In this study, we investigated how Swedish shipping companies work to reduce harassment and abusive discrimination on board their ships. Through qualitative interviews, we have collected data on the shipping companies' understanding of today's situation, their preventive work, as well as their future vision and goals. It appears that the shipping companies are working actively to increase knowledge and awareness of gender equality issues and are working to change the harsh jargon that previously existed on board the ships. There is a desire for a zero tolerance against harassment and bullying on board ships, but at the same time an understanding that getting there is a challenge due to the human interaction that characterizes the work environment. Despite the challenges, the shipping companies see the future brightly and have a desire to continue working on these issues to create a safe and inclusive work environment for everyone on board. The discussion emphasizes the importance of continuing the work to prevent harassment and bullying onboard ships and to regularly follow up and evaluate the work environment, the results are put in perspective to the previous research presented in the study. By constantly being aware of the challenges and actively working to change the work culture, shipping companies can create a safer and healthier work environment for all seafarers. Overall, the results indicate that the shipping companies have taken important steps towards creating a safe and inclusive work environment, but there is still room for improvement and continuous work on these issues. / I studien har vi undersökt hur svenska rederier arbetar för att minska trakasserier och kränkande särbehandling ombord på sina fartyg. Genom kvalitativa intervjuer har vi samlat in data om rederiernas förståelse för dagens situation, deras förebyggande arbete, deras framtidsvision och målsättningar. Det framkommer att rederierna arbetar aktivt med att öka kunskapen och medvetenheten kring jämställdhetsfrågor och arbetar med att förändra den hårda jargongen som tidigare funnits ombord på fartygen. Det finns en önskan om en nollvision mot trakasserier och mobbning ombord på fartygen, men samtidigt en insikt om att det är en utmaning att nå dit på grund av den mänskliga interaktionen som präglar arbetsmiljön. Trots utmaningarna ser rederierna ljust på framtiden och har en vilja att fortsätta arbeta med dessa frågor för att skapa en trygg och inkluderande arbetsmiljö för alla ombord. I diskussionen betonas vikten av att fortsätta arbetet med att förebygga trakasserier och mobbning ombord på fartyg samt att regelbundet följa upp och utvärdera arbetsmiljön, resultaten gämförs med den tidiager forskning som presenterats. Genom att ständigt vara medveten om utmaningarna och aktivt arbeta med att förändra arbetskulturen kan rederierna skapa en mer säker och hälsosam arbetsmiljö för alla sjöfarare. Sammantaget tyder resultaten på att rederierna har tagit viktiga steg mot att skapa en trygg och inkluderande arbetsmiljö, men det finns fortfarande utrymme för förbättring och kontinuerligt arbete med dessa frågor.

Currently, the public has a strong sense of the need for environment protection and the use of sustainable, or “green,” design in buildings and other civil structures. Since green design elements and technologies are different from traditional design, they probably have impacts on the building environment, such as vibration, lighting, noise, temperature, relative humidity, and overall comfort. Determining these impacts of green design on building environments is the primary objective of this study. The Zero Energy Research (ZOE) laboratory, located at the University of North Texas Discovery Park, is analyzed as a case study. Because the ZOE lab is a building that combines various green design elements and energy efficient technologies, such as solar panels, a geothermal heating system, and wind turbines, it provides an ideal case to study. Through field measurements and a questionnaire survey of regular occupants of the ZOE lab, this thesis analyzed and reported: 1) whether green design elements changed the building’s ability to meet common building environmental standards, 2) whether green design elements assisted in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) scoring, and 3) whether green design elements decreased the subjective comfort level of the occupants.

