Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Transfers'

In real-time video processing data transfer between CPU and GPU is a time critical action; time spent transferring data is processing time lost. Several variants of standard transfer methods were developed and evaluated on nine computers and two smart decision algorithms was designed to help choose the fastest method for each occasion. Results showed that the standard transfer methods can be beaten; by using the designed decision algorithms, transfer times between CPU and GPU (both ways) can be reduced by a factor of 7 compared to always using the standard methods.

This thesis examines the impact of different customary manorial tenures on the land transfer activities of rural tenants between 1645 and 1705. The study of land transfer has formed part of the attempt by historians to establish how and why England developed from family-based subsistence farming into large-scale commercialised agriculture before many of its Continental neighbours. A key element in any study of land transfer is the property rights of those undertaking the transfers. England had a variety of customary tenures, and little research has focussed on how they operated and impacted on rural tenant transfer behaviour in the early modern period. This study uses evidence from eight manors in Hampshire with four different types of tenure to explore how they affected what land transfer options the tenants had, and how transfers were used to further family and economic objectives. The types of tenure were copyhold of inheritance; copyhold for three lives; copyhold for three lives where the first could act alone; and a form of customary freehold. The main documentary sources are manorial records augmented by parish, probate, survey and taxation material. The tenurial and landholding structure of the manors is established for 1645 using the Cromwellian Parliamentary Surveys of confiscated ecclesiastical estates. The analysis of subsequent tenant land transfers through to 1705 then examines their volume and any correlation with prices and population movements. The permanent transfers of death/inheritance and the inter vivos land market are analysed to assess the extent to which tenants were attached still to family, or taking part in an active extra-familial investment and sales market; and whether this led to changes over time in farm holding size and distribution. The temporary transfers of sub-letting of land and sub-tenure of dwellings are then analysed. The latter has not been studied before, and uses the Hearth Tax returns to compare occupiers of dwellings with formal tenants. Finally a detailed study of mortgages is made. Previous studies of the use of land as collateral for a mortgage loan have often overlooked the rural tenant as a participant in the credit market, and changes in the laws of usury at the end of the sixteenth century produced a significant uptake of mortgaging in the seventeenth, which makes this study timely. The research reveals that the tenants were very active with their transfers, but that the way in which they were active was determined by tenure. Those with copyhold of inheritance tenure had many options including inheritance, sale, mortgaging, sub-letting, splitting holdings, and conditional surrenders to provide for old age or several children. Those with copyhold for lives were restricted to after-death transfers, shuffling of reversion lives, or sub-letting. However, they adapted, and while Inheritance-tenured tenants adopted mortgages with enthusiasm, Lives tenants sub-let on a large scale. Both thereby acquired financial support from their lands, so that although the land-family bond was not absent, the bond was strongest in terms of using the land as an economic asset. The sub-letting of dwellings enabled Lives tenants to accommodate a landless workforce, where their tenure prevented the splitting of parcels for sale as manorial smallholdings. Aggressive accumulation of land was largely absent, and purchasers of land and mortgage lenders were overwhelmingly local. Some polarisation of holding size was found, but sub-tenure meant that actual farmed units were probably very different. It is concluded that differences in tenure significantly shaped the transfer behaviour of the tenants, so that any future research involving customary tenants must take tenure into account. However, their economic ambitions were found to be similar whichever tenure they had, so that they had to take different means to the same end.

Thesis advisor: Donald Cox
Chapter 1 - Intergenerational Transfer Inflows to Adult Children of Divorce Do adult children of divorce receive less money from their parents than children of intact unions? Are they less likely to receive parental help for buying a house, starting a business or weathering a financial crisis? Though there is evidence that an individual divorced parent gives less to his child than he would give if he were married to his child's other parent, no study has examined the transfers given by both divorced parents. I approach the question of transfers to adult children of divorce from a fresh angle by asking not, "How much did the parent give?" but instead, "How much did the child get?" I also examine the correlation between parents' remarriage and transfers received. Using data from the 1988 wave of the PSID, I find that parental divorce and remarriage are uncorrelated with the incidence of a transfer. Within the select group of children who receive a transfer, however, divorce is correlated with an increased transfer amount, while a father's remarriage is correlated with a decreased amount. Chapter 2 - The Correlation Between Subjective Parental Longevity and Intergenerational Transfers Are parental financial transfers to adult children correlated with subjective parental longevity? Despite rapid and continuing increases in life expectancy, no previous study has looked at transfers in relation to parents' opinions of how long they will live. This paper uses the subjective survival probability data included in the Health and Retirement Study to examine this potential correlation for a select group of unmarried older parents. For mothers only, I consistently find modest positive correlations between subjective longevity and anticipated future inter vivos transfers and bequests. For fathers, I find a non-linear relationship between subjective longevity and anticipated future inter vivos transfers. I discuss the potential reasons for these descriptive results and some further questions that arise from them
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Economics

Thesis (M.M.A.S.)--School of Advanced Airpower Studies, 1995.
Subject: Arms Transfer and the Preservation of the Defense Technological and Industrial Base (DTIB). Cover page date: June 1995. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

To which extent can local governments in a federal state, which compete with each other, gain some latitude of discretion to draw some additional grants from the common pool of federal funds. How must a federal transfer scheme be designed that tackles common pool fishing and at the same time fulfills the allocative and distributive objectives of the federal government?

