Este trabalho apresenta uma proposta de Arquitetura Orientada a Serviço para desenvolvimento de aplicações com restrições temporais, isto é, aplicações em que o tempo de resposta a uma requisição deve respeitar limites máximos. No desenvolvimento da arquitetura proposta foram considerados os modelos de filas com um único servidor e com múltiplos servidores, por meio da utilização de serviços redundantes e do escalonamento de requisições para melhoria do determinismo no tempo de resposta das requisições efetuadas. Para avaliação da arquitetura proposta foi construído um sistema de testes de forma a ser observado o comportamento do tempo de resposta das requisições em função do número de servidores disponíveis e sua respectiva taxa de utilização. Os resultados obtidos indicam que é possível obter um aumento no determinismo do tempo de resposta das requisições efetuadas (diminuição da dispersão de valores), tendo sido obtidos resultados semelhantes para os dois algoritmos de escalonamento utilizados: por ordem de chegada das requisições e SRPT (Shortest Remaining Processing Time). / This thesis presents a proposal for a Service Oriented Architecture applied to development of time constrained systems, where the timeliness of the results is a major requirement. The development is based on the queuing theory (models using one and multiple servers) and requests scheduling to improve response time determinism. In order to verify the proposal, a test system had been developed to observe the dynamic behavior of the requests response time dispersion according to the number of servers available and associated processing rate. The results obtained show an improvement over the request response time determinism and almost similar performance for the two scheduling algorithms used: request arrival order and SRPT (Shortest Remaining Processing Time).

O agronegócio brasileiro é responsável por uma parcela considerável da produção mundial de alimentos, sendo as frutas, especialmente as citrícolas, as que apresentam maior consumo. Neste contexto, as laranjeiras representam 55% da área cultivada de citros. O estado do Rio Grande do Sul (RS) é o sexto maior produtor nacional de laranja, onde é possível identificar na cadeia produtiva a presença de todos os elos, tais como fornecedores de insumos, produtores de mudas, produtores de frutas, indústrias de produção de suco, dentre outros. Muitos são os gargalos que impossibilitam uma coerência e estruturação na cadeia de produção dessa cultura já que a plantação é predominantemente familiar e desenvolvida em pequenas propriedades e o escoamento é feito em grande parte para os intermediários e não para a indústria. O objetivo deste trabalho foi identificar as principais restrições existentes nos elos da cadeia produtiva da laranja no RS do ponto de vista dos “atores chave” através de uma pesquisa qualitativa do tipo exploratória descritiva. Os participantes, escolhidos por amostra não probabilística e por conveniência, foram "atores chave" do elo produtivo (produtores rurais), comercialização (intermediários) e processamento (indústrias) da cadeia produtiva da laranja. A coleta de dados foi realizada por entrevista semiestruturada nas propriedades rurais, em feiras hortícolas e nas indústrias processadoras. As entrevistas foram organizadas, analisadas e interpretadas com auxilio do software QDA Miner 4.0. Em conjunto com a análise interpretativa temática, o pesquisador valeu-se também da Teoria das Restrições. A possibilidade de pensar nos problemas de maneira lógica e sistêmica, no qual a teoria das restrições está baseada, reduz a necessidade de adivinhação na interpretação dos resultados, estabelecendo uma coerência no crescimento da cadeia, correlacionado os “atores chave” e identificando os entraves de maior impacto. Conclui-se através da caracterização dos “atores chave” a importância de cada um para a cadeia produtiva da laranja. A partir dos dados primários foram identificadas as restrições - Mercado, Logística, Capacitação e Incentivos Governamentais - que mais obstruem o crescimento na produção da fruta no RS e suas causas. Perceberam-se, também, semelhanças quanto às perspectivas dos “atores chave” na cadeia produtiva da laranja. Portanto, torna-se necessário integrar os atores - agricultores, intermediários, indústria, poder público, órgãos de extensão rural, universidades e centros de pesquisa, para que possam propor e executar ações concretas que venham a modificar o atual cenário da produção de laranja no RS. / Brazilian agribusiness is responsible for a considerable portion of the world food production, and fruits, specially citrus fruits, are those with the highest consumption. In this context, the orange is the main species in citrus culture, corresponding to 55% of the cultivated area. The state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS) is the sixth largest producer of orange in Brazil, where is possible to identify in the productive chain the presence of all the links, such as input suppliers, seedling producers, fruit growers, industries of juices, among others. Many are the bottlenecks that preclude consistency and structuring of the orange supply chain, since the plantation is predominantly familiar and developed on small farms, and the flow is made largely for intermediates and not for the industry. The aim of this work was to identify the main restrictions in the production chain of orange in RS from the point of view of the "key players" by means of a qualitative descriptive exploratory research. The participants, selected by non-probabilistic sample and convenience, were "key players" of the productive link (farmers), marketing (intermediate) and processing (industries) of the production chain of orange. Data collection consisted of semi-structured interview conducted in farms, in horticultural fairs and industries. The interviews were organized, analyzed and interpreted with QDA Miner 4.0 software. Along with the thematic interpretive analysis, the researcher also made use of the Theory of Constraints. The possibility to think about the problems in a logical and systemic way, in which the theory of constraints is based, reduces the need for guesswork in result interpretation, establishing coherence in the chain growth, correlating the "key players" and identifying the obstacles of greater impact. We conclude that all the "key players" are of fundamental importance for the productive chain of orange in RS state and by primary and secondary data it was possible to characterize these actors. From the primary data the constraints - Market, Logistics, Training and Government Incentives - that most obstruct the growth in fruit production in RS state and their causes were identified. In light of these questionings, similarities regarding the perspectives of the "key players" in the orange production chain. Thus, it is necessary to involve the actors able to modify this setting - farmers, intermediaries, industry, government, agricultural extension agencies, universities and research centers, so they can propose and execute concrete actions that change the current scenario of the orange production in the state of RS.

