Foram avaliados diferentes programas nutricionais com o objetivo de comparar os índices produtivos e econômicos de frangos de corte machos. Foram utilizadas 1.200 aves da linhagem Cobb 500®, submetidas a delineamento inteiramente casualizado com 5 tratamentos e 8 repetições, com 30 aves por unidade experimental. Os programas nutricionais consistiram em: Manual Cobb 500® (2008); NRC (1994); Rostagno et al. (2005); Rostagno et al. (2011) e Rostagno et al. (2011) modificado. Foram avaliadas características de desempenho e de carcaça no período de 1 a 46 dias de idade, respeitando as fases de criação de acordo com cada recomendação. As características foram consumo de ração, peso corporal, ganho de peso, conversão alimentar, viabilidade criatória, consumo de energia, conversão calórica e índice de eficiência produtiva. Para a análise econômica, foi realizado o cálculo da margem bruta de comercialização, de acordo com o custo da dieta e preço do frango vivo. Os resultados de desempenho, rendimento de carcaça e econômico foram avaliados por análise de variância e, para comparação entre as médias dos tratamentos, avaliados pelo teste de Tukey (P<0,05). Conclui-se que o plano nutricional de acordo com o manual Cobb 500® (2008) foi o que apresentou melhor margem bruta e NRC (1994) a pior. Quanto à produtividade, não houve diferença estatística entre os planos nutricionais. Recomenda-se, portanto, a utilização das recomendações do manual Cobb 500® (2008), como forma de se obter melhor lucratividade na produção de frangos de corte. / Different feeding programs were evaluated aiming to compare the broilers\' performance and economic indexes. 1,200 birds were subjected to a completely randomized experimental design with 5 treatments and 8 replicates with 30 birds per experimental unit. The feeding programs consisted of: Cobb 500® Manual (2008); NRC (1994); Rostagno et al. (2005); Rostagno et al. (2011) and Rostagno et al. (2011) modified. Feed intake, body weight, weight gain, feed conversion, viability, energy consumption, caloric conversion, productive efficiency index, and carcass characteristics were evaluated in the period from 1 to 46 days of age. The gross trade margin was calculated for economic analysis. The results were evaluated based on a variance analysis, and the Tukey test (P<0.05) was used to compare treatment means. It is concluded that the feeding program based on the Cobb 500® manual (2008) showed the best trade gross margin, while NRC [1994] the worst. Considering the main performance characteristics, there were no statistical differences among the nutritional programs. Thus, the recommendations contained in the Cobb 500® manual (2008) should be used as a means of achieving greater profitability in broiler production

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-03-07T14:39:58Z No. of bitstreams: 1 marcelaciminicanceladasilva.pdf: 970211 bytes, checksum: 7a88e1c4cbefeffca8caee3fd2f0d9bb (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-04-24T02:01:09Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 marcelaciminicanceladasilva.pdf: 970211 bytes, checksum: 7a88e1c4cbefeffca8caee3fd2f0d9bb (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-24T02:01:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 marcelaciminicanceladasilva.pdf: 970211 bytes, checksum: 7a88e1c4cbefeffca8caee3fd2f0d9bb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-06-26 / O setor da construção civil é responsável por grande parte dos impactos produzidos no meio ambiente. Por isso possui a responsabilidade de desenvolver e introduzir o uso de tecnologias e materiais que proporcionam menor interferência no equilíbrio existente entre o homem e seu ambiente natural. Para seleção de materiais e componentes da construção existem diversas ferramentas, com a finalidade de gerar projetos de edificações mais sustentáveis, ou seja, cuja utilização visa à redução dos impactos ambientais, sociais, econômicos e culturais. Dentre estas ferramentas se encontram os sistemas de certificação ambiental. A presente pesquisa apresenta uma análise comparativa entre alguns destes principais sistemas internacionais e nacionais disponíveis hoje: LEED, HQE, BREEAM, LEED/Brasil, AQUA e CBCS. Esta análise verifica os aspectos positivos e negativos na estrutura e avaliação dos sistemas, assim como os critérios utilizados para a seleção de materiais. Tal análise impulsionou o desenvolvimento de recomendações mais compactas, simples e objetivas, em relação aos critérios analisados. Finalmente, estas recomendações foram empregadas em um questionário estabelecido para pré-avaliação da seleção de materiais em projetos que visam certificação ambiental. Este instrumento apresenta a particularidade de adequação ao panorama nacional, bem como ao conceito global de sustentabilidade, com o emprego de recomendações que vão de encontro às perspectivas atuais, no que se refere à certificação dos empreendimentos da indústria da construção civil. / The construction industry is responsible for a large part of the enviromental impacts and for this reason has the responsibility to develop and introduce the use of new technologies and materials that provide less interference in the balance between man and natural environment. There are several tools that contribute to the selection of material, in order to generate more sustainable construction projects. Using these tools provide the reduction of environmental, social, economic and cultural impacts. This research presents a comparative analysis of some of these major national and international systems available today: LEED, HQE, BREEAM, LEED / Brazil, AQUA and CBCS. This analysis finds positive and negative aspects in the structure as well as the criteria used for the selection of materials. Such analysis allowed the development of more compact, simple and objective recommendations regarding the criteria examined. Finally, these recommendations resulted in a questionnaire established for the assessment of pre-selection of materials for projects seeking environmental certification. This instrument presents an adaptation to the national scene as well as the overall concept of sustainability, using principles that go in favor of the current prospects for the certification of buildings.

