This thesis presents the results of a study of the effect of variations of systemic parameters on the structural response of single degree of freedom systems subjected to Incremental Dynamic Analysis. The systemic parameters are mass, stiffness, damping, yield strength and geometric stiffness. Each of these parameters was varied one at a time while the other values were kept constant. For each variation of parameters a set of single-record IDA curves was obtained. Five to six ground motions were used for this study to generate the single-record IDA curves. These ground motions were scaled prior to their application on the structure. The scaling factor was based on the spectral acceleration at the fundamental frequency of the structure at 5% of critical damping. The scale factor is affected if the system parameters are changed. An important issue for this study was whether to persist with scaling corresponding to the median value from the range of the values of the parameter or to update the scaling according to the system. Based on some tests using both methods, the median scaling approach was found to be more suitable. The IDA curves for variation of parameters were then investigated to identify any trends that may help in qualitatively predicting the response of a system relative to another system. The response was measured by the peak displacement and the maximum base shear of the system. A clear trend was identified when the damping or the yield strength was varied. However, no definite trend was observed when the material stiffness or the geometric stiffness of the system was varied. / Master of Science

It is common in cross-cultural research to treat variables as if they have interval scale properties irrespective of how these scales were constructed. The purpose of this research is to explore the differences in and consequences of how respondents from different countries use the same scales over the same scale items. Previously collected data from four countries using the same 6-point verbal and 10-point numeric rating scales were used. The data was rescaled using the delta chi-square and correspondence analysis techniques (Bendixen & Yurova, 2012). The differences in means of the variables were compared in pairs for raw and rescaled data. Bootstrapping was used to estimate confidence intervals of the differences between raw and rescaled values. Furthermore, a method of partitioning the differences in means into rescaling and cultural components was devised. In 83.3% and 94.9% of the cases, the differences in raw versus rescaled means were significant at the 5% level for verbal and numeric variables respectively. The results of partitioning indicate that by not rescaling the data, the differences in raw means consistently exaggerate the true cultural differences: the extracted cultural component was underestimated by 12.8% on average for verbal variables and by 5.3% for numeric variables. Therefore, reporting the differences in raw means as a true reflection of cultural differences is in error. Finally, the effect of rescaling in pancultural research was investigated by comparing the factor structure of doubly standardized raw and rescaled data. Pancultural research attempts to identify etic, or universal, dimensions of human culture and employs double standardization to remove cultural and individual biases inherent to cross-cultural data. While no differences in latent factors extracted were found for raw and rescaled data, considerable differences in the variance explained and slight differences in factor structure were found for double standardized rescaled and double standardized raw data. The results of this research indicate that researchers and practitioners in the field of cross-cultural research should choose their scales very carefully. Furthermore, to extract true cultural differences it is probably necessary to rescale and partition differences in means. Further research on the impact of rescaling is proposed.

With the technical advances in neuroscience experiments in the past few decades, we have seen a massive expansion in our ability to record neural activity. These advances enable neuroscientists to analyze more complex neural coding and communication properties, and at the same time, raise new challenges for analyzing neural spiking data, which keeps growing in scale, dimension, and complexity. This thesis proposes several new statistical methods that advance statistical analysis approaches for neural spiking data, including sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) methods for efficient estimation of neural dynamics from membrane potential threshold crossings, state-space models using multimodal observation processes, and goodness-of-fit analysis methods for neural marked point process models. In a first project, we derive a set of iterative formulas that enable us to simulate trajectories from stochastic, dynamic neural spiking models that are consistent with a set of spike time observations. We develop a SMC method to simultaneously estimate the parameters of the model and the unobserved dynamic variables from spike train data. We investigate the performance of this approach on a leaky integrate-and-fire model. In another project, we define a semi-latent state-space model to estimate information related to the phenomenon of hippocampal replay. Replay is a recently discovered phenomenon where patterns of hippocampal spiking activity that typically occur during exploration of an environment are reactivated when an animal is at rest. This reactivation is accompanied by high frequency oscillations in hippocampal local field potentials. However, methods to define replay mathematically remain undeveloped. In this project, we construct a novel state-space model that enables us to identify whether replay is occurring, and if so to estimate the movement trajectories consistent with the observed neural activity, and to categorize the content of each event. The state-space model integrates information from the spiking activity from the hippocampal population, the rhythms in the local field potential, and the rat's movement behavior. Finally, we develop a new, general time-rescaling theorem for marked point processes, and use this to develop a general goodness-of-fit framework for neural population spiking models. We investigate this approach through simulation and a real data application.

