Correct understanding of passive force behavior is particularly key to lateral evaluations of bridges because plastic deformation of soil backfill is vital to dissipation of earthquake energy and thermally-induced stresses in abutments. Only recently have studies investigated the effects of skew on passive force. Numerical modeling and a handful of skewed abutment tests performed in sand backfill have found reduced passive force with increasing skew, but previous to this study no skewed tests had been performed in gravel or Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil (GRS) backfills. The goal of this study was to better understand passive force behavior in non-skewed and skewed abutments with gravel and GRS backfills. Prior to this study, passive pressures in a GRS integrated approach had not been investigated. Gravel backfills also lack extensive passive force tests.Large-scale testing was performed with non-skewed and 30° skewed abutment configurations. Two tests were performed at each skew angle, one with unconfined gravel backfill and one with GRS backfill, for a total of four tests. The test abutment backwall was 11 ft (3.35 m) wide, non-skewed, and 5.5 ft (1.68 m) high and loaded laterally into the backfill. However, due to actuator loading constraints, all tests except the non-skewed unconfined gravel test were performed to a backfill height of 3.5 ft (1.07 m). The passive force results for the unconfined gravel test was scaled to a 3.5 ft (1.07 m) height for comparison.Test results in both sets of backfills confirmed previous findings that there is significant reduction in passive force with skewed abutment configurations. The reduction factor was 0.58 for the gravel backfill and 0.63 for the GRS backfill, compared to the predicted reduction factor of 0.53 for a 30° skew. These results are within the scatter of previous skewed testing, but could indicate that slightly higher reduction factors may be applicable for gravel backfills. Both backfills exhibited greater passive strength than sand backfills due to increased internal friction angle and unit weight. The GRS backfill had reduced initial stiffness and only reached 79% to 87% of the passive force developed by the unreinforced gravel backfill. This reduction was considered to be a result of reduced interface friction due to the geotextile. Additionally, the GRS behaved more linearly than unreinforced soil. This backfill elasticity is favorable in the GRS-Integrated Bridge System (GRS-IBS) abutment configuration because it allows thermal movement without developing excessive induced stresses in the bridge superstructure.

The effects of seismic forces and thermal expansion on bridge performance necessitate an accurate understanding of the relationship between passive force and backwall deflection. In past case studies, skewed bridges exhibited significantly more damage than non-skewed bridges. These findings prompted studies involving numerical modeling, lab-scale tests, and large-scale tests that each showed a dramatic reduction in passive force with increased skew. Using these results, a correlation was developed between peak passive force and backwall skew angle. The majority of these tests had length to height ratios of 2.0; however, for several abutments in the field, the length to height ratio might be considerably higher than 2.0. This change in geometry could potentially affect the validity of the previously found passive force reduction correlation. To explore this issue, laterally loaded, large-scale pile cap tests were performed with densely compacted sand at a length of 11 ft (3.35 m) and a height of 3 ft (0.91 m), resulting in a length to height ratio of 3.7. The backwall interface was adjusted to fit three various skew angles including: 0°, 15° and 30°. The behavior of both the pile cap and adjacent soil backfill were monitored under these conditions. The peak passive force for the 15° and 30° tests were found to be 71% and 45%, respectively, of the peak passive force for the 0° skew test. These findings are relatively consistent with previously performed tests. Passive forces peaked at deflections between 2% and 5% of the backwall height, decreasing with skew angle. All skews exhibited a log spiral failure plane that transitioned into a linear plane. These results also agreed with previously reported values for large-scale passive force-deflection tests. Rotation of the pile cap was detected in the direction opposite to the skew. Higher pressures were found to be on both corners of the pile cap than in the middle portion, as is suggested by the elastic theory.

