Continuous improvement is one of five principles in General Motors – Global Manufacturing System (GM-GMS). GM-GMS has been used by Saab Automobile AB since 2003 and is a central component for realisation of GM’s vision. Internal audits have discovered problems with one of the tools, practical problem solving (PPS), which needs to be improved. The department manufacturing of press and body (PK) wants to survey the problems and initiate a process of improvement. The purpose of this thesis work is to develop a foundation for future re-designs of the PPS process. Employees have been interviewed and observed in order to explore possible difference theoretical and practical problem solving with PPS. The result of the investigation shows 4 different and interrelated problem categories. 1. Information transfer, PPS hand over to product quality engineers (PQE) department cause problem when general assemblies (GA) are excluded from the improvement work. General assemblies do not get any feedback information from (PQE) about planed countermeasures. 2. Problem solving, team leaders has difficulties with identifying the true problem. Using “five-why” during the analysis work causes problem, since team leaders do not have the knowledge of how to use the tool in a proper way. 3. Documentation of PPS, the content in the PPS-form is a problem according to team leaders. Lack of knowledge and understanding of how to use the PPS-document leads to incomplete and incorrect analysis. 4. Coordination of involved people, support and help are missing from the management and quality engineer according team leaders. PPS from Global Costumer Audit are imposing time stress according to team leaders. Recommendations for further work is to investigate the opportunities with a web based PPS and process to improve information transfer and documentation of PPS. A second recommendation is to train and coach team leaders in problem solving and improve coordination of involved people and skills in problem solving.

Crop Biotechnology could help achieve a more food-secure world. However, the strong opposition to GM food, particularly in Europe, will undoubtedly affect the diffusion of GM crops worldwide, delaying or preventing the world from realizing the potential benefits of GM crops in terms of food security. This braking effect could deprive the world of a potential tool to increase or stabilize the future worldwide availability of food under a changing or more volatile climate. It is therefore essential to understand how the opposition to GM food has and will affect the diffusion of biotechnological innovations worldwide in order to estimate the effect of this opposition on global food security. <p> The main objective of the thesis is to estimate the loss in global food security if the EU does not relax their opposition to GM food. To meet this objective a market model is combined with a GM diffusion model to create a global food security (GFS) model. The focus of the model is GM wheat, due to the vital importance of conventional wheat to global food security. This approach allows us to evaluate dynamic economic responses to food production shocks, such as climate change. The GFS model is calibrated using production, consumption and price data for wheat. A number of scenarios are analyzed to consider the range of potential effects of the EU opposition on global food security. The results of the analyses will better inform the ongoing GM policy debates, which often ignore food security impacts.

This thesis consists of two topics: A 2.45 GHz ZigBee Receiver Frontend design for home energy-saving systems and a Delta-Sigma ADC with constant-gm amplifier for Battery Management Systems (BMS). A 2.45 GHz ZigBee Receiver Frontend for home energy-saving systems is pre-sented in the first part of this thesis. The proposed ZigBee receiver can be used in areas where wireline solutions are hard to be realized. By employing an LNA at the very frontend of the receiver, the gain is simulated to be 17.376 dB at 2.45 GHz. Besides, by using the double-balanced Gilbert mixer with a current bleeding MOS transistor, the NF and the IIP3 of the mixer are only 5.074 dB and -7.234 dB, respectively. To reduce the phase noise of the receiver, a fractional-N frequency synthesizer with a complementary cross-coupled VCO is adopted. The phase noise of the fractional-N frequency synthe-sizer is 137.7 dBc/Hz. The proposed circuit is carried out and measured on silicon using the standard TSMC 0.18 £gm CMOS process. In the second topic, a Delta-Sigma ADC with constant-gm amplifier is presented. The proposed ADC is particularly designed for the voltage detection circuit in BMS. A constant-gm amplifier is also presented to resolve the nonlinearity of the amplifier de-grading the performance of Delta-Sigma modulator, which is the frontend of the Del-ta-Sigma ADC. With the 4 KHz signal bandwidth, 512 KHz sampling frequency, and 128 oversampling rate, it shows a 85.2 dB SNR, and 12-bit resolution. The backend of the ADC is the decimator, which reduces the sampling frequency compliant with the Nyquist rate rule. The decimator is realized by Verilog code and verified by FPGA. By following the mixed-signal flow, the ADC is realized on a single chip using the standard TSMC 0.25 £gm 60V HV CMOS process.

