Thesis (MScEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2012 / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Through many years of research, a number of production schemes have been developed for converting lignocellulosic biomass into transport fuels. These technologies have been assessed through a number of techno-economic studies for application in a particular context in terms of the technical and economic feasibility. However, previous studies using these methods have tended to lack vigour in various aspects. Either the energy efficiency of the processes were not maximised through adequate heat integration, or a competing technology which existed was not considered. From an economic perspective, the financial models would often lack the vigour to account for the risk and uncertainty that is inherent in the market prices of the commodities. This phenomenon is especially relevant for the biofuel industry that faces the full fledge of uncertainties experienced by the agricultural sector and the energy sector. Furthermore, from an environmental perspective, the techno-economic studies had often ignored the environmental impacts that are associated with biofuel production. Thus, a comparative study could have favoured an option due to its economic feasibility, while it could have had serious environmental consequences. The aim of this study was to address these issues in a South African context, where biofuels could be produced from sugarcane bagasse. The first step would be to modify an existing simulation model for a bioethanol scenario that operates with a Separate Hydrolysis and Fermentation (SHF process) configuration into a second processing scenario that operates with a Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation (SSF process) configuration using reliable experimental data. The second step was to ensure that the maximum energy efficiency of each scenario was realised by carrying out pinch point analysis as a heat integration step. In contrast to these biological models is the thermochemical model that converts bagasse to gasoline and diesel via gasification, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and refining (GFT process). While there were no significant advances in technology concerning this type of process, the energy efficiency was to be maximised with pinch point analysis. The GFT process obtained the highest energy efficiency of 50.6%. Without the affects of pinch point technology, the efficiency dropped to 46%, which thus emphasises the importance of heat integration. The SSF had an efficiency of 42.8%, which was superior to that of the SHF at 39.3%. This resulted from a higher conversion of biomass to ethanol in the SSF scenario. Comparing the SHF model to an identical model found in literature that did not have pinch point retrofits, this study showed lower efficiency. This arose because the previous study did not account for the energy demands of the cold utility systems such as the cooling tower operation, which has been shown in this study to account for 40% of the electrical energy needs. The economic viability of all three processes was assessed with Monte Carlo Simulations to account for the risks that the fluctuations in commodity prices and financial indices pose. This was accomplished by projecting the fluctuations of these parameters from samples of a historical database that has been transformed into a probability distribution function. The consequences were measured in terms of the Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR) for a large number of simulations. The results of these variables were aggregated and were then assessed by testing the probability that the NPV<0, and that the IRR recedes below the interest rate of 12.64%. The investment was thus deemed unfeasible if these probabilities were greater than 20%. Both biological models were deemed profitable in terms of this standard. The probabilities were 13% for the SSF and 14% for the SHF. The GFT process however was deemed completely unfeasible because the probability that the NPV<0 was 78%. Given that the GFT process had the highest energy efficiency, this result arises mainly because the capital investment of 140,000USD/MWHHV of biomass energy input is to enormous for any payback to be expected. The environmental footprint of each process was measured using Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs). LCAs are a scientifically intricate way of quantifying and qualifying the effects of a product or process within a specified boundary. The impacts are assessed on a range of environmental issues, such as Global Warming, Acidification, Eutrophication and Human toxicity. Furthermore, if the project under concern has multiple output products, then the impacts are distributed between the output products in proportion to the revenue that each generates. The impacts were either relative to the flow of feedstock, which was 600MW of bagasse, or to the functional unit, which was the amount of fuel required to power a standard vehicle for