Uppsatsen syftar till att analysera politiska aktörers agerande för att framställa sin hållning inför folkomröstningen om kärnraften 1980 som trovärdig och rationell. Studien undersöker historiska källor i form av informationstätt opinionsmaterial samt statliga utredningar och propositioner med anknytning till folkomröstningen. Undersökningen är baserad på den teoribildning inom teknik- och vetenskapssociologi som kallas science and technology studies – STS. Det analytiska verktyg som källmaterialet analyseras utifrån är begreppet energisäkerhet. Undersökningen visar att en stor del av debatten som förs i opinionsmaterialet kan förklaras i termer av energisäkerhet. Aktörernas argumentation angående kärnkraften och de alternativa energikällornas fördelar och nackdelar tydliggörs och förklaras. Dessutom visar studien hur opinionsmaterialet förhåller sig till de av staten framtagna beslutsunderlagen.

The military conflicts of the early 21st century have seen the introduction and rise of a new military technology: the armed drone. With the United States acting as the driving force behind this technological advancement, the U.S Air Force and intelligence agency CIA have madedrones their weapon of choice for pursuing suspected terrorists and insurgents in various remotelocations. American military leaders and policy makers assert that the armed drone’s high levelof accuracy make it the best available weapons platform for this task. However, new researchshows that the use of drones may result in more civilian casualties than previously thought, andmay in fact be more fallible than conventional aircraft in this respect. This paper examines this discrepancy between rhetoric and practice, and attempts to find potential causes for this in the development and early use of the first armed drone, the MQ-1 Predator. The paper cites statements from President Barack Obama and CIA director John Brennan and contrasts them with a recent research report on drone-caused civilian casualties, as well as examples of drone strikes where the wrong targets were struck. The analysis of the development and early use of the Predator Drone draws comparisons to Donald Mackenzie’s account of the development of accuracy for cold-war-era intercontinental ballistic missiles, applying the science and technology-concepts he uses to the case of the armed drone. The paper concludes with the argument that the accuracy of the early armed drones is fundamentally misunderstood or overestimated by U.S leaders, and that there are circumstances in the development-history of the system that may have contributed to this inconsistency.

The aim of this work is to explore the potential and to enhance the capability of evolutionary computation in the development of novel and advanced methodologies that enable control system structural optimisation and design automation for practical applications. Current design and optimisation methods adopted in control systems engineering are in essence based upon conventional numerical techniques that require derivative information of performance indices. These techniques lack robustness in solving practical engineering problems, which are often of a multi-dimensional, multi-modal nature. Using those techniques can often achieve neither global nor structural optimisation. In contrast, evolutionary mechanism learning tools have the ability to search in a multi-dimensional, multi-modal space, but they can not approach a local optimum as a conventional calculus-based method. The first objective of this research is to develop a reliable and effective evolutionary algorithm for engineering applications. In this thesis, a globally optimal evolutionary methodology and environment for control system structuring and design automation is developed, which requires no design indices to be differentiable. This is based on the development of a hybridised GA search engine, whose local tuning is tremendously enhanced by the incorporation of Hill-Climbing (HC), Simulated Annealing (SA) and Simplex techniques to improve the performance in search and design. A Lamarckian inheritance technique is also developed to improve crossover and mutation operations in GAs. Benchmark tests have shown that the enhanced hybrid GA is accurate, and reliable. Based on this search engine and optimisation core, a linear and nonlinear control system design automation suite is developed in a Java based platform-independent format, which can be readily available for design and design collaboration over corporate Intranets and the Internet. Since it has also made cost function unnecessary to be differentiable, hybridised indices combining time and frequency domain measurement and accommodating practical constraints can now be incorporated in the design. Such type of novel indices are proposed in the thesis and incorporated in the design suite. The Proportional plus Integral plus Derivative (PID) controller is very popular in real world control applications. The development of new PID tuning rules remains an area of active research. Many researchers, such as Åström and Hägglund, Ho, Zhuang and Atherton, have suggested many methods. However, their methods still suffer from poor load disturbance rejection, poor stability or shutting of the derivative control etc. In this thesis, Systematic and batch optimisation of PID controllers to meet practical requirements is achieved using the developed design automation suite. A novel cost function is designed to take disturbance rejection, stability in terms of gain and phase margins and other specifications into account in-the same time. Comparisons made with Ho's method confirm that the derivative action can play an important role to improve load disturbance rejection yet maintaining the same stability margins. Comparisons made with Åström’s method confirm that the results from this thesis are superior not only in load disturbance rejection but also in terms of stability margins. Further robustness issues are addressed by extending the PID structure to a free form transfer function. This is realised by achieving design automation. Quantitative Feedback Theory (QFT), method offers a direct frequency-domain design technique for uncertain plants, which can deal non-conservatively with different types of uncertainty models and specifications. QFT design problems are often multi-modal and multi-dimensional, where loop shaping is .the most challenging part. Global solutions can hardly be obtained using analytical and convex or linear programming techniques. In addition, these types of conventional methods often impose unrealistic or unpractical assumptions and often lead to very conservative designs. In this thesis, GA-based automatic loop shaping for QFT controllers suggested by the Research Group is being furthered. A new index is developed for the design which can describe stability, load rejection and reduction of high frequency gains, which has not been achieved with existing methods. The corresponding prefilter can also be systematically designed if tracking is one of the specifications. The results from the evolutionary computing based design automation suite show that the evolutionary technique is much better than numerical methods and manual designs, i.e., 'high frequency gain' and controller order have been significantly reduced. Time domain simulations show that the designed QFT controller combined with the corresponding prefilter performs more satisfactorily.

