With the retreating sources of carbon based fuels, thermoelectric materials can play an important role in the future of environmentally friendly power generators. Sb based framework have in some cases shown some promising properties as thermoelectric materials. The physical properties may be modified with doping or incorporation of new elements. Zn4Sb3 and Cd4Sb3 are structurally related with a Sb-based network and Zn/Cd occupying the rest of the positions. Both structures undergo order-disorder α–β transition of the Zn/Cd positions, at 254 K and ~355 K respectively. The previously ordered interstitial atoms become distributed in the structure and the two high temperature phases are isostructural (R-3c). Cd4Sb3 was synthesized from melt-quench, flux synthesis with Sn, Bi and In. The syntheses made with In resulted in interstitial-free β-Cd4Sb3 with the composition Cd11.7In1.5Sb10. This compound exhibits no phase transitions until decomposition. ZnSnSb2 and InSb both exhibit the cubic sphalerite structure. ZnSnSb2 is metallic and InSb narrow band-gap semiconductor. Attempts were made to fine-tune the electrical properties by probing the mutual solid solubility range. The formula [ZnSnSb2]x[2(InSb)]1-xSn4 and 0<X<1 with 0.1 increments for the whole composition range was used. Resistivity changes from semiconducting to metallic conduction between x=0.9 and x=0.8. In the attempt to dope Zn4Sb3 by In a novel metastable compound with the composition Zn9Sb6In2 was found. Another novel phase was discovered with the composition Zn5Sb4In2-δ (δ=0.15).  The two phases have the same Sb-framework with a CuAl2 structure. Zn and In arrangements fill the square antiprisms formed by the stacking of 32434 nets in anti configuration. The filling of the antiprisms in the two phases are different, in Zn9Sb6In2 the antiprisms have two filling arrangements, an In or Zn3 triangles. In Zn5Sb4In2-δ the antiprisms are filled with an In and a Zn that occupies a split position to form a hetero-atomic dimers.

The amount of energy consumed during a tillage operation depends on three categories of parameters: (1) soil parameters (2) tool parameters and (3) operating parameters. Although many research works have been reported on the effects of those parameters on tillage energy, the exact number of affecting parameters and the contribution of each parameter in total energy requirement have not been specified. A study with the objectives of specifying energy consuming components and determining the amount of each component for a vertical narrow tool, particularly at high speeds of operation, was conducted in the soil bin facilities of the Department of Agricultural and Bioresource Engineering, University of Saskatchewan. <p>Based on studies by Blumel (1986) and Kushwaha and Linke (1996), four main energy consuming components were assumed: <p>(1) energy requirements associated with soil-tool interactions;<p>(2) energy requirements associated with interactions between tilled and fixed soil masses;<p>(3) energy requirements associated with soil deformation; and <p>(4) energy requirements associated with the acceleration of the tilled soil. <p> Energy requirement of a vertical narrow tool was calculated based on the draft requirement of the tool measured in the soil bin. The effects of three variables, moisture content, operating depth and forward speed, were studied at different levels: (1) moisture content at 14% and 20%; (2) depth at 40, 80, 120 and 160 mm; and (3) speed at 1, 8, 16 and 24 km h-1. Total energy requirement was divided into these four components based upon the procedure developed in the research. <p>Regression equations for different energy components were developed based on experimental data of two replicates and then validated by extra soil bin experiments conducted at same soil and tool but different operational conditions. The set up of energy components data in the model development showed good correlation with the available experimental data for all four components. Coefficients of all regression equations showed a first order energy-moisture content relationship best applicable to those equations of energy components. For the acceleration component, energy-depth relationship at all speed levels resulted in an equation which included first and second orders of depth. In contrast, if only two higher levels of speed were used in the regression model, the relationship between acceleration energy and depth resulted in the second order of depth. When experimental data of acceleration energy at 8, 16, and 24 km h-1 speeds were used in the regression equation, the acceleration energy-speed relationship resulted in both linear and quadratic relationships. It was concluded that for the tool and soil conditions used in the experiments, 8 km h-1 speed resulted in only linear relationship. On the other hand, 16 and 24 km h-1 speeds resulted in a quadratic relationship. Therefore, for all 3 speeds used in experiments, both linear and quadratic relationships were obtained. Considering that the tool was operating at high speeds, this research is expected to contribute valuable experimental data to the researchers working in the field of soil dynamics.

