This study explores the ways in which two educated Yemeni women understand and engage with storylines in their society which position them as 'sisters of men' obliged to conform to expectations of 'good' wives, mothers, daughters and Muslims. My own long immersion in Yemeni society, and de se experience of being discursively, interactively and structurally positioned as a woman and a wife in that context created a compelling desire to explore the ascribed social identities, roles and relationships of women in Yemen. In keeping with the feminist underpinnings of this study, I used a holistic method of investigation, the life history interview, and a voice relational mode of analysis that facilitated engagement with the women and their multiple subjectivities and positionings. Findings suggest that far from understanding themselves as de facto victims of their men and their religion, these strong and outspoken characters actively and willingly embrace those storylines derived from Islam but live them in sometimes unexpected ways. I also collaborated with my storytellers in the construction of personal narratives to enable readers to understand a little more about the world that these women inhabit, and help transform "information into shared experience" (Denzin 2009: 216). This study makes conceptual, methodological, practical and political contributions and suggests areas for further research.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo a elaboração de um método para se prognosticar a produtividade da mão-de-obra na execução dos sistemas prediais hidráulicos e o consumo unitário de materiais destes sistemas em dois momentos distintos: fase de viabilidade do empreendimento (método simplificado) e na fase de anteprojeto ou projeto de arquitetura (método analítico). São apresentados os fundamentos que nortearam a elaboração do método proposto, envolvendo a conceituação sobre produtividade da mão-de-obra, consumo unitário de materiais e sistemas prediais. Além destes fundamentos teóricos, faz-se o detalhamento do método de coleta e processamento das informações para a obtenção destes indicadores, abordando o planejamento da coleta de dados, a coleta de dados propriamente dita e seu processamento. Os resultados sobre a produtividade da mão-de-obra são relativos a quatro canteiros de obras localizados no Estado de São Paulo, enquanto que os resultados sobre o consumo unitário de materiais são frutos da análise e levantamento de informações de 12 projetos de sistemas prediais hidráulicos de edifícios residenciais de múltiplos pavimentos. Como contribuição desta tese destaca-se a obtenção de indicadores de produtividade da mão-de-obra considerando as tarefas e subtarefas inerentes à execução dos sistemas prediais, com distintos níveis de esforço, diferentemente dos manuais de orçamentação, que trazem estes indicadores apenas por tipo de material empregado e tipo de conexões. Quanto ao consumo unitário de materiais, o método simplificado permite o prognóstico das quantidades de tubos e conexões tendo-se como variáveis de entrada o número de apartamentos-tipo por pavimento e sua respectiva área. O prognóstico destas quantidades, utilizando-se o método analítico, é feito com base no número e tipo de ambientes molháveis existentes no apartamento-tipo e no número de pontos de consumo/captação de água destes, além de equações elaboradas a partir da observação das concepções dos sistemas nos projetos analisados. Os métodos de prognóstico do consumo unitário de materiais foram aplicados a um caso real e a diferença entre as quantidades de tubos e conexões levantadas em projeto e as quantidades prognosticadas foi de 16% (tubos) e 22% (conexões), para o método simplificado, e 1% (tubos) e 4% (conexões), para o método analítico, indicando a aplicabilidade dos métodos propostos, para estes sistemas. A diferença entre a quantidade de mãode- obra (homens-hora) prognosticada utilizando-se o TCPO (2003) e a prognosticada utilizando o método proposto foi de 71%, indicando a necessidade de um maior aprofundamento na exploração dos indicadores de produtividade da mão-de-obra na execução destes sistemas. / The objective of this work is to elaborate a method aimed at evaluating the labour productivity in the execution of hydraulic systems and the unitary consumption of materials in these systems in two distinct moments: at the undertaking viability phase (simplified method) and at the architecture project phase (analytical method). The concepts that guided the elaboration of the proposed method involving conceptions on labour productivity, unitary consumption of materials and building systems will be presented. Besides these theoretical concepts, the detailing of the collection method and data processing for the evaluation of these indices will be performed, which include from the data collection planning, the data collection itself to the data processing. The results on labour productivity correspond to the survey of these parameters in four building sites in the state of São Paulo, while those on the unitary consumption of materials are a result of analysis and survey of information from 12 hydraulic systems of multiple-pavement residential buildings. The evaluation of labour productivity indices considering tasks and subtasks inherent to the execution of building systems with different effort levels is one of the contributions of this research, unlike budgeting handbooks that bring these parameters only in terms of the type of material and connections employed. Regarding to the unitary consumption of materials, the simplified method allows estimating the quantity of pipes and connections, considering the type and number of apartments per floor and their respective area as input variables. The prognostic of these quantities using the analytical method is performed based on the number and type of rooms provided with hydraulic building systems in the apartment and on the type, number of water consumption/intake points of these apartments, as well as on equations elaborated from the observation of conceptions in the projects analyzed. The proposed methods for unitary consumption of materials were applied to a real case and the difference between the quantity of pipes and connections measured and predicted was 16% (pipes) and 22% (connections), for the simplified method, and 1% (pipes) and 4% (connections) for the analytical method, validating the proposed methods for these systems. The difference between labour employed (man-hour) predicted using budgeting handbooks and those predicted using the proposed method was 71%, indicating the need of further analysis of labour productivity indices in the hydraulic building systems.

