O tema desta pesquisa é a influência da atividade de minhocas no solo de uma vertente do Planalto Atlântico Paulista. O local estudado está cercado por áreas de preservação ambiental, possui florestas primárias em bom estado de conservação e apresenta clima quente com precipitações acima dos 2.000 mm por ano. Foi feito um levantamento das comunidades de anelídeos a partir de três diferentes técnicas de extração. Os organismos coletados foram identificados em nível de espécie e sua distribuição foi analisada ao longo da topografia. Demonstrou-se uma variação das populações de minhocas nos três setores da vertente, com maiores densidades no sopé e menores no topo. Verificou-se que há uma intensa atividade desses organismos no solo e que eles não se distribuem igualmente no perfil vertical, concentrando-se em algumas camadas, às vezes superficiais às vezes subsuperficiais, de acordo com o tipo de solo. Observou-se também a presença de espécies exóticas nas áreas antrópicas. Foi constatado que a atividade desses organismos modifica a morfologia (bioagregação) e também os atributos físicos (macroporosidade; bioporos) e químicos do solo (teores de matéria orgânica e dos nutrientes P, K+, Ca2+ e Mg2+; soma de bases; capacidade de troca catiônica), influenciando diversos processos pedológicos. Com seus comportamentos ecológicos (alimentar e construtor), as minhocas criam galerias, canais e produzem dejeções, ajudando na aeração do solo, na dinâmica hídrica e no processo de ciclagem dos nutrientes. Apesar do papel que desempenham na formação da cobertura pedológica, a maior parte dos levantamentos de solo não contempla os agregados biogênicos, por este motivo, demos ênfase especial à descrição destas morfologias. / The focus of this research is the activity of earthworms and their influence on the soil of an Atlantic Plateau hill slope in São Paulo State. Our area of study is surrounded by environmental preservation areas, it has primary forests in good conditions, warm climate and precipitations above 2,000 mm per year. Three different extraction techniques were used for the survey of annelid communities. The collected organisms were identified at the species level and its distribution was analyzed along the topography. We found a variation of earthworm populations in the three sectors of the slope, with the highest densities in the foothills and lower densities in the top. There is an intense activity of these organisms in the soil and they are not equally distributed in the vertical profile, concentrating on a few layers, sometimes in topsoil, sometimes in subsoil. We also observed the presence of exotic species in disturbed areas. The activity of soil fauna changes the morphology (bioaggregation), the physical (macroporosity), and chemical (P, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+ and organic matter dynamics, sum of bases and cation exchange capacity) attributes of soil, affecting many pedological processes. With their feeding and builder ecological behaviors, earthworms create galleries, channels and produce casts, helping in soil aeration, the water dynamics and nutrient cycling processes. Despite the role they play in the formation of soil mantle, most of the ground surveys does not include the biogenic aggregates, therefore, we gave special emphasis on the descriptions of such morphologies.

