Diagnostic systems become more and more an important within the field of vehicle systems. This is much because new rules and regulation forcing the manufacturer of heavy duty trucks to survey the emission process in its engines during the whole lifetime of the truck. To do this a diagnostic system has to be implemented which always survey the process and check that the thresholds of the emissions set by the government not are exceeded. There is also a demand that this system should be reliable, i.e. not producing false alarms or missed detection. One way of producing such a system is to use model based diagnosis system where thresholds has to be set deciding if the system is corrupt or not. There is a lot of difficulties involved in this. Firstly, there is no way of knowing if the signals logged are corrupt or not. This is because faults in these signals should be detected. Secondly, because of strict demand of reliability the thresholds has to be set where there is very low probability of finding values while driving. In this thesis a methodology is proposed for setting thresholds in a diagnosis system in an experimental test engine at Scania. Measurement data has been logged over 20 hours of effective driving by two individuals of the same engine. It is shown that the result is improved significantly by using this method and the threshold can be set so smaller faults in the system reliably can be detected.

Numerous cryptographic applications require a trusted authority to hold a secret. With a plethora of malicious attacks over the Internet, however, it is difficult to establish and maintain such an authority in online systems. Secret-sharing schemes attempt to solve this problem by distributing the required trust to hold and use the secret over multiple servers; however, they still require a trusted {\em dealer} to choose and share the secret, and have problems related to single points of failure and key escrow. A distributed key generation (DKG) scheme overcomes these hurdles by removing the requirement of a dealer in secret sharing. A (threshold) DKG scheme achieves this using a complete distribution of the trust among a number of servers such that any subset of servers of size greater than a given threshold can reveal or use the shared secret, while any smaller subset cannot. In this thesis, we make contributions to DKG in the computational security setting and describe three applications of it. We first define a constant-size commitment scheme for univariate polynomials over finite fields and use it to reduce the size of broadcasts required for DKG protocols in the synchronous communication model by a linear factor. Further, we observe that the existing (synchronous) DKG protocols do not provide a liveness guarantee over the Internet and design the first DKG protocol for use over the Internet. Observing the necessity of long-term stability, we then present proactive security and group modification protocols for our DKG system. We also demonstrate the practicality of our DKG protocol over the Internet by testing our implementation over PlanetLab. For the applications, we use our DKG protocol to define IND-ID-CCA secure distributed private-key generators (PKGs) for three important identity-based encryption (IBE) schemes: Boneh and Franklin's BF-IBE, Sakai and Kasahara's SK-IBE, and Boneh and Boyen's BB1-IBE. These IBE schemes cover all three important IBE frameworks: full-domain-hash IBEs, exponent-inversion IBEs and commutative-blinding IBEs respectively, and our distributed PKG constructions can easily be modified for other IBE schemes in these frameworks. As the second application, we use our distributed PKG for BF-IBE to define an onion routing circuit construction mechanism in the identity-based setting, which solves the scalability problem in single-pass onion routing circuit construction without hampering forward secrecy. As the final application, we use our DKG implementation to design a threshold signature architecture for quorum-based distributed hash tables and use it to define two robust communication protocols in these peer-to-peer systems.

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Stamning är en komplex motorisk talstörning, vars neurologisk bakgrund fortfarande inte är klarlagd. En växande mängd studier ger dock stöd för att stamning kan vara orsakat av strukturella avvikelser i den vänstra hemisfären. En studie (Sommer et al., 2003) som använde transkraniell magnetstimulering (TMS) för att undersöka kortikal inhibition hos personer som stammar (PsS) fann som ett bi-fynd att den stammande gruppen hade signifikant högre motortrösklar (MT) för vänster hemisfärs handmotorarea, det vill säga att det krävdes starkare stimulering för att väcka en muskelrespons i den kontralaterala handen. Resultat har dock inte uppmärksammats av senare forskning, och behöver verifieras. Den aktuella studien syftade till att undersöka om PsS tenderar att ha förhöjda MT, samt om det finns avvikande hemisfärsskilnader i MT hos PsS. MT mättes från båda hemisfärernas handmotorareor hos 15 PsS och 15 matchade kontollförsökspersoner med flytande tal. Resultatet visade på signifikant avvikande lateralisering av MT (p = 0,005) hos PsS; tvärtemot gruppen med flytande tal visade den stammande gruppen tendens till lägst MT i höger hemisfär, med 6 av 15 stammande som hade starkare högersidig lateralisering än någon i kontrollgruppen. Samstämmigt med resultaten från Sommer et al. (2003) var MT för vänster hemisfär signifikant högre i den stammande gruppen jämfört med kontrollgruppen (p = 0,049). Däremot fanns ingen tendens till avvikande MT i höger hemisfär (p = 0,92). Den förhöjda vänstersidiga MT kan vara relaterad till strukturella avvikelser i vänster hemisfär hos PsS.

