What is the role of a port? It is a place that handles ships and cargo with operational efficiency. For this reason, ports must be seen as elements in value-driven chain systems or in value chain constellations. They deliver value to shippers and to third party service providers; customer segmentation and targeting is on the basis of a clearly specified value for itself and for the chain in which it is embedded. Ports no longer operate in an insulated environment. They face the same competitive forces that companies in other industries experience. There is rivalry among existing competitors, continuing threat of new entrants, potential for global substitutes, presence of powerful customers and powerful supplies. Since the early 1980s, moves to rapidly liberalise trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) have strongly influenced policy makers in many developing countries in their thinking about this challenge. Openness to international market forces and competition was expected to allow those countries to alter both the pace and the pattern of their participation in international trade, thereby overcoming balance-ofpayments problems and accelerating growth, to catch up with industrial countries. Today, the Port of Durban is the clear African leader in total container throughput. In the world port league for 2000 established by Containerisation International Yearbook 2001, Durban was in 44th position. The Port of Durban is an important gateway with regards to general cargo flows especially since the port's goal is to become a hub port in the Southern Africa. It has great economic value for the city and the country at large. It can be seen that the poor economic and operational efficiency of the port leads to poor overall economic growth for the nation. It is therefore desirable to ensure that the terminal is always operating at optimum operating efficiency with the required infrastructure and capacity in place. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, 2003.

In recent years, society has begun to take a new view of its relations with the surrounding environment, and in particular has become aware of the need to ensure the sustainability of the oceans and their biodiversity. This concerns have also moved the scientific community to include aspects of environmental science and engineering in their curricula. This thesis links both the causes and effects of maritime transport with the necessary protection of marine resources aiming to justify a specific proposal that would allow the right balance between the needs of maritime transportation and the desired environmental protection of the Strait of Gibraltar and the Gulf of Cadiz. Recent studies show that the model of human activity in this area is hardly sustainable in the terms in which has occurred to date and conclude that continuing with the current rate of growth of these activities would result in environmental problems leading to decreased levels of quality of life and a weakness of the productive sectors. It has also been demonstrated that the effects of chronic discharges in areas adjacent to the Strait of Gibraltar are more damaging than large spills even though limited in time, as occurred in the aftermath of the Prestige accident. Shipping is one of those human activities that have an ongoing impact on the marine environment and is capable of generating acute risks of serious environmental and economic consequences to the region. For these reasons, other Spanish waters enjoy some degree of protection against threats arising from shipping: the Mediterranean Sea is a Special Area under MARPOL Convention; the Cantabrian Sea and the north-western Atlantic waters are part of the Western European PSSA; and the Canary Islands were also designated as PSSA were several protective measures have been implemented. The designation of a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA) represents a major advance in environmental protection that complements other existing conservation strategies. It is striking to note that despite the fact that the area subject to study supports one of the largest maritime traffic intensities of the planet and includes important spaces of environmental conservation - including UNESCO's Biosphere Reserves-, lacks an adequate level of protection to minimize the risks of marine pollution. In summary, this thesis studies the characteristics of the maritime area of the Strait of Gibraltar and the Gulf of Cadiz, as well as the levels of protection against the risks arising from shipping. A thorough analysis of the different options offered by international regulations to improve the aforementioned levels of protection leads to the conclusion that it would be appropriate to formally designate the area as a PSSA. Consequently, the dissertation postulates a detailed and definitive proposal for the designation of the PSSA STRAIT OF GIBRALTAR AND GULF OF CADIZ including various associated protective measures that could be implemented to improve safety of navigation, thus reducing the impact that maritime activities pose on the marine environment. The proposals put forward may also constitute a case study on how to combine science and engineering to achieve an environmental objective. In particular, Chapter 5 forms the basis for an eventual formulation of the proposed PSSA to the International Maritime Organization (IMO). Finally, the thesis provides lines of future research on further protection of the proposed PSSA. As