Esta tese propõe um método que auxiliará o prognóstico de custos de urbanização para a implantação de conjuntos habitacionais horizontais, considerando-se que cada item que compõe estes custos pode ser colocado em função de indicadores quantitativos que, por sua vez, variam em função da influência de alguns fatores físicos relacionados à gleba ou às opções de projeto. O método foi desenvolvido baseado tanto em uma abordagem teórica (usando conhecimentos advindos dos estudos bibliográficos e das entrevistas com especialistas) quanto em estudo de casos (51 conjuntos habitacionais foram estudados e proveram os bancos de dados analisados). Neste texto, inicialmente, descreve-se a metodologia de pesquisa e os principais conceitos para a compreensão do tema. Em seguida, expõem-se as partes que compõem a urbanização de conjuntos habitacionais que foram analisadas e os indicadores propostos para as avaliarem. As principais características da gleba e dos projetos que influenciam cada indicador são, então, discutidas. Por fim, a validação do método proposto é apresentada. Vários apêndices foram elaborados com informações sobre: os itens da urbanização abordados na pesquisa; os indicadores propostos; e outros métodos que auxiliam o prognóstico de custos descritos na bibliografia. Os resultados do método proposto serão bastante úteis ao definirem relações entre diretrizes de projeto e seus custos. Assim, eles subsidiarão encontrar meios/diretrizes para reduzir custos e, por outro lado, permitirão prognosticar os custos gerados pelas diretrizes que se deve atender. / This thesis develops a method that will help to forecast urbanization costs for horizontal inhabitation human settlements. It considers that each part of a settlement that means costs can be evaluated in terms of quantitative indicators. Moreover, for such indicators, it is considered to be possible to understand the effect of terrain and design options features on them. The method was developed based both on a theoretical approach (using knowledge coming from literature and interviews of specialists) as on case studies (51 Human settlements were studied and provided the basis to collect data to be processed and analyzed). The paper firstly describes the research methodology and the main concepts related to the subject. Then it describes the human settlements urbanization parts and the indicators that evaluated each of them. The main settlements features influencing each indicator are discussed. Method validation is the focus at the end of the text. Several appendixes are provided with information about: the human settlement parts and design; the adopted indicators; other cost forecast methods described in the literature. The information provided by the method will be helpful in terms of defining the relationship between design directives and costs. Then, it will help to find ways to reduce costs; on the other hand, it also allows forecasting costs related to a group of directives that one have to attend.

Atualmente, a escavação de túneis rasos em regiões densamente ocupadas requer medidas severas para reduzir riscos e possíveis influências em estruturas próximas. Um importante passo é a previsão dos efeitos da escavação, principalmente no que concerne à geração de recalques. As redes neurais artificiais (RNAs) aparecem como uma nova ferramenta para auxiliar o entendimento desses fenômenos. Isso porque a rede neural possui a capacidade de realizar generalizações, isto é, após a rede aprender características de uma categoria geral de dados baseada em uma série de exemplos daquela categoria, a rede pode apresentar respostas idênticas ou similares às respostas treinadas para entradas não treinadas. Nesse trabalho, realiza-se a aplicação de redes neurais artificiais para os dados das linhas 1 e 2 do metrô de São Paulo, onde se observa a influência de alguns parâmetros e a melhoria significativa de previsão da rede neural devido à utilização de algumas técnicas no tratamento e manuseio dos dados. Dentre as técnicas de tratamento de dados utilizadas destaca-se a adimensionalização dos dados por parâmetros da própria obra garantindo melhor estabilidade à rede e melhor capacidade de previsão. Análises de sensibilidade também são realizadas para contemplar o tipo de influência que cada parâmetro exerceu nos recalques obtidos. / Excavating shallow tunnels in densely occupied areas currently requires strict precautions to reduce risks and possible effects on nearby structures. Being able to predict excavation effects and particularly settlement - related effects is an important step forward in this respect. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) have emerged as a new tool for analyzing geotechnical problem. Longstanding problems have been solved and conventional solutions enhanced as the ability to generate more information grows and the understanding of obscure points is deepened. Neural networks have the ability to make generalizations: once a network has learned the characteristics of a general category of objects based on a series of examples from this category, it can provide identical or similar responses to trained responses for non-trained inputs. This study uses artificial neural networks to analyze data from São Paulo subway line 1 and 2 to observe the effects of certain parameters and notes significantly enhanced neural network predictive ability due to the use of certain data processing techniques. The study also sets out to show that the use of dimensionless data in training may upgrade the predictive ability of the model. Knowledge acquired was applied to further develop use of this technique for tunnel instrumentation.