Environmental positive externalities from public provision, such as the benefits yielded from the public measure of nature conservation, are often not internalized. Potential sub-optimal public service provision can be expected from such a condition, leading to inefficiency, if the benefits at a greater territorial scale are not acknowledged. This holds particularly true for intergovernmental fiscal relations in a decentralizing multi-tiered governmental system. Moreover, in developing countries the fiscal capacities to perform measures of ecological public functions are limited with their fiscal needs for these functions often appearing to outweigh their fiscal capacities. Research at the interface of the economic theory of fiscal federalism, the sustainability concept, and policies related to conservation and the environment is relatively new. Furthermore, in the literature on environmental federalism the emphasis tends to be comparatively less on the benefits of positive environmental externalities. The essential contribution of this study is an extension of this research field that is still in its infancy by applying the specific case of Indonesia as the context, on account of this tropical country‟s ecological significance as well as its recent developments during the fiscal decentralization process. The overall aim of this study is to assess the possibilities of ecological fiscal transfers as a set of instruments in the public sector to internalize environmental externalities. To this end, the study traces the development as well as the current state of intergovernmental fiscal transfers in Indonesia in terms of ecological purposes. On the basis of this knowledge, the study offers new policy perspectives by proposing a number of policy options for ecological fiscal transfers in the context of the functioning fiscal transfer system and institutions between the national and the subnational (province and local) governments as well as among jurisdictions at the same governmental level. The incorporation of an explicit ecological indicator into general-purpose transfers is the first option. The second option is derived from a revenue-sharing arrangement. In this arrangement, two sub-options are proposed: first, shared revenues from taxes are distributed on the basis of the ecological indicator and, second, shared revenues from natural resources are earmarked for environmental purposes. Finally, the third option suggests an extension of existing specific-purpose transfers for the environment. The potential and limitations of the respective options are addressed. Additionally, a short treatment is given to the discourse on the possible mobilization of fiscal resources in the context of tropical deforestation and global climate change. The research concentrates mainly on the first option, namely the incorporation of an ecological indicator into the structure of general-purpose transfer allocation. In order to substantiate an explicit ecological dimension in the transfer, it extends the present area-based approach by introducing a protected area indicator while maintaining the remaining socio-economic indicators in the fiscal need calculation. The parameter values of area-related indicators are adjusted and subject to the properties of the existing formula. The simulation at the provincial level yields the following results. First, more provinces lose rather than gain from the introduced ecological fiscal transfer when compared to the fiscal transfer that they received in the reference fiscal year. Second, on average the winning provinces obtain a higher level of transfer from the introduction of an ecological indicator in the fiscal need calculation. The extent of the average decreases for the losing provinces, however, it is lower compared to the extent of the average gain by their winning counterparts. In terms of spatial configurations of the general-purpose transfer with an ecological indicator, provinces in Papua would benefit most from the new fiscal regime whereas provinces in Java and Sulawesi, with a few exceptions, would suffer a transfer reduction. Kalimantan and Sumatera show a mixed pattern of winning and losing provinces. The analysis on the equalization effects of the general-purpose transfers makes the following important contributions. It suggests that, first, the transfers are equalizing and, second, the introduction of the protected area indicator into the structure of these transfers plays a significant role in the equalizing effect, particularly in the presence of provinces with a very high fiscal capacity and when the area variable is also controlled. All of these new insights are imperative in the design of fiscal policy which intends to integrate explicit ecological aspects into the instruments of intergovernmental fiscal transfers. Since a formula-based fiscal transfer distribution is intrinsically zero-sum, the aforementioned configuration of winning and losing jurisdictions is conceivable. Among other future perspectives, it is the task of further research to explore ecological fiscal transfer instruments and associated measures that on the one hand seek to induce the losing provinces to join their winning counterparts and, on the other hand, are still subject to the requirements of the rational fiscal transfer mechanism.

This research examines the financial assistance given by parents to their adult children and the extent to which it is influenced by social policy. In recent years these intergenerational financial transfers have been the subject of much research and a great deal has been learnt about when and why parents make the decision to provide financial assistance (Cox, 1987; Kohli, 1999; Albertini & Kohli, 2012). Furthermore, there has been considerable research on apparent differences in such financial assistance across countries and the extent to which this is attributable to differences in the social policies of these countries (Albertini, Kohli, & Vogel, 2007; Schenk, Dykstra, & Maas, 2010; Brandt & Deindl, 2013). The aim of this research is to further this understanding by considering transfers from different perspectives, first by considering the receipt of transfers rather than the giving of transfers and then by exploring the transfer decision in the context of multi-child families. Through these approaches and by using new data sources and analytical methods, the research estimates the association between social policy and intergenerational financial transfers. Furthermore, it was the specific aim of this research to consider whether such an association would explain cross-national variation in transfer behaviour and the importance of social policies relative to other determinants of transfer behaviour. To achieve these aims a variety of quantitative methods were used to model the giving and receiving of transfers using data from the Survey for Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and the European Union’s Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). The analysis of this latter dataset represents an important contribution in itself as it allows for the exploration of the receipt of transfers in a comparative perspective for the first time. To incorporate the complex and rich nature of these two datasets, multilevel models are used to model households over time and children within families. The results of these analyses suggest that there is a small association between certain policies and parents providing financial assistance to their adult children. Those in receipt of larger public pensions are marginally more likely to provide financial assistance to their adult children than those with smaller public pensions. As for adult children themselves, those receiving financial assistance from the state in the form of child benefit, housing benefits, social exclusion benefits and educational benefits are fractionally more likely to receive from their parents as well. The estimated coefficients and maximum effect size of such social policies are very small compared to time invariant factors which include the parent’s financial resources and the number of siblings the child has. In addition, the cross-national variation in transfer behaviour identified within the analyses is considerably smaller than in previous research. The research concludes that social policies are of less importance with regards to transfer behaviour than previous research has suggested. Whilst the research identifies a clear association between social policies and transfer behaviour, it is relatively weak compared to other factors. However the research stops short of concluding that social policies do not matter, instead suggesting that future research should critically assess the importance of intergenerational transfers in determining the adult child’s outcomes.

This thesis examines whether, how and to what extent social cash transfers help the poor in reducing poverty; not only in income terms but also in relation to how they build on their capabilities and address gender inequality, risk and vulnerability. The thesis explores these questions through an analysis of a community targeted social cash transfer scheme from Traditional Authority Mlomba, Machinga district in Malawi, using the capability approach as the conceptual framework of analysis. The study is located in the critical realist domain as its underlying research philosophy. The study is qualitative in nature, using semi-structured interviews, observations and life histories. The scheme targets the poorest 10% of the population who are also labour constrained and deemed to be economically unproductive. Thus, the study offers some insights into an area that is not well researched as it is a relatively new concept to target the poor who are also labour constrained and not economically productive. In this thesis, I show that despite the limited resource base compared to the large number of the poor, social cash transfers as low as US$14 per household per month can make a valuable contribution to the reduction of poverty through building capabilities of the poor, empowering women and addressing some of the gendered inequalities, risk and vulnerability. Therefore, social cash transfers are not just handouts but act as ladders that can uplift the absolute poor out of poverty.

Experimental and numerical investigations were carried out on air-filled cavities containing heated inner cylinders. The effect of varying the position of radial spacers on a single cylinder was studied. It was concluded that for central positioning of the cylinder within the cavity. the rate of heat-transfer was minimised at a radial spacer angle of 480 (measured from the vertically downwards radius vector). When the cylinder was positioned at displacement ratio of 0.7, the rate of heat-transfer was minimised at a corresponding spacer angle of 520. The corresponding reductions in the total rate of heat-transfer were found to be 25% and 31% less than that obtained for the system with no spacers at a cylinder displacement ratio of zero. Following this research investigation, the behaviour of a two-pipe arrangement, consisting of a hot supply and cooler return pipe within a rectangular sectioned cavity, was studied. Eccentric positioning of both supply and return pipes showed that minimum rates of heat-transfer occur at supply and return pipe displacement ratios of 0.45 and -0.33 respectively. This value of heat-transfer is approximately 20% less than that obtained for a system where supply and return pipe displacement ratios are 0.7 and zero respectively. As experimental testing has proved to be excessively time consuming (e. g. due to having to wait until a steady-state ensued before measurments were taken) and laborious, a finite-element numerical model was developed and used to predict the heat-transfer between a heated inner cylinder and a cooled outer square duct. This study investigated eccentricity effects on the rate of heat-transfer for different ratios of duct height to cylinder radius. Solutions were obtained for Rayleigh numbers 1 to 300 and optimal pipe eccentricity for minimum heat-transfer was predicted. These predictions were in good agreement with previous experimental results.

