International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 17-20, 1994 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / A system to generate a contiguous high speed time division multiplexed (TDM) spacecraft downlink data stream has been developed. The 25 MBPS downlink data stream contains high rate real time imager data, intermediate rate subsystem processor data, and low rate spacecraft housekeeping data. Imager data is transferred directly into the appropriate TDM downlink data window using control signals and clocks generated in the central data formatter and distributed to the data sources. Cable and electronics delays inherent in this process can amount to several clock periods, while the uncertainty and variations in those delays (e.g. temperature effects) can exceed the clock period. Unique (patent pending) electronic circuitry has been included in the data formatter to sense the total data gathering delay for each high speed data source and use the results to control series programmable delay elements to equalize the delays from all sources and permit the formation of a contiguous output data stream.

Thesis (MPA)--Stellenbosch University, 2004. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: A commitment to the market economy was easily extended to a widespread belief that money is the best motivator for work performance although there is no hard evidence to support that belief as a universal proposition (Armstrong & Murlis, 1994:263). Armstrong & Murlis (1994:263) contend that even if the effectiveness of money as a motivator can be questioned, most organisations strongly feel that it is fair to reward employees according to their contribution. The drive against incremental pay systems has taken place because management do not see why people should be paid for simply being there. Many people explicitly associate incremental pay systems with unmotivated performance. The argument being that if people are paid more flexibly according to their performance, they are more likely to be motivated than if they are sitting around waiting for the next automatic salary increment. Performance-related pay (PRP) schemes became more popular in many organisations in the 1980s as an answer to motivating employees and developing performance-oriented cultures. According to Flannery, Hofrichter & Platter (1996:83), organisations have been slowly coming to the realisation that compensation programmes have in many cases become a barrier to the growth and success of the organisations. Consequently, many employers devised new compensation systems that would likely support their emphasis on values such as quality, customer service, teamwork and productivity. Research shows that PRP systems can work for the organisation, but the first wave of enthusiasm revealed some weaknesses in their application. In this study project, the origins and underlying forces around PRP are discussed. The nature of PRP in the Lesotho Civil Service is addressed. PRP as part of the performance management system (PMS) in the Lesotho Public Service is introduced as a substitute for the current 'automatic' incremental pay system. Lastly, a model for introducing PRP in the Lesotho Civil Service is designed as a step-by-step guide for the people who are working on the PRP scheme. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: 'n Verbintenis tot die markekonomie het maklik aanleiding gegee tot 'n wydverspreide geloof dat geld die beste motiveerder is vir werkprestasie, hoewel daar geen vasstaande bewys is vir ondersteuning van die geloof as 'n universele proposisie nie (Armstrong & Murlis, 1994:263). Armstrong & Murlis (1994:263) beweer dat selfs al kan die effektiwiteit van geld as 'n motiveerder bevraagteken word, die meeste organisasies sterk voel oor die regverdigheid daarvan dat personeel volgens bydrae vergoed word. Die beweegrede vir afsien van die inkrementele vergoedingstelsel is te vinde in die bestuur se siening dat personeel nie noodwendig vir blote teenwoordigheid vergoed hoef te word nie. Baie mense assosieer die inkrementele vergoedingstelsel direk met ongemotiveerde werkverrigting en die argument word dan ook gehuldig dat as personeel met groter buigsaamheid volgens prestasie vergoed word, hulle waarskynlik meer gemotiveerd sal wees as wanneer hulle maar net wag vir die volgende outomatiese salarisverhoging. Prestasie-verwante vergoedingstelsels is gedurende die 1980's toenemend deur organisasies ingevoer as 'n meganisme vir die motivering van personeel en die vestiging van prestasie-georiënteerde kulture. Volgens Flannery, Hofrichter & Platter (1996:83), het organisasies stadigaan begin besef dat vergoedingsprogramme in baie gevalle belemmerend was vir hul groei en sukses. Gevolglik het baie werkgewers nuwe vergoedingstelsels ontwerp met waarskynlike steun vir hul beklemtoning van waardes soos kwaliteit, kliëntediens, spanwerk en produktiwiteit. Navorsing het getoon dat prestasie-verwante vergoedingstelsels gewenste resultate in 'n organisasie kan lewer, maar die aanvanklike geesdrif is gedemp deur swakhede wat in die toepassing daarvan na vore gekom het. In hierdie studie word die oorsprong van en onderliggende stukrag agter prestasieverwante vergoeding bespreek. Die aard van prestasie-verwante vergoeding in die Lesotho Staatsdiens word aangespreek asook hoe dit as deel van die prestasiebestuurstelsel in die Staatsdiens ingevoer kan word as plaasvervanger vir die bestaande outomatiese inkrementele vergoedingstelsel. Ten slotte word daar 'n modelontwerp vir die instelling van prestasie-verwante vergoeding in die Lesotho Staatsdiens as 'n stap-vir-stap gids vir diegene gemoeid daarmee.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / Many different definitions of human resources as a field of practice exist but few would disagree with the fact that a company’s remuneration practices play a crucially important role in the development and management of a productive workforce. Being such a crucial part of the employment relationship, a company’s remuneration strategy has the potential power to influence many factors contributing to employee well-being and operational success. The focus of this project has been an investigation of the current remuneration practices within Route Management (Pty) Ltd and the effect it has on employees, with specific reference to monthly paid employees at the Cape Town plant. The possibility of the current remuneration practices having a negative impact on employee satisfaction and crucial functions like skills retention have been scrutinised, and even where such concerns are not justified, the aim is to inform top management of the benefits that their current approach towards remuneration has to offer. In order to study the effect of the current remuneration practices deployed at Route Management, the research focused on employee satisfaction as a possible indicator of the impact these practices may have on employees. Employee satisfaction is a very wide construct, has many different components and has been studied widely in the literature. This complex construct along with some issues surrounding remuneration form the basis of the literature review presented in the report. A self-administered questionnaire was developed and with the size and physical location of the population in mind, a delivery and collection method was chosen to administer the questionnaires. This kind of questionnaire provided the respondents with the opportunity to complete the questions without any assistance from the researcher, ensuring that the researcher’s contribution was kept to an absolute minimum, and in doing so avoiding bias during the questionnaire data collection phase. Weights were assigned to questions in order to obtain a total employee satisfaction indicator score for each respondent, as well as two sub-indicator scores, namely a general employee satisfaction indicator and a remuneration satisfaction indicator for each respondent. Results showed that by far the majority of respondents are either satisfied or very satisfied with regards to their employment situation at Route Management with only 15 percent of respondents indicating that they are unsatisfied with remuneration practices at the company. All employees were found to be satisfied according to their general employee satisfaction and their total satisfaction indicator scores. The final analysis studied the relationship between remuneration satisfaction and general satisfaction. The results found that the company’s remuneration practices do not impact negatively on general employee satisfaction and with an average total satisfaction score of 72 percent, and 40 percent of all respondents found to be very satisfied, the company can be confident to work with a productive and motivated team at their Cape Town plant. Results showed that remuneration satisfaction does have some degree of positive impact on the level of general satisfaction which employees experience. Consequently, Route Management’s board of directors should consider these results as a positive indicator for their future decisions regarding remuneration practices, but should also consider the advantages of gaining more information from this type of research. It is therefore advised that this or similar studies should be rolled out and applied to the entire organisation.

