After two world wars, the West European Economy goes through serious recession. Through the cold war, the representatives of west European countries, German and France, feel that they must cooperate. Hence, by the bases of economic co-operations, the West Europe starts to integrate their resources and political alliances. From the ¡§Economic Community (EC)¡¨ to ¡§Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)¡¨, most West European countries go through several obstacles, like the Collapse of Bretton Woods System in 1971 and the European Crisis in 1992,¡K¡K, etc. Finally, in 1th, Jan., 1999, 11 countries of European Union establish EMU and expect to take Euro as their single currency formally in 2002. They also establish European Central Bank (ECB) to execute the Euro zone¡¦s single monetary policy. The status of Euro after 1th Jan., 1999 is the purpose of this study. This article tries to use the Exchange Rate decision theories, Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) and Interest Rate parity (IRP), to investigate the relationship between Euro and USD. From several statistical empirical tests, it reveals that the trends of Euro couldn¡¦t correspond with the theoretical wants, ie PPP and IRP can¡¦t catch the trends of Euro. By the outcome of ¡§Sign Test¡¨ and ¡§Wilcoxon Sign-Rank Test¡¨, it can be found obviously that the Euro indeed is undervalued from the establishment to Apr., 2000 if we don¡¦t take the transaction costs into account. As a result of the outcome of empirical finds, the article starts to investigate the reasons why the theoretical values from exchange rate decision theories are not equal with real ones. One is that if the empirical models ignore some important factors which lead to the biases of models¡Fthe other is if Euro is undervalued during this observation periods. From the economic macro-environmental analyses, the article can infer that because of the Kosov Wars, Russian economic reform problems, the increase of short interest rate gap between USD and Euro, the different economic reform paces among member countries of EMU,¡K¡K, etc. result in the main factors of the weak currency - Euro.

O objetivo deste trabalho é determinar e modelar a Arquitetura do Plano Preferencial Integrado de Recursos para o Setor Elétrico, no contexto do planejamento energético atual. O Plano Preferencial Integrado é uma coletânea sistêmica de recursos energéticos obtidos por meio de um processo integrado de planejamento, ao longo do tempo e da geografia, denominado Planejamento Integrado de Recursos Energéticos (PIR). Utilizam-se metodologias do Inventário Energoambiental, da Listagem e do Peneiramento de Recursos Energéticos, do Cômputo e Valoração de Recursos Energéticos, da Análise de Custos Completos, englobando custos internos e externos, da Previsão da Demanda e da Integração de Recursos, ponto em que efetivamente se inicia a construção do Plano. A validação do modelo é realizada no estudo de caso aplicado na Região Administrativa de Araçatuba, no oeste do estado de São Paulo, Brasil. Por fim, apresentam-se considerações sobre esse plano preferencial e estabelece-se a proposta de uma metodologia alternativa de planejamento energético para o setor elétrico, visando o desenvolvimento sustentável por meio de uma imbricação entre energia, meio ambiente e sociedade, com seu balanço equilibrado de importâncias. / The objective of the study is to define and model the Architecture of Integrated Energy Resources Preferential Plan for the Power Sector, in the context of current energy planning. The Integrated Energy Resources Preferential Plan is a systemic compilation of energy resources obtained through an integrated energy planning over the time and geography, called Integrated Resource Planning (IRP). The plan is developed using the methodology of Environmental and Energy Inventory; Listing and Drafting of Energy Resources; Calculation and Valuation of Energy Resources Full Potentials, Full Cost Analysis, Demand Forecasting and Resources Integration, after which the construction of plan effectively starts. The model validation is performed in the case study applied in Araçatuba Administrative Region, in the western state of São Paulo, Brazil. Finally, the IRP Preferred Plan is reviewed and a proposal for an alternative methodology for energy planning for the power sector is presented aiming at sustainable development through a complete overview among energy, environment and society, with its balanced importance.

