Although research has highlighted the importance of decisions when learning and performing motor actions, few studies have focused on individuals’ ability to choose between potential motor actions. To help bridge this gap, this thesis presents a series of studies that investigate the behaviour of able-bodied individuals when attempting to choose movements based on a speed-accuracy tradeoff. In the first study, a two-alternative forced-choice task was used to determine whether people are consistent with Fitts’s law when choosing the movement they perceive to require the least movement duration. Participants performed almost perfectly when clear visual cues were available—when one of the targets was closer, wider, or both. Contrary to Fitts’s law, however, participants showed a preference for closer targets when visual cues were not informative—when one of the targets was closer and narrower. This study demonstrates that motor decisions are not always optimal, especially when participants are naïve at the task. To determine the basis of individuals’ preference for closer targets, a pair of studies explored the relation between motor decisions, imagined movements, and visual perception. Participants showed a similar deviation from Fitts’s law when imagining movements—believing that movement duration increased with distance within the same index of difficulty. Participants did not behave similarly, however, in a perceptual version of the decision task. These results suggest that imagined movements and motor decisions are linked, but they are not always based on veridical representations of actual movement. To further probe the origin of individuals’ erroneous belief about movement duration, the final study of this thesis measured movement duration for movements made at speeds other than ‘as fast as possible’. Movements made at more natural movement speeds shared important similarities with decisions and imagined movements. This study suggests that the biases seen in naïve motor decisions might originate from participants considering movements for which they have more experience, such as target-directed movements made at a naturally-selected pace. Together, the findings presented in this thesis may help to identify the ways that motor decisions can deviate from optimal, suggesting how those decisions must change with practice to better accomplish a task.

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Although research has highlighted the importance of decisions when learning and performing motor actions, few studies have focused on individuals’ ability to choose between potential motor actions. To help bridge this gap, this thesis presents a series of studies that investigate the behaviour of able-bodied individuals when attempting to choose movements based on a speed-accuracy tradeoff. In the first study, a two-alternative forced-choice task was used to determine whether people are consistent with Fitts’s law when choosing the movement they perceive to require the least movement duration. Participants performed almost perfectly when clear visual cues were available—when one of the targets was closer, wider, or both. Contrary to Fitts’s law, however, participants showed a preference for closer targets when visual cues were not informative—when one of the targets was closer and narrower. This study demonstrates that motor decisions are not always optimal, especially when participants are naïve at the task. To determine the basis of individuals’ preference for closer targets, a pair of studies explored the relation between motor decisions, imagined movements, and visual perception. Participants showed a similar deviation from Fitts’s law when imagining movements—believing that movement duration increased with distance within the same index of difficulty. Participants did not behave similarly, however, in a perceptual version of the decision task. These results suggest that imagined movements and motor decisions are linked, but they are not always based on veridical representations of actual movement. To further probe the origin of individuals’ erroneous belief about movement duration, the final study of this thesis measured movement duration for movements made at speeds other than ‘as fast as possible’. Movements made at more natural movement speeds shared important similarities with decisions and imagined movements. This study suggests that the biases seen in naïve motor decisions might originate from participants considering movements for which they have more experience, such as target-directed movements made at a naturally-selected pace. Together, the findings presented in this thesis may help to identify the ways that motor decisions can deviate from optimal, suggesting how those decisions must change with practice to better accomplish a task.

Recently, erasure networks have received significant attention in the literature as they are used to model both wireless and wireline packet-switched networks. Many packet-switched data networks like wireless mesh networks, the Internet, and Peer-to-peer networks can be modeled as erasure networks. In any erasure network, path diversity works by setting up multiple parallel connections between the end points using the topological path redundancy of the network. Our analysis of diversity over erasure networks studies the problem of rate allocation (RA) across multiple independent paths, coding over erasure channels, and the trade-off between rate and diversity gain in three consecutive chapters. In the chapter 2, Forward Error Correction (FEC) is applied across multiple independent paths to enhance the end-to-end reliability. We prove that the probability of irrecoverable loss (P_E) decays exponentially with the number of paths. Furthermore, the RA problem across independent paths is studied. Our objective is to find the optimal RA, i.e. the allocation which minimizes P_E. Using memoization technique, a heuristic suboptimal algorithm with polynomial runtime is proposed for RA over a finite number of paths. This algorithm converges to the asymptotically optimal RA when the number of paths is large. For practical number of paths, the simulation results demonstrate the close-to-optimal performance of the proposed algorithm. Chapter 3 addresses the problem of lower-bounding the probability of error (PE) for any block code over an input-independent channel. We derive a lower-bound on PE for a general input-independent channel and find the necessary and sufficient condition to meet this bound with equality. The rest of this chapter applies this lower-bound to three special input-independent channels: erasure channel, super-symmetric Discrete Memoryless Channel (DMC), and q-ary symmetric DMC. It is proved that Maximum Distance Separable (MDS) codes achieve the minimum probability of error over any erasure channel (with or without memory). Chapter 4 addresses a fundamental trade-off between rate and diversity gain of an end-to-end connection in erasure networks. We prove that there exist general erasure networks for which any conventional routing strategy fails to achieve the optimum diversity-rate trade-off. However, for any general erasure graph, we show that there exists a linear network coding strategy which achieves the optimum diversity-rate trade-off. Unlike the previous works which suggest the potential benefit of linear network coding in the error-free multicast scenario (in terms of the achievable rate), our result demonstrates the benefit of linear network coding in the erasure single-source single-destination scenario (in terms of the diversity gain).