a distance of 1 kilometre. In either case, the GFT scenario was the least burdening on the environmental. This was expected because the GFT process had the highest energy efficiency and the process itself lacked the use of processing chemicals. Relative to the feedstock flow, the SSF was the most environmentally burdening scenario due to the intensive use of processing chemicals. Relative to the functional unit, the SHF was the most severe due to its low energy efficiency. Thus, the following conclusions were drawn from the study:  The GFT is the most energy and environmentally efficient process, but it showed no sign of economic feasibility. iv  There is no significant difference in the economic and environmental evaluation of the SSF and SHF process, even though the SSF is considered to be a newer and more efficient process. The major cause of this is because the setup of the SSF model was not optimised. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Deur baie jare van navorsing is ‘n aantal produksie-skemas vir die omskakeling van lignosellulose biomassa na vloeibarebrandstof ontwikkel. Hierdie tegnologië is geassesseer ten opsigte van die tegniese en ekonomiese haalbaarheid deur middel van tegno-ekonomiese studies in bepaalde tekste. Tog het hierdie vorige studies besliste beperkings gehad. Of die energie-doeltreffendheid van die proses is nie gemaksimeer deur voldoende hitte-integrasie nie, of 'n mededingende tegnologie wat bestaan is nie oorweeg nie. Vanuit 'n ekonomiese perspektief, was die finansiële modelle dikwels nie die omvattend genoeg om rekening te hou met die risiko en onsekerheid wat inherent is in die markpryse van die kommoditeite nie. Hierdie verskynsel is veral relevant vir die biobrandstof bedryf wat die volle omvang van onsekerhede ervaar waaraan die landbousektor en die energiesektoronderhewig is. Verder het die tegno-ekonomiese studies dikwels die omgewingsimpakte wat verband hou met biobrandstofproduksie geïgnoreer. Dus kon ‘n opsie deur die ekonomiese haalbaarheid bevoordeel word, ten spyte van die ernstige omgewingsimpakte wat dit kon inhou. Die doel van hierdie studie was om hierdie kwessies aan te spreek in 'n Suid-Afrikaanse konteks, waar biobrandstof uit suikerriet bagasse geproduseer kan word. Die eerste stap was om 'n bestaande simulasiemodel vir 'n bio-scenario wat met Afsonderlike Hidroliese en Fermentasie (SHF proses) stappe werk, te modifiseer vir 'n tweede verwerking scenario wat met 'n gelyktydige Versuikering en Fermentasie (SSF proses) konfigurasie werk. Die verandering is gedoen deur die gebruik van betroubare eksperimentele data. Die tweede stap was om te verseker dat elke scenario die maksimum energie-doeltreffendheid het, deur 'n hitte-integrasie stap, wat gebruik maak van “pinch-point” analise. In teenstelling met hierdie biologiese modelle, is daar die thermochemiese roete waar petrol en diesel van bagasse vervaardig word via vergassing, Fischer-Tropsch-sintese en rafinering (GFT proses). Daar was geen betekenisvolle vooruitgang in tegnologie vir hierdie proses nie, maar die energie-doeltreffendheid is gemaksimeer word deur energie-integrasie. Die GFT proses toon die hoogste energie-doeltreffendheid van 50,6%. Sonder die invloed van energie-integrasie het die doeltreffendheid gedaal tot 46%, wat dus die belangrikheid van hitte-integrasie beklemtoon. Die SSF het 'n effektiwiteit van 42,8% gehad, wat beter was as dié 39,3% van die SHF opsie. Hierdie hoër effektiwiteit wasas gevolg van die hoër omskakeling van biomassa na etanol in die SSF scenario. Die energie doeltreffendheid vir die SHF-model was laer as met 'n identiese model (sonder energie-integrasie) wat in die literatuur gevind wat is. Dit het ontstaan omdat die vorige studie nie 'n volledig voorsiening gemaak het met die energie-eise van die verkillingstelselsnie, wat tot 40% van die elektriese energie behoeftes kan uitmaak. Die ekonomiese lewensvatbaarheid van al drie prosesse is bepaal met Monte Carlo simulasies om die risiko's wat die fluktuasies in kommoditeitspryse en finansiële indekse inhou, in berekening te bring. Hierdie is bereik deur die projeksie van die fluktuasies van hierdie parameters aan die hand van 'n historiese databasis wat omskep is in 'n waarskynlikheid verspreiding funksie. Die gevolge is gemeet in terme van die netto huidige waarde (NHW) en Interne Opbrengskoers (IOK) vir 'n groot aantal simulasies. Die resultate van hierdie veranderlikes is saamgevoeg en daarna, deur die toets van die waarskynlikheid dat die NPV <0, en dat die IRR laer as die rentekoers van 12,64% daal, beoordeel. Die belegging is dus nie realiseerbaar geag as die waarskynlikhede meer as 20% was nie. Beide biologieseprosesse kan as winsgewend beskou word in terme van bostaande norme. Die waarskynlikhede was 13% vir die SSF en 14% vir die SHF. Aangesien die NHW van die GFT-proses onder 0 met ‘n waarskynlikheid van 78% is, is die opsie as nie-winsgewend beskou. Gegewe dat die GFT-proses die hoogste energie-doeltreffendheid het, is die resultaat hoofsaaklik omdat die kapitale