The amount of energy consumed during a tillage operation depends on three categories of parameters: (1) soil parameters (2) tool parameters and (3) operating parameters. Although many research works have been reported on the effects of those parameters on tillage energy, the exact number of affecting parameters and the contribution of each parameter in total energy requirement have not been specified. A study with the objectives of specifying energy consuming components and determining the amount of each component for a vertical narrow tool, particularly at high speeds of operation, was conducted in the soil bin facilities of the Department of Agricultural and Bioresource Engineering, University of Saskatchewan. <p>Based on studies by Blumel (1986) and Kushwaha and Linke (1996), four main energy consuming components were assumed: <p>(1) energy requirements associated with soil-tool interactions;<p>(2) energy requirements associated with interactions between tilled and fixed soil masses;<p>(3) energy requirements associated with soil deformation; and <p>(4) energy requirements associated with the acceleration of the tilled soil. <p> Energy requirement of a vertical narrow tool was calculated based on the draft requirement of the tool measured in the soil bin. The effects of three variables, moisture content, operating depth and forward speed, were studied at different levels: (1) moisture content at 14% and 20%; (2) depth at 40, 80, 120 and 160 mm; and (3) speed at 1, 8, 16 and 24 km h-1. Total energy requirement was divided into these four components based upon the procedure developed in the research. <p>Regression equations for different energy components were developed based on experimental data of two replicates and then validated by extra soil bin experiments conducted at same soil and tool but different operational conditions. The set up of energy components data in the model development showed good correlation with the available experimental data for all four components. Coefficients of all regression equations showed a first order energy-moisture content relationship best applicable to those equations of energy components. For the acceleration component, energy-depth relationship at all speed levels resulted in an equation which included first and second orders of depth. In contrast, if only two higher levels of speed were used in the regression model, the relationship between acceleration energy and depth resulted in the second order of depth. When experimental data of acceleration energy at 8, 16, and 24 km h-1 speeds were used in the regression equation, the acceleration energy-speed relationship resulted in both linear and quadratic relationships. It was concluded that for the tool and soil conditions used in the experiments, 8 km h-1 speed resulted in only linear relationship. On the other hand, 16 and 24 km h-1 speeds resulted in a quadratic relationship. Therefore, for all 3 speeds used in experiments, both linear and quadratic relationships were obtained. Considering that the tool was operating at high speeds, this research is expected to contribute valuable experimental data to the researchers working in the field of soil dynamics.

The aim of this essay was to describe the power elite of the Swedish town Karlshamn, and its influences on the local political process before the realization of the narrow-gauge railway Karlshamn-Wislanda-Jernväg. During the mid 19th century, a revolutionary period began in the Swedish pre-industrial epoch. The political and institutional regulatory frameworks were disassembled and restructured, away from protectionism and centrally controlled administration, for the benefit of free trade, local self-government and liberalism. The changes were carried through during times marked by a drastic increasing native population and upcoming demands for adjustments to meet the growth of the industrial-, trade- and labour markets. An essential industrial development factor was the building of the national railway network, which started after some important decisions in the Swedish Riksdag during the 1850´s. In close connection with governmental initiatives to build national trunk lines, processes on the local political arenas were initiated to rapidly obtain connections to these planned main lines. Focus in this study was put on the town Karlshamn 1855-1874 and the main document sources that were examined consisted of protocols and petitions from errands on the local political arenas, f.e. the town council. The material was methodically revised by means of a network- and field analysis. Through this analytical method it was possible to confirm the power elite actors, their potential networks and reproduced groups. The results point to the importance of the formal networks an their contributions to the accumulation of social capital. Above all, this was significant for the most important individuals in the process, the local wholesale dealers Edvard Ferdinand Meyer and Carl Gustaf Berg. The process also resulted in a reproduction of local political power, and the dominance on the political field was continued. All through the twenty-year lasting process, the railway issue became a possibility for the local elite, with representatives from the trading companies, to mobilize the political decisions in the direction of continuous economic development, and enlargement of the town´s commercial area. In the town of Karlshamn, with a stagnating economy, the new infrastructure, beside the connection to the main national lines, constituted a lifeline towards continuous financial expansion and competitiveness.

