Thesis (Ph. D.)--Cornell University, January, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-109).

This study explores ways in which workers understand learning in relation to their work. The participants worked in Ontario women's shelters. The research method applied in this study was phenomenography. Eight women's anti-violence workers shared insights through semi-structured interviews. Four qualitatively different ways of understanding learning in anti-violence work emerged from the data. The study suggests that women's anti-violence workers understand their learning as deeply embedded in their work contexts and in the changes they are trying to effect. The scope and focus of these changes varied. The findings of this study could assist in the development of conceptual frameworks for training anti-violence workers. The researcher also suggests that communities of practice may be critical forums for learning, as they are designed for situated workplace learning, and can evolve with changing contexts.

Thesis (Ph.D.). / Written for the Dept. of Anatomy and Cell Biology. Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2008/05/08). Includes bibliographical references.

Att arbeta mot minskad klimatpåverkan är centralt i dagens samhälle och ett måste för en hållbar utveckling. Ett omdiskuterat område är utfasningen av äldre, fossilt baserad, elproduktion för att ge plats åt förnybar elproduktion. Det vill säga ”grön el”. Solceller, en typ av grön el, har under de senaste åren blivit billigare. Detta kan ses på den ökade installerade effekten varje år bland flerbostadshus från att Sverige började med ekonomiska bidrag till solceller år 2006. Solceller får en ökad verkningsgrad av högre instrålning men även av en lägre celltemperatur. Samtidigt gynnas värmepumpar, som är vanligt för fastighetsuppvärmning, av ett ökat COP om den tillkopplade köldbäraren når värmepumpen med en högre temperatur vilket ökar potentialen att leverera värme. Då solceller gynnas av låg temperatur och värmepumpen gynnas av hög köldbärartemperatur finns det ett motiv för värmeväxling mellan enheterna – termisk samverkan. Syftet med examensarbetet blir att öka kunskap genom en systemanalys om hur solceller och värmepump kan samverka i ett energi- och kostnadseffektivare energisystem via termisk samverkan. I examensarbetet har två modeller av en fastighets energisystem byggts; med och utan termisk samverkan mellan värmepump och solceller. I energisystemet ingår fastighetens värme- och elsystem och är placerat i Karlstad. Värmesystemet består av frånluftvärmepump med fjärrvärme som spets och elsystemet består av fastighets- och hushållsel samt solceller. Resultat från modellerna jämförs med varandra med fokus på inköp av el och fjärrvärme, försäljning av el, koldioxidutsläpp och ekonomi. Resultatet från båda modellerna har även undersökts och jämförts i 8 scenarier. Scenarierna ändrar på systemutformning och väderfaktorer, exempelvis optimering av elproduktion eller byte av geografisk placering. Modellerna är byggda i Matlabs modelleringsprogram Simulink och grundas på energibalanser. Data fås från intressenten av detta arbete (HSB Värmland), produktblad för solpanelerna (där en solpanel är en matris av solceller), egna mätningar från fastigheten, antaganden och liknande försök från vetenskapliga artiklar. Koldioxidutsläpp från el baseras på marginalelsprincipen. Resultatet av ett energisystem i en fastighet i Karlstad med termisk samverkan mellan solceller och frånluftvärmepump bidrar till minskat koldioxidutsläpp på 1239 kg/år och 448 kg/år för kort respektive lång sikt. Årskostnaden minskar med 290 kr/år vilket gör det svårt att motivera termisk samverkan ur ett ekonomiskt perspektiv. Detta för att investeringskostnaden maximalt får nå 7250 kr över 25 år för att termisk samverkan ska vara ekonomiskt gynnsamt. Inköpet av el minskar och försäljningen av el samt inköpet av fjärrvärme ökar. Årsmedelvärdet för värmepumpens COP ökar från 4,56 till 5,30 och årsmedelvärdet för solcellernas verkningsgrad ökar från 21,15 till 21,16 %. Ett samverkande system har potentialen att bli mer attraktivt om elpriset ökar. I scenarioanalysen uppkommer ett scenario, när elproduktionen från solcellerna optimeras, som medför betydligt lägre årskostnad från ett termiskt samverkande system jämfört med andra scenarier. Detta scenario medför reglering av köldbärarflöde, värmeväxlararea och tillsätter extern kylning. Årskostnaden av ett termiskt samverkande system minskas med 1920 kr/år till följd av denna systemutformning. Eftersom flera regleringar behöver göras anses detta scenario som komplicerat att få praktiskt genomförbart. Ett scenario, när det samverkande systemet utformas utan frånluftåtervinning, är potentiellt ekonomiskt gynnsamt för nybyggnation av värmesystem. Scenariot medför att ett termiskt samverkande system ger minskad årskostnad jämfört mot ett icke-samverkande system med frånluftåtervinning. Det förväntas att nya värmesystem kan konstrueras utan frånluftåtervinning och därmed minska investeringskostnaden för nybyggnation. Eftersom investerings- och driftkostnader av frånluftåtervinning inte har hanterats i detta arbete behövs det vidare studier. Termisk samverkan blir mer gynnsamt i varmare länder än Sverige men bidrar inte till minskat koldioxidutsläpp i lika hög grad. Det uppkom att om energisystemet placeras i Kiruna ökar både årskostnaden och koldioxidutsläppen. När energisystemet placeras i Lund var resultaten liknande mot i Karlstad. Detta för att klimatdata från Lund efterliknar klimatdata från Karlstad. När energisystemet placerades och jämfördes i Aten (Grekland) minskade årskostnaden och bidrog till minskat