The objective of this research is to help better understand the effects of exit face inclinations on critical gradients. This will lead to more practical ways to predict critical hydraulic gradients and slope stability using soil properties and exit face conditions. Current geotechnical engineering does not consider these factors because they are not thoroughly understood. Despite the attempts to better predict critical gradients, methods developed over 70 years ago to model the heave mechanism are used to model failure mechanisms such as backward erosion (or piping). This critical hydraulic gradient is only calculated by means of the buoyant unit weight of the soil. While modern engineering estimates critical piping gradients near unity, research has shown that calculated critical gradients can largely under-predict actual piping gradients. The results of this thesis research will help provide an empirical, but mechanism-based, grain-scale model that takes into account the effect of non-horizontal exit faces, and soil properties while assessing the potential for piping initiation to occur. This research is expected to help the understanding of the internal erosion mechanism known as piping, and eventually help to develop more practical ways of predicting and preventing conditions which are susceptible to this type of erosion. This research should be used to initiate more research, develop better methods, and eventually increase public safety with regards to designing and improving earth structures such as dams and levees.

The following piece will highlight the correlations found between foreign market exits and reentries. The developed tables, figures and conceptual model will graphically display in details the stages a Multinational Corporation (MNC) would go through during the course of a market exit up until the reentry. Moreover, the paper will elaborate how many firms have failed to understand the magnitude of a well-executed market withdrawal. Furthermore, the paper will indicate the correlations found between underlying reason & quality of exit; quality of exit & ease of reentry, and “time out” & reentry.

A doença de Alzheimer (DA) e a demência vascular (DV), especialmente a sua forma subcortical, são responsáveis pela maioria dos quadros de demência em idosos, nem sempre facilmente diferenciadas do ponto de vista clínico. O objetivo do estudo foi comparar o desempenho de pacientes com DA e com DV em uma bateria breve de testes cognitivos (Mini-exame do estado mental e bateria Neuropsi para confirmar o diagnóstico de demência; CLOX 1 e 2, fluência verbal categoria animal e fonêmica, EXIT 25 e teste de memória tardia da bateria breve de rastreio cognitivo), e verificar seu valor no diagnóstico diferencial entre elas. O desempenho do grupo DV foi inferior ao DA nos testes: CLOX 2, fluência verbal animal e fonêmica. O grupo DA obteve desempenho inferior a DV no subitem evocação do teste de memória tardia. / Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD), especially its subcortical form, are responsible for the majority of dementia cases in the elderly and are not always easily differentiated from a clinical point of view. The aim of this study was to compare the performance of mild VaD and AD patients in a series of brief cognitive tests (Mini-mental State Examination and Neuropsi battery, in order to confirm the diagnosis of dementia; CLOX 1 and 2, category and letter fluency, a delayed recall test of 10 simple figures and the EXIT 25), and to evaluate the potential use of these tests for the differential diagnosis between them. The performance of the VaD group was significantly impaired, in relation to the AD group, in the tests CLOX 2, category verbal fluency and letter verbal fluency, while the AD patients performed significantly worst in the delayed recall test.

