Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / Instability in the administration of municipalities is a particularly serious problem in the Western Cape because of its large number of coalition councils. Coalitions have led to frequent changes in local governance and to constant changes in political and administrative leadership. Due to the fluidity in local government, the politics of the day have become synonymous with back-stabbing, secret agreements and arrangements between politicians and political parties wishing to align themselves in such a way as to gain control of the councils.1 A municipality is required by the Constitution2 to structure and manage its administration and budgets, budgeting and planning processes so as to give priority to the basic needs of the community and to promote the social and economic development of the community.3 Legislation further prescribes that “a municipality must within its administrative and financial capacity establish and organize its administration in a manner that would enable the municipality to establish clear relationships, facilitate coordination, cooperation and communication between (i) its political structures and political office bearers and its administration; (ii) its political structures, political office bearers and administration and the local community”.4 It may therefore be argued that a municipality subscribing to the abovementioned prescripts should be functioning effectively. However, in practice continuous administrative and political instability adversely impacts on a municipality‟s capacity to provide service delivery to the community. The 2006 local government elections resulted in only four out of 30 municipalities in the Western Cape having a single party with more than 50% of the seats (outright majority). The remaining 26 municipalities were governed by coalitions of two or more parties. In 2001, Parliament introduced floor-crossing legislation which allowed Members of Parliament, Members of Provincial Legislatures and local government councillors to change their political party (or form a new party) and retains their seats when they did so.5 As a result of the 2007 floor-crossing legislation, the number of municipalities with an outright majority increased to 7. Power changes continued to occur even after the 2007 floor-crossing as a result of by-election outcomes or new internal coalition arrangements. Coalition government in the Western Cape remains a reality following the 18 May 2011 local government elections: the Democratic Alliance won 12 municipalities outright, the African National Congress won 1, and in 12 municipalities there was no outright winner. Of the 12 last-mentioned municipalities, 7 municipalities produced hung municipalities, i.e. Bitou, Witzenberg, Laingsburg, Hessequa, Theewaterskloof, Matzikama and Prince Albert. / South Africa

Cette thèse est consacrée à l'étude des phases de Mott isolantes des systèmes unidimensionnels d'atomes froids fermioniques à plusieurs composantes. La première partie de ce travail consiste en l'étude du modèle des atomes froids de type alcalinoterreux de spin nucléaire I=1/2. Ces atomes possèdent un état excité métastable offrant à ces atomes un degré de liberté orbital supplémentaire et en fait des fermions à quatre composantes. L'étude est menée au demi-remplissage, aux forts et aux faibles couplages par des moyens analytiques (théorie conforme, bosonisation, refermionisation, groupe de renormalisation); elle conduit à un diagramme de phase très riche. Il comporte sept phases isolantes de Mott dont trois sont particulièrement intéressantes, car elles présentent un ordre caché qui s'apparente à la physique de Haldane de la chaîne antiferromagnétique de spin-1. Ces conclusions sont mises en regard avec des simulations numériques exécutées avec l'algorithme du groupe de renormalisation de la matrice densité (DMRG), pour un régime de couplages intermédiaires. La comparaison montre une continuité adiabatique entre les différents régimes de couplages. Une étude similaire d'un modèle d'atomes froids de spin-3/2 met en évidence la physique de Haldane dans le secteur de charge des degrés de liberté, avec pour modèle effectif une chaîne de (pseudo-)spin-1. L'étude nous permet également l'investigation des propriétés de température nulle de la chaîne bilinéaire et biquadratique de Heisenberg SO(5). On montre qu'elle présente deux phases gappées : l'une dimerisée et l'autre possédant une symétrie cachée (Z_2xZ_2)² et des états de bords de spin-3/2, séparées par un point critique appartenant à la classe d'universalité SO(5)_1. Enfin, une étude de systèmes d'atomes froids de spins demi-entiers (à 2N composantes) généralise les résultats obtenus pour les spins-3/2. Cela nous conduit en particulier à mettre en évidence un effet pair/impair suivant N, en tout point similaire à l'effet pair/impair des chaînes de spin, découvert par Haldane en 1983. / This thesis is devoted to the investigation of the Mott insulating phases arising in onedimensionalmulticomponent fermionic cold atoms systems. The first part of this work isthe study of a model with alkaline-earth cold atoms with nuclear spin I = 1/2. Thoseatoms enjoy an additional orbital degree of freedom, due to the presence of a metastableexcited state ; they thus have a total of four components. Our investigation is carried athalf-filling, at strong and at weak couplings by means of analytic methods (conformaltheory, bononization, refermionization, renormalisation group). We found that the zerotemperature phase diagram of the system is very rich : it contains seven Mott insulatingphases, among which three are particularly interesting, since they display a hiddenorder, related to the Haldane physics of the antiferromagnetic spin-1 Heisenberg chain.Our conclusions are checked against numerical simulations, that were carried out with thedensity matrix renormalization group (DMRG) algorithm for intermediate couplings. Thecomparison shows an adiabatic continuity between the different regimes. A similar studyfor a model of cold atoms with hyperfine spin-3/2 highlights the Haldane physics in thecharge sector of the degrees of freedom, with an effective model given by an antiferromagneticpseudo-spin-1 chain. This analysis provides us an opportunity to investigate thezero temperature properties of the SO(5) bilinear-biquadratic Heisenberg chain. We showthe presence of two gapped phases : one is dimerized, the other has a hidden symmetry(Z2 × Z2)2 and spin-3/2 edge states, and they are separated by a critical point that belongsto the SO(5)1 universality class. Finally, we investigate half-integer hyperfine spincold atoms systems with 2N components which generalized the results obtained for thehyperfine spin-3/2 model. This leads us to find an even/odd effect according to the parityof N, very similar to the even/odd effect of spin chains, discovered by Haldane in 1983.

