This dissertation details regulation's impact in networked markets, notably in deregulated electricity and internet service markets. These markets represent basic infrastructure in the modern economy; their innate networked structures make for rich fields of economic research on regulatory impact. The first chapter models deregulated electricity industries with a focus on the Texas market. Optimal economic benchmarks are considered for markets with regulated delivery and interrelated network costs. Using a model of regulator, consumer, and firm interaction, I determine the efficiency of the current rate formalization compared to Ramsey-Boiteux prices and two-part tariffs. I find within Texas's market increases to generator surplus up to 55% of subsidies could be achieved under Ramsey-Boiteux pricing or two-part tariffs, respectively. The second chapter presents a framework to analyze dynamic processes and long-run outcomes in two-sided markets, specifically dynamic platform and firm investment incentives within the internet-service platform/content provision market. I use the Ericson-Pakes framework applied within a platform that chooses fees on either side of its two-sided market. This chapter determines the impact of network neutrality on platform investment incentives, specifically whether to improve the platform. I use a parameterized calibration from engineering reports and current ISP literature to determine welfare outcomes and industry behavior under network neutral and non-neutral regimes. My final chapter explores retail firm failure within the deregulated Texas retail electricity market. This chapter investigates determinants of retail electric firm failures using duration analysis frameworks. In particular, this chapter investigates the impact of these determinants on firms with extant experience versus unsophisticated entrants. Understanding these determinants is an important component in evaluating whether deregulation achieves the impetus of competitive electricity market restructuring. Knowing which economic events decrease a market's competitiveness helps regulators to effectively evaluate policy implementations. I find that experience does benefit a firm's duration, but generally that benefit assists firm duration in an adverse macroeconomic environment rather than in response to adverse market conditions such as higher wholesale prices or increased transmission congestion. Additionally, I find evidence that within the Texas market entering earlier results in a longer likelihood of duration. / text

The present master thesis is an exploratory qualitative study in academic libraries regarding the transition from the integrated library systems to the next generation integrated library systems or library services platforms and the potential implications in their internal workflows. Nowadays, libraries all over the world are facing up with a number of challenges in terms of acquiring, describing and making available to the public all the resources, both printed and electronic, they manage. In particular, the academic libraries have more reasons to wish to fulfill their users’ needs since the majority of them use the library sources more and more for scientific research and educational purposes.In this study we attempt to explore the phenomenon in the globe using the available literature and to identify the implications in libraries’ workflows and the possible future developments. Moreover, through observation and semi-structured interviews we try to identify the current developments in the Greek context regarding the adoption of next ILS and possible implications in their workflows. Finally, we attempt a comparison between the Greek situation and the international one.

