This paper examines the properties of the perfect Bayesian Nash equilibrium or equilibria in a model where the new car market coexists with the lemon market which has adverse selection problems. Under such a setting, it is shown that the price of a new car will be affected indirectly by the problems of adverse selection in the lemon market.

In recently years, RFID system has been developed rapidly and it is one of the ten most important technologies in this century. Our government (Taiwan) and the manufacture industries both are actively and positively promoting RFID system to enhance immediate reactions of corporate distribution & logistic system, and further improving the corporate operation efficiency and corporate competitive competences. In this study, we use Everett M. Rogers¡¦s (1962) Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) Theory as our framework, with individualized case study such as torpedo car system of steel plant discussing RFID system¡¦s five stages of its implementation process. The five stages are knowledge, persuasion, decision-making, implementation and confirmation. These are the consideration items and evaluation standards when implement RFID system. We research RFID system on its impact in organizational structure and culture, and further compare the impact of adoptive RFID system enterprises and existing resources. We summarized our research findings as following : 1. Large-scale and solid financial enterprises usually take the initiative to collect information and understanding the innovative technologies such as the RFID system. If the technology can be widely applied in the company and bring greater benefits, the employees within the company will propose recommended plans. Therefore, usually early adopters of such technology are big firm companies. 2. Enterprises whom are considering implementing this innovative technology like RFID system, the first focus is its future benefit, followed by the costs and the other factors; if the assessments revealed that can significantly enhance corporate performance, even in the absence of precedent for reference, the enterprises will still try to implement and use this technology. 3. Because the use of innovative technology companies usually lack of precedent and experience for reference, therefore before they adopted, they will survey related examples and will compare the current operation status to improve the efficiency of the forecast evaluation. In the initial stage of introduce innovative technology for a company, increasing corporate performance brought by technology usually remains in forecast period and hard to specify prediction.

In recent years, it has to spend lots of time and effort to get the certification of CMMI. Therefore, everyone is looking to tools or methods for speeding up the CMMI certification. CMMI level five, causal analysis and resolution, is an important issues for all industries. In the process of software development, we have to identify the causes for defects at first. Then, it uses a systematic approach to sum up the necessary causes for software defects in order to help managers make better decisions and develop action items. With no doubt, it is a very important issue in the process of software development. This study aims to explore the subject of using the methods of causal analysis and resolution to solve the problems of software defects. Through the implementation of CAR, we can determine the root causes of defects and avoid importing defects to products. This study focus on the implementations of CAR and it proposes the methods, procedures and management forms. Moreover, this study will introduce the Mill¡¦s methods for causal reasoning used in the structure of CAR. Therefore it can help managers with a better way to sum up the causes for defects. The study uses case study method. Firstly, it connects the company for data collection of cause and effect diagram and combines the Mill¡¦s methods to inductive causal and analysis. Then it arranges interviews with the company managers to identify the necessary causes of defects. Finally, it helps the company develop action items in order to achieve the causal analysis and resolutions in the process of software development.

