This thesis is concerned with a fundamental unit of the economy: Households. Even in advanced economies, upwards of 70% of the population live in households composed of multiple people. A large number of decisions are taken at the level of the household, that is to say, they are taken jointly by household members: How to raise children, how much and when to work, how many cartons of milk to purchase. How these decisions are made is therefore of great importance for the people who live in them and for their well-being.But precisely because household members make decisions jointly it is hard to know how they come about and to what extent they benefit individual members. This is why households are often viewed as unique decision makers in economics. Even if they contain multiple people, they are treated as though they were a single person with a single set of preferences. This unitary approach is often sufficient and can be a helpful simplification. But in many situations it does not deliver an adequate description of household behavior. For instance, the unitary model does not permit the study of individual wellbeing and inequality inside the household. In addition, implications of the unitary model have been rejected repeatedly in the demand literature.Bargaining models offer an alternative where household members have individual preferences and come to joint decisions in various ways. There are by now a great number of such models, all of which allow for the study of bargaining power, a measure of the influence a member has in decision making. This concept is important because it has implications for the welfare of individuals. If one household member’s bargaining power increases, the household’s choices will be more closely aligned with that member’s preferences, ceteris paribus.The three chapters below can be divided into two parts. The first part consists of Chapter 1, which looks to detect the influence of intra-household bargaining in a specific set of consumption choices: Consumption of the arts. The research in this chapter is designed to measure aspects of the effect of bargaining power in this domain, but does not seek to quantify bargaining power itself or to infer economic well-being of household members.Precisely this last point, however, is the focus of the second part of the thesis, consisting of Chapters 2 and 3. These focus specifically on the recovery of one measure of bargaining power, the resource share. Resource shares have the advantage of being interpretable in terms of economic well-being, which is not true of all such measures. They are estimated as part of structural models of household demand. These models are versions of the collective model of household decision making.Pioneered by Chiappori (1988) and Apps and Rees (1988), the collective model has become the go-to alternative to unitary approaches, where the household is seen as a single decision-making unit with a single well-behaved utility function. Instead, the collective model allows for individual utility functions for each member of the household. The model owes much of its success to the simplicity of its most fundamental assumption: That whatever the structure of the intra-household bargaining process, outcomes are Pareto-efficient. This means that no member can be made better off, without making another worse off. Though the model nests unitary models as special cases, it does have testable implications.The first chapter of the thesis is entitled “Household Decisions on Arts Consumption” and is joint work with Caterina Mauri, who has also collaborated with me on many other projects in her capacity as my girlfriend. In it, we explore the role of intra-household bargaining in arts consumption. We do this by estimating demand for various arts and cultural events such as the opera or dance performances using a large number of explanatory variables. One of these variables plays a special role. This variable is a distribution factor, meaning that it can be reasonably assumed to affect consumption only through the bargaining process, and not by modifying preferences. Such variables play an important role in the household bargaining literature. Here, three such variables are used. Among them is the share of household income that is contributed by the husband, the canonical distribution factor.The chapter fits into a literature on drivers of arts consumption, which has shown that in addition to such factors as age, income and education, spousal preferences and characteristics are important in determining how much and which cultural goods are consumed. Gender differences in preferences in arts consumption have also been shown to be important and to persist after accounting for class, education and other socio-economic factors (Bihagen and Katz-Gerro, 2000).We explore to what extent this difference in preferences can be used to shed light on the decision process in couples’ households. Using three different distribution factors, we infer whether changes in the relative bargaining power of spouses induce changes in arts consumption.Using a large sample from the US Current Population Survey which includes data on the frequency of visits to