This dissertation aims to investigate the origins of Internet voting, analyze several deployments of Internet voting technology in Austria and identify - based on these accumulated experiences - building blocks that can be useful in decision-making on and planning of future uses of Internet voting technology within Austria and throughout the world. In line with the goals of this thesis, it will address the following research questions: - How did Internet voting originate? - What experiences were noted in the process of implementing Internet voting in Austria? - What building blocks can be identified for developing future Internet voting both inside and outside Austria? Internet voting is part of a transformational movement that applies information and communication technologies to daily business activities. It is only logical that elections are also considered for applying electronic (remote) communication technologies. While early efforts were driven by the belief that elections could make easy use of the Internet, it was shown that while the principles have to be interpreted and consequently applied in a different way, the same principles can still be derived for Internet voting, like integrity, secrecy, transparency, accountability and public confidence. The need to have forms of decision making in electronic networks has been identified in its beginnings and has received continuous attention throughout its development. At the height of the excitement about the possibilities of the Internet, countries raced to become the first to run a legally binding election using electronic voting systems. While several candidates emerged (e.g., Costa Rica, Bosnia Herzegovina, Germany, United States), Estonia was victorious in 2005. To date, Estonia is the only country that has introduced this form of voting without any preconditions or other limitations. In Austria, the intentions to use information and communication technologies (ICT) in elections concentrated on parliamentary affairs. Spurred by the efforts around student elections in Germany, Austria sought to conduct Internet voting in 2000. In the years thereafter, considerable progress was made at WU Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU), and this progress spearheaded the debate in the early 2000s. At the beginning in the years 2001-2003, technical solutions were sought to verify voter eligibility and maintain voter privacy. Later, more sophisticated algorithms were developed, and functionalities like quotas in election commissions were added. The Federation of Students' elections in 2009 were a remarkable event that demonstrated highly contentious political debate around the topic. This debate continued after the elections, which were held in May 2009 and suffered from the intense debate and protests and consequential organizational shortcomings. The experiences also showed that accurate legal regulations are needed to show interaction with the constitutional legal texts and to ensure accountability to a remote electronic voting channel through legal means. International standards were a first step, but regulations based on actual experience were needed to show how remote electronic voting channels could be realized and how to avoid problems identified in pilot implementations. This practical knowledge also shows that sophisticated algorithms are not always the key to success. Rather, several key implementations make use of very basic technical means to realize the tasks given by law. One should not forget about the voters. They not only need to use such systems, but they also need to understand the processes in order to build trust. The constitutional court ruling lifted the election and ruled that the respective ordinance was not in line with the requirements of the law. Hereby, the court established higher requirements resulting barriers for offering Internet voting channels in future elections. While the election administration system, which was a pre-requisite for the Internet voting system, was discontinued in the election thereafter, it returned in recent elections where postal voting was offered. On the basis of the aforementioned experiences, twelve building blocks were compiled discovered. These include design decisions, such as the following: the form of electronic voting, adaptations of the legal base, the technical means for identification and secrecy, observation, control functions for the electoral commission, evaluation processes, transparency functions, ballot sheet designs, controlling the organizational context as well as providing options for planning and implementation. This framework therefore facilitates and eases the generation of feasibility studies and other analyses and decision making ahead of using Internet voting in an election. With little adaption it can also be used for the use of other voting technologies. This work utilizes theoretical work and knowledge from adaptations of legal texts. These texts cover a wide range of topics, including methods for implementing identification and anonymity functions in remote electronic voting as well as testing and certifying systems that require transparent procedures. The findings also show that implementing remote an electronic voting system is a complex topic. It requires trust in the election administration; otherwise, suspicion will arise when more technology is introduced and implemented in an election process. Remote electronic voting is one of the most challenging information technology (IT) projects.

