Hydroponics basically is the method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions, in water, without soil. Vertical nutrient film technique (NFT) is one of the most used hydroponic technique that has constant flow of nutrient solution. In this study the effects of different support medium on strawberry quality and yield using vertical NFT in glass greenhouse was investigated. NFT-only system was compared to rockwool, coco fiber, perlite and expanded clay as supporting medium for strawberry production. Parameters such as weight of product, amount of product, rate of marketable product, and including physico-chemical properties such as pH, rigidity, color, dry matter amount, EC, vitamin C, sugar content, resistance to certain pathogens were observed among all supporting medium trials. NFT-only system significantly differed from other supporting medium trails by most of the parameters including fruit number per plant, average fruit weight, toughness of the fruit, vitamin C amount, sugar amount and finally soluble solid material amount in water . Revealing the effects of supporting medium on strawberry production shed light on how should NFT must be applied to fruit growing.

The marginal glass-forming alloys have attracted much attention due to unique products of devitrification with a very high number density of nuclei up to 10^23 m^-3. Among these alloy systems, utmost interest is given to Al-RE and Al-TM-RE alloys with excellent lightweight mechanical (fracture strength close to 1 GPa) and chemical properties attributed to the presence of an extremely high density of nanocrystals embedded in an amorphous matrix. Classical nucleation theory fails in explaining this abnormal nucleation behavior, several other mechanisms have been proposed / however, there is still no agreement on the exact nucleation mechanism. Al-Tb system was investigated in liquid and solid amorphous states with a collective study of ab-initio MD and RMC simulations and state of art X-rays and e-beam techniques. Regions of pure Al clusters in the solid and liquid states were detected with the sizes extending up to 1-2 nm length. Al clusters interconnecting regions lead to formation of RE rich MRO structure which gave rise to the pre-peak in S(Q)-Q data in liquid and solid states. Specimens having MRO were crystallized within a controlled atmosphere and temperature and investigated using a combined study of TEM, HRTEM, SEM, XRD and DSC. HRTEM investigations and JMA results indicated different mechanism of nucleation. Therefore the kinetics of highly populated nuclei formation was found too complicated to be explained by well-known JMA approach. Mechanical tests were applied to determine the effects of morphology and populations of nanocrystals embedded in amorphous matrix. The tensile tests and the subsequent fracture surface analysis indicated brittle type of failure and the formation of shear bands, respectively. Relatively high hardness and tensile strength were detected by nanocrystallization.

Vocal Health and Repertoire for the Dramatic Mezzo-Soprano: A Suggested Course of Study brings together the fields of vocal pedagogy and performance. This curriculum guide focuses on repertoire for the Dramatic Mezzo-Soprano, ages 18-30. The guide includes selections from the genres of art song (beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels), opera and oratorio arias, concert works, and song cycles. Selected art songs and arias are presented from a vocal health perspective, using McKinney’s eight principles of Good Vocal Sound. In addition, the Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance model is integrated via the identification of a focus skill for each song or aria. This suggested course of study emphasizes proper vocal technique and offers suggestions when studying and singing the larger works of the Dramatic Mezzo-Soprano repertoire. These suggestions include recommendations gleaned from interviews with well-known mezzo-sopranos Mignon Dunn and Dolora Zajick concerning their opinions regarding repertoire, vocal health, and appropriate song and aria assignments for the Dramatic Mezzo-Soprano. The guide also includes insights into training methods for today’s young dramatic voices based on observations of The Institute for Young Dramatic Voices. Key outcomes and implications are that Dramatic Mezzo-Sopranos must take the time to develop their voices before singing the more advanced arias of the standard repertoire, such as those by Verdi and Wagner, and this can be done through the study of art song. Further, Dramatic Mezzo-Sopranos must be strong technically in their approach to singing to help ensure vocal health and to avoid excessive strain on the vocal folds at all times. Dramatic Mezzo-Sopranos must also have strong skills in musicianship and performance in order to meet the demands of the repertoire for this voice type. The information presented in this curriculum guide will assist both voice teachers and performers in the teaching and singing of repertoire for the Dramatic Mezzo-Soprano. / Review of literature -- Design and method -- Mignon Dunn, Dolora Zajick and the Institute for Young Dramatic Voices -- Curriculum guide -- Summary and recommendations. / School of Music

