O sistema orçamentário é um artefato contábil relevante para a tomada de decisão diante de um contexto de alta complexidade apresentado na realidade contemporânea, pois representa uma antecipação da visão da empresa, traduzindo sua estratégia e oferecendo diretrizes de conduta. Sua composição e as razões para o seu uso (como forma de comunicação das metas, avaliando desempenho, sendo um instrumento de planejamento operacional e de formação da estratégia) parecem estar relacionadas às variáveis contingenciais que afetam a empresa, tais como a incerteza ambiental percebida, a estratégia em foco, a estrutura organizacional, a tecnologia empregada em seu sistema de informação e o seu porte. O presente estudo, portanto, possui como finalidade compreender os atributos do sistema orçamentário a partir das variáveis contingenciais, considerando determinados níveis de desempenho. Metodologicamente, trata-se de um estudo descritivo e causal, utilizando-se de coleta de dados com questionário previamente formulado, aplicado para os controllers ou responsáveis pela controladoria nas indústrias paranaenses cadastradas em 2006 na FIEP- Federação das Indústrias do Estado do Paraná. Adicionalmente, refere-se a um estudo ex post facto, em condições de campo, transversal e utilizando-se de técnicas estatísticas de análise multivariada, mais especificamente testes não-paramétricos, correlação de Pearson, análise fatorial, modelagem de equações estruturais e clusters. Por subsidiar sua investigação com a abordagem contingencial, o presente estudo pode ser caracterizado como sendo uma pesquisa de sistemas, relacionando as diversas variáveis em análise com o desempenho percebido para a identificação de arranjos contingenciais. Os resultados apresentados apontam para a aceitabilidade das cinco hipóteses apresentadas na tese, ratificando a influência do ambiente nos fatores contingenciais intra-organizacionais, a relação dos fatores contingenciais e o sistema orçamentário da empresa, a influência das variáveis contingenciais no desempenho, a associação existente entre os atributos orçamentários e o desempenho e, por fim, a presença de arranjos (fits) entre as variáveis contingenciais e os atributos do sistema orçamentário, em virtude da apresentação de um desempenho superior. A presente pesquisa empírica revela que independente do porte, indústrias paranaenses que possuem um maior grau de aderência ao sistema orçamentário, conscientes das razões para o seu uso e que apresentam tarefa rotineira em seus processos exibiram alto desempenho organizacional e orçamentário. Logo, conclui-se que sob certas condições há indícios que o orçamento é benéfico à empresa, revelando uma relação custo-benefício positiva. / The budgetary system is a relevant accounting tool to the decision-making within the high complex context of the contemporary reality, since it represents a prospect of the business vision, translating its strategy and offering conduct guidance. The budgetary system\'s composition and the reasons for its use (as a form of targets communication, performance evaluation and being an instrument for operational planning and strategic formation) seem to be related to contingent variables that affect a business, such as perceived environmental uncertainty, focus strategy, the organizational structure, the information system technology employed and its size. The present study, therefore, intends to understand the budgetary system attributes considering contingent variables and certain performance levels. Methodologically, it is a descriptive and causal study, witch uses data from previously formulated surveys, aimed to the controllers or to the responsible for the control department of the Paraná industries registered at FIEP - Federação das Indústrias do Estado do Paraná in 2006. Additionally, it is an ex post facto study, in field conditions, transversal, and using multivariate analysis statistical techniques, more specifically non parametric tests, Pearson correlation, factorial analysis, structural equation modeling, and clusters. Since this investigation is subsidized by a contingent approach, it may be characterized as a systems\' research, relating the many variables under analysis like the noticed performance of contingent arrangements/fits. The presented results show an acceptability of the five hypotheses presented on the thesis, ratifying the environment influence on the intraorganizational contingent factors, the relations between the contingent factors and the company budgetary system, the contingent variables influence on the performance, the existent association between the budgetary attributes and the performance and, finally, fits/arrangements presence between the contingent variables and the budgetary system attributes, due to the better performance presentation. This empirical research reveals that unrelated to the company size, Paraná industries that show a higher degree of adherence to the budgetary system, industries that are conscious of the reasons for its uses and present routine tasks in its process showed an organizational and budgetary high performance. Thus, the conclusion is that under certain conditions the budgeting is a benefit to the company, revealing a positive cost-benefit relation.