This aim of this study was to answer the research question: "What is the Life Pattern of the Person with Spinal Cord Injury?" The unitary appreciative inquiry design, which has conceptualized through Rogers' (1986) science of unitary human beings, provided an approach for understanding the phenomenon in the context of human wholeness. The data, obtained through the methodology of unitary appreciative inquiry, led to the development of individual synopses for each of the participants. Once the synopses were completed, a composite pattern profile was constructed by the researcher that was indicative of the life pattern of people with spinal cord injury. The participants in the study validated the synopsis and pattern profile as accurate representations of their experience with spinal cord injury. This qualitative study, which was comprised of eight people who had undergone a spinal cord injury more than two years prior to the study, discovered three shared pattern manifestations: depersonalization; loss; and hopelessness. Although each person within this inquiry had a very good physical outcome concerning their spinal cord injury, the participants were not pleased with their current state of being. The pattern of despair, which was validated by the participants, was manifested through the profound sense of depersonalization, loss, and hopelessness.

The Formulary Approach to the Taxation of Transnational Corporations: A Realistic Alternative? Synopsis The central hypotheses of this thesis are: that global formulary apportionment is the most appropriate method for the taxation of transnational corporations (TNCs) in lieu of the present system commonly referred to as the separate accounting/arm's length method; and that it is essential, in order to implement the proposed global formulary model, to create an international organisation which would fulfil, in the taxation field, a role equivalent to that of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in international trade. The world economy is fast integrating and is increasingly dominated by the activities of transnational enterprises. These activities create a dual tax problem for various revenue authorities seeking to tax gains derived thereon: Firstly, when two or more countries entertain conflicting tax claims on the same base, there arises what is commonly referred to as a double taxation problem. Secondly, an allocation problem arises when different jurisdictions seek to determine the quantum of the gains to be allocated to each jurisdiction for taxation purposes. The traditional regime for solving both the double taxation and the allocation problem is enshrined in a series of bilateral treaties signed between various nations. These are, in general, based on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Model Treaty.1 It is submitted, in this thesis, that while highly successful in an environment characterised by the coexistence of various national taxation systems, the traditional regime lacks the essential attributes suitable to the emerging 'borderless world'. The central theme of this thesis is the allocation problem. The OECD Model attempts to deal with this issue on a bilateral basis. Currently, the allocation problem is resolved through the application of Articles 7 and 9 of the OECD Model. In both instances the solution is based on the 'separate enterprise' standard, also known as the separate entity theory. This separate accounts/arm's length system was articulated in the 1930s when international trade consisted of flows of raw materials and other natural products as well as flows of finished manufactured goods. Such trade is highly visible and may be adequately valued both at the port of departure or at the port of entry in a country. It follows that within this particular system of international trade the application of the arm's length principle was relatively easy and proved to be extremely important in resolving both the double taxation and apportionment problems. Today, however, the conditions under which international trade is conducted are substantially different from those that prevailed until the 1960s. * Firstly, apart from the significant increase in the volume of traditionally traded goods, trade in services now forms the bulk of international exchanges. In addition, the advent of the information age has dramatically increased the importance of specialised information whose value is notoriously difficult to ascertain for taxation purposes. * Secondly, the globalisation phenomenon which gathered momentum over the last two decades has enabled existing TNCs to extend their global operations and has favoured the emergence of new transnational firms. Thus, intra-firm trade conducted outside market conditions accounts for a substantial part of international trade. * Thirdly, further economic integration has been achieved following the end of the Cold War and the acceleration of the globalisation phenomenon. In this new world economic order only TNCs have the necessary resources to take advantage of emerging opportunities. The very essence of a TNC is 'its ability to achieve higher revenues (or lower costs) from its