Why economics should be a modest and reasonable science

Unlike the methodological sciences such as mathematics and decision theory, which use the hypothetical-deductive method and may be fully expressed in complex mathematical models because their only truth criterion is logical consistency, the substantive sciences have as their truth criterion the correspondence to reality, adopt an empirical-deductive method, and are supposed to generalize from and often unreliable regularities and tendencies. Given this assumption, it is very difficult for economists to predict economic behavior, particularly major financial crises.

Role of olfaction and vision cues in feeding behavior and alarm reaction in the catfish pintado, Pseudoplatystoma corruscans

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

Note on training in documentation and library science

Includes bibliography

Challenges of Students’ Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) in Library and Information Science in the ICT Environment

The ICT revolution has permeated every profession and all areas of human endeavour. Professions such as law, medicine , engineering, and library and information science are adjusting to the ICT environment through re-tooling, retraining, and curriculum revision. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of ICT on the student industrial work experience scheme (SIWES) of library and information science students. It traces the historical development of the scheme, the ICT development trends in LIS, and the challenges this development brings to SIWES. Strategies to absorb this shock created by ICT are offered.

Method development using ICP-MS and LA-ICP-MS and their application in environmental and material science

Within this PhD thesis several methods were developed and validated which can find applicationare suitable for environmental sample and material science and should be applicable for monitoring of particular radionuclides and the analysis of the chemical composition of construction materials in the frame of ESS project. The study demonstrated that ICP-MS is a powerful analytical technique for ultrasensitive determination of 129I, 90Sr and lanthanides in both artificial and environmental samples such as water and soil. In particular ICP-MS with collision cell allows measuring extremely low isotope ratios of iodine. It was demonstrated that isotope ratios of 129I/127I as low as 10-7 can be measured with an accuracy and precision suitable for distinguishing sample origins. ICP-MS with collision cell, in particular in combination with cool plasma conditions, reduces the influence of isobaric interferences on m/z = 90 and is therefore well-suited for 90Sr analysis in water samples. However, the applied ICP-CC-QMS in this work is limited for the measurement of 90Sr due to the tailing of 88Sr+ and in particular Daly detector noise. Hyphenation of capillary electrophoresis with ICP-MS was shown to resolve atomic ions of all lanthanides and polyatomic interferences. The elimination of polyatomic and isobaric ICP-MS interferences was accomplished without compromising the sensitivity by the use of a high resolution mode as available on ICP-SFMS. Combination of laser ablation with ICP-MS allowed direct micro and local uranium isotope ratio measurements at the ultratrace concentrations on the surface of biological samples. In particular, the application of a cooled laser ablation chamber improves the precision and accuracy of uranium isotopic ratios measurements in comparison to the non-cooled laser ablation chamber by up to one order of magnitude. In order to reduce the quantification problem, a mono gas on-line solution-based calibration was built based on the insertion of a microflow nebulizer DS-5 directly into the laser ablation chamber. A micro local method to determine the lateral element distribution on NiCrAlY-based alloy and coating after oxidation in air was tested and validated. Calibration procedures involving external calibration, quantification by relative sensitivity coefficients (RSCs) and solution-based calibration were investigated. The analytical method was validated by comparison of the LA-ICP-MS results with data acquired by EDX.