Living organisms constantly respond to changing environmental conditions, and some changes can be far from optimal for many organisms. Insects represent the majority of species in many ecosystems and play an important role in bioaccumulation and biotransformation of environmental contaminants such as selenium and arsenic. Some insectivorous predators feeding on these insects are highly sensitive to such elements resulting in reduced growth, reproductive failures and low population numbers. The mechanisms of selenium and arsenic uptake through the food chain are poorly understood. The determination of chemical speciation is a prerequisite for a mechanistic understanding of a contaminants bioavailability and toxicity to an organism. Synchrotron-based X-ray absorption spectroscopy was used to identify the chemical form of selenium and arsenic in insects in both the field and laboratory conditions. Insects living in streams near Hinton, Alberta affected by coal mine activities were examined for selenium speciation. Results showed higher percentages of inorganic selenium in primary consumers, detritivores and filter feeders than in predatory insects. Selenides and diselenides constitute a major fraction of selenium in these insects. In another field setting, speciation of selenium was studied in insects attacking selenium hyperaccumulating plant <i>Astragalus bisulcatus</i>. The effect of selenate and arsenate alone and the combined effects of selenate and arsenate on insects and parasitoids were monitored using a laboratory-reared moth (<i>Mamestra configurata</i>). Hosts receiving selenium biotransformed selenate to organic selenides and diselenides, which were transferred to the parasitoids in the third trophic level. Arsenic fed larvae biotransformed dietary arsenate to yield predominantly trivalent arsenic coordinated with three aliphatic sulfurs. Larvae receiving arsenate used a novel six-coordinated arsenic form as an excretory molecule in fecal matter and cast skin. X-ray absorption spectroscopy imaging with micro X-ray fluorescence imaging on selenate and arsenate fed larvae revealed highly localized selenium and arsenic species, zinc and copper within the gut. The results provide insights into how the insects cope with their toxic cargo, including how selenium and arsenic are biotransformed into other chemical forms and how they can be eliminated from the insects. The implication of selenium and arsenic species in the diet of predators and detritivores is discussed.

The purpose of the SCRIT project is to determine size and shape of short-lived and rarely-produced nuclei by elastic electron scattering, which is the best probe for the structure studies, for the first time. In traditional electron scattering, a solid target having an order of 1023 nuclei/cm^2 is normally used, which is not possible for short-lived and rarely-produced nuclei. In this project a Self Containing Radioactive Isotope Target scheme (SCRIT) is going to be employed. This innovative ion-trap method is shown to be a way to make measurements with a very small amount of nuclei, an order of only 106 nuclei. In order to determine the absolute cross section for elastic electron scattering for structure study, the simulates measurement of the bremsstrahlung from the trapped nuclei is required. Since the bremsstrahlung cross section for a nucleus of the atomic number Z is well know, the precise measurement of the bremsstrahlung provides the luminosity. My theme in this SCRIT project was a construction of a bremsstrahlung luminosity monitor. It consists of a position monitor for measuring the spatial distribution of bremsstrahlung and a Pb-glass Cerenkov detector for energy measurement. My efforts have been mainly devoted to the construction of a position monitor system using fiber scintillators. The construction of the position monitor was divided into five parts; detector construction, support construction, trigger detector construction, software programming, software testing and detector tests. The position monitor consists of two sets of fiber scintillation detectors. Each of them uses 16 fibers, Bicron BCF-10 with a cross section of 2x2mm^2, optically coupled to a multi-anode photomultiplier, (Hamamatsu H6568-10). The position monitor can measure the XY distribution of bremsstrahlung. Strictly speaking, the fiber detector detects not bremsstrahlung directly but electrons and/or positrons by pair creation of bremsstrahlung in a materials. The data acquisition system has been programmed in NI LabVIEW. The software is an advanced X/Y-coordinate counting system, which can additionally preform functions as save data to file and 3D-plot to determine the spreading of the bremsstrahlung luminosity. The results can be saved and transferred online to a server so that is possible to access the data from anywhere. The system has been tested using beta rays from 90Sr source. The results of the test shown that the detectors can detect minimum ionizing particle, i.e. electrons and positrons. The detector and software testings shows that the system is ready to use for luminosity measurements at SCRIT experiment. This system I constructed surely provides a new and useful information for the SCRIT experiments. / SCRIT Project

The trade today consist of global trade. Businesses are exercising cross-border activities and businesses tend to establish themselves in foreign markets. Many choices and factors affect a business choice of country to enter, and its choice of form of establishment in the new market. Therefore the thesis will examine the market entry strategy of the four Swedish businesses Lundalogik AB, Infobric AB, Funded-by-me AB, and PayEx AB in the information technology (IT) industry that have established their businesses in Norway. The authors believe that Norway is an interesting country to study as it is one of Sweden's most important ex-port markets and the IT-sector stands for approximately 13% of all Swedish exports towards the whole world. The purpose with the thesis is to explore and understand the market entry strategy used by the above mentioned four Swedish IT-businesses when entering the Norwegian market. With help of the purpose of the thesis the authors intend to answer what the underlying reasons for the four businesses were when entering the Norwegian market and its choice of form of establishment. As this is an explorative study the research method applied is an inductive approach with influences from the grounded theory. An inductive approach is when observations help to formulate a theory whereas the grounded theory is when a theory is discovered from social research. The reason why an inductive approach is better suited for the thesis is due to the flexibility in deciding which theory to choose after analyzing the primary data. After analyzing the four case studies it can be concluded that no pure internationalization strategy exists among the companies, instead a variety of customer follower and market seeker strategies are common. Moreover, the choice of form of establishment has many factors. Credibility, market knowledge, design of business and existing business relationships were the four most common factors identified by the authors affecting the case studies‟ choice of form of establishment.

