Dissertations / Theses: 'Theoretical analysis'

1

Bayar, Guzin. "Corruption-a Game Theoretical Analysis." Phd thesis, METU, 2003. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/678664/index.pdf.

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Corruption is an important social and ethical problem
fight with it requires changes in values, norms and behavioral patterns of the society. This is usually a long and difficult process. Decades should pass to change deep values of a society. In the mean time, it is possible to combat corruption by changing incentive structures in the economy. If deep causes of the problem are analyzed carefully, a new system of governance can be established, such that, even most opportunist individuals do not find getting involved in corrupt practices profitable. Aim of this thesis is to examine characteristics of the system providing a fertile environment for corruption and to figure out factors stimulating corrupt transactions using game theoretical models. The first two models examine corruption as a kind of transaction between the briber and the bribee. In the models, it is shown that intermediaries sector occur from the profit maximization behavior of agents. This sector, by establishing long term, trust based relationships with bureaucrats, decreases risks occurring from the fact that the two parties involved in a corrupt transaction do not know each other perfectly. This sector, by reducing the likelihood of detection, serves corrupt transactions, and in return for the service it provided, takes commission, so gets benefit. Third model examines a strange type of corruption, a case of (spurious) middlemen obtaining bribe from the public service bureaucrats give, by pretending that he has influence on the acceptance or speed of it. The model tries to detect the characteristics of the environment making such a deception process persistent.

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Shura, Robin. "Intercountry Adoption: A Theoretical Analysis." Cleveland, Ohio : Case Western Reserve University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1253849386.

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Case Western Reserve University, 2010
Title from PDF (viewed on 01 October 2009) Department of Sociology Includes abstract Includes bibliographical references Available online via the OhioLINK ETD Center

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Dai, Ke. "Theoretical analysis of US's foreign aid." Thesis, University of Macau, 2012. http://umaclib3.umac.mo/record=b2595544.

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4

Han, Yunqing. "THEORETICAL STUDY OF THERMAL ANALYSIS KINETICS." UKnowledge, 2014. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/me_etds/35.

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In the past decades, a great variety of model fitting and model free (isoconversional) methods have been developed for extracting kinetic parameters for solid state reactions from thermally stimulated experimental data (TGA, DSC, DTA etc.). However, these methods have met with significant controversies about their methodologies. Firstly, model-fitting methods have been strongly criticized because almost any reaction mechanism can be used to fit the experimental data satisfactorily with drastic variations of the kinetic parameters, and no good criterion exists to tell which mechanism is the best choice. Secondly, previous model free methods originated from the isoconversional principle, which is often called the basic assumption; previous studies comparing the accuracy of model free methods have not paid attention to the influence of the principle on model free methods and, therefore, their conclusions are problematic. This work gives, firstly, a critical study of previous methods for evaluating kinetic parameters of solid state reactions and a critical analysis of the isoconversional principle of model free methods. Then an analysis is given of the invariant kinetic parameters method and recommends an incremental version of it. Based on the incremental method and model free method, a comprehensive method is proposed that predicts the degree of the dependences of activation energy on heating programs, and obtains reliable kinetic parameters. In addition, this work also compares the accuracy of previous methods and gives recommendations to apply them to kinetic studies.

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Al-Falou, Ahmed Amir. "A theoretical analysis of crack propagation." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.624858.

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Small, J. R. "Theoretical aspects of metabolic control." Thesis, Oxford Brookes University, 1988. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.382208.

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7

Berglind, Viktor, and Arizo Karimi. "Repayment performance in Microfinance: a theoretical analysis." Thesis, Uppsala University, Department of Economics, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-8540.

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Offering financial services to the unprivileged is a complex task and past attempts have been rather unsuccessful. One commendable effort that has sprung from the failures of commercial banks is microfinance and thanks to innovative ideas microfinance institutions have managed to cope with many of the challenges previously experienced by the formal bank sector in the 1970’s through the 90’s.

The “new” approach has successfully managed to overcome obstacles such as lack of collateral and information asymmetry. By using joint-liability schemes and by requiring frequent installments microfinance institutions have managed to reduce their risk exposure and by outsourcing the screening process to the borrowers they have dealt with the lack of information on their clients.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate what microfinance institutions do that make them more suitable for delivering financial services to the poor. We will look at the supply driven efforts carried out in the past and see how they differ from the demand driven approach taken today.

We will evaluate some of the most common mechanisms of microfinance and assess their potential contribution to achieving the high repayment rates that many of these institutions obtain today.

The main finding is that group lending subject to social sanctions should improve the repayment rate. Other mechanisms that may enhance the performance are the use of dynamic incentives and regular repayment schedules. The effect of targeting women and social programs on repayment rates are ambiguous although their empowerment effect is notable.

By joining forces with NGOs, local authorities and the commercial financial sector microfinance has emerged as a viable poverty reduction tool alongside traditional aid.

