This thesis work is focused on the design of a mechanism for the passenger’s seat of a Volvo S80. This mechanism will facilitate the problems arised when somebody with limited mobility, either permanent or temporal, is entering or exiting the vehicle. The main aim is to obtain an affordable device that enhances the life of those with reduced mobility, but paying special attention to those who do not receive any kind of economical help from the government. The idea is to be able to move the seat to the outside of the car so that one can seat with no special effort. Then, the mechanism, manually, performs the movements to bring it back to the inside. The concept of being manual is to avoid electronic devices that will surely increase the cost. In this project, a possible design solution has been developed. A model was created with Autodesk Inventor 2012. The three basic positions of the mechanism were studied to determine the structural behavior of the product. For these studies, a load compensating the weight of a human was applied and the stresses and the deformation were analyzed by Finite Element Methods and the study was concluded when the safety factor was over 2.

This article investigates the determinants of entry and exit in the Austrian manufacturing sector based on 1981 to 1994 data. We study the response of entry, exit and other indicators of firm dynamics to changes in average plant size, size heterogeneity, concentration, incentives and vertical integration. By applying Bayesian simulation methods we estimate random coefficient models and study the symmetry of the determinants of entry and exit. Our empirical analysis shows that entry and exit rates are driven by the same determinants. The impacts of these determinants are nearly homogeneous for both, entry rates and exits rates, respectively. Moreover, we find (i) that changes in average plant size, size heterogeneity and concentration are not symmetric with respect to entry and exit, (ii) that changes in the growth of sales is weakly symmetric and (iii) that the growth rate of employment is strongly asymmetric across industries in Austrian manufacturing. Furthermore, we infer from the data that the turnover of firms influences the changes in the number of competitors. Low entry rates go hand in hand with low net entry rates and a low turnover. (author's abstract) / Series: Working Papers Series "Growth and Employment in Europe: Sustainability and Competitiveness"

Denna rapport syftar till att utvärdera de för- och nackdelar den svenska gasmarknadsmodellen har relativt de shippermodeller som finns i Europa, där modellernas lämplighet att stimulera ökad konkurrens i synnerhet beaktas. Därtill behandlas de krav som nuvarande och kommande EU-lagstiftning ställer och vilka konsekvenser detta får för Sveriges del. Studien ska ge underlag för en bedömning om den svenska modellen är välfungerande eller om en förändring kan motiveras, och i så fall i vilken riktning. Till fördel för nuvarande svenska modell lyfts lättförståelighet och lägre motpartsrisk vid kapacitetsbokning fram. Även pristransparensen bedöms vara bättre till följd av att gas och transport faktureras separat. Transportkostnad fram till den svenska gränsen ingår likväl fortfarande i gaspriset. En shippermodell å andra sidan, bedöms skapa bättre förutsättningar för konkurrens och därmed öka incitamenten för utländska aktörer att ta sig in på den svenska marknaden. Dels ges aktörerna möjlighet att konkurrera om transport, dels skulle modellen överenstämma med de modeller utländska aktörer har på sina hemmamarknader. Många aktörer menar att den svenska modellen fungerar tillfredsställande i sin nuvarande utformning och att val av marknadsmodell inte är viktigast för utvecklandet av naturgasmarknaden. Mot bakgrund av detta samt de fördelar modellen har och den svenska marknadens ringa storlek, så framstår det som ett rimligt alternativ att behålla den. Vad gäller EU:s harmoniseringsarbete är det två nätkoder som i nuläget är mest aktuella, CMP och CAM, där CAM får konsekvenser för kapacitetsbokning i gränspunkter ellanentry/exit-zoner. Gränspunkten mellan Sverige och Danmark är i nuläget undantaget från CAM men åsikterna om huruvida detta är möjligt framöver eller inte går isär, ytterligare införselpunkter kan komma att skapa problem. Därtill vet vi inte i nuläget vilka konsekvenser kommande lagstiftning kan få för Sverige. Ett modellbyte kan således bli oundvikligt i slutändan. Vid ett byte är vår rekommendation är att undersöka möjligheten att övergå till en hel shippermodell, där både transmissions- och distributionsnät inkluderas i entry/exitzonen. Att ha en avvikande modell är tidskrävande, primärt för Energimarknadsinspektionen och Swedegas, till följd av EU:s harmoniseringsarbete som utarbetas för en shippermodell då detta är den vanligaste lösningen i Europa i allmänhet. Vi tror dessutom att en sådan lösning skulle gynna konkurrensen på marknaden, inte minst på hushållsmarknaden till följd av att kunden enbart får en kontaktpunkt oavsett om gasleverantör och distributionsbolag befinner sig inom samma koncern eller inte. / This report aims to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the Swedish gas market model in comparision to shipper models, which are common in the EU in general. The models’ suitability to stimulate competition is especially considered. In addition, the requirements of present and future EU legislation sets and the resulting consequences for Sweden are covered in the report. The study will provide a basis for assessing whether the Swedish model is well functioning