thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree: Master of Technology: Electrical Engineering in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology / Rural communities are often unable to access electrical energy due to their distant location away from the national grid. Renewable energy sources (RESs) make it possible to provide electrical energy to these isolated areas. Sustainable generation is possible at a local level and is not dependant on connection to a national power grid. Microgrids are small scale, stand-alone electricity networks that harness energy at its geographical location, from natural resources. These small scale power grids are either connected to a national grid or operate separately by obtaining their power from an RES. Microgrids are becoming increasingly popular because they can provide electricity, independently of the national grid. The size of microgrid systems are dependent on the amount of energy that needs to be drawn and the amount of energy that has to be stored. Mechanical and electrical system component sizes become bigger due to increased operational energy requirements. Increases in component sizes are required on growing power networks when higher current levels are drawn. Energy management of microgrids must thus be introduced to prevent overloading the power grid network and to extend the operational life of the storage batteries. Energy management systems consist of different components which are seen as operational units. Operational units are responsible for measurement, communication, decision–making and power supply switching control, to manipulate the power output to meet the energy demands. Due to the increasing popularity of DC home appliances, it is important to explore the possibility of keeping these microgrids on a DC voltage basis. Electrical generation equipment such as photovoltaic panels can be used to generate DC at designed voltage levels. The energy management system connects the user loads and generation units together to form the microgrid. The aim of this study was to carry out the design of an agent–based energy management system for rural and under-developed communities. It investigates how the control of the output of the energy management system can be carried out to service the loads. The simulations were done using the following software packages: Simulink, Matlab, and SimPowerSystems. PV sources, energy management system (EMS) and user load parameters are varied in the simulation software to observe how the control algorithm executes load shedding. A stokvel-type charge share concept is dealt with where the state-of-charge (SOC) of batteries and user consumption will determine how grid loads are managed. Load shedding within the grid is executed by monitoring energy flow and calculating how much energy is allowed to be used by each consumer. The energy management system is programmed to always provide the largest amount of energy to the consumer with the lowest energy consumption for each day. The batteries store surplus electrical energy during the day. Load shedding starts at 18:00 each day. Users will be disconnected from the grid whenever their allotted energy capacity were depleted.

Até a Crise do Subprime que teve início em 2008, o Crash da Bolsa de Nova York ocorrido em 1929 era considerado a crise de maior impacto. As repercussões desta crise entre vários mercados internacionais fez com que o termo \"contágio\" passasse a ser amplamente utilizado no contexto de turbulências do mercado financeiro que a partir de então, deixaram de ser locais e passaram a ter efeitos globais. Neste contexto, os países emergentes tem recebido bastante atenção, já que a maioria das crise que ocorreram antes da Crise do Subprime, tiveram início nestes mercados. Entre os países emergentes, o grupo do BRICS, composto por Brasil, Rússia, Índia, China e África do Sul se destacam, especialmente após 2008, como economias emergentes cujos desempenhos econômicos foram superiores aos dos mercados desenvolvidos. Sabe-se que os movimentos de contágio entre mercados financeiros tendem a ocorrer a partir dos desenvolvidos em direção aos emergentes. Porém, a partir da grande importância atribuída ao grupo de países emergentes pertencentes ao BRICS, a hipótese de que estes mercados se comportariam como mercados desenvolvidos quando analisadas suas relações de interdependência e contágio com outros mercados emergentes se tornou interessante de ser testada. Para que este objetivo fosse alcançado, foram definidos quinze países alocados a três grupos, incluindo o grupo do BRICS. O grupo dos países desenvolvidos foi composto por Estados Unidos, Japão, Alemanha, Inglaterra e França. México, Indonésia, Turquia, Irã e Polônia formaram o grupo dos países emergentes não pertencentes ao BRICS. As análises foram feitas a partir de séries temporais de retornos dos principais índices de cada país, de 2008 a 2013. Inicialmente foram feitas as análises das estatísticas descritivas de cada série e depois foram identificadas as relações entre as séries de retornos dos mercados, para que então os fenômenos de interdependência e contágio pudessem ser investigados. Apesar dos resultados dos testes não terem mostrado que os países do BRICS se comportam como mercados desenvolvidos quando analisada sua influência sobre o comportamento dos outros mercados emergentes, verifica-se que seus países têm maior influência sobre os demais mercados do que os países do grupo