The effects of intellectual property rights on knowledge spillovers and innovation: An empirical investigation

FDI is believed to be a conduit of new technologies between countries. The first chapter of this dissertation studies the advantages of outward FDI for the home country of multinationals conducting research and development abroad. We use patent citations as a proxy for technology spillovers and we bring empirical evidence that supports the hypothesis that a U.S. subsidiary conducting research and development overseas facilitates the flow of knowledge between its host and home countries.^ The second chapter examines the impact of intellectual property rights (IPR) reforms on the technology flows between the U.S. and host countries of U.S. affiliates. We again use patent citations to examine whether the diffusion of new technology between the host countries and the U.S. is accelerated by the reforms. Our results suggest that the reforms favor innovative efforts of domestic firms in the reforming countries rather than U.S. affiliates efforts. In other words, reforms mediate the technology flows from the U.S. to the reforming countries.^ The third chapter deals with another form of IPR, open source (OS) licenses. These differ in the conditions under which licensors and OS contributors are allowed to modify and redistribute the source code. We measure OS project quality by the speed with which programming bugs are fixed and test whether the license chosen by project leaders influences bug resolution rates. In initial regressions, we find a strong correlation between the hazard of bug resolution and the use of highly restrictive licenses. However, license choices are likely to be endogenous. We instrument license choice using (i) the human language in which contributors operate and (ii) the license choice of the project leaders for a previous project. We then find weak evidence that restrictive licenses adversely affect project success.^

Assessing the net effect of anthropogenic disturbance on aquatic communities in wetlands: community structure relative to distance from canals

Anthropogenic alterations of natural hydrology are common in wetlands and often increase water permanence, converting ephemeral habitats into permanent ones. Since aquatic organisms segregate strongly along hydroperiod gradients, added water permanence caused by canals can dramatically change the structure of aquatic communities. We examined the impact of canals on the abundance and structure of wetland communities in South Florida, USA. We sampled fishes and macroinvertebrates from marsh transects originating at canals in the central and southern Everglades. Density of all aquatic organisms sampled increased in the immediate proximity of canals, but was accompanied by few compositional changes based on analysis of relative abundance. Large fish (>8 cm), small fish (<8 >cm) and macroinvertebrates (>5 mm) increased in density within 5 m of canals. This pattern was most pronounced in the dry season, suggesting that canals may serve as dry-down refugia. Increases in aquatic animal density closely matched gradients of phosphorus enrichment that decreased with distance from canals. Thus, the most apparent impact of canals on adjacent marsh communities was as conduits for nutrients that stimulated local productivity; any impact of their role as sources of increased sources of predators was not apparent. The effect of predation close to canals was overcompensated by increased secondary productivity and/or immigration toward areas adjacent to canals in the dry season. Alternatively, the consumptive effect of predatory fishes using canals as dry-season refuges is very small or spread over the expanse of marshes with open access to canals.

Antipredator behavior and cue recognition by multiple Everglades prey to a novel cichlid predator

Novel predator introductions are thought to have a high impact on native prey, especially in freshwater systems. Prey may fail to recognize predators as a threat, or show inappropriate or ineffective responses. The ability of prey to recognize and respond appropriately to novel predators may depend on the prey’s use of general or specific cues to detect predation threats.We used laboratory experiments to examine the ability of three native Everglades prey species (Eastern mosquitofish, flagfish and riverine grass shrimp) to respond to the presence, as well as to the chemical and visual cues of a native predator (warmouth) and a recentlyintroduced non-native predator (African jewelfish). We used prey from populations that had not previously encountered jewelfish. Despite this novelty, the native warmouth and nonnative jewelfish had overall similar predatory effects, except on mosquitofish, which suffered higher warmouth predation. When predators were present, the three prey taxa showed consistent and strong responses to the non-native jewelfish, which were similar in magnitude to the responses exhibited to the native warmouth. When cues were presented, fish prey responded largely to chemical cues, while shrimp showed no response to either chemical or visual cues. Overall, responses by mosquitofish and flagfish to chemical cues indicated low differentiation among cue types, with similar responses to general and specific cues. The fact that antipredator behaviours were similar toward native and non-native predators suggests that the susceptibility to a novel fish predator may be similar to that of native fishes, and prey may overcome predator novelty, at least when predators are confamilial to other common and longer-established non-native threats.

