Many believe that the current application of modern logistics solutions in general and centralisation of distribution systems in particular is damaging from an environmental perspective. The reason for this claim is that when a distribution system is centralised, products need to be shipped over greater distances. This causes an increase in transport work, which in turn is believed to cause an increase in emissions. Further, the decision to centralise distribution can be characterised as a structural decision and earlier research has helped illustrate how such decisions have greater impact on the overall performance of a distribution system than decisions taken at subsequent levels (tactical and operative). The reason for this is that structural decisions help create new opportunities to make other logistical decisions that are beneficial for the performance of a distribution system, as measured in terms of costs and service. It is also acknowledged that there is a lack of research illustrating the actual environmental effects of centralisation. This area is the theme of this thesis and the overall purpose is to describe and analyse how centralisation of a distribution system can affect the environment. This purpose has been divided into two research questions, where the first one reads: - How does physical centralisation of a distribution system influence the environment? This question aims at investigating what effect centralisation has on the amount of emissions that are caused by transport in a distribution system. One of the main advantages with a centralised distribution system is that emergency deliveries are expected to decrease. This type of transport is often performed by airfreight, which is a mode of transport that is regarded to cause the largest amount of environmental stress among the four most commonly used transport modes. The argument that is made is that even though centralisation causes an increase in transport work, this must not necessarily mean that emissions increase. As indicated above, earlier studies on structural changes in distribution systems have shown that this type of decision creates new opportunities to make other decisions that are beneficial for the performance of a distribution system, albeit in terms of costs and service. The aim of the second research question is consequently to study this issue, but from an environmental perspective. This question therefore reads: - How do structural decisions in logistics create new opportunities to improve on the environmental performance of a distribution system? The results of the study show that it is not sufficient to only consider transport work and emergency deliveries when the environmental effect of a centralisation is to be evaluated. It has also been concluded that centralisation creates an opportunity to make improvements within the distribution system that can prove beneficial from an environmental perspective. In summary, three characteristics besides transport work and emergency deliveries were identified as being of importance when considering the environmental effects of a centralisation. These included centralised flow, modal change, and bargaining power. This model (see full pdf) does not aim to include all characteristics that can be relevant in an environmental evaluation of a centralisation, but rather those that have been found significant in this study. However, the model helps illustrate that there are many aspects that need to be considered in such an evaluation and that depending on the characteristics of the distribution system at hand the results can vary quite extensively.

我國於2006年1月11日修正公布證券交易法，正式引進獨立董事及審計委員會制度。國內設置獨立董事制度時間尚短，正處於持續探索與完善的階段。不僅各界學者對此改革有不同看法，其實行效果亦有待檢驗。對於國內獨立董事制度未來將會如何發展，是否能夠發揮監督力量，仍有待觀察。 　　本研究以2001年至2005年之上市公司為研究對象，透過t檢定與迴歸模型分析我國獨立董事制度與監督績效之關係；檢視法令賦予獨立董事之職責是否確能發揮，並探討主管機關於2002年起積極鼓勵公司設置獨立董事是否對公司監督機制造成結構性改變。實證結果發現，獨立董事對公司重大事項能發揮監督功能，惟監督績效未如預期明顯，需有強化監督之必要；此外，公司監督機制於該制度實施前後存在結構性改變，此改變於制度實施當年度最顯著，之後隨著制度開始實施而逐漸縮小改變差距。 / The newly amended Securities and Exchange Law has stipulated the set up of independent directors and audit committee on January 11, 2006 in Taiwan. The set up of the system is only for a short time and continues to explore with the implementation. There are different views on the reform, and the efficiency has to be tested. The future development and oversight function of independent directors are needed to observe. This study examines the relationship of independent directors and monitoring effectiveness by using a sample of listed companies from 2001 to 2005. Whether the responsibilities under the Act are executed, and if there are structural changes because authorities encourage the initial public offerings set up independent directors since 2002. The results show that independent directors can play a major oversight function on major company matters, but monitoring effectiveness is not significant as expected and needs to strengthen it. In addition, there are structural changes before and after the implementation of policies, and it is most significant in 2002, after gradually smaller with time.

