With the advent of the large diameter tunnel boring machine (TBM), mechanically driven large diameter tunnel is becoming a more attractive option. During operation, a large diameter tube allows for stacked deck configuration with shafts dropped to platform level (no station caverns). The extensive information has been compiled on innovative TBM tunneling projects such as the Barcelona Line 9, where the concept of continuous station has been used for the first time, stormwater management and roadway tunnel in Malaysia, where the floodwater bypass tunnel and the road tunnel are incorporated in a single bore tunnel. The decision making process that led to the construction of large bore tunnel is also presented. A detailed study has been carried out to determine the necessary face support pressure in drained conditions (with ideal membrane), and undrained conditions. The effects of tunnel diameter, cover-to-diameter ratio, at-rest lateral earth pressure coefficient, and soil shear strength parameters on the local and global stability of the excavation face of mechanically-driven tunnels have been investigated. The relation between the face support pressure and the calculated tunnel face displacement gave the minimum face support pressure that should be applied on the tunnel face to avoid abrupt movement of the tunnel face. Simple expressions have been developed for the support pressure as a function of tunnel diameter, cover depth, lateral earth pressure coefficient, and soil strength parameters. The required face support pressures are compared to the analytical solutions available from the literature. It has been found that analytical stability solutions generally underestimate the required face support pressure and excessive deformation will take place in the ground near the tunnel heading when these solutions are used. By using plastic limit analysis, a rigid and deformable prism-and-wedge model has been developed; in undrained conditions, upper bound solutions against collapse load are derived for face pressure. Deformable blocks enabled to take into account the effect of non-uniform support pressure due to the unit weight of the supporting medium. The upper bound solution derived as a function of tunnel diameter and cover depth, normalized undrained shear strength ratio, and unit weight of the ground and the supporting medium was compared with a solution available from the literature. Largest face support pressure was obtained when the uniform face support pressure was applied and it was smallest when identical unit weight was used for the ground and the supporting medium. / text

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Ziel des Projekts Green eBusiness ist es, auf der einen Seite bestehende Hemmnisse für umweltfreundliche Beschaffung in Unternehmen zu ergründen und auf der anderen Seite daraus Anforderungen an eBusiness Konzeptionen abzuleiten, die diese erfüllen müssen, um solche Hemmnisse abzubauen bzw. deren Entstehung zu vermeiden. Daher wird ein Modell zur Identifikation und Bewertung bestehender Hemmnisse im Beschaffungsprozess von Unternehmen entwickelt, das die Gründe der bisherigen Marktdurchdringung umweltfreundlicher Produkte und Dienstleistungen erklären soll. Hierzu wird die im Rahmen des abgeschlossenen EU-Projektes RELIEF - Environmental relief potential of urban action on avoidance and detoxification of waste streams through green public procurement entwickelte Hemmnisanalyse angewendet, um in den 500 größten deutschen Unternehmen Hemmnisse für umweltfreundliche Beschaffung zu identifizieren und zu bewerten. Ein zweiter Teil der empirischen Studie befasst sich mit der Nutzung elektronischer Medien zur Unterstützung von Beschaffungsprozessen. In diesem Bereich werden Anwendungsgewohnheiten, Anwendungshäufigkeiten sowie eventuell in den Unternehmen existierende Hemmnisse untersucht. Aufbauend auf den Ergebnissen dieser Hemmnisanalyse sollen auf Basis von Szenarien eBusiness-Konzeptionen (weiter-)entwickelt werden, die geeignet sind, die identifizierten Hemmnisse zu überwinden.