Background. The need for innovation is clear since it can be viewed as one of the few lasting sources of competitive advantages for a firm. Firms with large sub-organisations need to be able to manage and execute new changes effectively, and to be able to stay competitive the firm needs to change and be more innovative. Innovation is a big factor in economic prosperity. In addition to economic development, an innovative process affects other aspects of an organisation and may even create new markets. The process, if correctly implemented and used, creates a more sustainable internal environment. Objectives. This research aims to evaluate a proposed innovation process, investigate how a sub-organisation with already set ways of working can implement a new innovation process, what factors may affect the implementation and what engages and motivates the employees within the sub-organisation. What is it that makes the change hard for some and what needs to be done for them to feel motivated and engaged. Methods. In this thesis we did a case study at a software firm which is divided into large-scale global sub-organisations. We used interviews in a chosen sample group, a survey was sent out to the whole sub-organisation, and a literature review and benchmarking were conducted. The data analysis was to categorise the answers and compile the data. Results. The proposed process is well thought through, and it is based on design thinking and agile principles. Implementation of an innovation process requires a strategic plan, and the findings were Kotter’s 8 steps which is a change model. Time is the biggest obstacle for employees. The factor that motivates and encourages the employees the most is to create value for the firm where they work and to be recognised. Gamification is a type of tool that can help engage the employees. Conclusions. For a large firm it may be beneficial to have a strategy to allocate time to innovation. An innovation process needs to have clear instructions and it should be iterative since many firms work in an agile way it needs to be able to fit into the organisation type. A multinational large firm requires a fixed strategy when wanting to implement a new process and a strategy for change and engaging the employees is one possible way to execute and manage change and innovation effectively. / Bakgrund. Behovet av innovation är tydligt, eftersom det kan ses som en av de få bestående källorna till konkurrensfördelar för företag. Företag med stora sub-organisationer måste kunna hantera och genomföra nya förändringar på ett effektivt sätt, och för att förbli konkurrenskraftiga måste företaget förändras och bli mer innovativa. Innovation är en stor faktor för ekonomiskt välstånd. %Förutom ekonomisk utveckling påverkar en innovativ process andra aspekter av en organisation och kan till och med skapa nya marknader. Processen, om den är korrekt implementerad och använd, skapar en mer hållbar intern miljö. Syfte. Denna forskning syftar till att utvärdera en föreslagen innovationsprocess som gavs av företaget där studien gjordes. Undersöka hur en underorganisation med redan fastställda arbetssätt kan implementera en ny innovationsprocess, och vilka faktorer som kan påverka implementeringarna och vad som engagerar och motiverar medarbetarna i underorganisationen. %Vad är det som gör förändringen svår för vissa och vad behöver göras för att de ska känna sig motiverade och engagerade. Metod. En fallstudie gjordes på ett mjukvaruföretag som är uppdelat i storskaliga globala underorganisationer. Vi använde intervjuer från en vald urvalsgrupp, en enkät skickades ut till hela underorganisationen och en litteraturgenomgång och benchmarking gjordes. Dataanalysen innebar att kategorisera och sammanställa data. Resultat. Resultaten visade att även om stora mjukvaruföretag arbetar med innovation så görs det inte effektivt. Den föreslagna processen är genomtänkt, den kräver tydliga instruktioner och färdiga mallar för att medarbetarna ska kunna arbeta med processen. För att implementera en ny process behöver ledningen engagera medarbetarna och för att det ska ske kan ett gamification-verktyg vara fördelaktigt. Slutsatser. Den största blockeraren idag för innovation är bristen på tid, det kan vara fördelaktigt att ha en strategi för att avsätta tid till innovation. En innovationsprocess behöver ha tydliga instruktioner, den bör vara iterativ eftersom många företag arbetar på ett agilt sätt och den bör kunna passa in i organisationstypen. Att implementera en ny process kräver en strategi för förändring och engagera medarbetarna är ett möjligt sätt för att företaget ska kunna göra det effektivt.

