Quantification of stochastic or quantum systems by a joint probability density or wave function is a notoriously difficult computational problem, since the solution depends on all possible states (or realizations) of the system. Due to this combinatorial flavor, even a system containing as few as ten particles may yield as many as $10^{10}$ discretized states. None of even modern supercomputers are capable to cope with this curse of dimensionality straightforwardly, when the amount of quantum particles, for example, grows up to more or less interesting order of hundreds. A traditional approach for a long time was to avoid models formulated in terms of probabilistic functions, and simulate particular system realizations in a randomized process. Since different times in different communities, data-sparse methods came into play. Generally, they aim to define all data points indirectly, by a map from a low amount of representers, and recast all operations (e.g. linear system solution) from the initial data to the effective parameters. The most advanced techniques can be applied (at least, tried) to any given array, and do not rely explicitly on its origin. The current work contributes further progress to this area in the particular direction: tensor product methods for separation of variables. The separation of variables has a long history, and is based on the following elementary concept: a function of many variables may be expanded as a product of univariate functions. On the discrete level, a function is encoded by an array of its values, or a tensor. Therefore, instead of a huge initial array, the separation of variables allows to work with univariate factors with much less efforts. The dissertation contains a short overview of existing tensor representations: canonical PARAFAC, Hierarchical Tucker, Tensor Train (TT) formats, as well as the artificial tensorisation, resulting in the Quantized Tensor Train (QTT) approximation method. The contribution of the dissertation consists in both theoretical constructions and practical numerical algorithms for high-dimensional models, illustrated on the examples of the Fokker-Planck and the chemical master equations. Both arise from stochastic dynamical processes in multiconfigurational systems, and govern the evolution of the probability function in time. A special focus is put on time propagation schemes and their properties related to tensor product methods. We show that these applications yield large-scale systems of linear equations, and prove analytical separable representations of the involved functions and operators. We propose a new combined tensor format (QTT-Tucker), which descends from the TT format (hence TT algorithms may be generalized smoothly), but provides complexity reduction by an order of magnitude. We develop a robust iterative solution algorithm, constituting most advantageous properties of the classical iterative methods from numerical analysis and alternating density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) techniques from quantum physics. Numerical experiments confirm that the new method is preferable to DMRG algorithms. It is as fast as the simplest alternating schemes, but as reliable and accurate as the Krylov methods in linear algebra.

Abstract This paper describes the file formats of the output data and geometry files generated by the Delphin program, a simulation model for hygrothermal transport in porous media. The output data format is suitable for any kind of simulation output generated by transient transport simulation models. Implementing support for the Delphin output format enables use of the advanced post-processing functionality provided by the Delphin post-processing tool and its dedicated physical analysis functionality.:1 Introduction 2 Magic Headers 2.1 Version Number Encoding in Binary Files 2.2 Version Number Encoding in ASCII Files 3 Output Data File Format 3.1 File Name Specification 3.2 General File Layout 3.3 ASCII Format 3.4 Binary File Format 4 Geometry File 4.1 General 4.2 File Name Specification 4.3 ASCII Format 4.4 Binary Format 5 Summary A Changes

This paper describes the file formats of the output data and geometry files generated by the Delphin program, a simulation model for hygrothermal transport in porous media. The output data format is suitable for any kind of simulation output generated by transient transport simulation models. Implementing support for the Delphin output format enables use of the advanced post-processing functionality provided by the Delphin post- processing tool and its dedicated physical analysis functionality. The article also discusses the application programming interface of the DataIO library that can be used to read/write Delphin output data and geometry files conveniently and efficiently.:1 Introduction 2 Magic Headers 2.1 Version Number Encoding in Binary Files 2.2 Version Number Encoding in ASCII Files 3 Output Data File Format 3.1 File Name Specification 3.2 General File Layout 3.3 ASCII Format 3.4 Binary File Format 4 Geometry File 4.1 General 4.2 File Name Specification 4.3 ASCII Format 4.4 Binary Format 5 Overview of the Programming Interface (API) 5.1 Reading Data Files with the DataIO Library 5.2 Writing Data Files with the DataIO Library 6 Summary