Dans cette thèse, nous nous sommes intéressés à des problèmes d'ordonnancement sous contrainte d'énergie, puisque la réduction de l'énergie est devenue une nécessité, tant sur le plan économique qu'écologique. Dans le premier chapitre, nous exhibons des bornes strictes sur l'énergie d'un algorithme classique qui minimise le temps d'exécution de tâches indépendantes. Dans le second chapitre, nous ordonnançons plusieurs applications chaînées de type « streaming », et nous étudions des problèmes contraignant l'énergie, la période et la latence. Nous effectuons une étude de complexité exhaustive, et décrivons les performances de nouvelles heuristiques. Dans le troisième chapitre, nous étudions le problème de placement de répliques dans un réseau arborescent. Nous nous plaçons dans un cadre dynamique, et nous bornons à minimiser l'énergie. Après une étude de complexité, nous confirmons la qualité de nos heuristiques grâce à un jeu complet de simulations. Dans le quatrième chapitre, nous revenons aux applications « streaming », mais sous forme de graphes série-parallèles, et nous tentons de les placer sur un processeur multi-cœur. La découverte d'un algorithme polynomial sur un problème simple nous permet la conception d'heuristiques sur le problème le plus général dont nous avons établi la NP-complétude. Dans le cinquième chapitre, nous étudions des bornes énergétiques de politiques de routage dans des processeurs multi-cœurs, en comparaison avec le routage classique XY, et développons de nouvheuristiques de routage. Dans le dernier chapitre, nous étudions expérimentalement le placement d'applications sous forme de DAG sur des machines réelles. / In this thesis we have tackled a few scheduling problems under energy constraint, since the energy issue is becoming crucial, for both economical and environmental reasons. In the first chapter, we exhibit tight bounds on the energy metric of a classical algorithm that minimizes the makespan of independent tasks. In the second chapter, we schedule several independent but concurrent pipelined applications and address problems combining multiple criteria, which are period, latency and energy. We perform an exhaustive complexity study and describe the performance of new heuristics. In the third chapter, we study the replica placement problem in a tree network. We try to minimize the energy consumption in a dynamic frame. After a complexity study, we confirm the quality of our heuristics through a complete set of simulations. In the fourth chapter, we come back to streaming applications, but in the form of series-parallel graphs, and try to map them onto a chip multiprocessor. The design of a polynomial algorithm on a simple problem allows us to derive heuristics on the most general problem, whose NP-completeness has been proven. In the fifth chapter, we study energy bounds of different routing policies in chip multiprocessors, compared to the classical XY routing, and develop new routing heuristics. In the last chapter, we compare the performance of different algorithms of the literature that tackle the problem of mapping DAG applications to minimize the energy consumption.

Abstracts in English, Zulu and Afrikaans / This Grounded Theory study focused on understanding how South Africa’s two numerically-dominant political parties, the African National Congress (ANC) and Democratic Alliance (DA), used micro-blogging site, Twitter, as part of their electioneering arsenal in the 2016 municipal elections to promote party-political digital issue ownership within an urban context. Using each party’s 2016 election manifesto and corpus of tweets, this three-phased study found that while both the ANC and DA used Twitter as a digital political communication platform to communicate their election campaigns, the DA notably leveraged the social networking site for intense ‘focused’ messaging of its negative campaign against the ANC while simultaneously promoting positive electoral messages around its own ‘core’ issues and metro mayoral candidates. ‘Battleground’ metros were identified by the DA in Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay, leading to an emphasised urban campaign here to either activate the party’s own support base and/ or to suppress the ANC’s turnout in these highly-contested areas. Additionally, it was found that both the ANC and DA used Twitter for explicit and implicit partypolitical issue ownership claiming in the 2016 municipal elections. Lastly, this study also culminated in the proposal of three but interconnected different elements of a conceptual framework for digital political communication that political parties could use to promote digital party-political issue ownership within a pronounced urban electioneering setting. These elements – ‘coordinating and managing how an election is tweeted’, 'focus' messaging the election’ and ‘audience-segmenting as a message-tailoring strategy’ – when used in unison can help political parties communicate better and ultimately more effectively in a highly mediatised technological media landscape / Hierdie Gegronde Teorie Studie fokus op die verduideliking hoe Suid-Afrika se twee numeriese dominante politieke partye, die African National Congress (ANC) en Demokratiese Alliansie (DA), van die mikro-blog platform, Twitter, gebruik gemaak het tydens hulle verkiessingsstrategie in die 2016 munisipale verkiessings om die party politieke digitale kwessie rondom eienaarskap binne ‘n stedelike verband te bevorder. Deur elke party se 2016 verkiessings manifesto en arsenaal van twiets te gebruik, het hierdie drie-fase studie bevind dat beide die ANC en DA, Twitter gebruik het as ‘n digitale politieke kommunikasie platform. Die DA het egter die sosiale media netwerk kenmerkend gebruik vir ‘n intense gefokusde negatiewe veldtog teen die ANC terwyl hulle terselfdertyd ‘n positiewe verkiessings boodskap rondom die party se eie kernkwessies en metro burgermeesters kandidate gesentreer het. ‘Oorlogsgebied’ metros is deur die DA in Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg, Tshwane en Nelson Mandela Bay geidentifiseer wat ‘n defnitiewe stedelike veldtog tot gevolg gehad het om die party se eie ondersteuningsbasis te bevorder en/of die ANC se ondersteuning in hierdie hoogs betwiste areas te onderdruk. Daar was ook bevind dat beide die ANC en DA van Twitter gebruik gemaak het vir eksplisiete en implisiete party politieke kwessies rondom eiernaarskap tydens die 2016 munisipale verkiessings. Hierdie studie kan saamgevat word in drie onderskeie maar verwante elemente om ‘n raamwerk te vorm van die digitale politieke kommunikasie wat politieke partye kan gebruik om digitale party politieke kwessies binne ‘n stedelike verkiessings omgewing te bevorder. Wanneer hierdie elemente – ‘koordinering en bestuur van hoe twiets tydens ‘n verkiesing gebruik word’, ‘’die focus van die boodksap tydens die verkiessing’ and ‘die gehoorsegmentasie can ‘n boodskap strategie’ – in ‘n eenheid gebruik word kan dit politieke partye help om beter en meer effektief te kommunikeer binne ‘n baie kompiterende en tegnologiese medialandskap. / Inkcazo-bungcali yesisifundo ibigxile ekuqondeni ukuba uMzantsi Africa lo unamaqela amakhulu amabini ezopolitiko, ukutsho, iAfrican National Congress (ANC) kunye ne Democratic Alliance (DA), la maqela asebenzise iwebhusayithi encinane uTwitter, njengenxalenye yezixhobo zonxibelelwano kunyulo loo masipala ngo-2016. Bekwenza oku ngelikhuthaza amaqela ezopolitiko nebango lawo kwimiba yezinto abathi bazithethe kwisithuba sedijithali,kumxholo wendawo zase dolophini. Esi sifundo sisebenzisa imanifesto kunye nothotho lwe tweets zeqela ngalinye, nesenziwe ngokwezigaba ezithathu, sifumanise ukuba nangona iANC kunye ne DA zisebenzise uTwitter njenge qonga lonxibelelwano lwezopolitiko zedijithali (ngokolwimi lwasemzini) ukunxibelelana namaphulo onyulo, iDA izibonakalise amandla kwindawo yokuncokola kwiqonga uTwitter,ngokuthi imiyalezo yayo igxile kwaye itsole. Miyalezo leyo ithe yagxila ngokungafanelekanga