World sea levels are rising because of increasing levels of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere. This report aims to describe and analyze how the small, low-lying and vulnerable country of Singapore is planning for sea level rise (SLR). The ministries, authorities, agencies, secretariats etc. that are working with SLR questions are identified and the most important environmental documents with or without SLR are also studied. University and government researchers as well as other government personnel are contacted and asked questions in relation to SLR. The interview process was difficult because some people have signed agreements with the government that restrict them from participating in any activities. Planning for SLR is discussed from different points of view and numbers of possible sea levels are also discussed. Mostly they follow IPCC projections and they often refer to the assessment report 4 (AR4) where SLR is estimated to 0.18-0.59 m by 2100. They rarely refer to IPCC’s assessment report 5 (AR5), since the research for Singapore’s environmental documents was conducted before the release of AR5. The IPCC levels are mean sea levels and it is argued by one governmental researcher who is part of the study that these levels are not sufficient for planning purposes as it is the sea level extremes that are important to plan for. Seasonal wind, tides, waves and other factors all interact to affect sea level extremes at any particular location. Singapore is located in a particularly complex region and is therefore a complex country to plan for. The report concludes that Singapore needs a better strategy to share information, and authorities need to show their results in relation to SLR, and pass on their knowledge. This will help the whole world to reduce their impact and together, make it possible to create a sustainable world, minimizing climate change effects on Earth.

No description available.

The purpose of this research is to define which instruments with their characteristics exist to mitigate the communication issues in modern software development as well as the exact issues that emerge during software architecture design with their characteristics and validity. A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) is used as a major method of the research. Also, this thesis presents the vision of an ideal tool as well as an attempt to approbate the findings from the SLR in a small surrogate project of the ‘Battleship’ game while applying usual non-functional requirements from highly-collaborative industry projects. Additionally, we make the emphasis on simplicity and ease of use of the tools as well as the importance of the popularisation and promotion of both found and future tools to facilitate verification and adoption in the industry. The most popular Agile approaches (Scrum, Kanban, Extreme Programming, DevOps) do not specify, how these aspects of planning and documentation have to be managed and there are no existing additional widely-used and accepted tools for this purpose. In this work, a significant amount of attention is paid to the verification of the found tools in practice with feedback. For the tools which are not verified in practice, this work does a comparison against the vision of an ideal tool to understand. This helps to understand whether the given tool can be quickly adopted in practice, if further research is continued, or whether certain changes are required. Unfortunately, this work cannot present any existing tools which conform to our vision and are popularised, heavily verified in practice or relatively widely used in the industry. The closest solutions found were introduced in two industry papers concentrating on repurposing the existing Agile practices to mitigate the planning and documentation issues. During an SLR, a few tools were found, which we believe can be relatively easily taken to verification in practice or promoted to be used in industry on an everyday basis. However, we admit that further research of the found tools, which do not satisfy our requirements, can be used to reevaluate them in future to check for the desired properties again. Furthermore, we define a roadmap for future research for both the search for a tool and the development of a new instrument.

No description available.

