The stride interval of typical human gait is correlated over thousands of strides. This statistical persistence diminishes with age, disease, and pace-constrained walking. Considering the widespread use of treadmills in rehabilitation and research, it is important to understand the effect of this speed-constrained locomotor modality on stride interval dynamics. To this end, and given that the dynamics of children have been largely unexplored, this study investigated the impact of treadmill walking, both with and without handrail use, on paediatric stride interval dynamics. An initial stationarity analysis of stride interval time series identified both non-stationary and stationary signals during all walking conditions. Subsequent scaling analysis revealed diminished stride interval persistence during unsupported treadmill walking compared to overground walking. Finally, while the correlation between stride interval dynamics and gross energy expenditure was investigated in an effort to elucidate the clinical meaning of persistence, no simple linear correlation was found.

The stride interval of typical human gait is correlated over thousands of strides. This statistical persistence diminishes with age, disease, and pace-constrained walking. Considering the widespread use of treadmills in rehabilitation and research, it is important to understand the effect of this speed-constrained locomotor modality on stride interval dynamics. To this end, and given that the dynamics of children have been largely unexplored, this study investigated the impact of treadmill walking, both with and without handrail use, on paediatric stride interval dynamics. An initial stationarity analysis of stride interval time series identified both non-stationary and stationary signals during all walking conditions. Subsequent scaling analysis revealed diminished stride interval persistence during unsupported treadmill walking compared to overground walking. Finally, while the correlation between stride interval dynamics and gross energy expenditure was investigated in an effort to elucidate the clinical meaning of persistence, no simple linear correlation was found.

Watersheds in Canada are under increasing threats due to the cumulative environmental effects from natural and anthropogenic sources. Cumulative effect assessment (CEA), however, if done at all is typically done on a project-by-project basis. This project-based approach to CEA is not sufficient to address the cumulative effects of multiple stressors in a watershed or a region. As a result, there is now a general consensus that CEA must extend from the project to the more regional scale. The problem, however, is that while the science of how to do watershed CEA (W-CEA) is progressing, the appropriate institutional arrangements to sustain W-CEA have not been addressed. Based on a case study of the South Saskatchewan Watershed (SSW), this research is aimed to identify the institutional requirements necessary to support and sustain W-CEA.<p> The research methods include document reviews and semi-structured interviews with regulators, administrators, watershed coordinators, practitioners, and academics knowledgeable on cumulative effect assessment and project-based environmental assessments (EAs). The findings from this research are presented thematically. First, participants perspectives on cumulative effects, the current state of CEA practice, and general challenges to project-based approaches to CEA are presented. The concept of WCEA is then examined, with a discussion on the need for linking project-based CEA and W-CEA. This is followed by the institutional requirements for W-CEA. The Chapter concludes with foreseeable challenges to implementing W-CEA, as identified by research participants.<p> The key findings include that cumulative effect assessments under project-based EAs are rarely undertaken in the SSW, and the project-based EA approach is faced with considerable challenges. The project-based EA challenges suggested by interview participants are similar to the ones discussed in the literature, and are primarily related to the lack of guidance to proponents regarding boundaries of assessments and thresholds, the lack of data from other project EAs, and the lack of capacity of both proponents and regulators to achieve a good CEA under project EA. These challenges could be addressed by establishing regional objectives at a broader scale, which could provide better context to project-based approaches. Further, interview results revealed several opportunities for the government to take the lead in implementing and sustaining W-CEA, but a multistakeholder approach is essential to W-CEA success. The results also suggest that the establishments of thresholds and data management are necessary components of W-CEA, but that the need for legislation concerning such thresholds and W-CEA initiatives is not agreed upon. At the same time, research results emphasize that the coordination and education among various stakeholders will be difficult to achieve. The lack of financial commitment, political will, and difficulties in establishing cause-effect relationships currently impede the implementation of W-CEA.