kumkhankaso weANC. Ngaxeshanye, imiyalezo yayo yona iDA ibeyeyakhayo, kwaye incedisana nephulo layo kwimiba ephambili kunye nabagqatswa bosodolophu bo masipala abambaxa. Oomasipala abambaxa abathi babenongquzulwano bachongwe yiDA Ekurhuleni, eRhawutini, eTshwane nase Bhayi. Lonto ibangele ukuba bagxininise ekukhokeleni iphulo ledolophu ukuze bavuselele inkxaso ye DA apho okanye bacinezele ukuvela kwe-ANC kwezi ndawo kuphikiswana kakhulu ngazo. Ukongeza, kufumaniseke ukuba iANC kunye neDA zisebenzise uTwitter ngokwendlela ecacileyo nengathanga ngqo kwimeko yobunini bemicimbi yepolitiki ukuze bafumane ibango kunyulo loomasipala lwango 2016. Okokugqibela, esisifundo sigqibele kwisindululo sezinto ezintathu azahlukeneyo kodwa ezidityaniswe yinkqubosikhokelo eqingqiweyo kunxibelelwano lwezopolitiko zedijithali. Ezi zinto zizinto ezisenakho ukusetyenziswa ngamaqela ezopolitiko ukukhuthaza ubunini bemicimbi yezopolitiko ngaphakathi kulungiselelo lonyulo lwedolophu olubhengeziweyo. Ezi zinto- 'ukulungelelanisa nokulawula indlela unyulo luthunyelwe ngayo kusetyeziswa uTwitter', 'kugxilwe' kwimiyalezo yonyulo kunye nokuhlukaniswa kwabaphulaphuli okanye ababukeli njengecebo lokulungisa umyalezo '- xa zisetyenziswa ngazwinye zinokuwanceda amaqela ezopolitiko anxibelelane ngcono kwaye ekugqibeleni ngokuyimpumelelo kakhulu kuxhamlo olunamandla kakhulu kubume beendaba kumhlaba wetekhnoloji (ngokolwimi lwesiNgesi). / Communication Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)

Abstracts in English, Afrikaans and Zulu / This Grounded Theory study focused on understanding how South Africa’s two numerically-dominant political parties, the African National Congress (ANC) and Democratic Alliance (DA), used micro-blogging site, Twitter, as part of their electioneering arsenal in the 2016 municipal elections to promote party-political digital issue ownership within an urban context. Using each party’s 2016 election manifesto and corpus of tweets, this three-phased study found that while both the ANC and DA used Twitter as a digital political communication platform to communicate their election campaigns, the DA notably leveraged the social networking site for intense ‘focused’ messaging of its negative campaign against the ANC while simultaneously promoting positive electoral messages around its own ‘core’ issues and metro mayoral candidates. ‘Battleground’ metros were identified by the DA in Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay, leading to an emphasised urban campaign here to either activate the party’s own support base and/ or to suppress the ANC’s turnout in these highly-contested areas. Additionally, it was found that both the ANC and DA used Twitter for explicit and implicit partypolitical issue ownership claiming in the 2016 municipal elections. Lastly, this study also culminated in the proposal of three but interconnected different elements of a conceptual framework for digital political communication that political parties could use to promote digital party-political issue ownership within a pronounced urban electioneering setting. These elements – ‘coordinating and managing how an election is tweeted’, 'focus' messaging the election’ and ‘audience-segmenting as a message-tailoring strategy’ – when used in unison can help political parties communicate better and ultimately more effectively in a highly mediatised technological media landscape. / Hierdie Gegronde Teorie Studie fokus op die verduideliking hoe Suid-Afrika se twee numeriese dominante politieke partye, die African National Congress (ANC) en Demokratiese Alliansie (DA), van die mikro-blog platform, Twitter, gebruik gemaak het tydens hulle verkiessingsstrategie in die 2016 munisipale verkiessings om die party politieke digitale kwessie rondom eienaarskap binne ‘n stedelike verband te bevorder. Deur elke party se 2016 verkiessings manifesto en arsenaal van twiets te gebruik, het hierdie