Feelings of disgust may have effects on one’s moral judgment; specifically that experience of disgust has linked to increased severity of moral judgments. Additionally, one’s political beliefs may also affect one’s moral judgment, such as conservatives tend to make harsher judgment toward moral situations and behaviors. A 2 x 2 x 2 factorial quasi-experiment has been proposed to study 420 participants, legal adults from both conservative and liberal neighborhoods, randomly assigned to one of two conditions, disgust-eliciting versus neutral. Participants will view either four disgust-eliciting photographs or four neutral photographs, and then complete survey questions on disgust rating, moral judgment, disgust sensitivity, and political self-identification. It is hypothesized that, participants who identify as liberals, will feel less disgusted by the photos than conservative participants, and have more lenient moral judgment, whereas participants who identify as conservatives, will feel more disgusted by the photos than liberals, and have much harsher moral judgment.

Venture capital investments have become a major contributor the growth of start-up firms. Investing in start-up firms carries a substantial risk of failure, only a minority of start-ups is high-return investments. This put great responsibility to the valuation methods used by the venture capital firm. It is argued that when uncertainties about future pay-offs are high traditional valuation tools are of little help, they are said to be too static and not to comply with change. A valuation method that is alleged to act in accordance with a changing environment where uncertainty is high is real option which is said to consider these variables, thus giving a more accurate valuation. The structure of venture capital funding can be seen as well suited for real option valuation. The authors find it interesting to find out how venture capitalists screen possible investments, if the traditional valuation methods hold in proportion to the challenges they face and if the real option approach could be suitable. The purpose is to describe and analyze how Swedish venture capital firms can valuate investments. The research was carried out using a qualitative method. We conducted interviews with four venture capital firms that operate in Sweden. The participating firms were: Industrifonden, Itact, FöretagsByggarna and LinkMed. The authors found in their research that the most important factors when screening the possible investments are the market and the entrepreneur. The venture capital firms use of valuation methods differ significantly. LinkMed and Industrifonden apply traditional valuation tools in contrast to Itact and FöretagsByggarna that rely on personal experience and expertise. Limitations found in the traditional models were lack of accurate and reliable estimations. The structural outlay of the investment is in line with that of the real option approach and the authors believes that real options exist embedded in the respondent’s investments. This implies that a real option approach is suitable for them.

Machine learning in natural language has been a widely pursued area of research. However, few learning techniques model themselves after human learning, despite the nature of the task being closely connected to human cognition. In particular, the idea of learning language in stages is a common approach for human learning, as can be seen in practice in the education system and in research on language acquisition. However, staged learning for natural language is an area largely overlooked by machine learning researchers. This thesis proposes a developmental learning heuristic for natural language models, to evaluate its performance on natural language tasks. The heuristic simulates human learning stages by training on child, teenage and adult text, provided by the British National Corpus. The three staged learning techniques that are proposed take advantage of these stages to create a single developed Hidden Markov Model. This model is then applied to the task of part-of-speech tagging to observe the effects of development on language learning.

Machine learning in natural language has been a widely pursued area of research. However, few learning techniques model themselves after human learning, despite the nature of the task being closely connected to human cognition. In particular, the idea of learning language in stages is a common approach for human learning, as can be seen in practice in the education system and in research on language acquisition. However, staged learning for natural language is an area largely overlooked by machine learning researchers. This thesis proposes a developmental learning heuristic for natural language models, to evaluate its performance on natural language tasks. The heuristic simulates human learning stages by training on child, teenage and adult text, provided by the British National Corpus. The three staged learning techniques that are proposed take advantage of these stages to create a single developed Hidden Markov Model. This model is then applied to the task of part-of-speech tagging to observe the effects of development on language learning.

The literatures on venture financing mainly focus on proposing resolutions of entrepreneurial moral hazard. However, those researches ignore the fact that venture capital firms might behave opportunistically as well. Hence, this paper offers an effective mechanism to resolve the double moral hazard raised between venture capital firms and entrepreneurs. Three main conclusions are drawn as follow: It is shown that although convertible preferred stock could prevent venture capital firms from opportunistic behavior, it has poor efficiency in dealing with entrepreneurial moral hazard. On the other hand, staged financing, as opposed to convertible preferred stock, could effectively mitigate entrepreneurial moral hazard, but hardly avert from moral hazard raised from venture capital firms. In its conclusion, this study illustrates that both convertible preferred stock and staged financing act as an effective complementary mechanism for each other. Compared with any single approach, this joint mechanism could relatively resolve a certain extent of double moral hazard.