In these days of economic crisis subsiding, in the civil engineering the attention is pointed especially to the systems, which effectively reduce energy and decrease costs associated with using of residential or industrial premises. Especially the heat-insulating systems are mentioned, because of their characteristics and construction which will be applied economical solutions. It is possible to use the materials based on aerated concrete which excel within construction materials due to its heat-insulating properties. The use of this material for clearly heat-insulations seems to be fully-fledged alternative to standard heat-insulating systems also due to combination of nature character and sufficient strength. This work deals with possibility of preparation non-bearing, heat-insulating material based on autoclaved aerated concrete with volume weight under 200 kg/m3.

Dielektrické materiály jsou použivány v elektronice i v elektrotechnice. Jako jejich základní vlastnost může považovat změnu jejich charakteristik během jejich životnosti. Změny jsou způsobeny namáhaním materiálu vyvolané elektrickými či teplotími vlivy. Možnost jak určit průběh jejich charakteristik v závislosti na čase je měření proudu během aplikování elektrického napětí na materiál. Tyto experimenty vědci z LEMD provaděli ručně, tento postup ale není přílíš učinný pro vysokofrekvenční signály nebo pro experimenty s dlouhou periodou. Hlavním cílem této práce bylo vytvořit aplikaci v LabVIEW k ovládaní měřícího přístroje Keithley (generátor napětí) a k automatickému získavání měřených hodnot v pikoampérech. Tato aplikace nabízí uživateli různé funkce: - Zadání vystupního napětí. - Vyběr typu průběhu. - Definování délky periody. - Ovládaní přístroje. - Měření proudu, ukládaní dat do souboru vhodného pro jiné aplikace (textový soubor). - Analýzu naměřených dat.

This labor deals with features of alternative electrical insulating liquids and also petroleum-base liquids. It examines their usage in the electrotechnical industry. The practical part of the thesis deals with measurement of absorption charakteristics of biodegradable electrical insulating liquid MIDEL 7131 and the petroleum - based transformer oil TRAFO N. The results of the measurement are examined by the help of substitutional math function.

There is always a need for more compact designs of power transformers free of partial discharges, in order to save cost on the construction and required material resources. The physical geometric constrictions inside the transformer tank would demand field-grading techniques to homogenise the field strength distribution on oil-solid interfaces, when required. Standard filler materials such as carbon black or silicon carbide (SiC) have a too high electrical conductivity yielding an appropriate grading field strength values for air-related applications. Because insulation oil has a higher electrical breakdown strength, the electrical conductivity must be engineered to lower values in order to reach a higher effective grading field strength. This paper presents the investigation of a new material system based on a phenolic resin Lerg FL-500 and the electrically functionalized ceramic filler particles Merck Iriotec®7550 that enable a resistive electrical field grading in insulation oil. In order to verify the principle functionality of the proposed field grading system, a layer is applied on a substrate surface representing possible oil-solid-interface inside oil-filled power transformers. First, the manuscript describes the methods of specimen preparation and the measurement of the nonlinear current-time behaviour under AC voltage stress for different filler contents. Second, a concurring optical and electrical determination of the partial discharge inception and extinction voltage of a modified Toepler arrangement allows the indirect determination of the electrical field strength distribution along the functionalized layer without the need of direct measurement. To do so, the radius of the circular functional layer is varied and with it the specific grading length. In analogy to state of the art SiC-filled systems, a linear dependency between the effective grading length and the PD inception voltage is observed. The quotient of voltage drop over a varied radius yields the effective graded electric field strength.