Digital search engine, taking a search request from user and then returning a result responded to the request to the user, is indispensable for modern humans who are used to surfing the Internet. On the other hand, the digital document PDF is accepted by more and more people and becomes widely used in this day and age due to the convenience and effectiveness. It follows that, the traditional library has already started to be replaced by the digital one. Combining these two factors, a document based search engine that is able to query a digital document database with an input file is urgently needed. This thesis is a software development that aims to design and implement a prototype of such search engine, and propose latent optimization methods for Loredge. This research can be mainly divided into two categories: Prototype Development and Optimization Analysis. It involves an analytical research on sample documents provided by Loredge and a multi-perspective performance analysis. The prototype contains reading, preprocessing and similarity measurement. The reading part reads in a PDF file by using an imported Java library Apache PDFBox. The preprocessing processes the in-reading document and generates document fingerprint. The similarity measurement is the final stage that measures the similarity between the input fingerprint with all the document fingerprints in the database. The optimization analysis is to balance resource consumptions involving response time, accuracy rate and memory consumption. According to the performance analysis, the shorter the document fingerprint is, the better performance the search program presents. Moreover, a permanent feature database and a similarity based filtration mechanism are proposed to further optimize the program. This project has laid a solid foundation for further study in the document based search engine by providing a feasible prototype and enough relevant experimental data. This study figures out that the following study should mainly focuses on improving the effectiveness of the database access, which involves data entry labeling and search algorithm optimization. / Digital sökmotor, som tar en sökfråga från användaren och sedan returnerar ett resultat som svarar på den begäran tillbaka till användaren, är oumbärligt för moderna människor som brukar surfa på Internet. Å andra sidan, det digitala dokumentets format PDF accepteras av fler och fler människor, och det används i stor utsträckning i denna tidsålder på grund av bekvämlighet och effektivitet. Det följer att det traditionella biblioteket redan har börjat bytas ut av det digitala biblioteket. När dessa två faktorer kombineras, framgår det att det brådskande behövs en dokumentbaserad sökmotor, som har förmåga att fråga en digital databas om en viss fil. Den här uppsatsen är en mjukvaruutveckling som syftar till att designa och implementera en prototyp av en sådan sökmotor, och föreslå relevant optimeringsmetod för Loredge. Den här undersökningen kan huvudsakligen delas in i två kategorier, prototyputveckling och optimeringsanalys. Arbeten involverar en analytisk forskning om exempeldokument som kommer från Loredge och en prestandaanalys utifrån flera perspektiv. Prototypen innehåller läsning, förbehandling och likhetsmätning. Läsningsdelen läser in en PDF-fil med hjälp av en importerad Java bibliotek, Apache PDFBox. Förbehandlingsdelen bearbetar det inlästa dokumentet och genererar ett dokumentfingeravtryck. Likhetsmätningen är det sista steget, som mäter likheten mellan det inlästa fingeravtrycket och fingeravtryck av alla dokument i Loredge databas. Målet med optimeringsanalysen är att balansera resursförbrukningen, som involverar responstid, noggrannhet och minnesförbrukning. Ju kortare ett dokuments fingeravtryck är, desto bättre prestanda visar sökprogram enligt resultat av prestandaanalysen. Dessutom föreslås en permanent databas med fingeravtryck, och en likhetsbaserad filtreringsmekanism för att ytterligare optimera sökprogrammet. Det här projektet har lagt en solid grund för vidare studier om dokumentbaserad sökmotorn, genom att tillhandahålla en genomförbar prototyp och tillräckligt relevanta experimentella data. Den här studie visar att kommande forskning bör huvudsakligen inriktas på att förbättra effektivitet i databasåtkomsten, vilken innefattar data märkning och optimering av sökalgoritm.

Denna uppsats diskuterar fyra unga vuxnas, i Växjö, relation till vinylskivor som format för musiklyssning. Genom den kvalitativa intervjumetoden görs ett försök att beskriva hur informanterna motiverar användandet av vinylskivor, vilka egenskaper som de tillskriver skivorna och hur det förhåller sig gentemot digital musiklyssning. Materialet har analyserats med hjälp av teorier kring retrologier (skapandet av sätt att se tillbaka), affordance (vinylskivans polyvokala egenskaper) och rekontextualiseringsprocesser (vilka egenskaper tillskrivs formatet i en modern kontext). Studien visar på vinylskivans förmåga att frambringa en särskild känsla hos informanterna och hur detta skapas utifrån flertalet olika dimensioner, så som skivans fysikalitet, visuella egenskaper och inbjudan till ett aktivt lyssnande.

