M.Com. (Economic Development and Policy Issues) / There is an observable correlation, over time, between domestic savings rates and GDP growth rates: countries with relatively high savings rates over time also enjoying comparably high GDP growth rates. Aggregate saving in South Africa has been in decline and, currently, is at a historic low. Unflattering comparisons between South Africa and faster-growing emerging market economies have led to suggestions that South Africa's low domestic savings rate poses a constraint on the country's ability to grow faster. While the literature, both international and domestic, is relatively rich in studies on the determinants of foreign direct investment as well as the determinants of savings, none of the work done on South Africa has made use of disaggregated savings data to understand whether there is an observable difference in the marginal propensity to save of these economic sectors. In order to successfully raise the level of saving, much more focus needs to be applied to whether there is a difference in the relationship between growth and the components of aggregate saving i.e. which „source‟ of saving if any would yield the greatest impact on GDP and therefore should be encouraged from a policy point of view. The results of the econometric analysis demonstrate that the greatest responsiveness of savings to GDP growth occurs amongst corporates. Since corporates have a choice between retaining earnings and distributing earning as dividends (thus increasing household income) it is clear that tax-rates are an important lever through which government can encourage savings. In essence, a greater level of savings may be achievable if corporates are encouraged to retain earnings, rather than distribute these as dividends to the household sector which has exhibited a relatively weak propensity to save.

The issue of low energy construction is currently actual and often discussed topic. The main reason is continuously increasing consumption and price of energy. Additionally, projections show this trend is not going to rapidly change in the upcoming years. The construction of buildings in low energy standard should become one of the most significant sources in energy savings in European Union for the upcoming period. Low energy constructions in contrast with standard constructions are distinguished not only because of low energy consumption and lower operating expenses but also for its favorable impact on the environment. The main purpose of this thesis will be the assessment of economical effectiveness of current low energy constructions and underline the importance of energy saving constructions by using LCA method as one of the possibilities in increasing the quality of environment.

