This study uses a 3D finite element program, calibrated with the results of a full scale instrumented load test on a limited size footing, to estimate the settlement improvement factor for footings resting on rammed aggregate pier groups. A simplified 3D finite element model (Composite Soil Model) was developed, which takes into account the increase of stiffness around the piers during the ramming process. Design charts for settlement improvement factors of square footings of different sizes (B = 2.4m to 4.8m) resting on aggregate pier groups of different area ratios (AR = 0.087 to 0.349), pier moduli (Ecolumn = 36MPa to 72MPa), and with various compressible clay layer strengths (cu = 20kPa to 60kPa) and thicknesses (L = 5m to 15m) were prepared using this calibrated 3D finite element model. It was found that, the settlement improvement factor increases as the area ratio, pier modulus and footing pressure increase. On the other hand, the settlement improvement factor is observed to decrease as the undrained shear strength and thickness of compressible clay and footing size increase. After using the model to study the behaviour of floating piers, it was concluded that, the advantage of using end bearing piers instead of floating piers for reducing settlements increases as the area ratio of piers increases, the elasticity modulus value of the piers increases, the thickness of the compressible clay layer decreases and the undrained shear strength of the compressible clay decreases.

Although there exist some consensus regarding seismic soil liquefaction assessment of free field soil sites, estimating the liquefaction triggering potential beneath building foundations still stays as a controversial and difficult issue. Assessing liquefaction triggering potential under building foundations requires the estimation of cyclic and static stress state of the soil medium. For the purpose of assessing the effects of the presence of a structure three-dimensional, finite difference-based total stress analyses were performed for generic soil, structure and earthquake combinations. A simplified procedure was proposed which would produce unbiased estimates of the representative and maximum soil-structure-earthquake-induced iv cyclic stress ratio (CSRSSEI) values, eliminating the need to perform 3-D dynamic response assessment of soil and structure systems for conventional projects. Consistent with the available literature, the descriptive (input) parameters of the proposed model were selected as soil-to-structure stiffness ratio, spectral acceleration ratio (SA/PGA) and aspect ratio of the building. The model coefficients were estimated through maximum likelihood methodology which was used to produce an unbiased match with the predictions of 3-D analyses and proposed simplified procedure. Although a satisfactory fit was achieved among the CSR estimations by numerical seismic response analysis results and the proposed simplified procedure, validation of the proposed simplified procedure further with available laboratory shaking table and centrifuge tests and well-documented field case histories was preferred. The proposed simplified procedure was shown to capture almost all of the behavioral trends and most of the amplitudes. As the concluding remark, contrary to general conclusions of Rollins and Seed (1990), and partially consistent with the observations of Finn and Yodengrakumar (1987), Liu and Dobry (1997) and Mylonakis and Gazetas, (2000), it is proven that soil-structure interaction does not always beneficially affect the liquefaction triggering potential of foundation soils and the proposed simplified model conveniently captures when it is critical.

This thesis examines the effects of international capital flows on economic growth by using a dynamic general equilibrium framework based on a three-sector Ramsey Model. In order to detect the impact of financial integration on production, allocation of resources across three sectors and consumption, two different economic environments are modelled. While the first model represents a closed economy with financial autarky, the second model examplifies a financially integrated open economy with partial capital mobility. Each of the models is calibrated to Turkish economy based on the data of the year 2006. The simulation results demonstrate that the presence of international capital flows, despite being limited by a borrowing constraint, reverses the impact of economic growth on production and resource allocation. It is found that even though the importance of production in tradable-goods sector diminishes in the absence of international capital flows, it increases in the open economy model. Moreover, the findings show that while production in the closed economy model simply adjusts to domestic demand, that of the open economy model is not constrained by it. This can be explained by the augmentative effect of partial capital flows on the impact of foreign demand on domestic production.

Expansive soils are a worldwide problem especially in the regions where climate is arid or semi arid. These soils swell when they are exposed to water and shrink when they dry. Cyclic swelling and shrinkage of clays and associated movements of foundations may result in cracking of structures. Several methods are used to decrease or prevent the swelling potential of such soils like prewetting, surcharge loading, chemical stabilization etc. Among these, one of the most widely used method is using chemical admixtures (chemical stabilization). Cyclic wetting and drying affects the swell &ndash / shrink behaviour of expansive soils. In this research, the effect of cyclic swell &ndash / shrink on swell percentage of a chemically stabilized expansive soil is investigated. Class C Fly Ash is used as an additive for stabilization of an expansive soil that is prepared in the laboratory environment by mixing kaolinite and bentonite. Fly ash was added to expansive soil with a predetermined percentage changing between 0 to 20 percent. Hydrated lime with percentages changing between 0 to 5 percent and sand with 5 percent were also used instead of fly ash for comparison. Firstly, consistency limits, grain size distributions and swell percentages of mixtures were determined. Then to see the effect of cyclic swell &ndash / shrink on the swelling behavior of the mixtures, swell &ndash / shrink cycles applied to samples and swell percentages were determined. Swell percentage decreased as the proportion of the fly ash increased. Cyclic swell-shrink affected the swell percentage of fly ash stabilized samples positively.