This paper examines the relationship between executive compensation – in the form ofvariable pay – and earnings management. Since most research is done on Americancompanies, and Swedish companies are adopting a more Anglo-American compensationstructure, we would like to study this in Sweden. We hypothesize that CEOs with highervariable pay are more likely to engage in earnings management. This study is done onSwedish companies listed on Large- and Mid-Cap. Using data from the companies’ annualreports we find no significant relationship between variable pay and discretionary accrualsusing our regression. / Denna studie undersöker relationen mellan kompensation till ledande befattningshavare –den del av lönen som är rörlig - och manipulering av intäkter. Då större delen av tidigareforskning har fokuserat på amerikanska företag, och svenska företag anammar en mer angloamerikanskstruktur av kompensation, vill vi undersöka detta i Sverige. Vi kommer fram tillen hypotes där vi antar att en VD med högre rörlig lön är mer trolig att manipulera intäkter.Studien är gjord på svenska företag listade på Large och Mid Cap. Genom att använda datafrån företagens årsredovisningar och Datastream hittar vi genom våra regressioner ingasamband mellan rörlig lön och diskretionära periodiseringar.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

Recently, more and more disputations about how demand response should be compensated have arisen. Moreover, the court is about to rehear the Order 745. It probably will have significant impact on the whole working system used to be built for demand response before. Nowadays, some power companies and utilities think that they will endure profits leakage while demand response resources still are compensated. In this research, knowledge of demand response, local marginal price, Order 745 and other related concept will be explained in detail in case of misunderstanding. Associated with all these knowledge, a possible compensation method will be proposed. It combines many existing compensation methods. It mainly can be divided into three parts, i.e., high load period, off-peak period and low load period. The demand response resources will be compensated appropriately through these three periods. The compensation method endeavors to be just and reasonable.