Despite its emergence more than a decade ago, information architecture remains a problematic concept. A study of relevant literature suggests significant advocacy with inadequate supporting evidence on its existence, application or value. The available limited research evidence generally presents unsatisfactory information architecture experience. Notwithstanding the unresolved issues and reported unsatisfactory experience, information architecture continues to be referenced as an important information management issue. Hence this doctoral study sought to investigate it. In the first stage, the study set out to clarify the position of information architecture via a large scale postal survey of 294 organisations. The survey found that information architecture is being used in association with IS planning, particularly in organisations which position IT as a strategic resource, but perceptions on its two conventional key components vary. While application architecture is viewed as being useful for IS planning, corporate data model is seen as being more relevant to data management and project implementation. Both models are regarded as tools facilitating integrated information systems development. In the second stage of research, case studies on 6 large organisations were conducted to gain an in-depth understanding of successful information architecture practice. The investigation reaffirmed application architecture's position as an IS planning tool and cast further doubt on corporate data model's role not only in IS planning but also in IS practice as a whole. Business area/project data model was identified as the pragmatic high-level data model for both application/database development and data management. A major finding of the case studies was on business system architecture, a pictorial model depicting IT in its business setting. It is seen as being of value for integrating IS planning with strategy development and business planning - a tool for fusing IT with the business. The case studies concluded that the value and effectiveness of information architecture is dependent on the targeting of its components - business system architecture, application architecture and business area/project data model - in terms of tasks and recipients. The case for a holistic approach to business/IS planning and implementation is currently being argued by a number of leading management and IS scholars. This thesis embraces the holistic approach and positions the (redefined) information architecture as a valuable tool in its implementation.