Electricity availability and the costs thereof in South Africa were traditionally considered an abundant and low cost commodity, but in recent years this situation has changed altogether. Industries are challenged by a strained national electricity grid and tariff increases more than four times the national inflation rate over the past two years, with further tariff increases expected in subsequent years; thus, exposing industries to significant business risks that may jeopardise the sustainability of industries. With the majority of the national electricity supply derived from coal, South Africa's push to reduce carbon emissions exerts even more pressure on industries as electricity usage is inextricably linked to its carbon footprint. In addition, South Africa's reliance on cogeneration from industries for its 2010 - 2030 electricity capacity plan further promotes industries to become more self–sufficient concerning electricity generation. In view of the above, there is a need in the South African integrated iron and steel industry for a framework that collectively addresses the governing factors pertaining to electricity generation in this industry, technical and economical quantification of available technologies and implementation of these technologies. This dissertation researches the current driving/governing and the remediating factors to become more self–sufficient in terms of electricity generation. A framework for electricity generation opportunities in the integrated iron and steel industry is developed from the literature study and the researcher's own experience. The framework embodies four building blocks into a single and all–encompassing framework, which provides the necessary governing factors that quantify the potential need to pursue electricity generation/cogeneration, the technical and economical implications and, inevitably, the implementation requirements and guidelines. Validating the framework against case studies pertaining to ArcelorMittal Newcastle realised a correlation of between 84.6% to 97.6% concerning the technical parameters. In addition, the validation process also indicated that the framework is aligned with current practices applied by ArcelorMittal South Africa. The framework will enable South African integrated iron and steel industries to expand and adapt their own procedures to be specific to their operational requirements. The implementation of the framework should be tailored to address the specific needs concerning cogeneration in industry. / Thesis (M.Ing. (Development and Management Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Electricity availability and the costs thereof in South Africa were traditionally considered an abundant and low cost commodity, but in recent years this situation has changed altogether. Industries are challenged by a strained national electricity grid and tariff increases more than four times the national inflation rate over the past two years, with further tariff increases expected in subsequent years; thus, exposing industries to significant business risks that may jeopardise the sustainability of industries. With the majority of the national electricity supply derived from coal, South Africa's push to reduce carbon emissions exerts even more pressure on industries as electricity usage is inextricably linked to its carbon footprint. In addition, South Africa's reliance on cogeneration from industries for its 2010 - 2030 electricity capacity plan further promotes industries to become more self–sufficient concerning electricity generation. In view of the above, there is a need in the South African integrated iron and steel industry for a framework that collectively addresses the governing factors pertaining to electricity generation in this industry, technical and economical quantification of available technologies and implementation of these technologies. This dissertation researches the current driving/governing and the remediating factors to become more self–sufficient in terms of electricity generation. A framework for electricity generation opportunities in the integrated iron and steel industry is developed from the literature study and the researcher's own experience. The framework embodies four building blocks into a single and all–encompassing framework, which provides the necessary governing factors that quantify the potential need to pursue electricity generation/cogeneration, the technical and economical implications and, inevitably, the implementation requirements and guidelines. Validating the framework against case studies pertaining to ArcelorMittal Newcastle realised a correlation of between 84.6% to 97.6% concerning the technical parameters. In addition, the validation process also indicated that the framework is aligned with current practices applied by ArcelorMittal South Africa. The framework will enable South African integrated iron and steel industries to expand and adapt their own procedures to be specific to their operational requirements. The implementation of the framework should be tailored to address the specific needs concerning cogeneration in industry. / Thesis (M.Ing. (Development and Management Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