Insulated concrete forms (ICFs) are green building components that are primarily used for residential wall construction. Unlike most polystyrene based ICF variants, the Faswall ICFs used in these experiments were significantly denser because they were made from recycled wood particles and cement. The current design approach for structures constructed with this type of wall form only allows the designer to consider the contribution of the reinforced concrete cores. Previous research has shown that this approach may be conservative. This project experimentally evaluated the lateral structural response of these types of grid ICF walls under increasing amplitude of in-plane cyclic loading. Two different height-to-length (aspect) ratios (approximately 2:1 and 1:1) were investigated, as was the effect of simultaneous gravity load. Furthermore, the reinforced concrete grid was exposed for each aspect ratio in order to examine the contribution of the ICF blocks to the lateral response. Analyses of hysteretic behaviors and failure modes indicated conservatism in the current design approach for estimating lateral strength and ignoring the beneficial contribution of the ICF blocks to overall performance. The presence of the wall forms increased the lateral shear capacity of the walls by an average of 42% (compared to the walls with forms removed), while also increasing the deformation capacity by an average of 102%. Furthermore, by considering an additional gravity load of 10 kips-per-lineal-foot (klf), the shear resistance of the walls increased by 32% (versus walls only subjected to self-weight), on average, and the deformation capacity of the walls increased by an average of 19%. Comparisons of the experimental results to several design equations led to the recommendation of a design equation that was previously accepted for another type of ICF system.

Nous avons obtenu des angles de rotation Faraday (RF) allant jusqu'à 19° par orientation optique d'un gaz d'électrons dans GaAs de type n inclus dans une microcavité (Q=19000), sans champ magnétique. Cette forte rotation est obtenue en raison des multiples allers-retours de la lumière dans la cavité. Nous avons également démontré la commutation optique rapide de la RF à l'échelle sub-microseconde en échantillonnant le signal de RF sous excitation impulsionnelle mono-coup. De la dépolarisation de la RF en champ magnétique transverse, nous avons déduit un temps de relaxation de spin de 160 ns. Le concept de section efficace de RF, coefficient de proportionnalité entre l'angle RF, la densité de spin électronique, et le chemin parcouru, a été introduit. La section efficace de RF, qui définit l'efficacité du gaz d'électrons à produire une RF, a été estimée quantitativement, et comparée avec la théorie. Nous avons également démontré la possibilité de mesurer de manière non destructive l'aimantation nucléaire dans GaAs-n, via la RF amplifiée par la cavité. Contrairement aux méthodes existantes, cette détection ne nécessite pas la présence d'électrons hors équilibre. Par cette technique nous avons étudié la dynamique de spin nucléaire dans GaAs-n avec différents dopages. Contrairement à ce qu'on pourrait attendre, le déclin de la RF nucléaire est complexe et consiste en deux composantes ayant des temps de relaxation très différents. Deux effets à l'origine de la RF nucléaire sont identifiés: le splitting de spin de la bande de conduction, et la polarisation en spin des électrons localisés, tous deux induits par le champ Overhauser. Le premier effet domine la RF nucléaire dans les deux échantillons étudiés, tandis que la RF induite par les électrons localisés n'a été observée que dans l'échantillon métallique. / We obtained Faraday rotation (FR) up to 19° by using optical orientation of electron gas in n-doped bulk GaAs confined in a microcavity (Q=19000), in the absence of magnetic field. This strong rotation is achieved because the light makes multiple round trips in the microcavity. We also demonstrated fast optical switching of FR in sub-microsecond time scale by sampling the FR in a one-shot experiment under pulsed excitation. From the depolarization of FR by a transverse magnetic field, we deduce electron spin relaxation time of about 160 ns. A concept of FR cross-section as a proportionality coefficient between FR angle, electron spin density and optical path is introduced. This FR cross-section which defines the efficiency of spin polarized electrons in producing FR was estimated quantitatively and compared with theory. We also demonstrated non-destructive measurement of nuclear magnetization in n-GaAs via cavity enhanced FR. In contrast with the existing optical methods, this detection scheme does not require the presence of detrimental out-of-equilibrium electrons. Using this technique, we studied nuclear spin dynamics in n-GaAs with different doping concentrations. Contrary to simple expectation, the nuclear FR is found to be complex, and consists of two components with vastly different time constants. Two effects at the origin of FR have been identified: the conduction band spin splitting and the localized electron spin polairzation both induced by the Overhauser field. The first effect dominates the FR in both studied samples, while the FR induced by the localized electrons has been observed only in the metallic sample.