No contexto de transformações políticas, econômicas e teóricas que marcaram o período de 1965 a 2010, o presente trabalho estuda a política fiscal do governo federal em uma perspectiva de longo prazo. Em particular, centra-se em dois pontos: no estudo do padrão de financiamento tributário e de gasto do governo e na análise institucional do processo de elaboração, aprovação e execução do orçamento sob a ótica da disciplina fiscal, suas alterações ao longo do tempo, bem como o impacto deste arcabouço institucional no resultado observado para a política fiscal. Para contornar a falta de dados fiscais para o período, foram construídas séries para a receita e a despesa federal, a partir de dados desagregados, obtidos de fontes primárias e públicas. Os resultados mostram que as mudanças na forma de atuação do Estado na economia levaram a distintos padrões de receita e despesa do governo federal: o primeiro, ligado ao Estado como promotor da industrialização, tem como principal fonte de receita fiscal os tributos e destaca-se pelos gastos em infraestrutura; no segundo, instituído pela Constituição de 1988, são as contribuições sociais a fonte principal de receita fiscal e, em contrapartida, destacam-se as despesas com previdência e assistência social. No que tange ao arcabouço institucional do orçamento, os dois processos orçamentários identificados, o vigente no regime militar e o instituído pela Constituição de 1988, são analisados e comparados. Com base na metodologia estabelecida na literatura de economia política ligada ao mainstream macroeconômico, dois índices orçamentários e seus respectivos subíndices são construídos, e o seu comportamento ao longo do período analisado mostra que as mudanças realizadas resultaram em instituições que induzem a uma maior disciplina fiscal. O impacto destas instituições sobre o resultado fiscal é estudado para o período de 1985 a 2009 e os resultados permitem concluir que as mudanças institucionais contribuíram para um menor déficit público. / In the context of political, economic and theoretical chances that characterized the period from 1965 to 2010, this thesis studies the Brazilian Federal Government´s fiscal policy, on a long term perspective. In particular, it focuses on two points: the study of the pattern of tax financing and government spending; and the analysis of the budgetary institutions according to which budgets are prepared, approved and implemented, from the perspective of fiscal discipline, their changes over time, and the impact of this institutional framework in the observed results for fiscal policy. To overcome the lack of fiscal data for the whole period, series for federal revenues and expenditures were built from disaggregated data, obtained from primary and public sources. The results show two different patterns of income and expenses: the first pattern, linked to the state as promoter of industrialization, has taxes as its main source of fiscal revenue and higher expenses on infrastructure as share of GDP; in the second pattern, set by the Constitution of 1988, social contributions are the main source of tax revenue and expenditures on social security and welfare are the federal government main expenses. Regarding the institutional framework of the budget, two budget processes are identified, one from the military regime and the other established by the Constitution of 1988. They are analyzed and compared. Based on the methodology established in the literature of political economy linked to the macroeconomic mainstream, two budget index and their respective components are constructed, and its behavior over the 1965-2010 period shows that the observed changes resulted in institutions that lead to greater fiscal discipline. The impact of these institutions on the government´s fiscal performance is studied for the period of 1985 to 2009 and the results indicate that institutional changes contributed to a lower deficit.

Thesis advisor: Rudolph Hon / Road de-icing salts (predominantly NaCl, CaCl2, and MgCl2) are applied each winter in the northern US, northern Europe, and Canada to maintain safe driving conditions. It is widely recognized that road salt enters the environment through runoff and infiltration (Williams et al., 2000; Ostendorf, et al., 2001; J. Marsalek, 2003), resulting in salinization of freshwater (Godwin et al., 2003; Kaushal et al., 2005; Kelly et al., 2012). The chloride concentration (a proxy for deicers) has doubled in the last 20 years in the groundwater Norwell, MA, the primary public water supply for the town’s residents, and often exceeds the EPA secondary drinking water standard for chloride. The annual budget TDLCl¬ of Third Herring Brook in Norwell, MA is estimated using specific conductance and discharge datasets to determine the retention of dissolved deicers in the watershed during the study period. The estimated retention rate is between 59% and 78%. / Thesis (MS) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Earth and Environmental Sciences.

by Albert Wu Kin Fu. / Summary in Chinese on endpapers. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong. / Bibliography: leaves 106-113.