The aim of this research is two-folded. On the one hand, it attempts to assist employers of Catalan micro-retailers in designing, implementing and developing their Social Media strategy as a complementary channel of communication. On the other hand, it attempts to contribute to the research community with a better understanding on both which building block of the micro-retailer¿s Business Model is more influenced by the customer level of interaction by means of the Social Media and how a transformation can be observed in the micro-retailers¿ Business Models as a result of the Social Media implementation. The research question to be answered in this paper is how the transformation of the activity system of the micro-retailers¿ Business Model would allow the emergence of a Participatory Business Model by means of Social Media. To carry out this research the Participatory Action Research methodology was used, whose contribution has two results: the one is more practitioner oriented and the other is more academic. The incipient results of the research showed a scarce transformation of Catalan microretailer¿s business model as a consequence of the implementation of social media. However, it is significant enough to be considered as more than just a simple adoption of an alternative channel of communication. One of the main contributions is related to how customer influences the activity system of the micro-retailer¿s business model beyond four levels of customer interaction (communication, interaction, participation and collaboration) by means of social media. On the one hand, the activity system of a business model is referred to the eight building blocks of Osterwalder, Pigneur and Tucci (2005) research that includes customer segment, customer relationship, distribution channel, capabilities, partner, value configuration, value proposition, profit and cost. On the other hand, the four defined levels of customer interaction are based on the literature of group collaboration systems. The results showed that not all the building blocks forming the business model are influenced by consumer interaction. The only building blocks influenced by an initial communication level in the current social media strategy implementation stage of our sample (five micro-retailers) are the following: customer segment, customer relationship, distribution channel, value proposition and cost. This incipient stage of transformation can be justified by a lack of effort made due to the small size of the business and a lack of team working inside the companies, easily adapting to changes. It can also be justified by the fact it was carried out by the micro-retailers only during a short period of time (14 month). Another contribution of the paper shows that Social Media transformation drives a BM innovation according to the following mediator elements: (1) the dynamic capabilities, (2) the ability of learning, (3) the dedicated effort, (4) the implementation time and (5) the level of customer participation.

La literatura demuestra, en muchas ocasiones, que el cambio en un sistema de contabilidad de gestión (SCG) no siempre genera los resultados deseados. El objetivo general de este trabajo es conocer que relación existe entre el proceso de cambio de un SCG en las PYME y el éxito del cambio. El estudio se centra especialmente en las empresas medianas, en las que el uso de un SCG está más justificado y relacionado con su rendimiento y supervivencia en el mercado. El éxito del cambio de un SCG se va a medir a través de dos indicadores. El primer indicador, el Éxito Interno, medirá la distancia (GAP) que existe entre las expectativas (qué se esperaba) de las nuevas técnicas de gestión implantadas y las realidades (qué son). El segundo indicador, el Éxito Externo, medirá la variación en el nivel de eficiencia relativa de la empresa dentro de su sector. Por ello se tomará como referencia dos momentos del tiempo, antes y después del cambio. La hipótesis básica de este estudio, plantea que el proceso de cambio puede explicar el nivel de éxito (interno-externo) alcanzado en el cambio de un SCG. Para captar y analizar los datos, utilizaremos dos técnicas: el Análisis Envolvente de Datos (DEA) y el método del Estudio de Caso (EDC). El DEA, nos permitirá observar y comparar la evolución de las empresas objeto de este estudio, con el conjunto de empresas eficientes de su sector. Con este análisis obtendremos una medición del éxito externo del cambio contable, es decir, la relación entre el cambio contable y el aumento (disminución) de su eficiencia relativa en el sector analizado. El EDC, nos permitirá analizar con detenimiento el proceso de cambio experimentado por estas empresas, y la implicación de este proceso en su evolución. Además, con este análisis obtendremos una medición del éxito interno del cambio contable, es decir, la distancia entre las expectativas - realidades de los sujetos implicados en el uso del nuevo SCG. El estudio empírico se ha realizado en dos empresas medianas del Sector de la Madera y del Mueble de la Comunidad Valenciana. Los resultados de la investigación han dado a conocer que factores influyen, y por tanto explican el éxito de un cambio en los SCG de una PYME, como pueden ser las relaciones de confianza entre los agentes, los conflictos y resistencias generadas a partir del choque entre las nuevas reglas y rutinas organizativas y las instituciones dominantes en la organización, el papel desarrollado por las firmas consultoras en SCG, entre otros. / The aim of this work is to know the relationship existing between the process of change and its success concerning a management accounting system (MAS) in small and medium-sized companies. The study is centred specially in the medium-sized companies, in which the use of MAS is more related to its yield and survival in the market. Such a success is going to be measured through two indicators: internal success and external success. Internal success refers to the existing gap between expectations and reality with respect to the use of new accounting techniques implemented by studied organisations. External success has to do with the variation in the level of relative efficiency of the company within its sector. This indicator considers two different moments of time, that is, before and after the change. The basic hypothesis states that the process of change contributes to explain the level of internal and external success as a result of the MAS implementation. We are going to employ two different methodological tools to carry out the empirical work. We use the case study methodology (CSM) to analyse in depth the process of change as well as its effect on internal success. On the other hand, we employ the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to examine the effect of this process of change on external success. The empirical study was carried out in two medium-sized enterprises of Wood and Furniture Sector of Valencian Community. Finally, the outcomes allow us to find out which factors may influence, and therefore contribute to explain, the MAS change success in the SME, like trust, conflicts and resistance, the external expert influence, and others.

