A partitioned approach is studied to solve strongly coupled nonlinear fluid structure interaction problems. The stability, convergence and performance of explicit and implicit coupling algorithms are explored. The partitioned approach allows to re-use existing codes in a more general context. One purpose of this work is to be able to couple them as black-boxes. To that end, the scientific software component framework CTL is considered. Therefore a fluid and a structure component based on existing software are developed and coupled with a master code approach. Computational performance of different remote calls and parallel implementation of components are also depicted herein. The re-use of existing software allows to couple advanced models developed for both sub-problems. In this work, the structure part is solved by the Finite Element Method, with the possibility to use different non-linear and large deformation behaviors. For the fluid part, examples modeled with an arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian formulation are considered, solved with a finite volume method. The models used are first transient incompressible flows described by the Navier-Stokes equation, then free surface flows. With the latter, the impact of sloshing and breaking waves on model structures can be computed

Purpose - With the social media's emergence in recent times, the main purpose of this study is to generate knowledge about social media communication’s impact on consumer-based brand equity, in terms of firm-created and user-generated social media communication. In order to make this possible, knowledge about customer’s perception about a specific brand is required. Furthermore, we are interested in explaining issues concerning how fashion companies can efficiently use social media, and the study’s intention is also to present recommendations of how companies can use social media as a marketing communication tool. Theory and hypothesis – This chapter deals with theory about consumer-based brand equity, where the different components of the model are presented. Also theory about social media, different social media applications and a social media strategy are described. Finally, firm- created and user-generated social media communications impact on brand equity are discussed, which leads to the study’s hypotheses. Methodology – The study has a triangulation consisting of both a qualitative and a quantitative part and has essentially a deductive approach. The study interviewed one expert in the fashion industry and one expert in the area of social media. An interview with the analysed company’s marketing manager was also made. The quantitative study was made on 624 respondents, which were all members of the company’s customer club. 97 of these 624 respondents were investigated in order to observe the impact of firm-created and user- generated social media communication on brand equity. Empirical findings and results – The findings in the study indicate that firm-created social media communication positively impact brand equity, while user-generated did not show to be significant. In this study it was shown that the majority of the respondents use social media, especially Facebook, and the content that most valuable was access to discounts and promotions as well as information about the brand and its products. Conclusion - Our study confirms the importance for companies to use social media as a marketing tool and it should be in all managers’ interest to make use of this channel. Also the importance of having high brand equity is highlighted and how the customer’s perceptions about a brand can be used as guidelines in order to increase brand equity.

In this paper we will be studying and backtesting a particular investment strategy by buying and holding dividend stocks. We think dividend stock is an important type of investment to investors and portfolio managers because of its cash implications, especially in a high volatility equity market. Furthermore, we think that consistency in a company’s ability and willingness in distributing dividends to its shareholders is a strong indicator of its financial strength and operational success. How portfolio managers should pick the best performing dividend stocks would then become an important issue. In this paper, we will be testing the historical performance of a portfolio of dividend stocks that we construct and adjust based on a list of parameters associated with companies’ operational performance, cash position, and dividend yield. Hence, the main way we select stocks in the portfolio is based on fundamental analysis. Our research is conducted relying exclusively on the Wharton Research Data Services database (WRDS). In addition to evaluating the investment attractiveness of our portfolio, the strategy may also have implications regarding several other topics including the semi-strong form market efficiency and active portfolio management. Therefore, this paper covers also potential benefits to be gained from the strategy other than its investment payoff.