Patterns and ecosystem consequences of shark declines in the ocean

Whereas many land predators disappeared before their ecological roles were studied, the decline of marine apex predators is still unfolding. Large sharks in particular have experienced rapid declines over the last decades. In this study, we review the documented changes in exploited elasmobranch communities in coastal, demersal, and pelagic habitats, and synthesize the effects of sharks on their prey and wider communities. We show that the high natural diversity and abundance of sharks is vulnerable to even light fishing pressure. The decline of large predatory sharks reduces natural mortality in a range of prey, contributing to changes in abundance, distribution, and behaviour of small elasmobranchs, marine mammals, and sea turtles that have few other predators. Through direct predation and behavioural modifications, top-down effects of sharks have led to cascading changes in some coastal ecosystems. In demersal and pelagic communities, there is increasing evidence of mesopredator release, but cascading effects are more hypothetical. Here, fishing pressure on mesopredators may mask or even reverse some ecosystem effects. In conclusion, large sharks can exert strong top-down forces with the potential to shape marine communities over large spatial and temporal scales. Yet more empirical evidence is needed to test the generality of these effects throughout the ocean.

Nutrient impacts on epifaunal density and species composition in a subtropical seagrass bed

The capacity of epifauna to control algal proliferation following nutrient input depends on responses of both grazers and upper trophic level consumers to enrichment. We examined the responses of Thalassia testudinum (turtle grass) epifaunal assemblages to nutrient enrichment at two sites in Florida Bay with varying levels of phosphorus limitation. We compared epifaunal density, biomass, and species diversity in 2 m2 plots that had either ambient nutrient concentrations or had been enriched with nitrogen and phosphorus for 6 months. At the severely P-limited site, total epifaunal density and biomass were two times higher in enriched than in unenriched plots. Caridean shrimp, grazing isopods, and gammarid amphipods accounted for much of the increase in density; brachyuran crabs, primary predatory fish, and detritivorous sea cucumbers accounted for most of the increase in biomass. At the less P-limited site, total epifaunal density and biomass were not affected by nutrient addition, although there were more caridean shrimp and higher brachyuran crab and pink shrimp biomass in enriched plots. At both sites, some variation in epifaunal density and biomass was explained by features of the macrophyte canopy, such as T. testudinum and Halodule wrightii percent cover, suggesting that enrichment may change the refuge value of the macrophyte canopy for epifauna. Additional variation in epifaunal density and biomass was explained by epiphyte pigment concentrations, suggesting that enrichment may change the microalgal food resources that support grazing epifauna. Increased epifaunal density in enriched plots suggests that grazers may be able to control epiphytic algal proliferation following moderate nutrient input to Florida Bay.

Subtroprical wetland fish assemblages and changing salinity regimes: Implications for everglades restoration

During the 1960s, water management practices resulted in the conversion of the wetlands that fringe northeastern Florida Bay (USA) from freshwater/oligohaline herbaceous marshes to dwarf red mangrove forests. Coincident with this conversion were several ecological changes to Florida Bay’s fauna, including reductions in the abundances of top trophic-level consumers: piscivorous fishes, alligators, crocodiles, and wading birds. Because these taxa rely on a common forage base of small demersal fishes, food stress has been implicated as playing a role in their respective declines. In the present study, we monitored the demersal fishes seasonally at six sites over an 8-year time period. During monitoring, extremely high rainfall conditions occurred over a 3.5-year period leading to salinity regimes that can be viewed as “windows” to the area’s natural past and future restored states. In this paper, we: (1) examine the changes in fish communities over the 8-year study period and relate them to measured changes in salinity; (2) make comparisons among marine, brackish and freshwater demersal fish communities in terms of species composition, density, and biomass; and (3) discuss several implications of our findings in light of the intended and unintended water management changes that are planned or underway as part of Everglades restoration. Results suggest the reduction in freshwater flow to Florida Bay over the last several decades has reduced demersal fish populations, and thus prey availability for apex consumers in the coastal wetlands compared to the pre-drainage inferred standard. Furthermore, greater discharge of freshwater toward Florida Bay may result in the re-establishment of pre-1960s fauna, including a more robust demersal-fish community that should prompt increases in populations of several important predatory species.

