This study deals with the use of the generalized finite difference method (GFDM) in perfectly matched layer (PML) analysis of the problems in wave mechanics, in particular, in elastodynamics. It is known that PML plays the role of an absorbing layer, for an unbounded domain, eliminating reflections of waves for all directions of incidence and frequencies. The study is initiated for purpose of detecting any possible advantages of using GFDM in PML analysis: GFDM is a meshless method suitable for any geometry of the domain, handling the boundary conditions properly and having an easy implementation for PML analysis. In the study, first, a bounded 2D fictitious plane strain problem is solved by GFDM to determine its appropriate parameters (weighting function, radius of influence, etc.). Then, a 1D semi-infinite rod on elastic foundation is considered to estimate PML parameters for GFDM. Finally, the proposed procedure, that is, the use of GFDM in PML analysis, is assessed by considering the compliance functions (in frequency domain) of surface and embedded rigid strip foundations. The surface foundation is assumed to be supported by three types of soil medium: rigid strip foundation on half space (HS), on soil layer overlying rigid bedrock, and on soil layer overlying HS. For the embedded rigid strip foundation, the supporting soil medium is taken as HS. In addition of frequency space analyses stated above, the direct time domain analysis is also performed for the reaction forces of rigid strip foundation over HS. The results of GFDM for both frequency and time spaces are compared with those of finite element method (FEM) with PML and boundary element method (BEM), when possible, also with those of other studies. The excellent matches observed in the results show the reliability of the proposed procedure in PML analysis (that is, of using GFDM in PML analysis).

Spectrum sensing is an important aspect of cognitive radio systems. In order to efficiently utilize the spectrum, the role of spectrum sensing is essential in cognitive radio networks. The transmitter detection based techniques: energy detection, cyclostationary feature detection, and matched filter detection, is most commonly used for the spectrum sensing. The Energy detection technique is implemented in the 2-hop cooperative cognitive radio network in which Orthogonal Space Time Block Coding (OSTBC) is applied with the Decode and Forward (DF) protocol at the cognitive relays. The Energy detection technique is simplest and gives good results at the higher Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) values. However, at the low SNR values its performance degrades. Moreover, each transmitter detection technique has a SNR threshold, below which it fails to work robustly. This thesis aims to find the most reliable and accurate spectrum sensing technique in the 2-hop cooperative cognitive radio network. Using Matlab simulations, a comparative analysis of three transmitter detection techniques has been made in terms of higher probability of detection. In order to remove the shortcomings faced by all the three techniques, the Fuzzy-combined logic sensing approach is also implemented and compared with transmitter detection techniques. / Atti Ur Rehman (atti.rehmman@gmail.com) ph: +358-440458080

Approximately 10% of all energy consumed in the United States is derived from high temperature gas turbine engines. As a result, a 1% increase in engine efficiency would yield enough energy to satisfy the demands of approximately 1 million homes and savings of over $800 million in fuel costs per year. Efficiency of gas turbine engines can be improved by increasing the combustor temperature. Modern engines now operate at temperatures that far exceed the material limitations of the metals they are comprised of in the pursuit of increased thermal efficiency. Various techniques to thermally protect the turbine components are used to allow for safe operation of the engines despite the extreme environments: film cooling, internal convective cooling, and thermal barrier coatings. Historically, these thermal protection techniques have been studied separately without account for any conjugate effects. The end goal of this work is to provide a greater understanding of how the conjugate effects might alter the predictions of thermal behavior and consequently improve engine designs to pursue increased efficiency. The primary focus of this study was to complete the first open literature, high resolution experiments of a modeled first stage turbine vane with both active film cooling and a simulated thermal barrier coating (TBC). This was accomplished by scaling the thermal behavior of a real engine component to the model vane using the matched Biot number method. Various film cooling configurations were tested on both the suction and pressure side of the model vane including: round holes, craters, traditional trenches and a novel modified trench. IR thermography and ribbon thermocouples were used to measure the surface temperature of the TBC and the temperature at the interface of the TBC and vane wall, respectively. This work found that the presence of a TBC significantly dampens the effect of altering film cooling conditions when measuring the TBC interface temperature. This work also found that in certain conditions adiabatic effectiveness does not provide an accurate assessment of how a film cooling design may perform in a real engine. An additional focus of this work was to understand how contaminant deposition alters the cooling performance of a vane with a TBC. This work focused on quantifying the detrimental effects of active deposition by seeding the mainstream flow of the test facility with simulated molten coal ash. It was found that in most cases, except for round holes operating at relatively high blowing ratios, the performance of film cooling was negatively altered by the presence of contaminant deposition. However, the cooling performance at the interface of the TBC and vane wall actually improved with deposition due to the additional thermal resistance that was added to the exterior surface of the model vane. / text