koldioxidutsläpp. Årskostnaden för systemet placerat i Aten blev lägre än årskostnaden i Lund men koldioxidutsläppet i Aten blev högre än koldioxidutsläppet i Lund. Eftersom systemet i Lund medför lägre koldioxidutsläpp än i Kiruna och Aten kan det finnas en brytpunkt i lokalt klimat där koldioxidutsläppen är som lägst från ett samverkande system. / It is discussed in today’s society to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions by replacing old, fossil fueled, electricity production with new, renewable and “green” ways of producing electricity. Photovoltaics have lately become cheaper which can be seen by looking at the increase in installed electric power from apartment buildings for each year in Sweden. This is mainly caused by the introduction of subsidies towards photovoltaics in 2006 from the Swedish state. The efficiency of photovoltaics increases when the solar radiation is higher but decreases with increasing cell temperature of the photovoltaic cells. The COP of heat pumps, which is commonly used for heating apartment buildings, is increased with increased brine temperature which increases the potential of heating. This means that photovoltaics can benefit from a cold brine while heat pumps can benefit from a higher brine temperature by heat exchanging with photovoltaics. Thermal cooperation is possible. The purpose of the study is to do a system analysis of how photovoltaics and heat pump can cooperate in an energy and cost-efficient energy system through thermal cooperation. Two models, of an energy system in an apartment building located in Karlstad, have been built in this study; with and without thermal cooperation between heat pump and photovoltaics. The energy system is divided in two subsystems; heating and electricity system. The heating system consists of an exhaust air heat pump with district heating during peaks and the electricity system consists of the electricity demand from the apartment building and photovoltaics. The results of the models are compared with focus on purchase of electricity and district heating, selling of electricity, carbon dioxide emissions and economical costs. The results from the models have also been analyzed and compared in 8 different scenarios. The scenarios change the configuration of the energy system and weather factor. Examples of scenarios that have been analyzed are optimization of electricity production and change of geographical location. The models are built in Matlabs modeling program Simulink and are based on energy balances. Data is gathered with help from HSB Värmland, product sheet of the solar panels (one solar panel is a matrix of several photovoltaics), own measurements, assumptions and similar studies from scientific articles. Carbon dioxide emissions are based on the merit order curve for electricity production (“marginal-energy-principle”). An energy system in Karlstad with thermal cooperation, between photovoltaics and exhaust air heat pump, contributes to reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 1239 kg/year (short term) and 448 kg/year (long term). However, it is hard to warrant thermal cooperation from an economical perspective with th. This is because the investment costs of an energy system with thermal cooperation is only allowed to reach a maximum of 7250 kr over 25 years for it to be economically profitable. The amount of electricity that needs to be purchased decreases and the amount of electricity that is sold as well as district heating purchased increases. The yearly average COP of the heat pump increases from 4,56 to 5,30 and the yearly average solar panel efficiency increases from 21,15 to 21,16 %. If the price of electricity increases, then thermal cooperation will become more profitable. One scenario from the scenario analysis stands out in comparison with other scenarios due to reduced yearly costs from a cooperating system of 1920 kr/year. This is when the electricity production from the photovoltaics are optimized. However, this scenario requires adjustments in brine flow, heat exchanger area and external cooling which can cause practical complications. One scenario has the potential to become economically profitable with the construction of new heating systems. This is when the exhaust air recycling is removed from the heating system. The removal of exhaust air recycling in a cooperating system contributes to lower yearly costs but not as low as a cooperating system with exhaust air recycling. However, this might mean that the construction of new heating systems can be profitable without exhaust air recycling because the investment cost of the exhaust air recycling is removed. Since this study has not taken investment and operating costs of exhaust air recycling into account, further studies are needed to determine this. Thermal cooperation is more profitable in warmer countries than Sweden but does not contribute to as low reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. When the energy system is placed in Kiruna, Sweden, it causes both the yearly cost and carbon dioxide emissions to increase. The energy system is placed in Lund, Sweden, yielded similar results as if the system was placed in Karlstad, Sweden. The yearly cost and carbon dioxide emissions decreased when the energy system was placed in Athens, Greece. However, when comparing the energy systems in Athens and Lund, Athens had the lower yearly cost but higher carbon dioxide emissions. Since the energy system placed in Lund contributes to the lowest carbon dioxide emissions in comparison to both Kiruna and Athens then there might be a break point in relation to local climate where the emissions are the lowest possible.

