Particulate P constitutes a significant portion of the total P found in surface runoff water. Water dispersed P-containing particles can travel long distances via surface runoff and reach water bodies causing decrease in water quality. The main objective of the study was to evaluate the potential facilitation of P transport by the water dispersed soil colloids (WDC) using three KY soils with a long-term record of poultry manure, and fertilizer P applications. Sequential fractionation for both whole soils and colloidal samples revealed that the WDC had a greater total and labile P content than the soil as a whole. Also, application of manure and fertilizer P seemed to decrease colloidal organic P fractions and increase the inorganic P fractions over the period of a growing season (May to September). Laboratory settling kinetics experiments were set up for the clay-colloidal fractions of the soils. It was shown that particulate P fractions paralleled WDC settling kinetics whereas dissolved P fractions remained in solution even after 36 hours. Field taken intact soil cores were leached with colloidal suspensions to test the effect of WDC on the vertical P movement. Results illustrated the preferential flow of particulate P though the macropores. When water was applied to the manure amended soil, dissolved P levels increased significantly over the control. WDC additions lowered dissolved P levels to the manure-amended columns, by sorbing to the WDC particles, but still greater than the dissolved P levels of the columns that had not been applied with manure.

Between 2003 and 2015, more than 61% of U.S. software development teams failed to satisfy project requirements, budgets, or timelines. Failed projects cost the software industry an estimated 60 billion dollars. Lost opportunities and misused resources are often the result of software development leaders failing to implement appropriate methods for managing software projects. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies software development managers use in adopting Agile methodology in the context of distributed teams. The tenets of Agile approach are individual interaction over tools, working software over documentation, and collaboration over a contract. The conceptual framework for the study was adapting Agile development methodologies. The targeted population was software development managers of U.S.-based companies located in Northern California who had successfully adopted Agile methods for distributed teams. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews with 5 managers and a review of project-tracking documentation and tools. Data analysis included inductive coding of transcribed interviews and evaluation of secondary data to identify themes through methodological triangulation. Findings indicated that coaching and training of teams, incremental implementation of Agile processes, and proactive management of communication effectiveness are effective strategies for adopting Agile methodology in the context of distributed teams. Improving the efficacy of Agile adoption may translate to increased financial stability for software engineers across the world as well as accelerate the successful development of information systems, thereby enriching human lives.

No description available.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:26:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Heloisa Belotti Bedicks.pdf: 1599271 bytes, checksum: f1fbf2bb10eaff82d22d57c4aae6203e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-08-07 / A company s ownership structure is a key aspect of the corporate governance discussion. This dissertation analyzes, through case studies, pioneering companies in Brazil which adopted dispersed control structures without any controlling shareholder individual or group. This study has two main aims: identifying the reasons that led those companies to adopt such ownership structures and the main changes that occurred after those changes, especially with respect to the companies governance practices. Since dispersed control is a very recent movement in Brazil, this dissertation is justified by the scarcity of similar studies in the country and in dispersed control companies in other emerging economies. The study analyzed six Brazilian company cases, through detailed interviews based on a standard questionnaire, analysis of corporate reports, and other data. Two main reasons emerged from the study: a favorable market window coupled with the former controllers desire to leave, were found to be the main drivers for most companies analyzed. With regard to changes to corporate governance practices, a substantial impact was noticed on their relations with shareholders following the change in company control, particularly their general meeting attendance. Moreover, it was also determined that the stability in Brazil s macroeconomic scenario has enabled the capital market to play its role of financing the growth of new companies. In this context, this kind of company structure may become a new Brazilian corporate model, replacing the traditional concentrated structure. However, it is not clear whether this option has become feasible just for a short moment of excitement of the market. The feasibility of this structure, therefore, needs further time testing, especially during periods of depression at the stock market, and in assessing the evolution of these pioneering companies performance, as they will be facing critical moments when making important corporate decisions and replacing their leaders. / A estrutura de propriedade das empresas é um aspecto chave para a discussão da temática da governança corporativa. Esta dissertação analisa, por meio de estudos de casos, as empresas brasileiras pioneiras na adoção de estruturas societárias dispersas, sem a figura de um acionista controlador ou bloco de controle. O trabalho possui dois objetivos principais: identificar os fatores motivadores que levaram estas empresas a adotarem tal estrutura de propriedade e as principais alterações ocorridas pós-mudança societária, principalmente em relação às práticas de governança corporativa adotadas. Em função do movimento de pulverização de capital ainda ser muito recente no Brasil, o trabalho se justifica pela escassez de estudos similares no país e em empresas com estruturas pulverizadas de outras economias emergentes. O trabalho analisou casos de seis empresas nacionais, por meio de entrevistas em profundidade conduzidas com base em um questionário padrão, análise de relatórios corporativos e outros dados secundários. O trabalho apresenta dois resultados principais: em relação às motivações, observou-se que uma janela de mercado favorável, aliada ao desejo de saída dos antigos controladores, constituiu-se no fator motivador preponderante da maior parte das empresas analisadas. Em relação às mudanças nas práticas de governança corporativa, observou-se um impacto substancial no relacionamento com os acionistas após a reconfiguração societária, principalmente na participação destes nas assembléias das companhias. Além disso, como resultado geral constatou-se também que a estabilidade do cenário macro-econômico brasileiro está permitindo que o mercado de capitais cumpra o seu papel de financiar o crescimento de novas empresas. Nesse contexto, observa-se que essa forma de estrutura societária pode ser um novo modelo empresarial brasileiro, ao invés da tradicional estrutura concentrada. Entretanto, não fica claro se esta opção tornou-se viável apenas por um momento de certa "euforia" do mercado. Portanto, a viabilidade desta estrutura ainda precisará ser "testada" ao longo do tempo, o que deverá ocorrer em momentos de depressão do mercado acionário e em função da evolução do desempenho destas empresas pioneiras, que terão seus momentos críticos na tomada de grandes decisões empresariais e na substituição de suas lideranças.

