AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OFThaman Bastola, for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Economics, presented on April 2, 2024, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: REMITTANCES IN NEPAL; LANDLOCKEDNESS AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Sajal LahiriThis dissertation concentrates on two key economic areas: trade and remittances. Executing many empirical models using relevant data and estimation techniques on each of these topics, we provide some novel findings about trade in landlocked countries and micro-level determinants of remittances in a landlocked country. The international trade of landlocked countries is critical, experiencing adverse geographical effects for exporting or importing. The first paper of this dissertation focuses on analyzing the impact of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) on the trade of landlocked countries. We find the more significant positive impact that calls for a strategy to join a PTA to address poverty and speed up the growth process through trade in landlocked developing countries. The second paper attempts to determine the probability of remittances related to micro-socioeconomic factors in a landlocked country, Nepal. The results show that gender, caste and ethnicity, income, language, religion, household size, wealth, age, and employment affect the probability of domestic or foreign remittances. The third paper is an extension of the second one, which examines Nepal's extensive and intensive margins of remittances. Most variables exhibit an opposite sign for foreign remittances between the extensive and intensive margins. Groups of households that display a higher rate of migration receive lower amounts of foreign remittances and vice-versa. On the other hand, the results somewhat diverge for domestic remittances, such as wealth have a positive effect in both margins but gender have a opposite effect between two margins; even though many variables are statistically insignificant, either extensive or intensive margins of remittances.

Electrical energy supply in South Africa, provided by ESKOM, has become more expensive with regular price increases in the past seven years. Increases on an annual basis have seen the Mega flex tariffs quadruple in the years from 2007 to 2014. ESKOM is the sole supplier of electricity to Safripol, a polymer producer of which the manufacturing facility is located in Sasolburg, South Africa. This study will provide contextual information on what impact the escalation in cost of this utility has on the financial returns of the business. Independent power generation within the boundaries of the manufacturing site has become essential in order to alleviate the impact of inflated electricity costs, by at least 10% of the current total demand from ESKOM. Primary research includes different types of alternative electricity generation techniques that will be able to deliver a practical solution to the business. The means of operation, required resources and cost to produce are set out to provide input into concrete models that are scaled to the potentials applicable to the production facility. Total alternative electricity generation added up to almost half of the current total site electricity demand from ESKOM. This finding was truly beyond the expectations of the case study and clearly set out how understated the potential to generate electricity is within the industrial sector. / MIng (Development and Management Engineering), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Electrical energy supply in South Africa, provided by ESKOM, has become more expensive with regular price increases in the past seven years. Increases on an annual basis have seen the Mega flex tariffs quadruple in the years from 2007 to 2014. ESKOM is the sole supplier of electricity to Safripol, a polymer producer of which the manufacturing facility is located in Sasolburg, South Africa. This study will provide contextual information on what impact the escalation in cost of this utility has on the financial returns of the business. Independent power generation within the boundaries of the manufacturing site has become essential in order to alleviate the impact of inflated electricity costs, by at least 10% of the current total demand from ESKOM. Primary research includes different types of alternative electricity generation techniques that will be able to deliver a practical solution to the business. The means of operation, required resources and cost to produce are set out to provide input into concrete models that are scaled to the potentials applicable to the production facility. Total alternative electricity generation added up to almost half of the current total site electricity demand from ESKOM. This finding was truly beyond the expectations of the case study and clearly set out how understated the potential to generate electricity is within the industrial sector. / MIng (Development and Management Engineering), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

<p>This study explores older adolescents’ positive and negative beliefs about illicit drug use from a preventive perspective. By positive beliefs is meant positive expectancies and benefit perceptions. By negative beliefs is meant negative expectancies and risk perceptions. The choice of studying beliefs originates from the assumption that there is much to gain for prevention in considering the target audience’s starting point. An appraisal of the extent to which positive and negative beliefs are held suggests the margins for change.</p><p>The data used for the study derive from a survey conducted among a sample of third-year students in upper secondary school in the greater Stockholm area (n=2104). Overall, findings demonstrate that high negative beliefs are held and that positive beliefs to some extent are held. While this being the general trend, marked differences emerge between individuals who have used illicit drugs and individuals who have not. By and large, experienced individuals rate the negative sides as lower and the positive sides as higher than the other group. Substantial differences are found among lifetime users of illicit drugs as well. Those who have used illicit drugs more frequently during the last 12 months differ in particular from those who have refrained during this period. The differences are dramatic in some cases. In addition, consistent differences are documented between the sexes. Males are found to hold lower negative beliefs and higher positive beliefs across most measures employed. Few systematic relationships are found between other variables and outcomes.</p><p>Plausible explanations for the findings are discussed theoretically and potential implications for drug prevention are highlighted. A saturation hypothesis is introduced in order to accentuate that the overall room for change in negative beliefs probably is limited. Conversely, the fact that positive beliefs are held to a certain degree suggests a belief domain with change potential.</p>