Abstract This thesis focuses on advanced multi-antenna receiver and transmission techniques to improve the utilization efficiencies of radio resources in broadband single carrier communications. Special focus is devoted to the development of computationally efficient frequency domain (FD) turbo equalization techniques for single and multiuser MIMO frequency selective channels. Another special emphasis is given to transmission power optimization for single user MIMO communications, which takes into account the convergence properties of the iterative equalizer. A new iterative FD soft cancellation (SC) and minimum mean square error (MMSE) filtering based joint-over-antenna (JA) multiuser MIMO signal detection technique for multiuser MIMO uplink transmission in frequency-selective channels is proposed. The proposed FD multiuser MIMO detection technique requires significantly lower computational complexity than its time-domain counterpart. Furthermore, significant performance gains can be achieved with the proposed JA turbo receiver compared to an antenna-by-antenna (AA) turbo receiver when the total number of transmitter antennas and users is larger than the number of receiver antennas, as well as in the presence of spatial correlation. The impact of existing linear precoding techniques, e.g, maximum information rate (MaxRate) and minimum sum mean square error (MinSumMSE), on the performance of frequency domain turbo equalization is investigated by utilizing extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) chart analysis. A novel transmission power minimization framework based on an EXIT analysis of single carrier MIMO transmission with iterative FD SC-MMSE equalization is then proposed. The proposed optimization framework explicitly takes into account the convergence properties of the iterative equalizer. The proposed convergence constrained power allocation (CCPA) technique decouples the spatial interference between streams using singular value decomposition (SVD), and minimizes the transmission power while achieving the mutual information target for each stream after iterations at the receiver side. The transmission power allocation can be formulated as a convex optimization problem. A special case having only two mutual information constraints is considered, for which the Lagrange dual function is derived and its dual problem is solved. Inspired by the Lagrange duality, two CCPA based heuristic schemes are developed. The numerical results demonstrate that the proposed CCPA schemes outperform the existing power allocation schemes. / Tiivistelmä Tässä työssä tutkitaan edistyksellisten moniantennivastaanotto- ja lähetysmenetelmien käyttöä radioresurssien tehokkuuden parantamiseen laajakaistaisessa yhden kantoaallon kommunikaatiossa. Työssä keskitytään erityisesti laskennallisesti tehokkaiden taajuustasossa suoritettavien iteratiivisten kanavakorjaintekniikoiden kehittämiseen yhden ja usean käyttäjän multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) -kommunikaatiossa taajuusselektiivisen radiokanavan yli. Toinen tutkimuksen painopiste on lähetystehon optimointi yhden käyttäjän MIMO-kommunikaatiossa, jossa iteratiivisen kanavakorjaimen konvergenssiominaisuudet otetaan huomioon. Työssä ehdotetaan uudenlaista iteratiivista taajuustasossa suoritettavaa soft-cancellation (SC) ja minimum mean square error (MMSE) -suodatukseen pohjautuvaa joint-over-antenna (JA) monen käyttäjän ilmaisumenetelmää nousevan siirtokanavan tiedonsiirtoon taajuusselektiivisessa radiokanavassa. Ehdotettu tajuustasossa suoritettava usean käyttäjän MIMO-lähetyksen ilmaisumenetelmä vaatii selvästi vähemmän laskentatehoa verrattuna aikatason menetelmään. Tämän lisäksi ehdotetulla menetelmällä voidaan saavuttaa merkittävää suorituskykyhyötyä verrattuna antenna-by-antenna (AA) -pohjaiseen iteratiiviseen vastaanottimeen kun lähetysantennien ja käyttäjien kokonaislukumäärä on suurempi kuin vastaanotinantennien. Suorituskykyhyöty pätee myös tilakorrelaation tapauksessa. Työssä tutkitaan lisäksi olemassa olevien lineaaristen esikoodaustekniikoiden, esim. maximum information rate (MaxRate) and minimum sum mean square error (MinSumMSE), vaikutusta taajuustasossa suoritettavaan iteratiivisen kanavakorjaimen konvergenssiominaisuuksiin xtrinsic information transfer (EXIT) -analyysin avulla. Työssä ehdotetaan uudenlaista EXIT-analyysi-pohjaista lähetystehon minimointimenetelmää yhden kantoaallon MIMO-lähetykseen käyttäen iteratiivista taajuustason SC-MMSE-kanavakorjainta. Menetelmä ottaa huomioon iteratiivisen kanavakorjaimen konvergenssiominaisuudet. Ehdotettu convergence constrained power allocation (CCPA) -menetelmä erottaa tilatason häiriön lähetteiden välillä hyödyntäen singular value decomposition (SVD) -tekniikkaa ja minimoi lähetystehon ja saavuttaa samalla keskinäisinformaatiotavoitteet jokaiselle lähetteelle iteraatioiden jälkeen vastaanottimessa. Lähetystehon minimointiongelma voidaan muotoilla konveksiksi optimointiongelmaksi. Kahden keskinäisinformaatiorajoitteen erityistapaukselle johdetaan Lagrangen duaalifunktio ja ratkaistaan sen duaalifunktio. Työssä kehitetään lisäksi kaksi CCPA-pohjaista heuristista menetelmää. Numeeriset tulokset osoittavat ehdotettujen CCPA-pohjaisten menetelmien suoriutuvan paremmin verrattuna olemassa oleviin menetelmiin.