a result, in addition to its value in the academic context, the work undertaken could materialize into concrete proposals that would contribute to the transfer of knowledge to the advantage of economic and social development through implementation of the academic research. This indeed contributes to the achievement of the UPC's own driven general strategies, as well as the enacted goals of the Campus of International Excellence of the Sea in the territorial context of the area covered by this thesis. / Esta tesis estudia las características del litoral y de las aguas marítimas de la zona del Estrecho de Gibraltar y Golfo de Cádiz, así como los niveles de protección frente a los riesgos derivados de la navegación y otras actividades marítimas en esa zona. Tras analizar detalladamente las diferentes opciones que ofrece la normativa internacional para mejorar los referidos niveles de protección, se concluye que resultaría adecuada la designación por parte de la Organización Marítima Internacional de esas aguas como Zona Marina Especialmente Sensible (ZMES) de acuerdo con las disposiciones del Convenio MARPOL. Consecuentemente, el trabajo personal de planteamiento de la tesis aporta una propuesta concreta para la designación de la ZMES del ESTRECHO DE GIBRALTAR Y GOLFO DE CÁDIZ que constituye el objeto principal de la tesis. Finalmente, a través de metodologías de selección de criterios, se diseña un sistema de ordenación de tráfico marítimo para la zona designada, que incluye distintas Medidas de Protección Asociadas que podrían implantarse para mejorar la eficiencia y los niveles de seguridad de la navegación reduciendo por tanto el impacto de las actividades marítimas sobre el medio marino

The movement of passengers, goods, and information has always been fundamental components of human societies. It is all related to transport costs as well as to the attributes of what is being transported. However, regulations, laws, and tariffs can influence transportability. Countries around the world have been changing their international trade policies by reducing both tariff and non-tariff barriers. Informal barriers hinder trade and the benefits of export, such as economic growth, that come with the achievement of trade liberalisation. It was found that the impact of transport costs on trade patterns has become an important study. Theoretical and empirical work in international trade only recently began considering the geography of exports as a possible explanation for high transport costs. For instance, factors such as distance, market size, scale economies, and agglomeration affect transportation costs around the world. Transport costs in South Africa are a relevant issue due to its geographical position. South Africa is situated far from its major trading partners. In addition, the majority of South African exports originate in Gauteng, which is around 600km from the nearest seaport. For South African exports to remain competitive, domestic transport costs must be reduced. One method of cutting costs is by connecting a container dry port with an intermodal transport system to the major seaports (namely Durban, Port Elizabeth, and Cape Town). The empirical study was conducted in the form an interview-based questionnaire. A total of 18 questions were asked to individuals at a terminal in Gauteng. The purpose of the questionnaire was to gather information on the service delivery of South African inland terminals. This led to the conclusion that City Deep functions well in terms of service delivery and provides extra services to both exporters and importers. Potential problems regarding City Deep's infrastructure were identified. It was found that train and truck congestion within City Deep is an everyday phenomenon. The existing infrastructure cannot handle the train and truck traffic entering City Deep. It was found that clients prefer road transportation to rail transportation, therefore, the amount of trucks entering and leaving City Deep causes congestion. This not only affects the infrastructure at City Deep, but also that of South Africa. More trucks on the roads exacerbate air pollution and road accidents, and overloaded trucks damage South African roads. / Thesis (M.Com. (Economics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

El clima se entiende, en general, como la descripción estadística de las condiciones medias y la variabilidad del mismo durante un determinado periodo de tiempo. En general, se denomina “clima marítimo” a la descripción estadística del oleaje en el océano en diversas escalas espaciales y temporales, principalmente a partir del análisis de ciertos estadísticos agregados. Esta tesis analiza la variabilidad global del clima marítimo en distintas escalas temporales. Las variaciones temporales de las condiciones tienen repercusiones de distinta índole en las costas del planeta, hasta ahora no contempladas en la práctica en muchas ocasiones. En esta tesis se ha desarrollado una nueva base de datos de oleaje global que permite abarcar el estudio de esta variabilidad. Apoyándose en un marco teórico de evaluación del riesgo, la variabilidad del clima marítimo se aplica a los riesgos de operación y supervivencia de la tecnología undimotriz dada la esperable modificación del recurso medio a largo-plazo y de las condiciones más extremas de oleaje en el planeta. Además, también se abordan los riesgos asociados a la erosión e inundación en las costas de América Latina y el Caribe, como caso particular.