O paralelismo entre antigos cinturões colisionais e sistemas de riftes mais jovens é amplamente reconhecido e especialmente observado ao longo do Oceano Atlântico. A relação entre estruturas litosféricas herdadas e a nucleação de sistemas de riftes tem sido o foco de muitos estudos. Entretanto, a relação entre estruturas herdadas e estruturas neo-formadas (i.e. durante a extensão) e a estruturação de margens passivas conjugadas ainda é pouco entendida. Na presente tese, usamos uma versão muito eficiente do código computacional Lagrangiano- Euleriano de elementos finitos FANTOM para modelar fluxos termo-mecânicos acoplados visco-plásticos de forma a entender a geodinâmica do processo de rifteamento considerando os efeitos das estruturas tectônicas herdadas e da estrutura reológica na litosfera continental. Os modelos consideram quantias variadas de extensão e contração prévios para desenvolver a herança tectônico-estrutural, a qual é ou não reativada durante o desenvolvimento da margem passiva. Nossos resultados mostram que: 1) as primeiras reativações da cunha orogênica ocorrem seguindo zona de cisalhamento principal de escala litosférica (antiga sutura); 2) zonas de cisalhamento crustais (antigos cavalgamentos) são parcial ou totalmente reativadas dependendo da quantia de contração anterior; 3) com pouca contração anterior, os cavalgamentos thick-skin são eficientemente reativados e controlam a formação da margem passiva; 4) maiores quantias de contração prévia permitem que zonas de cisalhamento afastadas da sutura não dão reativadas e preservam a estrutura orogênica; 5) a reativação de zonas de cisalhamento compressivas dominam durante os estágios iniciais do rifteamento, enquanto que em estágios finais e de afinamento crustal, dominam estruturas neo-formadas. Nossos modelos ajudaram a explicar algumas características das margens passivas conjugadas do Espírito Santo - Kwanza no Atlântico Central Sul, e da margem passiva norueguesa no Mar do Norte. Nossos modelos também mostraram que diferenças reológicas entre a crosta superior e a crosta inferior causam um desacoplamento durante subducção e posterior educção. Este último processo, associado ao necking termal da astenosfera ascendente, é responsável por deixar lascas de crosta inferior no canal de subducção-educção no manto litosférico, como é evidenciado por antigas zonas de subdução fósseis associadas à margem conjugada Newfoundland-Iberia. Dessa forma, a remoção de crosta inferior em margens passivas conjugadas pode ocorrer muito antes do processo de rifteamento. / The parallelism between older collisional belts and younger rift systems is widely known and particularly portrayed along the Atlantic Ocean. In what follows, the relationship between lithospheric inherited structures and nucleation of rift systems has been focus of many studies. Nevertheless, it is still poorly understood how inherited tectonic and new-formed structures (i.e. during extension) affect the final architecture of rifted conjugate passive margins. In this thesis we use a modified highly efficient version of the Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian finite- element code FANTOM to model thermal-mechanical coupled, plane-strain, viscous-plastic creeping flows to understand the geodynamics of the rifting process considering the effects of tectonic structural inheritance and rheology on the final architecture of rifted conjugate margins. The models consider different amounts of previous extension and contraction to produce the structural inheritance that is reactivated or not during rifting. Our results show that: 1) first reactivations occur along the lithospheric former suture zone; 2) upper crustal thick skinned basement thrusts are partially or fully reactivated depending on the amount of prior contraction and size of the orogen; 3) with a small amount of contraction, thick skinned thrusts are efficiently reactivated in extension and provide the template for rifted margin formation; 4) with larger amounts of precursor contraction, thick skinned thrusts distal to the lithospheric suture zone do not reactivate in extension; 5) reactivation of prior contractional shears dominates during the early stages of rifting, whereas during the final stage of rifted passive margin formation new-formed extensional shears dominate. Models with less precursor extension and more contraction resulted in a rifted conjugate passive margin similar to the Espírito Santo-Kwanza conjugate in the Central South Atlantic, whereas more precursor extension and less contraction, develops into margin showing similar behavior of fault reactivations in the Norwegian margin, North Atlantic. Our models also show that rheological differences between upper and lower continental crusts cause them to decouple both during subduction and subsequent eduction. The latter process, associated to thermal necking of the upwelling asthenosphere, is responsible to leave slivers of previously subducted lower continental crust within the eduction channel in the mantle lithosphere, as it is seismically evidenced under the Newfoundland-Iberia rifted conjugate margins. In what follows, lower continental crust of the former subducting plate can be removed long before depth-dependent extension during magma-poor rifted margin development.

