Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 161 pages. / Thesis (M.S.C.E.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: Driving piles constitute a large portion of the high-capacity foundations used today. They transfer structural loads to deep bearing strata when adequate surficial soils are not available. The mechanisms required to install these piles generally consist of a hammer, hammer lead, a crane, and various support rigging. This study focused on lead sections, specifically, one which was manufactured by Berminghammer Foundation Equipment, Inc. The dimensions and strength of a lead section must be capable of supporting both the pile driving hammer and the longest anticipated pile for a given site. The strength of the section must be capable of withstanding hundreds of tons in compression and bending. If the lead is operated in a batter, (tilted forward, backward, or sideways) the weight of the hammer and pile causes much more bending than the vertical orientation. / ABSTRACT: The cross-section details for these long steel sections vary from design to design but usually incorporate some form of bolt group, pins, and steel alignment dowels. This thesis focuses on the design, modeling, and testing of such a connection. The motivation of the study stems from a company-wide incentive to standardize the connections used to splice the Berminghammer C15-series lead section. In an effort to verify a proposed connection design, Berminghammer Foundation Engineering solicited the University of South Florida to test a full-sized lead section to failure, while monitoring the splice-connection performance. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

本論文提出數個線性規劃模型建立成長基金的投資組合。目標函數皆以目標規劃方式呈現。第一個模型採用追蹤與成長差距最小的原則。第二個模型改採用大中取小原則。第三個模型則考慮時間因素對於投資組合的影響，修正第一個模型加入時間參數。最後以台灣上市股票市場作為實證分析對象，探討三組模型之表現。 / This thesis presents three linear programming models for selection of the growth portfolio based on historical data. The objective functions of these models are described by goal programming. The first model employs the principle of minimizing the deviation of the value-increasing index. The second model employs the mini-max principle. The third model is derived from the first model and includes the timing effect of historical data during construction of portfolio. The computational results and performance are illustrated by modeling with realistic data from the Taiwan stock market.

Thesis--Toulouse, 1914. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [227]-232).

This paper attempts to present and analyze problems that may arise from the use of Genetically Modified (GM) products and issues raised by the Intellectual Property (IP) rights that Genetic Engineering (GE) companies have on their products. Arguments in favor and against the existence of health risks and environmental risks of GM products are presented. The European policy of the socioeconomic effects of the GM products is discussed and is proposed the application of the precautionary principle for the prevention of unintended consequences from the GM products to other than health and environmental domains. The need of IP rights is supported, but is also suggested an IP rights flexibility. Do IP rights violate the rights of all people to a nourishing life, natural resources, the right to decide about what they eat and the right to live in a viable ecosystem? Finally, I provide an analysis of the effects on the farmers due to the IP rights on GM crop for cultivation and state dependency issues that may occur.

Results from models that describe frequency chirps of toroidal Alfvén eigenmode excited by energetic particles are presented here. This structure forms in TAE gap and may or may not chirp into the continuum. Initial work described the particle wave interaction in terms of a generic Hamiltonian for the particle wave interaction, whose spatial dependence was xed in time. In addition, we have developed an improved adiabatic TAE model that takes into account the spatial prole variation of the mode and the nite orbit excursion from the resonant ux surfaces, for a wide range of toroidal mode numbers. We have shown for the generic xed prole model that the results from the adiabatic model agree very well with simulation result except when the adiabatic condition breaks down due to the rapid variations of the wave amplitude and chirping frequency. We have been able to solve the adiabatic problem in the case when the spatial prole is allowed to vary in time, in accord with the structure of the response functions, as a function of frequency. All the models predict that up-chirping holes do not penetrate into the continuum. On the other hand clump structures, which down chirp in frequency may, depending on detailed parameters, penetrate the continuum. The systematic theory is more restrictive than the generic theory, for the conditions that enable clump to penetrate into the continuum. In addition, the systematic theory predicts an important nite drift orbit width eect, which eventually limits and suppresses a down-chirping response in the lower continuum. This interruption of the chirping occurs when the trapped particles make a transition from intersecting both resonant points of the continuum to just one resonant point. / text

This dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay examines a general theory of information based on informal contracting. The measurement problem—the disparity of true and measured performances—is at the core of many failures in incentive systems. Informal contracting can be a potential solution since, unlike in formal contracting, it can utilize a lot of qualitative and informative signals. However, informal contracting must be self-enforced. Given this trade-off between informativeness and self-enforcement, I show that a new source of statistical information is economically valuable in informal con- tracting if and only if it is sufficiently informative that it refines the existing pass/fail criterion. I also find that a new information is more likely valuable, as the stock of existing information is large. This information theory has implications on the measurement problem, a puzzle of relative performance evaluation and human resources management. I also provide a methodological contribution. For tractable analysis, the first-order approach (FOA) should be employed. Existing FOA-justifying conditions (e.g. the Mirrlees-Rogerson condition) are so strong that the information ranking condition can be applied only to a small set of information structures. Instead, I find a weak FOA- justifying condition, which holds in many prominent examples (with multi- variate normal or some of univariate exponential family distributions). The second essay analyzes the effectiveness of managerial punishments in mitigating moral hazard problem of government bailouts. Government bailouts of systemically important financial or industrial firms are necessary ex-post but cause moral hazard ex-ante. A seemingly perfect solution to this time-inconsistency problem is saving a firm while punishing its manager. I show that this idea does not necessarily work if ownership and management are separated. In this case, the shareholder(s) of the firm has to motivate the manager by using incentive contracts. Managerial punishments (such as Obama’s $500,000 bonus cap) could distort the incentive-contracting program. The shareholder’s ability to motivate the manager could then be reduced and thereby moral hazard could be exacerbated depending on corporate governance structures and punishment measures, which means the likelihood of future bailouts increases. As an alternative, I discuss the effectiveness of shareholder punishments. The third essay analyzes how education affect workers’ career-concerns. A person’s life consists of two important stages: the first stage as a student and the second stage as a worker. In order to address how a person chooses an education-career path, I examine an integrated model of education and career-concerns. In the first part, I analyze the welfare effect of education. In Spence’s job market signaling model, education as a sorting device improves efficiency by mitigating the lemon market problem. In my integrated model, by contrast, education as a sorting device can be detrimental to social welfare, as it eliminates the work incentive generated by career-concerns. In this regard, I suggest scholarship programs aimed at building human capital rather than sorting students. The second part provides a new perspective on education: education is job-risk hedging device (as well as human capital enhancing or sorting device). I show that highly risk-averse people take high education in order to hedge job-risk and pursue safe but medium-return work path. In contrast, lowly risk-averse people take low education, bear job-risk, and pursue high-risk high-return work path. This explains why some people finish college early and begin start-ups, whereas others take master’s or Ph.D. degrees and find safe but stable jobs. / text

This thesis consists of three chapters. Chapter 1 explains how the research problems considered in this thesis fit into the investigation of local-global principle in the diophantine geometry, as well as gives a unified sketch of the proofs of the two main results in this thesis. Chapter 2 establishes a similar conclusion to Theorem B of a paper by Poonen and Voloch in another settings. Chapter 3 relates to the object considered in the main result of Chapter 2 to an old conjecture proposed by Skolem and solves some cases of its analog. / text

This master thesis examines the issues surrounding the pricing of intra-group loans. The main focus of the thesis is the process of establishing an interest rate and the assessment of the credit risk in an intra-group context.  In order to expose the common problems associated with the pricing of intra-group loans the thesis has examined case law from two different jurisdictions, Canada and Sweden, which have been put in relation to the OECD guidelines and Swedish national legislation. The purpose of the master thesis has been to determine whether the establishing of an interest rate and the assessment of the credit risk of an intra-group loan should be made taking into account the parent-subsidiary affiliation or relationship and whether or not this is a deviation of the arm’s length principle. A general assumption is that, if a transaction is carried out between related parties, the price could be different from a price deriving from negotiations between two unrelated parties on the open market, due to their commercial or financial relations. A common feature in case law, regarding the establishing of an appropriate interest rate on intra-group loan, has been whether or not the parent-subsidiary should be included in the assessment of the credit risk. Much of the support available to taxpayers in resolving transfer pricing issues are relating to goods and services and not financing transactions. The main reason is the unique economic profile of financial transactions. Financial transactions are affected by different factors why it is difficult to develop usable transfer pricing policies. Establishing economically justifiable transfer pricing policies while attempting to properly reflect taxable income and prevent penalties from international tax authorities, has resulted in transfer pricing challenges that are unique to intra-group financing. According to Swedish law, interest is regarded as a deductable cost within corporate tax. However, in recent cases, the Swedish tax authorities have been questioning, the deduction right as well as the level of interest on intra-group loans. As of today, there are few national and international guidelines on this area thus it is of interest to examine and address the issues surrounding intra –group loans.

