This dissertation pursues to find an answer empirically to the question of the revenue ranking between the multiple price auction and the single price auction. I also attempt to get empirical clues in terms of the efficiency ranking between the two. Under the assumptions of symmetric bidders and private independent value (PIV), I derive the optimal bidding conditions for both auction formats. Following the structural model estimation approach, I estimate the underlying distribution of market clearing price using the nonparametric resampling strategy and recover the bidders’ unknown true valuations corresponding to each observed bid point. With these estimated valuations of the bidders, I calculate what the upper bound of the revenue would have been under the Vickery auction to perform the counterfactual revenue comparison with the actual revenue. I find that, ex-post, the multiple price auction yields more revenue to the Korean Treasury than the alternative. I also investigate the efficiency ranking by comparing the number of bids switched and the amount of surplus change which would occur when the bidders are assumed to report their true valuations as their bids. I find that the multiple price auction is also superior to the alternative in efficiency which supports the current theoretical prediction. Finally, I investigate the robustness of my model and empirical results by relaxing the previous assumptions. I, first, extend the model and estimation to the case of asymmetric bidders where the bidders are divided into two groups based on their size. It shows that the model and estimation framework are still valid and that the empirical findings are very similar to the symmetric case. I also test for the presence of common value (CV) component in the bidders’ valuation function. I propose the simple regression model adopting the idea of the policy experimental approach. I obtain quite an inconclusive result in general but find some evidence supporting PIV for relatively higher bid prices while supporting CV for lower bid prices.

We propose a novel branch-and-price (B&P) approach to solve the maximum weighted independent set problem (MWISP). Our approach uses clones of vertices to create edge-disjoint partitions from vertex-disjoint partitions. We solve the MWISP on sub-problems based on these edge-disjoint partitions using a B&P framework, which coordinates sub-problem solutions by involving an equivalence relationship between a vertex and each of its clones. We present test results for standard instances and randomly generated graphs for comparison. We show analytically and computationally that our approach gives tight bounds and it solves both dense and sparse graphs quite quickly.

The main goal of testing is to find errors in the System Under Test (SUT). Prior research indicated that Model-Based Testing is indeed good at finding SUT errors, can lead to less time and effort spent on testing if the time needed to write and maintain the model plus the time spent on directing the test generation is less than the cost of manually designing and maintaining a test suite. This study proposed a methodology for Model-Based Testing. In this approach, Sequence Diagrams and Class Diagram are used to determine the testing path and test case and Object Constraint Language is used to specify the business logic constraint. Three real-world cases and a CASE tool are used to test the usability (including the concepts, application, and advantages) of the proposed methodology. With this approach, SUT errors can be found at the systems analysis and design stage and thereby reduce the cost of software testing and enhance the efficiency of system development.

Thermal power plants dominate electric power generation in Taiwan, which causes high Green House gases (GHG) emissions. CO2 is the most important greenhouse gas that cause global warming and sea-level to rise. This paper faces the relationship between CO2 limitation and power generation expansion planning (GEP) for the utility. Modify Particle Swarm Optimization (MPSO) is presented to determine the generation expansion planning strategy of the utility with independent power providers (IPPs). The utility has to take both the IPPs¡¦ participation and environmental impact into account when a new generation unit is expanded. This problem also takes into account the CO2 reduction and reliability issues, while satisfying all electrical constraints simultaneously from the supply point of view. MPSO scheme was improved to avoid getting a premature answer. Testing results shows that MPSO can offer an efficient way in determining the generation expansion planning. Generation expansion planning is an important decision-making activity in a competitive market, all utilities including IPPs need to maximize the profit while meeting the load demand with a pre-specified reliability criterion. In order to achieve the objective, utilities will perform the generation expansion planning to determine the minimal-cost capacity power addition. For better economy and efficiency, they will consider options of either constructing new generating units or purchasing electricity from other utilities or IPPs.