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Lantz, Van. "Theoretical foundations for environmental Kuznets curve analysis." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2000. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape3/PQDD_0012/NQ61655.pdf.

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Jack, W. G. "Taxation and pollution control : a theoretical analysis." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1990. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.306788.

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Auld, Sally Mackinnal. "Privatisation, regulation and exclusion : a theoretical analysis." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.365547.

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11

Bierner, Gann. "Alternative phrases : theoretical analysis and practical application." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/327.

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"All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?" (Monty Python, The Life of Brian) Alternative phrases identify selected elements from a set and subject them to particular scrutiny with respect to the sentence's predicate. For instance, in the above example, sanitation, medicine, etc. are all identified as elements in the set of things the Romans have done for us" that should not be included in the response to the question. They are alternative responses to the desired ones. Alternative phrases come in a variety of constructions and perform a variety of tasks: excluding elements (apart from), expressing preference for particular elements (especially), and simply identifying representative examples (such as). Not a great deal of work has been done on alternative phrases in general. Hearst (1992) used a pattern-matching analysis of certain alternative phrases to learn hyponyms from unannotated corpora. Also, a few examples from a subset of alternative phrases, called exceptive phrases, have been studied, most recently, by von Fintel (1993) and Hoeksema (1995). But not all constructions are amenable to pattern-matching techniques, and the work on exceptive phrases focuses on some very specific semantic points. The focus of this thesis is to present a general program for analyzing a wide variety of alternative phrases including their presuppositional and anaphoric properties. I perform my analyses in Combinatory Categorial Grammar, a lexicalized formalism. The semantic aspects of the analysis benefit greatly from the concept of alternative sets, sets of propositions that differ in one or more argument (Karttunen and Peters, 1979; Rooth, 1985, 1992; Prevost and Steedman, 1994; Steedman, 2000a). In addition, elegant solutions are made possible by separating the semantics into assertion and presupposition (Stalnaker, 1974; Karttunen and Peters, 1979; Stone and Doran, 1997; Stone and Webber, 1998; Webber et al., 1999b)| with each performing quite different tasks. My second goal is to demonstrate the practicality and importance of this analysis to real systems. Although it is relevant to many practical applications, I will focus primarily on natural language information retrieval (NLIR) as a case study. In such a domain, queries like Where can I find other web browsers than Netscape for download? and Where can I find shoes made by Bufialino, such as the Bushwackers? are often observed. I review several techniques for NLIR and demonstrate that implementations of those techniques perform poorly on such queries. I show that understanding alternative phrases can enable simple techniques which greatly improve precision. To bridge the gap between these goals, I present Grok, a modular natural language system. Several general NLP issues necessary to support my linguistic analysis are discussed: anaphora resolution, processing of presuppositions, interface to knowledge representation, and the creation of a wide-coverage lexicon. Special attention is paid to the lexicon, which is a combination of a hand-built and an acquired lexicon.

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Bassett, D. S. "Graph theoretical analysis of human brain networks." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2009. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.596452.

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In the first study, functional brain networks are derived from magnetoencephalography (MEG) data from 12 healthy subjects in two task conditions (resting and finger tapping). The brain’s function is found to be characterized by a topological structure intermediate between random (short-cut connections) and highly ordered (provincial clustering). The architecture, as measured by a range of graph metrics, remains scale-invariant throughout the functioning brain’s classical frequency bands (from low frequency δ to high frequency γ) and in both the resting and motor states. Despite the general conservation of functional architecture, the brain does adjust the length of its high frequency (especially γ, >37.5 Hz) connections when it is required to perform a finger tapping task. The relatively shorter connections in the resting state suggest the existence of an energy efficiency constraint. In the second study, we therefore hypothesized that the brain functions on a balanced platform of maximum efficiency for minimum cost, and that the successfulness of this optimization predicts the cognitive ability of the system. Frequency specific functional networks were again derived from the MEG data of 28 healthy controls and 29 people with schizophrenia taken during a working memory task. A measure of the cost-efficiency of the high frequency (β band, 15-30 Hz) networks was found to be strongly predictive of a person’s cognitive performance independent of the health of the subject (whether non-psychotic or diagnosed with schizophrenia). In a third study, we used structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) data from 259 healthy subjects and 203 people with schizophrenia to construct anatomical networks from the pairwise covariation of regional gray matter volumes. We found that the anatomical structure in the healthy brain contains a hierarchical organization which is inverted in schizophrenia and may thus be a vestige of abnormal neurodevelopmental processes.

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Clarke, Joseph. "A graph-theoretical analysis of ring currents." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2018. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/19700/.

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McCunn, Ayowande Adebiyi. "Contingent capital : a theoretical and empirical analysis." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:c5540cb1-4be2-4c4d-be81-afff3f5b48fe.