This thesis analyzes the impact of structural changes in the Kladno district. It aims to evaluate the impact of structural changes to the unemployment situation in the region, and if the region could solve these changes, or how to deal with them. The first one deals with theoretical concepts and approaches, followed by a brief outline of the historical development that led to structural changes. Followed by an analysis of the labor market and unemployment in the district of Kladno. Work gives a comprehensive view of the impact of structural changes in the unemployment rate within the region.

Aortic valve-sparing procedures treating patients with aortic root aneurysm with or without aortic insufficiency and patients with ascending aortic aneurysm and aortic insufficiency are no longer experimental and unproven procedures. A successful aortic valve-sparing or repair operation aims not only to correct the failing part of the aortic root but also to restore the intro- and the inter-component relationship of the aortic root elements to optimal dimensions and relations. The avoidance of anticoagulation therapy and prosthesis-related complications makes aortic valve repair a tempting procedure. Considering the increasing rate of cusp repair reported in scientific literature, conservative aortic valve surgery seems to be developing into aortic valve repair surgery. This Dissertation Theses are devoted to the study of some specific technical aspects of aortic root sparing surgery, namely to the study of structural changes occurring in cryopreserved human aortic root allografts and the reproducibility of Coroneo ring implantation procedure. The Introduction of these Dissertation Theses deals with the general review of aortic valve- sparing operations in the light of the historical aspects of used surgical technique, dynamic anatomy and the current situation. One part of the Introduction is...

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a heritable and highly debilitating condition with antidepressants, first-line treatment, demonstrating low to modest response rates. No current biological mechanism substantially explains MDD but both neurostructural and neurochemical pathways have been suggested. Further explication of these may aid in identifying subgroups of MDD that are better defined by their aetiology. Specifically, genetic stratification provides an array of tools to do this, including the intermediate phenotype approach which was applied in this thesis. This thesis explores genetic overlap with regional brain volume and MDD and the genetic and non-genetic components of antidepressant response. The first study utilised the most recent published data from ENIGMA (Enhancing Neuroimaging Genetics through Meta-analysis) Consortium's genome-wide association study (GWAS) of regional brain volume to examine shared genetic architecture between seven subcortical brain volumes and intracranial volume (ICV) and MDD. This was explored using linkage disequilibrium score regression (LDSC), polygenic risk scoring (PRS) techniques, Mendelian randomisation (MR) analysis and BUHMBOX (Breaking Up Heterogeneous Mixture Based On Cross-locus correlations). Results indicated that hippocampal volume was positively genetically correlated with MDD (rg= 0.46, P= 0.02), although this did not survive multiple comparison testing. Additionally, there was evidence for genetic subgrouping in Generation Scotland: Scottish Family Health Study (GS:SFHS) MDD cases (P=0.00281), however, this was not replicated in two other independent samples. This study does not support a shared architecture for regional brain volumes and MDD, however, provided some evidence that hippocampal volume and MDD may share genetic architecture in a subgroup of individuals, albeit the genetic correlation did not survive multiple testing correction and genetic subgroup heterogeneity was not replicated. To explore antidepressant treatment resistance, the second study utilised prescription data in (GS:SFHS) to define a measure of (a) treatment resistance (TR) and (b) stages of resistance (SR) by inferring antidepressant switching as non-response. GWAS were conducted separately for TR in GS:SFHS and the GENDEP (Genome-based Therapeutic Drugs for Depression) study and then meta-analysed (meta-analysis n=4,213, cases=358). For SR, a GWAS on GS:SFHS only was performed (n=3,452). Additionally, gene-set enrichment, polygenic risk scoring (PRS) and genetic correlation analysis were conducted. No significant locus, gene or gene-set was associated with TR or SR, however power analysis indicated that this analysis was underpowered. Pedigree-based correlations identified genetic overlap with psychological distress, schizotypy and mood disorder traits. Finally, the role of neuroticism, psychological resilience and coping styles in antidepressant resistance was investigated. Univariate, moderation and mediation models were applied using logistic regression and structural equation modelling techniques. In univariate models, neuroticism and emotion-orientated coping demonstrated significant negative association with antidepressant resistance, whereas resilience, task-orientated and avoidance-orientated coping demonstrated significant positive association. No moderation of the association between neuroticism and TR was detected and no mediating effect of coping styles was found. However, resilience was found to partially mediate the association between neuroticism and TR. Whilst the first study does not indicate a genetic overlap between regional brain volumes and MDD, it demonstrates the utility of the intermediate approach in complex disease. Antidepressant resistance was associated with neuroticism both genetically and phenotypically, indicating its role as an intermediate phenotype. Nonetheless, larger sample sizes are needed to adequately address the components of antidepressant resistance. Further work in antidepressant non-response may help to identify biological mechanisms responsible in MDD pathology and help stratify individuals into more tractable groups.