With the rapid growth of multimedia applications and the advances of wireless communication technologies, quality-of-service (QoS) provisioning for multimedia services in heterogeneous wireless networks has been an important issue and drawn much attention from both academia and industry. Due to the hostile transmission environment and limited radio resources, QoS provisioning in wireless networks is much more complex and difficult than in its wired counterpart. Moreover, due to the lack of central controller in the networks, distributed network control is required, adding complexity to QoS provisioning. In this thesis, medium access control (MAC) with QoS provisioning is investigated for both single- and multi-hop wireless networks including wireless local area networks (WLANs), wireless ad hoc networks, and wireless mesh networks. Originally designed for high-rate data traffic, a WLAN has limited capability to support delay-sensitive voice traffic, and the service for voice traffic may be impacted by data traffic load, resulting in delay violation or large delay variance. Aiming at addressing these limitations, we propose an efficient MAC scheme and a call admission control algorithm to provide guaranteed QoS for voice traffic and, at the same time, increase the voice capacity significantly compared with the current WLAN standard. In addition to supporting voice traffic, providing better services for data traffic in WLANs is another focus of our research. In the current WLANs, all the data traffic receives the same best-effort service, and it is difficult to provide further service differentiation for data traffic based on some specific requirements of customers or network service providers. In order to address this problem, we propose a novel token-based scheduling scheme, which provides great flexibility and facility to the network service provider for service class management. As a WLAN has small coverage and cannot meet the growing demand for wireless service requiring communications ``at anywhere and at anytime", a large scale multi-hop wireless network (e.g., wireless ad hoc networks and wireless mesh networks) becomes a necessity. Due to the location-dependent contentions, a number of problems (e.g., hidden/exposed terminal problem, unfairness, and priority reversal problem) appear in a multi-hop wireless environment, posing more challenges for QoS provisioning. To address these challenges, we propose a novel busy-tone based distributed MAC scheme for wireless ad hoc networks, and a collision-free MAC scheme for wireless mesh networks, respectively, taking the different network characteristics into consideration. The proposed schemes enhance the QoS provisioning capability to real-time traffic and, at the same time, significantly improve the system throughput and fairness performance for data traffic, as compared with the most popular IEEE 802.11 MAC scheme.