歐元的問世，代表的是從1970年代固定匯率被打破以來，世界金融體系最大一次的變革，其對全球之金融及社會文化有很深遠的意義；因此，有關美國與歐元區間之匯率、利率及物價關係的探討遂成為國際金融市場所關心的焦點之一；本文以Frankel (1992)所提出衡量國際間資本移動性的三種利率平價說：拋補利率平價說(Covered Interest Parity，CIP) 、無拋補利率平價說 (Uncovered Interest Parity，UIP)、實質利率平價說 (Real Interest Parity，RIP)為基礎，來檢驗此三種利率平價說是否成立。在實證方法上，本文以Dickey & Fuller (1979,1981)之ADF單根檢定來確定變數之數列特性，再採Johansen (1988)之最大概似估計法，對CIP、UIP與RIP進行實證分析。實證結果發現，於1999 年 1 月至 2004 年 7 月期間，美國與歐元區間 CIP 與 UIP 同時成立，表示當兩國資產報酬率有差異時，可以經由國際間資本的移動，使得報酬率最後有趨於相等的傾向；並且接受遠期匯率為未來即期匯率的不偏估計值之虛無假設，顯示歐元與美元間外匯市場具有效率性。另外，本文之實證結果並不支持 RIP 的成立，其有可能歐元區與美國在編制物價指數時，所使用的物價項目和比重情況不同而異，因此難以表示出公正之匯價；再者由於現實之貨幣、商品市場之不完全，與人民不一定能完全預期及存在貨幣幻覺等許許多多未考慮因素下，故在諸多驗證 RIP之文獻中，亦大多顯示無法找到其均衡之平價關係。 / The emergence of Eurodollar exemplified a significant reformation in the world financial system since the fixed rate had been broken in 1970, which brings far-reaching significance to the global finance and social culture. Therefore some discussions on exchange rate, interest rate and price relationship in the range of US Dollar and Eurodollar are one of focuses the international financial market concerns; On the basis of the three kinds of interest rate parity Frankel brought forward (1992) including Covered Interest Parity (CIP), Uncovered Interest Parity (UIP) and Real Interest Parity (RIP), this research mainly proves their feasibility. For the empirical methods, the Dickey & Fuller (1979, 1981)’s ADF unit root test was used to confirm the characteristics of variable series in this research; additionally, Johansen’s maximum likelihood method (1988) was adopted to do the empirical analysis on CIP, UIP and RIP. Based on the empirical results, we found out that the CIP and UIP are tenable simultaneously in the range of tenable US Dollar and Eurodollar from 1999 January to 2004 July. That means when return on asserts between two counties has some differences, it would become towards equality lastly on the basis of international capital mobility. And the null hypothesis that the forward rate is an unbiased predictor of the future spot rate can be employed, revealing the foreign exchange market in the range of Eurodollar and US Dollar has certain efficiency. Additionally, The empirical results of this research do not support the RIP, because it would vary with different prices and proportion used while making the price index in the range of Eurodollar and US Dollar, and cannot present equitable exchange rate; furthermore, because of imperfect current currency and commodity markets, and many unconsidered factors such as people’ incompletely anticipation and money illusion, most researches for validating RIP fail to find out its balanced parity relation.

Avec plus de 345 millions de tonnes de déchets produits en France en 2012, la performance de la chaîne logistique de collecte, transport et traitement de ces produits et matériaux est devenue un enjeu économique et écologique majeur dans notre société. Dans cette thèse, nous nous intéressons à l’optimisation de la chaîne de collecte et transport des déchets sur le plan tactique et opérationnel. Nous modélisons dans un premier temps un nouveau problème tactique d’optimisation de flux de déchets avec sites de transfert et de traitement sur un horizon mono-périodique puis multi-périodique, afin d’exploiter un réseau logistique existant de manière optimale. Nous résolvons différentes variantes de ce problème linéaire mixte à l’aide d’un solveur. Nous étudions dans un second temps la planification opérationnelle de la collecte de conteneurs d’apport volontaire et des tournées de véhicules associées en résolvant un problème riche de tournées avec gestion de stocks et plateformes de vidage intermédiaires. Nous proposons un modèle d’optimisation de ce nouveau problème et le résolvons par un algorithme à voisinages larges (ALNS) dans un cadre déterministe puis stochastique, dans lequel le remplissage des conteneurs est aléatoire et plus conforme à la réalité. Nous obtenons des résultats compétitifs en évaluant notre approche sur des instances de la littérature proches de notre problème riche. En réalisant un logiciel d’optimisation à destination d’une entreprise de collecte et transport de déchets, nous améliorons également de manière significative les tournées de véhicules en application réelle. / With more than 345 million tons produced in France in2012, waste supply chain management is an important economical and ecological issue for our society. In this thesis, we focus on optimizing waste supply chain on both the tactical and operational decision levels. In order to optimize an existing waste logistic network in medium term, we first solve a multimodal flow problem where products are transferred and transformed in sites of various size, in a mono-periodic then multi-periodic horizon. At an operational level, we study the planning and routing of vehicles used for voluntary drop-off waste container collection by solving a complex inventory routing problem with intermediate facilities. We use a large neighborhoods search metaheuristic to solve both the deterministic and stochastic approaches, where waste supply quantity is also subject to uncertainty. We obtain competitive results on instances coming from the literature on classical routing problems close to our rich case. We also develop an optimization software used by a French waste management company and significantly improve routes in a real application.