Two standard invariants used to study the fundamental group of the complement X of a hyperplane arrangement are the Malcev completion of its fundamental group G and the cohomology groups of X with coefficients in rank one local systems. In this thesis, we develop a tool that unifies these two approaches. This tool is the Malcev completion S_p of G relative to a homomorphism p from G into (C^*)^N. The relative completion S_p is a prosolvable group that generalizes the classical Malcev completion; when p is the trivial representation, S_p is the Malcev completion of G. The group S_p is tightly controlled by the cohomology groups H^1(X,L_{p^k}) with coefficients in the irreducible local systems L_{p^k} associated to the representation p.The pronilpotent Lie algebra u_p of the prounipotent radical U_p of S_p has been described by Hain. If p is the trivial representation, then u_p is the holonomy Lie algebra, which is well-known to be quadratically presented. In contrast, we show that when X is the complement of the braid arrangement in complex two-space, there are infinitely many representations p from G into (C^*)^2 for which u_p is not quadratically presented.We show that if Y is a subtorus of the character torus T containing the trivial character, then S_p is combinatorially determined for general p in Y. We do not know whether S_p is always combinatorially determined. If S_p is combinatorially determined for all characters p of G, then the characteristic varieties of the arrangement X are combinatorially determined.When Y is an irreducible subvariety of T^N, we examine the behavior of S_p as p varies in Y. We define an affine group scheme S_Y over Y such that if Y = {p}, then S_Y is the relative Malcev completion S_p. For each p in Y, there is a canonical homomorphism of affine group schemes from S_p into the affine group scheme which is the restriction of S_Y to p. This is often an isomorphism. For example, if there exists p in Y whose image is Zariski dense in G_m^N, then this homomorphism is an isomorphism for general p in Y. / Dissertation

The Research on Flexible Staffing Arrangements in High-tech Industry Given the excess supply in the global market and the pressure of little gross margin in the foreign high-tech business, the major high-tech businesses can no longer enjoy a market with high growth rates and high profit earnings. The business, as the industry matures or even slows down, starts to seek for solutions to shorten its supply chain, to lower the cost of products, and to increase competitiveness. The technology industry has been facing cyclical fluctuations and fluctuations in demand in recent years. To sustain competitiveness in this market and to secure its core worker, it has to adjust with changes of time in the management of human resources, enhance the R&D and technology levels, and pay much more attention to long-term human resource development. Thus, in terms of human capital management, the major challenges the technology industry is currently facing are the issues of flexibility in the human resource department, the most efficient use of these resources, and how to adapt the planning and development of these departments. The goal of the thesis is to provide an in-depth study and analysis of 1) the status quo of the internal/external human resources management in the technology industry, 2) the relations between the characteristic of the organization and flexible staffing arrangements, and 3) the effect of flexible staffing arrangements on the organizational performance. This study uses the questionnaire adopted by Professor Jhy-Jer Ko in the study of The Flexibility of the Labor Market and the Atypical Work Arrangement(2003). 387 copies of the questionnaire were sent out to high tech companies and 115 were returned (112 valid, 3 invalid). The return rate was 28.9%. The results of the analysis are as the following: 1.Remarkable differences of functional flexibility are found among different characteristics of the organization. The larger the organization is, the greater functional flexibility it has. Organizations with over 500 workers have better functional flexibility than those with under 100 workers. 2.Remarkable differences of numerical flexibility are found among different characteristics of the organization. The lower the ratio of the labor cost to the total expenditure, the better for the organization to use outsourcing. 3.Remarkable differences of wage flexibility are found among different characteristics of the organization. The larger the organization is, the greater the wage flexibility is. Companies with lower ratios of labor cost compared to total expenditure have a higher tendency to adopt variable salary. 4.Functional flexibility has great effects on turnover rate of full-time employee. The greater functional flexibility is, the lower the full-time employee turnover rate is. In addition, the implementing of the practice of numerical flexibility can lower full-time employee turnover rate. 5.Functional flexibility and diversified skills-training opportunities have great effects on organizational performance. The greater functional flexibility is, the better the performance is. 6.Numerical flexibility has enormous effects on organizational performance. The use of outsourcing has a positive effect on the increase of the company¡¦s profit gains. Moreover, the use of dispatch has a positive effect on lowering employee turnover rate. 7.Wage flexibility has great effects on organizational performance. A higher rate of variable salary for full-time employees has a reverse effect on the lowering of labor cost. That is, adopting wage flexibility may increase labor cost. Keywords¡GFlexible Staffing Arrangements , Functional Flexibility, Numerical Flexibility, Wage Flexibility, Organizational Performance