The movement of passengers, goods, and information has always been fundamental components of human societies. It is all related to transport costs as well as to the attributes of what is being transported. However, regulations, laws, and tariffs can influence transportability. Countries around the world have been changing their international trade policies by reducing both tariff and non-tariff barriers. Informal barriers hinder trade and the benefits of export, such as economic growth, that come with the achievement of trade liberalisation. It was found that the impact of transport costs on trade patterns has become an important study. Theoretical and empirical work in international trade only recently began considering the geography of exports as a possible explanation for high transport costs. For instance, factors such as distance, market size, scale economies, and agglomeration affect transportation costs around the world. Transport costs in South Africa are a relevant issue due to its geographical position. South Africa is situated far from its major trading partners. In addition, the majority of South African exports originate in Gauteng, which is around 600km from the nearest seaport. For South African exports to remain competitive, domestic transport costs must be reduced. One method of cutting costs is by connecting a container dry port with an intermodal transport system to the major seaports (namely Durban, Port Elizabeth, and Cape Town). The empirical study was conducted in the form an interview-based questionnaire. A total of 18 questions were asked to individuals at a terminal in Gauteng. The purpose of the questionnaire was to gather information on the service delivery of South African inland terminals. This led to the conclusion that City Deep functions well in terms of service delivery and provides extra services to both exporters and importers. Potential problems regarding City Deep's infrastructure were identified. It was found that train and truck congestion within City Deep is an everyday phenomenon. The existing infrastructure cannot handle the train and truck traffic entering City Deep. It was found that clients prefer road transportation to rail transportation, therefore, the amount of trucks entering and leaving City Deep causes congestion. This not only affects the infrastructure at City Deep, but also that of South Africa. More trucks on the roads exacerbate air pollution and road accidents, and overloaded trucks damage South African roads. / Thesis (M.Com. (Economics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

In modern integrated circuits, electrostatic discharge (ESD) is a major problem that influences the reliability of operation, yield and cost of fabrication. ESD discharge events can generate static voltages beyond a few kilo volts. If these voltages are dissipated in the chip, high electric field and high current are generated and will destroy the gate oxide material or melt the metal interconnects. In order to protect the chip from these unexpected ESD events, special protection devices are designed and connect to each pin of the IC for this purpose. With the scaling of nano-metric processing technologies, the ESD design window has become more critical. That leaves little room for designers to maneuver. A good ESD protection device must have superior current sinking ability and also does not affect the normal operation of the IC. The two main categories of ESD devices are snapback and non-snapback ones. Non-snapback designs usually consist of forward biased diode strings with properties, such as low heat and power, high current carrying ability. Snapback devices use MOSFET and silicon controlled rectifier (SCR). They exploit avalanche breakdown to conduct current. In order to investigate the properties of various devices, they need to be modeled in device simulators. That process begins with realizing a technology specific NMOS and PMOS in the device simulators. The MOSFET process parameters are exported to build ESD structures. Then, by inserting ESD devices into different simulation test-benches, such as human-body model or charged-device model, their performance is evaluated through a series of figures of merit, which include peak current, voltage overshoot, capacitance, latch-up immunity and current dissipation time. A successful design can sink a large amount of current within an extremely short duration, while it should demonstrate a low voltage overshoot and capacitance. In this research work, an inter-weaving diode and SCR hybrid device demonstrated its effectiveness against tight ESD test standards is shown.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed August 7, 2007). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 203-220).

Greifswald, Phil. Diss. v. 26. Juli 1937.