Os analistas de ações desempenham um papel relevante nos mercados de capitais, na medida em que, direta ou indiretamente, contribuem para a precificação dos papéis e para a composição das carteiras de investimentos. A proposta deste estudo foi a de verificar se é possível obter retornos extraordinários, acima daqueles oferecidos por uma carteira de mercado, com o acompanhamento das recomendações de ações emitidas por analistas do mercado de capitais brasileiro. Com base em uma ampla gama de recomendações consensuais referentes ao período que abrangeu os anos de 2000 a 2010, e com o acompanhamento das séries históricas de retornos dos papéis cobertos pelas análises, foram comparados os desempenhos de duas carteiras, uma formada por ações que receberam recomendações favoráveis e outra formada por ações que receberam recomendações desfavoráveis dos analistas. Os resultados mostraram a existência de um viés nas recomendações, dado que há, sistematicamente, um número maior de favoráveis frente às recomendações desfavoráveis. E mostraram, principalmente, que os analistas não foram capazes de identificar as ações que efetivamente ofereceram maiores retornos ao longo do período considerado. / The stock analysts have a relevant role in the capital markets, because, directly or indirectly, they contribute to the paper pricing and to the composition of the investment portfolio. The proposal of this study was to verify if it is possible to obtain extraordinary returns, above those offered by a market portfolio, with the monitoring of the stock recommendations issued by Brazilian capital market analysts. Based on a wide range of consensual recommendations concerning the period from 2000 to 2010, and with the historical series of return of the monitoring of the historical series of paper returns covered by the analyses, the performance of two portfolios, one formed by stocks that received favorable recommendations and the other one formed by stocks that received unfavorable recommendations of the analysts. The results showed the existence of biases in the recommendation, since there is, systematically, a greater number of favorable against unfavorable recommendations. They also showed that, mainly, the analysts were unable to identify the stocks which actually offered greater returns within the period considered.

