This dissertation is concerned with the unconstrained global optimization of nonlinear problems. These problems are not easy to solve because of the multiplicity of local and global minima. In this dissertation, we first study the pattern search method for local optimization. We study the pattern search method numerically and provide a modification to it. In particular, we design a new pattern search method for local optimization. The new pattern search improves the efficiency and reliability of the original pattern search method. We then designed two simulated annealing algorithms for global optimization based on the basic features of pattern search. The new methods are therefore hybrid. The first hybrid method is the hybrid of simulated annealing and pattern search. This method is denoted by MSA. The second hybrid method is a combination of MSA and the multi-level single linkage method. This method is denoted by SAPS. The performance of MSA and SAPS are reported through extensive experiments on 50 test problems. Results indicate that the new hybrids are efficient and reliable.

The fashion industry is a tremendous threat to our global environment and the massive creation of waste is linked to the current linear economical system, which can be explained as take-make-waste. A step away from this traditional model has gained a lot of attention in the clothing industry, where the concept of circular economy has emerged as a vital solution. Circular economy has many definitions but it is focused on closing the loop of resources, minimize the total amount of waste, and retain the value of a product for as long as possible. The purpose of this study was to investigate the challenges and opportunities of waste reduction as a part of the transitions towards a more circular economy within the fashion industry. This has been done throughout qualitative research in the form of semi-structured interviews and collection of documents on the Swedish fashion industry. Because transitions and long-term changes seldom happen due to one particular reason, the gathered empirical data has been analyzed from a holistic view, using the framework of multi-level perspective to understand the dynamics between different factors, levels, and dimensions in the transition to a more circular economy. The findings showed that the clothing companies have, to different degrees, strategies of how to reduce more waste in their organization. These strategies are more linked to incremental changes and there are at the moment barriers making it difficult for the industry to find more radical system solutions. However, as new technologies emerge, together with new regulations and support from governance, the clothing industry could be one step closer to reaching circularity. In the transition toward a more circular economy, pressure from different levels could steer the industry into a new direction and change the very heart of our consumption.

L'objectif de cette thèse est de proposer une approche de couplage des niveaux métabolique et écologique dans un système biologique complexe. Cette approche se présente sous la forme d'un modèle formel décrivant le métabolisme d'un organisme vivant, qui grâce au formalisme DEVS (Discret Event System Specification) adopté, permet un couplage avec des modèles d'interaction entre les organismes et entre l'organisme et son environnement. Une étude des différents paradigmes de modélisation, nous a permis d'identifier d'un côté le paradigme adéquat pour chaque niveau et d'un autre côté les facteurs de couplage formés par les variables à l'interface des mondes internes et externes d'un individu. Ce couplage permet d'explorer l'effet de la dynamique du niveau inférieur sur l'émergence des caractéristiques du niveau supérieur. Deux modèles multi-agents, le premier sur l'allocation sexuelle et le deuxième sur la recherche optimale de nourriture, concrétisent le couplage physiologie/écologie et montrent que ce couplage permet de relier le monde interne de l'individu à son monde externe. Le couplage fort, dans le sens de l'intégration des modèles, exploré dans une première phase, a été amélioré par la proposition d'un modèle formel, nommé DEB-DEVS, du modèle métabolique (de la théorie du budget d'énergie dynamique (DEB)) commun aux modèles précédents. Cette proposition est le résultat d'une réflexion sur la représentation de la dynamique interne des agents dans des modèles de l'écologie. DEB-DEVS a été illustré par deux modèles classiques de l'écologie théorique. / The objective of this thesis is to propose an approach for coupling metabolic and ecological levels in a complex biological system. This approach is presented as formal model describing the organism metabolism , which, thanks to DEVS formalism (Discrete Event System Specification), allows a coupling with models of interaction between organisms and between organisms and their environment. A study of the different modeling paradigms allowed us to identify, on the one hand the appropriate paradigm for each level and on the other hand the coupling factors formed by the variables at the interface of individual's internal and external worlds. This coupling explores the effect of lower-level dynamics on the emergence of higher-level characteristics. Two multiagent models, the first on sexual allocation and the second on optimal foraging, concretize the physiology/ecology coupling and show that this coupling makes it possible to connect the individual's internal world with its external world. The strong coupling, in the sense of model integration, explored in a first phase, was improved by the proposal of a formal model, called DEB-DEVS, of the metabolic model (of the Dynamic Energy Budget Theory (DEB)) common to the previous models. This proposal is the result of a reflection on the representation of internal dynamics of agents in ecological models. DEB-DEVS has been illustrated by two classical models of theoretical ecology.

Biculturalism in the Latino population in U.S. has been found to relate to positive outcomes in the literature. However, little is known about the development of bicultural adaptation. The constituent parts of biculturalism, acculturation, and enculturation were measured over several years as part of an existing longitudinal study along with several variables that held promise as predictors of acculturation and enculturation change. An additional data point for acculturation and enculturation was gathered along with other important demographic information. Change in both acculturation and enculturation was modeled revealing that acculturation and enculturation increase and decrease linearly. The trajectory for acculturation is much steeper than the trajectory of enculturation, providing support for orthogonal measurement and indicating real possibilities for interventions to increase bicultural adaptation. The best-fit model for acculturation included years in the U.S., preference for speaking English, and receptive English vocabulary. The best-fit model for enculturation included years in the U.S., preference for speaking English, and receptive English vocabulary.