No description available.

No description available.

Cupriavidus metallidurans CH34 est la bactérie Gram négative considérée comme organisme-modèle pour l’étude de la résistance aux métaux lourds. Notre travail a porté sur sa résistance au cuivre, codée par les gènes cop du plasmide pMOL30. Ces gènes, responsables des différentes étapes de la résistance (compartimentation des systèmes d’efflux entre périplasme et cytoplasme, modification de valence, et d’autres fonctions totalement inconnues) ont suscité notre intérêt. On distingue dans l’îlot cop des gènes codant pour des fonctions de résistance proprement dite (essentiellement par détoxication active du cytoplasme et du périplasme). En effet, les mutants de copSRABCD, copF, et dans une moindre mesure copJ et copE deviennent sensibles. Les phénotypes des mutants divergent toutefois suivant que la mutation soit sur un cosmide qui ne porte que l’îlot (pMOL1024) ou dans son plasmide d’origine (pMOL30). Un second groupe de mutants (copVTMK, copG, copL, copQ) se distingue par un phénotype plus résistant ou identique à la souche parente, sauf autour de la CMI. Ces gènes interviendraient donc à la CMI pour assurer la résistance la plus élevée et le maintien d'un état viable latent. La présence de l’îlot cop permet de contenir le taux d’oxygène radicalaire qui reste à un taux basal lorsque les cellules sont adaptées au cuivre environnent. Après un choc de Cu (ou stress aigu), l’îlot cop répond de façon « explosive » au stress, en consommant l’énergie du potentiel membranaire et en augmentant fortement l’activité de la chaîne respiratoire. La résistance au cuivre est inductible, mais de façon différenciée pour la souche sauvage (CH34) et celle qui ne porte qu l’îlot cop (AE1744) : la CMI de CH34 triple après adaptation au cuivre, alors que celle d’AE1744 est inchangée. Après un choc de Cu, la résistance au cuivre est plus fortement induite pour AE1744 que pour CH34. Ces observations suggèrent que l’îlot cop ait été sélectionné pour sa capacité à répondre à un stress aigu puis intégré dans un ensemble de gènes plus vaste qui répond à des impératifs de stress chronique. L’analyse biochimique de CopI, une petite protéine bleue à cuivre, montre qu’elle porte un site analogue à celui des oxydases multicuivre. Son rôle pourrait dès lors être celui d’une réductase multicuivre. La protéine CopK lie de façon très spécifique le Cu(I) et il semble que la liaison du cuivre modifie sa structure. L’analyse écologique a montré que des homologues de copK pourraient être présents dans l’ADN extrait de la terre de biotopes chargés en cuivre, et dans les souches cuprorésistantes qu’on y trouve. La contribution majeure de cette thèse est de montrer que l’effet d’un stress métallique ne se résume pas à deux états physiologiques « mort ou vif ». Il y a lieu de considérer des états transitoires (choc de Cu, adaptation au métal, survie autour de la CMI, persistance) où interviennent des gènes spécifiques dans un ou plusieurs états donnés. Les résultats biochimiques et physiologiques ne nous éclairent pas encore assez sur les interconversions Cu(I)/Cu(II) ni sur les flux de cations notamment vers l'espace extracellulaire. Cette thèse ouvre des perspectives sur des mécanismes (protection à la CMI, phénotype persistant) assurant la survie des bactéries ou leur potentiel de recolonisation lors d'une diminution de la pression toxique : les gènes copT, copV, copK, copM, copB, copG, copL et copQ semblent impliqués dans ces fonctions.

