Cette thèse s’inscrit dans le contexte de l’analyse vidéo du trafic routier. Dans certaines grandes villes, des centaines de caméras produisent de très grandes quantités de données, impossible à manipuler sans traitement automatique. Notre principal objectif est d'aider les opérateurs humains en analysant automatiquement les données vidéo. Pour aider les contrôleurs de la circulation à prendre leurs décisions, il est important de connaître en temps réel, l'état du trafic (nombre de véhicules et vitesse des véhicules sur chaque segment de voie), mais aussi de disposer de statistiques temporelles tout au long de la journée, de la semaine, de la saison ou de l'année. Les caméras ont été déployées depuis longtemps pour le trafic et pour d'autres fins de surveillance, car elles fournissent une source d'information riche pour la compréhension humaine. L'analyse vidéo peut désormais apporter une valeur ajoutée aux caméras en extrayant automatiquement des informations pertinentes. De cette façon, la vision par ordinateur et l'analyse vidéo deviennent de plus en plus importantes pour les systèmes de transport intelligents (intelligent transport systems : ITSs). L’une des problématiques abordées dans cette thèse est liée au comptage automatique de véhicules. Pour être utile, un système de surveillance vidéo doit être entièrement automatique et capable de fournir, en temps réel, l'information qui concerne le comportement de l'objet dans la scène. Nous pouvons obtenir ces renseignements sur la détection et le suivi des objets en mouvement dans les vidéos, ce qui a été un domaine largement étudié. Néanmoins, la plupart des systèmes d'analyse automatique par vidéo ont des difficultés à gérer les situations particulières. Aujourd'hui, il existe de nombreux défis à résoudre tels que les occultations entre les différents objets, les arrêts longs, les changements de luminosité, etc… qui conduisent à des trajectoires incomplètes. Dans la chaîne de traitements que nous proposons, nous nous sommes concentrés sur l'extraction automatique de statistiques globales dans les scènes de vidéosurveillance routière. Notre chaîne de traitements est constituée par les étapes suivantes : premièrement, nous avons évalué différentes techniques de segmentation de vidéos et de détection d'objets en mouvement. Nous avons choisi une méthode de segmentation basée sur une version paramétrique du mélange de gaussiennes appliquée sur une hiérarchie de blocs, méthode qui est considérée actuellement comme l'un des meilleurs procédés pour la détection d'objets en mouvement. Nous avons proposé une nouvelle méthodologie pour choisir les valeurs optimales des paramètres d’un algorithme permettant d’améliorer la segmentation d’objets en utilisant des opérations morphologiques. Nous nous sommes intéressés aux différents critères permettant d’évaluer la qualité d’une segmentation, résultant d’un compromis entre une bonne détection des objets en mouvement, et un faible nombre de fausses détections, par exemple causées par des changements d’illumination, des reflets ou des bruits d’acquisition. Deuxièmement, nous effectuons une classification des objets, basée sur les descripteurs de Fourier, et nous utilisons ces descripteurs pour éliminer les objets de type piétons ou autres et ne conserver que les véhicules. Troisièmement, nous utilisons un modèle de mouvement et un descripteur basé sur les couleurs dominantes pour effectuer le suivi des objets extraits. En raison des difficultés mentionnées ci-dessus, nous obtenons des trajectoires incomplètes, qui donneraient une information de comptage erronée si elles étaient exploitées directement. Nous proposons donc d’agréger les données partielles des trajectoires incomplètes et de construire une information globale sur la circulation des véhicules dans la scène. Notre approche permet la détection des points d’entrée et de sortie dans les séquences d’images. Nous avons testé nos algorithmes sur des données privées provenant... / This thesis is written in the context of video traffic analysis. In several big cities, hundreds of cameras produce very large amounts of data, impossible to handle without automatic processing. Our main goal is to help human operators by automatically analyzing video data. To help traffic controllers make decisions, it is important to know the traffic status in real time (number of vehicles and vehicle speed on each path), but also to dispose of traffic statistics along the day, week, season or year. The cameras have been deployed for a long time for traffic and other monitoring purposes, because they provide a rich source of information for human comprehension. Video analysis can automatically extract relevant information. Computer vision and video analysis are becoming more and more important for Intelligent Transport Systems (ITSs). One of the issues addressed in this thesis is related to automatic vehicle counting. In order to be useful, a video surveillance