n the problem of time delay estimation (TDE), the desired source signals of interest are correlated and with a specific spectral distribution. In such cases, the convergence speed using the conventional approaches, viz., time domain adaptive constrained and unconstrained LMS TDE algorithms, becomes slowly and the performance of TDE will be degraded, dramatically. In fact, the convergence rate depends highly on the distribution of spectral density of the desired signal sources. Also, the performance of TDE is affected by the background noises, accordingly. To circumvent the problem described above, in this thesis, a transformed domain adaptive constrained filtering scheme, refers to the constrained adaptive DCT-LMS algorithm, for TDE is devised. We show that this new proposed constrained algorithm, with the so-called direct delay estimation formula, for non-integer TDE does perform better than the conventional time domain adaptive constrained and unconstrained LMS TDE algorithms and the unconstrained adaptive DCT-LMS TDE algorithm. Finally, to further reduce the spread of eigenvalue in the unconstrained adaptive DCT-LMS algorithm, the Gram-Schmidt orthogonalizer approach realizing by the adaptive Escalator is investigated. It indicates that bias of TDE will occur without using the constraint of weight vector. That is, it could not be used to alleviate the effect due to background noises.

The convergence speed using the conventional approaches, viz., time-domain adaptive constrained and unconstrained LMS algorithms, becomes slowly, when dealing with the correlated source signals. In consequence, the performance of time delay estimation (TDE) will be degraded, dramatically. To improve this problem, the so-called transform-domain adaptive constrained filtering scheme, i.e., the adaptive constrained discrete-cosine-transform (DCT) LMS algorithm, has been proposed in [15]. However, the use of any one orthogonal transform will not result in a completely diagonal the input signal auto-correlation matrix for all types of input signals. In fact, the significant non-diagonal entries in the transform-domain auto-correlation matrix, will deteriorate the convergence performance of the algorithm. To further overcome the problem described above, in this thesis, a modified approach, referred as the adaptive constrained modified DCT-LMS (CMDCT-LMS) algorithm, is devised for TDE under a wide class of input processes. In addition, based on the orthogonal discrete wavelet transform (DWT), an adaptive constrained modified DMT-LMS (CMDWT-LMS) algorithm is also devised and applied to the problem of TDE. We show that the proposed two modified constrained approaches for TDE does perform well than the unmodified approaches under different source signal models. Moreover, the adaptive CMDCT-LMS filtering algorithm does perform slightly better than the adaptive CMDWT-LMS filtering algorithm as observed from the simulation results.

The technique of direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) cellular system has been the focus of increased attention. In this thesis, we will consider the environment of DS-CDMA systems, where the asynchronous narrow band interference due to other systems is joined suddenly to the CDMA system. The suddenly joined narrow band interference will make the system crush down. The main concern of this thesis is to deal with suddenly joined narrow band interference cancellation. An adaptive filtering algorithm based on sliding window criterion and variable forgetting factor is known to be very attractive for violent changing environment. In this thesis, a new sliding window linearly constrained recursive least squares (SW LC-RLS) algorithm and variable forgetting factor linearly constrained recursive least squares (VFF LC-RLS) algorithm on the modified minimum mean squared error (MMSE) structure [9] is devised for RAKE receiver in direct sequence code-division multiple access (DS-CDMA) system over multipath fading channels. Where the channel estimation scheme is accomplished at the output of adaptive filter. The proposed SW LC-RLS algorithm and VFF LC-RLS has the advantage of having faster convergence property and tracking ability, and can be applied to the environment, where the narrow band interference is suddenly joined to the system, to achieve desired performance. Via computer simulation, we show that the performance, in terms of mean square errors (MSE) and signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR), is superior to the conventional LC-RLS and orthogonal decomposition-based LMS algorithms based on the MMSE structure [9].

