No description available.

Research on human behaviour during earthquake shaking has identified three main influences of behaviour: the environment the individual is located immediately before and during the earthquake, in terms of where the individual is and who the individual is with at the time of the earthquake; individual characteristics, such as age, gender, previous earthquake experience, and the intensity and duration of earthquake shaking. However, little research to date has systematically analysed the immediate observable human responses to earthquake shaking, mostly due to data constraints and/or ethical considerations. Research on human behaviour during earthquakes has relied on simulations or post-event, reflective interviews and questionnaire studies, often performed weeks to months or even years following the event. Such studies are therefore subject to limitations such as the quality of the participant's memory or (perceived) realism of a simulation. The aim of this research was to develop a robust coding scheme to analyse human behaviour during earthquake shaking using video footage captured during an earthquake event. This will allow systematic analysis of individuals during real earthquakes using a previously unutilized data source, thus help develop guidance on appropriate protective actions. The coding scheme was developed in a two-part process, combining a deductive and inductive approach. Previous research studies of human behavioral response during earthquake shaking provided the basis for the coding scheme. This was then iteratively refined by applying the coding scheme to a broad range of video footage of people exposed to strong shaking during the Canterbury earthquake sequence. The aim of this was to optimise coding scheme content and application across a broad range of scenarios, and to increase inter-coder reliability. The methodology to code data will enhance objective observation of video footage to allow cross-event analysis and explore (among others): reaction time, patterns of behaviour, and social, environmental and situational influences of behaviour. This can provide guidance for building configuration and design, and evidence-based recommendations for public education about injury-preventing behavioural responses during earthquake shaking.

Humans can influence the habitats that animals use by, for example, building railways that form barriers in the landscape, which disturb the animals and reduce their habitats. During the last ten years, wildlife accidents on railways have increased dramatically, and the measures to reduce accidents, such as building fences and wildlife passages, are very expensive. Acoustic stimuli can be used to scare roe deer away from different locations. Both experience and natural selection have affected animals and their behavior when they are exposed to threats from predators. The magnitude of the perceived threat and the degree of fear motivates which behavioral response is used. Some responses to threatening situations are flight, increased vigilance, and reduced foraging behavior. The purpose of this report is to investigate which acoustic stimuli cause the roe deer to leave the location and how much time they spend eating and being vigilant. By filming the roe deer when they were exposed to six different acoustic stimuli, human voice, dog barking, warning call from roe deer, pink noise, bird sounds and silent control, at feeding stations at Grimsö Research Station, I tested the influence of different stimuli on the behavior of roe deer. The results showed the roe deer spent the most time eating during a silent control period, when undisturbed. The pink noise and the human voice can possibly be used to ward off roe deer from the railroad tracks before the train arrives. The sound of dog barking and warning calls from another roe deer make the roe deer alert but the deer most often remain on the spot. Further investigations of acoustic stimuli are required to know the effectiveness of different stimuli to best avoid wildlife accidents in train traffic. / Människan kan förändra djurens habitat genom att bygga järnvägar som utgör barriärer i landskapet vilket stör djuren och minskar deras livsmiljöer. Under de senaste tio åren har viltolyckor på järnvägen ökat markant. Genom att bygga viltstängsel samt faunapassager kan man minska viltolyckorna och djuren kan röra sig naturligt i landskapen, ett problem är dock att djur kan bli påkörda vid farliga passager och att dessa åtgärder är väldigt dyra. Olika typer av akustiska signaler kan användas för att skrämma bort rådjur från olika platser. Både erfarenheter och naturligt urval har gjort att bytesdjur anpassat sitt beteende när de blir utsatta för hot av predatorer. Hur stort hotet upplevs och graden av rädsla motiverar vilken beteenderespons som används. Några responser på hotfulla situationer är flykt, ökad vaksamhet och minskat födosöksbeteende.  Syftet med denna rapport är att undersöka vilka akustiska stimuli som får rådjuren att lämna platsen samt hur mycket tid de spenderar med att äta och vara vaksamma. Rådjuren filmades när de utsattes för sex olika akustiska stimuli, människoröst, hundskall, brusljud, varningsrop från rådjur, fågelljud och tyst kontroll, vid foderstationer vid Grimsö Forskningsstation. Resultatet visade att olika akustiska stimuli inducerar olika beteenderesponser hos rådjur. De spenderade mest tid med att äta under tyst kontroll när de var ostörda. Brusljudet och människorösten kan eventuellt används för att få rådjuren att lämna tågspåret innan tåget kommer. Hundskall och varningsrop från rådjur gör att rådjuren blir vaksamma men stannar kvar på platsen. Vidare undersökningar av akustiska stimuli krävs för att veta hur man på bästa sätt kan undvika viltolyckor i tågtrafiken.