Le problème d’approvisionnement conjoint (JDP) proposé est un problème de planification des tournées de livraisons sur un horizon de temps décomposé en périodes élémentaires, l’horizon de temps étant la période commune de livraison de tous les produits,. La donnée de ces paramètres permet d’obtenir une formulation linéaire du problème, avec des variables de décision binaires. Le modèle intègre aussi des contraintes de satisfaction de la demande à partir des stocks et des quantités livrées, des contraintes sur les capacités de stockage et de transport.Afin de résoudre aussi le problème de choix des tournées de livraison, il est nécessaire d'introduire dans le modèle des contraintes et des variables liées aux sites visités au cours de chaque tour. Il est proposé de résoudre le problème en deux étapes. La première étape est le calcul hors ligne du coût minimal de la tournée associé à chaque sous-ensemble de sites. On peut observer que pour tout sous-ensemble donné de sites, le cycle hamiltonien optimal reliant ces sites à l'entrepôt peut être calculé à l'avance par un algorithme du problème du voyageur de commerce (TSP). Le but ici n'est pas d'analyser pleinement le TSP, mais plutôt d'intégrer sa solution dans la formulation de JRP. .Dans la deuxième étape, des variables binaires sont associées à chaque tour et à chaque période pour déterminer le sous-ensemble de sites choisi à chaque période et son coût fixe associé. / The proposed joint delivery problem (JDP) is a delivery tour planning problem on a time horizon decomposed into elementary periods or rounds, the time horizon being the common delivery period for all products. The data of these parameters provides a linear formulation of the problem, with binary decision variables. The model also incorporates the constraints of meeting demand from stock and the quantities supplied, storage and transport capacity constraints.In order to also solve the problem of choice of delivery rounds, it is necessary to introduce in the model several constraints and variables related to the sites visited during each round. It is proposed to solve the problem in two steps. The first step is the calculation of the minimum off-line cost of the tour associated with each subset of sites. One can observe that for any given subset of sites, the optimal Hamiltonian cycle linking those sites to the warehouse can be calculated in advance by a traveling salesman problem algorithm (TSP). The goal here is not to fully analyze the TSP, but rather to integrate its solution in the formulation of the JRP. In the second stage, binary variables are associated with each subset and each period to determine the selected subset of sites in each period and its associated fixed cost.

The oldest-old (people aged 80 or older) constituted 5 % of the population in Sweden in 2000, an increase from 1.5 % fifty years earlier. The immune system undergoes dramatic changes at high age, sometimes referred to as “immunosenescence”. However, the natures of these changes, and in particular, their clinical consequences are incompletely understood. In a previous longitudinal study, a set of immune parameters were identified and termed immune risk phenotype (IRP) because of an association with increased mortality. The IRP consists of changes in the T lymphocyte compartment, in particular an inverted CD4/CD8 ratio. The IRP was found to be associated with cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection, which through expansions of cytolytic anti-viral CD8 cell responses was ascribed a role in the development of IRP. The general aim of this thesis was to increase the knowledge of changes in the immune system and their clinical consequences in the oldest-old. The population-based random sample of the longitudinal NONA-Immune Study (n = 138, mean age 90 years at baseline) was used for all investigations. In paper I, the effects on sample size of various exclusion protocols for immune studies of the elderly was examined. The commonly used SENIEUR protocol, selecting individuals representing ‘normal ageing’, excluded 90 % of nonagenarians. Based on different protocol criteria, individuals were grouped into ‘very healthy’, ‘moderately healthy’ or ‘frail’. The prevalence of CMV was similar across the groups. Further, differentiated CD8 populations associated with CMV, i.e. those expressing CD56, CD57 and CD45RA while lacking expression of CD27 and CD28, were equally distributed across the groups of the oldest-old, but were, as expected, significantly increased in the elderly compared to a middle aged control group. The findings showed that lymphocyte subsets associated with IRP might serve as significant biomarkers of ageing independent of the overall health status, also supporting the notion that immunological studies of the oldest-old should be done in population-based non-selected populations. The IRP and the presence of low-grade inflammation, for example increase of   IL-6 in plasma, constitute major predictors of 2-year mortality in the oldest-old. In paper II, the CD4/CD8 ratio and IL-6 were found to predict 97 % of observed survival and 57 % of deaths over 2 years. The impact of IRP and IL-6 on 2-year survival was independent of age, sex and several diseases. The longitudinal design allowed temporal evaluations, suggesting a sequence of events starting with IRP and leading to inflammation in the decline state.                                      