Zugl.: Halle (Saale), Univ., Diss., 2005

<p>The purpose of this thesis is to implement and test a semi-active damping system based on a concept from an earlier thesis. The project includes implementation of mechanical, hydraulic and electronic hardware, aswell as controller software. The idea is to measure the movements of the vehicle chassis and based on these measurements set the damping torque using hydraulics. To be able to develop, test and evaluate the system, realistic input data must be available. To acquire such data, driving trials have been conducted on a variety of tracks.</p><p>The first part of the system is the sensors that measure chassis movements. Both accelerometers and a gyro has been used. To remove drift and high frequency vibrations, the signals are filtered. The suggested controller from the earlier thesis requests damping torque based on the dampers vertical velocity. When accelerometer signals are integrated, measurement and rounding errors causes drift in the velocity. To compensate for this, a floating average is calculated and used.</p><p>The main hydraulic component is a pressure reduction valve that controls the pressure inside the damper. Higher pressure will give higher damping torque. The reaction speed of the system is mostly depending on the hydraulic components. It is important to know the time delay from a change in the valve control signal, to when the actual pressure in the damper has been reached. Tests have shown that a large step, going from 10 Bar to 60 Bar takes approximately 46ms, and that a small step from 1 Bar to 20 Bar takes 63ms. The valve is faster when higher pressure levels are requested. In addition to the hydraulic response time the delay through the signal filters, measured to about 14ms, must be added.</p><p>The sensors are affected by vibrations. If these can be reduced, the digital filters can be made less sharp with a lower filter delay as result. It is also important to have a good control computer so that large rounding errors in the filter calculations can be avoided. This would greatly decrease drift in the integrated velocity.</p>

<p>Under de senaste åren har webbplatser blivit allt mer komplexa och informationen som ska visas och hanteras allt större. För att underlätta hantering och administration av dessa system har många CMS-system vuxit fram. Dessa system kan skilja sig mycket beträffande pris och funktionalitet, allt från mindre open source system till stora komplexa kommersiellt drivna system. Detta arbete bygger på att skräddarsy ett CMS-system för administration och hantering av innehåll på diverse artist sidor, som hanteras av ett medieföretag. Systemet använder tekniker som JavaScript, PHP, MySQL som grund för dess uppbyggnad. Resultatet av detta arbete blev ett CMS-system där användaren genom att logga in på systemet, enkelt kan hantera och uppdatera bilder, nyheter, textstrukturer, skicka och hantera nyhetsbrev etc.</p>

<p>Innovation is becoming more and more important in modern society. There is a lot of research on different kinds of innovation. Marketing innovation is one kind of innovation that has not been studied frequently before. One useful definition of marketing innovation is new ways which companies can market themselves to potential or existing customers (Halpern, 2010). This thesis focuses on the implementation process of marketing innovation. The research questions are: Which elements will be helpful or obstructive to the implementation process of marketing innovation? How will these positive or negative aspects affect the implementation of marketing innovation projects? How can the implementation of marketing innovation projects be improved? When implementing marketing innovation projects, compared with product innovation projects, what are the differences and similarities? The thesis is built on a literature study on marketing innovation and a case study of a marketing innovation project in the Chinese pharmaceutical company Guizhou YiBai Pharmaceutical Co.Ltd. A Chinese company is chosen because China‟s innovation practice needs improvement and theories which take China as background to guide the implementation process of innovation. The study shows some key elements for marketing innovation that are worth paying attention to when implementing marketing innovation projects. Examples of these key elements found are; paying attention to the neglected market, suitable segmentation of the market, reliable market information, public relationship, increased customer value, combination of market factors, explore different marketing channels and the use of technology in combination. Especially the use of technology can positively affect the implementation of marketing innovation. This thesis also presents some risks that may occurred in marketing innovation, like cost, uncertainty of market, information leakage, imitation and overdependence on experience. If comparing marketing innovation with product innovation there are many common points, but during the implementation process, the focus is different. A focus on the external environment seems to be more important in marketing innovation implementation. At last, this thesis concludes that the development situation of China‟s innovation practice is immature which is shown by the heavy reliance of experience and not theory in innovation projects. A reason for this is that innovation theory, which is taking the context of China in consideration, is lacking but are highly needed.</p>

