Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Univ., 2008. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Alberta, 2010. / A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Medicine. Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on April 27, 2010). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri--Columbia, 2005. / "May 2005." Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 139-157). Also issued on the Internet.

This study aims to understand how japanese corporal practices were renegotiated in Japanese Colony of Ivoti, Rio Grande do Sul, from the decades of 1980 to 2010. For that, we have used the theoretical perspectives from recognized authors of Cultural History field. Regarding the methodological procedures of this investigation, these were constructed from the collection of information in documentary and imagery sources, in addition to Oral History. The next step consisted in submitting these sources to the analysis, and for each of them a specific technique was adopted, namely: the documentary sources were submitted to documentary analysis, the imagery sources were analyzed and interpreted following the steps of iconographic analysis and the Oral sources in turn followed the technique of content analysis. In dealing with representations of corporal practices in the Japanese Colony of Ivoti, we seek both to describe their historical processes and to discuss how they were conceived and renegotiated in this social space. In the same way we seek to list some of the cultural elements present in each one of them. In according with we have exposed, based on this version of Japanese corporal practices in the Ivoti Colony, it was possible to perceive that the culture of this group of Japanese-Brazilians, although it have faced difficulties in the early days, was not lost with the migratory movement. Otherwise, this group through the cultivation of corporal practices, such as, for example, Gateball, Judo, Odori, Sumo and Undokai, sought to differentiate themselves from other ethnic groups that made up the society in which they were inserted.

Asset management and automation are acknowledged by distribution utilities as a useful strategy to improve service quality and reliability. However, the major challenge faced by decision makers in distribution utilities is how to achieve long-term return on the projects while minimising investment and operation costs. Distribution automation (DA) in terms of transformer economic operation (TEO), distribution network reconfiguration (DNR), and sectionalising switch placement (SSP) is recognised as the most effective way for distribution network operators (DNOs) to increase operation efficiency and reliability. Automated tie-switches and sectionalising switches play a fundamental role in distribution networks. A method based on the Monte Carlo simulation is discussed for transformer loss reduction, which comprises of profile generators of residential demand and a distribution network model. The ant colony optimisation (ACO) algorithm is then developed for optimal DNR and TEO to minimise network loss. An ACO algorithm based on a fuzzy multi-objective approach is proposed to solve SSP problem, which considers reliability indices and switch costs. Finally, a multi-objective ant colony optimisation (MOACO) and an artificial immune systems-ant colony optimisation (AIS-ACO) algorithm are developed to solve the reconfiguration problem, which is formulated within a multi-objective framework using the concept of Pareto optimality. The performance of the optimisation techniques has been assessed and illustrated by various case studies on three distribution networks. The obtained optimum network configurations indicate the effectiveness of the proposed methods for optimal DA.

Este trabalho analisa as potencialidades e ações realizadas por pequenos produtores rurais, em atividades agrícolas e/ou não-agrícolas. É uma pesquisa classificada na esfera de ação dos trabalhos que buscam mostrar as estratégias de reprodução e modificação social das famílias rurais. O estudo trata do resultado do processo de colonização italiana na região nordeste do Rio Grande do Sul, enfatizando a comunidade da Fazenda Fialho, localizada no município de São Valentim do Sul. Na análise das unidades produtivas, são observados os dados da população local relativos à educação, estrutura etária e fundiária, fontes de renda, condições de saúde, fluxos de relações e IDH, atendendo ao objetivo de verificar que a agricultura familiar praticada em pequenas propriedades é viável e proporciona desenvolvimento. / This work analyses both small producers potentialities and actions taken in agricultural and/or non-agricultural activities. It consists of a research that aims at showing strategies of reproduction and social modification of rural families. By emphasizing the socalled ‘Fazenda Fialho’ community (Fialho Farm), in the municipal district of São Valentim do Sul, it deals about the Italian settlement process in the northeastern region of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil – as well as its results. Local population data concerning education, age, conditions of land tenure, sources of income, health conditions, relationship flows and Human Development Index are observed in the analyses of working units, thus serving the purpose of verifying that family agriculture such as the one carried out in small properties is feasible and provides development.

Agrupamento de dados é o processo que consiste em dividir um conjunto de dados em grupos de forma que dados semelhantes entre si permaneçam no mesmo grupo enquanto que dados dissimilares sejam alocados em grupos diferentes. Técnicas tradicionais de agrupamento de dados têm sido usualmente desenvolvidas de maneira centralizada dependendo assim de estruturas que devem ser acessadas e modificadas a cada passo do processo de agrupamento. Além disso, os resultados gerados por tais métodos são dependentes de informações que devem ser fornecidas a priori como por exemplo número de grupos, tamanho do grupo ou densidade mínima/máxima permitida para o grupo. O presente trabalho visa propor o bee clustering, um algoritmo distribuído inspirado principalmente em técnicas de inteligência de enxames como organização de colônias de abelhas e alocação de tarefas em insetos sociais, desenvolvido com o objetivo de resolver o problema de agrupamento de dados sem a necessidade de pistas sobre o resultado desejado ou inicialização de parâmetros complexos. O bee clustering é capaz de formar grupos de agentes de maneira distribuída, uma necessidade típica em cenários de sistemas multiagente que exijam capacidade de auto-organização sem controle centralizado. Os resultados obtidos mostram que é possível atingir resultados comparáveis as abordagens centralizadas. / Clustering can be defined as a set of techniques that separate a data set into groups of similar objects. Data items within the same group are more similar than objects of different groups. Traditional clustering methods have been usually developed in a centralized fashion. One reason for this is that this form of clustering relies on data structures that must be accessed and modified at each step of the clustering process. Another issue with classical clustering methods is that they need some hints about the target clustering. These hints include for example the number of clusters, the expected cluster size, or the minimum density of clusters. In this work we propose a clustering algorithm that is inspired by swarm intelligence techniques such as the organization of bee colonies and task allocation among social insects. Our proposed algorithm is developed in a decentralized fashion without any initial information about number of classes, number of partitions, and size of partition, and without the need of complex parameters. The bee clustering algorithm is able to form groups of agents in a distributed way, a typical necessity in multiagent scenarios that require self-organization without central control. The performance of our algorithm shows that it is possible to achieve results that are comparable to those from centralized approaches.