A indústria de microeletrônica tem recorrido cada vez mais à metodologia de projeto baseado em células para fazer frente à crescente complexidade dos projetos de circuitos integrados digitais, uma vez que circuitos baseados em células são projetados mais rápida e economicamente que circuitos full-custom. Entretanto, apesar do progresso ocorrido na área de Electronic Design Automation, circuitos digitais baseados em células apresentam desempenho inferior ao de circuitos full-custom. Assim, torna-se interessante encontrar maneiras de se fazer com que circuitos baseados em células tenham desempenho próximo ao de circuitos full-custom, sem que isso implique elevação significativa nos custos do projeto. Com tal objetivo em vista, esta tese apresenta contribuições para um fluxo automático de otimização local para circuitos digitais baseados em células. Por otimização local se entende a otimização do circuito em pequenas janelas de contexto, onde são feitas otimizações considerando o contexto global. Deste modo, a otimização local pode incluir a detecção e isolamento de regiões críticas do circuito e a geração de redes lógicas e de redes de transistores de diferentes topologias que são dimensionadas de acordo com as restrições de projeto em questão. Como as otimizações locais atuam em um contexto reduzido, várias soluções podem ser obtidas considerando as restrições locais, entre as quais se escolhe a mais adequada para substituir o subcircuito (região crítica) original. A contribuição específica desta tese é o desenvolvimento de um método de dimensionamento de subcircuitos capaz de obter soluções com área ativa mínima, respeitando a capacitância máxima de entrada, a carga a ser acionada, e a restrição de atraso imposta. O método é baseado em uma formulação de logical effort, e a principal contribuição é calcular analiticamente a derivada da área para obter área mínima, ao invés de fazer a derivada do atraso para obter o atraso mínimo, como é feito na formulação tradicional do logical effort. Simulações elétricas mostram que o modelo proposto é muito preciso para uma abordagem de primeira ordem, uma vez que apresenta erros médios de 1,48% para dissipação de potência, 2,28% para atraso de propagação e 6,5% para os tamanhos dos transistores. / Microelectronics industry has been relying more and more upon cell-based design methodology to face the growing complexity in the design of digital integrated circuits, since cell-based integrated circuits are designed in a faster and cheaper way than fullcustom circuits. Nevertheless, in spite of the advancements in the field of Electronic Design Automation, cell-based digital integrated circuits show inferior performance when compared with full-custom circuits. Therefore, it is desirable to find ways to bring the performance of cell-based circuits closer to that of full-custom circuits without compromising the design costs of the former circuits. Bearing this goal in mind, this thesis presents contributions towards an automatic flow of local optimization for cellbased digital circuits. By local optimization, it is meant circuit optimization within small context windows, in which optimizations are done taking into account the global context. This way, local optimization may include the detection and isolation of critical regions of the circuit and the generation of logic and transistor networks; these networks are sized according to the existing design constraints. Since local optimizations act in a reduced context, several solutions may be obtained considering local constraints, out of which the fittest solution is chosen to replace the original subcircuit (critical region). The specific contribution of this thesis is the development of a subcircuit sizing method capable of obtaining minimum active area solutions, taking into account the maximum input capacitance, the output load to be driven, and the imposed delay constraint. The method is based on the logical effort formulation, and the main contribution is to compute the area derivative to obtain minimum area, instead of making the delay derivative to obtain minimum delay, as it is done in the traditional logical effort formulation. Electrical simulations show that the proposed method is very precise for a first order approach, as it presents average errors of 1.48% in power dissipation, 2.28% in propagation delay, and 6.5% in transistor sizes.

