<p> In this paper, empirical tests of a dynamic urban growth model are discussed. It is assumed that population change in any urban region is a function of the population size of the urban centres in the system and of the distances between them. A set of linear equations is simultaneously estimated by a least squares procedure. The parameters of the model; the equilibrium population of each urban region, the rate of natural increase, and the propensity to migrate between urban regions, are calculated from the regression coefficients. By estimating a series of equations at different times, a set of parameter estimates are obtained. The parameter estimates fluctuate erratically. Recommendations for further research include the redefinition of the model, and of the urban system. </p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Les cinquante dernières années témoignent d’une multiplication des mécanismes préjudiciels. Le mouvement fut initié par le renvoi préjudiciel à la Cour de justice, suivi de peu par le renvoi préventif au Tribunal des conflits. Il s’est confirmé à la fin des années 1980 et au début des années 1990 avec la création des demandes d’avis au Conseil d’État et à la Cour de cassation. Il s’accélère aujourd’hui avec la création récente de la question prioritaire de constitutionnalité et l’adoption du protocole n°15 à la Convention européenne des droits de l’homme instaurant un mécanisme de demande d’avis devant la Cour éponyme. Le travail de recherche invite à s’interroger sur les causes de cette dévotion particulière. L’étude démontre que l’utilisation de la technique préjudicielle poursuit aujourd’hui un effet particulier : celui d’assurer l’unification de l’interprétation des textes juridiques. Les mécanismes préjudiciels répondent donc à un besoin, celui d’unifier l’interprétation du droit, besoin aujourd’hui insatisfait du fait de la décadence des mécanismes hiérarchiques jusqu’alors chargés de cet office. En effet, l’accélération du temps du droit et le développement de la supra-légalité ont périmé ces mécanismes sédimentaires qui, tels la cassation, reposent sur la sanction. Même effet (l’unification du droit), même moyen (la technique préjudicielle), même cause (la péremption des mécanismes traditionnels) : il ne fait aucun doute que tous les mécanismes préjudiciels contemporains sont apparentés. Ils traduisent une nouvelle manière d’unifier l’interprétation qui, telle une lame de fond, étend indéfiniment son emprise. Il était impérieux de construire un nouvel outil juridique capable de témoigner de cette évolution, de créer une notion nouvelle : le renvoi préalable. Le renvoi préalable s’entend donc de « tout mécanisme par lequel une juridiction suprême uniformise l’interprétation d’un texte, sur le renvoi d’une question de droit posée à l’occasion d’un litige ». / During the last fifty years, the number of preliminary ruling mechanisms has multiplied. The movement first started with the preliminary ruling referral to the Court of Justice, which was soon followed by the preventive removal to the Court of Conflict. During the end of the eighties and in the early nineties, the movement reached confirmation through the creation of the possibility to ask its views to the State Council and to the Court of Cassation. It’s now getting faster and faster because of the recent creation of both the priority preliminary ruling on constitutionality, and the adoption, in front of the European Convention on Human Rights, of the protocol number fifteen, which introduces a system allowing the request for opinions in front of the eponymous Court. The research work invites to question about the causes of that singular devotion.The study proves that the use of the preliminary ruling procedure is nowadays endowed with a particular aim: that of ensuring the unification of the way legal texts are interpreted. Preliminary ruling mechanisms are the answer to a need, that of unifying the interpretation of the law, that need still remains unmet because of the decay of the hierarchical mechanisms which have been so far asked to manage it. As a matter of fact, both the acceleration of law time and the development of the supra-legality have collapsed these sediment mechanisms, which, just like Cassation, have to do with punishment.The same effect (the unification of the law), the same means (preliminary ruling technique), the same cause (the collapse of traditional mechanisms): there is no doubt about the link between all contemporary preliminary ruling mechanisms. They all reveal a new way of unifying interpretation which, like a tidal wave, becomes more and more powerful. It was becoming urgent to create a new legal tool which would be able to reveal this evolution, to create a new notion: pre-filing referrals. Pre-filing referrals is therefore said to be “any mechanism through which a supreme jurisdiction standardizes a text interpretation, after the referring of a law question which is raised in case of dispute”.