belegging van 140,000 USD / MWHHV-biomassa energie-inset te groot is, om enige terugbetaling te verwag. Die omgewingsvoetspoor van elke proses is bepaal deur die gebruik van Lewens Siklus Analises (“Life Cycle Assessments”) (LCAS). LCAS is 'n wetenskaplike metodeom die effek van ‘n produk of proses binne bepaalde grense beide kwalitatief en kwantitatief te bepaal. Die impakte word beoordeel vir 'n verskeidenheid van omgewingskwessies, soos aardverwarming, versuring, eutrofikasie en menslike toksisiteit. Voorts, indien die projek onder die saak verskeie afvoer produkte het, word die impakte tussen die afvoer produkte verdeel, in verhouding tot die inkomste wat elkeen genereer. Die impak was met of relatief tot die vloei van roumateriaal (600MW van bagasse), of tot die funksionele eenheid, wat die hoeveelheid van brandstof is om 'n standaard voertuig aan te dryf oor 'n afstand van 1 kilometer. In al die gevalle het die GFT scenario die laagste belading op die omgewing geplaas. Hierdie is te verwagte omdat die GFT proses die hoogste energie-doeltreffendheid het en die proses self nie enige addisionele chemikalieë vereis nie. Relatief tot die roumateriaal vloei, het die SSF die grootse belading op die omgewing geplaas as gevolg van die intensiewe gebruik van verwerkte chemikalieë. Relatief tot die funksionele eenheid, was die SHF die swakste as gevolg van sy lae energie-doeltreffendheid.

Research has shown that the Swedish results of education have fallen continuously since 2000. It has been shown that there are differences in performance between native students and immigrant students. National Centre for “Swedish as a second language” indicates that Swedish schools fail to give all students an equal and high quality education. Then Swedish as a second language education can be organized in two different ways a wonder arise if it can depend on how teachers´ conditions in teaching reveals in these. This study aims to lighten primary school teachers' views on the opportunities and difficulties in second language teaching, which can be organized in two different ways, "separate" and "within the framework of the class". The research questions of the study are, 1) What requirements do teachers perceive that the curriculum for “Swedish as a second language” requires? What opportunities and difficulties can be seen here? 2) What trade-offs are made in the planning of teaching and how are these applied in the teaching of “Swedish as a second language”? What opportunities and difficulties can be seen here? 3) What conditions for scaffolding and interaction do teachers create in teaching "Swedish as a second language? What opportunities and difficulties can be seen here? By using Shulmans theory PCK (Pedagogical Content Knowledge) it manages to visualize teacher language didactic choices within the subject “Swedish as a second language”. Through a qualitative study based on interviews and observations, the result shows that both teachers reason about a range of language didactic choices, opportunities and solutions, but these could not always be transformed and seen in practice. During the observations, it became clear that the “Swedish as a second language” teaching structural conditions both enabling and impeding teachers to conduct effective teaching. In this case, separate teaching came to be ineffective because they did not have a language development perspectives in school, thereby the subject was stigmatized.

Groups of companies offer considerable economic and practical advantages over other forms of business organizations. However, the phenomenon creates a long list of problems in terms of antitrust law, tax law, labour law, corporate law, and in the case of international companies, conflict of laws. National laws do not provide a complete solution to these problems because groups of companies are still governed by traditional corporate law, which is designed to govern single independent companies. On the other hand, harmonization of the law of corporate groups across Common legal systems is neither feasible not advisable. The most important problem which has not yet been completely solved by Common law systems is the liability of groups of companies for the debts of their subsidiaries. This has been described as &quot;one of the great unsolved problems of modern company law&quot;. The present study aims to analyse the solutions provided by Common law systems to this problem and evaluate if they provide a solid settlement or whether further safeguards are needed for those dealing with corporate groups, namely minority shareholders and outsiders including creditors. By using a comparative approach with the Islamic law system, the study evaluates if the Common law solutions are also applicable in such a religious system or whether, due to its unique character Islamic law needs to create its own solution. This comparative approach assesses the possibilities of harmonization between Common law and Islamic law systems and promotes the Islamisation of modern laws in Islamic countries.

