An investigation was undertaken to determine the feasibility of increasing the hydrogen production rate by coupling the water gas shift (WGS) process to the hybrid sulphur process (HyS). This investigation also involved the technical and economical analysis of the water gas shift and the H2 separation by means of Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process. A technical analysis of the water gas shift reaction was determined under the operating conditions selected on the basis of some information available in the literature. The high temperature system (HTS) and low temperature system (LTS) reactors were assumed to be operated at temperatures of 350ºC and 200ºC, respectively. The operating pressure for both reactors was assumed to be 30 atmospheres. The H2 production rate of the partial oxidation (POX) and the WGS processes was 242T/D, which is approximately two times the amount produced by the HyS process alone. The PSA was used for the purification process leading to a hydrogen product with a purity of 99.99%. From the total H2 produced by the POX and the WGS processes only 90 percent of H2 is recovered in the PSA. The unrecovered H2 leaves the PSA as a purge gas together with CO2 and traces of CH4, CO, and saturated H2O. The estimated capital cost of the WGS plant with PSA is about US$50 million. The production cost is highly dependent on the cost of all of the required raw materials and utilities involved. The production cost obtained was US $1.41/kg H2 based on the input cost of synthesis gas as produced by the POX process. In this case the production cost of synthesis gas based on US $6/GJ for natural gas and US $0/Ton for oxygen was estimated to be US $0.154/kg. By increasing the oxygen and natural gas cost, the corresponding increase in synthesis gas has resulted in an increase in H2 production cost of US $1.84/kg. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Chemical Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

This piece of work engage with selected methods how to increase the visit rate of a specific online project, which concise an online magazine about living with a focus on residents in block of flats. In the theory section, firstly there will be characteristics of selected methods provided, followed by an application of those methods to the specific websites on the basis of carried out analyses. Methods were selected with a concern of financial limitation, and apart from one, neither of them required additional financial resources. From the results, evaluation and comparison of methods were implemented from the point of overall increase in attendance to the website and at the same time the effectiveness when targeting the final end web group. In the conclusion, suggestions for future development of websites, which should contribute to a further increase in visit rate, was provided.

Keyword queries are extremely easy for a user to write. They have become a standard way to query for information in web search engines and most other information retrieval systems whose users are usually laypersons and might not have knowledge about the database schema or contained data. As keyword queries do not impose any structural constraints on the retrieved information, the quality of the obtained results is far from perfect. However, one can hardly improve it without changing the ways the queries are asked and the methods the information is stored in the database. The purpose of this thesis is to propose a method to improve the quality of the information retrieving by adding weights to the existing ways of keyword queries asking and information storing in the database. We consider weighted queries on two different data structures: weighted binary relations and weighted multi-labeled trees. We propose adaptive algorithms to solve these queries and prove the measures of the complexity of these algorithms in terms of the high-level operations. We describe how these algorithms can be implemented and derive the upper bounds on their complexity in two specific models of computations: the comparison model and the word-RAM model.