different subsidiaries as a whole compared to the results that would be achieved under separate management on an arm's length basis.'2 Yet, the prevailing system for the taxation of TNCs overlooks this critical characteristic and is therefore incapable of fully capturing, for taxation purposes, the aggregate gains of TNCs. The potential revenue loss arising from the inability of the present system to account for and to allocate synergy gains is substantial. It follows that the perennial questions of international taxation can no longer be addressed within the constraints of the separate entity theory and a narrow definition of national sovereignty. Indeed, in order to mirror the developments occurring in the economic field, taxation needs to move from a national to an international level. Moreover, a profound reform of the system is imperative in order to avoid harmful tax competition between nations and enhance compliance from TNCs. Such a new international tax system needs to satisfy the test of simplicity, equity, efficiency, and administrative ease. To achieve these objectives international cooperation is essential. The hallmark of international cooperation has been the emergence, after World War II, of a range of international organisations designed to facilitate the achievement of certain goals deemed essential by various nations. The need for an organisation to deal specifically with taxation matters is now overwhelming. Consequently, this thesis recommends the creation of an international organisation to administer the proposed system. The main objective of this international organisation would be to initiate and coordinate the multilateral application of a formulary apportionment system which, it is suggested, would deal in a more realistic way with 'the difficult problems of determining the tax base and allocating it appropriately between jurisdictions'.3 The global formulary apportionment methodology is derived from the unitary entity theory. The unitary theory considers a TNC as a single business which, for convenience, is divided into 'purely formal, separately-incorporated subsidiaries'.4 Under the unitary theory the global income of TNCs needs to be computed, then such income is apportioned between the various component parts of the enterprise by way of a formula which reflects the economic contribution of each part to the derivation of profits. The question that arises is whether the world of international taxation is ready for such a paradigm shift. It is arguable that this shift has already occurred albeit cautiously and in very subtle ways. Thus, the latest of the OECD Guidelines on the transfer pricing question provides that 'MNE [Multinational Enterprise] groups retain the freedom to apply methods not described in this Report to establish prices provided those prices satisfy the arm's length principle in accordance with these Guidelines.'5 Arguably, the globalisation process has created 'the specific situation' allowed for by the OECD. This thesis, therefore, explores the relative obsolescence of the bilateral approach to the taxation of TNCs and then suggests that a multilateral system is better adapted to the emerging globalised economy. The fundamental building blocks of the model proposed in this thesis are the following: * First, the administration and coordination of the proposed system is to be achieved by the creation of a specialised tax organisation, called Intertax, to which member countries would devolve a limited part of their fiscal sovereignty. * Second, in order to enable the centralised calculation of TNC's profits, the proposed system requires the formulation of harmonised methods for the measurement of the global profits of TNCs. Therefore, the efforts of the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) to produce international accounting standards and harmonised consolidation rules must be recognised and, if needs be, refined and ultimately implemented. * Third, the major function of Intertax would be to determine the commercial profits of TNCs on a standardised basis and to apportion the latter to relevant countries by way of an appropriate formula/formulas. Once this is achieved, each country would be free, starting from its share of commercial profits, to determine the taxable income in accordance with the particular tax base that it adopts and, ultimately, the tax payable within its jurisdiction. In the proposed system, therefore, a particular country would be able to independently set whatever depreciation schedules or investment tax credits it chooses, and adopt whatever tax accounting rules it deems fit relative to its policy objectives. Moreover, this thesis argues that the global formulary apportionment model it proposes is not dramatically opposed to the arm's length principle. Indeed, it suggests that the constant assumption to the contrary, even with regard to the usual formulary apportionment methodology, is extravagant because both methodologies are based on a common endeavour, that is, to give a substantially correct reflex of a TNC's true profits. It has often been objected that global formulary apportionment is arbitrary and ignores