Abstract This thesis seeks to develop a robust semi-analytical performance prediction method for an advanced iterative receiver that processes spatially multiplexed signals that have propagated through frequency-selective receive correlated multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication channels. In a change of perspective, the proposed performance prediction methods are applied at the transmitter, which seeks to attain a target frame error rate (FER) either by adaptive power control or by adaptive modulation and coding (AMC). The performance prediction scheme utilises the statistical properties of the channel—namely noise variance, number of separable propagation paths and the eigenvalues of the receive correlation matrix—to predict the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) at the output of a frequency domain soft interference cancellation minimum mean square error equaliser. The SINR distribution is used to derive the distribution of the variance of the log-likelihood ratios (LLRs) at the output of a soft symbol-to-bit demapper. Mutual information transfer charts establish a bijective relationship between the variance of the LLRs and mutual information. A 3rd Generation Partnership Project compliant turbo code is assumed. Since the decoder operates independently from the channel, its extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) charts can be simulated in advance. By utilising the approximate LLR variance distribution of the demapped equaliser output, it is possible to evaluate the probability of an intersection between an equaliser chart associated with a random channel realisation and a fixed decoder chart. This probability provides the FER. Since the proposed performance prediction method does not require any instantaneous channel state information, it can be applied at the transmitter side as a robust link adaptation scheme. In adaptive transmission power control, the modulation order and code rate are fixed. By iteratively adjusting transmission power, the transmitter attempts to find an equaliser output LLR variance distribution that reaches a specified target FER. In AMC, transmission power is fixed. The equaliser output's LLR variance distribution is determined by the modulation order, while the decoder chart's position is determined by the code rate. The transmitter iteratively adjusts the code rate and attempts to find a modulation order and code rate pairing that reaches the target FER. For vertically encoded spatially multiplexed systems, the adaptive transmission power control and AMC schemes are complemented by adaptive repeat redundancy and incremental redundancy hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) techniques, respectively. / Tiivistelmä Työn tavoitteena on kehittää luotettava semianalyyttinen suorituskyvyn ennustusmenetelmä tehokkaalle iteratiiviselle vastaanottimelle, joka käsittelee taajuusselektiivisen, vastaanotinpäässä tilakorreloituneen moniantennikanavan kautta kulkeneita tilakanavoituja signaaleja. Toisessa vaiheessa esitettyjä ennustusmenetelmiä hyödynnetään mukauttamalla lähetystehoa tai modulaatioastetta ja koodisuhdetta (adaptive modulation and coding [AMC]), samalla säilyttäen tavoitteeksi asetetun kehysvirhesuhteen (frame error rate [FER]). Suorituskyvyn ennustusmenetelmä hyödyntää kanavan tilastollisia ominaisuuksia – kohinan varianssia, eroteltavien etenemispolkujen lukumäärää sekä vastaanottimen korrelaatiomatriisin ominaisarvoja – ennustaakseen signaali–kohina-plus-interferenssisuhteen (signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio [SINR]) jakauman taajuustasossa toimivan, häiriötä poistavan pienimmän keskineliösumman kanavakorjaimen lähdössä. SINR-jakaumasta johdetaan pehmän symboleista biteiksi -muunnoksen jälkeisten logaritmisten bittitodennäköisyyksien suhdelukujen (log-likelihood ratio [LLR]) jakauma. Keskinäisinformaation siirroskartat perustuvat LLR:ien varianssin sekä keskinäisinformaation väliseen bijektiivisyyteen. Informaatio on kanavakoodattu 3rd Generation Partnership Project -standardin mukaisella turbokoodilla. Turbodekooderin toiminta on kanavasta riippumatonta, joten dekooderin lisäinformaation siirroskartat (extrinsic information transfer [EXIT] charts) voidaan simuloida itsenäisesti. Hyödyntämällä kanavakorjaimen lähdön pehmeiden bittipäätösten LLR:ien varianssin jakaumaa, on mahdollista arvioida millä todennäköisyydellä korjaimen satunnaisen kanavarealisaation siirroskartta leikkaa dekooderin siirroskartan. Tämä todennäköisyys voidaan tulkita kehysvirhesuhteeksi. Koska