This paper explores private investments in public equity (PIPE) deals as a means of alternative firm financing. Poorly performing companies often look towards PIPEs to quickly raise capital when traditional means of financing are limited. This study provides an analysis on both the discount and premia that PIPEs are issued at, as well as the performance of firms after the deal announcement. Overall, this study finds that successful PIPEs from the investor’s perspective are issued at a discount of close to 17%, and unsuccessful PIPEs are issued at an average of a 15% premium. I find substantial cumulative abnormal returns of 9% over a three-day period due to positive information shocks. Overall, this thesis corroborates past research in the field.

<div>The Indiana Department of Transportation implements maximum soil fill covers to ensure the safe installation and operation of buried pipes. Historically, fill cover tables are provided by INDOT, but the methodology for calculating these covers is not well documented. The finite element method enables a comprehensive analysis of the soil-pipe system taking into account soil conditions, pipe type and geometry, and conditions on the pipe-soil interface. </div><div><br></div><div>This thesis discusses the calculation of maximum fill covers for corrugated and structural plate pipe-arches using the finite element software CANDE and compares the results with previous estimates provided by INDOT. The CANDE software uses the Finite Element Method, and the Load and Resistance Factored design based on a two-dimensional culvert installation in a soil-pipe model. The model is set up under plain strain conditions and is subjected to factored dead and live load, and provides an analysis of the structure based on safety measures against all factored failure modes associated with the structural material.</div><div><br></div><div>Significant issues were encountered when calculating the maximum fill covers for pipe-arches in CANDE, including the inability of standard CANDE (Level 2 mesh) to model pipe-arches, lack of convergence for nonlinear analysis, and fill cover results higher than expected. To solve these issues, the pipe-arches were modeled using Level 3 solution in CANDE. The CANDE analyses were run using small-deformation analysis after buckling was eliminated as a governing failure mode using parallel simulations in Abaqus. Numerical results were compared to analytical solutions following ASTM standards.</div><div><br></div><div>The results showed that CANDE and INDOT calculations differ significantly, with the CANDE results yielding higher fill covers than those provided in INDOT specifications. These differences are attributed to the assumed loading pattern at failure. While the CANDE results assume that the maximum fill cover height is defined by the failure of the pipe considering the radial pressure (Pv), the INDOT results are consistent with results obtained by limiting the bearing capacity of the soil around the corner radius (Pc).</div>

Criterion have been developed in this study for designing a stilling basin to serve as a transition from pipe flow to open channel flow. The purpose of the structure is to prevent erosion in an open channel. The unsteadiness, or smoothness, of the water surface in the model basin was used as the criterion for evaluating the effectiveness of the structure for energy dissipation. The introduction of a short-pipe energy dissipater in the stilling basin has proven effective in dissipating energy. The stilling basin was designed for a fully submerged pipe outlet. The inflow pipe and the dissipator pipe were designed to be located on the same center line, at Y1/D1=1.5 above the stilling basin floor. The slit-width ratio, W/D1, yielding the smoothest water surface was 0.5 (W/D1=0.5). An optimum dissipator pipe diameter ratio of 2.0 was established (D2/D1=2.0), while the optimum dissipator pipe length ratio was determined to be 1.0 (L/D1=1.0). Three diameters of inlet pipe were used to determine scale effects. Within the accuracy of the measurements used in this study, no scale effects were detected. The expanding characteristics of a submerged jet were used in establishing the length of the stilling basin. Based on the dissipator pipe diameter ratio of 2.0 (D2/D1=2.0) the stilling basin length ratio is 3.5 (Lb/D1=3.5). Relations among the tailwater depth (dt), the outlet flume floor elevation (Y2), the height of boils in the stilling basin (hb), the width of the stilling basin (Wb),and the amount of freeboard, fb, have been studied. The interrelationships among F1, (Y2+dt)/D1, Wb/D1, and fb/D1 have been shown graphically.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Oklahoma, 2005 / Title from title screen (viewed on Dec. 10, 2007). Title from document title page. Includes bibliographical references. Available in PDF format via the World Wide Web.