Many organizations are moving towards Global Software Engineering and Global Development is becoming a major trend. Global Software Engineering comes with its own set of challenges that may affect projects in a negative way. However, it is still becoming increasingly popular among organizations because of its lure of cheap labour, portrayal of a global presence and a diverse talent/labour pool of resources that the organizations get to select from. The need for evaluating the processes of these global organizations has also grown and a number of Software Process frameworks are being designed and restructured to help cover the gap of evaluating these processes in a global environment. This thesis aims to examine one popular Software Process framework i.e. the ISO 9001:2000 TickIT. The authors provide informed recommendations of how and where the TickIT guide can incorporate various aspects of Global Software Engineering in its guidelines. The empirical validation of this research consisted of both interviews and surveys. The interviews were conducted with TickIT auditors working in the fields of Global Software Engineering and Software Process Improvement. These interviews provided insight into the minds of the people already working in the global software domain. The survey was in the form of an online questionnaire that was sent out to TickIT auditors from the United Kingdom and Sweden. Their replies were analyzed and the final informed recommendations for the TickIT guidelines were provided based on both the interview replies and the questionnaire analysis. / Many organizations are moving towards Global Software Engineering and Global Development is becoming a major trend. Global Software Engineering comes with its own set of challenges that may affect projects in a negative way. However, it is still becoming increasingly popular among organizations because of its lure of cheap labour, portrayal of a global presence and a diverse talent/labour pool of resources that the organizations get to select from. The need for evaluating the processes of these global organizations has also grown and a number of Software Process frameworks are being designed and restructured to help cover the gap of evaluating these processes in a global environment. This thesis aims to examine one popular Software Process framework i.e. the ISO 9001:2000 TickIT. The authors provide informed recommendations of how and where the TickIT guide can incorporate various aspects of Global Software Engineering in its guidelines. The empirical validation of this research consisted of both interviews and surveys. The interviews were conducted with TickIT auditors working in the fields of Global Software Engineering and Software Process Improvement. These interviews provided insight into the minds of the people already working in the global software domain. The survey was in the form of an online questionnaire that was sent out to TickIT auditors from the United Kingdom and Sweden. Their replies were analyzed and the final informed recommendations for the TickIT guidelines were provided based on both the interview replies and the questionnaire analysis. / Mobile: +46-73-5590649, +46-76-2509246

The development of the construction industry brought the new methods of structural design, which have been introduced to engineers, although overall this phenomenon has increased building costs. A cost-effective construction is one of the major decision points during the definition of any engineering project, therefore, due to the opposing concepts of these two statements, revising design standards and codes are essential in order to provide adequate and cost-effective design requirements. A single-ply roof system is a relatively new method of roof construction that has been used in the building industry in recent decades, which seems to have undergone dramatic changes due to significant structural failures that have occurred through the years. Wind-induced damage on flat roofs is a common problem for low-rise buildings and much of this damage is initiated when the steel deck roof fails, leading to the overall roofing system collapse. The FM (Factory Mutual) design recommendations, which is a standard that recommends allowable dimensions and wind rating for the roofing products, have provided tabulated steel deck span dimensions and fasteners distance for many years. To update the FM design recommendations extensive experimental and analytical investigations are required. In the current study an experimental program was conducted at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) on flat roofing systems, for simulating the wind uplift effect on several roofing systems samples, as recommended by FM design recommendations. A Finite Element Model (FEM) of the same roofing systems as those used in the experimental cases was developed and different loading patterns were analysed for providing a better simulation of the deflection, moments and forces responses, as measured during the experiments. The FEM was validated with the experimental results and was further employed for applying the FE analysis for more steel deck span dimensions and wind rating cases, as provided in the FM design recommendations tables. These results were reported to the Single Ply Roof Industry (SPRI) Committee where the updating of the FM design tables is currently under discussion.