<p>The aim of this essay was to describe the power elite of the Swedish town Karlshamn, and its influences on the local political process before the realization of the narrow-gauge railway Karlshamn-Wislanda-Jernväg. During the mid 19th century, a revolutionary period began in the Swedish pre-industrial epoch. The political and institutional regulatory frameworks were disassembled and restructured, away from protectionism and centrally controlled administration, for the benefit of free trade, local self-government and liberalism. The changes were carried through during times marked by a drastic increasing native population and upcoming demands for adjustments to meet the growth of the industrial-, trade- and labour markets. An essential industrial development factor was the building of the national railway network, which started after some important decisions in the Swedish Riksdag during the 1850´s. In close connection with governmental initiatives to build national trunk lines, processes on the local political arenas were initiated to rapidly obtain connections to these planned main lines. Focus in this study was put on the town Karlshamn 1855-1874 and the main document sources that were examined consisted of protocols and petitions from errands on the local political arenas, f.e. the town council. The material was methodically revised by means of a network- and field analysis. Through this analytical method it was possible to confirm the power elite actors, their potential networks and reproduced groups. The results point to the importance of the formal networks an their contributions to the accumulation of social capital. Above all, this was significant for the most important individuals in the process, the local wholesale dealers Edvard Ferdinand Meyer and Carl Gustaf Berg. The process also resulted in a reproduction of local political power, and the dominance on the political field was continued. All through the twenty-year lasting process, the railway issue became a possibility for the local elite, with representatives from the trading companies, to mobilize the political decisions in the direction of continuous economic development, and enlargement of the town´s commercial area. In the town of Karlshamn, with a stagnating economy, the new infrastructure, beside the connection to the main national lines, constituted a lifeline towards continuous financial expansion and competitiveness.</p>

Embedded environment imposes severe constraints of system resources on embedded applications. Performance, memory footprint, and power consumption are critical factors for embedded applications. Meanwhile, the data in embedded applications demonstrate unique properties. More specifically, narrow width data are data representable in considerably fewer bits than in one word, which nevertheless occupy an entire register or memory word and streaming data are the input data processed by an application sequentially, which stay in the system for a short duration and thus exhibit little data locality. Narrow width and streaming data affect the efficiency of register, cache, and memory and must be taken into account when optimizing for performance, memory footprint, and power consumption.This dissertation proposes methods to efficiently handle narrow width and streaming data in embedded applications. Quantitative measurements of narrow width and streaming data are performed to provide guidance for optimizations. Novel architectural features and associated compiler algorithms are developed. To efficiently handle narrow width data in registers, two register allocation schemes are proposed for the ARM processor to allocate two narrow width variables to one register. A static scheme exploits maximum bitwidth. A speculative scheme further exploits dynamic bitwidth. Both result in reduced spill cost and performance improvement. To efficiently handle narrow width data in memory, a memory layout method is proposed to coalesce multiple narrow width data in one memory location in a DSP processor, leading to fewer explicit address calculations. This method improves performance and shrinks memory footprint. To efficiently handle streaming data in network processor, two cache mechanisms are proposed to enable the reuse of data and computation. The slack created is further transformed into reduction in energy consumption through a fetch gating mechanism.

We consider the motion of a Brownian particle trapped in an arbitrary bounded two or three-dimensional domain, whose boundary is reflecting except for a small absorbing window through which the particle can escape. We use the method of matched asymptotic expansions to calculate the mean first passage time, defined as the time taken for the Brownian particle to escape from the domain through the absorbing window. This is known as the narrow escape problem. Since the mean escape time diverges as the window shrinks, the calculation is a singular perturbation problem. We extend our results to include N absorbing windows of varying length in two dimensions and varying radius in three dimensions. We present findings in two dimensions for the unit disk, unit square and ellipse and in three dimensions for the unit sphere. The narrow escape problem has various applications in many fields including finance, biology, and statistical mechanics.