本論文藉由瞭解在臺學習華語的外籍學生對於兩岸口音的看法，以供臺灣華語教師在教學現場應使用何種口音作為參考。研究對象是臺灣北部某國立大學的華語文教學中心中級班以上的外籍學生。研究方法包含假貌相比測驗法（Matched-Guise technique）、問卷調查和焦點團體訪談三項研究工具，蒐集研究資料，作為分析與討論問題的依據。 經過研究實施與資料分析，歸結研究結果如下：（一）多數外籍學生具有聽辨兩岸口音差異之能力；（二）兩岸口音各有其擁護者；（三）兩岸口音的印象差異，除了在聲母、韻母及聲調，如：捲舌音、輕聲及兒化韻等等的差別以外，說話的語氣，如：聲音的大小、說話的速度、聲音的高低等，也會影響外籍學生對兩岸口音的印象；（四）外籍學生在選擇華語口音時所考慮的要素為「不同學習階段的需求」、「易學」、「當地文化與朋友」、「好聽」以及「較具親和力」等五項因素；（五）本研究的外籍學生認為在現階段應學習臺灣口音的華語，奠立良好的口音基礎，進而拓展聽力寬度，然後再進入多元口音輸出的階段。 最後根據調查結果提出華語教學上的啟發與後續研究建議，以供華語教師、學校行政單位以及教學研究者在兩岸華語口音方面的參考。 / This study aims to investigate how CFL(Chinese as a foreign language) students in Taiwan view the accent of Mandarin Chinese produced by Taiwanese and Mainlanders. The participants of the study are from a university in Taipei city, and they are at intermediate-level and above. The research methods adopted in the study include Matched-Guise technique, questionnaire survey, and focus group interview. The major findings are: (1) Most CFL students have the ability to distinguish the accent of Mandarin Chinese produced by Taiwanese and Mainlanders; (2) the two accents have their own supporters; (3) CFL students’ impressions of the two accents include not only initials, finals and tones, but also volume, speed and pitch. Another interesting finding is that most CFL students in Taiwan want to learn Mandarin with a Taiwanese accent because (1) Taiwanese accent is easier to learn; (2) CFL students in Taiwan want to interact with Taiwanese and learn Taiwanese culture. When CFL students in Taiwan become high intermediate or advanced students, they also wish to be exposed to Mandarin with mainlander’s accent in order to expand their repertoire of the Chinese language. At the end of the thesis, pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research are included.