Multiple predator effects and native prey responses to two non-native Everglades cichlids

Non-native predators may have negative impacts on native communities, and these effects may be dependent on interactions among multiple non-native predators. Sequential invasions by predators can enhance risk for native prey. Prey have a limited ability to respond to multiple threats since appropriate responses may conflict, and interactions with recent invaders may be novel. We examined predator–prey interactions among two non-native predators, a recent invader, the African jewelfish, and the longer-established Mayan cichlid, and a native Florida Everglades prey assemblage. Using field enclosures and laboratory aquaria, we compared predatory effects and antipredator responses across five prey taxa. Total predation rates were higher for Mayan cichlids, which also targeted more prey types. The cichlid invaders had similar microhabitat use, but varied in foraging styles, with African jewelfish being more active. The three prey species that experienced predation were those that overlapped in habitat use with predators. Flagfish were consumed by both predators, while riverine grass shrimp and bluefin killifish were eaten only by Mayan cichlids. In mixed predator treatments, we saw no evidence of emergent effects, since interactions between the two cichlid predators were low. Prey responded to predator threats by altering activity but not vertical distribution. Results suggest that prey vulnerability is affected by activity and habitat domain overlap with predators and may be lower to newly invading predators, perhaps due to novelty in the interaction.

Development of thresholds for surface preparation in repair systems with wet lay -up fiber reinforced polymers

Bonded repair of concrete structures with fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) systems is increasingly being accepted as a cost-efficient and structurally viable method of rapid rehabilitation of concrete structures. However, the relationships between long-term performance attributes, service-life, and details of the installation process are not easy to quantify. Accordingly, there is currently a lack of generally accepted construction specifications, making it difficult for the field engineer to certify the adequacy of the construction process. ^ The objective of the present study, as part of the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Project 10-59B, was to investigate the effect of surface preparation on the behavior of wet lay-up FRP repair systems and consequently develop rational thresholds that provide sufficient performance. ^ The research program was comprised of both experimental and analytical work for wet lay-up FRP applications. The experimental work included flexure testing of sixty-seven (67) reinforced concrete beams and bond testing of ten (10) reinforced concrete blocks. Four different parameters were studied: surface roughness, surface flatness, surface voids and bug holes, and surface cracks/cuts. The findings were analyzed from various aspects and compared with the data available in the literature. As part of the analytical work, finite element models of the flexural specimens with surface flaws were developed using ANSYS. The purpose of this part was to extend the parametric study on the effects of concrete surface flaws and verify the experimental results based on nonlinear finite element analysis. ^ Test results showed that surface roughness does not appear to have a significant influence on the overall performance of the wet lay-up FRP systems with or without adequate anchorage, and whether failure was by debonding or rupture of FRP. Both experimental and analytical results for surface flatness proved that peaks on concrete surface, in the range studied, do not have a significant effect on the performance of wet lay-up FRP systems. However, valleys of particular size could reduce the strength of wet lay-up FRP systems. Test results regarding surface voids and surface cracks/cuts revealed that previously suggested thresholds for these flaws appear to be conservative, as also confirmed by analytical study. ^

When Poverty Becomes Profitable: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Microfinancial Development in Haiti

For the past thirty years, policymakers have lauded microfinance for its promises to reduce poverty and empower women in developing nations. First conceived by the Bangladeshi economist Muhammed Yunus and the bank he founded, microfinance has been hailed as a visionary project that promises to advance the economic interests of the poor by engaging them directly. Conventional studies by political scientists explore the place of microfinance in the global development architecture of international financial institutions, governments, and NGOs. Economic studies of its effectiveness are contributing to a crisis of legitimacy since they reveal that thousands of clients in developing nations continue to default on their loans due to predatory lending practices. Drawing on discourse analysis methodology, this article seeks to explain how microfinance, an industry embedded in the financialization of development, is now concerned with high financial returns for investments, not the social goals promised by its original raison d'être. Treating microfinance as a discourse, I argue that there is a fundamental tension between the short-term social goals promised by microfinance and the long-term financial objectives of sustainability of investors.

Understanding anuran community dynamics in temporary wetlands: the interaction and importance of landscape and biotic processes

