Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Vincent R. Amanor-Boadu / For more than a decade, the consumption of peanuts as food has been stagnant. This situation has been attributed to several factors. This study seeks to identify and understand some of the factors that have hindered growth in this industry and attempts to present recommendations that will be useful in transforming the peanut industry from stability to growth. We determined that in addition to peanut prices, consumers' income and young children's share of the total population, substitute snack foods such as potatoes chips and popcorn influenced peanut consumption. We also discovered that consumer perception about peanut's fat content and the increasing concern about peanut allergies affected their consumption behavior. The research used data drawn from US Census Bureau, Department of Labor Statistics, National Agricultural Statistics Services, and various industry publications. We suggest that changing the consumption trend lines in the peanut industry can be achieved through effective innovation and focused marketing of the product's health and convenience benefits.

Dans le but de réduire les émissions chroniques issues des activités industrielles, la directive sur les émissions industrielles dite IED (2010/75/CE) définit le cadre réglementaire imposé aux États membres et le concept de Meilleures Techniques Disponibles (MTD). Ce concept de MTD et les niveaux de performance environnementale qui lui sont associés (BATAEPL) permettent de fixer des objectifs communs à toute l'Europe tout en considérant des spécificités locales. Par ailleurs, l’application du concept de MTD à des secteurs non soumis à l’IED (ex : Installations Nucléaires de Base) en fait un enjeu majeur pour l'ensemble de la communauté industrielle européenne. Les documents de référence sur les MTD (dénommés BREF) sont devenus incontournables comme aides au choix de techniques et références pour l'évaluation des performances environnementales des installations. Le processus de leur révision est perfectible car des différences d'interprétation et d’application existent entre les différents acteurs impliqués dans l'analyse des informations industrielles. Ainsi, l'apport de ce travail de thèse est une méthodologie structurée en 5 étapes, reposant d’une part sur des outils statistiques multicritères (classification ascendante hiérarchique, ACP, front de Pareto) d'aide à la détermination de sites de référence et de MTD applicables via des approches représentative ou performante et, d’autre part, à la définition de niveaux de performance environnementale associée, à l'échelle internationale et nationale. Cette méthodologie a démontré son applicabilité et son intégration dans les processus de décision actuels par les applications effectuées aux deux échelles géographiques et aux activités IED et non-IED. / In order to reduce chronic emissions due to industrial activities, the Industrial Emission Directive (IED − 2010/75/CE) defines, for the Member States, a legal framework and the concept of Best Available Technique (BAT). This concept of BAT and their associated environmental performance levels (BATAEPL) enables to set common objectives in Europe while considering local specificities. Moreover, the application of the concept of BAT to non-IED sectors (e.g. Nuclear installations) makes it a major issue for the entire European industrial community. BAT reference documents (called BREFs) have become essential to help to choose techniques and are references for environmental performance assessment of installations. The process of their revision can be improved because of the differences of interpretation that exist among involved actors for industrial information analysis. Thus, the contribution of this thesis is a methodology structured in 5 steps based, on the one hand, on multicriteria statistical tools (hierarchical clustering, PCA, Pareto front) to help to determine reference installations and applicable BATs thanks to representative or performant approaches and, on the other hand, to define associated environmental performance levels, at international and national scales. This methodology has demonstrated its applicability and integration into current decision processes thanks to applications to both geographical scales, and to IED and non-IED activities.

This thesis is intent on the introduction to problems of statistical approach to research tasks. It focuses on research assignments, position of research worker and statistician while analyzing, ways of gathering data files and problems connected with them, main types of multivariate statistical methods and possible views of their classification. Moreover, this work includes overview of examples of research assignments, possibilities of their solutions and related data files. First chapter describes statistical approach to the research assignments, and the second one shows concrete examples of these assignments. The enclosed CD includes data files to most of the statistical examples.