or if a change is needed, and if so in which direction. Advantages of the Swedish model are that it is easy to understand and that it has a lower counterparty risk when it comes to capacity reservation. Also, the price transparency is considered to be better since the gas and transport charges are invoiced separately. Transportation cost to the Swedish border is nevertheless still included in the gas price. A shipper model on the other hand, is expected to create a more competitive market and to increase incentives for foreign players to enter it. The players are given the opportunity to compete for transportation and the model would also match the models foreign players face in their home markets, thus lowering the entry barriers. Many respondents think that the Swedish model works well in its present form and that the choice of market model is not of highest importance for the development of the natural gas market. In light of this, the benefits of the current model and the Swedish market's small size, it seems like a reasonable option to keep it. As for the EU harmonization, there are two network codes that are currently most relevant, CMP and CAM. The CAM network code has implications for capacity reservation in the cross-border points between different entry/exit-zones. The point between Sweden and Denmark is currently excluded from CAM, but opinions regarding whether this is possible in the future or  not differ. Additional entry points might create problems. In addition, at this point we do not know what impact future legislation may have. A model change can thus be inevitable in the  end.   If changing, our recommendation is to investigate the possibility of switching to a full shipper model where both the transmission and distribution networks are included in the entry/exit-zone. Having a model that differs from the rest of EU is time consuming, primarily for EI and Swedegas, since the harmonization efforts made by the EU are tailored for a shipper model since this is the prevailing system in Europe in general. We also believe that such a solution would benefit market competition. This is particularly true for the residential market because the customer only gets one contact point, whether gas suppliers and distribution companies are in the same Group or not.

Series: Creative Industries in Vienna: Development, Dynamics and Potentials

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Economics / Philip G. Gayle / This dissertation constitutes two essays in the field of industrial organization. Specifically, the research focuses on empirically assessing the market effects of airline alliances. The first essay examines how codesharing, a form of strategic alliances, by airlines affects market entry decisions of potential competitors. Researchers have written extensively on the impact that strategic alliances between airlines have on airfare, but little is known of the market entry deterrent impact of strategic alliances. Using a structural econometric model, this essay examines the market entry deterrent impact of codesharing between incumbent carriers in U.S. domestic air travel markets. We find that a specific type of codesharing between market incumbents has a market entry deterrent effect to Southwest Airlines, but not other potential entrants. Furthermore, we quantify the extent to which market incumbents’ codesharing influences market entry cost of potential entrants. The second essay examines the effects of granting Antitrust Immunity (ATI) to a group of airlines. Airline alliance partners often want to extend cooperation to revenue sharing, which effectively implies joint pricing of their products (explicit price collusion). To explicitly collude on price, airlines must apply to the relevant government authorities for ATI (U.S. Department of Justice and Department of Transportation in the case of air travel markets that have a U.S. airport as an endpoint), which effectively means an exemption from prosecution under the relevant antitrust laws. Whether consumers, on net, benefit from a grant of ATI to partner airlines has caused much public debate. This essay specifically investigates the impact of granting ATI to oneworld alliance members on their price, markup, and various measures of cost. The evidence suggests that the grant of ATI facilitated a decrease in partner carriers’ marginal cost, and increased (decreased) their markup in markets where their service do (do not) overlap. Furthermore, member carriers’ price did not change (decreased) in markets where their services do (do not) overlap, implying that consumers, on net, benefit in terms of price changes.

Relatedness, industrial branching and technological cohesion in US metropolitan areas, Regional Studies. Work by evolutionary economic geographers on the role of industry relatedness for regional economic development is extended into a number of methodological and empirical directions. First, relatedness is measured as the intensity of inputoutput linkages between industries. Second, this measure is employed to examine industry evolution in 360 US metropolitan areas. Third, an employment-weighted measure of metropolitan technological cohesion is developed. The results confirm that technological relatedness is positively related to metropolitan industry portfolio membership and industry entry and negatively related to industry exit. The decomposition of technological cohesion indicates that the selection of related incumbent industries complements industry entry and exit as the main drivers of change in metropolitan technological cohesion.