It is essential for prey species to be able to detect predators to avoid them. The sense of smell is used by a number of prey species for this purpose. The aim of the present study was to assess if one of the odourants that make up a predator odour is sufficient to induce a behavioural response in mice (Mus musculus). Two predator odourants were used, 2,2-dimethylthietane and methyl-2-phenylethyl sulfide, which are both found in the secretions of natural predators of mice. An odourant found in fruits, n-pentyl acetate, was also used. All three odourants were presented at a concentration that was a factor of 100 above the olfactory detection threshold of mice. Ten adult predator-naïve CD-1 mice were individually put in a two-compartment chamber one of which contained an odourant while the other contained a near-odourless solvent (diethyl phthalate). The results indicated that methyl-2-phenylethyl sulfide was actively avoided by the mice. Towards 2,2-dimethylthietane and n-pentyl acetate, in contrast, the mice behaved indifferent. Further, the results suggest a significant correlation between the number of switches between the two compartments of the test chamber and the test sessions when the animals were presented with n-pentyl acetate, but not when they were presented with the predator odourants. The results support the notion of an innate fear response towards the predator odourant methyl-2-phenylethyl sulfide in mice, but further studies with more animals and different concentrations of the odourants are necessary.

Cette thèse examine le rôle du système social et fiscal sur la distribution des revenus, en mettant l'accent sur les revenus du travail.La première partie de la thèse présente la méthodologie et les résultats d'un modèle de microsimulation des prélèvements et transferts français. Le premier chapitre offre une description complète de la répartition des recettes fiscales en fonction de la distribution des revenus. Le deuxième chapitre analyse l'impact macro et micro-économique des réponses politiques à la crise de 2008 en France.La deuxième partie de la thèse porte sur l’imposition des revenus du travail. Les questions et les méthodes abordées se situent à l'intersection des finances publiques et de la littérature sur l'économie du travail. Le premier chapitre étudie l’ensemble de la distribution des salaires, en insistant sur le rôle des cotisations de sécurité sociale pour l'évolution de l'inégalité. Le dernier chapitre se penche sur l'impact d'une taxe sur les salaires au sommet de la distribution (0,003%, environ 1 500 personnes) sur le processus de fixation des salaires des plus riches. / This thesis examines the role of the tax-and-benefit system on the income distribution, with a focus on labour incomes. Made of two parts, the thesis tackles three central questions for the economics of labour and taxation. The first question relates to the simple description of the distributional impacts of taxes. Second, economic actors paying the real cost of taxes might not be the ones paying it legally: assessing empirically the incidence of taxation is key for identifying their distributive implication. Third, the description of the distributional effects of taxes is further complicated by the fact that taxes affect behaviours. In particular, high income individuals may react more to taxes than the rest of the population. This distinction between the very top and the rest of the income distribution is the third major pivotal question of the dissertation.The first part of the thesis presents the methodology and the results of a microsimulation model of the French tax-and-benefit system. The first chapter offers a comprehensive description of the distribution of tax revenues according to the distribution of income. The second chapter proposes an evaluation of the main policy reforms taken in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. It is based on a dual approach, encompassing both a macro and a micro analysis.The second part of the thesis focuses on the taxation process of labour incomes. The questions and the methods tackled are at the intersection of the public finance and the labour economics literature. The first chapter studies the overall wage distribution, emphasizing the role of social security contributions in the evolution of inequality. The last chapter looks at the impact of a wage tax at the very top of the distribution (top 0.003%, about 1500 individuals) on the wage setting process of top labour income earners. A quasi-experimental variation, the 75% tax on millionaires implemented in 2013 and 2014, and evaluation of public policies methods (difference-in-difference method) are used to document the incidence of the tax and the behavioural responses.

