Correcting for local oscillator phase offset in a DVB-T compliant receiver under multipath conditions

In 1997, the UK implemented the worlds first commercial digital terrestrial television system. Under the ETS 300 744 standard, the chosen modulation method, COFDM, is assumed to be multipath resilient. Previous work has shown that this is not necessarily the case. It has been shown that the local oscillator required for demodulation from intermediate-frequency to baseband must be very accurate. This paper shows that under multipath conditions, standard methods for obtaining local oscillator phase lock may not be adequate. This paper demonstrates a set of algorithms designed for use with a simple local oscillator circuit which will allow correction for local oscillator phase offset to maintain a low bit error rate with multipath present.

To what extent are EU steel companies susceptible to competitive loss due to climate policy?

In recognition of their competitive vulnerability, a set of special rules have been devised for managing sectors such as steel and cement within the EU ETS. These rules basically seek to set sector specific performance benchmarks and reward top performers. However, the steel sector as a whole will receive the vast majority of its allowances for free in Phase III. Perceptions of competitive vulnerability have been largely based on inherently hypothetical analyses which rely heavily on counterfactual scenario and abatement cost estimates often provided by firms themselves. This paper diverges from these approaches by providing a qualitative assessment of the two key reasons underpinning the competitive vulnerability argument of the EU Steel Companies based on interviews and case study involving the three largest producers of steel within the EU – AcerlorMittal, Corus, and ThyssenKrupp. We find that these arguments provide only partial and weak justifications for competitive loss and discriminatory treatment in the EUETS. This strategy is difficult to counter by governments due to information asymmetry; and it appears to have proved very successful insofar as it has helped the industry to achieve free allocation in Phases I-III of EU ETS by playing up the risk of carbon leakage.

Responding to the EU Emissions Trading Scheme: an empirical analysis of corporate carbon disclosure strategy

The purpose of this paper is to explore how companies that hold carbon trading accounts under European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) respond to the climate change by using disclosures on carbon emissions as a means to generate legitimacy compared to others. The study is based on disclosures made in annual reports and stand-alone sustainability reports of UK listed companies from 2001- 2012. The study uses content analysis to capture both the quality and volume of the carbon disclosures. The results show that there is a significant increase in both the quality and volume of the carbon disclosures after the launch of EU ETS. Companies with carbon trading accounts provide greater detailed disclosures as compared to the others without an account. We also find that company size is positively correlated with the disclosures while the association with the industry produces an inconclusive result.

A longitudinal study of carbon disclosure strategy: evidence from utility, energy and mining industries in the UK

The paper investigates how energy-intensive industries respond to the recent government-led carbon emission schemes through the content analysis of 306 annual and standalone reports of 25 UK listed companies from 2004 to 2012. This period of reporting captures the trend and development of corporate disclosures on carbon emissions after the launch of EU Emissions Trading Schemes (ETS) and Climate Change Act (CCA) 2008. It is found that in corresponding to strategic legitimacy theory, there is an increase in both the quality and quantity of carbon disclosures as a response to these initiatives. However, the change is gradual, which reflects in the achievement of peak disclosure period two years after the launch. It indicates that the new legislations have a lasting impact on the discourses rather than an immediate legitimacy threat from the perspective of institutional legitimacy theory. The results also show that carbon disclosures are an institutionalised practice as companies in the same industries and/or with same carbon trading account status appear to imitate and adopt the industry’s ‘best practice’ disclosure strategy to maintain legitimacy. The trend analysis suggests that the overall disclosure practice is still in its infant stage, especially in the reporting of quantitative and monetary items. The paper contributes to the social and environmental accounting literature by adopting both strategic and institutional view of legitimacy, which explains why carbon disclosures evolve in a specific way to meet the expectation of various stakeholders.