Cette thèse évalue la performance financière de l'investissement socialement responsable (ISR). Dans le but de surmonter le manque de consensus sur le thème de recherche, nous proposons d'aborder la question sous l'angle de la généralisation à travers une approche méta-analytique ayant pour objectif de démontrer un lien de cause à effet entre ISR et performance financière (ou boursière). A travers l'étude d'un corpus empirique d'observation incluant 75 études (161 expérimentations) sur la période 1972-2009 sélectionnées sur la base de notre propre typologie définitionnelle de l'ISR, nous articulons notre recherche autour de deux études : exploratoire et approche méta-analytique.L'étude exploratoire fournit ainsi, via l'utilisation de tests non paramétriques (Chi-deux) et de l'analyse de données (analyse factorielle des correspondances simple et multiple, classification ascendante hiérarchique), des typologies d'effet ISR sur la performance financière regroupant natures d'impact ISR sur la performance (positif, négatif ou neutre) et modalités de variables méthodologiques (marché ISR, méthode de comparaison de données, mesure de la performance financière…). L'approche méta-analytique (la première dans le champ de recherche) explore la relation entre ISR et performance financière sur un corpus réduit (61 études / 123 expérimentations). Les résultats observés tendent à prouver que l'éthique n'a pas de coût financier et génère des rentabilités similaires (voire légèrement supérieure) à celle de l'investissement conventionnel. Nous observons également que les choix empiriques effectués par les auteurs influencent considérablement la nature de la performance financière de l'ISR. / This thesis evaluates the financial performance of socially responsible investment (SRI). In the purpose of overcoming the lack of consensus on the research theme, we propose to approach the question under the angle of generalization across a meta-analytical approach, aiming to demonstrate a link between SRI and financial performances (or stock exchange performance) and identify the methodological determinants of this causal relationship. Across the study of an empirical corpus observation, including 75 studies (161 experimentations) across the 1972-2009 period, all selected on the basis of our own typological definition of SRI, we articulate our research around two studies : exploratory and meta-analytical approach.By the use of non-parametric tests (chi square), and of data analysis (simple and multiple correspondence analysis, ascending hierarchical clustering), the exploratory study provides typologies of SRI effects on the financial performance, gathering the nature of SRI impacts on performance (positive, negative or neutral) ant the terms of methodological variables (SRI market, data comparison method, financial performance measure...). The meta-analytical approach (first one in the field of research) explores the relation between SRI and financial performance on a reduced corpus (61 studies / 123 experimentations). The results we observed tend to prove that ethics has no financial cost and generates similar profitability (even slightly more) than a conventional investment. We also observe that the empirical choices made by the authors have a considerable influence on the nature of the ISR financial performance.

The objective of this diploma thesis is on one side to analyze the fertility rate in Slovakia, Czech republic and Sweeden and to compare their development after the fall of the communist establishment from 1990 till 2014 and on the other side to categorize these countries to clusters of EU countries based on chosen variables using multidimensional statistical analysis. I consider the second chapter of the thesis, which focuses on analysis of intensity of fertility rate using direct standardization as well as on verification, whether connection between clusters of EU countries and their geographical location exists, to be my personal addition to the addressed issue. Based on my analyses, the conclusion of the thesis is a finding, that countries, which support reduced working hours have a higher total fertility rate. For that reason, if the natality is about to grow, it is a must to concentrate not only on states family politics but mainly to support the ability of young mothers to become part of a regular working process while on their maternity leave.