Τα τελευταία έτη η σύνθεση και ο χαρακτηρισμός μονοδιάστατων νανοδομών αποκτά αυξανόμενο ερευνητικό ενδιαφέρον καθώς συνδυάζουν φαινόμενα από την νάνο κλίμακα με την δυνατότητα χειρισμού τους λόγω του μεγάλου μήκους τους. Εκτός από τα καθιερωμένα υλικά με αυτήν την μορφολογία όπως είναι οι νανοσωλήνες άνθρακα, οι νανοράβδοι οξειδίου του ψευδαργύρου και τα νανοκαλώδια πυριτίου μία κατηγορία υλικών που αναπτύσσει τέτοιες νανοδομές είναι τα χαλκογενή Σελήνιο και Τελλούριο γεγονός που εξηγείται από την υψηλής ανισοτροπίας κρυσταλλική τους δομή. Στόχος αυτής της εργασίας είναι η παραγωγή, μέσω φωτοαποδόμησης, νανοσωλήνων Τελλουρίου οι οποίοι μέσω φωτοοξείδωσης μετατρέπονται σε νανοκαλώδια Οξειδίου του Τελλουρίου. Η διερεύνηση της κινητικής του φαινομένου ανάλογα με το χρησιμοποιούμενο μήκος κύματος και την ένταση της ακτινοβολίας καθώς και ο χαρακτηρισμός των παραγόμενων νανοδομών γίνεται με φασματοσκοπία Raman. Τα συμπεράσματα στα οποία καταλήγουμε ενισχύονται από μία σειρά άλλων πειραματικών μεθόδων όπως περίθλαση ακτίνων Χ (XRD) και ηλεκτρονική μικροσκοπία σάρωσης και διέλευσης (SEM, TEM). / One dimensional (1D) nanostructures of semiconducting oxides and elemental chalcogens culminate over the last decade in nanotechnology owing to their unique properties exploitable in several applications sectors. Whereas several synthetic strategies have been established for rational design of 1D materials using solution chemistry and high temperature evaporation methods, much less attention has been given to the laser-assisted growth of hybrid nanostructures. Here, we present a laser-assisted method for the controlled fabrication of Te nanotubes. A series of light-driven phase transition is employed to controllably transform Te nanotubes to core-Te/sheath-TeO2 and/or even neat TeO2 nanowires. This solid-state laser-processing of semiconducting materials apart from offering new opportunities for the fast and spatially controlled fabrication of anisotropic nanostructures, provides a means of simultaneous growing and integrating these nanostructures into an optoelectronic or photonic device.

A compreensão de sistemas é fundamental para a atividade de manutenção. Durante a manutenção e evolução dos sistemas, mudanças contínuas podem degradar o projeto modular do sistema, aumentando sua complexidade. Consequentemente, as empresas gastam muito tempo e recursos financeiros na compreensão e manutenção dos sistemas. Portanto, entender como o sistema evolui é uma etapa importante para o bom planejamento, desenvolvimento e gerenciamento de mudanças. Os desenvolvedores geralmente precisam entender rapidamente mudanças recentes antes de implementar novas mudanças. Mesmo que já existam abordagens para a compreensão, elas ainda são limitadas para detectar componentes diferentes com tarefas similares, para localizar tarefas no código fonte e para medir o impacto de uma determinada mudança nas funcionalidades do sistema. Neste trabalho, é proposto um mecanismo para localizar impactos causados por uma mudança no projeto e quais mudanças estruturais ocorreram em um sistema de uma versão para outra. Dada uma funcionalidade específica, o objetivo é localizar mudanças estruturais e mudanças de relacionamento entre componentes entre duas versões. Cada mudança estrutural detectada na primeira etapa é checada no código fonte para ambas as versões. Depois, as mudanças são classificadas em cinco padrões: i) movimentação de classe; ii) movimentação de método; iii) adição de método; iv) remoção de método; e v) mudança no modificador de acesso (os três últimos que representam mudanças de interface nas classes). A abordagem proposta é avaliada com três sistemas de código aberto com o objetivo de validar a metodologia: jFreeChart, Tomcat e JHotDraw. Os resultados revelam mudanças estruturais como movimentação de método, movimentação de classe e mudança de relacionamento de pacotes. Além disso, também é feito um levantamento de mudanças estruturais que afetam múltiplas funcionalidades, o que é chamado de avaliação de impacto de mudanças; análises sobre mudanças de relacionamento de pacotes no jFreeChart validado em termos de precisão e recall. Os resultados mostram que movimentações em métodos, em média, aparecem em 28,4% dos casos. Existem classes que afetam muitas funcionalidades, logo o desenvolvedor terá noção de quais funcionalidades serão afetadas com tais mudanças. As mudanças no jFreeChart mostram que a abordagem detecta os padrões de alterações em pacotes a uma precisão de 100% e revocação de 83%. Ao detectar uma mudança considerável na relação de pacotes entre o jFreeChart versões 0.7.0 e 0.9.5, foi constatado que os novos pacotes possuem um menor acoplamento, conforme a métrica efferent coupling, podendo indicar uma melhor modularização. Portanto detectar