The major objective of this study was to determine the relative importance of landscape factors, local abiotic factors, and biotic interactions in influencing tadpole community structure in temporary wetlands. I also examined the influence of agricultural activities in South-central Florida by comparing tadpole communities in native prairie wetlands (a relatively unmodified habitat) at the Kissimmee Prairie Sanctuary (KPS) to tadpole communities in three agriculturally modified habitats found at MacArthur Agro- Ecology Research Center (MAERC). Environmental characteristics were measured in 24 isolated wetlands, and tadpoles were sampled using throw-traps and dipnets during the 1999 wet season (June - October). Landscape characteristics were expected to predominately influence all aspects of community structure because anurans associated with temporary wetland systems are likely to exist as metapopulations. Both landscape characteristics (wetland proximity to nearest woodland and the amount of woodland surrounding the wetland) and biotic interactions (fish predation) had the largest influence on tadpole community structure. Predatory fish influenced tadpole communities more than expected due to the ubiquity of wetlands, lack of topographic relief, and dispersal abilities of several fish species. Differences in tadpole community structure among habitat types were attributed to differences in woodland attributes and susceptibility to fish colonization. Furthermore, agricultural modification of prairie habitats in South-central Florida may benefit amphibian communities, particularly woodland-dwelling species that are unable to coexist with predatory fish. From a conservation standpoint, temporary wetlands proximal to woodland areas and isolated from permanent water sources appear to be most important to amphibians. In addition, the high tadpole densities attained in these wetlands suggest that these wetlands serve as biological hotspots within the landscape, and their benefits extend into the adjacent terrestrial matrix. Further research efforts are needed to quantify the biological productivity of these systems and determine spatial dynamics of anurans in surrounding terrestrial habitats.

Data compilation on the biological response to ocean acidification: environmental and experimental context of data sets and related literature

The exponential growth of studies on the biological response to ocean acidification over the last few decades has generated a large amount of data. To facilitate data comparison, a data compilation hosted at the data publisher PANGAEA was initiated in 2008 and is updated on a regular basis (doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.149999). By January 2015, a total of 581 data sets (over 4 000 000 data points) from 539 papers had been archived. Here we present the developments of this data compilation five years since its first description by Nisumaa et al. (2010). Most of study sites from which data archived are still in the Northern Hemisphere and the number of archived data from studies from the Southern Hemisphere and polar oceans are still relatively low. Data from 60 studies that investigated the response of a mix of organisms or natural communities were all added after 2010, indicating a welcomed shift from the study of individual organisms to communities and ecosystems. The initial imbalance of considerably more data archived on calcification and primary production than on other processes has improved. There is also a clear tendency towards more data archived from multifactorial studies after 2010. For easier and more effective access to ocean acidification data, the ocean acidification community is strongly encouraged to contribute to the data archiving effort, and help develop standard vocabularies describing the variables and define best practices for archiving ocean acidification data.

Uma abordagem para evolução e reconciliação de linhas de produtos de software clonadas

Software product line engineering promotes large software reuse by developing a system family that shares a set of developed core features, and enables the selection and customization of a set of variabilities that distinguish each software product family from the others. In order to address the time-to-market, the software industry has been using the clone-and-own technique to create and manage new software products or product lines. Despite its advantages, the clone-and-own approach brings several difficulties for the evolution and reconciliation of the software product lines, especially because of the code conflicts generated by the simultaneous evolution of the original software product line, called Source, and its cloned products, called Target. This thesis proposes an approach to evolve and reconcile cloned products based on mining software repositories and code conflict analysis techniques. The approach provides support to the identification of different kinds of code conflicts – lexical, structural and semantics – that can occur during development task integration – bug correction, enhancements and new use cases – from the original evolved software product line to the cloned product line. We have also conducted an empirical study of characterization of the code conflicts produced during the evolution and merging of two large-scale web information system product lines. The results of our study demonstrate the approach potential to automatically or semi-automatically solve several existing code conflicts thus contributing to reduce the complexity and costs of the reconciliation of cloned software product lines.

Construção de um classificador automático de severidade de bugs para sistemas open source

Software bug analysis is one of the most important activities in Software Quality. The rapid and correct implementation of the necessary repair influence both developers, who must leave the fully functioning software, and users, who need to perform their daily tasks. In this context, if there is an incorrect classification of bugs, there may be unwanted situations. One of the main factors to be assigned bugs in the act of its initial report is severity, which lives up to the urgency of correcting that problem. In this scenario, we identified in datasets with data extracted from five open source systems (Apache, Eclipse, Kernel, Mozilla and Open Office), that there is an irregular distribution of bugs with respect to existing severities, which is an early sign of misclassification. In the dataset analyzed, exists a rate of about 85% bugs being ranked with normal severity. Therefore, this classification rate can have a negative influence on software development context, where the misclassified bug can be allocated to a developer with little experience to solve it and thus the correction of the same may take longer, or even generate a incorrect implementation. Several studies in the literature have disregarded the normal bugs, working only with the portion of bugs considered severe or not severe initially. This work aimed to investigate this portion of the data, with the purpose of identifying whether the normal severity reflects the real impact and urgency, to investigate if there are bugs (initially classified as normal) that could be classified with other severity, and to assess if there are impacts for developers in this context. For this, an automatic classifier was developed, which was based on three algorithms (Näive Bayes, Max Ent and Winnow) to assess if normal severity is correct for the bugs categorized initially with this severity. The algorithms presented accuracy of about 80%, and showed that between 21% and 36% of the bugs should have been classified differently (depending on the algorithm), which represents somewhere between 70,000 and 130,000 bugs of the dataset.

