Since the 1970s Aragon has been at the centre of heated controversies over central government proposals to transfer water from the Ebro to Spain’s Mediterranean coastal regions and the scene of numerous mass demonstrations in opposition to these. Throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries the Ebro has been used and perceived by Aragonese regionalism, nationalism and aragonesismo in a variety of ways. This gives rise to the possibility that opposition to the transfer of water from the Ebro goes beyond purely economic and environmental considerations and evokes deeper nationalistic aspects which see it as an essential element of Aragonese identity, patrimonial wealth and natural national heritage. The Ebro had a prominent place in the thinking of the early twentieth century nationalist group as a life-giver and father figure of Aragonese identity and a symbol of territory, homeland, regional development and patrimonial wealth. Later defence of the Ebro against proposed water transfers has been used by Aragonese territorial parties to raise key aragonesista and nationalist issues, increase national awareness and assist in nation-building. The thesis shows how it has become inextricably interwoven with aspects such as identity, myths, symbols, heritage, collective memory and future economic prosperity and how threats to it, in the form of proposed water transfers, are used to stir up feelings of a ‘nationalistic’ nature, create a sense of grievance and injustice and make it a powerful ‘rallying symbol’, ‘crowd symbol’ and a ‘symbol of unity’. However, the analysis reveals many different derivations, contradictions, differences and paradoxes in how it is viewed in different periods and by different aragonesista and nationalist groups which detract from it reaching its full symbolic potential. To date, there have been no specific studies of the importance of the Ebro in aragonesismo and Aragonese nationalism. This thesis will contribute to knowledge on this aspect as well as to debates on sub-state nationalisms and the role of landscape and natural elements in nationalism and national identity.

This thesis studies the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s capacity to rule in contemporary China by examining (a) its quest for popular legitimacy and (b) its search for party cohesion. In explaining the CCP’s ruling basis, a plethora of political science and economics literature has pointed to China’s economic growth. Conventional wisdom considers ideology to be obsolete and the political reform to be too limited to take any substantive effect in China. This thesis argues that ideological adaptation and the institutionalization of power succession play crucial roles in maintaining the CCP’s popular legitimacy and party cohesion. China’s economic success is certainly important, however, it also creates a fundamental dilemma of the CCP’s rule. If a communist party is not to deliver communism and class victory, why is it there at all? There is a potential contradiction between generating economic success by utilizing quasi capitalist economic policies on the one hand, and the fact that this is a communist party that supposedly justifies its rule by being the vehicle to deliver a communist society on the other. This thesis shows how the CCP has been constantly revising its ideological basis for justifying – if not legitimizing – its rule. By studying the CCP’s ideological discourses, the mechanism of ideological promotion, and their effectiveness, this thesis makes a valuable contribution to the relevant literature. In addition to ideology, the institutionalization of power succession is also crucial to the CCP’s rule. During Mao Zedong’s rule, an un-institutionalized power system had caused endless fierce power struggles within the party, which indirectly led to economic stagnation and social unrest. Thirty years of institutionalization has made leadership transitions in China more stable, transparent, predictable, and smoother now than ever before. By offering a large amount of first- and second-hand data on China’s leadership transition, this thesis shows how the institutionalization of power succession helps to maintain regime stability and legitimacy.

In this thesis, the issue which is discussed applies to effects of Business Intelligence (BI). They are described in more detail the benefits and potential use of BI in various application areas, namely finance, marketing, manufacturing, logistics, supply chain management, human resources, CI, web analytics, informatics, and CPM. There are a lot of effects which BI brings. They are divided into different categories, which are the effects of economic, customer, personnel and increasing the analytical process and performance. BI provides many benefits to all of mentioned application areas. But in each of them it may occurs some problems which may involves the introduction of BI into different areas. The main goal is to review the possibilities of planning and analysis of BI effects. I would like to make the readers acquainted with effects which are brought together with BI applications, with the structure based on the application areas and based on the categories mentioned here. All of the effects are collected from the case studies and others sources mentioned in the end. The main contribution is the unified view to the effects which brings the implementation of BI to the enterprise. At each of the effects are mentioned the main dimensions needed to monitor during analysis, and importance to the enterprise during its planning. This thesis can be used as a basis for the next topics connected with the effects of BI or with the application areas.