Forestry machines have the power to lift heavy logs, but they are not so smart at providing information, or help operators perform better work. The main reason to this problem is the low level of technology applied to forestry machines, which has not changed so much since the forestry machines were first introduced in the 1960’s. But starting 2013, machines manufacturers got inspired by developments in the automation and robotics industry, several of new technologies have been developed in the market - computerized hydraulics, feedback controllers for vibration damping, sensor-based motion control systems, improvements in mechanical design, smart suspension controller, etc. Largely, this development is attributed to better hardware and software developed during the last decade by researchers of Scandinavian institutes. In this thesis, we introduce a new type of forestry machine, the harwarder, which can perform the work of two machines (harvester and forwarder) by a single one. The forwarder is a forestry vehicle that carries big felled logs. The harvester is a type of heavy forestry manipulator employed in cut-to-length logging operations for felling, and bucking trees. Both the manipulator and vehicle should work synchronized to get the best out of this design. To benefit out of its design, in the first part of thesis we will analyze the kinematics and dynamics of machine, and design a time optimal coordinated motion via virtual holonomic constraints, to solve a particular task of forestry crane. The second part consists on applying optimization to reduce energy consumption during the motion. Result of thesis work: 1) By using coordinated motion, consequently the energy consumptions are drastically reduced comparing to traditional motion of the crane. 2) By applying optimization, the energy efficiency is improved.