Binding of an oligomeric ellagitannin series to bovine serum albumin (BSA): analysis by isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC)

A unique series of oligomeric ellagitannins was used to study their interactions with bovine serum albumin (BSA) by isothermal titration calorimetry. Oligomeric ellagitannins, ranging from monomer to heptamer and a mixture of octamer–undecamers, were isolated as individual pure compounds. This series allowed studying the effects of oligomer size and other structural features. The monomeric to trimeric ellagitannins deviated most from the overall trends. The interactions of ellagitannin oligomers from tetramers to octa–undecamers with BSA revealed strong similarities. In contrast to the equilibrium binding constant, enthalpy showed an increasing trend from the dimer to larger oligomers. It is likely that first the macrocyclic part of the ellagitannin binds to the defined binding sites on the protein surface and then the “flexible tail” of the ellagitannin coats the protein surface. The results highlight the importance of molecular flexibility to maximize binding between the ellagitannin and protein surfaces.

The financial and environmental performance of firms exposed to the EU Emissions Trading Scheme

This thesis is an empirical-based study of the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) and its implications in terms of corporate environmental and financial performance. The novelty of this study includes the extended scope of the data coverage, as most previous studies have examined only the power sector. The use of verified emissions data of ETS-regulated firms as the environmental compliance measure and as the potential differentiating criteria that concern the valuation of EU ETS-exposed firms in the stock market is also an original aspect of this study. The study begins in Chapter 2 by introducing the background information on the emission trading system (ETS), which focuses on (i) the adoption of ETS as an environmental management instrument and (ii) the adoption of ETS by the European Union as one of its central climate policies. Chapter 3 surveys four databases that provide carbon emissions data in order to determine the most suitable source of the data to be used in the later empirical chapters. The first empirical chapter, which is also Chapter 4 of this thesis, investigates the determinants of the emissions compliance performance of the EU ETS-exposed firms through constructing the best possible performance ratio from verified emissions data and self-configuring models for a panel regression analysis. Chapter 5 examines the impacts on the EU ETS-exposed firms in terms of their equity valuation with customised portfolios and multi-factor market models. The research design takes into account the emissions allowance (EUA) price as an additional factor, as it has the most direct association with the EU ETS to control for the exposure. The final empirical Chapter 6 takes the investigation one step further, by specifically testing the degree of ETS exposure facing different sectors with sector-based portfolios and an extended multi-factor market model. The findings from the emissions performance ratio analysis show that the business model of firms significantly influences emissions compliance, as the capital intensity has a positive association with the increasing emissions-to-emissions cap ratio. Furthermore, different sectors show different degrees of sensitivity towards the determining factors. The production factor influences the performance ratio of the Utilities sector, but not the Energy or Materials sectors. The results show that the capital intensity has a more profound influence on the utilities sector than on the materials sector. With regard to the financial performance impact, ETS-exposed firms as aggregate portfolios experienced a substantial underperformance during the 2001–2004 period, but not in the operating period of 2005–2011. The results of the sector-based portfolios show again the differentiating effect of the EU ETS on sectors, as one sector is priced indifferently against its benchmark, three sectors see a constant underperformance, and three sectors have altered outcomes.

A ação educativa dos projetos de desenvolvimento de comunidades periféricas no Município de São Luis: 1971-74 e 1976-78: uma visão crítica

O objeto do presente estudo é a descrição e análise dos projetos de desenvolvimento de comunidade implantados em São Luís do Maranhão, pela Secretaria de Educação e Ação Comunitária, nos períodos 1971-74 (Projeto Euterpe) e 1976-78 (Proj eto Desafio), no que se refere à participação das populações carentes da periferia de são Luís na ação educativa dos referidos projetos.

O caráter histórico do dinheiro em Marx

Esse estudo busca delinear alguns elementos para uma teoria monetária partindo da discussão em torno do caráter histórico do dinheiro no corpo teórico marxiano. Vincula-se as exposições "lógicas" contidas em "O Capital", e outras obras, ao desenvolvimento histórico da expropriação, das forças produtivas, ets. Prossegue-se a démarche procurando apreender o ser da moeda no capital, tomando-se como vase o conteúdo do "Livro II" de "O Capital", onde vemos a dialética entre os ciclos do capital-dinheiro, capital-produtivo e capital-mercadoria; isso na medida em que previamente se tratou a periodização do modo de produção capitalista, feita por Marx, em duas fases, ou seja, a foral e a real. Chega-se por fim à análise das formas mais aparentes do movimento do valor no "Livro II", encontrando ai um enquadramento do capital financeiro pelo capital social. Assim o dinheiro aparece como órgão do capital e não como demiurgo deste.

