Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS) / A prepaid water metering project was implemented in various high density suburbs around the city of Harare in 2015 with the intention of spreading the project throughout the whole country. It was anticipated that the use of prepaid water meters as a water management device would improve the social, health, hygiene and general well-being of the poor households in the Sunningdale high density suburb. This study will investigate the social implications that were caused by the use of prepaid water meters as a tool for water management among poor households in this high density suburbs. The impact of prepaid water meter technology has been felt by water consumers in Sunningdale who have shared their experiences and attitudes towards this recently introduced innovation in water service delivery within Harare high density suburbs. The study examines the implications of using prepaid water meters as a water conservation measure and considers the behaviour, health and hygiene as well as home-based livelihoods of low-income water users. This study also provides answers for the premature abandonment of the expansion of the prepaid water meter project into other surrounding cities in Zimbabwe.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--West Virginia University, 2007. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 133 p. : ill. (some col.). Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 83-90).

Modern power systems are now stepping into the post-restructuring era, in which utility industries as well as ISOs (Independent System Operators) are involved. Attention needs to be paid to the reliability study of power systems by both the utility companies and the ISOs. An uninterrupted and high quality power is required for the sustainable development of a technological society. Power system blackouts generally result from cascading outages. Protection system hidden failures remain dormant when everything is normal and are exposed as a result of other system disturbances. This dissertation provides new methods for power system vulnerability analysis including protection failures. Both adequacy and security aspects are included. The power system vulnerability analysis covers the following issues: 1) Protection system failure analysis and modeling based on protection failure features; 2) New methodology for reliability evaluation to incorporate protection system failure modes; and, 3) Application of variance reduction techniques and evaluation. A new model of current-carrying component paired with its associated protection system has been proposed. The model differentiates two protection failure modes, and it is the foundation of the proposed research. Detailed stochastic features of system contingencies and corresponding responses are considered. Both adequacy and security reliability indices are computed. Moreover, a new reliability index ISV (Integrated System Vulnerability) is introduced to represent the integrated reliability performance with consideration of protection system failures. According to these indices, we can locate the weakest point or link in a power system. The whole analysis procedure is based on a non-sequential Monte Carlo simulation method. In reliability analysis, especially with Monte Carlo simulation, computation time is a function not only of a large number of simulations, but also time-consuming system state evaluation, such as OPF (Optimal Power Flow) and stability assessment. Theoretical and practical analysis is conducted for the application of variance reduction techniques. The dissertation also proposes a comprehensive approach for a TTC (Total Transfer Capability) calculation with consideration of thermal, voltage and transient stability limits. Both steady state and dynamic security assessments are included in the process of obtaining total transfer capability. Particularly, the effect of FACTS (Flexible AC Transmission Systems) devices on TTC is examined. FACTS devices have been shown to have both positive and negative effects on system stability depending on their location. Furthermore, this dissertation proposes a probabilistic method which gives a new framework for analyzing total transfer capability with actual operational conditions.

Cost competitiveness is a major driving force in the semiconductor industry. The processing cost of an individual die is directly proportional to its size. Advances in processing technology have shrunk the device sizes in wire-bonded chips, resulting in a smaller die core size. However, the space below wire-bond pads remains relatively underutilized because of the reliability concern that electrical loads transmitted during bonding can cause failures in the underlying devices. Recently, studies have attempted to improve the use of space below wire-bond pads. Hence, the circuits under pads (CUP) structure modified layout rules to include circuits structure under pads, was developed, and extensive qualification work is required to meet reliability standards. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the damage caused by the wirebonding process of CUP devices on the in-line assembly packaging manufacture. The root cause of wirebonding failures analyzed were based on the CUP structure and several wire bond parameters; such as bonding force, ultrasonic current, bonding time period, capillary type, machine, and wafer source, which were also confirmed with the DOE/JMP engineer technique. Finally, results were also used to implement the corrective action and the assembly yield of CUP Device has been improved, successfully.

