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This thesis studies the role of multi-stage production for the monetary transmission mechanism. I employ a monetary search model to show how multi-stage production influences both the long run and the short run effects of money growth. Multi-stage production provides an additional channel for money growth having effects through intermediate goods between different production stages. Extending Shi's (1998) model from a single-stage to a multi-stage production model, I show that money growth rate has an unconventional long run effect on quantities per match, and the long run response of input inventory investment is different from that of output inventory investment. Contrary to classic search models, the steady state effect of money growth on the quantity of finished goods per match is not monotonic and depends on the money growth rate. Furthermore, in steady state the quantities per match first increase with the growth rate of money, before falling for large growth rates. Input inventories arise due to search frictions. Money growth also has hump-shaped real effects on steady state input inventory investment. The intermediate goods build a bridge between the labor market and the finished goods market. Intuitively, households hire more labor with higher future revenue and produce more intermediate goods in order to match the employment level. With more labor and more intermediate goods, finished goods producers can produce more when matched. As a consequence, they are stuck with more input inventories. Moreover, my model suggests that changes in the money growth rate would be one of the reasons for the decline of the inventory-to-sales ratio since the mid-1980s. Finally, I calibrate my model to quarterly US data. Contrary to other work, my model is able to replicate the stylized facts on inventory movements over the business cycle by solely relying on monetary shocks. The theoretical impulse response functions can quantitatively reproduce the corresponding empirical ones estimated in a structure autoregressive model. Moreover, the quantitative analysis supports the argument that input inventories amplify aggregate fluctuations over business cycles. / Thesis (Ph.D, Economics) -- Queen's University, 2012-09-16 20:44:21.876

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This thesis describes the development of a new generation of three-phase rectifier, used to power telecommunications equipment. The traditional topology for such power converters is a single-phase two-stage design, with a boost converter providing power factor correction at the input to the first stage and an isolated dc-dc converter making up the second stage. A two-stage design results in the output power being processed twice and this cascade effect results in an overall reduction in efficiency. A rectifier solution is sought that meets with all the requirements of the telecommunications industry, while not displaying the inherent weaknesses associated with a boost-derived topology, and which can be realised in a single-stage design. A number of common three-phase topologies exist that could be realised as telecommunication power supplies, however, they do not completely satisfy all the industry requirements. A new three-phase rectifier, which is a single-stage buck-derived topology, is proposed. As a consequence of incorporating a buck-derived topology, the three-phase rectifier does not exhibit any issues resulting from startup inrush currents, or high currents due to an output short circuit condition, as would result in a boost-derived topology. The new proposed rectifier is modular in nature, which has the added benefit of redundancy. As a result of the new three-phase rectifier having a single-stage topology, it is expected that the overall efficiency would able to reach close to 95%. This is due to the traditional two-stage designs having efficiencies around the 90% mark, and therefore by removing a stage, out of the power conversion process the overall losses would also be halved, resulting in the 5% gain in efficiency. The rectifier system requires only one controller as a result of being a single-stage design, thus also reducing the overall system cost. Simulations show that if this topology is combined with a three-phase phase-locked loop controller it can meet the industry compliance standards. The thesis follows the development of the three-phase power converter from the simulation stage to the realisation of the control hardware and stability modelling. It also provides a detailed report of an investigation into the power converter system’s performance. The thesis concludes with discussions concerning the viability of the new topology as a commercial product and indicates areas of possible future research and development.

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In this dissertation, I approach the interpretation of a classical text in performance by examining the practical elements (directorial and design choices: set, costumes, lighting, music, etc.) and promotional materials (programmes, press releases, photographs, etc.) for a selection of significant test cases in order to determine how these production decisions engage with external factors of political, intellectual, and cultural import. Trojan Women is a particularly useful case study to explore within the parameters of this method because the dynamism and immediacy of the play is most powerfully articulated when production choices allow for it to be wielded as a weapon of protest or reaction against contemporary policy, especially the waging of war. Using a chronological approach, this analysis of Trojan Women as a text for performance provides a broad and in-depth discussion of the reception of the play in the twentieth century, the period in which the ancient text was most frequently performed. Through the investigation of several influential productions on the international stage, and through an examination of the roles of key players (particularly Gilbert Murray and Jean-Paul Sartre), Trojan Women emerges as a play that offers theatre artists a unique and effective forum for debating issues of human responsibility in times of war a central theme in the play and a considerable preoccupation during a century of armed conflict. Chapter One discusses how the play was used to criticize imperial activity and promote ideological causes in the first half of the century. Chapters Two and Three draw attention to a major cluster of performances reflecting the spirit of international war protest in the 1960s and 1970s. Chapter Four addresses productions of the play affected by delayed responses to the Holocaust. Chapter Five features performances in the 1990s that respond to crises of civil conflict and genocide.

This thesis focuses on task sequencing and manpower scheduling to develop robust schedules for an aircraft manufacturer. The production of an aircraft goes through a series of multiple workstations, each consisting of a large number of interactive tasks and a limited number of working zones. The duration of each task varies from operator to operator, because most operations are performed manually. These factors limit the ability of managers to balance, optimize, and change the statement of work in each workstation. In addition, engineers spend considerable amount of time to manually develop schedules that may be incompatible with the changes in the production rate. To address the above problems, the current state of work centers are first analyzed. Then, several deterministic mathematical programming models are developed to minimize the total production labour cost for a target cycle time. The mathematical models seek to find optimal schedules by eliminating and/or considering the effect of overtime on the production cost. The resulting schedules decrease the required number of operators by 16% and reduce production cycle time of work centers by 53% to 67%. Using these models, the time needed to develop a schedule is reduced from 36 days to less than a day. To handle the stochasticity of the task durations, a two-stage stochastic programming model is developed to minimize the total production labour cost and to find the number of operators that are able to work under every scenario. The solution of the two-stage stochastic programming model finds the same number of operators as that of the deterministic models, but reduces the time to adjust production schedules by 88%.