Does Egg Coloration Signal Female Quality to House Wren Males (Troglodytes aedon)?

Research Scholar AwardThis experiment sought to clarify a possible correlation between the coloration of female house wren, Troglodytes aedon, eggs and an increase in male provisioning. To provide an adequate measure of female quality, information on the female's mass, wing length, laying date, clutch size, and overall brightness of the egg measured using a portable spectrophotometer) was gathered. Male house wrens feeding rates were also recorded on days 4 and 10 after the first nestling had hatched in order to determine if egg brightness increased their provisioning. A total of 45 nests, along with 139 eggs were sampled in 3 separate locations in northwest Ohio. No relationship was found between the brightness of the egg and the mass and/or wing length of the female house wren. The color of the egg did vary with female laying date but this did not have any correlation with female morphology. However, egg brightness did decline with later laying dates. The feeding rate of male house wrens revealed no significant relationship after controlling for laying date and clutch size. This research provides evidence that female house wren quality does not influence egg brightness or greater male investments.The Ohio State University Undergraduate Research OfficeNo embargoAcademic Major: Anthropolog

Increasing Performance and Energy Efficiency of Gas Metal Arc Welding by a High Power Tandem Process

Standard Gas Metal Arc Welding (Standard GMAW) and a high power Tandem GMAW (TGMAW) process are evaluated with respect to energy efficiency. Current, voltage and overall equipment power are measured and energy consumption is determined. The new key performance indicator Electrical Deposition Efficiency is introduced to reflect the energy efficiency of GMAW processes. Additionally, wall-plug efficiency of the equipment is determined in order to identify the overall energy consumption. Results show that energy efficiency as well as economic process performance can be significantly increased by application of the TGMAW process. Furthermore findings indicate that wall-plug efficiency of the equipment is independent of power level and material transfer mode. A metal plate of 30 mm thick structural steel is joined by Standard GMAW and TGMAW to demonstrate the total energy savings for a real weld. Electricity consumption is reduced by more than 20% using the high power TGMAW process.DFG, 199828953, SFB 1026: Sustainable Manufacturing - Globale Wertschöpfung nachhaltig gestalte

Optimal computational parameters for maximum accuracy and minimum cost of Arnoldi-based time-stepping methods for flow global stability analysis

Global instability analysis of flows is often performed via time-stepping methods, based on the Arnoldi algorithm. When setting up these methods, several computational parameters must be chosen, which affect intrinsic errors of the procedure, such as the truncation errors, the discretization error of the flow solver, the error associated with the nonlinear terms of the Navier-Stokes equations and the error associated with the limited size of the approximation of the Jacobian matrix. This paper develops theoretical equations for the estimation of optimal balance between accuracy and cost for each case. The 2D open cavity flow is used both for explaining the effect of the parameters on the accuracy and the cost of the solution, and for verifying the quality of the predictions. The equations demonstrate the impact of each parameter on the quality of the solution. For example, if higher order methods are used for approaching a Fr\'echet derivative in the procedure, it is shown that the solution deteriorates more rapidly for larger grids or less accurate flow solvers. On the other hand, lower order approximations are more sensitive to the initial disturbance magnitude. Nevertheless, for accurate flow solvers and moderate grid dimensions, first order Fr\'echet derivative approximation with optimal computational parameters can provide 5 decimal place accurate eigenvalues. It is further shown that optimal parameters based on accuracy tend to also lead to the most cost-effective solution. The predictive equations, guidelines and conclusions are general, and, in principle, applicable to any flow, including 3D ones

Das neue Mathematik-Lehramt für die Sekundarstufen in Heidelberg – Chancen und Herausforderungen im Rahmen der Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung

Bericht über die Maßnahmen im Rahmen der Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung der Universität Heidelberg und der PH Heidelberg

