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The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) regime has been developing a voluntary climate change mitigation mechanism that is called ‘Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries; and the Role of Conservation/Conservation of Forest Carbon Stocks, Sustainable Management of Forests, and Enhancement of Forest Carbon Stocks in Developing Countries’ (REDD-plus). One of the most important aspects of the implementation of REDD-plus activities is that the activities should not violate the rights of indigenous peoples that live within and near the forest areas. This research has identified at least three main approaches that can be used by indigenous peoples to protect their rights in the context of REDD-plus. The first approach is the UNFCCC approach that uses the UNFCCC regime to protect indigenous peoples in the context of REDD-plus. The second approach is the human rights approach; it uses human rights treaties and their bodies, the regional commissions and courts on human rights, as well as the UN bodies and special rapporteur that are pertinent to indigenous peoples’ issues to protect indigenous peoples in the context of REDD-plus. The third approach is the financial approach that uses the United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (UN-REDD Programme) and the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) to protect indigenous peoples in the context of REDD-plus. In order to increase the protection of indigenous peoples in REDD-plus, a coherent approach needs to be created and enhanced through cooperation and coordination by the parties that are directly or indirectly involved with the three respective approaches listed above. It should be noted that the available protection for indigenous peoples in the context of REDD-plus are currently insufficient to quickly address cases where the rights of indigenous peoples have been violated in REDD-plus activities. In order to address this insufficiency, as well as to achieve a coherent approach to protecting indigenous peoples in the context of REDD-plus, the research recommends the establishment of a REDD-Plus Committee supported by a REDD-Plus Panel to develop and increase the protection of indigenous peoples in REDD-plus, should REDD-plus is placed outside the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). On the other hand, if REDD-plus is placed under the CDM then the research recommends the establishment of a Committee on REDD-Plus under the CDM and a Panel on the CDM. The existence of the pertinent committee and panel can be expected to bring benefits in the context of REDD-plus as well as in wider contexts, such as climate change, human rights, and international law through its contribution to reduce the risks of the negative effects of the fragmentation of international law.

Rigorous CO₂ absorption models were developed for aqueous 4.5 m K+/4.5 m PZ, monoethanolamine (7m - 9m), and piperazine (8m) in Aspen Plus® RateSepTM. The 4.5 m K+/4.5 m PZ model uses the Hilliard thermodynamic representation and kinetics based on work by Chen. The MEA (Phoenix) and PZ (5deMayo) models incorporate new data for partial pressure of CO₂ vs. loading and kinetics from wetted wall column data. They use reduced reaction sets based on the more relevant species present at the expected operating loading. Kinetics were regressed to match reported carbon dioxide flux data using a wetted wall column (WWC). Density and viscosity were satisfactorily regressed to match newly obtained experimental data. The activity coefficient of CO₂ was also regressed to include newly obtained CO₂ solvent solubility data. The models were reconciled and validated using pilot plant data obtained from five campaigns conducted at the Pickle Research Center. Performance was matched within 10% of NTU for most runs. Temperature profiles are adequately represented in all campaigns. The calculated temperature profiles showed the effect of the L/G on the location and magnitude of the temperature bulge. As the L/G is increased the temperature bulge moves from near the top of the column towards the bottom and its magnitude decreases. Performance improvement due to intercooling was validated across the campaigns that evaluated this process option. Absorber intercooling was studied using various solvent rates (Lmin, 1.1 Lmin and 1.2 Lmin). It is most effective at the critical L/G where the temperature bulge without intercooling is in the middle of the column. In this case it will allow for higher absorption by reducing the magnitude of the bulge temperature. The volume of packing to get 90% removal with L/Lmin =1.1 at the critical L/G is reduced by 30% for 8m PZ. For MEA and a solvent flow rate of 1.1 Lmin packing volume is increased with intercooling at constant L/G. This increase is compensated by higher solvent loadings that suggest lower stripping energy requirements. The critical L/G is 4.3 for 8m PZ, 6.9 for 9m MEA and 4.1 for K+/PZ. / text