Magister Curationis - MCur / In 2011, a structured electronic system for the staffing of agency nurses was implemented in the Western Cape as part of the Nursing Information Management System (NIMS). This electronic system was developed to ensure a fair tendering process for the procurement of agency staff, providing information on agency expenditure, maximum wage rates and adherence to principles and rules of supply chain management. Although technology is used more and more in healthcare services within the Western Cape, some professional nurses could lack the skills needed to implement the electronic system appropriately. A descriptive and quantitative design was followed to determine the competence levels of professional nurses in utilising the electronic staffing system for agency nurses in public hospitals in the Metropole, Western Cape. The aim of the study was to develop guidelines for nurse managers according to which they can train professional nurses in hospitals to utilise the electronic system for staffing of agency nurses. Assumptions were adapted from the theoretical framework of Benner (1984) on different levels of competencies and used as theoretical departure of the study. The accessible population for this study was all the professional nurses in hospitals within the Metropole of the Western Cape Government Health registered as users on the database, called the Nursing Information Management System (NIMS) (N=278). This population served as the total inclusive sample for the study. The method of data collection was a self-administered structured questionnaire. The data was analysed by using the SPSS Version 24 software program and descriptive and inferential statistics were conducted.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att beskriva hur Handelsbanken och Nordea styr sina organisationer.Fokus ligger på hur styrningen mellan dessa aktörer skiljer sig, samt hur det påverkarmedarbetarna. Då ekonomistyrning och verksamhetsstyrning skiljer sig från varandra ville vise hur medarbetarna påverkas av respektive styrsätt. Handelsbankens styrsätt skapades av JanWallander under tidigt 1970-tal. Han menade att budget kunde vara skadligt motorganisationen och utvecklade istället ett styrsystem som bygger på verkligt utfall och endecentraliserad organisation. Detta ger indikationer på att Handelsbanken använder ett merverksamhetsinriktat styrsätt. Nordea har däremot en stark koppling till budget främst genomatt staten är den enskilt största aktieägaren. Under 2001 skedde en omorganisation vilketledde till att styrprocessen gjordes mer levande. Vi ser dock fortfarande att budgeten är encentral del i Nordeas styrning, vilket gjorde att vi valde dessa två motpoler i vår studie.Studien har genomförts i enhetlighet med det tolkande paradigmet där vi valt en kvalitativundersökningsmetod som baseras på semistrukturerade intervjuer. Vi har genomfört enfallstudie med en abduktiv forskningsansats. Genomgående har vi försökt skapa ett djup istudien för att få en korrekt bild av fenomenen.Vi har funnit en del skillnader inom organisationerna som ligger till grund för hurmedarbetarna påverkas av styrningen. Vi ser att förväntningarna som finns på medarbetarnaskiljer sig med tanke på vilket styrsätt och fokus som organisationen har. Det finns dock ingetsätt som är att föredra då styrningen är starkt sammankopplad med hur organisationen äruppbyggd.

Salt marshes are some of the most productive and valuable landscapes on earth, but they are vulnerable to the effects of sea-level rise, erosion and eutrophication. These processes act on a wide range of temporal and spatial scales, which complicate assessments of the health and stability of marsh ecosystems. High-frequency monitoring using in situ sensors captures the complete range of these dynamics, but extracting meaningful physical and ecological information from these signals requires process-based models coupled with statistical techniques. I develop and apply such methods to study two coastal landscapes, a coastal pine forest on the Eastern Shore of Virginia and a mesotidal salt marsh complex in the Plum Island Estuary, Massachusetts. Observations from groundwater wells in the Virginia pine forest indicate that storms are the dominant controls on the hydrology of the forest and that tidal influence is nonexistent. This forest exhibits a distinct spatial pattern in age structure in which young trees do not grow at low elevations. This pattern can be explained by a model that includes the interaction of sea-level rise, storms and the age-dependent variation in tree stress response, which predicts that the long-term evolution of the boundary is an ecological ratchet. Stresses due to sea-level rise slowly push the boundary at which young trees can survive upslope. Powerful storms then kill the mature, persistent forest at low elevations, which quickly pushes the forest boundary up to the regeneration boundary. Salt marshes need to accumulate sediment to replenish material lost as sea-level rises and creek banks erode. Fluxes of sediment can be monitored with simultaneous high-frequency observations of flow from acoustic Doppler current profilers and turbidity from optical backscattering sensors. I first investigate the relationship between water level and flow in marsh channels and develop predictive stage-discharge models to simplify the monitoring of fluxes. I then construct sediment budgets for eleven salt marshes in the Plum Island Estuary. The observed budgets depend strongly on the unique hydrodynamic conditions of each marsh channel. Variability in these conditions leads to the observed spatial and temporal variability in sediment fluxes from these marshes.