Esta tese é um estudo sobre a relação entre Estado e os ilegalismos nas margens da República Federativa do Brasil e na República Oriental do Uruguai, tendo como recorte empírico a fronteira de Santana do Livramento (BR) e Rivera (UY). O objeto de investigação busca construir uma análise sociológica da fronteira, rompendo com a metodologia nacionalista que envolve conceitos como criminalidade, violência e faixa de fronteira. Para tanto, propõe-se uma análise de como os Estados, brasileiro e uruguaio, operam em suas margens, por meio do triângulo de dispositivos foucaultianos: Soberania, Disciplina e Governo, no intuito de compreender em que medida as práticas e discursos se aproximam e se afastam nesse processo, buscando evidenciar outras fronteiras possíveis nas margens dos Estados, desdobramentos do encontro/separação entre as Soberanias e as Dinâmicas Sociais desses países. Dessa forma, verifica-se que os costumes em comum e a economia de fronteira diferenciam tolerâncias na gestão entre o que é legal e ilegal, e o que é moral e imoral, criando um Mercado Fronteiriço, onde os limites estatais se expandem e as linhas demarcatórias se redesenham pela vida em comum. / This thesis is a study of the relationship between the state and illegal acts on the margins of the Federative Republic of Brazil and the Eastern Republic of Uruguay, having as an empirical object the border towns of Santana do Livramento (BR) and Rivera (UY). This investigation seeks to build a sociological analysis of the border, breaking with the nationalist methodology that involves concepts such as crime, violence and border areas. In order to do that, we propose an analysis of how these states Brazil and Uruguay operate on their borders, through Foucault\'s devices: Sovereignty, Discipline and Government, in order to understand to what extent the practices and discourses approach and distance themselves from this process, in an attempt to evidence other possible borders along country lines, outcomes of the meeting/separation between Sovereignty and Social Dynamics of these countries. Thus, we verify that the borders common customs and economy differentiate tolerances in the management of what is legal and illegal and what is moral and immoral, creating a Border Market, in which state limits are expanded and boundary lines are redesigned by the common life.

Submitted by JOSIANE SANTOS DE OLIVEIRA (josianeso) on 2019-02-04T12:06:57Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Gabriela Auler_.pdf: 1514282 bytes, checksum: fc1188e940405f41fb4189ff076e5fc3 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2019-02-04T12:06:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Gabriela Auler_.pdf: 1514282 bytes, checksum: fc1188e940405f41fb4189ff076e5fc3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-10-19 / Nenhuma / Dentre os principais problemas enfrentados pela globalização está a harmonização tributária. A dificuldade para conciliar sistemas tributários diversos é imensa. Nesse ínterim, tampouco, se evidenciam os conflitos atinentes às regras de preço de transferência, as quais, frisa-se, têm maior impacto tributário sobre as rendas geradas internacionalmente do que qualquer outro aspecto da legislação tributária. Nesse contexto, procurou-se, por meio do presente trabalho, compreender melhor os padrões, princípios e métodos utilizados internacionalmente para fins de cálculo do preço parâmetro de transferência, partindo-se de uma análise internacional evolutiva quanto ao tema para, então, tratar de forma pormenorizada sobre ao princípio arm’s length e efeitos decorrentes de sua aplicação. Após, discorreu-se sobre os preços de transferência no direito brasileiro, de sorte a abordar sua evolução, métodos utilizados para cálculo e a (não) utilização do princípio arm’s length em decorrência da utilização de margens predeterminadas. Ainda, analisou-se o posicionamente da ONU quanto a tal fato e as decisões do CARF e STJ referentes ao tema. Por fim, discorreu-se acerca da possibilidade e relevância na implementação do princípio arm’s length à legislação brasileira, elucidando as supostas dificuldades e alternativas existentes, com o viés de se chegar a um cenário mais próspero e favorável aos negócios internacionais, o qual deve trazer previsibilidade e segurança aos respectivos investidores/empresas. / One of the main problem faced by globalization is tax harmonization. The difficulty of reconciling different tax systems is immense. In this context, conflicts related to transfer pricing rules have a greater tax impact on revenues generated internationally than any other aspect of tax legislation. This study aim