This thesis looks at concepts of progress and agricultural deveIopment in the Cape Colony in the aftermath of the South African War (1899-1902). The first decade of the twentieth century was one of economic crisis. War was followed by a severe depression exacerbated by a slump in the diamond industry, which prompted doubts about the longevity of the country’s mineral resources. It was also a period of recurrent drought which aroused concerns about food security and criticisms about the Colony’s reliance on imported victuals and primary products such as timber. In this context, self-professed ‘progressive’ politicians and commercial farmers looked to the land as the most viable source of national wealth. Politically this period was dominated by Leander Starr Jameson’s Progressive Party, which held office from February 1904 until February 1908. The thesis analyses how this Party, usually associated with mining capital and Rhodes’s legacy, deliberately promoted itself as the progenitor of agricultural progressivism in terms of its rhetoric and the policies it pursued. Agricultural amelioration was linked to conservation. Scientific methods and systematic land management strategies were advocated to protect and enhance scarce water resources, soil fertility and pastures on which the rural economy depended. The state positioned itself as the provider of scientific expertise and introduced legislation to promote and regulate the agricultural economy and environment. The Cape was influenced in part by conservationist developments, which occurred contemporaneously in Australia and, in particular, in the United States. Historians of American history have identified the early twentieth century there as the ‘Progressive Era’. This thesis explores the scientific links that emerged between the governments of these two countries and argues that the Cape too self-consciously promoted itself as a progressive state with agricultural development and conservation constructed as two of the principal pillars of progress.

(in English): The thesis focuses on the Czech sugar factory in Gorna Oryahovitsa in northern Bulgaria, especially on the workers' colony which existed between 1912 and 1948 when the company was being put under state control. The paper provides a comprehensive report on the circumstances of the origin, development and current condition of the sugar factory and the colony. The study puts the specific instance of the Czech minority in Gorna Oryahovitsa into a wider context of the Czech migration into Bulgaria. It also provides a comprehensive picture of the Czech colony and its inhabitants, bringing new insights into their lifestyle, activities and contacts with the major society. The core of this work is to use written and pictorial materials. Therefore, the basic methodological approach was to search, collect and record the materials that in some way affected the Czech sugar factory and the colony, both in Bohemia and Bulgaria. These materials were first analyzed and then organized to create meaningful frameworks for subsequent interpretation.

Cette thèse s’est donnée pour objet l’étude du fonctionnement de l’État colonial en Guyane française au prisme de son action dans le domaine scolaire entre 1930 et 1951, soit la seule période pendant laquelle ce territoire se trouve scindé en deux entités administratives coiffées, cependant, par un même gouverneur. Au cœur de cette recherche réside l’hypothèse d’une singularité, dans une double perspective sociale et politique, de l’expérience coloniale guyanaise des années 1930 et 1940 – laquelle a conduit à forger les notions de « colonie-département » et d’« assimilation différenciée ». L’enquête menée articule ainsi histoire sociale de groupes professionnels issus du milieu éducatif et des sociabilités militantes, anthropologie des sociétés autochtones de l’intérieur amazonien et sociologie de l’Etat et des politiques publiques. Ce faisant, cette étude entend contribuer, d’une part, à une meilleure compréhension de l’Etat colonial à partir du cas trop souvent délaissé d’une « vieille colonie » ; de l’autre, à une histoire de la République donnant toute leur place aux Outre-mers. / This doctoral dissertation aims at studying the running of the colonial state in French Guiana through the prism of its action in the field of education between 1928 and 1951. During this period and for the only time in its history, the territory was split into two administrative entities headed, however, by the same governor. At the heart of this research lies the hypothesis of a singularity, in a twofold perspective, both social and political, of the French Guiana colonial experience in the 1930s and 1940s. This hypothesis led to the shaping of the notions of "colony-department" and of "segmented assimilation". This research thus articulates social history of professional groups from educational and activist circles, anthropology of indigenous societies of the Amazonian interior and sociology of the state and of public policies. In so doing, this study intends to contribute, on the one hand, to a better understanding of the colonial state from the too often neglected point of view of an "old colony"; on the other, to a history of the Republic which gives the overseas territories the place they deserve.