various categories of cultural activities, we regress atten- dance rates on a range of socio-economic variables using a suitable count data model.We find that attendance by men at events such as the opera, ballet and other dance performances, which are more frequently attended by women than by men, show a significant influence of the distribution factors. This significant effect persists irrespec- tively of which distribution factor is used. We conclude that more influential men tend to participate in these activities less frequently than less influential men, conditionally on a host of controls notably including hours worked.The second chapter centers around the recovery of resource shares. This chapter is joint work with Denni Tommasi, a fellow PhD student at ECARES. It relies on the collective model of the household, which assumes simply that household decisions are Pareto-efficient. From this assumption, a relatively simple household problem can be formulated. Households can be seen as maximizers of weighted sums of their members’ utility functions. Importantly the weights, known as bargaining weights (or bargaining power), may depend on many factors, including prices. The household problem in turn implies structure for household demand, which is observed in survey data.Collective demand systems do not necessarily identify measures of bargaining power however. In fact, the ability to recover such a measure, and especially one that is useful for welfare analysis, was an important milestone in the literature. It was reached by (Browning et al. 2013) (henceforth BCL), with a collective model capable of identi- fying resource shares (also known as a sharing rule). These shares provide a measure of how resources are allocated in the household and so can be used to study intra- household consumption inequality. They also take into account that households gen- erate economies of scale for their members, a phenomenon known as a consumption technology: By sharing goods such as housing, members of households can generate savings that can be used elsewhere.Estimation of these resource shares involves expressing household budget shares functions of preferences, a consumption technology and a sharing rule, each of which is a function of observables, and letting the resulting system loose on the data. But obtaining such a demand system is not free. In addition to the usual empirical speci- fications of the various parts of the system, an identifying assumption has to be made to assure that resource shares can be recovered in estimation. In BCL, this is the assumption that singles and adult members of households share the same preferences. In Chapter 2, however, an alternative assumption is used.In a recent paper, Dunbar et al. (2013) (hereafter DLP) develop a collective model based on BCL that allows to identify resource shares using assumptions on the simi- larity of preferences within and between households. The model uses demand only for assignable goods, a favorite of household economists. These are goods such as mens’ clothing and womens’ clothing for which it is known who in a household consumes them. In this chapter, we show why, especially when the data exhibit relatively flat Engel curves, the model is weakly identified and induces high variability and an im- plausible pattern in least squares estimates.We propose an estimation strategy nested in their framework that greatly reduces this practical impediment to recovery of individual resource shares. To achieve this, we follow an empirical Bayes method that incorporates additional (or out-of-sample) information on singles and relies on mild assumptions on preferences. We show the practical usefulness of this strategy through a series of Monte Carlo simulations and by applying it to Mexican data.The results show that our approach is robust, gives a plausible picture of the house- hold decision process, and is particularly beneficial for the practitioner who wishes to apply the DLP framework. Our welfare analysis of the PROGRESA program in Mexico is the first to include separate poverty rates for men and women in a CCT program.The third Chapter addresses a problem similar to the one discussed in Chapter 2. The goal, again, is to estimate resource shares and to remedy issues of imprecision and instability in the demand systems that can deliver them. Here, the collective model used is based on Lewbel and Pendakur (2008), and uses data on the entire basket of goods that households consume. The identifying assumption is similar to that used by BCL, although I allow for some differences in preferences between singles and married individuals.I set out to improve the precision and stability of the resulting estimates, and so to make the model more useful for welfare analysis. In order to do so, this chapter approaches, for the first time, the estimation of a collective household demand system from a Bayesian perspective. Using prior information on equivalence scales, as well as restrictions implied by theory, tight credible intervals are found for resource shares, a measure of the distribution of economic well-being in a household. A modern MCMC sampling method provides a complete