The main goal of model testing is to find system errors at the systems analysis and design stage and thereby reduce the cost of software testing and enhance the efficiency of system development. Prior researches proposed an Integrated Method which utilizes the artifacts from the Platform Independent Model (PIM) to construct the test path and constrained class tuples (CCT). These two can then be integrated to construct an Integrated Testing Model (ITM) for determining the test data and test cases for Model-Based Testing. This study develops a methodology which extracting the information from the Sequence Diagram and Class Diagram from the PIM to construct an ITM. The research methodology is articulated using the design science research methodology. A prototype embedded methodology has been developed. A usability evaluation is performed on the prototype to demonstrate its usability in terms of the factors, efficiency and effectiveness. With this methodology, the test paths, CCT and ITM can be generated automatically; thereby reducing the costs and increasing the efficiency of Model-Based Testing.

<p>Av Sveriges idag 300 000 aktiebolag är 80-85 procent mikrobolag med färre än 10 anställda och mindre än 3 miljoner i omsättning. Mikrobolagen har därför stor be-tydelse för svenskt näringsliv och samhällets utveckling. Förutsättningarna för dessa bolags tillväxt och utveckling bör av denna anledning främjas, vilket kräver att regelverken är anpassade till deras villkor. Revisionsplikten för små aktiebolag är en av de regelförenklingar som diskuteras, där nyttan och kostnaden för revision står i fokus.</p><p>Syftet med uppsatsen är att beskriva hur ägarna till mikrobolag upplever revisionsplikten, hur de väljer att agera vid ett avskaffande, samt analysera bakomliggande orsaker.</p><p>I denna uppsats används en kvantitativ metod då antal förekomster av visst agerande vill undersökas. Den empiriska studien är gjord i form av en webbenkät skickad till 200 mikrobolag i Jönköpings län.</p><p>Resultaten visar att ägarna till mikrobolag upplever att de har störst nytta av revision jämfört med övriga intressenter, dock anses även stat och kommun ha stor nytta av revision. Vidare framkom att de vanligaste argumenten för revision är att den ses som ett kvitto eller kvalitetsstämpel.</p><p>74 procent av ägarna uppger att de skulle fortsätta revideras om revisionsplikten avskaffades, detta då nyttan upplevs vara större än kostnaden. Dock anser 68 procent att revision bör vara efterfrågebaserad istället för tvingande.</p><p>Mikrobolagen upplever revisorns roll som övervägande granskande. Emellertid spelar även rådgivning en stor roll, då hela 89 procent av respondenterna anser att reglerna för mikrobolag är alltför komplexa och hjälp behövs från kompetent rådgivare.</p><p>Sannolikheten att mikrobolagen skulle vända sig till en redovisningsbyrå istället för revisionsbyrå om plikten avskaffas är enligt 44 procent stor eller mycket stor. 13 procent skulle inte alls kunna tänka sig ett byte.</p><p>Slutsatsen är att mikrobolagen upplever revision som positivt och att de skulle fortsätta revideras om plikten avskaffades, dock vill de flesta att revisionen ska vara frivillig och efterfrågebaserad, vilket för en del mikrobolag skulle innebära ett byte från att ha anlitat en revisionsbyrå för revisions- och rådgivningstjänster till att istället vända sig till en redovisningsbyrå.</p> / <p>Sweden has today 300 000 limited companies of which 80-85 percent are considered as micro companies with less than 10 employees and a yearly turnover not larger than 3 million SEK. The micro companies are therefore of great importance for Swedish business life and development of Swedish society. The requirements for these companies’ growth and development should therefore be supported, which require that regulations are adapted to their conditions. Statutory audit for small private limited companies is one of the simplifications of regulations that is discussed, where the benefits and costs of audit are in focus.</p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to describe how owners of micro companies perceive statutory audit, to examine how they chose to act if it is abolished, and to analyze underlying causes.</p><p>In this thesis a quantitative method was used since the numbers of occur-rences of certain actions were examined. The empirical study was constructed as a web based questionnaire sent to 200 micro companies in Jönköping County.</p><p>The results show that owners of micro companies perceive greatest benefits from audit compared to other interested parties, however, the government and municipality also are considered as benefiting from audit. Further, the most common arguments pro audit are that audit is considered as a receipt or a quality guarantee. 74 percent of the owners state that they would continue to demand audit even if the statutory audit was abolished, since the benefits are perceived as greater than the costs. However, 68 percent believe that audit should be based on demand instead of being compulsory. The micro compa-nies experience the role of the auditor as mainly reviewing. Though, the role as adviser is also of great importance when as much as 89 percent of the respon-dents believe that small companies’ regulations are too complex and that help from a qualified advisor is needed. The probability that micro companies would turn to a firm of accountancy instead of a firm of audit if the obligation was abolished is according to 44 percent large or very large. 13 percent would not consider a change at all. The conclusion is that micro companies perceive audit as a positive service, and that they still would be reviewed if the obligation was abolished. Though, most of the companies want audit to be voluntary and based on demand, which to some micro companies would imply a change from consulting a firm of audit for accounting and consulting services, and instead turn to a firm of accountancy.</p>