Denna studie syftar till att studera hur yrkesverksamma konstruerar sina klienter utifrån kön, med fokus på killar. Dessutom söker vi belysa vilka diskurser som är närvarande i beskrivningarna och diskussionerna kring killarna. Studien tar sin utgångspunkt i socialkonstruktionismen och genusperspektivet. Vi har tagit del av forskning som pekar på att konstruerandet av klienter påverkas av yrkesverksammas uppfattningar kring genus och könsroller. Vi har följt en arbetsgrupp på ett boende för ungdomar och observerat hur de pratat och diskuterat kring killar som är inskrivna på boendet. Studiens empiri består med andra ord av observationer samt en kompletterande fokusgruppintervju. Materialet har därefter analyserats genom diskursanalys. I vår analys har vi identifierat tre diskurser som präglar personalens beskrivningar av killarna: pojkar, killar och grabbar. Dessa skildrar både sättet personalen pratar kring killarna, men även hur de utifrån diskurserna förhåller sig till dem. Pojkar beskrivs ofta som snälla, ”små” och i behov av extra stöd och omsorg. Killar är en mer generell diskurs och fokuserar på det psykiska måendet, känslouttryck och tenderar även att jämställas med tjejer. Diskursen grabbar fokuserar på killarnas problematik och avvikande eller normbrytande beteende. Studiens resultat pekar på att personalens beskrivningar, i kontrast mot vad forskningen pekar på, mer reflekterar konstruktioner av klienter snarare än kön. Konstruktionen bygger snarare på kontext och fokuserar på killarnas beteende, situation och problematik. Konstruerandet av kön är dock närvarande, men är inget primärt som avsevärt påverkar beskrivningarna och framställningen av killarna. Trots att det inte har varit studiens syfte att studera framställningar av tjejer, har vi valt att redovisa samt diskutera de fall där de förekommer. Detta för att ytterligare styrka våra resultat, resonemang och slutsatser. Här har vi kunnat se att inte heller tjejer konstrueras primärt utifrån kön. Vidare har vi kunnat urskilja att tjejerna kan falla under samma diskurser som killarna, vilket pekar på att diskurserna är könsöverskridande. Utifrån diskurserna har vi uppmärksammat att personalens arbets- och förhållningssätt gentemot ungdomarna skiljer sig åt mellan diskurserna. Med detta menas att beroende på hur ungdomarna beskrivs gör att de hamnar inom en viss diskurs och att personalen utifrån detta identifierar behov som ligger till grund för förhållningssättet. / This study aims to explore how professionals construct their clients depending on gender, focusing mainly on males. Furthermore we seek to identify which discourses are present in the staff’s descriptions and discussions regarding the males. The study is based on social constructionism and a gender perspective. Previous research has shown that the construction of clients is influenced by professionals’ view on gender and gender roles. In this study we have followed a group of social workers in a local municipal organization which aims to provide support for young people. We have observed how the staff discusses and talks about male clients. The data collected consists of observations and a complementary focus group interview. The material has been analyzed using discourse analysis. Through the analysis we have identified three discourses that are present in the staff’s descriptions of male clients: boys, guys and blokes. These describe both how the staff talks about male clients and also how they, depending on discourse,relate to and approach them. Boys are often described as nice, “little” and as in need of extra support and care. Guys is a more general discourse which focuses on the males’ psychological wellbeing, their emotions and tends to equate them with girls. The blokes-discourse focuses on the males’ specific problematics and deviant or anti-social behavior. The results of this study indicate that the staff’s descriptions of the males, contrary to what previous research shows, rather reflects constructions of clients than that of gender. This client construction is contextual and primarily based on the behavior, situation and problematic of the males. Gender is, however, still present but more as a secondary factor that has no major effect on the staff’s description and construction of the male clients. Even though the aim of this study hasn’t been to explore this phenomenon for female clients, we have been able to see that the construction of female clients also is non-dependent of gender. We have also observed that females can be derived to the same discourses as males, which indicates that the discourses are not bound by gender. Through these discourses we have discovered that the staff’s approach to their clients differs between the discourses. This means that depending on how the clients are described puts them under a certain discourse. Based on this the staff then identifies needs of the client that in turn affects the staff’s approach to the client.

Ziel des Projekts Green eBusiness ist es, auf der einen Seite bestehende Hemmnisse für umweltfreundliche Beschaffung in Unternehmen zu ergründen und auf der anderen Seite daraus Anforderungen an eBusiness Konzeptionen abzuleiten, die diese erfüllen müssen, um solche Hemmnisse abzubauen bzw. deren Entstehung zu vermeiden. Daher wird ein Modell zur Identifikation und Bewertung bestehender Hemmnisse im Beschaffungsprozess von Unternehmen entwickelt, das die Gründe der bisherigen Marktdurchdringung umweltfreundlicher Produkte und Dienstleistungen erklären soll. Hierzu wird die im Rahmen des abgeschlossenen EU-Projektes RELIEF - Environmental relief potential of urban action on avoidance and detoxification of waste streams through green public procurement entwickelte Hemmnisanalyse angewendet, um in den 500 größten deutschen Unternehmen Hemmnisse für umweltfreundliche Beschaffung zu identifizieren und zu bewerten. Ein zweiter Teil der empirischen Studie befasst sich mit der Nutzung elektronischer Medien zur Unterstützung von Beschaffungsprozessen. In diesem Bereich werden Anwendungsgewohnheiten, Anwendungshäufigkeiten sowie eventuell in den Unternehmen existierende Hemmnisse untersucht. Aufbauend auf den Ergebnissen dieser Hemmnisanalyse sollen auf Basis von Szenarien eBusiness-Konzeptionen (weiter-)entwickelt werden, die geeignet sind, die identifizierten Hemmnisse zu überwinden.