La thèse explore trois questions méthodologiques en imagerie de diffusion (DTI) clinique du cerveau, dans le contexte d’une étude sur le VIH. La première question est comment améliorer la résolution du DTI. Le deuxième problème est comment créer un atlas multimodal spécifique à la population. La troisième question porte sur le calcul des statistiques pour comparer les zones de matière blanche entre les contrôles et patients. Les DTI cliniques ont une résolution spatiale et un rapport signal sur bruit faibles, ce qui rend difficile le calcul de statistiques significatives. Nous proposons un algorithme de super-résolution pour améliorer la résolution qui utilise un a priori spatial anisotrope. Cette méthode démontre une amélioration de l’anisotropie fractionnelle et de la tractographie. Pour normaliser spatialement les images du cerveau dans un système de coordonnées commun, nous proposons ensuite de construire un atlas multimodal spécifique á la population. Ceci permet de créer un atlas probabiliste de la matière blanche qui est consistant avec l’atlas anatomique. Cet atlas peut être utilisé pour des statistiques basées sur des régions d’intérêt ou pour le raffinement d’une segmentation. Enfin, nous améliorons les résultats de la méthode TBSS (Tract-Based Spatial Statistics) en utilisant le recalage des images DTI. Contrairement á la méthode TBSS traditionnelle, nous utilisons ici des statistiques multivariées. Nous montrons que ceci permet de détecter des différences dans les régions de matière blanche qui étaient non significatives auparavant, et de les corréler avec les scores des tests neuropsychologiques. / The thesis explores three major methodological questions in clinical brain DTI, in the context of a clinical study on HIV. The first question is how to improve the DTI resolution. The second problem addressed in the thesis is how to create a multimodal population specific atlas. The third question is on the computation of statistics to compare white matter (WM) regions among controls and HIV patients. Clinical DTIs have low spatial resolution and signal-to-noise ratio making it difficult to compute meaningful statistics. We propose a super-resolution (SRR) algorithm for improving DTI resolution. The SRR is achieved using anisotropic regularization prior. This method demonstrates improved fractional anisotropy and tractography. In order to spatially normalize all images in a consistent coordinate system, we create a multimodal population specific brain atlas using the T1 and DTI images from a HIV dataset. We also transfer WM labels from an existing white matter parcellation map to create probabilistic WM atlas. This atlas can be used for region of interest based statistics and refining manual segmentation. On the statistical analysis side, we improve the existing tract based spatial statistics (TBSS) by using DTI based registration for spatial normalization. Contrary to traditional TBSS routines, we use multivariate statistics for detecting changes in WM tracts. With the improved method it is possible to detect differences in WM regions and correlate it with the neuropschylogical test scores of the subjects.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-01-26T14:35:11Z No. of bitstreams: 1 paulocesardeoliveira.pdf: 2087574 bytes, checksum: d5531c02d4bef5054076f5c58ad51f43 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-01-27T11:04:35Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 paulocesardeoliveira.pdf: 2087574 bytes, checksum: d5531c02d4bef5054076f5c58ad51f43 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-27T11:04:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 paulocesardeoliveira.pdf: 2087574 bytes, checksum: d5531c02d4bef5054076f5c58ad51f43 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-12-11 / O trauma, em particular o resultante da violência interpessoal, é preocupação crescente na área de saúde, destacando-se entre as principais causas de morbimortalidade em todo o mundo. Em meio ao maior afluxo de vítimas, é necessário coordenar esforços para elaborar condutas propedêuticas, terapêuticas e preventivas. Para tal é imprescindível obter informações epidemiológicas. Este trabalho objetivou estudar o perfil epidemiológico das agressões física e por armas branca e de fogo a partir do Banco de Dados do SAMU de Juiz de Fora – MG, no período de janeiro de 2006 a dezembro de 2011. As variáveis analisadas foram sexo, faixa etária, mortalidade, região administrativa, dias da semana e horário das agressões. Dos 72.897 Relatórios de Atendimentos gerados no período, 1.913 compreenderam grupo o de estudo. A agressão física foi o mecanismo de trauma em 1.198 (62,2%) pacientes, a agressão por arma branca em 433 (22,6%) e por arma de fogo em 282 (14,7%). A faixa etária mais prevalente foi a de 15 anos a 29 anos (48,34%), seguida pela faixa etária de 30 anos a 44 anos (31,71%). A maioria das vítimas era do sexo masculino (82,17%). A mortalidade no ambiente pré-hospitalar foi de 6,4% (122 óbitos), principalmente em decorrência do uso de armas de fogo (56,6%). As regiões Norte (22,42%), Centro (20,2%) e Leste (19,85%) responderam pela maior parte dos atendimentos. As regiões Nortr e Leste foram as mais frequentemente relacionadas com o uso de arma de fogo (33,84% e 24,71%) e arma branca (23,1% e 17,77%). O Centro superou as regiões Leste e Norte quando o mecanismo foi a agressão física (24,24%, 19,41% e 19,32%, respectivamente). As ocorrências predominaram nas sextas-feiras, sábados e domingos (60,24%), entre 18 horas e 6 horas (63,13%). Quando armas branca e de fogo foram empregadas, os eventos prevaleceram entre 12h01min e 0 h. Concluiu-se que os homens jovens são as principais de violência interpessoal em Juiz de Fora, sendo a agressão física sua principal forma. O uso de arma de fogo esteve relacionado com a maioria das mortes. Três regiões da cidade concentram as ocorrências de violência, exceto quando a agressão física foi empregada. Os atendimentos foram mais frequentes nos fins de semana e durante a noite. / The trauma is growing concern in the health sector, notably as a cause of morbidity and mortality. Amid the biggest influx of victims, it is necessary to coordinate efforts to develop preventive, therapeutic and propedeutics ducts, being necessary epidemiological information. The objective of studying the epidemiological profile of physical aggressions and white and fire weapons from the database of the SAMU of Juiz de Fora – MG, between January 2006 and December 2011. The variables were sex, age group, mortality, place of occurrence, days of the week and the time of the assaults. The 72,897 reports, 1,913 understood the group studied. Physical aggression was the trauma mechanism in 1,198 (62.2%) patients, aggression by melee weapon in 433 (22.6%) and fire in 282 (14.7%). Predominated the age group of 15 years to 29 years (48.34%), followed by 30 years of 44 years (31.71%). Most of the victims were men (82.17%). Prehospital mortality was 6.4% (122 deaths), mainly due to firearms (56.6%). The Northern regions (22.42%), Centre (20,2%) and East (19.85%) answered by most attendances. The Northern regions and East were most often related to the use of firearms (33.84% and 24.71%) and white (23.1% and 17.77%). The Centre exceeded when the mechanism was physical aggression (24.24%, 19.41 percent and 19.32%, respectively). Occurrences predominated on weekends (60.24%), between 6:0 pm and 6:0 (63.13%). When white and fire weapons were employed, the events have prevailed between 12:01 and 12:0 am. it was concluded that young men are the main of interpersonal violence in the city, being physical aggression your main form. The mortality related with the use of a firearm. Three regions concentrate occurrences, except when physical aggression was employed. The attendances were more frequent on the weekends and at night.

