The search for alternative energy sources has increased interests in forest biomass. During the last few years, the sever infestation of the Mountain Pine Beetle (MPB) within the Interior BC forests has led to huge volumes of dead wood that exceed the capacity of the lumber industry. One way to make the most value of the surplus wood is to use it as the feedstock for bioenergy. The forest biomass can be supplied through conventional (roadside residuals), full-tree chipping, or satellite yard systems. This thesis presents the development of a simulation model of supply logistics of forest biomass and its application to a case of supplying MPB-killed biomass from Quesnel Timber Supply Area (one of the most infested areas in the Interior BC) to a potential 300 MW power plant adjacent to the city of Quesnel. The model has the ability of providing estimates of quantity, delivery cost, and moisture content of biomass which are critical in feasibility study of any bioenergy project. The results obtained from simulation model showed a delivery cost of C$45 per oven dry tonne of wood chips to the power plant. The results also revealed that the feedstock recovered from roadside residues in one year meets about 30% of the annual demand of the power plant. Potential increase in the Allowable Annual Cut (AAC) for Quesnel TSA increases the quantity of biomass supplied from roadside residuals. However, as long as the biomass is supplied only through conventional harvesting, increasing the AAC even by 40% does not provide enough feedstock to meet the annual demand of the plant. Using the simulation modeling, this research has the benefit of considering the logistics of forest biomass supply as an integrated and interacting system as well as providing different critical parameters over time. The model also has the potential of considering dynamic and random behavior of the logistics system of supplying forest biomass. The model can be modified and applied to similar cases of conventional forest biomass supply. It also can be extended to other harvesting systems including satellite yard and whole-tree chipping.

Avregleringen av Sveriges järnväg ledde till att Statens Järnvägar delades upp i olika företag, SJ AB bildades som har i uppgift att bedriva lönsam persontrafik. Avregleringen har haft en stor påverkan på hur SJ bedriver sin verksamhet idag samt lett till att komplicerade ägarförhållanden har uppstått i Hagalund. Hagalund är SJ’s största depåanläggning för underhåll av fordon. I samråd med SJ’s Division Fordon och Divisionen för Planering och Trafikledning har vi fått i uppdrag att undersöka hur SJ påverkas om de införskaffar en depå i egen regi. Vi har valt att undersöka SJ ur ett värdekedjeperspektiv. Studien bygger sedan på hur SJ’s värdekedja påverkas om en ny depåanläggning införskaffas. Vi har använt Porters värdekedja som grund till vår studie, det är en analysmetod som kartlägger en organisations värdeskapande aktiviteter. Vi har även tagit del av forskning som gjorts på Porters värdekedja med fokus på resurshantering och informationsprocesser. För att kunna undersöka problemområdet har vi även undersökt och analyserat forskning inom det teoretisk omtrådet vertikal integration. Vertikal integration innebär att en organisation införskaffar en verksamhet till egen regi. Den här studiens syfte är att undersöka hur en organisations värdekedja påverkas om en vertikal integration utförs. För att besvara syftet har vi undersökt hur de sekundära aktiviteterna i SJ’s värdekedja påverkas om en primär värdeskapande aktivitet vertikalt integreras. Vi har även i delsyfte att undersöka vilka effekter den nya depåanläggningen skulle ha på SJ’s produkt tågresor som säljs till kund. Vi besvarar både syftet och delsyftet genom en deduktiv kvalitativ undersökning. Vi använde oss av en semistrukturerad intervjumetod där vi intervjuade respondenter från SJ’s Division Fordon och Divisionen för Planering och Trafikledning. Vår övergripliga slutsats av studien är att en vertikal integration har en inverkan på SJ’s värdekedja. Den vertikala integrationen medför en förbättrad kommunikation samt kontroll av depåverksamheten och dess resurser. SJ’s depåverksamhet blir mer flexibel vilket kan leda till snabbare reaktioner vid oväntade händelser. Kvalitén av produkten tågresor påverkas även positivt. Förutsättningen till dessa fördelar är att SJ har en god kommunikation med nya depån samt införskaffar de resurser som krävs.

The Italian labour market seems unable to allocate a significant fraction of the working age population efficiently. The gap between the employment rate in Italy and in the other developed economies is foremost attributable to the low employment rates of youth, seniors and women. The low employment rates of these three groups are due to several factors limiting both labour demand and labour supply. For women in particular, constraints on the allocation of time play a crucial role in determining labour supply behaviour. In this thesis we try to understand how non-standard time constraints may affect the behaviour of women, and their labour supply in particular. In the first chapter we study how the constraints on work-schedules affect the time allocation of workers in Italy. For a large fraction of employed individuals the work schedule is very rigid, as a consequence of outdated industrial relations. In order to understand whether constraints on the work-schedule produce significant effects on the allocation of time of wage/salary workers in Italy, we exploit the intrinsic differences between them and self employed workers. In fact, one of the main features of self-employment is the greater control over the days worked and daily hours of work. We use the last wave of the Italian time use survey (2008-2009) to provide evidence that the distribution of hours of work of self-employed workers is much more dispersed than that of wage/salary workers and that average standard deviation of their daily minutes of work within a week is significantly larger. Then we show that self-employed workers respond more to shocks affecting the value of leisure. We show that on sunny days the increase of leisure and the reduction of work are significantly larger for self-employed workers. We address whether unobservable characteristics, such as preferences for leisure and for outdoor activities in particular, determine this differential response and find no evidence for this. We interpret the differential response to weather shocks as a consequence of the time constraints on work-schedules. This evidence is relevant for female labour force participation since in Italy a large fraction of women choose not to work because they would otherwise not be able to reconcile family and work responsibilities. In the second chapter we study the Added Worker Effect (AWE). The retrospective questions provided by the new labour force survey allow identification of transitions between labour market states in a 12 month time-window. Since we are able to identify the reason for the husband’s job loss, we distinguish between transitions associated with low or high income losses. We find that both the wife’s probability of joining the labour force and that of finding a job increase when the husband is dismissed or he is forced to quit his job for health reasons, two cases of usually high income losses. Moreover, we estimate the wife’s full transition matrix between labour market states and we find that the loss of a job by a husband increases the probability that his wife will enter the iv labour force. Finally, we provide some descriptive evidence that time constraints can also impact the magnitude of the AWE. Focusing on mothers with young children, we show that the estimated AWE is positively correlated with the regional provision of child care services. The third chapter is based on the time use files of the Canadian General Social Survey. We study how Sunday shopping deregulation changed the time allocation of women, with a particular focus on those with children. The empirical analysis relies on the provincial variation in the time of the policy change. Our results suggest that women with children, who usually face stringent time constraints, respond to the policy change by substituting weekday shopping with Sunday shopping. The amount of time these women save from doing shopping on weekdays allows them to increase their minutes of work. On Sunday, shopping increases at the expense of leisure. The main result of this chapter is that the labour supply of mothers may change even when non-obvious constraints on the allocation of time change.