本研究旨在探討圖像輔助呈現時機對台灣國中生聽力的影響，而圖像輔助呈現時機則分為在聽力活動前與在聽力活動進行中。同時為了深入探究其效益，本研究更著重於其對高、中、低三個不同能力組別學生的影響。除此之外，並對於二份學生問卷的回答加以探討： （1）問卷一有關學生們先前學習英語的背景資料。 （2）問卷一有關學生們在聽力過程中主要遭遇的問題，涵蓋聽力內容、聽者本身與外在因素等。 （3）問卷二有關學生們對圖像式聽力測驗的反應與他們對實施聽力測驗時，圖片展示時間的看法。 本研究以台中縣光正國中一個國三班級42位同學為對象，經過英語聽力能力測驗後，他們被分為高中低三組。實驗前，學生們先填寫第一份問卷。隨後，三組學生一起接受兩種實驗: (1)邊聽邊看圖片; (2)先展示圖片再聽。在完成所有實驗後，隨即填寫第二份問卷。本研究主要結果如下： （1）大多數的受試者已學習英語3年以上，卻對自己的聽力缺乏信心。此現象乃肇因於學生們有限的練習時間。也因此，他們大多不贊成將來升高中大考有聽力測驗的項目。另外，眾多的學生表達了希望獲得老師在聽力方面指導的強烈需求。 （2）聽力能力愈差的學生，遇到更多的聽力問題，尤其在聽力內容與聽者本身方面問題為最。 （3）以整體學生的聽力表現而言，聽前呈現圖片對學生的幫助比邊聽邊呈現圖片的效果來的顯著。 （4）以各個組別學生的聽力表現而言，聽前呈現圖片最能彌補中低程度學生聽力的不足。 （5）超過半數以上的學生表達較喜愛圖像式的英語聽力測驗，尤其是圖像呈現在正式的聽力活動之前為最。 根據研究的結果，聽前呈現圖像輔助對不同程度的學生均有助益，尤其對中低程度者聽力理解的幫助更為顯著。因此，本論文呼籲，國中英語老師可在實施英語聽力測驗時，多善用圖像輔助以引發學生的學習動機並藉由聽前呈現圖片技巧來提昇學生們的英語聽力理解。 / The purpose of the present study is to explore the effects of pictures as cues supplied at different time periods, the picture before listening comprehension test (BLCT) and during listening comprehension test (DLCT). More specific, it is focused on the comparisons of the effects of BLCT and DLCT on the high, middle and low proficiency groups. Also probed are students’responses to two questionnaires on the following issues. (1) The subjects’ previous English learning background as shown in Questionnaire One; (2) The main listening problems the subjects encounter in the process of listening, including the oral text, the listener and external aspects; (3) The subjects reactions to the listening comprehension with the picture format and their preference for the timing of picture-giving. The subjects of this study are 42 students of nine-grade junior high school students in Kuang-cheng Junior High School in Taichung County. They are divided into three proficiency groups—the high proficiency group (HPG), the intermediate proficiency group (MPG) and the low proficiency group (LPG) according to the scores of the listening comprehension test in the subjects’ second mid-term examination. At the beginning of the overall experiment, they are demanded to finish Questionnaire One. After that, they are assigned to take two listening comprehension tests: a listening comprehension test with a picture before listening and during listening. After receiving the two treatments, the subjects are asked to complete Questionnaire Two to reveal their attitudes toward the listening comprehension tests with visual cues. The major findings of the present study are summarized as follows: (1) Although most of the subjects have learned English for more than three years, they do not establish much confidence in their own listening ability due to the limited time of practice in listening. Many of them do not support the idea of incorporating the listening comprehension test into the future high school entrance exam. However, they express their eagerness for obtaining the teacher’s guidance in listening. (2) The worse the listeners achieve, the more listening difficulties they would come across, especially in the oral text and the listener himself/herself. (3) BLCT is more effective than DLCT. This can be proved by the mean scores and standard deviation of BLCT and DLCT respectively. (4) As the three different proficiency groups are taken into consideration, BLCT lends itself to the low proficiency groups (LPG) and the intermediate proficiency groups (MPG). (5) Most of the subjects prefer the listening comprehension test with the picture format, particularly the visual cue before the listening activity. Based on the results of the study, the picture before listening benefits all of the three proficiency groups, especially the lower achievers. The researcher suggests that English teachers in junior high school try to make good use of visual cues in constructing listening comprehension tests to arouse students’ motivation and thus improve students’ listening comprehension.