Four-year mortality in the oldest-old (paper III) was found to be mainly related to markers of inflammation and IRP. Individuals with both inverted CD4/CD8 ratio and high IL-6 level had significantly higher 4 year mortality (82 %) compared to individuals with CD4/CD8 ratio ³ 1 and low IL-6 level (29 %) at baseline. The presence of IRP and increased IL-6 level showed some associations with presence of diseases; in particular, IL6 was associated with the presence of cognitive impairment. However, despite being strong predictors of mortality, IRP and IL-6 could not be linked to any specific cause of death, probably due to the multi-factorial nature of these factors.                                                                                                                             The prevalence of antinuclear antibodies (ANA) in the oldest-old was higher compared to younger controls (paper IV). The difference across age was most pronounced in men, showing low levels at younger age, whereas the prevalence among the oldest-old men reached a similar level as in women. There was no association between the presence of ANA and IRP, CMV status or health status in the oldest-old.

The elimination of distribution inefficiencies, occurring due to the timing of customers' orders is an important reason for companies to introduce vendor managed inventory programs. By managing their customers' inventories, suppliers may be able to reduce demand variability and therefore distribution costs. We develop technology to measure the effectiveness of distribution strategies. We develop a methodology that allows the computation of tight lower bounds on the total mileage required to satisfy customer demand over a period of time. As a result, companies will be able to gain insight into the effectiveness of their distribution strategy. This technology can also be used to suggest desirable delivery patterns and to analyze tactical and strategic decisions. Secondly, we study the inventory routing problem with continuous moves (IRP-CM). The typical inventory routing problem deals with the repeated distribution of a single product, from a single facility, with an unlimited supply, to a set of customers that can all be reached with out-and-back trips. Unfortunately, this is not always the reality. We introduce the IRP-CM to study two important real-life complexities: limited product availabilities at facilities and customers that cannot be served using out-and-back tours. We need to design delivery tours spanning several days, covering huge geographic areas, and involving product pickups at different facilities. We develop a heuristic and an optimization algorithm to construct distribution plans. The heuristic is an innovative randomized greedy algorithm, which includes linear programming based postprocessing technology. To solve the IRP-CM to optimality, we give a time-discretized integer programming model and develop a branch-and-cut algorithm. As instances of time-discretized models tend to be large we discuss several possibilities for reducing the problem size. We introduce a set of valid inequalities, called delivery cover inequalities, in order to tighten the bounds given by the LP relaxation of the time-discretized model. We also introduce branching schemes exploiting the underlying structure of the IRP-CM. An extensive computational study demonstrates the effectiveness of the optimization algorithm. Finally, we present an integrated approach using heuristics and optimization algorithms providing effective and efficient technology for solving inventory problems with continuous moves.

The motivation for inception of this MSc. thesis which follows on from a term project of the same name was the transfer of the application for building private virtual OpenVPN networks from Windows XP operating system to Windows CE Embedded 6.0 platform. The project deals with virtual private networks in general and looks more closely at its implementation - OpenVPN. It also introduces the basic features of the Windows CE operating system. The project goes on to describe device drivers in NT-based Windows operating systems, the Windows Driver Model used, the NDIS network interface model and also the model of Windows CE drivers - the Stream Interface Model. The project continues with a~description of communication in OpenVPN application and primarily the role of TUN/TAP virtual network interfaces. This is followed by a proposal for transfer of TUN/TAP adapter drivers together with a description of limitations and necessary modifications between both platforms. As a result a TAP network device driver is implemented whose function is verified by test application that emulates the behaviour of a TUN adapter. The project concludes with an evaluation of the achieved results, the possibilities for further work on this theme and with the overall contribution of this project.