<div> <p>Half of people over 75 in the United States suffer from age related hearing loss and have trouble understanding speech in a noisy background. Even older adults who have normal pure tone audiograms can have trouble understanding speech in a noisy background. Speech is a complex sound and therefore sounds more complex than pure tones are required to understand the differences in processing noisy speech in young and aged individuals. Band passed noise is easily controlled and is more complex than pure tones making it better stimulus for testing. The first place in the ascending auditory pathway that does complex processing is the inferior colliculus. Single unit recordings from the inferior colliculus of young and aged F344 rats were preformed using half octave band passed noise and pure tones. Firing rates, first spike latencies, the number of tuning peaks, normalized peak slope, bandwidth, and Q factors were all evaluated for each unit in response to band passed noise. For 54 of the units their responses to pure tones were also collected. Out of 286 units recorded from young animals, 218 were responsive and 178 of them had a band passed response. Out of 193 aged units, 145 were responsive and 134 had a band passed response. Young units had a significantly higher total firing rate (p = 0.008) and bandwidth (p = 0.004). The normalized peak slopes and Q factors were significantly lower in young units indicating sharper tuning in the aged units. Pure tones elicited a stronger response than band passed noise however, for many units the best frequency was similar for both stimuli. These results show that aged units are less responsive to stimuli containing multiple frequencies which may help explain why older adults have trouble understanding noisy speech. </p> </div> <br>

Many Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) projects consist of construction and maintenance of reinforced concrete structures. Where appropriate test methods exist, MTO has been moving towards use of performance-based specifications for durability control of concrete. MTO currently uses ASTM C1202 (RCPT) coulomb values to assess concrete durability. This test requires taking cores, so replacing this test with a faster non-destructive technique is important. The main focus of this program was to study the Wenner probe surface resistivity as a non-destructive test device and evaluate the potential for replacement of RCPT with the Wenner resistivity. This research program consists of the determination of RCPT values, water sorptivity coefficients and electrical resistivities (bulk and surface) of nine concrete mixtures. In addition, the development of the Wenner probe instrument was studied. As well, correlations between resistivity and ASTM C1202 and C1585 are provided followed by technical recommendations for improving the Wenner test.

Many Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) projects consist of construction and maintenance of reinforced concrete structures. Where appropriate test methods exist, MTO has been moving towards use of performance-based specifications for durability control of concrete. MTO currently uses ASTM C1202 (RCPT) coulomb values to assess concrete durability. This test requires taking cores, so replacing this test with a faster non-destructive technique is important. The main focus of this program was to study the Wenner probe surface resistivity as a non-destructive test device and evaluate the potential for replacement of RCPT with the Wenner resistivity. This research program consists of the determination of RCPT values, water sorptivity coefficients and electrical resistivities (bulk and surface) of nine concrete mixtures. In addition, the development of the Wenner probe instrument was studied. As well, correlations between resistivity and ASTM C1202 and C1585 are provided followed by technical recommendations for improving the Wenner test.

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臺灣菸品市場之租稅負擔是個很奇特之現象，當臺灣政府對香菸產品課稅時，菸商會將租稅完全轉嫁給消費者，即便消費者之需求是有彈性的。本文為探討此原因，以Milgrom and Roberts之利潤目標模型為基礎，建立一個廠商追求利潤目標之模型來解釋，當菸商面臨政府課稅時，是否會將租稅百分之百轉嫁給消費者。由此模型推論出，若菸商欲維持市場之獨占或寡占地位時，便會追求較低之利潤目標，使潛在競爭者相信菸品市場利潤不大，此時潛在競爭者便不會進入菸品市場中與現有之菸商競爭。 本文設定利潤模型後，便以此利潤模型進行比較靜態分析，本文假設當菸商欲維持在市場之獨占或寡占地位時，於政府課徵從量稅後，會如何轉嫁租稅給消費者，並分別由價格及數量為切入點分析。經過比較分析後的結果可得知，只要菸商之目標為持續保有獨占或寡占之地位，而非追求利潤極大化時，租稅的完全轉嫁即會存在，即使消費者需求是有彈性的，消費者將會面對一個稅額百分之百增加的供給價格。 / The tax burden of cigarette products in the Taiwanese market baffles many researchers in public finance. Despite that the demand of cigarette products is elastic, when the tax rate of cigarette products increases, cigarette manufacturers, with no exception, raise the prices accordingly, and therefore, the increased taxes are entirely shifted to consumers. This is very different from the traditional idea of tax incidence based on elasticity. In order to figure out the reason, this paper uses the framework of the limit pricing model of Milgrom and Roberts (1982) with the assumption of target profit to establish an economic reasoning of why the tax hikes in the cigarette products are one hundred percent shifted to consumers. This model infers that when cigarette manufacturers have entry deterrence in mind, they tend to pursue a lower profit target to keep potential competitors away. Given the framework and basic assumption from above, comparative statics of tax increases are done for both quantity and pricing games. The results suggest that when cigarette manufacturers are facing an increase in the unit tax rate of their products, it is typical that the incidence of the increased tax been no less than one hundred percent forward-shifted to consumers. The traditional theory of tax incidence by elasticity under the profit maximization firms does not apply here. The economic intuition is that in order to thwart entry, existing firms use the complete forward shifting of the tax increase as a bad signal of the profitability of the market to potential competitors.

This thesis focuses on the limitations of degradation mechanisms of Lead-Acid batteries, which significantly contributes unequal distribution of current (and therefore internal resistance, charge passed and power loss) on the surface of the electrodes of Lead-Acid battery. The unevenness of distribution of these parameters significantly influences the distribution of current tabs on the electrodes. In this work it was developed realistic model of Lead-Acid battery cell with plate electrodes with different variants of the distribution of current tabs. Measured results obtained in this model were compared with the results found out from the mathematical simulations. Through these simulations, it was possible to take a look deeply into the processes and changes in the electrodes of Lead-Acid batteries during discharge. Goal of this work was for predefined variants of positioning of the current tabs to simulate distribution of current, internal resistance, charge passed and power loss during discharge. Another goal was to compare the different variants and to find the optimal variant of current tabs positioning based on minimizing of unevenness of examined variables distribution.

This study was conducted at the Department of Information Technology, Uppsala University, focusing on Swedish high-speed broadband development. In 2015, the Swedish government introduced a new broadband strategy aimed at adapting the infrastructure to the digital era and achieving its vision of a fully connected Sweden. However, disparities exist between urban and rural areas regarding broadband coverage, speeds, and conditions for high-speed broadband infrastructure development. The Swedish national broadband plan terminates in 2025 and is about to be updated, presenting the opportunity to improve the strategy. Using grounded theory as a methodology, regional broadband coordinators were interviewed, aiming to identify weaknesses and strengths of the current national broadband strategy in Sweden from their point of view, to propose potential improvements to be incorporated into the subsequent plan.

SLOVENE NATIONAL THEATRE IN LJUBLJANA Author Report Of The Diploma Work Author: Bc. Petr Hýl Supervisor: doc. ing. arch. Zdeněk Makovský