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Societal and environmental challenges present challenges for our current industrial systems. In order to respond to these difficulties, various alternative systems have been suggested, as they promise sustainability and increased societal quality of life enabled by innovative technologies. These future solutions hold the capacity to solve problems by unlocking considerable business potential. However, the journey to the forthcoming era will bring dramatic changes, not only to the success of incumbent industrial stakeholders but also to their very existence. The upcoming changes are impregnated with hazards to current business models of successful organizations. So, one may ask what impact future technologies may have on the realms that industrial actors live in? To disentangle the complexity of the unknowns, multitudes of collaborative efforts in protected spaces have emerged globally to experiment with potential systems on the road to sociotechnical transitions. The transport sector is undergoing efforts towards transitions to future sustainable systems. This sector has a special focus when it comes to sustainability challenges due to its substantial economic and environmental impact.  Bus systems are at the heart of this challenge due to the central role they play in urban mobility. Hence, different fuels and charging technologies for buses have been tested in pilot projects to facilitate the march towards sustainability; electric charging is one of the promising technologies, which achieve this aim. However, current business models of incumbent transport stakeholders seem to be problematic, and changes to facilitate the transitions seem to be complex. Extant literature indicates a critical role of business models under sociotechnical transitions. Theoretically, there is an underlying need for incumbents to change their business models to reap the benefits of innovative technologies. However, this change is difficult and potential business models are far from clear. With that, the dynamics of business models under transition remains as an underexplored area, and the challenge to incumbent business models poses itself as an interesting area to gauge. Under this umbrella, a question arises regarding how the pressure on incumbent business models interacts with systemic innovations. This thesis is a case study of an incumbent bus operator participating in a pilot project on a future bus system. The case study is in-depth in nature and investigates the potential business model of a bus operator in a multiple stakeholder pilot project, which tests an inductive electric hybrid bus. With a strong empirical exploratory nature, this thesis is built on an “insider” single case study that occurred in the year 2016-2017. The focus of the study is on the pressure on bus operator business model in the face of systemic innovation. The findings reveal positive future value proposition, disrupted value creation, and unclear value capture in the potential business model of the operator. Moreover, the findings show lock-in and resource dependence situation of the operator’s current business model. The lock-in of the business model hinder the transition to future sociotechnical bus system and makes it difficult to commercialize the new technology. The outcome of this thesis speaks to a significant influence of history and the regulator, manifested by rules on the future of business models of commercial incumbent stakeholders. This demonstrates lock-in may prove to be a major impediment, and that unchained and flexible business model of incumbents is critical for further continuation of successful shifts. Given these findings, this thesis suggests applying the business model lens to pilot projects for sustainability. This would aid in better comprehending how current business models may facilitate or hinder favorable transitions. This knowledge informs both managerial decisions and policy making, especially when it comes to resource optimization and investment decisions. / <p>QC 20190416</p> / Wireless Bus Stop Charging

The transportation sector is a key carbon emitter, and e-mobility is becoming increasingly recognised around the globe to address climate change, biodiversity loss and societal challenges. In Sri Lanka, e-mobility is identified as a major alternative option that emerged while combating the economic crisis. This paper explores potential pathways to integrate e-mobility into the Colombo Metropolitan Area (CMA) through understanding 'What hinders this e-mobility transition?' and 'How to accelerate it?'. The study applied a combination of transition studies, including MLP, Path dependency and, lock-ins and transition management theories, followed by the mixed-methods approach to analysing the complexities created along the co-evolution of socio-technical systems and to suggest potential pathways. The findings show that historical influences and diverse configuration elements hinder the capabilities of emerging e-mobility novelties by locking society in a private vehicle-dominating regime. A holistic and integrated approach is necessary to overcome the identified challenges and to achieve a sustainable e-mobility transition.

Rapid diagnostic tests for COVID-19, influenza, and blood analytes currently have many drawbacks. They vary greatly in accuracy, are expensive to manufacture, and can be insufficiently sensitive to small antigen loads. Leucine lock is designed to rectify these issues that exist in current rapid diagnostics by creating a rapid antigen test with minimal background activity, tunable sensitivity, and low manufacturing cost. Leucine lock consists of a novel leucine zipper containing an intramolecular hairpin, an ScFv antigen binding domain, and a fluorophore reporter in a FRET combination. By altering the number of hydrophobic and electrostatic mismatches in the intramolecular hairpin, as well as utilizing either a three or four heptad repeat in the hairpin, our results show that the rate of recombination can be controlled. We chose a construct with an appropriate rate of recombination and designed a rapid test for insulin. We show that the test can determine the presence or absence of insulin, and with further optimization can be used to directly quantify insulin levels.

