Introduction: In recent years there has been a marked upsurge in the output of literature dealing with the demand for money, but with the exception of the North American Continent, empirical research has lagged distressingly far behind the voluminous output of theory. This dearth of empirical results has had a restrictive influence. Since any of the controversial points which are being disputed by theoreticians can only be resolved by recourse to empirical methods. The restriction of empirical research to the North American Continent has further meant that the various points under dispute have had only a limited qualification and consequently monetary theorists have had no indication as to the universalizability of their conclusions. There is thus a great need for empirical studies in other countries so that the validity of the rival theories can be tested under different conditions. It was with these thoughts in mind that the present study was undertaken. Its objectives are strictly national and no pretense of strict international comparability is made. Further, great care has been taken to avoid the pitfall so beloved of econometricians, the fallacy of reduction wherein strictly limited results are uncritically universalized. Thus no attempt has been made to draw conclusions which will have universal validity. The theoretically vital points which are going to be examined in the light of South African experience are: 1. The feasibility of distinguishing idle from active balances, and if this proves possible, the determination of the wealth and interest elasticities of these balances; 2. Dropping the explicit distinction between idle and active balances to (a) determine the role of interest rates, (b) determine the appropriate constraint on the demand function, (c) determine what effect different definitions of money have on (a) and (b); 3. To examine the stability of the demand function over time. Truth is, of course, many-sided and any uniform presentation can only aspire to present a one-sided picture, just like a photograph cannot hope to do justice to the full grandeur of nature, merely presenting a one-dimensional representation of a many dimensioned object. In spite of this restriction which is inherent in all econometrical studies, this one-sided picture seems to be justified in view of the lack of any unified and coherent treatment of the demand for money in South Africa.

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Industrial and Systems Engineering / unrestricted

This dissertation presents the design, analysis, and validation of a hierarchical transactive control system that engages demand response resources to enhance the integration of renewable electricity generation resources. This control system joins energy, capacity and regulation markets together in a unified homeostatic and economically efficient electricity operation that increases total surplus while improving reliability and decreasing carbon emissions from fossil-based generation resources. The work encompasses: (1) the derivation of a short-term demand response model suitable for transactive control systems and its validation with field demonstration data; (2) an aggregate load model that enables effective control of large populations of thermal loads using a new type of thermostat (discrete time with zero deadband); (3) a methodology for optimally controlling response to frequency deviations while tracking schedule area exports in areas that have high penetration of both intermittent renewable resources and fast-acting demand response; and (4) the development of a system-wide (continental interconnection) scale strategy for optimal power trajectory and resource dispatch based on a shift from primarily energy cost-based approach to a primarily ramping cost-based one. The results show that multi-layer transactive control systems can be constructed, will enhance renewable resource utilization, and will operate in a coordinated manner with bulk power systems that include both regions with and without organized power markets. Estimates of Western Electric Coordinating Council (WECC) system cost savings under target renewable energy generation levels resulting from the proposed system exceed US$150B annually by the year 2024, when compared to the existing control system. / Graduate

Distance based vehicle insurance (sometimes know as “Pay as you drive,” “Pay by the mile” or “Pay per-km” insurance) has long been advocated by transportation planners as a transportation demand management (TDM) strategy. In addition to reducing congestion and greenhouse gas emissions, it also has the potential to meet a number of planning goals, such as health and equity improvements. Despite the wide interest in and predicted benefits of distance based insurance, there is little consensus on the detailed design of a system that could be implemented. Five main distance based pricing schemes have been proposed: a flat per-km rate, temporal or “time of day” pricing, road-type pricing, demographic pricing and “differential” pricing, which prices low mileages at a higher per-km rate. Each of these systems treats risk differently and thus results in different cross-subsidies between drivers. The proposal’s design thus has implications for an insurance system’s fairness and equity. This report examines the distribution of crash risk across time, across space, and across the different demographic groups. It then compares the current annual insurance system’s treatment of risk with that of various proposals for distance based insurance. It evaluates each proposal, considering its treatment of risk and its potential for increasing fairness and equity of costs and of mobility. It also examines each proposal’s other impacts, such as effectiveness in maintaining privacy and in reducing health impacts, greenhouse gas emissions and congestion. The recommended model is a flat per-km rate. Each driver would pay the same rate for every kilometer driven, regardless of time or place. However, individual drivers’ per-km rates would vary, depending on current insurance rating factors, such as residential location, type of car and driving record. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

