Explicit and implicit processes play a role in visuomotor adaptation. (Bond & Taylor, 2015; Werner et al, 2015). The purpose of the current experiment was to investigate the potential contributions of explicit and implicit processes to visuomotor adaptation when awareness was manipulated directly and indirectly. To manipulate the degree of awareness directly, participants were assigned to a Strategy or No-Strategy group, in which they were made aware or remained unaware of the distortion respectively. They were then further subdivided into groups to train with a large (60°), medium (40°) or small (20°) visuomotor distortion, such that participants could become aware of the distortion indirectly with increasing sizes. All participants performed a reaching task to three targets with a cursor that was rotated clockwise relative to their hand by the assigned degrees, and then completed a series of no-cursor reaches without visual feedback to establish the contribution of explicit and implicit processes to visuomotor adaptation. Within the no-cursor reaching trials, the contribution of explicit and implicit processes to visuomotor adaptation were determined by having subjects reach (i) with any strategies they had gained during training (explicit + implicit processes), and (ii) as they did before training with the cursor rotation (implicit processes). Our results showed that the contribution of implicit processes to visuomotor adaptation was greater in the No-Strategy group compared to the Strategy group. Moreover, implicit processes took time to develop, and decayed following a 5-minute break. In contrast, the contribution of explicit processes was greatest in the Strategy group, and increased with rotation size in the No-Strategy group. Explicit contributions also remained consistent over Blocks, as well as when re-tested following a 5-minute break. Thus, the results of the current experiment indicate that there are notable differences in explicit and implicit contributions to visuomotor distortions depending on if, and how participants become aware of the perturbation. The results also highlight the importance of instructions when evaluating reaching performance in aftereffect trials, as they can modulate reaching errors observed.

As landscapes become increasingly urbanized, there is an associated increase in impervious cover. Impervious surfaces, such as roads, rooftops, and parking lots contribute to the physical, hydrological, chemical, and biological alteration of stream systems. Biotic assemblages consistently degrade with increased watershed impervious cover; however, at low levels of impervious cover, these assemblages exhibit wide variability in biotic integrity. This study investigated which reach- and watershed-scale factors explained biotic condition (i.e., richness, flow traits, thermal traits, and tolerance for macroinvertebrates and fishes) at similar levels of low imperviousness. The primary objective was to identify factors that confer resistance for biota, such that they retain high biotic integrity at low levels of impervious cover, and, conversely, to determine which factors make biota more vulnerable to urban disturbance, such that they have low biotic integrity despite low levels of impervious cover. Forty sites were selected across Massachusetts within two narrow bands of impervious cover: 1–4% (n = 20) and 7–10% (n = 20). Models with reach-scale variables (reflecting habitat heterogeneity, flow, temperature, or water quality) or watershed-scale variables (representing natural characteristics, land use, flow alterations, and other measures of urbanization or impervious) explained additional variance compared to models with impervious cover alone. Reach-scale factors tended to explain more variance than watershed-scale factors for all biotic responses except fluvial fishes, with overall more variance explained for fish than macroinvertebrate assemblages. At the reach scale, colder water temperatures, higher dissolved oxygen, and more large wood were related to higher proportions of fluvial, coldwater, and intolerant fishes. For macroinvertebrates, warmer water temperature, smaller sediment size, and higher nitrate were related to higher macroinvertebrate richness and tolerance. At the watershed scale, air temperature emerged as an important predictor for both taxonomic groups and across response metrics; air temperature was highly correlated with high-elevation watersheds. Other important watershed-scale predictors were open water and dams, flow alteration, and other urban measures such as housing density, impervious in a 120-m buffer, and road crossings. Restoration should focus on strategies to reduce impacts that would degrade in-stream conditions that allow for higher biotic integrity, such as habitat heterogeneity, more large wood, and colder water temperatures. Similarly, watersheds should be prioritized for protection with those characteristics potentially more resistant to urban disturbance, such as high-elevation regions that retained high biotic integrity despite higher dam density, more road crossings, and more flow alteration.

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The following thesis addresses the problem of localizing an outdoor mobile robot and mapping the environment using the state of the art of consumer grade RTK GPS. The thesis investigates limitations and possibilities for sensor fusion to increase reliability and usability. The main subject of research is a robotic lawn mower from Husqvarna, the Automower 430x, connected to existing hardware on the product with an auxiliary real time kinematic global positioning system, the Emlid Reach. The test conducted showed that the auxiliary RTK GPS module is currently unsatisfactory as sole absolute position sensor for the Automower platform, mainly due to inconsistent performance. This thesis is meant as a preliminary study for future use of GNSS sensors for outdoor mobile robots and as a suggestive study of the current performance of the increasingly popular Emlid Reach GPS module.