Meeting electricity demand and power shortage remains as a challenge to the people of the Gambia. As the country is undergoing tremendous electricity accessibility expansion [1], to secure the environment for the future generation, it is necessary to consider renewable energy to be the major source of electricity production, to be specific, solar energy. This is because the country experiences the radiation from the sun throughout the year, it is sustainable not only to our environment for the future generations, but also economically. However, due to the intermittent nature of most renewable energy technologies, it is cumbersome to rely on them 100 % as a primary source of electricity production. Nonetheless, with suitable storage technologies, combination of different renewable sources, and intercountry grid connections can enhance to overcome this challenge. In this thesis work, designed and techno economic evaluation was carried out for high PV penetration that will meet 50 % electricity demand of the Gambia in year 2040. Three scenarios were considered in this study, based on the Strategic Electricity Roadmap 2020 to 2040 [1]. These scenarios are high, universal access (AU), and low electricity demand. Economically, 50 % electricity supply to meet the demand is possible for all the three cases. Consideration was mainly put on four key figures, thus, levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), payback period (PBP), net present cost (NPC) and solar fraction (SF). To achieve 50 % SF for the high electricity demand scenario, LCOE and PBP are 0.129 $/kWh and 12 years respectively. As for AU electricity demand case, 50 % SF is achieved with 0.126 $/kWh and 10 years for LCOE and PBP respectively. For low electricity demand scenario, 0.127 $/kWh and 10 years for LCOE and PBP respectively for 50 % SF. However, the optimum design recommended by HomerPro were 45 % SF with LCOE of 0.126 $/kWh and PBP of 9 years for high electricity demand scenario. As for the AU electricity demand case, the optimum design is 48 % SF, LCOE of 0.125 $/kWh, and PBP of 9 years. In the last scenario, which is low electricity demand case, 46 % SF, 0.124 $/kWh LCOE, and 9 years PBP.

Yes / Because of the recent worldwide construction expansion, new roads and buildings may be constructed over already existing buried infrastructures e.g. buried utility pipes, leading to excessive loads threatening their stability and longevity. Limited research studies are available to assess the effect of geogrid reinforcing layers inclusion on mitigating the additional stresses on buried structures due to cyclic loadings. In this research, large-scale fully instrumented laboratory tests were conducted to investigate the behaviour of flexible High-Density Polyethylene pipes (HDPE), in unreinforced and geogrid-reinforced sand, subjected to incrementally increasing cyclic loading, e.g. due to different vehicles capacities or load increase with passing time. Results illustrated that deformation rate in pipe and footing, strain generation rate in pipe and reinforcing layers are rapidly increased in the initial loading cycles, in particular during the first 300 cycles, and then the rate of change decreases significantly, as more cycles are applied. In the unreinforced case, increasing the pipe burial depth significantly reduced the generated deformation and strain in the pipe; however, it has a situational effect on the footing settlement, where it increased after pipe burial depth to its diameter ratio (H/D) of 2.5. In reinforced cases, deformation and strain significantly reduced with the increase in pipe burial depth and number of reinforcing layers. Measurement of strain illustrated that strain generated in the lower reinforcing layer is always higher than that recorded in the upper one, regardless pipe burial depth and value of applied load.

The contemporary phenomenon of the global rush for farmland has generated intense debate from different actors. While the proponents embrace it as a "development opportunity", the critics dub it "land grabbing". Others use a neutral term: "arge-scale land acquisitions". Whatever terminology is used, one fact remains indisputable - since 2007 vast swathes of farmlands in developing countries have been sold or leased out to large-scale commercial farmers. Ethiopia is one of the leading countries in Africa in this regard and, as a matter of state policy, it promotes these investments in peripheral regions that are predominantly inhabited by pastoralists and other indigenous communities. So far, the focus of most of the studies on this phenomenon has been on its economic, food security and environmental aspects. The questions of land rights and political implications have been to a great extent overlooked. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to this knowledge gap by drawing upon the experience of the Gambella regional state - the epicentre of large-scale land acquisition in Ethiopia. To this end, this thesis argues that large-scale land acquisitions in Ethiopia is indeed redefining indigenous communities' right to land, territories and natural resources in fundamental ways. By doing so, it also threatens the post-1991 social contract - i.e. ethnic federalism - between the envisaged new Ethiopian state and its diverse communities, particularly the peripheral minorities and indigenous ethnic groups. / Church Development Service (EED) now ¿Brot für Die Welt¿