The first topic of this thesis is a novel NTSC video sync separator (NSS) with a high-PSR (power supply rejection) bias generation circuitry (BGC) comprising a temperature compensation circuitry. The proposed BGC is composed of step-down regulators and a bandgap-based bias with cascode current control. The clamping voltages required for sync separation from an NTSC signal are generated. The second topic is a temperature-compensated 6th order transconductance-C (Gm-C) anti-aliasing filter (AAF) with digitally tunable bandwidth which can be applied in the analog front-end circuit of DVB-T receivers. The proposed AAF is controlled by digital signals to provide three different baseband bandwidth (6, 7, 8 MHz) selection. A regulator with a bandgap circuitry supplies a stable voltage to suppress the variations of power and temperature. Moreover, a temperature -compensated circuitry is used to neutralize bandwidth drifting caused by the temperature variation. The bandwidth accuracy of the proposed design verified by HSPICE post-layout simulations is better than 3.28% at every PVT (process, supply voltage, temperature) corner. It is adequate for the DVB-T receivers¡¦ baseband processing.

A novel on chip automatic tuning circuit for Gm ¡V C continuous time filter is presented. The circuit is composed of an integrator, a frequency tuning circuit, and a Q tuning circuit. A 4th order Chebyshev low pass filter is also designed with the tuning circuitry. All circuits are designed by using the parameters of TSMC 0.25um process. The power supplies are ¡Ó2.5V, and the cutoff frequency is 10MHz. The main LPF exhibits passband ripple below 4dB, and stopband attenuation over 70dB. The equilibrium time for tuning circuits is less than 3£gseconds.

Bandpass sigma-delta modulators combine oversampling and noise shaping to get very high resolution in a limited bandwidth. They are widely used in applications that require narrowband high-resolution conversion at high frequencies. In recent years interests have been seen in wireless system and software radio using sigma-delta modulators to digitize signals near the front end of radio receivers. Such applications necessitate clocking the modulators at a high frequency (MHz or above). Therefore a loop filter is required in continuous-time circuits (e.g., using transconductors and integrators) rather than discretetime circuits (e.g., using switched capacitors) where the maximum clocking rate is limited by the bandwidth of Opamp, switch’s speed and settling-time of the circuitry. In this work, the design of a CMOS fourth-order bandpass sigma-delta modulator clocking at 500 MHz for direct conversion of narrowband signals at 125 MHz is presented. A new calibration scheme is proposed for the best signal-to-noise-distortion-ratio (SNDR) of the modulator. The continuous-time loop filter is based on Gm-C resonators. A novel transconductance amplifier has been developed with high linearity at high frequency. Qfactor of filter is enhanced by tunable negative impedance which cancels the finite output impendence of OTA. The fourth-order modulator is implemented using 0.35 mm triplemetal standard analog CMOS technology. Postlayout simulation in CADENCE demonstrates that the modulator achieves a SNDR of 50 dB (~8 bit) performance over a 1 MHz bandwidth. The modulator’s power consumption is 302 mW from supply power of ± 1.65V.

According to Millar (1996), the gulf between science and society is growing. Technologies are tools cultures develop to solve society's problems. The rapid dispersion of science and technology across cultural borders through trade, technology transfer and exchange, increasingly requires people in different cultures to make choices about accepting or rejecting artifacts of science and technology such as genetically modified (GM) foods, which originate primarily from the United States. These issues challenge policy makers and scientists to account for the affects of different cultural perspectives on controversial scientific issues. Given the controversy across cultures over acceptance or rejection of genetically modified (GM) foods, GM foods are an excellent example with which to begin to reveal how culture impacts public perceptions of the risk and benefits of science and technology in different societies. This research will: 1. Define public awareness and understanding of science, specifically GM foods; 2. Examine culture's impact on knowledge, including different cultural approaches to research; and 3. Compare recent findings of a bi-national public opinion survey on GM comparing in South Korea and the United States. The proposed research outlines two research questions: 1) How and in what ways do South Koreans and Americans differ in their opinions about GMOs? This question is important for gathering current points of contrast about how the two cultures may differ; and 2) What role does culture play on opinion formation about GM foods? Through grounded theory, the researcher will investigate how cultural differences help explain opinion on public perceptions of GM foods. Is it possible to identify common cultural factors that impact public perceptions of GM foods between South Koreans and Americans? The study will utilize both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Higher education is a major producer of new science and technology. The study is significant for higher education administrators who must understand cultural factors impacting science internationally and globalization of the academic enterprise.