Globale terrestrische Referenzsysteme und deren Realisierungen, die sogenannten Referenzrahmen, sind die Grundlage für die Beschreibung der Figur der Erde und ihrer Orientierung im Weltraum sowie für die Referenzierung von Vorgängen auf der Erdoberfläche und im nahen Umfeld der Erde. Die Realisierung des Internationalen Terrestrischen Referenzsystems ist eine der zentralen Aufgaben der Geodäsie. Sie erfolgt durch Kombination von Beobachtungsdaten geodätischer Raumbeobachtungsverfahren. Besondere Bedeutung kommen dabei dem Verfahren der Interferometrie auf sehr langen Basislinien, der Laserentfernungsmessung zu Satelliten sowie dem Globalen Positionierungssystem zu. Jedes dieser Verfahren weist besondere Stärken bei der Bestimmung geodätischer Parameter auf und trägt wesentlich zur Realisierung des Referenzsystems bei. In dieser Arbeit werden Methoden zur Berechnung einer zeitabhängigen und einer zeitunabhängigen Realisierung aus den Beobachtungen der genannten Verfahren entwickelt. Beide Ansätze basieren auf der Kombination bedingungsfreier Normalgleichungen, die aus der homogenen Auswertung der Beobachtungen resultierenden. Diese Vorgehensweise kann als gute Approximation der direkten Kombination der Beobachtungen angesehen werden, die bisher nicht erfolgreich umgesetzt werden konnte. Vom Internationalen Erdrotations- und Referenzsystemdienst (IERS) werden Referenzrahmen basierend auf zeitlich hochaufgelösten Eingangsdaten berechnet. Für die jüngste Lösung des IERS, den ITRF2005, wurden Stationskoordinaten und Erdrotationsparameter (Polkoordinaten und UT1-UTC) erstmalig konsistent ausgeglichen. Entsprechend diesem IERS-Standard werden auch in dieser Arbeit Eingangsdaten mit einer zeitlichen Auflösung von einem Tag beziehungsweise einer Woche verwendet. Zusätzlich zu den genannten Parametern werden Nutations- und bei der zeitunabhängigen Realisierung Troposphärenparameter berücksichtigt. Die zeitabhängige und die zeitunabhängige Realisierung unterscheiden sich hinsichtlich des Zeitraums, aus welchem Beobachtungen berücksichtigt werden und damit hinsichtlich ihrer Parametrisierung, ihres Informationsgehalts, ihres Gültigkeitsbereichs und ihrer Genauigkeit. Es werden spezifische Kombinationsmodelle entwickelt, die diese Eigenschaften berücksichtigen. Da sich Beobachtungen verschiedener Raumbeobachtungsverfahren in aller Regel nicht auf gemeinsame Referenzpunkte beziehen, müssen zur Kombination der Stationsnetze Differenzvektoren zwischen dicht beieinander liegenden Referenzpunkten verschiedener Verfahren eingeführt werden. Die gemessenen Differenzvektoren weisen teilweise große Diskrepanzen zu den Koordinatendifferenzen auf, die aus den Raumbeobachtungsverfahren bestimmt werden. Deshalb müssen geeignete gemessene Differenzvektoren für die Kombination ausgewählt werden. Zwei Kriterien werden für die Auswahl formuliert: Die Konsistenz der kombinierten Lösung soll maximal sein, und die Geometrie der verfahrensspezifischen Stationsnetze soll in der Kombination erhalten bleiben. Zur Quantifizierung der Konsistenz werden die Polkoordinaten herangezogen. Es wird gezeigt, dass diese sich in ihrer Eigenschaft als globale Parameter, die aus allen genannten Beobachtungsverfahren geschätzt werden können, hervorragend zur Beurteilung der Konsistenz eignen. Für beide Realisierungen wird nachgewiesen, dass die Kombination der verschiedenen Beobachtungsverfahren für die Mehrzahl der Parameter zu einer Genauigkeitssteigerung im Vergleich zu den verfahrensspezifischen Lösungen führt. Für einige der Parameter wird eine Verbesserung von 10\% und mehr erreicht. Es wird eine Methode zur Kombination von Troposphärenparametern entwickelt und für die Realisierung des zeitunabhängigen Referenzrahmens getestet. Die Kombination der Troposphärenparameter führt zu einer weiteren Verbesserung der Genauigkeit der kombinierten Lösung. Eine Gegenüberstellung des zeitabhängigen und des zeitunabhängigen Referenzrahmens zeigen die unterschiedlichen Potentiale beider Lösungen. Anhand der Ergebnisse der Arbeit werden Empfehlungen zur Verbesserung öffentlich bereitgestellter Kombinationsprodukte formuliert. Hervorzuheben ist dabei, dass die Kombination der Beobachtungsverfahren auf der Ebene der Normalgleichungen oder - wenn möglich - auf Ebene der Beobachtungsgleichungen durchgeführt werden sollte, und dass die speziellen Eigenschaften der Parameter im Kombinationsprozess besser genutzt werden sollten. / Global terrestrial reference systems and their realizations, the so called reference frames, are fundamental for the description of the Earth's shape and its orientation in space and for referencing changes on the Earth's surface and its planetary environment. The Realization of the International Terrestrial Reference System is one of the main tasks of geodesy. It is achieved by the combination of observation data of different space geodetic techniques. The most important techniques are the Very Long Baseline Interferometry, Satellite Laser Ranging