Through a descriptive and exploratory approach, and by review and deduction of archival and documentary resources, supplemented by empirical evidence from case studies, this thesis traces, analyses and describes the historic trajectory of planning events in Kampala City, Uganda, since the inception of modern town planning in 1903, and runs through the various planning episodes of 1912, 1919, 1930, 1951, 1972 and 1994. The planning ideas at interplay in each planning period and their expression in planning schemes vis-à-vis spatial outcomes form the major focus. The study results show the existence of two distinct landscapes; Mengo for the Native Baganda peoples and Kampala for the Europeans, a dualism that existed for much of the period before 1968. Modern town planning was particularly applied to the colonial city while the native city grew with little attempts to planning. Four main ideas are identified as having informed planning and transformed Kampala – first, the utopian ideals of the century; secondly, “the mosquito theory” and the general health concern and fear of catching „native‟ diseases – malaria and plague; thirdly, racial segregation and fourth, an influx of migrant labour into Kampala City, and attempts to meet an expanding urban need in the immediate post war years and after independence in 1962 saw the transfer and/or the transposition of the modernist and in particular, of the new towns planning ideas – which were particularly expressed in the plans of 1963-1968 by the United Nations Planning Mission. The post-independence era also saw the various ideas articulated under traditional land use and zoning practices especially expressed in the 1972 and 1994 plans. While a great deal of planning work has been done in both the colonial and postcolonial eras, findings on ground show that almost all planning ideas expressed in the colonial planning schemes of Kampala City in 1912, 1919, 1930 and 1951 have had physical impact on the spatial structure of Kampala City compared to any period after independence. The postcolonial era experienced little application and implementation of the planning ideas and plans. This is attributed to several factors including: governance issues, lack of financial resources and manpower, the complicated land tenure systems emerging from 1900 Buganda agreement, lack of political commitment, and importation of foreign models without reorienting them to the local context, and so forth. The study concludes by highlighting some of the reflections and the implications for future planning, considerations which perhaps may be useful for the planners of tomorrow and may influence the development of planning policy and perhaps „new‟ planning approaches. / QC 20111215

From Policy to Practice: Implementation of Georgia’s Medicaid Family Planning Waiver Program Sarah C. Blake, MA 282 pages Directed by Dr. John Thomas The purpose of this research was to examine the implementation of Georgia’s Medicaid family planning program, known as Planning for Healthy Babies® or P4HB®. This program is the first such program to provide both family planning services and inter-pregnancy care services through a Medicaid expansion to low-income, uninsured women. An evaluative case study design was employed using mixed methods. These methods incorporated process measures to study the implementation of P4HB® and to assess whether P4HB® was implemented as planned We incorporated theory from the policy implementation and health care access literatures to understand what served as facilitators or barriers to successful implementation. Findings suggest that despite precise goals and objectives, formal guidance about the program did not incorporate clear implementation planning. Many stakeholders, including advocates, providers, and representatives from implementing agencies felt left out of the implementation process and did not feel invested in the program. Considerable confusion existed among eligible clients and providers about the nature and scope of the P4HB® program. This lack of awareness and understanding about P4HB® likely contributed to the program’s low enrollment and participation in the first year of its implementation. As many states prepare to expand their Medicaid programs under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), this study provides important lessons for policy planning and implementation.

The aim of the study was to investigate how a community motivates and ensures the implementation of its values and how this document affected personnel of meaning, vision and daily operations. The study was based on semi-structured interviews, in which nine respondents were interviewed in a city in southern Sweden. Interviews dealt with three different themes, all concerned organization or set of values. The analysis was based partly on how organizations and institutions build up and maintain their legitimacy. The analysis was also explained by the new institutional theory and its concepts isomorphism. In conclusion, the study shows that the concept of value system is very subjective and means different things depending on which profession you belong to. The study also showed that officials of the municipality indicate that the values discussed continuously in operation. This picture did not fit at all agree with the care assistants who considered values almost never discussed. The study also showed that the implementation was not as successful as desired, then no time for reflection was. The study showed that the reason that there was an opportunity to reflect due to the time and resources were too scarce. Throughout officials related concepts in the study more to an organizational plan, when care assistants instead relate everything to the actual meeting with the care recipient. Instead of using values as a benchmark they instead used of the "inner compass" that consists of subjective norms and values.