We introduce a mathematical framework for the inverse medium problem arising commonly in geotechnical site characterization and geophysical probing applications, when stress waves are used to probe the material composition of the interrogated medium. Specifically, we attempt to recover the spatial distribution of Lame's parameters ( and μ) of an elastic semi-infinite arbitrarily heterogeneous medium, using surface measurements of the medium's response to prescribed dynamic excitations. The focus is on characterizing near-surface deposits, and to this end, we develop a method that is implemented directly in the time-domain, is driven by the full waveform response collected at receivers on the surface, while the domain of interest is truncated using Perfectly-Matched-Layers (PMLs) to limit the originally semi-infinite extent of the physical domain. There are two key issues associated with the problem at hand: (a) the forward problem, namely the numerical simulation of the wave motion in the domain of interest; and (b) the framework and strategies for tackling the inverse problem. To address the forward problem, it is necessary that the domain of interest be truncated, and the resulting finite domain be forced to mimic the physics of the original problem: to this end, we introduce unsplit-field PMLs, and develop and implement two new formulations, one fully-mixed and one hybrid (mixed coupled with a non-mixed approach) that model wave motion within the, now PML-truncated, domain. To address the inverse problem, we adopt a partial-differential-equation-constrained optimization framework that results in the usual triplet of an initial-and-boundary-value forward problem, a final-and-boundary-value adjoint problem, and a time-independent boundary-value control problem. This triplet of boundary-value-problems is used to guide the optimizer to the target profile of the spatially distributed Lame parameters. Given the multiplicity of solutions, we assist the optimizer, by deploying regularization schemes, continuation schemes (regularization factor and source-frequency content), as well as a physics-driven simple procedure to bias the search directions. We report numerical examples attesting to the quality, stability, and efficiency of the forward wave modeling. We also report moderate success with numerical experiments targeting inversion of both smooth and sharp profiles in two dimensions. / text

The discontinuous Galerkin finite element time-domain (DGFETD) method has been successfully applied to the solution of the coupled curl Maxwell’s equations. In this dissertation, important extensions to the DGFETD method are provided, including the ability to model lumped circuit elements and the ability to model thin-wire structures within a discrete DGFETD solution. To this end, a hybrid DGFETD/SPICE formulation is proposed for high-frequency circuit simulation, and a hybrid DGFETD/Thin-wire formulation is proposed for modeling thin-wire structures within a three-dimensional problem space. To aid in the efficient modeling of open-region structures, a Complex Frequency Shifted-Perfectly Matched Layer (CFS-PML) absorbing medium is applied to the DGFETD method for the first time. An efficient CFS-PML method that reduces the computational complexity and improves accuracy as compared to previous PML formulations is proposed. The methods have been successfully implemented, and a number of test cases are provided that validate the proposed methods. The proposed hybrid formulations and the new CFS-PML formulation dramatically enhances the ability of the DGFETD method to be efficiently applied to simulate complex, state of the art radio frequency systems.

This thesis studies the design and implementation of an ultra-sonic water depth sounder. The depth sounder is implemented in a hand-held smart console used by divers. Since the idea of echo sounding is to measure the flight time between transmitting the signal and receiving the echo, the main challenge of this task is to find a time-of-flight (ToF) estimation for a signal in noise. It should be suitable for this specific application and robust when implemented in the device. The thesis contains an investigation of suitable ToF methods. More detailed evaluations of the matched filter, also known as the correlation method, and the linear phase approach are done. Aspects like pulse frequency and duration, speed of sound in water and underwater noise are taken into account. The ToF-methods are evaluated through simulation and experiments. The matched filter approach is found suitable based on these simulations and tests with signals recorded by the console. This verification leads to the implementation of the algorithm on the device. The algorithm is tested in real time, the results are evaluated and improvements suggested. / Denna rapport behandlar skattning av vattendjup med hjälp av ultraljudspulser och implementation av detta. Djupmätaren implementeras i en handhållen dykarkonsoll. Eftersom grundidén i ekolodning är att mäta tiden mellan att pulsen skickas iväg och att ekot tas emot är en stor del av utmaningen att hitta en lämplig metod för att skatta flykttiden för en signal i brus. Metoden ska passa för detta användingsområde och vara robust. Rapporten tar upp tidigare forskning gjord inom flykttidsestimering. De metoder som utvärderas för implementation är det matchade filtret, också kallad korrelationsmetoden, och linjär fas-metoden. Andra aspekter som avvägs och utreds är pulsfrekvens och pulsvaraktighet, ljudets hastighet och brus under vattnet. Metoderna för att skatta flykttid utvärderas genom simuleringar. Det matchade filtret bedöms vara lämpligt baserat på dessa simuleringar och experiment med data inspelad med konsollen. Denna verifikation leder till att algoritmen implementeras på konsollen. Den implementerade algoritmen testas i realtid, resultaten utvärderas och förbättringar föreslås.

