Yes / Financial access is gradually being recognised as an important input to economic development. Using World Bank (2007) database, this study measures the extent of financial access in developed and developing countries. Further, it develops a new Socio-Economic Development Index, which incorporates financial access. It then compares socio-economic development of various countries as shown by Human Development Index (HDI) alone and by the new index incorporating financial access. The results of the study show that Spain ranks highest in terms of financial access followed by Belgium, Malta and South Korea. In addition, the ranking of countries in terms of HDI changes if financial access is taken into account

This paper aims to explore the relationship between Foreign Direct Investments and the standard of living in terms of the Human Development Index in the region of Sub-Saharan Africa. The theory of economic growth is based on Solow. For the region of Sub-Saharan Africa, Foreign Direct Investments ought to be of great importance to finance the investments needed to achieve economic growth according to Solow. The reason for this is that the region of Sub-Saharan Africa lacks the ability to finance these investments with its own savings. The focus of the report is the Foreign Direct Investments; although the variable shows no significant correlation to the Human Development Index, there is a significant positive correlation between Foreign Direct Investments and health expenditure as a percentage of total government expenditure, one of the driving forces behind an improved Human Development Index.

Student Number : 0110634H - MPH research report - School of Public Health - Faculty of Sciences / During October 1996 to December 1999, isocyanates were the most frequently reported causative agent for occupational asthma cases (16.7% of all cases) submitted to the Surveillance of Work-Related and Occupational Respiratory Diseases in South Africa registry (SORDSA). Occupational disease surveillance registries in other countries also identified isocyanates as the most important occupational sensitiser. Asthma caused by isocyanates exposure may be severe and may persist even after exposure ceases. For this reason, it is important to identify the potentially hazardous isocyanate exposure settings, and to prevent sensitisation and asthma development where possible. Auto body repair shops, typically small, medium or micro enterprises (SMMEs), were the focus group in this study. Due to the paucity of medical surveillance and occupational hygiene programmes, there is likely to be over-exposure to isocyanates in such workplaces. The aim of this study was to identify and quantify exposure to HDI in auto body repair shops, and secondly, to describe the control measures currently used in these repair shops. The study investigated hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) exposure in the spray-painting processes of automotive repair shops in Gauteng. The repair shops were selected from the Highveld South African Motor Body Repairers’ Association (SAMBRA) membership list. Ten repair shops were included in this cross sectional study. Twelve subjects directly or indirectly involved in spray-painting in each repair shop had HDI exposure measured, resulting in a total of 113 HDI measurements. HDI monomers, prepolymers and total isocyanates determined using the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) draft method 5525 for analysis of monomeric and TRIG aliphatic isocyanates. Eighty one percent of workers were over-exposed to HDI monomers (exposure limit of 0.02mg/m3) and 3.4% to HDI prepolymers (exposure limit of 0.5mg/m3). Ninety percent of the establishments’ HDI monomer airborne concentration exceeded the OEL and 30% the prepolymer HDI concentrations. Workers were divided into 12 occupation categories according to the extent of their direct contact with the HDI-based paint and the three highest exposed groups were panel beaters, spray painters and dent-fillers. Workers directly and indirectly in contact with paint, in the auto body repair shops registered with SAMBRA were exposed to high levels of HDI during the spray painting operation. Insufficient and incorrect control measures were in place to control HDI exposure. The findings of this study confirm the risk of exposure to HDI in the automotive repair industry and the need for occupational hygiene control measures. In conclusion, high concentrations of HDI were common and even indirectly exposed workers were at risk of excessive exposure to HDI. Inadequate exposure control methods were widespread.

<p>This paper argues that there is a finiteness distinction in Hdi and that the notion is of value for a description of the language. The definition of finiteness suitable for the language has been suggested to be the one given by Anderson (2007) combined with Bisang (2007). The finite clauses are argued to be the pragmatically independent ones while the non-finite clauses are argued to be the pragmatically dependent. However, no morphological reductions were found in the non-finite clauses relative to the finite ones. What is more, negation in Hdi shows a nontypical behaviour regarding finiteness properties as there are aspectual distinctions made for dependent clauses that are not made for independent. Verbless clauses and imperatives may be viewed as finite and non-finite depending on their capacity to licence independent predication or, alternatively, they may be viewed as not displaying finiteness properties at all. The latter is argued to be preferred in order to avoid a redundant definition of finiteness.</p>

