Vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) are generally described as a territorial species, though variations in territoriality have been observed. This research examined the impact of high population density, large group sizes and extensively overlapping home ranges on the expression of territoriality in a population of vervet monkeys. Over a period of eighteen months, data were collected on three large troops of vervet monkeys (PTN = 31, RBMN = 39, RSTN = 57) on the Samara Game Reserve, South Africa. I examined the spatial dynamics demonstrated in this population, assed the extent and use of home range overlap and examined the occurrence of intertroop encounters in relation to mate defence, resource defence and home range defence. The home ranges of the troops in this study population overlap substantially, and overlap areas are exploited extensively. The frequency of occurrence of intertroop encounters does not increase in the mating season, nor is there evidence of the defence of particular food patches or home range defence. The findings from this thesis emphasize the importance of examining the expression of territoriality of a population within the context of its environment. / xvi, 125 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm

Finding food in tropical forests poses a potentially major problem for chimpanzees, whose ranging is thought primarily to be directed at locating suitable food resources: (1) chimpanzees are frugivorous, large bodied and live in large home ranges; (2) they lack specialised sensory or locomotor abilities, and terrestrial travel is known to be costly; but (3) fruits are randomly distributed in space and time. Evidence from studies of captive individuals suggests chimpanzees are capable of remembering the locations of out of sight resources and can compute least distance routes to these resources, but whether this ability translates to the natural foraging behaviour of wild chimpanzees has never been investigated. My observational study was designed to assess how the chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) of Budongo Forest, Uganda, locate these patchy resources. I mapped the routes of 14 focal individuals over a 12-month period. I considered how these foraging routes were structured by breaking the path into segments of travel between resources. Consecutive segments of travel between resources were found not to be independent, but assembled into "super-segments" that take in a number of resources along one trajectory. These super-segments are not necessarily directed towards feeding resources, however: travel is not always food directed. Comparisons of actual chimpanzee routes with randomly generated simulations suggest most individuals do not attempt to minimise their travel distances. There is evidence to suggest energetically stressed individuals can remember the locations of recently visited food resources and return to these patches in order to minimise travel distances when necessary, but overall, food is not difficult to find for this community of chimpanzees. I propose this is because males defend a territory with super-abundant food resources, meaning availability is not a limiting factor of foraging. Male chimpanzees can be characterised as convenience feeders, taking food whilst satisfying other, social needs.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:48:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Daniel Nicolau Ferrara.pdf: 1124449 bytes, checksum: 7323f16541b3af1bf71cf2dc57b02b5d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-05-13 / In the analysis of the origins of the severe financial crisis, which began in 2007 in the US, remains an open debate about the reasons that led the Fed to underestimate the severity of the crisis. This study analyzes the perceptions of Central Bank on the peculiar context that has developed from 2001. The economic recovery was based on consumption and housing market, including the income extraction derived from valued housing, and followed by the risk of deflation, which subsequently led to growing fears about what was happening in the markets. The instrument used for this is the thorough analysis of the minutes of the FOMC and the pronouncements of the two presidents of the Fed, from 2001 to 2007, Greenspan and Bernanke, in addition to theoretical concepts and economic problems of that period. The methodology is justified because the communication with the market has become a relevant instrument in the Fed's action since the 1990s. The analysis of documents showed that in the aftermath of the crises of 2001-2002, the Fed used to acknowledge consumption and housing market to be important forces in the economic recovery. From 2003-2004, the FOMC members showed concern about the speculative behavior in housing and the effects of the reversal of the expansionary monetary policy would have on property prices and on consumption. The Fed's action to combat these threats was restrained by the belief in the strength of the deregulated financial system, by pragmatic confidence in the conduct of monetary policy guided by the risk management approach and the belief that Central Bank should not act against the formation of bubbles / Na análise das origens da grave crise financeira iniciada, em 2007, nos EUA, permanece em aberto o debate a respeito dos motivos que levaram o Fed a subestimar a gravidade da crise em formação. Este estudo analisa as percepções do BC sobre o quadro peculiar que se desenvolveu, a partir de 2001. A recuperação econômica foi pautada no consumo e no mercado imobiliário, inclusive na extração de renda derivada da valorização dos imóveis, seguida do risco de deflação que, posteriormente, deu lugar a receios crescentes em relação ao que ocorria nos mercados. O instrumento utilizado para isso é a análise minuciosa das atas do FOMC e os pronunciamentos dos dois presidentes do Fed, de 2001 a 2007, Greenspan e Bernanke, além das concepções teóricas e problemas conjunturais do período. A metodologia de análise justifica-se porque a comunicação com o mercado tornou-se instrumento relevante na ação do Fed, desde os anos 1990. A análise dos documentos mostrou que, no rescaldo das crises, de 2001-2002, o Fed reconhecia no consumo e no mercado imobiliário forças importantes na recuperação econômica. A partir de 2003-2004, membros do FOMC demonstravam preocupação quanto ao comportamento especulativo no mercado imobiliário e os efeitos que a reversão da política monetária expansionista teria sobre os preços dos imóveis e sobre o consumo. A ação do Fed para combater esses riscos foi contida pela crença na resistência do sistema financeiro desregulamentado, pela confiança na condução pragmática da política monetária orientada pelo risk management approach e pela convicção de que BC não deve agir frente à formação de bolhas

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo o estudo da natureza jurídica do saldo de conta (aqui designado como reserva matemática) de que o participante é titular durante a fase de acumulação de um plano de Contribuição Variável de entidade aberta de previdência privada. O tema foi desenvolvido à luz do Direito do Seguro, por meio do confronto dos elementos jurídicos e técnicos dos contratos de seguros privados com os dos contratos previdenciários privados, e ainda levando em consideração a evolução dos produtos de previdência privada e seguros no contexto do bancassurance. Dada a escassez de literatura nacional específica sobre o tema, o estudo foi realizado com o suporte do Direito Comparado. / The present work aims to study the legal nature of \"account balance\" (herein referred as \"mathematical reserves\") that the participant holds during the accumulation phase of a variable contribution retirement plan. The subject was developed according to Insurance Law, by confronting the legal and technical elements of private insurance contracts with retirement plan contracts, and considering the evolution of retirement plans and insurance products in the context of bancassurance. Given the lack of specific literature on this subject in Brazil, this study was conducted with the support of Comparative Law.