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This thesis is about the design of contingent capital (CoCos) to induce monitoring and to therefore reduce the expected size of taxpayer funded bailouts. CoCos are debt instruments that either convert into debt or are written down when a bank approaches distress - based on a reduction in the bank's capital. The thesis begins with a moral hazard model that provides a stylised illustration of the circumstances where either shareholders or CoCo investors can be induced to monitor. It predicts that shareholders will monitor if conversion reduces their claim to zero and CoCo investors will monitor if conversion reduces the value of their claim below what they paid when the CoCo was issued. It then assess different elements of the model - including the social cost that gives rise to the need for bailouts, the usual mechanisms to reduce the need for bailouts, and the bank specific insolvency regime adopted in the European Union. The focus then turns to monitoring incentives induced by CoCos. It discusses triggers and advocates higher minimum trigger levels. It then defines monitoring in the context of CoCos, assesses the extent to which monitoring is undertaken in CoCo markets, and makes recommendations about how incentives to monitor might be strengthened.

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Tanay, Satarkar. "Theoretical analysis of dreams and their significance." Thesis, Буковинський державний медичний університет, 2012. http://dspace.bsmu.edu.ua:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/1432.

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16

Hsieh, Jason K. "A Graph Theoretical Analysis of Seizure Initiation." Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies / OhioLINK, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1459507033.

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17

Billig, Ian A. "Bayesian Analysis of Systematic Theoretical Errors Models." Ohio University Honors Tutorial College / OhioLINK, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ouhonors155619979679762.

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18

Sebhatleab, Natan. "The Eritrean-Ethiopian Conflict: A Theoretical Analysis." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2017. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1704.

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This paper examines the Eritrean-Ethiopian border conflict as a modern case study concerning the shortcomings of international law. It examines the history between the two countries and how the conflict emerged despite strong social and cultural ties between the two. After a 30-year long war where Eritrea gained its independence, a brief period of peace was overcome by war and tension. A United Nations (UN) commission tasked with distributing the disputed lands to its rightful owner ruled that the lands belonged to Eritrea and the UN Security Council (UNSC) agreed to enforce this ruling. Ethiopia re-occupied it and the UNSC has yet to act. This essay looks at a range of international legal theories and tries to explain this case using these concepts. These include realism, neo-realism, liberalism, constructivism, and critical legal studies. This paper concludes neo-realism and critical legal studies accurately depict the events. This paper looks at the shared characteristics between these two theories and what they tell us about the status of international law. These findings indicate imbalanced power structures and a world where the powerful can impose their will on the weak with little ramifications.

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Bigoni, Maria. "Theoretical and experimental economic analysis of collusion." Thesis, IMT Alti Studi Lucca, 2008. http://e-theses.imtlucca.it/36/1/Bigoni_phdthesis.pdf.

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This research project consists in a theoretical and experimental study of oligopolistic markets. I believe that an experimental approach to this subject might help to understand the interplay of the many different factors that affect firms behavior in this context, and to analyze problems which theory does not provide a clearcut answer to. My project develops into two main parts: the first concern how firms can learn to collude tacitly, the second studies deterrence of explicit collusion.

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Simons, H. A. "A theoretical study of pile driving." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1985. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.355681.

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21

Healey, J. J. "Qualitative analysis of experimental time series." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1991. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.302891.

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22

Cleghorn, Christopher Wesley. "Particle swarm optimization : empirical and theoretical stability analysis." Thesis, University of Pretoria, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/61265.

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Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is a well-known stochastic population-based search algorithm, originally developed by Kennedy and Eberhart in 1995. Given PSO's success at solving numerous real world problems, a large number of PSO variants have been proposed. However, unlike the original PSO, most variants currently have little to no existing theoretical results. This lack of a theoretical underpinning makes it difficult, if not impossible, for practitioners to make informed decisions about the algorithmic setup. This thesis focuses on the criteria needed for particle stability, or as it is often refereed to as, particle convergence. While new PSO variants are proposed at a rapid rate, the theoretical analysis often takes substantially longer to emerge, if at all. In some situation the theoretical analysis is not performed as the mathematical models needed to actually represent the PSO variants become too complex or contain intractable subproblems. It is for this reason that a rapid means of determining approximate stability criteria that does not require complex mathematical modeling is needed. This thesis presents an empirical approach for determining the stability criteria for PSO variants. This approach is designed to provide a real world depiction of particle stability by imposing absolutely no simplifying assumption on the underlying PSO variant being investigated. This approach is utilized to identify a number of previously unknown stability criteria. This thesis also contains novel theoretical derivations of the stability criteria for both the fully informed PSO and the unified PSO. The theoretical models are then empirically validated utilizing the aforementioned empirical approach in an assumption free context. The thesis closes with a substantial theoretical extension of current PSO stability research. It is common practice within the existing theoretical PSO research to assume that, in the simplest case, the personal and neighborhood best positions are stagnant. However, in this thesis, stability criteria are derived under a mathematical model where by the personal best and neighborhood best positions are treated as convergent sequences of random variables. It is also proved that, in order to derive stability criteria, no weaker assumption on the behavior of the personal and neighborhood best positions can be made. The theoretical extension presented caters for a large range of PSO variants.
Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2017.
Computer Science
PhD
Unrestricted

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Skantzos, Nikolaos Stavrou. "Statistical mechanical analysis of (1 + ∞) dimensional disordered systems." Thesis, King's College London (University of London), 2001. https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/statistical-mechanical-analysis-of-1--infinity-dimensional-disordered-systems(b16e7dd9-85df-4e71-b8c6-0c6c28062961).html.