system must be fully automatic and capable of providing, in real time, information concerning the behavior of the objects in the scene. We can get this information by detection and tracking of moving objects in videos, a widely studied field. However, most automated video analysis systems do not easily manage particular situations.Today, there are many challenges to be solved, such as occlusions between different objects, long stops of an object in the scene, luminosity changes, etc., leading to incomplete trajectories of moving objects detected in the scene. We have concentrated our work on the automatic extraction of global statistics in the scenes. Our workflow consists of the following steps: first, we evaluated different methods of video segmentation and detection of moving objects. We have chosen a segmentation method based on a parametric version of the Mixture of Gaussians, applied to a hierarchy of blocks, which is currently considered one of the best methods for the detection of moving objects. We proposed a new methodology to choose the optimal parameter values of an algorithm to improve object segmentation by using morphological operations. We were interested in the different criteria for evaluating the segmentation quality, resulting from a compromise between a good detection of moving objects, and a low number of false detections, for example caused by illumination changes, reflections or acquisition noises. Secondly, we performed an objects classification, based on Fourier descriptors, and we use these descriptors to eliminate pedestrian or other objects and retain only vehicles. Third, we use a motion model and a descriptor based on the dominant colors to track the extracted objects. Because of the difficulties mentioned above, we obtain incomplete trajectories, which, exploited as they are, give incorrect counting information. We therefore proposed to aggregate the partial data of the incomplete trajectories and to construct a global information on the vehicles circulation in the scene. Our approach allows to detect input and output points in image sequences. We tested our algorithms on private data from the traffic control center in Chiang Mai City, Thailand, as well as on MIT public video data. On this last dataset, we compared the performance of our algorithms with previously published articles using the same data. In several situations, we illustrate the improvements made by our method in terms of location of input / output zones, and in terms of vehicle counting.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:48:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Erika Roberta Monteiro.pdf: 718758 bytes, checksum: 275662b1d620ca3bf7456687d8ecb1c7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-05-09 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This work aimed to analyze the information services sector between the years 2002 to 2007 under three different perspectives, namely: the internal dynamics centered on the role of innovation, the relationship between companies competing in the same sector, as well as the interaction of the companies in this sector with other sectors of the economy. For this, use has been made, respectively, of the following assessment tools: the evolutionary theory, a microeconomic perspective and input-output model. The first approach emphasized the way in which innovations generate growth not only to innovative companies, but to economy as a whole, the second synthesized some specific characteristics to information goods: the high fixed costs, low marginal costs, customization mass, significant economies of scale, both on the supply side, the demand side, competition for patterns, among others, the third and final approach, analyzed the production structure in general and to focus on the Information Services found that their integration with other economic activities is still not consolidated, since the analysis of its supply chain and its linkage indices proved to be very significant. Furthermore, regarding the structure of the labor market, there was an almost generalized reduction of the labor market, whose causes are estimated to be due to the intensification of capital at the expense of job in the production function and the significant increase imports during the period / Esta dissertação teve por objetivo analisar o setor de Serviços de Informação entre os anos de 2002 a 2007, sob três diferentes perspectivas, quais sejam: sua dinâmica interna centrada no papel da inovação, a relação entre as empresas que competem no mesmo setor, bem como a interação das empresas desse segmento com os demais setores da economia. Para tanto, fez-se uso, respectivamente dos seguintes ferramentais de análise: a teoria evolucionária, a ótica microeconômica e o modelo insumo-produto. A primeira abordagem enfatizou o modo através do qual as inovações geram crescimento não apenas às empresas inovadoras, mas à economia como um