中共戰略思維的形成，主要依據國際情勢、戰略環境、戰爭、科技等客觀情勢變化，以及當時國家領導人對客觀環境的主觀認知，其中包括戰略文化、個人特質、求學背景等因素。檢視中共不同時期的國防軍事戰略考量，自毛澤東「早打、大打、打核子戰」、鄧小平「打贏一場局部戰爭」、江澤民「打贏高技術條件下的局部戰爭」、胡錦濤「信息條件下的局部戰爭」，至習近平的「召之即來、來之能戰、戰之必勝」，展現中共軍事戰略戰法轉變。本文將從比較習近平與毛澤東、鄧小平、江澤民、胡錦濤軍事戰略發展，並納入當前國際環境影響因素，針對習近平「強軍夢」的重要組成進行分析，進而歸納出當前中共國家領導人的軍事戰略思維，作為未來推測其面臨重大轉折與挑戰之決策走向依據。 / The formation of the CCP strategic thinking, mainly based on the international situation, the strategic environment, war, science and technology and other objective circumstances change, and then national leaders subjective perception of the objective environment, including strategic culture, personal qualities, education background and other factors. View defense and military strategic considerations Communist different periods, since Mao Zedong's “early fight, big fight, fight a nuclear war,” Deng Xiaoping “win a local war,” Jiang Zemin “to win local wars under high-tech conditions,” Hu ”to win local wars under information conditions“, Xi Jinping “be ready to fight, win the war“, all these shows Chinese military strategy tactics change. This paper will compare Xi Jinping and Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, military strategy development, and including international factors such as the current environment to further analysis of Xi Jinping’s “Strong Army Dream.” Then, summarize the current military strategic thinking “Strong Army Stream” of the Communist state leader as reference for further prediction of China military development.

This thesis attempts to make an analysis of the state tradition perspective by particularly focusing on the relations between the state and big bourgeoisie represented by T&Uuml / SiAD in the post-1980 period. As this perspective has been hegemonic in discourse in examining state-society relations in Turkey in recent decades, thereby dominating the political, academic, and business circles, it becomes very important for Turkish politics students to understand what is implied by this phrase in order to conceive the political developments in Turkey. This thesis aims to explore the adequacy of this perspective in accounting for the state-society relations. The focus on T&Uuml / SiAD is derived from the fact that its organizational evolution allows us to evaluate the adequacy of theoretical premises and main arguments of the state tradition perspective. In this study, it is concluded that the state tradition perspective offers a reductionist framework in favor of the state / neglects the impact of the social dynamics and international institutions and actors / and reproduces the strong state at any historical moment. Depending on these findings, it is claimed that the state tradition perspective does not provide an appropriate methodological and conceptual framework especially in examining the state-big business relations within the context of the changing domestic and international contexts.

This thesis examines the mixing times for one-dimensional interacting particle systems. We use the coupling method to study the mixing rates for particle systems on the circle which move according to specific permutations e.g., transpositions and 3-cycles. / Graduation date: 2008

國中基本學力測驗自民國九十年實施，今年邁入第五年，學力測驗量尺分數之理論基礎，主要以Lord所提出之強真分數模式(Strong True Score Model)為主，以適當的模式對考生答對題數資料進行轉換，進一步計算出現在的量尺分數；然而國內針對學力測驗之量尺分數所做之相關研究甚少，因此本研究在第一部份先描述量尺分數轉換之理論，並詳細描述資料轉換之過程與方法。 目前學力測驗小組所採用之模式有上限模式與下限模式兩種，以考生答對題數資料估計出此兩種模式，以較低的均方差決定採用之模式，再接下來進行數據轉換之工作，然而此兩種模式都只適用於描述單峰分佈的考生答對題數之分配，英語科在歷年的學測資料，皆呈現之雙峰分佈之情形，故本研究提出混合雙峰模式，該模式較現有學力測驗之上限模式、下限模式更能清楚描述考生答對題數之分配，且具有較低之均方差。 本研究亦對量尺分數之轉換過程提出新的見解，本研究資料顯示在指定量尺平均數時，採用平均數之加權數，會比現行各科量尺指定平均分數皆固定為30分來得好，且具有較低之量尺標準差。 最後本研究總結上述方法與結論，對量尺分數的計算方式提出新的流程，以供學力測驗小組以及學者專家作為研究之參考。

