The Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) was created in 1992 to coordinate global governments to protect biological resources. The CBD has three goals: protection of biodiversity, achievement of sustainable use of biodiversity and facilitation of equitable sharing of the benefits of biological resources. The goal of protecting biological resources has remained both controversial and difficult to implement. This study focused more on the goal of biodiversity protection. The research was designed to examine how globally constructed environmental policies get adapted by national governments and then passed down to local levels where actual implementation takes place. Effectiveness of such policies depends on the extent of actual implementation at local levels. Therefore, compliance was divided and examined at three levels: global, national and local. The study then developed various criteria to measure compliance at these levels. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to analyze compliance and implementation. The study was guided by three questions broadly examining critical factors that most influence the implementation of biodiversity protection policies at the global, national and local levels. Findings show that despite an overall biodiversity deficit of 0.9 hectares per person, global compliance with the CBD goals is currently at 35%. Compliance is lowest at local levels at 14%, it is slightly better at national level at 50%, and much better at the international level 64%. Compliance appears higher at both national and international levels because compliance here is paper work based and policy formulation. If implementation at local levels continues to produce this low compliance, overall conservation outcomes can only get worse than what it is at present. There are numerous weaknesses and capacity challenges countries are yet to address in their plans. In order to increase local level compliance, the study recommends a set of robust policies that build local capacity, incentivize local resource owners, and implement biodiversity protection programs that are akin to local needs and aspirations.

No description available.

No description available.

The ever-increasing focus of policy-makers on environmental issues are pushing the combustion community towards making combustion cleaner by optimizing the combustion equipment in order to reduce emissions, improve efficiency and satisfy the increasing energy demand. A major part of this involves advancing modelling capabilities of these complex combustion systems, which is a combination of computational fluid dynamics with detailed chemical kinetic models. A chemical kinetic model comprises of a series of elementary reactions with corresponding kinetic rate parameters and species thermodynamic and transport data. The predictive capability of these models depends on the accuracy to which individual chemical reaction rates, thermodynamic and transport parameters are known. A minor fraction of the rate constants and thermodynamic properties in the widely used kinetic mechanisms are experimentally derived or theoretically calculated. The remaining are approximated using rate rules and group additivity methods respectively for rate constants and thermodynamic properties. Recent works have highlighted the need for error checking when preparing such models using the approximations, but a useful community tool to perform such analysis is missing. In the initial part of this work, we developed a simple online tool to screen chemical kinetic mechanisms for bimolecular reactions exceeding collision limits. Furthermore, issues related to unphysically fast time scales can remain an issue even if all bimolecular reactions are within collision limits. Therefore, we also presented a procedure to screen ultra-fast reaction time scales using computational singular perturbation (CSP). The screening of kinetic models is a necessary condition, however, not a sufficient one. Therefore, exploring new approaches for the simulation of complex chemically reacting systems are needed. This work focuses on developing new methods for estimating thermodynamic data efficiently and accurately, thereby increasing the compliance of forth-mentioned screening. Machine Learning (ML) has been increasingly becoming a tool of choice for regression, replacing traditional function fittings. Group additivity incorporates simple functions and derive constants with a certain existing data and use these functions to estimate the unknown values. ML algorithms does the same without fixing a specific function there by letting algorithm to learn the non-linearity from the training data itself. With the new data coming in with time, ML algorithms learn better and improves over time, whereas this need not necessarily happen with traditional methods. In the first part of the study, data for