A soil climate monitoring network, consisting of seven automated weather stations, was established between 1999 and 2003 in the McMurdo Sound region of Antarctica. Soil temperature, soil water content, air temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, and wind speed and direction are recorded hourly and downloaded annually. Two 30 m deep permafrost temperature monitoring boreholes were established adjacent to the soil climate stations in the Wright Valley and at Marble Point in January 2007. Sixteen thermistors (accurate to ±0.1°C) were installed in each borehole measuring temperature once every hour and recording the mean every six hours. One year of permafrost temperatures were available (January 2007 to January 2008). The overall aim of this thesis was to make use of the soil climate monitoring database from 1999 to 2007 to investigate Antarctic soil climate. Active layer depth (depth of thawing) varied inter-annually, with no significant trend between 1999 and 2007. The active layer increased with decreasing latitude (R2 = 0.94), and decreased with increasing altitude (R2 = 0.95). A multiple regression model was produced whereby active layer depth was predicted as a function of mean summer air temperature, mean winter air temperature, total summer solar radiation and mean summer wind speed (R2 = 0.73). Annual temperature cycles were observed at all depths in the boreholes. At Marble Point, an annual temperature range of lt;1°C occurred at 15.2 m, lt;0.5°C at 18.4 m and lt;0.1°C at 26.4 m and at Wright Valley, an annual temperature range of lt;1°C occurred at 14.0 m, lt;0.5°C at 17.2 m and lt;0.1°C at 25.2 m. Given that the depth of Zero Annual Amplitude determined depends on the sensitivity of the measurement method, it is suggested that instead of referring to a depth of Zero Annual Amplitude , the depth at which the annual temperature range is less than a given value is a more useful concept. Mean annual and mean seasonal air and soil temperatures varied inter-annually and there was no significant trend of warming or cooling over the 1999 - 2007 period. Mean annual air temperatures were primarily influenced by winter air temperatures. Mean annual and mean summer soil temperatures were warmer than air temperatures due to heating by solar radiation. Mean summer air temperatures correlated well with the Southern Annular Mode Index (SAMI) at all sites (0.61 lt; R2 lt; 0.73) except Victoria Valley; however there was no correlation between mean annual or mean winter temperatures and the SAMI. Air temperature was linearly correlated with near-surface soil temperature (1.3 - 7.5 cm) (R2 gt; 0.79). Near-surface soil temperature was strongly correlated with incoming solar radiation at Victoria Valley (0.14 lt; R2 lt; 0.76) and Granite Harbour (0.49 lt; R2 lt; 0.82), but was not significantly correlated at other sites (0 lt; R2 lt; 0.57). There was no significant correlation between air temperature and wind speed, air temperature and solar radiation and near-surface soil temperature and wind speed, despite occasions of strong correlation on the diurnal time scale. Diurnal summer cycles in air and soil temperatures were driven by solar radiation. Multiple regressions combining the effects of air temperature, solar radiation and wind speed approximated near-surface soil temperatures well at every site during both summer and winter (0.88 lt; R2 lt; 0.98).

This study of the use of e-portfolios by organizations, including businesses, educational institutions, non-profit organizations, and other communities of individuals joined together to accomplish a goal discovers that e-portfolios are robust tools for extensible authentication of group endeavor. The article examines the ways these organizations are currently appropriating the advantages of e-portfolios and some of the directions in which best practice appears to be headed. It discusses three directions related to the use of e-portfolios. First it observes the use of e-portfolio methodology to present an inside look at organizations to the outside world through reports to investment and support communities, for auditing purposes, for presenting evidence-based competencies, for marketing, and for honoring excellence. Second it observes the ways that organizations use e-portfolios to engender good decision-making as they receive information from outside sources such as prospective employees and prospective vendors or partners to inform inside operations. Third it observes the impact of e-portfolios when used internally by organizations and businesses as a framework that allows for new levels of management and internal communication.

The Institute of Safety Research (ISR) was over the past 20 years one of the six Research Institutes of Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf e.V. (FZD), which in 2010 belonged to the Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Together with the Institutes of Radiochemistry and Radiation Physics, ISR implements the research programme „Nuclear Safety Research“ (NSR), which was during last years one of the three scientific programmes of FZD. NSR involves two main topics, i.e. “Safety Research for Radioactive Waste Disposal” and “Safety Research for Nuclear Reactors”. The research of ISR aims at assessing and enhancing the safety of current and future reactors, the development of advanced simulation tools including their validation against experimental data, and the development of the appropriate measuring techniques for multi-phase flows and liquid metals.