COMPLEMENTARIDADES DA ECONOMIA DOS CUSTOS DE TRANSAÇÃO E DA TEORIA ECONÔMICA DAS CONVENÇÕES: UM ESTUDO DE CASO DO SISTEMA AGROINDUSTRIAL DO MEL DE CAMPO GRANDE – MS

The theoretical framework developed by the Transaction Costs Economics has been used by several authors to improve the production system different actors’ relationships comprehension. However, Transaction Costs Theory application in agri-industrial Systems have been infrequently treated in scientific literature, especially in unstructured and incipient systems, such as beekeeping in the city of Campo Grande, in Mato Grosso do Sul - Brazil. In this way, this paper shows an analysis of conventions importance in transaction costs reduction at Honey Agri-industrial System in Campo Grande. To this finality, case studies were conducted using secondary and primary data (collected through interviews with production chain operators). Their results lead to the conclusion that, for this Agri-industrial System, convention theory is a useful approach to explanation of the production system governance mechanisms, characterized by market informal guarantees, structured on trust and reputation. Furthermore, the study showed that Convention Economic Theory complements the Transaction Costs Economics Theory, because it adds a new element to be considered in Agriindustrial Systems Transaction Costs Analyzes.nova economia institucional, instituições formais, instituições informais, apicultura, new Institutional Economics, formal institutions, informal institutions, beekeeping, Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

Segmentation of Consuming Markets of Beef

One of the tasks most difficult in the planning of marketing has been the election of the market-target. Being thus, the market segmentation reveals of great importance. The objective of this study is to discuss a market segmentation model of meat consumers. For in such a way, a bibliographical research was conducted, adopting two basic conditions: (a) the proposals of segmentation of used consuming markets in excellent scientific studies can indicate insights for the presented theoretical construction; and (b) the excellent variable in the process of purchase of the consumers must be considered in the quarrel proposal. The following excellent variable had been identified, considering the purchase process: culture, motivation, perception, health, nutritional value, pecuniary acceptability, beliefs, intention, variable, attitude, style of life and preparation of the food. This allowed the identification of four segments of consumers: Guided by Meat Protein, Guided by Health, Indifferent and Sporadic. It is concluded, therefore, the product meat can not be considered as commodity, it exists other factors, beyond the price, that have great influence on the behavior of purchase of the consumer.segmentation, meat, Consumer behavior, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

Sustainable technologies for thick metal plate welding

Welding is the most important joining technology. In the steel construction industry, e.g. production of windmill sections, welding accounts for a main part of the manufacturing costs and resource consumption. Moreover, social issues attached to welding involve working in dangerous environments. This aspect has unfortunately been neglected so far, in light of a predominant focus on economics combined with a lack of suitable assessment methods. In this chapter, exemplary welding processes are presented that reduce the environmental and social impacts of thick metal plate welding. Social and environmental Life Cycle Assessments for a thick metal plate joint are conducted for the purpose of expressing and analysing the social and environmental impacts of welding. Furthermore, it is shown that state-of-the-art technologies like Gas Metal Arc Welding with modified spray arcs and Laser Arc-Hybrid Welding serve to increase social and environmental performance in contrast to common technologies, and therefore offer great potential for sustainable manufacturing

Assessing carbon dioxide emission reduction potentials of improved manufacturing processes using multiregional input output frameworks

Evaluating innovative process technologies has become highly important within the last decades. As standard tools different Life Cycle Assessment methods have been established, which are continuously improved. While those are designed for evaluating single processes they run into difficulties when it comes to assessing environmental impacts of process innovations at macroeconomic level. In this paper we develop a multi-step evaluation framework building on multi regional input–output data that allows estimating macroeconomic impacts of new process technologies, considering the network characteristics of the global economy. Our procedure is as follows: i) we measure differences in material usage of process alternatives, ii) we identify where the standard processes are located within economic networks and virtually replace those by innovative process technologies, iii) we account for changes within economic systems and evaluate impacts on emissions. Within this paper we exemplarily apply the methodology to two recently developed innovative technologies: longitudinal large diameter steel pipe welding and turning of high-temperature resistant materials. While we find the macroeconomic impacts of very specific process innovations to be small, its conclusions can significantly differ from traditional process based approaches. Furthermore, information gained from the methodology provides relevant additional insights for decision makers extending the picture gained from traditional process life cycle assessment.DFG, SFB 1026, Sustainable Manufacturing - Globale Wertschöpfung nachhaltig gestalte