No ambiente corporativo, assim como no portuário, as mudanças são necessárias, pois os clientes estão cada vez mais informados e exigentes nas suas escolhas. Desta forma, as mudanças podem ocorrer por meio de ações inovadoras e sustentáveis, que também irão forçar os sistemas de gestão nos portos, a obterem maiores índices de eficiência e de produtividade, que serão fatores de diferenciação entre os portos. Neste sentido, a questão da pesquisa foi: quais as inovações, no âmbito da gestão ambiental, desenvolvidas no Porto do Rio Grande, segundo as dimensões do Manual de Oslo? Por consequência, o objetivo geral desta pesquisa foi identificar as inovações desenvolvidas no Porto do Rio Grande, segundo as dimensões do Manual de Oslo, relacionadas com a gestão ambiental. Em relação às características metodológicas, o trabalho tem como estratégia de pesquisa, o estudo de um caso, no qual a coleta de dados foi realizada por meio de entrevistas em profundidade, baseada em um roteiro pré-estabelecido, aplicada a uma população de trinta gestores do porto. O problema foi abordado sob dois focos: o primeiro na fase qualitativa, em que se pretendeu identificar, por meio da técnica de análise de conteúdo, através das entrevistas e, também, com aplicação do questionário, quais eram as inovações que ocorreram na área ambiental, nos últimos três anos, segundo Manual de Oslo, no Porto do Rio Grande. A fase quantitativa foi composta de três etapas, quando se pretendeu: i) verificar a percepção dos gestores sobre as ações que caracterizam a gestão ambiental do porto, relacionadas com os requisitos de avaliação da gestão ambiental, propostos pela Agência Nacional de Transportes Aquaviários (ANTAQ); ii) averiguar quais os dados de identificação do perfil profissional dos gestores, que influenciaram no surgimento das inovações, que ocorreram no porto; e iii) analisar se as possíveis inovações relacionam-se com os requisitos de avaliação da gestão ambiental, propostos pela ANTAQ. Foram identificadas como resultado, quarenta e cinco inovações, sendo estas, classificadas de acordo com o Manual de Oslo em: 02 inovações de produto; 14 inovações de processo; 05 inovações de marketing; e 24 inovações organizacionais. Destacando que no porto mais de 90% dos gestores percebem de forma positiva: a importância das questões ambientais para o seu setor; algum conhecimento em relação ao monitoramento ambiental, desenvolvido pelo porto; que para efetivar a gestão ambiental é necessária a integração e colaboração de todos os setores, e; que o seu setor é relevante para o programa de educação ambiental. Por outro lado, parte dos entrevistados relata a falta de indicadores ambientais, que poderiam servir como instrumento de auxilio para avaliar o desempenho do setor. Entre as variáveis do perfil profissional analisadas, destaca-se a relação do vínculo empregatício e da formação acadêmica, como características que apresentaram uma correlação significativa com o número de inovações identificadas na população. Por fim, constata-se que o Porto do Rio Grande vem desenvolvendo uma série de inovações, que contribuem para as questões ambientais, refletindo de uma forma geral na sociedade. / Submitted by Marcelo Teixeira (mvteixeira@ucs.br) on 2014-05-06T13:12:31Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Cristiane Gularte Quintana.pdf: 2767097 bytes, checksum: f8f067aff44f2bf7599abf5d4c063cac (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-05-06T13:12:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Cristiane Gularte Quintana.pdf: 2767097 bytes, checksum: f8f067aff44f2bf7599abf5d4c063cac (MD5) / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul / In the corporate environment, as well as the port, changes are necessary because clients are increasingly informed and demanding for their choices. Thus, changes may occur through innovative and sustainable actions, which will also force management systems in ports, to obtain better indexes of efficiency and productivity, which are distinguishing factors among ports. In this sense, the research question was: which are the innovations established in the Port of Rio Grande, according to the scope of the Oslo Protocol, on environmental management? Consequently, the objective of this research was to identify the innovations promoted at the Port of Rio Grande, according to the dimensions of the Oslo Protocol, related to environmental management. Regarding the methodological characteristics, the research strategy was a case study in which the data collection was conducted through in-depth interviews, based on a pre-established procedure, applied to a population of thirty managers of the Port. The problem was approached under two emphases: during the qualitative phase, it was aimed to identify, through interviews with the questionnaire, what were the innovations that have occurred in the environmental are at the Port of Rio Grande in the last three years, according to the Oslo Protocol, through the content analysis approach. The quantitative phase consisted of three