<p>Venture capital investments have become a major contributor the growth of start-up firms. Investing in start-up firms carries a substantial risk of failure, only a minority of start-ups is high-return investments. This put great responsibility to the valuation methods used by the venture capital firm. It is argued that when uncertainties about future pay-offs are high traditional valuation tools are of little help, they are said to be too static and not to comply with change. A valuation method that is alleged to act in accordance with a changing environment where uncertainty is high is real option which is said to consider these variables, thus giving a more accurate valuation. The structure of venture capital funding can be seen as well suited for real option valuation.</p><p>The authors find it interesting to find out how venture capitalists screen possible investments, if the traditional valuation methods hold in proportion to the challenges they face and if the real option approach could be suitable.</p><p>The purpose is to describe and analyze how Swedish venture capital firms can valuate investments.</p><p>The research was carried out using a qualitative method. We conducted interviews with four venture capital firms that operate in Sweden. The participating firms were: Industrifonden, Itact, FöretagsByggarna and LinkMed.</p><p>The authors found in their research that the most important factors when screening the possible investments are the market and the entrepreneur. The venture capital firms use of valuation methods differ significantly. LinkMed and Industrifonden apply traditional valuation tools in contrast to Itact and FöretagsByggarna that rely on personal experience and expertise. Limitations found in the traditional models were lack of accurate and reliable estimations. The structural outlay of the investment is in line with that of the real option approach and the authors believes that real options exist embedded in the respondent’s investments. This implies that a real option approach is suitable for them.</p>

