Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Custom Objects'

Tato práce se zaměřuje na problém počítání vozidel v statickém obraze bez znalosti geometrických vlastností scény. V rámci řešení bylo implementováno a natrénováno 5 architektur konvolučních neuronových sítí. Také byl pořízen rozsáhlý dataset s 19 310 snímky pořízených z 12pohledů a zachycujících 7 různých scén. Použité konvoluční sítě mapují vstupní vzorek na mapu hustoty vozidel, ze které lze získat jejich počet a lokalizaci v kontextu vstupního snímku. Hlavním přínosem této práce je porovnání a aplikace dosavadních nejlepších řešení pro počítání objektů v obraze. Většina z těchto architektur byla navržena pro počítání lidí v obraze, proto musely být uzpůsobeny pro potřeby počítání vozidel v statickém obraze. Natrénované modely jsou vyhodnoceny GAME metrikou na TRANCOS datasetu a na velkém spojeném datasetu. Dosažené výsledky všech modelů jsou následně popsány a porovnány.

Custom T-shirt Designs is a web-based application. The purpose of this project is to provide a website that would allow customers to be able to customize T-shirt and place an order of custom T-shirt. Customers can sign up, sign in, select T-shirt color, add text, choose Font, choose Font color, upload an image, apply filters to images, transform text or images, choose T-shirt size and save designs for future references. Customers would be able to add the design to a cart, manage cart and checkout with their credit card to purchase for the order and view their previous orders. The project focuses on object-oriented programming paradigm using PHP framework Laravel along with JavaScript, CSS, and HTML, Bootstrap and jQuery. Custom T-shirt Designs application uses Model-view-controller architecture. Stripe API is used to handle the credit card payments tokens providing a secure way for customers to purchase a T-shirt. Google SMTP is used to send confirmation of purchase order to administrator and customer. The project implements AJAX technology to send and receive parts of data from the server asynchronously making Custom T-shirt Designs a fast and efficient real-time web application.

The elite and the labour migrants live in completely different worlds: the first in middle-class suburbs and the second in shantytowns and council housing projects. Notions of 'race' and 'class', based on differences in complexion, education and wealth, contribute to the existence of these two groups of Cape Verdeans as separate entities. While the elite Portuguese Cape Verdeans are almost invisible within the mainstream society, the Cape Verdean labour migrants are highly visible because of their poor social integration. While the descendants of the elite are diluting within the Portuguese mainstream, the descendants of the labour migrants are occupying the fringes of Portuguese society and developing an oppositional identity in relation to the Portuguese mainstream. The first part of this thesis gives a detailed description of the Cape Verde archipelago and the foundations of its colonial society, and of the important issue of Cape Verdean migration. The second part presents the life of the two groups of Cape Verdeans in postcolonial Portugal and the ways the Portuguese mainstream perceive them.

Objet de la vie quotidienne, la typographie est un produit socioculturel et un outil de délégation que l’homme place entre lui et le monde. Comment organise-t-il cette médiation ? Tel est l’enjeu principal de notre sujet.Située à la croisée de son faire et de son agir, elle est le résultat d’un processus cognitif dont les modalités de production et de circulation se fondent sur un principe de mise en relation communicationnelle d’ordre anthropogénique. En examinant l’étude de sa matérialité technique au regard de sa réalité culturelle, la typographie est autant envisagée comme un « appareil d’incarnation » – on parle de corps aussi bien pour la lettre que pour un texte – que comme creuset d’une pratique. À la fois instrument de perception et moyen d’action, elle permet, à l’échelle du caractère, l’invention typographique tout en donnant lieu à un double régime d’interprétations d’ordre technique et sémiotique. Si le parcours se déploie au cœur des pratiques de métiers liées à la conception de caractères et s’intéresse aux différents contextes d’énonciation typographique, il débouche sur une réflexion en réception, à propos des usages de la typographie, en tant que manipulation culturelle ouverte à tout un chacun, pour une ressaisie du monde<br>As a daily life object, typography is a sociocultural product and transfer tool that people put between them and the world. How do they organize this mediation ? That is the main issue of our subject.At the crossroads of the doing and acting concepts, typography is the result of a cognitive process, which production and circulation’s methods are based on communication’s principles from the Henri Van Lier’s Anthropogeny. Studying its technical materiality according to its cultural reality, typography is considered as an “embodiment system” – in French, we call “body” the typeface as well as the text – and also as the crucible of this practice. As a sensitive agent and practical method, typography makes typeface invention possible while creating a double regime of interpretations based on its technology and semiotics. Whereas our words are related to trade practices which are then connected to type face design and various contexts of typographical enunciation resulting in a thought about reception. The fact is that uses linked to typography exist as cultural experiments accessible to all who desire it to challenge the world

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-17T14:52:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Jorge Isaac Rodriguez Rodriguez.pdf: 1323419 bytes, checksum: 4200a77bd6a2f02a314bd07b92e57da8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-02-28<br>Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico<br>In this work a framework for development of electric energy systems applications is proposed, on which several methodologies of analysis can be integrated or be adapted. An application of that framework has been developed to quantify the economic aspect for the improvement of power systems dynamic security based on preventive control. The following methodologies have been integrated for this objective: power systems dynamic security assessment, calculation of preventive control measures for dynamic security improvement and economic quantification of the impact caused by the application of those measures. Dynamic security assessment function uses a fast methodology based on transient energy function for contingencies dynamic ranking and a time-domain based methodology for the dynamic evaluation of contingencies. This last function has been implemented using a distributed processing environment. The power system dynamic security level is defined according to heuristic criteria which will determine the need of application of some control measure. The preventive control measures are defined when establishing the maximum limits of generation; those measures are calculated with fast methods without the use of sensitivities. Power system operation feasibility considering the new generation limits is obtained using a non linear optimal power flow program (OPF) with an objective function of load shedding minimization. The new operation condition of the power system is calculated following technical and economic considerations with the use of an OPF for several objective functions. The framework was projected using object-oriented methodology and CORBA (common object request broker architecture) architecture and has been coded in C++ and Java languages. Complete implementation of the described methodologies has been successfully tested with the Anderson-Fouad WECC-3 generators system and with a configuration of 44 generators of the interconnected Brazilian system. Analysis of results indicates that preventive control allows an improvement of power system dynamic security and a corresponding reduction in the economic impact after the occurrence of severe disturbances.<br>Neste trabalho é proposto um framework para desenvolvimento de aplicações elétricas, sobre o qual podem ser implementadas ou adaptadas distintas metodologias de análise, conseguindo que trabalhem em forma integrada para a quantificação do impacto econômico da melhoria da segurança dinâmica de sistemas elétricos. As metodologias incluem a avaliação da segurança dinâmica de sistemas de energia elétrica, o cálculo de medidas de controle preventivas para a melhoria dos níveis de segurança dinâmica e a quantificação do impacto econômico produzido pela aplicação de ditas medidas. Na avaliação da segurança dinâmica utiliza-se uma metodologia baseada na função de energia transitória para o ordenamento dinâmico de contingências e uma metodologia baseada no domínio do tempo para a avaliação dinâmica de contingências, esta última dentro de um ambiente de processamento paralelo. O nível de segurança dinâmica do sistema é estabelecido seguindo critérios heurísticos que determinarão a necessidade da aplicação de alguma medida de controle. As medidas de controle preventivo são definidas ao estabelecer os limites máximos de geração, calculados com métodos rápidos, sem o uso de sensibilidades. A factibilidade da operação do sistema considerando estes novos limites de geração é obtida com a utilização de um fluxo de potência ótimo não linear (FPO) e uma função objetivo de minimização de corte de carga. O novo ponto de operação é calculado segundo considerações técnico - econômicas com a utilização de um FPO para diferentes funções objetivo. O framework foi projetado utilizando metodologia orientada a objetos e uma arquitetura CORBA (common object request broker architecture), e codificado nas linguagens C++ e Java. A implementação total das metodologias descritas foi testada com sucesso no sistema Anderson-Fouad WECC de 3 geradores e numa configuração do sistema interligado brasileiro de 44 geradores. A análise dos resultados indica que o controle preventivo permite uma melhoria da segurança dinâmica do sistema de potência e uma correspondente diminuição no impacto econômico após a ocorrência de perturbações severas.

By comparison with its secular counterpart, the liturgy of English medieval monasteries has received little attention. This thesis explores one aspect of the liturgy of some of the wealthiest and most influential foundations in England - the Benedictine houses. It covers the formation and proliferation of 'votive' observances, recited as additions to or replacements for the major calendar observances. Evidence is drawn from over fifty manuscripts, dating from the Benedictine reform of the tenth century to the eve of the Dissolution in the sixteenth century. Some thirty monasteries are represented, with particular reference to the practices of Winchester, St Albans, Worcester and St Mary's, York. Part One examines the precedent for appended observances in The Rule of St Benedict (c.540), and the interpretation of this document by the Carolingian reformer Benedict of Aniane (c.750-821). Votive practices in the first English monastic customary, Regularis Concordia (c.970), and other devotional sources of a similar date are analysed. Part Two deals with the proliferation of three major observances after the Conquest - the daily votive office, recited as an appendage to the regular hours, the weekly commemorative office, which served as a replacement for the ferial office, and the independent antiphon (in particular Salve regina), recited or sung after Compline. The structure, adoption and devotional characteristics of each observance are examined, with particular reference to the predominantly Marian bias of much of the repertory. The second volume contains liturgical texts and related analytical tables, a descriptive catalogue of sources, transcriptions of Marian antiphons from the Worcester Antiphoner (c. 1230) and a comparison of eight versions of Salve regina.