A wide range of ecological communities ranging from polar terrestrial to tropical marine environments are affectedby global climate change. Over the last century, atmospheric temperature has increased by an average of 0. 60 C andis expected to rise by 1.1- 6.40C over the next 100 years. This rising temperature has increased the intensity andfrequency of weather extremes due to which a large number of species are facing risk of extinction. Studies haveshown that species existing on lower latitude are more sensitive to temperature variability compared to speciesexisting on higher latitude but temperature is increasing rapidly in higher latitude compare to lower latitude. Thisuneven distribution of temperature sensitive species and warming rate has highlighted the need for combined studiesof temperature variability and sensitiveness of species to predict how the ecosystems will respond to increasinglyvariable climate. Using a generalized Rosenzweig-MacArthur model, I explored how temperature variability andsensitivity of species will affect the extinction risks of species and how the connectance and species-richness ofecological communities will govern this response. This study showed that the risk of extinction of species mostlydepends on their sensitivity to temperature deviation from the optimum value and level of temperature variability.Among these two, sensitivity of species to temperature deviation was most prominent factor affecting extinction risk.In this study, connectance did not show any effect on mean extinction risk and time taken by a certain proportion ofspecies to reach pre-defined extinction thresholds. But, species-richness showed some effect on mean extinction riskof species. It was found that risk of extinction of species in species-rich communities was higher compared tospecies-poor communities. Species-rich communities also took shorter time before they lost 1/6 of the species. Thepresent study also suggests a possible tipping point due to increasing temperature variability in near future. In furtherstudies, different sensitivity of species at different trophic levels and the possible evolution of sensitivity of speciesshould also be consider while predicting how ecological communities will respond to changing climate in the longrun.

<p>The initiation of metamorphosis causes the cessation of the larval growth period which determines the final body size of adult insects. Because larval growth is roughly exponential, differences in timing the initiation of metamorphosis can cause large differences body size. Although many of the processes involved in metamorphosis have been well characterized, little is known about how the timing of the initiation of metamorphosis is determined. </p> <p>Using different strains from <italic>Tribolium castaneum<italic>, <italic>Tribolium freemani<italic>, and <italic>Manduca sexta<italic> and varied nutritional conditions, I was able to document the existence of a threshold size, which determines when the larva becomes competent to metamorphose. Threshold size, however, does not dictate the exact timing of initiation. The exact timing for the initiation of metamorphosis is determined by a pulse of the molting hormone, ecdysone, but only after threshold size has been reached. Ecdysone pulses before the larva attains threshold size only cause the larva to molt to another larval instar. These results indicate the timing of metamorphosis initiation is controlled by two factors: (1) attainment of threshold size, at which the larva becomes competent to initiate metamorphosis and (2) the timing of an ecdysone pulse after attaining threshold size. </p> <p>I hypothesize the attainment of threshold size, and therefore competence to metamorphose, is mediated by the effect of changing juvenile hormone concentrations caused by the increase in size of the larva. While the larval body grows nearly exponentially, the corpora allata, which secretes juvenile hormone, grows very little if at all. The difference in relative growth causes juvenile hormone concentrations to gradually become diluted. When juvenile hormone concentrations fall below a threshold, changes in protein-protein binding occur that can cause changes in signaling networks and ultimately gene expression. These changes make the larva competent for metamorphosis. </p> <p>I have demonstrated that only threshold size is consistently correlated with body size; other growth parameters such as growth rate, duration of instars, or number of instars do not consistently correlate with variation in body size. Using the black mutant strain of <italic>M. sexta<italic> I have shown that lower juvenile hormone titers correlate with lower threshold sizes. My hypothesis is consistent with the large body of literature indicating the involvement of juvenile hormone. I also hypothesize that the diversity of metamorphosis types in holometabolous insects can be explained by heterochronic shifts in the timing of threshold size and other developmental events related to metamorphosis. The heterochronic shifts affect not only the morphology of organs, but can also affect the overall phenotypic response of the larva to changes in the environment. The different phenotypic responses among species may make the more or less suited for certain types of niches.</p> / Dissertation

