In order to understand the complex fracture network that controls water movement in Sherrod Area of Spraberry Field in West Texas and to better manage the on-going waterflood performance, a field scale inter-well tracer test was implemented. This test presents the largest inter-well tracer test in naturally fractured reservoirs reported in the industry and includes the injection of 13 different tracers and sampling of 110 producers in an area covering 6533 acres. Sherrod tracer test generated a total of 598 tracer responses from 51 out of the 110 sampled producers. Tracer responses showed a wide range of velocities from 14 ft/day to ultra-high velocities exceeding 10,000 ft/day with same-day tracer breakthrough. Re-injection of produced water has caused the tracers to be re-injected and added an additional challenge to diagnose and distinguish tracer responses affected by water recycling. Historical performance of the field showed simultaneous water breakthrough of a large number of wells covering entire Sherrod area. This research investigate analytical, numerical, and inversion modeling approaches in order to categorize, history match, and connect tracer responses with water-cut responses with the objective to construct multiple fracture realizations based entirely on water-cut and tracers‟ profiles. In addition, the research highlight best practices in the design of inter-well tracer tests in naturally fractured reservoirs through lessons learned from Sherrod Area. The large number of tracer responses from Sherrod case presents a case of naturally fractured reservoir characterization entirely based on dynamic data. Results indicates that tracer responses could be categorized based on statistical analysis of tracer recoveries of all pairs of injectors and producers with each category showing distinguishing behavior in tracers‟ movement and breakthrough time. In addition, it showed that tracer and water-cut responses in the field are dominantly controlled by the fracture system revealing minimum information about the matrix system. Numerical simulation studies showed limitation in dual porosity formulation/solvers to model tracer velocities exceeding 2200 ft/day. Inversion modeling using Gradzone Analysis showed that east and north-west of Sherrod have significantly lower pore volume compared to south-west.

No description available.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Clear-sky top-of-atmosphere (TOA) fluxes are important in estimating the impact of clouds on our climate. In this study, we quantitatively compare the clear-sky fluxes measurements of the Clouds and the Earths Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument to clear-sky fluxes from two reanalysis, NASA's Modern Era Retrospective-analysis for Research and Application (MERRA), and the European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecast Interim reanalysis (ERA-Interim). In the first comparison, we compare observed fluxes from individual cloud-free field-of- views to the reanalyses. In the second comparison, we compare monthly averaged observed clear-sky fluxes to those from the reanalyses. Monthly clear-sky fluxes are calculated by averaging fluxes from cloud-free regions. In both comparisons, the fluxes generally agree within +/- 10 W/m^2. Finally, we show that, while the differences between the fluxes of observations and the reanalyses are several W/m2, the inter-annual anomalies agree much better, with zonal and global average inter-annual anomalies typically agreeing within 1 W/m^2. The longwave clear-sky anomalies show excellent agreement even when comparing individual grid points, whereas the shortwave clear-sky anomalies are generally smaller at individual grid points.

The value and scope of telecom services have increased substantially in the decade from the mid 1990s. The telecom companies have offered not only telephone services but also data exchanges for example streaming services. Therefore, they now offer telecom services as packaging into which layered services are integrated. The number of actors involved in the market has increased due to the expansion of business areas, while rapidly changing technological trends have altered R&D methods. The thesis shows that the adoption of the marketing concept and the development of complex inter-firm technology based relationships underpin the creation and management of new telecom services. The relationships have originated from an exchange of technological knowledge and specialized skills. This research uses the NTT-centred collaboration system in Japan, which features relational exchanges and high mutual dependence. This case shows that inter-firm relationships greatly contributed in the development of technological resources in two ways; collecting advantageous technologies from others and mediating in the introduction of new technologies. In addition, developments in technology resulted in an expanded domain of applicability. Consequently, not only the market structure was changed but also the relationship between marketing and R&D changed. With increasing integration of the market, the number of related firms increased as firms concentrated on specific technologies, with additional firms having superior competitive advantages in each layered business area. The case in the thesis also shows mechanisms of changing inter-firm relationships under dynamic business circumstances; indirect exchanges occurred when inter-firm relationships changed. Inter-firm relationships are changed, keeping existing but adding new relationships. The study also indicates a new direction to study service marketing. As the new trend of service development in ICT industry develops so the integration abilities and the management of inter-firm relationships in supply-sides become more focused. The thesis points to the importance of these upstream activities (coordinating inter-firm relationships in a service-oriented approach) and advocates the presence of a facilitator who can bridge both upstream and downstream activities. The results should contribute to both marketing and technology management in academia as well as business practices in R&D management.