standard enthalpy is collected from the literature sources and ML models are built on these databases. Two different models were built and studied for a straight-chain species and cyclic species dataset. Molecular descriptors are used as the datasets collected from literature are small for using any sparse representations as input. As expected, we observed a good improvement above group additivity method for these ML models. The improvement is observed to be more significant for cyclic species. With the motivation of ML models showing benefit over the group additivity method, a step further was taken. A homogenous and accurate dataset is necessary for building a ML model that can be used for generating the thermodynamic data for kinetic models. With this in mind, an accurate database for thermodynamic data is built from ab-intio calculations. The species in the dataset are taken from a detailed and well established mechanism to cover all the species in a typical kinetic mechanism. The calculations are performed at a high level of accuracy, in comparison to other similar datasets in literature. In the later part of this work, the dataset developed using ab-inito calculations is used for developing ML models. Unlike the ML models built from the literature datasets, this database consists of all the thermodynamic data required for kinetic models viz. standard enthalpy and standard entropy and heat capacity at 300 K and higher temperatures. To numerically mimic real gasoline fuel reactivity, surrogates are proposed to facilitate advanced engine design and predict emissions by chemical kinetic modelling. However, chemical kinetic models could not always accurately predict non-regular emissions, e.g. aldehydes, ketones and unsaturated hydrocarbons, which are important air pollutants. Therefore, we propose to use machine-learning algorithms directly to achieve better predictions, circumventing the kinetic models. Combustion chemistry of fuels constituting of 10 neat fuels, 6 primary reference fuels (PRF) and 6 FGX surrogates were tested in a jet stirred reactor. Experimental data were collected in the same setup to maintain data uniformity and consistency. Measured species profiles of methane, ethylene, propylene, hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide are used for machine-learning model development. The model considers both chemical effects and physical conditions. Chemical effects are described as different functional groups, viz. primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary carbons in molecular structures, and physical conditions as temperature. Both the Machine-learning models used in this study showed a good prediction accuracy. By expanding the experimental database, machine-learning models can be further applied to many other hydrocarbons in future work, for the direct predictions.

The objectives of this study were to investigate the relationship between positive psychological capacities (state ego-resilience and state self-efficacy) and burnout levels of employees (N = 164) in a chemical organisation and to determine whether state ego-resilience and state self-efficacy can be used to predict burnout levels of employees in a chemical organisation. A cross-sectional survey design was used. The Ego-Resiliency Scale (ER89), the State Self Efficacy Scale (SSES) and the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI) were administered to measure the constructs. The research method for this article consists of a brief literature review and an empirical study. Confirmatory factor analyses, Cronbach's alpha coefficients and the inter-item correlation coefficients were used to assess the reliability and validity of the measuring instruments. Descriptive statistics were used to describe data, and Pearson's product moment correlation coefficients, and regression analyses were used to examine the relationships between the constructs employed in this research. Results obtained confirmed the internal consistency and one-dimensional factor structures of the state ego-resilience and state self-efficacy measuring instruments. Although the two - dimensional factor structure of the OLBI was confirmed, the two subscales were not consistent with the expected factor structure. Consequently, only the total burnout scale (which presented with adequate internal consistency) was used. A significant statistical and practical correlation was found between state ego-resilience and burnout. State self-efficacy and burnout demonstrated a significant statistical and practical correlation. Regression analyses indicated that both state ego-resilience and state self-efficacy hold predictive value with regard to burnout. Conclusions were made, limitations of the current research were discussed and recommendations for future research were put forward. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2008.