Interactions between non-native yabbies (Cherax albidus) and indigenous marron (Cherax tenuimanus) in the south-west of Western Australia are not well understood. While there is abundant evidence to suggest that invasive freshwater crayfish are detrimental to native species, the nature and degree of impact on marron populations by exotic yabbies remains unclear. Researchers have hypothesized that invasive species make faster and more appropriate use of information about their environment than native species. This greater behavioural plasticity can result in displacement of indigenous species, successful colonisation by invaders, and subsequent disturbance to natural ecosystems and representative biodiversity. / The research presented in this thesis examines the behavioural responses of an indigenous crayfish (C. tenuimanus) and an invasive crayfish (C. albidus) to waterborne odours derived from food, alarm sources and finfish predators. This study was undertaken to assist in the understanding of predatory and competitive interactions between indigenous and non-indigenous crayfish and fish predators, with particular relevance to Western Australia. Predation and competition are major forces influencing community structure in ecosystems; therefore knowledge of competitive and predatory interactions will be of benefit when considering future translocation policies. / Behavioural trials were conducted in two culture systems (54 L aquaria and a 70,000 L mesocosm), where marron and yabbies were exposed to a range of water-borne odours from finfish predators (silver perch and Murray cod), with and without competition from conspecific and heterospecific crayfish. A number of variables likely to influence crayfish behaviour were investigated: strength of chemical odour; crayfish size, gender, diurnal and nocturnal activity patterns; predator size; prior-residence; suitable habitat/shelter; and feed availability. / A key innovation in this research was the high replication in the aquarium-based observation trials using a Latin Cube design, which resulted in greater statistical strength and lower variability. More importantly, this research deviated from the tradition of exclusively using the ‘individual crayfish’ approach for odour-detection experiments and tested these results in a 70,000 L communal observation tank. This was an important development in crayfish behavioural experimentation, particularly as several key findings from the individual crayfish approach were confirmed in a multi-species environment. / Results from this study supported the hypothesis that invasive crayfish species make more appropriate use of a wider range of information about their environment than native crayfish species. Yabbies were found to possess behavioural characteristics not present in marron, such as clearer behavioural modifications to food and heterospecific odour, and cautionary behaviour in the presence of odour from a finfish predator. During simulated daylight conditions, marron displayed behaviours conducive to predation that were not present in yabbies, including less time spent in shelter and more time spent in locomotory activity. However, during specialised night-time observational studies developed during this research, these differences were not evident. This would not seem to be an unusual result, given that crayfish naturally forage at night and become more active; however, it may have important implications for future behavioural studies of crayfish, indicating a bias associated with day-time approaches. Crayfish size also played a role in behavioural modifications to water-borne odours. Larger marron displayed clearer changes in behaviour and were more responsive to heterospecific alarm odour than juveniles. Furthermore, juveniles of both species were more active than adults and sub-adults. / The expansion of the yabby population into Western Australian habitats occupied by marron has been facilitated through translocation for aquaculture, and biological characteristics of the species, some of which are typical of other invasive crayfish species including: tolerance of a variety of conditions; rapid growth; early sexual maturity; burrowing to escape drought and predation; capable of multiple spawns in a growth season; and aggressiveness. Another characteristic of invasive crayfish species also shared by yabbies, as supported by the results of this study, is high behavioural plasticity. / Although marron do not share the same level of behavioural plasticity found in yabbies, their larger body size increases their success in competitive interactions. The comparatively smaller body size of yabbies may be the major factor limiting their population expansion in the presence of marron, especially in water-bodies where shelter is a limited resource. / Marron are an important endemic species in Western Australia, but their conservation is threatened by competition and predation from exotic species. The research presented in this thesis indicates that invasive yabbies are more receptive to chemical stimuli and better equipped to respond to predation risk than marron. This information will be of benefit when considering future translocation policy in Western Australia and highlights the need for a cautious approach to species introductions.