Subcontractors in the automotive industry, have a lot of pressure to bring down costs and to deliver products that are effective, optimized and qualitative. The main purpose of this study is to guide and conduct the first step in the project Standard Building Blocks with modular design, within the business area, manual shifter. The project is directly presented by Kongsberg Automotive, a well-known subcontractor of the automotive industry. The aim of the project is to develop a standard manual shifter with modular design containing standard building blocks. Five different components have been selected in the manual shifter for this study. In each component, there are several concepts on how to design that specific component. The target of the study is to evaluate and analyze the concepts and based on the results decide which of the concepts to be standard building blocks. The study identifies, evaluates and analyses the consequences of the project Standard Building Blocks for the chosen concepts. The results from the study show that some concepts have a greater tendency to form standard building blocks when compared to others. In the study it was proven that non-measurable values have the same significance as the measured values. The results also show that the most suitable concepts depends on the customers’ specifications. The consequence analysis presented many consequences of what an implementation of standard building blocks may imply, from the advantages to possible risk elements. Through the consequence analysis the studied company can become more prepared for the future. / Underleverantörerna inom fordonsindustrin har en stor press när det kommer till hålla nere kostnader och att leverera effektiva, optimerade och kvalitativa produkter. Huvudsyftet med studien är att guida och genomföra det första steget i projektet Standard Building Blocks med modulär design, inom affärsområdet, manuella växelreglage. Projektet är direkt framtaget av Kongsberg Automotive, en välkänd underleverantör inom fordonsindustrin. Målet med projektet är att utveckla en standard manuell växelreglage med modulär design innehållande standard building blocks. Fem olika komponenter har valts ut i den manuell växelreglaget för studien. För varje komponent finns det flera koncept hur den specifika komponenten kan designas. Målet med studien är att utvärdera och analysera koncepten och utifrån resultatet avgöra vilka av koncepten som kan bilda standard building blocks. Studien identifierar, utvärderar och analyserar konsekvenser av projektet Standard Building Blocks för de valda koncepten. Resultatet från studien visade att vissa koncept har en större tendens att bilda standard building blocks än andra. I studien blev det bevisat att icke-mätbara värden har lika stor betydelse som uppmätta värdena. Resultatet visade också att de mest lämpade koncepten beror på kundens specifikationer. Konsekvensen analysen presenter många konsekvenser av vad en implementation av standard building blocks kan innebära, från fördelar till eventuella riskfaktorer. Genom konsekvensanalysen kan det studerade företaget bli mer förberedda för framtiden.

Dans un contexte où il est préférable de limiter les quantités de principes actifs, aussi bien dans les médicaments que dans les produits phytosanitaires, il est important de développer des produits dont l’activité biologique est augmentée. Pour ce faire, il est possible d’utiliser des hétérocycles aromatiques contenant des groupements fluorés. Ainsi, nous nous sommes intéressés au développement de voies d’accès à des building blocks hétéroaromatiques portant divers groupements fluorés afin de fournir de nouvelles possibilités pour la préparation de composés d’intérêt thérapeutique et phytosanitaire. Trois projets ont été réalisés, et ont résulté en la préparation efficace de pyridines comportant des groupements trifluorométhoxy, chlorodifluorométhoxy et dichlorofluorométhoxy. Une voie de synthèse régiosélective de 3,5-bis(fluoroalkyl) pyrazoles a également été mise au point. Tous ces méthodes de synthèse ont été développées de manière à obtenir les produits en peu d’étapes à partir de produits commerciaux et sont transposables à grande échelle. / The current trend is to lower the amounts of active ingredients used, in pharmaceutical chemistry and in agrochemistry. Therefore, it is important to produce molecules which are more biologically active. It is known that heterocycles are bioactive, and that fluorine can enhance this activity. With this aim in mind, we have taken an interest in the development of heteroaromatic building blocks bearing diversely fluorinated substituents in order to provide new options for the preparation of bioactive compounds. Three projects have resulted in the opening of new synthetic routes towards pyridines bearing trifluoromethoxy, chlorodifluoromethoxy and dichlorofluoromethoxy substituents. A regioselective method for the preparation of 3,5-bis(fluoroalkyl) pyrazoles has also been developed. All these routes have been studied with the aim of obtaining the building blocks in a few steps from commercially available products and are transposable to an industrial scale.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1999 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / The Hardened Subminiature Telemetry and Sensor System (HSTSS) is a model program; executing Department of Defense (DoD) initiatives, such as Acquisition Reform, Industry Partnering, and the use of Integrated Product Teams (IPT). HSTSS is using partnering because the expertise is spread across the industry, and integration is required to fabricate an instrumentation system that would meet tri-service test requirements. This paper will describe the programmatic and technical approaches being used to mitigate risk. In this paper key management strategies will be addressed. I will discuss the affect that the IPT process has had on HSTSS to make the program so successful. This paper will essentially discuss the acquisition strategy as it has evolved to mitigate obsolescence. The strategy has been influenced by acquisition streamlining , commercial technology and the limited production requirements. In this paper I will address how partnering and the use of commercial technology will reduce the program costs as well as the unit cost. The importance of working together within the services and sharing funds and technology to accomplish more with less will be addressed in this paper. This paper will address how we intend to deliver a low cost, microminiature, high g (100,000 g), modular instrumentation system. This instrumentation is to be used for indirect fire and direct fire projectiles and small missiles. Data is to be collected from launch to impact. The modules being developed will include but not be limited to batteries, transmitter, data acquisition chipset and a variety of sensors (pressure, spin rate, GPS, etc.).