This study provides a view of the decision-making process of Dutch company pension funds. The success of this research was the exceptional granting of access to four cases. Lack of such access could very well be the reason why research of this nature has not been previously achieved. The financial health of pension funds, expressed by the coverage ratio, showed a decline in 2008. Research has shown that there is a relationship between decision-making processes and outcome. Were the processes appropriate to set up and maintain a sufficient coverage ratio? A tailor-made conceptual research model has been developed and used as an analysis aid to research the TO BE situation based on legal requirements and factional documents and the AS IS situation based on empirical data. The model made it feasible to shed light on the implementation of good pension fund governance principles and decision-making process, which is a contribution to the current gap in research. The research showed that there is a relationship between the implementation of pension fund governance principles and appropriate decision-making processes. It also showed that there is a relationship between an appropriate decision-making process and coverage ratio. Both conclusions are not statistically proven due to the lack of the statistical significance, but are qualitative analysed and confirmed in the conducted case studies. It is suggested to use the research model by supervisor or pension funds to establish the mismatch between the implementation of pension fund governance principles and decision-making processes to enhance the quality of decision-making processes and outcome.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-04T18:31:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 FRANCISCO JOSE LOPES RODOVALHO.pdf: 13305799 bytes, checksum: 23374e97fb38c10170518a8f35e72196 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-05-29 / This work brings as hypothesis the possibility of the development of a method capable to evaluate WMAN s equipments in terms of coverage and performance, portrayed through its efficiency, focused on WiMAX technology, pattern IEEE 802.16-2004. The objective is to present the procedures to make possible to use a test site to compare the acting of different manufacturers' equipments. It begins with a site where its physical and propagation parameters are obtained, always the same for those certain points, to compare the performance of several equipments through reference measures in terms of the data rate efficiency. The site is characterized through 51 measure points. The tools used and developed for the test accomplishment are also described. Such tools are, for example, the coverage prediction software CellPlanner and a software tool, called GetMIB developed to capture, through the SNMP commands, the stored data in MIBs, and a script for tasks automation by the free software AutoiT. The test results presented the Signal-to-Noise-Relation (SNR), the values of BETA (?), which represents the path loss exponent, the Instantaneous and Accumulated Efficiencies of data rate net communication, as well as the correlation between these obtained variables, which have been presented in graphs and tables. The proposed method has proved to be reliable once it has presented suitable results with the performance expectation of the equipment and is in accordance with the environment used in the tests. From the results verified for the tested equipment, its replacement by other equipments of several manufacturers can be conceived, with similar results. From the confrontation of these results it is possible to obtain information on which equipment better adapts to those operation conditions imposed by the site. / Este trabalho traz como hip?tese a possibilidade do desenvolvimento de um m?todo capaz de avaliar equipamentos de uma WMAN em termos de cobertura e desempenho, retratado atrav?s de sua efici?ncia, voltada para a tecnologia WiMAX, padr?o IEEE 802.16-2004. O objetivo ? apresentar os procedimentos que possibilitem utilizar um site de testes, para comparar o desempenho de equipamentos de diferentes fabricantes. Parte-se de um site, onde se obtenham os par?metros f?sicos e de propaga??o do mesmo, sempre iguais para aqueles pontos determinados, comparar o desempenho de equipamentos diversos atrav?s de medidas de refer?ncia, em termos da efici?ncia da taxa de dados. O site fica caracterizado atrav?s de 51 pontos de medida. S?o tamb?m descritas as ferramentas utilizadas e desenvolvidas para a realiza??o dos testes, tais como o software de predi??o de cobertura CellPlanner, uma ferramenta de software chamado de GetMIB desenvolvido para capturar, via SNMP, os dados armazenados nas MIBs, e um script atrav?s do sofware livre AutoiT para automatiza??o das tarefas. Os resultados dos testes realizados apresentaram a Rela??o Sinal Ru?do (SNR), os valores de BETA (?), que representa o expoente de perda de percurso, as Efici?ncias Instant?nea e Acumulada da rede de comunica??o de dados, bem como a correla??o entre estas vari?veis obtidas, as quais foram apresentadas de forma gr?fica e tabeladas. O m?todo proposto se mostrou confi?vel uma vez que apresentou resultados condizentes com a expectativa de desempenho do equipamento e em conformidade com o ambiente utilizado nos testes. A partir dos resultados verificados para o equipamento testado, pode-se conceber a sua substitui??o por outros equipamentos de fabricantes diversos, obtendo-se resultados similares. Da confronta??o destes resultados ? poss?vel obter-se informa??es sobre qual equipamento melhor se adapta ?quelas condi??es de opera??o impostas pelo site.