This study develops a systems integration project scheduling model which identifies the assignment of activity responsibilities that minimizes expected project implementation cost, considering the project risk. Assignment of resources to the individual jobs comprising the project is a persistent problem in project management. Mostly, skilled labor is an essential resource and both the time and the cost incurred to perform a job depend on the resource to which job is assigned. A systems integration project includes implementation issues in the areas of shipping, installation, and commissioning. Implementation problems lead to project delays, increased costs, and decreased performance, leading to customer dissatisfaction with the systems integrator. Activities can be performed in one of three ways: by the integrator, by the customer, or jointly between the integrator and customer. In this study we select the performer (mode) of each activity comprising the project network while taking into consideration the varying cost, duration and extreme event probability of each activity among different modes-integrator, joint work and customer. Use of the model will permit customers and integrators to mutually agree on an appropriate assignment of responsibilities in the contract. Systems integrators can also use the model to improve their implementation services offerings. An experimental design and a Monte-Carlo simulation study were conducted to see the effects of the parameters of the problem on the selection of modes.

Sheet and film forming processes refer to a set of processes that have a 2-dimensional sheet or film as their output. They are typically characterized by a scanning sensor which moves between the edges of the sheet in a periodic manner. This work is concerned with control and monitoring of such processes. There are three main contributions in this study. The first and foremost contribution is the reformulation of the Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) objective function to give one the ability to trade-off between control over either dimension of the sheet. The second contribution is a method to derive the LQG trade-off surface between output variability in either dimension and input variance. The third contribution is a set of data driven techniques for performance assessment of these processes. Simulation results using the model used by Bergh and MacGregor (1987) are provided to support the proposed methods. / Process Control

本篇論文探討亞太地區債券市場中是否存在著擇時行為，以此區域中三個經濟區為代表—澳洲、新加坡及香港，透過分析此區域2000~2009期間的絕對利率、相對利率與絕對債券發行量、相對債券發行量間之關係，以及進一步控制影響企業債券發行之因素，包括市場的成長機會、再融資及企業特性等，最後，實證結果指出亞太地區之債券市場並無擇時行為之存在，且其融資行為較傾向支持靜態抵換理論，亦即亞太企業進行舉債融資時較可能同時考慮舉債所帶來的正面及負面效果，因此有一最適資本結構存在的可能。 / The purpose of this thesis is to test whether there is market timing behavior existing in Asia-pacific bond market. Using the data during 2000~2009 in three representative places, including Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore, we compare both the absolute and relative interest rate to both the absolute and relative amount of debt issue. In addition, we further control the factors that affect the debt issue of firms, including the market growth opportunities, refinancing and the characteristics of firms. Finally, we find there is no market timing behavior in Asia-pacific bond market. Besides, firms’ financing behavior in Asia-pacific are better explained by the trade-off theory, which means it is possible that there is a optimal capital structure for each firm.

This study examines the divide between finance theory and practice by analysing the significance of the determinants of capital structure choice among 123 listed firms on the JSE, to determine whether these firms follow the trade-off theory or the pecking-order theory. Data obtained from McGregor’s Bureau of Financial Analysis database was analysed using standard multiple regressions, stepwise regressions and ANOVA techniques to test for financing behaviour. The results indicated that the trade-off model has both cross-sectional and time-series explanatory power for explaining the financing behaviour, while tests on the pecking-order model were weak. The results further revealed a significant positive correlation between debt financing and financial distress, and a significant negative correlation between debt financing and the collateral value of assets during the period under study (1995-2005). These findings suggest a divergence between finance theory and practice for JSE listed firms and manifest conflicting ideologies between finance practices of developed and developing economies. / Business management / M. Com. (Business Management )