La question du financement des Petites et Moyennes entreprises est récurrente partout dans le monde. Elle est encore plus préoccupante en Afrique subsaharienne, alors même que les PME apparaissent comme des acteurs clés pour sortir du sous-développement. Au Sénégal les pouvoirs publics cherchent depuis plusieurs années des solutions pour améliorer l’accès des PME au financement bancaire. Cependant, le problème de financement bancaire demeure le principal obstacle au développement des PME. C’est dans ce sens que nous nous sommes demandé pourquoi les PME sénégalaises rencontrent autant de difficultés à accéder au financement bancaire. L’objectif de notre recherche est d’identifier les facteurs susceptibles d’influencer l’obtention de financement bancaire pour une PME sénégalaise. Notre première phase de recherche a été de faire un état des lieux de la littérature et des études empiriques sur le financement des PME. Sur cette base, nous avons élaboré nos hypothèses de recherche que nous avons testées selon une méthode de recherche mixte. D’une part nous avons adopté une démarche quantitative en élaborant un questionnaire soumis à des dirigeants de PME ; d’autre part nous avons adopté une démarche qualitative en menant des entretiens avec 10 agents de banque et 10 dirigeants de PME. L’analyse de nos hypothèses donne les résultats principaux suivants : l’existence de liens forts positifs entre la disponibilité de garantie, la qualité des documents comptables, la taille de la PME d’une part, et l’obtention de financement bancaire d’autre part ; l’adoption du financement relationnel ainsi que l’existence de relations interpersonnelles favorisent l’accès au financement bancaire. Nos résultats confortent des études antérieures effectuées dans d’autres contextes et peuvent faire l’objet de recommandations aux dirigeants de PME, aux banques et aux pouvoirs publics. / The issue of financing small and medium-sized enterprises is recurrent all over the world. It is even more worrying in sub-Saharan Africa where the SME sector is the chance to get out of underdevelopment. In Senegal, public authorities have been seeking solutions for several years to improve SMEs' access to bank financing. However, the problem of bank financing remains the main obstacle to the development of SMEs. So, we wondered why Senegalese SMEs encounter so many difficulties in accessing bank financing. The objective of our research is to identify the factors likely to influence the obtaining of bank financing for a Senegalese SME. On the basis of a review the literature, we developed our research hypotheses that we tested using a mixed search method. On the one hand we adopted a quantitative approach by developing a questionnaire submitted to SME managers; on the other hand, we have adopted a qualitative approach by conducting interviews with 10 bank agents and 10 SME managers. The analysis of our assumptions shows the following main results: the existence of strong positive links between the availability of guarantee, the quality of the book-keeping, the size of the SME on the one hand, and the obtaining of bank financing; the adoption of relational financing and the existence of interpersonal relationships favor access to bank financing. Our results support previous studies in other contexts and can be the subject of recommendations to SME managers, banks and the public authorities.

Dans un environnement économique encore fragilisé par la Grande Récession, les PME apparaissent comme un moteur essentiel de l’activité et de l’emploi. Dans cette thèse, j’examine les déterminants et les conséquences des contraintes financières des PME afin d’identifier les formes de financement bancaire les mieux adaptées à leurs situations. Le premier chapitre analyse les effets des modèles d’activité bancaire sur le financement des PME et montre que les banques de trading augmentent les contraintes de crédit de court terme ainsi que les coûts de financement. Surtout, l’externalité négative du trading sur la disponibilité du crédit de court terme est encore plus forte pour les banques fortement capitalisées et dépendantes des produits dérivés. Le deuxième chapitre porte sur l’effet bénéfique de la relation bancaire pour les PME. Nous montrons que les prêteurs relationnels pratiquent des taux plus élevés en période de croissance et des taux plus bas en période de crise. Cependant, en incluant les entreprises monobancaires dans notre analyse, nous constatons que ce mécanisme assurantiel dépend de la capacité des entreprises à diversifier leurs emprunts auprès de plusieurs banques. Enfin, le troisième chapitre se focalise sur les effets réels des contraintes financières. Mes résultats mettent en lumière l’importance capitale du financement de court terme pour l’investissement des PME à travers le canal du besoin en fonds de roulement. Les entreprises qui ont des opportunités d’investissement ne peuvent pas les saisir car les contraintes de crédit de trésorerie les obligent à allouer davantage de cash-flow au financement du besoin en fonds de roulement. / Representing a clear driver for growth and employment, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have gained considerable attention in the aftermath of the Great Recession. In this thesis, I both examine the determinants and consequences of SMEs financial constraints in order to identify the most appropriate types of bank financing for their situations. The first chapter analyzes the effects of trading bank business models on SME finance and shows that trading banks increase both short term credit constraints and funding costs. Importantly, the negative impact of trading-banks on short term credit availability is even stronger for banks with higher capital and derivatives.The second chapter deals with the beneficial effect of relationship lending for SMEs. Following the literature that has investigated the countercyclical effect of relationship lending on interest rates, we show that relationship lenders charge higher rates in good times and lower rates in bad times. However, we include single-banked firms in the scope and find that this insurance mechanism depends on the firm ability to diversify its borrowing.The third chapter focuses on the real effects of financial constraints. While the literature examining the effects of financial constraints on firms’ investment has traditionally ignored loan maturity, my results emphasize the importance of short-term finance for SMEs through the working capital channel. The real effect of short term financial constraints arises when firms with opportunities to invest may be blocked from doing so because rationing may force them to allocate additional cash-flow to finance their working capital needs.