Around 20 years ago subnational actors connected in Northern Sweden/Finland founding the Bothnian Corridor Project and lobbying successfully for support from the European Union/on the European level. This research paper will investigate the story of success from the perspective of the subnational actors. The case of the Bothnian Corridor is of interest because the Swedish subnational actors are often considered as weak or not so formalised. The Research Paper will investigate the processes which led to the activity on the European level and will review how the communication between the European level and the subnational actors is functioning.There are three driving processes. The first one is that there was a need in renewing the railroad system and the regions had a common interest. The second one is the establishment of regions as a subnational actor with a formalised responsibility for regional development. In the beginning of the 2000s the third process started where a stronger focus on regions and regional development on the European level became visible. Those driving forces are identified by this paper as the base of the Bothnian Corridor Project.The other aspect the paper is investigating is the communication between the different policy levels. There can be the picture drawn that the communication between the subnational players and the EU is cooperative; they both see the potential in this relationship. They are very open to working together which is just possible because the North Sweden European Office explained each other position to both parties and did "interest translation" and the national level is setting up limitations for the communication.

Complex bargaining between domestic and international actors has characterized world trade since the end of World War II. Moravcsik's commercial liberalism explains that trade policy stems from individuals within democracies, who indicate rational preferences to the government. In the structure of Putnam's two-level game, preferences are then aggregated by self-interested government officials who must reconcile constituency interests with pressures from foreign partners to form trade policy. Since 1995, the structure of world trade has been fundamentally redefined by the World Trade Organization (WTO). The Dispute Settlement Understanding has erected a supranational trade judiciary, effectively institutionalizing global increasingly free trade. The independent authority of the WTO has created a three-level strategic game between the domestic, international, and supranational political economic arenas. As illustrated in the softwood lumber dispute and the Boeing-Airbus dispute, the three-level game further empowers a powerful minority to capitalize on a collective action problem in world trade via dispute settlement. Olson's logic of collective action explains the ability of small self-interested coalitions to seek rent from the government, compromising the interests of the latent constituency majority. The result is a politicization of world trade that ultimately threatens the very underpinnings of the WTO itself.

Sustainability has been considered a novel research field emerging from the desire to protect the environment, and equally emerging in transition discourses. This research explores the construction of sustainability transition processes and pathways in a public sector organization implementing a sustainability oriented program. The study takes on an explorative, qualitative longitudinal approach. Through antenarrative inquiry, analysis is made on the stories and discussions as a reflexive way in expressing experiences and by giving meaning to these experiences. Assessed within sustainability transition theories, processes and pathways emerge from socio-technical transitions and its micro-foundations. Results indicate that pathways of transition exist in socio-technical systems, socio-political systems, socio-institutional systems and in socio-ecological systems as achored in public sector processes. The narrative character and sustainability formations potray inclusivity of actors, continuity and gradual transition processes. It is therefore opined that  sustainability oriented programs and projects implemented in developing nations by the public sector have the ability to enable niche level changes by creating necessary momentum at the micro-foundations required to distabilize dominant regimes. Methodoligally, antenarratives provide an avenue for prospective sensemaking necessary in prospected and wholistic sustainability transitions.

Demonstrating a direct link between teacher education programs and student growth is, to say the least, complex. Yet, using value-added systems as a means of holding teacher preparation programs accountable for the effectiveness of their graduates is a growing trend. However, few quantitative studies linking TPPs with the effectiveness of their graduates exist. The availability of student test scores linked to specific teachers in administrative databases makes it possible to use value-added modeling to obtain estimates of teacher effects. Only recently have researchers tapped into this expanding volume of data in an attempt to examine Teacher Preparation Programs as variables of student achievement. This study uses methodologies developed in the early stages of the Value-Added Teacher Preparation Program Assessment Model developed in Louisiana in 2006 as a guide. Using the HLM 7.0 software package, a statistical model was developed to determine if it were feasible to conduct an analysis using data from a single small school district and whether the results of such an analysis showed an impact of student characteristics and teacher experience and preparation program on student outcomes in mathematics.

This thesis examined how Covid-19 affected the role of CSOs in the MLG EU’s system and how these CSOs adapted to the new challenges that appeared during the crisis to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on civil society in the EU. Moreover, it also used two case studies, Barcelona and Stockholm, that by focusing on the role of their CSOs during Covid-19 helped understand better how was the role of CSOs in the MLG EU’s system and allowed to give some normative recommendations on what lessons can be taken to the EU from CSOs of these two case studies, to improve the EU action across the different levels of governance when another crisis occurs. The method of analysis used in this research is thematic literature review because it allowed me to have a thematic combination of sources that were used to come up with a current summary of empirical and theoretical findings of the CSOs role and adaptation in the MLG EU’s system and from the two case studies, Barcelona and Stockholm. The analysis concludes that CSOs during the pandemic suffered a reduction of their civic space, but they were considered essential actors in the MLG EU’s system with a more relevant role than before Covid-19 because they showed their importance in reducing the social gap during the pandemic when the EU and EUMS could not handle society's needs alone. Moreover, CSOs showed how they can be very resilient when a crisis such as Covid-19 hit, they could adapt rapidly their vital services by switching their activities to digital mode among other initiatives to meet these challenges. It also showed, with the academic normative discussion on the EU and the two case studies, that the EU need to include CSOs, especially CSOs at the local level, in the participation for the agenda-setting as their knowledge and important role can contribute to making a more effective EU action plan for the different levels of governance when another crisis occurs helping reduce the lack of coordination that the EU experienced during Covid-19.

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