drie-fase studie bevind dat beide die ANC en DA, Twitter gebruik het as ‘n digitale politieke kommunikasie platform. Die DA het egter die sosiale media netwerk kenmerkend gebruik vir ‘n intense gefokusde negatiewe veldtog teen die ANC terwyl hulle terselfdertyd ‘n positiewe verkiessings boodskap rondom die party se eie kernkwessies en metro burgermeesters kandidate gesentreer het. ‘Oorlogsgebied’ metros is deur die DA in Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg, Tshwane en Nelson Mandela Bay geidentifiseer wat ‘n defnitiewe stedelike veldtog tot gevolg gehad het om die party se eie ondersteuningsbasis te bevorder en/of die ANC se ondersteuning in hierdie hoogs betwiste areas te onderdruk. Daar was ook bevind dat beide die ANC en DA van Twitter gebruik gemaak het vir eksplisiete en implisiete party politieke kwessies rondom eiernaarskap tydens die 2016 munisipale verkiessings. Hierdie studie kan saamgevat word in drie onderskeie maar verwante elemente om ‘n raamwerk te vorm van die digitale politieke kommunikasie wat politieke partye kan gebruik om digitale party politieke kwessies binne ‘n stedelike verkiessings omgewing te bevorder. Wanneer hierdie elemente – ‘koordinering en bestuur van hoe twiets tydens ‘n verkiesing gebruik word’, ‘’die focus van die boodksap tydens die verkiessing’ and ‘die gehoorsegmentasie can ‘n boodskap strategie’ – in ‘n eenheid gebruik word kan dit politieke partye help om beter en meer effektief te kommunikeer binne ‘n baie kompiterende en tegnologiese medialandskap. / Inkcazo-bungcali yesisifundo ibigxile ekuqondeni ukuba uMzantsi Africa lo unamaqela amakhulu amabini ezopolitiko, ukutsho, iAfrican National Congress (ANC) kunye ne Democratic Alliance (DA), la maqela asebenzise iwebhusayithi encinane uTwitter, njengenxalenye yezixhobo zonxibelelwano kunyulo loo masipala ngo-2016. Bekwenza oku ngelikhuthaza amaqela ezopolitiko nebango lawo kwimiba yezinto abathi bazithethe kwisithuba sedijithali,kumxholo wendawo zase dolophini. Esi sifundo sisebenzisa imanifesto kunye nothotho lwe tweets zeqela ngalinye, nesenziwe ngokwezigaba ezithathu, sifumanise ukuba nangona iANC kunye ne DA zisebenzise uTwitter njenge qonga lonxibelelwano lwezopolitiko zedijithali (ngokolwimi lwasemzini) ukunxibelelana namaphulo onyulo, iDA izibonakalise amandla kwindawo yokuncokola kwiqonga uTwitter,ngokuthi imiyalezo yayo igxile kwaye itsole. Miyalezo leyo ithe yagxila ngokungafanelekanga kumkhankaso weANC. Ngaxeshanye, imiyalezo yayo yona iDA ibeyeyakhayo, kwaye incedisana nephulo layo kwimiba ephambili kunye nabagqatswa bosodolophu bo masipala abambaxa. Oomasipala abambaxa abathi babenongquzulwano bachongwe yiDA Ekurhuleni, eRhawutini, eTshwane nase Bhayi. Lonto ibangele ukuba bagxininise ekukhokeleni iphulo ledolophu ukuze bavuselele inkxaso ye DA apho okanye bacinezele ukuvela kwe-ANC kwezi ndawo kuphikiswana kakhulu ngazo. Ukongeza, kufumaniseke ukuba iANC kunye neDA zisebenzise uTwitter ngokwendlela ecacileyo nengathanga ngqo kwimeko yobunini bemicimbi yepolitiki ukuze bafumane ibango kunyulo loomasipala lwango 2016. Okokugqibela, esisifundo sigqibele kwisindululo sezinto ezintathu azahlukeneyo kodwa ezidityaniswe yinkqubosikhokelo eqingqiweyo kunxibelelwano lwezopolitiko zedijithali. Ezi zinto zizinto ezisenakho ukusetyenziswa ngamaqela ezopolitiko ukukhuthaza ubunini bemicimbi yezopolitiko ngaphakathi kulungiselelo lonyulo lwedolophu olubhengeziweyo. Ezi zinto- 'ukulungelelanisa nokulawula indlela unyulo luthunyelwe ngayo kusetyeziswa uTwitter', 'kugxilwe' kwimiyalezo yonyulo kunye nokuhlukaniswa kwabaphulaphuli okanye ababukeli njengecebo lokulungisa umyalezo '- xa zisetyenziswa ngazwinye zinokuwanceda amaqela ezopolitiko anxibelelane ngcono kwaye ekugqibeleni ngokuyimpumelelo kakhulu kuxhamlo olunamandla kakhulu kubume beendaba kumhlaba wetekhnoloji (ngokolwimi lwesiNgesi). / Communication Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)