O mercado da construção civil fomenta os estudos de desenvolvimento e aperfeiçoamento de ferramentas de gestão. Prever o custo de um empreendimento na fase de planejamento requer um nível técnico de alta qualidade para que esta estimativa seja racional, precisa e competitiva. Não apenas os profissionais envolvidos nos projetos devem possuir um alto nível de expertise para alcançar a excelência, mas também as ferramentas de auxílio devem possuir os requisitos adequados aos objetivos institucionais. Neste trabalho é realizada uma avaliação do sistema de software utilizado pela Universidade Federal do Rio Grande Sul - UFRGS na orçamentação das obras de construção civil custeadas pela União. Esta análise é de cunho quanti-qualitativa baseada em entrevista aos profissionais da área de engenharia e arquitetura, pontuando as deficiências e qualidades dos sistemas, de modo comparativo entre ferramentas selecionadas para o estudo. Quesitos gerais foram formulados para tais avaliações, que por sua vez, foram desdobrados em subcaracterísticas denominadas quesitos específicos, de modo a tornar a análise mais aprofundada. O estudo comparativo teve um resultado válido, pois gerou uma base teórica e analítica de apresentação das características do sistema testado para fim de aperfeiçoamento, gerando uma análise de falhas e identificando pontos de melhorias. Com a aplicação deste estudo foi possível alcançar alguns resultados quanto à avaliação de quesitos técnicos dos sistemas de custos, tais como: (i) pontuação de requisito para cada sistema, possibilitando a avaliação de eficiência em nível global e específica de cada funcionalidade; (ii) identificação de funcionalidades ou dados que necessitam de aperfeiçoamento; (iii) avaliação dos sistemas utilizados pelas corporações em função dos sistemas disponibilizados no mercado. / The construction market encourages the development of studies and improvement of management tools. Predict the cost of a project in the planning phase requires a technical level of high quality so that this estimate is reasonable, accurate and competitive. Not only the professionals involved in the projects should have a high level of expertise to achieve excellence, but also the use of tools must have requirements appropriate for institutional objectives. This work is carried out an assessment of the software system used by the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul - UFRGS, the budgeting of construction works funded by the Union. This analysis is quantitative and qualitative nature based on interviews with professionals in the engineering and architecture area, pointing out the deficiencies and qualities of systems making a comparison between selected tools for the study. General questions were formulated for such assessments, which in turn were broken down into sub features called specific questions in order to make further analysis. The comparative study was a valid result, it generated a theoretical and analytical basis for presentation of system features tested in order to improve, resulting in a failure analysis and identifying areas for improvement. With the application of this study was possible to achieve some results as the assessment of technical issues of cost systems such as: With the application of this study was possible to achieve some results as the assessment of technical issues of cost systems such as: (i) requirement score for each system , enabling the assessment of efficiency in global and specific level of each feature requirement score for each system , enabling the assessment of efficiency in global and specific level of each functionality. (ii) identifying of funcionality or data that require improvement; (iii) evaluation of systems used by corporations in terms of systems available on the market.

The thesis is focused on the community, their management and reporting. There is also mention of the financial reform, which took place in 2010. The work is divided into two parts on the theoretical and practical. The theoretical part deals with the characteristics of communities, their financial management and the impact of the accounting reform. The practical part is focused on the performance of a particular community and that is the town of České Budějovice. It is broken down budget of 2009 and 2010, and balance sheets, profit and loss, attachment and cash flows and changes in equity. Finally, it outlined the draft budget for 2012.

The subject of my thesis is to compare the main current standards of transparent public budgets (IMF, OECD, OBI) in terms of overall view of fiscal transparency and in terms of content coverage through the analysis of relevant documents and the formulation of specific criteria. Another goal of this work is the analysis of transparency in the state budget revenues and evaluation whether disclosure of the income of the state budget itself meets the requirement of fiscal transparency by calculating the prediction accuracy of state budget revenues in the Czech Republic and comparing the standards of transparency. I found that approaches to transparency differ in their scope and structure. In terms of content all approaches correspond only in the middle of the criteria. Publication of data on the income of the state budget with respect to prediction accuracy achieved in the Czech Republic meets the basic requirement for transparency, but there is much room for its improvement, in an appropriate commentary published data.