Essa dissertação estuda os efeitos de políticas de direcionamento de crédito sobre alocação de recursos na economia brasileira. Esse é um tópico particularmente importante para o Brasil, dado que a proporção do crédito que é direcionada no Brasil é próxima a 40%. As regras de direcionamento provavelmente geram distorções no preço de empréstimos, afetando assim o retorno marginal de fatores entre firmas e entre setores, consequentemente gerando misallocation de recursos. Fazendo uso de um modelo de agentes heterogêneos em tempo contínuo, se é capaz de estudar efeitos distributivos de tais políticas e explorar vantagens computacionais na solução do modelo. Calibra-se o modelo usando dados da economia brasileira e estatísticas de microdados de crédito que conectam informações sobre crédito e tamanho de firmas. Adicionalmente, verifica-se como tais políticas de direcionamento de crédito interagem com restrições ao crédito. / This paper looks at misallocation effects of earmarked credit in the Brazilian Economy. This is a very important topic in Brazil, where the proportion of credit earmarked for specific types of loans reach about 40% of total credit. The earmarking rules are likely to generate distortions in loan\'s prices, producing differences in marginal returns to inputs across firms and sectors, and therefore misallocation of resources. Using a heterogeneous agents in continuous time model, we are able to study distributional effects of such policies and explore some computational advantages to solve the model. Furthermore, we calibrate such model using Brazilian credit microdata statistics linking firm size and loans. Additionally, we will verify how these earmarked resources interact with credit constraints that are probably present in the Brazilian economy

A junior high teacher and artist altered the curriculum of his Art Foundations II course and his own artistic practice in response to complexity thinking. This teacher-artist-researcher uses the arts-based methodology a/r/tography to make meaning of the relationship between his art and pedagogy. The a/r/tographer explains the impact of complexity on the philosophy of education, a/r/tography as a methodology, and the meaning making that occurred are included. Evolution was used as a methodology for art making and as constraint for developing artworks in the classroom and in the author's own art. The teacher-artist-researcher conceptualizes art as an emergent complex cultural practice that evolves over time. He argues that artists, teachers, consumers, and students are implicated in the evolution of art.

Yes / This paper examines how deviation from firms’ target leverage influences their decisions on undertaking foreign acquisitions. Using a sample of 5746 completed bids by UK acquirers from 1987 to 2012, we observe that over-deviated firms are more likely to acquire foreign targets. Consistent with co-insurance theory, we find that over-deviated firms engage in foreign acquisition deals to relieve their financial constraints and to mitigate their financial distress risk. We also note that foreign acquisitions enhance over-deviated firms’ value and performance, measured by Tobin’s q and return on assets (ROA) respectively. These findings support the view that over-deviated firms pursue the most value-enhancing acquisitions. Overall, this paper suggests that co-insurance effects, value creation and performance improvements are the main incentives for over-deviated firms’ involvement in foreign acquisitions. / Financial support of Zagazig University in Egypt / The full-text of this article will be released for public view at the end of the publisher embargo on 02 Mar 2019.

This dissertation includes two related chapters that analyze financial condition of firms. In the first chapter, I examine the relationship between the firms' level of cash holdings and governance. The findings show that higher levels of cash holdings are significantly related to strong governance. The results also show that firms with strong governance hold asymmetrically higher levels of cash than firms with weak governance when they have high growth opportunities. Furthermore, I also test the impact of financial constraint status of the firm on the level of cash holdings for both good and poorly governed firms separately. The results suggest that strong governance firms hold higher levels of cash to use as financial slack in order to avoid financial distress. In the second essay I examine if a firm's success in leaving distress is explained by firm characteristics and manager decisions. I proxy the managers' decisions by measuring changes in operating, investing, and financing choice variables. Timely decisions with regard to product refinement, proxied by increased investment in research and development and reduction in capital expenditures, increase the probability of successful turnaround. Further the results show that increased financing through additional sale of equity, acquisitions and sale of assets do not help a firm exit financial distress.