todo; a segunda sintetizou algumas características específicas aos bens de informação: os altos custos fixos, os baixos custos marginais, a customização em massa, as significativas economias de escala tanto pelo lado da oferta, quanto pelo lado da demanda, a competição por padrões, entre outras; a terceira e última abordagem analisou a estrutura produtiva de modo geral e ao focar nos Serviços de Informação constatou que sua integração com as demais atividades econômicas ainda não está consolidada, uma vez que as análises de sua cadeia produtiva e seus índices de ligação mostraram-se pouco expressivos. Ademais, no que tange à estrutura de mercado de trabalho, verificou-se uma redução praticamente generalizada do quadro funcional, cujas causas estimam-se serem devidas à intensificação do capital em detrimento da mão-de-obra na função de produção e ao aumento expressivo das importações ocorridas no período

Esta tese é composta por três ensaios relacionados a macrofinanças e economia regional. O primeiro artigo analisa a lucratividade de portfólios de pairs trading auto-financiados para os mercados acionários Brasileiro, Europeu e Americano utilizando duas metodologias diferentes de seleção de pares: os métodos da distância e cointegração. Uma comparação ampla das metodologias de pairs trading, com uma base de dados grande de diferentes mercados é capaz de elucidar os principais benefícios e fragilidades de cada método. De modo geral, os resultados mostram que diferentes estruturas de mercado favorecem diferentes estratégias de pairs trading. Mais especificamente, a seleção via cointegração desempenha melhor nos mercados Brasileiro e Europeu, enquanto que o método da distância gera resultados melhores para os Estados Unidos. A melhor estratégia em cada mercado possui um alpha significante com um beta negligenciável. No segundo trabalho analisamos duas questões: (i) a capacidade do Brasil em adotar uma política monetária independente das influências dos juros americanos e (ii) os impactos da política monetária brasileira e dos juros americanos nas expectativas de inflação. Os resultados indicam que, para o período entre 1999 e 2007, existe uma reduzida independência da política monetária brasileira, e que o contágio do Fed Funds rate sobre a taxa Selic ocorre de modo completo. Para o período entre 2002 e 2007, também encontramos que os juros americanos são mais relevantes para a determinação das expectativas de inflação do que a taxa Selic, sendo auxiliado pelo câmbio para controlar as expectativas de inflação. Por outro lado, no período entre 2010 e início de 2015, com a ausência de mudanças no Fed Funds, a Selic se tornou mais independente e reativa, tanto às expectativas de inflação quanto ao hiato do produto. O terceiro artigo consiste em recalcular a MIP para o Rio Grande do Sul e para o Brasil a fim de incluir nas interligações setoriais os efeitos induzidos advindos da renda das famílias. Além disso, calculam-se os geradores de cinco variáveis (a saber: emprego, renda, tributos líquidos arrecadados, valor adicionado e produto), bem como são calculados os índices de Hirschmann-Rasmussen e os índices puros de ligação com o intuito de identificar os setores-chave das economias do Rio Grande do Sul e do Brasil. Posteriormente, utiliza-se dos geradores reestimados pela nova MIP fechada para estimar os impactos das quebras de safra de soja nos anos que ocorreram as maiores perdas tanto de valor quanto de volume na produção da oleaginosa (2004, 2005 e 2012). Os resultados indicam que os geradores do Rio Grande do Sul e do Brasil aumentam consideravelmente após a inclusão do efeito induzido, para todas as variáveis e setores analisados. Já as estimativas de impacto das quebras de safra indicam que as perdas podem chegar a até R$ 8,9 Bilhões para o RS e R$ 12,5 Bilhões para o Brasil em termos de queda na produção. / This thesis consists of three essays related to financial macroeconomics and regional economics. The first essay analyzes the profitability of self-financing portfolios using pairs trading for the Brazilian, European, and American stock markets using two different pairs selection methodologies: the distance and cointegration methods. A throughout comparison of pairs trading methodologies using large datasets from different markets uncovers the main benefits and drawbacks of each approach. Overall, the results show that different market structures favor different pairs trading strategies. More specifically, the cointegration approach performed better on the Brazilian and European markets, while the distance method delivered better results for the US. The best strategy in each market yields significant alpha with negligible beta. The ability of a country to use monetary policy in order to smooth economic fluctuations and keep inflation in check is crucial in an institutional framework of inflation targeting. Hence, in the second work, we examined two issues: (i) Brazil’s