In dieser Arbeit wurden mit Hilfe von Transportmessungen – vor allem mit thermischem Transport bei sehr tiefen Temperaturen – intermetallische Seltenerdverbindungen untersucht. Diese Materialien sind oft durch starke elektronische Korrelationen gekennzeichnet, die zu neuartigen Eigenschaften führen. Um die Wechselwirkungen in den untersuchten Systemen zu beeinflussen, führten wir ein Magnetfeld als zusätzlichen Parameter ein. Damit untersuchten wir drei Fragestellungen. Im ersten Teil überprüften wir die Gültigkeit des Wiedemann-Franz-Gesetzes in YbRh2Si2. Dieses Material zeigt einen durch ein kleines Magnetfeld induzierten quantenkritischen Punkt, für dessen unkonventionelle Eigenschaften es noch keine allgemein etablierte mikroskopische Theorie gibt. Mit Hilfe des Wiedemann-Franz-Gesetzes haben wir untersucht, ob eine solche Theorie im Rahmen des Quasiteilchenbildes formuliert werden kann. Während wir eine Bestätigung für Magnetfelder abseits des quantenkritischen Punktes zeigen, ergibt unsere Analyse direkt am quantenkritischen Punkt eine Verletzung des Weidemann-Franz-Gesetzes. Dies hat weitreichende physikalische Folgen, da eine Verletzung den Zusammenbruch des Konzeptes von Quasiteilchen impliziert. In der zweiten Studie untersuchten wir die Kondogittersysteme YbRh2Si2 und CeRu2Si2 in Magnetfeldern mit Energien von der Größenordnung der Kondotemperatur. Beide Systeme zeigen bislang ungeklärte feldinduzierte Übergänge mit sehr unterschiedlichen Signaturen jedoch den selben Vorschlägen für deren Ursache: ein abrupter Zusammenbruch des Kondoeffekts oder ein Lifshitzübergang. Mit Thermokraft- und Widerstandsmessungen konnten wir für CeRu2Si2 zeigen, dass auch der thermische Transport kompatibel mit einem Lifshitzübergang ist. Ein globales Modell, das thermodynamische Größen mit einschließt, ist jedoch weiterhin nicht vorhanden. In YbRh2Si2 detektierten wir anstatt eines einzelnen, insgesamt drei Übergänge in höheren Magnetfeldern. Mithilfe einer sehr guten Übereinstimmung von renormalisierten Bandstrukturrechnungen mit unseren und früheren Experimenten, können wir die Entwicklung von YbRh2Si2 im Magnetfeld als Superposition von einer stetigen Unterdrückung des Kondoeffekts und drei Lifshitzübergängen beschreiben. Im dritten Projekt untersuchten wir den supraleitenden Ordnungsparameter von LaPt4Ge12. Während frühere Experimente auf konventionelle Supraleitung hindeuten, wird für das eng verwandte PrPt4Ge12 unkonventionelle und/oder Multiband-Supraleitung diskutiert. Resultate an der Substitutionsreihe LaxPr1-xPt4Ge12 suggerieren jedoch kompatible Ordnungsparameter für beide Verbindungen. Unsere Ergebnisse der spezifischen Wärme und der temperatur- und feldabhängigen Wärmeleitfähigkeit an LaPt4Ge12 sind kompatibel mit dem Modell konventioneller Supraleitung ohne Nullstellen im der supraleitenden Bandlücke. Die Abhängigkeit der Wärmeleitfähigkeit vom Feldwinkel zeigt unerwartet umfangreiche Oszillationsmuster. Während solche Oszillationen oft als Zeichen von Nullstellen in der Bandlücke interpretiert werden, konnten wir die meisten Frequenzen anderen Ursachen zuordnen. Eine sehr genaue Analyse von winkelabhängigen Messungen ist daher unabdingbar, um daraus Schlussfolgerungen für den Ordnungsparameter ziehen zu können.