This research is an exploration of how the capabilities of the Internet may have influenced customer preference structures and how these influences may, in turn, have affected loyalty behaviours. These relationships are explored from both customers’ and companies’ perspectives. A theoretical model is developed which comprises four main components. These are (1) pre-purchase preference structures; (2) post-purchase preference structures (3) the Internet channel and (4) loyalty behaviours. The Internet channel is shown as having a modifying effect on pre- and post-purchase preference structures, which in turn relate to influences in loyalty behaviours. From the customer’s perspective the theoretical model was quantitatively tested by developing pre- and post-purchase preference structures from a choice-based conjoint experiment on a sample of online and offline grocery shoppers. The results showed that these preference structures differed significantly on a number of attributes. The theoretical model was further tested by linking the utility values from the choice-based conjoint experiment to loyalty variables in a structural equation model. The results showed that the theoretical model needed adjustment to fit the underlying data. The offline shoppers’ group model had a better fit to the data than did the online group. The company perspective was developed through a longitudinal study of four U.K. companies in different industries. The qualitative data collected in these studies was compared and contrasted with the theoretical model. The emergent pattern within this analysis showed that companies with a strong understanding of customer preference structures in a traditional marketing channel, was no guarantee that the capabilities of the Internet would be used to strengthen performance on those preferences. One common theme that emerged from interviews with companies was that those who rapidly developed new levels of performance on customer preferences using the capabilities of the Internet had made the Internet a major component of their business model. The qualitative data showed companies as either adopting a transactional or an informational approach to their Internet channel strategy with radically different implications for their business models.

Focusing on the Tsachila, Amerindians of western Ecuador, this thesis examines how competing "common knowledge" accounts of the afterlife (conventional Tsachi, Catholic, and Protestant) are related to experiences of encounters with ghosts. Inspired by conversation analysis it advocates the study of these encounters through close attention to how accounts of them are constructed in conversation, from which they emerge as inherently disruptive and resistant to any definitive interpretation. From this starting point a descriptive account is given of the ways in which these anomalous experiences form the background to everyday life among the Tsachila. Experiential associations are identified linking ghosts with the circadian patterns of sound, light and sociality. Next the thesis examines and compares a selection of myths depicting the dead and animals and it is shown that the boundaries between myth and everyday life and between the living and the dead are uncertain and subject to revision in the light of experience. They cannot be taken for granted but must be constantly reinforced. An example of such reinforcement is provided by the Tsachi celebration of the Catholic Day of the Dead, and it is shown how this intersects with and is inflected by Tsachi attitudes to the dead and their disposal. In the final chapter a selection of accounts of personal encounters with ghosts is examined to reveal ways in which the common knowledge previously discussed is shaped, deployed and contested in the context of these accounts. It is suggested, in conclusion, that personal experience of this kind cannot be treated as simply a cultural expression, but that it exerts a motivating and disruptive force on thought and action.

The dissertation aims to provide an understanding of the relation between political-economic power and the attribution of social value in twentieth-century Sefwi (Ghana). The existing literature on relations of dominance amongst the Akan has flaws: works examine single relations of dominance in isolation; studies focus mostly on discontinuity and change; peripheral areas are neglected. In the dissertation these issues are addressed. Hierarchy is used as an analytical tool which enables one to link diverse expressions of dominance; the persistence of certain hierarchical patterns throughout the twentieth century is analysed alongside transformations; and the focus is on Sefwi, a marginal region of the Akan world. The dissertation is divided into five sections. The introduction presents the methodological and theoretical approach adopted in the work. Part one is concerned with change in hierarchical patterns: twentieth-century dynamics are analysed to determine the extent of change with reference to chiefly power, capitalist.relations and gender issues. Part two shows that unequal relations inform three hierarchical domains -ancestry, gender and seniority. Part three addresses the issue of the coherence and unity of hierarchy by examining modes of organization of experience that cut across the three domains of inequality: reference is made to the use of kinship terms; concepts of ownership, caretakership and help; recourse to the supernatural; food and drink transactions. In the conclusion, Sefwi hierarchy is examined in a wider comparative and theoretical perspective with reference to the notions of 'encompassing of the contrary' (Dumont) and 'fetishization' (Marx).

Recent advancements in machine learning has contributed to an explosive growth of the image recognition field. Simultaneously, multiple Information Technology (IT) service providers such as Google and Amazon have embraced cloud solutions and software as a service. These factors have helped mature many computer vision tasks from scientific curiosity to practical applications. As image recognition is now accessible to the general developer community, a need arises for a comparison of its capabilities, and what can be gained from choosing a cloud service over a custom implementation. This thesis empirically studies the performance of five general image recognition services (Google Cloud Vision, Microsoft Computer Vision, IBM Watson, Clarifai and Amazon Rekognition) and image recognition models of the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) architecture that we ourselves have configured and trained. Image and object level annotations of images extracted from different datasets were tested, both in their original state and after being subjected to one of the following six types of distortions: brightness, color, compression, contrast, blurriness and rotation. The output labels and confidence scores were compared to the ground truth of multiple levels of concepts, such as food, soup and clam chowder. The results show that out of the services tested, there is currently no clear top performer over all categories and they all have some variations and similarities in their output, but on average Google Cloud Vision performs the best by a small margin. The services are all adept at identifying high level concepts such as food and most mid-level ones such as soup. However, in terms of further specifics, such as clam chowder, they start to vary, some performing better than others in different categories. Amazon was found to be the most capable at identifying multiple unique objects within the same image, on the chosen dataset. Additionally, it was found that by using synonyms of the ground truth labels, performance increased as the semantic gap between our expectations and the actual output from the services was narrowed. The services all showed vulnerability to image distortions, especially compression, blurriness and rotation. The custom models all performed noticeably worse, around half as well compared to the cloud services, possibly due to the difference in training data standards. The best model, configured with three convolutional layers, 128 nodes and a layer density of two, reached an average performance of almost 0.2 or 20%. In conclusion, if one is limited by a lack of experience with machine learning, computational resources and time, it is recommended to make use of one of the cloud services to reach a more acceptable performance level. Which to choose depends on the intended application, as the services perform differently in certain categories. The services are all vulnerable to multiple image distortions, potentially allowing adversarial attacks. Finally, there is definitely room for improvement in regards to the performance of these services and the computer vision field as a whole.

Reducing gender inequalities by enabling women's empowerment is a major focus of the literature and practices of gender and development. The work of this thesis contributes to debates about female empowerment, especially for peasant women in peripheral capitalist economies. The central themes of enquiry are power relations of gender and space in the socio-economic processes in which peasant households and their members are embedded. The focus of investigation is the extent to which commodity exchange outside the household reinforces, or reduces, women's position of power/disempowerment. The central question taken for analysis is whether income earning via trading empowers women, thus reducing their subordination. This hypothesis is widely accepted. Many NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and other development institutions base efforts around the notion that income earning is liberating for women. This hypothesis is investigated for rural Hausa women in Northern Nigeria who are secluded within their homes by the religio-cultural practice of purdah, but who engage in trade, often through the agency of children. The major empirical part of the study develops and applies an original framework for analysis of empowerment that identifies and maps gender divisions of labour and space in the spheres of production, reproduction and circulation in which rural Hausa men and women are embedded. The overall conclusion reached is that gender divisions of work, both inside and outside rural Hausa households, and especially in trade, reflect and sustain the subordination of women and their inferior position relative to men, especially through the control of space. The notion of income earning as universally empowering for women does not hold because rural Hausa women engaged in the market are not significantly empowered by their income earning because of the complex realities of patriarchy whereby women have weak bargaining powers.

This thesis examines the British legal status of aboriginal customary laws and governments in colonial Canada between 1760 and 1860, with a view to contributing to the debate about their modern legal status under the Canadian constitution. By "colonial Canada" is meant the British colonies of Quebec (1763-1791), Upper and Lower Canada (1791-1841) and Canada (1841-1867). The central argument of the thesis is that there existed in colonial Canada two distinct systems of municipal law one system for settlers and one system (or set of systems) for natives both deriving legitimacy from an over-arching British imperial constitution. The settler system was established by imperial statute, while native systems were recognized by non-statutory principles of imperial law, or "imperial common law". It is argued that the common-law principle of continuity—according to which British courts presumed that the laws of peoples subjected to British sovereignty remained in force at common law until abrogated by prerogative or Parliamentary legislation formed the doctrinal foundation of aboriginal rights to customary law and government in colonial Canada. The objective of Part One of the thesis is to construct a theory of imperial law applicable to the unique constitutional history of colonial Canada. To this end, the principle of continuity is analysed both as it was developed in relation to England's early imperial experiences and as it was manifested in statutes and judicial opinions relating to native nations in British North American colonies of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Part Two of the thesis applies the general principles of imperial law developed in Part One to Canadian constitutional history. The various municipal legal regimes established under imperial statute for settlers are examined in light of the fact that the imperial ministry, which retained direct control over Indian policy in Canada until 1860, recognized the continuity of native customary law and government in both unceded and reserved Indian lands. It will be argued that this imperial recognition confirmed the common-law continuity of native law and government.

