Regional financial development and firm growth in Peru

This paper documents the relationship between regional financial development and firm growth in the Peruvian manufacturing sector. In order to control for mutual causality between credit availability and firm growth, industry differences in financial dependence on external funds are exploited. The 1994 and 2008 rounds of the National Economic Census are used, permitting analysis at the firm level as well as the activity level. Results suggest a significant and positive effect of financial deepening on surviving firms` growth. However, this effect is smaller for micro enterprises, suggesting that the cost of external funding decreases with financial development mainly for large firms. The conclusions remain unchanged when entering and exiting firms are included. The paper further finds that credit expansion have encouraged not only firm growth but also firm entry. The results are robust using an alternative measure of financial dependence.

Femininities and Masculinities in Highly Skilled Migration : Peruvian Graduates’ Narratives of Employment Transitions and Binational Marriages in Switzerland

Biographic research about migrant’s gender identities grasps tendencies of normativity change chronologically and transnationally. Transition to employment stories of Peruvian graduates from Swiss universities evoke continuities and changes in femininities and masculinities from Peru to Switzerland. Binational marriages that mediate employment transition after graduation play an ambivalent role in the attainment of jobs commensurate to skills. Career, partner, and care are key elements of transgressing and reinforcing non/hegemonic masculinities and un/desirable femininities from super scientist women to failing male breadwinners. Feminization of highly skilled migration from Peru is linked to urban middle classes where femininities are increasingly based on career advancement. However, these professional-oriented femininities might be neutralized in favour of care-oriented femininities from family models in Switzerland. While Peruvian female graduates constructed an ideal of care/career integration predominantly, male counterparts emphasized the risk of career success at the expense of partnership

Using real-time truck transportation information to predict customer rejections and refrigeration-system fuel efficiency in packaged salad distribution

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 139-141).Companies that operate cold supply chains can greatly benefit from information availability and data generation. The abundance of information now available to cold chain operators and harvested from every echelon of the supply chain, ranging from the procurement process to the sales and customer service processes, provides an opportunity for logistics organizations to monitor and improve their operations. It is increasingly imperative to transform data into meaningful information that creates a competitive advantage for early adopters. This thesis attempts to determine how to make best use of and effectively interpret the information generated by trailer mounted temperature sensors and geospatial data collection devices during refrigerated transportation of packaged salads. The study covers only the transportation segment from the manufacturer's distribution center to the customer's (grocery retailer) distribution center. This thesis uses regression analysis in an effort to create a model that effectively uses realtime transportation information to identify the elements that can create a competitive advantage for cold chain operators. The main performance measurements subject to analysis in this thesis are reefer-unit fuel consumption and rejections of salad products at the customer's drop location. Regression yields a formula that can predict more than 70% reefer fuel consumption. However, with the independent variables available in the data at our disposal, it is not possible to build a model the effectively predicts product rejections. The findings of this thesis can help operators of transportation cold chains better manage fuel consumption by isolating and improving the independent variables we identified.by Carlos Seminario and Emmanuel Marks.M.Eng.in Logistic

The sex difference in depressive symptoms among college students

The sex difference in depression is a well-established and replicated clinical finding, with previous literature indicating that females report more depression than males. However, recent theory and research suggests the sex gap in depressive symptoms may have declined or been eliminated in recent years. The current study examined depressive symptoms among a current (2017-2021) cohort of 1377 undergraduates (18-29 years; M=19.80, 79% female) using the 20-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). I hypothesized that the current sex difference in depressive symptoms would be small or nonsignificant. Results indicated that although males reported more anhedonia (t = 2.65, d = 0.20, p = 0.008) and suicidal ideation (t = 2.63, d = 0.20, p = 0.008), there were no significant sex difference in total depression scores, nor did females report more symptoms on any other subscales. These results are clinically significant as they suggest the previously well-established sex gap in depressive symptoms may be less evident among a current cohort of young adults

Quantification of key biological processes determining the dynamics and the assessment of the anchovy population in the Bay of Biscay: growth, reproduction, demography and natural mortality.