Since 1989, the co-riparian States of Georgia, Florida and Alabama have been locked in an overt and institutionalized conflict to secure access to the waters of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) River Basin. In 1997, in an effort to end this interstate conflict which had earned the reputation as the longest water conflict in U.S. history, public officials at the federal and state scales agreed to suspend all pending litigation against one another and concurrently deployed a dispute resolution mechanism, known as `compact negotiations,' in the hope of equitably allocating the waters of the ACF Basin. Despite proclamations by public officials, exclaiming their commitment to the process of compact negotiations and their desire to see an end to the lingering conflict, 2014 marks the 25th anniversary of the bitter conflict over the ACF waters and a sustainable resolution has not yet been achieved. Against this background, this study provides an in-depth empirical explanation for why multiple efforts to resolve the ACF conflict have been unsuccessful and largely counterproductive. Using data collected from in-depth interviews with elite stakeholders and archival data parsed from executive agencies, bureaucratic reports and media sources, this study demonstrates that Georgia's strategic efforts to (a) rescale water management authority in the basin along neoliberal lines and (b) spatiotemporally displace demand- and supply-side management policies, have allowed Georgia and metropolitan Atlanta to achieve water security through a process of accumulation by dispossession. Finally, this study shows that Georgia and Atlanta's water security has compromised the authority of federal agencies to manage interstate waters, exposed the inability of the three riparian states to reach equitable compromise, and demonstrated the Court's express complicity in (re)producing uneven development in the American South.

This thesis attempts to present a critical survey on studies on Anatolian capital focusing on their state and market conceptualizations. The studies have been grouped into three due to their theoretical frameworks as the studies employing New Regionalist, state tradition and state rescaling approaches. The thesis proposes New Regionalist and state tradition approaches to Anatolian capital are both ahistorical and aspatial approaches / these approaches develop in parallel with political developments and propose a glossed over portrait of Anatolian Tigers. Anatolian Tigers are generally presented as representatives of free market as they develop with little or no support of the state unlike the former generation of businessmen. Hence they stand for the legitimization of neo-liberal policies. The concepts of entrepreneurship, cooperation and competition are described as the nature and the merits of Anatolian small and medium scaled enterprises which make them compatible with the free market conditions. The last group of literature, state rescaling, is presented as the alternative to the first two with its historical and spatial analysis. The thesis will propose the relational analyses within the state rescaling framework is helpful to reveal uneven development which is veiled by ahistorical and aspatial approaches by including relations of state, capital and labour instead of defining the experience of Anatolian capital as a challenge to the state.

