The GIS Industry has digitised cadastre from the best available paper maps over the last few decades, incorporating the inherent errors in those paper maps and in the digitising process. The advent of Global Positioning Systems, modern surveying instruments and advances in the computing industry has made it desirable and affordable to upgrade the placement, in terms of absolute and relative position) of these digital cadastres. The Utility Industry has used GIS software to place their assets relative to these digital cadastres, and are now finding their assets placed incorrectly when viewed against these upgraded digital cadastres. This thesis examines the processes developed in the software program called the ???Spatial Adjustment Engine???, and documents a holistic approach to semi-automating the upgrading of the digital cadastre and the subsequent upgrading of the utility assets. This thesis also documents the various pilot projects undertaken during the development of the Spatial Adjustment Engine, the topological scenarios found in each pilot, their solution, and provides a framework of definitions needed to explore this field further. The results of each pilot project are given in context, and lead to the conclusions. The conclusions indicate the processes and procedures implemented in the Spatial Adjustment Engine are a suitable mechanism for the upgrade of digital cadastre and of spatially dependant themes such as utility assets, zoning themes, annotation layers, and some road centreline themes.

In preparation for the large backgrounds expected to be present in the Belle II detector from the SuperKEKB e+e- collider, the radiation hardness of several large (5 x 5 x 30 cm3) thallium doped cesium iodide (CsI(Tl)) scintillation crystals are studied. The crystal samples studied consist of 2 spare crystals from the Belle experiment using PIN diode readout and 7 spare crystals from the BaBar experiment using photomultiplier tube readout. The radiation hardness of the scintillation properties of the CsI(Tl) crystals was studied at accumulated 1 MeV photon doses of 2, 10 and 35 Gy. At each dose, the longitudinal uniformity of the crystals light yield, scintillation decay times, time resolution and energy resolution was measured. As the Belle II collaboration is considering an upgrade to pure CsI crystals if CsI(Tl) does not satisfy radiation hardness requirements, the scintillation properties of a pure CsI scintillation crystal were also measured and compared to the CsI(Tl) crystal measurements. In addition to experimental work, Monte Carlo simulations using GEANT4 were written to compare ideal pure CsI and CsI(Tl) crystals and to study the effects of radiation damage on the performance of the Belle II electromagnetic calorimeter. / Graduate

The efficient production of hydrogen hydrates is a major goal in the attempt to exploit those materials as an alternative means for storing hydrogen. Up to now, a few processes have been reported in the literature which yield less than 1 wt% of hydrogen stored into clathrate hydrate or semi-clathrate forms. One main obstacle to the entrapment of sensible amounts of hydrogen (i.e., up to 4 wt% ) into a clathrate matrix appears to be of a kinetic origin, in that the mass transfer of hydrogen gas into clathrate structures is drastically limited by the (relatively) macroscopic scale of the gas-liquid or gas-ice interfaces involved. In this communication, we present a novel process for an enhanced production of binary hydrates of hydrogen and other hydrate-forming gases, which is characterized by the use of nanotechnology for reducing the size of hydrate particles down to a few nanometers. This drastic reduction of particle size, down to three orders of magnitude smaller than that obtainable by macroscopic methods, allows to reduce the kinetic hindrance to hydrate formation. This process has a huge potential for increasing the amount of hydrogen stored, as it has provided ca. 1 wt% of hydrogen, with THF as a co-former. The present process also allows to use several non-water soluble coformers; first reports of hydrogen/cyclopentane and hydrogen/tetrahydrothiophene hydrates are presented.

The GIS Industry has digitised cadastre from the best available paper maps over the last few decades, incorporating the inherent errors in those paper maps and in the digitising process. The advent of Global Positioning Systems, modern surveying instruments and advances in the computing industry has made it desirable and affordable to upgrade the placement, in terms of absolute and relative position) of these digital cadastres. The Utility Industry has used GIS software to place their assets relative to these digital cadastres, and are now finding their assets placed incorrectly when viewed against these upgraded digital cadastres. This thesis examines the processes developed in the software program called the ???Spatial Adjustment Engine???, and documents a holistic approach to semi-automating the upgrading of the digital cadastre and the subsequent upgrading of the utility assets. This thesis also documents the various pilot projects undertaken during the development of the Spatial Adjustment Engine, the topological scenarios found in each pilot, their solution, and provides a framework of definitions needed to explore this field further. The results of each pilot project are given in context, and lead to the conclusions. The conclusions indicate the processes and procedures implemented in the Spatial Adjustment Engine are a suitable mechanism for the upgrade of digital cadastre and of spatially dependant themes such as utility assets, zoning themes, annotation layers, and some road centreline themes.

