O presente trabalho analisa a implantação de uma metodologia de cobrança pelo uso da água no qual os aspectos econômicos e ambientais são considerados como variáveis fundamentais na determinação do valor a ser cobrado. Evidencia formas de mensurar a capacidade de pagamento dos usuários de água, a fim de confrontar este dado com os valores da cobrança. Os resultados apontam que dependendo do grau de saturação do corpo d\'água, mesmo com capacidade de pagamento positiva, alguns setores teriam dificuldades de honrar com o pagamento de cobrança, o que evidencia a importância de um processo de gestão que considere o binômio localização - tipologia no processo de tomada de decisão quanto à implantação de atividades econômicas. Outro aspecto interessante se refere a elasticidade preço da demanda. Dependendo das condições de elasticidade uma unidade de produção, mesmo com situação financeira precária, estaria em condições de honrar com o pagamento da cobrança. / This study analyses the introduction of a method for levied on the use of water in which economic and environmental aspect, are considered as basic variables in the determination of the amount to be charged. It presents various ways for measuring the willingness of the users to pay for water in order to compare it to the the charges levied. The willingness to pay is an important mechanism for obtaining information about the economic impact of the policy of levying taxes. The results show that, depending upon the saturation degree of the water bodies, some sectors would have difficulty in paying the charges even when they show positive willingness to pay. It shows the importance of a management policy that considers the duality site-type in the decision-making process as regards the implantation of economic activities. Elasticity in demand prices is another important factor in this process. Depending upon the conditions of elasticity, a production unit would be able to honor its tax liabilities despit its delicate financial situation.

In this dissertation, we first provide a short introduction to qualitative homogenization of elliptic equations and systems. We collect relevant and known results regarding elliptic equations and systems with rapidly oscillating, periodic coefficients, which is the classical setting in homogenization of elliptic equations and systems. We extend several classical results to the so called case of perforated domains and consider materials reinforced with soft inclusions. We establish quantitative H1-convergence rates in both settings, and as a result deduce large-scale Lipschitz estimates and Liouville-type estimates for solutions to elliptic systems with rapidly oscillating periodic bounded and measurable coefficients. Finally, we connect these large-scale estimates with local regulartity results at the microscopic-level to achieve interior Lipschitz regularity at every scale.

Cette thèse a permis d’évaluer l’effet des changements de morphologie d’un matériau cimentaire soumis à un traitement thermique jusqu’à T (≤ 400°C). Pour cela, nous avons caractérisé expérimentalement le comportement mécanique (en compression uniaxiale, compression hydrostatique avec ou sans déviateur), poro-mécanique (modules d’incompressibilité Kb, Ks et coefficient de Biot b) et hydraulique (perméabilité au gaz), d’un mortier modèle E/C=0,5 suite à un cycle de chauffage/refroidissement. Les essais mécaniques multiaxiaux sont couplés aux mesures de perméabilité, qui servent d’indicateur de la progression de la fissuration du matériau sous contrainte. Nous avons également mis au point un essai original, permettant de quantifier le volume de l’espace poreux interconnecté sous chargement hydrostatique Pc. La création de porosité occluse sous l’effet d’un accroissement du confinement est confirmée, et ainsi la diminution de la rigidité de la matrice solide Ks avec Pc après traitement thermique T>200°C. Nous avons également identifié un effet bouchon (aucun passage de gaz) lors d’un chargement couplé, thermique et en compression hydrostatique du mortier mais aussi de bétons industriels (CERIB et ANDRA). Afin d’analyser l’évolution des propriétés mécaniques et poro-élastiques après traitement thermique, un modèle prédictif thermo-élasto-plastique avec endommagement isotrope et une approche micro-mécanique descriptive, intégrant la présence de micro-fissures, y sont couplés / This work investigates the effects of morphological changes of a cement-based material subjected to heat treatment (up to 400°C). For a model W/C=0.5 mortar, we have characterized experimentally hydraulic behaviour (gas permeability), mechanical behaviour (in uniaxial compression, hydrostatic compression with or without deviatoric stress) and poro-mechanical behaviour (incompressibility moduli Kb, Ks and Biot’s coefficient b) after a heating/cooling cycle. We have also developed an original experiment aimed at quantifying the accessible pore space volume under hydrostatic compression. The creation of occluded porosity under high confinement is confirmed, which justifies the observed decrease of solid matrix rigidity Ks under high confinement. A gas retention phenomenon was identified under simultaneous thermal and hydrostatic loadings for mortar, and industrial concretes (provided by CERIB and ANDRA). A predictive thermo-elasto-plastic model with isotropic damage and a micro-mechanical approach, which represents micro-cracking, are coupled in order to analyze or predict the evolution of mechanical and poro-elastic properties after heat cycling

The past two decades has witnessed growing interest in physics based techniques in computer vision, computer graphics and medical imaging. The main advantage of a physical model is its mathematical rigor and physical soundness, which makes it an ideal tool to study complex nonrigid motion. However, since a model based on continuum mechanics is computationally demanding, an idealized framework is often adopted where physical motion parameters are significantly simplified, which inevitably affects the accuracy and reliability of modeling results. In this study, a new modeling approach is developed that features the reconstruction of actual material properties such as the Young's modulus and the Poisson's ratio. Justified by the constitutive law and mathematical considerations, the Young's modulus is identified as a unique physical motion parameter. By imposing an adaptive smoothness constraint, the Young's modulus helps preserve the local characteristics (discontinuity) of an object's deformation, a role similar to the weighting coefficient in the study of edge-preserving visual surface reconstruction. The contribution of this work is fourfold: (1) two recovery algorithms are developed to solve the inverse elastic problem: A deterministic algorithm that is based on the Gauss-Newton method and the general cross validation, and a stochastic algorithm that is based on the constrained genetic evolution; (2) a new modeling approach is proposed that has the ability to recover nonrigid motion in terms of the physical parameters. The use of recovered parameters can be implemented within a boundary-driven motion synthesis scheme; (3) A sensitivity method is proposed to evaluate the impact of different parameters. The method uses the adjoint state equation and hence is suitable for large scale models. (4) the proposed modeling approach has been applied to burn scar assessment and face recognition.

Previous studies have shown that characteristics like gender and ethnicity can affect the possibility to be hired. Decisions in hiring may also be justified by weighting the importance of hiring criteria and can thus seem unbiased. In other areas, bias due to political affiliation have been noted to be even more pronounced than bias due to ethnicity. However, effects of candidates’ political affiliation in hiring are not equally researched. This study aimed to fill this blank. Participants (N= 283) were randomized to a between-subjects design; A third read a resumé from a candidate affiliating with the The Left Party, a third read a resumé from a candidate affiliating with The Sweden Democrats, a party at the right end of the spectrum, and a third read a resumé from a candidate with no political affiliation. After reading the resumés, participants evaluated the hireability of their candidate. They also stated which hiring criteria, experience or education, was considered most important in this evaluation. Results showed that participants evaluated candidates with divergent political affiliation from the own as less hireable than candidates with unknown political affiliation, or a politicalaffiliation more similar to the own. Cues of political affiliation may thus be a disadvantage for an individual, applying for a job. However, biased evaluations were not justified to seem unbiased by weighting criteria. It is suggested that social norms do not imply hiding political bias to the same degree as bias due to for example gender or ethnicity.

Streaming video has strong availability requirements, while for livestreamed video low latency becomes an additional significant factor. For large-scale video streaming the streaming service must be able to scale in and out in order to conform to the interchanging demands of users. Video streaming demonstrates heavily fluctuating load, where number of viewers may increase exponentially within a few minutes. In combination with the high availability guarantees suggests that the problem is non-trivial.This thesis covers the issues of providing a cost-effective distributed live video streaming application that guarantees a seamless user experience. For instance, there are multiple channels, in the order of hundred, where each has an ever changing popularity and furthermore, users are able to watch content which was streamed for some number of hours ago. Thus, the system must both provide cached streams as well as the live-stream.In this thesis, an elasticity-providing solution for live video streaming is presented. The solution is a combination of rule-based reactive algorithm for channel distribution and a predictive method for VM instance provisioning. The results show that the algorithm, when simulating 15 channels with 80000 viewers and 50 instances, keeps underallocation of channels at less than 1% while achieving significant reduction of about 125% for channel occurrences and thereby bandwidth consumption compared to the previous channel distribution solution. As the video streaming service scales in terms of number of channels and VM instances, the reduction factor increases. / Videoströmmingstjänster har starka krav på tillgänglighet, medan för live-strömmad video blir låg latens också signifikant. För storskalig videoströmmning måste tjänsten kunna skala in och ut för att överensstämma med användarnas växlande krav. Videoströmmning visar starkt varierande belastning, där antalet tittare kan öka exponentiellt inom några minuter. I kombination med de höga tillgänglighetsgarantierna antyder att problemet inte är trivialt.Denna avhandling täcker problemen med att tillhandahålla en kostnadseffektiv distribuerad live-videoströmmningstjänst som garanterar en sömlös användarupplevelse. Till exempel finns det flera kanaler, i storleksordningen hundra, där var och en har en ständigt förändrande popularitet. Därtill tillkommer dessutom att användare har möjligheten titta på innehåll som strömmats för några timmar sedan. Således måste systemet både tillhandahålla cachade strömmar såväl som direktsändning.I denna avhandling presenteras en elasticitetslösning för live video streaming. Lösningen är en kombination av en regelbaserad reaktiv algorithm för kanaldistribution och en prediktiv metod för VM-instans allokering. Resultaten visar att algoritmen, vid en simulering med 15 kanaler, 80000 tittare och 50 instanser, klarar att hålla underallokering av kanaler lägre än 1% samtidigt som totala antalet kanalinstanser reduceras med ungefär 125% jämfört med den tidigare kanaldistributionslösningen. Allteftersom videostreamingstjänsten skalar i antal kanaler och VM-instanser ökar reduktionsfaktorn ytterligare.

This study examines which monetary aggregates, namely nominal M0, M1 and M2, can be used by the People’s Bank of China to conduct monetary policy. The model includes real M0, M1 and M2 as the dependent variable respectively and their determinants, such as real income, real inflation rate, and real rate of one-year saving deposit. Johansen (1988) and Johansen and Juselius’s (1990) procedures are used to estimate the long-run relationship between the monetary aggregates and their variables. Short-run model is applied to M0, M1 and M2 respectively to see whether the error term is negative to validate the significance of the long-run relationship using the Ordinary Least Square estimation.

This thesis consists of three independent essays, unified by the common theme of the distributional impacts of government. The first paper estimates the price elasticity of demand for pharmaceuticals amongst high-income older people in Australia. It exploits a natural experiment by which some people gained entitlement to a price reduction through the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC). The preferred model is a nonlinear Instrumental Variable (IV) difference-in-difference regression, estimated on repeated cross sectional survey data using the Generalised Method of Moments. No significant evidence is found for endogenous card take-up, and so cross-sectional estimates are also considered. Taking all of the results and possible sources of bias into account, the ??headline?? estimate is -0.1, implying that quantity demanded is not highly responsive to price. The elasticity estimate is a key input into the second paper which analyses the distributional impact of the CSHC. I consider the trade-off between moral hazard and risk pooling. There have been few previous attempts internationally to address this trade-off empirically for any health insurance scheme. The utility gain through risk-pooling is found to be negligible. However, the deadweight loss through moral hazard may be considerable. I also use an illustrative model to demonstrate the possible effects of the CSHC on inter-temporal savings behaviour. While the CSHC may induce some people to save, it may have the opposite effect on others. The net impact was not determined. The third paper estimates the Australian public sector wage premium. It includes a detailed critical review of the methods available to address this issue. The chosen approach is a quasi-differenced panel data model, estimated by nonlinear IV, which has many advantages over other methods and has not been used before for this topic. I find a positive average public sector wage premium for both sexes. The best estimates are 10.0% for men and 7.1% for women. The estimate for men is statistically significant (p < 0.04) and borders on significance for women (p < 0.07). No evidence is found to suggest that the public sector has an equalising effect on the wages of its workers.

We present an implicit a-posteriori finite element procedure to compute bounds for functional outputs of finite element solutions in large strain elasticity. The method proposed relies on the existence of a potential energy functional whose local minima, over a space of suitably chosen continuous functions, corresponds to the problem solution. The output of interest is cast as a constrained minimization problem over an enlarged discontinuous finite element space. A Lagrangian is formed were the multipliers are an adjoint solution, which enforces equilibrium, and hybrid fluxes, which constrain the solution to be continuous. By computing approximate values for the multipliers on a coarse mesh, strict upper and lower bounds for the output of interest on a suitably refined mesh, are obtained. This requires a minimization over a discontinuous space, which can be carried out locally at low cost. The computed bounds are uniformly valid regardless of the size of the underlying coarse discretization. The method is demonstrated with two applications involving large strain plane stress incompressible neo-hookean hyperelasticity. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

The elasticity of a Krull domain R is equivalent to the elasticity of the block monoid B(G,S), where G is the divisor class group of R and S is the set of elements of G containing a height-one prime ideal of R. Therefore the elasticity of R can by studied using the divisor class group. In this dissertation, we will study infinite divisor class groups to determine the elasticity of the associated Krull domain. The results will focus on the divisor class groups Z, Z(p infinity), Q, and general infinite groups. For the groups Z and Z(p infinity), it has been determined which distributions of the height-one prime ideals will make R a half-factorial domain (HFD). For the group Q, certain distributions of height-one prime ideals are proven to make R an HFD. Finally, the last chapter studies general infinite groups and groups involving direct sums with Z. If certain conditions are met, then the elasticity of these divisor class groups is the same as the elasticity of simpler divisor class groups.