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Whitehead, Andile. "Statistical-thermodynamical analysis, using Tsallis statistics, in high energy physics." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13391.

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Includes bibliographical references.
Obtained via the maximisation of a modified entropy, the Tsallis distribution has been used to fit the transverse momentum distributions of identified particles from several high energy experiments. We propose a form of the distribution described in Cleymans and Worku, 2012, and show it to be thermodynamically consistent. Transverse momenta distributions and fits from ALICE, ATLAS, and CMS using both Tsallis and Boltzmann distributions are presented.

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Urgueira, Antonio Paulo Vale. "Dynamic analysis of coupled structures using experimental data." Thesis, Imperial College London, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/46590.

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Sypel, Roland. "An analysis of nonlocality in modern physical theory." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1994. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.386471.

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27

Osborne, Joseph E. Daoust Daniel C. "Counter-organization targeting : a theoretical framework for analysis /." Monterey, Calif. : Springfield, Va. : Naval Postgraduate School ; Available from National Technical Information Service, 1996. http://handle.dtic.mil/100.2/ADA323877.

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Thesis (M.A. in National Security Affairs Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict) Naval Postgraduate School, December 1996.
Thesis advisor(s): Gordon McCormick, Terry Johnson. "December 1996." Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-189). Also available online.

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Walther, Andrea. "Discrete Adjoints: Theoretical Analysis, Efficient Computation, and Applications." Doctoral thesis, Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden, 2008. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-ds-1214221752009-12115.

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The technique of automatic differentiation provides directional derivatives and discrete adjoints with working accuracy. A complete complexity analysis of the basic modes of automatic differentiation is available. Therefore, the research activities are focused now on different aspects of the derivative calculation, as for example the efficient implementation by exploitation of structural information, studies of the theoretical properties of the provided derivatives in the context of optimization problems, and the development and analysis of new mathematical algorithms based on discrete adjoint information. According to this motivation, this habilitation presents an analysis of different checkpointing strategies to reduce the memory requirement of the discrete adjoint computation. Additionally, a new algorithm for computing sparse Hessian matrices is presented including a complexity analysis and a report on practical experiments. Hence, the first two contributions of this thesis are dedicated to an efficient computation of discrete adjoints. The analysis of discrete adjoints with respect to their theoretical properties is another important research topic. The third and fourth contribution of this thesis focus on the relation of discrete adjoint information and continuous adjoint information for optimal control problems. Here, differences resulting from different discretization strategies as well as convergence properties of the discrete adjoints are analyzed comprehensively. In the fifth contribution, checkpointing approaches that are successfully applied for the computation of discrete adjoints, are adapted such that they can be used also for the computation of continuous adjoints. Additionally, the fifth contributions presents a new proof of optimality for the binomial checkpointing that is based on new theoretical results. Discrete adjoint information can be applied for example for the approximation of dense Jacobian matrices. The development and analysis of new mathematical algorithms based on these approximate Jacobians is the topic of the sixth contribution. Is was possible to show global convergence to first-order critical points for a whole class of trust-region methods. Here, the usage of inexact Jacobian matrices allows a considerable reduction of the computational complexity.

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Aghamohammadi, Parisa. "THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF CONTRACT CHANGE IN CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS." 京都大学 (Kyoto University), 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2433/192172.

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Wu, Su, and mikewood@deakin edu au. "Trade liberalization and income inequality: a theoretical analysis." Deakin University. School of Economics, 1999. http://tux.lib.deakin.edu.au./adt-VDU/public/adt-VDU20060817.100610.

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Pedersen, Kaj W. E. "A Theoretical Analysis of the Future of NATO." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2011. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/157.

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My argument about NATO’s future is a combination of both neo-realist and constructivist thought, an adaptation of both neo-realist power struggles and constructivist institutional structures. Due to a lack of a significant threat, NATO will collapse as a military alliance. However, due to the longevity of the Trans-Atlantic Relationship, the similarities in the governmental structure of its members and the history of peaceful interactions between the allies on both sides of the Atlantic, the current “security community” will remain despite the collapse of the military aspects of the Alliance. NATO has been held together through organizational inertia and shifting the unifying threat to a variety of lesser threats. Nevertheless, the weakness of the new threat will be insufficient in maintaining the Alliance. This argument is supported through three different period analyses of NATO. The first is an analysis of NATO in the Cold War and an overview of its creation as an answer to the threat of the Soviet Union. The second delves into the Alliance after the Cold War and the reasons for NATO’s continuation. The third section outlines NATO’s current missions, issues, and tensions within the Alliance. The paper concludes that NATO will fall apart in the future, with a slow but sure break down of the military structures of the Alliance. It will, however, remain a political entity due to the strength of the security community created between the allies.