Vi lever idag under ett klimathot som påverkar oss alla. I ljuset av detta har byggbranschen valt att börja ställa om mot en mer hållbar bransch. Under tiden har även ekohus och ekobyar byggts upp som ett alternativ sätt att bo sunt. Syftet med detta arbete har varit att undersöka vilka val som byggherrar/beställare gör vid projektering av nya bostäder. Jag har valt att inte titta på energianvändningen utan fokuserat på vilka miljömässiga aspekter som återfinns i arbetssätten kring projekteringen av bostadshus. För att ta reda på vilka val som kunde anses som ekologiska/miljömässiga gjordes först en litteraturstudie. Sedan gjordes en enkätundersökning där utvalda företag fick svara på bl.a. vilka material de använder. Svaren jämfördes sedan med ett fiktivt företag som skulle följa alla råd som litteraturen menade var miljöfrämjande. Jämförelsen gjordes genom en viktad poängsättning. Av resultatet visade det sig att företagen fick poäng motsvarade ungefär 50 – 60 % av det fiktiva företagets. Enkäten gav även en bild av vilka val de gjorde och vad de borde kunna välja för att kunna bygga ännu mer grönare. Enkäten visade att alla hade potential för det. / We are living today under climate threats which more or less will affect us all. In light of this, the construction industry has chosen to start conversion towards a more sustainable sector. Meanwhile, eco-houses and eco-villages, have been built up as an alternative way to stay healthy.   The aim of this work has been to examine which choices developers / clients make during the planning of new housing. I have chosen not to look at energy, but focused on the way choices are made during planning of living apartments.   To find out what choices could be considered as ecological / environmental a literature review was first made. To find out how the participant companies are choosing a survey was made. The responses were then compared with a fictitious company that would follow all advice literature meant was pro-environmental. The comparison was then made by a weighted scoring. It turned out that the companies got points that accounted for roughly 50 - 60% of the fictive. The survey also gave an overview of the choices they made and what they should be able to choose in order to build even more greener. The survey showed that the companies had the potential for it.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Cleveland State University, 2008. / Abstracts. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Jan. 29, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 22-23). Available online via the OhioLINK ETD Center. Also available in print.

Thèse--Droit--Lausanne, 1974. / Bibliogr. p. 180-192.

Les travaux présentés dans cette thèse visent à proposer des méthodes de calcul d’itinéraires adaptés aux cyclistes à l’échelle d’une agglomération. Plusieurs critères sont considérés, comme la distance, la sécurité et l’effort. La difficulté est de calculer des chemins de compromis sous une contrainte de temps de quelques secondes pour pouvoir intégrer ce calculateur à un site web. Deux approches ont été abordées pour résoudre ce problème. L’approche a posteriori dans laquelle l’ensemble des solutions de compromis est calculé et l’approche a priori dans laquelle les préférences de l’utilisateur sont prises en compte et permettent d’orienter la recherche pour privilégier les chemins les plus prometteurs. Enfin, nous proposons de modéliser le réseau routier sous la forme d’un graphe adjoint pour pouvoir prendre en compte de nouveaux critères nécessitant, par exemple, des coûts sur les enchaînements d’arcs. L’ensemble de ce travail a permis de développer le service Géovélo qui est un calculateur d’itinéraires multiobjectif adaptés au vélo. Le service est disponible sous la forme d’un site web et d’applications mobiles. / The work presented in this thesis aims at proposing methods for computing bicycle paths across a metropolitan. Several criteria such as distance, safety and effort must be considered in the path computation. The difficulty is to compute paths under a time constraint of a few seconds, in order to integrate the computation in the respond-time of a web page.Two approaches were discussed to solve this problem. The first one is an a posteriori approach where all compromise solutions are computed and the second approach is an a priori method that takes user preferences into account to guide the search by the selection of the most promising sub-paths first. Finally, we propose to model the road network as a line graph to take into account new criteria,requiring costs on arc sequences for example. All this work was necessary to develop the service Géovélo, which is a multiobjective route planner adapted to bicycle. The service is available on a website and as mobile applications.