suorituskyvyn ennustusmenetelmä ei vaadi hetkellistä tietoa kanavan tilasta, sitä voidaan hyödyntää lähetyksen mukautuksessa. Mukautuvassa tehonsäädössä modulaatio ja koodisuhde eivät muutu. Lähetin pyrkii iteratiivisella tehonsäädöllä löytämään korjaimen lähdölle LLR-jakauman, joka tuottaa halutun kehysvirhesuhteen. Mukautuvassa modulaation ja koodisuhteen valinnassa lähetysteho säilyy vakiona. Modulaatioaste vaikuttaa korjaimen lähdön LLR-jakaumaan ja koodisuhde dekooderin siirroskartan muotoon. Iteratiivisesti koodisuhdetta säätämällä lähetin pyrkii löytämään modulaation ja koodisuhteen yhdistelmän, joka saavuttaa tavoitellun kehysvirhesuhteen. Vertikaalisesti tilakanavoiduissa järjestelmissä mukautuvaa tehonsäätöä täydennetään lähetystehoa mukauttavilla uudellenlähetyksillä, kun taas mukautuvaa modulaation ja koodisuhteen valintaa täydennetään puolestaan koodisuhdetta pienentävillä automattisilla uudelleenlähetyspyynnöillä (hybrid automatic repeat request [HARQ]).

Czech economic depends on small and medium enterprises that represent 99.84 % of all active Czech enterprises. Every single region in the Czech Republic is strongly interconnected with SMEs. Every entrepreneurial subject similarly to every person has its parent the founder that set up, managed and developed the business. Despite the enormous progress the humans have made one thing we cannot change and that is the simple time going by and with it related growing old and mortality of humans. There always comes the time in the life of every business founder to leave their business. Further existence of the business unit depends on what exit path the entrepreneur-founder chooses and how he handles this process. Its further existence is the key for the stability of economics and influences the inhabitants' welfare in the region, the business unit comes from. The enterprise can lose or earn much when the founder leaves. The leadership change is a huge intervention in functioning enterprise, and becomes a milestone in its next existence. The European Commission's Directorate General Enterprise and Industry stated that "Approximately one third of European enterprises will need to be transferred to the next generation in the coming 10 years. This means that an average of 610 000 small and medium-sized enterprises will be changing hands each year, potentially affecting 2.4 million jobs." Considering this I carried out the first research among the Czech entrepreneurs about their exit from their businesses so far. Based on this research I can state that the question of entrepreneurial exit is topical for interviewees. More than a half of respondents applied themselves to this question more or less, however only 30 % of them are prepared for the entrepreneur's exit and have a prepared plan. Next 30 % of respondents' firms are endangered by sudden incident because they have no plan for the case of the entrepreneur's exit. One half of interviewees that have already thought about heir exit would like to leave their business in a 5-year-horrizons. Whether the entrepreneur addresses his entrepreneurial exit or not depends mainly on his age, time spent by building the business and the number of employees. The entrepreneurs are attached to their businesses and they retire only reluctantly. The least of interviewees (only 2 % of entrepreneurs) would choose the complete transfer to another family member, i. e. not only passing the manager's post but also the whole ownership share. On the contrary most of the respondents would like to keep at least some ownership share and pass only the control over the firm. Some of the exit path factors are the entrepreneur's age, motivation to set up the business, current situation and expected future progress of the firm, and engagement of other family members within the business. All interviewees that had clear plan of their entrepreneurial exit and would choose passing the business to other family member were pushed into starting the business. When the respondents perceived the current business situation as positive they preferred such exit path that their business would survive. At the same time they would not choose business liquidation when they expected positive further development of the firm. Out of 14 respondents that would like to pass the control to their family member, 65 % stated that other family members were engaged in the business. The higher the age of the entrepreneur the higher the probability that the leaving entrepreneur will pass their business to their family member in some way.