Ultra-wideband (UWB) is an appealing transmission technology for short-range, bandwidth demanded wireless communications. With the data rate of several hundred megabits per second, UWB demonstrates great potential in supporting multimedia streams such as high-definition television (HDTV), voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and console gaming in office or home networks, known as the wireless personal area network (WPAN). While vast research effort has been made on the physical layer issues of UWB, the corresponding medium access control (MAC) protocols that exploit UWB technology have not been well developed. Given an extremely wide bandwidth of UWB, a fundamental problem on how to manage multiple users to efficiently utilize the bandwidth is a MAC design issue. Without explicitly considering the physical properties of UWB, existing MAC protocols are not optimized for UWB-based networks. In addition, the limited processing capability of UWB devices poses challenges to the design of low-complexity MAC protocols. In this thesis, we comprehensively investigate the MAC protocols for UWB networks. The objective is to link the physical characteristics of UWB with the MAC protocols to fully exploit its advantage. We consider two themes: centralized and distributed UWB networks. For centralized networks, the most critical issue surrounding the MAC protocol is the resource allocation with fairness and quality of service (QoS) provisioning. We address this issue by breaking down into two scenarios: homogeneous and heterogeneous network configurations. In the homogeneous case, users have the same bandwidth requirement, and the objective of resource allocation is to maximize the network throughput. In the heterogeneous case, users have different bandwidth requirements, and the objective of resource allocation is to provide differentiated services. For both design objectives, the optimal scheduling problem is NP-hard. Our contributions lie in the development of low-complexity scheduling algorithms that fully exploit the characteristics of UWB. For distributed networks, the MAC becomes node-based problems, rather than link-based problems as in centralized networks. Each node either contends for channel access or reserves transmission opportunity through negotiation. We investigate two representative protocols that have been adopted in the WiMedia specification for future UWB-based WPANs. One is a contention-based protocol called prioritized channel access (PCA), which employs the same mechanisms as the enhanced distributed channel access (EDCA) in IEEE 802.11e for providing differentiated services. The other is a reservation-based protocol called distributed reservation protocol (DRP), which allows time slots to be reserved in a distributed manner. Our goal is to identify the capabilities of these two protocols in supporting multimedia applications for UWB networks. To achieve this, we develop analytical models and conduct detailed analysis for respective protocols. The proposed analytical models have several merits. They are accurate and provide close-form expressions with low computational effort. Through a cross-layer approach, our analytical models can capture the near-realistic protocol behaviors, thus useful insights into the protocol can be obtained to improve or fine-tune the protocol operations. The proposed models can also be readily extended to incorporate more sophisticated considerations, which should benefit future UWB network design.

Befintlig forskning på området har dragit slutsatsen att Knowledge Sharing är av stor vikt för ett företags framtida överlevnad och att små och medelstora företag i många fall inte tagit de åtgärder som behövs för att främja en ökad kunskapsdelning mellan medarbetarna. Studien belyste därför Knowledge Sharing inom små och medelstora, projektbaserade företag. Syftet med studien var att öka förståelsen och bidra med kunskap gällande hur medarbetarna inom små och medelstora företag arbetar med och kan stimulera Knowledge Sharing. Forskningsansatsen var en kvalitativ design med semistrukturerade intervjuer där utgångspunkten var att studera Knowledge Sharing utifrån medarbetarnas inställningar och erfarenheter. Studien visade att den praktiska delningen av kunskap inom små och medelstora företag skedde genom informella metoder såsom möten och personlig kommunikation. Den explicita kunskapen föredrogs att delas genom personifiering och dialog. Det ansågs generera djupare kunskap att dela genom personifiering än genom kodifiering. Individer vill dela expertis naturligt, och den bästa organisatoriska policyn kan vara att skapa tillfällen för människor att diskutera och utbyta kunskaper. Bonussystem för att motivera de anställda till att dela kunskaper i högre utsträckning fanns implementerade inom vissa utav de undersökta företagen. Medarbetarna drevs dock av andra motiv för att dela kunskap än rent monetära incitament. Kunskapsdelningsbeteendet motiveras av delarens önskan att hjälpa andra och bidra till organisationen. Andra starka motiv till Knowledge Sharing var att dela kunskap för att i sin tur få kunskaper returnerade och att det var roligt. / Research has concluded that Knowledge Sharing is essential for a company's future survival and that small and medium-sized enterprises have not taken the necessary steps to promote greater Knowledge Sharing between employees. Therefore the study highlighted Knowledge Sharing in small and medium-sized, project-based businesses. The aim of the study was to increase the understanding and contribute knowledge regarding how employees in small and medium-sized businesses are working with and can stimulate Knowledge Sharing. The research approach was a qualitative design with semi-structured interviews where the starting-point was to study employees' preferences and experiences of Knowledge Sharing. The study showed that the practical sharing of knowledge within small and medium enterprises was through informal methods such as meetings and personal communications. The explicit knowledge was presented to them by the personalization and dialogue, rather than by monologue. It was considered to generate deeper knowledge by impersonation than through codification. Individuals want to share expertise naturally, and the best organizational policies may be to create opportunities for people to talk and share knowledge through dialogues. Bonus systems were implemented to motivate employees to share knowledge in some of the surveyed companies. Furthermore, employees were motivated to share knowledge by other motivations than purely monetary incentives. Knowledge Sharing behavior was motivated by the desire to help others and contribute to the organization. Other strong motives to Knowledge Sharing was to share knowledge in order to, in turn, get knowledge returned and that it was fun.