market conditions. This thesis addresses such concerns by rejecting the application of a single all-purpose formula. Rather, it recognises that TNCs operating in different industries require different treatment and, therefore, suggests the adoption of different formulas to satisfy specific industry requirements. For example, the formula applicable to a financial institution would be different to that applicable to the pharmaceutical industry. Each formula needs to be based on the fundamental necessity to capture the functions, taking into consideration assets used, and risks assumed within that industry. In addition, if the need arises, each formula should be able to be fine-tuned to fit specific situations. Moreover, it is also pertinent to note that the OECD already accepts 'the selected application of a formula developed by both tax administrations in cooperation with a specific taxpayer or MNE group...such as it might be used in a mutual agreement procedure, advance transfer pricing agreement, or other bilateral or multilateral determination.'6 The system proposed in this thesis can thus be easily reconciled with the separate accounting/arm's length which the OECD so vehemently advocates. Both models have the same preoccupations so that what is herein proposed may simply be characterised as an institutionalised version of the system advocated by the OECD. Multilateral formulary apportionment addresses both the double taxation and the allocation problems in international taxation. It resolves the apportionment question 'without depending on an extraordinary degree of goodwill or compliance from taxpayers.'7 It is therefore submitted that, if applied on a multilateral basis with a minimum of central coordination, it also seriously addresses the double taxation problem. Indeed, it is a flexible method given that different formulas may be devised to suit the needs of TNCs operating in different sectors. Consequently, formulary apportionment understood in this sense, is a realistic alternative to the limitations of the present system.

<p>Quantum entanglement is employed as a resource throughout quantum information science. However, before entanglement can be put to intelligent use, the issues of its production and detection must be considered. This thesis proposes four schemes for producing the bound entangled Smolin state. Three of these schemes produce the Smolin state by means of general quantum gates acting on different initial states - an all-zero state, a GHZ-state and two combined Bell states. The fourth scheme is based on one-qubit operations acting on two-photon states produced by SPDC. Furthermore, a maximum overlap entanglement witness detecting entanglement in the Smolin state is derived. This witness is measurable in three measurement settings with the maximal noise tolerance p=2/3. Lastly, simplified entanglement witnesses for the 4-, 6- and 8-qubit unitary invariant states are derived. These witnesses are measurable in three measurement settings with noise tolerances p=0.1802..., p=0.1502... and p=0.0751..., respectively.</p>

No description available.

The interplay between spectrum and structure of graphs is the recurring theme of the three more or less independent chapters of this thesis. The first chapter provides a method to relate the eigensolutions of two matrices, one being the principal submatrix of the other, via an arbitrary annihilating polynomial. This is extended to lambda-matrices and to matrices the entries of which are rational functions in one variable. The extension may be interpreted as a possible generalization of other known techniques which aim at reducing the size of a matrix while preserving the spectral information. Several aspects of an application in order to reduce the computational costs of ordinary eigenvalue problems are discussed. The second chapter considers the straightforward extension of the well known concept of equitable partitions to weighted graphs, i.e. complex matrices. It provides a method to divide the eigenproblem into smaller parts corresponding to the front divisor and its complementary factor in an easy and stable way with complexity which is only quadratic in matrix size. The exploitation of several equitable partitions ordered by refinement is discussed and a suggestion is made that preserves hermiticity if present. Some generalizations of equitable partitions are considered and a basic procedure for finding an equitable partition of complex matrices is given. The third chapter deals with isospectral and unitary equivalent graphs. It introduces a construction for unitary equivalent graphs which contains the well known GM-switching as a special case. It also considers an algebra of graph matrices generated by the adjacency matrix that corresponds to the 1-dimensional Weisfeiler-Lehman stabilizer in a way that mimics the correspondence of the coherent closure and the 2-dimensional Weisfeiler-Lehman stabilizer. The algebra contains the degree matrix, the (combinatorial, signless and normalized) Laplacian and the Seidel matrix. An easy construction produces graph pairs that are simultaneously unitary equivalent w.r.t. that algebra.