這篇論文以出土青銅禮器為主要研究對象，結合傳世文獻，嘗試對西周到 春秋時期周人貴族階層的婚姻加以討論。鑒於婚姻在周代禮儀制度當中具有相 當突出的地位，考察婚姻在一個以宗族為主體、以禮儀為規範的社會當中如何 運作和演變，就成了本文最為關切的問題。依據「西周」和「春秋」的分期，論文被分為「上編」和「下編」兩部分 進行撰寫。在整理和考察出土文獻中所記載的婚姻關係之後，文章著重討論了西周貴族婚姻所奠基的社會和政治基礎，由此揭示了西周時期兩大貴族群體在 婚姻方面的不同習慣與特點。儘管在西周時期，一系列植根於獨特政治和社會 土壤的婚姻原則已經開始形成，但隨著宗周覆滅，春秋時期已無法在原有的政 治、社會機制上維持周人貴族固有的婚姻習慣。即便在諸侯國地區延續和維持 了一部分西周的婚姻原則及婚姻禮儀，但這種維持實際為了應對新的時代局勢， 其中依然包含了許多對舊有婚姻制度和禮儀的改造。最後，通過討論在「禮儀」 框架下兩個時代在安置婚姻事務方面所呈現出來的不同特點，本論文進而試圖 對「禮儀」在這一階段婚姻活動中所起到的作用進行回顧。

This thesis is an investigation of the ways in which activities of house-building are woven into the histories and biographies of the people of Ngamiland in nothern Botswana. Criticising those approaches in anthropology that have tended to see forms of buildings as the symbolic expressions of (or metaphors for) aspects of social order, the thesis argues that building practices are themselves embedded in the current of social activity - that is, of dwelling - which, over time, is generative of both persons and places. Just as every inhabitant enfolds within his or her person a set of relations with others, which are played out in the manifold tasks of everyday dwelling (including building), so every place (including the buildings found there) embodies a set of relations with other places. The first set of relations, essentially social, are captured by the notion of the taskscape, the second set, essentially material, by the notion of landscape. The thesis seeks to demonstrate the dynamic interplay between taskscape and landscape, or between social and material relations over time. The thesis argues for several important ways in which this dynamic relationship can be considered anthropologically. The first is the notion of the 'otherplaceness' of dwelling, in which the inherent interconnectedness of the landscape is highlighted, describing the ways in which both personal biographies and the material biographies of places are mutually creative over time. This is extended to investigate the relationship between social and material permanence in the landscape through an analysis of the ways in which building with concrete has affected everyday dwelling. Another key notion is that dwelling involves a wide range of social practices that can be understood as containing both forces of a centrifugal (movement away from a centre) and centripetal (movement toward a centre) nature, being an important aspect of how social practice and homestead form are interrelated over time. This is also extended in the final chapter through an exploration of the ways in which the materiality of the homestead is interwoven with memory, biography and personal history.

This thesis studies the religious system of the city of Rome and its immediate hinterland from the end of the Second Punic War to the emergence of autocratic rule shortly before the turn of the millennium. The Romans lacked a separate word for 'religion'. Scholars therefore hold that modern notions of religion, due to their Christianizing assumptions, cannot be applied to Roman religion, which consisted in public and social religious observance rather than in individual spirituality. The first chapter argues that Roman religion can be conceptualized as a system of social religious behaviour and individual motivational processes. A comparative definition of 'religion', which transcends Christianizing assumptions, is proposed to support this argument. In chapter two, modern interpretations of Roman religion, which view Republican religion as a 'closed system' in which religion is undifferentiated from politics and from public life, are criticized. It is argued that these interpretations start from unwarranted preconceptions concerning the interrelation of religion and society. Instead, I suggest that we should apply the model of an 'open system': the religious system at Rome was interrelated with its environment, but at the same time it could be conceptualized as being differentiated from other realms of social activity at Rome. Chapter three refutes the view that the identity of religion at Rome can be described by models of political or cultural identity. Instead, religious communication in Late Republican Rome was characterized by contextual rather than by substantive meanings. The fluidity of religious meaning in Late Republican Rome, a metropolis of nearly 1,000,000 inhabitants, implies that normative definitions of the constituents of Roman religion fail to convince. In relation to coloniae and municipia it is attempted to show that the religious system of Rome, a local religion geared to the physical city and its immediate hinterland, was not capable of becoming a universal religion. In the fourth chapter, the parameters organizing Roman religion are discussed. My thesis is that Roman religion in the Late Republic was decentralized in that religious authority was diffused and religious responsibilities were divided. In the city of Rome, there existed a market of religious alternatives, which was characterized by the compatibility of different deities and cults in a polytheistic context.

In this regional study of Methodist development and societal influence throughout the period of industrialisation, recent trends in Methodist historiography at a national level are combined with the research and source material accumulated at a local level, to provide a detailed analysis of Methodist growth in Cornwall between the years 1780 and 1870. The thesis is divided loosely into three sections. In the first, four chapters outline the essential background to interpretative analysis by considering, in turn, recent historiographical developments in Methodist studies; social change in Cornwall during industrialisation; the performance of the Anglican Church in the county as represented in the Visitation Returns for 1779, (as well as historical and structural reasons for its 'failure'); and Methodist growth as expressed through available statistical indices, especially the date of formation of Methodist societies, and the 1851 Ecclesiastical Census. In the second section, one long chapter is devoted to an in-depth, county-wide analysis of Methodist growth, which considers the impact of external factors, particularly socio-economic, and internal circumstances, such as the degree of maturity of pastoral and administrative machinery, and the level of Connexional or lay control over chapel and circuit affairs, on the form and function of Methodism in nine distinct socioeconomic regions within the county. In the third section, four chapters concentrate on West Cornwall, where Methodism was strongest, in order to examine the roots of, and reasons for, the distinctively indigenous form of Methodism which developed there. On the one hand, the pastoral and administrative difficulties in exerting adequate Connexional control are considered; while on the other, an interpretation of the 'folk' functionality of revivals and of Methodism as a 'popular religion' is offered.

This ethnoecological study of the Makushi Amerindians of Amazonian Guyana explores the place of plants in the indigenous culture and cosmology. The North Rupununi, the homeland of the Makushi people, is a bioculturally diverse mosaic of neotropical savannahs, forests, and wetlands. As subsistence hunters, fishers, and horticulturalists, the Makushi live in a constant and dynamic interaction with their ecologically rich surroundings. Against the human-faunal bias latent in much Amazonian anthropology, I place plants firmly at the centre of analysis, a positioning that mirrors their centrality in the ethnographic context. Human-plant encounters explored herein include swidden agriculture, the cultivation of bitter cassava, the fermentation of cassava drinks using a domesticated fungus, the use of a category of charm plants, and the consumption of plant substances in shamanic ritual. With the Makushi, I emphasise the status of plants as living selves and agents of semiosis, occupying perspectives on the world in and outside of their interactions with human beings. In order to investigate ethno-theories of life, I attempt to understand the constitution of the person - and associated notions of body and soul - in the indigenous cosmology. Makushi ontology can be characterised as animic - though as I argue, it also incorporates naturalistic and analogic elements. Thus, it is poly-ontological. This study pursues a dual goal: first, to pay heed to the trans-specific domain of living entities revealed in the Makushi ethnoecology, and second, to rethink conventional symbolic frameworks characteristic of anthropological approaches to culture. I explore the application of a more robust approach to sign-flows in nature - Peircian ecosemiotics - that allows for the analysis of plant communication, birdcalls, insect stings, and leaf patterns, as well as human language. In tracing these interspecific webs of signification, conclusions are drawn about the varied ways in which Makushi people engage with and think about their living environment. At the same time, many Makushi multispecies engagements are based on the physical transfer of substances between bodies of different kinds. In order to better account for this pervasive 'substance logic', greater attention must be paid to indigenous notions of corporeality and personhood. In doing so, I propose a dual analytical model that takes both the flows of signs and the flows of substances as its combined objective. This approach enables new conclusions to be drawn about multispecies relationality in indigenous Amazonian cosmologies.

Professional Javanese gamelan musicians and the way they think about and make music have been extensively studied by ethnomusicologists. This thesis shifts the analytical focus to the experience and practice of players in 'gamelan associations' for whom music is neither their primary occupation nor main source of income. It addresses two issues: firstly, who are these musicians and what does their way of playing and conceiving of music tell us about gamelan, and secondly, what opportunities and benefits does participation in these groups afford them. The first section sets out the details and context of fourteen gamelan associations in Surakarta. It examines local terminology for different forms of musicianship, their practice in relation to factors such as recompense for playing, ability, repertoire, and training, and discusses the combination of rehearsal and social gathering which I claim is fundamental to these groups. I argue that, whilst there is significant diversity among gamelan associations and their members, they represent a unified category of musicians distinct from those who are officially employed to play and that the specific benefits they obtain from playing derive from this non-professional status. The second section sets out these benefits in five chapters, relating respectively to gamelan's implication in discourses of community at local and state level, expressions of cultural ownership, the display and negotiation of personal authority, access to power, and the production of public sound. I argue that these connections mean that participation in gamelan associations is not simply recreational but a potentially powerful way for Solonese people to create meaning and influence for themselves amidst the competing models of modernity and rapid political change of contemporary Indonesia.