estas mudanças nos pacotes pode ajudar o desenvolvedor a explicar a coesão, acoplamento e a modularidade do sistema em termo de pacotes. Um dos resultados importantes da abordagem, a avaliação de impacto de mudanças, permite ao desenvolvedor avaliar o passado do sistema, e prever o impacto e abrangência de mudanças futuras em classes e funcionalidades. / Software system comprehension is a key maintenance activity. During the software maintenance and evolution, continuous changes may degrade the modular design overtime, thus, increasing its complexity. Consequently, companies spend a lot of time and resources trying to understand and implement changes on software. Therefore, understanding how system changes evolve is an important step towards future development planing and management. Developers usually need to rapidly understand recent changes before implementing a new feature. Despite of several approaches to improve software comprehension, they are still limited to different components with similar roles, to locate features in the source code and to measure the impact of an specific change in other features. In this work, we present an approach centered on dynamic and static analysis to reduce program comprehension effort. More specifically, we propose a mechanism to locate what structural changes have occurred in a program from one version to another. Given one specific functionality, we locate structural changes and component relationship changes between two versions. Each structural change previously detected in the first step, is then verified by a next step of static analysis to confirm if the method in the trace really exists in only one version or both versions. The candidate changes are classified in five patterns by parsing the source code of both analyzed version: i) Move Class, ii) Move Method, iii) Add Method, iv) Remove Method, and v) Access Modifier Change (where they represent Class Interface Change). We evaluated our approach with three open source-software systems: jFreeChart, Tomcat, and JHotDraw. Our results reveals structural changes such as, move method, move class, and package relationship changes. In this study, we further investigate the impact of structural changes over multiple functionalities. We also evaluated the package relationship change found in jFreeChart using precision and recall. The results show that the pattern Move Method dominates, in average, appearing in 28,4% of the changes. Also, there are changes in classes that affect many funcionalities. Also the results show that in jFreeChart there were changes in packages detected with a precision of 100% and a recall of 83%. After the approach detected many changes between versions 0.7.0 and 0.9.5 of jFreeChart, further analysis showed that the new package structure has less coupling measures, according to the Efferent Coupling metric. That can mean the package structure has a better modular structure. Then detecting those changes in the package structure can be valuable to the developer evaluate the cohesion, coupling and package modular structure. One of the results presented by this approach, the impact analysis, allow the developer, by evaluating the past of the system, foresee the impact and coverage of future changes that will be made in the system. / Dissertação (Mestrado)

Submitted by Franciele Moreira (francielemoreyra@gmail.com) on 2018-05-02T12:03:48Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Jordânia Bispo Rocha - 2018.pdf: 2221027 bytes, checksum: 13014cd3ca6b1ac4d49f6ef9f37b2e27 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2018-05-02T12:55:35Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Jordânia Bispo Rocha - 2018.pdf: 2221027 bytes, checksum: 13014cd3ca6b1ac4d49f6ef9f37b2e27 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-02T12:55:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Jordânia Bispo Rocha - 2018.pdf: 2221027 bytes, checksum: 13014cd3ca6b1ac4d49f6ef9f37b2e27 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-04-17 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This research discusses journalism and citizenship with an emphasis on local television journalism. The general objective is to know how the subject citizenship was approached in the content of the local telejornalismo in the period of 2010 to 2017. To reach the expected results, this study uses as an object of analysis the Jornal Anhanguera 1a edition, television news program shown at lunchtime by TV Anhanguera, an affiliate of Rede Globo de Televisão in Goiás. This decision is due to the fact that the news in question underwent an intense process of changes in 2010 and since then, it has privileged issues related to citizenship in its content. The analysis is guided by the theoretical framework, which is divided