The goal of this paper is to evaluate the level of activities of companies that operate in the Czech market in the social area of CSR and to ascertain how the companies perceive CSR. The paper is written from an ethical point of view. On the basis of several theoretical concepts we present a design to evaluate CSR activities of the companies. This way we analyze the CSR activities of two companies in the Czech market. These two companies should represent the cream of the crop in CSR in the Czech market. Another perspective is being presented by conducting a survey among a wide group of companies in the Czech market. This survey is aimed at CSR activities of the companies and both their internal and external perception of CSR. Companies are analyzed and compared due to the size of their staff (small, medium and large), and the location of their headquarters (Czech and foreign). On the basis of these analyses we present a set of recommendations.

Nesta pesquisa o objetivo principal é avaliar a influência da estimativa para a compreensão do conceito de área de uma superfície plana. / In this research the main objective is to evaluate the influence of the estimation for the understanding of the concept of the area of a flat surface.

This work evaluates the performance of Peer-to-Peer storage systems in structured Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks under the impacts of a continuous process of nodes joining and leaving the network (Churn). Based on the Distributed Hash Tables (DHT), the peer-to-peer systems provide the means to store data among a large and dynamic set of participating host nodes. We consider the fact that existing solutions do not tolerate a high Churn rate or are not really scalable in terms of number of stored data blocks. The considered performance metrics include number of data blocks lost, bandwidth consumption, latencies and distance of matched lookups. We have selected Pastry, Chord and Kademlia to evaluate the e ect of inopportune connections/disconnections in Peer-to-Peer storage systems, because these selected P2P networks possess distinctive characteristics. Chord is one of the rst structured P2P networks that implements Distributed Hash Tables (DHTs). Similar to Chord, Pastry is based on a ring structure, with the identi er space forming the ring. However, Pastry uses a di erent algorithm than Chord to select the overlay neighbors of a peer. Kademlia is a more recent structured P2P network, with the XOR mechanism for improving distance calculation. DHT deployments are characterized by Churn. But if the frequency of Churn is too high, data blocks can be lost and lookup mechanism begin to incur delays. In architectures that employ DHTs, the choice of algorithm for data replication and maintenance can have a signi cant impact on the performance and reliability. PAST is a persistent Peer-to-Peer storage utility, which replicates complete les on multiple nodes, and uses Pastry for message routing and content location. The hypothesis is that by enhancing the Churn tolerance through building a really e cient replication and maintenance mechanisms, it will: i) Operate better than a peer-to-peer storage system such as PAST especially in replica placement strategy with a fewer data transfers. ii) Resolve le lookups with a match that is closer to the source peer, thus con- serving bandwidth. Our research will involve a series of simulation studies using two network simulators OverSim and OMNeT++. The main results are: Our approach achieves a higher data availability in presence of Churn, than the original PAST replication strategy; For a Churn occuring every minute our strategy loses two times less blocks than PAST; Our replication strategy induces an average of twice less block transfers than PAST.

Nesta dissertação foram discutidas abordagens do problema isoperimétrico que podem ser aplicadas no ensino médio e para alunos de Licenciatura plena em Matemática. Foi realizada inicialmente uma abordagem histórica e posteriormente a discussão de casos particulares e gerais de desigualdade isoperimétrica tanto no plano como no espaço. A abordagem principal deste texto é no plano, no qual foram analisadas as áreas dos triângulos, quadriláteros e polígonos regulares dado um perímetro fixo. / In this dissertation isoperimetric problem approaches were discussed that can be applied in high school and full degree students in mathematics. It was initially performed a historical approach and then the discussion of individual and general cases of isoperimetric inequality both in the plane and in space . The main approach of this text is in the plan, in which the areas of the triangles were analyzed , quadrilaterals and regular polygons given a fixed perimeter.