Na escala evolutiva dos processos de polpação de alto rendimento (PAR), a mais recente promessa é a biopolpação, ou seja, o pré-tratamento microbiológico do cavaco de madeira utilizado na polpação. Esse pré-tratamento tem o potencial de reduzir o consumo de energia necessária ao refino em até 38%, e ainda, ou consequentemente, melhorar importantes propriedades mecânicas deficientes nas PAR, como rasgo, estouro, e tração. Enorme atenção foi dispensada ao assunto nos últimos 20 anos com importantes avanços na compreensão dos mecanismos envolvidos, e ainda, com a condução de testes em escala piloto (50 ton de cavacos) por inoculação direta do fungo. Entretanto, esses testes foram conduzidos e se mostraram eficazes num clima temperado, com madeira típica da América do Norte. O presente trabalho detalha o desenvolvimento, implantação e operação de uma planta piloto para biotratamento de cavacos (inoculação e incubação) de Eucalyptus grandis, usados num processo de escala industrial de polpação termimecânica (TMP) e quimiotermomecânico (CTMP). Também estão detalhados nessa tese os esforços para se alcançar a eficácia desejada desse biotratamento. Vários testes em diferentes escalas - incluindo 40-50 ton - foram conduzidos em diferentes épocas do ano, sob as condições normalmente encontradas nos pátios de cavacos da indústria de celulose. Diferentes fungos (Ceriporiopsis subvermispora e Phanerochaete chrysosporium) e sistemas de inoculação (inoculação por aspersão e inoculação por semente) foram testados, e o escalonamento de um processo anteriormente factível apenas em nível laboratorial foi desenvolvido. Os resultados mostram que os sistemas de inoculação de C. subvermispora por aspersão com micélio suspenso em água e um auxiliar de crescimento foram sujeitos à contaminação dos cultivos por bolores primários, de ocorrência natural no ambiente de pátios de cavacos de indústrias de celulose. Por outro lado, o sistema de inoculação com cavacos pré-cultivados (inoculação por semente) mostrou-se eficaz na escala piloto, pois não esteve sujeito a ocorrência de contaminantes durante a incubação dos cavacos. Esse sistema de inoculação gerou resultados condizentes com a literatura em termos de economia de energia de refino que foram de 18% e 27% nos processos TMP e CTMP, respectivamente. No caso da inoculação por aspersão com P. chrysosporium, os cultivos não apresentaram contaminação por bolores primários, provavelmente devido à temperatura de incubação que nesse caso foi de 38 oC. Nesse experimento foi possível reduzir o consumo de energia em 18,5% no processo CTMP. Uma avaliação da viabilidade financeira do processo é apresentada e simulações de benefícios econômicos foram feitas para diferentes cenários de custo de energia elétrica e níveis de redução no consumo de energia. As simulações mostraram que benefícios econômicos da ordem de R$10/ton de polpa produzida podem ser obtidos para uma redução no consumo de energia da ordem de 20% advinda do biotratamento. Embora esperados, ganhos de propriedades mecânicas das biopolpas quando comparadas às polpas convencionais não foram observados, fato que limitou a extensão da análise econômica de considerar um processo integrado com máquina de papel na substituição de polpa kraft por polpas bio-CTMP ou bio-TMP. / In the evolution of the high yield pulping processes (HYP) biopulping have been considered the latest promise. Biopulping, defined as the microbiological pretreatment of wood chips prior to the pulping process, have the potential to reduce the refining energy consumption in 38%. Besides this benefit, or consequently, it can also enhance important mechanical properties usually poor in HYP pulps like tear, burst and tensile strength. Considerable efforts have been deposited in this issue during the last 20 years with important advances on understanding the involved mechanisms. Between these efforts trials were conducted in a pilot scale (50 ton of wood chips) by the direct spraying of the fungus. However such successful tests were conducted in a region of temperate climate, with a wood typically found in North America. The present work details the development, installation and operation of a pilot plant to biotreat (inoculation and incubation) Eucalyptus grandis wood chips used in an industrial thermomechanical (TMP) and chemithermomechanical (CTMP) mill. The efforts spent to reach the desired efficacy of this biotreatment are also presented. Several trials with different scales - including 40-50 ton trials - were conducted in different seasons, under the conditions normally found in woodyards of a tropical pulp mill. Different fungi (Ceriporiopsis subvermispora and Phanerochaete chrysosporium) and different inoculation systems (by direct spraying and by seed introduction) were tested, and one of them developed at the first time in this pilot scale. The results show that when C. subvermispora was used with the direct spraying systems of the mycelium suspended in water with corn steep liquor the pile was strongly contaminated by primary molds of natural occurrence at an industrial woodyard tropical environment. On the other hand, the inoculation using pre-cultivated wood chips (seed system) was successfully conducted in pilot scale since it does not showed expressive contamination during the incubation period. The refining of the wood chips prepared by seed inoculation resulted in energy savings of 18% and 27% for the TMP and CTMP processes, respectively. By using the P. chrysosporium the pile was not contaminated by primary molds either, probably due to the higher incubation temperature, around 38 oC. The CTMP processing of the wood chips incubated in this experiment refining energy saving of 18.5% was observed. An economic evaluation of the biopulping process is presented and saving of R$10/ton was simulated for a 20% reduction in refining energy saving. The enhancement of the mechanical properties of the biopulp compared to the reference was not observed, regardless being expected. This fact limited the extension of the economical simulation, since the replacement of kraft pulp by bio-TMP or bio-CTMP is usually considered in an integrated paper mill.