picture of the high-dimensional parameter vec- tor’s posterior distribution and allows for reliable inference.The share of household earnings generated by a household member is estimated to have a positive effect on her share of household resources in a sample of couples from the US Consumer Expenditure survey. An increase in the earnings share of one percentage point is estimated to result in a shift of between 0.05% and 0.14% of household resources in the same direction, meaning that spouses partially insure one another against such shifts. The estimates imply an expected shift of 0.71% of household resources from the average man to the average woman in the same sample between 2008 and 2012, when men lost jobs at a greater rate than women.Both Chapters 2 and 3 explore unconventional ways to achieve gains in estimator precision and reliability at relatively little cost. This represents a valuable contribution to a literature that, for all its merits in complexity and ingenious modeling, has not yet seriously endeavored to make itself empirically useful. / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

A identificação de elementos potencialmente tóxicos em solos, a distribuição destes e sua disponibilidade química são importantes para a avaliação de risco ambiental, diagnóstico esse imprescindível para um desenvolvimento sustentável com segurança dos alimentos, da água, da energia, da estabilidade climática, da manutenção da biodiversidade e do ecossistema. Usualmente, a identificação de áreas contaminadas exige a coleta e análise de um número elevado de amostras de solo, que consequentemente elevam os custos e demandam muitas horas de trabalho. Neste sentido, estratégias que permitem determinações mais rápidas a baixo custo e eficientes são desejáveis. Estratégias de amostragem passiva têm sido desenvolvidas para superar as limitações da análise química convencional, além de possuir vantagens adicionais que permitem incorporar a esse diagnóstico as influências edáficas do local amostrado. Outra forma de reduzir custo e aumentar a frequência analítica é o uso de técnicas de análise direta de sólidos, que eliminam ou minimizam o preparo da amostra, e consequentemente o tempo de análise. Visando contribuir no desenvolvimento da amostragem em campo e técnicas de análise direta em sólidos, este trabalho teve por objetivo desenvolver, avaliar e validar um dispositivo de amostragem passiva composto por papel e resina além de comparar aspectos técnicos entre procedimentos convencionais e as técnicas analíticas de análise direta de sólidos: Fluorescência de Raios X (XRF) e Espectrometria de Emissão Óptica Induzida por Laser (LIBS). Para avaliar o conceito foi realizado mapeamento do solo de uma área experimental supostamente contaminada, analisando o conjunto de dados com o auxílio de ferramentas matemáticas de interpolação baseadas na técnica de Krigagem. Testes foram realizados com o intuito de se determinar a melhor forma de acoplamento, condicionamento, processo de adsorção e extração dos elementos de ambas as partes do dispositivo (papel e resina). As duas técnicas de análise direta de sólidos também foram testadas. A XRF trouxe informações com base na distribuição dos elementos, depois de adsorvidos, no papel e na resina, porém não apresentou viabilidade e capacidade (por ter alto background) na quantificação dos elementos. O LIBS mostrou-se promissor para quantificação dos elementos, proporcionando boa correlação com as concentrações presentes no solo, na resina mais (por esta adsorver mais uniformemente os elementos) que no papel e por ser rápido, além de multielementar. Quando inserido em solo contaminado (com altas concentrações dos metais), o dispositivo apresentou ótimas correlações com a quantidade adicionada e com as intensidades fornecidas pelo LIBS. Porém, quando há baixas concentrações não houve uma relação definida entre os diferentes tipos de extração. Acredita-se que o dispositivo tenha potencial para quantificação de elementos potencialmente tóxicos em solos contaminados, por ter respondido bem a extração e determinação neste tipo de solo / Identification of potentially toxic elements in soils, their distribution and their chemical availability are important for environmental risk assessment, an essential diagnostic for sustainable development with security food, water, energy, climate stability, biodiversity and the ecosystem. Usually, the identification of contaminated areas requires the collection and analysis of a large number of soil samples, which consequently raise costs and require many hours of work. In this sense, strategies that allow faster, cost-effective and efficient determinations are desirable. Passive sampling strategies have been developed to overcome the limitations of conventional chemical analysis, besides possessing additional advantages that allow incorporating to this diagnosis the edaphic influences of the sampled site. Another way of reducing cost and increasing analytical frequency is the use of direct solids analysis techniques, which eliminate or minimize the sample preparation, and consequently the analysis time. Aiming to contribute to the development of field sampling