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 22-25, 2001 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / The Hardened Subminiature Telemetry and Sensor System (HSTSS) is a model program; executing Department of Defense (DoD) initiatives, such as Acquisition Reform, Industry Partnering, and the use of Integrated Product Teams (IPT). The HSTSS is partnering because the unique expertise needed for the high g instrumentation system is spread across industry and the Government. The approaches used to reduce risk in the development of instrumentation systems will be described. Also technical strategies will be addressed. In this paper a discussion about the affect that the IPT process has had on HSTSS to make the program successful. This paper will describe the strategy used to leverage existing technologies, processes, and to market the components that has been developed. The information presented here will address how partnering and the use of commercial technology will reduce the program costs as well as the unit cost. The importance of working together within the Services and sharing funds and technology to accomplish more with less will be addressed. This paper will address how we are delivering a low cost, miniature, high-g (100,000 g’s), and modular instrumentation system. This instrumentation is to be used for indirect fire and direct fire projectiles and small missiles. The building blocks for this instrumentation system include batteries, transmitter, pulse code modulation (PCM) encoders, and a variety of sensors (pressure, spin rate, etc.). Instrumentation requirement for HSTSS is to collect data from launch to impact.

Forskning lyfter vikten av tidiga insatser samt uppföljning och utvärdering för att nå en inkluderande verksamhet, samtidigt framhålls bristen på utvärderingsverktyg för att säkerställa en inkluderande verksamhet. Efter flera års erfarenheter som förskollärare har vi sett att det saknas ett tydligt arbetsmaterial som inbjuder till en samsyn mellan professioner kring hur svårigheterna kring inkludering ser ut på organisations-, grupp- och individnivå. Det evidensbaserade ramverket Building Blocks syftar till att planera och utforma undervisning samt lärmiljö för att inkludera barn i behov av stöd i förskolans verksamhet. Ramverket utgår ifrån fyra block som stegvis bygger på varandra och vi har valt att fokusera på ramverkets matriser som omfattar organisation, grupp och individ. Syftet med studien är att undersöka om, och i så fall hur, en inkluderande förskoleverksamhet med stöd av ramverket Building Blocks matriser i den ordinarie verksamheten kan förändra förutsättningar och villkor för barn som både tillfälligt samt varaktigt är i behov av stöd. Studien utgår ifrån en kvalitativ metod genom en fallstudie där den bearbetade datainsamlingen har inhämtas genom observationer, intervjuer och samtal samt genom implementeringen av Building Blocks matriser. Resultatet visar att användandet av Building Blocks matriser synliggjorde verksamhetens inkluderingsarbete. Med hjälp av matriserna kunde förbättringsområden urskiljas som sedan ledde till en utveckling på både gruppnivå samt individnivå.

Forskning visar att barn i behov av särskilt stöd i förskolan ofta granskas, kartläggs och kategoriseras med resultat att svårigheter förläggs på det enskilda barnet. Studiens syfte var att kritiskt granska på vilket sätt det evidensbaserade ramverket Building Blocks skulle kunna vägleda pedagoger i specialpedagogiska situationer samt att få svar på vilka möjligheter och hinder ramverkets metoder och strategier har. Ramverket är ett skattningsmaterial som utgår från ett organisations-, grupp- och individperspektiv med fyra nivåer och åtta strategiområden. I studien redovisas fem vägledande samtal med nio pedagoger på tre avdelningar vilka tillämpats med en aktionsforskningsansats. Dessutom har både kvalitativa metoder såsom vägledande samtal och analys av empirisk datainsamling från de tre parallella fallstudier använts samt en kvantitativ metod i form av enkäter för att upptäcka mönster och utforma två teman. Vidare utfördes en korsanalys i syfte att finna likheter och skillnader mellan avdelningarnas arbetsprocess. Studien belyser ett relationellt respektive kategoriskt perspektiv, sociokulturellt perspektiv, systemteoretiskt perspektiv samt teoretisk eklekticism. Resultatet indikerar tydligt att de vägledande samtalen gällande ramverket Building Blocks har haft betydelse för verksamhetens förändringsarbete på organisations-, grupp- och individnivå. Enkätresultatet visar att ramverket har bidragit med att vägleda pedagogerna till att stödja alla barn och varje barn.