to understand the standards, principles and methods used internationally for the purpose of calculating the transfer price value. The study starts with an international evolutionary analysis on the subject and the detailed description of the arm's length principle and the effects of its application. Afterwards, it discusses about transfer pricing in Brazilian law, it’s evolution, methods used for calculation and the (non) use of the arm's length principle due to the use of predetermined margins. The position of the UN on this fact was also addressed and approached the decisions of CARF and STJ on the subject. Finally, it discusses about the possibility and relevance of implementing the arm's length principle to Brazilian legislation, elucidating the difficulties and alternatives, with the scope of creating a prosperous and favorable scenario for international business, which should bring predictability and security to the companies/investors.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references. / This thesis investigates three processes that control the evolution of oceanic margins. Chapter 2 presents seismic images of a ~2-km-thick evaporite body in Guaymas Basin, central Gulf of California. In rifts, evaporites form under conditions unique to the latest stages of continental rupture, and the presence, age, thickness, and shape place new constraints on the history of early rifting there. Chapter 3 presents numerical experiments that show that diapirs can form in sediments on the down-going plate in subduction zones and rise into the mantle wedge, delivering the sedimentary component widely observed in arc magmas. Chapter 4 presents measurements of seismic anisotropy from wide-angle, active-source data from the Middle America Trench that address the hypothesis that the upper mantle is hydrated by seawater flowing along outer-rise normal faults. These measurements indicate that the upper mantle is ~1.57 to 6.89% anisotropic, and this anisotropy can be attributed to bending-related faulting and an inherited mantle fabric. Accounting for anisotropy reduces previous estimates for the amount of water stored in the upper mantle of the down-going plate from ~2.5 to 1.5 wt%, a significant change in subduction zone water budgets. / by Nathaniel Clark Miller. / Ph.D.

Esta tese é um estudo sobre a relação entre Estado e os ilegalismos nas margens da República Federativa do Brasil e na República Oriental do Uruguai, tendo como recorte empírico a fronteira de Santana do Livramento (BR) e Rivera (UY). O objeto de investigação busca construir uma análise sociológica da fronteira, rompendo com a metodologia nacionalista que envolve conceitos como criminalidade, violência e faixa de fronteira. Para tanto, propõe-se uma análise de como os Estados, brasileiro e uruguaio, operam em suas margens, por meio do triângulo de dispositivos foucaultianos: Soberania, Disciplina e Governo, no intuito de compreender em que medida as práticas e discursos se aproximam e se afastam nesse processo, buscando evidenciar outras fronteiras possíveis nas margens dos Estados, desdobramentos do encontro/separação entre as Soberanias e as Dinâmicas Sociais desses países. Dessa forma, verifica-se que os costumes em comum e a economia de fronteira diferenciam tolerâncias na gestão entre o que é legal e ilegal, e o que é moral e imoral, criando um Mercado Fronteiriço, onde os limites estatais se expandem e as linhas demarcatórias se redesenham pela vida em comum. / This thesis is a study of the relationship between the state and illegal acts on the margins of the Federative Republic of Brazil and the Eastern Republic of Uruguay, having as an empirical object the border towns of Santana do Livramento (BR) and Rivera (UY). This investigation seeks to build a sociological analysis of the border, breaking with the nationalist methodology that involves concepts such as crime, violence and border areas. In order to do that, we propose an analysis of how these states Brazil and Uruguay operate on their borders, through Foucault\'s devices: Sovereignty, Discipline and Government, in order to understand to what extent the practices and discourses approach and distance themselves from this process, in an attempt to evidence other possible borders along country lines, outcomes of the meeting/separation between Sovereignty and Social Dynamics of these countries. Thus, we verify that the borders common customs and economy differentiate tolerances in the management of what is legal and illegal and what is moral and immoral, creating a Border Market, in which state limits are expanded and boundary lines are redesigned by the common life.

