Birds are a key environmental asset and this is recognised through comprehensive legislation and policy ensuring their protection and conservation. Many species are active at night and surveys are required to understand the implications of proposed developments such as towers and reduce possible conflicts with these structures. Night vision devices are commonly used in nocturnal surveys, either to scope an area for bird numbers and activity, or in remotely sensing an area to determine potential risk. This thesis explores some practical and theoretical approaches that can improve the accuracy, confidence and efficiency of nocturnal bird surveillance. As image intensifiers and thermal imagers have operational differences, each device has associated strengths and limitations. Empirical work established that image intensifiers are best used for species identification of birds against the ground or vegetation. Thermal imagers perform best in detection tasks and monitoring bird airspace usage. The typically used approach of viewing bird survey video from remote sensing in its entirety is a slow, inaccurate and inefficient approach. Accuracy can be significantly improved by viewing the survey video at half the playback speed. Motion detection efficiency and accuracy can be greatly improved through the use of adaptive background subtraction and cumulative image differencing. An experienced ornithologist uses bird flight style and wing oscillations to identify bird species. Changes in wing oscillations can be represented in a single inter-frame similarity matrix through area-based differencing. Bird species classification can then be automated using singular value decomposition to reduce the matrices to one-dimensional vectors for training a feed-forward neural network.

The aim of this study is to certify the legitimacy of employing quantitative methods in the day-to-day business practice. The task is approached as a case study of a real-life financial planning process. I work with the financial data of POS Media Czech Republic (a media company providing point-of-sale advertising solutions). My intention is to simulate the projection of a pro forma income statement with the use of quantitative methods. More specifically, I am applying time series prediction techniques in order to forecast POS Media's sales. The goal is, first, to demonstrate that quantitative techniques can be handled even with limited statistical background and, second, to discuss the relevancy of the obtained results. In the methodical part of my thesis I deal with the theoretical aspects of financial planning. I further describe various methods of sales forecasting (qualitative vs. quantitative). Special emphasis is put on time series prediction methods. In the application part I provide a short description of POS Media and its business. I use time series decomposition techniques to predict POS Media's sales in 2012. Consequently, I outline the rest of the pro forma income statement.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-12T19:15:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 SauloTPM_DISSERT.pdf: 1015052 bytes, checksum: 4cf34cf28dc5f2b2fd725df935cd0f04 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-02-18 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / The use of biofertilizers has increased in Brazil mainly due to the search for inputs that are less harmful to the environment and to enable the development of an agriculture less dependent on industrial products. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of melon grown with the use of biofertilizers in area Mossoró / Açu. For this purpose, two experiments were conducted in the teaching garden of the Department of Plant Sciences UFERSA in Mossoró, RN, from May to December 2010. In the first experiment, the chemical composition of biofertilizers (animal manure and chicken) at different stages of decomposition, the experiment was randomized in a factorial 2 x 7 with three replications. Treatments consisted of a combination of two sources of manure (cattle and chicken) and seven days of decomposition (0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 days). In the second experiment, performance of melon with application of bio-fertilizers, fertigation, the experimental design was randomized complete blocks with four replications in a 2 x 5. The treatments were a combination of two sources of manure used in the preparation of biofertilizer (cattle manure and chicken) and five doses (0, 25, 50, 75 and 100%) applied by fertigation. The highest concentrations of nutrients, dry matter and electrical conductivity were obtained in biofertilizer produced with chicken manure. The order of nutrients was observed in biofertilizers K, N, P, Ca and Mg. The nutrients showed higher within 15 to 20 days of decomposition with the exception of nitrogen that was more concentrated on the preparation of biofertilizer. The highest yield of fruits was observed when we used 25% of potassium in the form of biofertilizer. The quality characteristics like acidity and bark thickness showed an effect to the use of biofertilizer doses. / The use of biofertilizers has increased in Brazil mainly due to the search for inputs that are less harmful to the environment and to enable the development of agriculture less dependent on industrial products. O uso de biofertilizante vem crescendo em todo o Brasil principalmente devido à busca por insumos menos agressivos ao ambiente e que possibilitem o desenvolvimento de uma agricultura menos dependente de produtos industrializados. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o desempenho do meloeiro cultivado com a utilização de biofertilizantes, no Agropolo Mossoró/Açu. Para tanto foram conduzidos dois experimentos, na horta didática do Departamento de Ciências Vegetais da UFERSA em Mossoró-RN, no período de Maio a Dezembro de 2010. No primeiro experimento, composição química dos biofertilizantes (esterco bovino e galinha) em diferentes épocas de decomposição, o delineamento experimental utilizado foi inteiramente casualizados em esquema fatorial 2 x 7, com três repetições. Os tratamentos constituíram da combinação de duas fontes de esterco (bovino e galinha) e sete tempos de decomposição (0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 e 30 dias). No segundo experimento, desempenho do meloeiro com aplicação de biofertilizantes, via fertirrigação, o delineamento experimental utilizado foi em blocos casualizados completo, com quatro repetições em esquema fatorial 2 x 5. Os tratamentos consistiram da combinação de duas fontes de esterco utilizado no preparo do biofertilizante (esterco bovino e de galinha) e 5 doses (0; 25; 50; 75 e 100%) aplicados via fertirrigação. As maiores concentrações de nutrientes, massa seca e condutividade elétrica foram obtidas no biofertilizante produzido com esterco de galinha. A ordem decrescente dos nutrientes observados nos biofertilizantes foi K, N, P, Ca e Mg. Os nutrientes apresentaram maior concentração no período de 15 a 20 dias de decomposição com exceção ao do nitrogênio que apresentou maior concentração no dia do preparado do biofertilizante. A maior produtividade dos frutos foi observada quando utilizou 25% do potássio na forma de biofertilizante. As características de qualidade como acidez total e espessura de casca apresentaram efeito ao uso das doses de biofertilizante.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-12T19:18:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 SauloTPM_DISSERT.pdf: 1015052 bytes, checksum: 4cf34cf28dc5f2b2fd725df935cd0f04 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-02-18 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / The use of biofertilizers has increased in Brazil mainly due to the search for inputs that are less harmful to the environment and to enable the development of an agriculture less dependent on industrial products. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of melon grown with the use of biofertilizers in area Mossoró / Açu. For this purpose, two experiments were conducted in the teaching garden of the Department of Plant Sciences UFERSA in Mossoró, RN, from May to December 2010. In the first experiment, the chemical composition of biofertilizers (animal manure and chicken) at different stages of decomposition, the experiment was randomized in a factorial 2 x 7 with three replications. Treatments consisted of a combination of two sources of manure (cattle and chicken) and seven days of decomposition (0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 days). In the second experiment, performance of melon with application of bio-fertilizers, fertigation, the experimental design was randomized complete blocks with four replications in a 2 x 5. The treatments were a combination of two sources of manure used in the preparation of biofertilizer (cattle manure and chicken) and five doses (0, 25, 50, 75 and 100%) applied by fertigation. The highest concentrations of nutrients, dry matter and electrical conductivity were obtained in biofertilizer produced with chicken manure. The order of nutrients was observed in biofertilizers K, N, P, Ca and Mg. The nutrients showed higher within 15 to 20 days of decomposition with the exception of nitrogen that was more concentrated on the preparation of biofertilizer. The highest yield of fruits was observed when we used 25% of potassium in the form of biofertilizer. The quality characteristics like acidity and bark thickness showed an effect to the use of biofertilizer doses. / The use of biofertilizers has increased in Brazil mainly due to the search for inputs that are less harmful to the environment and to enable the development of agriculture less dependent on industrial products. O uso de biofertilizante vem crescendo em todo o Brasil principalmente devido à busca por insumos menos agressivos ao ambiente e que possibilitem o desenvolvimento de uma agricultura menos dependente de produtos industrializados. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o desempenho do meloeiro cultivado com a utilização de biofertilizantes, no Agropolo Mossoró/Açu. Para tanto foram conduzidos dois experimentos, na horta didática do Departamento de Ciências Vegetais da UFERSA em Mossoró-RN, no período de Maio a Dezembro de 2010. No primeiro experimento, composição química dos biofertilizantes (esterco bovino e galinha) em diferentes épocas de decomposição, o delineamento experimental utilizado foi inteiramente casualizados em esquema fatorial 2 x 7, com três repetições. Os tratamentos constituíram da combinação de duas fontes de esterco (bovino e galinha) e sete tempos de decomposição (0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 e 30 dias). No segundo experimento, desempenho do meloeiro com aplicação de biofertilizantes, via fertirrigação, o delineamento experimental utilizado foi em blocos casualizados completo, com quatro repetições em esquema fatorial 2 x 5. Os tratamentos consistiram da combinação de duas fontes de esterco utilizado no preparo do biofertilizante (esterco bovino e de galinha) e 5 doses (0; 25; 50; 75 e 100%) aplicados via fertirrigação. As maiores concentrações de nutrientes, massa seca e condutividade elétrica foram obtidas no biofertilizante produzido com esterco de galinha. A ordem decrescente dos nutrientes observados nos biofertilizantes foi K, N, P, Ca e Mg. Os nutrientes apresentaram maior concentração no período de 15 a 20 dias de decomposição com exceção ao do nitrogênio que apresentou maior concentração no dia do preparado do biofertilizante. A maior produtividade dos frutos foi observada quando utilizou 25% do potássio na forma de biofertilizante. As características de qualidade como acidez total e espessura de casca apresentaram efeito ao uso das doses de biofertilizante.