Writing a thesis is like writing a story book, this book is a story of the 17-year-old Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM). It serves as a case-study of inter-regionalism, one of the newest cooperative mechanism in today’s international arena. Among a variety of cooperative frameworks, namely, multilateral global governance, effective multilateralism, regionalism, regionalisation, inter-regionalism is much less explored. This research determines how the rise of inter-regionalism influences the actors in the international arena and vice-versa. The key actors in inter-regionalism and their interaction are explored. Existing studies in the field of inter-regionalism in general and on the ASEM process in particular have been theory-led. There is a significant deficit of empirically-driven research in the field. In order to comprehensively understand inter-regionalism and the ASEM process, this research incorporates a substantial empirical focus. An unprecedented array of primary data is used. A variety of quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis methods are employed to generate this unique and comprehensive empirical analysis of ASEM. Ultimately, this thesis demonstrates the persistent state-centrism and lack of actorness of regions and regional organisations as independent actors in the ASEM process. Nation-state remains the primary actor in inter-regionalism; yet, they turn to bilateralism when more concrete cooperation or affairs have to be handled. The proliferation of sideline meetings, although as by-product, becomes one of ASEM’s key added-value to international relations. The empirical analysis also finds that inter-regional fora like ASEM offer participants regular information and views updates and promote socialisation among government officials in the official track and among the involved individual from civil society in the unofficial track.

The presence of inter-area oscillations has long affected stability constraints, and therefore, limited the power transfer capacity of interconnected power systems. Adequate damping of these inter-area oscillations is, thus, necessary to secure system operation and ensure system reliability while increasing power transfers. Power system stabilizers (PSS) are the most common devices used to enhance the damping of such oscillations. Many studies have demonstrated that PSSs using remote signals may perform better than using local signals. The advent of phasor measurement units (PMU) makes remote or wide-area signals become available, which enables various important applications. Of particular interest is wide-area damping control (WADC), which aims to utilize remote or wide-area measurements to damp the inter-area oscillations. However, two main challenges in WADC design are (1) feedback controller input signal selection (which PMU signal is best to use?), and (2) latency (which is inherent in the transmission of the measurements) considerations. In response to the first challenge, this thesis proposes a concept called dominant inter-area oscillation path, which serves to pinpoint a set of candidate signals that can be used as the feedback controller inputs by locating the interconnected corridors where the inter-area modal contents are the most observable. Derivation, identification, and use of the dominant inter-area oscillation paths are demonstrated throughout the thesis. Extensive analysis on the relationships between the proposed set of signals and system properties regarding stability and robustness is presented. To tackle the second challenge, the impacts of time delays on the system performance when using the dominant path signals are investigated. To date, several studies have proposed different control design methods using various oscillation dampers to design WADC. Nevertheless, neither a systematic method nor a concept that encompasses fundamental knowledge on power system dynamics has yet been offered. The objective of this thesis is, thus, to propose an analytical framework based on the dominant path concept which is built upon fundamental principles for feedback controller input signal selection in WADC. With this framework, a proper and systematic approach is developed. The proposed method allows to select appropriate signals and use them to effectively mitigate the inter-area oscillations that constrain power transfer capacity and affect system stability. / <p>QC 20150414</p>

In today’s business world, strategic alliances are becoming a common method for achieving a competitive advantage towards industry rivals. This tool, however, is not a guarantee for success as the failure rate of alliances is between 30-70%. Even with this high failure rate, strategic alliances continue to grow and becoming more and more common. Through strategic alliances, the organizations can gain the possibility to access, acquire and implement new knowledge from its partners as a step to achieve competitive advantage. However, by engaging in alliances or inter-firm arrangements they also place themselves in the risk zone of giving away knowledge, both intentionally or unintentionally, which is also known as knowledge leakage. Studies have shown that trust is important in knowledge sharing, and managers must understand the role of trust and distrust in this equation, in order to be able to successfully achieve an effective and trustworthy knowledge transfer for a firm. Previous research has focused mainly on the effects of trust on knowledge sharing and a few exceptions have focused on knowledge leakage. However, these articles have been ignoring the factor of distrust. The purpose of this thesis therefore lies in investigating the effect the dimensions of both trust and distrust simultaneously have on knowledge sharing and leakage, as theory view trust and distrust as separate but co-existing concepts. The dimensions chosen for investigation are goodwill trust, competence trust, goodwill distrust and competence distrust. In order to achieve this purpose, a quantitative research method was used. A questionnaire was developed and sent out to Swedish firms operating in knowledge-intensive industries according to Eurostat. 55 companies fully completed the questionnaire. From this a factor analysis and regression analysis was conducted in order to fulfill the purpose of this thesis. This thesis found that goodwill trust has a positive effect on knowledge sharing and negative effect on knowledge leakage. Competence trust and competence distrust was found to have a positive relationship with knowledge leakage. Also, the authors developed the dimensions of goodwill and competence distrust as well as empirically proved their existence. This thesis contributes by acknowledging the importance of both concepts, trust and distrust, and also providing managers with an idea of what dimensions of trust and distrust are important when associating it to knowledge exchange.