Animals were given a preponderant position in Egyptian art, symbolism, and cultual practices. This thesis centres on the relationship between humans and animals during the predynastic period in Upper Egypt (Naqada I-IIIB, 4th millennium BCE), focusing on hippopotamus and crocodile as representatives of the Nile environment and antelope species as representatives of the desert environment. Depictions of these animals are analysed and compared with contemporary faunal remains derived from activities such as cult, funerary, or every day consumption. The material analysed covers several centuries: temporal evolutions and changes have been identified. The animals studied in this thesis were first used by the Naqada I-IIB elites as means to visually and practically express their power, which they envisioned in two contrasting and complementary ways. The responsibilities of the leaders were symbolised by the annihilation of negative wild forces primarily embodied by antelope species. In contrast, they symbolically appropriated positive wild forces, chief among them being the hippopotamus, from which they symbolically derived their power. Faunal remains from after mid-Naqada II are few, depictions of hippopotamus disappeared and those of crocodile became rare. Antelope species became preponderant, especially on D-ware vessels, which were accessible to non-elite people. However, toward the end of the predynastic period, antelope species came to be depicted almost exclusively on high elite material; they lost their individuality and became generic representatives of chaotic forces that the leaders and early rulers had to annihilate in order to maintain control and order.

Over most of the 20th Century, many educational systems around the world became increasingly secular, notably with lessening involvement of religious institutions. However, what it means to offer secular education to an increasingly diverse student population is emerging as a contemporary international educational issue. The face of immigration, the rights of Aboriginals, and increasingly diverse and individual forms of religiosity and spirituality have implications for secular education today. This qualitative study of Alberta schooling provides an example of a setting that underwent a high degree of secularization in the 1960's-1980's. A litigious but interpretive boundary exists for the extent educationists were to engage students in thinking about religion and spirituality. Yet, teachers operated with a high degree of autonomy. With these contextual factors as a backdrop, this study explored how a hierarchical sample of Alberta policy-makers, administrators, and teachers conceptualized religion and spirituality for secular secondary schools. Results show that Alberta Education conceptualized space for the conservative religious and Aboriginal communities, but not mainstream students. The students operated in a 'leave your faith at the door' secular model, curriculum was rationalized, and the function of schooling was perceived as preparing students for work. Findings show that principals and teachers challenged the lack of space for mainstream students to engage in the concepts of religion and spirituality. They argued the secular model disadvantaged mainstream students in exercising their right to religious freedom and developing religious literacy and sensitivity skills and it also prevented non-religious students from gaining access to religious/spiritual concepts and tools to facilitate wellbeing and resiliency.

The master´s thesis deals with the international transportation of art objects (for instance paintings, sculptures, etc.). The aim of diploma paper is to scrutinize the issues of transportation of works of art in the Czech Republic and beyond its borders. It includes different formalities, packing, laws, customs and insurance specifics. The application part contains analysis of the case study. It shows practises for transportation of art objects in Galerie Rudolfinum. Subsequently,it includes recommendations for the gallery. Moreover, there is an evaluation of weak points in the field of international transportation of works of art and outline of possible future trends.

Current scholarship on the devotional practices of late medieval England has emphasized two representations of Christ. The first, considered the dominant trend, is that of the suffering Christ; the second, a minor, but important trend particularly for female audiences, is the maternal Christ. Both are revealing of the nature of late medieval Christo-centric devotion. This project contributes to the understanding of late medieval Christocentric devotion in England during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries by examining the representation of Christ in a martial role, as presented to clerical and lay audiences through the medium of popular sermons. It is a new contribution to the scholarship of late medieval devotion in its demonstration of a multifaceted Christ; the martial Christ echoes, but in many ways also contrasts, the images of the suffering and maternal Christ, in order to provide its audience with a more complex rendering of the human Christ, one which may have been more accessible to a lay populace seeking to form a relationship with him. This project also contributes to the growing field of sermon studies, intended to be comprehensive in nature. It uses a different approach to sermon studies, in that the entire corpus of nearly 4,500 sermons was reviewed. This was done in order to provide the most complete picture of the martial Christ. As a result, this project examines Christ in various martial roles, as well as his modelling of knighthood for kings, knights, preachers, and the laity. These representations were utilised by preachers to instruct their audiences in devotional practice, specifically forms of affective meditation; it was used as a didactic tool to teach the laity the complex doctrines of redemption and atonement; and finally, it was employed as a means to demonstrate the importance of right living in order to fulfill what Christ had promised on the cross, that is eternal salvation.

This study comprises an examination of the role of ideas concerning gender roles and respectability in the elaboration of a specific notion of a white colonial middle class in Cape Town, Cape Colony, in the decades before the establishment of Representative Government at the Cape. It pays particular attention to the cultural interaction of the incoming British settlers with the older Dutch society already in place in Cape Town. The insertion of British middle-class ideals of domesticity into Cape society had a decisive impact upon the public culture which would underpin the new political dispensation in the colony when a Representative Assembly was set up in 1853. The thesis argues that the new colonial political order which was enshrined in the constitution of 1853 was grounded upon a new gender order which set out distinctive roles for middle-class men and women and which allowed for the expression of a particular kind of personal and social respectability. Political developments in the Cape colony were thus inextricably tied to the elaboration of this new gendered social system. The thesis approaches the question of white colonial identity through several avenues. These include: the creation of a public sphere and changes in commercial culture; the importance of issues of the family and domestic service in structuring reform initiatives; the nature of male and female honour and its defence through defamation cases; the role of marriage in Cape colonial society; and the mediation of sexual transgressions through religious and civil authorities. Finally, the manner in which domestic ideology impacted upon political culture is approached through two case studies of political crisis during this period. The thesis thus seeks to advance South African historiography by undercutting the traditional division between studies of private and public life at the Cape in this period.

Social protection should ideally create a framework of 'welfare rights' for the vulnerable individuals and households. The state, through a set of policies of promotive and protective measures, sets out to achieve this. However, gaining these welfare rights in a decentralised democratic framework could be a function of the bargaining power that each individual, household and social group may possess. Therefore the micro-level interactions involving claimant, bureaucrat and local elites constitute the key policy process. Study of the process itself can reveal why some households gain formal social protection and other fail. This study argues that the local practices and informal rules underlying these public policy processes are purposively guided by the private interests of the local elites. At the heart of this dissertation is a comparative case-study of two villages in the Indian state of Maharashtra, based on eight months ethnographic fieldwork. Bottomup evaluation of two social protection programmes, public works (promotive) and social assistance (protective) programmes shows that 60 per cent of eligible persons are excluded from welfare rights. The mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion in these programmes are studied. The study reveals that both eligibility and entitlement to 'welfare rights' are contested within the power structure of the local community. The social identity of the claimant, and the ability to build a relationship with the local leaders or labour market managers act as key routes to access welfare rights. The precedence of informal rules at the stage of implementation of social protection programmes reproduced the existing social and economic power structures. As a result, the welfare rights of individuals and households are affected by the competing forces in the non-state sectors. These non-state actors, through their network, were able to weaken the administration and fair allocation of welfare benefits. Through this analysis the thesis contributes to the understanding of the local state, and decision-making practices over welfare rights in a decentralised context.

The purpose of this dissertation is to conduct a comprehensive study of Roman women's portrait busts of the third century AD. The free-standing portrait bust forms a discrete historical category through which to trace developments in third-century women's portraiture. The high-status, commemorative tradition of the bust and the durability of this format, which could be displayed and utilised in a large range of different contexts, made this an important portrait genre for women in the third century. These busts consequently offer powerful insight into the ideological function and status of Roman women in the third century. By placing third-century women's busts in the context of their form, history and provenance, I hope to create a methodology that allows me to ascertain the ancient intention of these portraits. My hypothesis is that, while elements of self-styling and bust-format reveal innovation, the moral vocabulary of Empire as presented in women's portrait busts did not change dramatically in the third century. I will argue that these portraits reflect the heightened ideological status of certain forms of Roman femininity in this period. Rather than being expressive of spiritual escapism or emotional turmoil women's portrait busts functioned as a means of re-confirming the Roman rhetoric of feminine virtue in the third century.

The sustained interaction of local elites and British administrators in the West Himalayas over the decades that surrounded the early colonial encounter (c. 1790-1840) saw the emergence of a distinctly new understanding of communal identity among the leaders of the region. This eventful period saw the mountain ('Pahari') kingdoms transform from fragmented, autonomous polities on the fringes of the Indian subcontinent to subjects of indigenous (Nepali, Sikh) and, ultimately, foreign (British) empires, and dramatically altered the ways Pahari leaders chose to remember and represent themselves. Using a wide array of sources from different locales in the hills (e.g., oral epics, archival records and local histories), this thesis traces the Pahari elite's transition from a nebulous group of lineage-based leaders to a cohesive unitary milieu modelled after contemporary interpretations of Hindu kingship. This nascent ideal of kingship is shown to have fed into concurrent understandings of Rajput society in the West Himalayas and ultimately to have sustained the alliance between indigenous rulers and British administrators.

