Many technical hurdles remain to be overcome before an advanced fuel cycle in which minor actinides from spent nuclear fuel are used to generate power. Three such issues were addressed: criticality safety of minor actinides as compared to currently used fissile isotopes; accuracy of evaluated nuclear data for selected minor actinide high energy fission cross-sections; and the preliminary design optimization of a minor actinide burning/breeding fission blanket in a fission fusion hybrid reactor concept. For minor actinide compositions found in spent fuel, current safety measures for actinide solutions were found to be adequate, though concerns may remain for unmoderated transuranic materials. Additionally, computational results indicated a 5-10% error in the fission cross-section of some minor actinides above the fast fission threshold. Finally, a relatively tall annular fission blanket was found to be the most ideal configuration for the UT fission- fusion hybrid reactor concept, satisfying criticality and power output criteria. / text

This paper examines the development of income in the tourist generating coun-tries, the relative prices controlled for the exchange rate, and the distance in kilo-meters between the capital in the origin countries and Athens as determinants of international tourism demand for Greece. By the deployment of an OLS log-linear regression model coupled with annual cross-section data for the period between 1998 and 2007, the desired effects could be captured. The results from this study indicates that after 2004, both the importance of income in the tourist generating countries and distance between the countries of origin and Athens have expe-rienced a quantum drop in importance as determinants of international tourism demand for Greece. Furthermore, the elasticities of these factors remained at the new level throughout the remaining period studied. This suggests that the respec-tive elasticities have reached a new plateau after 2004 where the impact on inter-national tourism demand is less sensitive to changes in these specific factors. Final-ly, the investments made in infrastructure supporting the Olympic Games have the possibility to benefit the T&T sector in Greece for an extended period of time going forward.

p. 1 - 98 / Submitted by Santiago Fabio (fabio.ssantiago@hotmail.com) on 2013-01-23T19:14:56Z No. of bitstreams: 1 9999999.pdf: 402893 bytes, checksum: be4822072c700c44e2b168a887552b82 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-01-23T19:14:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 9999999.pdf: 402893 bytes, checksum: be4822072c700c44e2b168a887552b82 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / As teorias sobre estrutura de capital sugerem diversas variáveis como determinantes das decisões de financiamento das empresas. Este estudo preocupou-se em analisar alguns fatores que supostamente determinariam o nível de endividamento de empresas de médio porte da Região Metropolitana de Salvador (RMS). Verificou-se, inicialmente, que a maior parte dos trabalhos empíricos sobre as empresas que atuam nos países em desenvolvimento aponta as mesmas variáveis e os mesmos métodos econométricos utilizados nas pesquisas sobre a estrutura de capital das empresas dos países desenvolvidos. Para verificar a existência de relação entre o endividamento e as variáveis composições dos ativos, índice de liquidez corrente, porte, crescimento e rentabilidade foram aplicadas regressões múltiplas em dados cross-section e dados em painel provindos das demonstrações financeiras de empresas de médio porte da RMS durante o período entre 2004 e 2005. Os resultados apontam as variáveis índices de liquidez corrente, composição dos ativos e porte como determinantes da estrutura de capital das firmas analisadas. Conclui-se, com base nesses resultados, que as características dessas empresas e os aspectos institucionais que permeiam a realidade brasileira exercem influência sobre o nível de endividamento das empresas analisadas. / Salvador