Η διδακτορική διατριβή με τίτλο «Μελέτη Διατάξεων Σταδιακής Καύσης» έχει ως αντικείμενο την περιγραφή και την ανάλυση του ροϊκού πεδίου της αλληλεπίδρασης αξονοσυμμετρικών δεσμών διαφορετικού αριθμού Reynolds. Ο έλεγχος των μηχανισμών που διέπουν το ροϊκό αυτό πεδίο είναι σημαντικό εργαλείο για την βελτιστοποίηση της ανάμιξης ρευμάτων οξειδωτικού και καυσίμου και αποτελεί τον κρισιμότερο τεχνολογικό στόχο κατά τη διερεύνηση της αποδοτικότητας σε ένα ευρύ φάσμα σχημάτων σταδιακής καύσης. Στόχος της διατριβής είναι ο χαρακτηρισμός και ο έλεγχος της μίξης κατά την διαδικασία της σύγκλισης των δεσμών, συνεισφέροντας στην κατανόηση των βασικών μηχανισμών που αναπτύσσονται στο μέσο και τυρβώδες πεδίο, αλλά και στη βελτιστοποίηση της μίξης από την οποία εξαρτάται η μείωση των περιβαλλοντικών επιπτώσεων και η αύξηση της απόδοσης της καύσης, τόσο σε συστήματα παραγωγής ενέργειας όσο και σε θαλάμους καύσης κινητήρων αεροσκαφών, τα οποία αποτελούν τις πιο «φιλικές» ως προς το περιβάλλον αλλά και τις πιο αποδοτικές πρακτικές σε συστήματα καύσης. Παρά το γεγονός αυτό, η γνώση των επιμέρους φαινομένων και μηχανισμών που κυριαρχούν στο πεδίο της αλληλεπίδρασης αξονοσυμμετρικών δεσμών χαρακτηρίζεται από σημαντικές ελλείψεις, όσο αφορά την λεπτομερή καταγραφή του μέσου και τυρβώδους πεδίου ταχυτήτων. Η Ανεμομετρία Laser Doppler αποτελεί τα βασική μετρητική διάταξη που χρησιμοποιήθηκε για την καταγραφή των μέσων και τυρβωδών όρων του πεδίου της ταχύτητας. Το πλεονέκτημα της μεθόδου, που αποτελεί ένα από τα βασικά εργαλεία για τη μέτρηση τυρβωδών χαρακτηριστικών, είναι το γεγονός ότι δεν παρεμβαίνει στη ροή, καθώς στηρίζεται στην καταγραφή της συχνότητας του φωτός που σκεδάζεται από τροχιοδεικτικά σωματίδια, τα οποία ακολουθούν πιστά τη ροή. Η μελέτη στηρίζεται στην ανάλυση των μηχανισμών που αναπτύσσονται στο μέσο και τυρβώδες πεδίο και στον χαρακτηρισμό της μίξης των συστατικών των δεσμών, όπως αυτή αντικατοπτρίζεται στις πρώτης, δεύτερης και τρίτης τάξης ροπές της ταχύτητας, αλλά και στους αδιάστατους συντελεστές λοξότητας και επιπεδότητας. Σε αυτήν την κατεύθυνση, η παρούσα εργασία έχει σαν στόχο την ανάδειξη της ανάλυσης του ροϊκού πεδίου ως την πιο κρίσιμη παράμετρο ανάπτυξης σχημάτων καύσης, καθώς τα μεγέθη και η εξέλιξή τους έτσι όπως καταγράφονται μπορούν να χρησιμοποιηθούν άμεσα ως κριτήρια για την απόδοση τέτοιων σχημάτων, προσφέροντας την δυνατότητα της επιλογής των καλύτερων λειτουργικών παραμέτρων πριν ακόμα δοκιμαστούν σε περιβάλλον καύσης. Η τυρβώδης δομή και τα ανώτερα στατιστικά των ροπών της ταχύτητας κατά την αλληλεπίδραση των δεσμών χρησιμοποιούνται αρχικά ως βασικό εργαλείο της μελέτης των συγκεκριμένων διατάξεων σταδιακής καύσης και επιπλέον χρησιμοποιούνται για να χαρακτηρίσουν τη μίξη των συστατικών των δεσμών στις διαφορετικές περιοχές της αλληλεπίδρασης, πριν, κατά τη διάρκεια και μετά την σύγκλισή τους. Τα αποτελέσματα της εργασίας δείχνουν ότι δέσμες σχετικά μικρού αριθμού Reynolds (της τάξης των λίγων χιλιάδων) μπορούν να χρησιμοποιηθούν για την παραγωγή τυρβωδών δομών, όπου η μίξη ενισχύεται μέσω της αλληλεπίδρασής τους, γεγονός που μπορεί να έχει σημαντική επίδραση στην ανάπτυξη παρόμοιων εφαρμογών σε πραγματικής κλίμακας εγκαταστάσεις. / Τhis study aims to the assessment and analysis of the flow field produced by the interaction between two axisymmetric jets with different Reynolds numbers. The scheme is considered as a generic staged combustion configuration. In this frame, the identification and control of the mechanisms that dominate the flow field is one of the most significant issues towards the enhancement of mixing, thus the increasing of combustion operational and environmental efficiency. The scope of the study is to characterize and control the mixing process during the interaction and merging of the jets. The study contributes to the understanding of the dominating mechanisms occurring in the flow, through the assessment of the mean and turbulent flow features. The initial conditions used in the experiments diverge from the marginal conditions that refer to the interaction of equal momentum jets and the combining of a “strong” and a “weak” jet. In addition, due to the particularly low, although turbulent, Reynolds numbers used at jets’ exits, the capability of the jets to produce and maintain strongly turbulent structures during and after their interaction is also evaluated. During the experiments included in this thesis, a two dimensional Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA) was used to measure the main components of the velocity vector (i.e. in the axial and the radial or horizontal directions). A pair of similar optical systems were used to produce two ellipsoidal control volumes and collect the light scattered by tracer particles, that faithfully represent the flow. Axisymmetric turbulent jets constitute the main component regarding the realization of staged combustion configurations based on multiple jets arrangements. Jet flow fields have been extensively studied during the last decades, mainly focusing on the self-similar region, i.e. the region where the mean and turbulent features are dynamically preserved. Recently, most of the studies are related to the identification of divergences arising from the different initial conditions and specific parameters, such as the shape of the orifice, the type of the confinement imposed at the exit, the jet density etc. The effects of these features are briefly summarized within the context of the thesis. In particular, the low Reynolds number effect is under consideration, as the jets recorded in the experiments are compared to typical previous studies devoted to the self-similarity region of jets with significantly higher Reynolds numbers. In the first part of the experiments, a jet of reference is monitored within an area covering the initial development and extends to the boundaries of the self-similarity region. Measurements include axial and radial distributions of the mean and turbulent axial and radial velocity components, turbulent shear stresses and terms that represent the turbulent transport of the Reynolds stresses. The budget of the turbulent kinetic energy is presented at the final measurement station, showing the particular mechanisms occurring in the flow. Measurements on the jets’ interaction field are presented afterwards. The distributions are systematically presented in comparison to the distributions recorded during the sole action of the primary jet Characteristic profiles are presented at locations within the merging and the mixing zones. In the early stages of development, the patterns of both jets can be identified. Within the merging region, besides the absorption of the secondary jet, the measurements indicate a spatial suppression of primary jet’s characteristics. Further downstream, the profiles resemble to those of a standalone jet. Higher values of the mean and turbulent terms are observed while the profiles extend over a wider region, in accordance with the secondary jet’s Reynolds number. Results of the present study demonstrate that skewness and flatness factors can be used as indicators of small scale mixing. The field of the interaction is further analyzed and discussed for a third pair of initial conditions and the proper decomposition of the mean and turbulent profiles using three different types of seeding conditions. In the early stages, the measurements confirm the independent action of the jets, although the tendency of the secondary jets’ pattern to be deformed. Within the merging zone, the distributions referring to the different types of seeding are characterized by humps and increased turbulent features in the secondary jet’s development region. The shape, the intensity and the extent of the humps depends on the seeding type. Most of the characteristics observed in this region are related to the probability density function distributions, which are composed by samples that correspond to tracers emanating from the individual sources. However, within the mixing zone, the profiles are nearly similar for the individual types of seeding, leading to the conclusion that all the samples contributing to measurements have been adapted by the flow field due to the small scale mixing, which is continuously improved further downstream.