The relationship between humanity and environment influences the health and quality of the environment. In turn, the state of the environment determines the quality of life that inhabitants are bound to live. Urbanization and shortage of housing among the economically deprived groups coupled with lack of affordable housing has encouraged formation of informal settlements in cities throughout South Africa. Poor environmental health conditions are characteristic of such settlements, and these conditions can be attested to numerous factors such as politics, policies as well as failure by local municipalities to strategically improve living conditions of the economically disadvantaged. Twenty years into the new democratic South Africa, communities in these informal settlements are still faced with environmental uncertainties, poor service delivery and forced removals. Authorities are failing to come up with strategies that counter the ever growing urban poor populations that often result from migration of poverty. Communities of these settlements are not homogenous, and thus they perceive their prevailing environmental health conditions differently depending on their world view. Makause informal settlement in Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (EMM) lack basic services such as sanitation, water and electricity, which compromise the environmental health of the area. Residents of this settlement have a history of staging marches in a quest to obtain basic services. Their protests have been intercepted by the heavy arm of the law in the form of South African Police Services. This has been tailored into many other factors that can inform perceptions of their prevailing environmental health. The focus of this dissertation is to investigate local environmental health perceptions in Makause informal settlement with attention to factors that inform these perceptions. Semi-structured interviews formed the major research method employed for this research with a random selection of interviewees from the settlement. The sample generally expressed dissatisfaction with their prevailing environmental health and living conditions. This points to the fact that the government is faced with a task to improve living conditions in informal settlements around the country.

Thesis (M.Dev) --University of Limpopo, 2011 / Projects will do well, sustain and function effectively if the people and communities for whom they are established understood them better and took charge of their implementation. The integrated development planning is, by its nature and purpose appropriate and proves a better tool for community development. It is already showing some fruits and will, undoubtedly continue serving the purpose as long as its implementation is based on the peoples' own analysis of their own problems and perceived solutions. The aim of this research was to evaluate on the level of community participation in the integrated development planning conducted by the Molemole municipality in the villages, more especially, Mokomene which is under Kgosi Ramokgopa. It has also been the objectives of the research to assess and measure the level of participation by members of the community in this area.lnterviews, questionnaires and observations were used to carry out the research.While many people in this area supported the introduction of the IDP in the communities, these recommended strongly for its correct implementation. The results of the research indicate a substantial number of people who still believe education and orientation on IDP matters should be given to the communities.

Thesis (M. Dev.) -- University of Limpopo, 2013 / Urbanisation is one among the pressing issues facing human kind today and with it large number of rural poor immigrated to cities, failed by economic growth to get formal employments, large number of the poor are now found in informal settlements around cities where abject poverty, unemployment and extreme hunger is concentrated. Urban Agriculture is viewed as one of the strategies the urban poor employs to cushion themselves from the hardships of poor economic conditions. In contrast, there is a view that urban agriculture exploits labour, generates below poverty incomes and land fetches higher prices in cities, as such providing scarce public resources to this practice is not of economic importance. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of urban agriculture on poverty, more precisely on the contribution of the practice towards job creation, cash incomes and food security. To determine if, urban agriculture can become a potential avenue for local economic development in the informal settlements of Soweto. Descriptive and quantitative assessments of the variables of urban agriculture in the study area were attempted to validate whether urban agriculture can emerge as a substantial mechanism to eradicate poverty and bring forth a potential area for local economic development in the study area. A questionnaire was used as an instrument for data collection. In the study, some of the facts revealed were that large proportion of the practitioners of urban agriculture are women and few went pass the matric. Moreover, large proportion of the urban farmers were doing so to supplement food at home and surplus sold, on average generating below poverty incomes and no job opportunities were recorded. The study concluded by providing recommendations on how city municipalities, development scientists and policy administrators can ensure that Urban Agriculture is supported in order to offer a potential avenue for local economic development. Some of the recommendations proposed, to cite a few, are that bottlenecks that limit development of Urban Agriculture must be removed, such as policy biasness, especially to livestock production in the cities, provision of infrastructure, tenure system and access to credits to improve productivity of the practice. Provision of advisory service must be conducted in indigenous language to improve adoptability and comprehension to facilitate technological transfer.

No description available.