Les amplificateurs optiques à semi-conducteurs (SOA) sont des composants multifonctionnels utilisables dans des applications de plus en plus variées, notamment dans les réseaux multiplexés en longueur d'onde. Ce travail est consacré à la modélisation large-bande du comportement statique et dynamique des SOA. Le terme large-bande couvre une large plage de variation de la longueur d'onde des signaux optiques incidents, de leur puissance, ainsi qu'une large plage de variation du courant d'alimentation électrique des SOA. Cette modélisation large-bande a été validée pour plusieurs SOA, à la fois pour le gain, l'émission spontanée ampliée (ASE) et le facteur de bruit (NF). Notre modélisation s'est de plus avérée cascadable puisqu'elle a permis de simuler le comportement de deux SOA en série. Notre modélisation a ensuite été étendue à la prise en compte de l'ondulation du gain et de l'ASE, à la prise en compte de l'état de polarisation des signaux et de l'ASE, du mélange à quatre ondes (FWM), des SOA à gain bloqué (GC-SOA) et à celle des SOA à gain élargi par l'insertion d'un filtre coupe-bande. Nous nous sommes aussi attachés à la modélisation dynamique du comportement des SOA en prenant en compte la compression du gain. Nous avons pour cela développé une écriture sous forme de retard complexe de l'équation de propagation facilement intégrable. Notre modèle permet ainsi de simuler le comportement des SOA jusqu'au régime picoseconde. Enn, nous avons mis en place la prise en compte des formats de modulation complexes an de pouvoir insérer notre modèle dans un environnement système.

While retail business development in Taiwan has reached mature stage for many retail formats, it is still in the rapid growth stage in China. Consumer shopping behavior in Taiwan and China might be different given different economic and retail development progress. The findings of this research support two hypotheses. First the retail format development is different in Taiwan and China. Second the consumer shopping behavior is different in Taiwan and China. All retail formats were developed ahead in Taiwan by around 15-20 years. It took around 35 years in Taiwan to develop up to current status. However, it took a much shorter time for China to catch up. The development was much more concentrated and intensive. The development order is also different. In Taiwan, the order is department store, supermarket, convenience store then hypermarket. In China, however, hypermarket development advances convenience store. Convenience store is still in an early development stage. Shopping behavior in different channel is also different. Taiwan shoppers visit convenience store most often while China shoppers patronize supermarket and hypermarket most frequent. In Taiwan, except household products, most packaged food or beverage are purchased most often from convenience store. In China, most are from supermarket and hypermarket. Moreover, Taiwan consumers are more particular, demanding and sophisticated. If any manufactures would like to enter China market, modern trade is suggested to the most important channel. It is easier for quick distribution, lower risk and more similar practice to Taiwan retail environment. If any retailers would like to enter China market, it is wiser to have international alliances. The retail business now in China plays with big economic scale. Without advanced knowledge, technology as well as rich working capital, it is very challenging to compete in China market. For research in the future, it is recommended to include village information. Under China government policy, village should be upgraded with strong government support. It will provide a more comprehensive pictures if village is included.

This thesis focuses on applying one of the rapidly growing non-deterministic optimization algorithms, the ant colony algorithm, for simulating automatic hose/pipe routing with several conflicting objectives. Within the thesis, methods have been developed and applied to single objective hose routing, multi-objective hose routing and multi-hose routing. The use of simulation and optimization in engineering design has been widely applied in all fields of engineering as the computational capabilities of computers has increased and improved. As a result of this, the application of non-deterministic optimization techniques such as genetic algorithms, simulated annealing algorithms, ant colony algorithms, etc. has increased dramatically resulting in vast improvements in the design process. Initially, two versions of ant colony algorithms have been developed based on, respectively, a random network and a grid network for a single objective (minimizing the length of the hoses) and avoiding obstacles in the CAD model. While applying ant colony algorithms for the simulation of hose routing, two modifications have been proposed for reducing the size of the search space and avoiding the stagnation problem. Hose routing problems often consist of several conflicting or trade-off objectives. In classical approaches, in many cases, multiple objectives are aggregated into one single objective function and optimization is then treated as a single-objective optimization problem. In this thesis two versions of ant colony algorithms are presented for multihose routing with two conflicting objectives: minimizing the total length of the hoses and maximizing the total shared length (bundle length). In this case the two objectives are aggregated into a single objective. The current state-of-the-art approach for handling multi-objective design problems is to employ the concept of Pareto optimality. Within this thesis a new Pareto-based general purpose ant colony algorithm (PSACO) is proposed and applied to a multi-objective hose routing problem that consists of the following objectives: total length of the hoses between the start and the end locations, number of bends, and angles of bends. The proposed method is capable of handling any number of objectives and uses a single pheromone matrix for all the objectives. The domination concept is used for updating the pheromone matrix. Among the currently available multi-objective ant colony optimization (MOACO) algorithms, P-ACO generates very good solutions in the central part of the Pareto front and hence the proposed algorithm is compared with P-ACO. A new term is added to the random proportional rule of both of the algorithms (PSACO and P-ACO) to attract ants towards edges that make angles close to the pre-specified angles of bends. A refinement algorithm is also suggested for searching an acceptable solution after the completion of searching the entire search space. For all of the simulations, the STL format (tessellated format) for the obstacles is used in the algorithm instead of the original shapes of the obstacles. This STL format is passed to the C++ library RAPID for collision detection. As a result of using this format, the algorithms can handle freeform obstacles and the algorithms are not restricted to a particular software package.