No description available.

Genetically modified (GM) canola (Brassica napus L.) has been widely adopted in Canada since its commercial release in 1995 and now represents over 85% of the canola grown in western Canada. Concurrently, GM canola volunteers have become an increasing management problem in cultivated fields and are ubiquitous in adjacent ruderal (non-cropped disturbed) habitats. However, systematic post-release monitoring is lacking and the ecological and agronomic impacts of escaped GM canola are poorly understood. In this dissertation, I characterize the escape, demography and distribution of GM canola in ruderal habitats in southern Manitoba, at multiple spatial and temporal scales. I characterized GM herbicide tolerance traits in 16 escaped canola populations. The progeny of 129 plants were tested in herbicide trials; 74% of plants produced glyphosate-tolerant progeny, 63% produced glufosinate-tolerant progeny, and 34% produced multiple herbicide-tolerant progeny as a result of gene flow between escaped plants. At the population-scale, four escaped GM canola populations were monitored and periodic matrix models were constructed to describe the dynamics and persistence of flowering plants. Escaped populations were observed to flower in synchrony with adjacent crops and were projected to persist for 2 to 5 years, confirming the potential for gene flow between escaped and cultivated canola populations. At the landscape-scale, the distribution of escaped canola was surveyed in three agricultural regions. Regional factors were important determinants of distribution; escaped canola density was positively correlated with canola cropping intensity and with traffic intensity, and was negatively correlated with distance to grain distribution centres. Local seed dispersal had negligible impact on distribution compared to landscape-scale anthropogenic seed inputs resulting from agricultural transport. These findings suggest that escaped canola persists as a metapopulation, where long-distance dispersal and colonization compensate for frequent extinction of local populations. Escaped populations play an important role in the persistence and spread of GM traits at large spatial scales, with substantial implications for the coexistence of GM and non-GM crops, and especially for organic and reduced-tillage farming operations. Landscape-scale management approaches, designed and implemented collaboratively by multiple stakeholders, are necessary to mitigate the risks of contamination resulting from GM trait escape. Regulation and ongoing monitoring of GM crops must acknowledge and address the dynamic regional nature of seed- and pollen-mediated gene flow.

Genetically modified (GM) canola (Brassica napus L.) has been widely adopted in Canada since its commercial release in 1995 and now represents over 85% of the canola grown in western Canada. Concurrently, GM canola volunteers have become an increasing management problem in cultivated fields and are ubiquitous in adjacent ruderal (non-cropped disturbed) habitats. However, systematic post-release monitoring is lacking and the ecological and agronomic impacts of escaped GM canola are poorly understood. In this dissertation, I characterize the escape, demography and distribution of GM canola in ruderal habitats in southern Manitoba, at multiple spatial and temporal scales. I characterized GM herbicide tolerance traits in 16 escaped canola populations. The progeny of 129 plants were tested in herbicide trials; 74% of plants produced glyphosate-tolerant progeny, 63% produced glufosinate-tolerant progeny, and 34% produced multiple herbicide-tolerant progeny as a result of gene flow between escaped plants. At the population-scale, four escaped GM canola populations were monitored and periodic matrix models were constructed to describe the dynamics and persistence of flowering plants. Escaped populations were observed to flower in synchrony with adjacent crops and were projected to persist for 2 to 5 years, confirming the potential for gene flow between escaped and cultivated canola populations. At the landscape-scale, the distribution of escaped canola was surveyed in three agricultural regions. Regional factors were important determinants of distribution; escaped canola density was positively correlated with canola cropping intensity and with traffic intensity, and was negatively correlated with distance to grain distribution centres. Local seed dispersal had negligible impact on distribution compared to landscape-scale anthropogenic seed inputs resulting from agricultural transport. These findings suggest that escaped canola persists as a metapopulation, where long-distance dispersal and colonization compensate for frequent extinction of local populations. Escaped populations play an important role in the persistence and spread of GM traits at large spatial scales, with substantial implications for the coexistence of GM and non-GM crops, and especially for organic and reduced-tillage farming operations. Landscape-scale management approaches, designed and implemented collaboratively by multiple stakeholders, are necessary to mitigate the risks of contamination resulting from GM trait escape. Regulation and ongoing monitoring of GM crops must acknowledge and address the dynamic regional nature of seed- and pollen-mediated gene flow.