Ce mémoire entend présenter les formes de connaissance de soi développées par Thomas d’Aquin: la reditio incompleta, la réfraction sur les phantasmes, la conscience préréflexive, la réflexion par réfluence, l’analyse abstraite, le jugement critique et la reditio completa. L’âme humaine ne pouvant se connaître directement, elle a accès à son essence par le biais de tous ses actes ou actes de conscience. Notre analyse se concentre sur la connaissance habituelle, habitus de toutes les connaissances, qui est la racine de l’image trinitaire en l’homme et garantit la vérité des intellections humaines. Pour ce faire, nous avons procédé à la traduction des questions 87 à 89 de la Somme théologique, dans lesquelles Thomas présente la connaissance humaine des substances séparées et le statut de l’âme séparée, montrant en quoi l’esprit de l’homme partage un certain commun avec les autres esprits de son univers. / The purpose of this thesis is to present the different theories of self-knowledge developed by Thomas Aquinas: namely reditio incompleta, refraction of the soul on its own phantasms, preconscious reflection, reflection by reflux, abstract analysis, critical judgment and reditio completa. Although the human soul cannot have knowledge of itself directly, it can however approach its essence with its own acts or acts of consciousness. The analysis is based on the cognitio habitualis, habitus of all knowledge, that is the root of the trinitarian image in humankind and that guarantees the truth of human intellection. This involved translating questions 87 to 89 of the Summa Theologiae, in which Aquinas considers humanity’s understanding of immaterial substances and the separate soul’s knowledge. This demonstrates how the human soul shares common ground with other substances of the universe.

La fiducie est à la fois un concept ancien et un outil moderne protéiforme, capable de remplir les fonctions les plus diverses. Introduite en 2007 en droit français, la fiducie prend de l’ampleur et il devient nécessaire de s’intéresser à une problématique essentielle : la responsabilité du fiduciaire. La fiducia romaine comme le trust anglo-saxon ont montré que l’efficacité de sa mise en œuvre était primordiale pour assurer le succès de l’institution. Pourtant, les textes relatifs à la fiducie sont largement incomplets, tant en ce qui concerne le mécanisme lui-même, que la responsabilité de son principal acteur, le fiduciaire. A cet égard, l’article 2026 du Code civil donne pour toute indication que « le fiduciaire est responsable, sur son patrimoine propre, des fautes qu'il commet dans l'exercice de sa mission ». Ambigüe et discutable, cette disposition ne révèle pas tout son sens à première lecture. L’analyse historique, comparative et exégétique des textes permet de comprendre le mécanisme de la fiducie. Un régime cohérent de responsabilité du fiduciaire – à la fois propriétaire et obligé, à la tête d’un patrimoine d’affectation – peut alors être dégagé, qui réalise l’équilibre entre les différents intérêts en présence, tout en assurant la protection du constituant et du bénéficiaire. / The trust is both an ancient concept and a modern instrument which can fulfill the most diverse functions. Introduced in France in 2007, the French fiducie is growing and it has become necessary to focus on a key issue : the liability of the French trustee. Roman fiducia and the Anglo-Saxon trust have shown that the efficiency of its implementation was crucial to the success of the institution. Yet, the rules regarding the fiducie mechanism and the liability of its main actor are largely incomplete. In this regard, Article 2026 of the French Civil code only indicates that “the trustee is responsible, on his own property, for breaches of the trust committed during the performance of its mission”. Ambiguous and debatable, this provision does not reveal its meaning at first reading. An historical, comparative and exegetical analysis entitles the reader to understand the mechanism of the French fiducie. A coherent structure of the liability of the French trustee – both owner of a separate patrimony and debtor to the settlor and the beneficiary – can be drawn, which results in a balanced system between the different interests in consideration, while ensuring the protection of the settlor and the beneficiary.