This master’s thesis is focused on problematic within the prediction of bankruptcy of companies operating in the field of agriculture in Czech republic. First part consists of introduction to companies that do business in field of agriculture and it describes bankruptcy models that are used in academicals sphere. Other part of thesis is divided into two sub-parts. First part is dedicated to an application of data into models of bankruptcy and their evaluation. Second part is focused on improvement of the best model and its main goal is to maximize the precision of the bankruptcy.

This diploma thesis deals with the application of evolutionary engineering to PHA producing bacterial strains. The aim of the thesis is to prepare strains adapted to levulinic acid, a selected stress factor, by methods of evolutionary engineering, and then to characterize these strains. The theoretical part deals with evolutionary engineering and polyhydroxyalkanoates predominantly. The bacterial strain Cupriavidus necator H16 was used for evolutionary experiments. Levulinic acid and levulinic acid in the presence of the MMS mutagen were applied to prepare adapted strains. Selection of mutants was evaluated on the basis of growth potential and PHA content in biomass. Polymers produced by five obtained PHA-producing mutants and control were characterized using GC-FID, SEC-MALS, DSC and FT-IR. It was found that a higher content of 3HV in the copolymer led to a lower crystallinity and hence to a lower melting point, nevertheless, only the copolymer of the M0151 strain did not fit this trend. In addition to the characteristics of the polymers, the strains themselves were evaluated from the biochemical point of view by determining the activities of selected enzymes of the citrate, glyoxalate and 2-methylcitrate cycle, selected enzymes generating NADPH, levulic acid catabolism enzyme and PHA biosynthesis enzymes. On the basis of the obtained data, the possible adaptation strategies were discussed, when the E0575 strain was most differentiated from original culture. Values of specific enzyme activities were subjected to AHC and PCA statistical analysis methods.

The aim of this semestral work is to summarize the existing knowledge from the area of comparison of musical recordings and to implement an evaluation system for determining the period of creation using the music signal parameterization. In the first part of this work are describe representations which can music take. Next, there is a cross-section of parameters that can be extracted from music recordings provides information on the dynamics, tempo, color, or time development of the music’s recording. In the second part is described evaluation system and its individual sub-blocks. The input data for this evaluation system is a database of 56 sound recordings of the first movement of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. The last chapter is dedicated to a summary of the achieved results.