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Heng, Stephen Fook-Geow. "Experimental and theoretical thermal analysis of microelectronic devices." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/16694.

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Taebi, Shala. "Theoretical foundations of media education : a critical analysis." Thesis, McGill University, 2001. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=31143.

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The primary purpose of this study is the exploration of the theoretical and critical framework of media education. The major paradigms used as rationale for the study of media embody views of media as agents of cultural decline that stress discriminating against the media; media as popular arts, stressing discriminating within the media; media as agents of communication, featuring the behavioral models of media studies; studying the media as representational or symbolic systems; and an exploration of the interaction between the self and the media and the question of whether and how media empower or oppress. Developments in the fields of structuralism, semiotics, theories of ideology and the social context of media production are discussed as the contributing factors to a view of media as representational systems. The study is concluded with a discussion of the significance of the context of meaning and a brief discussion of the educational implications of the field of cultural studies.

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Shaeri, Arash. "Theoretical analysis of forced nonlinear oscillations in motorcycles." Thesis, Imperial College London, 2004. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.412451.

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Denny, Kevin. "An empirical and theoretical analysis of unionized firms." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1991. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.317660.

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De, Mello Maria M. M. Q. "Theoretical and empirical issues in tourism demand analysis." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2001. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11273/.

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The majority of empirical studies of tourism analysis use a static single equation approach to model the demand for tourism of one origin for one or more destination countries. The examination of such studies generally shows that the economic interpretation and policy implications drawn as conclusions are based on mis-specified models, invalid estimation and inference procedures, inconsistent estimates and poor forecasting performance. Static single equation models of tourism demand tend to neglect interdependencies among destinations, ignore nonstationarity, overlook dynamics and, generally, disregard economic theory. Empirical specifications constrained by these flaws are bound to generate biased and inconsistent estimates upon which no reliable economic analysis or policy implication can be based. In an analytical context that focuses on the UK tourism demand for France, Spain and Portugal in the period 1969-1997, the main objective of this thesis is to demonstrate that consistent elasticities' estimates and reliable forecasts can be obtained from empirical models which are based on the principles of economic theory, and specified and rigorously tested within the rules of sound econometric methodology. The alternative models estimated in chapters 4 to 7 include error-correction autoregressive distributed lag models (ARDL), static and dynamic almost ideal demands systems (AIDS) and cointegrated vector autoregressive models (VAR). The main findings that emerge from the study are as follow. The battery of diagnostic tests applied to the dynamic error-correction ARDL models provide sufficient evidence to classify them as statistically robust, structurally stable and well-defined specifications. The evidence obtained for the AIDS and VAR systems indicates them as data-coherent and theoretically-consistent models, complying with the utility maximisation hypotheses. The similarity, across models, of the estimates of the long-run structural parameters and the accuracy of the forecasts they provide further support the reliability of these models for explaining and predicting the UK tourism demand behaviour, in contrast to the static single equations estimated in chapter 3. The specifications of chapters 4 to 7 can easily be extended, without loss of generality, to more origins and destinations and can be adapted to alternative contexts such as the demand for specific regions within a country, specific resorts within a region or even specific types of tourism products such as accommodation or leisure facilities, within a local area.

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Osborne, Joseph E., and Daniel C. Daoust. "Counter-organization targeting: a theoretical framework for analysis." Thesis, Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/10945/32029.

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The purpose of this thesis is to present and substantiate a theory of counter-organization targeting. This thesis achieves this objective by creating and testing a framework for analysis which blends the principals of organization theory with classic counterinsurgency theory. The goal of this framework is to provide an analytical tool for operational-level targeting of adversary organizations during war, conflict, and stability and support operations. This study analyzes the historical precedents of counter-organization targeting to demonstrate its viability as a necessary condition for success in counterinsurgency campaigns. Additionally, by applying the framework against an unresolved case, this study validates its applicability against a broader spectrum of the operational continuum. As a result, this thesis offers an innovative framework allowing for a logical and common sense approach to observing, assessing, targeting, and interdicting adversary organizations. Finally, this thesis holds both predictive qualities with respect to understanding an organization's future behavior, as well as prescriptive qualities, in the sense of systematically attacking and neutralizing the same organization. This thesis also expands the concepts offered in U.S. Army Field Manual 100-20, Stability and Support Operations, and bridges the gap between the strategic, and the tactical levels of campaign planning and execution.

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Brown, Sarah. "The absence decision : a theoretical and empirical analysis." Thesis, Loughborough University, 1995. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/7051.