into four chapters. The first begins the articulation of the central themes, emphasizing the concepts of communication (SODRÉ, 2001, 2008, 2014; MARCONDES FILHO, 2008; BRAGA, 2001) and citizenship (PINSKY e PISNSKY, 2005; CARVALHO, 2014; SANTOS, 1994; BENEVIDES, 1994; GENTILLI, 2005; SOUZA, 2012), and presenting the Brazilian scenario. The second discusses journalism, its different facets and its process of structural changes (KOVACH e ROSENSTIEL, 2004; CHARRON e DE BONVILLE, 2016; GROTH, 2011; TRAQUINA, 2005; MARCONDES FILHO, 2002, GENRO FILHO, 1987). While the third deals with television journalism and local television journalism in its specificity (STAM, 1985; REZENDE, 2000; VIZEU, 2005; PORCELLO, 2006; MORAES, 2012; AGUIAR, 2016), including the recent transformations that both have experienced (BECKER, 2016; SOUZA FILHO, 2015). Finally, the last theoretical chapter deals strictly with the relationship between journalism and citizenship, highlighting the advantages of journalism as an ally in the construction of citizenship (ABREU, 2009; GENTILLI, 2005; GRADIM,2015). The analysis is conducted mainly from the Content Analysis proposed by Bardin (2010) and is divided into three moments: systematic observation of eight complete editions of the journal in question, as well as 38 specific journalistic articles on citizenship and the "Meus Direitos" since its inception. The research showed, among other points, that the approach to issues related to citizenship is a television news strategy to strengthen ties with a new target audience and that this term in itself, citizenship, is not used by Jornal Anhanguera 1a edição, but serves as a starting point for a significant part of the journalistic agenda today. The distinction of citizen profiles in the analyzed content was also evident, just as it was found that new Information and Communication Technologies have played equally strategic roles from the beginning of the process of reformulating the broadcaster in 2010 until the end of 2017. / Esta pesquisa discute o tema jornalismo e cidadania, a partir de um recorte que privilegia o telejornalismo local. O objetivo geral é saber como o tema cidadania foi abordado no conteúdo do telejornalismo local no período de 2010 a 2017. Para alcançar os resultados esperados, esse estudo utiliza como objeto de análise o Jornal Anhanguera 1a edição, telejornal exibido no horário do almoço pela TV Anhanguera, afiliada da Rede Globo de Televisão em Goiás. Essa decisão se deve ao fato de que o noticiário em questão passou por um intenso processo de mudanças em 2010 e, desde então, passou a privilegiar questões relativas à cidadania em seu conteúdo. Todo o processo analítico é guiado pelo referencial teórico, que se encontra dividido em quatro capítulos. O primeiro inicia a articulação dos temas centrais, dando ênfase aos conceitos de comunicação (SODRÉ, 2001, 2008, 2014; MARCONDES FILHO, 2008; BRAGA, 2001) e cidadania (PINSKY e PISNSKY, 2005; CARVALHO, 2014; SANTOS, 1994; BENEVIDES, 1994; GENTILLI, 2005; SOUZA, 2012) e apresentando o cenário brasileiro. O segundo discute o jornalismo, suas diferentes facetas e seu processo de mudanças estruturais (KOVACH e ROSENSTIEL, 2004; CHARRON e DE BONVILLE, 2016; GROTH, 2011; TRAQUINA, 2005; MARCONDES FILHO, 2002, GENRO FILHO, 1987). Enquanto o terceiro aborda o telejornalismo e o telejornalismo local em sua especificidade (STAM, 1985; REZENDE, 2000; VIZEU, 2005; PORCELLO, 2006; MORAES, 2012; AGUIAR, 2016), incluindo as transformações recentes que ambos tem vivenciado (BECKER, 2016; SOUZA FILHO, 2015). Por fim, o último capítulo teórico contempla estritamente a relação jornalismo e cidadania, ressaltando as vantagens do jornalismo como um aliado na construção da cidadania (ABREU, 2009; GENTILLI, 2005; GRADIM; 2015). A análise é conduzida, principalmente, a partir da Análise de Conteúdo proposta por Bardin (2010) e é dividida em três momentos: observação sistemática de oito edições completas do noticiário em questão, bem como de 38 matérias jornalísticas específicas sobre cidadania e do quadro “Meus Direitos”, desde sua criação. A investigação mostrou, entre outros pontos, que a abordagem de questões relativas à cidadania é uma estratégia do telejornal para estreitar laços com um novo público-alvo prioritário e que esse termo em si, cidadania, não é utilizado pelo Jornal Anhanguera 1a edição, mas serve como ponto de partida para parte significativa das pautas do programa jornalístico atualmente. Também ficou evidente a distinção de perfis de cidadãos no conteúdo analisado, da mesma maneira que se constatou que novas Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação desempenharam funções igualmente estratégicas desde o início do processo de reformulação da emissora, em 2010, até o final do ano de 2017.