333 p.Growth, reproduction, demography and natural mortality determine the dynamics and assessment of fish populations. Studies on these biological characteristics of the anchovy in the Bay of Biscay are presented, along with a review of their estimation procedures: Regarding growth, the validation of the age determination procedure is presented with an assessment of its performance since 1987. Age determination, given a date of capture, requires knowledge of the typical annual growth pattern of otoliths, their seasonal edge formation by ages and of the most typical checks. These features are described, along with a summary of the annual growth in length. The study of reproduction focuses on the spawning fraction (S), i.e. the fraction of mature females spawning per day. The mean proportion of day_0 and day_1 was selected as the best estimator of S due to its statistical properties. S was about 0.4 (CV=18%). For the study of the demography, the Daily Egg Production estimator of Biomass (DEPM) has been extended to produce population at age estimates and variances through cluster sampling of ages (or using age-length keys). The application to the DEPM series revealed the dominant role of the 1-year-old recruits in the population. Finally, the closure of the anchovy fishery between 2005 and 2010 provided an opportunity to estimate natural mortality (M) using data from DEPM and acoustic surveys since 1987. M estimates were around 0.9 if common for all ages. However, we found firm evidence that natural mortality at ages 2 and older is markedly higher than at age 1, which suggests senescent mortality. These results implied changes in the perception of the dynamics and assessment of this population

Efectos potenciales de la desgravación arancelaria de un Tratado de Libre Comercio con Estados Unidos

En el presente estudio se realizan estimados de los principales efectos macroeconómicos potenciales de la desgravación arancelaria derivada del Tratado de Libre Comercio con Estados Unidos. Sin embargo, se debe tener en cuenta que se excluyen otros aspectos relevantes contenidos en el tratado, tales como las reglas de origen, las compras gubernamentales, la propiedad intelectual, entre otros. El estudio consta de tres secciones. En la primera se presenta un modelo de equilibrio general computable (CGE, por sus siglas en inglés) de dos sectores agregados: el primario (tradicional) y el no primario (no tradicional). Este modelo permitirá estimar los efectos de la desgravación arancelaria. En la segunda sección se presentan las simulaciones de los efectos macroeconómicos para un programa de desgravación arancelaria basado en el acuerdo alcanzado, tanto por parte de Estados Unidos como del Perú, al que se le aplica un análisis de sensibilidad. Asimismo se discuten los resultados obtenidos y se incluye una evaluación conceptual cualitativa. Finalmente, en la última sección se presentan las principales conclusiones y sugerencias de política económica

Control of an over-actuated nanopositioning system by means of control allocation

This Master’s Thesis is devoted to the analysis and design of a control structure for the nanopositioning system LAU based on the dynamic control allocation technique. The objective is to control the vertical displacement with nanometer precision under a control effort distribution criterion among the actuator set. In this case, the pneumatic actuator is used as a passive gravity compensator while the voice coil motor generates the transient forces. The analysis of the system characteristics allows defining the design criterion for the control allocation. In this direction, the proposed dynamic control allocation stage considers a frequency distribution of the control effort. The lower frequency components are assigned to the pneumatic actuator while the higher frequencies are handled by the voice coil drive. The significant actuator dynamics are compensated through a Kalman filter approach. The position controller is based on a feedback linearization framework with a disturbance observer for enhanced robustness. The experimental validation demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed technique.Diese Masterarbeit widmet sich der Analyse und dem Entwurf einer Regelungsstruktur für das Nanopositioniersystem LAU. Dabei werden Methoden untersucht, welche das notwendige Stellsignal auf zwei Aktoren aufteilen. Ziel ist es, die vertikale Verschiebung des LAU mit Nanometerpräzision zu regeln. In diesem Fall wird der pneumatische Aktor als passiver Schwerkraftkompensator verwendet, während die elktromagnetische Tauchspule die transienten Kräfte erzeugt. Die Analyse der Eigenschaften des LAUSystems ermöglicht die Definition der Entwurfskriterien zur Aufteilung der Stellgröße. In dieser Richtung berücksichtigt die vorgeschlagene dynamische Methode eine Aufteilung der Stellgröße bezüglich der Frequenzanteile. Die niederfrequenten Komponenten werden dem pneumatischen Aktor zugeordnet. Dem elektromagnetische Aktor werden die verbliebenen hochfrequenten Anteile zugeordnet. Die signifikanten Effekte der Aktordynamik in Bezug auf die Bewegungsdynamik werden durch einen Kalman- Filteransatz kompensiert. Nichtlineare Streckenanteile werden basierend auf dem Modell und einem Störbeobachter kompensiert, sodass der verbleibende Anteil des Positionsreglers mit linearen Methoden entworfen werden kann. Die experimentelle Validierung zeigt die Effektivität des untersuchten Konzeptes.Tesi