and the Global Positioning System. Each of these techniques has individual strengths with respect to the estimation of geodetic parameters and contributes significantly to the realization of the terrestrial reference system. In this thesis methods are developed, which allow for the realization of a time-dependent as well as for a time-independent reference frame from space observation data. Both methods are based on the combination of free normal equations which result from the homogeneous analysis of the different observation types. This approach is a good approximation for the direct combination of observations, which has not yet been implemented successfully. The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) computes reference frames from input data with high temporal resolution. For the most recent solution, the ITRF2005, station coordinates and Earth rotation parameters (pole coordinates and UT1-UTC) were estimated consistently for the first time. In analogy to the IERS standards, input data with daily and weekly resolution are used in this work. In addition to the above mentioned parameters, nutation and troposphere parameters are considered. The time-dependent and the time-independent reference frame are based on observation data of different time spans (two years and one day respectively). Consequently, they are characterised by a different parameterisation and show discrepancies with respect to information content, validity, and accuracy. This requires the development of individual combination models for both realizations. Usually, observations of different space geodetic techniques do not refer to a common reference point. Neighbouring reference points of different techniques are combined by introducing terrestrial difference vectors. In some cases the comparison of the terrestrial difference vectors and the coordinate differences computed from the solutions of the space geodetic techniques show large discrepancies. Thus, the selection of difference vectors which are suitable for the combination is essential. Two criteria for the selection are formulated: The consistency of the combined solution shall be maximal and the geometry of the technique specific station networks shall not be changed by the combination. The consistency is quantified on the basis of the pole coordinates. It is demonstrated, that the pole coordinates are qualified to describe the consistency, since they are global parameters that can be estimated from the observations of all techniques. For both realizations it is shown, that the combination leads to an improvement of accuracy for most of the parameters compared to the technique specific solutions. For some parameters an improvement of 10\% or more is achieved. Additionally, a method for the combination of troposphere parameters is developed and tested for the computation of the time-independent reference frame. The computation of the troposphere parameters leads to a further increase of the accuracy of the combined solution. The comparison of the time-dependent and the time-independent reference frame discloses the individual potentials of both frames. Based on the results, recommendations for the improvement of official combination products are formulated. The most important suggestions are, that the combination of space geodetic techniques shall be performed on the level of normal equations, or if possible on the level of observations. Furthermore, the individual characteristics of the parameters should be used more effectively in the combination process.

Globale terrestrische Referenzsysteme und deren Realisierungen, die sogenannten Referenzrahmen, sind die Grundlage für die Beschreibung der Figur der Erde und ihrer Orientierung im Weltraum sowie für die Referenzierung von Vorgängen auf der Erdoberfläche und im nahen Umfeld der Erde. Die Realisierung des Internationalen Terrestrischen Referenzsystems ist eine der zentralen Aufgaben der Geodäsie. Sie erfolgt durch Kombination von Beobachtungsdaten geodätischer Raumbeobachtungsverfahren. Besondere Bedeutung kommen dabei dem Verfahren der Interferometrie auf sehr langen Basislinien, der Laserentfernungsmessung zu Satelliten sowie dem Globalen Positionierungssystem zu. Jedes dieser Verfahren weist besondere Stärken bei der Bestimmung geodätischer Parameter auf und trägt wesentlich zur Realisierung des Referenzsystems bei. In dieser Arbeit werden Methoden zur Berechnung einer zeitabhängigen und einer zeitunabhängigen Realisierung aus den Beobachtungen der genannten Verfahren entwickelt. Beide Ansätze basieren auf der Kombination bedingungsfreier Normalgleichungen, die aus der homogenen Auswertung der Beobachtungen resultierenden. Diese Vorgehensweise kann als gute Approximation der direkten Kombination der Beobachtungen angesehen werden, die bisher nicht erfolgreich umgesetzt werden konnte. Vom Internationalen Erdrotations- und Referenzsystemdienst (IERS) werden Referenzrahmen basierend auf zeitlich hochaufgelösten