ability to adopt a monetary policy independent from the contagion of the american interest rates and (ii) the impact of the brazilian monetary policy and of the american interest rate on inflation expectations. The results indicate that for the period between 1999 and 2007, there is a reduced independence of the brazilian monetary policy, and that the spillover of the Fed Funds rate over the Selic rate is comprehensive. For the period between 2002 and 2007, we also found that US interest rates are more relevant to the determination of inflation expectations than the Selic rate, being helped by the exchange rate to control inflation expectations. On the other hand, for the period between 2010 and early 2015, with no occurance of changes in the Fed Funds, the Selic became more independent and responsive to inflation expectations as well as to the output gap. The third paper consist of reestimating the Input-Output Matrix for Rio Grande do Sul and Brazil, in order to include in the sectoral linkages the induced effects arising from household income. Also, we estimate the multipliers for five variables (employment, income, net taxes collected, added value and gross product), as well as the Hirschmann-Rasmussen index and the Pure Linkages in order to identify the key-sectors of the Rio Grande do Sul and Brazil’s economy. We also use those multipliers to estimate the impacts of the soybean crop failure in Rio Grande do Sul, in the years with the biggest crop losses in terms of volume (2004, 2005 and 2012). The results indicate that the multipliers increase considerably after the inclusion of the induced effect, for all valiables and sectors. The crop failures indicate that the losses could reach up to R$ 8,9 Billions for RS and R$ 12,5 Billions for Brasil in terms of reduced economic activity.

Os ciclos econômicos são amplamente estudados, e segundo Schumpeter os ciclos de crescimento trazem mudanças estruturais na economia, ou seja, acarreta em mudanças na produção de bens da economia. Portanto este trabalho busca compreender através da metodologia da matriz insumo produto, calculada para a economia brasileira de 1994 à 2009, como os ciclos econômicos influenciaram a relação entre os setores da economia nacional, se houve mudanças na utilização de insumos e mudanças nos multiplicadores de emprego e renda dos setores. Assim, pode-se observar os ciclos econômicos de cada setor da economia brasileira e estudar a relação entre as atividades desses antes e depois do ciclo econômico. Foram utilizados para o cálculo das mudanças na economia pelos ciclos políticos, as matrizes nacionais criadas por Guilhoto, do ano 1995 até 2009, ou seja, passando por dois governos do presidente Fernando Henrique Cardoso e dois governos do presidente Lula. Pode-se observar que o governo Lula foi melhor nos multiplicadores calculados, principalmente renda e emprego, pois a grande maioria dos setores apresentaram variação positiva no período. Um dos setores que mais se destacaram foi o setor de agropecuária obtendo elevados números nos multiplicadores e nos índices de ligação entre os setores. O Histórico da matriz insumo produto assim como os trabalhos utilizados que utilizaram a mesma metodologia aparecem para corroborar com o objetivo do trabalho de medir as mudanças setoriais na economia brasileira ao longo do período acima mencionado. / Economic cycles are widely studied, and according to Schumpeter the cycles of growth bring structural changes in the economy, that is, it leads to changes in the production of goods of the economy. Therefore, this work seeks to understand through the methodology of the matrix input product, calculated for the Brazilian economy from 1994 to 2009, how the economic cycles influenced the relationship between the sectors of the national economy, if there were changes in the use of inputs and changes in the employment multipliers And income from sectors. Thus, one can observe the economic cycles of each sector of the Brazilian economy and study the relationship between their activities before and after the economic cycle. The national matrixes created by Guilhoto from 1995 to 2009 were used to calculate the changes in the economy through the political cycles, that is, passing through two governments of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso and two governments of President Lula. It can be observed that the Lula government was better in the calculated multipliers, mainly income and employment, since the great majority of the sectors presented positive variation in the period. One of the sectors that stood out the most was the agricultural sector obtaining high numbers in the multipliers and in the indexes of connection between the sectors. The history of the input output as well as the works used that used the same methodology appear to corroborate the objective of the work of measuring the sectoral changes in the Brazilian economy over the period mentioned above.