and direct solid analysis techniques, the objective of this work was to develop, evaluate and validate a passive sampling device composed of paper and resin and to compare technical aspects between conventional procedures and analytical analysis techniques direct solids: X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) and Laser Induced Optical Emission Spectrometry (LIBS). In order to evaluate the concept, a soil mapping of a supposedly contaminated experimental area was carried out, analyzing the data set with the aid of mathematical interpolation tools based on the Kriging technique. Tests were performed with the purpose of determining the best way of coupling, conditioning, adsorption and extraction of the elements of both parts of the device (paper and resin). The two techniques of direct solids analysis were also tested. The XRF provided information based on the distribution of the adsorbed elements on paper and resin, but it did not present viability and capacity (because of the high background) in the quantification of the elements. The LIBS showed promise for the quantification of the elements, providing a good correlation with the concentrations present in the soil, in the resin more (by this more uniformly adsorb the elements) than in the paper and because it is fast, besides multielementar. When inserted into contaminated soil (with high concentrations of metals), the device showed excellent correlations with the amount added and the intensities provided by the LIBS. However, when there are low concentrations there was no definite relation between the different types of extraction. It is believed that the device has potential for quantification of potentially toxic elements in contaminated soils, since it has responded well to extraction and determination in this type of soil

The research conducted in this dissertation is divided into two main parts. The first part provides further improvements in power system state estimation and the second part implements Contingency Constrained Optimal Power Flow (CCOPF) in a stochastic multiple contingency framework. As a real-time application in modern power systems, the existing Newton-QR state estimation algorithms are too slow and too fragile numerically. This dissertation presents a new and more robust method that is based on trust region techniques. A faster method was found among the class of Krylov subspace iterative methods, a robust implementation of the conjugate gradient method, called the LSQR method. Both algorithms have been tested against the widely used Newton-QR state estimator on the standard IEEE test networks. The trust region method-based state estimator was found to be very reliable under severe conditions (bad data, topological and parameter errors). This enhanced reliability justifies the additional time and computational effort required for its execution. The numerical simulations indicate that the iterative Newton-LSQR method is competitive in robustness with classical direct Newton-QR. The gain in computational efficiency has not come at the cost of solution reliability. The second part of the dissertation combines Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP)-based CCOPF with Monte Carlo importance sampling to estimate the operating cost of multiple contingencies. We also developed an LP-based formulation for the CCOPF that can efficiently calculate Locational Marginal Prices (LMPs) under multiple contingencies. Based on Monte Carlo importance sampling idea, the proposed algorithm can stochastically assess the impact of multiple contingencies on LMP-congestion prices.

Incorporating survey weights into likelihood-based analysis is a controversial issue because the sampling weights are not simply equal to the reciprocal of selection probabilities but they are adjusted for various characteristics such as age, race, etc. Some adjustments are based on nonresponses as well. This adjustment is accomplished using a combination of probability calculations. When we build a logistic regression model to predict categorical outcomes with survey data, the sampling weights should be considered if the sampling design does not give each individual an equal chance of being selected in the sample. We rescale these weights to sum to an equivalent sample size because the variance is too small with the original weights. These new weights are called the adjusted weights. The old method is to apply quasi-likelihood maximization to make estimation with the adjusted weights. We develop a new method based on the correct likelihood for logistic regression to include the adjusted weights. In the new method, the adjusted weights are further used to adjust for both covariates and intercepts. We explore the differences and similarities between the quasi-likelihood and the correct likelihood methods. We use both binary logistic regression model and multinomial logistic regression model to estimate parameters and apply the methods to body mass index data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The results show some similarities and differences between the old and new methods in parameter estimates, standard errors and statistical p-values.