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Práce detailně analyzuje jednotlivé sektory chemického průmyslu. Účelem je vyhodnocení rizikovosti firem z chemického průmyslu, na které poskytuje úvěrová pojišťovna pojistné krytí. Práce hodnotí nejen agregované výkonnostní charakteristiky chemického průmyslu, ale také agregované finanční ukazatele firem působících v chemickém průmyslu a jejich platební morálku. Součástí práce je konfrontace závěrů analýzy s reálnými daty úvěrové pojišťovny. Poslední část věnujicí se analýze chemického průmyslu popisuje novou směrnici REACH, která vstupuje v platnost od 1. června 2008. V závěru práce je uvedeno, zda existuje prostor pro úvěrovou pojišťovnu k získání nových klientů z řad chemického průmyslu.

Le 1er Juin 2007 l’union européenne met en place REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation of Chemicals), un des règlements les plus ambitieux jamais mis en place au niveau européen. Cette réglementation introduit une nouvelle philosophie dans la manière de concevoir la protection environnementale et sanitaire. Selon le préambule du règlement, l’objectif de REACH consiste « à assurer un niveau élevé de protection de la santé humaine et de l’environnement, tout en améliorant la compétitivité et l’innovation ». Aussi, le règlement vise à concilier des enjeux à priori antagonistes, grâce aux innovations environnementales qu’il induirait. En ce sens, REACH apparaît comme un objet d’étude privilégié pour analyser les effets d’une réglementation environnementale sur les stratégies d’innovations des entreprises. Dans cette perspective, nous étudierons les mécanismes du règlement REACH qui sont susceptibles de favoriser le développement des innovations environnementales. A travers une étude empirique originale réalisée auprès des entreprises en région PACA, nous déterminerons, d’une part, les mécanismes qui favorisent de nouvelles opportunités technologiques et commerciales dans le domaine de l’environnement et de la santé, et, d’autre part, ceux qui stimulent une demande de qualité environnementale. Enfin nous analyserons l’influence des attributs de la réglementation REACH sur la dynamique technologique et industrielle à partir d’un modèle multi-Agent. Ce cadre de modélisation s’avère particulièrement pertinent pour tenir compte du caractère stochastique et complexe des processus qui gouvernent les stratégies d’innovations des agents soumis à la pression de la réglementation REACH. / On 1 June 2007 the European Union set up REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation of Chemicals), one of the most ambitious regulations. This regulation establishes a new philosophy of how to design environmental protection and health. According to the preamble to the Regulation, the objective of REACH is "to ensure a high level of protection of human health and the environment while enhancing competitiveness and innovation." REACH has been designed to balance environmental objectives with competitiveness aims, and has the scope to induce the adoption of eco-Innovation as a side effect of the regulation itself. For this reasons, REACH appears as a privileged object of study to analyse the effects of environmental regulation on the innovation. In this regard, we analyse the innovation-Friendly mechanisms of REACH to promote the development of environmental innovations. From an unique original survey on REACH regulation, we study, one the hand, mechanisms to promote new opportunities in the field of environment and health, and, the other hand, those that stimulate demand for environmental quality. Finally, we analyse the impact of the attributes of the REACH regulation on technological and industrial dynamics from an agent-Based model (ABM). The ABM provide a powerful tool for exploring such complex and stochastic systems as innovation, and allow modelling the behaviour of heterogeneous agents, technological diversity and the change in selection environment that result from policy measures.

ABSTRACT After join the World Trade Organization (W.T.O.) this year, the domestic enterprises shall be situated in a free-trade environment to face more stronger international competitors, severer environments protection regulations and the more requirements of new technologies. Under this condition, most of the enterprises usually scale up themselves and shift their management mode to group development to face the new competitive environments. China steel corporation group endeavored to run multilaterally. Since the privatization of 1984. This research try to analyze how the CSC group decide the direction for investments according to their core resource and competence on new business scope, and how try transfer or build up the core resource and competence to their daughter companies, and during the multilateral managements process, how they reutilize it to produce new resource and management efficiency to feed back in time to the resource suppliers for their development and make the CSC group to be competitive for ever.

The limits of directional drilling continue to be pushed back as horizontal or near-horizontal reservoir sections are being drilled, cased, cemented and completed to tap reserves at extreme distances. Continuous development of new technology and adopting a technical-limit approach to performance delivery are key elements for the success and further development of extended-reach drilling projects. For this study a two-phase well control simulator was used to evaluate different kick scenarios that are likely to occur in extended-reach wells. An extensive simulation study covering a vide range of variables has been performed. Based on this investigation together with a literature review, well-control procedures have been developed for extended-reach wells. The most important procedures are as follows: Perform a "hard" shut-in when a kick is detected and confirmed. Record the pressures and pit gain, and start to circulate immediately using the Driller's Method. Start circulating with a high kill rate to remove the gas from the horizontal section. Slow down the kill circulation rate to 1/2 to 1/3 of normal drilling rate when the choke pressure starts to increase rapidly. The simulator has been used to validate the procedures.