On account of the high temperatures and pressures experienced by energetic materials during deflagration and detonation, it is important to know not only the physical properties of these materials at ambient temperatures and pressures, but also to understand how their structure and properties are affected by extreme conditions. Combined computational and experimental investigations of the effects of high pressures on the structure and properties of several energetic materials are described herein. A comparison of the performances of different pseudopotentials and density functional theory (DFT) dispersion correction schemes in calculating crystal geometries and vibrational frequencies of crystalline ammonium perchlorate at high pressure is described. The results highlight the fact that care must be taken when choosing pseudopotentials for high-pressure studies. A comprehensive comparison of calculated vibrational modes (including symmetry) with experiment has been performed, with the frequencies of all internal modes predicted to lie within 5% of experimental values. This study established that no significant improvements in the calculation of crystal geometries of ammonium perchlorate are obtained by employing DFT-D corrections. The enthalpy of fusion (ΔHfus) of the highly metastable β-form of RDX (cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine) was determined to be 12.63 ± 0.28 kJ mol-1. DFT-D calculations of the lattice energies of the α- and β-forms of RDX are described. Furthermore, the response of the lattice parameters and unit-cell volumes to pressure for the α-, γ- and ε-forms of RDX calculated using DFT-D are in very good agreement with experimental data. Phonon calculations provide good agreement with vibrational frequencies obtained from Raman spectroscopy, and a predicted inelastic neutron scattering (INS) spectrum of α-RDX shows excellent agreement with experimental INS data recorded as part of this study. The results of the high-pressure phonon calculations have been used to show that the heat capacities of the α-, γ- and ε- forms of RDX are only weakly affected by pressure. DFT-D calculations have been utilised to describe accurately the structure and properties of both β-HMX (Cyclotetramethylenetetranitramine) and α-FOX-7 (1,1-Diamino-2,2-dinitroethylene) as a function of pressure. This work presents data for the experimental hydrostatic compression of both deuterated β-HMX and α-FOX-7 performed using neutron powder diffraction at the ISIS Neutron and Muon facility, in addition to experimental determinations of the INS spectra of both β-HMX and α-FOX-7. The DFT-D hydrostatic compression studies for both materials reproduce the experimental compression trends. Furthermore, the calculated vibrational properties as a function of pressure were in very good agreement with available experimental data. The results of the phonon calculations were then used to predict the effect of pressure on the heat capacities of β-HMX and α-FOX-7. These predictions suggest a very weak pressure dependence of heat capacities (approximately -1 J K-1 mol-1 GPa-1) for these materials. This work demonstrates that the DFT-D model performs extremely well over a range of conditions, and is able to describe accurately intramolecular and intermolecular interactions, and thus the structure and properties of organic molecular nitramine crystals. The computational model was therefore used to predict the high-pressure hydrostatic compression behaviour of a related nitramine, CL-20 (2,4,6,8,10,12-Hexanitro-2,4,6,8,10,12-hexaazaisowurtzitane), the results of which highlighted possible discrepancies in the experimental high-pressure X-ray diffraction data recorded for ε-CL-20. This prompted a high-pressure neutron powder diffraction study, which showed good agreement with the computational results, thereby highlighting radiation damage in the X-ray experiments.

A presença de diferenças individuais no desempenho motor de crianças e jovens da mesma faixa etária é um aspecto relatado por grande parte da literatura. O presente estudo escolheu o modelo de capacidades perceptivo-motoras para explorar estas diferenças e focou na questão de níveis diferenciados de maturação do sistema nervoso central (SNC). Uma vez que a maioria dos estudos sobre capacidades perceptivo-motoras investiga adultos e não se conhece como o nível do SNC influencia a associação entre as capacidades e desempenho motor. Com isso, o presente estudo teve como objetivo investigar a associação entre as capacidades perceptivo-motoras e o desempenho de tarefas motoras em sujeitos de 7 e 13 anos de idade. A amostra refere-se aos sujeitos que fizeram parte do estudo de Crescimento e Desenvolvimento Motor Longitudinal Misto de Muzambinho-MG. Foram