Regionerna ansvarar för den regionala utvecklingsplaneringen men besitter inte själv beslutanderätt kring genomförandet av den fysiska planeringen. Kommunerna har därtill inte mandat att hantera problem som kräver regionala lösningar. Det innebär att regionen för att få genomslag för vision och mål behöver samverka med andra aktörer i planeringssystemet samt att kommunerna har ett intresse av samverkan regionalt. Frågan är vilka förutsättningar den regionala planeringen har för detta och är kommunerna villiga att ge upp del av sin beslutanderätt till förmån för samarbete och samverkan i regionen?   Syftet har varit att undersöka hur väl sambandet mellan den regionala och kommunala planeringen fungerar genom att analysera i vilken mån regionala visioner och mål omsätts i kommunala översiktsplaner. Arbetet har utformats som en flerfallstudie där två regioner med innefattande kommuner jämförts, region Örebro län och Skaraborgs kommunalförbund i Västra Götalandsregionen. Data har samlats in genom dokumentstudier av regionala och kommunala dokument varmed en kvalitativ innehållsanalys har genomförts på materialet. Begreppen governance och rescaling har utgjort den teoretiska utgångspunkten för arbetet.   Av granskade översiktsplaner har framgått att i genomsnitt 70 procent innehåller regionens vision eller mål. Huruvida det är ett resultat av en fungerande samverkan mellan den regionala och kommunala nivån tycks dock ha mindre påverkan på utfallet. Det tycks vidare inte göra någon skillnad i hur regionens vision och mål överförs i kommunala dokument om regionen består av jämbördiga kommuner eller om regionen har en enskilt stark kommun. Däremot bör det kunna argumenteras för att det kan vara enklare att komma överens om en gemensam regional målbild om kommunerna är jämnstora. Regionaliseringen av utvecklingsansvaret kan inte ensamt ses ha haft en inverkan på kopplingen mellan RUS och kommunernas översiktsplaner. Det får ses som en av flera faktorer som sammantaget bör bidra till en utvecklad samverkan.   Flera faktorer har visat sig kunna påverka sambandet mellan det regionala tillväxtarbetet och de kommunala översiktsplanerna. Framförallt tycks det handla om vilken tillhörighet kommunerna känner till regionen och på så vis den upplevda nyttan med regional samverkan. Det har vidare framkommit att de frågeställningar som har varit utgångspunkten för arbetet inte på djupet klarat av att fånga upp det resonemang kring varför sambanden ser ut som de gör i regionerna på det sätt som varit möjligt, i vart fall i ett teoretiskt resonemang, utifrån materialet. Därmed blir slutsatserna möjligen något ytliga i förhållande till den analys som genomförts.

Yes / A mature oil field rescaled contraction describes a switch to a technological alternative more appropriate for the depleted state of an underlying resource. Off-shore oil rigs are an illustration, since the original technological scale designed for very large output flows becomes inappropriate as the operational efficiency declines later in life and facing a dwindling output flow, so a more appropriate extraction technology becomes economic. A real option representation is formulated on a stochastic oil price and deteriorating output volume. We consider investment/divestment decisions both separately, and jointly, which have different implications for government policies and also option values. The resulting model yields analytical (or semi-analytical) results indicating that immediate switching to the lower cost technology could sometimes be hastened as the price volatility increases, depending on the current revenue, if divestment and switching are considered jointly. However, greater volatility could also promote hysteresis.

The recurring debate on regional administration and what responsibilities it should have has in a Swedish context been discussed in media and committees over the years. Little has been discussed around the possibilities of strengthening pre-existing interregional cooperation even though there is a scholarly thought of soft space as a definition to describe these types of cooperation and how they might evolve.   A case study has been performed on the interregional health care agency Södra Sjukvårdsregionen (SSR) which is one of six Swedish regional health care agencies (sjukvårdsregioner). SSR serves the regions Scania, Blekinge, Kronoberg and southern Halland and was constituted in 1960 based on central place theory to resolve spatial planning problems in the context of regional public health.   In the analytical context of soft space and central place theory, results have been provided by interviewing representatives working within SSR and examining documents. SSR has been defined as a structure of governance which consists of formal government actors.    The results indicate that the concept of soft space as described in literature supports spatial planning of specialized regional health care. However, the concept of soft space has little impact on spatial planning with respect to comprehensive planning (Översiktsplan) as illustrated by documentation from Västra Sjukvårdsregionen and the case of Norra Älvsborgs Länssjukhus (NÄL). / Debatten om svenska regionindelningar och vilken rådighet regionerna borde ha har diskuterats i medier och statliga utredningar genom åren. Däremot har möjligheterna att stärka befintliga interregionala samarbeten diskuterats mycket lite, även om det finns ett vetenskapligt underlag för soft space som ett samlande begrepp för att beskriva dessa typer av samarbeten och hur de vidareutvecklas. En fallstudie har genomförts på Södra Sjukvårdsregionen (SSR), som är en av Sveriges sex sjukvårdsregioner. SSR betjänar regionerna Skåne, Blekinge, Kronoberg och södra Halland och bildades 1960 baserat på centralortsteorin som ett sätt att lösa problem med fysisk planering i samband med regional sjuk- och hälsovård. Representanter som arbetar inom ramen för SSR:s verksamhet har intervjuats och dokument har granskats i termer av soft space och centralortsteorin. SSR har definierats som en struktur som bereder ärenden rörande fysisk planering som är de ingående regionernas rådighet. Resultaten indikerar att konceptet soft space som beskrivs i litteraturen stöder fysisk planering av specialiserad regional hälsovård. Konceptet soft space har dock liten inverkan på fysisk planering av omfattande skala (Översiktsplan), vilket belyses av dokumentationen från Västra Sjukvårdsregionen och fallet med Norra Älvsborgs Länssjukhus (NÄL).