Les objectifs de notre thèse sont d'étudier les évolutions du marché du travail depuis Doï Moï (la réforme économique au VN en 1986) et les impacts de l'intégration internationale de l'économie du Vietnam, en mettant l'accent sur une distinction des secteurs formel et informel. Dans notre thèse, nous étudions les impacts de la libéralisation commerciale et l'augmentation des salaires minimums dans les secteurs domestiques. Ce dernier peut également être considéré comme un facteur relatif à l'intégration internationale puisqu'il a suivi les engagements du Vietnam dans le cadre de l'adhésion à WTO. Pour les impacts de la libéralisation commerciale, nous examinons les effets sur les allocations de main-d'œuvre entre différents types d'emplois, y compris le travail salarié dans les secteurs formels et les entreprises ménagères, ainsi que les emplois autonomes dans les secteurs manufacturiers. Les impacts sur les écarts de revenus dans les différents types d'emplois sont également exploités. Pour les impacts de l'augmentation des salaires minimums, nous exploitons les effets sur le total des emplois, les mouvements entre les secteurs formels et les autres types d'emplois, la répartition des salaires dans les secteurs formel et informel et les écarts de salaire entre les deux secteurs à différents centiles. Chapitre 1. Libéralisation commerciale, allocation du travail et dynamique des revenus au Vietnam Abstrait Cette étude vise à répondre à deux questions inter-liées au Viet Nam: (i) comment la libéralisation commerciale influence l'allocation des travailleurs, entre travail indépendant, travail salarié dans les entreprises familiales et le travail salarié dans le secteur formel (entreprises privées, étrangères et publiques); et (ii) les écarts de revenus entre ces types d'emplois. Une extension du modèle « deux étapes » de Goldberg et Pavcnik (2003) et sa modification sont utilisées pour répondre aux questions. Les données proviennent de cinq enquêtes traditionnelles sur le vieillissement du ménage du Viet Nam de 2002 à 2010 et des mesures disponibles de la libéralisation commerciale au Viet Nam. Les résultats indiquent que la libéralisation commerciale n'a pas d'impact significatif sur les écarts de revenus entre les types d'emplois. Parallèlement, les augmentations de l'exposition au commerce international réduisent les salaires dans les entreprises familiales, par rapport à celles des secteurs formels. L'augmentation de la libéralisation commerciale a également des répercussions sur les emplois autonomes, mais il semble que les orientations des impacts dépendent des statuts de l'importation nette ou de l'exportation nette d'industries du Viet Nam. Chapitre 2. Impacts de l'unification des salaires minimum entre les secteurs sur les allocations de travail et la dynamique des revenus au Vietnam Abstrait Les taux de salaire minimum au Viet Nam ont augmenté considérablement depuis 2009 en tant qu'engagements d'unification entre les IDE et les secteurs domestiques dans le cadre de l'adhésion à WTO. Cette croissance a été considérée comme supérieure à la croissance de la productivité de l'économie. En utilisant les données des Enquêtes sur la population active du Vietnam et les enquêtes sur le niveau de vie des ménages de 2010 à 2014, le document actuel examine les répercussions des salaires minimum sur les statuts de l'emploi, la répartition des salaires dans les secteurs formel et informel ainsi que les écarts de salaire entre les deux secteurs. Les résultats impliquent que le salaire minimum n'a pas d’effet significatif sur l'ensemble des emplois de l'ensemble de la population. Ce résultat est quelque peu différent de ceux rapportés dans des études antérieures pour le Viet Nam. / The objectives of the current thesis are to investigate evolutions of the labor market since Doi Moi and impacts from the international integration of Vietnam’s economy, with focuses on a distinction of formal and informal sectors. In the current state of the thesis, the impacts of the trade liberalization and the increases in the minimum wages of the domestic sectors are studied. Indeed, the latter factor, the increase in the minimum wages, can be also considered as a factor relating to the international integration as it followed Viet Nam’s commitments under the WTO accession. For the impacts of the trade liberalization, the thesis investigates the impacts on labor allocations between different types of