L’objectif de notre thèse est de contribuer à la conception de situations informatiques diffuses efficaces énergétiquement et appropriables par les habitants au quotidien. Pour cela, à partir d'une approche centrée sur l'activité, nous caractérisons les contextes d'activité quotidienne, ce qui permet d'élaborer nos principes de conception et des scénarios. Cette recherche est menée en référence au cadre du « cours d'action » (Theureau, 2004) ainsi qu'à une approche critique et située (e.g., Barad, 2007; Suchman, 2007) de l'agentivité physique sous-tendant l'action collective, via la notion de « cours d'agencement ». Les spécificités de l'informatique diffuse (e.g., en réseau disséminé dans l'environnement) et des situations domestiques investiguées (e.g., plusieurs pièces et étages) nous amènent à créer une méthodologie pour l’analyse formelle du collectif et les scénarios : le format « multi-portées ». Sur ces bases, nous caractérisons les contextes d'activité de plusieurs familles vivant dans des maisons à forte consommation énergétique. Nos résultats mettent en évidence les préoccupations des habitants, les jeux de suspension/actualisation à travers le temps, ou de préoccupations multiples à l'instant « t » et les anticipations qui les structurent. Nous caractérisons également des contextes d'articulations collectives, montrant que les membres de la famille sont engagés dans des préoccupations à la fois similaires et différentes, oscillant entre convergence et divergence à différentes échelles de temps. Enfin, nous comparons 85 agencements du collectif dans l'habitat et les types d' « (im)possibilités » perceptives et pratiques qui en émergent entre humains, objets et espaces physiques. Ces résultats permettent d'alimenter notre modèle de conception de situations informatiques diffuses appropriables et efficaces énergétiquement. Après avoir présenté les orientations et principes de conception généraux, nous construisons des scénarios collectifs d'« interactions incidentes/intentionnelles » (Dix, 2002) entre humains et réseaux, puis nous définissons comment le futur système devra fonctionner afin d'être appropriable et efficace énergétiquement. Ce travail montre qu'il est possible et nécessaire de concevoir l'efficience énergétique des réseaux socio-techniques tout en donnant des possibilités d'action et d'appropriation à l'humain. / This research aims at contributing to the design of ubiquitous computing environments enabling both energy efficiency and their appropriation by people in everyday life at home. To this end, from an activity-centered perspective, we empirically characterize a wide range of contexts of everyday life and build design principles and scenarios. This research is conducted with reference to the « course-of-action » framework (Theureau, 2003) and a situated/critical approach (Barad , 2007; Suchman , 2007) of the physical agencies composing collective action : the « course of agencement (agency from physical arrangement)». First, the joint specifics of ubicomp (e.g., networking scattered agents through time and space) and home arena (e.g., several people, rooms and floors) lead us to create a methodology of formal analysis and scenarios : the « multi-scores » layout. Second, we characterize the activity contexts of households living in homes with high energy consumption rates. Our results highlight the richness of the inhabitants' concerns, the significant dynamics of suspension/actualization over time, the simultaneity of multiple concerns underpinning expectations in daily life. We also characterize contexts of collective articulations, showing that family members engage in both similar and different concerns, oscillating between convergence and divergence at different timescales. Finally, we compare 85 « agencements » between families and their homes through time. Our results stress the types of perceptual and practical « (im)possibilities » that emerge between inhabitants, objects and physical spaces. These results feed our activity-centered design model. After presenting the guidelines and general principles of future arrangements of agency, we build collective scenarios of « incidental/intentional interactions » (Dix, 2002) between the future technical network and humans. We define some ways in which the future system must enable both action/appropriation and energy efficiency. Our work argues that it is possible and necessary to design the networks' energy efficiency while enabling humans to enact and appropriate their world.