Despite the developments in the last decades, field performance information for short aggregate pier improved ground is needed for future design and to develop a better understanding of the performance of the short (floating) aggregate piers. A full-scale field study was performed to investigate the floating aggregate pier behavior in a soft clayey soil. Site investigations included five boreholes and sampling, four CPT soundings, and SPT and laboratory testing. The soil profile consisted of 8m thick compressible clay overlying weathered rock. Four large plate load test stations were prepared. A rigid steel footing having plan dimensions of 3.0m by 3.5m were used for loading. Four 65cm diameter reaction piles and steel cross beams were used to load the soil in each station. First test comprised of loading the untreated soil up to 250 kPa with increments, and monitoring the surface settlements. Moreover, distribution of settlements with depth is recorded by means of deep settlement gages installed prior to loading. Other three tests were conducted on clay soil improved by rammed aggregate piers. In each station, seven stone columns were installed, having a diameter of 65cm, area ratio of 0.25, placed in a triangular pattern with a center to center spacing of 1.25m. The length of the columns were 3m, 5m in the two station resembling floating columns, and 8m in the last station to simulate end bearing columns to observe the level of the improvement in the floating columns. Field instrumentations included surface and deep settlement gages, and load cell placed on a aggregate pier to determine distribution of the applied vertical stress between the column and the natural soil , thus to find magnitude of the stress concentration factor, n , in end bearing and floating aggregate piers. It has been found that, the presence of floating aggregate piers reduce settlements, revealing that major improvement in the settlements takes place at relatively short column lengths. It has been also found that the stress concentration factor is not constant, but varies depending on the magnitude of the applied stress. The magnitude of stress concentration factor varies over a range from 2.1 to 5.6 showing a decreasing trend with increasing vertical stress.

Die Arbeit untersucht die Durchsetzung von Ansprüchen auf Unterlassung aus standardessentiellen Patenten (SEP). Ausgehend von den ökonomischen und rechtsdogmatischen Grundlagen des Patentrechts wird zunächst die Legitimation des Anspruchs auf Unterlassung im Gefüge des Patentrechts untersucht und der Frage nachgegangen, inwieweit die Gewährung von Ausschließlichkeitsbefugnissen zur Verwirklichung der Ziele von Innovationsschutz und -förderung notwendig ist. Die Prüfung kommt zu dem Schluss, dass die Ausübung des Anspruchs auf Unterlassung aus SEP unter Umständen eine ökonomisch und rechtsdogmatisch unerwünschte Blockadeposition herbeiführen kann, so dass eine Einschränkung des Anspruchs zur Sicherung der innovationsfördernden Funktionen des Patentrechts geboten sein kann. Sodann werden verschiedene Lösungsansätze diskutiert und dabei besonderes Augenmerk auf die durch die deutsche und europäische Rechtsprechung entwickelte kartellrechtliche Lösung gelegt. Nach einer Betrachtung der Tatbestandsmerkmale des kartellrechtlichen Verbots des Missbrauchs von Marktmacht nach Art. 102 AEUV bzw. §§ 19, 20 GWB und deren Anwendung auf Fälle der Erhebung von Unterlassungsklagen aus SEP wird diese Lösung abgelehnt. Der Tatbestand des Missbrauchs von Markmacht vermag wegen der Fokussierung auf (Produkt-)märkte und des Erfordernisses einer marktbeherrschenden Stellung als Anwendungsvoraussetzung bei stringenter Auslegung der Vorschrift nicht alle relevanten Fälle zu fassen. Im Folgenden werden Ansätze diskutiert und bewertet, welche eine rechtliche Verankerung der Einschränkung des Anspruchs auf Unterlassung eher im Vertrags- oder im Patentrecht selbst suchen. Als Ergebnis wird sich schließlich dafür ausgesprochen, das in § 23 PatG für die Abgabe einer Lizenzbereitschaftserklärung vorgesehene Verfahren mit seinen wechselseitigen Pflichten analog auf Fälle der Erhebung einer Unterlassungsklage aus SEP anzuwenden und die Zulässigkeit der Erhebung von Unterlassungsklagen nach diesem Maßstab zu beurteilen. / The work analyzes the enforcement of claims for injunctive relief based on standard-essential patens (SEP). Taking the economic and legal foundations of patent law as a starting point, the legitimacy of the claim for injunctive relief within the system of patent law is assessed, as is the question of whether granting the power to exclude others from use of a patented technology is necessary for protecting and promoting innovation. It is found that injunctive relief based on a SEP can lead to an economically and legally unwanted blocking position, in favor of the patent holder, which may require restricting the exclusive right of the patent holder in order to ensurethe patent's function of promoting innovation. Following this, different approaches for solving the issue are discussed. A special focus is put on antitrust law which has been used as a basis to limit injunctive relief by the German and European courts. After considering the elements of Art. 102 TFEU, §§ 19, 20 of the German Antitrust Code (GWB) respectively, the application of antitrust law is rejected. Due to its focus on (product-)markets and the requirement of a dominant market position, antitrust law is not fit to sufficiently limit the negative impact that injunctive relief from a SEP might have on innovation. The work further discusses and assesses other approaches which are trying to apply contract law or certain provisions of patent law. As a result, it is suggested to analogously apply the procedure set out in § 23 PatG (German Patent Code) and its system of mutual obligations to assess the legitimacy of injunctive relief in SEP-cases