The sociometric analysis of Parkinsonism on families'relationsship

Orientadores: Elisabete Abib Pedroso de Souza, Elizabeth Maria Aparecida Barasnevicius QuagliatoTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Ciencias MedicasResumo: A doença de Parkinson (DP) é uma enfermidade crônica, progressiva, podendo ser controlada e não tem cura. É necessário avaliar não apenas o aspecto motor na DP, mas, também, os aspectos emocionais, comportamentais e sociais que envolvem o paciente e seus familiares, os quais são condições essenciais para o bem-estar e no processo de lidar com a doença. Todos os membros da família se deparam com um processo de adaptação causando mudanças nas relações familiares e em suas próprias vidas. Os aspectos psicológicos abordados na literatura com DP envolvem a qualidade de vida tanto do paciente e dos cuidadores e sentimentos e comportamentos de ambos. Além destes aspectos, é necessário avaliar a dinâmica familiar frente à convivência com a doença. Normalmente, ao lidar com uma enfermidade crônica, os pacientes e familiares experienciam sentimentos e comportamentos novos, os quais, muitas vezes, podem modificar as relações e vínculos dentro da família. Este estudo teve como objetivo avaliar e analisar os aspectos emocionais e comportamentais das relações entre paciente e seus familiares frente à DP. Foram avaliados 8 pacientes, 6 homens e 2 mulheres com idade entre 44-63 anos (M=55) com doença de Parkinson idiopática e seus familiares, selecionados do ambulatório de neurologia do HC/Unicamp. Esta pesquisa utilizou a análise clínica-qualitativa, com abordagem fenomenológica, psicodramática. Para avaliação dos sujeitos foram utilizados: um questionário semi-estruturado e dramatização de cenas, anterior e posterior ao surgimento da DP. O questionário semi-estruturado contém 16 questões relacionadas à rotina diária, diagnóstico, relacionamento familiar e estratégias de enfrentamento. Este estudo demonstrou que o surgimento da DP altera significativamente os papéis sociais do paciente e causa impacto negativo nas relações familiares, modificando os vínculos e a dinâmica familiar dessas pessoas.Abstract: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic, progressive disease with lifelong, symptom-oriented medical treatment. It can be controlled but not cured. It is know that is quite necessary not only to evaluate the motor aspects on Parkinson's patients but also the social, emotional and behavioral aspects that involve both the patients and their families, due to the fact that those are essential condition for the well being at the process of coping with the disease. All members of the family, including the children, are faced with adapting to the changes the disease causes in their loved one and consequently in their own lives. As the disease progress, family members must assume many responsibilities which previously had been handled by the person with PD. The psychological approach on PD found in the literature involves Quality of Life (QuoL) and feelings and behaviors from both patients and their families. In addition to these aspects, it is necessary to asses the interpersonal relationship in the familial dynamic toward living with the disease. Normally, these patients cope with this disease and it triggers feelings and behaviors never experience before which can modify the relations and ties on these families. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and to analyse the emotional and behavioral aspects from the interpersonal relationship between patients and their families toward Parkinson's disease (PD). Eight patients, with idiopathic PD and their families recruited from the school clinical Hospital/Unicamp. This research was qualitatively analyzed. A semi-structured protocol containing 16 questions and role play of situations to aim explore the feelings and behaviors toward PD were used to evaluate the subjects. The study has demonstrated the negative burden that PD causes on patients' life and their families.DoutoradoCiencias BiomedicasDoutor em Ciências Médica