dos emergentes não pertencentes ao BRICS. / Financial crisis can be defined as periods in which the volatility of asset returns is too high. Until the Subprime Crisis that began in 2008, the Crash of the New York Stock Exchange in 1929 was considered the most important crisis. Significant changes have occurred over the years and among these changes, a phenomenon started influencing the way the crisis began to be spread across the markets: financial globalization. The impact of this crisis among various international markets has made the term contagion become widely used in the context of financial market turmoil. In this context, emerging countries have received much attention, since most of the crisis that occurred before the Subprime Crisis, started in these markets. Among the emerging countries, the BRICS group consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa stand out, especially after 2008, as emerging economies which economic performance was better than those of developed markets. It is known that the movements of contagion between financial markets tend to occur from the developed markets towards emerging markets. For this reason, it became interesting to test the hypothesis that BRICS markets would behave as developed markets when analyzing their interdependence and contagion to other emerging markets. This thesis aims to investigate if the relationship of interdependence and contagion between the BRICS countries and other emerging markets is similar to that observed between developed countries and emerging BRICS. For that proposal, fifteen countries were allocated to three groups, including the BRICS group. The group of developed countries consisted of the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain and France. Mexico, Indonesia, Turkey, Iran and Poland formed the group of emerging countries outside the BRICS. Time series were composed of the most importante stock indexes of each country, from 2008 to 2013. Although the results of the tests have not shown that the BRICS countries behave as developed markets it appears that their countries have a greater influence on other markets than the group of emerging countries outside the BRICS.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-26T18:49:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTACAO-EDUCACAO_Maria albertina_mar07.pdf: 8132361 bytes, checksum: a0be3ec1a7f0d51738cadfeaf6c4541c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-09-19 / The present research entitled The Reader Building in the Elementary Education: Documental Analysis of the one Pedagogical Collection , has an objective to demonstrate the quality of the theorical contents and consequently, of the methodological procedures in teaching reading in the Elementary Education. The Theorical option for critical-reflexive analysis made in this research is centered in the most recent studies of language, based in the Sociological Critic Bakhtiniana and of Vygotsky, with emphasis on the ideological nature of language and text. In what it refers to the description part and analysis of the educational practice (Study of Case). It s opted for the qualitative Research, defining as a method, Data Collection, and the Documental Analysis. The Documental Analysis has permitted identify information, in the researched documents (pedagogical collection), which have served as basic element for the research, for the verification and hypothesis confirmations that the Elementary Education has been working on construction of the Reading starting from theorical concepts, at least, incomplete, in relation to the new theories of the language and reading. Thus, this research regard a description and critical reflection on the analysis of the Collection of Pedagogical Books entitled Assembly and Dismount of Texts , to the Elementary Education. The analysis is therefore, for documental character, because it takes as objective the reservation, the Volumes of the Pedagogical Collection quote. / A presente pesquisa, intitulada A Construção do Leitor na Educação Fundamental: Análise Documental de uma Coleção Didática, tem como objetivo demonstrar o nível de qualidade dos conteúdos teóricos e os procedimentos metodológicos inscritos no Livro Didático para o ensino da leitura, na Educação Fundamental. A opção teórica para análise crítico-reflexiva das práticas metodológicas descritas nesta pesquisa se centra nos estudos mais recentes da linguagem, voltados para a Critica Sociológica Bakhtiniana e de Vygotsky, com ênfase na natureza ideológica da linguagem e do texto. No que se refere à descrição e análise da prática educacional (Estudo de Caso), optou-se pela Pesquisa Qualitativa, definindo-se como método de Coleta dos Dados, a Análise Documental. A Análise Documental permitiu identificar informações nos documentos pesquisados (livros didáticos), que serviram de corpo básico da pesquisa, para verificação e comprovação da hipótese inicial de que a Educação Fundamental vem trabalhando a construção da leitura a partir de conceitos teóricos, no mínimo, incompletos, em relação às novas teorias da linguagem e da leitura. Assim, esta pesquisa contempla uma descrição e reflexão crítica sobre a análise da Coleção de Livros Didáticos intitulada Montagem e Desmontagem de Textos, destinada às quatro séries iniciais de escolarização (Ensino Fundamental _ Ciclo I). A análise é, portanto, de caráter documental, pois toma como objeto de observação, os Volumes da Coleção Didática citada.