In any geotechnical design procedure, the fundemantal point to be initially clearified is the characterization of existing soil profile at a site. This requires a great deal of planning a suitable site investigation program including borings, sampling, laboratory and in situ testing etc. Laboratory and in-situ (field) tests are important tools leading to the estimation of soils properties in geotechnics. Beside laboratory tests, the measurement of engineering properties in situ is a continuously growing and developing trend, particularly in materials difficult to obtain perfect undisturbed samples. For the purpose of this study, two large volumed geotechnical investigation reports are collected from a wide archive of 30 years experiences. Different soil types are encountered during the study like alluvial deposits of soft to stiff cohesive materials, hard clays in appearance of highly weathered rocks. The in-situ tests mostly being focused and studied on are &ldquo / Pressuremeter Test&rdquo / and &ldquo / Standard Penetration Test&rdquo / on cohesive materails. Over 350 standard penetration test results are recorded together with the pressuremeter results of relevant soils. Besides, the corresponding laboratory test results of oedometer, triaxial loading and all index properties of soils are assembled. The results of in-situ tests are evaluated together with the results of laboratory tests performed on the samples obtained from related sites. The correlations between in-situ &amp / laboratory test results on shear strength, compressibility and deformation characteristics of soils are analysed and compared with the existing correlations in literature. The correlations are generally obtained to be in agreement with the ones in common literature in cases where the soil conditions, particularly saturation, are same in both laboratory and in-situ tests.

Although silt and clay mixtures were mostly considered to be resistant to cyclic loading due to cohesional components of their shear strength, ground failure case histories compiled from fine grained soil profiles after recent earthquakes (e.g. 1994 Northridge, 1999 Adapazari, 1999 Chi-Chi) revealed that the responses of low plasticity silt and clay mixtures are also critical under cyclic loading. Consequently, understanding the cyclic response of these soils has become a recent challenge in geotechnical earthquake engineering practice. While most of the current attention focuses on the assessment of liquefaction susceptibility of fine-grained soils, it is believed that cyclic strain and strength assessments of silt and clay mixtures need to be also studied as part of complementary critical research components. Inspired by these gaps, a comprehensive laboratory testing program was designed. As part of the laboratory testing program 64 stress-controlled cyclic triaxial tests, 59 static strain-controlled consolidated undrained triaxial tests, 17 oedometer, 196 soil classification tests including sieve analyses, hydrometer, and consistency tests were performed. Additionally 116 cyclic triaxial test results were compiled from available literature. Based on this data probability-based semi-empirical models were developed to assess liquefaction susceptibility and cyclic-induced shear strength loss, cyclically-induced maximum shear, post-cyclic volumetric and residual shear strains of silt and clay mixtures. Performance comparisons of the proposed model alternatives were studied, and it is shown that the proposed models follow an unbiased trend and produce superior predictions of the observed laboratory test response. Superiority of the proposed alternative models was proven by relatively smaller model errors (residuals).

Dynamic complexity occurs in every social structure. Film industry, as a type of creative industries, constitutes a dynamic environment where uncertainty is at high levels. This complexity of the environment renders the more traditional operations research models somewhat ineffective, and thus, requires a dynamic analysis. In this study, a model showing the dynamics of film exhibition is given. The interactions within and between the theatrical and the DVD sales channels are implemented by the model. Later on, the possible effects of piracy to the model are discussed, using the inferences obtained by the created model. The model is examined with scenario and sensitivity analysis. All the modeling studies are done with a commercial dynamic systems modeling software. The model also can be extended for the whole film industry, or for some other creative industries like the publishing industry.

Unter den 23 deutschen Patentinformationszentren befinden sich mit den Zentren in Chemnitz, Dresden und Leipzig drei im Freistaat Sachsen. Während das Leipziger Zentrum als GmbH der örtlichen Industrie- und Handelskammer und das Dresdner als Verwaltungsfachgruppe der TU Dresden arbeitet, ist das Zentrum in Chemnitz eine Abteilung der Universitätsbibliothek. Im Folgenden stellt die Leiterin der UB Chemnitz das Chemnitzer Modell vor. Sieben weitere Standorte, darunter die Technischen Universitäten Aachen und Darmstadt und Hannover folgen dem gleichen Modell.