A forma como os frutos do desenvolvimento econômico são distribuídos entre as pessoas está fortemente relacionado ao bem estar. Conforme visto na seção 2, o Brasil apresenta uma das piores distribuições de renda do planeta, sendo essa uma fonte constante de problemas sociais. A bibliografia levantada no trabalho mostra que a combinação entre mão-de-obra pouco qualificada com um sistema produtivo moderno tem sido o principal fator gerador dessas desigualdades. Através da utilização do sitema de matrizes de insumo-produto para o Brasil estimadas para 2002, combinadas com dados das pesquisas de orçamentos familiares - POF e da pesquisa nacional por amostra de domicílios - PNAD, o trabalho estimou os impactos que alterações na demanda dos setores de atividade econômica provocam sobre a distribuição de renda brasileira; o instrumental utilizado foi o modelo Leontief-Miyazawa. Os resultados encontrados mostram que alguns setores econômicos como, por exemplo, construção civil e vestuário, são redutores de desigualdades de renda. Por outro lado, setores como prestação de serviço a empresas e instituições financeiras agravam o quadro distributivo. Quando se avaliou o resultado nas cinco macro-regiões brasileiras, viu-se também que algumas dessas regiões, caso sejam estimuladas, podem desempenhar importante papel na redução das desigualdades brasileiras, destacando-se a Região Nordeste, onde esses efeitos possuem maior magnitude. Os setores que possuem maior potencial redutor de desigualdades são, respectivamente, serviços privados não mercantis e agricultura, ambos na região Nordeste. Por outro lado, as regiões Centro- Oeste e Sudeste, quando estimuladas, agravam o problema distributivo brasileiro na maioria de seus setores de atividade econômica. Dentro dessas regiões, os setores mais concentradores são as instituições financeiras, os serviços prestados às empresas (Região Sudeste) e Administração Pública da região Centro-Oeste. A adoção de investimentos em educação, conforme visto no trabalho, leva a uma melhora significativa na redução das desigualdades, no entanto, esse tipo de política tem um longo período de maturação. Dada a urgência do problema da distribuição de renda brasileira, a combinação de políticas compensatórias do tipo "Bolsa-Família", que possuem efeito de curto prazo, associadas a políticas que incentivem setores chaves da economia em determinadas regiões, podem ter um efeito redutor de desigualdade, enquanto a política educacional ainda não conseguir atingir seus objetivos. / The way that the results of the development are distributed among the people is strongly related to their welfare. As seen in section 2, Brazil shows one of the worst income distribution in the world, which generates a constant source of social problems. The references used in this work show that the combination of a low qualified labor force with a modern productive sector has been one of the main sources of these inequalities. Using an input-output system for the Brazilian economy, estimated for 2002, combined with data from the surveys on household budgets - POF and household - PNAD, this work estimated the impacts that changes in the final demand of the sectors will have in the Brazilian income distribution, the methodology used is based on the Leonfief- Miyazawa model. The results show that some of the economic sectors contribute to the reduction in the income inequalities, like civil construction and apparel. On the other end, sectors like services rendered to the enterprises and financial institutions contribute to the worsening of the income distribution. The results for the five Brazilian macro regions show that if some of the regions are stimulated, this could have a important role in the reduction of the Brazilian inequalities, the Northeast region stands out in this case. The sectors that have the great potential in reducing inequalities are private services and agriculture, both in the Northeast region. On the other hand, the Central West and Southeast regions, on the majority of their sectors, when stimulated, increase the distributive problem. Inside these regions, the sectors that concentrate the most are financial institutions and services rendered to the firms (Southeast), and public administration (Central West). The adoption of investment in education, as saw in the work, leads to a significant reduction in the inequalities; however, this kind of policy has a long time of maturation. Given the urgency of the income distribution in the Brazilian economy, the combination of compensatory policies of the type "Household Subsidies", that have a short time effect, associated with policies of incentive to key sectors in the economy, in selected regions, could have a effect to reduce inequality, while the educational policy has not yet reached its goals.