Modelling phosphorus transfers from agricultural land to receiving waters is important as part of assessingth e risk of pollution and developingm itigation strategiest o meet the demands of international legislation such as the EU Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC). Current phosphorus models, however, are afflicted by limited experimental support of their underlying assumptions, difficulties in measuring parameters and variables, and ambiguities in calibrating parameters against observations - in other words: uncertainties in data, model structures and parameters. These uncertainties were confronted explicitly in this thesis for two case studies at the grassland field and catchment scale. A pragmatic model learning framework was proposed, which approached the modelling problem from a downward perspective. Model structures, parameterisationsa nd input data were treated as hypothesesw ithin the GeneralisedL. ikelihood Uncertainty Estimation (GLUE) framework. Model input and evaluation data uncertainties were estimated and incorporated into the model diagnostic scheme while maintaining the rigour of hypothesist; e sting. Pragmatismh ad to be retained where statistical information to characteriseu ncertainties was absent. Data uncertainty had significant effects on prediction uncertainty. Model development was approached in the order hydrology, sediment, phosphorus. At the replicated field scale, hydrology was modelled by an ensemble of lumped conceptual store formulations. Hydrological variability between fields resulted in variability of model performance and rejection. Importantly, modelling revealed a 'leaking' of the fields, which helped revise the understanding of the study site. Sediment exhibited hysteretic behaviour, exhaustion effects and flushing effects in surface and sub-surface pathways. Moderate hysteresis could be modelled by a new hysteresis model using a different parameterisation for each event. Phosphorus behaved consistently in time, space and acrossp athways. A power-law phosphorus-sedimenrte lationship simulated the observed phosphorus enrichment at low sediment concentrations. At the catchment scale, hydrology was modelled using the semi-distributed Dynamic Topmodel. Behavioural simulations at the outlet were rejected againstn estedd ischargem easurementsM. odel failure was due to a misrepresentation of drainage pipes and quick-flows as well as uncertainties about the catchment topology. An improved hysteresis model could still not simulate all sediment dynamics, presumably due to quasi-random in-stream erosion and land manakement incidents. Event parametersc orrelatedw ith antecedenwt etness,w hich led to a conceptualm odel of a dynamic transport-/source-limited regime. A constant power-law captured again the dominant phosphorus behaviour. Understanding the sediment dynamics seemed crucial for robust prediction of phosphorus transfers in space and time. However, mechanistic models covering all relevant processes of source dynamics, mobilisation, transport and land management would be difficult to conceptualise, parameterise and test, given the current understanding of processes and measurement capabilities. Caution is advised when using phosphorus models in the regulatory arena without explicit consideration of uncertainties.

This thesis is concerned with maximizing the performance of policies for routing and transferring jobs in systems of heterogeneous servers. The tools used are probabilistic modelling, optimization and simulation. First, a system is studied where incoming jobs are allocated to the queue belonging to one of a number of servers, each of which goes through alternating periods of being operative and inoperative. The objective is to evaluate and optimize performance and cost metrics. Jobs incur costs for the amount of time that they spend in a queue, before commencing service. The optimal routing policy for incoming jobs is obtained by solving numerical programming equations. A number of heuristic policies are compared against the optimal, and one dynamic routing policy is shown to perform well over a large range of parameters. Next, the problem of how best to deal with the transfer of jobs is considered. Jobs arrive externally into the queue attached to one of a number of servers, and on arrival are assigned a time-out period. Jobs whose time-out period expires before it commences service is instantaneously transferred to the end another queue, based on a routing policy. Upon transfer, a transfer cost is incurred. An approximation to the optimal routing policy is computed, and compared with a number of heuristic policies. One heuristic policy is found to perform well over a large range of parameters. The last model considered is the case where incoming jobs are allocated to the queue attached to one of a number of servers, each of which goes through periods of being operative and inoperative. Additionally, each job is assigned a time-out on arrival into a queue. Any job whose time-out period expires before it commences service is instantaneously transferred to the end of another queue, based on a transfer policy. The objective is to evaluate and optimize performance and cost metrics. Jobs incur costs for the amount of time that they spend in a queue, before commencing service, and additionally incur a cost for each transfer they experience. A number of heuristic transfer policies are evaluated and one heuristic which performs for a wide range of parameters is observed.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 21, 2002 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California
The current challenge has been to develop and adapt commercial Internet protocols for usage in space communications. Commercialized solutions, rather than Customized ones are cheaper, have low turnaround time and offer higher flexibility in deployment and operation. The focus of the study was to modify and develop UDP/IP based protocols commonly used in commercial Internet for reliable data transfers in space environment. Multicast Dissemination Protocol was designed by Naval Research Laboratory to provide reliable multicast data and file transfer delivery on the top of general UDP/IP platform. It is very suited for bulk data transfer over the Internet. We have extended its usage in space channels and evaluated it as a solution to meet key challenges in space communications like high bit error rates and asymmetric channels. We have also tried to optimize the performance of the protocol in the terms of throughput, reliability, integrity and security of data. The evaluation test were carried on our Space to Ground Link Simulator which uses PPP to model point to point satellite links and correspond to low capacity systems as found in small satellite systems.

In the past 50 years the scientists have been developing and analysing methods and new algorithms that optimise an interplanetary trajectory according to one or more objectives. Within this field, in 1963 Lawden derived, from Pontryagin's minimum principle, the so-called `primer vector theory'. The main goal of this thesis is to develop a theoretical understanding of Lawden's theory, getting an insight into the optimality of a trajectory when mid-course corrections need to be applied. The novelty of the research is represented by a different approach to the primer vector theory, which simplifies the structure of the problem.