Susceptibility to infection with Salmonella varies in different chicken lines suggesting the involvement of host genetic factors. Segregation analysis using Salmonella-resistant and Salmonella-susceptible chickens has shown that early resistance to infection is fully dominant, not sex-linked or associated with the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). In mice, natural resistance to infection with Salmonella typhimurium is controlled by two major loci, Nramp1 and Lps, that exert pleiotropic effects and contribute to cytostatic/cytocidal activities of the macrophage. / We have tested the candidacy of the chicken homologs of Nramp1 and Tnc (a locus closely linked to Lps ) in the differential resistance of chicken inbred lines to infection with Salmonella typhimurium. We first mapped chicken NRAMP1 gene to chromosome 7q13 within a conserved synteny to mouse chromosome 1 and human chromosome 2q. / We have analyzed six inbred chicken lines that were Salmonella -resistant or Salmonella-susceptible for the presence of sequence variation within NRAMP1. Sequence analysis has revealed 11 nucleotide variations within the coding portion of NRAMP1 10 of these sequence variation represent either silent mutations or conservative changes. / We have investigated the effect of NRAMP1 and the chromosomal region surrounding LPS on resistance to infection with S. typhimurium in 425 (CXWI)F1XC chicken progeny. Together, NRAMP1 and TNC explain 33% of the early differential resistance to infection with S. typhimurium of parental lines C and Wl. The data established that both NRAMP1 and TNC contributed to the resistance of chicken to infection with Salmonella typhimurium, and demonstrated that comparative mapping is valuable in identifying Salmonella-resistance genes in the chicken. Furthermore, the results are consistent with the fact that resistance to salmonellosis in chicken is inherited as a complex trait. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

国立情報学研究所で電子化したコンテンツを使用している。

This minor thesis examines whether or not the Australian Defence Force (ADF) needs an indigenous aircraft structural testing program for military aircraft. Aircraft structural testing is a major test and evaluation activity currently undertaken by the DSTO to provide structural integrity information about particular aircraft for the ADF. The ADF has required this testing to be undertaken because, in general terms, testing undertaken by an aircraft's manufacturer has not been sufficient to meet the needs of the ADF. The research was divided into five sub-problems, which examined the need for aircraft structural testing, the management of these needs, what structural testing is required, how the testing should be managed and how the testing should be conducted. The research was undertaken by conducting five case studies into past, current and future aircraft structural tests being undertaken by the DSTO. The cases examined were the F/A-18 International Follow-On Structural Test Project, the P-3 service life assessment program, the F-111 wing test, the Hawk lead-in fighter full-scale fatigue test and the potential test program for the joint strike fighter (JSF). The basis of the case studies was the conduct of a series of interviews of the DSTO staff relevant to each case being examined. The information gathered through the interviews was supported by material gathered through making observations and reviewing documentation relevant to each case. The research concluded that an indigenous aircraft testing program is required by the ADF in order to maintain the structural integrity of its aircraft fleet. This minor thesis makes some recommendations for the way aircraft structural testing is conducted by the ADF, and the way general management of T & E in the Department of Defence could be improved. / Thesis (MEng(TestandEvaluation))--University of South Australia, 2004

No description available.

This minor thesis examines whether or not the Australian Defence Force (ADF) needs an indigenous aircraft structural testing program for military aircraft. Aircraft structural testing is a major test and evaluation activity currently undertaken by the DSTO to provide structural integrity information about particular aircraft for the ADF. The ADF has required this testing to be undertaken because, in general terms, testing undertaken by an aircraft's manufacturer has not been sufficient to meet the needs of the ADF. The research was divided into five sub-problems, which examined the need for aircraft structural testing, the management of these needs, what structural testing is required, how the testing should be managed and how the testing should be conducted. The research was undertaken by conducting five case studies into past, current and future aircraft structural tests being undertaken by the DSTO. The cases examined were the F/A-18 International Follow-On Structural Test Project, the P-3 service life assessment program, the F-111 wing test, the Hawk lead-in fighter full-scale fatigue test and the potential test program for the joint strike fighter (JSF). The basis of the case studies was the conduct of a series of interviews of the DSTO staff relevant to each case being examined. The information gathered through the interviews was supported by material gathered through making observations and reviewing documentation relevant to each case. The research concluded that an indigenous aircraft testing program is required by the ADF in order to maintain the structural integrity of its aircraft fleet. This minor thesis makes some recommendations for the way aircraft structural testing is conducted by the ADF, and the way general management of T & E in the Department of Defence could be improved. / Thesis (MEng(TestandEvaluation))--University of South Australia, 2004

Thesis (M. P. H.)--University of Hong Kong, 2007.