Eingangsdaten berechnet. Für die jüngste Lösung des IERS, den ITRF2005, wurden Stationskoordinaten und Erdrotationsparameter (Polkoordinaten und UT1-UTC) erstmalig konsistent ausgeglichen. Entsprechend diesem IERS-Standard werden auch in dieser Arbeit Eingangsdaten mit einer zeitlichen Auflösung von einem Tag beziehungsweise einer Woche verwendet. Zusätzlich zu den genannten Parametern werden Nutations- und bei der zeitunabhängigen Realisierung Troposphärenparameter berücksichtigt. Die zeitabhängige und die zeitunabhängige Realisierung unterscheiden sich hinsichtlich des Zeitraums, aus welchem Beobachtungen berücksichtigt werden und damit hinsichtlich ihrer Parametrisierung, ihres Informationsgehalts, ihres Gültigkeitsbereichs und ihrer Genauigkeit. Es werden spezifische Kombinationsmodelle entwickelt, die diese Eigenschaften berücksichtigen. Da sich Beobachtungen verschiedener Raumbeobachtungsverfahren in aller Regel nicht auf gemeinsame Referenzpunkte beziehen, müssen zur Kombination der Stationsnetze Differenzvektoren zwischen dicht beieinander liegenden Referenzpunkten verschiedener Verfahren eingeführt werden. Die gemessenen Differenzvektoren weisen teilweise große Diskrepanzen zu den Koordinatendifferenzen auf, die aus den Raumbeobachtungsverfahren bestimmt werden. Deshalb müssen geeignete gemessene Differenzvektoren für die Kombination ausgewählt werden. Zwei Kriterien werden für die Auswahl formuliert: Die Konsistenz der kombinierten Lösung soll maximal sein, und die Geometrie der verfahrensspezifischen Stationsnetze soll in der Kombination erhalten bleiben. Zur Quantifizierung der Konsistenz werden die Polkoordinaten herangezogen. Es wird gezeigt, dass diese sich in ihrer Eigenschaft als globale Parameter, die aus allen genannten Beobachtungsverfahren geschätzt werden können, hervorragend zur Beurteilung der Konsistenz eignen. Für beide Realisierungen wird nachgewiesen, dass die Kombination der verschiedenen Beobachtungsverfahren für die Mehrzahl der Parameter zu einer Genauigkeitssteigerung im Vergleich zu den verfahrensspezifischen Lösungen führt. Für einige der Parameter wird eine Verbesserung von 10\% und mehr erreicht. Es wird eine Methode zur Kombination von Troposphärenparametern entwickelt und für die Realisierung des zeitunabhängigen Referenzrahmens getestet. Die Kombination der Troposphärenparameter führt zu einer weiteren Verbesserung der Genauigkeit der kombinierten Lösung. Eine Gegenüberstellung des zeitabhängigen und des zeitunabhängigen Referenzrahmens zeigen die unterschiedlichen Potentiale beider Lösungen. Anhand der Ergebnisse der Arbeit werden Empfehlungen zur Verbesserung öffentlich bereitgestellter Kombinationsprodukte formuliert. Hervorzuheben ist dabei, dass die Kombination der Beobachtungsverfahren auf der Ebene der Normalgleichungen oder - wenn möglich - auf Ebene der Beobachtungsgleichungen durchgeführt werden sollte, und dass die speziellen Eigenschaften der Parameter im Kombinationsprozess besser genutzt werden sollten. / Global terrestrial reference systems and their realizations, the so called reference frames, are fundamental for the description of the Earth's shape and its orientation in space and for referencing changes on the Earth's surface and its planetary environment. The Realization of the International Terrestrial Reference System is one of the main tasks of geodesy. It is achieved by the combination of observation data of different space geodetic techniques. The most important techniques are the Very Long Baseline Interferometry, Satellite Laser Ranging and the Global Positioning System. Each of these techniques has individual strengths with respect to the estimation of geodetic parameters and contributes significantly to the realization of the terrestrial reference system. In this thesis methods are developed, which allow for the realization of a time-dependent as well as for a time-independent reference frame from space observation data. Both methods are based on the combination of free normal equations which result from the homogeneous analysis of the different observation types. This approach is a good approximation for the direct combination of observations, which has not yet been implemented successfully. The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) computes reference frames from input data with high temporal resolution. For the most recent solution, the ITRF2005, station coordinates and Earth rotation parameters (pole coordinates and UT1-UTC) were estimated consistently for the first time. In analogy to the IERS standards, input data with daily and weekly resolution are used in this work. In addition to the above mentioned parameters, nutation and troposphere parameters are considered. The time-dependent and the time-independent reference frame are based on observation data of different time spans (two years and one day respectively). Consequently, they are characterised by a different parameterisation and show discrepancies with respect to