Pesquisas sobre instituições sustentam que estas influenciam a natureza da atividade econômica. A argumentação é que um ambiente institucional favorável, com regras bem definidas, é benéfico ao empreendedorismo. Todavia, a literatura disponível é muito focada no que ocorre nos países desenvolvidos, e sabe-se que a atividade empreendedora também ocorre nos países não desenvolvidos, que costumam ser mais instáveis social e economicamente. A partir de tal dilema, a pergunta de pesquisa do trabalho como um todo foi: Qual a relação entre instituições e empreendedorismo de acordo com o nível de desenvolvimento do país? O objetivo geral foi esclarecer como as características institucionais formais e informais dos países afetam o ingresso e a sobrevivência de empreendedores em diferentes mercados. A pesquisa foi dividida em duas etapas: (1) teórica, focando em conhecer a literatura que aborda instituições e empreendedorismo a partir de um estudo bibliométrico com o software CiteSpace e (2) empírica, com o intuito de confirmar que o empreendedorismo dos países desenvolvidos é diferente dos países não desenvolvidos e de apontar quais são algumas das diferenças a partir de dois estudos de caso. Nos estudo teórico encontrou-se que, em relação à rede de citações e cocitações formada, há duas correntes principais de pesquisa: (1) autores neo-institucionalistas com foco econômico, tendo North (1990) como um autor representativo, ligados aos schumpeterianos no empreendedorismo, e (2) autores neo-institucionalistas com foco sociológico, evidenciados principalmente pelo trabalho de DiMaggio e Powell (1983), mais próximos da corrente kirzneriana do empreendedorismo. No estudo empírico, a parte quantitativa confirmou, com base nos dados do Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), que existe diferença estatisticamente significativa entre o empreendedorismo, tanto o estabelecido como o nascente, dos países desenvolvidos e o dos não desenvolvidos. A parte qualitativa do estudo empírico, baseada em dois estudos de caso, mostrou que, para o início da atividade empreendedora, as instituições formais são mais relevantes nos países desenvolvidos, caso da Rede de Churrascarias Brasileira nos Estados Unidos, enquanto as instituições informais são mais valiosas nos países não desenvolvidos, caso do Grupo Pinesso no Sudão. A principal conclusão da dissertação é que, nos países não desenvolvidos \'o jogo não é para todos\', é necessário que o empreendedor esteja inserido no ambiente social e possua relações interpessoais pertinentes para que possa iniciar e prosperar em um negócio. Por outro lado, nos países desenvolvidos é mais importante que o empreendedor conheça e cumpra as regras formais para começar e continuar seu empreendimento. Vale ressaltar que os dois tipos de instituições atuam no processo empreendedor em ambos os grupos de países. / Researchs on institutions maintain that they influence the nature of the economic activity. The argument is that a favorable institutional environment, with well-defined rules, is beneficial to entrepreneurship. However, the literature available is focused on what happens at developed countries, and it is known that the entrepreneurial activity also occurs at undeveloped countries, which tend to be more socially and economically unstable. From this dilema, the research question of the thesis as a whole was: What is the relation between institutions and entrepreneurship according with the country\'s level of development? The general objective was to clarify how the institutional characteristics, formal and informal ones, of the countries affect the entry and the survival of entrepreneurs in different markets. The research was divided into two parts: (1) theoretical, focusing on knowing the literature that deals with institutions and entrepreneurship from a bibliometric study with CiteSpace software and (2) empirical, in order to confirm that entrepreneurship in developed countries is different from the not developed countries and pointing wich are some of the differences from two case studies. In the theoretical study it was found that, in relation to the citation and cocitation network constructed, there are two main streams of research: (1) neo-institutionalist authors with economic focus, with North (1990) as a representative author, linked to the Schumpeterians on entrepreneurship, and (2) neo-institutionalist authors with sociological focus, evidenced primarily by the paper of DiMaggio and Powell (1983), closer to the Kirzner way of think about entrepreneurship. In the empirical study, the quantitative part confirmed, based on the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) data, that there is statiscally significant difference between entrepreneurship, both established and nascent, of developed and undeveloped countries. The qualitative part of the empirical study, based on two case studies, revealed that for the beginning of entrepreneurial activity, formal institutions are more relevant in developed countries, like Brazilian Steakhouses Chain case in the United States shows, while informal institutions are more valuable in undeveloped countries, like Pinesso Group case in Sudan. The main conclusion of the thesis is that, in undeveloped countries \'the game is not for everyone\', it is necessary that the entrepreneur is inserted in the social environment and have the relevant interpersonal relationships to be possible to start and prosper in a business. On the other hand, in the developed countries is more important that the entrepreneur know and comply with the formal rules in order to start and continue your business. It is noteworthy that the two types of institutions operate in the entrepreneurial process in both groups of countries.