An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system implementation is a massive undertaking for any organization, and we have all heard about success and failure stories. This research study has identified the Critical Success Factors (CSF) after a successful ERP system upgrade at a pharmaceutical distribution company. The company of interest stores and distributes pharmaceuticals to pharmacies in Finland and Sweden. The company used an old version of the ERP system from 1999 that had been heavily modified over the years to cater for new regulations, business and customer requirements. The upgrade was a complete success, and the new version of the ERP system has been running without major issues ever since go-live in autumn 2016. The qualitative interpretive research was conducted by using two data collection methods, semi-structured interviews and card sorting to gather data from the participants. The participants were selected from the three (3) central roles in the project team to capture the perceived CSFs from several perspectives. The data was a subject for a thematic analysis process to generate codes, themes, and concepts within the extensive data set. The findings revealed that the reasons for the upgrade were the end of support for the ERP system, need for new features and to reduce platform dependency. The participants regarded a stable system after go-live with minimal impact on business and harm to customers as the primary definition of success. The ten (10) identified CSFs were; (1) Top management commitment and support, (2) Software analysis, testing and acceptance control, (3) Project team leadership, empowered decision makers, (4) Project management and (5) Strategy planning, scope and vision, (6) Involvement of end-users and stakeholders, (7) Data conversion and integrity, (8) Consultant selection and relationship, (9) Balanced team and (10) Project team: the best and brightest. Even though the ERP upgrade at the pharmaceutical distribution company was considered a success, there were several areas identified for improvements. The lessons learned was for example related to data quality and test data. The need to introduce new resources by learning from key resources before and during the ERP project. The project model and project organization were other areas that were identified for improvements to reduce administrative work and to obtain a better fit towards the company organization. Several similar ERP system upgrades and new implementations are planned the coming years, and the outcome of this thesis provides valuable guidelines and recommendations to the company. The research thesis will also contribute to the field of CSF analysis and ERP systems and offer suggestions for further research.

Cette recherche a pour objectif de déterminer le rôle des associations professionnelles / organisations patronales dans l’accompagnement des entrepreneurs. La méthodologie étant l’étude de cas, une approche qualitative est adoptée. Pour mettre en exergue le rôle essentiel de ces acteurs qui consiste à accompagner l’entrepreneur et son entreprise d’acquérir le suivi et le savoir-faire. Dans l’ambition de gérer l’autonomie de son entreprise sur le long terme. Cette analyse montre que ces AP/OP sont effectivement présentes, mais le point faible de ses dispositifs est pour l'instant l'accompagnement et la formation. Ainsi, participer dans l’opinion de l’assemblée générale au sein de haute instance d’état et la grande manifestation économique internationale. Cette participation entre dans le cadre du développement économique de l’environnement de la PME et sa mise à niveau par les organisations du soutien comme l’ANDI, le CNC PME, … / This research has for objective to determine the role of associations’ professionals / employers' organizations in the accompaniment of the contractors. The methodology being the case study, a qualitative approach is adopted. To highlight the essential role of these actors this consists in accompanying the contractor and his company to acquire the follow-up and the know-how. In the ambition to manage the autonomy of his company on the long term. This analysis shows that these AP / OP are effectively present, but the weak point of its devices is at the moment the accompaniment and the formation. So, participate in the opinion of the general assembly within high authority of state and the great international economic appearance. This participation enters within the framework of the economic development of the environment of the SME and its upgrade by the organizations of the support as the ANDI, the CNC SME …

The subject of this thesis is recent development of credit evaluation industry and analysis of rating agency`s behaviour in relation to official rating changes. In the first chapter, fundamental limitations of analytical ratings are defined. Stating both advantages and disadvantages arising mainly from market defficiency, the second one introduces credit default swap as an alternative manner for credit risk measurement. Next part summarizes existing academic activity in context of rating informatory value, highlighting abnormal and asymmetric market reactions. Based on Moodys` approach, the fouth chapter provides reader with the concept of market implied ratings that are consequently used to analyse relation between CDS-IR and official ratings. The last subchapters investigate sensitivity ratio of how rating gap level determines prospective response of rating agency.

Among the goals of recent supported work employment programs is improvement of competitive employment opportunities for individuals who suffer from chronic mental illness, and for whom competitive employment outcomes are poor. This study examined the effects of a vocational rehabilitation program, Project Success (Skills Upgrade: Client Centered Empowerment Supportive Services), on self esteem and quality of life for chronically mentally ill participants.

The subject of this engineer´s thesis is a design proposal for technical upgrade of chosen CNC turning center design groups. The choice of design groups is based on user´s and author´s practical knowledge gained from machine´s workings. For each of these groups, there is a function description, actual state of design solution and problematic behaviour description. The follow up consists of given problems solving with more possible variations taken into consideration, including economic evaluation of chosen solution.