<p>The purpose of the study is to investigate methods and work procedures that aim to motivate people to leave a cult and/or supporting them after a cult exit. The study was limited to investigate how Sweden’s, within the area, three premier voluntary organizations Föreningen Rädda Individen, Rådgivning Om Sekter and Hjälpkällan work with present -, ex – and relatives to cult members. In addition to the mentioned organizations we have also investigated the work procedures and methods used by Åke Wiman. The study has got a qualitative approach and includes semi-structured interviews. The results have been analyzed thru already existing methods. These are <em>exit counseling, Strategic interaction approach </em>and<em> Strategic interaction approach</em> – <em>after the invention</em>. The analysis shows that Hjälpkällan and Rådgivning Om Sekter does not use any specific, explicit method in their work but focuses more on the fellow human being support. Wiman uses parts of both <em>exit counselin</em>g and <em>Strategic interaction approach</em>. Further it is recognized that Föreningen Rädda Individen explicitly uses the method of <em>Strategic interaction approach.</em> One can see varying amount of similarity between existing methods and all of the organizations looked in to. There seems to exist a concept confusion and an incorrect use of the meanings of deprogramming, <em>exit counseling</em> and <em>Strategic interaction approach</em> even among the initiated which indicate lack of knowledge or conscious misuse of the words.</p> / <p>Studiens syfte är att undersöka metoder och arbetssätt som syftar till att motivera personer att lämna en sekt och/eller stödja dem efter ett avhopp. Studien avgränsades till att undersöka hur Sveriges för området tre främsta frivilligorganisationer, Föreningen Rädda Individen, Rådgivning Om Sekter samt Hjälpkällan, arbetar med aktiva -, före detta - och anhöriga till sektmedlemmar. Utöver nämnda organisationer undersöks också det arbetssätt som Åke Wiman utför. Studien har en kvalitativ ansats och använder sig av semistrukturerade intervjuer. Resultatet analyserades utifrån befintliga metoder för arbete med sektavhoppare samt motivation till sektavhopp. Metoderna är <em>exit counseling, Strategic interaction approach </em>samt<em> Strategic interaction approach – efter avhoppet.</em> Av analysen framgår att Hjälpkällan och Rådgivning Om Sekter inte explicit använder sig av någon metod utan fokuserar på det medmänskliga stödet i sitt arbete. Wiman använder sig av delar av både <em>exit counseling </em>och<em> Strategic interaction approach</em>. Vidare framgår att Föreningen Rädda Individen uttalat arbetar efter metoden <em>Strategic interaction approach. </em>Det går att se varierande mängd likheter mellan de befintliga metoderna och samtliga organisationer. Det tycks även råda en begreppsförvirring och ett felanvändande av begreppen avprogrammering, <em>exit counseling </em>och<em> Strategic interaction approach</em> även hos de initierade i ämnet vilket antingen tyder på kunskapsbrist eller medveten felanvändning av orden.</p>

The purpose of the study is to investigate methods and work procedures that aim to motivate people to leave a cult and/or supporting them after a cult exit. The study was limited to investigate how Sweden’s, within the area, three premier voluntary organizations Föreningen Rädda Individen, Rådgivning Om Sekter and Hjälpkällan work with present -, ex – and relatives to cult members. In addition to the mentioned organizations we have also investigated the work procedures and methods used by Åke Wiman. The study has got a qualitative approach and includes semi-structured interviews. The results have been analyzed thru already existing methods. These are exit counseling, Strategic interaction approach and Strategic interaction approach – after the invention. The analysis shows that Hjälpkällan and Rådgivning Om Sekter does not use any specific, explicit method in their work but focuses more on the fellow human being support. Wiman uses parts of both exit counseling and Strategic interaction approach. Further it is recognized that Föreningen Rädda Individen explicitly uses the method of Strategic interaction approach. One can see varying amount of similarity between existing methods and all of the organizations looked in to. There seems to exist a concept confusion and an incorrect use of the meanings of deprogramming, exit counseling and Strategic interaction approach even among the initiated which indicate lack of knowledge or conscious misuse of the words. / Studiens syfte är att undersöka metoder och arbetssätt som syftar till att motivera personer att lämna en sekt och/eller stödja dem efter ett avhopp. Studien avgränsades till att undersöka hur Sveriges för området tre främsta frivilligorganisationer, Föreningen Rädda Individen, Rådgivning Om Sekter samt Hjälpkällan, arbetar med aktiva -, före detta - och anhöriga till