This study measures resident student perceptions of on-campus living and study environments at the University of Namibia campus residence and their relation to student academic performance. Data were obtained from a stratified random sample of resident students with hostels (individual dormitory) as strata. Student academic performance was measured by grade point average obtained from the university registrar. Student perceptions of living and study environments were obtained from a survey. Inferences were made from the sample to the population concerning: student perceptions of the adequacy of the library and campus safety, and differences in perceptions between students living in old-style and new-style hostels. To relate student perceptions to academic performance, a model regressing GPA on student perception variables was constructed. The principal findings of the analyses were that (1) Student perceptions do not differ between old and new hostels; (2) There is an association between time spent in the hostel and the type of room, ability to study in room during the day and the type of room, ability to study in room at night and the type of room, time spent in hostel and number of times student change blocks, ability to study in room at night and availability of study desk in room, ability to study in room at night and availability of study lamp in room, effectiveness of UNAM security personnel and safety studying at classes at night and also between effectiveness of UNAM security personnel and student perception on whether security on campus should remain unchanged respectively; (3) Mean GPA differs with respect to the type of room, ability to study in room during the day, time spent in hostel, number of times student change blocks, current year of study, time spent on study, students who are self-catering, sufficiency of water supply in blocks and also with students who are enrolled in Law and B.Commerce field of study and with students receiving financial support in the form of loans. (4) The variables found to be significant in the regression model were Law field of study, double rooms, inability to study in room during the day and self-catering respectively.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have delivered many novel insights about the etiology of many common heritable diseases. However, in most disorders studied by GWAS, the known single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with the disease do not account for a large portion of the genetic factors underlying the condition. This suggests that many of the undiscovered variants contributing to the risk of common diseases have weak effects or are relatively rare. This thesis introduces novel adaptations of techniques for improving detection power for both of these types of risk variants, and reports the results of analyses applying these methods to real datasets for common diseases. Chapter 2 describes a novel approach to improve the detection of weak-effect risk variants that is based on an adaptive sampling technique known as Distilled Sensing (DS). This procedure entails utilization of a portion of the total sample to exclude from consideration regions of the genome where there is no evidence of genetic association, and then testing for association with a greatly reduced number of variants in the remaining sample. Application of the method to simulated data sets and GWAS data from studies of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) demonstrated that, in many situations, DS can have superior power over traditional meta-analysis techniques to detect weak-effect loci. Chapter 3 describes an innovative pipeline to screen for rare variants in next generation sequencing (NGS) data. Since rare variants, by definition, are likely to be present in only a few individuals even in large samples, efficient methods to screen for rare causal variants are critical for advancing the utility of NGS technology. Application of our approach, which uses family-based data to identify candidate rare variants that could explain aggregation of disease in some pedigrees, resulted in the discovery of novel protein-coding variants linked to increased risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD) in African Americans. The techniques presented in this thesis address different aspects of the "missing heritability" problem and offer efficient approaches to discover novel risk variants, and thereby facilitate development of a more complete picture of genetic risk for common diseases.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-25T19:29:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 joaomigueltosato.pdf: 1509704 bytes, checksum: 7feec9d7e4ee880e76e5c9e750d8c419 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-09-19 / The majority of mineral fertilizers used in Brazil are sold in the form of granules mixture in order to provide, lower storage and transportation costs, lower probability of hardening, easier handling and also to simplify its use. Despite the advantages mentioned, such mixtures, which might present two or three primary macronutrients, secondary macronutrients and micronutrients, must have these nutrients uniformly distributed, so that the distribution in the field is homogeneous. However, in this kind of mixture some problems of heterogeneity might occur due to the segregation of granules, which might result in segregation of nutrients that will produce irregular application. The segregation is worrying concerning the application of the fertilizer as well as