Globalisation is an inescapable fact. National economies are no longer immune to external influences and cannot be insulated from global effects. South African construction companies globalise as a result of expansion, diversification, deepening of trade and to eliminate the cyclical nature of the construction market within South Africa. A literature review revealed the following risks for South African construction companies when globalising into Southern Africa: competition from other international construction companies, the lack of political stability in the region, fraud and corruption, conflicting cultures of varying regions, the impact of foreign exchange, under-researched and documented industries and lack of quality assurance and the impact of HIV/AIDS amongst other risks. In contrast, funding and foreign aid, the superior management capability and information technology that South African construction companies possess, the opportunities to form associations and joint ventures with other construction companies to access markets and the possibility of advance payments are amongst the opportunities that can be exploited in the Southern African region. Sub-Saharan Africa is viewed as one of the world's poorest and under-developed regions. The region has alarming HIV/AIDS infection rates prevalent. However, it is a region rich in natural resources and tourism potential. The countries analysed in this treatise for the risks and potential opportunities for South African construction companies are: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. A common trend, such as, political instability, under-developed infrastructure, massive housing, educational and health facility needs, ample supply of unskilled and semi-skilled labour and a high dependency on foreign aid is dominant in most Southern African countries. Conversely, opportunities exist to upgrade infrastructure, address the massive housing, schools and hospitals need, exploitation of tourism potential and the ability to form joint ventures with local construction companies in an attempt to transfer skills, share risks and overcome cultural barriers. Interviews with representatives of leading construction companies emphasised risks such as late and non-payment, logistics, foreign exchange fluctuations, culture differences (including language disparity), bureaucracy, health of workforce and labour productivity. With very few exceptions, most respondents had similar views on risks perceived in particular countries. Interviewees highlighted opportunities such as higher returns, access to larger markets, earning foreign exchange, the region's need for housing, schools and hospitals, availability of donor and foreign aid, superior management capabilities of South African contractors, reconstruction and rehabilitation of dilapidated buildings and tourism demand. With very few exceptions, most respondents had similar views on opportunities perceived in particular countries. In terms of risks, opportunities and statistical data, the countries were ranked as follows, with first being most favourable and the last mentioned as least favourable: Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, Swaziland, Angola, Lesotho, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi. A way forward is presented by means of "words of advice" and rules of thumb from the representatives of the leading construction companies in South Africa who have already tested the waters. / Thesis (MSc (Project Management))--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Construction Economics / unrestricted

The purpose of my dissertation was to examine the competition between the U.S.-led Western bloc and the Soviet bloc in the less developed world during Détente. I assessed whether or not the Soviet bloc pushed for strategic gains in the less developed world in the middle-to-late 1970’s and whether this contributed to the U.S. decision to abandon Détente in 1979. I made the attempt to test the international relations theory of balance of threat realism (Walt, 1992). I accomplished the test in two ways. First, I measured the foreign aid allocations (military and economic) made by each respective bloc towards the Third World by using a quantitative approach. Second, I examined U.S. archives using the process-tracing/historical method. The U.S. archives gave me the ability to evaluate how U.S. decision-makers and U.S. intelligence agencies interpreted the actions of the Soviet bloc. They also gave me the chance to examine the U.S. response as we evaluated the policies that were pushed by key U.S. decision-makers and intelligence agencies. On the question of whether or not the Soviet bloc was aggressive, the quantitative evidence suggested that it was not. Instead, the evidence found the Western-bloc to have been more aggressive in the less developed world. The U.S. archives also showed Soviet actions to have been defensive. Key U.S. decision-makers and intelligence agencies attested to this. Finally, the archives show that U.S. officials pushed for aggressive actions against the Third World during the final years of Détente. Thus, balance of threat realism produced an incorrect assessment that U.S. aggression in the late 1970’s was a response to Soviet aggression during Détente. The evidence suggests structural Marxism and domestic politics can better explain U.S./Western actions. The aggressive foreign aid allocations of the West, coupled with evidence of U.S. decision-makers/agencies vehemently concerned about the long-term prospects of the West, strengthened structural Marxism. Domestic politics can also claim to explain the actions of U.S. decision-makers. I found extensive archival evidence of bureaucratic inter-agency conflict between the State Department and other intelligence agencies in areas of strategic concern to the U.S.

