This study aims to evaluate the use of the method Information Demand Analysis (henceforth IDA) against an analysis tool. To gain empirical understanding of IDA, the method will be applied to a cooperation process between two business organisations. The research questions of the study are to investigate what can be required of a method, to identify the information demand for the above mentioned cooperation process, and to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the use of IDA. Based on a literature study an evaluation framework, which describes what can be required of a method, was developed. The evaluation framework resulted in an analysis tool, which consists of the elements: method content, method user, method context, method validation, the method creator’s requirements, and the wishes and expectations of the business organisations. The use of IDA implied scoping to delimit the problem situation and a workshop to identify the information demand. In order to gain an understanding of the use of the method IDA, and to identify the information demand, the method was applied to a cooperation process between Steel AB and Wood AB. The information demand was later represented in Extended Enterprise Modelling Language (henceforth EEML). Finally, we analysed if and how the elements in the analysis tool were reflected in IDA and identified the strengths and weaknesses of the use of the method. The strengths of IDA are that it is general and applicable on different types of business organisations. Furthermore, it has well defined concepts and the possibility of selecting appropriate concepts ensures that it is applicable on different problem situations. The business organisations, which participated in the workshop, found that IDA resulted in a holistic view and increased the understanding for each other. The weaknesses of IDA are lack of documentation of explicitly defined steps, the implications for selecting certain concepts, guidance, and explicitly described notations. Concerning the involved roles, in IDA, we request a description of them, their responsibilities, and the needed knowledge sets and skills for using the method. Since IDA still is under development we had difficulties understanding how our outcome of the method should fulfil the purpose of IDA.

Demand-side resources are taking an increasingly prominent role in providing essential grid services once provided by thermal power plants. This thesis considers the economic feasibility and environmental effects of integrating demand-side resources into the electric grid with consideration given to the diversity of market and environmental conditions that can affect their behavior. Chapter 2 explores the private economics and system-level carbon dioxide reduction when using demand response for spinning reserve. Steady end uses like lighting are more than twice as profitable as seasonal end uses because spinning reserve is needed year-round. Avoided carbon emission damages from using demand response instead of fossil fuel generation for spinning reserve are sufficient to justify incentives for demand response resources. Chapter 3 quantifies the system-level net emissions rate and private economics of behind-the-meter energy storage. Net emission rates are lower than marginal emission rates for power plants and in-line with estimates of net emission rates from grid-level storage. The economics are favorable for many buildings in regions with high demand charges like California and New York, even without subsidies. Future penetration into regions with average charges like Pennsylvania will depend greatly on installation cost reductions and wholesale prices for ancillary services. Chapter 4 outlines a novel econometric model to quantify potential revenues from energy storage that reduces demand charges. The model is based on a novel predictive metric that is derived from the building’s load profile. Normalized revenue estimates are independent of the power capacity of the battery holding other performance characteristics equal, which can be used to calculate the profit-maximizing storage size. Chapter 5 analyzes the economic feasibility of flow batteries in the commercial and industrial market. Flow batteries at a 4-hour duration must be less expensive on a dollar per installed kWh basis, often by 20-30%, to break even with shorter duration li-ion or lead-acid despite allowing for deeper depth of discharge and superior cycle life. These results are robust to assumptions of tariff rates, battery round-trip efficiencies, amount of solar generation and whether the battery can participate in the wholesale energy and ancillary services markets.

This thesis is focused on simulation of demand for housing and formation of prices on the real estate market in Czech Republic. Theorethic introduction discribes microeconomic demand theory and spatial demand based on localization theory. The basic theory advences in demand for housing, that is focused on heterogeneousness, price, localization and types of living. Principal aim of this thesis is the empirical analysis and simulation of regional demand on the real estate market. Empiric analysis consists of dynamic and static model of demand for housing in Czech Republic etc..

Thesis is devoted to current trends in approaching cost allocation developed in IBM Cognos TM1 software. Concept, which was originally elaborated in my bachelor thesis, has recently experienced restrictions caused by increasing requirements on analytical tools and information they provide. Goal of the thesis is therefore to analyse causalities of emerging weaknesses, design and develop optimalized and reengineered solution answering current demands. Reqarding the quantitative evaluation of attained results, the thesis is extended with analysis of frameworks and standards dedicated to benchmarking of OLAP tools and their synthesis into own complex model. Proposed model specializes on measuring multiple OLAP applications across four main perspectives including performance, development, usability and financial benefits. Attained results prove, that reengineered model is faster, data richer, easier to use and appropriate for any organization with structured and algorithmic approach to cost allocation. Second half of the thesis focuses on extending the presentation layer to web browser, designing and developing of custom visualizations for most usual analytic tasks. Considering the absence of advanced application interface in IBM Cognos TM1, the thesis also includes theoretical analysis of current trends in API development and design of concept allowing communication and data transportation between applications and TM1 server. In the concluding section of the thesis, proposed concept is materialized into universal library developed in PHP and applied to novel allocation model. Leveraging the library, two exemplary interfaces for allocator operation and data consumption are implemented. Gained knowledge can serve as basis for development of additional components communicationg with TM1 in variety of projects or theoretical framework for API implementation in general.

The popularity of natural rubber as an important raw material was distorted in the post-World War Two period. It received heavy competition from synthetic rubber. The main purpose of this paper is to determine and to study supply elasticity and demand elasticity of natural rubber in the case of Malaysia. The main aim of analyzing the period since 1971 is that both price and quality competitiveness of Malaysian natural rubber have drastically improved. Therefore, in order for Malaysia to maintain her position as the leading producer and exporter of natural rubber in the world, supportive policies and incentives from the government would further enhance the prospects for improvements in this industry.

