiation of &ldquo / L. acidophilus group&rdquo / organisms, namely L. amylovorus and L. acidophilus. Moreover, typing of commercial and traditional L. acidophilus strains and L. amylovorus strains were performed with RAPD-PCR by using primer M13. While several L. acidophilus strains showed different RAPD fingerprints most of the L. acidophilus and L. amylovorus strains could not be differentiated due to high similarity of their RAPD fingerprints. Following identification, survival of these isolates in probiotic yogurt preparations were investigated and compared to the survival of commercial probiotics. Consequently, although the survival of kefir grain isolates were less than commercial probiotics, they sustained the minimum recommended level for probiotics (106 cfu/ml) during cold storage. Such level of survival makes them considerably good candidates to be used as commercial probiotic cultures.

High Hydrostatic Pressure (HHP) application, alone or in combination with refrigeration, ambient or moderate heating temperatures / inactivates pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms and conserves the product &bdquo / &bdquo / freshness

The southwestern Florida shelf marine environment has often been characterized as oligotrophic, yet these waters can support large, high biomass, persistent phytoplankton blooms, including blooms of the toxin producing dinoflagellate Karenia brevis. Little is known regarding which major nutrient potentially limits primary production in these waters as both inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations are often near the limits of analytical detection and it is difficult to estimate what percentage of the dissolved organic pool is available for phytoplankton uptake. To assess the nutrient status of phytoplankton populations on the southwest Florida shelf, this project examines the particulate nutrient stoichiometry of ambient phytoplankton assemblages from 1998-2000 as part of the ECOHAB: Florida Program. Particulate C, N, P concentrations and particulate ratios display a large range of values across the West Florida Shelf (WFS). The average particulate stoichiometry is well above the classic Redfield ratio with a geometric mean of 410C:56N:1P. Frequency percentages of particulate ratio values to total sample number binned according to potential nutrient limitation indicate that 39% (C:N) of the data have values suggesting N limitation and that from 88% (N:P) to 95% (C:P) of the data have values which suggest P-limitation. It is difficult to discern whether phytoplankton biomass is truly P-limited as related to the nutrient regime on the WFS or whether detrital contributions, which can potentially be large on this shallow shelf, are skewing the N:P and C:P ratios towards higher values. Errors which could potentially be related to the different methodologies of determining C, N and P concentrations must also be considered when interpreting the particulate nutrient ratios. The data were also analyzed as subsets to determine near-shore to offshore, latitudinal, seasonal, inter-annual and K. brevis bloom versus non-bloom trends. The near-shore to offshore transect indicates decreasing concentrations of particulate C, N, P concentrations and increasing C:N, N:P, C:P ratios with increasing distance offshore. Particulate nutrient concentrations and particulate ratio values are very similar between the Tampa Bay, Sarasota and Fort Meyers transects indicating that these latitudes are not spatially distinct with regards to these variables. There does not appear to be any relationship between the particulate C, N, P concentrations or C:N, N:P, C:P ratios and rainfall as indicated by Spearman Ranking Correlation coefficients. However, there does appear to be monthly trends across the shelf where peak particulate nutrient concentrations and particulate ratio values occur during the spring, summer and fall. The average particulate nutrient concentrations and ratios differ for each year as well as each K. brevis bloom which occurred during the study period. In summary, the particulate C, N, P concentrations and particulate nutrient ratios vary both spatially and temporally on the WFS and are potentially related to the flexibility of phytoplankton uptake kinetics in response to the varying nutrient regimes of the WFS.