<p dir="ltr">This article-based research traces the evolution and advancements of vehicular aerodynamic concepts and emphasizes on the significance of vehicle aerodynamics for high-performance vehicles. The thesis further explores the scope of integrating advanced vehicle aerodynamic concepts into consumer vehicles. The thesis aims to point out the significant improvements achieved with the integration of active aerodynamic concepts in terms of both vehicle performance as well as efficiency figures for consumer vehicles. Additionally, exploring the scope for the development of these advanced active aerodynamic systems as third-party modifications is the secondary objective of the presented research. The thesis also highlights the development and integration of unique active aerodynamic systems featured in performance vehicles and analyzes the performance gains achieved using MATLAB program-based simulations supported by a graphical representation of analyzed output data. The study of Active aerodynamic systems for both performance/track-oriented and consumer vehicles remains to be the primary emphasis for the presented thesis.</p>

MCOM / Department of Economics / The study aimed to empirically examine the impact of foreign direct investment on economic growth in the Southern African Development Community countries for the period 1980-2015. The relation between foreign direct investment and economic growth has been a subject of extensive discussion in the economic literature. The debate revolves around the growth implications of foreign direct investment. The extraordinary increase in global FDI flows in the last three decades triggered an interest to investigate the growth implications of such huge amounts of cross-border capital movements. Owing to this surge in foreign direct investment flows and the effort countries are putting forth to attract it, it would seem straightforward to argue that foreign direct investment would convey net positive effects on economic growth of a host country. From a theoretical standpoint foreign direct investment has been shown to boost economic growth through technology transfer and diffusion. In light of the expected benefits of foreign direct investment, many empirical studies have been conducted on this subject matter. While the explosion of foreign direct investment flows is distinctive, the evidence accumulated on the growth effects remains mixed. Using fixed effect panel data analysis, on the overall, the findings of the study show a negative effect of FDI on economic growth in the SADC countries for the period 1980 to 2015. The findings are not in tandem with theoretical predictions from growth theorists and some empirical studies carried out on the same topic. The findings of the study imply that FDI does not seem to have an independent effect on economic growth for the panel of countries in the SADC region. This maybe because FDI flows to Africa and into the SADC countries, in particular, are channelled mainly to the extractive sector with little to no linkages with the other sectors of the host country economy. The findings of the study also show that the growth-enhancing potential of FDI is higher in middle-income countries than low-income countries in the SADC region.

MCom (Cost and Management Accounting) / Department of Accountancy / The relationship between a firm’s investment behaviour, financial constraints and the level of internally generated cash flows has been a subject of extensive discussion in finance literature. The discussion revolves around the effectiveness of investment cash flow sensitivity (ICFS) as a measure of financial constraints with contradicting conclusions. Empirical literature is also not in agreement about the best firm-specific proxy to distinguish firms into financially-constrained versus financially-unconstrained ones and the effect of the 2007 to 2009 global financial crisis on the ICFS of South African firms is still to be determined. There are very limited studies that have investigated ICFS in developing economies. This is important as institutional differences and capital market developments between developed and developing economies justify a separate study of South Africa as a developing economy. This study used data drawn from 131 Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed non-financial firms for the period 2003 to 2016 to establish the most suitable criterion for distinguishing firms into financially constrained versus unconstrained, to determine the effect of the 2007 to 2009 global financial crisis on the ICFS and to determine if ICFS is a good measure of financial constraints. The data for the 131 sampled firms was obtained from the financial statements on the IRESS database. The dataset was split into constrained versus unconstrained firms using three firm specific splitting variables: firm size, cash flow holding and dividends pay-out. The data was further split into panel 1 (2003 to 2006 covering the period before the global crisis); panel 2 (2006 to 2010 covering the period including the global financial crisis period) and panel 3 (2010 to 2016 covering the post global financial crisis period). The study utilised the system generalized moments method (GMM) regression model that yields consistent estimates even with unbalanced panel data sets and the Fixed Effects estimator. The models were both implemented on STATA 15 software. Samples split based on the dividend pay-out showed the highest ICFS for financially-constrained firms before, during and after the global financial crisis period. ICFS is highest during the period including the global financial crisis years compared to samples split using firm size and cash flow holding. The study concludes that dividends pay-out is the best criterion to distinguish firms into financially-constrained versus unconstrained; the global financial crisis constrained all firms; and that ICFS can be a good measure of financial constraints. The main limitation to the study was that it used a small sample size in relation to other international studies. / NRF