I FORM is the biggest health magazine of Scandinavia. It is a magazine that treats subjects like health food, training, sports gear, sex and relationships. The magazine addresses women directly and only women appear in the magazine. This is a study on how I FORM portrays women in their segment called “Addicted to” (Biten av). It is a study of what kind of stereotypes that are used and also what kind of pictures that has been used to portrait the women. Lastly I try to answer the question of how the portraits in I FORM can recreate or transform the medial use of dominating gender discourses in society. The method of use is the rhetorical text analysis as described in Jostein Gripsruds book Mediekultur och mediesamhälle, where I’m looking at the three first steps of the Partes model. The theoretical framework treats the subjects of primary and secondary socialization, social and personal identity, and the influence of media, gender and stereotypes, both in written text and in pictures. The conclusion of this study is that there is a common use of different stereotypes in I FORM:s portraits. They use their segment “Addicted to” (Biten av) to promote different types of exercises and the women are portrayed differently depending on if the type of exercise is counted as more of a male or a female exercise.

Bakgrund: I Sverige lever cirka 1,1 miljoner individer med en hjärt-kärlsjukdom. Hjärt-kärlsjuka individer skattar sin hälsorelaterade livskvalitet lägre än normalbefolkningen och lågt skattad hälsorelaterad livskvalitet kan medföra fler inläggningar på sjukhus samt en ökad risk att avlida i sin hjärt- kärlsjukdom. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att beskriva hälsorelaterad livskvalitet hos hjärt- kärlsjuka individer och hur kön, ålder, tobaksanvändning, graden av fysisk aktivitet, eller samtida sjukdom påverkar den hälsorelaterade livskvaliteten. Metod: Empirisk, deskriptiv tvärsnittsstudie med kvantitativ ansats. Valt mätinstrument var Short-Form 36 (SF-36), skala 0-100 där ett högre värde motsvarar en högre skattad hälsorelaterad livskvalitet. Databearbetning genomfördes med deskriptiv och analyserande statistik där SF-36 testades mot kön, ålder, tobaksvanor, graden av fysisk aktivitet, eller samtida sjukdom. Resultat: Totalt inkluderades 53 hjärt- kärlsjuka individer, varav 28 var män. Medelåldern i gruppen var 69,5 år (SD 11,9 år). Samtida sjukdomar var den bakgrundsvariabel som påverkade skattningen av hälsorelaterad livskvalitet mest, men även kön, grad av fysisk aktivitet och ålder påverkar skattningen av hälsorelaterad livskvalitet. Tobaksanvändning påverkade inte den hälsorelaterade livskvaliteten. Konklusion: Denna studie visar att omvårdnadsåtgärder bör inriktas hos hjärt- kärlsjuka individer med annan samtida sjukdom. Sjuksköterskan bör även identifiera grad av fysisk aktivitet, ålder och kön för att på så sätt arbeta preventivt mot en förbättrad hälsorelaterad livskvalitet.

For target location and tracking in wireless communication systems, mobile target positioning and tracking play an important role. Since multi-sensor system can be used as an efficient solution to target positioning process, more accurate target location estimation and tracking results can be obtained. However, both the deployment of designed multi-sensor and location algorithm may affect the overall performance of position location. In this thesis, based on the time difference of arrival (TDOA), two closed-form least-square location methods, spherical-interpolation (SI) method and spherical-intersection (SX) method are used to estimate the target location. The two location methods are different from the usual process of iterative and nonlinear minimization. The locations of the target and the designed multiple sensors may yield geometric effects on location performance. The constraints and performance of the two location methods will first be introduced. To achieve real-time target tracking, the Kalman filtering structures are used to combine the SI and SX methods. Because these two positioning and tracking systems have different and complementary performance inside and outside the multi-sensor array, we consider using data fusion to improve location estimation results by using interacting multiple model (IMM) based estimator, in which internal filters running in parallel are designed as the SX-KF1 and the SI-KF2. However, due to the time-varying characteristics of measurement noises, we propose an adjusting scheme for measurement noise variance assignment in the Kalman filters to obtain improved location estimation results. Simulation results are obtained by running Matlab program. In three-dimensional multi-sensor array scenarios, the results of moving target location estimation shows that the IMM-based estimators effectively improve the position performance.