information content, validity, and accuracy. This requires the development of individual combination models for both realizations. Usually, observations of different space geodetic techniques do not refer to a common reference point. Neighbouring reference points of different techniques are combined by introducing terrestrial difference vectors. In some cases the comparison of the terrestrial difference vectors and the coordinate differences computed from the solutions of the space geodetic techniques show large discrepancies. Thus, the selection of difference vectors which are suitable for the combination is essential. Two criteria for the selection are formulated: The consistency of the combined solution shall be maximal and the geometry of the technique specific station networks shall not be changed by the combination. The consistency is quantified on the basis of the pole coordinates. It is demonstrated, that the pole coordinates are qualified to describe the consistency, since they are global parameters that can be estimated from the observations of all techniques. For both realizations it is shown, that the combination leads to an improvement of accuracy for most of the parameters compared to the technique specific solutions. For some parameters an improvement of 10\% or more is achieved. Additionally, a method for the combination of troposphere parameters is developed and tested for the computation of the time-independent reference frame. The computation of the troposphere parameters leads to a further increase of the accuracy of the combined solution. The comparison of the time-dependent and the time-independent reference frame discloses the individual potentials of both frames. Based on the results, recommendations for the improvement of official combination products are formulated. The most important suggestions are, that the combination of space geodetic techniques shall be performed on the level of normal equations, or if possible on the level of observations. Furthermore, the individual characteristics of the parameters should be used more effectively in the combination process.

The purpose of this thesis was to determine the extent of sea level rise (SLR) impact on sea turtle nesting beach habitat on Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) as well as impacts on management strategies. The Archie Carr NWR is of exceptional importance due to the high density of Loggerhead, Leatherback, and Green sea turtles that nest there in the summer months. GIS data provided by the Archie Carr NWR and various SLR scenarios, provided by both the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as well as leading scholars, were used to determine inundation area loss across the Refuge as well as nearby parcels targeted for possible acquisition. Inundation losses for the six scenarios were calculated to be in the 20-25% range. Approximately 26% of current lower priority parcels are reclassified as high priority when integrating this information. Therefore, a significant revision to future acquisition strategies is recommended.

The use of Internet-of-Things (IoT) makes it possible to inter-connect Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) into a completely new system. This convergence is often known as Industrial IoT (IIoT). IIoT brings a lot of benefits to industrial assets, such as improved efficiency and productivity, reduced cost, and depletion of human error. However, the high inter-connectivity opens new possibilities for cyber incidents. These incidents can cause major damage like halting of production on the manufacturing line, or catastrophic havoc to companies, communities, and countries causing power outages, floods, and fuel shortages. Such incidents are important to be predicted, stopped, or alleviated at no cost. Moreover, these incidents are a great motive for researchers and practitioners to investigate known security problems and find potential moderation strategies.  In this thesis work, we try to identify what types of IIoT systems have been investigated in the literature. We seek out to find if software-related issues can yield security problems. Also, we make an effort to perceive what are the proposed methods to mitigate the security threats.We employ the systematic literature review (SLR) methodology to collect this information. The results are gathered from papers published in the last five years and they show an increased interest in research in this domain. We find out software vulnerabilities are a concern for IIoT systems, mainly firmware vulnerabilities and buffer overflows, and there are a lot of likely attacks that can cause damage, mostly injection and DDoS attacks. There are a lot of different solutions which offer the possibility to stop the identified problems and we summarize them. Furthermore, the research gap considering the update process in these systems and devices, as well as a problem with the unsupervised software supply chain is identified.