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Economists have been somewhat remiss in dealing with the issue of worker absence. This is surprising given the figures involved. In the year of the last miners' strike, 27 million working days were lost as a result of strike activity, a figure which pales by comparison with the 375 million working days lost on average as a result of absenteeism over the 1980's [Economic Trends]. Furthermore, a study by management consultants, Arthur Anderson, recently estimated the cost of absenteeism to the UK industry at £6 billion per year [The Independent, 22/10/91]. Despite all this, relatively little attention has been paid in the economic literature to either the causes and/or the effects of absenteeism. Nevertheless, the discipline has benefited from a basic yet rigorous theoretical structure founded on static neo-classical labour supply theory. The aim of this Thesis is to address two main weaknesses of the existing theory of absence behaviour. Firstly, there is a distinct shortage of models which explicitly incorporate labour demand considerations and, consequently, ways in which employers might attempt to control absenteeism. Hence, emphasis in this Thesis is placed on the analysis of methods of absence control such as the provision of experience rated sick pay and overtime. A second weakness of the existing theory concerns the somewhat limited 'static' approach which has generally been adopted in the economic literature. Thus, this Thesis acknowledges the role of risk and uncertainty in absence behaviour by setting the analysis within a dynamic framework. The key objective of this Thesis is to explore the determinants of absence behaviour and identify ways in which contractual arrangements and, therefore, labour demand considerations manipulate the incentive to absent from the work place. The empirical analysis supports the hypothesis that observed absence behaviour is primarily influenced by the nature of the employment contract and, therefore, by the interaction of labour supply and labour demand.

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Sharpley, Richard A. J. "'Sustainable tourism development' : a theoretical and empirical analysis." Thesis, Lancaster University, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.268010.

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Smith, Gary Thomas. "The electron density : experimental determination and theoretical analysis." Thesis, Durham University, 1997. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/4676/.

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Two related lines of research in experimental electron density determination are reported in this thesis. In the first case, the well-proven and popular multipole modeling technique is applied to three high resolution, single-crystal X-ray diffraction data sets. The preliminary part of this thesis (Chapters 2-5) deals with the theoretical aspects of the multipole model, and also some of the theoretical and practical aspects of data collection and reduction. Chapter 6 reports an experimental charge density determination of a nitrogen ylide. Chapter 7 contains details of the treatment of data from a large, pendant-arm macrocyclic complex of nickel, while Chapter 8 reports the characteristics of the experimentally determined charge density for a substituted acetylene molecule which exhibits interesting intramolecular interactions. The charge densities for all three cases are analysed using Bader's Theory of Atoms in Molecules. The latter part of this thesis deals with more novel ways of treating experimental data. Chapter 9 gives a thorough review of the literature on the application of Maximum Entropy techniques to image reconstruction in general and charge density determination in particular, followed in Chapter 10 by an application to diffraction data from the cubic phase of acetylene. The novel approach of removing core scattering from the data is developed and gives improved results. Chapter 11 reviews some aspects of fermion density matrices and their relationship to electron density functions and X-ray scattering, followed in Chapter 12 by results from the density matrix refinement method applied to diffraction data from formamide. Particular emphasis is placed upon basis set effects, idempotency and various N-representable approximations to the experimentally determined density matrix.

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Lu, Bo. "Theoretical examination of scattering media by temporal analysis." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.438572.

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Combos, Constantinos Demetrios. "A theoretical and empirical analysis of multiple jobholding." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2004. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.405140.

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Lee, Gordon. "The theoretical and numerical analysis of impact oscillators." Thesis, University of Bristol, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.336875.

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URURAHY, MARCELO FERREIRA PINTO. "THEORETICAL-EXPERIMENTAL THERMAL STRESS ANALYSIS IN VISCOELASTIC CYLINDERS." PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO, 1991. http://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/Busca_etds.php?strSecao=resultado&nrSeq=19375@1.

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COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DO PESSOAL DE ENSINO SUPERIOR
Apresenta-se neste trabalho o desenvolvimento de um modelo teórico-numérico baseado na Teoria da Viscoelasticidade Linear capaz de prever as distribuições transientes e residuais das componentes de tensão e de deformação de um cilindro polimérico longo submetido a resfriamento brusco. Descrevem-se, ainda, os procedimentos experimentais adotados como intuito de se determinarem algumas propriedades térmicas e mecânicas do sistema epóxi DER331/XG0103/XB81215. Finalmente, comparam-se os resultados fornecidos pelo modelo teórico-numérico com resultados experimentais obtidos através da utilização de uma técnica extensométrica conhecida como Método de Sachs.
This work presents the development of a theoretical and numerical model based on the Linear Viscoelastic Theory able to predict the transient and residual stress and deformation distributions in a long polymeric cylinder subject to a rapid cooling. The work describes the experimental procedures adopted aiming to determine some thermal and mechanical properties of the epoxy system DER331/XG0103/XB81215. Finally, the results from the theoretical numerical model are compared to the ones obtained experimentally by na extensometric technique known as Sachs’ Method.