Based on the Lyapunov stability theorem, two design methodologies of adaptive block backstepping controller is proposed in this thesis for a class of multi-input systems with matched and mismatched perturbations to solve regulation problems. The main difference between these two method is that perturbation estimations are only employed in each virtual control input in the second method, whereas in the first method, the perturbation estimation is only employed in the last block. According to the number of block (m) in the dynamic equations of plant to be controlled, m-1 virtual input controllers are designed from the first block to the (m-1)th block, and the proposed robust controller is designed from the last block. Adaptive mechanisms are employed in each of the virtual input controllers as well as the robust controller, so that the least upper bounds of perturbations and perturbation estimation errors are not required. Furthermore, the dynamic equations of the plant do not need to satisfy the block strict feedback form, and the resultant control system can achieve asymptotic stability or uniformly ultimately boundedness. Finally, a numerical example and a practical example are given for demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed control schemes.

Stainless steel – zirconium alloys were developed by the US Department of Energy Laboratories as metallic waste forms for noble metal fission products. This thesis evaluates iron–zirconium–rhenium alloys to establish a technical basis for using metal waste form alloys for technetium-99 immobilization. Rhenium is used as a surrogate for Tc-99 since Tc is not naturally available and Re is metallurgically similar to Tc. The iron-zirconium system has two eutectic compositions, Fe-15 wt % Zr and Zr- 16 wt% Fe. Ten test samples were successfully cast in yttrium oxide crucibles at 1600°C, half near each eutectic composition, with Re amounts varying from 2.5 to 12.5 weight percent. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) capability was employed to determine the phase structure and phase composition of each sample. Iron rich samples were found to form up to three phases, with the rhenium content favoring the intermetallic phases: 1) an Fe solid solution phase, 2) an FeZr2-type intermetallic with 11 wt % or less Re, and 3) a second intermetallic with about 18 wt % Re. Zirconium rich samples formed as many as five distinct phases: 1) a Zr solid solution phase, 2) a Zr3Fe-type intermetallic with as much as 13 wt% Re, 3) a rhenium-zirconium intermetallic, 4) another Fe-Zr intermetallic with very little Re, and 5) a Fe-Re intermetallic. Potentiostatic and potentiodynamic electrochemical tests were performed using sulfuric acid to evaluate the corrosion resistance of each sample. These tests found that the zirconium rich samples were very corrosion resistant but became increasingly susceptible at higher rhenium concentrations. The iron rich samples were not very resistant to corrosion under the test conditions; there was no notable trend in corrosion behavior related to the introduction of rhenium.

The portable electronics market is rapidly migrating towards more compact devices with multiple functionalities. Form factor, performance, cost and efficiency of these devices constitute the factors of merit of devices like cell phones, MP3 players and PDA's. With advancement in technology and more intelligent processors being used, there is a need for multiple high integrity voltage supplies for empowering the systems in portable electronic devices. Switched mode power supplies (SMPS's) are used to regulate the battery voltage. In an SMPS, maximum area is taken by the passive components such as the inductor and the capacitor. This work demonstrates a single inductor used in a buck converter with two output voltages from an input battery with voltage of value 3V. The main focus areas are low cross regulation between the outputs and supply of completely independent load current levels while maintaining desired values (1.2V,1.5V) within well controlled ripple levels. Dynamic hysteresis control is used for the single inductor dual output buck converter in this work. Results of schematic and post layout simulations performed in CADENCE prove the merits of this control method, such as nil cross regulation and excellent transient response.

This thesis investigates Aristotle's criticism and consequent reformulation of the Platonic method for formulating definitions called the Method of Division. For both Plato and Aristotle, the object of division is a natural kind, which consists in a class whose members stand in a homologous relationship to a single form. I argue that Aristotle's criticisms of the Method of Division fall under two categories: logical objections and ontological objections. The logical objections focus on division as a method for demonstrating definitions, a method that Aristotle wants to distinguish from his syllogistic logic, the centerpiece of his theory of scientific demonstration. The ontological objections focus on the question of whether the sort of account generated by division is sufficient to constitute a definition of its object. Aristotle's revised Method of Division is supposed to avoid the problems he raises by constructing definitions that satisfy the principles motivating his ontological objections through a logical process devised to make the resulting account a "necessary" consequence of the initial assumptions of the division. I argue that Aristotle?s ontological objections to the Method of Division reflect a deeper disparity between the Platonic and the Aristotelian notion of a form and natural kind. Underpinning Aristotle's notion of a natural kind is an ontology of discrete substances. Because the unity of substance is paramount in this ontology, Aristotle argues that a definition, which is supposed to give an account of the essence of a substance, must account for the unity of its object by itself possessing a non-accidental unity. Yet, on a Platonic ontology, a definition by division invokes a plurality of independent Forms whose conjunction does not constitute a unity. On the basis of this consideration, Aristotle argues that an ontology of abstract Forms cannot account for the unity of an individual substance. To this extent, I conclude, Aristotle's methodological objections to the Platonic Method of Division are a component of his broader criticisms of Platonic metaphysics.