Typescript. / Bibliography: leaves [230]-240. / xvi, 303 leaves ill

A future expansion of wind power in the Nordic power system makes the balancing for the transmission system operator Svenska Kraftnät (SvK) more complicated. Up to the hour of delivery the balance responsible parties’ (BRP) makes prognoses and plans, for consumption and production, to help maintain the balance in the electrical grid. How well this is accomplished is affected by the setup of the market design. Therefore SvK has proposed the following possible changes in market design:   Increase the imbalance costs Intensify the regulation of imbalances Increase the temporal resolution on the different markets Present the prices for balancing power in real-time Modify the balancing market to simplify auction of consumption bids A mapping over the BRPs’ processes within planning and trading on the day-ahead, intra-day, and the balancing market has been performed in this thesis. This mapping shows that the actual processes differ from the theoretical. How they differ depends on the size of the BRP, hence a categorization has been carried out with regards to their share of production in the electrical grid. The results show that the different market changes affect the categories in different ways as well.   The analysis shows that increased imbalance costs, intensified regulation of imbalances and modification of the balancing market to simplify auction of consumption bids are the most beneficial changes from the systems perspective. Finally a discussion covers how these changes could be conducted, along with the possible implications that might occur. Implications could be increased electricity prices and economies of scale for larger BRP’s.

Work/life balance researchers have documented the low take-up rates of corporate work/life balance policies at the same time as there are reports of persistent work/life pressures. This research aims to provide more comprehensive explanations of the phenomenon of low policy take-up than those currently available in the work/life balance literature which focus on organisational and individual factors. The research project is based on a critical review of the work/life balance literature which focuses on organisational solutions and starts from the assumption that the organisational approach to researching and addressing work/life conflicts is inherently limited, mainly because it does not theorise gender as a social structure and does not take into consideration the social and political context in which work/life arrangements are negotiated but focuses, instead, on individual employees and organisations. I integrated my critical review of the organisational work/life balance literature with concepts in the feminist literature, most importantly the gendered public/private divide, to create an explicit ‘gender lens’ which guides the interpretations of my findings. I applied this gender lens to Habermas’ model of societal evolution to operationalise it as an analytical tool for this research. From this theoretical basis, I designed a comparative research project, using Australia and Sweden as country case studies, which compares the approaches to work/life balance in the two countries. The focus of the analysis is on parental leave as one important example of work/life balance policies. The data for this research includes the parental leave legislation, public documents released by governments and associated bodies as well as national surveys on the take-up of parental leave provisions in both countries. This material is analysed in the light of the conceptual framework. [...] / Doctor of Philosophy

The aim of this project was to develop a method for the determination of epichlorohydrin in drinking water. First, epichlorohydrin was studied on gas chromatography (GC) to determine the retention time. Then, epichlorohydrin was used to optimise the GC parameters : best detector, detector temperature, total detector flow, injector temperature and column temperature program. Secondly, epichlorohydrin was extracted by Solid Phase Micro-Extraction (SPME) and by Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) and analysed by GC to optimise the extraction mode parameters : SPME extraction mode, salt saturation, fibre selection, sample temperature, fibre placement, stirring and vibration, extraction time ; SPE tube selection, volume of extraction, extraction flow rate, salt saturation, drying process, solvent of elution, volume of solvent. Thirdly, the limit of detection of both extraction modes by GC was looked at to decide on the best extraction technique for epichlorohydrin. Fourth, epichlorohydrin was extracted by SPME direct immersion and analysed by gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy (GC/MS). A calibration curve was obtained with the analyses of Milli-Q water sample spiked with epichlorodydrin. A limit of detection was determined at 0.38 μg/L. Finally, water samples from the Adelaide distribution system were analysed by GC/MS through two columns but epichlorohydrin could not be separated from bromodichloromethane present in drinking water from the disinfection process. / Thesis (MEng(HydrologyWaterResources))--University of South Australia, 2003.

Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) / In many areas of India, increasing groundwater use has led to depleted aquifers. Rainwater harvesting (RWH), the small scale collection and storage of runoff to augment groundwater stores, is seen as a solution to the deepening groundwater crisis in India. However while the social and economic gains of RWH have been highlighted, there has not yet been a thorough attempt to evaluate the impacts of RWH on larger catchment hydrological balances. The thesis here will endeavour to address this research gap through a case study of the 476 km2 ungauged semi-arid Arvari River catchment in the state of Rajasthan. Over 366 RWH structures have been built in this catchment since 1985 by the community and the local non-government organisation (NGO), Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS). The local effects of RWH structures and general catchment characteristics were determined through field investigations during the monsoon seasons of 2007 and 2008. The analysis described large variability in both climatic patterns and recharge estimates. Potential recharge estimates from seven RWH storages, of three different sizes and in six landscape positions, were calculated using the water balance method, which were compared with recharge estimates from water level rises in twenty-nine dug wells using the water table fluctuation method. The average daily potential recharge from RWH structures is between 12 – 52 mm/day, while recharge reaching the groundwater was between 3 – 7 mm/day. The large difference between recharge estimates could be explained through soil storage, and a large lateral transmissivity in the aquifer. Approximately 7% of rainfall is recharged by RWH in the catchment, which is similar in both the comparatively wet and dry years of the field analysis. This is because the capacity of an individual structure to induce recharge is related to structure size and capacity, catchment runoff characteristics and underlying geology. Due to the large annual fluctuations in groundwater levels, the field study results suggest that RWH has a large impact on the groundwater supply, and that there is a large lateral flow of groundwater in the area. The results inferred from the field analysis were then applied to a conceptual water balance model to study catchment-scale impacts of RWH. An existing model was not used because of the paucity of data, and the need to incorporate an effective representation of RWH function and impact. The model works on a daily time step and is divided into subbasins. Within the subbasin hydrological response units (HRUs) describe the different land use/soil combinations associated with the Arvari River catchment, including irrigated agriculture. Sustainability indices, related to water from groundwater and rainfall for irrigated agriculture demand, were used to compare scenarios of management simulated in the conceptual model. The analysis shows that as RWH area increases, it reaches a limiting capacity from where developing additional RWH area does not increase the benefit to groundwater stores, but substantially reduces streamflow. This limiting capacity was also seen at the local-scale, where cumulative potential recharge from an individual RWH structure reaches a maximum daily recharge rate. These results could have important implications for RWH development, but require further research. The analysis highlighted the important link between irrigation area and RWH area. If the irrigation area is increased at the optimal level of RWH, where the sustainability indices were greatest, the resilience of the system actually decreased. Nevertheless RWH in a system increased the overall sustainability of the water demand for irrigated agriculture, compared to a system without RWH. Also RWH provided a slight buffer in the groundwater store when drought occurred. While RWH addresses the supply-side issues of groundwater operation, the institutions that form rules for groundwater use must also be considered, because of the link between irrigation area and RWH. The Arvari River Parliament, the community-based group in the case study area, was examined according to Ostrom’s factors for collective action. It was found that the major limitation for the effectiveness of this group was the minimal information available about the aquifer characteristics.

Context-awareness in pervasive computing environments can reduce user interactions with computing devices by making applications adaptive and autonomous. Context-aware applications rely on information about user context and user preferences to guide their own behaviour. However, context-aware applications do not always behave as users expect due to imperfection of context information, incorrect user preferences or incorrect adaptation rules. This may cause users to feel loss of control over their applications. To mitigate these problems, context-aware systems must provide mechanisms to strike a suitable balance between user control and software autonomy. Allowing users to scrutinise the system and allowing the system to sometimes include users in the adaptation decision making, can provide a balance of user control. This thesis addresses the shortcoming in development of context-aware pervasive systems with regard to providing balance between user control and software autonomy. The thesis shows that rather than making a context-aware application a complete black box, it is possible to allow user control of application adaptations. The system can reveal to the user what context information the system uses and how it arrives at adaptation decisions if the user requests such information. The user may decide to alter the adaptive behaviour of the system to achieve desired outcomes. Hence, a context-aware application becomes a closed loop system where the user is put into the loop if requested. The proposed approach is developed under an assumption that users differ in the level of their technology expertise and therefore the system has to provide explanations that are suitable for a particular level of user expertise. The thesis makes two important research contributions: design of the architectural framework and development of the platform exposing autonomic behaviour of context-aware applications. The architectural framework supports developers of context aware-applications in providing balance of control between users and software autonomy. The framework describes a set of models that allow revealing the adaptation behaviour of context-aware applications in a way suitable for users with various levels of expertise. The framework consists of: (i) a model for exposing elements that influence the context-aware behaviour, (ii) a generic architecture for providing balance of control, (iii) a user model, and (iv) a context graph based overview of context-aware adaptations. The platform exposing autonomic behaviour of context-aware applications is a proof of concept prototype of a software infrastructure (middleware) providing balance of control. The software infrastructure includes: (i) a Semantic Manager, developed to serve the description of elements required for explanations of the application behaviour; (ii) an extension of the PACE Middleware, to enable the middleware to expose the context information, preferences, adaptation rules and their evaluation traces, respectively. (iii) supporting tools for the application designer to prepare the overview of context-aware adaptations and review the evaluation traces. Finally, this thesis presents a case study that illustrates and evaluates the system supporting balance of control. This evaluation involves the existing application which is developed using the previous version of the PACE middleware. The case study validates the architectural framework and illustrates the process and issues involved in developing context-aware application that are able to expose elements that influence context-aware behaviour.