This thesis argues that conversion to Christianity in the Nepali city of Bhaktapur is closely connected with ethical attitudes towards suffering in Bhaktapurian churches. This argument is situated within broader debates in the anthropology of Christianity. Anthropologists have debated the extent to which Christianity is a force for cultural discontinuity, and have often connected it with modernity and individualism. I contribute to these discussions by showing how distinctively Christian conceptions of suffering may promote cultural change by stimulating new understandings of selfhood and ethics. The first three chapters explore the social life of Bhaktapur's Hindu majority. I describe how the last fifty years have seen a process of cultural unsettlement in Bhaktapur; one aspect of this unsettlement has been a disruption of traditional norms of care and deference. It is in this context that the distinctive ethics of Christianity have proved attractive to some. Those who convert have typically experienced a significant episode of suffering, and have felt themselves to be failed by those around them. They find in churches a framework that emphasises the moral significance of inner experience (I call this 'inwardness') and addresses affliction more in terms of ethics than ritual. I describe these ethics in terms of 'care': they stress presence with the afflicted person, engagement with their experience, and appeal to God in prayer. After two chapters describing Christianity in Nepal and Bhaktapur in general terms, I devote four chapters to examining different categories of Bhaktapurian Christians: those who have experienced healing, women, leaders, and youth. I focus on four conversion narratives, and relate these narratives both to other ethnographic materials and to broader trends in Bhaktapurian and global Christianity. I highlight the significance of the values of inwardness and care, and of narrative itself, in the life-worlds of Bhaktapurian Christians.

In this thesis I ask whether food can be used to express Catalan national identity, and if so, in what ways this occurs. In doing so, I consider the lived realities of nationalist movements, rather than simply the ideas and political claims that inform such movements. The Catalan Autonomous Community in northeast Spain is an ideal place to research this issue, due to the strengthening of nationalist sentiments there in light of the rise in support for independence from Spain. I wished to see whether this had any effect on the connections between food and national identity (or gastronationalism). National identity and food are connected in many diverse and varied ways. Food culture allows us to reflect on national identity as a whole. Themes which commonly appear in nationalist discourse, such as cultural specificity, historicism, or landscape (to name but a few), also inform discussions of national food identity. In the present case, while other markers of identity (e.g. language) are also important, ideals of Catalan nationalism may take the guise of Catalan gastronationalism as well. The current pro-independence movement has had the effect of making Catalans more aware of their cultural symbols, including cuisine, which is now one of many such symbols that can be mobilized for the expression of national identity.

Historians have long struggled to conceptualise the Holy Roman Empire in the later Middle Ages. This thesis seeks to provide an interpretation of political life in the Empire which captures the structures and dynamics in evidence in the sources. It does so through a comparative study of the varied socio-political elites along the Upper Rhine between 1350 and 1500, with frequent reference to other regions of the Empire. The thesis is divided into three sections. Part I, consisting of four chapters, examines the shared and interconnective characteristics of several spheres of activity - the documentary, judicial, ritual, military, and administrative - in which various elites interacted through the same practices and conventions. Part II (five chapters) deals with the types of contractual association which emerged organically from these shared and interconnective structures and practices. It shows that these associations - leagues, alliances, judicial agreements, coinage unions, and others - were more common and more similar than typically assumed, that they regulated key judicial and military affairs, and that they reflected a shared ideology which emphasised peace-keeping and the common good within the Empire's framework. Part III of the thesis shows how the structures and dynamics explored in Parts I and II played out in specific situations by reference to three case studies in the 1370s-'80s, 1410s-'30s, and 1460s-'70s. All three demonstrate how the 'associative political culture' model can illuminate events which were previously considered to be moments of crisis or chaos, or the products of 'territorial' or 'constitutional' processes. The thesis concludes by arguing that, in light of this evidence, the Holy Roman Empire is best understood as a community of interdependent elites who interacted within a shared 'associative political culture'. This conclusion highlights the need for a new paradigm beyond those of the 'territory', the 'constitution', or the centralising 'state'.

Based on eighteen months fieldwork with Bedouin of the Negev, this thesis explores the varied presence of images as photographs and digital copies for local historicity in order to achieve a greater understanding of representational politics in southern Israel. It emphasizes pictures' ability to transmute, circulate, and acquire value in various social settings in contrast to popular academic treatments, which primarily focus on photographs' iconography and visual history in the Middle East. To do so, the thesis details the biographies of a series of 'significant images' (c. 1906-2010) circulating in this society. It describes their photographic and digital graphic contents as floating referents with the capacity to be coded and recoded by people but also their presence as historical evidence that acquire value in different contexts. The thesis builds on the concept of visual economy as opposed to visual culture in order to landscape images' meanings, material and digital transformations, and their influence for the making of Bedouin history over the last century amid Orientalist, national, and local imaginings. It argues that Bedouin in the Negev possess diverse representational repertoires and utilise a variety of techniques to pursue historical capital. In particular, local representations of the past are selective and instrumental but increasingly reliant on archival mediums such as photographs. Although it may be obvious, anthropologists of the Middle East have yet to adequately account for these occurrences among peripheral peoples and not merely urbanites in the region. Research found that Bedouin spokespersons treat photographs and digital images as evidentiary documentation during self-presentations of historical knowledge in the Negev. As they travel between visual economies, however, images become malleable proof for local history projects alternating between the tribal past, Islamic heritage, and ethnohistory. In conclusion, the thesis develops two theoretical themes in anthropology and visual culture studies of the Middle East: the material and visual efficacy of images for local historicity, and complicating self-representations among Bedouin in the Negev.

Oreintadores: Luiz Manoel Aguilera, Paulo Morelato França<br>Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Eletrica e de Computação<br>Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-25T06:20:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Toledo_ClaudioFabianoMotta_M.pdf: 11299946 bytes, checksum: e9df3be1555cd8e5c6e40cc5ef52d41f (MD5) Previous issue date: 1999<br>Resumo: O Problema de Roteamento de Veículos (PRV) procura estabelecer uma eficiente distribuição de bens de forma a atender as demandas existentes. Os atuais avanços em tecnologia de informação como rádio transmissores, telefonia celular, sistemas de localização via satélite, estão alterando o cenário em que um PRV pode ocorrer permitindo, por exemplo, a atualização de dados e localização de veículos em tempo real. Um PRV será considerado dinâmico caso seus dados não sejam conhecidos pelo usuário a priori e atualizados simultaneamente a determinação ou execução do conjunto de rotas. Um Problema de Roteamento Dinâmico de Veículos (PRDV) será estabelecido e um método de resolução, chamado algoritmo MORSS, será adaptado para resolver instâncias deste PRDV. Em seguida, um Problema Dinâmico de Programação (PDP) também será estabelecido e o algoritmo MORSS adaptado para resolver instâncias deste PDP. Um segundo método, baseado em heurísticas de busca em vizinhança e inserção, também será proposto para resolver as instâncias do PDP. O trabalho se propõe a resolver dois diferentes tipos de problemas dinâmicos procurando avaliar a adaptabilidade e desempenho do algoritmo MORSS enquanto método de resolução. No caso do PDP, o desempenho de um segundo método também é analisado e comparado ao desempenho obtido pelo algoritmo MORSS<br>Abstract: The Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) is the efficient distribution of products in order to attend customer requirement. Recently, the advances in information technology as radio transmission, cellular telephone, localization systems by satellite, are altering the scenarios in that VRP occurs and allowing update of information and vehicle localization occur in real time. The VRP is dynamic if the inputs of the problem are known by the decision-maker and are updated concurrentlY with the deterrnination or execution of the route's set. A Dynamic Vehicle Routing Problem (DVRP) will be established and a solution's method, called MORSS algorithm, will be adapted to solve DVRP instances. Next, a Dynamic Scheduling Problem (DSP) will be established and the MORSS algorithm will be adapted to solve DSP instances. A second method, based in heuristics of neighborhood search and insertion, will be also proposed to solve DSP instances. This work proposes to solve two different dynamic problems searching to evaluate the MORSS algorithm adaptability and performance as resolution method. In the PDP, the performance of the second method proposed also will be analyzed and compared with the performance obtained by MORSS algorithm<br>Mestrado<br>Mestre em Engenharia Elétrica

The Tibetan practice of bcud len, or 'extracting the essence', has been for long a neglected aspect of Tibetan medical and spiritual knowledge with scattered evidence and little certainty regarding its origins or the extent of its effective presence, either in the past or at currently. In this study, seventy-three texts have been identified and tabulated. Of these, sixty-seven have been summarised and commented on, and five of these, each representative of one type of the practice, have been translated in full. All but a handful of these texts have not been translated previously. The research findings suggest that, whatever its influences from Indian, Chinese or other medical cultures, bcud len soon evolved into a distinctively Tibetan method of life enhancement, with teachings that emphasise both spiritual and medical aims and the use of indigenous Tibetan remedies, accompanied in some cases by particular rituals. The content of the texts indicates that the term bcud len can be applied legitimately to practices involving ritually empowered pills and elixirs which are ingested, respiratory and yogic exercises, dietary restrictions and rituals involving mantra recitation, visualisation and yab yum union with a consort, in that all these are considered to be means of obtaining 'the essence'. The teachings offer extensive material for those interested in the evolution and contemporary practice of Tibetan medicine, especially its botanical aspects, and for historians of ritual. In particular, the texts provide ample evidence of the lineage tradition in Tibetan religious culture, citing examples of transmissions through gter ma, whereby teachings are preserved in secret to be recovered at a future date by a gter ton or treasure revealer. The final section contains conversations with Tibetan doctors, lamas and contemporary practitioners of bcud len in Asia and the West that complement recent ethnographic studies in the field testifying to the continuing vitality of the tradition.

