by Lam Hiu-fung. / "Augustr 2004." / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 178-182). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Allen Featherstone / The Company is comprised of retail and w holesale agri-input outlets, toll/contract manufacturing and various departments that aid in three tiers of the supply chain. The Company Department 2’s principal goal is to earn a profit and that is achieved by helping their retail customers succeed across Division M. Therefore, a comprehensible strategy for selecting, positioning and promoting wholesale products and services is fundamental in uncovering actual value. The Company has grown to be one of the nation’s foremost agricultural distributors across the United States. Various geographies across the United States, excluding the region, have moved to a three-tier supply chain by merging retail and wholesale outlets. Currently, value demanded from end-users and retail outlets has been supplied from the wholesale level that has sustained the four-tier supply chain a cross the region of the United States. Even though the Company is vertically integrated, their knowled ge and core offerings originate from the retail segment of the supply chain. Retail firms that provide differentiated products and services with the most value to the end-user are those that fit the Company Department 2’s market. In addition, targeted retail fir ms emphasize a full-service business model by supplying produ cts and services across multip le categories. Company Department 2 provides value internally and externally. The three core areas from Company Department 2 are proprietary products, precision products and services, and other retail services valu able to retail customers. Positioning of these core areas differs based on the depth of the current relationship. A flanking strategy is proposed for prospective customers by bundling prestige goods and distribution innovations specifically in the focused proprietary line of products. A guerilla strategy is proposed for existing customers by highlighting product proliferation and improved services across all three of the core areas. Both strategies emphasize advertising and promotion, but more intensive campaigns are proposed with prospective customers. These positioning strategies and tactics are accomplished through accurate implementation at the field level. By risking a claim for what Company Department 2 stands for, communicating how value is created for a customer and communicating the reliability of these offerings, Company Department 2 will develop a unique identity in the marketplace.

In 1978, Stanislaus County took a proactive approach to food processing byproduct waste and established the Food Processing Byproduct Use Program. It allows processors to transport byproduct to local producers, where it serves as an alternative input. There is concern that the program negatively impacts local groundwater. The Regional Water Quality Control Board proposed that the County institute water monitoring which would increase program expenses. In response to this proposal, participants investigated the impact of the cost increase and some have concluded that this increase would preclude their continued involvement. They believe the program has allowed them to maintain their competitiveness and has kept them from relocating. This study investigates the economic impact of the food processors leaving the region due to a modification of the current program. Four economic impacts were studied—output, value-added, taxes, and employment. A sensitivity analysis was run to establish a range of possible value and the analysis yielded significantly higher results. It was estimated that program modification would result in significant fiscal and employment effects for Stanislaus and San Joaquin Counties. This study determined that both Stanislaus and San Joaquin Counties have a vested interest in ensuring that the program remains viable for processors.

This thesis examines the existing theories and applications of Multivariate Statistical Process Control, outlines areas of difficulty and proposes a new technique of multivariate process control chart with input-output relationship for optimal process control. The process control techniques developed up to the present time focused on the fast detection of out-of-control signals, and achieved considerable success in that respect. The techniques reported on multivariate process control thus far include extensions of univariate process control charts to their multivariate counterparts, ranging from classical Shewharts charts to modern Cumulative Sum Process Control charts. Alternative approaches in this area include Principal Component Approach, Partial Regression approach, Baysian modelling and sequential tests on detection of change points. Although each method has its own limitation, these new developments have significantly contributed to the achievement of a constant high quality of products and services. The techniques of process control are yet incomplete. They require continuous attention, as production and service technologies are being continuously developed.In particular, the level of automation, re-engineering of production processes and ever demanding economic optimality of technology demand the re-engineering of statistical process control. The CFM chart developed in this thesis would open the door to this area of science and lays a critical foundation for future research / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The purpose of this research is to help understand the key relationships in an evolving economic structure that are driving resource use and greenhouse gas emissions in Australia. The approach involves looking at the factors and relationships that underpin economic growth in Australia. This research seeks to understand the changes in these factors by taking a historical perspective to the determinants of environmental impact through an investigation of structural changes over a period of 30 years. A detailed model is developed using the macro-economic tool of input-output analysis. This model makes it possible to investigate inter-relationships and intra-relationships between sectors of the environment, the economy and the population at disparate scales.

<p>Using more than just on antenna can significantly speed up the data rate in a wireless communication system. These systems are commonly referred to as Diversity- and MIMO-systems. Due to tight volume restriction for the antennas, e.g. in a mobile phone, electromagnetic coupling between the antennas will degrade the capacity of the wireless system and lower the coverage.</p><p><p>In the proposed thesis, a thorough study of Ethertronics’ standard antennas will be established in which the antennas will be used in a multiport system, e.g. MIMO. The thesis will be strongly related to Ethertronics’ engagement in Chase and therefore also dependent on the latest progresses on MPA (Multiport Analyzer) developed in Chase. The thesis will result in a working methodology how to use MPA plus design-, location- and orientation rules for the standard antennas used in a multiport system.</p></p>

Residual vibrations degrade the performance of many systems. Due to the lightweight and flexible nature of space structures, controlling residual vibrations is especially difficult. Also, systems such as the Space Shuttle remote Manipulator System have frequencies that vary significantly based upon configuration and loading. Recently, a technique of minimizing vibrations in flexible structures by command input shaping was developed. This document presents research completed in developing a simple, closed- form method of calculating input shaping sequences for two-mode systems and a system to adapt the command input shaping technique to known changes in system frequency about the workspace. The new techniques were tested on a three-link, flexible manipulator.

As the number of processor cores on a chip increases with the advance of CMOS technology, there has been a growing need of more efficient Network-on-Chip (NoC) design since communication delay has become a major bottleneck in large-scale multicore systems. In designing efficient input buffers of NoC routers for better performance and power efficiency, Spin-Torque Transfer Magnetic RAM (STT-MRAM) is regarded as a promising solution due to its nature of high density and near-zero leakage power. Previous work that adopts STT-MRAM in designing NoC router input buffer shows a limitation in minimizing the overhead of power consumption, even though it succeeds to some degree in achieving high network throughput by the use of SRAM to hide the long write latency of STT-MRAM. In this thesis, we propose a novel input buffer design that depends solely on STT-MRAM without the need of SRAM to maximize the benefits of low leakage power and area efficiency inherent in STT-MRAM. In addition, we introduce power-efficient buffer refreshing schemes synergized with age-based switch arbitration that gives higher priority to older flits to remove unnecessary refreshing operations. On an average, we observed throughput improvements of 16% on synthetic workloads and benchmarks.

This thesis presents experimental results of shape’s influence on user’s performance in terms of time and accuracy in shape replication task. The shapes are drawn with mouse, pen and touch input devices. For this purpose, two non-meaningful, semi- randomly generated shapes have been used. The first shape has a combination of straight lines and curves whereas the second shape has curves only. Each of these shapes is presented in four versions namely contour, polygon, narrow tunnel and wide tunnel. A method to compare versions of these shapes with the corresponding versions of user drawn shapes is presented. In general, the results showed that the replication of second shape takes less time and the replicated shape is more accurate when compared to the first shape. In addition, performance of the input devices was found to be dependent upon the shapes and their versions they were used to draw.