Master of Science / Department of Architecture / Gary J. Coates / This thesis was undertaken to investigate and seek possible architectural solutions to two issues. Firstly, fragmentation of the American family structure into a variety of new household types presents new design challenges to architects today. The single family house, once an 'ideal family' home, now needs to be redesigned to accommodate these changing lifestyles. Secondly, global warming and threats of an impending energy crisis loom large over humankind today. Environmentally-responsive architectural design can and should address both of these burgeoning problems. A program was developed as the basis for designing new infill housing in the city of Manhattan, Kansas, a small Midwestern college town. The aim was to provide dwelling units that would accommodate a wide range of family types and use patterns of the entire life cycle while fitting in to the existing architectural fabric of the neighborhood. After a literature review, it was concluded that 'front and back house' design was the most suitable option. In this context, three types of front and back house designs are presented. These options are further divided into thirteen subtypes. It is shown that these designs fulfill the spatial needs of a variety of differing households such as houses with an office, a multigenerational home and units that permit aging in place. An independent study was undertaken to achieve a 'zero energy threshold' for one of the designs within the design matrix presented in the thesis. A 60%-65% decrease in energy usage was attained in the front house and 50% in the back house by increasing the overall efficiency of the building envelope and by utilizing energy efficient appliances. Utilization of a 2 X 6.4 kW grid-connected solar photovoltaic system provided enough energy to power the house (inclusive of front & back houses). A Geothermal heating/cooling system was employed to further decrease the use of fossil fuel. With reduced energy needs and use of a gird connected solar system it was possible to achieve a 'net-zero energy house', which is defined as a house that generates as much as or more than the total energy it uses over the course of a year. An economic analysis of the front and back house and proposed energy systems was also performed. Calculations suggest that rent from the back house could provide substantial financial benefits to the owner of the front house. Although use of non-conventional energy systems demanded a larger initial investment, studies showed that savings made on the utility bills would eventually help recover this investment within the lifetime of the systems.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 28-31, 1996 / Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / The science payload for NASA's Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) satellite is controlled from the EUVE Science Operations Center (ESOC) at the Center for EUV Astrophysics (CEA), University of California, Berkeley (UCB). The ESOC is in the process of a transition from a single staffed shift to an autonomous, zero-shift, "lights out" science payload operations scenario (a.k.a., 1:0). The purpose of the 1:0 transition is to automate all of the remaining routine, daily, controller telemetry monitoring and associated "shift" work. Building on the ESOC's recent success moving from three-shift to one-shift operations (completed in Feb 1995), the 1:0 transition will further reduce payload operations costs and will be a "proof of concept" for future missions; it is also in line with NASA's goals of "cheaper, faster, better" operations and with its desire to out-source missions like EUVE to academe and industry. This paper describes the 1:0 transition for the EUVE science payload: the purpose, goals, and benefits; the relevant science payload instrument health and safety considerations; the requirements for, and implementation of, the multi-phased approach; a cost/benefit analysis; and the various lessons learned along the way.

Trial and error and the use of highly time-consuming methods are often necessary for modeling, simulating and characterizing nonlinear dynamical systems. However, for the rather common special case when a nonlinear system has linear relations between many of its degrees of freedom there are particularly interesting opportunities for more efficient approaches. The aim of this thesis is to develop and validate new efficient methods for the theoretical and experimental study of mechanical systems that include significant zero-memory or hysteretic nonlinearities related to only small parts of the whole system. The basic idea is to take advantage of the fact that most of the system is linear and to use much of the linear theories behind forced response simulations. This is made possible by modeling the nonlinearities as external forces acting on the underlying linear system. The result is very fast simulation routines where the model is based on the residues and poles of the underlying linear system. These residues and poles can be obtained analytically, from finite element models or from experimental measurements, making these forced response routines very versatile. Using this approach, a complete nonlinear model contains both linear and nonlinear parts. Thus, it is also important to have robust and accurate methods for estimating both the linear and nonlinear system parameters from experimental data. The results of this work include robust and user-friendly routines based on sinusoidal and random noise excitation signals for characterization and description of nonlinearities from experimental measurements. These routines are used to create models of the studied systems. When combined with efficient simulation routines, complete tools are created which are both versatile and computationally inexpensive. The developed methods have been tested both by simulations and with experimental test rigs with promising results. This indicates that they are useful in practice and can provide a basis for future research and development of methods capable of handling more complex nonlinear systems.

Constructive reverse mathematics is a programme in which non- and semi-constructive principles are classified in accordance with which other principles they imply or are implied by, relative to the framework of Bishop-style constructive mathematics. One such principle that has come under focus in recent years is an antithesis of Specker's theorem (that theorem being a characteristic result of Russian recursive mathematics): this so-called anti-Specker property is intuitionistically valid, and of considerable utility in proving results of real and complex analysis. We introduce several new weakenings of the anti-Specker property and explore their role in constructive reverse mathematics, identifying implication relationships that they stand in to other notable principles. These include, but are not limited to: variations upon Brouwer's fan theorem, certain compactness properties, and so-called zero-stability properties. We also give similar classification results for principles arising directly from Specker's theorem itself, and present new, direct proofs of related fan-theoretic results. We investigate how anti-Specker properties, alongside power-series-based arguments, enable us to recover information about the structure of holomorphic functions: in particular, they allow us to streamline a sequence of maximum-modulus theorems.