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Love, D. J. "Theoretical analysis of an all-optical directional coupler." Thesis, Imperial College London, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/47160.

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Junicke, M. "Theoretical and empirical contributions to monetary policy analysis." Thesis, City University London, 2013. http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/12242/.

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This thesis collects three different contributions to monetary macroeconomics, covering both theoretical and empirical aspects. First chapter builds on the DSGE models of New Keynesian tradition, and studies monetary policy around a non efficient steady state. Using a two-stage approach developed by Levine, McAdam, and Pearlman (2007), I show that in the presence of backward looking firms, the central planner improves social welfare when it allows for a steady state rate of inflation marginally above zero. In the second chapter, I estimate a simple two-country DSGE model to study the behaviour of the Eastern European central banks, obtaining some innovative important results. First, a simple monetary policy rule mimicking an optimal rule together with the assumption about the existence of non-zero steady state rate of inflation deliver a significantly better to the data. Furthermore, the empirical hypothesis that central banks systematically target CPI inflation rather than PPI inflation is rejected for all the investigated Eastern European countries (EEC). In the third chapter, I use a Bayesian VAR with economically interpretable structural restrictions and zero restrictions on lags, to analyse the transmission channels of external shocks to an extended set of EEC. I study to what extent monetary policy shocks originating from the US and from Germany can explain fluctuations on Eastern European markets. To carry out the Bayesian inference, I use a Gibbs sampling approach. I find that the US monetary policy influences the EEC macroeconomic variables at least as much as its German counterpart.

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Yao, Shengyue. "Game theoretical approach on vehicle-cyclist interaction analysis." Thesis, KTH, Transportvetenskap, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-181946.

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Traffic conflict between cyclist and vehicle is typical phenomenon at interaction, and some microscopic models have been proposed to describe the cyclists’ and vehicle drivers’ behaviour. In this thesis, the interactions between vehicles and cyclists are formed as games. The subjects involved in the interaction are modelled to pursue their maximum rewards. This thesis assumes that all game players have an objective of travelling by a steady speed subject to safety constraints. With the assumption of being non-cooperative, static, strategic and complete information game, the players apply strategies satisfying the Nash equilibrium. Four different models are formulated by adjusting the number of model parameters. Based on the modelling framework, a case study is carried out concerning cyclist-vehicle interaction at a Swedish unsignalized roundabout. Using data collected by video cameras, the model parameters are estimated by the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) approach. Furthermore, one best model is selected according to the performance results. The selected model is examined by data collected afterwards, and the results of validation indicate that this framework is effective in capturing bicycle-vehicle interaction behaviour. Using the better model identified, simulation is carried out to analyse the influential factors on the yielding probabilities for both cyclists and vehicle drivers.

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Trinh, Chau Thi My. "Earnings forecasts : model development, evaluation and theoretical analysis." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2015. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.686827.

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Earnings forecasts are an important input for equity valuation and asset allocation decision. Nevertheless, there are many contradictory findings about the most accurate model as well as the best proxy for the market expectation of future earnings in the literature. Hence, with the aim of providing solutions to these problems, this thesis comprises four main studies of different issues related to forecasting earnings.

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Villa, Sánchez Pablo. "Hidden Costs in Offshoring : Theoretical Analysis and Classification." Thesis, KTH, Industriell produktion, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-192253.