Detaljhandeln i fysiska butiker är utsatt av konkurrens från en betydligt mer innovationsrik e-handel och har därför ett behov av att vidareutvecklas. Ett sätt för detaljhandeln att utvecklas är att utnyttja tekniker som visats fungera bra inom e-handeln. Rekommendationssystem som ger rekommendationer till sina användare har nått stora framgångar och används av i stort sett alla företag inom e-handeln. Den mest använda tekniken för att ta fram rekommendationer kallas för collaborative filtering. Inom detaljhandel används dock inte detta i någon större utsträckning. Det finns därför förhållandevis lite kunskap om vad kunder anser om rekommendationer i butik. Syftet med studien är därför att utvärdera hur ett rekommendationssystem baserat på collaborative filtering presterar i en fysisk butik. Utvärderingen sker genom att mäta träffsäkerheten på rekommendationerna kunder får i en butik samt vad kunderna anser om dessa. Studien ämnar även att ta reda på hur kunder förhåller sig till automatiska rekommendationer i butik. I studien används två forskningsmetodiker för att uppnå dess forskningsmål. Design science har tillämpats för att utvärdera hur ett rekommendationssystem baserat på collaborative filtering presterar i en fysisk butik. En prototyp baserat på collaborative filtering utvecklades för att generera rekommendationer. Prototypen användes sedan i ett användartest som genomfördes i en butiksmiljö. För att belysa hur kunder förhåller sig till automatiska rekommendationer i butik användes en enkätundersökning som utfördes i samband med studiens användartest. Studiens resultat visar att prototypen gav rekommendationer med en hög träffsäkerhet där deltagarna upplevde rekommendationerna som bra och relevanta. Resultaten visar även att deltagarna i studien var positivt inställda till att få rekommendationer i butik. Detta leder till slutsatsen att rekommendationssystem baserat på collaborative filtering kan prestera väl i butiker vilket ger en indikation om att detta kan vara ett sätt för butiker att vidareutveckla handeln. / Retail stores are challenged by competition from the more innovative retailers in e-commerce and thus needs to adapt and evolve in order to stay competitive. This could be accomplished by using technology which has been proven successful in e-commerce. Recommender systems that produces recommendations to its users has been used successfully and is used by essentially all businesses involved in e-commerce. The most common method employed in these recommender systems is called collaborative filtering. Recommender systems have however not yet found its way into retail stores to a greater extent. This has led to a gap in knowledge regarding customer’s opinions of recommendations in retail stores. The purpose of this study is therefore to evaluate how recommender system based on collaborative filtering performs when used in retail stores. The evaluation is performed by measuring the accuracy of the recommendations a customer receives in a retail store as well as what the customer thinks of the recommendation. This study also intends to explore and shed light on people’s opinions concerning automatic recommendations in retail stores. Two different research methods have been used in this study. Design science is being used in order to evaluate how a recommender system based on collaborative filtering performs when used in retail stores. A prototype based on collaborative filtering was developed in order to generate recommendations. The prototype was then used in a user-test taking place in a retail-like environment. In order to shed light on people’s opinions regarding automatic recommendations in retail stores a questionnaire was handed out to the participants in conjunction with the user-test. The results of the study show that the prototype could produce high accuracy recommendations where the participants perceived the recommendations as good and relevant. The results also show that the participants of the study have positive attitude and were in favor of receiving automatic recommendations in retail stores. This leads to the conclusion that recommendations based on collaborative filtering could indeed perform well in retail stores. This indicates that recommender systems using collaborative filtering is one possible way for retail stores to evolve their business.

Class of 2006 Abstract / Objectives: To determine acceptance rate of pharmacist recommendation in an interdisciplinary chronic pain clinic. Subjects: Veterans enrolled in the Southern Arizona Veterans Administration Health Care System (SAVAHCS) Methods: The study will be a retrospective chart review. Data will be collected from electronic medical records. Included in this database are demographics, consult notes, medication history, and physician visits. Information unavailable will be medical care received outside the SAVAHCS closed system that is not disclosed by the patient. Number and types of recommendations, as well as acceptance of these options by the primary care provider will be calculated. Results: The number and type of recommendations initiated within 30 days will be calculated; and acceptance rates will be compared pre and post changes in the format of relaying these recommendations. Implications: The results will determine whether changing how the recommendation is presented to patients primary care providers (by the pharmacist) will affect acceptance rate.