Technology scaling trends lead to shrinking of the individual elements like transistors and wires in digital systems. The main driving force behind this is cutting the cost of the systems while the systems are filled with extra functionalities. This is the reason why a 3 GHz Intel processor now is priced less than what a 50MHz processor was priced 10 years ago. As in most cases, this comes with a price. This price is the complex design process and problems that stem from the reduction in physical dimensions. As the transistors became smaller in size and the systems became faster, issues like power consumption, signal integrity, soft error tolerance, and testing became serious challenges. There is an increasing demand to put CAD tools in the design flow to address these issues at every step of the design process. First part of this research investigates circuit level techniques to reduce power consumption in digital systems. In second part, improving soft error tolerance of digital systems is considered as a trade off problem between power and reliability and a power aware dynamic soft error tolerance control strategy is developed. The objective of this research is to provide CAD tools and circuit design techniques to optimize power consumption and to increase soft error tolerance of digital circuits. Multiple supply and threshold voltages are used to reduce power consumption. Variable supply and threshold voltages are used together with variable capacitances to develop a dynamic soft error tolerance control scheme.

Power consumption and soft-error tolerance have become major constraints in the design of DSM CMOS circuits. With continued technology scaling, the impact of these parameters is expected to gain in significance. Furthermore, the design complexity continues to increase rapidly due to the tremendous increase in number of components (gates/transistors) on an IC every technology generation. This research describes an efficient and general CAD framework for the optimization of critical circuit characteristics such as power consumption and soft-error tolerance under delay constraints with supply/threshold voltages and/or gate sizes as variables. A general technique called Delay-Assignment-Variation (DAV) based optimization was formulated for the delay-constrained optimization of directed acyclic graphs. Exact mathematical conditions on the supply and threshold voltages of circuit modules were developed that lead to minimum overall dynamic and static power consumption of the circuit under delay constraints. A DAV search based method was used to obtain the optimal supply and threshold voltages that minimized power consumption. To handle the complexity of design of reliable, low-power circuits at the gate level, a hierarchical application of DAV based optimization was explored. The effectiveness of the hierarchical approach in reducing circuit power and unreliability, while being highly efficient is demonstrated. The usage of the technique for improving upon already optimized designs is described. An accurate and efficient model for analyzing the soft-error tolerance of CMOS circuits is also developed.

As the two main components of household portfolios, stocks and real estate are likely to catch people¡¦s attention. Although the number of extant studies on the interaction between the stock and real estate markets is large, the views and empirical evidence in those studies show inconsistent results. This dissertation provides an explanation for the inconsistent results: market imperfection. Employing the threshold vector error correction model to examine the interaction between Taiwan¡¦s stock and real estate markets during the period from 1973Q2 to 2009Q4, the empirical results support this explanation. When the transaction benefit from the disequilibrium between the stock and real estate markets can cover the potential cost resulting from market imperfection, the relationship between the stock and real estate markets is integrated; but when there is slight disequilibrium, the price of real estate will not converge since the arbitrage benefit cannot cover the cost of transaction. As a result, the relationship is segmented. The empirical results of the study are very robust as similar conclusions result when different proxies for housing prices are used. The interactions between the stock and the sub-region housing markets also show similar results. Finally, when macroeconomic factors are considered, the asymmetric dynamic relationship is still significant.

Recently, there is a new advertising model created by Groupon. Its major attractions include high discount and e-coupon as transaction object. In addition, it is presented as an online group-buying business model and usually has a limit on transaction volume. Due to the prosperous growth of Groupon advertising model, this study explores what factors affect the performance of Groupon advertising model based on the empirical data and literature review. Based on the literature review and preliminary analysis of the collected empirical data, we proposed seven factors which may affect the performance of Groupon advertising model. They are discount, price, limit on transaction volume, urban income, population density, threshold of transaction and product category. These factors were included as independent variables in the regression model. The results indicated that discount, urban income, population density and threshold of transaction have significant effects on advertising performance. Among them, the threshold of transaction has the most significant impact. It indicates that setting a threshold of transaction will facilitate the transaction volume. In addition, the results also indicated that different product categories result in different performance. However, the population density has no significant impact on the advertising performance.