This thesis investigates improved estimators of the parameters of the linear regression models with normal errors, under sample and non-sample prior information about the value of the parameters. The estimators considered are the unrestricted estimator (UE), restricted estimator (RE), shrinkage restricted estimator (SRE), preliminary test estimator (PTE), shrinkage preliminary test estimator (SPTE), and shrinkage estimator (SE). The performances of the estimators are investigated with respect to bias, squared error and linex loss. For the analyses of the risk functions of the estimators, analytical, graphical and numerical procedures are adopted. In Part I the SRE, SPTE and SE of the slope and intercept parameters of the simple linear regression model are considered. The performances of the estimators are investigated with respect to their biases and mean square errors. The efficiencies of the SRE, SPTE and SE relative to the UE are obtained. It is revealed that under certain conditions, SE outperforms the other estimators considered in this thesis. In Part II in addition to the likelihood ratio (LR) test, the Wald (W) and Lagrange multiplier (LM) tests are used to define the SPTE and SE of the parameter vector of the multiple linear regression model with normal errors. Moreover, the modified and size-corrected W, LR and LM tests are used in the definition of SPTE. It is revealed that a great deal of conflict exists among the quadratic biases (QB) and quadratic risks (QR) of the SPTEs under the three original tests. The use of the modified tests reduces the conflict among the QRs, but not among the QBs. However, the use of the size-corrected tests in the definition of the SPTE almost eliminates the conflict among both QBs and QRs. It is also revealed that there is a great deal of conflict among the performances of the SEs when the three original tests are used as the preliminary test statistics. With respect to quadratic bias, the W test statistic based SE outperforms that based on the LR and LM test statistics. However, with respect to the QR criterion, the LM test statistic based SE outperforms the W and LM test statistics based SEs, under certain conditions. In Part III the performance of the PTE of the slope parameter of the simple linear regression model is investigated under the linex loss function. This is motivated by increasing criticism of the squared error loss function for its inappropriateness in many real life situations where underestimation of a parameter is more serious than its overestimation or vice-versa. It is revealed that under the linex loss function the PTE outperforms the UE if the nonsample prior information about the value of the parameter is not too far from its true value. Like the linex loss function, the risk function of the PTE is also asymmetric. However, if the magnitude of the scale parameter of the linex loss is very small, the risk of the PTE is nearly symmetric.

University of Macau / Faculty of Law

In the last ten years or so, many interactive aircraft design software packages have been released into the market. One drawback of these packages is that they assume prior knowledge in the field of aircraft design. Also, their main purpose being the preliminary aircraft design in a commercial environment, and are not intended for instructional use. Aircraft Design is an iterative process, and the students in the formative years of training must realise that one year of study is not enough to embrace all the necessary underlying concepts in this field. Most universities present the aircraft design as a classical Problem-Based Learning scenario, where students work in groups, with the group size varying between 5 and 8 students., each with a designated role, to carry out a specific task. The students work through the classical process of preliminary design based largely on textbook methods. Therefore, the need for a preliminary design tool (software) that helps the students to understand, analyse, and evaluate their aircraft design process exists. The developed software does everything that is needed in the preliminary design environment. Students are interactively guided through the design process, in a manner that facilitates lifelong learning. Comprehensive output is provided to highlight the “what if scenarios”. The software consists of many modules such as input (user interface), weight estimation, flight performance, cost estimation, take-off analysis, parametric studies, optimisation, and dynamic stability. Due to the large number of input design variables, a full interactive Graphical-User-Interface (GUI) is developed to enable students to evaluate their designs quickly. Object-Oriented-Programming (OOP) is used to create the GUI environment. The stability and control derivatives computed in this work are largely based on analytical techniques. However, a facility is provided in the software to create the data input file required to run a software package produced by USAF, called DATCOM, that enables computation of the dynamic stability and control derivatives that can be ultimately used in flight simulation work. Amongst all the variables used in aircraft design, aircraft weight is the most significant. A new weight estimation module has been developed to increase the accuracy of estimation to better than 5%. Its output results agree very favourably with the published data of current commercial aircraft such as Airbus and Boeing. Also, a new formula is proposed to estimate the engine weight based on its thrust in the absence of the data available with high degree of accuracy. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the design under consideration, a comprehensive methodology has been developed that can predict the aircraft price as a function of aircraft weight. The Direct Operating Cost (DOC) is also calculated using methods proposed by ATA, NASA, and AEA. Finally, a walk-through of two case studies are presented, one for large transport aircraft and other for small business jet, to show how typical undergraduate students will proceed with the design and to demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed software.