Os dispositivos móveis passaram por grandes transformações na última década e tornaram-se complexos computadores dotados de grande poder de processamento e memória, além de prover aos usuários diversos recursos como sensores e câmeras de alta resolução. O uso de dispositivos móveis para diversas tarefas aumentou consideravelmente, o que levantou uma grande preocupação com o o alto consumo de energia desses dispositivos. Portanto, estudos tem sido realizados no sentido de encontrar soluções para diminuir o custo de energia das aplicações que executam em dispositivos móveis. Uma das alternativas mais utilizadas é o \\textit{computation offloading}, cujo objetivo é transferir a execução de uma tarefa para uma plataforma externa com o intuito de aumentar desempenho e reduzir consumo de recursos, como a bateria, por exemplo. Decidir sobre usar ou não esta técnica implica entender a influência de fatores como a quantidade de dados processados, a quantidade de computação envolvida, e o perfil da rede. Muitos estudos tem sido realizados para estudar a influência de diversas opções de rede wireless, como 3G, 4G e Wifi, mas nenhum estudo investigou a influência das escolhas de comunicação no custo de energia. Portanto, o objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar uma investigação sobre a influência da quantidade de dados, da quantidade de computação e dos protocolos de comunicação ou estilo arquitetural no consumo de energia quando a técnica de \\textit{computation offloading} é utilizada. Neste estudo, foram comparados REST, SOAP, Socket e RPC na execução de algoritmos de ordenação de diferentes complexidades aplicados sobre vetores de diversos tamanhos e tipos de dados. Os resultados mostram que a execução local é mais econômica com algoritmos menos complexos, pequeno tamanho de entrada e tipo de dados menos complexos. Quando se trata de execução remota, o REST é a escolha mais econômica seguida por Socket. Em geral, REST é mais econômico com vetores do tipo Object, independentemente da complexidade do algoritmo e tamanho do vetor, enquanto Socket é mais econômico com entradas maiores e com vetores de tipos primitivos, como Int e Float / Mobile devices have significantly changed in the last decade and they become complex computer machines equipped with large processing power and memory. Moreover, they provide users with several resources such as sensors and high resolution cameras. The usage of mobile devices has significantly increased in the past years, which raised an important concern regarding the high energy consumption. Therefore, several investigations have been conducted aiming at finding solutions to reduce the energy cost of mobile applications. One of the most used strategy is called computation offloading, whose main goal is to transfer the execution of a task to an external platform aiming at increasing performance and reducing resource consumption, including the battery. Deciding towards offloading certain tasks requires to understand the influence of the amount of data, amount of computation, and the network profile. Several studies have investigated the influence of different wireless flavours, such as 3G, 4G and wifi, but no study has investigated the influence of the communication choices on the energy cost. Therefore, the purpose of this research project is to present an investigation on the influence of the amount of data, amount of computation and the communication protocols and architectural style on the energy consumption in the context of the computation offloading technique. In this study, we compare REST, SOAP, Socket and RPC when executing algorithms of different complexities and different input sizes and types. Results show that local execution is more economic with less complex algorithms and small input data. When it comes to remote execution, REST is the most economic choice followed by Socket. In general, REST is the most economic choice when applied on Object type arrays, regardless the complexity and size, while Socket is the most economic choice with large arrays and primitive types such as integers and floats

Lee Man Fai. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 34-37). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgement --- p.iii / Table of Contents --- p.iv / List of Propositions --- p.v / List of Appendices --- p.vi / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2. --- Literature Review --- p.3 / Chapter 3. --- Money-in-the-Utility Function Models --- p.9 / Chapter 3.1 --- Simple Sidrauski Model --- p.11 / Chapter 3.2 --- Augmented Sidrauski Model --- p.12 / Chapter 4. --- Cash-in-Advance Models --- p.14 / Chapter 4.1 --- Separable Utility Functions --- p.15 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- The Clower-Lucas CIA Model --- p.15 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- The Stockman CIA Model --- p.17 / Chapter 4.2 --- Non-Separable Utility Functions --- p.20 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- The Clower-Lucas CIA Model --- p.21 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- The Stockman CIA Model --- p.22 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- Special Case --- p.24 / Chapter 5. --- Conclusion --- p.27 / Chapter 6. --- Appendices --- p.29 / Chapter 7. --- References --- p.34

