The general purpose of this investigation was to identify general models of materials acquisition cycles for manufacturing firms as found in representative industries. The study further undertook to identify types of industrial situations in which the acquisition cycles display unique characteristics.

L'objectif de cette thèse, est l'étude de la convergence d'applications méromorphes entre deux variétés U et X. D'abord nous rappelons trois types de convergence d'applications méromorphes: Convergence forte, Convergence faible et Gamma-convergence. Notre premier résultat est que la convergence forte est équivalente à la convergence au sens de cycles. Une caractéristique agréable de la convergence faible et la convergence Gamma est que les ensembles de convergence sont localement pseudoconvexes à condition que la variété X soit de Gauduchon. Notre deuxième résultat est dans le cas d'applications méromorphes à valeurs dans l'espace projectif complexe. Nous montrons que la convergence Gamma est équivalente à la convergence au sens de Fujimoto. La convergence faible est équivalente à la convergence Gamma à condition que la représentation de l'application limite soit aussi irréductible. La convergence forte est équivalente à la convergence faible à condition que que les masses Monge-Ampère non-pluripolaires convergent. Un exemple de A. Rashkovskii montre que les volumes des graphes d'une suite d'applications méromorphes qui converge faiblement peuvent augmenter sur tout compact de la variété source U, dans le cas ou la dimension de deux variétés est strictement supérieur à 2. Finalement, nous prouvons le résultat suivant: Si une famille d'applications méromorphes, du bidisque dans une surface complexe compacte, est équicontinue dans un voisinage de la frontière, alors le volume des graphes est localement uniformément borné. / This thesis is concerned with study of convergence of meromorphic mappings between complex manifolds. First we racall three types of convergence of meromorphic mappings: strong convergence, weak convergence and Gamma convergence. Our first result is that the strong convergence is equivalent to the convergence of graphs in the topology of cycles. A nice feature of weak and Gamma convergence is that the set of convergence is locally pseudoconvex provided that the manifold X is Kahler, or even Gauduchon. Our second result concerne the convergence of meromorphic mappings with values in complex projective space. We show that Gamma convergence is equivalent to convergence in the sense of Fujimoto. Weak convergence is equivalent to the Gamma plus the representation of limit maps should be reduced. Strong convergence is equivalent to weak convergence plus the corresponding non-pluripolar Monge-Ampere masses should converge. An example of A. Raskovskii shows that the volumes of graphs of a weakly converging sequence of meromorphic mappins in the case when the dimension greater than 2, unlike to the case of strong convergence may grow over compacts in the source manifold. Finally, we prove that a family of meromorphic mappings from a bidisc to a compact complex surface, which are equicontinuous in a neighborhood of the boundary of the bidisc, has the volumes of its graphs locally uniformly bounded.

Afin d’affiner la compréhension du devenir et de la spéciation dynamiques des Eléments Traces Métalliques (ETM) dans les milieux aquatique, un système voltampérométrique automatisé de mesure en ligne a été développé au cours de cette thèse. Il comprend un potentiostat-galvanostat, un stand avec cellule de mesure, des pompes et des burettes et est piloté par un ensemble de procédures optimisées qui a permis de mesurer toutes les heures les concentrations en métaux électrolabiles et lixiviables à pH acide. Un second ensemble de procédures de suivi des espèces soufrées réduites, pouvant influencer la spéciation des ETM, a également été mis au point. Ces méthodes ont été appliquées sur la Deûle, rivière quotidiennement naviguée, en aval d’un complexe métallurgique, où les sédiments sont fortement contaminés en Zn et en Pb. Les résultats obtenus montrent pour la première fois dans ces systèmes aquatiques que la remise en suspension chronique des sédiments entraîne la désorption des ETM des particules sédimentaires et leur passage dans la colonne d’eau. De plus, l’ensemble des suivis sur l’année 2011 a permis d’observer une évolution de ces mécanismes de sorption. Il semblerait en effet qu’une forte activité bactérienne sédimentaire en été entraîne la création de phases particulaires piégeant moins efficacement les ETM. Ces derniers présentent ainsi un comportement plus dynamique en période estivale et des concentrations plus faibles et moins variables en hiver. Ces avancées ouvrent la voie à de nombreuses recherches concernant le comportement des ETM dans les masses d’eau continentales soumises à des évènements transitoires ou exceptionnels (crues, eutrophisations, curages…). / In order to better understand the dynamic fate and speciation of trace metals in the aquatic systems, an Automatic Trace metal Monitoring Station (ATMS) based on voltammetric techniques has been developed during this PhD. This ATMS includes a potentiostat-galvanostat, a stand with a measurement cell, pumps and burettes and is handled with optimized procedures to measure hourly the concentrations of électrolabile and acid-leachable trace metals. Another set of procedures was also developed for the measurement of reduced sulphur species which can greatly influence the metal speciation. These methods have been applied to the Deûle River, daily navigated, downstream of a metallurgical complex, where sediments are heavily contaminated, especially with Zn and Pb. The results demonstrate for the first time in this kind of aquatic system that the chronic resuspension of sediment leads to the desorption of trace metals from sedimentary particles and their dilution in the overlying water. Furthermore, the set of data recorded during the year 2011 reveals an evolution of these sorption mechanisms. A strong bacterial activity in the sediment in summer seems indeed to result in the formation of less-efficient-metal-bounding particulate phases. Thus, trace metals exhibit a more dynamic behaviour in summer and lower and less variable concentrations in winter. These advances open clearly the way for new researches on trace metal behaviour in riverine water where transitory or exceptional events occur (floods, eutrophication, dredging…).