We study fast-slow versions of the SIR, SIRS and SIRWS epidemiological models, and of the SIRS epidemiological model on homogeneous graphs, obtained through the application of the moment closure method. The multiple time scale behavior is introduced to account for large differences between some of the rates of the epidemiological pathways. Our main purpose is to show that the fast-slow models, even though in nonstandard form, can be studied by means of Geometric Singular Perturbation Theory (GSPT). In particular, without using Lyapunov's method, we are able to not only analyze the stability of the endemic equilibria of the SIR and SIRS models, but also to show that in the remaining models limit cycles arise. We show that the proposed approach is particularly useful in more complicated (higher dimensional) models such as the SIRWS model and the SIRS on homogeneous graphs, for which we provide a detailed description of their dynamics by combining analytic and numerical techniques. In particular, for the latter we show that the model can give rise to periodic solutions, differently from the corresponding model based on homogeneous mixing.

Les systèmes multi-agents sont des systèmes dans lesquels des entités logiciellesappelées agents interagissent de façon autonome dans des environnements partagés. Ces dernièresannées, de nombreuses recherches sur les organisations multi-agents ont été menées etdivers modèles organisationnels ont été proposés. Cependant, ils n’offrent pas de solution pourune gestion effective de la problématique d’ouverture dans des organisations multi-agents normatives.Dans cette thèse, nous nous sommes intéressées à l’étude de cette problématique etdonc à la spécification des besoins relatifs à la mise en oeuvre de l’ouverture au sein d’organisationmulti-agent. Nous avons ainsi identifié trois propriétés caractéristiques de cette problématique: l’interopérabilité d’une organisation avec son environnement extérieur et interne, lagestion des entrées / sorties et la gestion du contrôle et de la régulation des agents. Pour répondreà ces propriétés, nous avons proposé un langage de modélisation d’organisation (OML)MOISE qui est une extension de Moise+. MOISE permet de spécifier de façon explicite lesprocessus d’entrée / sortie dans une organisation et notamment les exigences relatives auxmissions, buts, et rôles de l’organisation. Nous avons également proposé une infrastructure degestion d’organisation (OMI) ORA4MAS qui s’inspire du méta-modèle Agents et Artifacts(A&A). Nous avons défini le concept d’artefact organisationnel pour implémenter les fonctionnalitéscorrespondant aux spécifications du langage MOISE. Nos propositions ont été illustréesavec une spécification d’organisation de gestion de la construction d’un édifice. La miseen oeuvre des propriétés d’ouverture a été expérimentée avec la gestion des processus d’entrée/ sortie des agents, la négociation des clauses de contrat, la coordination des coopérations desagents à la réalisation des buts de construction d’un édifice, le contrôle des comportements desagents relativement aux normes de l’organisation ainsi que leur régulation. / Multi-Agent Technology concerns the development of decentralized and open systemscomposed of different agents interacting in a shared environment. In recent years, organizationhas become an important in this research field. Many models have been, and are still,proposed. While no concensual model emerges of these different works, it appears that theyall lack the ability to build open and normative organizations in the sense of management ofentry / exit of agents into organization but also decentralized control / regulation of the autonomyof the agents. In this thesis, our objective consists in the definition of a new modeladdressing these requirements. Ours reseaches allow us to extend theMOISE+ organizationalmodeling language (OML) in a new version namming MOISE. In this one we define an Entry/ Exit specification allowing to explicitly specify the ways in which the agents can enter orexit in or from an organisation by providing some requirements according to the missions, thegoals and the roles of the organisation. The organizational management infrastructure (OMI)ORA4MAS proposed take advantage of the Agents and Artifacts (A&A) approach. We definedthe Organizational Artifacts concept as the basic building block of our OMI for themanagement of organized and open MAS. To focus our study, the organizational artifacts willbe defined considering the OML specification of the MOISE model. We experimented ourproposal with the specification of an application aiming to manage the build of a house. Wethen experimented the management of the candidate agents to enter in the organisation and cooperatewith the other to build the house according to a specified social scheme, the specifiednorms and their contract clauses negociated when they will be admitted in the organisation.

