This dissertation analyzes the basis for and magnitudes of discount factors based on the characteristics of greenhouse gas emission (GHGE) offsets that are applied to the GHGE reduction projects, concentrating on agricultural projects. Theoretical approaches to discount factors, estimation and incorporation of discount factors procedures are developed. Discount factors would be imposed by credit purchasers due to noncompliance with regulatory program of the credits with GHG program including consideration of shortfall penalties and limited durations. Discount factors are proposed for (i) additionality, (ii) leakage, (iii) permanence, and (iv) uncertainty. Additionality arise when the region where an AO project is being proposed would have substantial adoption of the AO practice in the absence of GHG programs (business as usual GHGE offset). Leakage arises when the effect of a program is offset by an induced increase in economic activity and accompanying emissions elsewhere. The leakage effect depends on demand and supply elasticities. Permanence reflects the saturation and volatility characteristics of carbon sequestration. Carbon is stored in a volatile form and can be released quickly to the atmosphere when an AO practice is discontinued. The permanence discount depends on the project design including practice continuation after the program and the dynamic rate of offset. Also, consideration of multiple offsets is important. Uncertainty arises due to the stochastic nature of project quantity. The uncertainty discount tends to be smaller the larger the size of the offset contract due to aggregation over space and time. The magnitude of these discounts is investigated in Southeast Texas rice discontinuation study. The additionality and the leakage discounts are found to play an important role in case of rice lands conversion to other crops but less so for pasture conversions and yet less for forest conversions. The permanence discount is important when converting to other crops and short rotation forestry. When all discounts are considered, rice lands conversion to forest yields claimable credits amounting to 52.8% ~ 77.5% of the total offset. When converting rice lands to pasture, the claimable credits 45.1% ~ 64.2%, while a conversion of rice lands to other crops yields claimable credits 38.9% ~ 40.4%.

One of the most challenging issues in reservoir modeling is to integrate information coming from different sources at disparate scales and precision. The primary data are borehole measurements, but in most cases, these are too sparse to construct accurate reservoir models. Therefore, in most cases, the information from borehole measurements has to be supplemented with other secondary data. The secondary data for reservoir modeling could be static data such as seismic data or dynamic data such as production history, well test data or time-lapse seismic data. Several algorithms for integrating different types of data have been developed. A novel method for data integration based on the permanence of ratio hypothesis was proposed by Journel in 2002. The premise of the permanence of ratio hypothesis is to assess the information from each data source separately and then merge the information accounting for the redundancy between the information sources. The redundancy between the information from different sources is accounted for using parameters (tau or nu parameters, Krishnan, 2004). The primary goal of this thesis is to derive a practical expression for the tau parameters and demonstrate the procedure for calibrating these parameters using the available data. This thesis presents two new algorithms for data integration in reservoir modeling. The algorithms proposed in this thesis overcome some of the limitations of the current methods for data integration. We present an extension to the direct sampling based multiple-point statistics method. We present a methodology for integrating secondary soft data in that framwork. The algorithm is based on direct pattern search through an ensemble of realizations. We show that the proposed methodology is sutiable for modeling complex channelized reservoirs and reduces the uncertainty associated with production performance due to integration of secondary data. We subsequently present the permanence of ratio hypothesis for data integration in great detail. We present analytical equations for calculating the redundancy factor for discrete or continuous variable modeling. Then, we show how this factor can be infered using available data for different scenarios. We implement the method to model a carbonate reservoir in the Gulf of Mexico. We show that the method has a better performance than when primary hard and secondary soft data are used within the traditional geostatistical framework. / text