<p>A change is gradually taking place in the media industry. Traditional communication channels are being replaced by new, electronic, ones (Johnson, 2003). Segmented marketing is gaining popularity, as the mass-marketing model is becoming more or less obsolete (Kotler et al. 2001). At the same time, the consumers’ attention span is more divided than ever (Neff, 2004). These changes in the marketing environment demand a re-construction of the companies’ marketing efforts (Neff, 2004). They have to reach the customers online but also catch their scattered attention through different communication channels, both new and old ones (Halliday, 2004; Kotler et. al 2001).</p><p>The subject for this study is this combination of new and old marketing methods. We decided to focus on the car-industry, since that industry both uses e-marketing and combine it with traditional marketing. Hence, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate the possible outcomes of the use of emarketing in combination with traditional marketing, within the car-industry. We investigated this matter from a business point-of-view, focusing on companies operating in Sweden. In order to gather information to this thesis, we conducted six interviews with representatives from different car-companies. The empirical study also includes secondary data from one car-company, this because we could not get an interview with this company. We decided to use interviews since it is a preferable method when investigating opinions and personal views (Andersson, 1994). We have identified three main outcomes of the combination of traditional marketing and emarketing. The first one is that companies can encourage their customers to become active, using this combination. The customer is, passively, receiving the advertisement thought traditional media, but can then decide to become active by visiting the company’s echannels. When online, the customer can continue to be active by interact with the content on the website. The second possible outcome, that we have identified, is the opportunity for companies to engage the customer in a two-way communication. The company can start the dialogue, using traditional marketing channels and the customer can answer by using e-channels. The third possible outcome of the combination of traditional- and e-marketing is that companies can use material gathered with electronic methods in their traditional marketing.</p> / <p>En förändring håller på att äga rum inom marknadsförings-industrin. De traditionella kanalerna håller på att få konkurrens av nya, elektroniska, medier (Johnson, 2003). Samtidigt håller den vedertagna massmarknadsföringsmetoden på att successivt ersättas med mer segmenterad marknadsföring (Kotler et al. 2001). Konsumenternas uppmärksamhet blir även allt mer splittrad på fler olika medier (Neff, 2004). Neff (2004) menar att denna förändring fodrar en omstrukturering av företagens marknadsföringsstrategier. Företagen måste dels nå konsumenterna där de finns idag, vilket bland annat på Internet eller spelandes TV-spel (Halliday, 2004). Samtidigt måste de fånga konsumenterna splittrade uppmärksamhet genom marknadsföringssatsningar på bred front i olika medier, både nya och gamla. (Halliday, 2004; Kotler et. al 2001). Det är just denna kombination av e-marknadsföring och traditionell marknadsföring som är fokus för denna uppsats. Vi har valt att studera bilindustrin eftersom de använder emarknadsföring i stor utsträckning och för att det inom branschen finns exempel på hur denna marknadsföring kombineras med traditionella metoder (Ford, 2005; Volvo, 2005).</p><p>Syftet med uppsatsen är således att undersöka vilka möjliga effekter kombinationen av traditionell- och e-marknadsföring skapar för marknadsföringen inom bilindustrin. Detta fenomen kommer att undersökas med ett företagsperspektiv. Vi har studerat sju olika bilföretag som är verksamma i Sverige. Med syftet i åtanke har vi valt att göra en kvalitativ uppsats med intervjuer som primärkälla och litteraturstudier som sekundärkälla. Att använda oss av intervjuer som primärdatainsamlingsmetod är enligt Andersson (1994) effektivt för att få fram värderingar, upplevelser och tolkningar. Detta är viktigt då det rör sig om en kvalitativ undersökning. Vi har identifierat tre huvudsakliga möjliga kombinatoriska effekter. Den första är att företagen kan göra kunden aktiv genom att kombinera traditionell marknadsföring och e-marknadsföring. Kunden går då från att passivt ta del av reklambudskapet som levereras genom traditionell marknadsföring, till att aktivt besöka företagets e kanaler (hemsida, 3g-tjänst, e-post). Väl där kan de sedan interagera genom det aktiva innehåll som erbjuds på exempelvis hemsidan. Den andra av de kombinatoriska effekterna vi har identifierat är möjligheten till tvåvägskommunikation mellan företagen och kunden. Företaget uppmanar kunden till dialog genom traditionell marknadsföring. Kunden kan sedan följa denna uppmaning via företagets e-kanaler. Den tredje kombinatoriska effekten vi har hittat är att företag kan använda elektroniskt insamlad information om sina kunder till den traditionella marknadsföringen.</p>

<p>The thesis identifies and discusses the changing structure of international trade and specialization in the industries of cars and heavy trucks. The main contribution of the thesis is that it discusses the patterns from the perspective of the car industry with the similar but in some aspects different industry of heavy trucks as a contrasting example. This method aims at giving more knowledge about the varying challenges that different industries face in a globalized economy. To authors’ knowledge such a direct comparison has not yet been done. Some results presented in the study is that while car producers compete on a global scale the producers of heavy trucks does it on a regional scale. For the OECD 23 car producing countries, this implies competition from producers in countries with low factor input costs. This is probably one of the reasons why OECD 23 car producers have raised the export value or their goods relatively more than the producers of heavy trucks. The thesis also reveals how the patterns of export and specialization have shifted dramatically in both industries.</p>

<p>In racing, it is useful to analyze vehicle performance and driving strategies to achieve the best result possible in competitions. This is often done by simulations and test driving.</p><p>In this thesis optimal control is used to examine how a racing car should be driven to minimize the lap time. This is achieved by calculating the optimal racing line at various tracks. The tracks can have arbitrary layout and consist of corners with non-constant radius. The road can have variable width. A four wheel vehicle model with lateral and longitudinal weight transfer is used.</p><p>To increase the performance of the optimization algorithm, a set of additional techniques are used. The most important one is to divide tracks into smaller overlapping segments and find the optimal line for each segment independently. This turned out to be useful when the track is long.</p><p>The optimal racing line is found for various tracks and cars. The solutions have several similarities to real driving techniques. The result is presented as driving instructions in Racer, a car simulator.</p>