Les enképhalines sont des penta-peptides naturels découverts par Hughes et Kosterlitz en 1974. Les séquences les plus répandues chez l’Homme sont celles de la Leucine-enképhaline (YGGFL) et la Méthionine-enképhaline (YGGFM). Les activités biologiques de ces molécules sont encore mal connues. Néanmoins elles ont été récemment observées dans le contrôle de différents systèmes métaboliques : le contrôle de la douleur, le comportement de façon plus général, le système immunitaire, l’absorption intestinale. Leur mode d’action résulte d’une reconnaissance structurale par des récepteurs cellulaire dits opioïdes capables de fixer des molécules telle que la morphine, la thébaine, la méthadone…. Dans la séquence peptidique des enképhalines, les sites favorables aux réactions radicalaires sont la tyrosine, la phénylalanine et la méthionine. La tyrosine est en position N-terminale dans la séquence des enképhalines. Cette situation rend la tyrosine essentielle dans la reconnaissance des enképhalines par les récepteurs opioïdes. Son altération peut donc avoir de graves conséquences métaboliques. La méthionine est un acide aminé oxydable en methionine sulfoxide. Cette oxydation entraîne dans de nombreuses protéines une perte d’activité biologique. Les objectifs de cette étude se portent sur quatre points. I) L’hydroxylation du résidu tyrosine et de la phénylalanine par les radicaux HO. , ii) l’oxydation de la méthionine ; iii) le rôle de l’amine terminale dans le mécanisme d’oxydation de la tyrosine et iv) la réduction du résidu methionine par l’atome d’hydrogène. Deux techniques ont été conjointement utilisées, la radiolyse pulsée et l’irradiation gamma. L’oxydation de la tyrosine par les radicaux HO. Dans la Leucine-enképhaline génère essentiellement la formation de dityrosine et de dérivés de DOPA-Leu-enképhaline. Avec la Méthionine-enképhaline, le produit principal est la dityrosine. La formation de Méthionine-sulfoxide-enképhaline n’a pas pu être observée. En absence de méthionine, en bloquant les positions ortho- de la tyrosine, l’hydroxylation se produit exclusivement sur la phénylalanine pour former l’ ortho-, méta- et para- tyrosine. Après avoir protégé l’amine terminale avec le groupe tert-butoxycarbonyl (Boc) nous avons comparé les résultats de l’oxydation de la Met-enképhaline et de son dérivé Boc-N-Met-enképhaline en présence des radicaux azotures et superoxydes. Avec la Met-enképhaline, l’amine terminale est impliquée dans une réaction d’addition de Michael sur le cycle de la tyrosine entraînant une modification de structure irréversible. Si l’amine terminale est protégée (Boc-N-Met-enképhaline), l’addition de Michael ne peut pas se faire. Le peptide est alors régénéré. Les mêmes conclusions sont valables pour la Leu-enképhaline et la Boc-N-Leu-enképhaline. La réaction de réduction par l’atome d’hydrogène a été conduite sur la Méthionine-enképhaline. A l’aide de vésicules constituée du 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl phosphatidylcholine (POPC), le pourcentage d’isomérisation cis-trans du POPC a été corrélé avec la formation du radical thiyl (. SCH3). La formation de l’acide amino-butyrique-Met-enképhaline résultant du départ du radical thiyl de la chaîne latérale de la méthionine a été mise en évidence. En conclusion, trois points essentiels ont été mis en évidence. La protection de l’amine terminale permet la régénérescence des enképhalines lors de l’oxydation par les radicaux superoxydes. L’oxydation de la méthionine par les radicaux HO. Dans la Met-enképhaline ne crée pas de méthionine-sulfoxide-enképhaline. La réaction majeure lors de la réduction de la Met-enképhaline par les atomes d’hydrogène est la formation du radical thiyl
The enkephalins are natural penta-peptides discovered by Hughes and Kosterlitz in 1974. The most widespread sequences in the human being are Leucine-enkephaline (YGGFL) and Methionine-enkephalin (YGGFM). The biological activities of these molecules are still badly known. Nevertheless they were recently observed in the control of various metabolic systems: the control of the pain, the behaviour, the immune system, intestinal absorption. Their action goes through structural recognition by cellular receptors known as opiates, able to fix molecules such as morphine, thebaine, methadone…. In the sequence of the enkephalins, tyrosine, phenylalanine and methionine are the main amino acids. Tyrosine is in N-terminal position in the sequence of the enkephalins. This situation makes tyrosine essential in the recognition of the enkephalins by the opiates receptors. Its deterioration can thus have serious metabolic consequences. When a methionine moiety is oxidized into methionine sulfoxide this oxidation results in many proteins in a loss of biological activity. The objectives of this study go on four points. I) the hydroxylation of the tyrosine and phenylalanine residues by HO. Radicals, ii) oxidation of methionine by HO. Radicals; iii) the role of the terrminal amine in the mechanism of oxidation of tyrosine and iv) reduction of the methionine residue by the hydrogen atom. Two techniques were jointly used, pulse radiolysis and gamma irradiation. The oxidation of tyrosine by HO. In Leucine-enkephaline generates primarily the formation of dityrosine and derived DOPA-Leu-enképhaline. With Methionine-enkephalin, the major product is the dityrosine. The formation of Methionine-sulfoxide-enkephalin could not be observed. In the absence of methionine, by blocking the ortho- positions of tyrosine, the hydroxylation occurs exclusively on phenylalanine to form the ortho-, meta- and para- tyrosine. After having protected the terminal amine with the tert-butoxycarbonyl group (Boc), we compared the results of the oxidation of Met-enkephalin and of its derivative Boc-N-Met-enkephalin in the presence of azide radicals and superoxide. With Met-enkephalin, the N-terminal amine is involved in a reaction of Michael addition onto the cycle of tyrosine involving an irreversible modification of the structure. If the N-terminal amine is protected (Boc-N-Met-enkephalin), the Michael addition cannot be done. The peptide is then regenerated. The same conclusions are valid for Leu-enkephalin and Boc-N-Leu-enkephalin. The reaction of reduction by the hydrogen atom was performed with Methionine-enkephalin. Using vesicles made up of the 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl phosphatidylcholine (POPC), the percentage of cis-trans isomerization of the POPC was correlated with the formation of the thiyl radical (. SCH3). The formation of the amino-butyric-Met-enkephalin acid resulting from the cleavage of the thiyl radical from the side chain of methionine was highlighted. In conclusion, three essential statements can be made. The protection of the terminal amine allows the regeneration of the enkephalins during oxidation in the presence of superoxide. The oxidation of methionine by the HO. Radicals in Met-enkephalin does not create methionine-sulfoxide-enkephalin. During the reduction of Met-enkephalin by the hydrogen atoms the thiyl radical (. SCH3) is formed. Atom. Two techniques were jointly used, pulse radiolysis and gamma irradiation. The oxidation of tyrosine by HO. In Leucine-enkephaline generates primarily the formation of dityrosine and derived DOPA-Leu-enképhaline. With Methionine-enkephalin, the major product is the dityrosine. The formation of Methionine-sulfoxide-enkephalin could not be observed. In the absence of methionine, by blocking the ortho- positions of tyrosine, the hydroxylation occurs exclusively on phenylalanine to form the ortho-, meta- and para- tyrosine. After having protected the terminal amine with the tert-butoxycarbonyl group (Boc), we compared the results of the oxidation of Met-enkephalin and of its derivative Boc-N-Met-enkephalin in the presence of azide radicals and superoxide. With Met-enkephalin, the N-terminal amine is involved in a reaction of Michael addition onto the cycle of tyrosine involving an irreversible modification of the structure. If the N-terminal amine is protected (Boc-N-Met-enkephalin), the Michael addition cannot be done. The peptide is then regenerated. The same conclusions are valid for Leu-enkephalin and Boc-N-Leu-enkephalin. The reaction of reduction by the hydrogen atom was performed with Methionine-enkephalin. Using vesicles made up of the 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl phosphatidylcholine (POPC), the percentage of cis-trans isomerization of the POPC was correlated with the formation of the thiyl radical (. SCH3). The formation of the amino-butyric-Met-enkephalin acid resulting from the cleavage of the thiyl radical from the side chain of methionine was highlighted. In conclusion, three essential statements can be made. The protection of the terminal amine allows the regeneration of the enkephalins during oxidation in the presence of superoxide. The oxidation of methionine by the HO. Radicals in Met-enkephalin does not create methionine-sulfoxide-enkephalin. During the reduction of Met-enkephalin by the hydrogen atoms the thiyl radical (. SCH3) is formed