This doctoral thesis explores the entanglement of religion and identity politics in the Indo-Burma borderlands and the indigenisation of Christianity there through grassroots processes of cultural revivalism. The ethnographic focus is on the Sumi Naga from the state of Nagaland in Northeast India. While the Sumi started converting to Baptist Christianity at the beginning of the twentieth century, conversion rates accelerated especially in the 1950s and again in the 1970s when two evangelical revivals swept across the lands of the Sumi and resulted in their conversion en masse. Significantly, these Great Revivals coincided in time with the most turbulent political history of this borderland region, as the Sumi, alongside all other Naga, were waging an armed struggle against the Indian nation-state for their right to self-determination and independence. While this struggle is now largely being fought with political rather than military means, it remains ideologically motivated by Naga perceptions of their distinct ethnic identity, history and culture compared to the rest of India. Baptist Christianity has played a central role in shaping and sustaining these perceptions. Over the past several decades following the Second Great Revival in the 1970s there has been a movement from within Sumi society to reconstruct and redefine their identity by drawing heavily on both their contemporary religion (Baptist Christianity) and their 'good' pre-Christian culture, which had been demonised and rejected in the course of earlier conversions. Discourses have been circulating in public space on the urgent need to reconceptualise collective Sumi identity by reviving, or preserving, those aspects of pre-Christian Sumi culture that are perceived as 'good' and constitutive of Sumi-ness but are currently 'under threat' of being gradually lost to modernity and foreign influences. These discourses are directly linked to processes of cultural revivalism across Nagaland, which have been motivated by a sense of the perceived loss of 'good' cultural heritage and cultural roots. This thesis is an ethnographic study of these processes of identity (re)construction within a Sumi Naga community. It sets out to examine the ways in which Baptist Christianity is central to everyday life in a Sumi village and how it plays an important role in forging group cohesion and solidarity through ritual practice and various forms of fellowship. The thesis then proceeds to study the phenomenon of cultural revivalism in both its discursive and practical manifestations. The thesis argues that the cultural revival has not reduced the centrality of Baptist Christianity to Sumi self-ascriptions and perceptions of identity, but is rather thought to have enriched it and given it a stronger cultural foundation. Hence, a Sumi Naga Christianity is being created which is perceived as unique, indigenous and distinct in its own right. The thesis attempts to explore the essence of this vernacular Christianity against the backdrop of its specific historical, economic, political and spiritual context and the all-encompassing Naga struggle against the Indian nation-state. In pursuing these issues, the thesis locates itself within debates on the intersection between religion and identity politics, which prevail in many contemporary contributions to the anthropology of Christianity.

The purpose of this project is to design, build, and implement a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system for a bank. CRM BANKING is an online application that caters to strengthening and stabilizing customer relationships in a bank.

The aim of this study was to analyse how Swedish courts reason about the child's best in custody and access disputes. We have assumed different themes to analyse our empirical data, these themes were the child's best interests, perspective on the child's best interests, child's perspective, children as subjects or objects and finally the right of the child or the child's best interests. Our empirical data have consisted of 15 City Court and Court of Appeal judgments of the Swedish courts handed down in 2015. The study had a qualitative disposition and the selection was made strategically to make sure the empirical data would be relevant to our issues. We have used a discourse analysis where the intention was to study how the court reason about the child’s interests and what statements that gets preference and what gets excluded in the assessment. Our theoretical starting point was extracted from Foucault’s theory about power and his discourse concept. We have used the concept of his theory in our analysis, but also extracted the theoretical concepts from previous research. The result shows that the Court's assessment of what is in the child’s best interest is based primarily on a professional and adult perspective on the child's situation. The individual child's perspective was excluded and the Court was principally talking about children's needs and interests in general. The result also showed that children were seen as objects and not as participants in the majority of the cases.

Por que tantos estudos acadêmicos afirmam a equivalência conceitual entre raça e bruxaria? A dissertação investiga as raízes e conseqüências deste gesto. Procura-se enfocar a maneira em que os dois objetos viram objetos de pesquisa enquanto representações. Uma comparação entre os programas de pesquisa reputadamente opostoscognitivista e sociocultural serve para delinear os pressupostos e limites de tal abordagem. Lançando mão de uma perspectiva pragmatista e fenomenológica, a primeira parte do trabalho revela as dificuldades de um programa representacionalista em dar conta da instância concreta de identificação. Sugere-se que isto é resultado da sua ênfase excessiva na classificação. Fazendo uso das promessas de uma antropologia simétrica, a segunda parte re-examina a insistência da ciência social em `des-naturalizar os objetos através de uma exposição crítica da sua produção. Como uma alternativa ao anti-fetichismo da crítica social, a conclusão propõe uma maneira de tratar a alteridade capaz de oferecer novos objetos de saber e alterar nossa orientação visà-vis eles. O estudo de identidade poderia então ir além dos conceitos de reconhecimento, fronteiras, e exclusão.<br>Why do so many academic studies affirm the conceptual equivalence of race andwitchcraft? This dissertation investigates both the roots and the consequences of this gesture. It analyzes the way both become objects of knowledge as representations. A comparison between the purported rival research agendas of cognitivism and sociocultural analysis serves to outline the assumptions and limits of this approach. Following a pragmatist and phenomenological premise, the first part of the dissertation reveals the difficulty of a representationalist research program to account for the concrete occurrence of identification. This is, the paper suggests, a result of the formers excessive focus on classification. Taking up the mantle of a symmetric anthropology, the second part reexamines the insistence of social science to denaturalize its objects by the critical exposure of their production. As an alternative to the anti-fetishism of social critique, the conclusion proposes a different manner of engaging alterity, one capable of both offering novel objects of analysis, and altering our orientation toward them. The study of difference and identity might then be able to advance beyond the well-worn concepts of recognition, boundaries, and exclusion.

Software radio is a radio that is substantially defined in software and whose physical layer behavior can be significantly altered through changes to its software. As a primary goal of software radio is the ability to support existing and future wireless protocols, software radio necessitates the use of a rapidly reprogrammable baseband processing solution. However third generation wireless protocols represent a significant increase in complexity over second generation protocols. Due to the natural performance sacrifices that must be made when moving an application from an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) to a general purpose processor or a digital signal processor, it is feared that reprogrammable processing solutions may not suffice for the emerging wireless protocols, which would significantly hinder the realization of software radio, particularly in the handheld domain where power consumption and chip area are critical. Recently, the Configurable Computing Lab at Virginia Tech developed a new breed of reprogrammable processor which they called â custom computing machinesâ (CCM). Representing a dramatic departure from traditional architectures used for baseband processing solutions, CCMs utilize a large number of optimized and programmable processing cores connected through a programmable mesh. Due to this architectural approach, CCMs have been promoted as supplying a level of processing power and power efficiency similar to ASICs while providing a level of reconfigurability similar to that of a DSP. Subsequently, Dr. Srikathyayani Srikanteswara proposed a new software radio architecture, known as the Layered Radio Architecture, which is intended to facilitate the inclusion of CCMs into a software radio. The primary goal of the research presented in this thesis is to demonstrate how a particular CCM, Stallion, can be used within the Layered Radio Architecture to provide sufficient processing performance, power efficiency, and reconfigurability to meet the constraints of the handheld domain through implementations of a single user adaptive receiver with adaptive complex filtering and a W-CDMA downlink rake receiver. These metrics are measured from a detailed simulation of Stallion and the Configuration Layer of the Layered Radio Architecture using advanced object oriented programming techniques that facilitate the inclusion of statistics gathering routines into normal operation. To provide perspective, these statistics are compared to the performance that could be expected from an implementation on a top-of-the-line DSP.<br>Master of Science

This thesis investigates the twelfth-century Latin poem entitled Urbanus magnus or 'The Book of the Civilised Man', attributed to Daniel of Beccles. This is a poem dedicated to the cultivation of a civilised life, aimed primarily at clerics although its use extends to nobility, and specifically the noble householder. This thesis focuses on the text as a primary source for an understanding of social life in medieval England, and uses the content of the text to explore issues such as the medieval household, social hierarchy, the body, and food and diet. Urbanus magnus is commonly referred to as a 'courtesy text'. This thesis seeks to understand Urbanus magnus outside of that attribution, and to situate the text in the context of twelfth and thirteenth-century England. Thus far, scholarship of courtesy literature has focused on later texts such as thirteenth-century vernacular 'courtesy texts' or humanist works as exemplified by Erasmus's De civilitate morum puerilium. This scholarship looks back to the twelfth century and sees texts such as Urbanus magnus as 'early Latin courtesy texts'. This teleological view relegates such earlier texts to positions at the genesis of the genre and blindly assumes that they belong to the corpus of 'courtesy literature'. This neglects both their individual importance and their respective origins. This thesis examines Urbanus magnus as a didactic text which contains elements of 'courtesy literature', but also displays moral and ethical concerns. At the heart of the thesis is the question: should Urbanus magnus be considered as part of the genre of courtesy literature? This question does not have a simple answer, but this thesis shows that some elements and sections of Urbanus magnus do conform to the characteristics of courtesy literature. However, there are further sections that reflect other literary traditions. In addition to morals and ethics, Urbanus magus reflects other genres such as satire, and also reveals social issues in twelfth-century England such as the rise of anti-curiale sentiment and resentment of upward social mobility. This thesis provides an examination of Urbanus magnus through the most prevalent themes in the text. Firstly, it explores the dynamics of the medieval household, along with issues such as social mobility and hierarchy. Secondly, it focuses on the depiction of the body and bodily restraint, covering topics such as speech, bodily emissions, and sexual activity. Thirdly, it discusses food and diet, including table manners, food consumption, and dietary effects of foodstuffs. The penultimate chapter looks at the manuscript dissemination of the text to investigate the different uses which Urbanus magnus found in subsequent centuries. The delineation of Urbanus magnus as part of the genre of courtesy literature ignores the social, cultural, and literary impact on the creation of the text. In response, this thesis has two aims. The first is to minimise the notion of genre, and treat Urbanus magnus as a text in its own right, and as a product of the twelfth century. The second shows that Urbanus magnus reflects both continuity and change in society in England following the Norman Conquest.