Transportation sector has been a major contributing factor to the overall emissions of most pollutants and thus their impacts on the environment. Among all transportation activities, on-road travel accounts for most part of the Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and fuel use. It also has a very un-desirable impact on the transportation network conditions increasing the traffic congestion levels. The main aim of transportation planning agencies is to implement the policy changes that will reduce automobile dependency and increase transit and non-motorized modes usage. However, planning agencies can come up with proactive economic, land-use and transportation policies provided they have a model which is sensitive to all the above mentioned factors to predict the vehicle fleet composition and usage of households. Moreover, the type of vehicle that a household gets (vehicle type choice) and the annual mileage (usage) associated with that vehicle is very closely related to the person in the household who uses that vehicle the most (allocation to primary driver). So, it is no longer possible to view all these decisions separately. Instead, we need to model all these decisions- vehicle type choice, usage, and allocation to primary driver simultaneously at a household level. In this study, we estimate and apply a joint household-level model of the number of vehicles owned by the household, the vehicle type choice of each vehicle, the annual mileage on each vehicle, as well as the individual assigned as the primary driver for each vehicle. A version of the proposed model system currently serves as the engine for a household vehicle composition and evolution simulator, which itself has been embedded within the larger SimAGENT (for Simulator of Activities, Greenhouse emissions, Networks, and Travel) activity-based travel and emissions forecasting system for the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) planning region. / text

Balloon Cars (Soft Cars) used for active-system testing are presently statically following one specific path. Autonomous GPS driven balloon cars can be extremely useful if made to be accurate.Volvo group’s long term plan involves usage of such cars to improve active-safety systems. Thisreport presents comprehensive details about the development of the control system of the soft-car.Software development was preceded by purchase of parts. Detailed descriptions of the ballooncar hardware components are presented. Various hardware components were interconnected toform a CAN Bus network. This thesis work describes CAN networks in general and with referenceto the developed Linux based software system.The navigation system is presented in the thesis report using a ‘bottom up’ approach. First theLow-level functions and variables are described that directly control the hardware component.They are called by high level functions that are subsequently explained. The high level functionsinclude accurate turning and an automated lane change process.The high level functions may be sequentially called and to accurately follow a specific path. Various lines and points may be used in a user defined Cartesian coordinate system. Details about theperformance of various high level functions as well as of a demonstration of a pattern are presented along with the limitations of the overall system.

The objective to this bachelor degree project was to redesign a structure of the doors and add windows of a convertible car. This was carried out in collaboration with the company Hurtan Desarrollos S.L. To establish the requirements for the design, initial studies were performed: a literature review, a benchmark of related products and a study of standard car door designs. After this the final requirements were defined and the concept generation design phase was begun. In this phase a number of design methods were applied. The design concepts were systematically evaluated in respect to if, and to what degree, the concepts met the defined demands and needs of the design. The final concepts were completed with the demands of the company to obtain the results. In order to define, create and communicate ideas and solutions, the design was modelled in Solidworks software and exported to Creo Parametric 2.0 to create the final renders. Once the overall design was defined, materials and accessories were specified. The final result is presented in detail in photorealistic renderings and a physical design made by Hurtan Desarrollos S.L.

Cancer is an uncontrolled growth of the body's own cells. While cancer rates increase with age, this disease afflicts both young and old. Traditional cancer therapy has had three major facets: 1) chemotherapy, which can non-specifically damage healthy tissue, 2) radiation, which can make some types of cancer more likely in the future, and 3) surgery, which can be physically traumatic and is not effective in removing unseen microtumors or circulating metastases. Immunotherapy, by its very nature, is drastically different. Immunotherapy seeks to employ cells or molecules from the immune system, in their original or a modified form, to augment, assist or replace missing elements of the native functioning immune system. Our immunotherapeutic approach has been to develop novel chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) and deliver the engineered transgene into hematopoietic stem cells (HSC). We have developed a novel single chain TCR (scTCR) in which the TCR V-alpha and V-beta segments are joined by a flexible linker. In addition to our scTCR we developed a single chain antibody molecule (scFv) to increase avidity to the tumor antigen and avoid the potential limitation of MHC restriction. Our lab has previously developed a signaling cassette based on the CD3 zeta chain, CD28 and p56Lck proteins which are prominent in the T-cell signaling pathway. The single chain specificities are linked to the signaling cassette that we have shown to function in T-cells. With specificity and signaling coupled, the chimeric antigen receptor can be transduced into hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) via a lentivirus vector. This adoptive immunotherapy can potentially eliminate malignant cells or supplement traditional therapies by providing engineered specificity and a useful method to transfer and expand tumor specific T-cells. We show in this study that the CAR can be delivered effectively to HSC and that the introduced transgene is expressed in multiple cell lineages. We also have developed a novel method of increasing lentiviral transduction efficiency. Both transduced fraction of cells and overall expression can be increased by proper timing and coordination of cell growth, cell cycle phase, vector addition and treatment with heat shock.