Behavioural responses can reveal important fitness trade-offs and ecological traps in evolutionarily novel contexts created by anthropogenic stimuli, and are of increasing conservation concern due to possible links to population-level impacts. This thesis illustrates the use of proxies for energy acquisition and expenditure within multivariate and state-based modelling approaches to quantify the relative time and energetic costs of behavioural disturbance for a deep-diving marine mammal (Physeter macrocephalus) in foraging grounds in Kaikoura Canyon (New Zealand) and near Lofoten Islands (Norway). A conceptual framework is first developed to identify and explore links between individual motivation, condition and external constraints to behavioural disturbance [Chapter 1]. The following chapters then use data from behavioural response studies (BRS) to: 1) derive biologically relevant metrics of behaviour [all chapters], 2) investigate effects of boat-based focal follows and tagging procedures [Chapters 2-3], and 3) relate responses to specific disturbance stimuli (distance, approach, noise) from whale-watching [Chapter 2], naval sonar and playback of presumed natural predator (killer whale Orcinus orca) sounds [Chapter 4]. A novel hidden state model was developed to estimate behavioural budgets of tagged sperm whales from multiple streams of biologging (DTAG) data [Chapter 3]. Sperm whales traded off time spent at foraging depths in a non-foraging and non-resting state in response to both tag boat presence, 1-2 kHz naval sonar (SPL 131-165 rms re 1μPa) and mammal-eating killer whale sound playbacks, indicating that parallel non-lethal costs were incurred in both anthropogenic disturbance and presumed antipredatory contexts. While behavioural responses were highly variable by individual, biologically informed state-based models appeared effective to control for variability in energy proxies across different functional contexts. These results and Chapter 5 “linking buzzes to prey” demonstrate that behavioural context is a signal that can aid understanding of how individual non-lethal disturbance responses can impact fitness.

Submitted by Pedro Ricardo Bernardino de Freitas (pedro.rbf@gmail.com) on 2011-12-08T18:35:16Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Pedro_R_B_Freitas.pdf: 6802890 bytes, checksum: 70d840d6a8a31071b5ccdcb01e41463e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Vitor Souza (vitor.souza@fgv.br) on 2011-12-15T16:45:18Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Pedro_R_B_Freitas.pdf: 6802890 bytes, checksum: 70d840d6a8a31071b5ccdcb01e41463e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2011-12-27T12:32:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Pedro_R_B_Freitas.pdf: 6802890 bytes, checksum: 70d840d6a8a31071b5ccdcb01e41463e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-08-29 / O trabalho utiliza conceitos da economia do bem estar e a elasticidade da renda tributável para analisar o custo social das reações comportamentais dos contribuintes do imposto de renda sobre as pessoas físicas no Brasil, em resposta a uma mudança de política tributária. A elasticidade da renda tributável despertou grande atenção recente, motivada pela perspectiva de estimar em conjunto todas as reações comportamentais a uma mudança no sistema tributário através de um único parâmetro, mensurando custos de eficiência e de bem estar suportados pela economia de forma relativamente simples. O trabalho aborda a utilização de medidas de variação de bem estar para avaliar mudanças na política tributária e faz uma resenha da literatura sobre a elasticidade da renda tributável, conceitos, características, vantagens e limitações. Um modelo de preferências é especificado para exemplificar a dimensão das reações à tributação e os custos de eficiência envolvidos, e discutir a viabilidade do emprego da elasticidade da renda tributável como parâmetro estrutural. / This study aims to analyse the social cost and behavioural responses due the taxation of earned income in Brazil using welfare concepts and the elasticity of taxable income with respect to the net of tax rate. The elasticity of taxable income has deserved great attemption and is a main issue in public economics research agenda. Under some conditions, it holds the perspectives of measuring efficiency costs of income taxation from a wide array of behavioural responses just estimating one single parameter. The study introduces the use of welfare changes measures for tax policy evaluation and reviews the concepts about elasticity of taxable income, its characteristics, advantages and limitations of use. We develop a model in which we show the dimension of responsiveness of taxpayers. Based on this model, we estimate the efficiency cost and excess burden of income taxation and discuss the use of elasticity of taxable income as a structural parameter.