A method was developed to access the interior of light-guiding structures in order to exploit the enhanced sensing potential of the highly confined electromagnetic field distributions, located within the core of a waveguide. The work presented in this thesis explores therefore the possibilities of optical waveguide spectroscopy utilising transparent mesoporous thin-film waveguides deposited on top of athin gold layer. These multi-layer assemblies are employed in a prism-coupling attenuated total internal reflection (ATR) configuration. The angular read-out of the reflected light intensity allows label-free detection schemes with high sensitivity to changes of the dielectric environment in the case of the presence of analyte molecules within the probing region. This optical waveguide spectroscopy technique has been used to study the real-timediffusion of Ruthenium 535-bisTBA (N-719) dye into mesoporous nanocrystalline titaniumdioxide films. The porous films were prepared on top of gold substrates and prism coupling was used to create a guided wave in the nanocrystalline film. Dying was carried out by bring the film into contact with a 3 x 10-4 moldm-3 dye solution and using optical waveguide spectroscopy to monitor the change in both the refractive index and theextinction coefficient of the nanoporous layer as dye diffused into the porous network. Dyeuptake in a 1.27 μm film was slow with the refractive index of the film still increasing after 22 hours.

Esta pesquisa tem como objetos de estudo o palhaço Bozo e o padre Marcelo Mendonça Rossi. Como objetivo, ela propõe investigar as características dessas duas celebridades, com base em suas exposições midiáticas, a fim de discutir as congruências e incongruências que existem entre elas. Foi realizado um breve levantamento histórico com o objetivo de entender a representação dessas personalidades como palhaço e como padre, a se constituírem no espaço-tempo até a atualidade. Com vistas aos papeis sociais desempenhados por eles, trata-se de observar seus potenciais de produção sentido, a partir do uso de suas expressividades pela mídia, baseadas no discurso, carisma e indumentária. Para tanto, a orientação teórico-metodológica que norteou os estudos foram obras que abrangem os campos da estética e da linguística. O estudo de caso foi o método adotado para a realização das comparações entre o palhaço Bozo e o padre Marcelo, balizadas, sobretudo, no dispositivo audiovisual. A nossa premissa é a de que as mutações culturais e a cristalização do sujeito pela mídia colaboram para uma categorização estética do sujeito. / This research has a subject of study between Bozo, The Clown and Father Marcelo Mendonca Rossi. As the objective, it proposes to investigate the characteristics of these two celebrities, based on the exposure of media coverage, with the purpose of discussing the similarity and unsimilarity that exists between them. A brief historic background was performed with the purpose of understanding this representation of these two personalities as a clown and as a priest, to constitute themselves in space and time until today. With views of their roles played by them, it is about observing their potential in the production realm, from their use of expressive means by the media based on their speech, charisma and wardrobe. For that matter, the orientation theory-methodology that have started the studies were the work that covers the fields of aesthetic and linguistics. This study/case was the method adopted for the conduct of these comparisons between Bozo, the clown and Father Marcelo, highlighted by audio and visual devices. Our premises is that the cultural mutations and crystalization of the individual(s) by the media co-interact with each other for the aesthetic categorization of the person(s) in question.

Depuração é a atividade responsável pela localização e correção de defeitos gerados durante o desenvolvimento de programas. A depuração ocorre devido à atividade de teste bem-sucedida, na qual falhas no comportamento do programa são reveladas, indicando a existência de defeitos. Diversas técnicas têm sido propostas para automatizar a tarefa de depuração de programas. Algumas delas utilizam heurísticas baseadas em informações de cobertura obtidas da execução de testes. O objetivo é indicar trechos de código do programa mais suspeitos de conter defeitos. As informações de cobertura mais usadas em depuração automatizada são baseadas no teste estrutural de unidade. A cobertura de integração, obtida por meio da comunicação entre as unidades de um programa, pode trazer novas informações sobre o código executado, possibilitando a criação de novas estratégias para a tarefa de localização de defeitos. Este trabalho apresenta uma nova técnica de localização de defeitos chamada Depuração de programas baseada em Cobertura de Integração (DCI). São apresentadas duas coberturas de integração baseadas nas chamadas de métodos de um programa. Essas coberturas são usadas para a proposição de roteiros de busca dos defeitos a partir dos