stages, which was intended to: i) verify the perception of managers about the actions that characterize the environmental management of the Port, related to the assessment requirements of the environmental management proposed by the National Agency of Waterway Transportation (ANTAQ), ii) identify which were the identification data of the professional profile of the managers who influenced the emergence of innovations that occurred at the Port, and iii) determine whether the possible innovations relate to the assessment requirements of the environmental management of medium term proposed by ANTAQ. As a result, forty-five innovations were identified. According to the Oslo Protocol, they were classified as: product innovations (02), process innovations (14); marketing innovations (05), and organizational innovations (24). It is worth noting that more than 90% of managers of the Port positively perceive the importance of environmental issues for their sector; some knowledge regarding the environmental monitoring carried out by the Port; that to implement environmental management at the port it is necessary integration and collaboration of all sectors; and, that their sector is relevant to the environmental education program. On the other hand, some respondents reported a lack of environmental indicators that could serve as a tool for helping to assess the performance of the sector. Among the variables of the professional profile analysed, employment and academic training showed a significant correlation with the number of innovations identified in the population. Finally, it appears that the Port of Rio Grande has developed a number of innovations in its various sectors, that contribute to environmental issues, which will benefit the society as a whole.

L’Objectif de cette thèse est de développeré une théorie de l’identification spécifique pour les systèmes Hamiltonien à ports. Les raisons principales pour motiver cette théorie résident dans les propriétés remarquables de ces systèmes, notamment leur structure de Dirac et sa stabilité par interconnexion conservative de puissance (e.g. parallèle, séries ou feedback). Dans la première partie, les systèmes Hamiltoniens sont analysés en ce qui concerne leur identifiabilité structurelle, par par analyse de leur observabilité/commandabilité, par tests directs, par l’analyse en série de puissance de leur fonction de transfert ou par une nouvelle approche énergétique d’analyse d’une identifiabilité spécifique associée à un port. Dans la partie suivante, des modèles de perturbation par port d’interaction sont introduits et permettent l’analyse de l’identifiabilité « pratique » des systèmes hamiltoniens à ports. Le quatrième chapitre présente des schémas de discrétisation en temps qui préserve les bilans de puissance et d’énergie et leur application sur des exemples de système hamiltoniens à ports linéaires et non linéaires. L’erreur de discrétisation est analysée en introduisant la notion de représentation hamiltonienne de l’erreur de discrétisation. Dans la dernière partie de cette thèse, une approche d’identification dans l’espace d’état est développée pour les systèmes obtenus par discrétisation symplectique des systèmes hamiltoniens à ports. Les cas déterministe est analysé et une approche énergétique basée sur les résultats d’identifiabilité structurelle développé dans la première partie est proposée. Enfin, dans la dernière partie, les contributions du travail sont rappelées et quelques perspectives pour des travaux futurs sont présentées. / The objective of this thesis is to develop a specific identification theory for Port Controlled Hamiltonian (PCH) systems. The main reasons to develop this theory comes from their remarkable properties like power conservation and stability under power preserving interconnection (e.g. parallel, series or feedback interconnections). In a first part PCH systems are analysed for structural identifiability using some classical or new techniques: observability/controllability identifiability, direct test, power series expansion or a new power energy approach, defining also a new concept of port identifiability. Further it is proposed a perturbation model by means of the interaction port together with a practical identifiability analysis realized using the controllability and observability concepts. The fourth part presents a new framework for time-discretization of PCH systems in the nonlinear or linear case, by combined discretization of the flows and efforts preserving in the same time their characteristic properties. Also in this part it is proposed a discretization error Hamiltonian to distinguish the continuous-time PCH system from the discrete-time one. The fifth part of the thesis makes an analysis of PCH systems identifiability using the subspace identification approach in the deterministic case, proposing also a new power energy approach in direct connection with the structural identifiability results. In the end are presented the main conclusions, personal contributions and perspectives for future work.