the sampling by the inspector, once it might generate analysis result that does not match the product real composition. The volume of fertilizers in a Big Bag makes it impossible for the inspector to homogenize the product prior to sampling, as required by law, in the case of smaller packets, thus requiring its own sampling methodology. Therefore, with the aim of evaluating the segregation of fertilizers and determining a sampling methodology for the Big Bag packaging, a study was developed, based on two formulas 02-30-10 and 12-15-15 distributed into four Big Bags each. Three sampling at three different times were carried out. The first was performed soon after packaging, the second, after the Big Bags had been transported on a truck for 407 km and the last after 696 km, both on dirty road and on asphalt. A conic tip double tube steering steel probe, for the sampling of five distinct horizontal levels, five vertical, one in the middle and one in each corner of the packet as well as one diagonal, which went through granulometric and chemical analysis individually. One compound sample was produced by pushing the probe vertically at three distinct points, and later on adding to the four packets portions for analysis. The results of granulometric and chemical analysis , at several points of sampling carried out in the vertical, horizontal e diagonal as well as the compound, after packaging and transportation of the Big Bags, in both formulas studied, show that if a grain mixture fertilizer is produced with raw-material with granules of homogeneous size, within the variation of SGN ± 5%, it presents fewer segregation problems regardless the sampling points mentioned, according to what happened to the formula 12-15-15, and the use of certain raw-material with granules which are incompatible to the other components in the mixture, lead to condenation of the product both chemically and granulometrically, according to what happened to the formula 02-30-10. The compound sample method proved itself efficient despite failing the granulometric analysis of the formula 02-30-10 (after packaging and transportation for 696 km), due to greater amount, size and round format of the triple superphosphate granules (TSP). / Os fertilizantes minerais utilizados no Brasil são em sua grande maioria comercializados na forma de misturas de grânulos por propiciar, menores custos de armazenamento e transporte, além de apresentarem menor possibilidade de empedramento, maior facilidade de manuseio, simplificando a sua aplicação. Apesar das vantagens citadas, estas misturas, que podem apresentar dois ou três macronutrientes primários, macronutrientes secundários e micronutrientes, é de fundamental importância que os nutrientes estejam uniformemente distribuídos em todo o seu volume, para que haja uma distribuição homogênea na área de cultivo. Contudo, neste tipo de mistura podem ocorrer problemas de heterogeneidade pela segregação dos grânulos que também resultará na separação dos nutrientes, ocasionando uma aplicação irregular. A segregação é preocupante tanto do ponto de vista da aplicação do fertilizante, quanto do momento da amostragem por parte da fiscalização, podendo obter um resultado de análise que não corresponde à realidade da composição do produto. O volume de fertilizantes acondicionado em embalagem Big Bag impossibilita aos fiscais a homogeneização do produto previamente à amostragem, como é estabelecido pela legislação, no caso de embalagens menores, necessitando, portanto de uma metodologia de amostragem apropriada. Diante destes fatos, com o objetivo de avaliar a segregação de fertilizantes e determinar uma metodologia de amostragem para embalagem tipo Big Bag foi desenvolvido um estudo com duas fórmulas 02-30-10 e 12-15-15 acondicionadas em quatro Big Bag cada uma. Foram estabelecidas amostragens em três momentos distintos, sendo uma logo após o envase, outra após os Big Bags terem sido transportados em caminhão por 407 Km e a última após completar 696 Km, realizados em estradas de asfalto e de terra. Foi utilizada uma sonda de aço inox cano duplo com ponta cônica, para amostragem de cinco níveis distintos na horizontal, cinco no sentido vertical, uma no centro e em cada um dos cantos da embalagem e uma na diagonal, as quais individualmente foram acondicionadas para análise química e granulométrica. Retirou-se também uma amostra composta, que foi feita inserindo verticalmente a sonda em cada Big Bag em três pontos distintos, e depois foram juntadas as porções das quatro embalagens para a realização das análises. Os resultados das análises químicas e de granulometria, nos vários pontos de amostragens realizados na vertical, horizontal, diagonal, e composta, após o envase e os transportes dos Big Bag, nas duas fórmulas pesquisadas, nos indicam que se um fertilizante mistura de grânulos for elaborado com matérias-primas com grânulos de tamanhos homogêneos, dentro da variação de ± 5% do SGN, apresentam menores problemas de segregação independente dos pontos de amostragens citados, conforme o ocorrido com a fórmula 12-15-15, e o uso de determinada matéria-prima com grânulos incompatíveis aos demais componentes da mistura, levam à condenação do produto tanto química quanto granulometricamente, conforme o ocorrido com a fórmula 02- 30-10. O método de amostra composta mostrou ser eficiente apesar da reprovação granulométrica da formulação 02-30-10 (após envase e transporte de 696 km), fato justificado pela maior quantidade, tamanho e formato arredondado dos grânulos do superfosfato triplo (TSP).