métodos considerados mais suspeitos. As informações de cobertura de unidade são então utilizadas para a localização dos defeitos dentro dos métodos. A DCI também utiliza uma nova heurística para atribuição de valores de suspeição a entidades de integração estática dos programas como pacotes, classes e métodos, fornecendo também um roteiro para a procura dos defeitos. Os experimentos realizados em programas reais mostram que a DCI permite realizar a localização de defeitos de forma mais eficaz do que o uso de informações de cobertura de unidade isoladamente. / Debugging is the activity responsible for localizing and fixing faults generated during software development. Debugging occurs due to a successful testing activity, in which failures in the behavior of the program are revealed, indicating the existence of faults. Several techniques have been proposed to automate the debugging tasks, especially the fault localization task. Some techniques use heuristics based on coverage data obtained from the execution of tests. The goal is to indicate program code excerpts more likely to contain faults. The coverage data mostly used in automated debugging is based on white-box unit testing. Integration coverage data, obtained from the communication between the units of a program, can bring about new information with respect to the executed code, which allows new strategies to the fault localization task to be devised. This work presents a new fault localization technique called Debugging based on Integration Coverage (DIC). Two integration coverages based on method invocations are presented. These coverages are used to propose two search strategies that provides a roadmap to locate faults by investigating the more suspicious methods. The unit coverage information are used to search the faulty statement inside the suspicious methods. The DIC technique also proposes a heuristic that assigns suspiciousness values to static integration entities of the programs, namely, packages, classes, and methods. This heuristic also provides a roadmap to search for the faults. Experiments using real programs show that DIC is more effective to locate faults than solely using unit coverage information.

Many legacy nuclear facilities exist with the number of such facilities due to increase in the future. For a variety of reasons, some of these facilities have poorly documented blueprints and floor plans. This has led to many areas within such facilities being left unexplored and in an unknown state for some considerable time. The risk to health that these areas might pose has in some cases precluded human exploration and facilities have been maintained in a containment state for many years. However, in more recent years there has been a move to decommission such facilities. The change of strategy from containment to decommissioning will require knowledge of what it is that needs to be decommissioned. It is hoped that an autonomous or semi- autonomous robotic solution can satisfy the requirement. For successful mapping of such environments, it is required that the robot is capable of producing complete scans of the world around it. As it moves through the environment the robot will not only need to map the presence, type and extent of radioactivity, but do so in a way that is economical from the perspective of battery life. Additionally, the presence of radioactivity presents a threat to the robot electronics. Exposure to radiation will be necessary but should be minimised to prolong the functional life of the robot. Some tethered robots have been developed for such applications, but these can cause issues such as snagging or the tether inadvertently spreading contamination, due to being dragged along the floor. Nuclear environments have very unique challenges, due to the radiation. Alpha and beta radiation have a short emission distance and therefore cannot be detected until the robot is in very close proximity. Although the robot will not become disabled by these forms of radiation, it may become contaminated which is undesirable. Radiation from gamma sources can be detected at range, however pinpointing a source requires sensors to be taken close to the emitter, which has adverse effects on the robot's electronics, for example gamma radiation damages silicon based electronics. Anything entering these environments is deemed to be contaminated and will eventually require disposal. Consequently the number of entries made should ideally be minimised, to reduce the production and spread of potential waste/contamination. This thesis presents results from an investigation of ways to provide complete scans of an environment with novel algorithms which take advantage of common features found in industrial environments and thereby allow for gaps in the data set to be detected. From this data it is then possible to calculate a minimum set of way points required to be visited to allow for all of the gaps to be filled in. This is achieved by taking into account the sensor's parameters such as minimum and maximum