Denna studie belyser några svenska statliga myndigheters genomförande av FN:s konvention om barnets rättigheter. Ambitionen är att fördjupa förståelsen av och få ökad insikt om betydelsefulla förutsättningar vid ett implementeringsarbete sett ur ett systemteoretiskt perspektiv. Studien baseras på semistrukturerade intervjuer med myndighetsrepresentanter. Genom framställande av myndigheternas hierarkiska nivåer: ledarnivå, organisationsnivå och kontextnivå, skildras respektive nivås betydelse och medverkan under konkretiseringen av konventionen. Studien indikerar att en kombination av information, yttrande och förståelse mellan de olika nivåerna, är av central betydelse beträffande realiserande av Barnkonventionen.

Aquest estudi, l'adopció d'aliances estratègiques per part de les empreses tailandeses, centrat en la relació entre la conducta dels socis, l'estructura de govern de l'aliança i la satisfacció de les empreses que participen en aquests acords en els districtes industrial a Tailàndia, s'ha operacionalitzat integrant la Teoria de Costos de Transacció (TCT), la Teoria dels Drets de Propietat (PRT) i la Teoria del Valor Transaccional (TVT). Les proposicions que s'han derivat d'aquesta integració s'han contrastat mitjançant la informació aportada per 503 empreses d'aquests districtes industrials aplicant unes regressions logístiques. Els resultats han donat suport al model plantejat i han permès contrastar pràcticament totes les hipòtesis formulades en el sentit esperat. Així, les aliances estratègiques que adopten una estructura que suposa la propietat compartida són més probables de ser més efectives com a estructura de govern d'un acord quan la col·laboració és altament complexa en termes d'incertesa, mentre que les estructures que suposen propietat separada són preferides quan els nivells de confiança entre els socis són alts. Els resultats també mostren com les estructures que impliquen propietat separada són més probables de ser escollides com a formes de govern d'una relació quan l'alta probabilitat d'observar un comportament oportunista es compensa pels beneficis futurs esperats de la relació. A més, els resultats de l'anàlisi de variança realitzat suporten amb fermesa que la satisfacció de les empreses amb l'aliança és independent de l'estructura escollida per governar-la si aquesta estructura s'ha seleccionat considerant aspectes de la Teoria dels Costos de Transacció, de la Teoria dels Drets de Propietat i de la Teoria del Valor Transaccional. Per tant, els resultats de l'estudi suggereixen la necessitat de considerar un marc integrador, constituït per les teories abans esmentades, per estudiar la relació entre conducta dels socis d'una aliança, l'estructura que aquesta adopta i la satisfacció de les empreses participant en l'acord. / This study, the implementation of strategic alliances by Thai firms which focused on the behaviour of partners, the governance structure and the satisfaction outcome of firms in industrial districts in Thailand was operationalized integrating the Transaction Cost Theory (TCT), the Property Rights Theory (PRT), and the Transactional Value Theory (TVT). The propositions were then assessed on the basis of a survey of 503 firms in industrial districts in Thailand. Logistic regression analysis results generally supported the model and hypotheses, suggesting the need for a greater focuses on the TCT, the PRT, and the TVT to study the relationship of partners' behaviour, governance structure, and satisfaction of allied firms. We further found that collaborative alliances (Joint Ownerships) were more likely to be effective as the governance form when collaborations were highly complex in terms of uncertainty, whereas Separated Ownerships were preferred when the level of trust was high between partners. The findings also showed that Separated Ownerships were more likely to be selected when the highest probability for opportunistic behaviour was compensated by the expected future benefits. Moreover, ANOVA analysis result strongly supported that satisfaction of the firm with the alliance should be independent of the implemented structure, if this has been selected taking into account aspects from the TCT, the PRT, and the TVT.

Mining frequent itemsets and association rules is a popular and well researched approach to discovering interesting relationships between variables in large databases. The R package arules presented in this paper provides a basic infrastructure for creating and manipulating input data sets and for analyzing the resulting itemsets and rules. The package also includes interfaces to two fast mining algorithms, the popular C implementations of Apriori and Eclat by Christian Borgelt. These algorithms can be used to mine frequent itemsets, maximal frequent itemsets, closed frequent itemsets and association rules. (author's abstract) / Series: Research Report Series / Department of Statistics and Mathematics