Le transcodage des nombres chez l'enfant est un domaine peu exploré. L'objectif général de ce travail de thèse était de tester les principales prédictions permises par le modèle de transcodage ADAPT de Barrouillet et al. (2004) notamment sa version ADAPTBASIC concernant le transcodage au début de l'apprentissage. ADAPT, à la différence des autres modèles de transcodage numérique (e.g., McCloskey 1992) est un modèle développemental, asémantique et procédural. Le transcodage étudié est celui qui permet de passer de la forme verbale à la forme arabe des nombres. Les travaux menés durant cette thèse questionnent l'acquisition du transcodage et son développement avec l'apprentissage, ainsi que l'impact des différences inter-linguistiques et individuelles. Pour atteindre ces objectifs, nous avons adopté une approche développementale dans laquelle nous avons exploré les connaissances de transcodage des enfants Français en début d'apprentissage scolaire à l'aide d'une dictée de nombres. Ensuite, nous avons procédé à une approche longitudinale pour suivre l'acquisition du système de transcodage et de ses règles. Dans une approche inter-linguistique, nous avons confronté les résultats obtenus auprès d'enfants Français aux résultats obtenus auprès d'enfants Allemands et Syriens. Enfin, nous avons testé l'impact des différences individuelles des capacités mémorielles sur le transcodage. Les résultats apportent une contribution dans ce domaine et permettent de mieux comprendre que le transcodage est un processus qui se développe sous l'influence de différences individuelles et linguistiques.

Le paradigme d'Internet des objets (IdO) envisage d'augmenter l'Internet actuel avec un grand nombre de dispositifs intelligents communicants. Les réseaux de capteurs sans fil (RCsF) déploient les appareils fonctionnant sur les approvisionnements énergétiques maigres et mesurent les phénomènes environnementaux (comme la température, la radioactivité, ou CO2). Les applications populaires de réseaux de capteurs sans fil comprennent la surveillance, la télémétrie et la prévention des catastrophes naturelles. Les majeurs défis de réseaux de capteurs consistent à: comment obtenir l'efficacité énergétique? Comment surmonter les déficiences de support sans fil? et comment les faire fonctionner d'une manière auto-organisée? L'intégration de réseaux de capteurs dans IoD s'appuiera sur un ensemble de standards ouverts qui s'efforcent d'offrir le passage à l'échelle, la fiabilité dans une variété des conditions, et les scénarios d'exploitation. Néanmoins, les standards dans leur état actuel ont des problèmes d'interopérabilité et peuvent bénéficier de nouvelles améliorations. Les contributions de la thèse sont les suivantes: * Nous avons mené une analyse expérimentale et identifié les caractéristiques d'un environnement de réseau de capteurs. Notre analyse a porté sur la modélisation des liens et la dynamique du réseau, ainsi que la corrélation des liens avec les paramètres environnementaux. L'étude analytique nous a permis d'identifier les principales faiblesses de l'environnement du RCsF et a permis aussi d'obtenir une meilleure compréhension de la dynamique de lien radio et le voisinage des nœuds. * Nous avons confrontés la question de l'interopérabilité des deux principaux standards - IEEE 802.15.4 dans la couche de contrôle d'accès au medium, et RPL dans la couche de transport. Nous proposons d'adapter la structure originale de cluster tree et de construire un framework élégant, qui permettra le fonctionnement conjoint de l'IEEE 802.15.4 et RPL sans l'apparition des collisions. En outre, nous évaluons à travers de nombreuses simulations les deux algorithmes distribués d'attribution de slots. Ces algorithmes permettront d'atteindre un fonctionnement presque sans collisions. * Nous proposons une solution inter-couche distribuée dans le but de construire une topologie afin que IEEE 802.15.4 et RPL puissent fonctionner ensemble. Notre algorithme auto-organisé obtient une structure topologique obéissante aux recommandations globales, cela, par la seule utilisation des métriques mesurées localement. De nombreuses simulations démontrent les avantages de la structure résultante en termes de convergence de temps, de stabilité, et d'efficacité énergétique dans le long terme. Les simulations démontrent aussi un impact positif sur les performances de routage. * Nous proposons un ensemble de nouveaux mécanismes qui permettront d'améliorer les performances de RPL et d'utiliser la Qualité de Service pour gérer les problèmes de trafic sensible. Notre extension de routage opportuniste et multi-chemin contribue à améliorer la livraison des paquets avant une date limite, tout en minimisant le surcout et la consommation d'énergie par rapport à la version de base de RPL.