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Hydropower is an important source of energy in Sweden and accounts for about 46 % of the total energy production. Sweden has about 1 200 hydropower plants and with the intention of raising the pressure head of the water and to store water, dams are built by the power plants. The storage reservoirs make it possible to adjust the energy production by demand and season. Dams in connection to the reservoirs are subjected to additional loading during periods of high floods or when an icecap in the winter is formed on the reservoirs. In order to maintain the dam safety, the power companies in Sweden are working with guidelines for dam safety from RIDAS. An important part of the work of dam safety is FDU that is carried out with purposes of improving the work of dam safety. A FDU made for the Skålan dam in the River of Ljungan showed that the levels of the safety factors for sliding and overturning of the dam was not fulfilled when subjected to loads from an icecap. The object of this thesis was to follow up the FDU and by carrying out extensive stability calculations on all parts of the Skålan dam, investigate what safety factors the different parts will get and also investigate some proposal measures in order to increase the dam stability. The stability calculations for the dam have been performed according to directions in RIDAS at four loading cases. Loading case I and II means a water level to the retained water level and an ice load of 200 and 100 kN/m respectively. Loading case III and IV means a situation without ice load but with a water level to the retained water level respectively a water level to a meter above the retained water level. The stability of the dam was studied with regards to sliding and overturning. The results from the stability calculations showed for both loading case I and II that the majority of the parts of the Skålan dam did not fulfill the levels of the safety factors. The calculations also showed that some parts of the dam did not fulfill the stability criteria of sliding at loading case III, which implies that these parts of the dam actually have not enough weight. The measure proposals studied were the ice preventive measures IR-elements and circulation of the deep warm water and the stability increasing measure with pre strained rock anchorages. The net present value (NVP) for the different measures were calculated with a life length of the dam estimated to 60 years. The results from the calculations of the NVP showed that the most economically feasible measure is circulation of the water but when considering the results from the stability calculations, the most suitable measure is the rock anchorages. Therefore, a combination of rock anchorages on parts which not fulfills the stability criteria in combination with circulation of the water is suggested to be the best measure. / Vattenkraften är en viktig energikälla i Sverige som utgör ca 46 % av den totala energiproduktionen. I Sverige finns det ca 1 200 kraftverk och i syfte att öka fallhöjden och lagra vatten bygger man dammar i anslutning till kraftverken. Dammarna skapar stora magasin med vatten och gör det möjligt att anpassa elproduktionen efter säsong och behov. Dammar och kraftverk vid vattenmagasinen utsätts för extra belastning under perioder med höga flöden samt vid islaster och för att upprätthålla dammsäkerheten har man tagit fram RIDAS - kraftföretagens riktlinjer för dammsäkerhet. Inom ramen för dammsäkerhetsarbete utförs fördjupade dammsäkerhetsutvärderingar, FDU, för att arbeta förebyggande och hitta möjligheter till förbättring av dammsäkerhetsarbetet. I en FDU gjord för Skålandammen i Ljungan påvisades att de av RIDAS uppsatta säkerhetsfaktorerna för glidning och stjälpning inte uppfylldes vid islast. Syftet med detta arbete var att följa upp FDU:n och med utförliga stabilitetsberäkningar på Skålandammens alla delar (monoliter) undersöka hur dessa klarar säkerhetsfaktorerna vid olika lastfall, hur stort problemet med islast är samt ta fram åtgärdsförslag för att öka dammens stabilitet. Beräkningarna har utförts enligt RIDAS anvisningar för stabilitetsberäkningar vid fyra olika lastfall där de två första innebär en vattennivå till magasinets dämningsgräns samt en islast på 200 respektive 100 kN/m och de två andra behandlar en situation utan islast men med en vattennivå till dämningsgränsen respektive en vattennivå till 1 meter över dämningsgränsen. Stabiliteten kontrollerades med avseende på stjälpning och glidning. Resultatet av stabilitetsberäkningarna visade att för majoriteten av Skålandammens monoliter uppfylls inte stabilitetskraven vid en islast på vare sig 200 eller 100 kN/m. Det visades även att ett fåtal monoliter inte uppfyller säkerhetskraven för glidning vid lastfallet utan islast med en vattennivå till dämningsgränsen, vilket indikerar på att dessa monoliter är för lätta. De isfrihållande åtgärdsförslagen som jämfördes var IR-element och cirkulering av vattnet med hjälp av luftbubblor och den stabilitetshöjande åtgärden med förspända bergförankringar. Nuvärdet för dessa åtgärder beräknades sedan med antagandet att dammen har en livslängd på 60 år. Resultatet från nuvärdesberäkningen visade att det billigaste alternativet är cirkulering av vattnet men utifrån stabilitetsberäkningarna är det mest fördelaktigt att använda den stabilitetshöjande åtgärden med bergförankringar. Med anledning av detta föreslås ett alternativ med bergförankringar på de monoliter som inte uppfyllde säkerhetskraven vid lastfall utan is i kombination med cirkulering av vattnet som den mest lämpliga åtgärden.

Keyword queries are extremely easy for a user to write. They have become a standard way to query for information in web search engines and most other information retrieval systems whose users are usually laypersons and might not have knowledge about the database schema or contained data. As keyword queries do not impose any structural constraints on the retrieved information, the quality of the obtained results is far from perfect. However, one can hardly improve it without changing the ways the queries are asked and the methods the information is stored in the database. The purpose of this thesis is to propose a method to improve the quality of the information retrieving by adding weights to the existing ways of keyword queries asking and information storing in the database. We consider weighted queries on two different data structures: weighted binary relations and weighted multi-labeled trees. We propose adaptive algorithms to solve these queries and prove the measures of the complexity of these algorithms in terms of the high-level operations. We describe how these algorithms can be implemented and derive the upper bounds on their complexity in two specific models of computations: the comparison model and the word-RAM model.