Thèse (M.A.) -- Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, 2005. / Bibliogr.: f. [63-64]. Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU

abstract: This research is motivated by a deterministic scheduling problem that is fairly common in manufacturing environments, where there are certain processes that call for a machine working on multiple jobs at the same time. An example of such an environment is wafer fabrication in the semiconductor industry where some stages can be modeled as batch processes. There has been significant work done in the past in the field of a single stage of parallel machines which process jobs in batches. The primary motivation behind this research is to extend the research done in this area to a two-stage flow-shop where jobs arrive with unequal ready times and belong to incompatible job families with the goal of minimizing total weighted tardiness. As a first step to propose solutions, a mixed integer mathematical model is developed which tackles the problem at hand. The problem is NP-hard and thus the developed mathematical program can only solve problem instances of smaller sizes in a reasonable amount of time. The next step is to build heuristics which can provide feasible solutions in polynomial time for larger problem instances. The basic nature of the heuristics proposed is time window decomposition, where jobs within a moving time frame are considered for batching each time a machine becomes available on either stage. The Apparent Tardiness Cost (ATC) rule is used to build batches, and is modified to calculate ATC indices on a batch as well as a job level. An improvisation to the above heuristic is proposed, where the heuristic is run iteratively, each time assigning start times of jobs on the second stage as due dates for the jobs on the first stage. The underlying logic behind the iterative approach is to improve the way due dates are estimated for the first stage based on assigned due dates for jobs in the second stage. An important study carried out as part of this research is to analyze the bottleneck stage in terms of its location and how it affects the performance measure. Extensive experimentation is carried out to test how the quality of the solution varies when input parameters are varied between high and low values. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Industrial Engineering 2012

The purpose of this research is to investigate and analyse some batch arrival queueing systems with Bernoulli scheduled vacation process and single server providing service. The study aims to explore and extend the work done on vacation and unreliable queues with a combination of assumptions like balking and re-service, reneging during vacations, time homogeneous random breakdowns and fluctuating modes of service. We study the steady state properties, and also transient behaviour of such queueing systems. Due to vacations the arriving units already in the system may abandon the system without receiving any service (reneging). Customers may decide not to join the queue when the server is in either working or vacation state (balking). We study this phenomenon in the framework of two models; a single server with two types of parallel services and two stages of service. The model is further extended with re-service offered instantaneously. Units which join the queue but leave without service upon the absence of the server; especially due to vacation is quite a natural phenomenon. We study this reneging behaviour in a queueing process with a single server in the context of Markovian and non-Markovian service time distribution. Arrivals are in batches while each customer can take the decision to renege independently. The non-Markovian model is further extended considering service time to follow a Gamma distribution and arrivals are due to Geometric distribution. The closed-form solutions are derived in all the cases. Among other causes of service interruptions, one prime cause is breakdowns. We consider breakdowns to occur both in idle and working state of the server. In this queueing system the transient and steady state analysis are both investigated. Applying the supplementary variable technique, we obtain the probability generating function of queue size at random epoch for the different states of the system and also derive some performance measures like probability of server‟s idle time, utilization factor, mean queue length and mean waiting time. The effect of the parameters on some of the main performance measures is illustrated by numerical examples to validate the analytical results obtained in the study. The Mathematica 10 software has been used to provide the numerical results and presentation of the effects of some performance measures through plots and graphs.