Since colonization, Indigenous women in Chiapas have occupied very disadvantaged social positions, characterized by ethnic, gender and class-based oppression. However, during the last thirty five years, important social dynamics have taken place which have driven women to perceive themselves as the main actors of social transformation, and to start participating in planning and development efforts at a household and community level. Building on the ideas of Paulo Freire and Pierre Bourdieu, oppression is understood as a dynamic where the oppressed are also implicated by, among other things, the involuntary body adhesion to oppression, experienced as shame, fear and silence. Therefore, the main focus of this research is the processes by which women achieved to exercise the internal capability to speak out; as well as how this new ability has been critical in order to have transformative agency, by having a meaningful participation in planning, agency and decision-making in the different spheres of their private and public life. The main findings of this thesis arise from six month of field research. With a phenomenological and hermeneutic approach, seventeen Indigenous and ten non-Indigenous women participated through in-depth interviews and focus groups. Participatory observation and a validation workshop were also undertaken. Findings are related, first, to women’s participation in group processes, by which, on the one hand, they achieved to generate critical-reflective awareness, denaturalizing oppression, and, on the other hand, they removed embodied oppressive dispositions by retraining their bodies through dialogue and corporal techniques. Second, praxis of liberation aroused from reflection, with no need of a mechanistic plan informed by efficient and effective predetermined justifications. Praxis of liberation took the form of practical wisdom and wise judgment for the achievement of good life.

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China has been heavily investing in new energy. With the Chinese government encouragement as well as huge demand from domestic, a lot of MNCs set up subsidiaries in China to enter Chinese market. The new energy industry in China is under rapid and prosperous development. This study adopts qualitative approach, through interviewing with three new energy companies as well as secondary data collection to understand in such changing environment, how MNC¡¦s subsidiary in China can manage the dynamics and build up capability to achieve initiative is the objective this study attempt to understand. The findings show that under different strategies, exploitation and exploration, of developing dynamic capability in China, there will be corresponding HR, R&D, and marketing practices in subsidiary. And these practices will lead to different result of subsidiary initiatives - local and global initiative.

In response to the intense business competition, rapid changes in the response to be non-stop demand for and use information systems to support business operations. Information systems development life cycle, requirements analysis phase is the most difficult to plan with the audit steps, so the effective demand analysis software project outputs will be the key to success. This study for the business information systems requirements analysis and validation process improvement studies to the case company information systems requirements analysis approach for analysis. To explore the requirements process often face the problem of the current situation and to cause analysis, and choose to CMMI Requirements Development and Requirements Management flow field as a guide, the recommended reference to CMMI specific goals and specific implementation method is proposed for the case company information system requirements process improvement recommendations aimed at improving the information system needs of the case company to work quality and output of current problems, and to provide general enterprise information system requirements into CMMI process improvement reference. For enterprises want to import the CMMI, but also needs to provide their requirements management process development and implementation of the field of reference.

High globalization of economy has led companies into a business environment in which the changes are increasingly complex and faster. In order to survive even succeed over the long term, the modern enterprises must confront reality in real time and predict possibility. In the 1990s, the theory of dynamic capability arose for responding the rapid changes in market conditions. Many scholars¡¦ researches found that the learning of organization, management models and organizational ambidexterity are the factors to affect the dynamic capability of enterprise. And the organizational ambidexterity can enhance organizational strength of controlling new knowledge and informational diversity. The purpose of this research is to explore the relationships among self-directed learning, organizational ambidexterity and dynamic capability of enterprise. Research is conducted using survey data collection. Samples are from engineers, administrators, specialists, first-line and midlevel managers in enterprises. Via electronic and paper questionnaires, the numbers of distributed questionnaire is 557, effective questionnaire is 230, and the rate of effective questionnaire is 41.3%. The analysis results show that there are significantly parallel relationships among self-directed learning, organizational ambidexterity and dynamic capability of enterprise. For enterprise management, strengthening employees¡¦ self-directed learning and building up a high organizational ambidexterity are useful to enhance the dynamic capability of enterprise.

Over the past decade, the rapid developments and growth of information and communication technology (ICT) have triggered a new wave of financial innovation¡Ðelectronic banking (e-banking). This study utilizes a hypercube model with secondary data analysis to analyze the differences in technological knowledge and business model aspects used in e-banking versus bricks-and-mortar banking, so as to explore the core capabilities in these two dimensions of e-banking innovation. The results indicate that the nature of e-banking innovation is disruptive, leading to drastic changes in both technological knowledge and business model for customers and incumbent banks. However, the innovation is modular for provider and architectural for regulators. We further identify nine core technical and eleven core business capabilities that are necessary for the stakeholders to cope with the change, each appearing to address either technical or business aspects of e-banking transformation. The findings have the potential to contribute to the understanding of impacts occurring in the change associated with e-banking and offer rich insights for the stakeholders to exploit e-banking opportunities.