Orientador: Luciana Cavalcanti Maia Santos / Resumo: Os Gelasiminae, subfamília à qual pertencem os popularmente conhecidos caranguejos chama-marés, tem um importante papel como “engenheiros” do ecossistema manguezal, tendo sua distribuição espacial limitada por fatores ambientais. Neste contexto, torna-se essencial a condução de uma análise interdisciplinar sobre os habitats ocupados pelas espécies de caranguejos chama-marés, integrando dados ecológicos e do ecossistema que habitam, com dados espaciais oriundo de geotecnologias, como sensoriamento remoto e o SIG (Sistema de Informação Geográfica). O presente estudo caracteriza a distribuição espacial e a estrutura da assembleia dos caranguejos chama-marés (Brachyura: Ocypodidae: Gelasiminae), em três fitofisionomias de manguezal, e sua relação com os parâmetros ambientais. As fitofisionomias apresentaram distinção quanto à estrutura do bosque de manguezal, com árvores de maior altura e diâmetro na margem, evidenciando uma maior maturidade e estabilidade ambiental. Esses valores decaem em direção ao “apicum”, onde a vegetação é predominantemente arbustivo-herbácea. O sedimento foi mais argiloso na margem, onde a inundação pelas marés é maior, e mais arenoso na transição e “apicum”, onde a hidrodinâmica é mais baixa. Devido a essas características distintas, foram estabelecidos diferentes tamanhos do quadrado de amostragem para cada subárea, com diferentes números de réplicas: 20 réplicas do quadrado de 30x30cm na margem; 15 réplicas do quadrado de 50x50cm na transição; e 20 rép... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The Gelasiminae, subfamily which belong the popularly known fiddler-crabs, has an important role as mangrove ecosystem engineers, but some factors limits its spatial distribution. In this context, integrative and interdisciplinary analyses about the habitats of fiddler-crabs become essential to understand ecological patterns, by integration of ecologic data in remote sensing and GIS (Geographical Information System) tools. The present study characterize the spatial distribution and assemblage structure of these crabs (Brachyura: Ocypodidae: Gelasiminae), in three different mangrove phytophysiognomies, and their relation with environmental parameters. Phytophysiognomies distinguished the structure of the mangrove forest, with trees of greater height and diameter at the margin, showing a more mature environment. These values decay towards the “apicum”, where the vegetation is predominantly shrub. The sediment is more clayey in the margin where the flood by the tide is larger, and sandier in the transition and “apicum”, where hydrodynamics are lower. Due to these distinct characteristics, different sizes of the sampling square were established for each subarea, with different numbers of replicas: 20 replicas of the square of 30x30cm in the Margin, 15 replicas of the square of 50x50cm in the Transition and 20 replicas of the square of 30x30 in the ”apicum”. In the margin were found two species of Leptuca genera (L. uruguayensis and L. thayeri); in the transition, in addition to t... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

: Craft, a Swedish sport textile company, uses synergies of its parent company New Wave Group through common merchandise offices in Vietnam and China. As the relationship to the merchandise office creates a complex situation, the two research questions were elaborated of how the interactions in terms of information flow and collaboration influence the flow of the sampling process and how the situation could be improved. A qualitative case study design gives a deep insight in the specific situation of Craft. Information is gathered through company visits, a survey, internal documents and open interviews. The information flow influences the sampling process, in terms of late information, word-by-word translations and mismatches in terms of educations. This causes not-proper decision-making. The collaboration is mainly evaluated as satisfying. Adapting Christopher’s (2000) agility concept to Craft’s situation, issues as supplier relations, information sharing and the de-coupling point can be addressed. Practically joint product development, free information flow is important. Further collaboration within the supplier choice, more frequent and longer visits from both sides could improve the situation, as well as long-term-employments. / Program: Master programme in Applied Textile Management