<p>Bakgrund och Problem: Inför valet 2006 var en av valfrågorna huruvida man skulle främja friskolor eller inte. Det borgerliga blocket var mer positivt inställda till frågan än vad vänsterblocket var. Ämnet har många aspekter men en av dem gäller motivationsnivån; motivationsnivån hos såväl elever som lärare. Den här uppsatsen är inriktad på det sistnämnda och följande problemformuleringar behandlas: ”Hur påverkar ägandet motivationen hos anställda inom en organisation?” samt ”Är anställda inom privata organisationer mer motiverade än de i offentliga organisationer?”</p><p>Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att visa vilka faktorer som påverkar motivationen hos lärare inom två typer av skolor; friskolor och offentliga skolor. För övrigt är målet att se om det finns någon skillnad på motivationsnivån hos lärare inom dessa typer av skolor.</p><p>Teori: Den empiriska undersökningen bygger på olika motivationsteorier. Bland annat tas teorier om yttre och inre motivation, tankar om rättvisa och målens betydelse för motivationen upp.</p><p>Metod: En kvantitativ metod har använts för att kunna göra ett så stort urval som möjligt bland skolorna i Jönköpings kommun. Åtta skolor valdes ut och 108 lärare deltog i undersökningen. Svaren viktades sedan och med hjälp av t-test letades det efter skillnader mellan medelvärdena från varje grupp av skolor.</p><p>Resultat: Resultatet visar att ingen av de båda skolornas lärare entydigt är mer motiverade än den andra. Lärarna i de offentliga skolorna var enligt teorierna mer motiverade när det gällde målsättning; de deltog när målen sattes upp och de ansåg att målen var klara till en större utsträckning än vad lärarna i friskolor gjorde. Dessa lärare tyckte också att deras lön påverkas av arbetsresultatet till en högre grad. Lärarna på friskolorna tyckte att kommunikationen med närmaste chefen fungerade bättre, de anser sig uppnå uppsatta mål till en högre grad och de värderar intressanta arbetsuppgifter högre än de som arbetar inom offentliga skolor. I övrigt fann man inga skillnader mellan de båda typerna av skolor.</p><p>Analys och Slutsats: Målsättningsprocessen verkar fungera bättre på offentliga skolor än på friskolor, detta skulle kunna förklaras med skolornas relativa ålder. Andra sidan av myntet skulle kunna vara att äldre skolor, med mer klara mål, har ett invant sätt att gå tillväga. Det skulle kunna förklara varför man finner fler lärare som prioriterar intressanta arbetsuppgifter i valet av arbetsplats inom friskolorna. Det sammanlagda resultatet av denna studie visar inte att lärarna inom friskolor är mer motiverade än dem inom den offentliga sektorn och studien stöder därför inte argumenten från det borgerliga blocket.</p> / <p>Background and Problem: One of the questions of debate before to the election of the Swedish parliament in 2006 was whether independent schools should be prioritized or not. The right wing of the Swedish parliament was more positive to the topic than the left wing. This subject has many aspects, one of them considers motivation; motivation both among students and teachers. This thesis is focusing on the latter and the research questions treated are: “How does the ownership affect the motivation of the employees within the organization?” and “Are the employees in a private organisation more motivated than the employees of a public organisation?”</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this study is to show which factors that affect the motivation among the teachers within two types of schools; independent and publicly owned. Moreover the aim is to recognize whether there are any differences in motivation among the teachers within these types of schools.</p><p>Frame of reference: The empirical part of the thesis is built on different theories concerning motivation. Amongst others are theories concerning extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, fairness and the meaning of goals treated.</p><p>Empirical Findings: The result shows no clear difference between all motivation variables measured when the two types of schools was compared. The teachers in the public schools were according to the theories more motivated when it came to goal setting; they participated more when the goals was set and the goals was anticipated more clearly than in the independent schools. These teachers did also feel that their salaries were set according to the result of their work to a greater extent. The teachers in the independent schools did on the other hand feel that the communication with the closest manager work better, that they reach the preset goals and they value interesting work tasks to a greater extent. The other tested variables showed no significant difference between the means.</p><p>Analysis and Conclusion: The goal setting process seems to work better within the public schools in general compared to the independent schools, which might be explained by the relative ages of the schools. The other side of the coin when it comes to clear goals could be that the way of doing things in the public school has been the same for a long time. This might explain why more teachers within independent schools found exciting working tasks important when choosing place of work. The aggregated result of this study did not show that the teachers in independent schools are more motivated than those in public schools; the study does therefore not support the arguments from the right wing of the parliament.</p>