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De extra kostnader som följer av offshoringprocesser är ett ämne vars relevans att studera ökar. På grund av att processen innehåller dolda utgifter, därav benämningen dolda kostnader (hidden costs), blir det svårt att predicera den verkliga kostnaden vilket kan ses som en av anledningarna till den ökande reshoringtrenden. I detta projektarbete har dessa dolda kostnader (hidden costs) analyserats med syfte att tydliggöra kunskapen som finns om dem. Analysen har genomförts genom att initialt dela upp de dolda kostnaderna i tre olika nivåer: orsaker av de dolda kostnaderna, processer som berörs av offshoring och slutligen inverkan på den operativa prestandan (operational performance). För var och en av ovan nämnda nivåer har rapporten genererat i förslag på kategorier med syfte att täcka in samtliga kostnader och relatera dem till ett teoretiskt ramverk för att främja analysen. Kategorier kopplade till orsaker av de dolda kostnaderna är språk, kulturella skillnader, medarbetares kompetens, geografisk distans, tidskillnader, nivå på teknologi och kompetensöverföring. På processnivå innefattas kategorierna koordinering, kontroll, specifikation och design, tillverkning av produkt och leverans, innovation och kunskapsöverföring. På prestandanivå återfinns kvalité, pålitlighet, snabbhet, flexibilitet och kostnad. Projektets tillvägagångssätt innebär att de samband som existerar mellan olika nivåer synliggörs, vilket är nödvändigt för att bedöma vilka faktorer som påverkar vilka processer och följaktligen vilka processer som har störst inverkan på vilka dimensioner kopplade till operativ prestanda (operational performance). Klassifieringen förväntas belysa temat dolda kostnader och även vara till hjälp i processen att identifiera och blottlägga dem.
The extra costs in offshoring processes are an increasingly present study element. Because of their condition of being hidden, reason for their name (hidden cost), the actual cost prediction becomes a complicated task and one of the causes of the growing reshoring trend. Throughout this project, these hidden costs have been analysed with the aim of clarifying the knowledge we have of them. This has been made by the dissection of the hidden costs, dividing them into three levels: causes of the hidden costs, processes affected in offshoring, and finally, the impact on operational performance. Inside each level, several categories are proposed in the report in order to cover all the costs including them in a theoretical framework that helps its analysis. These categories are language, cultural differences, employee skills, geographic distance, time difference, level of technology and knowledge transfer, in the causes level; coordination, control, specification and design, product manufacture / service delivery, innovation and knowledge transfer, in the processes level; and quality, dependability, speed, flexibility and cost, in the performance level. Then the existing links found between the different levels is exposed, in order to assess which factors affect more which processes, and then which processes have a greater impact on which performance dimensions. With this classification it is expected to bring some light to the theme of hidden costs and help in the process of identifying and uncovering them.

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Markou, Christopher Phillip Stephen. "Law and artificial intelligence : a systems-theoretical analysis." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2018. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/278977.

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Law and technology regularly conflict. The reasons for this are several and complex. Some conflicts are trivial and straightforwardly resolvable. Others, such as the creation of artificial minds, are not. History indicates that when law and technology conflict; both systems can adapt—often over periods of time—to new social circumstances and continue performing their societal functions. Simply: law and technology co-evolve. However, if the legal system is to retain its autonomous role in society, what are its adaptive limits in the context of profound, and perhaps unprecedented, technological changes? My thesis addresses the question of whether, and if so, to what extent, the legal system can respond to ‘conflicts’ with increasingly complex and legally problematic technological change. It draws on theories of legal and social evolution—particularly the Social Systems Theory (SST) of Niklas Luhmann—to explore the notion of a ‘lag’ in the legal system’s ability to respond to technological changes and ‘shocks’. It evaluates the claim that the legal system’s ‘lagged’ response to technological change is a deficit of its functioning. ‘Lag’ may be both good and bad. It allows the law to be self-referential while also limiting its effectiveness in controlling other sub-systems. Thus there is an implicit intersystemic trade-off. The hypothesis here: ‘lag’ is an endogenous legal advantage that helps to ensure the legal system’s autonomy, as well as the continuity of legal processes that help ameliorate potentially harmful or undesirable outcomes of science and technology on society and the individual. The legal system can adjust to technological change. However, it can only adjust its internal operations, which takes time and is constrained by the need to maintain legal autonomy—or in SST terms—sits autopoiesis. The signs of this adjustment are the conceptual evolution of legal concepts and processes related to new technological changes and risks, among other things. A close reading of Anglo-American legal history and jurisprudence supports this. While legal systems are comparatively inflexible in response to new technologies—due to doctrinal ossification and reliance upon precedent and analogy in legal reasoning—an alternative outcome is possible: the disintegration of the boundary between law and technology and the consequential loss of legal autonomy. The disintegration of this boundary would consequentially reduce society’s capacity to mediate and regulate technological change, thus diminishing the autopoiesis of the legal system. A change of this kind would be signalled by what some identify as the emergence of a technological ordering—or a ‘rule of technology’—displacing and potentially subsuming the rule of law. My thesis evaluates evidence for these two scenarios—the self-renewing capacity of the legal system, on the one hand, or its disintegration in response to technological change, on the other. These opposing scenarios are evaluated using a social ontological study of technology generally, and a case study using Artificial Intelligence (AI) specifically, to identify and predict the co- evolutionary dynamics of the law/technology relationship and assess the extent to which the legal system can shape, and be shaped by, technological change. In assessing this situation, this thesis explores the nature of AI, its benefits and drawbacks, and argues that its proliferation may require a corresponding shift in the fundamental mechanics of law. As AI standardises across industries and social sub-systems, centralised authorities such as government agencies, corporations, and indeed legal systems, may lose the ability to coordinate and regulate the activities of disparate persons through ex post regulatory means. Consequentially, there is a pressing need to understand not just how AI interfaces with existing legal frameworks, but how legal systems must pre-adapt to oncoming, and predominately unexplored, legal challenges. This thesis argues that AI is an autopoietic technology, and that there is thus a corresponding need to understand its intersystemic effects if there is to be an effective societal governance regime for it. This thesis demonstrates that SST provides us with the shared theoretical grammar to start and sustain this dialogue.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Theoretical analysis'

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