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The aim of this thesis is to work out demand for various kinds of commodities of current consumption by conducting a survey. From the polled data, a function of price demand elasticity of selected commodities is drawn up, on which suggestions to sellers for turnover maximization is based.

The threat of human induced climate change is imminent. The reason is an everyincreasing demand for energy and products, producing more and more greenhousegas emissions. Everybody needs to take responsibility now. The estimations are thatwith 2% annual energy savings from residential households 12TWh and 3.3 billionmetric tonnes of CO2 can be saved per year. Greenely, a startup from KIC InnoEnergy,wants to engage residential households to change their energy behaviour athome. They combine a smartphone application with the smart meter infrastructureto reduce households energy demand. Changing behaviour is complicated and researchprior to this thesis revealed that information and economic incentives aloneare not sufficient.A simple and proven technique to change behaviour is Nudging. A gentle pushin the right direction while leaving the freedom of choice. A popular example is aprinted fly in the men’s urinal. It nudges them to aim at the fly. The cleaning costswere reduced by 80% at the Schiphol Airport Amsterdam.Without application usage change is impossible for Greenely. Their main contacttool to households is a smartphone application. The smartphone market is vast andcompetition between applications is strong. Therefore the system outline needs toprecede Nudging for ongoing engagement and long term change. To achieve thatGamification practices are implemented. It is the incorporation of game design intonon-gaming contexts to achieve engagement through motivation and fun.This master thesis is done in cooperation with Greenely and focuses on residentialdemand reduction schemas, Nudging and Gamification. The aim is to improvetheir actual application and create an outline for an improved version that promoteslong term behaviour change. The result incorporates the most suitable features fromthe relevant topics and enables long term change.

With the expansion of the Internet and an increasing fraction of consumers having broadband connections, more and more content is finding its way on-line. Video content is becoming one of the most popular types of media content on the Internet. Traditional media content providers, such as television networks, are placing their content on the Internet in order to gain a broader audience. On-demand websites such as kanal5play.se allow viewers to view the multimedia content they want at the time of their choice. While this gives viewers flexibility in their viewing, it creates resource problems for content providers. Statistics from Kanal5 AB show that, even with individual viewers requesting content when they want, there are still patterns in which multiple viewers watch the same content at the same time. This means there are correlations in the demand for content. With unicast distribution this leads to spikes in requirements for bandwidth to the viewers. These peaks lead to high costs for network and server resources to deliver the requested content, but these resources have low average utilization. This thesis project investigates how a content provider can make use of each viewer’s own resources to deliver content to other users using peer-to-peer techniques. The thesis evaluates what methods can be used in order to reduce the content provider’s resource requirements during peak hours by exploiting copies of contents that have already been delivered to viewers who requested this same content earlier. A prototype was made to evaluate the suggested design using Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI), which is built on top of the Transfer Control Protocol (TCP). Experiments show that an initial delay of several seconds is reached on a network with a simulated delay of 100ms, while a minimal initial delay was observed on a network with low delay, i.e. ideal conditions. The throughput results of the prototype show that the suggested solution is adequate for delivering on-demand content supplied by Kanal5 AB. However, the relatively poor startup performance of this solution argues for tuning the application to better work with the TCP protocol or to utilize another transport protocol - especially if the round-trip delay is large as TCP’s 3-way handshake and flow control algorithm limit the performance of the prototype system. / Med utbyggnaden av Internet och en ökande andel konsumenter med bredband, mer och mer innehåll hittar sin väg på nätet. Video innehåll blir en av de mest populära typer av media på Internet. Innehållsleverantörer som använder sig av traditionella medier, exempelvis tv-nät, lägger sitt innehåll på Internet för att nå en bredare publik. On-demand webbplatser som kanal5play.se låter tittarna se multimediainnehållet de vill, när de vill. Även om detta ger tittarna flexibilitet i sitt tittande så skapar det resursproblem för innehållsleverantörer. Statistik från Kanal5 AB visar att även med enskilda tittare som begär innehåll när de vill så finns det fortfarande mönster där flera tittare tittar på samma innehåll på samma gång. Detta innebär att det finns samband i efterfrågan på innehåll. Med unicast distribution leder detta till sprikar i krav på bandbredd till tittarna. Dessa toppar leda till höga kostnader för nät-och server för att leverera det efterfrågade innehållet, men dessa resurser har låga genomsnittliga utnyttjanden. Detta examensarbete undersöker hur en innehållsleverantör kan använda sig av varje tittares egna resurser för att leverera innehåll till andra användare med hjälp av peer-to-peer-teknik. Avhandlingen utvärderar vilka metoder kan användas för att minska innehållsleverantörens resursbehov under rusningstid genom att utnyttja kopior av innehåll som redan har levererats till tittarna som begärde samma innehåll tidigare. En prototyp gjordes för att utvärdera den föreslagna konstruktionen med Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI), som är byggd ovanpå Transfer Control Protocol (TCP). Experiment visar en uppstartsfördröjning på flera sekunder på ett nätverk med en simulerad fördröjning på 100 ms, samtidigt som en minimal uppstartsfördöjning observerades på ett nätverk med låg fördröjning, dvs idealiska förhållanden. Resultaten för genomströmningshastigheten hos prototypen visar att den föreslagna lösningen är tillräcklig för att leverera on-demand innehåll som tillhandahålls av Kanal5 AB. De relativt dåliga uppstartsresultaten för denna lösning säger dock att förbättringar bör göras i applikationen så att den kan arbeta bättre med TCP protokollet, eller att ett annat protokoll används - särskilt om nätverksfördröjningen är stor, då TCP:s 3-vägs handskakning och flödeskontroll algoritm begränsar prestandan hos det föreslagna systemet.

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