Class of 2015 Abstract / Objectives: To determine the effects of the dietary supplement, “Omega Q Plus ® Resveratrol” on cardiovascular health. More specifically, to review randomized controlled trials to determine the effects of resveratrol, coenzyme Q10, and omega-3-fatty acids on lipid levels and blood pressure. Methods: Randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trials were searched using PubMed and Embase. Studies that assessed the effects of either resveratrol, coenzyme Q10, or omega-3 fatty acids on lipid levels and/or blood pressure in humans were included. Studies that did not use less than 1 gram of EPA and DHA were excluded. Data extraction and validity assessment was conducted by one reviewer; validity for trials were assessed using the Potential for Methodological Bias Assessment Tool (PBMAT). Results: A total of 24 studies were included; 11 for resveratrol, seven for coenzyme Q10, and six for omega-3 fatty acids, totaling to 1633 participants combined. Doses ranged from 8 mg to 3,000 mg of resveratrol per day, 100 mg to 200 mg of coenzyme Q10 per day, and 67 mg EPA + 33 mg DHA to 1944 mg EPA + 1686 mg DHA. Results across trials were inconsistent in regards to efficacy on lipid levels and blood pressure. Subjects with metabolic syndrome or hypertriglyceridemia seemed to benefit from omega-3 fatty acids through improvement in triglyceride levels, however effects with healthy patients were less clear. Conclusions: Overall, the interventions demonstrated mixed results in affecting lipid levels and blood pressure. No conclusions can be made at this point about the efficacy of Omega Q Plus® Resveratrol on cardiovascular health. Further research into these dietary supplements need to be conducted in order to assess their efficacy

Ocenění podniku působícího v oboru nákladní kamionové dopravy a komplexních logistických služeb prostřednictvím výnosové metody DCF ve variantě FCFF se zohledněním leasingového financování při výpočtu WACC.

This thesis aims to better represent a framework for asynchrony. Traditional asynchronous models, particularly those used to simulate cellular automata, have used stochasticity or randomness to generate update times. We claimthat, while they may make good representations of their application, such asynchronousmethods rid themodel of the essence of interesting asynchronous processes. Thus, we attempt to better harness the aspects internal to the decision process of such discretely dynamic cells as those in cellular automata.We propose the maxmin-m model as a suitable model for the asynchronous computation of cellular automata. The model uses maxmin-plus algebra, a special case of which is max-plus algebra. This algebra arises naturally from the cellular automaton requirement that a cell receives the state of its neighbours before updating. The maxmin-m model allows each cell to update after it receives m out of a possible n neighbours' states.The max-plus model shows that, while update times may be asynchronous in real time, there is no loss of information, since the corresponding asynchronous process is bijectively related to the synchronous model. In turn, the cellular automaton output, measured by the Shannon and word entropies, is shown to vary little from the synchronous model. Moreover, this type of asynchrony is simple, i.e. it is deterministically obtained due to the linearity of max-plus algebra.Indeed, the maxmin-m model is also shown to be deterministic and always reaches periodic behaviour. In the long time limit, this model is shown to be represented by a max-plus model, supporting its determinism further. Consequently, the complexity of such a model may be thought to be limited. However, we show through large scale experiments that the case where m is approximately n/2 generates most complex behaviour in terms of large periods and transients to the aforementioned periodic orbits. In particular, the complexity is empirically shown to obey a bell form as a function of m (where m ranges from 1 to n). The resulting cellular automaton simulations indicate a correspondence from the complexity of the update times. Therefore, cellular automaton behaviour may be predictable with the type of asynchrony employed in this thesis.