The demand for higher capacity, higher data rate and larger bandwidth has driven the research and industrial world to develop next generation wireless communication technology, namely, the 5G. Among all the approaches proposed for such a high demand, only the cooperative communication approach promises to significantly improve of the performances (capacity, data rate, bandwidth, etc.) with a low cost. In this thesis, we propose a D2D communication scheme as a solution for the out-door scenario and a cooperative scheme among the access infrastructures as the in-door scenario solution. In the first part, we address the implementation of content-centric routing in a D2D architecture for Android devices based on WiFi Direct, a protocol recently standardised by the Wi-Fi Alliance. After discussing the creation of multiple D2D groups, we introduce novel paradigms featuring intra- and inter-group bidirectional communication. We then present the primitives involved in content advertising and requesting among members of the multi-group network. In addition to the communications, we also devise a mechanism to enable the devices to spontaneously establish the multi-group D2D network. Finally, we evaluate the performance of our architecture and the network formation mechanism in a real testbed consisting of Android devices. In the second part, we propose, implement and evaluate a bandwidth aggregation service for residential users that allows to improve the upload throughput of the ADSL connection by leveraging the unused bandwidth of neighboring users. The residential access gateway adopts the 802.11 radio interface to simultaneously serve the local home users and to share the broadband connectivity with neighboring access gateways. Differently from previous works, our aggregation scheme is transparent both for local users, who are not required to modify their applications or device drivers, and for neighboring users, who do not experience any meaningful performance degradation. In order to evaluate the achievable performance and tune the parameters driving the traffic balancing, we developed a fluid model which was shown experimentally to be very accurate. Our proposed scheme is amenable to efficient implementation on Linux networking stack. Indeed, we implemented it and tested in some realistic scenarios, showing an efficient exploitation of the whole available bandwidth, also for legacy cloud storage applications.

Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) technology enables a lightpath to carry tens of gigabits of data per second. However, many applications may require an optical connection for only short periods of time, and leasing a lightpath full time for that purpose may be too costly. We consider a single WDM link that is time shared by a given collection of optical connections. The system is time slotted with period T. Each optical connection has a prescribed duration per time period. In addition, it has a prescribed time window within which its duration may begin. The size of the window is the amount of time flexibility there is to schedule the optical connection. The problem considered is to set up the optical connections. Formulas are provided to show the relationship between wavelength efficiency and the "burstiness" and time flexibility of the connections. In addition, a few heuristic algorithms are presented that perform better than simple scheduling rules of a packet-switched network, under simulations for randomly generated optical connections.
viii, 25 leaves

Phylogenetic trees represent the evolutionary relationships between a set of species. Inferring these trees from data is particularly challenging sometimes since the transfer of genetic material can occur not only from parents to their o spring but also between organisms via lateral gene transfers (LGTs). Thus, the presence of LGTs means that genes in a genome can each have di erent evolutionary histories, represented by di erent gene trees. A few statistical approaches have been introduced to explore non-vertical evolution through collections of Markov-dependent gene trees. In 2005 Suchard described a Bayesian hierarchical model for joint inference of gene trees and an underlying species tree, where a layer in the model linked gene trees to the species tree via a sequence of unknown lateral gene transfers. In his model LGT was modeled via a random walk in the tree space derived from the subtree prune and regraft (SPR) operator on unrooted trees. However, the use of SPR moves to represent LGT in an unrooted tree is problematic, since the transference of DNA between two organisms implies the contemporaneity of both organisms and therefore it can allow unrealistic LGTs. This thesis describes a related hierarchical Bayesian phylogenetic model for reconstructing phylogenetic trees which imposes a temporal constraint on LGTs, namely that they can only occur between species which exist concurrently. This is achieved by taking into account possible time orderings of divergence events in trees, without explicitly modelling divergence times. An extended version of the SPR operator is introduced as a more adequate mechanism to represent the LGT e ect in a tree. The extended SPR operation respects the time ordering. It additionaly di ers from regular SPR as it maintains a 1-to-1 correspondence between points on the species tree and points on each gene tree. Each point on a gene tree represents the existence of a population containing that gene at some point in time. Hierarchical phylogenetic models were used in the reconstruction of each gene tree from its corresponding gene alignment, enabling the pooling of information across genes. In addition to Suchard's approach, we assume variation in the rate of evolution between di erent sites. The species tree is assumed to be xed. A Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm was developed to t the model in a Bayesian framework. A novel MCMC proposal mechanism for jointly proposing the gene tree topology and branch lengths, LGT distance and LGT history has been developed as well as a novel graphical tool to represent LGT history, the LGT Biplot. Our model was applied to simulated and experimental datasets. More speci cally we analysed LGT/reassortment presence in the evolution of 2009 Swine-Origin In uenza Type A virus. Future improvements of our model and algorithm should include joint inference of the species tree, improving the computational e ciency of the MCMC algorithm and better consideration of other factors that can cause discordance of gene trees and species trees such as gene loss.

Despite some recent economic progress, there is still widespread poverty and severe inequality in developing countries. According to the World Bank there are over 925 million hungry or undernourished people worldwide. More than 80 percent of people in the world live in countries whose income inequality is rising. Over 2.1 billion people globally live on less than two dollars a day, with over 880 million people facing absolute poverty and living on less than one dollar a day. Three out of four people living on less than $1 a day live in rural areas. These impacts have been magnified by the recent global recession, as rising food prices and a decrease in remittances have pushed between 130 and 155 million people back into poverty. 1 Particularly in lower income countries, the impoverished are faced with poor and insufficiently funded health care systems, restricted access to adequate nutrition and potable water, low agricultural yields, and poor soil quality. Not only are the services in short supply for the poor, but the predicament of the poor often limits their capacity to avail themselves of these services. Parents may opt for keeping their children out of school, either to employ their labor or to avoid the costs of transportation and school fees. Healthcare may also entail costs that parents are reluctant to bear. Thus, people are often in poor health which decreases their productivity and learning capacity. These issues combined, along with inadequate education systems, poor school attendance, and teacher absenteeism, all retard human capital accumulation.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mathematics, 2004.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 43-44).
In this thesis we explore the possibility of defining the p-local finite groups of Broto, Levi and Oliver in terms of their classifying spaces. More precisely, we consider the question posed by Haynes Miller, whether an equivalent theory can be recovered by studying maps f: BS --> X from the classifying space of a finite p-group S to a p-complete space X equipped with a stable retract t satisfying a form of Frobenius reciprocity. In the case where S is elementary abelian, we answer this question in the affirmative, by showing that under some finiteness conditions such a triple (f, t, X) does indeed induce a p-local finite group over S. We also discuss the converse in some detail for general S.
by Kaŕi Ragnarsson.
Ph.D.