The advent of wide-bandgap (WBG) devices like silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFETs has resulted in a paradigm shift toward high-density and high-efficiency integration of power electronics systems. This being the result of relatively high switching frequencies (>10 kHz) compared to conventional Si IGBT counterparts, which reportedly can minimize the size of passive components such as DC-link capacitors and line harmonic filters. Unfortunately, with faster switching speeds and high slew rates, the common-mode (CM) and differential-mode (DM) conducted emissions interference (EMI) noise is worsened. The effects are manifested at the utility interface with grid-tied applications (three-phase rectifiers or back-to-back converters) in the form of high CM and DM emissions, total harmonic distortion (THD) and current harmonics. While at the motor end, long cable and bearing/leakage current effects are prevalent. As such, typically bulky passive filters are recommended to comply with industry regulations and allow safe and reliable system operation, which can be detrimental on the overall system power density. Hence, it is imperative to minimize the filter volume/weight contribution to fully utilize the benefits of WBG power converters. As an added feature, modular filter building block (FBB) configurations inspired by the building block nature of power electronics converters are needed to address scalability to higher power levels (through interleaving or paralleling) without the need for significant filter redesign. As such, for grid-tied applications (AC-DC converters), the interleaving of parallel converters adopted to achieve superior harmonic attenuation for grid-side currents at the expense of low harmonic filter volume. Therefore, interleaved converters are explored in Chapters 2 and 3. However, to block inter-channel circulation, additional use of coupled inductors (CI) can outweigh the benefits of interleaving. Therefore, modular FBB architectures with unique methods to handle circulating currents are proposed. At the same time, the FBB is designed to meet power quality and EMI limits for any given number of channels, up to the maximum number of channels, N, allowed at the point of common coupling (PCC). Consequently, a qualitative and quantitative comparison of FBB candidates is performed, and the indirectly coupled FBB using a secondary loop interconnection is proposed as a viable modular FBB candidate. Correspondingly, for DC-AC inverters, modular filters can be realized using a masked impedance and decoupling approach. The test case being a DC-fed motor drive for aircraft propulsion systems. Techniques, such as optimized parallel RC dampers to reduce the peak bearing current and CM/DM magnetic integration of a DC side filter with an embedded DC current sensor and embedded decoupling path with gate driver for high frequency commutation, are implemented to reduce the overall weight of the system. The challenges with low temperature rise margin due to high ambient temperature and low peak Partial Discharge Inception Voltage (PDIV) are addressed. In addition, a novel pulse with modulation (PWM) scheme is proposed to further enhance the bandwidth of the proposed AC filter, specifically targeted to reduce the peak bearing current and improve the specific power and motor lifetime. A negative consequence of high-density filter integration is the impact of self and mutual parasitic couplings of filter sub-components on filter attenuation, which is studied on a back-to-back converter system (AC-AC). Simplified lumped models that are representative of the high frequency filter behavior are developed to desensitize the impact of individual filter sub-components. Thereafter, unique winding and placement techniques are proposed to compensate for the impact of self and mutual parasitic couplings on the noise spectrum. Overall, this work presents potential FBB topologies for varying modes of power conversion (AC-DC, DC-AC, and AC-AC), ultimately aimed at reducing the volume/weight of the system. Methods to minimize the passive component volume/weight from the point of view of topology, magnetic integration, and PWM techniques are discussed, while the implications of a high-density integration at high frequency is presented. Generalized practical design guidelines are formulated to aid in accurate high-density filter design for WBG converters. / Doctor of Philosophy / With the ever-increasing use of switching converters, either AC-DC, DC-AC, or DC-DC converters, electromagnetic interference issues can affect the overall system performance, which necessitates the use of filters. This is especially true with more and more point-of-load applications (parallel converters in charging stations, industries, and residential loads), distributed energy sources (solar power, wind power, and battery storage systems), and primary sources (power plants) being integrated together into a super grid. Similarly, transportation applications (electric vehicles, more-electric aircrafts) demand strict filtering requirements, due to the prime importance of reliability. Therefore, three-phase power quality and EMI filters are an integral part of any power conversion system, from low to high power applications. First, novel techniques to address the scalability and modularity of filters with parallel converters are considered (grid-tied application), where the benefits of interleaving and challenges in circulating current mitigation are addressed. The idea is simply to design one filter that can be used with any given number of converters running in parallel, which promotes rapid manufacturability to meet the ever-increasing demand. Thereafter a highly integrated and optimized filter structure is demonstrated for a traction inverter used in aerospace propulsion. Challenges pertaining to compact filter design are addressed, and new methods are proposed to overcome some of the critical issues that come with high-altitude operation, such as reliability, high temperature, and partial discharge-free operation. Lastly, the effect of non-idealities on filters that can lead to deteriorated performance is explored. As such, solutions to compensate for these effects are proposed and verified. Clearly, there is a need to optimize filters as well, minimizing their volume and weight contribution within a power converter. This aspect is considered throughout the work where design guidelines are proposed to optimize the given filter topology, filter parameter selection, and form factors for different applications, ranging from AC-DC converters to DC-AC traction motor drives.