selecionados 110 sujeitos, contrabalanceados em termos de sexo e idade. As capacidades perceptivo-motoras analisadas foram a de coordenação multimembros (CM), timing coincidente (TC), tempo de reação (TR) e tempo de movimento (TM), por sua vez as tarefas motoras analisadas foram correr, rebater e receber. Para a análise da correlação foi utilizado o teste de Spearman, uma vez que não houve distribuição normal. Os resultados indicaram que o desempenho do correr se associou a CM tanto para os 7 anos (ρ=-0,33) quanto para 13 anos (ρ=-0,34). Por sua vez, o desempenho do receber se associou com a CM (ρ=0,41) e TR (ρ=-0,41) para os 7 anos, mas apenas com a CM (ρ=0,29) para os 13 anos. E o desempenho do rebater não se associou com nenhuma das capacidades perceptivo-motoras analisadas. Com base nestes resultados, pode-se inferir que o desempenho em tarefas motoras típicas da infância é associado as capacidades perceptivo-motoras, mas o nível maturacional do sistema nervoso central pode ser um aspecto que interfere nesta associação. Estes resultados permitem identificar um campo de investigação promissor para entender as diferenças individuais que ocorrem no desempenho de crianças e jovens / The presence of individual differences in motor performance of children and teenagers of the same age group is a reported aspect for much of the literature. This study chose the model of perceptual-motor abilities to explore these differences and focused on issue of different central nervous system development levels (CNS). Since most of the studies investigate perceptual-motor abilities in adults and it is not known how the CNS level affects the association between ability and motor performance. This study aimed to investigate the association between perceptual-motor abilities and performance of motor tasks in individuals of 7 and 13 years old. The sample refers to subjects who participated in the study of mixed longitudinal motor growth and development in the city of Muzambinho - Minas Gerais/Brazil. It was selected 110 individuals, balanced in terms of gender and age. The perceptual-motor abilities analysed were the multilimb coordination (MC), coincident timing (CT), reaction time (RT) and movement time (TM) in turn analysed motor tasks were running, batting and receiving. For the correlation analysis it was used the Spearman\'s test, since there were no normal distribution. The results related to the running performances were associated with MC for both 7 years old (p = -0.33) and for 13 years old (p = -0.34). In turn, the receiving performances were associated with the MC (p = 0.41) and RT (p = -0.41) for 7 years old, but only with the MC (p = 0.29) for the 13 year old. Moreover, the batting performances were not associated with any of the perceptual-motor abilities analysed. Based on these results, we can infer that the performance in typical motor tasks of childhood is associated with the perceptual-motor abilities, but the maturity level of the central nervous system can be an aspect that interferes in this association. These results identify a promising field of research to understand individual differences occurring in the performance of children and teenagers

Les organochlorés (OCs) -molécules utilisées dans des procédés industriels et en applications agricoles dont la plupart sont interdites d'utilisation de nos jours- sont considérés comme des polluants très persistants représentant une menace pour les eaux de surfaces et souterraines, le sol et l'atmosphère. Des méthodes alternatives de décontamination de sites pollués aux OCs sont développées utilisant des technologies in situ d'écoremédiation. L'objectif du projet de thèse est d'étudier les capacités de phytoremédiation des OCs par deux plantes modèles, Zea mays et Phragmites australis. Les OCs choisis dans cette étude sont, le lindane (γHCH), le monochlorobenzène (MCB), le 1,4-dichlorobenzène (DCB) et le 1,2,4-trichlorobenzène (TCB). Notre approche a été de considérer l'impact sur les fonctions physiologiques des plantes de chaque OC en mono-exposition, puis de comparer ces mêmes réponses physiologiques en multi-exposition. Ce travail a permis de mettre en évidence un effet synergique de l'action du mélange des OCs. Toutefois, Z. mays et P. australis tolérent des concentrations OCs largement supérieures aux concentrations environnementales mesurées in situ. La phytoextraction des OCs a été démontrée par nos expériences en conditions contrôlées et en utilisant des molécules 14C-OCs. Les OCs sont majoritairement bioconcentrés au niveau des organes souterrains des plantes. Enfin, cette étude montre une adaptation de la microflore bactérienne de la rhizosphère en présence d'un gradient d'exposition aux OCs (multi-exposition). Les