written by Cheung Man-Chun Doris. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 121-125). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.iii / LIST OF TABLES --- p.iv / LIST OF APPENDICES --- p.v / Chapter CHAPTER 1 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter CHAPTER 2 --- BACKGROUND OF AGEING IN SELECTED COUNTRIES / Chapter A. --- "Demographic Facts: World, More Developed and Less Developed Regions" --- p.6 / Chapter B. --- "Demographic Facts: Germany, US, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong" --- p.9 / Chapter C. --- Demographic Changes of Hong Kong --- p.12 / Chapter D. --- Fertility-dominated or Mortality-dominated ageing? --- p.14 / Chapter CHAPTER 3 --- LITERATURE REVIEW / Chapter A. --- Ageing measurements --- p.16 / Chapter B. --- Relationship between Savings and Investment --- p.17 / Chapter C. --- Relationship between Ageing and Savings --- p.19 / Chapter D. --- Relationship between Ageing and Growth --- p.23 / Chapter E. --- Relationship between Savings and Growth --- p.24 / Chapter F. --- Summary --- p.26 / Chapter CHAPTER 4 --- EMPIRICAL SPECIFICATIONS AND DATA / Chapter A. --- Expectations of variables in Savings equation andin Growth equation --- p.30 / Chapter B. --- Specifications for Panel Data Analysis / Chapter (i) --- The Data --- p.36 / Chapter (ii) --- Methodology --- p.36 / Chapter (iii) --- Specifications --- p.38 / Chapter C. --- Specifications for Cross-sectional Analysis --- p.39 / Chapter D. --- Pros and Cons of Using Panel and Cross-sectional Data --- p.40 / Chapter CHAPTER 5 --- ESTIMATATION RESULTS / Chapter A. --- Cross-sectional Data Analysis / Chapter (i) --- How does Ageing Affect Savings? --- p.45 / Chapter (ii) --- How does Ageing Affect Economic Growth? --- p.47 / Chapter B. --- Panel Data Analysis / Chapter (i) --- How does Ageing Affect Savings? --- p.48 / Chapter (ii) --- How does Ageing Affect Economic Growth? --- p.54 / Chapter C. --- Comparison between the Results from the Analyses of the Cross-sectional Data and the Panel Data --- p.56 / Chapter D. --- Reconciliation between the Conflicts --- p.57 / Chapter (i) --- Difference in the Length of Estimation Periods --- p.59 / Chapter (ii) --- Cross-sectional Effect vs. Time Series Effect --- p.60 / Chapter (iii) --- Sampling Problems --- p.66 / Chapter a) --- Results from Cutting Outliers (Full Samples) --- p.67 / Chapter b) --- Results from Cutting Outliers (Non-poor Country Samples) --- p.69 / Chapter c) --- Results from Entering both Ageing Variables Together (Full Samples) --- p.72 / Chapter d) --- Results from Entering both Ageing Variables Together (Non-poor Countries Samples) --- p.73 / Chapter E. --- Further Examination on the Impact of Ageing on the Economic Growth --- p.74 / Chapter CHAPTER 6 --- CONCLUSION --- p.78 / TABLES --- p.82 / APPENDIX --- p.113 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.121

The main objective of this thesis is comparing financial products of retirement funds in the Czech market.

Personal and family finances are important part of our life. People deal with the issues of money, its earning, spending and evaluating every day. Despite this fact, there is a huge financial illiteracy in the Czech Republic, which causes an inefficient management of our personal finances and also wrong decisions related to choices of financial products. The goal of this thesis is to describe products on Czech financial market in clear and comprehensible way, as well as principles of their functioning and rules for their usage. It tries to give simple manual how to proceed in decisions about own finances. In the first part of this thesis, there is a theoretical basis of this issue and a summary of the products. In the practical part, there are three concrete financial plans for three concrete families. Finally, there is a generalization of the suggested procedure.