The focus of the thesis is how football clubs can increase their revenues through brand equity and different marketing activities. The purpose is to develop a professional attitude towards football brands among the Swedish clubs and to increase the awareness of aspects possible to improve. Due to current regulations the Swedish league differs in some aspects from other leagues in Europe. Therefore this thesis will provide guidelines of how Swedish football clubs could increase their revenues. The theoretical framework includes concepts such as brand equity, stakeholders and the European revenue model. In addition to this a general discussion about sport marketing and its differences from regular marketing will be provided. In order to answer the main research question; "How can Swedish football clubs increase their revenues through marketing activities in order to keep a competitive squad?" interviews with people associated to Swedish football have been conducted. Different aspects have been identified that will provide the Swedish football clubs with important insights of how to improve their revenue stream. Recommendations will be given of how to proceed with increasing the clubs revenues.

Traditionally, most consumers of electricity pay for their consumption according to a fixed-rate. The few existing implementations of real time pricing have been restricted to large industrial consumers, where the benefits could justify the high implementation cost. With the advancement of Smart Grid technologies, large scale implementation of variable-rate metering will be more practical. Consumers will be able to control their electricity consumption in an automated fashion, where one possible scheme is to have each individual maximize their own utility as a noncooperative game. In this thesis, noncooperative games are formulated among the consumers of Smart Grid with two real-time pricing schemes, where the Nash equilibrium operation points are investigated for their uniqueness and load balancing properties. The first pricing scheme charges a price according to the average cost of electricity borne by the retailer and the second charges according to a time-variant increasing-block price. The zero revenue model and the constant revenue rate model, are the two revenue models being considered. The relationship between these games and certain congestion games, known as atomic flow games from the computer networking community, is demonstrated. It is shown that the proposed noncooperative game formulation falls under the class of atomic splittable flow games. It is shown that the Nash equilibrium exists for four different cases, with different pricing schemes and revenue models, and is shown to be unique for three of the cases, under certain conditions. It is shown that both pricing schemes lead to similar electricity loading patterns when consumers are interested only in the minimization of electricity costs. Finally, the conditions under which the increasing-block pricing scheme is preferred over the average cost based pricing scheme are discussed.

<p>This study deals with Swedish nuclear-energy politics from 1980 to 2006. The purpose is to trace and to explain change and stability in three political parties’ rhetoric concerning the phase-out of Swedish nuclear-energy and the Swedish government’s nuclear politics. Two hypotheses based on path dependency theory are tested to analyze if rhetoric and politics are developing in separate directions. The first hypothesis is based on the idea that earlier promises from the political parties affect what promises they can make later on. The second hypothesis is based on the idea that early investments in Swedish nuclear energy will affect what investments can be made at a later stage. The study shows that there are differences between the political parties’ promises and the government’s politics in the Swedish nuclear-energy debate. The two tested hypotheses seem to be possible explanations to why differences between party rhetoric and governmental politics have appeared. While party rhetoric is formed by a need to earn credibility by showing continuity in made promises, governmental politics is formed by a need to find practical solutions to welfare-, economic- and environmental problems.</p>

An investigation was undertaken to determine the feasibility of increasing the hydrogen production rate by coupling the water gas shift (WGS) process to the hybrid sulphur process (HyS). This investigation also involved the technical and economical analysis of the water gas shift and the H2 separation by means of Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process. A technical analysis of the water gas shift reaction was determined under the operating conditions selected on the basis of some information available in the literature. The high temperature system (HTS) and low temperature system (LTS) reactors were assumed to be operated at temperatures of 350ºC and 200ºC, respectively. The operating pressure for both reactors was assumed to be 30 atmospheres. The H2 production rate of the partial oxidation (POX) and the WGS processes was 242T/D, which is approximately two times the amount produced by the HyS process alone. The PSA was used for the purification process leading to a hydrogen product with a purity of 99.99%. From the total H2 produced by the POX and the WGS processes only 90 percent of H2 is recovered in the PSA. The unrecovered H2 leaves the PSA as a purge gas together with CO2 and traces of CH4, CO, and saturated H2O. The estimated capital cost of the WGS plant with PSA is about US$50 million. The production cost is highly dependent on the cost of all of the required raw materials and utilities involved. The production cost obtained was US $1.41/kg H2 based on the input cost of synthesis gas as produced by the POX process. In this case the production cost of synthesis gas based on US $6/GJ for natural gas and US $0/Ton for oxygen was estimated to be US $0.154/kg. By increasing the oxygen and natural gas cost, the corresponding increase in synthesis gas has resulted in an increase in H2 production cost of US $1.84/kg. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Chemical Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.