Since the beginning, it was Modigliani and Miller ́s theorem which initiated the capital structure aspect to finance. Capital structure explains in its essence the relationship between equity and leverage within a company. It also illustrates how the company has financed their business historically. Year 2013 Sweden imposed a reduction on its corporation tax from 26,3 percent to 22 percent. This study's purpose is to capture the impacts on listed firms on Stockholmsbörsen Large cap list and try to distinguish similarities and differences from the two time periods with well-established capital structure variables. Before and after the reduction in the corporate taxation. The conclusion is that firms are less likely to use leverage to finance their growth after the reduction in the corporation tax and are more prone to finance their growth with retained earnings preferably. However statistically no significant explanation can be done by the well-known capital structure variables.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:26:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MEDOLAGO_Cesar_2013.pdf: 1874610 bytes, checksum: 3e19d8b8517c60b82a8deacf9f5614ce (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-11-08 / This study aims to describe the pattern of moulting and reproduction, evaluating their temporal overlap in an assembly of birds in the Atlantic Forest. These events tend to have little or no overlap due to high energy costs involved, but some authors argue that in tropical regions, they may present a significant overlap, since the period of resource abundance would be longer in this region. We also noticed the amount of fat deposition, because this phenomenon is important in thermo-isolation, energy reserves and development of egg-yolk. It is possible that environmental variables act directly on the breeding period of birds, which in turn influences the moult, it is expected that this starts right after the breeding season, when the young leave their nests. There taking into account that ecological groups, such as trophic guilds, may show different patterns for the periods, since the supply of food resources varies temporally in a different way for each group. It were determined five areas in Carlos Botelho State Park , state of São Paulo ( 24 ° 06 ' 55'' , 24 º 14' 41'' S , 47 º 47 ' 18'' and 48 º 07' 17'' W), which were sampled from June 2012 to May 2013, once a month, during the daytime, using lines with ten mist nets (3x12m , mesh 36mm ). Each bird was received a numbered metal band provided by CEMAVE. With a total of 4650 mistnet-hours were held 700 catches and 130 were recaptures, totaling 54 species, all residents. The period of moult of flight concentrated from November to April, with its peak in February. Incubation began in August, with the highest percentage of individuals presenting brood patch occurred in the months of November and December, declining from February, when the percentage of young individuals in the assemblage began to increase. The highest percentage of individuals with fat deposition occurred in the months comprising the coldest period of the year. The incubation period began at the end of the dry season, increasing with the photoperiod, reaching its peak in November. Thus, the young individuals leave their nests in the beginning of the hot season, when the supply of food resources would be higher, which would support the new individuals in the community as well as the start of moult period. There was little difference in the incubation period and fat deposition between trophic guilds and no difference in their moult period. The overlap between the events found in this study was 7 %, which confirms the tendency to avoid the overlap of these cycles, even in tropical regions, such as the Atlantic Forest, due to high energy costs involved. / O presente estudo tem por objetivos descrever o padrão de muda de penas e reprodução, avaliando sua sobreposição temporal, em uma assembleia de aves na Mata Atlântica. Esses eventos tendem a apresentar pouca ou nenhuma sobreposição devido aos altos custos energéticos envolvidos; porém alguns autores defendem que em regiões tropicais, eles poderiam apresentar uma maior sobreposição, já que a o período de abundância de recursos é mais longo nessa região. Foi verificado também o período de acúmulo de gordura na região da fúrcula, pois esse fenômeno tem importância no isolamento térmico, reserva de energia e desenvolvimento da gema do ovo. É possível que as variáveis ambientais atuem diretamente sobre o período de reprodução das aves, que por sua vez, teriam influência sobre a muda de penas, pois é de se esperar que esse comece logo em seguida ao período reprodutivo, juntamente com a saída dos jovens dos ninhos. Há de levar-se em conta que grupos ecológicos, como as guildas tróficas, podem apresentar padrões distintos em relação a esses períodos, já que a oferta recursos alimentares varia temporalmente, de maneira diferente, para cada um desses grupos. Para isso foram determinadas cinco áreas no Parque Estadual Carlos Botelho, estado de São Paulo (24º 06 55 , 24º 14 41 S, 47º 47 18 e 48º 07 17 W), que foram amostradas de junho de 2012 a maio de 2013, uma vez por mês, durante o período diurno, utilizando-se linhas de dez redes de neblina (3x12m, malha 36mm). Foram utilizadas anilhas metálicas padrão CEMAVE para marcar os indivíduos. Com um total de 4650 horas-rede, foram realizadas 700 capturas, das quais 130 foram recapturas, totalizando 54 espécies, todas residentes. O período de muda de penas de voo concentrou-se de novembro a abril, apresentando seu auge em fevereiro. A incubação teve início em agosto, sofrendo influência do fotoperíodo e a maior porcentagem de indivíduos apresentando placa de incubação se deu nos meses de novembro e dezembro, declinando a partir de fevereiro, quando a porcentagem de indivíduos jovens começou a aumentar. A maior porcentagem de indivíduos com acúmulo de gordura se deu nos meses que compreende o período mais frio do ano. O período de incubação iniciou-se no final da estação seca, atingindo seu ápice em novembro. Assim, a saída dos jovens dos ninhos coincidiria com o início da estação mais quente, quando a oferta de recursos alimentares seria maior, o que suportaria os novos indivíduos na comunidade, bem como a realização da muda de penas. Houve uma pequena diferença no período de incubação e de acúmulo de gordura entre as guildas tróficas e não houve diferença entre seus períodos de muda. A sobreposição entre os eventos encontrada nesse estudo foi de 7%, o que corrobora a tendência em evitar a sobreposição desses ciclos, mesmo em regiões tropicais, como é o caso da Mata Atlântica, devido aos altos custos energéticos envolvidos.