Earlier research on the topic of inter-municipal cooperation (IMC) seems to be standing on ground too fragmented to constitute a solid basis for future research. Additionally, this research seems to be far too generic and not sufficiently detailed for any municipality to make reasonable use of. Therefore, the existing knowledge is reviewed and put together in a manner that makes the identified determinants of IMC sufficiently complarable so as to enable proper and exhaustive deliberation on the matter. Once this question is settled for the time being, the determinants themselves are examined as to their own determinants, related mechanisms and how these variables all relate to each other. The attained results are not enough to generate any widely generalizable conclusions. However, the combination of exhaustive width and detailed empirical descriptions makes for a basis that somewhat enables the construction of a tentative framework for understanding the drivers behind IMC and their nature.

La thèse a pour objectif de contribuer à l’étude des changements de la politique forestière française depuis le début des années 1990 à travers l’analyse des changements d’échelle de l’action publique. Elle s’appuie dans ce but sur un cadre théorique et analytique inspiré des travaux en sociologie politique et en institutionnalisme historique. La mise en problématique du rapport secteur – territoire conduit d’une part à s’interroger sur la reconfiguration du modèle de l’Etat forestier centré sur l’échelle nationale et d’autre part à émettre l’hypothèse de l’institutionnalisation de l’échelle infranationale. Le travail d’enquête qui a été réalisé, sur la base notamment d’une série d’entretiens menés en Aquitaine, permet d’aboutir à deux résultats principaux et à une conclusion générale. Tout d’abord, on peut faire le constat que le secteur forestier connaît actuellement une phase de mutation importante. Il est engagé dans un double processus d’écologisation qui se traduit par un renforcement de la tension entre logique de production de bois et logique de conservation de la ressource forestière et par une remise en question de l’efficacité des politiques du passé. Ensuite, et en dépit de la décentralisation, il apparaît que cette mutation s’accompagne d’un renforcement de la légitimité de l’échelle nationale de gouvernement au détriment de l’échelle infranationale. Dans ce contexte, le rôle des acteurs publics est ambigu. L’Etat alterne entre volontarisme politique et désengagement opérationnel alors que les conseils régionaux s’impliquent de plus en plus dans la mise en œuvre des politiques publiques forestières. Pour finir, nous considérons que cette situation ne correspond pas à une désectorisation de la forêt mais plutôt à une mise sous tension de la dimension territoriale de la politique sectorielle forestière. Une étude comparable sur la nature du gouvernement européen de la forêt permettrait ainsi d’approfondir l’analyse. / This thesis contributes to the study of change in French forest policy since the early 1990s through presenting a multi-scalar analysis of policy choices. This was carried out through the application of a theoretical and analytical framework drawn from political sociology and historical institutionalism. Re-Problematizing the ‘sector – territory’ relationship led me first to question the reconfiguration of the state forest model centered on the national scale and second to hypothesize the institutionalization of the sub-national scale. The empirical research that I conducted – particularly on the basis of a series of semi-structured interviews with key actors in Aquitaine – generated two sets of findings and one general conclusion. First, I found that the forestry sector is currently undergoing significant change. Actors are engaged in a greening process which has resulted in an increase in tensions between timber production and conservation of forest resources issues and a questioning of the effectiveness of past policies. Second, this shift in forest policy is associated with a strengthening of the legitimacy of the national scale of government at the expense of the sub national one. In this context, the role of public actors is ambiguous. State representatives alternate between advancing proactive discourses and operational disengagement, while regional councils get more involved in the implementation of forest policies. By way of conclusion, I argue that this situation do not correspond to a desectorization of forest policy. Rather, it should be analyzed as a crisis of the territorial dimension of the forestry sector government which could be further grasped through a similar study of the European government of forest related issues.