Thesis advisor: Michael Numan / Postpartum female rats immediately respond to biological or foster offspring with the display of maternal behavior. In contrast, females that are hysterectomized and ovariectomized on day 15 of pregnancy (15HO) and presented with pups 48 hours later show maternal behavior after 2-3 days of pup exposure. The natural onset of maternal behavior in postpartum females is mediated, in part, by the rise in estradiol just prior to birth. When 15HO rats are administered estradiol benzoate (EB) at the time of HO surgery, 48 hours prior to pup presentation, they show an almost immediate onset of maternal behavior. Presumably, EB administration functions to prime neural circuits which regulate maternal behavior such that these circuits respond to pup presentation with increased maternal responsiveness. Two important neural regions which have been shown to interact in order to promote responsiveness toward infant stimuli are the medial preoptic area (MPOA) and the nucleus accumbens (NA). The following series of studies were undertaken to examine how dopamine (DA) activity within these two important neural sites substitutes for the facilitatory effects of chronic (48 hours) EB stimulation of maternal behavior in 15HO rats. Study 1 investigates whether, in the absence of EB treatment, microinjection of dopamine receptor agonists into either NA or MPOA at the time of pup presentation stimulate maternal behavior in 15HO rats. Study 2 examines the underlying mechanism by which DA receptor stimulation of NA promotes the onset of maternal behavior in 15HO rats. Finally, Study 3 examines the relationship between DA receptor stimulation and estradiol stimulation in the facilitation of maternal responsiveness in 15HO rats. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Psychology.

Afro-Puerto Rican Mayra Santos-Febres's novel Sirena Selena vestida de pena (2000) demonstrates the intrinsic social relationship that exists between generations in Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic. The historical similarity between these regions permits a comparison in life stories of marginalized peoples. Puerto Rican godmothers and transvestites Martha Divine and Valentina Frenesâi prepare goddaughter, quinceänera and bolerista Sirena Selena in her performance in order to launch a career and conquer the strategies of survival. Meanwhile, Dominican millionaire Hugo Graubel manages his life publicly as a heterosexual husband and privately as a gay man and strongly attempts to capture enigmatic Sirena Selena. Whereas the Dominican, pre-adolescent, poor, and mulatto Leocadio discovers the veiled world of tourism that offers alternate possibilities of economic survival. The previous generations' transgression of society's binary definitions created alternate spaces that continue to pave the way for future generations that will refuse and resist conforming to static patriarchal and heterosexual mainstream classifications. / by Ariana Heydi Magdaleno. / Abstract in English. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

This thesis is an historical study of biopolitical relations between racism and biometric identification in Japan since the late nineteenth century to the present day. Adopting Foucault’s historical method, it challenges progressive accounts of the history of racism and that of biometrics. During the nineteenth century, practices of biometric identification emerged as constitutive of the knowledge of race wherein imperial power relations between superior and inferior races were enabled. Progressive accounts proclaim that colonial practices of biometrics were not scientific but politically intervened, which has since been discredited and replaced by a ‘true’ science of biometrics as individualisation. Contra progressivist claims on postraciality, the thesis concretely historicises the ways in which subjectification and control of race is conducted through the interplay between the epistemic construction of race and the technology of identification in each historical and geographical context. It analyses three modalities of racial government through biometrics in Japan: biometrics as a biological technology of inscribing race during Japanese colonialism; biometrics as a forensic technology of policing former colonial subjects in post-WWII Japan; and contemporary biometrics as an informatic technology of controlling a newly racialised immigrant population. The thesis concludes that despite a series of de-racialising reforms in the twentieth century, biometrics persist as a biopolitical technology of race. Neither racism nor biometrics as a technology of race is receding but they are continuously transforming in a way that a new mechanism of racial government is made possible. Race evolves, it is argued, not in the sense of social Darwinism but because the concept of race itself changes across time and space wherein a new model of racism is empowered. The thesis contributes to existing literature on the biopolitics of security and biometrics by extending the scope of analysis to a non-Western context, explicating historical relations between racism and biometrics, and problematising biometric rationality at the level of racialised mechanism of knowing and controlling (in)security. It also makes contributions to Foucaultian studies by advancing the analysis of biopolitical racism beyond Foucault’s original formulation and by offering a critique of rationality in the field of biometrics.