Skewed bridges have exhibited poorer performance during lateral earthquake loading in comparison to non-skewed bridges (Apirakvorapinit et al. 2012; Elnashai et al. 2010). Results from numerical modeling by Shamsabadi et al. (2006), small-scale laboratory tests by Rollins and Jessee (2012), and several large-scale tests performed by Rollins et al. at Brigham Young University (Franke 2013; Marsh 2013; Palmer 2013; Smith 2014; Frederickson 2015) led to the proposal of a reduction curve used to determine a passive force skew reduction factor depending on abutment skew angle (Shamsabadi and Rollins 2014). In all previous tests, a uniform longitudinal load has been applied to the simulated bridge abutment. During seismic events, however, it is unlikely that bridge abutments would experience pure longitudinal loading. Rather, an inclined loading situation would be expected, causing rotation of the abutment backwall into the backfill. In this study, a large-scale test was performed where inclined loading was applied to a 30° skewed bridge abutment with sand backfill and compared to a baseline test with uniform loading and a non-skewed abutment. The impact of rotational force on the passive resistance of the backfill and the skew adjust factor was then evaluated. It was determined that inclined loading does not have a significant effect on the passive force skew reduction factor. However, the reduction factor was somewhat higher than predicted by the proposed reduction curve from Shamsabadi and Rollins 2014. This can be explained by a reduction in the effective skew angle caused by the friction between the side walls and the back wall. The inclined loading did not change the amount of movement required to mobilize passive resistance with ultimate passive force developing for displacements equal to 3 to 6% of the wall height. The rotation of the pile cap due to inclined loading produced higher earth pressure on the obtuse side of the skew wedge, as was expected.These findings largely resolve the concern that inclined loading situations during an earthquake may render the proposed passive force skew reduction curve invalid. We suggest that the proposed reduction curve remains accurate during inclined loading and should be implemented in current codes and practices to properly account for skew angle in bridge design.

Skewed bridges have exhibited poorer performance during lateral earthquake loading in comparison to non-skewed bridges (Apirakvorapinit et al. 2012; Elnashai et al. 2010). Results from numerical modeling by Shamsabadi et al. (2006), small-scale laboratory tests by Rollins and Jessee (2012), and several large-scale tests performed by Rollins et al. at Brigham Young University (Franke 2013; Marsh 2013; Palmer 2013; Smith 2014; Frederickson 2015) led to the proposal of a reduction curve used to determine a passive force skew reduction factor depending on abutment skew angle (Shamsabadi and Rollins 2014). In all previous tests, a uniform longitudinal load has been applied to the simulated bridge abutment. During seismic events, however, it is unlikely that bridge abutments would experience pure longitudinal loading. Rather, an inclined loading situation would be expected, causing rotation of the abutment backwall into the backfill. In this study, a large-scale test was performed where inclined loading was applied to a 30 skewed bridge abutment with sand backfill and compared to a baseline test with uniform loading and a non-skewed abutment. The impact of rotational force on the passive resistance of the backfill and the skew adjust factor was then evaluated. It was determined that inclined loading does not have a significant effect on the passive force skew reduction factor. However, the reduction factor was somewhat higher than predicted by the proposed reduction curve from Shamsabadi and Rollins 2014. This can be explained by a reduction in the effective skew angle caused by the friction between the side walls and the back wall. The inclined loading did not change the amount of movement required to mobilize passive resistance with ultimate passive force developing for displacements equal to 3 to 6% of the wall height. The rotation of the pile cap due to inclined loading produced higher earth pressure on the obtuse side of the skew wedge, as was expected.These findings largely resolve the concern that inclined loading situations during an earthquake may render the proposed passive force skew reduction curve invalid. We suggest that the proposed reduction curve remains accurate during inclined loading and should be implemented in current codes and practices to properly account for skew angle in bridge design.