This thesis focuses on current approaches to the measurement of poverty. The aim of the thesis is to evaluate if measuring poverty indicators and quality of life indicators used by United Nations Development Programme and Eurostat are meaningful enough. The theoretical part is an analysis of chosen indicators. The theoretical knowledge is followed by practical part, comparing poverty levels in member states of the European Union, and giving deeper insight into the analysis of sub-indicators. Furthermore, the thesis looks at informative value connected to mutual relations among the indicators. The comparison reveals that the level of human development is negatively related to aspects such as insufficient economic growth, inequality and low level of wealth redistribution. From an analytical point of view, new multi-criteria indicators are useful enough for the purpose of research on this topic, in spite of certain imperfections.

There is a strong concern about the environmental and social impacts ­­­of land use changes caused by sugarcane expansion. This research aims to assess the land use changes caused by sugarcane expansion in the State of São Paulo in the last five years, as well as predicting land use changes in the coming years. In addition, this research evaluates the social impacts of sugarcane expansion. The assessment of land use changes was made through GIS analysis. First, the changes during the last five years were evaluated. Based on this information, the land use changes for the coming years were estimated. The social impacts of sugarcane expansion were evaluated by studying the correlation between Human Development Index (HDI) and the sugarcane expansion. The results confirm that sugarcane crop expanded about 1.85 million hectares between 2003 and 2008. About 62% of this expansion replaced areas used for agricultural crop in 2003, and about 34% replaced areas used for pasture in 2003. Three scenarios were created in order to estimate sugarcane expansion in the coming years. In the first scenario, sugarcane would expand about 0.9 million hectares in three years; in the second scenario, 1.1 million hectares in four years; and in the third scenario, 1.4 million hectares in six years. In each scenario, about 70% of the expansion would take place in areas used for agricultural crops in 2003, and 40% in areas used for pasture in 2003. The sugarcane expansion caused a significant and positive impact on the income dimension of HDI for regions with a very low level of development. For regions of medium and high level of development, the HDI impact was not significant. In addition, a slightly negative impact on the longevity dimension of HDI was observed.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(エネルギー科学) / 甲第20015号 / エネ博第338号 / 新制||エネ||68(附属図書館) / 33111 / 京都大学大学院エネルギー科学研究科エネルギー社会・環境科学専攻 / (主査)教授 石原 慶一, 教授 宇根﨑 博信, 准教授 MCLELLAN Benjamin / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Energy Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

Submitted by Valquíria Barbieri (kikibarbi@hotmail.com) on 2017-05-12T18:33:19Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DISS_2015_Rodicrisller Rodrigues.pdf: 2841204 bytes, checksum: 1323b47d2b97ea08fb569431626c4ed1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Jordan (jordanbiblio@gmail.com) on 2017-05-18T16:24:38Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DISS_2015_Rodicrisller Rodrigues.pdf: 2841204 bytes, checksum: 1323b47d2b97ea08fb569431626c4ed1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-18T16:24:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISS_2015_Rodicrisller Rodrigues.pdf: 2841204 bytes, checksum: 1323b47d2b97ea08fb569431626c4ed1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-09-30 / Com a difusão dos dispositivos eletrônicos e a facilidade na troca de informações qualquer projeto científico usa dados oriundos de diversas fontes. Nesse contexto, dados científicos possuem aspectos semânticos inerentes ao seu processo de aquisição e área de domínio, de forma que para trabalhar com conjuntos de dados de origens diferentes é preciso resolver o problema da heterogeneidade semântica entre eles. Este trabalho enfoca a mitigação da heterogeneidade em dados científicos através do uso de infraestruturas virtuais de Computação Científica. O objetivo principal é demonstrar que soluções em nuvem computacional possuem os requisitos necessários para atender às demandas atuais de um contexto de Computação Científica e e-Science, de forma a facilitar a troca e interação de dados entre contextos heterogêneos / With the diffusion of electronic devices and the facility in exchange of information any scientific project uses data from different sources. In this context, scientific data have semantic aspects inherent to the process of acquisition and domain area, in such a way to work with different sources of data sets is necessary to solve the problem of semantic heterogeneity between them. This work focuses on the mitigation of the heterogeneity on scientific data using virtual infrastructures for Scientific Computing. The main objective is to demonstrate that computational cloud solutions have the necessary requirements to meet the current demands of the context of Scientific Computing and e-Science, in order to facilitate the exchange and interaction of data between heterogeneous environments.