Effective management of the potential environmental impacts of naval sonar requires quantitative data on the behaviour and hearing physiology of cetaceans. Here, novel experimental and analytical methods were used to obtain such information and to test the effectiveness of an operational mitigation method for naval sonar. A Bayesian method was developed to estimate whale locations through time, integrating visual observations with measurements from on-animal inertial, acoustic, depth, and Fastloc-GPS sensors. The track reconstruction method was applied to 13 humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) data sets collected during a multi-disciplinary behavioural response study in Norwegian waters. Thirty-one controlled exposure experiments with and without active transmissions of 1.3-2 kHz sounds were conducted using a moving vessel that towed a sonar source. Dose-response functions, representing the relationships between measured sonar dose and behavioural responses identified from the reconstructed tracks, predicted that 50% of the humpbacks would initiate avoidance at a relatively high received sound pressure level of 166 dB re 1 µPa. Very similar dose-response functions were obtained for cessation of feeding. In a laboratory study, behavioural reaction times of a harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) to sonar-like sounds were measured using operant conditioning and a psychoacoustic method. Auditory weighting functions, which can be used to improve dose-response functions, were obtained for the porpoise based on the assumption that sounds of equal loudness elicit equal reaction time. Additional analyses of the humpback whale data set provided evidence that ramp-up of naval sonar mitigates harmful sound levels in responsive cetaceans located directly in the path of the source, and suggested that a subset of the humpback whale population, such as mother-calf pairs, and more responsive species would benefit from the use of sonar ramp-up. The findings in this thesis are intended to inform sound exposure criteria and mitigation guidelines for anthropogenic noise exposure to cetaceans.

Le caribou forestier est une espèce menacée au Canada, la principale hypothèse au déclin des populations étant l’intensification de la prédation provoquée par les perturbations anthropiques du paysage. Afin de faire face à cette situation, il est nécessaire d’étudier et comprendre l’impact de l’environnement sur les interactions prédateur-proies entre le caribou et le loup, ainsi qu’avec l’orignal, qui est sa principale proie alternative. Pour cela, cette thèse présente la conception d’un modèle centré sur l’individu des déplacements de ces trois espèces en fonction de leur environnement, dont résulteront les interactions prédateur-proies. Afin de permettre l’application de ce modèle sur de longues périodes, et donc pour un environnement changeant, une méthodologie a été développée, qui s’articule atour de deux aspects principaux. Tout d’abord, la notion de niveaux d’émergence est introduite, permettant d’ordonner les comportements observables du système selon leurs interdépendances, afin de choisir comme trait du modèle un com- portement correspondant au domaine d’applicabilité visé. Ordonner les comportements selon leurs niveaux d’émergence permet également d’identifier la redondance entre les patrons, qui peut être à l’origine d’un phénomène de sur-apprentissage lorsqu’ils sont utilisés lors de la calibration. Dans un second temps, un nouveau protocole pour la calibration et la validation du ou des traits choisis à l’aide des niveaux d’émergence, nommé réplication de système basé sur l’individu (Individual Based System Replication - IBSRtion) est également présenté. Ce protocole met l’emphase sur la modélisation directe, contrairement au principal protocole existant, la modélisation orientée patrons (Pattern Oriented Modelling - POM), et permet une approche empirique en générant artificiellement des données non disponibles ou ne pouvant être récoltées par des études de terrains. IBSRtion a également l’avantage de pouvoir être intégrée dans POM, afin de contribuer à la création d’une méthodologie universelle pour la conception de modèles centrés sur l’individu. Le processus de conception de ce modèle aura entre autre permis de faire une synthèse des connaissances et d’identifier certaines lacunes. Une étude visant à palier le