Magistrantūros baigiamajame darbe tiriami įvairūs 0,4 ir aukštesnės įtampos elektros tinklo kokybiniai parametrai. Naudojant elektros tinklo kokybės analizatorių MI2192, išmatuoti elektriniai parametrai 0,4 linijose įvairiuose objektuose, surinkta papildomų duomenų iš elektros tinklų informacijos šaltinių , įvertinti kokybiniai elektros tinklo parametrai juose: įtampos sinusiškumas, nesimetrija ir svyravimai, mirgėjimas (flicker), pagrindiniai energetiniai parametrai, reaktyviosios galios dydis, harmonikų įtaka. Užregistruoti elektros tinklo parametrai palyginti su nustatytais standartais, siekiant patvirtinti arba paneigti prielaidas dėl elektros energijos kokybės ir jos įtakos įrenginių darbui. Pateiktos elektros tinklų kokybės parametrų pablogėjimo atsiradimo priežastys, mažinimo būdai. Pateiktos tyrimo rezultatų išvados. / Various 0,4 kV and qualitative parameters of higher electric power network voltage have been investigated in Master‘s final paper. Electrical parameters 0,4 KV in lines have been measured in various places using qualitative analyser M12192 of electric power network. Additional data from electric power network informational resourses have been gathered, evaluated qualitative parameters of electric power network: voltage irregular, dissymmetry and fluctuations, flicker, basic energetic parameters, dimension of reactive power (capacity, force), influence of harmonics. In pursuance of confirming or denying assumptions ref. quality of electric energy and it‘s influence on equipment work the registered electric power network parameters have been compared with the regulated standards . The paper presents the reasons of occured deterioration of electric power network quality parameters, types of power down and conclusions of investigation results.

The optimum ordering strategies for the coded V-BLAST system with capacity achieving temporal codes on each stream are studied in this thesis. Mathematical representations of the optimum detection ordering strategies for the coded V-BLAST under instantaneous rate allocation (IRA), uniform power/rate allocation (URA), instantaneous power allocation(IPA) and instantaneous power/rate allocation (IPRA) are derived. For two transmit antennas, it is shown that the optimum detection strategies are based on the per-stream before-processing channel gains. Based on approximations of the per-stream capacity equation, closed-form expressions of the optimal ordering strategy under the IRA at low and high signal to noise ratio (SNR) are derived. Necessary optimality conditions under the IRA are given. Thresholds for the low, intermediate and high SNR regimes in the 2-Tx-antenna system under the IPRA are determined, and the SNR gain of the ordering is studied for each regime. Performances of simple suboptimal ordering strategies are analysed, some of which perform very close to the optimum one.

In this dissertation, we leverage predictive and prescriptive analytics to develop decision support systems to promote the use of renewable energy in society. Since electricity from renewable energy sources is still relatively expensive, there are variety of financial incentive programs available in different regions. Our research focuses on financial incentive programs and tackles two main problem: 1) how to optimally design and control hybrid renewable energy systems for residential and commercial buildings given the capacity based and performance based incentives, and 2) how to develop a model-based system for policy makers for designing optimal financial incentive programs to promote investment in net zero energy (NZE) buildings. In order to customize optimal investment and operational plans for buildings, we developed a mixed integer program (MIP). The optimization model considers the load profile and specifications of the buildings, local weather data, technology specifications and pricing, electricity tariff, and most importantly, the available financial incentives to assess the financial viability of investment in renewable energy. It is shown how the MIP model can be used in developing customized incentive policy designs and controls for renewable energy system.

Due to increasing teacher accountability and standardized test score requirements attributed to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, this essay examines research of the positive influences of arts education on student academic achievement and social growth. Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences Theory and brain research, such as that of Eric Jensen, suggest the necessity for various types of instruction and assessment to ensure that all students' learning needs are met; and to maximize the potential for intellectual growth in each student. Harvard University's Project Zero programs: Artful Thinking, Art Works for Schools, and Arts PROPEL are examined. A+ Schools Program (North Carolina), and various schools and school districts around the United States having arts-rich curricula and high student academic and social achievement are identified. Community Outreach programs: Chicago Arts Partnership in Education (CAPE),Young Audiences of Indiana, the Pennsylvania Ballet show positive arts influence outside of the traditional classroom setting. Research by James S. Catterall, J. Burton, R. Horowitz, and H. Abeles on the question of learning transfer taking place across the disciplines is also examined.