Les expériences de physique des particules associées au collisionneur LHC devront traiter une collision toutes les 25 ns sur plusieurs centaines de milliers de voies de mesure. La quantité de données produites est considérable.<br> Sur l'expérience LHCb une unité de décision en effectue une première sélection. Nous proposons une solution pour sa réalisation. Il s'agit d'une électronique numérique pipelines à 40 MHz et réalisée en composants programmables avec des interfaces LVDS. Une première version du banc de test est présentée afin de générer des stimuli à la cadence de 40 MHz pour des mots jusqu'à 512 bits.<br> Le preshower fait partie du système calorimétrique de LHCb. Il est composé de 6000 voies de mesure. Le signal physique est d'abord mis en forme grâce à des intégrations analogiques sur 25ns sans temps mort (ASIC). Au bout de 20m de câble, les valeurs d'intégrales (en tension) sont numérisées puis traitées sur une centaine de cartes frontales.<br> La réalisation de prototypes de la partie de traitement des données ont permis de mettre en concurrence une technologie programmable et une technologie ASIC (AMS 0,35 µm) et de prendre en compte les contraintes fortes en terme de nombre de voies de mesure par carte (128 demi-voies) et de résistance aux radiations.

<p>Implement a high-level model of computationally intensive part of 3D graphics pipe-line. Increasing popularity of handheld devices along with developments in hardware technology, 3D graphics on mobile devices is fast becoming a reality. Graphics processing is essentially complex and computationally demanding. In order to achieve scene realism and perception of motion, identifying and accelerating bottle necks is crucial. This thesis is about Open-GL graphics pipe-line in general. Software which implements computationally intensive part of graphics pipe-line is built. In essence a rasterization unit that gets triangles with 2D screen, texture co-ordinates and color. Triangles go through scan conversion, texturing and a set of other per-fragment operations before getting displayed on screen.</p>

Over the course of normal oil well operations, pipes used downhole in the oil and petroleum industry tend to accumulate a mineral deposit on their interior, which restricts the flow of oil. This deposit, termed scale, will eventually occlude the interior diameter of the pipe making removal from service and descaling a cost effective option. The pipes are sent to cleaning yards where they remain until descaling can be performed. This storage period can potentially create a health concern not only because of the external radiation exposure but also because of the radon gas emissions, both of which are due to the radioactive minerals contained in the scale. It was believed that the structure of the scale is formed tightly enough to prevent much of the radon from becoming airborne. The goal of this research was to determine the emanation fractions for the rattled scale samples from three formations. A high purity germanium detector was used to measure the activities of the parents and progeny of radon, and electret ion chambers were used to measure the concentration of radon emanated from the scale. The emanation fractions of between 4.9x10-5 and 1.08x10-3 for radon were a factor of approximately 100 smaller than previous research results. For thoron, the fractions were and 5.72x10-8 and 4.92x10-7 for thoron with no previous research to compare. However, information that pertains to the temperature dependence of emanation was included in this research and was not available for previous, similar research. Therefore, differences in the environment (e.g., temperature, humidity, etc.) in which the previous experiments were conducted, as well as differences in the scale formation types used, could account for the discrepancy. In addition, measuring the emanation fractions of the rattled scale was a method of determining whether surface to volume ratio dependence existed. After acquiring the emanation fractions, insufficient evidence of any surface to volume ratio dependence could be found.

This thesis deals with numerical simulation of turbulentflows in geometrically simple cases. Both plane and cylindricalgeometries are used. The simplicity of the geometry allows theuse of spectral methods which yield a very high accuracy usingrelatively few grid points. A spectral method for planegeometries is implemented on a parallel computer. Thetransitional Reynolds number for plane Couette flow is verifiedto be about 360, in accordance with earlier findings. TurbulentCouette flow at twice the transitional Reynolds number isstudied and the findings of large scale structures in earlierstudies of Couette flow are substantiated. These largestructures are shown to be of limited extent and give anintegral length scale of six half channel heights, or abouteight times larger than in pressure-driven channel flow.Despite this, they contain only about 10 \% of the turbulentenergy. This is demonstrated by applying a very smallstabilising rotation, which almost eliminates the largestructures. A comparison of the Reynolds stress budget is madewith a boundary layer flow, and it is shown that the near-wallvalues in Couette flow are comparable with high-Reynolds numberboundary layer flow. A new spectrally accurate algorithm isdeveloped and implemented for cylindrical geometries andverified by studying the evolution of eigenmodes for both pipeflow and annular pipe flow. This algorithm is a generalisationof the algorithm used in the plane channel geometry. It usesFourier transforms in two homogeneous directions and Chebyshevpolynomials in the third, wall-normal, direction. TheNavier--Stokes equations are solved with a velocity-vorticityformulation, thereby avoiding the difficulty of solving for thepressure. The time advancement scheme used is a mixedimplicit/explicit second order scheme. The coupling between twovelocity components, arising from the cylindrical coordinates,is treated by introducing two new components and solving forthem, instead of the original velocity components. TheChebyshev integration method and the Chebyshev tau method isboth implemented and compared for the pipe flow case.