Background: The Scaled Agile Framework®(SAFe) has been adopted by many automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) for scaling their agile practices. It is one of the ways to improve and accelerate their in-house software development life cycle. Most OEMs have tailored the agile framework to fit their own needs. However, with the increasing complexity of vehicles, especially in terms of embedded software and hardware development, agile release trains (ARTs) face challenges in managing requirements throughout the vehicle development life cycle. Multiple teams working on requirements, consistency of requirements, collaboration, prioritization of requirements between teams, and changing requirements are some of the challenges faced by the SAFe practicing organizations. Objectives: This thesis examines how the requirements engineering within SAFe has been practiced inone of the automotive OEMs, and the challenges its agile release trains face. It addresses the real problems of practical interest and real-life context by interacting with the teams who have been closely working with the requirements daily. It also accumulates the impacts due to the identified challenges. Methods: This study utilizes a case study methodology, which is flexible in design, exploratory, andqualitative. This choice of research method is influenced by the scope of the study, research questions, and the degree of interaction required between us and the participants to collect the data. By conducting semi-structured interviews, a large quality of data isproduced by having a higher level of interaction with participants. The collected data is then probed for newer and unexpected responses using a thematic approach, which helps to identify patterns and themes using large and complex data. Results: This thesis summarizes the requirement engineering practices and challenges faced by theagile release trains in SAFe practicing automotive industry. We approached the agile teams directly and collected the organizational and stakeholder behavior while working with therequirements and the challenges faced. Using intrinsic data analysis, the gathered interview data is understood, and the implications are listed. This study reemphasizes that agile release trains were facing many challenges, especially in the requirements engineeringarea even though the Scaled Agile Framework is practiced. Knowledge gaps, incompleteand misunderstood customer requirements, ineffective communication, fragmented tooling, inadequate management support, and inconsistent requirement engineering practiceare some of the challenges highlighted by the agile release trains.

<p dir="ltr">Girder ends of steel bridges can be corrosion damaged due to deicing salts, water, and other contaminants leaking from deck expansion joints. When the corrosion becomes significant, it can decrease the sectional properties of end steel girders and eventually reduce structural resistance against bearing and shear. Conventional methods that are typically used to repair corrosion-damaged girders require a substantial amount of time and resources to complete and often cause public inconvenience due to traffic lane closure. Therefore, there is a need for practical, rapid, and robust repair methods that can be implemented by maintenance personnel of a local Department of Transportation (DOT).</p><p dir="ltr">In this study, five innovative repair methods for corroded steel girders were evaluated through a selection process called the House of Quality Matrix, a commonly used tool in the consumer product industry. After completing the evaluation and additional numerical simulations, the "Sandwich Panel" repair method was selected for further investigation. The main concept of the proposed "Sandwich Panel" repair method is the encasement of the corroded region with a filler material reinforced by threaded rods. Two thin steel plates installed on both girder sides serve as stay-in-place formwork, expediting the installation process. This repair method eliminates labor-intensive steps of jacking, welding, and formwork disassembly, making it more cost-effective and less time-consuming.</p><p dir="ltr">The structural performance of the method was evaluated experimentally by conducting seven large-scale tests. Various test parameters were considered in the tests, including i) threaded rod layout, ii) filler material, and iii) support condition. The test specimens were corrosion-damaged steel girders from decommissioned highway bridges in Indiana. The experimental results indicate that the method is effective enough to recover the girder's original design strength. The experimental evaluation was followed by a numerical parametric study using finite element models benchmarked using the experimental results. Detailed design guidelines and recommendations were developed based on the experimental and numerical results.</p>