Transport and trade of gas are decoupled after the liberalization of the European gas markets, which are now organized as so-called entry-exit systems. At the core of this market system are bookings and nominations, two special capacity-right contracts that grant traders access to the gas network. The latter is operated by a separate entity, known as the transmission system operator (TSO), who is in charge of the transport of gas from entry to exit nodes. In the mid to long term, traders sign a booking contract with the TSO to obtain injection and withdrawal capacities at entry and exit nodes, respectively. On a day-ahead basis, they then nominate within these booked capacities a balanced load flow of the planned amounts of gas to be injected into and withdrawn from the network the next day. The key property is that by signing a booking contract, the TSO is obliged to guarantee transportability for all balanced load flows in compliance with the booked capacities. To assess the feasibility of a booking, it is therefore necessary to check the feasibility of infinitely many nominations. As a result, deciding if a booking is feasible is a challenging mathematical problem, which we investigate in this dissertation.Our results range from passive networks, consisting of pipes only, to active networks, containing controllable elements to influence gas flows. Since the study of the latter naturally leads to a bilevel framework, we first consider some more general properties of bilevel optimization. For the case of linear bilevel optimization, we consider the hardness of validating the correctness of big-Ms often used in solving these problems via a single-level reformulation. We also derive a family of valid inequalities to be used in a bilevel-tailored branch-and-cut algorithm as a big-M-free alternative.We then turn to the study of feasible bookings. First, we present our results on passive networks, for which bilevel approaches are not required. A characterization of feasible bookings on passive networks is derived in terms of a finite set of nominations. While computing these nominations is a difficult task in general, we present polynomial complexity results for the special cases of tree-shaped or single-cycle passive networks. Finally, we consider networks with linearly modeled active elements. After obtaining a bilevel optimization model that allows us to determine the feasibility of a booking in this case, we derive various single-level reformulations to solve the problem. In addition, we obtain novel characterizations of feasible bookings on active networks, which generalize our characterization in the passive case. The performance of these various approaches is compared in a case study on two networks from the literature, one of which is a simplified version of the Greek gas network. / Transport et commerce de gaz sont découplés depuis la libéralisation des marchés européens du gaz, qui sont désormais organisés en systèmes dit d'entrée-sortie. Au cœur de ce système de marché se trouvent les réservations et les nominations, deux contrats spéciaux de droit à la capacité qui permettent aux négociants d'accéder au réseau de gaz. Ce dernier est exploité par une entité distincte, appelée gestionnaire de réseau de transport~(GRT), qui est chargée du transport du gaz entre les nœuds d'entrée et de sortie. À moyen et long terme, les négociants signent un contrat de réservation avec le GRT pour obtenir des capacités d'injection et d'extraction aux nœuds d'entrée et de sortie, respectivement. Au jour le jour, ils désignent ensuite, dans les limites des capacités réservées, un flux de charge équilibrée des quantités de gaz prévues à injecter et à extraire le lendemain. La propriété essentielle est qu'en signant un contrat de réservation, le GRT est obligé de garantir la transportabilité de tous les flux de charge équilibrée respectant les capacités réservées. Pour évaluer la faisabilité d'une réservation, il est donc nécessaire de vérifier la faisabilité d'une infinité de nominations. Par conséquent, décider si une réservation est réalisable est un problème mathématique difficile, que nous étudions dans cette thèse.Nos résultats vont des réseaux passifs, constitués uniquement de pipelines, aux réseaux actifs, contenant des éléments contrôlables pour influencer les flux de gaz. Comme l'étude de ces derniers conduit naturellement à un cadre biniveau, nous considérons d'abord certaines propriétés plus générales de l'optimisation biniveau. Pour le cas de l'optimisation biniveau linéaire, nous étudions la difficulté de valider l'exactitude des constantes de type big-M souvent utilisées dans la résolution