Os dispositivos móveis passaram por grandes transformações na última década e tornaram-se complexos computadores dotados de grande poder de processamento e memória, além de prover aos usuários diversos recursos como sensores e câmeras de alta resolução. O uso de dispositivos móveis para diversas tarefas aumentou consideravelmente, o que levantou uma grande preocupação com o o alto consumo de energia desses dispositivos. Portanto, estudos tem sido realizados no sentido de encontrar soluções para diminuir o custo de energia das aplicações que executam em dispositivos móveis. Uma das alternativas mais utilizadas é o \\textit{computation offloading}, cujo objetivo é transferir a execução de uma tarefa para uma plataforma externa com o intuito de aumentar desempenho e reduzir consumo de recursos, como a bateria, por exemplo. Decidir sobre usar ou não esta técnica implica entender a influência de fatores como a quantidade de dados processados, a quantidade de computação envolvida, e o perfil da rede. Muitos estudos tem sido realizados para estudar a influência de diversas opções de rede wireless, como 3G, 4G e Wifi, mas nenhum estudo investigou a influência das escolhas de comunicação no custo de energia. Portanto, o objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar uma investigação sobre a influência da quantidade de dados, da quantidade de computação e dos protocolos de comunicação ou estilo arquitetural no consumo de energia quando a técnica de \\textit{computation offloading} é utilizada. Neste estudo, foram comparados REST, SOAP, Socket e RPC na execução de algoritmos de ordenação de diferentes complexidades aplicados sobre vetores de diversos tamanhos e tipos de dados. Os resultados mostram que a execução local é mais econômica com algoritmos menos complexos, pequeno tamanho de entrada e tipo de dados menos complexos. Quando se trata de execução remota, o REST é a escolha mais econômica seguida por Socket. Em geral, REST é mais econômico com vetores do tipo Object, independentemente da complexidade do algoritmo e tamanho do vetor, enquanto Socket é mais econômico com entradas maiores e com vetores de tipos primitivos, como Int e Float / Mobile devices have significantly changed in the last decade and they become complex computer machines equipped with large processing power and memory. Moreover, they provide users with several resources such as sensors and high resolution cameras. The usage of mobile devices has significantly increased in the past years, which raised an important concern regarding the high energy consumption. Therefore, several investigations have been conducted aiming at finding solutions to reduce the energy cost of mobile applications. One of the most used strategy is called computation offloading, whose main goal is to transfer the execution of a task to an external platform aiming at increasing performance and reducing resource consumption, including the battery. Deciding towards offloading certain tasks requires to understand the influence of the amount of data, amount of computation, and the network profile. Several studies have investigated the influence of different wireless flavours, such as 3G, 4G and wifi, but no study has investigated the influence of the communication choices on the energy cost. Therefore, the purpose of this research project is to present an investigation on the influence of the amount of data, amount of computation and the communication protocols and architectural style on the energy consumption in the context of the computation offloading technique. In this study, we compare REST, SOAP, Socket and RPC when executing algorithms of different complexities and different input sizes and types. Results show that local execution is more economic with less complex algorithms and small input data. When it comes to remote execution, REST is the most economic choice followed by Socket. In general, REST is the most economic choice when applied on Object type arrays, regardless the complexity and size, while Socket is the most economic choice with large arrays and primitive types such as integers and floats

At the end of the nineteenth century, individuals identified as child savers pioneered an unprecedented movement to save America’s children from physical and moral harm. The establishment of the juvenile justice system came as a result of the actions of the child savers. Researchers have focused extensively on many aspects of the juvenile justice system including studies on the effectiveness of the system to tracking the changes the system has undergone since its establishment. Numerous other studies examined opinions of the juvenile justice system. However, the research has focused solely on the general public, juvenile probation officers and juvenile correctional staff. The current study examined the actual participants within the juvenile justice system - the juvenile offenders - to gauge their perceptions of the system that was created to protect and turn them into law-abiding individuals. A survey was conducted with juvenile offenders housed within two conservative, Midwestern juvenile correctional facilities. The juveniles believed that rehabilitation should be an integral goal of the juvenile justice system and they endorsed community-based interventions as a means to change behavior. The results indicate that the juvenile offenders are in tune with the general public as seeing the juvenile justice system as a child saving institution rather than as a punitive endeavor.