Design and synthesis of novel supramolecular architectures is an interesting area of research in the last two decades. Intermolecular interactions assisted self-assembly of molecular and macromolecular building blocks play an important role in obtaining the desired shape and function of the supramolecular architectures. A combination of the classical covalent synthesis with the self-assembly assisted formation of well-defined architectures (noncovalent synthesis) allows us to develop novel multifunctional materials. Our approach in this area is focused on the design of novel molecular and biomolecular building blocks and the optimization of structure-property relationship of the materials using self-assembly approach. This presentation will focus on our recent efforts on the design and synthesis of polymers and oligopeptides for investigation of the self-assembly and fine-tuning the structure-property relationship. Also, some highlights will be given on our initial investigation on how hard minerals are synthesized by natural molecules through the self-assembly processes. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

Conceptual design is an early stage in the design process, in which functional requirements of a design problem are transformed into solution concepts for satisfying the requirements. It is regarded as a crucial step in design, because decisions made in this stage will strongly affect all the subsequent stages of the design process. Research evidence suggests that inspiration is useful for exploration and discovery of new solution spaces, and exploration of a wide variety of concepts increases the chances of developing more novel, and hence more creative solutions. There are various approaches to providing inspiration, e.g., creativity techniques such as trigger word technique, biomimetics such as Idea-Inspire, and computational synthesis approaches such as compositional synthesis. Computational synthesis tools are used for automated generation of concepts, which can be offered to the designer as triggers for inspiring ideation. The advantage of using solutions from computational synthesis as triggers are the following: the solutions can be produced in a relatively unbiased manner, allowing a variety of directions to be explored, and the solutions are exhaustive within the constraints of the databases or rules used, allowing a multitude of possibilities to be offered. However, computational synthesis has been traditionally used for automating solution generation, rather than creating triggers for designers’ ideation. Notwithstanding their potential for inspiring ideation, current computational synthesis approaches rarely focused on this task. One exception is FuncSION, a compositional synthesis tool, which can automatically synthesize solution concepts for mechanical devices, where a set of input and output characteristics i.e. functional requirements are provided by the user and the computer generates solutions by combining building blocks from a library to satisfy the requirements; these solutions are then used as stimuli for ideation by designers. The focus of this thesis is on evaluating and improving the effectiveness of computational synthesis in triggering ideation during conceptual design, in terms of improving the fluency and variety of the concept space produced. FuncSION has been used as the example synthesis approach on which the work has been focused. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of FuncSION in terms of fluency and variety, a method for assessing variety of a concept space is proposed, and a tool for supporting the assessment process has been developed. However, compositional synthesis research has always assumed that the building blocks are given, and has confined its focus on the process of combining the building blocks. It has not been investigated as to how such building blocks can be automatically identified. If new building blocks can be automatically identified, the resulting change in the library of building blocks would have a substantial effect on the outcomes of compositional synthesis, i.e. the triggers that can be offered to the designers for ideation, with a resulting effect on the concepts generated by the designers. Therefore, in this thesis, an automated method for building blocks synthesis has been proposed, and has been implemented as a computational tool.