This thesis report describes the modeling procedure for available the wind turbine generator (WTG) technologies. The models are generic in nature and manufacturer independent. These models are implemented on commercially available dynamic simulation software platforms like PSCAD/EMTDC and MATLAB/SIMULINK. A brief introduction to the available WTG types is provided to understand the technological differences and their key features. The related theoretical concepts to the working of a WTG are explained, which acts as an aid for model development and implementation. Using the theoretical concepts as basis, a WTG model is divided into four parts : 1. Aerodynamic model 2. Mechanical drive train model 3. Electrical machine model 4. Controller model Once the different parts of a WTG are introduced, a groundwork for model implementation on the software platforms is laid. A step-by-step process of implementing a PSCAD or MATLAB model of a WTG is introduced in this thesis. Starting with the most fundamental WTG technology such as fixed-speed also known as direct-connect wind turbine. The model implementation is adanvced to other superior technology like the dynamic rotor resistance control (DRR) and the doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG). To better understand the working of a DFIG, a current-source regulated model (without electrical machine) emulating the DFIG is built on both PSCAD and MATLAB. A full blown converter model of the DFIG with back-to-back converter is then built in PSCAD/EMTDC. An approach to determine the reactive power capability (Q limits) of a DFIG is described. Rotor current limitation and stator current limitation of the DFIG are considered in determining the minimum and maximum reactive power delievered by the DFIG. Variation in the Q limits of a DFIG for change in wind speed is analysed with two different wind speed scenarios. 1. Wind speed from cut-in to rated i.e. 6 m/s - 14 m/s. 2. Wind speed above rated to cut-out i.e. 14 m/s - 20 m/s. Such an analysis, is useful in determining the operating mode of the DFIG. At low wind speeds (below rated), the DFIG can be operated as a STATCOM for exporting and importing reactive power (similar to synchronous machines). While above rated wind speeds, the DFIG can be set to produce maximum active power. Using the DFIG current-source model implemented in MATLAB/SIMULINK, laboratory experiments to plot the power profile of the DFIG is explained. Another experiment to perform independent P-Q control of the DFIG is also included in this report. / text

Despite dramatic morphological differences between animals from different taxa, several important features in organization and sensory system processing are similar across animals. Because of this similarity, a number of different organisms including mammals, insects, and decapod crustaceans serve as valuable model systems for understanding general principles of environmental effects. This research examines intrinsic and extrinsic factors by behaviorally and physiologically means to identify the impact of environmental conditions on two distinct crayfish species- Procambarus clarkii (surface) and Orconectes australis packardi (cave). The research identified behavioral and physiological responses in these two morphological and genetically distinct species. The studies also examined multiple levels of complexity including social behavior, an autonomic response, chemosensory capabilities and neuronal communication, identified comparative similarities/differences, addressed learning and environmental influences on learning and examined behavioral and cellular responses to high levels of carbon dioxide. I found environmental factors directly influence crayfish behavior of social interactions. Interactions were more aggressive, more intense and more likely to end with a physical confrontation when they took place 'in water' than 'out of water'. The modified social interaction resulted in a altered fighting strategy. A study on motor task learning was undertaken which showed similar learning trends among these crayfish species despite their reliance on different sensory modalities. I also demonstrated learning was dependent on perceived stress by the organism. Previously trained crayfish inhibited from completing a task showed significant increase in an autonomic stress response. Studies on the behavioral and physiological responses to CO2 revealed that high [CO2] is a repellent in a concentration dependent manner. The autonomic responses in heart rate and an escape tailflip reflex shows complete cessation with high [CO2]. A mechanistic effect of CO2 is by blocking glutamate receptors at the neuromuscular junction and through inhibition of the motor nerve within the CNS.

<p>Control systems utilizing wireless sensor and actuator networks can be severely affectedby the properties of the communication links. Radio fading and interferencemay cause communication losses and outages in situations when the radio environmentis noisy and low transmission power is desirable. This thesis proposes amethod to compensate for such unpredictable losses of data in the feedback controlloop by introducing a predictive outage compensator (POC). The POC is a filter tobe implemented at the receiver sides of networked control systems where it generatesartificial samples when data are lost. If the receiver node does not receive thedata, the POC suggests a command based on the history of past data. It is shownhow to design, tune and implement a POC. Theoretical bounds and simulationresults show that a POC can improve the closed-loop control performance undercommunication losses considerably. We provide a deterministic and a stochasticmethod to synthesize POCs. Worst-case performance bounds are given that relatethe closed-loop performance with the complexity of the compensator. We also showthat it is possible to achieve good performance with a low-order implementationbased on Hankel norm approximation. Tradeoffs between achievable performance,communication loss length, and POC order are discussed. The results are illustratedon a simulated example of a multiple-tank process. The thesis is concludedby an experimental validation of wireless control of a physical lab process. Herethe controller and the physical system are separated geographically and interfacedthrough a wireless medium. For the remote control we use a hybrid model predictivecontroller. The results reflect the difficulties in wireless control as well as theyhighlight the flexibility and possibilities one obtains by using wireless instead of awired communication medium.</p> / VR, SSF, VINNOVA via Networked Embedded Control Systems, EU Sixt Framework Program via HYCON and SOCRADES