This thesis examines the impact of farm level cost efficiency on quota trading in a supply regulated industry. Comparative statics illustrate the role of cost efficiency in quota transfers. For estimation purposes, the dependent variable; net quota purchases is specified both quantitatively and qualitatively and modelled by a linear regression model and multinomial logit model, respectively. Empirical results indicate that variation in cost efficiency does not have a significant effect on the sample producers’ decision to purchase quota. Meanwhile, quota purchasers are younger producers, with large herds, underutilized barn space, and had purchase quota in the previous year. / OMAFRA funding code: 200222

This thesis addresses the issue of the existence of a causal relationship between the change in the food component of the consumer price index and change in the money supply (money base and M1) by using monthly Canadian data from January 1968 to March 1997. A bivariate vector autoregressive (VAR) model is used to describe the relationship between money supply and food price on the basis of identifying the two conditions that the three series are first difference stationary series and the money stock and price series are not cointegrated. Saunders' lag order selection criterion developed from Akaikes final prediction error (FPE), and Hsiao's lag selection procedure are used to identify the order of lags of each variable in VAR model. The models perform well through all diagnostic checks. All hypotheses are tested by using the likelihood ratio statistic and the chi2-statistic. The Granger test of causality is discussed and implemented in this research. By comparing the causality results of the seasonally adjusted series with those of seasonally unadjusted series we find that they are very sensitive to the seasonal adjustment of the series. For the seasonally adjusted series there is no relationship between money base (MB) and the food component of the consumer price index (FCPI) and there is a unidirectional causal relationship between M1 and FCPI (from M1 to FCPI). But for the seasonally unadjusted series there is a feedback relationship between M1 and FCPI and there is a unidirectional flow from MB to FCPI. The difference of the results is consistent with the findings of Sargent and other writers.

The purpose of this thesis is to explain theoretically and empirically the demand for international reserves by the major industrialized countries in the context of the present highly integrated and extremely volatile international financial system. The reserves demand behaviour of each of the G7 countries along with seven non-G7 industrialized countries have been empirically examined. The demand functions are estimated using the cointegration approach on autoregressive distributed lag and simple distributed lag models. / This study has revealed that a country's reserve demand is significantly influenced by its level of capital flows in addition to the traditionally used trade flow variables. It is shown that the greater the external vulnerability of an economy as measured by its net capital flows in relation to its GNP, the higher is its demand for international reserves. The results have striking similarity for all the 14 industrialized countries despite their structural and institutional differences. / This study points to the need of international monetary policy coordination to reduce large fluctuations in exchange rates and lessen massive flows of speculative capital which carry a potential threat of becoming inflationary.

No description available.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1959.

Studies of community water have been on the increase since the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade, 1981 - 1990. However there is some key areas of community water supply that still require research as the literature survey in this thesis illustrates. The Operation and Maintenance of community water supplies has been identified to be as important in sustainability of the services as the institutional factors. Due to the increased number of failure of the community water supplies to continue operation after short periods of time compared to urban water supplies, effort is required to identify the least amount of in puts to ensure continued operation. Through literature survey and field collection of data on management of existing projects a model was developed in order to calculate the minimum amount of funds required for the operation and maintenance. The research showed that the current monthly charges by water committees were sufficient to operate and maintain the systems. The initial calculations using the model also revealed that the current charges would not be sufficient to pay replacement costs. The presence of subsidisation through materials and labour by the central government requires planners to study each project thoroughly before the determination of monthly costs. The conclusion was that further research and data collection was required for the determination of the replacement cost. The model was found to be capable of assisting planners, managers and engineers in the calculation of the cost of operation and maintenance of community water supplies. / Thesis (M.Sc.Eng.)-University of Durban Westville, 2001.

The monopolistic South African electricity supply industry is undergoing a transformation that would change its ownership and market structure. The objective of this study was to determine whether the strategic choice to transform the industry is indeed appropriate. A qualitative, case based study of the existing and proposed South African electricity supply industry was performed. Various strategic tools and techniques, related to both strategic theory and electricity supply industry models, formed the basis of the evaluation. It was found that to overcome the critical weaknesses in the industry and to take advantage of the opportunities present in the dynamic and complex electricity supply industry the restructuring is appropriate. The restructuring would allow the South African Government to meet its objectives of having an efficient electricity supply industry and meet the huge suppressed demand for low cost electrification. South Africa intends adopting the wholesale competition model, however this study recommends that it should implement the single-buyer model. Should the restructuring be successfully implemented, customers in the South African electricity supply industry can expect high quality electricity at a competitive price. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, 2003.