Strongly correlated systems on geometrically frustrated lattices can stabilize a large number of interesting phases that includes a wide array of novel Mott insulators in both bosonic and electronic systems. Charge fluctuations in a Mott insulator are suppressed due to strong mutual interaction among the particles. The presence of frustration is of particular importance as the physics it offers is often rich, unexpectedly complicated, and continues to raise many open questions. The thesis elucidates some of these issues on a kagome lattice where strong interactions among the particles in the Mott phase impose non-trivial local constraints depending on the filling fraction on the lattice. These Mott insulators, in addition to featuring unusual magnetic and/or charge ordering, can also harbor topologically ordered states of quantum matter, e.g., resonating valence bond liquids realized in certain quantum dimer models on non-bipartite lattices. The dimer models can be regarded as low-energy effective theories for different types of bosonic models in the strong-coupling limit. Exploring this connection is a central theme of this thesis with the aim of realizing novel strongly correlated ground states. Past studies of these models have revealed the existence of various ordered and disordered phases with distinct signatures. Among these low-energy phases, the presence of a stable topological liquid at a particular point, known as Rokhsar-Kivelson point, in the phase diagram is notable. The classical versions of the dimer model are also known to have garnered a vast interest in various fields ranging from problems of pure mathematical origin to ones in physical chemistry as well as statistical physics. Pioneered by Kasteleyn, several analytical works came forward to exactly calculate the partition function of the problem from which other physical observables can be derived. Classical numerical methods are extensively applied to these models to verify the analytical predictions. We introduce a new classical algorithm here to compute the correlation functions of a classical dimer model on a square (bipartite) and a triangular (non-bipartite) lattice based on a tensor network construction. The method, called tensor network renormalization group, turns out to be a powerful tool for simulating short-ranged gapped systems as inferred from our results benchmarked against the classical Monte-Carlo technique and compared with past analytical studies. One should note that the quantum dimer model at the Rokhsar-Kivelson point can also be described as an infinite temperature canonical ensemble of classical dimers because of the particular structure of the ground state which is an equal weight superposition in the configuration manifold. The geometry of the lattice plays a pivotal role in deciding the nature of the phases that arise in the dimer models. Many physical properties of the dimer liquid phase can be extracted in the simple classical setting which certainly allows for a deep understanding of the classical models to be developed. The liquid phase is gapped on non-bipartite lattices and gapless on bipartite lattices, which is reflected in the decay of correlation functions with spatial distances. In general on non-bipartite lattices, the topological nature of the dimer liquid is characterized by a Z2 topological order which survives even when the model is perturbed away from the Rokhsar-Kivelson point. Stability of this liquid phase not only depends on the lattice geometries but notably on dimer concentrations also. In this context, we focus on a particular variant of the dimer model on a triangular lattice which is known as the quantum fully packed loop model. The model is composed of nonintersecting closed loops made of dimers and governed by the same Hamiltonian as the quantum dimer model. The loop model provides an effective low-energy description of a strongly correlated bosonic system at 1/3 filling on the kagome lattice. The corresponding Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian consists of nearest-neighbor hopping and all possible repulsive interactions within a hexagonal plaquette. Conspicuous features of the zero-temperature phase diagram for this model include (i) presence of a stable Z2 liquid even without any Rokhsar-Kivelson potential term (in distinction to the standard quantum dimer model), and (ii) an unconventional phase transition from the liquid phase to a novel crystalline phase that has nematic order (dubbed lattice nematic). For a deeper understanding of the physics, a mapping to an Ising gauge theory is presented. The gauge theoretic description provides a useful way to predict the nature of the quantum phase transition to lie in the O(3) universality class. Finally a fermionic model at the same 1/3 filling is considered in which the ground state exhibits a number of exotic local orderings resulting from the spin-charge interplay of electrons. The Hamiltonian comprises nearest-neighbor hopping, strong on-site Coulomb interaction, and repulsive interaction terms only between nearest-neighbors. In the strong correlation limit, this fermionic problem maps to a two-color fully packed loop model – a model in which the loop segments carry an additional quantum number as color on a honeycomb lattice. The effective theory is governed by coherent three-particle ring exchanges and nearest-neighbor antiferromagnetic spin exchanges. The competition between these two leads to a phase diagram composed of a novel plaquette ordered state (known as the plaquette phase) that undergoes phase transition to a new kind of charge ordered state which we call a short loop phase. From our numerical analysis, we conclude that the plaquette phase features an unusual antiferromagnetic order with gapless spin excitations while the charge-ordered state is subjugated by spin fluctuations of localized electrons arranged in small hexagonal loops on the kagome lattice.