A plethora of multi-copter drones can be found in a variety of public and private sectors in society; crime detection, border guard, agricultural inspections, aerial photography, cinematography, television, and entertainment. Unlike commercial drones, ornithopters - flapping bird-like drones - have a very different materiality. The different aesthetics and flight dynamics of these machines require designers to rethink the design space of this kind of drone. This study aims to map out the preliminary design space of ornithopters and explore their interesting flight dynamics and material qualities. Participants were invited to a workshop to build and fly three different ornithopters and reflect on the ornithopters and their experiences while flying them. This thesis presents a series of insights into ornithopters, especially their unique materiality. The unique materials used in ornithopters, such as balsa wood, polystyrene, nylon and carbon fiber, allow them to fly more efficiently and withstand the forces of flight. Finally, I argue that designers can embrace the design space of ornithopters by creating features that amplify the unique and unpredictable movements of the machine, which could lead to new and innovative designs. This would work towards a celebration of non-uniformity of morphologies and movements in an ecosystem of biologically-inspired flying robots. / En mängd av multirotor drönare kan hittas i olika offentliga och privata sektorer i samhället; brottsbekämpning, gränskontroller, jordbruksinspektioner, flygfotografering, filmproduktion, television och underhållning. Till skillnad från kommersiella drönare har ornithoptorer - fågelliknande flaxande drönare - en helt annorlunda materialitet. De olika estetiska och flygdynamiska egenskaperna hos dessa maskiner kräver att designers omprövar designutrymmet för denna typ av drönare. Denna studie syftar till att kartlägga det preliminära designutrymmet för ornithoptorer och utforska deras intressanta flygdynamik och materialkvaliteter. Deltagare var inbjudna till en workshop för att bygga och flyga tre olika ornithoptar och för att observera deras upplevelse att flyga med dem. Detta arbete omfattar ett antal insikter om ornithoptar, speciellt deras unika materialitet. De unika material som används i ornithoptar, såsom balsaträ, polystyren, nylon och kolfiber, tillåter de att flyga mera effektivt och motstå krafterna i flygningen. Slutligen argumenterar jag att designers kan ta tillvara designutrymmet av ornithoptar genom att skapa egenskaper som amplifierar de unika och oförutsägbara rörelserna av maskinerna, vilket skulle leda till nya och innovativa designer. Detta skulle bidra till en hyllning av icke uniformitet av morfologier och rörelser i ett ekosystem av biologiskt inspirerade flygande robotar

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo avaliar como os gastos pÃblicos no Ãmbito dos municÃpios cearenses afetam a variaÃÃo do Ãndice de Desenvolvimento Humano â IDH. à iniciado com uma discussÃo sobre desenvolvimento humano, bem-estar e a sua mensuraÃÃo. Faz-se uma explanaÃÃo sobre polÃticas de combate à pobreza no Brasil e no CearÃ, discutindo-se o efeito da polÃtica de gastos pÃblicos sobre indicadores de bem-estar. Um modelo economÃtrico à desenvolvido e estimado para se examinar o impacto dos gastos pÃblicos sobre o IDH. A principal conclusÃo desse trabalho à que os gastos totais (e gastos correntes) per capita pouco influenciam o IDH, enquanto que os gastos destinados à EducaÃÃo e HabitaÃÃo impactam positivamente o IDH dos municÃpios cearenses. Esse resultado fornece subsÃdios para o Gestor PÃblico e aos cidadÃos no sentido da definiÃÃo das polÃticas pÃblicas que determinam o direcionamento dos gastos nos municÃpios. / This research examines the impact of the public expenditure on the Human Development Index â HDI of municipalities in Ceara State. This study discusses the concepts and quantitative ways of measuring human development and welfare. It also presents an overview of the impact of the poverty eradication policies on welfare at the national level and also in Ceara State. It is developed and estimated an econometric model to assess how public expenditure impacts the HDI. The main conclusion of this study is that total expenditure has only a weakly influence on the IDH, while public expenditures on education and housing have a positive and statistically significant impact on the HDI. This finding has important policy implication since it may help policymakers to design and implement public policies.