Thesis advisor: Peter N. Ireland / This dissertation deals with the macroeconomic implications of fiscal policy in small open economies with a particular emphasis on emerging economies. I use both empirical and theoretical approaches to distinguish key difference in the design of fiscal policy between emerging and developed economies. I also analyze the macroeconomic consequences of differences in the conduct of fiscal policy. Thus, the dissertation is focused on the interplay between fiscal policy and business cycle dynamics. Recent policy challenges in developed economies, such as monetary authorities grappling with the zero lower bound on short run nominal rates and fiscal stimulus packages emerging as an important policy tool, have sparked renewed academic interest in the topic of fiscal policy and business cycles. Institutional and macroeconomic features in emerging economies make the macroeconomic aspects of fiscal policy an important research agenda and one to which this dissertation contributes. A number of papers have documented fiscal policy pro-cyclicality in terms of stronger co-movement between government expenditure and macroeconomic fundamentals in emerging and developing economies. This feature of the data raises 2 important questions: 1) does fiscal policy reinforce the macroeconomic cycle in these countries leading to heighten macroeconomic volatility ("when it rains, it pours"), and 2) is the fiscal stance in these economies due to unique macroeconomic features or is it the consequence of institutional and political imperfections? The first chapter, titled "When it rains, it pours": fiscal policy, credit constraints and business cycles in emerging and developed economies, sets out to answer these questions by comparatively studying a group of developed and emerging economies. I estimate a panel structural vector autoregressive model to investigate if government consumption expenditure responds more pro-cyclically to fundamentals and what role international financial conditions play for the fiscal stance and for the volatility of the cycle in emerging and developed economies. My findings suggest that the response to output fluctuations is not systematically different for emerging governments relative to their developed counterparts. However, emerging governments curtail spending in response to increases in the sovereign borrowing rate which forces their consumption expenditure to act more pro-cyclically. I find evidence of higher fiscal discretion in emerging economies. However, the efficacy of government consumption expenditure is substantially lower in emerging than in developed economies. Thus, fiscal policy ends up being responsible for a lower share of business cycle volatility in emerging than in developed economies. In the second chapter, titled Estimating the Dynamics of Fiscal Financing in Emerging Economies, I propose a strategy for estimating the government financing rule for an emerging economy. The estimation uses the structural VAR impulse responses obtained in the previous chapter to discipline the parameters of a small open economy real business cycle model with a public sector. The parameters can be split into two groups: those influencing the effectiveness of fiscal policy and the parameters governing the financing of the exogenous stream of government consumption. The empirical response to interest rate shocks puts restrictions on the first group of parameters governing the size of the multiplier. The empirical response to a government consumption shock can be used to obtain estimates of the fiscal policy rule. I construct a model with a role for both interest rate shocks and government consumption shocks. A natural estimation approach in this case is impulse response matching. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

Thesis (Ph. D)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 1979. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND DEWEY. / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 145-148. / Ph.D