Rapid internationalization of European higher education has resulted in a considerable increase in the number of English-medium instruction (EMI) degree programs now implemented at all levels of instruction. While this change of medium provides increased academic opportunities for all university stakeholders, the use of English by non-native speakers for teaching and learning in non-Anglosphere countries necessitates consideration of the ramifications of EMI. This study was motivated by the growing discussion of the challenges of English-medium instruction confronting lecturers for whom English is a foreign language. This case study investigated how 10 experienced lecturers in the natural sciences at the University of Copenhagen define their own teacher identity, and, their perceptions of any effects on their identity when shifting from Danish-medium instruction to English-medium instruction. This study utilized a multi-method approach to allow fuller access into the teachers' cognitions, and to overcome the weaknesses that arise from the use of self-report surveys to collect thoughts and perceptions. This approach comprised classroom observation of graduate level lectures, stimulated recall of these teaching events, and individual semi-structured interviews with the lecturers. The observations and stimulated recall served as a scaffold on which the interviews were built. In addition to questions directly focused on identity, the interviews also included two card sorting activities as elicitation devices. The analysis drew on the lecturers' comments and concerns related specifically to their underlying teacher cognitions about professional expertise, professional authority, and professional identity when teaching outside one's mother tongue in a multicultural, multilingual graduate setting. The results provide: 1) a model of teacher identity for lecturers in the natural sciences, 2) evidence that experienced NNS lecturers of natural science EMI do not find that the identified challenges of teaching in a foreign language affect their personal sense of teacher identify, and 3) reflections on teacher cognition studies. The lecturers highlight teaching experience and pedagogic content knowledge as factors that are at the core of their teacher identity. While the findings here report that these lecturers express confidence and security in the EMI context, the results also confirm the instructional and linguistic challenges identified in previous EMI research. This suggests that university managementneed to acknowledge these challenges, and develop and implement both linguistic and pedagogic competence training programs to support the needs of less experienced EMI lecturers.

The business environment is changing rapidly, becoming very competitive and challenging for all firms, and particularly for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). As innovation and new product development represent valuable sources for SMEs’ future sustainability and development, making these processes more effective is essential. Previous literature, with the focus on large firms, underlined the importance of efficiently managing the early period of new product development (NPD), as this can reduce the product’s time to market and increase its performance. For this reason, contributing to a developed understanding of the challenges of medium-sized firms in managing this phase, the fuzzy front-end (FFE) of NPD, is the aim of this study. The theoretical framework of this study combines prior theories that relate to the difficulties, shortcomings, challenges that SMEs meet during the whole NPD process, including FFE, and theories that resulted from research on FFE in large firms. The structure is based on four elements referring to managing the idea generation process, new product development team, evaluation of product concept feasibility, and the organization of FFE. A qualitative strategy and a research design with two case studies on high-tech, medium-sized manufacturing firms were used in reaching the purpose of this study. This methodology choice reflects the explorative purpose of this research. The empirical data are mainly primary data, collected during three interviews with development managers and a product developer, completed as well with secondary data like general company information, collected from companies’ websites. The analysis of empirical findings revealed some relevant conclusions, which can bring value to the research area, and also to the practice. Our findings show that lack of communication with customers during the whole FFE phase, collecting limited or inaccurate information to be processed during this phase, finding the right formalization degree of FFE activities, determining the complexity of the product concept, and assessing external technology and expertise, represent the main challenges faced by medium-sized firms in the FFE of NPD. The study’s practical relevance consists in the advices and solutions suggested to managers for overcoming the challenges of the FFE phase and improving their results in the development projects. The theoretical implications reflect the importance of organizational size variable in association with the challenges of FFE. The sample of only two cases and the quality of the empirical data collected from two high-tech Swedish manufacturing firms which have a large focus on innovation are the main limitations of this study, as these medium-sized firms have gained some experience to face the specific challenges of FFE of NPD and the data they provide may be influenced by this aspect.