Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration )--University of South Australia, 2004

The effect of temperature on soil behaviour has been the subject of many studies in recent years due to an increasing number of projects related to the application of high temperature to soil. One example is the construction of facilities for the disposal of hot high level nuclear waste canisters (150-200C) several hundred meters underground in the clay formations. Despite this, the effects and mechanism by which temperature affects the soil properties and behaviour are not fully known. A limited amount of reliable experimental data, technological difficulties and experimental methods employed by different researchers could have contributed to the uncertainties surrounding the soil behaviour at elevated temperature. Also several thermo-mechanical models have been developed for soil behaviour, but their validity needs to be examined by reliable experimental data. In this research, efforts have been made to improve the experimental techniques. Direct displacement measuring devices have been successfully used for the first time to measure axial and lateral displacements of clay samples during tests at various temperatures. The thermo mechanical behaviour of two reconstituted clays has been investigated by performing triaxial and permeability tests at elevated temperature. Undrained and drained triaxial tests were carried out on normally consolidated and over consolidated samples of M44 clay and Kaolin C1C under different effective stresses, and at temperatures between 22C and 100C. Permeability tests were carried out on samples of M44 clay at temperatures between 22C and 50C. The effects of temperature on permeability, volume change, pore pressure development, shear strength and stiffness, stress strain response and critical state parameters for different consolidation histories have been investigated by comparing the results at various temperatures. The results are also compared with the predictions of two models. It has been found that at elevated temperature the shear strength, friction angle and initial small strain stiffness reduce whereas permeability increases. The slope of the swelling line in the v-p� plane has been found to reduce with temperature. The slope of the isotropic normal consolidation line (INCL) and critical state line (CSL) in the v-p� plane have been observed to be independent of temperature, but both the INCL and the CSL shift downwards to lower locations as temperature increases. The deformations during drained cooling and re heating cycles have been found to be elastic and to simply reflect the expansivity of the soils solid particles. The thermal volume changes during undrained heating have been observed to be direct results of the thermal expansion of water and clay particles. The internal displacement measuring devices have been found to produce reliable data for the variation of strains at elevated temperature.

Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration )--University of South Australia, 2004

[Truncated thesis] This thesis investigates the relevance of Jensen’s (1986) free cash flow theory to the market for corporate control in Australia. Jensen posits that firms generating cash in excess of that required to fund positive NPV projects face greater agency problems as the free cash flow exacerbates the conflict of interest between shareholders and managers. One implication from Jensen’s free cash flow theory is that firms with high levels of free cash flow are more likely to initiate takeovers that are value-decreasing. There are two practical issues in testing Jensen’s theory; first, constructing an appropriate proxy for free cash flow and secondly, identifying firms with free cash flow. These issues are addressed directly in the first of the two essays that comprise this thesis. The first essay develops and assesses the merits of four operational measures for free cash. One of them is a stock measure while the others are flow measures. The stock measure is included because previous studies have mostly used the stock measure of cash when identifying firms rich in free cash (henceforth, cash rich firms), despite that Jensen (1986) has made explicit reference to free cash flow. We test the validity of this approach by investigating whether stock measures of free cash coincide with flow measures. Our results reveal that the stock and flow measures of free cash give rise to quite different lists of cash rich firms. This is an important empirical contribution of the thesis. Given the lack of definitive criteria for deciding which operational measure of free cash flow is most appropriate, we identify multiple sets of free cash flow firms based on the different operational measures developed. For each operational definition, two methods are used to identify cash rich firms. The first method defines a firm as cash rich if its cash variable ranks in the tenth percentile. The second method defines firms as cash rich if their cash variable value is greater than one and a half standard deviations of the value predicted by a model.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Universiẗat, Diss., 2005--Hamburg. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 269-285).

Diss. (sammanfattning) Alnarp : Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, 2005. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Swinburne University of Technology - 2001. / Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, School of Business, Swinburne University of Technology - 2001. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (p. 360-372).

Thesis (doctoral)--Universitä̈t Freiburg, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references and index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Management, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008. / Committee Chair: Frank T. Rothaermel; Committee Member: J. Jeongsik Lee; Committee Member: John Walsh; Committee Member: Luis Martins; Committee Member: Matt Higgins.