This dissertation, organized in two parts, is comprised of an essay on my song cycle Perle Noire: Meditations for Josephine and its scores. Perle Noire consists of a flexible musical score that I composed for soprano Julia Bullock, select members of the International Contemporary Ensemble, and myself, with two performance editions. The primary edition, which stems from part of a production conceived of by theater director Peter Sellars, includes recited poetry about Josephine Baker by Claudia Rankine and choreography by Michael Schumacher. The second edition is a musical performance with neither poetic texts nor choreography. The world premiere of Perle Noire took place at the 2016 Ojai Music Festival in California, with subsequent performances at Lincoln Center in New York; Da Camera in Houston, Texas; and the Stony Island Arts Center in Chicago, Illinois. The entire performance of the 90-minute song cycle entails the following five recompositions and one “head arrangement” for a mixed ensemble of improviser-performers and soprano: Part I—1. Bye Bye Blackbird, 2. Sous le Ciel d’Afrique, 3. C’est ca le Vrai Bonheur and Madiana (medley); Part II—4. Si J’etais Blanche, 5. C’est Lui, 6. Terre Seche (Negro Spiritual). The essay centers on the compositions in Part II of Perle Noire: “Si J’etais Blanche,” “C’est Lui,” and “Terre Seche” (Negro Spiritual). To begin, I briefly discuss my aesthetic exigencies in relation to the Black creative musics initiated during the latter part of the twentieth century as well as the inspiration informing the creation of this song cycle. Next, I discuss the aforementioned songs to demonstrate how my aesthetics play out in this work. Finally, I detail the controversial critical reception of the song cycle’s world premiere performance and my response to it.

Random triangulated surfaces are created by taking an even number, n, of triangles and arbitrarily ”gluing” together pairs of edges until every edge has been paired. The resulting surface can be described in terms of its number of boundary cycles, a random variable denoted by h. Building upon the work of Nicholas Pippenger and Kristin Schleich, and using a recent result from Alex Gamburd, we establish an improved approximation for the expectation of h for certain values of n. We use a computer simulation to exactly determine the distribution of h for small values of n, and present a method for calculating these probabilities. We also conduct an investigation into the related problem of creating one connected component out of n triangles.

The research involved development of two ecological simulation models to explain the complex dimensionality of chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) life history structure (represented by the age composition of the spawning stock) and management difficulties entailed in the complexity. Since different sizes of chinook salmon are thought to adapt differently to heterogeneous habitats, age composition of the spawning stock is determined by characteristics of the habitats of the substocks. Numerical properties of substocks result from the incorporation of individual spawners in different age classes and each substock performs differently because their age compositions are distinctive. A stock or population consists of substocks whose age compositions are concordant with their habitats. The productive capacity of a population will result from the incorporation of substocks. If habitat structures of streams are different, the age and size compositions and productive capacity of the populations may differ. Selective harvesting affects spawners in different ways, so that age compositions must be deformed differently by fishing pressure. Once the age composition deviates from the natural age composition, the productivity of the population will decrease. Population dynamics are strongly correlated with substock structure which is determined by habitat structure in a stream system. Hierarchical population structure make fisheries management difficult and requires not only quantitative but also qualitative analysis on the populations in relation to habitat classification. / Graduation date: 1990

This essay is about common problems that can arise during game development projects. It is focused around the production cycle and how the game industry treats the game development pipeline. It mainly describes issues with communication within game development teams, problems concerning planning and how the design process affects members of the game development team’s work process and efficiency. It includes an analysis of common problems that I have found during my studies of literature describing the game industry, a short research study of post mortems written by game developers and a survey about game design documentation and communication sent out to game developers and game design students. / Den här uppsatsen behandlar vanliga problem som kan uppstå under spelprojekt. Den är fokuserad kring produktionscykeln och hur industrin behandlar produktionscykelns olika delar. Den beskriver framförallt problem rörande kommunikationen inom team som utvecklar spel, problem kopplade till planering av spelprojekt och hur designprocessen påverkar spelutvecklares arbetsprocesser och effektivitet. Den inkluderar en analys av vanliga problem jag har funnit då jag studerat litteratur som beskriver spelindustrin, en kort studie av post mortems skrivna av spelutvecklare och en undersökning om speldesigndokumentation jag skickat ut till spelutvecklare och spelstudenter.

Thesis(Ph.D.)--Case Western Reserve University, 2009 / Title from PDF (viewed on 2009-11-23) Department of Management Includes abstract Includes bibliographical references and appendices Available online via the OhioLINK ETD Center