The association between cigarette smoking and the risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) is well established. However, the effect of other, less common, types of smoking on CVD risk, such as pipes and cigars in developed countries, remains uncertain. By contrast, in developing countries, a large panel of smokeless tobacco products are consumed alongside smoking products, with unknown effects on the risk of CVD. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the association between various forms of tobacco use with the risk of CVD in the setting of developed countries and of a developing country with a large population, Pakistan.

What is the rationale behind immigration policies? Do developed countries really want to restrict immigration?

The thesis focuses on theoretical and empirical analysis of economic growth and its implications for economic and social development of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). The thesis proceeds from the assumption that economic growth is the necessary (but not sufficient) condition for economic, social and human development of societies and nations. In context of the LDCs, this assumption can be modified: it is assumed that it has been the low average rate of growth in the long-run that is associated with the complex social and economic issues of LDCs. The primary objective of the thesis is to verify this association within the LDCs, then to investigate factors that have been the major determinants for economic growth in (African) LDCs. From the perspective of theory the thesis is grounded in theories and models of economic growth that are crucial for researching factors of growth and its implications for development. The thesis focuses also on in-depth analysis of the LDCs both from the classification and statistical perspectives. The latter one is based on comparisons with selected groups of states within the World economy.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-18T17:54:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTACAO-EDUCACAO_Maria albertina_mar07.pdf: 8132361 bytes, checksum: a0be3ec1a7f0d51738cadfeaf6c4541c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-09-19 / The present research entitled The Reader Building in the Elementary Education: Documental Analysis of the one Pedagogical Collection , has an objective to demonstrate the quality of the theorical contents and consequently, of the methodological procedures in teaching reading in the Elementary Education. The Theorical option for critical-reflexive analysis made in this research is centered in the most recent studies of language, based in the Sociological Critic Bakhtiniana and of Vygotsky, with emphasis on the ideological nature of language and text. In what it refers to the description part and analysis of the educational practice (Study of Case). It s opted for the qualitative Research, defining as a method, Data Collection, and the Documental Analysis. The Documental Analysis has permitted identify information, in the researched documents (pedagogical collection), which have served as basic element for the research, for the verification and hypothesis confirmations that the Elementary Education has been working on construction of the Reading starting from theorical concepts, at least, incomplete, in relation to the new theories of the language and reading. Thus, this research regard a description and critical reflection on the analysis of the Collection of Pedagogical Books entitled Assembly and Dismount of Texts , to the Elementary Education. The analysis is therefore, for documental character, because it takes as objective the reservation, the Volumes of the Pedagogical Collection quote. / A presente pesquisa, intitulada A Construção do Leitor na Educação Fundamental: Análise Documental de uma Coleção Didática, tem como objetivo demonstrar o nível de qualidade dos conteúdos teóricos e os procedimentos metodológicos inscritos no Livro Didático para o ensino da leitura, na Educação Fundamental. A opção teórica para análise crítico-reflexiva das práticas metodológicas descritas nesta pesquisa se centra nos estudos mais recentes da linguagem, voltados para a Critica Sociológica Bakhtiniana e de Vygotsky, com ênfase na natureza ideológica da linguagem e do texto. No que se refere à descrição e análise da prática educacional (Estudo de Caso), optou-se pela Pesquisa Qualitativa, definindo-se como método de Coleta dos Dados, a Análise Documental. A Análise Documental permitiu identificar informações nos documentos pesquisados (livros didáticos), que serviram de corpo básico da pesquisa, para verificação e comprovação da hipótese inicial de que a Educação Fundamental vem trabalhando a construção da leitura a partir de conceitos teóricos, no mínimo, incompletos, em relação às novas teorias da linguagem e da leitura. Assim, esta pesquisa contempla uma descrição e reflexão crítica sobre a análise da Coleção de Livros Didáticos intitulada Montagem e Desmontagem de Textos, destinada às quatro séries iniciais de escolarização (Ensino Fundamental _ Ciclo I). A análise é, portanto, de caráter documental, pois toma como objeto de observação, os Volumes da Coleção Didática citada.