The American Water Works Association (AWWA) and the International Water Association (IWA) have designated the volume of water not registered by water meters as a form of "apparent loss" in a distribution system. The term apparent is given because this volume is not technically a water loss, as is the case of wasted water from real leaks in the distribution system. Large volumes of apparent losses hurt the revenue of utilities that rely on water metering to bill their customers. This is critical to utilities given that billed consumption is often the main source of income to provide adequate service. This form of apparent losses is a challenge to water management, particularly, in the case of significant drought because of the uncertainty about the real volume of water consumed. Although the impact of apparent losses from a single residential service connection is not as significant compared to an industrial meter with low accuracy, the cumulative effect of apparent losses across residential users can be very significant. Until the early 2000's water utilities in the U.S. relied on mechanical water meters to measure residential water use. Since then, electronic meters with higher accuracy at low flow rates have been developed. Data collection from meters has also evolved as well, from the manual reading by an operator, to drive-by systems and most recently to remote readings using a network of transmitters/receivers (i.e., advanced metering infrastructure or AMI). An expectation of this dissertation is that it will help water utilities to have a better idea of the volume of apparent losses due to metering inaccuracy (i.e., registration error) and provide insights into the effects of installing AMI systems to residential metered water (MW). To achieve this goal, two main objectives are fulfilled 1) to expand on the knowledge of registration error (RE) in mechanical nutating-disc (ND) meters used to monitor residential consumption, and 2) to evaluate the impact of metering infrastructure upgrades on the volume of metered water (MW) from residential service connections. This dissertation follows the manuscript format with three journal articles constituting the main chapters after a general introduction characterizing the issues in Chapter 1. Chapter 2 is an experimental study that evaluates the influence of service time (ST) and volumetric throughput (TP) on the accuracy of ND meters within the recommended flow rates set by the U.S. water industry for meters with an internal diameter of ⅝-in. (15-mm). Over 300 meters removed from service were tested for accuracy. Key findings of this study are 1) ND meters that have been in service over 25 years have a greater likelihood of poor accuracy at the minimum recommended flow rate (Q^min) of 0.25 gallons per minute (gpm) (57 liters per hour (L/h)) and 0.5 gpm (114 L/h) independent of TP, and 2) comparison with data from accelerated laboratory testing showed that simulated use may not necessarily reflect the actual performance of ND meters in service, particularly, at 0.25 and 0.5 gpm. Chapter 3 is an experimental study that investigates REs of ND meters below the minimum recommended flow rate (Q^min = 0.25 gpm), particularly, at ½, ¼ and ⅛ of Q^min. Over 100 meters removed from service were tested in this study. Key findings of this study are 1) confirmed how performance decreases with reducing flow rate below Q^min, 2) of the variables considered, TP was found to be a better indicator of RE at Q_(1/8)^min up to an approximate meter reading of 0.66 MG (2.5 ML) compared to ST for 10 ≤ ST ≤ 24 years, with minimal influence at Q_(1/4)^min and none at Q_(1/2)^min, and 3) a strong linear relationship was found between RE at Q_(1/2)^min and RE at Q^min independent of TP or ST. Chapter 4 is a study that evaluates the extent to which the implementation of a new AMI system combined with a system-wide installation of new ND meters impacted the volume of MW from residential service connections of a 22,000-person municipality in southwest Virginia. Time-series analysis techniques were employed to evaluate changes in the trend of bimonthly MW and median daily MW over a six-year period. Key findings of this study are 1) the AMI system improved the accountability of MW for the utility, 2) despite an ongoing downward annual trend in MW, average bimonthly MW mildly increased after the AMI system was fully operational, and 3) annual MW increased by 2.2% in the 12-month period immediately following the metering infrastructure upgrade. / Doctor of Philosophy / An expectation of this dissertation is that it will help water utilities to have a better idea of the volume of water not being measured by residential water meters in their system (i.e., registration error) and provide insights into the effects of replacing water meters and installing automatic data collections systems (i.e., metering infrastructure upgrades) to improve accounting of water and revenue. To achieve these goals three studies were conducted. In the first two studies, over 400 nutating-disc (ND) water meters, a type of mechanical meter used to measure water, were removed from service and tested to evaluate the percent of water not measured at different ranges of flow (volume per time), and to determine if metering errors changed depending on the service time (ST) of the meter or total volume of water that had gone through (TP) it while in service. The third study consisted in the review of water consumption data from a municipality in southwest Virginia that underwent a metering infrastructure upgrade consisting of replacing all their water meters and installing an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) system (i.e., automatic meter reading). Key findings discussed in this dissertation are 1) confirmed how performance of ND meters decreases with reducing flow rate below 0.25 gallons per minute (gpm). This is the minimum flow rate (Q^min) recommended by the U.S. water industry for accuracy testing of mechanical meters. 2) ND meters that have been in service over 25 years have a greater likelihood of poor accuracy at Q^min and 0.5 gpm independent of TP. 3) The relative influence of TP and ST on accuracy varied with the test flow rate. 4) Comparison with data from accelerated laboratory testing showed that simulated use may not necessarily reflect the actual performance of ND meters in service, particularly, at 0.25 and 0.5 gpm. 5) The AMI system improved the accountability of water for the utility. 6) Despite an ongoing downward annual trend in metered water (MW), average bimonthly MW mildly increased after the AMI system was fully operational. And 7) annual MW increased by 2.2% in the 12-month period immediately following the metering infrastructure upgrade.