Risk disclosure is an important issue, firstly to prevent future unexpected bankruptcies and economic scandals, secondly to create trust between a company and its stakeholders. Given the importance of the issue, previous literature has mainly focused on quantity of risk disclosures. In this dissertation, both quality and quantity of risk disclosures in the annual reports of 65 companies listed on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm exchange are analyzed. The objectives are to describe the degree of risk disclosures and to understand whether the quality and quantity of this information can be explained by size, industry and/or performance of the company. By conducting a content analysis of the annual reports, we explored if the required risk information was disclosed (quantity) and how it was disclosed (quality). Afterwards, a statistical analysis was conducted in order to obtain a deeper understanding of the results from our content analysis. The findings of our study are that both quality and quantity of risk disclosures in our sample are only half as good as they should be according to requirements in the Swedish context. We found that there is a difference in quality and quantity of risk disclosures between two of the industry categories; Energy and Materials, where the first mentioned is the best and the second the worst. We did not find significant correlations between the quality and quantity of risk disclosure and the size or the performance for the whole sample. Still, we found some differences in both quality and quantity of risk disclosure information when looking at smaller parts of our sample. Size has a significant impact on both quality and quantity of risk disclosures within the Industrials and Information Technology companies. Among Information Technology companies, also performance has a significant impact on the quantity of risk disclosure.

Title: Intellectual capital disclosure in Swedish "knowledge companies" - a study on how intellectual capital is accounting for in three Swedish knowledge companies Problem: An organization has two kinds of assets; material assets and immaterial assets, also known as intellectual capital. There are straight forward ways of establishing the value of the material assets and stakeholders can easily find this information in either the income statement or the balance sheet. However modern businesses are increasingly reliant on their immaterial assets in order to generate value, since there is no equivalent to the balance sheet for immaterial assets - where do stakeholders find information on the subject, and how do the businesses themselves value intellectual capital? Purpose: In order to understand where and how companies disclose and value their intellectual capital, this thesis has analyzed the annual reports of three leading Swedish knowledge-companies from a two year period, and interviews have been conducted with key individuals at said companies. Methodology: Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used in this study. The qualitative part consists of primary data which was gathered through a questionnaire that was collected by e-mail, and secondary data was gathered from websites and financial reports of the selected companies. Qualitative data was gathered through the questionnaires alone, and processed through Spearman’s coefficient of rank correlation. Conclusion: The chosen companies have chosen not to disclose much of their intellectual capital in their annual reports, one company even removing the subsection intellectual capital from their annual report. It was found that human capital is the most valued component on intellectual capital. We have found that the selected companies do not use any specific method to valuate their intellectual capital. Keywords: intellectual capital, knowledge-company, annual report, disclosure, Sweden

Obsidian was a prized tool stone heavily exploited in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem throughout the pre-contact period. Fifteen geochemically distinct sources in this area were utilized on a regular basis consistently through time. A large dataset of sourced obsidian artifacts currently exists but has rarely been applied to specific archaeological problems for Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.<p> This thesis provides a comprehensive list of obsidian sources important to the archaeology of Yellowstone and analyzes spatial and temporal trends of obsidian source selection. This study examines diagnostic tools produced by people during the Archaic period, focusing on the McKean complex (~5500-3000 BP) and Pelican Lake phase (3000-1600 BP). The potential for a cultural preference for obsidian source selection is discussed by applying landscape theory and ethnographic evidence to the examination of archaeological data.<p> A pattern of obsidian source exploitation as seen at the Osprey Beach site (representing the Cody Complex) has led to the development of a proposed annual round, typically applied to the entire pre-contact period in the Park. This large annual round, however, is determined to be unlikely and unnecessary by this author. Alternative local rounds to this model are proposed and supported by the evidence.<p> A clear preference for the Obsidian Cliff source (a National Historic Landmark) located in the northern end of the Park is shown in these results. This preference can be interpreted in both economic and cultural terms. Otherwise, no purely cultural preference for an obsidian source is supported. The exploitation of certain obsidian sources did not change significantly between the McKean and Pelican Lake cultures. However, a significantly different pattern of exploitation is seen when analyzed by geographical area. The results of this research suggest a more localized pattern of obsidian exploitation than previously thought, impacting interpretations of seasonality and travel routes in the Yellowstone area.