manque de connaissances satisfaisantes sur les réponses comportementales à court-terme des proies face au risque de prédation a notamment permis d’observer que celles-ci sont une combinaison de comportements chroniques et éphémères, et que les mécanismes qui en sont à l’origine sont complexes et non-linéaires. Le résultat de ce travail est un modèle complexe utilisant de nombreux sous-modèles, et calibré de façon empirique, applicable à une grande variété d’environnements. Ce modèle a permis de tester l’impact de l’enfeuillement sur les relations prédateur-proies. Des simulations ont été effectuées pour différentes quantités d’enfeuillement, suivant deux configurations spatiales différentes. Les résultats de simulation suggèrent que des plans d’aménagement considérant également l’habitat de l’orignal pourraient être bénéfiques pour le caribou forestier, car ils permettraient d’améliorer la ségrégation spatiale entre les deux espèces, et donc entre le caribou et le loup. En le couplant avec un module de naissances et de morts naturelles ainsi qu’un modèle d’évolution du paysage, ce modèle permettra par la suite d’évaluer l’impact de plans d’aménagement forestier sur la viabilité des populations de caribou forestier. / Forest-dwelling woodland caribou are considered threatened in Canada. The main hypothesis to the decrease of populations is the intensification of predation provoked by anthropogenic perturbations in the landscape. To deal with this situation, it is necessary to study and to understand the impact of the environment on the predator-prey interactions between the caribou and the wolf, and with the moose, its main alternative prey. In this perspective, this thesis presents the design of an individual-based model of displacements of these three species with respect to their environment, from which the predator-prey interactions will result. To allow for the application of this model for long periods of time, i.e. for changing environments, a methodology has been developed, which is based on two key points. First, the notion of levels of emergence is introduced, allowing to order the different observable comportments of the system according to their inter-dependencies, to help with choosing a trait of the model corresponding to the intended domain of applicability. Ordering the comportments according to their levels of emergence also permits to identify redundancy between patterns, which can lead to over-fitting when they are used for calibration. Second, a new methodology for calibration and validation of the trait(s) chosen by means of the levels of emergence framework is also presented, named Individual Based System Replication (IBSRtion). This protocol emphasizes forward modelling, contrary to the main existing methodology, Pattern Oriented Modelling (POM), and allows to use an empirical approach by artificially generating data that are unavailable or that cannot be obtained by means of field studies. IBSRtion can also be integrated into POM, to contribute to the establish- ment of a universal methodology for the design of individual based models. The design process of this model allowed for a synthesis of existing knowledge and to point out some gaps. More specifically, a study conducted to deal with the lack of sufficient information on the short-term response of prey to predation risk allowed to observe that their behavioural responses to prior presence of predators are a combination of chronic and ephemeral behaviours, and that the mechanisms that produce them are complex and non-linear. The outcome of this work is a complex model, using many sub-models, and calibrated in an empirical fashion, that can be applied to a wide variety of environments. This model allowed to test the impact of the encroachment of deciduous trees on predator-prey relations. Simulations have been run for different quantities of encroachment, according to two different spatial configurations. Simulation results suggest that management plans taking into account the moose’s habitat might benefit woodland caribou, because they could increase spatial segregation between the two species, and thus between caribou and wolf. Coupling this model with a module of birth and natural death, along with a model of landscape transformation, would allow the assessment of the impact of different forest management plans on the viability of woodland caribou populations.