<p>To efficiently examine volumetric data sets from CT or MRI scans good volume rendering applications are needed. This thesis describes the design and implementation of an application programming interface (API) to be used when developing volume-rendering applications. A complete application programming interface has been designed. The interface is designed so that it makes writing application programs containing volume rendering fast and easy. The interface also makes created application programs hardware independent. Volume rendering using 3d-textures is implemented on Windows and Unix platforms. Rendering performance has been compared between different graphics hardware.</p>

<p>This thesis presents a solution enabling lower losses in hydraulic actuator systems. A mobile fluid power system often contains several different actuators supplied with a single load sensing pump. One of the main advantages is the need of only one system pump. This makes the fluid power system compact and cost-effective.</p><p>A hydraulic load often consists of two ports, e.g. motors and cylinders. Such loads have traditionally been controlled by a valve that controls these ports by one single control signal, namely the position of the spool in a control valve. In this kind of valve, the inlet (meter-in) and outlet (meter-out) orifices are mechanically connected. The mechanical connection makes the system robust and easy to control, at the same time as the system lacks flexibility. Some of the main drawbacks are</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>The fixed relation </strong>between the inlet and outlet orifices in most applications produce too much throttling at the outlet orifice under most operating conditions. This makes the system inefficient.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>The flow directions </strong>are fixed for a given spool position; therefore, no energy recuperation and/or regeneration ability is available.</p><p>In this thesis a novel system idea enabling, for example, recuperation and regeneration is presented. Recuperation is when flow is taken from a tank, pressurized by external loads, and then fed back into the pump line. Regeneration is when either cylinder chambers (or motor ports) are connected to the pump line. Only one system pump is needed. Pressure compensated (load independent), bidirectional, poppet valves are proposed and utilized.</p><p>The novel system presented in this thesis needs only a position sensor on each compensator spool. This simple sensor is also suitable for identification of mode switches, e.g. between normal, differential and regenerative modes. Patent pending.</p><p>The balance of where to put the functionality (hardware and/or software) makes it possible to manoeuvre the system with maintained speed control in the case of sensor failure. The main reason is that the novel system does not need pressure transducers for flow determination. Some features of the novel system:</p><p><strong>Mode switches </strong>The mode switches are accomplished without knowledge about the pressures in the system</p><p><strong>Throttle losses </strong>With the new system approach, choice of control and measure signals, the throttle losses at the control valves are reduced</p><p><strong>Smooth mode switches </strong>The system will switch to regenerative mode automatically in a smooth manner when possible</p><p><strong>Use energy stored in the loads </strong>The load, e.g. a cylinder, is able to be used as a motor when possible, enabling the system to recuperate overrun loads</p><p>The system and its components are described together with the control algorithms that enable energy efficient operation. Measurements from a real application are also presented in the thesis.</p>

Thesis--Toulouse, 1914. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [227]-232).