Hardware/Software (HW/SW) interfaces are pervasive in modern computer systems. Most of HW/SW interfaces are implemented by devices and their device drivers. Unfortunately, HW/SW interfaces are unreliable and insecure due to their intrinsic complexity and error-prone nature. Moreover, assuring HW/SW interface reliability and security is challenging. First, at the post-silicon validation stage, HW/SW integration validation is largely an ad-hoc and time-consuming process. Second, at the system deployment stage, transient hardware failures and malicious attacks make HW/SW interfaces vulnerable even after intensive testing and validation. In this dissertation, we present a comprehensive solution for HW/SW interface assurance over the system life cycle. This solution is composited of two major parts. First, our solution provides a systematic HW/SW co-validation framework which validates hardware and software together; Second, based on the co-validation framework, we design two schemes for assuring HW/SW interfaces over the system life cycle: (1) post-silicon HW/SW co-validation at the post-silicon validation stage; (2) HW/SW co-monitoring at the system deployment stage. Our HW/SW co-validation framework employs a key technique, conformance checking which checks the interface conformance between the device and its reference model. Furthermore, property checking is carried out to verify system properties over the interactions between the reference model and the driver. Based on the conformance between the reference model and the device, properties hold on the reference model/driver interface also hold on the device/driver interface. Conformance checking discovers inconsistencies between the device and its reference model thereby validating device interface implementations of both sides. Property checking detects both device and driver violations of HW/SW interface protocols. By detecting device and driver errors, our co-validation approach provides a systematic and ecient way to validate HW/SW interfaces. We developed two software tools which implement the two assurance schemes: DCC (Device Conformance Checker), a co-validation framework for post-silicon HW/SW integration validation; and CoMon (HW/SW Co-monitoring), a runtime verication framework for detecting bugs and malicious attacks across HW/SW interfaces. The two software tools lead to discovery of 42 bugs from four industry hardware devices, the device drivers, and their reference models. The results have demonstrated the signicance of our approach in HW/SW interface assurance of industry applications.

The rapidly increasing complexities of hardware designs are forcing design methodologies and tools to move to the Electronic System Level (ESL), a higher abstraction level with better productivity than the state-of-the-art Register Transfer Level (RTL). Behavioral synthesis, which automatically synthesizes ESL behavioral specifications to RTL implementations, plays a central role in this transition. However, since behavioral synthesis is a complex and error-prone translation process, the lack of designers' confidence in its correctness becomes a major barrier to its wide adoption. Therefore, techniques for establishing equivalence between an ESL specification and its synthesized RTL implementation are critical to bring behavioral synthesis into practice. The major research challenge to equivalence checking for behavioral synthesis is the significant semantic gap between ESL and RTL. The semantics of ESL involve untimed, sequential execution; however, the semantics of RTL involve timed, concurrent execution. We propose a sequential equivalence checking (SEC) framework for certifying a behavioral synthesis flow, which exploits information on successive intermediate design representations produced by the synthesis flow to bridge the semantic gap. In particular, the intermediate design representation after scheduling and pipelining transformations permits effective correspondence of internal operations between this design representation and the synthesized RTL implementation, enabling scalable, compositional equivalence checking. Certifications of loop and function pipelining transformations are possible by a combination of theorem proving and SEC through exploiting pipeline generation information from the synthesis flow (e.g., the iteration interval of a generated pipeline). The complexity brought by bubbles in function pipelines is creatively reduced by symbolically encoding all possible bubble insertions in one pipelined design representation. The result of this dissertation is a robust, practical, and scalable framework for certifying RTL designs synthesized from ESL specifications. We have validated the robustness, practicality, and scalability of our approach on industrial-scale ESL designs that result in tens of thousands of lines of RTL implementations.