Marriage is a topic that more or less concerns all of us. Community property is a financial aspect of marriage which is inseparably tied to it. Despite it being a fundamental problem, it is not well known to the general public. For this reason the aim of this diploma thesis is to clearly and systematically summarize the issue of contractual marital property law. For better understanding, the thesis defines basic terms of statutory matrimonial property regime, and focuses on parts of community property of spouses. Attention is focused on the issue of usual family equipment, because it was removed from the matrimonial property law due to recodification, which then instituted a new matrimonial regime: The Separate Property Regime. Except for the statutory matrimonial property regime, spouses are allowed to negotiate different property regime by using a contract of modification of community property of spouses. The contractual matrimonial property regime represents a major part of this thesis. First, the thesis deals with contractual matrimonial property regime, and then it mainly focuses on types of matrimonial property contracts, its contents and its limitations. It pays significant attention to registration of matrimonial property contracts, especially to the new publicly accessible list of...

Many adults are afraid of falling. While aging can affect one'€™s physical and cognitive abilities related to fear of falling (FOF), research has revealed that FOF increases risk of falls and adversely affects independence levels among older adults. The purpose of this study was to explore older adults'€™ perceptions of FOF and risk of falling. Guided by the health belief model, the research questions focused on older adults'€™ perceptions of FOF, contributing factors of FOF, and how FOF may affect independence levels. How older adults perceive FOF, and how FOF may affect an individual older adult'€™s fall risk and independence levels are not well known. Following face-to-face interviews with adults age 60 and older, Colaizzi'€™s data analysis strategy demonstrated thematic older adult reports of constant anxiety, loss of confidence, and activities of daily living (ADLs) avoidance as perceptions of FOF; traumatic health incidence, loss of health, and decreased quality of life as contributing factors in FOF; and depending on others, loss of muscle strength, and loss of balance as to how FOF affected older adult independence levels. Recommendations for future research include exploring the influence of gender, race, education level, and socioeconomic status on FOF in older adults. This study may enhance social change through greater FOF awareness and added context among caregivers.

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Programmers compose programs in multiple languages to combine the advantages of innovations in new high-level programming languages with decades of engineering effort in legacy libraries and systems. For language inter-operation, language designers provide two classes of multilingual programming interfaces: (1) foreign function interfaces and (2) code generation interfaces. These interfaces embody the semantic mismatch for developers and multilingual systems builders. Their programming rules are difficult or impossible to verify. As a direct consequence, multilingual programs are full of bugs at interface boundaries, and debuggers cannot assist developers across these lines. This dissertation shows how to use composition of single language systems and interposition to improve the safety of multilingual programs. Our compositional approach is scalable by construction because it does not require any changes to single-language systems, and it leverages their engineering efforts. We show it is effective by composing a variety of multilingual tools that help programmers eliminate bugs. We present the first concise taxonomy and formal description of multilingual programming interfaces and their programming rules. We next compose three classes of multilingual tools: (1) Dynamic bug checkers for foreign function interfaces. We demonstrate a new approach for automatically generating a dynamic bug checker by interposing on foreign function interfaces, and we show that it finds bugs in real-world applications including Eclipse, Subversion, and Java Gnome. (2) Multilingual debuggers for foreign function interfaces. We introduce an intermediate agent that wraps all the methods and functions at language boundaries. This intermediate agent is sufficient to build all the essential debugging features used in single-language debuggers. (3) Safe macros for code generation interfaces. We design a safe macro language, called Marco, that generates programs in any language and demonstrate it by implementing checkers for SQL and C++ generators. To check the correctness of the generated programs, Marco queries single-language compilers and interpreters through code generation interfaces. Using their error messages, Marco points out the errors in program generators. In summary, this dissertation presents the first concise taxonomy and formal specification of multilingual interfaces and, based on this taxonomy, shows how to compose multilingual tools to improve safety in multilingual programs. Our results show that our compositional approach is scalable and effective for improving safety in real-world multilingual programs. / text

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