<p>In the Late Iron Age, the Mälaren region contained a clearly stratified society and many sites in the landscape indicate the presence of an upper stratum, an elite. This concept – elite – may perhaps be seen as problematic, but in this case it is decidedly more neutral, and considerably less limiting and excluding than many other concepts.</p><p>The elite was a group that we know possessed larger farm buildings, more monumental and richly equipped graves as well as control over a large part of the specialised handicraft. The people in this elite group of society clearly advertised that they belonged to a special social unit. There are indications that these people had clear similarities with the nobility of the Middle Ages, but they were active in a society without any towns, Christianity or church administration. This dissertation discusses a number of issues concerning the elite of the Late Iron Age. Two studies are central. The first concerns six sites in the Mälaren region: Old Uppsala, Helgö, Vendel, Valsgärde, Husby in Glanshammar parish, and Ancient Sigtuna. The sites are compared to study the similarities and differences of elite settings. I investigate the evidence of different sources for the presence of great landownership, and of their importance for the rulers compared to other resources such as plunder, trade and taxation. The results indicate that the sites had many structural and economic similarities. At the same time, the resource use varied, and each site had its own unique character. The study is concluded with a discussion on the economic structure of the sites.</p><p>The second study deals with the elite in the vicinity of Uppsala, an area that mainly through Old Uppsala and the presence of boat graves are usually connected with ancient rulers. The investigation is mainly based on a number of excavated as well as non-excavated graves, some of which have never been published. In addition, a number of placenames and three unique ritual deposits are discussed. The study indicates that the people usually included in the concept of elite were quite common. This provides a new perspective for our view of two long renowned sites: Old Uppsala and Valsgärde.</p>

This paper examines the occurrence and outcome of auditor litigation related to financial statement misstatements and the effect of auditor misstatement-based litigation on subsequent auditor behavior. The study is motivated by recent calls to limit auditor legal liability and the need to examine the ability of litigation to deter non-Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) financial reporting. I find that misstatement severity is the primary driver of auditor litigation. Specifically, I find that auditor misstatement-based litigation is more likely when the misstatement is associated with fraud, a regulatory investigation, a larger stock price decline, and/or a greater number of accounting application [i.e., Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)/GAAP) failures. In addition, I find that auditor misstatement-based litigation is more likely to occur when the misstatement is associated with engagement fees that consist of a greater magnitude or a greater proportion of non-audit service fees. Further, I find that misstatement severity and the size of the plaintiffs? claims are the primary drivers of auditor settlements resulting from misstatement-based litigation. Specifically, I find that an auditor settlement resulting from misstatement-based litigation is more likely to occur when the misstatement is associated with fraud, a greater amount of alleged income or equity inflation over the class action time period, and/or a larger alleged percentage drop in share price over the class action time period. With respect to subsequent auditor behavior, I find evidence that auditor litigation results in more conservative subsequent auditor behavior across a litigated auditor?s office-wide client portfolio (that excludes the litigated client). Specifically, in the year following auditor litigation, I find evidence that litigation results in increased auditor constraint of client-reported positive and signed discretionary accruals, as well as longer audit report lags.

<p>There are none known Bronze Age settlement on Gotland, although there are severalexcavation reports that mention that they have found a probable Bronze Age settlement. In the excavation that have been done in the study areas, there are Bronze Age dated hearths, cooking pits and post holes. These study areas have been investigated if they might be possible Bronze Age settlements. This paper discusses about the criteria of settlements and also investigate if the study areas meet those criterias. There are many different criteria for settlement but only the criteria of FMIS are used in the study. There are also different criteria for hearths and cooking pits, what separates them from each other. There have been measures on the distance between different landscape variables in the study areas to see if there are any differences or similarities between the different study areas.</p>

In the Late Iron Age, the Mälaren region contained a clearly stratified society and many sites in the landscape indicate the presence of an upper stratum, an elite. This concept – elite – may perhaps be seen as problematic, but in this case it is decidedly more neutral, and considerably less limiting and excluding than many other concepts. The elite was a group that we know possessed larger farm buildings, more monumental and richly equipped graves as well as control over a large part of the specialised handicraft. The people in this elite group of society clearly advertised that they belonged to a special social unit. There are indications that these people had clear similarities with the nobility of the Middle Ages, but they were active in a society without any towns, Christianity or church administration. This dissertation discusses a number of issues concerning the elite of the Late Iron Age. Two studies are central. The first concerns six sites in the Mälaren region: Old Uppsala, Helgö, Vendel, Valsgärde, Husby in Glanshammar parish, and Ancient Sigtuna. The sites are compared to study the similarities and differences of elite settings. I investigate the evidence of different sources for the presence of great landownership, and of their importance for the rulers compared to other resources such as plunder, trade and taxation. The results indicate that the sites had many structural and economic similarities. At the same time, the resource use varied, and each site had its own unique character. The study is concluded with a discussion on the economic structure of the sites. The second study deals with the elite in the vicinity of Uppsala, an area that mainly through Old Uppsala and the presence of boat graves are usually connected with ancient rulers. The investigation is mainly based on a number of excavated as well as non-excavated graves, some of which have never been published. In addition, a number of placenames and three unique ritual deposits are discussed. The study indicates that the people usually included in the concept of elite were quite common. This provides a new perspective for our view of two long renowned sites: Old Uppsala and Valsgärde.