employments including wage work in the formal sectors and household businesses as well as self-employments in manufacturing sectors. The impacts on income differentials across the types of employments are also exploited. For the impacts of the increases in the minimum wages, the thesis exploits the effects on the total employments, movements between the formal sectors and other types of employments, wage distributions within the formal and informal sectors and wage gaps between the two sectors at different percentiles. Chapter 1. Trade liberalization, labor allocation and income dynamics in Vietnam Abstract This study seeks to answer two inter-related questions for Viet Nam: (i) how trade liberalization affects the allocation of workers across self-employment, wage work in household businesses and wage work in the formal sector (private, foreign invested and state enterprises); and (ii) income differentials between these kinds of employment. An extension of the two-step model in Goldberg and Pavcnik (2003) and its modification are employed to answer the questions. Data is sourced from five Viet Nam Household Living Standard Surveys from 2002 to 2010 and available measures of the trade liberalization in Viet Nam. The results indicate that the trade liberalization does not have significant impacts on income differentials between types of employments. Meanwhile, increases in exposing to the international trade reduce wage works in household businesses, compared with that in the formal sectors. The increase in the trade liberalization also has impacts on self-employments but it seems that the directions of impacts depend on statues of net import or net export of industries of Viet Nam. Chapter 2. Impacts of unification of minimum wages across sectors on labor allocations and income dynamics in Vietnam Abstract Rates of minimum wages in Viet Nam have increased drastically since 2009 as commitments of unification between those in FDI and domestic sectors under the WTO accession. This growth has been considered as being higher to productivity growth of the economy. Employing data of Vietnam Labor Force Surveys and Household Living Standard Surveys from 2010 to 2014, the current paper investigates impacts of the minimum wages on employment statues, wage distributions in formal and informal sectors as well as wage gap between the two sectors. The results imply that the minimum wages do not have significant impacts on the total employments of the whole population. This result is somewhat different from those reported in previous studies for Viet Nam. Our different specifications detect that the differences in the results are attributed to inclusions of trends in studying. Similar to the work of Hansen et al. (2015), the results indicates that that the minimum wages positively affects the wage distribution in the formal sectors. However, we find that the effects do not stop at the median as the result of Hansen et al. but also on higher percentiles. Finally, the minimum wages increases the wage gap between the formal and informal sectors with stronger effects at higher percentiles of the wage distribution.

Background: The aortic and pulmonary allograft heart valves (AHV) are used in the cardiac surgery for replacing the impaired semilunar valves. They are harvested from donor hearts and cryostored in tissue banks. The expiration period was set to 5 years arbitrarily. We hypothesized that their mechanical and structural properties do not reasonably deteriorate after this period. Methods: A total of 64 human AHV (31 aortic and 33 pulmonary) of different length of cryopreservation (fresh, 0-5, 5-10, over 10 years) were sampled to different tissue strips (artery, leaflet, ventriculo-arterial junction, arterial ring) and tested by tensile test with loading velocity 10 mm/min until tissue rupture. Neighbouring regions of tissue were processed histologically and evaluated for elastin and collagen area fraction. The results were evaluated statistically. Results: In aortic AHV, the physical deformation response of wall samples to stress did not changed significantly neither during the process of cryopreservation nor during the first 10 years of storage. In pulmonary AHV, the ultimate strain dropped after 5 years of cryopreservation indicating that pulmonary artery was significantly less deformable at the time of rupture. On the other hand, the ultimate stress was equal during the first 10 years of...