Resumo: O objetivo do presente trabalho foi determinar, através dos conhecimentos da estatística, o número mínimo de amostras de solo a ser coletado em uma área fertilizada com lodo de esgoto para que, depois de analisadas, representem, com elevada confiabilidade, a composição química do solo estudado. Para isso foram utilizadas parcelas de 486m² compostas por 9 linhas espaçadas de 3,0m. Em cada linha foram plantadas 9 mudas de espécies nativas da Mata Atlântica, espaçadas de 2,0m entre elas, totalizando 81 plantas. Os tratamentos foram constituídos da aplicação de lodo de esgoto nas seguintes doses: 2,5; 5,0; 10,0; 15,0 e 20,0 t ha-1 e os números de amostras simples testados para compor uma amostra composta foram: 5, 10, 15, 20 e 25, sendo as mesmas coletadas entre 0 e 20 cm de profundidade. O delineamento experimental seguiu a metodologia de blocos ao acaso com quatro repetições, no esquema de parcelas subdivididas, sendo que as parcelas foram constituídas pelas doses de lodo de esgoto e as subparcelas pelo número de amostras. Para as variáveis: matéria orgânica, fósforo e cálcio, o número de amostras simples para formar uma amostra composta não foi influenciado pela dose de lodo de esgoto. Para a determinação das variáveis pH, H + Al+3 e M.O., foi observado que após aplicação de 20 t ha-1 há necessidade de se coletar, no mínimo, 5 amostras simples para formar uma amostra composta confiável, enquanto que para se determinar os teores de K, Ca e Mg com alta confiabilidade foram necessários números iguais ou superiores a 20 amostras simples para formar uma composta / Abstract: The goal of this paper was to apply statistical techniques in determining the minimum number of soil samples to be collected in a fertilized area with sewage sludge which, after analyses, represent, with high confidence, the chemical composition of the analyzed soil. To this end parcels of 486 m2 were used, consisting of 9 lines set out in a 3 meter interval and in each line 9 Mata Atlântica plants, alternating with a mix of pioneering, secondary and climax plants were planted at a 2 meter interval, totaling 81 plants. These plants were fertilized with sewage sludge in the following doses: 2,5; 5,0; 10,0; 15,0 and 20,0 t ha-1. For every dose of sewage sludge, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 simple soil samples were collected, thus composing the samples that were sent out for laboratory analysis. The experimental design followed the random block method with four repetitions, in an outline of subdivided parcels, where the parcels were made of doses of sewage sludge and the sub parcels of number of samples collected. The measured values of Ca, Mg, P and K obtained from the analyzed soil were varying, confirming to the doses of sewage sludge applied, but the number of samples were not influenced by agricultural practice, leaving the spatial variability for each type of variable. Based upon obtained results it can be concluded that, in order to determine pH, H+ + Al+3 and M.O. of the variables, after applying 20 t ha-1, it is necessary to collect, at least, 5 simple samples as a base for a reliable composed sample. To determine the values of K, Ca and Mg, with high confidence, 20 or more simple samples were needed to make such a composed sample. / Orientador: Iraê Amaral Guerrini / Coorientador: Juliano Corulli Corrêa / Banca: Roberto Lyra Villas Bôas / Banca: Dirceu Maximino Fernandes / Banca: Carlos Cesar Breda / Banca: Ricardo Marques Barreiros / Doutor