This thesis investigates the relationship between Christianity and urban monumental space in the late antique Levant. Through the analysis of both textual and archaeological evidence it seeks to clarify both the motives and the stages of the process of Christian takeover of the urban space of Levantine cities from the 4th to the 7th century AD. In doing so Christians were in essence both projecting their growth as the predominant religion and, at the same time, creating an entirely new monumental landscape. The case studies are presented in three separate groups, selected on the basis of the principal strategy that was chosen in the process of Christianisation of urban space. The first section analyses the cases of Gerasa, Jerusalem, Heliopolis, and Petra to illustrate the first of these strategies: the main method for occupying the symbolic space of the city was the construction of a contrast between the surviving ruins of the earlier, Hellenic, temples and the new Christian churches. The second group of case studies includes Scythopolis, Caesarea Maritima, Gaza, and to a certain extent Heliopolis. This section deals with those cities where the main strategy was the physical demolition of all or at least the most pre-eminent Hellenic buildings and their direct replacement with a new, and often grand, church. The third group, and the last, consists of the cities of Bostra, Gadara, Apamea, where rather than having to engage with a major Hellenic monument the main competitor was the secular state whether local or imperial. This is found to have resulted in a search for integration into the landscape rather than active competition.

This thesis consists of three essays that explore the dynamics of interconnected markets and examine the relationships between markets, investor behavior, and fundamental characteristics of the firm and the economy. In the first essay, we investigate the role of trade credit links in generating cross-border return predictability between international firms. Using data from 43 countries from 1993 to 2009, we find that firms with high trade credit in producer countries have stock returns that are strongly predictable based on the returns of their associated customer countries. This behavior is especially prevalent among firms with high levels of foreign sales. To better understand this effect we develop an asset pricing model in which firms in different countries are connected by trade credit links. The model offers further predictions about this phenomenon, including stronger predictability during periods of high credit constraints and low uninformed trading volume. We find supportive empirical evidence for these predictions. The second essay investigates the dynamics of commodity futures volatility. I derive the variance decomposition for the futures basis to show how unexpected excess returns result from new information about expected future interest rates, convenience yields, and risk premia. Using data on major commodity futures markets and global bilateral commodity trade, I analyze the extent to which commodity volatility is related to fundamental uncertainty arising from increased emerging market demand and macroeconomic uncertainty, and control for the potential impact of financial frictions introduced by changing market structure and index trading. I find that a higher concentration in the emerging market importers of a commodity is associated with higher futures volatility. Commodity futures volatility is significantly predictable using variables capturing macroeconomic uncertainty. The third essay investigates the differential explanatory power of consumer (importing countries) and producer (exporting countries) risk in explaining the volatility of commodity spot premia and term premia using trade-weighted indices of GDP volatility. Using data for major commodity futures markets, bilateral commodity trade, exchange rates, and GDP for countries trading these commodities, I test hypotheses on the heterogeneous impact of consumer and producer shocks, potentially driven by differences in hedging preferences and investment planning horizons. Producer risk is significant for both short-dated and long-dated maturities, while consumer risk has greater explanatory power for the volatility of the term spread.

Master´s thesis proposes a marketing communication for 1. FC Brno joint-stock company. Studied company´s business activities are focused on specific segment of market with substantial use of marketig tools. Prezentation itself is based on some important analysis.