approches d'isolement et d'études d'empreintes moléculaires (ARNr 16S, SSCP, pyroséquançage 454) ont permis de détecter des souches potentiellement capables d'assurer une rhizodégradation des OCs. / Organochlorines (OCs) -molecules used in industrial processes and in agricultural applications which are prohibited from use nowadays- are classified as very persistent pollutants and show an environmental risk for surface water and groundwater, soil and atmosphere. To restore polluted sites, alternative methods are developed using ecoremediation technologies in situ. The aim of this thesis is to study the OCs phytoremediation capacities using two model plants, Zea mays and Phragmites australis. OCs slected for this work are, lindane (γHCH), monochlorobenzene (MCB), 1,4-dichlorobenzene (DCB) and 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene (TCB). The work strategy was to compare the effects on plant physiological functions when plants were exposed to each OC (mono-exposure) and to a mixture of all OCs (multi-exposure). This study highlighted a synergistic effect of the OCs mixture. However, Z. mays and P. australis were able to tolerate OCs mixture concentrations much higher than the environmental concentrations measured in situ. The OCs phytoextraction was demonstrated by our experiments under controlled conditions and using 14C-OCs molecules. OCs were mostly bioconcentrated in the underground parts of the plants. This study also demonstrated an adaptation of the rhizospheric bacterial microflora under a gradient of OCs exposures (multi-exposure). The techniques used (16S rRNA, SSCP, 454 pyrosequencing) held to the detection of strains potentially able to provide OC-rhizodegradation.

Esta dissertação tem como objetivo analisar o desenvolvimento das capacidades de linguagem necessárias para a produção dos gêneros résumé e note de lecture por meio de sequências didáticas elaboradas para um curso de escrita acadêmica. Buscamos, ainda, verificar se os alunos desenvolvem capacidades de linguagem no trabalho com o gênero résumé que podem transferir para a produção do gênero note de lecture. Finalmente, visamos a investigar se há influência, nas produções dos alunos, da atuação do professor na aplicação das sequências didáticas. Propomo-nos, assim, a contribuir com os estudos realizados sobre o ensino de gêneros textuais e com os estudos realizados sobre o desenvolvimento da escrita acadêmica em língua francesa. Esta pesquisa fundamenta-se no Interacionismo Sociodiscursivo (ISD) tal como desenvolvido por Bronckart (1999, 2006, 2008) e por outros pesquisadores que fazem parte do mesmo quadro teórico (SCHNEUWLY e DOLZ, 2004; MACHADO, 2009) que se concentram na questão dos gêneros textuais no ensino-aprendizagem de línguas. Visando a alcançar nossos objetivos, elaboramos os modelos didáticos dos gêneros résumé e note de lecture, a partir da análise de 20 textos de cada gênero, e duas sequências didáticas para ensiná-los em um curso de escrita acadêmica intitulado Gêneros textuais acadêmicos: produção de textos orais e escritos em francês para participação no contexto universitário. As produções iniciais e finais de cada gênero, realizadas pelos alunos participantes do curso, foram analisadas segundo o modelo de análise de textos do Interacionismo Sociodiscursivo (BRONCKART, 1999) e através de uma comparação com seus respectivos modelos didáticos. Com nossas análises, observamos que ao trabalhar com os gêneros résumé e note de lecture em sala de aula, os alunos puderam desenvolver capacidades de linguagem necessárias para a produção desses gêneros e, além disso, verificamos que capacidades desenvolvidas através da sequência didática do résumé podem ser transferidas para a produção da note de lecture. Dessa forma, nossa pesquisa traz contribuições para os estudos sobre gêneros desenvolvidos no grupo ALTER-AGE-CNPq, para os estudos que vêm sendo realizados sobre a escrita acadêmica e para as pesquisas que têm sido desenvolvidas no âmbito do Laboratório de Letramento Acadêmico da FFLCH-USP. / This dissertations goal is to analyse the development of language capacities that are necessary to write the genres résumé and note de lecture through didactic sequences elaborated for a course of academic writing. We also intend to verify if the students develop language capacities when working with the genre résumé which could be transferred to the genre note de lecture. Lastly, we aim at investigating if the teachers application of didactic sequences influences the students written productions. We intend therefore to contribute with the research on genre teaching and on the development of academic writing in French. This research is based on the Socio-Discursive Interactionism (SDI) as developed by Bronckart (1999, 2006, 2008) and by other researchers from the same theoretical framework (SCHNEUWLY; DOLZ, 2004; MACHADO, 2009) whose focus is the study of textual genres in the teaching and learning of languages. In order to achieve our goals, we elaborated the didactic models of the genres résumé and note de lecture based on 20 texts of each genre and two didactic sequences for the sake of teaching them in a course of academic writing entitled Academic textual genres: oral and written texts in French in an academic context. The first and last written productions of each genre done by the students enrolled in the course were analysed according to the model of textual analysis proposed by the Socio-Discursive Interactionism (BRONCKART, 1999) and compared to their didactic models. We observed that the students could develop the language capacities that are necessary to write the genres résumé and note de lecture when working with these genres in the classroom. Moreover, we verified that the language capacities developed through the didactic sequence of the résumé could be transferred to the note de lecture. Consequently, our research brings contributions to the studies about genres developed by the group ALTER-AGE-CNPq to the studies about academic writing and to the studies that have been held under the Academic Literacy Laboratory at FFLCH-USP.

Nas últimas décadas, os projetos urbanos e habitacionais começaram a prever a participação da população nas intervenções. De acordo com as normas estabelecidas pelos manuais dos programas urbanos, nas instruções normativas e portarias do Ministério das Cidades, o trabalho social na urbanização de assentamentos precários ou favelas teve a incumbência de promover a autonomia, o protagonismo social e o desenvolvimento da população beneficiária, favorecendo, também, a sustentabilidade dos empreendimentos. Diante deste contexto, buscamos evidenciar quais são as capacidades de governo demandadas pelo processo de participação nos projetos de urbanização. A pesquisa aponta as capacidades políticas, técnicas, administrativas e institucionais relacionadas à participação dos beneficiários na construção do projeto e implementação da urbanização. Sob o viés teórico advindo de diversas disciplinas, a pesquisa deteve-se na metodologia de estudo de caso do PAC Alvarenga e Conjunto Habitacional Três Marias, para encontrar as referidas capacidades. A partir de um estudo de caso da esfera municipal, essa dissertação visou salientar as condições em que se desenvolveram a participação, de acordo com a visão dos atores que executam o trabalho social e dos moradores que vivenciam esse processo. Esta pesquisa vislumbra, sob o viés da capacidade de governo, analisar a participação da população e, também, aventa a possibilidade de que com o fortalecimento de algumas capacidades haveria uma melhor condução do processo participativo. Finalmente, concluímos, apontando possibilidades de pesquisas futuras a respeito do tipo de participação conduzido e a correlação com as capacidades de governo / In recent decades, urban and housing projects have begun to require the involvement of the population in the interventions. According to the regulations norms established by the manuals of government policies, the normative instructions and regulation of Ministry of Cities, the Social Work in urbanization of precarious settlements and favelas had the task of promoting the autonomy, the social protagonism and the development of the beneficiary population, contributing to the sustainability of the projects. Facing this context, we seek to highlight what are the capacities demanded by government participation in the process of urbanization projects. The research points out the political capacities, technical, administrative and institutional changes related to the participation of beneficiaries in the project construction and implementation of urbanization. Under the theoretical bias arising from various disciplines, the research stopped at the case study methodology Growth Acceleration Program (PAC) Alvarenga and Housing Complex Três Marias, to find such capacities. From a case study of the municipal level, this thesis aimed to point out the conditions under which developed the participation, according to the vision of the actors running Social Work and residents who experience this process. This research envisions under the bias of the ability of government to analyze the participation of the population and also raises the possibility that with the strengthening of some capacities would be a better conduction of the participatory process. Finally, we conclude by pointing possibilities for future research on the type of driven participation and the correlation with the government capacities