Affordability of products and services is an economic benefit that should accrue to consumers, whether they are corporations, government agencies or individuals. This concept of affordability goes beyond conventional wisdom that considers affordability as the ability to pay the price of a product or service. This dissertation defines and explores a broader concept of affordability – one of fitness to perform at the level of quality required by the consumer, to perform at that level whenever the product or service is used, and to do so with minimum consumption of resources. This concept of affordability is applied to technological systems by using the complexity sciences concept of fitness as the metaphor for technological systems' fitness. During a system design evolution, the specific design outcome is determined by that set of design search paths followed – it is path dependent. Dynamic mechanisms create, dictate and maintain path dependence. Initial conditions define the start and direction of a path. During subsequent design steps, positive feedback influences the designer to continue on that path. This dissertation describes underlying mechanisms that create, dictate and maintain path dependence; discusses the effects of path dependence on system design and system affordability; models these effects using system dynamics modeling; and suggests actions to address its effects. This dissertation also addresses several types of fitness landscapes, and suggests that the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) solution space is a form of fitness landscape suitable for evaluating the efficiency, and thus the fitness, of research and development (R&D) projects. It describes the use of DEA to evaluate and select Department of Defense (D0D) R&D projects as a new application of DEA. / Ph. D.

My dissertation consists of two papers, one in the area of investment and the second in the area of corporate finance. The first paper examines robustness of momentum returns in the US stock market over the period 1965 to 2012. We find that momentum profits have become insignificant since the late 1990s partially driven by pronounced increase in the volatility of momentum profits in the last 14 years. Investigations of momentum profits in high and low volatility months address the concerns about unprecedented levels of market volatility in this period rendering momentum strategy unprofitable. Past returns, can no longer explain the cross-sectional variation in stock returns, even following up markets. We suggest three possible explanations for the declining momentum profits that involve uncovering of the anomaly by investors, decline in the risk premium on a macroeconomic factor, growth rate in industrial production in particular and relative improvement in market efficiency. We study the impact of venture capital funds' (VC) liquidity concerns on the timing and outcome of their portfolio firms' exit events. We find that VC funds approaching the end of their lifespan are more likely to exit during cold exit market conditions. Such late exits are also less likely to be via initial public offerings (IPO). A one standard deviation increase in the age of a VC fund at the time of the exit event is associated with a 5 percentage points decline in the probability of an IPO vs. a trade sale from an unconditional probability of roughly 30%. Several tests indicate that the decline in IPOs with VC fund age is not caused by lower portfolio firm quality. Focusing on the aftermath of IPOs, VC-backed firms experience significantly larger trading volume and lower stock returns around lock-up expirations if they are backed by older funds, and this lock-up effect is amplified if there are multiple VC firms approaching the end of their lifespan. Altogether, our results suggest that the exit process is strongly influenced by VCs' liquidity considerations. / Ph. D.

Linewidth is a measure of the frequency stability of any kind of oscillator, and it is a defining characteristic of coherent lasers. Narrow linewidth laser technology, particularly in the field of fiber-based infrared lasers, has progressed to the point where highly stable sources are commercially available with linewidths on the order of 1-100 kHz. In order to achieve a higher level of stability, the laser must be augmented by an external frequency stabilization system. This paper presents the design and operation of a frequency locking system for infrared fiber lasers. Using the Pound-Drever-Hall technique, the system significantly reduces the linewidth of an input laser with an un-stabilized linewidth of 2 kHz. It uses a high-finesse Fabry-Perot cavity, which is mechanically and thermally isolated, as a frequency reference to measure the time-varying frequency of the input laser. An electronic feedback loop works to correct the frequency error and maintain constant optical power. Testing has proven the Pound-Drever-Hall system to be highly stable and capable of operating continuously for several seconds at a time. / Master of Science

Québec Université Laval, Bibliothèque 2012

Cette étude a pour objectif de contribuer à la réflexion sur la pertinence, pour les syndicats, de s'éloigner des moyens de pression traditionnels que sont la grève et le piquetage au profit de moyens alternatifs. Plus spécifiquement, ce mémoire porte sur la création, par les travailleurs du Journal de Québec, du journal gratuit Média Matin Québec et sur les impacts qu'il a pu avoir sur la puissance en négociation de la partie syndicale lors du conflit de travail avec Québecor Média en 2007. Afin d'y parvenir, nous avons procéder à l'étude du conflit à chacune des étapes, de la fin de l'ancienne convention de collective jusqu'à la signature de la nouvelle. Nous avons pu suivre les répercussions de la création de ce média gratuit qui se positionnait à la fois comme un moyen de pression pour les travailleurs, mais aussi comme un compétiteur direct de l'employeur afin de faire revenir à la table des négociations. Les résultats de ce mémoire montrent que le moyen de pression syndical n'aura pas trouvé son efficacité durant le conflit de travail en tant qu'arme offensive vis-à-vis l'employeur, mais plutôt comme moyen d'occupation des travailleurs leur permettant de poursuivre le conflit pendant plus de 16 mois. Cette recherche confirme que des moyens de pression dits défensifs et d'occupation peuvent s'avérer pertinents pour la puissance en négociation de la partie syndicale lorsque celle-ci est confrontée à un employeur ayant les ressources (autant matérielles que financière) pour poursuivre la production même en cas de grève ou de lock-out.