Resumo: No presente trabalho desenvolve-se um modelo constitutivo baseado na mecânica do dano contínuo para representar o comportamento de materiais que apresentam diferentes respostas quando solicitados à tração ou à compreensão. obtem-se uma representação constitutiva através da composição de modelos simples e específicos para tratar cada tipo de solicitação. Este modelo combinado é capaz inclusive de lidar com carregamentos alternados (tração e compreensão), envolvendo fechamento e reabertura de fissuras existentes. Para modelar o comportamento em compreensão emprega-se o modelo constitutivo que tem como critério de degradação o segundo invariante do tensor de tensão desviador (critério de Von Mises ou J2). Para simular o aparecimento de fissuras de tração, usa-se o modelo de dano com critério de degradação baseado na energia de deformação da parte positiva do tensor efetivas. A integração dos modelos é feita com base em tensões efetivas associadas a duas escalas distintas (escala grosseira e refinada). O modelo é apto para representar a formação de descontinuidades no campo de deslocamento (descontinuidades fortes) em materiais quase-frágeis. Nesse caso, a região de localização de deformação (zona de processo da fatura) pode ser descrita pelo modelo de dano combinado, com lei de abrandamento de tensões (softening) exponencial, que estabelece dissipação compatível com a energia de fratura. A região contínua pode ser descrita pelo modelo de dano J2, com parâmetros ajustados com base no comportamento não linear à compreensão. Valida-se o modelo proposto mediante testes básicos, focando a capacidade do modelo em representar os principais aspectos do comportamento de materiais quase-frágeis. A aplicabilidade do modelo é demonstrada através do estudo da capacidade de rotação plástica de vigas de concreto armado, confrontando-se os resultados numéricos com os experimentais / Abstract: A combined constitutive model based on the Continuum Damage Mechanics (CDM) is presented to represent the nonlinear behavior of quasi-brittle materials, which present different response when subjected to tension or compreession. The constitutive model is a composition of two simple and specific models designed to treat each type of behavior. The combined model is able to deal with alternating load (tension-compression), involving formation, closure and reopening cracks. To model the compressive behavior, a degradation criterion based on the second invariant of the deviatoric part of the effective stress tensor (Von Miser or J2 criterion) is used. To simulate cracking, a damage model with degradation criterion based on the strain energy associated to the positive part the effective stress tensor is adopted. The combination of the models is made on the basis of the effective stresses associated to two distinct scales (coarse and fine scales) The model is able to represented the formation of discontinuities in the displacement field (strong discontinuities) for quasi-brittle materials. The region of strain localization (fracture process zone) is described by a softening law which establishes dissipation energy compatible with the fracture energy. The continuous region is described by the J2 damage model, with parameters ajusted to describle the compressive nonlinear behavior in compression. Some basic tests are performed to asses the ability of the model to represent the main aspects of the behavior of quasi-brittle materials. The applicability of the model is demonstrated by the study of the plastic rotation capacity of reinforced concrete beams, comparing the numerical responses with the experimental ones / Orientador: Osvaldo Luís Manzoli / Coorientador: André Luís Gamino / Banca: Leonardo José do Nascimento Guimarães / Banca: Edson Antonio Capello Sousa / Mestre