de ces problèmes via une reformulation à un seul niveau. Nous déduisons également une famille d'inégalités valides à utiliser dans un algorithme de branch-and-cut adapté au biniveau comme alternative à l'approche utilisant des big-Ms.Nous nous tournons ensuite vers l'étude des réservations réalisables. D'abord, nous présentons nos résultats sur les réseaux passifs, pour lesquels les approches biniveaux ne sont pas nécessaires. Une caractérisation des réservations réalisables sur les réseaux passifs est déduite en termes d'un ensemble fini de nominations. Bien que le calcul de ces nominations soit une tâche difficile en général, nous présentons des algorithmes polynomiaux pour les cas particuliers des réseaux passifs en forme d'arbre ou contenant un cycle unique. Enfin, nous considérons les réseaux avec des éléments actifs modélisés à l'aide de contraintes linéaires. Après avoir obtenu un modèle biniveau, permettant de déterminer la faisabilité d'une réservation dans ce cas, nous dérivons diverses reformulations à un seul niveau pour résoudre le problème. En outre, nous obtenons de nouvelles caractérisations des réservations réalisables sur les réseaux actifs, qui généralisent notre caractérisation dans le cas passif. La performance de ces différentes approches est comparée dans une étude de cas réalisée sur deux réseaux de la littérature, dont l'un est une version simplifiée du réseau de gaz grec. / Nach der Liberalisierung der europäischen Gasmärkte, welche nun als sogenannte Entry-Exit Systeme organisiert sind, sind Transport und Handel von Gas entkoppelt. Im Zentrum dieses neuen Marktsystems sind Buchungen und Nominierungen, zwei spezielle Kapazitätrechtsverträge, die Händlern Zugang zum Gasnetz gewähren. Letzteres wird von einem separaten Akteur betrieben, dem sogenannten Fernleitungsnetzbetreiber (FNB), der für den Transport des Gases von den Einspeise- zu den Ausspeiseknoten verantwortlich ist. Händler schließen mittel- bis langfristig einen Buchungsvertrag mit dem FNB ab, um Ein- und Ausspeisekapazitäten zu erhalten. Täglich nominieren sie dann innerhalb der gebuchten Kapazitäten einen bilanzierten Lastfluss der geplanten Gasmengen, die am nächsten Tag eingespeist und entnommen werden sollen. Die Haupteigenschaft ist, dass der FNB sich durch Unterzeichnung eines Buchungsvertrages für die Transportierbarkeit aller bilanzierten Lastflüsse innerhalb der gebuchten Kapazitäten verpflichtet. Um die Zulässigkeit einer Buchung zu bestimmen ist es daher notwendig, die Zulässigkeit von unendlich vielen Nominierungen zu prüfen. Die Entscheidung, ob eine Buchung zulässig ist, ist daher ein anspruchsvolles mathematisches Problem, das wir in dieser Dissertation untersuchen.Unsere Ergebnisse reichen von passiven Netzen, die nur aus Rohren bestehen, bis hin zu aktiven Netzen, die steuerbare Elemente zur Beeinflussung der Gasflüsse enthalten. Da die Untersuchung aktiver Netze uns auf natürlichem Wege zu Bilevel-Problemen führt, betrachten wir zunächst einige allgemeinere Eigenschaften der Bilevel-Optimierung. Für den Fall der linearen Bilevel-Optimierung betrachten wir die Schwierigkeit, Big-Ms zu validieren, die oft bei der Lösung dieser Probleme mittels einer einstufigen Reformulierung verwendet werden. Wir leiten außerdem eine Familie gültiger Ungleichungen ab, die in einem Bilevel-spezifischen Branch-and-Cut Algorithmus als big-M-freie Alternative verwendet werden können.Wir wenden uns dann der Untersuchung von zulässigen Buchungen zu. Zunächst stellen wir unsere Ergebnisse zu passiven Netzwerken vor, für die Bilevel-Ansätze nicht erforderlich sind. Eine Charakterisierung zulässiger Buchungen in passiven Netzwerken wird in Bezug auf eine endliche Menge an Nominierungen hergeleitet. Während die Berechnung dieser Nominierungen im Allgemeinen eine schwierige Aufgabe ist, präsentieren wir polynomielle Komplexitätsergebnisse für die Spezialfälle baumförmiger oder einzyklischer passiver Netze. Schließlich betrachten wir Netze mit linear modellierten aktiven Elementen. Nachdem wir ein Bilevel-Modell hergeleitet haben, mit dem wir die Zulässigkeit einer Buchung in diesem Fall bestimmen können, leiten wir verschiedene einstufige Reformulierungen zur Lösung des Problems ab. Darüber hinaus erhalten wir neuartige Charakterisierungen zulässiger Buchungen auf aktiven Netzen, die unsere Charakterisierung im passiven Fall verallgemeinern. Die Anwendbarkeit dieser verschiedenen Ansätze wird in einer Fallstudie an zwei Netzen aus der Literatur verglichen, wovon eines eine vereinfachte Version des griechischen Gasnetzes ist. / Doctorat en Sciences / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished