Les problèmes environnementaux attire depuis longtemps l’attention du milieu académique. Cette thèse porte sur l’évaluation de la performance environnementale et l’allocation des quotas, deux problématiques importantes des problèmes environnementaux. Nous faisons appel à l’analyse d’enveloppement des données (data envelopment analysis (DEA) en anglais) qui est un outil de programmation mathématique connu pour évaluer l’efficacité des groupes de décideurs - DMUs (decision making units). Plus précisément, les modèles à gain total nul (zero sum gains (ZSG) en anglais), les modèles centralisés et à frontière uniforme sont des techniques souvent utilisées pour l’évaluation de la performance environnementale et l’allocation des quotas. En revanche, les modèles ZSG-DEA existants sont non linéaires, ce qui engendre des goulets d’étranglement dans l’application réelle. En outre, l’approche à frontière uniforme proposée par Gomes and Lins (2008) ne s’applique qu’au cas avec une sortie indésirable unique de la technologie de production et sous l’hypothèse de rendements d’échelle variables (variable returns-to-scale (VRS) en anglais). De plus elle ne peut pas prendre en compte l’intérêt global des DMUs, tandis que les modèles centralisés se concentrent uniquement sur l’intérêt global et ignorent les intérêts individuels.Cette thèse présente nos trois contributions principales sur ces deux sujets. Le premier travail (chapitre 3) met l’accent sur l’évaluation de la performance environnementale. Les modèles ZSG-DEA existants sont transformés pour la première fois en modèles linéaires ou linéaires paramétrés grâce à des propriétés analytiques. Ensuite, les modèles linéarisés sont adoptés pour évaluer la performance environnementale de 30 régions chinoises. Le deuxième travail présenté dans le chapitre 4 traite l’allocation des quotas de sorties indésirables en tenant compte des intérêts individuels. Le chapitre 5 traite le même sujet mais prend en compte en même temps les intérêts globaux et les intérêts individuels. Deux modèles ZSG-DEA améliorés sous les hypothèses VRS et CRS (constant returns-to-scale, ou rendements d’échelle constants) sont proposés dans le chapitre 4 pour surmonter l’infaisabilité des modèles existant dans la littérature. Comme la frontière uniforme joue un rôle important dans l’allocation des ressources, en nous basant sur les propriétés analytiques que nous démontrons, nous proposons un algorithme itératif pour calculer le plan d’allocation de quotas lorsque tous les DMUs forment une frontière uniforme. Ensuite, l’algorithme est testé avec une étude empirique sur l’allocation des trois types de déchets industriels parmi 30 régions chinoises. Enfin, le chapitre 5 développe une méthode innovante à deux étapes pour l’attribution de la réduction des émissions de carbone (carbon emission abatement (CEA) en anglais). La méthode proposée est appliquée pour l’attribution de CEAs parmi les pays de l’OCDE. / The environmental problems have drawn academia’s attention for a long time. This thesis focuses on environmental performance evaluation and quota allocation, which are two crucial issues of the environmental problems. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a mathematical programming tool to evaluate the relative efficiencies of decision making units (DMUs). Specifically, the techniques such as zero sum gains (ZSG) DEA models, centralized DEA models and the uniform frontier are used in environmental performance evaluation and quota allocation. Nevertheless, the ZSG-DEA models in the literature are nonlinear ones, which bring up bottlenecks in real application. In addition, the uniform frontier proposed by Gomes and Lins (2008) can only allocate single undesirable output under variable returns-to-scale (VRS) assumption and it pays no attention to the overall interest, while the centralized models merely concentrate on the overall interest and ignore individual ones.This thesis mainly consists of three works about two topics. The first topic (Chapter 3) focuses on environmental performance evaluation. For the first time, the existing ZSG-DEA models are transformed into linear or parametric linear ones through objective substitution and analytical properties. Then the linearized models are adopted to evaluate the environmental efficiencies of 30 administrative regions in China. The second topic focuses on quota allocation of undesirable outputs with consideration of the individual interests (Chapter 4) or the overall and individual interests (Chapter 5). Two improved ZSG-DEA models under VRS and constant returns-to-scale (CRS) assumptions are proposed to overcome the infeasibility of the existing models. As the uniform frontier plays an important role in resource allocation, based on the analyses of models’ properties, an iterative algorithm is devised to calculate the quota allocation plan when all the DMUs form a uniform frontier. Then the algorithm is tested by an empirical study of allocating the quotas of three industrial wastes for 30 administrative regions in China. Finally, Chapter 5 develops a novel two-step method of allocating carbon emissions abatement (CEA). In the empirical example, the proposed method is applied to the CEAs allocation for the countries in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

These study objectives were to evaluate the effects of: initial bodyweight, energy supplementation, distance and days traveled and hair coat shedding on performance and health. Crossbred heifers (n=120) were purchased as either lightweight (136 kg) or heavyweight (226 kg) calves. Factors affecting morbidity and growth were tested using Poisson or linear regression (PROC GLIMMIX), with a correlation structure defining clustering by pen. Incidence density was 53.7/103 calf-days and 19.0/103 calf-days for light and heavy initial BW, respectively. Lightweight calves were 2.8 times more likely to be treated for BRD (p=0.02) and each increase in hair shed score increased risk for BRD 1.6 times (p=0.04). Initial BW did not affect gain (P=0.573), but heifers receiving supplementation gained 5.84 kg more than heifers not receiving supplement (P=0.005). Cattle that received LOW HS (n=14) had higher total gain (P=.00016), and ADG (P=.00016) compared to cattle receiving shedding classification of MED to HIGH (n=106).

No description available.

For this thesis, I engage in a comprehensive study of Deaf culture by learning American Sign Language (ASL) and immersing myself within the Deaf community. My objective is to gain insights into their unique modes of interaction, daily lives, and spatial preferences. The research is motivated by the aspiration to apply this profound understanding to the design of a deaf-friendly academic building on Gallaudet University's campus. It is also motivated by the multi-sensory experience of architecture and it's impact on the users experiencing the space. Situated prominently in front of the historic Union Market, which serves as a gathering point for people from all corners of Washington, D.C., the envisioned building aims to bridge the gap between Gallaudet University's enclosed campus and the bustling city. Through an innovative design approach, it seeks to impart a new identity to the campus, fostering inclusivity and connectivity. The design process involves a meticulous analysis of the campus site across three distinct scales: city/campus, building, and user. Each scale informs different design moves of the proposed academic building through the exploration of the relationship between: the user and the building, the building and the campus, and the campus and the city. This approach ensures a holistic integration of new information, resulting in a structure that not only embraces DeafSpace principles but also addresses the broader context of the urban environment. Beyond architectural aesthetics, the proposed structure will play a pivotal role in revitalizing the neglected part of the campus. By integrating Hansel Bauman's DeafSpace principles, it will serve as an example of how architecture can be enabling rather than disabling through discovering what accessibility means to the Deaf community, creating a vibrant hub that harmonizes with the existing environment and brings new life into the overlooked area. This research not only contributes to a deeper understanding of Deaf culture but also showcases the potential of architectural design to facilitate meaningful connections, foster inclusivity, and rejuvenate neglected spaces within educational institutions. / Master of Architecture / For this thesis, I explore Deaf culture by learning American Sign Language (ASL) and engaging with the Deaf community. My goal is to understand their unique ways of communicating and living, which will inform the design of a new academic building at Gallaudet University, a school for the Deaf. This research is inspired by the idea that architecture can deeply affect how people experience spaces. The proposed academic building will be located near the historic Union Market in Washington, D.C., creating a connection between the university's campus and the city. This design aims to give the campus additional space that fosters inclusivity, connectivity, and accessibility. To create this design, I carefully studied the campus from three perspectives: the city and the campus, the building itself, and the individual user. This supports an understanding of how the new building interacts with its surrounding urban environment and its users. The design will incorporate DeafSpace principles, developed by architect Hansel Bauman, which focus on the specific needs of the Deaf community. The new building is intended to make the campus more accessible and welcoming, transforming an underused part of the university into a vibrant, engaging space. This project highlights how understanding Deaf culture can lead to better architectural designs that foster inclusion and revitalization within educational environments.

The transition to college has been identified as a critical period for increases in overweight status. Overweight college students are at-risk of becoming obese adults, thus prevention efforts targeting college age individuals might be one key to reducing adult obesity rates. The current study developed and implemented an intensive, 6-session, internet intervention. This intervention was evaluated with first year college students assigned randomly to one of four treatment conditions: 1) no treatment, 2) 6-week weight and caloric feedback only, 3) 6-week internet intervention, and 4) 6-week combined feedback and internet intervention. As expected, the combined intervention group had lower BMI at post-testing than the internet, feedback, and control groups. The combined intervention showed reduced snacking behaviors after dinner; however, other measures of eating and exercise behaviors and beliefs were not observed. Ethnic and gender differences were observed. African American participants had lower body dissatisfaction than White participants. Further, within the White subsample, the combined intervention group manifested reductions in binge eating symptoms and increased fiber intake compared to controls. Males reported more physical activity across all intervention arms than females. This study demonstrates the effectiveness and feasibility of an internet based intervention to prevent weight gain among college students. Future studies are needed to understand the mechanisms involved in preventing weight gain in this age group and to develop more culturally targeted interventions for diverse students.

The first topic of this thesis presents a novel VGA (variable gain amplifier) design which is applied in the AGC (automatic gain control) loop of digital video broadcasting - terrestrial (DVB-T) receivers. A total of three digital variable gain amplifiers (DVGA) are cascaded to provide a 70 dB dynamic range and 95 MHz operation frequency. The proposed digital VGA implemented by 0.35um 2P4M CMOS technology possesses 70 dB dynamic tuning range with a 0.3 dB gain error and 95 MHz bandwidth, and the power consumption is found to be 32.7 mW given a 3.3 V power supply. The second topic presents a design of a 60 ps peak-to-peak jitter, 80MHz, phase-locked loop (PLL) circuit for DVB-T receivers. The simulation results using the TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manu-facturing Company) 0.35um 2P4M CMOS process show that the proposed PLL achieves as low as 60 ps peak-to-peak jitter when the output frequency is 80 MHz and the power consumption is merely 10.5 mW given a 3.3 V power supply.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:35:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-04-18Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:07:05Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 polizelneto_a_dr_botfmvz.pdf: 959880 bytes, checksum: 6baf692c005332ccadf331237561b0e8 (MD5) / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) / Este estudo objetivou avaliar os efeitos da torta de algodão (TA) como fonte lipídica na terminação de bovinos confinados. Para tanto, foram utilizados 40 machos da raça Nelore, não-castrados, com idade média inicial de 17 meses e peso vivo médio inicial de 313,8±41,2 kg, confinados por 102 dias com dietas contendo TA ou soja (SO). A inclusão da TA foi com base no teor de extrato etéreo (EE) da dieta: 3%, 4% e 5%. Também foram testados outros dois tratamentos referências, com teores de 3% e 5% de EE, tendo SO como fonte lipídica. As médias foram comparadas por meio de quatro contrastes não ortogonais: C1 = 3SO versus 3TA; C2 = 5SO versus 5TA; C3 = 3TA versus 5TA, e C4 = 3TA + 5TA versus 4TA. Nas dietas com 3% de EE, a TA não alterou as variáveis estudadas, contudo, nas dietas com 5% de EE, os animais alimentados com TA apresentaram maior consumo de matéria seca, 8,94 para 10,3 kg/dia, e redução da eficiência alimentar, 166 g/kg com SO e 145 g/kg com TA. Porém, por ser um ingrediente de menor custo, houve redução do custo do ganho, 3,15 e 2,63 R$/kg, respectivamente para SO e TA. Maior inclusão do teor de TA na dieta propiciou aumento do peso vivo final dos animais, respectivamente, 433, 454 e 467 kg nas dietas 3TA, 4TA e 5TA; e também aumentou do consumo de matéria seca, respectivamente, 8,34, 9,90 e 10,3 kg/dia. Além de, o aumento da TA nas dietas elevou o tempo despendido em ruminação pelos animais, sem alterar o tempo gasto na alimentação. Assim, o uso da torta de algodão não alterou o ganho de peso, as características de carcaça, e o comportamento ingestivo animais, contudo, nas dietas com maior teor lipídico, a TA elevou o consumo de matéria seca, mas reduziu o custo do ganho de peso. O aumento do teor de TA na dieta elevou o ganho de peso, o consumo de matéria seca e o tempo despendido em ruminação pelos animais, sem alterar a eficiência alimentar... / This study aimed to evaluate effects of cottonseed cake (CC) inclusion as fat source in finishing diet of beef cattle. Forty Nellore males, no castrated, with 17 months of initial age and 313.8±41.2 kg of average initial weight, were finished on feedlot for 102 days with diets containing CC or soybean products (SO). CC inclusion was based on diet ether extract (EE): 3%, 4% and 5%. Others control treatments, with 3% and 5% of EE, having SO as fat source were also tested. Means were tested using four non-orthogonal contrasts: C1 = 3SO versus 3CC; C2 = 5SO versus 5CC; C3 = 3CC versus 5CC, e C4 = 3CC + 5CC versus 4CC. In diets with 3% of EE, CC did not change the variables studied, but, in diets with 5% of EE, animals fed with CC showed major dry matter intake, 8.94 to 10.3 kg/day, and gain:feed reduction, 166 g/kg to SO and 145 g/kg to CC. However, to be a cheap ingredient, promoted gain cost reduction, 3.15 and 2.63 R$/kg, respectively to SO and CC. Major CC diet inclusion increased final live weight of the animals, respectively, 433, 454 and 467 kg on 3CC, 4CC and 5CC diets; and increased dry matter intake too, respectively, 8.34, 9.90 and 10.3 kg/day. In addition, major CC on diet increased chewing time, without changed intake spending time. So, CC use did not change weight gain, carcass traits, and intake behavior, but, in high fat level diets, CC increased dry matter intake and reduced gain cost of the animals. The diet CC inclusion, increased weight gain, dry matter intake, and chewing time, without change gain:feed, gain cost, intake spending time and carcass traits of Nellore bulls, on feedlot

2 pp. / To gain weight, athletes need to consume more calories than they use. This weight gain will include water, fat, and protein in muscle. To limit the amount of fat gain and increase muscle gains, athletes need to use effective exercise training and nutrition programs.

<p>In the latest development in the field of telecommunications it has been observed that a lot is expected from the mobile systems. All kinds of communication standards such as Bluetooth, 3G, W-LAN etc. should be present in the same handset. This requires higher data transmission rates and low bit error probability. One of the major problems in achieving this is fading and multi path environment. The other problem is the growing trend of decreasing size of the electronic devices specially handsets. The handsets are getting smaller and thinner. Due to this the antennas in the device come very close to each other which causes high coupling between the antennas resulting in bad diversity gain. Antenna diversity is considered to be one of easier solution to overcome these problems. This thesis presents an implementation of receiver antenna diversity and suggests different optimised networks between the antenna ports for better diversity gain keeping in view the antenna efficiencies. The thesis involves the following steps: simulating the structures, suggesting different networks between the two antenna ports, optimisation and hardware implementation of the networks and finally measurements in reverberation chamber.</p>

Current ACOG guidelines recommend exercise during a low-risk pregnancy for 30 minutes on most, if not all days of the week. However, little is known about how the volume of exercise performed during pregnancy affects fetoplacental size. In addition, the confounding effects of maternal nutrient intake and weight gain, and how they interact with exercise volume to influence fetoplacental size have not been appropriately addressed. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of varying maternal exercise volumes on neonatal birthweight and placental volume, while addressing the influence of maternal nutrient intake and weight gain. Subjects evaluated for this study included pregnant women who walked during gestation (n=26), performed non-walking aerobic exercise during gestation (n=30), or remained as sedentary controls (n=32). At 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36 weeks gestation, women recorded their nutrient intake for 3 consecutive days. Additionally, they kept monthly exercise logs indicating the type and duration of their exercise. Nutrient variables calculated included average daily Calorie intake, average daily carbohydrate intake, average daily protein intake, average daily fat intake, and average daily fiber intake. Exercise volume was calculated as the average number of minutes per week spent performing exercise. Latent growth modeling was the statistical procedure used to analyze how change in maternal exercise volume and nutrient intake throughout gestation affects neonatal outcomes. Neonatal outcomes measured were birthweight, corrected birthweight for gestational age, sex, race, and socioeconomic status, and placental volume at delivery. Maternal walking volume had no effect on newborn birthweight or corrected birthweight, while it was inversely related to placental size at birth. Maternal non-walking aerobic exercise volume was inversely related with newborn birthweight, while there was a trend toward an inverse relationship with corrected birthweight and placental volume. Controlling for Calorie intake strengthened the relationship between any form of exercise volume and infant birthweight. Calorie intake, carbohydrate intake, and protein intake were all positively related to infant birthweight. Fiber intake was significantly inversely related to placental volume. Finally, maternal exercise volume and nutrient intake were not related to maternal weight gain. This data suggests that neonatal outcome will be affected by variations in exercise protocol. In addition, nutrient intake is a potentially confounding variable that should be examined when undertaking studies addressing the role of maternal exercise on neonatal outcome.