sensor range, angle of incidence and optimal sensor distance, along with robot and environmental factors. An investigation into appropriate exploration strategies has been undertaken looking at the ways in which gamma radiation sources affect the coverage of an environment. It has discovered undesired behaviours exhibited by the robot when radiation is present. To overcome these behaviours a novel movement strategy has been presented, along with a set of linear and binary battery modifiers, which adapt common movement strategies to help improve overall coverage of an unknown environment. Collaborative exploration of unknown environments has also been investigated, looking into the specific challenges radiation and contamination offer. This work has presented new ways of allowing multiple robots to independently explore an environment, sharing knowledge as they go, whilst safely exploring unknown hazardous space where a robot may be lost due to contamination or radiation damage.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:22:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2003-08-12Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:48:39Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 pantano_ac_me_ilha.pdf: 148095 bytes, checksum: 6375fc44ef1291c02d75eb391adaccd9 (MD5) / A integração agricultura-pecuária permite uma proteção do solo nos períodos de seca, um retorno financeiro com a criação do gado e/ou plantio da lavoura, e ainda, contribui com o sucesso do plantio direto e com a viabilização econômica de diversas propriedades rurais. Visou-se estudar em plantio direto, a possibilidade da antecipação do plantio de braquiária consorciada com milho, visando a produção de forragens para a integração agricultura–pecuária e a formação de palhada, bem como avaliar os efeitos deste consórcio sobre a cultura do milho neste sistema. O ensaio foi instalado na Fazenda de Ensino e Pesquisa da FE/UNESP, em um LATOSSOLO VERMELHO Distrófico típico argiloso, A moderado, hipodistrófico álico, caulinítico, férrico, compactado, muito profundo e moderadamente ácido (LVd). Utilizou-se sementes de milho híbrido AG-8080 precoce (60.000 sementes/ha) e de capim braquiária brizanta certificada (20kg/ha). O delineamento experimental foi o de blocos ao acaso, com parcelas subdivididas, constituído de 2 tratamentos principais (Tratamento A: espaçamento entre linhas de milho de 0,90m; Tratamento B: espaçamento entre linhas de milho de 0,45m) e 5 secundários (Tratamento1: sem consorciação (testemunha); Tratamento 2: braquiária na linha do milho semeada junto com o adubo de plantio; Tratamento 3: braquiária à lanço (área total), na época de plantio do milho; Tratamento 4: braquiária na entrelinha do milho semeada junto com o adubo de cobertura; Tratamento 5: braquiária à lanço, na época de cobertura do milho, com 4 repetições. Avaliou-se: atributos físicos do solo (densidade e porosidade do solo); atributos químicos do solo; análise foliar da cultura do milho; cobertura morta do solo, incidência de plantas daninhas, características agronômicas das culturas do milho (Estande inicial e final, número de... / The agriculture-pasture integration provides a soil covering during dry periods, a financial refund raising cattle and/or doing agriculture and still contributes for the success of the no-till and for the economical viability of many rural properties. The purpose of the present work was to study under no-till, the possibilities of anticipating the Brachiaria seeding associated with corn, expecting the forage production for the agriculture-pasture integration and straw formation, as well as to evaluate the effects of this association to the corn. The experiment was carried out on the Research and Teaching Farm of UNESP– Campus de Ilha Solteira/SP, in a red Latosol, loamy dystrophic, moderated A, iron, compacted, very deep and moderately acid. It was used precocious hybrid seeds of AG-8080 (60.000 seeds/ha) and certified seed of Brachiaria brizantha (20kg/ha). The outline used was the randomized blocks with split plot composed of two main treatments ( Treatment A: distance of corn rows - 0,90m; Treatment B: corn rows distance–0,45m), and 5 secondary (Treatment1: with no association (witness); Treatment 2: Brachiaria seeded on corn’s row mixed with the fertilizer during the sowing of corn; Treatment 3: Brachiaria spread on total area during corn sowing; Treatment 4: Brachiaria seeded between corn rows mixed with the fertilizer during the fertilization coverage; Treatment 5: Brachiaria spread on total area during de fertilization coverage of corn, with 4 repetitions. The following evaluations were done: soil physical attributes (bulk density and porosity); chemical attributes; corn leaf analysis; soil coverage, weed infestation, corn agricultural characteristics (stand at the beginning and at the end, number of spike/ha, number of grain lines/spike, number of grain/spike, mass of 1000 grains, grain production and production of dry mass) and for brachiaria (stand, soil coverage ...