This student thesis in General Management addresses how leaders can bridge the gap between work groups and teams in geographically dispersed organizations and partially distributed teams. These types of organizational structures are increasingly common in the globalized world of business, and bring benefits to many organizations by for example connecting skilled workers regardless of their location through the means of information and communications technology. However, previous research within the field of work in dispersed settings has identified several challenges that these settings entail, including areas like for example group cohesion and motivation. If not handled, these challenges may have negative effects on team performance and organizational effectiveness. Previous studies have mostly targeted the challenges in isolation. The purpose of this study is to provide a holistic perspective, connecting different challenges in order to pinpoint reasons and effects. By identifying consequences that follow from being geographically dispersed and investigating how the challenges affect a real-world organization, the study aims to suggest countermeasures to deal with these consequences. Theory is built using Informed Grounded Theory, based on primary data from 21 in-depth interviews conducted at a Swedish high tech company. Through an analysis combining the primary data with secondary data stemming from relevant literature, the study presents conclusions including suggested countermeasures to overcome challenges imposed by work in dispersed settings. The study identifies communication as the key factor with possibility to affect group cohesion and motivation directly, and thereby also performance indirectly. Thoughtful use of different types of communication can in fact counteract challenges and lead to increased productivity and well-being. The study has implications for organizations that are planning for, or currently utilizing a dispersed organizational structure, and aids in understanding the collected effects of the challenges involved. The study is conducted at one company, which can be seen as a limitation. To counteract for this limitation, the researchers have put in effort to emphasize generalizable factors.

Les alginates, polysaccharides extraits des algues brunes, sont des copolymères à blocs linéaires formés d'unités mannuronates (M) et guluronates (G). Leur structure dépend de la source naturelle. La complexation de cations divalents ou trivalents (sauf Mg2+) par les fonctions carboxylates conduit à la formation d'un hydrogel. Pour approfondir l'étude de la formation des gels ionotropiques d'alginate, des hydrogels et des aérogels séchés en conditions supercritiques ont été caractérisés à plusieurs échelles par différentes techniques. L'analyse orbitalaire ab initio de petits complexes a montré la formation de liaisons covalentes fortes avec les métaux de transition alors que les alcalino-terreux ne mettent en jeu que des interactions électrostatiques. Selon le rapport M/G et la nature des cations, différents régimes structuraux ont pu être identifiés par des mesures SAXS (~10-200Å) : des gels fibrillaires ou formés d'agglomérats interconnectés. Les propriétés mécaniques des hydrogels et les surfaces spécifiques des aérogels correspondants sont directement reliées à ces morphologies. La présence simultanée de plusieurs métaux dans les gels peut induire des effets coopératifs dans la formation mais aussi dans les propriétés des matériaux. De nouvelles méthodes ont été mises au point pour contrôler la synthèse de gels hétéro-cationiques, en considérant les effets d'affinité.Sur la base de cette étude, des synthèses originales de matériaux fonctionnels nano-structurés ont été développées. Certains ont été construits directement dans le réseau d'alginate en exploitant les cations de gélification ; d'autres ont nécessité le sacrifice de la matrice pour former des oxydes simples ou mixtes nanocristallins. / Alginates, polysaccharides produced by brown algae, are linear block-copolymers formed by mannuronate (M) and guluronate (G) units. Their structure depends on the natural source. The coordination of divalent or trivalent cations (except Mg2+) with the carboxylate functions leads to the formation of a hydrogel. In order to get some insight in ionotropic alginate gel formation, hydrogels and supercritical dried aerogels were analysed through various characterizations at different scales. The ab initio molecular orbital analysis on small complexes revealed strong coordination-covalent bonds in the transition metal complexes, whereas only ionic interaction occurs between the alkaline-earth cations and the carboxylates. Depending on the M/G ratio and the nature of the cation, different structural regimes were identified by SAXS analysis (~10-200Å) : well-defined fibrillar gels or gels with multiple junction nature. The mechanical properties of the hydrogels and surface areas of the resulting aerogels are directly related to these morphologies. The concomitant presence of different metals in the gel can bring cooperative effect for the formation but also for the properties of the materials. New methods to control the synthesis of hetero-cationic gels were implemented, taking into account the affinity effects. On the basis of this study, we developed new nanostructured functional materials synthesis. Some were built directly in the alginate network using the gelling cations. Others needed to sacrifice the matrix to form nanocrystalline single or mixed oxides.