Work/life balance researchers have documented the low take-up rates of corporate work/life balance policies at the same time as there are reports of persistent work/life pressures. This research aims to provide more comprehensive explanations of the phenomenon of low policy take-up than those currently available in the work/life balance literature which focus on organisational and individual factors. The research project is based on a critical review of the work/life balance literature which focuses on organisational solutions and starts from the assumption that the organisational approach to researching and addressing work/life conflicts is inherently limited, mainly because it does not theorise gender as a social structure and does not take into consideration the social and political context in which work/life arrangements are negotiated but focuses, instead, on individual employees and organisations. I integrated my critical review of the organisational work/life balance literature with concepts in the feminist literature, most importantly the gendered public/private divide, to create an explicit ‘gender lens’ which guides the interpretations of my findings. I applied this gender lens to Habermas’ model of societal evolution to operationalise it as an analytical tool for this research. From this theoretical basis, I designed a comparative research project, using Australia and Sweden as country case studies, which compares the approaches to work/life balance in the two countries. The focus of the analysis is on parental leave as one important example of work/life balance policies. The data for this research includes the parental leave legislation, public documents released by governments and associated bodies as well as national surveys on the take-up of parental leave provisions in both countries. This material is analysed in the light of the conceptual framework. [...] / Doctor of Philosophy

Although footwear has been recognised as a risk factor for falls in older people, it remains unclear as to which features of shoes are beneficial or detrimental to balance. This project aimed to systematically investigate the effects of common shoe features, namely: an elevated heel, a soft sole, a hard sole, a flared sole, a bevelled heel, a high-collar and a tread sole, on balance and gait in older community-dwelling people. The experimental shoes were compared to standard shoes in three studies examining: (i) standing balance, leaning balance and stepping in 29 older people, (ii) centre of mass (COM)-base of support (BOS) margins, vertical and braking loading rates, and perceived shoe comfort and stability in 11 young and 15 older people walking on even and uneven surfaces, and (iii) temporal-spatial gait variables, pelvis acceleration, and gait termination in 10 young and 26 older people, on level, irregular and wet surfaces. Elevated heel shoes impaired overall performance in functional tests of balance and stepping. They were also perceived as lacking comfort and stability and led to a conservative walking pattern characterised by increased step width and double-support time, reduced braking and vertical loading rates and medio-lateral (ML) pelvis accelerations on various surfaces. Soft sole shoes increased lateral COM-BOS margin and step width, indicating reduced ML walking stability. When wearing these shoes, subjects had longer total stopping times and on the wet surface, smaller step lengths and shoe/floor angles at heel strike, suggesting a potential risk of slipping. When wearing high-collar shoes, subjects had better balance as demonstrated by small but significant increases in lateral COM-BOS margin, double-support time and step width, and decreases in ML pelvis accelerations on varying surfaces and in total stopping time on the wet surface. Shoes with hard, flared or tread soles or a bevelled heel did not affect balance. In conclusion, providing that they are fitted, have adequate fastening and perhaps a slip-resistant sole, shoes with a low square heel, a sole of medium hardness (shore A-40) and a high-collar provide the greatest stability for older people when walking on dry, wet and irregular surfaces.

This thesis investigates walking patterns in healthy young people and in people with an increased risk of falling, and determines the physiological contributions to walking stability. First, a review of the relevant literature on techniques for assessing walking stability, age-related changes in balance and gait, and the contributions of vision, vestibular function, peripheral sensation and strength was undertaken. In response to a critical analysis of these findings, a new technique and protocol for the assessment of walking stability was developed. This involved measuring and analysing head and pelvis accelerations while subjects walked on a level surface and an irregular surface. Gait patterns were studied in 30 young healthy subjects and two groups known to be at increased risk of falling - 100 subjects over the age of 75, and 30 subjects with diabetic peripheral neuropathy. A series of vision, sensation, strength, reaction time and balance tests were also undertaken to identify subjects??? physiological abilities and risk of falls. Acceleration patterns of the head and pelvis differed according to physiological risk of falling, particularly when walking on the irregular surface. Those with a high risk of falling walked with a reduced velocity, cadence and step length, and exhibited less rhythmic acceleration patterns at the head and pelvis. Gait patterns were significantly associated with leg strength, peripheral sensation and reaction time. It is concluded that subjects with a high physiological risk of falling exhibit characteristic patterns of walking that indicate an impaired ability to control the movement of the pelvis and head, which may predispose to loss of balance.

xviii, 211 leaves : tables, photos, (1 col.), diags ; 25 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Agronomy, 1976