Salmon aquaculture can be a potential solution to bridge the gap between declining capture fisheries and increasing seafood demand. However, the environmental impacts it creates have generated criticism. The overall objectives of this dissertation are to examine the economic consequences of environmental issues associated with salmon aquaculture, and to explore policy implications and recommendations for reducing environmental impacts. These objectives are addressed in five main analyses. The growth of salmon aquaculture is analyzed based on farmed salmon production in the four leading producing countries and the sector as a whole. Analyses indicate that salmon aquaculture is unlikely to continue to grow at its current pace. A joint production function approach is used to estimate pollution abatement costs for the salmon aquaculture industry. Results reveal that pollution abatement costs vary among observations and models. On average, pollution abatement cost is estimated at 3.5% in terms of total farmed salmon production, and 6.5% in terms of total revenue of farmed salmon. The ecological and economic impacts of sea lice from salmon farms on wild salmon population and fisheries are also studied. Analyses suggest that these effects are minor when the sea lice induced mortality rate is below 20%, while they can be severe if the mortality is greater than 30%. Sea lice have greater ecological and economic impacts on pink salmon than on chum salmon. These effects are greater under a fixed exploitation rate than under a target escapement policy. The economic performance of open netcage and sea-bag production systems for salmon aquaculture is compared. Netcage systems appear to be more economically profitable than sea-bag systems when environmental costs are either not or only partially included. Sea-bag systems can be financially profitable only when the salmon they produce can achieve a price premium. Finally, policy implications are explored and recommendations are made for sustaining salmon aquaculture in a holistic manner based on the results from previous chapters. Technologies, economic-based instruments and more stringent environmental policies can be employed to reduce environmental impacts. However, there is no single solution to solve these environmental impacts, and a combination of policy options is needed. / Science, Faculty of / Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES), Institute for / Graduate

Due to the growth of online shopping and services, various types of products can be recommended to an individual. After reviewing the current methods for cross-domain recommendations, we believe that there is a need to make different types of recommendations by relying on a common base, and that it is better to depend on a target customer’s information when building the base, because the customer is the one common element in all the purchases. Therefore, we suggest a recommender system (RS) that develops a personality profile for each product, and represents items by an aggregated vector of personality features of the people who have liked the items. We investigate two ways to build personality profiles for items (IPPs). The first way is called average-based IPPs, which represents each item with five attributes that reflect the average Big Five Personality values of the users who like it. The second way is named proportion-based IPPs, which consists of 15 attributes that aggregate the number of fans who have high, average and low Big Five values. The system functions like an item-based collaborative filtering recommender; that is, it recommends items similar to those the user liked. Our system demonstrates the highest recommendation quality in providing cross-domain recommendations, compared to traditional item-based collaborative filtering systems and content-based recommenders.

This doctoral research focuses on groundwater degradation in Lagos, Nigeria. Groundwater is a critically important natural resource in Lagos that is presently troubled by pollution that emanates from solid waste and wastewater. The city generates 10,000 metric tons of waste and 350 million gallons of wastewater daily, all of which are improperly managed and are heavily polluting its groundwater. This direct environmental pollution is aggravated by indirect problems of over-urbanization, and legal and institutional shortcomings. Over-urbanization in Lagos has resulted into a monumental population of 21 million people in the tiny city, which generates the enormous quantities of solid waste and wastewater. The population places a tremendous burden on the city’s water resources, forcing residents to revert to groundwater which is suffering the plight of pollution, and hence the concern of this research. The pollution problem is worsened by civic apathy to environmental matters, and unresolved by a nascent water sector whose evolving governance structures do not adequately address the multi-dimensional pollution problem. In the final analysis, the absence of holistic and comprehensive groundwater legislation that addresses all these problems challenges the sustainability of this vital resource. The research adopts a cross-disciplinary approach by combining several methodologies: historical legal analysis, important insights from scientific studies and from sociological studies that rationalize the demographical movement to Lagos which is at the root of the pollution problem; field work investigation to confirm the fact, source, and extent of polluted groundwater; and a comparative approach by examining the European Union’s legal framework for managing groundwater and waste in order to extract sustainable practices for adoption in Lagos. It concludes with a range of recommendations for incorporation into a legal framework that will help to improve the sustainability of the groundwater resource. The study contributes to knowledge by attempting to close a vacuum, which is the paucity of studies that investigate underlying social factors that trigger groundwater pollution, and also by providing broad and holistic recommendations for law reform. It addresses the role of law in remediating the pollution, managing the effects of over-urbanization and overpopulation on groundwater, strengthening institutions, and eliminating legal inadequacies.