Dispersed particle flows are encountered in many biological, geophysical but also in industrial situations, e.g. during processing of materials. In these flows, the particles usually are non-spherical and their angular dynamics play a crucial role for the final material properties. Generally, the angular dynamics of a particle is dependent on the local flow in the frame-of-reference of this particle. In this frame, the surrounding flow can be linearized and the linear velocity gradient will determine how the particle rotates. In this thesis, the main objective is to improve the fundamental knowledge of the angular dynamics of non-spherical particles related to two specific biobased material processes. Firstly, the flow of suspended cellulose fibers in a papermaking process is used as a motivation. In this process, strong shear rates close to walls and the size of the fibers motivates the study of inertial effects on a single particle in a simple shear flow. Through direct numerical simulations combined with a global stability analysis, this flow problem is approached and all stable rotational states are found for spheroidal particles with aspect ratios ranging from moderately slender fibers to thin disc-shaped particles. The second material process of interest is the production of strong cellulose filaments produced through hydrodynamic alignment and assembly of cellulose nanofibrils (CNF). The flow in the preparation process and the small size of the particles motivates the study of alignment and rotary diffusion of CNF in a strain flow. However, since the particles are smaller than the wavelength of visible light, the dynamics of CNF is not easily captured with standard optical techniques. With a new flow-stop experiment, rotary diffusion of CNF is measured using Polarized optical microscopy. This process is found to be quite complicated, where short-range interactions between fibrils seem to play an important role. New time-resolved X-ray characterization techniques were used to target the underlying mechanisms, but are found to be limited by the strong degradation of CNF due to the radiation. Although the results in this thesis have limited direct applicability, they provide important fundamental stepping stones towards the possibility to control fiber orientation in flows and can potentially lead to new tailor-made materials assembled from a nano-scale. / <p>QC 20160929</p>

Thesis advisor: Susanto Basu / Thesis advisor: Peter Ireland / This dissertation consists of three independent chapters analyzing the role that information and credit frictions play in goods and financial markets. Within these chapters, I develop dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models to study the implications of these frictions on the macroeconomy, both at the national and international level. In the first chapter, I provide a novel explanation for the observed large and persistent fluctuations in real exchange rates using a model with noisy, dispersed information among price-setting firms. Chapter two studies how entrepreneurs' attitudes towards risk affect business cycles in a framework with agency frictions between borrowers and lenders. Finally, chapter three introduces a liquidity channel in a business cycle model with agency frictions to rationalize the highly volatile behavior of default recovery rates observed in the data. Real exchange rates have been extremely volatile and persistent since the end of the Bretton Woods system. For many developed economies, real exchange rates are as volatile as nominal exchange rates, and their fluctuations exhibit a half-life in the range of three to five years. Traditional sticky-price models struggle to jointly account for these features under plausible nominal rigidities (Chari, Kehoe, and McGrattan, 2002). Is it possible to reconcile, in a single framework, the enormous short-term volatility of the real exchange rate with its extremely long half-life? The first chapter of this dissertation addresses this question within a framework in which information is noisy and heterogeneous among price-setting firms. In this context, the continuing uncertainty that firms face about the state of the economy and about the beliefs of their competitors, slows down the price adjustment in response to nominal shocks, generating large and long-lived real exchange rate movements. I estimate the model using real output and output deflator data from the US and the Euro Area and show, as an out-of-sample test, that the model successfully explains the observed volatility and persistence of the Euro/Dollar real exchange rate. In a Bayesian model comparison, I show that the data strongly favor the dispersed information model relative to a sticky-price model à la Calvo. The model also accounts for the persistent effects of monetary shocks on the real exchange rate that I document using a structural vector autoregression. The second chapter, joint with Mikhail Dmitriev, studies how entrepreneurs' attitudes towards risk affect business cycles in a model with agency frictions. Entrepreneurs are inevitably exposed to non-diversified risk, which likely affects their willingness to borrow and to invest in risky projects. Nevertheless, the financial friction literature has paid little attention to how entrepreneurs' desire to take on this risk affects their investment choices in a general-equilibrium setting. Indeed, business cycle models with credit market frictions that feature idiosyncratic risk assume, for tractability, that entrepreneurs are risk neutral (Bernanke, Gertler, and Gilchrist, 1999, BGG). In this chapter, we generalize the BGG framework to the case of entrepreneurs with constant-relative-risk-aversion preferences. In doing so, we overcome the aggregation challenges of this setup and maintain an analytically tractable, log-linear framework. Our main result is that higher risk aversion stabilizes business cycle fluctuations in response to financial shocks, such as wealth redistribution or risk shocks, without significantly affecting the dynamic responses to technology and monetary shocks. Our findings suggest that, within this class of models, the ability of financial shocks to account for a large portion of short-run output fluctuations found in previous work (e.g., Christiano, Motto, and Rostagno (2014)) crucially hinges on borrowers' risk neutrality. The third chapter, joint with Mikhail Dmitriev, examines the implications of the cyclical properties of default recovery rates for aggregate fluctuations. We document that recovery rates after default in the United States are highly volatile and strongly pro-cyclical. These facts are hard to reconcile with the existing financial friction literature. Indeed, models with limited enforceability à la Kiyotaki and Moore (1997) do not feature defaults and recovery rates in equilibrium, while agency costs models following Bernanke, Gertler, and Gilchrist (1999) underestimate the volatility of recovery rates by one order of magnitude. In this chapter, we extend the standard agency costs model allowing liquidation costs for creditors to depend on the tightness of the market for physical capital. Creditors do not have expertise in selling entrepreneurial assets, but when buyers are plentiful, this disadvantage is minimal. Instead when sellers are abundant, the disadvantage of being an outsider is higher. Following a negative shock, entrepreneurs sell capital and liquidation costs for creditors increase, driving down recovery rates. With higher liquidation costs, creditors cut lending and cause entrepreneurs to sell even more capital. This liquidity channel works independently from standard balance sheet effects, and amplifies the impact of financial shocks on output by up to 50 percent. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

This study utilizes major-, trace- and rare earth elements, as well as radiogenic isotopes (Rb-Sr, Sm-Nd, Pb), in bulk sediment, extracted glass shards, and discrete ash layers, at Ocean Drilling Program Site 1149 (Izu-Bonin Arc), Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 52 (Mariana Arc), and Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Sites C0011 and C0012 (Nankai Trough) in order to characterize and quantify the abundance of dispersed ash, rather than discrete ash layers, in sediments from the Northwest Pacific Ocean. Combination of the geochemical methods with multivariate statistical techniques, such as Q-mode Factor Analysis and multiple linear regressions, allows for differentiation of unique chemistries of the dispersed ash, and the terrigenous components. Therefore, we can document sources that change through time and space. At Site 1149 the bulk sediment is a mixture of two dust and two dispersed ash sources. The two dust sources show contrasting accumulation patterns changing over at a tectonically and climactically active time in Earth's past (~22 Ma) and yield a more complete history of Asian aridity than has been previously considered. We interpret the source of the ashes as basalt from the Izu-Bonin Front Arc (IBFA) and rhyolite from the Honshu Arc (HR). Comparison of the dispersed ash component to the discrete ash layers suggests that eruption frequency, rather than eruption size, drives the dispersed ash record. In contrast, at Site 52 Chinese Loess, IBFA, dispersed boninite from the Izu-Bonin arc, and a dispersed felsic ash of unknown origin are the sources. Interestingly, there are no boninite layers, yet boninite is dispersed within the sediment. Changes in the volcanic and eolian inputs through time indicate strong arc- and climate-related controls. The bulk sediment at Site C0011 is characterized by eolian dust, HR, and a dacite of unknown origin. Site C0012 is comprised of eolian dust, a dacite of unknown origin, as well as dacite and andesite from the Izu-Bonin Arc. Analysis of the total ash record at these two sites provides insight into subduction zone mass balance and water budgets as well as information about the changes in physical properties that result from the alteration of volcanic ash.

Two different systems of corporate governance globally coexist - the concentrated ownership system and the dispersed ownership system. The dissertation focuses on the history of companies and large economic entities. Attention is also paid to the relationship between the state and corporations. The importance of the first regulation of joint stock companies is discussed as well. Governance of large corporations is described and analyzed. The presented non-legal reasons for the existence of two systems of corporate governance are also summarized. Particular attention is paid to the legal preconditions for the dispersed ownership. Common law and civil law are compared. The differences in law of corporations (company law) are extensively analyzed - co-determination, fiduciary duties, piercing of corporate veil, board and independent directors. Detailed attention is focused on executive pay (remuneration / compensation).