Submitted by Sandra Maria Neri Santiago (sandra.neri@ufpe.br) on 2016-04-14T14:13:25Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) DISSERTAÇÃO - Thalianne de Andrade Leal.pdf: 2510019 bytes, checksum: 2da7c82c8d63d8018e80a8e30f841238 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-14T14:13:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) DISSERTAÇÃO - Thalianne de Andrade Leal.pdf: 2510019 bytes, checksum: 2da7c82c8d63d8018e80a8e30f841238 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-06-30 / O rápido e intenso desenvolvimento urbano atual vem impondo ao campo da Conservação dos monumentos novas inquietações. A tentativa de conciliação entre arquitetura contemporânea, a integridade dos monumentos e o desenvolvimento urbano está presente na pauta de especialistas preocupados com o impacto de novas estruturas sobre as heranças urbanas. Aos bens inscritos ou tombados pelos órgãos da preservação já são garantidas medidas de salvaguarda, com isso a preocupação foca-se em seu entorno. Apesar da recorrente indicação de que o entorno é parte importante para a compreensão das informações do bem ao contribuir com a manutenção da sua integridade, poucas medidas o definiram conceitualmente e não chegaram a efetivar uma metodologia que possibilitasse sua delimitação. A partir da discussão dos conceitos e de experiências de delimitação do entorno, foi adotada neste trabalho a investigação sobre as dificuldades que tardam a sua efetividade como ferramenta do campo da Conservação. Optou-se por focar no entorno de bens arquitetônicos situados em território urbano, opção esta que ligou à discussão ao território das cidades, aos seus atores, instrumentos normativos e interesses. Sendo o ambiente urbano alvo de constantes mudanças e permanências, a efetividade do entorno parte do acompanhamento das tendências para alteração da composição morfológica e dos seus atributos ao longo do tempo, os quais têm interferência sobre a continuidade na transmissão das informações dos bens. Interesses diversos sobrepõem-se nas cidades, e muitos deles dificultam as ações da Conservação. São destacadas também as dificuldades de integração entre instituições e instrumentos para a utilização da ferramenta. Compreendidas as dificuldades e sanadas as lacunas, o entorno pode efetivar-se como uma ferramenta auxiliar contra as investidas de modificações na proximidade de monumentos e contribuir para a manutenção da sua integridade. / Actually, the rapid and intense urban development has imposing on the field of monuments conservation new concerns. The attempt to reconcile contemporary architecture, the monuments integrity and urban development is present on the staff of specialists concerned with the impact of new structures on urban heritage. To property protected are warranted preservation measures, thus the concern focuses on his buffer zones. Despite the applicant's statement that the environment is an important part to understand the property information to contribute to the maintenance of its integrity, few measures have defined conceptually and failed to effect a methodology that would enable its boundaries. From the discussion of concepts and experiences of defining the buffer zone, was adopted in this research work on the difficulties that are delaying its effectiveness as a tool in the field of Conservation. We chose to focus on the buffer zone architectural property located in urban territory, that option is called to discuss the territory of the cities, its actors, instruments and regulatory interests. As the urban environment subject to constant change and permanence, the effectiveness of the buffer zone focus of the monitoring of trends and morphological change in the composition of its attributes over time, which have interference on the continuous transmission of property information’s. Diverse interests overlap in the cities, and many hinder the Conservation actions. Are also highlighted the difficulties of integration between institutions and instruments for the use of the tool. Understood the difficulties and shortcomings remedied, the buffer zone can manifest itself as an auxiliary tool against the onslaught of changes in the monuments surroundings and contribute to the maintenance of its integrity

This paper presents an investigation of how a jewelry artist understands the life/death cycleof nature and natural processes, the relationship between the human (body), nature,materials, and jewelry, by communicating in the form of jewelry.I will discuss the relationship between human, nature and jewelry from many aspects. Themovement of objects, life and death, how jewelry shows the position and state of humanin nature and the relationship with nature, as well as the significance to the contemporarysociety. My main method is jewelry. My jewelry is emotional and expresses the series ofcollision and balance when humankind meets nature, and the acceptance of life and death.

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Interpersonal trust is dynamic and can be easily changed. Understanding why and how changes in interpersonal trust occur is important because trust affects a wide range of organizational outcomes. Because employees’ attitudes and behaviors in the workplace are apt to change in response to notable events, this dissertation examines what, why, and how events cause changes in trust. More specifically, I first define negative [positive] trust-related events as events that either negatively [positively] disconfirm trustors’ prior expectation or events that confirm trustors’ prior negative [positive] expectation towards trustees, and argue that negative [positive] trust-related events can lead to decreases [increases] in trust. Moreover, building on dual-system theory (Morgeson, Mitchell, & Liu, 2015), affect infusion theory (Forgas, 1994, 1995), and the integrative model of trust (Mayer, Davis, & Schoorman, 1995), I propose that trust-related events trigger changes in trust through both changes in emotional reactions and cognitive assessments of trustees’ trustworthiness. Next, drawing from Monge’s (1990) typology of dynamic processes and event-system theory, I focus on two specific components of changes (i.e., magnitude and permanence) and propose that the effects of events on each component are contingent on the characteristics of the events (e.g., criticality, proximity, and timing). I examine all hypotheses using a trust game-based experimental study (Study 1) and a five-wave longitudinal field study (Study 2). The results of Study 1 suggest that positive trust-related events trigger increases in trust, while negative trust-related events trigger decreases in trust. Both effects are mediated through changes in emotions and trustworthiness evaluations. Further, event confirmation affects the magnitude of changes in trust transmitted through changes in trustworthiness evaluations. Specifically, changes in trust are larger when the events are considered as more disconfirming, unexpected, or surprising. Study 2 partially replicates the findings of Study 1 regarding the effects of positive events, such that trust increases in response to positive events through increases in trustworthiness evaluations. However, Study 2 fails to find support for the impact of negative events, nor the moderating roles of event confirmation or event criticality on the magnitude of change. Study 2 also extends to examine the permanence of changes in trust after trust-related events. The results suggest that the positive influence diminishes over the observed three weeks, and the trends are similar regardless of event criticality, proximity, or timing. This dissertation provides important implications to managers and organizations on how to prevent potential decreases in trust and how to enhance trust. Limitations and future directions are also discussed. / Business Administration/Human Resource Management

One of the basic questions of concern in mathematical biology is the long-term survival of each species in a set of populations. This question is particularly puzzling for a natural system with omnivory due to the fact that simple mathematical models of omnivory are prone to species extinction. Omnivory is defined as the consumption of resources from more than one trophic level. In this work, we investigate three omnivory models of increasing complexity. We use the notion of permanent coexistence, or permanence, to study the long-term survival of three interacting species governed by a mixture of competition and predation. We show the permanence of our models under certain parameter restrictions and include the biological interpretations of these parameter restrictions. Sensitivity analysis is used to obtain important information about meaningful parameter data collection. Examples are also given that demonstrate the ubiquity of omnivory in natural systems. / Ph. D.