本文包含了两篇关于金融分析师和公司治理的实证研究。第一篇论文（题目为"分析师影响公司避稅吗？来自自然实验的证据"）研究金融分析师对企业避稅的影响。基本回归结果表明追踪公司的分析师越多，公司避稅越少。通过充分利用券商倒闭和券商兼并这两个对金融分析师数量造成的外生冲击，我们利用双重差分的分析方法发现，相比同类公司，经受分析师数量外生下降的公司将从事更多的避稅活动。因此，证据充分表明分析师的数量对企业避稅具有强烈的负面因果影响。我们进一步发现，这一负的因果影响主要集中在本来拥有较少分析师和融资受到约束的公司。此外，在财务信息不透明和企业管制较差的公司，效果也更为明显。综上，该论文提供了新的数据表明，财务信息透明度对于企业避稅具有重要作用。当遭遇外生的分析师下降从而引起信息透明度降低的情况下，公司会更为激进的避稅。 / 第二篇论文（题目为"金融分析师影响公司治理吗？来自自然实验的证据"）利用跟第一篇论文相同的两个自然实验（券商倒闭和券商兼并），进一步探讨了分析师对公司治理的作用。我们发现，当追踪一个公司的金融分析师数量受到这两个自然实验的影响而减少之后，该公司内部现金持有量给股东带来的边际价值减少，其CEO获得更高的超额报酬，其管理层更有可能做出破坏公司价值的收购决策，其管理层更有可能从事盈余管理活动。重要的是，我们发现这些影响主要集中在本来拥有较少分析师和较少市场竞争压力的公司。我们进一步发现，本来拥有较少分析师的这些公司在受到券商倒闭和券商兼并的冲击下，其CEO的报酬和超额报酬对公司业绩较原来更不敏感。这些发现与我们的分析师监督假说是一致的，即金融分析师发挥着审查管理者行为的重要公司治理作用。当公司损失分析师之后，市场在对公司股票定价时会考虑公司因此而产生的代理成本的增加。 / This thesis consists of two empirical studies on financial analysts and corporate governance. The first essay (titled "Does Analyst Coverage Affect Tax Avoidance? Evidence from Natural Experiments") investigates the effects of analyst coverage on corporate tax avoidance. The baseline results indicate that analyst coverage reduces tax avoidance. Using a Difference-in-Differences approach based on two sources of exogenous shocks to analyst coverage - broker closures and mergers, we find that firms engage in more tax avoidance activities after an exogenous drop in the number of analysts following the firm, compared to similar firms that do not experience an exogenous drop in analyst coverage. The evidence therefore suggests a strong negative causal effect of analyst coverage on tax avoidance. We further find that the effects are mainly driven by the firms with smaller initial analyst coverage and more financial constraints. Moreover, the effects are more pronounced in the subset of firms with more information opacity and poorer corporate governance. Overall, the findings suggest that analyst coverage materially and causally affects tax avoidance. Our paper offers novel evidence that information transparency plays an important role in corporate tax avoidance decisions, and with increased information opacity induced by exogenous drops in analyst coverage, firms are likely to avoid tax more aggressively. / The second essay (titled "Do Analysts Matter for Governance? Evidence from Natural Experiments") further explores the causal effects of analyst coverage on mitigating managerial expropriation of outside shareholders, building on the same two natural experiments - broker closures and mergers. We find that as a firm experiences an exogenous decrease in analyst coverage, shareholders value internal cash holdings less, its CEO receives higher excess compensation, its management is more likely to make value-destroying acquisitions, and its managers are more likely to engage in earnings management activities. Importantly, we find that most of these effects are mainly driven by the firms with smaller initial analyst coverage and less product market competition. We further find that after exogenous brokerage terminations, a CEO’s total and excess compensation become less sensitive to firm performance in firms with low initial analyst coverage. These findings are consistent with the monitoring hypothesis, specifically that financial analysts play an important governance role in scrutinizing management behavior, and the market is pricing an increase in expected agency problems after the loss in analyst coverage. / 1. Does analyst coverage affect tax avoidance? : evidence from natural experiments -- 2. Do analysts matter for governance? : evidence from natural experiments. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Chen, Tao. / Thesis (Ph.D.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2014. / Includes bibliographical references. / Abstracts also in Chinese.

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