Avaliação da soldagem GMAW mecanizada e automatizada para união de dutos utilizando fontes convencional e com controle de curto- circuito

Welding is one of the most employed process for joining steel pipes. Although, manual welding is still the most used one, mechanized version and even automatized one have increased its demand. Thus, this work deals with girth welding of API 5L X65 pipes with 8” of nominal diameter and 8.0 mm thickness, beveled with V-30º narrow gap. Torch is moved by a bug carrier (mechanized welding) and further the parameters are controlled as a function of angular position (automatized welding). Welding parameters are presented for filling the joint with two-passes (root and filling/capping passes). Parameters for the root pass were extracted from previous author´s work with weldments carried out in plates, but validated in this work for pipe welding. GMAW processes were assessed with short-circuit metal transfer in both conventional and derivative modes using different technologies (RMD, STT and CMT). After the parameter determination, mechanical testing was performed for welding qualification (uniaxial tension, face and root bending, nick break, Charpy V-notch impact, microhardness and macrograph). The initially obtained results for RMD and CMT were acceptable for all testing and, in a second moment, also for the STT. However, weld beads carried out by using the conventional process failed and revealed the existence of lack of fusion, which required further parametrization. Thus, a Parameter-Variation System for Girth Welding (SVP) was designed and built to allow varying the welding parameters as a function of angular position by using an inclinometer. The parameters were set for each of the three angular positions (flat, vertical downhill and overhead). By using such equipment and approach, the conventional process with parameter variation allowed reducing the welding time for joint accomplishment of the order of 38% for the root pass and 30% for the filling/capping pass.

The Abundance and Behavioral Ecology of Cape Cod Gray Seals Under Predation Risk From White Sharks

The ultimate goal of wildlife recovery is abundance growth of a species, though it must also involve the reestablishment of the species’ ecological role within ecosystems frequently modified by humans. Reestablishment and subsequent recovery may depend on the species’ degree of adaptive behavior as well as the duration of their functional absence and the extent of ecosystem alteration. In cases of long extirpations or extensive alteration, successful reestablishment may entail adjusting foraging behavior, targeting new prey species, and encountering unfamiliar predatory or competitive regimes. Recovering species must also increasingly tolerate heightened anthropogenic presence, particularly within densely inhabited coastal zones. In recent decades, gray seals (Halichoerus grypus) recovered from exploitation, depletion, and partial extirpation in the Northwest Atlantic. On Cape Cod, MA, USA, gray seals have reestablished growing breeding colonies and seasonally interact with migratory white sharks (Carcarodon carcharias). Though well-studied in portions of their range due to concerns over piscivorous impacts on valuable groundfish, there are broad knowledge gaps regarding their ecological role to US marine ecosystems. Furthermore, there are few studies that explicitly analyze gray seal behavior under direct risk of documented shark predation.

In this dissertation, I apply a behavioral and movement ecology approach to telemetry data to understand gray seal abundance and activity patterns along the coast of Cape Cod. This coastal focus complements extensive research documenting and describing offshore movement and foraging behavior and allows me to address questions about movement decisions and risk allocation. Using beach counts of seals visible in satellite imagery, I estimate the total regional abundance of gray seals using correction factors from haul out behavior and demonstrate a sizeable prey base of gray seals locally. Analyzing intra-annual space use patterns, I document small, concentrated home ranges utilizing nearshore habitats that rapidly expand with shifting activity budgets to target disperse offshore habitats following seasonal declines in white sharks. During the season of dense shark presence, seals conducted abbreviated nocturnal foraging trips structured temporally around divergent use of crepuscular periods. The timing of coastal behavior with different levels of twilight indicate risk allocation patterns with diel cycles of empirical white shark activity. The emergence of risk allocation to explain unique behavioral and spatial patterns observed in these gray seals points to the importance of the restored predator-prey dynamic in gray seal behavior along Cape Cod.