Apresentamos alguns métodos numéricos para a resolução das equações hiperbólicas que regem problemas de transporte de cargas elétricas em isolantes, aplicando-os a quatro problemas específicos: injeção de corrente por um contato ôhmico em uma amostra com voltagem constante aplicada; transporte de um pulso de cargas através de uma amostra em circuito aberto; transporte de um pulso de cargas através de uma amostra submetida a uma diferença de potencial constante (tempo de vôo); e, finalmente, descarga termo-estimulada em circuito aberto. Empregamos, basicamente, dois tipos de métodos: características e diferenças finitas. Concluímos que, quando as descontinuidades são importantes, é mais conveniente usar o método das características; porém, quando não houver descontinuidades ou se estas não forem importantes, alguns métodos de diferenças finitas podem ser utilizados com boa precisão e menores tempos de computação do que aqueles gastos pelos métodos das características. / Numeral methods for solving partial differential equations of the hiperbolic type, governing some problems of transport of electric charge in dielectrics are presented and then applied to four specific problems: injection of charge via an ohmic contact into a sample with a constant applied voltage; transport of a pulse of charge through a sample in the open circuit mode; transport of a pulse of charge through a sample subjected to a constant voltage; and finally, thermally stimulated discharge in open circuit. Essentially two kinds of methods are employed: the method of characteristics and finite-difference methods. It is concluded that when discontinuities are important, the method of characteristics is the most convenient; otherwise, appropriate finite-difference schemes can be used with sufficient precision and less time expenses in computers.

Os transformadores de potência são alguns dos elementos mais importantes dos sistemas elétricos. A confiabilidade e o bom funcionamento destes equipamentos são vitais para que as companhias de energia forneçam eletricidade com qualidade e segurança. Um dos principais parâmetros que envolvem a normalidade da operação dos transformadores é o estado da isolação interna formada pelo óleo mineral e o papel que cobre as bobinas. Danos nessa isolação resultam na degradação destes dielétricos e, por conseqüência, na diminuição da vida útil dos transformadores. Essa degradação, que advém de processos elétricos, térmicos, ou mesmo mecânicos, geram gases combustíveis cujas quantidades individuais podem indicar o tipo de falha e a gravidade do problema. Desta forma, é importante detectar os principais gases envolvidos. O objetivo deste trabalho é realizar análises e estudos quantitativos da presença de gases inflamáveis dissolvidos no óleo, surgidos através da degradação deste líquido isolante. O cerne deste trabalho está em elaborar ensaios de formação de arco no óleo e, posteriormente, aquecer o fluido para medir a quantidade dos gases combustíveis antes dissolvidos nele. Este estudo visa à melhoria na confiabilidade dos equipamentos projetados para detectar e monitorar o surgimento de gases inflamáveis no interior de transformadores de potência existentes em subestações de companhias de eletricidade. / Power transformers are some of the most important elements of electrical systems. The trustworthiness and the good functioning of this equipment permit power utilities to supply electricity with quality and security. One of the main parameters for transformer\'s operation normality is the state of the internal insulation formed by the mineral oil and the paper that covers the bobbins. Damages in this insulation cause its dielectric degradation and, consequently, the reduction of the equipment useful life. This degradation which originates from electrical, thermal, or even mechanical processes generates chemical products such as gases whose individual amounts may indicate the type of imperfection and gravity of the problem. That\'s why the detection of the main involved gases is important. This work intends to elaborate analyses and studies of the presence of inflammable gases dissolved in oil through the degradation of the insulating liquid. The principal topic of this work is the arc formation elaboration in the oil and later the heating of the oil to measure the amount of gases previously dissolved in it. This study also aims to improve the trustworthiness of the projected equipments in order to detect and monitor the sprouting of existing inflammable gases in the interior of power transformers in substations of power utilities.