This thesis aims to bring an understanding to the silicon carbide (SiC) bipolar junction transistor (BJT). SiC power devices are superior to the silicon IGBT in several ways. They are for instance, able to operate with higher efficiency, at higher frequencies, and at higher junction temperatures. From a system point of view the SiC power device could decrease the cost and complexity of cooling, reduce the size and weight of the system, and enable the system to endure harsher environments. The three main SiC power device designs are discussed with a focus on the BJT. The SiC BJT is compared to the SiC junction field-effect transistor (JFET) and the metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET). The potential of employing SiC power devices in applications, ranging from induction heating to high-voltage direct current (HVDC), is presented. The theory behind the state-of-the-art dual-source (2SRC) base driver that was presented by Rabkowski et al. a few years ago is described. This concept of proportional base drivers is introduced with a focus on the discretized proportional base drivers (DPBD). By implementing the DPBD concept and building a prototype it is shown that the steady-state consumption of the base driver can be reduced considerably.  The aspects of the reverse conduction of the SiC BJT are presented. It is shown to be of importance to consider the reduced voltage drop over the base-emitter junction. Last the impact of SiC unipolar and bipolar devices in series-resonant (SLR) converters is presented. Two full-bridges are designed and constructed, one with SiC MOSFETs utilizing the body diode for reverse conduction during the dead-time, and the second with SiC BJTs with anti-parallel SiC Schottky diodes. It is found that the SiC power devices, with their absence of tail current, are ideal devices to fully utilize the soft-switching properties that the SLR converters offer. The SiC MOSFET benefits from its possibility to utilize reverse conduction with a low voltage drop. It is also found that the size of capacitance of the snubbers can be reduced compare to state-of-the-art silicon technology. High switching frequencies of 200 kHz are possible while still keeping the losses low. A dead-time control strategy for each device is presented. The dual control (DuC) algorithm is tested with the SiC devices and compared to frequency modulation (FM). The analytical investigations presented in this thesis are confirmed by experimental results on several laboratory prototype converters. / <p>QC 20150529</p>

The introduction of the use of Tire Pressure Control Systems (TPCS) to improve the productivity of the Canadian trucking industry is gaining momentum. The imposition of seasonal load restrictions (SLR) on the thaw-weakened secondary roads interrupts the transportation of raw materials to processing facilities For the forestry industry in particular, this has very significant impacts on productivity and costs. FPInnovations-Feric Division (Feric) has investigated the potential for TPCS-equipped trucks to travel with full, legal loading during the SLR period without accelerating road wear and tear. The TPCS monitors and adjusts the inflation pressure of the trucks’ tires while driving and allows the operator to optimize the inflations for changes in loading, travel speed, or road quality encountered in the trip. This thesis describes an investigation to determine whether TPCS can be used to mitigate traffic generated damage to secondary roads and also reduce the need to implement load restrictions. The project involves a partnership with the Ontario Ministry of Transportation Ontario (MTO), Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada (FERIC), Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) and the Centre for Pavement and Transportation Technology (CPATT) located at the University of Waterloo. The thesis will describe the methodology, design, and instrumentation of the two test sites which are located in Dryden, Ontario and Chapleau, Ontario. In addition, repeated Portable Falling Weight Deflectometer (PFWD) testing is being carried out at these sites and the initial results of this examination and associated impacts of the environment and traffic on the road will be presented. This study also involves looking into the reliability of using the portable FWD, offering a lower cost alternative instead of the trailer mounted FWD to monitor pavement strength for the identification the SLR period. The use of innovative sensors and data collection techniques are proving to be very informative and are advancing pavement engineering knowledge. Moreover, the thesis is aimed at exploring the possibilities of achieving the current objectives of the government DOTs such as TPCS potential for addressing the timber industry in crisis, reduced road maintenance budgets, and global warming increasing road damage.