INHERITANCE of CUCUMBER TOLERANCE TO ZUCCHINI YELLOW MOSAIC VIRUS

Studies were carried out in Brazil to study the inheritance of tolerance to Zucchini yellow mosaic virus (ZYMV) in cucumber cv. Formosa. This cultivar was individually crossed with two cucumber lines from different varietal types (L(b) from a Brazilian type, and L(j) from a Japanese type), both susceptible to the virus. Two experiments, one for each line, were separately carried out, where 6 treatments (parents, generations F1, F2 and F1BC1 for both parents) were evaluated in a randomized block design with 5 repetitions. Cotyledons of 2-week-old cucumber seedlings were inoculated with ZYMV. Only the plants that did not show symptoms up to 63 days post inoculation were considered as tolerant. A chi-square (chi(2)) analysis for assessing segregation from F2 and both F1BC1, led to the conclusion that the tolerance found in cv. Formosa is determined by a recessive gene.

SURVIVAL of XANTHOMONAS AXONOPODIS pv. PHASEOLI var. FUSCANS IN COMMON BEAN LEAFLETS on SOIL

The aim of this study was to evaluate the survival of a strain of Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. phaseoli var. fuscans (Xap), resistant to streptomycin sulphate, in common bean leaflets placed on the sod surface and buried at a depth of 10 and 15 cm. Four assays were carried out from November 1998 to December 2000 in Bandeirantes (Paran, Brazil). The leaflets were collected every 15 days, crushed and the dilution-plated on a semi-selective medium. Under mild temperatures and low rainfall, Xap survived for 65 to 180 days in the leaflets on the sod surface, and for 30 to 120 days in those incorporated in the soil, regardless of the depth. When higher rainfall and temperatures occurred, the survival was from 45 to 60 days in the leaflets on the sod surface and from 30 to 45 days in those buried 10 or 15 cm deep.

Survival of Curtobacterium flaccumfaciens pv. flaccumfaciens in soil and bean crop debris

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Caracterização de água produzida na indústria de petróleo para fins de descarte e otimização do processo de separação óleo/água

The oil industry has several segments that can impact the environment. Among these, produced water which has been highlight in the environmental problem because of the great volume generated and its toxic composition. Those waters are the major source of waste in the oil industry. The composition of the produced water is strongly dependent on the production field. A good example is the wastewater produced on a Petrobras operating unit of Rio Grande do Norte and Ceará (UO-RNCE). A single effluent treatment station (ETS) of this unit receives effluent from 48 wells (onshore and offshore), which leads a large fluctuations in the water quality that can become a complicating factor for future treatment processes. The present work aims to realize a diagnosis of a sample of produced water from the OU - RNCE in compliance to certain physical and physico-chemical parameters (chloride concentration, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, pH, TOG (oil & grease), nitrate concentration, turbidity, salinity and temperature). The analysis of the effluent is accomplished by means of a MP TROLL 9500 Multiparameter probe, a TOG/TPH Infracal from Wilks Enterprise Corp. - Model HATR - T (TOG) and a MD-31 condutivimeter of Digimed. Results were analyzed by univariated and multivariated analysis (principal component analysis) associated statistical control charts. The multivariate analysis showed a negative correlation between dissolved oxygen and turbidity (-0.55) and positive correlations between salinity and chloride (1), conductivity, chloride and salinity (0.70). Multivariated analysis showed there are seven principal components which can explain the variability of the parameters. The variables, salinity, conductivity and chloride were the most important variables, with, higher sampling variance. Statistical control charts have helped to establish a general trend between the physical and chemical evaluated parameters