在全球持續電子化的過程中，台灣一路扮演著落實有效製造與實現設計的推手，無論從主機板、被動元件、面板、晶片設計、晶圓製造以及封裝甚至高精密組裝無所不包，在如此資本密集產業，如何操作才能達到供需平衡，為整體產業經濟創造出良性的競爭平台，避免惡性競爭，就成了不可輕忽的課題。 本文以晶圓產業為探討對象。全球產能平均利用率多年來總維持於中檔 (88%)， 且平均銷售單價只能緩降而無強勢反彈，近年企業無不減少資本支出來度過低潮，整合元件製造廠(IDM)相繼喊出工廠資產輕化(fab-lite)的營運策略，這時我們的命題即是：要不要繼續投資？如何調整價值鏈？ 本研究中，我們會先檢視目前市場對半導體成長預測的準確度，再經由產業價值活動代表性指標回歸分析法對相關參數做一整合之解析，對晶圓需求量與銷售價建立配適之模型，找出先行指標來達到預測，並定義上下限以供快速比對分析，最後再根據分析結果提出可能之產業趨勢議題。 / This thesis analyzes the semiconductor industry growth worldwide. The leading index via regressions has been established to achieve a reliable forecast on worldwide ASP, wafer demand and revenue. In the long run, we expect the semiconductor demand will continue to grow at CAGR 8% (compound annual growth rate) and display less extreme cycles than past decade. However, revenue’s CAGR might be diluted to around 5%, lower than demand’s growth. Moreover, it might go down to zero-growth for some times since the ASP still slightly trend down before emerging market demand really expanded. Continuous outsourcing is one possible solution for IDM to be fab-lite, since fab’s fix charge is billion- base that needs high utilization to maintain break-even operation. But what is the solution for foundry side to avoid ASP erosion all the way down? Our analysis identifies a need for executive managers to well predict the demand on capital expenditure when making decision.

Os prefixos germânicos de alguns verbos suecos serão comparados numa análise contrastiva com as relativas equivalências em português e em italiano num corpus paralelo escrito composto por um romance de língua sueca, um de língua portuguesa e um de língua italiana e pelas suas respectivas traduções. As funções desenvolvidas pelos prefixos germânicos dos verbos suecos analisados serão examinadas e depois confrontadas com as relativas equivalências, com o resultado que também nas duas línguas românicas relevam-se, de maneira bastante constante, procedimentos gramaticais parecidos aos desenvolvidos pelos prefixos germânicos. / Germanic prefixes of which some Swedish verbs are composed are going to be compared in acontrastive analysis with their relative equivalences in Portuguese and Italian in a parallel written corpus characterized by a Swedish-language romance, a Portuguese-language romance and an Italian language romance, and by their relative translations. The functions executed by the German prefixes of the analysed Swedish verbs are going to be examined and then compared with their relative equivalences, with the result that even in the Romance languages it is possible to find in a quite constant way grammatical processes which are similar to those executed by the Germanic prefixes. / I prefissi germanici di alcuni verbi svedesi saranno comparati in un'analisi contrastiva con le relative equivalenze in portoghese e in italiano in un corpus parallelo scritto composto da un romanzo di lingua svedese, uno di lingua portoghese e uno di lingua italiana e dalle rispettive traduzioni. Le funzioni svolte dai prefissi germanici dei verbi svedesi analizzati saranno esaminate e poi confrontate con le relative equivalenze, con il risultato che anche nelle due lingue romanze si riscontrano in maniera abbastanza costante processi grammaticali simili a quelli svolti dai prefissi germanici. / De germanska prefix som återfinns i vissa svenska verb kommer att jämföras med sina motsvarigheter på portugisiska och italienska. Detta görs med hjälp av en skriven korpus bestående av en roman ursprungligen skriven på svenska, en skriven på portugisiska och en skriven på italienska samt översättningar av dessa romaner till de två andra språken. Funktionen hos de svenska verben med germanska prefix kommer att analyseras och sedan jämföras med verbens motsvarigheter. Resultatet av analysen visar att det är möjligt att finna systematiskt återkommande grammatiska processer i de romanska språken, som liknar de som förekommer i samband med de germanska prefixen på svenska.