Impulse technology is a process in which water is removedfrom a wet paper web by the combined action of mechanicalpressure and intense heat. This results in increased dewateringrates, increased smoothness on the roll side of the sheet, andincreased density. Although the potential benefits of impulsepressing have been debated over the past thirty years, itsindustrial acceptance has been prevented by web delamination,which is defined as a reduction in the z-directional strengthof paper. This thesis deals with the mechanism of heat transfer withphase change during impulse pressing of wet paper. The resultsof four complementary experimental studies suggest that littleor no steam is formed in an impulse nip prior to the point ofmaximum applied load. As the nip is unloaded and the hydraulicpressure decreases, hot liquid water flashes to steam. Weadvance the argument that the force expressed upon flashing canbe used to displace liquid water, in a mechanism similar tothat originally proposed by Wahren. Additionally, modelexperiments performed in a novel experimental facility suggestthat the strength of flashing-assisted displacement dewateringcan be maximized by controlling the direction of steam venting.If this solution could be exploited in a commercially viableimpulse press, delamination would cease to be an issue ofconcern. The thesis includes a study of the web structure ofdelaminated paper. Here, we characterized delaminated paper bythe changes in transverse permeability and cross-sectionalsolidity profiles measured as a function of pressingtemperature. We found no evidence that wet pressing and impulsepressing induced stratification in non-delaminated sheets andconcluded that the parabolic solidity profiles observed weredue to capillary forces present during drying. Further, thepermeability of mechanically compressed never-dried samples wasfound to be essentially constant for pressing temperatureslower than the atmospheric boiling point of water and toincrease significantly at higher pressing temperatures. Wepropose this to be a result of damage to the cell wall materialdue to flashing of hot liquid water in the fiber walls andlumina. Finally, we present a method and an apparatus formeasurement of the thermal properties of water-saturated paperwebs at temperatures and pressures of interest for commercialhigh-intensity processes. After validation, the method wassuccessfully applied to measure the thermal conductivity,thermal diffusivity and volumetric heat capacity ofwater-saturated blotter paper as functions of temperature andsolids content. Here, we found that the thermal conductivityincreased with solids content in the range from 30%\ to 55%,which is in conflict with the commonly stated assumptions of adecreasing trend. We propose that this discrepancy could be dueto the thermal conductivity of air-free fibers wetted byunpressable water only, being significantly different from thatof dry cellulose.

This thesis concerns the stability of plane Couette flow and pipe Poiseuille flow in three space dimensions. The mathematical model for both flows is the incompressible Navier--Stokes equations. Both analytical and numerical techniques are used. We present new results for the resolvent corresponding to both flows. For plane Couette flow, analytical bounds on the resolvent have previously been derived in parts of the unstable half-plane. In the remaining part, only bounds based on numerical computations in an infinite parameter domain are available. Due to the need for truncation of this infinite parameter domain, these results are mathematically insufficient. We obtain a new analytical bound on the resolvent at s=0 in all but a compact subset of the parameter domain. This is done by deriving approximate solutions of the Orr--Sommerfeld equation and bounding the errors made by the approximations. In the remaining compact set, we use standard numerical techniques to obtain a bound. Hence, this part of the proof is not rigorous in the mathematical sense. In the thesis, we present a way of making also the numerical part of the proof rigorous. By using analytical techniques, we reduce the remaining compact subset of the parameter domain to a finite set of parameter values. In this set, we need to compute bounds on the solution of a boundary value problem. By using a validated numerical method, such bounds can be obtained. In the thesis, we investigate a validated numerical method for enclosing the solutions of boundary value problems. For pipe Poiseuille flow, only numerical bounds on the resolvent have previously been derived. We present analytical bounds in parts of the unstable half-plane. Also, we derive a bound on the resolvent for certain perturbations. Especially, the bound is valid for the perturbation which numerical computations indicate to be the perturbation which exhibits largest transient growth. The bound is valid in the entire unstable half-plane. We also investigate the stability of pipe Poiseuille flow by direct numerical simulations. Especially, we consider a disturbance which experiments have shown is efficient in triggering turbulence. The disturbance is in the form of blowing and suction in two small holes. Our results show the formation of hairpin vortices shortly after the disturbance. Initially, the hairpins form a localized packet of hairpins as they are advected downstream. After approximately $10$ pipe diameters from the disturbance origin, the flow becomes severely disordered. Our results show good agreement with the experimental results. In order to perform direct numerical simulations of disturbances which are highly localized in space, parallel computers must be used. Also, direct numerical simulations require the use of numerical methods of high order of accuracy. Many such methods have a global data dependency, making parallelization difficult. In this thesis, we also present the process of parallelizing a code for direct numerical simulations of pipe Poiseuille flow for a distributed memory computer. / QC 20100825