Given a bipartite density matrix ρ of a quantum state, the Quantum Separability problem (QUSEP) asks — is ρ entangled, or separable? In this thesis, we first strengthen Gurvits’ 2003 NP-hardness result for QUSEP by showing that the Weak Membership problem over the set of separable bipartite quantum states is strongly NP-hard, meaning it is NP-hard even when the error margin is as large as inverse polynomial in the dimension, i.e. is “moderately large”. Previously, this NP-hardness was known only to hold in the case of inverse exponential error. We observe the immediate implication of NP-hardness of the Weak Membership problem over the set of entanglement-breaking maps, as well as lower bounds on the maximum (Euclidean) distance possible between a bound entangled state and the separable set of quantum states (assuming P ≠ NP). We next investigate the entanglement-detecting capabilities of locally invariant unitary operations, as proposed by Fu in 2006. Denoting the subsystems of ρ as A and B, such that ρ_B = Tr_A(ρ), a locally invariant unitary operation U^B is one with the property U^B ρ_B (U^B)^† = ρ_B. We investigate the maximum shift (in Euclidean distance) inducible in ρ by applying I⊗U^B, over all locally invariant choices of U^B. We derive closed formulae for this quantity for three cases of interest: (pseudo)pure quantum states of arbitrary dimension, Werner states of arbitrary dimension, and two-qubit states. Surprisingly, similar to recent anomalies detected for non-locality measures, the first of these formulae demonstrates the existence of non-maximally entangled states attaining shifts as large as maximally entangled ones. Using the latter of these formulae, we demonstrate for certain classes of two-qubit states an equivalence between the Fu criterion and the CHSH inequality. Among other results, we investigate the ability of locally invariant unitary operations to detect bound entanglement.

Quantum entanglement is employed as a resource throughout quantum information science. However, before entanglement can be put to intelligent use, the issues of its production and detection must be considered. This thesis proposes four schemes for producing the bound entangled Smolin state. Three of these schemes produce the Smolin state by means of general quantum gates acting on different initial states - an all-zero state, a GHZ-state and two combined Bell states. The fourth scheme is based on one-qubit operations acting on two-photon states produced by SPDC. Furthermore, a maximum overlap entanglement witness detecting entanglement in the Smolin state is derived. This witness is measurable in three measurement settings with the maximal noise tolerance p=2/3. Lastly, simplified entanglement witnesses for the 4-, 6- and 8-qubit unitary invariant states are derived. These witnesses are measurable in three measurement settings with noise tolerances p=0.1802..., p=0.1502... and p=0.0751..., respectively.

Given a bipartite density matrix ρ of a quantum state, the Quantum Separability problem (QUSEP) asks — is ρ entangled, or separable? In this thesis, we first strengthen Gurvits’ 2003 NP-hardness result for QUSEP by showing that the Weak Membership problem over the set of separable bipartite quantum states is strongly NP-hard, meaning it is NP-hard even when the error margin is as large as inverse polynomial in the dimension, i.e. is “moderately large”. Previously, this NP-hardness was known only to hold in the case of inverse exponential error. We observe the immediate implication of NP-hardness of the Weak Membership problem over the set of entanglement-breaking maps, as well as lower bounds on the maximum (Euclidean) distance possible between a bound entangled state and the separable set of quantum states (assuming P ≠ NP). We next investigate the entanglement-detecting capabilities of locally invariant unitary operations, as proposed by Fu in 2006. Denoting the subsystems of ρ as A and B, such that ρ_B = Tr_A(ρ), a locally invariant unitary operation U^B is one with the property U^B ρ_B (U^B)^† = ρ_B. We investigate the maximum shift (in Euclidean distance) inducible in ρ by applying I⊗U^B, over all locally invariant choices of U^B. We derive closed formulae for this quantity for three cases of interest: (pseudo)pure quantum states of arbitrary dimension, Werner states of arbitrary dimension, and two-qubit states. Surprisingly, similar to recent anomalies detected for non-locality measures, the first of these formulae demonstrates the existence of non-maximally entangled states attaining shifts as large as maximally entangled ones. Using the latter of these formulae, we demonstrate for certain classes of two-qubit states an equivalence between the Fu criterion and the CHSH inequality. Among other results, we investigate the ability of locally invariant unitary operations to detect bound entanglement.