Akcentologijos veikalų, kuriuose aiškinama bendrinės lietuvių kalbos kirčiavimo sistema, nagrinėjami kirčiavimo normos, dėsningumai, objektas yra bendriniai žodžiai. Šiuose darbuose tikrinių vardų kirčiavimas arba visai neanalizuojamas, arba analizuojamas labai fragmentiškai. Šio darbo pagrindinis tikslas – ištirti dažniausių tikrinių XX a. spaudos žodžių kirčiavimo dėsningumus ir aprašyti juos remiantis morfonologiniais kirčiavimo principais. Taip pat darbo autorei rūpi palyginti bendrinių ir tikrinių daiktavardžių kirčiavimo dėsningumus. Šio darbo objektas - 1000 dažniausių tikrinių žodžių, atrinktų iš elektroninio dažninio žodyno „Tikriniai XX a. spaudos žodžiai“ (2005), kirčiavimas. Darbų, parašytų remiantis šiuo visai neseniai pasirodžiusiu šaltiniu, dar nėra. Visi tirti tikriniai daiktavardžiai aptariami atsižvelgiant į jų kilmę ir darybą. Pirmiausia skiriami savos ir svetimos kilmės žodžiai. Savos kilmės žodžiai toliau skiriami į pirminius, darinius (priesaginius, priešdėlinius, galūninius) ir dūrinius. Taip pat minėtini ir sudėtiniai pavadinimai. Svetimos kilmės žodžiai tradiciškai skiriami į dviskiemenius ir daugiaskiemenius, taip pat nekaitomuosius žodžius. Savos kilmės žodžių kirčiavimas yra daug sudėtingesnis nei svetimos kilmės žodžių (pastarieji dažniausiai kirčiuojami pagal dvi kirčiavimo paradigmas), todėl šiame darbe savos kilmės tikrinių žodžių kirčiavimo aptarimas yra daug išsamesnis. Taip pat nuodugnesnę savos kilmės žodžių analizę lėmė ir įvairesnė jų... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / In paper works of accenthology, where system of accentuation of appellative Lithuanian speech is explained, accentuation of proper names is either not analyzed or analyzed fragmentary. The main purpose of this paper work is to survey the accentuation regularity of the most popular proper press words of the XX century and to describe them according to the morphonological principles of accentuation. Author of this work also pays attention to the comparison of the accentuation regularity of appellative and proper nouns. The material for this work was collected from electronic iterative vocabulary named “Proper press words of the 20th century” (2005). The subject of this work is accentuation of 1000 most popular proper words. There are no paper works yet based on this vocabulary that was recently released. All proper nouns examined are discussed considering their origin and composition. Firstly, local and borrowed origin words are separated. Local origin words then are separated into primary, derivative (suffixal, preffixal, inflexional) and joined words. Integrated names are also mentioned. Borrowed origin words traditionally are separated into dissyllabic and polysyllabic, also uncountable words. Among the most popular proper press words of the XX century 356 local origin proper nouns were found (it is 35,6% from total words analyzed), 644 borrowed origin proper nouns were found (it is 64,4% of total words analyzed). Accentuation of local origin words is more complex than... [to full text]

This study offers the so-called ”Choice-Based Perspective” of the choice-of-law question or “CBP”. Drawing on the legal philosophy of Immanuel Kant and through careful evaluation of comprehensive theory of Kant’s follower- Friedrich Carl von Savigny, CBP offers a purely private conception of the subject which rejects the conventional wisdom that choice-of-law has to be grounded on the principle of states’ sovereignty. Furthermore, it will be argued that the proposed approach holds much sway in practice, for the normative underpinnings of CBP are already embedded in many traditional and contemporary choice-of-law rules, doctrines, and concepts.