This thesis examines the case for a wealth transfer tax in Thailand, against the background, inter alia, of the failure of Thailand’s defunct tax law on estate and inheritance (the Estate and Inheritance Tax Act, 1933). Thailand has a significant problem with income and wealth distribution, with an increasing gulf between the rich and the poor—a root cause of the nation’s ongoing political conflicts. Such substantial economic inequality is partly caused by imbalances and inequalities in the Thai taxation system, and it will be argued that the tax system requires restructuring through the introduction of the wealth transfer tax. This would be a significant tax policy initiative that may assist in tackling a root cause of Thailand’s political and economic crises. In addressing the above issues, this thesis examines aspects of the US federal estate and gift taxes and the UK inheritance tax systems. Comparisons between the criteria, rules and concepts in the US and UK systems reveal that Thailand should not simply import wholesale the approach of either country. Both systems have commendable features that may, when combined, help address the causes of the failure of the Thai Estate and Inheritance Tax Act of 1933. It will be argued that a wealth transfer tax should be introduced in Thailand, in the form of a transferor-based system, which incorporates selected criteria, rules, and concepts arising from both the US and UK jurisdictions. In adopting the proposed reform, it is essential to consider Thailand’s political, economic, social and legal contexts, including Thailand’s current legislation relating to wealth transfers, as such laws will inform and partly shape the drafting of a prospective wealth transfer tax in Thailand.

TESIS PARA OPTAR AL GRADO DE MAGÍSTER EN ECONOMÍA
This paper seeks to measure the distributive impact of fiscal interventions in Chile,applyingthe “Commitmentto Equity”(CEQ) methodology,astandardized fiscal incidence analysis.As a method-ological innovation ,we incorporated income accrued and not received by Chilean taxpayers through their companies and corporations into the distribution of pre-fiscal income .We find that the differ-ence between the distribution of accrued and received income turns out to be important,around 6 Gini percentage points for each main concept of income .In addition, when moving from the distri- bution of market income to the distribution of final income (after taxes and transfers)the distribution of income improves by 7 Gini percentage points.To assign the improvement in the distribution of in- come between the different fiscal interventions, we apply the Shapley value and it is observed that half of the improvement in the distribution of income is due to transfers in education, while direct taxes on ly explain 20% of the reduction of the Gini coefficient. Finally,based on the simulation of the impact of the 2014 tax reform carried out by the World Bank, we estimate that the reform would produce an additional reduction of 2.4 Gini percentage points when going from market income to final income.

Les répercussions de la hausse mondiale des prix du logement à partir des années 1980 sur l’économie ont attiré un intérêt croissant pour la recherche. Le logement représentant une part importante des dépenses des ménages ainsi que de la richesse totale, il est important de comprendre le rôle du logement dans l’inégalité des richesses. Cependant, en raison de la disponibilité des données, peu de choses ont été faites pour comprendre ce problème. La richesse des ménages s’accumulant à partir de deux sources principales : l’épargne et les transferts de capital, il est important de comprendre le lien qui existe entre ces sources et le marché du logement lorsque les prix de l’habitation changent. Ainsi, les deux premiers chapitres de cette thèse visent à mieux comprendre l’importance de la filière logement pour l’économie. Plus précisément, le premier chapitre attire l’attention sur la corrélation entre les prix du logement et la production. En introduisant différents chocs dans l’économie, nous pouvons analyser leurs effets sur les prix du logement et l’accumulation de capital, ainsi que sur le mécanisme de transmission de ces chocs. D’autre part, le deuxième chapitre porte sur la manière dont le transfert intergénérationnel rend l’inégalité persistante via le marché du logement. En considérant une économie avec deux actifs d’investissement différents : le logement et le capital, nous montrons qu’il existe un équilibre dans lequel le logement est plus rentable que le capital. En tant que famille riche, c’est-à-dire celle qui a hérité d’une richesse relativement plus grande, peut accéder au marché du logement alors que la famille pauvre ne le peut pas en raison de la contrainte d’emprunt, l’inégalité persiste à long terme. En outre, le patrimoine et les transferts entre ménages sont les deux canaux de transmission essentiels qui relient la richesse de manière différente. Bien que l’on pense que les transferts entre ménages contribuent au développement du capital humain et donc des revenus du travail, l’héritage joue un rôle décisif dans l’accumulation de capital et de richesse. Les données du compte de transfert national en France nous ont montré qu’au cours des dernières décennies, la composition des transferts privés a sensiblement évolué : d’une part plus dominante des transferts entre ménages à une part plus dominante en matière de succession. Ce changement entraînant deux effets négatifs, il est donc intéressant de comprendre pourquoi et comment cela se produit, ainsi que son lien avec l’inégalité de la richesse. Ces questions sont abordées dans le troisième chapitre de ma thèse
Impacts of the global rise of housing price from 1980s on the economy has attracted a surging research interest. As housing represent a major share of household expenditure as well as total wealth, it’s important to understand the role of housing on wealth inequality. Yet, due to data availability, little has been done to understand this issue. As wealth of households is accumulated from two main sources: capital savings and transfers, it’s important to understand how these sources are linked to housing market when there’s a shift in housing prices. Thus, the first two chapters of this thesis aim to a better understanding on the importance of housing channel on the economy. More specifically, the first chapter draws attention on the co-movement between housing prices and production output. By introducing different shocks to the economy, we can analyse their impacts on housing prices and capital accumulation as well as the mechanism in which these shocks are transmitted. On the other hand, the second chapter focuses on how intergenerational transfer makes inequality persistent via the housing market. By considering an economy with two different investment assets: housing and capital, we show that that there exists an equilibrium in which housing is more profitable than capital. As the rich family, i.e. the one who inherited relatively higher wealth, can access the housing market while the poor one can’t due to the borrowing constraint, inequality maintains in the long run. Furthermore, bequest and intrahousehold transfer are the two essential transmission channels that link to wealth in different way. While intrahousehold transfer is believed to contribute to the development of individual’s human capital and hence labour incomes, inheritance plays a decisive role in one’s accumulation of capital and wealth. Data from the national transfer account in France showed us that over the last decades, there has been a notable change in a composition of private transfers: from a more dominant share of intrahousehold transfers to a more dominant inheritance one. As this shift triggers two adverse effects, it’s therefore interesting to understand why and how it happens as well as how it is related to wealth inequality. These questions are addressed in the third chapter of my thesis

nÃo hÃ
This study aims to analyze the transfer of the Value Added Tax (VAF) in the transfer of resources from ICMS to municipalities in Cearà stipulates as the Federal Constitution of 1988 and the Supplementary Law No. 63 of 1990. The research will include the period from 2003 to 2010 of all 184 municipalities of Cearà and used in data analysis, the econometric model for panel data. With this model, we sought to determine how the independent variables Bolsa Familia, FPM, GDP, Complementary Law No. 86/97 and CIDE influence the dependent variable (VAF). The results show that the explanatory variables in a positive impact in increasing the transfer of the VAF for the municipalities of CearÃ. The variable that was most significant was the Complementary Law No. 86/97, created with the intent to waive the collection of the tax ICMS products and services for export, so the VAF provides an increase in the transfer to the municipalities about 7.47% when there is an increase of its exports.
Este estudo tem como objetivo analisar o repasse do Valor Adicionado Fiscal (VAF) na transferÃncia dos recursos do ICMS devido aos municÃpios cearenses conforme preceitua a ConstituiÃÃo Federal de 1988 e a Lei Complementar n 63 de 1990. A pesquisa compreenderà o perÃodo de 2003 a 2010 de todos os 184 municÃpios cearenses e utilizou-se, na anÃlise dos dados, o modelo economÃtrico de dados em painel. Com esse modelo, buscou-se verificar como as variÃveis independentes Bolsa FamÃlia, FPM, PIB, Lei Complementar n 86/97 e CIDE influenciam na variÃvel dependente (VAF). Os resultados demonstram que as variÃveis explicativas impactam de forma positiva no aumento do repasse do VAF para os municÃpios cearenses. A variÃvel que se apresentou mais significativa foi a Lei Complementar n 86/97, criada com o intuito de isentar da cobranÃa do tributo ICMS os produtos e serviÃos destinados à exportaÃÃo, portanto, o VAF proporciona um aumento no repasse para os municÃpios de cerca de 7,47% quando hà um aumento de suas exportaÃÃes.

"Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration from the Naval Postgraduate School, June 2007."
Title from title screen (viewed Mar. 24, 2008). Advisor(s): McCaffery, Jerry L. ; Hoivik, Thomas H. "June 2007." "MBA professional report"--Cover. Joint authors: Chih-Haur Ho, Coleen A. Foust and Aidas Kerutis. "ADA473241"--URL. Includes bibliographical references (p. 91-95).

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2013.
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-98).
From 2011 to 2012, the Modesto Irrigation District (MID) and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) attempted to broker a deal that would transfer water from the rural Central California district to the metropolitan Bay Area. With a contract length of 50 years, it represented the type of long--term agricultural--to--urban water deal many experts had long anticipated occurring in Northern California, and might open the door for larger transfer deals in the region. Such transfers had been extolled for years by economists, policymakers, and even some environmentalists as an optimal way to manage scarce water resources among a variety of interests. This optimism was countered by those fearing potential social, economic, and environmental harm that such deals would bring upon those not directly involved in the negotiation, known as "third parties," and literature suggested these third--party concerns were a major hurdle in completing transfer deals. The SFPUC--MID proposal fell through in September of 2012, and this thesis set out to explore the key factors in its collapse using an institutional framework. Analyzing data collected through detailed interviews and primary sources, this thesis concluded that third--party concerns played only a tertiary role in the termination of the negotiations. Far more consequential factors were rifts within the MID, caused in large part by the election of a board member adamantly opposed to the transfer, and the threat of legal action by the city of Modesto, already engaged in a contract with the MID. These spheres of conflict--within the negotiating agency, among contractual partners, and outside by third parties--combined to scuttle the deal. As a result of the failed transfer, the two agencies are taking two very different paths forward, with the SFPUC considering a similar water deal with a different irrigation district while the MID, after an overhaul of personnel, will tackle its challenges with a completely new management approach. The thesis concludes with recommendations for those in the water management field, the most significant regarding the importance of dry year arrangements and the capacity of institutional leveraging.
by Keith Tanner.
M.C.P.

This doctoral thesis contains three essays on equalization transfers in a fiscal federalism. In Chapter One, we study the impact of equalization transfers in a fiscal federalism on the policies of the regional governments. This chapter presents a dynamic general equilibrium model of a fiscal federalism in which two asymmetric regions provide their residents with non-productive public expenditures (a flow) and public capital (a stock). In our model, each regional government behaves strategically in choosing its policies to maximize the discounted welfare of its own residents, under the equalization transfer scheme. Our analysis indicates that the the tax on the use of the private capital input is equal to zero in the steady state. In addition, we observe that the only change induced by the equalization transfer scheme is an increase in the non-productive public expenditures in less-endowed region (Quebec) with an offsetting fall in the non-productive public expenditures in more-endowed region (Ontario). The results of the numerical exercise we carry out also suggest that an equalization scheme in a federal state lowers the welfare gap between a rich and a poor region. In Chapter Two, we investigate how the equalization transfer formula is determined and how the equalization transfer program affects a region’s policies. This chapter presents a political economy model of equalization payments in a fiscal federalism in which asymmetric regional governments, who care about the welfare of its own residents, lobby the (incumbent) federal government, who takes into consideration both the welfare of the federation and the political support it receives from the states when allocating equalization transfers. It is shown that if the federal government allows politics to distort its economic policy it actively implements an equalization transfer program that is different from the one it would implement if it behaved like a benevolent dictator. The equalization transfer scheme implemented by the federal government induces a fall in the investment of public capital in both regions, and if the political power of the poor region is sufficiently higher than that of the rich province, then the equalization transfer scheme induces a higher level of the non-productive public good in the poor region than in the rich region. A numerical example is provided to illustrate this result. Chapter Three presents a model of equalization transfers in a federation in which each regional government has private information on its own technology for public service delivery. The aim of the federal government is to design an equalization transfer scheme that is Bayesian incentive compatible and satisfies the interim participation constraint in order to achieve the goal of providing residents of a poor region with at least a certain level of utility without imposing an excessive burden on the giving region. We show that the equalization transfers allow the recipient region to raise its private consumption above the level it would have attained in the absence of equalization transfers because some of the transfer is allocated to raise private consumption. Furthermore, it is shown that the equalization transfers are also lower if the federal government can observe the type of the poor region.