In a freedom, international and global market, companies are under an intense competitive environment and with hi-pressure than before, besides increase the product and service quality, cost is a very important factor for operation. Since the margin of product is uncontrollable, personnel¡¦s cost controlling becomes a surviving criterion for businesses; therefore the typical employment relationship is no longer applicable to current challenging environment. In order to keep flexible to rapidly response the environment and sustain competitiveness, company¡¦s organization and staff placement are demanded adjustment. The goal of the thesis is to provide a retail business study and analysis of: 1) The status of the l human resources management in supermarket and hypermarket. 2) The relations between the characteristic of the organization and flexible staffing arrangements, and 3) The effect of flexible staffing arrangements on the organizational performance. 4) The influence of different management attitude between standard and non-standard workers. During this study, there are 38 copies of the questionnaire were sent out to HR supervisors of supermarket and chain-hypermarket stores, 30 were returned (no invalid). The return rate was 78.9%, nine of the HR supervisors had accepted an interview for opening questions about outsourcing training and flexible manpower policy. The results of the analysis are as the following: 1. Remarkable differences of numerical flexibility are found among different characteristics of the organization. The lower ratio of the labor cost of the organization is, the greater functional flexibility it has. 2. Remarkable differences of management attitude are found among different characteristics of the organization. The fewer layers of the organization is, the little difference of management attitude between various type workers. 3. Remarkable differences of organizational performance are found among different characteristics of the organization. The fewer layers of the organization has a positive effect on the higher customer satisfaction. 4. Functional flexibility has enormous effects on organizational performance. The diversified job arrangement of full-time worker has a positive effect on management effectiveness. 5. Functional flexibility has enormous effects on organizational performance. The independence of job arrangement of full-time worker has a positive effect on the increase of staff productivity. 6. Functional flexibility has enormous effects on organizational performance. Training supply of full time worker has a positive effect on the increase of staff productivity, company¡¦s profit gains, management effectiveness, customer satisfaction and decrease the ratio of labor cost. Base on the result of this research, here are our suggestion to business: 1) Considering company¡¦s long-term objective when planning the functional flexibility to cultivate and retain core workers. 2) Continue conducting training to increase organizational performance.3) Design a complete human resource management policy to increase effort and decrease the negative effect of non-standard worker. 4) Apply Wage flexible in company.

A net is a special configuration of lines and points in the projective plane. There are certain restrictions on the number of its lines and points. We proved that there cannot be any (4,4) nets in CP^2. In order to show this, we use tropical algebraic geometry. We tropicalize the hypothetical net and show that there cannot be such a configuration in CP^2.

Within the broader scope of free movement of persons, free movement of workers is one of the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the European Union (EU) law. It is one of most significant rights that are granted to the Union citizens and will be enjoyed by Turkish nationals after Turkey&rsquo / s accession the Union. In this regard, this study examines the free movement of Turkish workers in the EU within the framework of Turkey&rsquo / s EU accession process and two recent EU enlargements since 2004. Along with the legal scope of free movement of workers, transitional arrangements applied in two recent enlargements are analyzed as it could provide some foresights about such freedom with respect to Turkey&rsquo / s EU membership.

Syfte: Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att öka förståelsen för hur organisationer kan arbeta med flexibla arbetsformer. Vi vill belysa vilka konsekvenser som kan uppstå med flexibla arbetsformer och hur de påverkar organisationer. Vi önskar även att fylla gapet vi uppmärksammat i forskningen kring flexibla arbetsformer ur ett organisatoriskt perspektiv.      Metod: Uppsatsen är en kvalitativ studie med en induktiv ansats som behandlar fenomenet flexibla arbetsformer ur ett organisatoriskt perspektiv. Datainsamlingen för studien har skett genom sju kvalitativa intervjuer på Kalmar kommun.   Slutsats: Slutsatsen av studien har visat att organisationer arbetar med flexibla arbetsformer utifrån olika förutsättningar delvis i form av; tekniska förutsättningar, ständig förändring av arbetsmarknaden, konkurrens samt de anställdas förutsättningar. Genomförandet av studien har det även bidragit till att vi har kunnat identifiera både positiva och negativa konsekvenser som kan uppstå för organisationer som använder sig av flexibla arbetsformer. En positiv konsekvens som vi har kommit fram till är att organisationen blir en attraktiv arbetsgivare. En negativ konsekvens är att anställda kan ha en svårighet att balansera privatliv och arbetsliv, vilket i sin tur påverkar organisationen i form av sjukfrånvaro och produktionsbortfall.

This document provides a resource for Franz Liszt's unfamiliar piano work, the Grosses Konzertsolo and his subsequent rearrangement of the work for two pianos entitled Concerto pathetique. The Introduction places the work in its historical context as a precursor to the great Sonata in B minor and discusses possible reasons for its various revisions. Chapter One details Liszt's productive years from 1849-1853 in Weimar and selected keyboard works from this period which are closely related to the Grosses Konzertsolo. Chapter Two provides information on Liszt's first published piano works and his experiments with form, as well as a comparison of the Grosses Konzertsolo with the Sonata in B minor, in terms of motivic and thematic development. Technical issues and obstacles to performance are also addressed. Chapter Three compares the Concerto pathetique with the Grosses Konzertsolo showing how Liszt's rearrangement becomes more practical as well as effective. Chapter Four discusses Hans von Bulow's version of the Concerto pathetique and includes a brief biography.