A key dimension to improving urban economic and environmental sustainability is the efficient use of resources through recycling. A thriving recycling system requires not only effective institutional policies and community-wide diversion efforts, but also a competent local and regional recycling industry. Although the recycling industry has traditionally been recognized as a local service and fringe industry, it has noticeably transformed into an integral segment of industrial production systems as manufacturers have increasingly begun to adopt the principle of extended producer responsibility. Despite such changes, urban and regional theory and planning research has largely disregarded the industrial aspect of recycling, contributing to the dearth of information about the organizational and spatial patterns of the recycling industry and the impact of the establishment of recycling systems on local and regional scales. Given the knowledge gap, this dissertation addresses two questions: 1) What is the logic of the industry organization and spatial pattern of recycling industry in different institutional contexts? and 2) How is the economic and environmental impact of recycling systems determined in cases of construction and demolition waste recycling and waste carpet recycling? To answer the first question, this research develops a theoretical model that explains how recycling industrial activities are spatially distributed in light of institutional and organizational theories. The theoretical model characterizes organizational decisions pertaining to recycling functions and suggests spatial patterns of recycling systems. With respect to the second question, this research constructs a regional environmental input-output model on the metropolitan scale. It estimates regionalized energy use coefficients and greenhouse gas emission coefficients using various sources of data mainly compiled from the Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey 2006, the State Energy Consumption Estimates, and the Commodity Flow Survey 2007. Based on regional input-output tables coupled with the regionalized environmental coefficients, this research quantifies, through simulations, the net economic and environmental impact of a localized construction and demolition waste recycling system in the San Francisco metropolitan area and regional carpet recycling systems in the Atlanta and Seattle metropolitan areas. Results of the simulations reveal that 1) the localized construction and demolition waste recycling system provides moderate economic benefits because of the limited job creation potential of mechanized recycling processes and yields relatively small environmental benefits with respect to the total weight processed; 2) wider adoption of the deconstruction technique expands job opportunities, increases energy savings, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions during the course of construction and demolition waste recycling; 3) regional-scale waste carpet recycling systems, in particular recycled nylon 6 production, create sizable new job opportunities and provides environmental benefits of energy savings and greenhouse gas emission reduction despite the long-distance transportation of waste carpet. These results suggest that policies that promote recycling industrial activities can significantly contribute to the economic and environmental sustainability of metropolitan areas.

To date, hundreds of millions of mini-QWERTY keyboard equipped devices (miniaturized versions of a full desktop keyboard) have been sold. Accordingly, a large percentage of text messages originate from fixed-key, mini-QWERTY keyboard enabled mobile phones. Over a series of three longitudinal studies I quantify how quickly and accurately individuals can input text on mini-QWERTY keyboards. I evaluate performance in ideal laboratory conditions as well as in a variety of mobile contexts. My first study establishes baseline performance measures; my second study investigates the impact of limited visibility on text input performance; and my third study investigates the impact of mobility (sitting, standing, and walking) on text input performance. After approximately five hours of practice, participants achieved expertise typing almost 60 words per minute at almost 95% accuracy. Upon completion of these studies, I examine the types of errors that people make when typing on mini-QWERTY keyboards. Having discovered a common pattern in errors, I develop and refine an algorithm to automatically detect and correct errors in mini-QWERTY keyboard enabled text input. I both validate the algorithm through the analysis of pre-recorded typing data and then empirically evaluate the impacts of automatic error correction on live mini-QWERTY keyboard text input. Validating the algorithm over various datasets, I demonstrate the potential to correct approximately 25% of the total errors and correct up to 3% of the total keystrokes. Evaluating automatic error detection and correction on live typing results in successfully correcting 61% of the targeted errors committed by participants while increasing typing rates by almost two words per minute without introducing noticeable distraction.

In the study a class of multisector network models, suitable for simulation of the interaction between production, demand, trade, and infrastructure, is presented. A characteristic feature of the class is a vintage model of the production system. Hence, the rigidities in existing capacities and the temporary monopolies obtainable from investments in new capacity at favourable locations are emphasized.As special cases, the class contains models in the modelling traditions of "interregional computable general equilibriunT, Hspatial price equilibrium**, "interregional input-output" and transportation networks.On the demand side, a multihousehold spatial linear expenditure system is introduced. This allows for an endogenous representation of income effects of skill-differentiated labour.The models are represented by a set of complementarity problems. This facilitates a comparison of model properties and the choice of an appropriate solution algorithm.The study is mainly devoted to single period models. Such equilibrium models are interpreted as adiabatic approximations of processes in continuous time. A separation by the time scale of the processes and an application of the slaving principle should thus govern the choice of endogenous variables in the equilibrium formulation. / digitalisering@umu