Low fertility and mortality rates combined with the retirement of the generation of “baby boomers” bring about dramatic population ageing and are projected to reverse the demographic pyramid in many advanced economies. The main implication derived from the population ageing concerns the public finance of the major public intergenerational transfers (i.e., pensions and education). Ageing makes the political clout of the elderly stronger and more inclined to support transfers towards their retirement, intensifying the intergenerational conflict between young and old. In parallel, an increasing income inequality constitutes another major trend in developed countries. This trend aggravates the intragenerational conflict between rich and poor over the redistribution and the size of the welfare state. This Ph.D. thesis investigates the interplay between the public finance of intergenerational transfers (i.e., pensions and education), population ageing and income inequality within a political economy framework. The main purpose of the second chapter is to conduct an empirical investigation on the effect of current and future population ageing on education spending taking into account the strategic intergenerational link that exists in a system with a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) pension structure. The design of the PAYG pension system provides the appropriate incentives for the working age generation to invest in public education of young “today” in order to “reap” future benefits “tomorrow” in terms of higher taxable income, social security contributions and returns on savings. We conduct a panel analysis on OECD countries over an extended period in order to test the effect of ageing on education spending in total and per educational level. Findings suggest that the intergenerational conflict is present however it depends on the level of total level of pension spending, indicating that in times of limited fiscal resources ageing has a negative effect on education spending. Furthermore, when we consider the intergenerational link projected (future) population ageing has a positive effect on education spending that seems to be driven by non-mandatory educational levels (pre-primary and tertiary). Better quality pre-primary schooling can increase the participation rate and liberate parents from a time intensive task of raising children, and hence can generate a substantial boost in parental productivity that is directly linked to the current pensions. Second, an increase in the quality of early-education for children could have a significant effect on their future productivity and therefore on future taxable income. In the same vein, higher quality tertiary education would lead to higher future productivity, and thereby higher taxable income that is linked with the pensions of current middle-aged workers. In the third chapter, taking into account the aforementioned intergenerational link between working age and young we aim to evaluate whether a system of public intergenerational transfers – both to the elderly and to the young – can be politically sustained. In other words, we investigate whether the electorate would choose to provide publicly intergenerational transfers (pensions and education) if this decision per se was put under voting? To examine this question we employ the unique dataset taken from the National Transfers Accounts project -that provides a coherent accounting framework of economic flows from one age group to another- and a theoretical framework for the political viability of public intergenerational transfers developed in the literature. We find that most of the developed countries meet the conditions to have a politically sustained system of pensions and education and that ageing contributes positively to the political viability of such a system. In the fourth chapter, we develop an overlapping generations model with heterogeneous agents with respect to their position in the income distribution, endogenous fertility and probabilistic voting to investigate how the size of public pensions and education is decided and how it is affected by population ageing and income inequality. The contribution is to include in a model with private and public education the dimension of pensions that are linked to the general level of education of the previous generation. This allows us to consider simultaneously both intragenerational and intergenerational conflicts as well as the intergenerational link. The model predicts that an increase in income inequality increases the income of the agent indifferent between public and private education, and thus decreases the participation in public education. This reduces the share of voters caring for public education through altruism for their children, which reduces the total public education spending (which in turn decreases taxes and increases pensions). However, the number of children attending public education decreases faster than the total spending, which leads to an increase in per student spending on public education. The mechanism in the case of an increase in the number of retirees works in a similar fashion: The increase in the number of pensioners increases the political weight of the retirees, increasing total pension spending (which increases taxes and decreases per student public education spending). The number of pensioners increases faster than the total pension spending, thus the per pensioner pension is decreasing. In both cases we find a positive relationship between per student public education spending and pensions through the budget constraint. Empirical evidences derived from a panel analysis of OECD countries seem to support our theoretical predictions. To sum up, this thesis reviews the existing literature on the effect of population ageing on pensions and on education, and explores empirically and theoretically the intergenerational link between these intergenerational transfers. This link between the adults and the young generation plays a crucial role in the analysis of both the effect of population ageing and the effect of income inequality on public finance of pensions and education. As we observe, ageing pressure in financial health of the PAYG pensions system indicates a conflict between financial and political sustainability. Nevertheless, if population ageing fosters political support for both public pensions and education, this can create some positive feedback improving future financial prospects of the PAYG system. Using the findings from this thesis and previous theoretical research we can suggest that it might be a useful reform to require legislation to vote on pensions and education as a unique social policy package in order to boost the sustainability of both public intergenerational transfers. The main policy conclusion is that the debate on pension reform should be widen to consider the comprehensive action of public policy along the life cycle, i.e. the joint role of forward (from parents to children) and backward (from adults to elderly parents) intergenerational transfers. This will offer a more complete view of the incentives given to agents in decisions like savings, fertility and education.

This dissertation examines the ctnTent legislative process behind cross-border transfers within the EU. The analysis is done through an examination of the rights of the payer as a third party in relation to the many payment providers that participate in an international transfer. The discussion focuses on both international movements in developing unified commercial rules as well as the current process within the EU ofestablishing consumer rights. The method use~ in this dissertation is to analyse the liability that follows a delayed international payment. The answer lar&eIy depends on the applicable legal system, and the analysis therefore aims to establish the international and European rules that are available to the parties, and how the options are legally constructed. Parts of the method of analysis also focus on Common Law and the special situation that arises regarding third party rights and liability in tort according to this legal system. The methods are also applied to the use of exemption clauses in contracts between banks and their custOmers, and the ctnTent movement in consumer rights in this area The existing payment systems in Europe and international messenger organisations are similarly analysed based on both their participation in formulating parts ofthe legal agenda as well as their practical and legal importance when effecting payments. In fully assessing the legal situation stnTounding the area, the methods of analysis deal with the ongoing harmonisation process of payment systems within the EU, as well as the international process of harmonising this legal field. These two aspects take different forms since the EU perspective mainly focuses on making payments within the EU as efficient as possible and therefore focus on establishing consumer rights within the area, while international efforts strive to establish commercial rules between the parties. The methods ofresearch are also applied to the future situation regarding cross-border payments within and outside the EU. The dissertation concludes with the thesis that while the existing legal framework on payments within the EU provides a good start for harmonisation in the area of liability for delays, a continuous growth of cross-border payments calls out for an internationally unified law. The unification of rules on payments that has started within the EU can easily spread to other economic regions and thus result in a better international legal system for payments. The participation of market actors in the harmonisation process, such as banks and other payment service providers, is crucial for the outcome ofsuch a project.

The purpose of this research is to provide insight into the effectiveness of certain real time dispatching control actions on service reliability for transfer from a high frequency bus route to a low frequency bus route. A model of the operation of 2 connected bus routes was built based on data from real bus routes operated by OC Transpo in Ottawa, and a simulation program was designed and developed. This simulation program was used to conduct experiments to compare different control actions to improve transfer effectiveness, to test the impacts of the bus threshold on passenger waiting time and to evaluate the AVL detector location. We defined an objective function---cost/benefit function, to measure the system performance of the above cases. This objective function considered 2 important factors: number of passengers relevant to transfer and waiting time relevant to control. The research and simulation experiments suggested that real time monitoring technologies can improve the transit bus transferring significantly without preplanned timed transfer. The detector location is determined by feeder line headway primarily and the connecting bus holding threshold secondarily. Without considering the hard requirements from outside system, the bus holding threshold should not be greater than the feeder line headway.

This report describes the construction and evaluation of an open system for wireless infrared transfers of image data between a computer and peripheral units such as printers and cameras. The project aims to investigate the possibilities for a user to simply place a camera or other device in the vicinity of a computer and transfer images and other media without the need for cables or complicated pre-configuration. The system is based on IrTran-P which is a standard by the Infrared Data Association and the project consists to a large degree of finding a suitable implementation in software for the functionality described in the standard document. In the end the goal is reached and the result validated by means of good integration with commercial hardware. An additional conclusion that can be drawn is that a small team is perfectly capable of creating a high quality implementation of an international computer standard during a reasonable time frame as long as the details are openly available.
Denna rapport behandlar konstruktion och utvärdering av ett öppet system för trådlös, infraröd överföring av bilddata mellan en dator och periferienheter såsom skrivare och kameror. Projektet syftar till att undersöka möjligheterna till att enkelt kunna placera en kamera eller annan enhet i närheten av en dator och föra över bilder och övrigt innehåll utan sladdar eller komplicerade förinställningar. Systemet är baserat på IrTran-P vilket är en standard från Infrared Data Association och arbetet utgörs till stor del i att finna en passande mjukvaruimplementation för de i standarden beskrivna funktionerna. Avslutningsvis uppnås målet och befintligt tillgängliga enheter kan testas varpå prestandan bedöms som god. En ytterligare slutsats som kan dras är att även mindre grupper kan skapa kvalitativa implementationer av internationella datorstandarder inom rimlig tid så länge specifikationen finns öppet tillgänglig.