sektmedlemmar. Utöver nämnda organisationer undersöks också det arbetssätt som Åke Wiman utför. Studien har en kvalitativ ansats och använder sig av semistrukturerade intervjuer. Resultatet analyserades utifrån befintliga metoder för arbete med sektavhoppare samt motivation till sektavhopp. Metoderna är exit counseling, Strategic interaction approach samt Strategic interaction approach – efter avhoppet. Av analysen framgår att Hjälpkällan och Rådgivning Om Sekter inte explicit använder sig av någon metod utan fokuserar på det medmänskliga stödet i sitt arbete. Wiman använder sig av delar av både exit counseling och Strategic interaction approach. Vidare framgår att Föreningen Rädda Individen uttalat arbetar efter metoden Strategic interaction approach. Det går att se varierande mängd likheter mellan de befintliga metoderna och samtliga organisationer. Det tycks även råda en begreppsförvirring och ett felanvändande av begreppen avprogrammering, exit counseling och Strategic interaction approach även hos de initierade i ämnet vilket antingen tyder på kunskapsbrist eller medveten felanvändning av orden.

Title: The process of leaving a social role Author: Christine Johnsson     This paper aims to describe the process of role exit for individuals within dysfunctional families. The study begins with describing the upbringing of the individual within these families. The process of codependency inspired the approach for the study; a process that individuals go through when they leave their dysfunctional families. The theoretical approach is from Helen Rose Fuchs Ebaughs study about the process of exit a role; Becoming an ex- The process of Role exit (1988). This process that Ebaugh (1988) describes is divided into four stages. The individuals’ first step in the process is to define a doubt to the current role, the second one explains how the individual have to weigh new alternatives compared to the present situation. The third stage is about leaving the role and the fourth stage explains that the individual have to come up with an approach to the ex- role. Since this paper is about individual opinions the method that has been used is qualitative. Ten interviews has been made with individuals that grew up in dysfunctional families. The interviews were analyzed from a phenomenological approach. That means trying to understand social phenomena from the individuals’ perspective. The results presented that the informants had made a role change, they had left the dysfunctional settings and entered a new social role. Which can be compared to Ebaughs study (1988) about the process in role exiting.

The aim of the thesis is to further explore the relationship between economic integration and firm mobility and investment, both from an empirical and a theoretical perspective, with the objective of drawing conclusions on how government policy can be used to strengthen the positive impact of integration on investment, which is crucial in moving and maintaining countries at the forefront of the technology frontier and accelerating economic growth in a world of rapid technical change and high mobility of ideas, goods, services, capital and labor. The first chapter aims to bring together the literature on economic integration, firm mobility and investment. It contains two sections: one dedicated to the literature on FDI and the second covering the literature on firm entry and exit, economic performance and economic and business regulation. In the second chapter I examine the relationship between the Single Market and FDI both in an intra-EU context and from outside the EU. The empirical results show that the impact of the Single Market on FDI differs substantially from one country to another. This finding may be due to the functioning of institutions. The third chapter studies the relationship between the level of external trade protection put into place by a Regional Integration Agreement(RIA)and the option of a firm from outside the RIA block to serve the RIA market through FDI rather than exports. I find that the level of external trade protection put in place by the RIA depends on the RIA country's capacity to benefit from FDI spillovers, the magnitude of set-up costs of building a plant in the RIA and on the amount of external trade protection erected by the country from outside the reigonal block with respect to the RIA. The fourth chapter studies how the firm entry and exit process is affected by product market reforms and regulations and impact macroeconomic performance. The results show that an increase in deregulation will lead to a rise in firm entry and exit. This in turn will especially affect macroeconomic performance as measured by output growth and labor productivity growth. The analysis done at the sector level shows that results can differ substantially across industries, which implies that deregulation policies should be conducted at the sector level, rather than at the global macroeconomic level.