O paralelismo entre antigos cinturões colisionais e sistemas de riftes mais jovens é amplamente reconhecido e especialmente observado ao longo do Oceano Atlântico. A relação entre estruturas litosféricas herdadas e a nucleação de sistemas de riftes tem sido o foco de muitos estudos. Entretanto, a relação entre estruturas herdadas e estruturas neo-formadas (i.e. durante a extensão) e a estruturação de margens passivas conjugadas ainda é pouco entendida. Na presente tese, usamos uma versão muito eficiente do código computacional Lagrangiano- Euleriano de elementos finitos FANTOM para modelar fluxos termo-mecânicos acoplados visco-plásticos de forma a entender a geodinâmica do processo de rifteamento considerando os efeitos das estruturas tectônicas herdadas e da estrutura reológica na litosfera continental. Os modelos consideram quantias variadas de extensão e contração prévios para desenvolver a herança tectônico-estrutural, a qual é ou não reativada durante o desenvolvimento da margem passiva. Nossos resultados mostram que: 1) as primeiras reativações da cunha orogênica ocorrem seguindo zona de cisalhamento principal de escala litosférica (antiga sutura); 2) zonas de cisalhamento crustais (antigos cavalgamentos) são parcial ou totalmente reativadas dependendo da quantia de contração anterior; 3) com pouca contração anterior, os cavalgamentos thick-skin são eficientemente reativados e controlam a formação da margem passiva; 4) maiores quantias de contração prévia permitem que zonas de cisalhamento afastadas da sutura não dão reativadas e preservam a estrutura orogênica; 5) a reativação de zonas de cisalhamento compressivas dominam durante os estágios iniciais do rifteamento, enquanto que em estágios finais e de afinamento crustal, dominam estruturas neo-formadas. Nossos modelos ajudaram a explicar algumas características das margens passivas conjugadas do Espírito Santo - Kwanza no Atlântico Central Sul, e da margem passiva norueguesa no Mar do Norte. Nossos modelos também mostraram que diferenças reológicas entre a crosta superior e a crosta inferior causam um desacoplamento durante subducção e posterior educção. Este último processo, associado ao necking termal da astenosfera ascendente, é responsável por deixar lascas de crosta inferior no canal de subducção-educção no manto litosférico, como é evidenciado por antigas zonas de subdução fósseis associadas à margem conjugada Newfoundland-Iberia. Dessa forma, a remoção de crosta inferior em margens passivas conjugadas pode ocorrer muito antes do processo de rifteamento. / The parallelism between older collisional belts and younger rift systems is widely known and particularly portrayed along the Atlantic Ocean. In what follows, the relationship between lithospheric inherited structures and nucleation of rift systems has been focus of many studies. Nevertheless, it is still poorly understood how inherited tectonic and new-formed structures (i.e. during extension) affect the final architecture of rifted conjugate passive margins. In this thesis we use a modified highly efficient version of the Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian finite- element code FANTOM to model thermal-mechanical coupled, plane-strain, viscous-plastic creeping flows to understand the geodynamics of the rifting process considering the effects of tectonic structural inheritance and rheology on the final architecture of rifted conjugate margins. The models consider different amounts of previous extension and contraction to produce the structural inheritance that is reactivated or not during rifting. Our results show that: 1) first reactivations occur along the lithospheric former suture zone; 2) upper crustal thick skinned basement thrusts are partially or fully reactivated depending on the amount of prior contraction and size of the orogen; 3) with a small amount of contraction, thick skinned thrusts are efficiently reactivated in extension and provide the template for rifted margin formation; 4) with larger amounts of precursor contraction, thick skinned thrusts distal to the lithospheric suture zone do not reactivate in extension; 5) reactivation of prior contractional shears dominates during the early stages of rifting, whereas during the final stage of rifted passive margin formation new-formed extensional shears dominate. Models with less precursor extension and more contraction resulted in a rifted conjugate passive margin similar to the Espírito Santo-Kwanza conjugate in the Central South Atlantic, whereas more precursor extension and less contraction, develops into margin showing similar behavior of fault reactivations in the Norwegian margin, North Atlantic. Our models also show that rheological differences between upper and lower continental crusts cause them to decouple both during subduction and subsequent eduction. The latter process, associated to thermal necking of the upwelling asthenosphere, is responsible to leave slivers of previously subducted lower continental crust within the eduction channel in the mantle lithosphere, as it is seismically evidenced under the Newfoundland-Iberia rifted conjugate margins. In what follows, lower continental crust of the former subducting plate can be removed long before depth-dependent extension during magma-poor rifted margin development.