Existing research in labor economics has rarely accounted for non-profit status in examining wage dispersion. Contrariwise, in non-profit sector research, little has been said so far about (intra-organizational) wage dispersion. Scattered findings from previous work indicate that wage dispersion is smaller in non-profit organizations (NPOs) as compared to for-profits (FPOs). Fairness perceptions and high moral ideals of workers within this sector are often cited as reasons for this assumption. Empirically, however, the reasons for inter-sectoral differences remain obscure. In our analysis, we concentrate on specific characteristics of NPOs as compared to FPOs. More specifically, this paper is to address the question if volunteer workers, donations and public subsidies influence the within-firm wage dispersion in NPOs. In order to answer this research question we use Austrian matched employer-employee data collected in 2006. We estimate an instrument variable regression and find that NPOs that employ volunteer workers and NPOs with a more even mix between paid and unpaid staff display smaller wage dispersion. Donations and public subsidies augment the wage dispersion. (author's abstract) / Series: Working Papers / Institut für Sozialpolitik

abstract: Species conservation requires an understanding of the habitats on which that species depends as well as how it moves within and among those habitats. Knowledge of these spatial and temporal patterns is vital for effective management and research study design. Bubbling Ponds Hatchery in Cornville, Arizona, supports a robust population of the northern Mexican gartersnake (Thamnophis eques megalops), which was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2014. Natural resource managers are interested in understanding the ecology of gartersnakes at this site to guide hatchery operations and to serve as a model for habitat creation and restoration. My objectives were to identify habitat selection and activity patterns of northern Mexican gartersnakes at the hatchery and how frequency of monitoring affects study results. I deployed transmitters on 42 individual gartersnakes and documented macro- and microhabitat selection, daily and seasonal activity patterns, and movement distances. Habitat selection and movements were similar between males and females and varied seasonally. During the active season (March–October), snakes primarily selected wetland edge habitat with abundant cover and were more active and moved longer distances than during other parts of the year. Gestating females selected similar locations but with less dense cover. During the inactive season (November–February), snakes were less mobile and selected upland habitats, including rocky slopes with abundant vegetation. Snakes displayed diurnal patterns of activity. Estimates of daily distance traveled decreased with less-frequent monitoring; a sampling interval of once every 24 hours yielded only 53–62% of known daily distances moved during the active season. These results can help inform management activities and research design. Conservation of this species should incorporate a landscape-level approach that includes abundant wetland edge habitat with connected upland areas. Resource managers and researchers should carefully assess timing and frequency of activities in order to meet project objectives. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Applied Biological Sciences 2017

abstract: With the increase in computing power and availability of data, there has never been a greater need to understand data and make decisions from it. Traditional statistical techniques may not be adequate to handle the size of today's data or the complexities of the information hidden within the data. Thus knowledge discovery by machine learning techniques is necessary if we want to better understand information from data. In this dissertation, we explore the topics of asymmetric loss and asymmetric data in machine learning and propose new algorithms as solutions to some of the problems in these topics. We also studied variable selection of matched data sets and proposed a solution when there is non-linearity in the matched data. The research is divided into three parts. The first part addresses the problem of asymmetric loss. A proposed asymmetric support vector machine (aSVM) is used to predict specific classes with high accuracy. aSVM was shown to produce higher precision than a regular SVM. The second part addresses asymmetric data sets where variables are only predictive for a subset of the predictor classes. Asymmetric Random Forest (ARF) was proposed to detect these kinds of variables. The third part explores variable selection for matched data sets. Matched Random Forest (MRF) was proposed to find variables that are able to distinguish case and control without the restrictions that exists in linear models. MRF detects variables that are able to distinguish case and control even in the presence of interaction and qualitative variables. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Industrial Engineering 2013