In this dissertation, algorithms for creating estimated potentials for metals and modeling of nano composites are developed. The efficacy of the algorithms for estimated potentials were examined. The algorithm was found to allow molecular dynamic and Monte Carlo modeling to be included in the potential building process. Additionally, the spline based equations caused issues with the elastic constants and Young’s modulus due to extra local minima. Two algorithms were developed for improved modeling of nano composites: one was a random number generation algorithm for initializing polymer, second was a bonding algorithm for controlling bonds between polymer and nano particle. Both algorithms were effective in their tasks. Additionally, the algorithms for improved nano composite modeling were used for preliminary material design of PMMA metal oxide nano composite systems. The results from the molecular dynamic simulations show the bonding between polymer matrix and nanoparticle has a large effect on the Young’s modulus and if this bonding could be controlled, the tensile properties of PMMA-metal oxide nano composites could be tailored to the applications’ requirements. The simulations also showed bonding had caused changes in the density of the material which than effected the energy on the polymer chain and the Young’s modulus. A model was than developed showing the relationship between density and the chain energy, and density and the Young’s modulus. This model can be used for a better understanding and further improvement of PMMA-metal oxide nano composites.

State DOTs (department of transportation) spend billions of dollars on construction and maintenance of transportation projects every year. In addition, significant sums go to preliminary and construction engineering (PE and CE). For many projects, DOTs utilize engineering services from consultants, to supplement in-house engineering. The cost and quality of consultant’s engineering services compared to in-house, are important issues to justify the involvement of consultants. This report provides an analysis of those issues on Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT) projects. Traditionally, the costs of PE and CE are calculated as a fixed percentage of total project construction cost, and the efficiency of engineering organizations is assessed by comparison of their gross percentages. However, the results presented here show that project scope and complexity are significant factors in PE and CE cost. Therefore, simplistic comparisons of PE and CE percentages can be misleading when applied across a mixed program of projects. / text

This two-part study of the criminal investigation process first evaluated the frequency with which patrol officers solve cases assigned to the investigations division and then examined how detectives spent their time, both on case assignments and on other activity not related to current case assignment. Cases assigned to the investigations division for follow up were examined to determine how often a case was cleared by the patrol officer. The detective's time was then evaluated in order to determine how much time detectives spent on investigative tasks and other activities. This study confirms that the patrol officer should be given more time to conduct preliminary investigations for specific cases, and that tasks performed by detectives could be shifted to other personnel in the department. Both actions should serve to positively impact case clearance rates.

of THESIS The aim of the thesis "Projects of environmental education at a preliminary class" is to point to more effective ways leading to better integration of children coming of socioculturally disadvantaging environment to an education process by means of environmental education projects. The theoretical part of this thesis, issuing from the expert literature, deals with upbringing and education of pupils at the preliminary class of the special primary school, with general rules of creating/carrying out projects. The applied part includes the concrete elaborated projects. The observation is focused on analysis of importance of concrete activities accomplished within the projects for asuccessful participation of the target group in the education process.

Private law issues relating to domestic violence (a comparison of Czech and German regulation) The subject of this thesis is private law issues relating to domestic violence. The domestic violence is a repeated phenomenon which is hidden in privacy of homes, including physical, psychological or sexual violence among close persons; the intensity of the attacks is escalating. The thesis is focused on violence among adults, especially partners. The domestic violence has been occurring in a society for a long time, nevertheless in the recent years has no longer been considered as a private matter and nowadays is being even solved by a virtue of the law. The Czech Republic and Federal Republic of Germany have recently adopted special acts for protection against the domestic violence. I have chosen the given topic for its recency and also because of lack of the Czech legal literature. The thesis compares the private law instruments of protection against the domestic violence in Germany and in the Czech Republic. The aim of the thesis is to find out which options the legal systems offer, whether they are sufficient, what are the fundamental differences between the both legal regulations and finally to propose some legislative measures. The first part of the thesis deals with the concept of the domestic...