L’apparition du SMS, il y a déjà plusieurs années, a egendré des logiques d’adoption<p>différentes. Dès son premier usage, le SMS était vu par les compagnies de téléphonie mobile<p>comme un moyen de transmission d’informations utiles pour les adultes – l’évolution de la<p>Bourse, des informations sur la météo (Ling, 2001). Par son passage à l’adoption par les<p>jeunes dans les années 1995 et 1997 et jusqu’aujourd’hui, le SMS devient un phénomène qui<p>suscite des représentations diverses et des discours assez contradictoires, même virulents par<p>rapport à son appropriation par les jeunes. Si, dans l’espace francophone et anglophone, le<p>sujet du “langage SMS” est bien connu, constituant une figure récurrente des discours des<p>mass-médias et des enseignants qui sortent en évidence les effets négatifs sur les compétences<p>orthographiques des élèves, ailleurs, et notamment en Roumanie, les discours des massmédias<p>constatent l’existence du phénomène, sans mettre en évidence les aspects négatifs, s’il<p>en existe. Un autre registre est celui de l’espace soi-disant virtuel, où des sites Internet relèvent les divers usages du SMS dans le monde3, dans le cadre des diverses industries (le politique4, les<p>services publics5, le divertissement6). Hors de ces présences qui attestent l’explosion de la<p>communication par l’intermédiaire du SMS, il existe aussi, par exemple, des concours de<p>poésie par SMS: leur enjeu est de voir comment la créativité individuelle peut être compactée<p>en 160 caractères, en résultant un possible mélange entre le hai-ku et cette technologie de<p>dernière génération. Le SMS, dont on décriera l’évolution plus tard, dépasse ainsi ses<p>fonctions primaires de communication et de socialisation, en devenant un milieu de créativité<p>et d’innovation artistique.La vie quotidienne est aussi un domaine où le SMS est très visible et qui détermine la création d’une représentation collective qui attribuerait le SMS aux jeunes à part d’autre type de public. Constamment, autour de soi, on peut voir des jeunes utilisant le téléphone mobile pour envoyer des messages. La scène déjà évoquée, issue de mes observations<p>ethnographiques, en est particulièrement illustrative. Toutes ces contextes donnent une présence active de l’usage du SMS. A chaque<p>contexte, un discours spécifique. Cette diversité contextuelle et discursive incontestable a<p>constitué une première raison d’approfondir le sujet du SMS. Alors, la question fondamentale surgit :comment peut-on traiter d’un tel sujet ?Quelle est la « bonne » voie interprétative ?Nous nous proposons de relier deux aspects, la<p>communication et les usages, ce qui nous semble essentiel pour la construction de l’objet du<p>SMS. Il s’agit donc d’étudier les discours caractéristiques de la culture des jeunes, sur le plan des pratiques comme des représentations, en mettant un accent particulier sur leur façon de<p>construire des stratégies pour surmonter les contraintes imposées par l’objet technique (le<p>SMS présente en fait des caractéristiques linguistiques liées aux spécificités du support<p>technique) mais aussi sur leur façon de « se mettre en scène » dans les SMS. Nous verrons<p>ainsi en quoi il y a une prise en compte des règles du groupe de pairs dans la culture<p>adolescente, en même temps qu’une élaboration de stratégies de distanciation. C’est la<p>démarche spécifique à l’anthropologie de la communication. On pourrait aborder le SMS en mobilisant les approches de réseau, dans des termes de fonctionnabilité du réseau, de rôles de chaque acteur qui y participe et du principe du pouvoir qui leur serait intrinsèque (Latour 1991) :le message reçu par le jeune légitime la bonne<p>fonctionnalité du réseau, dont les autres jeunes font partie, ainsi que leurs positions à<p>l’intérieur du réseau social. Le fait d’avoir partagé le SMS est un signe de pouvoir symbolique<p>envers les autres. Ces approches omettent cependant un aspect que nous considérons comme<p>important, à savoir le caractère ludique, que ce soit le ludique intrinsèque du message<p>(exprimé par un contenu amusant, une blague, un ragot, etc.) ou le ludique extérieur du<p>message (exprimé par l’acte d’envoyer un message, qui surmonte l’ennui temporel).<p>J’argumenterai que le ludique est le facteur qui explique le grand succès du SMS et de sa<p>consolidation auprès des jeunes.<p>Par rapport à la constitution de l’anthropologie comme discipline, les études<p>anthropologiques de nouvelles technologies informationnelles et communicationnelles<p>(NTIC) sont apparues très récemment, au cours des années 1990 du dernier siècle. S’agissant<p>d’un groupe assez réduit de chercheurs qui, en plus, ne connaissaient pas les travaux de leurs<p>pairs, les études initiales étaient plutôt descriptives et empiriques ;le SMS y était présenté en tant qu’une réalité « exotique ». Son « exotisme » a penché sur le discours anthropologique assez longtemps, jusqu’à la fin des années 1990, quand l’anthropologie fait son bilan et elle découvre que la période des études descriptives doit finir et commencer l’étape de<p>problématisation. Ainsi, les anthropologues se ciblent sur le rapport entre le nouveau et<p>l’ancien dans la communication médiatisée par NTIC, commencent à rechercher dans le passé<p>des usages similaires, pour construire une théorie des nouveaux modèles communicationnels.<p>L’anthropologie de la communication du fin des années 1990 et le début des 20008<p>s’éloigne de la sociologie par sa démarche diachronique et comparative. L’usage est remplacé<p>par le concepte de la pratique (ce qui impliquait une interprétation des usages dans leur<p>dynamique). Par la suite, la perspective synchronique laisse la place à une démarche<p>diachronique, les anthropologues décrivant la façon dont les pratiques communicationnelles<p>d’un certain médium prennent des nouvelles significations, en fonction de contexte et des<p>individus. Si la sociologie réalisait des comparaisons entre les usages des divers NTIC dans le même contexte temporel, l’anthropologie de la communication emploie la méthode<p>comparatiste au niveau diachronique aussi. L’ancien et le nouveau dans la communication<p>médiatisée par NTIC constituent la cible scientifique des anthropologues. Cette focalisation est importante aussi pour la spécialisation de l’objet de la recherche ;son évolution poursuit le schème suivant en anthropologie de la communication :NTIC → type d’objet électronique (téléphone mobile, ordinateur, tam-tam etc) → une fonctionnalité de l’objet technologique qui connaît des développement surprenants (SMS, vidéo-appel, MMS, chat, Instant Messenger,Facebook, MySpace etc). On passe de la « computer mediated communication » aux pratiques communicationnelles spécifiques à chaque fonctionnalité, de singulier au pluriel.<p>Il n’est resté que peu de temps jusqu’à ce que l’objet technologique devienne sujet des<p>interrogations dans la culture matérielle. De date très récente, dans l’espace anglo-saxon9 et<p>francophone10, ces études mettent dans le centre de leur analyse la relation entre l’individu et<p>l’objet technologique, donc la consommation. Les rapports entre les deux instances de la<p>relation décrivent deux directions de l’action :l’incorporation de l’objet (l’objet agit sur<p>l’individu) et l’excorporation de l’objet (l’individu agit sur l’objet). Cette relation est vue dans ces concrétisations en divers lieux du monde, les anthropologues présentant une localisation des pratiques et des représentations d’un certain objet technologique. La culture matérielle reprend la dimension synchronique d’un objet technologique (les usages en divers contextes)dans le cadre plus large diachronique, segmenté en fonction des étapes d’appropriation :<p>l’adoption, la création de l’utilité, la consolidation des usages. Cette trajectoire de l’objet décrit une démarche paradigmatique, dont chaque étape est construite par les pratiques et les représentations créées par les usagers. Le processus d’appropriation est donc le cadre<p>théorique plus large dans lequel les anthropologues intègrent les conceptes de la sociologie et de l’anthropologie communicationnelle. Influencée par la sémiotique, la culture matérielle décrit, donc, les significations complexes de la relation entre l’individu et l’objet technologique (que nous allons décrire en détail dans le premier chapitre de la thèse). On comprend assez facilement pourquoi le téléphone mobile est un objet technologique soumis au processus d’appropriation, mais pourrait-on dire que le SMS est un objet de consommation ?<p>Gérald Gaglio ainsi l’interprète :« Ce tour d'horizon a permis d'identifier les étapes de la<p>diffusion d'une nouvelle pratique sociale liée à un support technique, le SMS. Elle apparaît<p>suite à une ruse qui consiste à contourner le coût de l'appel téléphonique et profite d'un effet<p>de réseau. Elle s'enrichit de la création d'un univers de sens puis interpelle par l'action d'une "<p>minorité active " constituée par les adolescents. Elle sort enfin de son contexte de création<p>9 Heather Horst et Daniel Miller 2006, The cell phone: An Anthropology of communication, Berg. In press,<p>Oxford.<p>10 Bernard Blandin 2002, La construction du social par les objets, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris.<p>11<p>puisqu'elle est appropriée par d'autres populations qui élargissent les types de contenus<p>transmis. »11<p>Dominique Desjeux partage la même opinion quand elle compare la diffusion du SMS<p>en Chine, France et Pologne: « In the field of telephony, mobile or fixed, and more generally<p>in that of electronic information technologies, SMS is an interesting example of the spread of<p>an innovation because it has occurred without the need for any special marketing action. Its<p>spread has been spontaneous except in Poland where the later arrival of SMS meant that it<p>was immediately associated with uses of mobile phones. Hence, its success is linked to<p>invisible uses and associations that existed potentially in society before the expansion of<p>SMS. It is interesting to review these in order to understand at least partially the logic<p>underlying the spread of future innovations. Hence the purpose of this article is to show the<p>invisible uses that have been gradually revealed by surveys on SMS practices, especially<p>qualitative ones and mostly on a micro-social scale, carried out in France (partly under my<p>direction) by Catherine Lejealle (2003), in Poland by Malgorzata Kamieniczna (2004) and in<p>China by Anne Sophie Boisard (2004). Another aim is to show the shared or singular<p>practices of the three cultures analysed. The social uses of SMS in the world fit into a<p>dynamic that is constantly evolving among users, from the youngest to the oldest, and are<p>based on a written expression that constantly invents new codes or forms of the written<p>language. »12<p>Les deux chercheurs se situent en continuité avec notre grille d’analyse ;tous les deux<p>reconnaissent l’émergence du SMS dans des pays différents, dans le cadre des sous-cultures<p>délimitées par l’âge. G. Gaglio et D. Desjeux voient dans la pratique du SMS un exemple de<p>détournement du préscrit, déterminé par la capacité des usagers d’innover. Influencés par la<p>thèorie de Norbert Alter sur l’innovation ordinaire13, les deux anthropologues, à la suite d’une<p>démarche comparative entre plusieurs espaces, considèrent que le SMS est un objet de<p>consommation. Ses développements différents, les pratiques changeantes, expression d’une<p>créativité individuelle et collective, font que le SMS accomplisse « les conditions » pour être<p>considéré un objet soumis au processus complexe de la consommation.<p>11 Gérald Gaglio, 2005, “La pratique du SMS en France: analyse d'un comportement de consommation in tant<p>que phénomène social”, Paris, Consommations et société n°4, electronic journal, www.argonautes.fr<p>12 Dominique Desjeux ,2005, „SMS uses and issues in China, France and Poland”, Paris, Consommations et<p>société n°4, electronic journal, www.argonautes.fr.<p>13 Norbert Alter, 2000, L'innovation ordinaire, Paris, PUF.<p>12<p>Cette façon d’aborder le SMS est celle que nous suivrons aussi ;quand même,<p>l’explication de l’émergence du SMS ne nous suffit pas. Considérer l’explosion du SMS<p>comme ayant ses racines que dans la capacité créative des usagers (les innovateurs ordinaires)<p>nous semble une explication un peu aride, qui laisse à coté les conditions du contexte qui ont<p>fait que le détournement se réalise. Et, en plus, en quoi consiste-t-elle, cette capacité créative ?<p>Suffit-il de le nommer pour expliquer tout un phénomène ?Quels sont donc les ressorts<p>intérieurs du passage de « manières de faire » aux « arts de faire »14 ?<p>Ces sont des questionnements qui font de SMS un objet qui peut être soumis à une<p>interrogation scientifique et à tout un travail de terrain.<br>Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales<br>info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This research investigates particular ways that memorialising and mourning can be made manifest through public commemorative objects and spaces such as memorials and through smaller scale personal mementos. It also examines ways that these physical reminders can act as repositories and markers for memory, and as metaphors for identity. In particular the research is focussed on Traditional Southern Italian customs, reflecting on the ways that keepsakes and the cenotaph can provide allegories for declining cultural practices of Southern Italian migrants in Australia. The data collected for this thesis is based partly on participant observation, and on informal conversations with migrants from Southern Italy, regarding their funerary practices and stories told about the rural areas left behind in Italy. Research of visual and published material in the area of memorialising and memorial object are examined in order to gain an understanding of the language of death. The thesis also examines the use of Catholic religious objects in what anthropologist Per Binde has coined 'transactional acts', during supplication and remembrance and during times of mourning. An exploration of memorial and memento objects, by contemporary practitioners including Christian Boltanski, Lindy Lee, Julie Blyfield and Maya Lin has also been included. Inclusion of contemporary artists reflects on how memorials continue to play an important role in today's society as well as being integral in reflecting identity and maintaining connections with the past. Investigation of this genre is expressed through the research document and a body of studio-based research connected to the traditions of Memorialising. The studio research is expressed in the exhibition 'In Black' through the language of Catholic religious objects, memory boxes, personal mementos and cultural signifiers in wax, metal, and installation. These works, as time capsules are filled with significant representations of individuals and events that evoke memories through depictions of life, significant places and words descriptive of time and place.

Dissertação de mestrado, Ciências Económicas e Empresariais, Unidade de Ciências Económicas e Empresariais, Universidade do Algarve, 1997<br>A elaboração da presente dissertação teve em vista o estudo do sistema de custeio com base nas actividades. Foi explicada a sua base conceptual e realçadas as características diferenciadoras mais marcantes relativamente aos sistemas de custeio tradicionais. Também foi referida a metodologia de implementação e elaboração do orçamento com base nas actividades.<br>The aim of the elaboration of this thesis was the study of the activity cost accounting. The conceptual base was explained and the most important differencial characteristics related to the traditional cost accounting were emphasized. The methodology of implementation and elaboration ofthe budget was also referred.