The climate change is driving a change in technology and promotes intermittent electricity; solar and wind, and also promotes new technology such as electrical vehicles. The increased share of intermittent  power and changed patterns of using power causes large strain on the powergrids during critical hours of the year. The system The Eergimarknadsinspektionen as well as the European transmission system operators are therefore requesting that electricity users adapt their power consumption to when power is generated. This is rather opposite to the present situation where the TSO’s respond to the customers demand by increasing their power generation. This new change of customers adapting to the current power available is called Demand response (DR). The thesis investigates drivers, barriers and potential for demand response within the engineering industry. It is based on interviews with representatives from enginering industries, system operators as well as a case study on Volvo Group Trucks Operations Powertrain Production in Köping. The potential is also determined through a simulation carried out in collaboration with Johan Norberg, a masterstudent at the Royal Technical Highschool. The conclusion states that it is possible for Volvo Pwertrain to participate in DR events, however the economical compensation identified in this thesis is not enough.

The main aim is to analyze and describe the situation of the demand for badminton in Czech Republic and to verify if this demand is increasing or decreasing. Furthermore to think about which instruments would help to develop the demand for badminton. Some perspective for the future is the development of marketing activities. The opportunities for sports marketing I will try to present at a practical example of the SPORT INVEST Marketing company stands for the currently best Czech badminton player.

One aim of this thesis is to provide an overview of technological, economic and legal aspects of the distribution of audiovisual content over internet and other IP networks. This thesis will provide introduction to most widely used compression methods of digital audio and video, transmission methods and protocols. Another aim is to create a case study that deals with selecting the best solution for a commercial project of Video On Demand server. This objective is achieved by applying methods of multi-criteria evaluation of options based on theoretical analysis of distribution solutions. The secondary aim is to determine the total cost of ownership of the different options by using the methodology of TCO (Total Cost of ownership). This thesis also provides a comparison with the solution based on purely non-commercial focus.

The thesis Management of logistics and processes in L'Oréal Czech Republic is in its theoretical part devoted to the description of functioning, principles and trends in Supply Chain Management with emphasis on the processes of demand forecasting and stock management. These learnings are in the practical part applied on the case of L'Oréal Czech Republic. The thesis goes in more detail into the processes and links between the individual parts of the supply chain in the company and a value stream map is shown for a particular division of the firm. More detailed attention is put on identification of weak points particularly in the forecasting methods and the use of out of stock analysis in practice.

The main objective of the thesis is to present SaaS business intelligence as a set of concepts and methods aimed at improvement of business decision making process based on Software as a Service model. To understand this, it's important to describe first general principles, on which are based conventional so-called on-premises solutions and the means how they work. It's also necessary to present Software as a Service as today's very popular software deployment model. Further objective is the description of these solutions, introduction of their strengths, weaknesses and guidelines how to choose a suitable service provider. Final objective of the thesis is to compare these two different methods of BI tools deployment, in that case on-premises and on-demand and to sketch out means, following them will be possible to decide for one of the methods.

With the ageing population in Sweden and the need for more working hours among older workers as background, this essay analyses labour demand for older workers. More precisely it tries to find a connection in employer perceptions of certain character traits for older contra younger workers and the propensity to hire older workers. Using a newly conducted survey sent out to Swedish establishments, this study finds two character traits where negative perceptions have an extra negative effect on hiring: creativity and endurance. Unfortunately, there is a presence of low t-statistics throughout the results which calls for further research on the subject. As a secondary objective, this study also briefly looks at the previously unexplored subject of how the age of an establishment affects labour demand. Results for this points to a small effect but in these results, there are also cases of low statistical significance.