This study investigated emission characteristics of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and reductions of regulated harmful matters using Premium diesel fuel (PDF), mixed with a 60 L/min flow rate of H2/O2 mixture and blended with biodiesel 5% (B5), 10% (B10), 20% (B20), and 30% (B30). The diesel engine was operated at steady-state condition of 1,600 rpm, with torque and power outputs of 145 Nm and 24.5 kW, respectively. Measured results show that the emission concentrations of total PAHs were 22.42, 20.11, 17.28, 13.45, and 13.13 £gg/m3 for B0, B5, B10, B20, and B30, respectively, with corresponding emission factors of total PAHs being 1334.53, 1198.82, 986.05, 771.93, and 748.82 £gg/bhp-hr, and reductions of total PAHs being 10.3, 22.9, 40.0, and 41.4%. The results indicated that using biodiesel can reduce PAH emissions. However, the emission factors of carbon monoxide (CO) and total hydrocarbons (THC) were decreased by adding biodiesel, but those of carbon dioxides (CO2), nitrogen dioxides (NOx), and particulate matter (PM) were increased. Annual emissions of total PAHs were estimated to be 140.05, 126.92, 105.21, 81.97, and 79.86 ton/year for B0, B5, B10, B20 and B30, respectively, decreasing with increasing biodiesel. Also, the corresponding annual emissions of BaPeq were 5.88, 5.62, 3.50, 3.03, and 2.83 ton/year, respectively.

ABSTRACT Taitung area was commonly seen as a particularly clean environment. But the air quality has diminished lately similar to that seen in some parts of the populated western area in Taiwan, with ozone (O3) concentration levels rising every year. Because ozone is a byproduct of photochemistry, its accumulation is not only related to the discharge of local pollutants such as nitrogen oxide compounds (NOx), volatile organic compounds (VOC) and the introduction of external pollutants, but also related to the meteorological conditions. This research began with comparing the long-term trends of ozone concentration level and related pollutants in the Taitung area with those found in other survey stations spread in Taiwan. Through factor analysis, the relationship between air pollutants and meteorological parameters are analyzed. Finally, a screening of the events of abnormal ozone concentrations, followed with detailed analysis of the hourly data during these events and the discussion of the possible reasons for the comparatively poor air quality during these events and their correlations with seasons and meteorological conditions. Analysis of the trends in monthly averaged concentration of ozone shows that the annual rate of change (AR) is increasing at all stations under this study, except the Guanyin station being -0.18%. Taitung station has relatively higher levels every spring (March - May) and fall (October ¡V November); the annual rate of change is higher than other east area in Taiwan and the Hengchun station. These seasonal variation (SV) shows a progressively increasing north to south trend, Hengchun station being the highest and Taitung station being the second highest, indicates that concentrations of ozone are influenced by seasonal changes. By using the method of factor analysis to analyze the relation among ozone concentrations, meteorological parameters and pollution parameters, resulted in a direct relationship to the wind speeds over the four seasons. The results show a negative relationship to the atmospheric pressure during summer. The ozone concentrations of the Taitung station show a direct relationship to the Hualian station, which indicates the north to south dispersion relationship. The Analysis of the abnormal event also shows that typhoons may be an important carrier for transporting external pollutants into the area.

The long-term trends of PM10, O3 and NOx concentrations were analyzed using Holland model (without meteorological-adjusted) and MM-Regression model (with meteorological-adjusted) based on the data of ten EPA air quality stations from 1997 to 2006 in Kao-Ping area. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of meteorological factors on the trends of these pollutants in Kao-Ping. The annual variations (AV) of O3 was −0.496 % in Kaohsiung county, −0.200 in Pingtung county, and 0.277 % in Kaohsiung city, showing different characteristics in Kao-Pin area. On average, the annual variations (AV) influenced by meteorological factors were: PM10: 0.205 %, O3: −0.127 %, and NOx: 0.338 %. After being adjusted by meteorological factors, the seasonal variations (SV) were about 1, indicating little seasonal change. In Kao-Ping region, the influence by meteorological factors was 9.566 %, 8.026 % and 7.351 % in PM10, O3, NOx, respectively. In total, the average influence was 8.314% in Kao-Ping region, with 7.791% in Kaohsiung city (8.481% at Cianjin, the most influenced area), 9.439% in Kaohsiung County (10.368% at Linyuan, the most influenced area), and 7.110% in Pingtung County (7.516% at Chaojhou, the most influenced area). PM10 was influenced most by meteorological factors (PM10: 9.566 %, O3: 8.026 %, NOx: 7.351 %) in Kao-Ping area.. In Kao-Ping region, the contributions by individual meteorological factors were 70.78% in wind speed, 38.23% in total cloudiness, 36.56% in sunshine hour, 19.86% in temperature, 12.40% in atmospheric pressure, 5.96% in relative humidity and 1.27% in wind direction. The influences by the wind speed were 66.62 %, 72.35 % and 72.31 % on the concentrations of PM10, O3, NOx, respectively. Wind speed was the most important factor controlling concentration trends in Kao-Ping area.

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