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo o estudo da natureza jurídica do saldo de conta (aqui designado como reserva matemática) de que o participante é titular durante a fase de acumulação de um plano de Contribuição Variável de entidade aberta de previdência privada. O tema foi desenvolvido à luz do Direito do Seguro, por meio do confronto dos elementos jurídicos e técnicos dos contratos de seguros privados com os dos contratos previdenciários privados, e ainda levando em consideração a evolução dos produtos de previdência privada e seguros no contexto do bancassurance. Dada a escassez de literatura nacional específica sobre o tema, o estudo foi realizado com o suporte do Direito Comparado. / The present work aims to study the legal nature of \"account balance\" (herein referred as \"mathematical reserves\") that the participant holds during the accumulation phase of a variable contribution retirement plan. The subject was developed according to Insurance Law, by confronting the legal and technical elements of private insurance contracts with retirement plan contracts, and considering the evolution of retirement plans and insurance products in the context of bancassurance. Given the lack of specific literature on this subject in Brazil, this study was conducted with the support of Comparative Law.

The past is often used by political figures in the present in order to achieve political goals by manipulating a feeling of identity, based upon a shared history, among their followers. The extent to which a political leader may alter narratives of the past to meet his or her own needs is governed by certain constraints and laws of structure, as Appadurai and Sahlins have argued (Appadurai 1981; Sahlins 1985). However, the credibility of a leader is affected by such factors as how well that leader fills the cultural construct of a leader's role and adheres to the community's expectations. At Kahnawake, a Mohawk community near Montreal, I found that the amount of authority granted to individual factional leaders in their interpretation of the Iroquois Confederacy's Great Law of Peace reflected the degree to which each leader behaved as a Confederacy chief or orator should, and also reflected the degree to which the leader obeyed social norms, particularly that of not advocating violence against fellow Mohawks. My findings add to the growing body of anthropological literature on the uses of the past by demonstrating in a specific case study how interpersonal relationships between leaders and a community affect the leaders' credibility and authority over the past.

abstract: Traditional deterministic reserve requirements rely on ad-hoc, rule of thumb methods to determine adequate reserve in order to ensure a reliable unit commitment. Since congestion and uncertainties exist in the system, both the quantity and the location of reserves are essential to ensure system reliability and market efficiency. The modeling of operating reserves in the existing deterministic reserve requirements acquire the operating reserves on a zonal basis and do not fully capture the impact of congestion. The purpose of a reserve zone is to ensure that operating reserves are spread across the network. Operating reserves are shared inside each reserve zone, but intra-zonal congestion may block the deliverability of operating reserves within a zone. Thus, improving reserve policies such as reserve zones may improve the location and deliverability of reserve. As more non-dispatchable renewable resources are integrated into the grid, it will become increasingly difficult to predict the transfer capabilities and the network congestion. At the same time, renewable resources require operators to acquire more operating reserves. With existing deterministic reserve requirements unable to ensure optimal reserve locations, the importance of reserve location and reserve deliverability will increase. While stochastic programming can be used to determine reserve by explicitly modelling uncertainties, there are still scalability as well as pricing issues. Therefore, new methods to improve existing deterministic reserve requirements are desired. One key barrier of improving existing deterministic reserve requirements is its potential market impacts. A metric, quality of service, is proposed in this thesis to evaluate the price signal and market impacts of proposed hourly reserve zones. Three main goals of this thesis are: 1) to develop a theoretical and mathematical model to better locate reserve while maintaining the deterministic unit commitment and economic dispatch structure, especially with the consideration of renewables, 2) to develop a market settlement scheme of proposed dynamic reserve policies such that the market efficiency is improved, 3) to evaluate the market impacts and price signal of the proposed dynamic reserve policies. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 2015

No description available.

It is the purpose of this thesis to give a factual presentation of the operation of the discount system of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Texas, covering the years 1914 through 1935.

Narrow riparian woodlands along non-perennial streams have made it possible for vervet monkeys to penetrate the semi-arid karoo ecosystem of South Africa, while artificial water points have more recently allowed these populations to colonize much more marginal habitat away from natural water sources. In order to determine the sequelae of life in these narrow, linear woodlands for historically 'natural' populations, I determined the size of troops in relation to their reliance on natural and artificial water sources and collected detailed data from two river-centred troops on activity, diet and ranging behaviour over an annual cycle. These data indicate that river-centred troops were distinctive primarily for their large group sizes and, consequently, their large adult cohorts, and the extent of home range overlap in what is regarded as a territorial species. While large group size carried the corollary of increased day journey length and longer estimated interbirth intervals, there was little other indication of ecological stress. Specifically, the rate of predation appears to be lower than observed at other sites. Predation encounters here, encourage the use of predator vigilance rather than influencing the use of space within the habitat. The high density of Acacia karoo, which accounted for a third of annual foraging effort in what was a relatively depauperate floristic habitat, allows for an adequate energy intake for groups of this size. I ascribed the large group size and home range overlap to the inability of groups to undergo fission. / xiii, 79 leaves : ill., maps ; 29 cm