Esta dissertação analisa o resultado da COP 21, que aconteceu em Paris no ano de 2015, através da capacidade que as coalizões domésticas, dentro de China e Estados Unidos, tiveram em influenciar a política climática durante o período que vai de 1992 até 2015. É através da identificação das coalizões domésticas (ambiental e pó-desenvolvimento econômico) que buscamos explicar como o processo político doméstico, nos dois países, foi moldado a partir das articulações e interações entre os grupos que compõe as coalizões. Até a COP 21, a política climática global parecia não avançar em vistas a uma solução do aquecimento global, a COP 15 é referenciada neste trabalho como o fracasso dos acordos climáticos, no entanto, 5 anos mais tarde, em 2015, juntos EUA e China, o dois maiores emissores da atualidade, anunciam suas metas de redução dos gases de efeito estufa. O que explica essa mudança de posicionamento, segundo a hipótese deste trabalho, é o amadurecimento e a articulação das coalizões doméstica dentro dos dois países, em primeiro lugar, e os acordos bilaterais que ambos promoveram entre os anos de 2009 e 2015 para trata das questões climáticas fora do sistema ONU de tomada d decisão. O resultado encontrado é que de fato, até 2009, a coalizão pró-desenvolvimento econômico conseguiu que sua influencia no processo político da condução da politica climática prevalecesse, no entanto, do período posterior a 2009 até 2015, pudemos ver que a coalizão ambiental conseguiu que sua influencia causasse, inclusive, um transbordamento para a arena internacional. / This essay analyze the COP 21 outcomes, that was held in Paris in 2015, through the domestic coalitions capacity, inside China and USA, had to influence the climate policy during the period that goes from 1992 until 2015. It is through the identification of domestic (environmental and economic development) coalitions that we seek to explain how the domestic political process, in both countries, was shaped by the articulations and interactions between the groups that make up the coalitions. Until COP 21, global climate policy did not seem to advance towards a solution to global warming, COP 15 is referred to, in this paper, as the failure of climate agreements, however, 5 years later in 2015, U.S and China together, the two largest emitters today, announce their targets for reducing greenhouse gases. What explains this change of position, according to the hypothesis of this work, is that the maturation and articulation of domestic coalitions within both countries, first, and the bilateral agreements that both promoted between the years of 2009 and 2015 to deal with the climate change issues outside of the UN system of decision-making. The result was that in fact, until 2009, the economic development coalition had its influence on the political process of climate policy prevailing, however, from the period after 2009 until 2015, we could see that the environmental coalition succeeded in its influence would even cause an overflow to the international arena.

Graph searching problems are described as games played on graphs, between a set of searchers and a fugitive. Variants of the game restrict the abilities of the searchers and the fugitive and the corresponding search number (the least number of searchers that have a winning strategy) is related to several well-known parameters in graph theory. One popular variant is called the Cops and Robber game, where the searchers (cops) and the fugitive (robber) move in rounds, and in each round they move to an adjacent vertex. This game, defined in late 1970's, has been studied intensively. The most famous open problem is Meyniel's conjecture, which states that the cop number (the minimum number of cops that can always capture the robber) of a connected graph on n vertices is O(sqrt n). We consider a version of the Cops and Robber game, where the robber is faster than the cops, but is not allowed to jump over the cops. This version was first studied in 2008. We show that when the robber has speed s, the cop number of a connected n-vertex graph can be as large as Omega(n^(s/s+1)). This improves the Omega(n^(s-3/s-2)) lower bound of Frieze, Krivelevich, and Loh (Variations on Cops and Robbers, J. Graph Theory, to appear). We also conjecture a general upper bound O(n^(s/s+1)) for the cop number, generalizing Meyniel's conjecture. Then we focus on the version where the robber is infinitely fast, but is again not allowed to jump over the cops. We give a mathematical characterization for graphs with cop number one. For a graph with treewidth tw and maximum degree Delta, we prove the cop number is between (tw+1)/(Delta+1) and tw+1. Using this we show that the cop number of the m-dimensional hypercube is between c1 n / m sqrt(m) and c2 n / m for some constants c1 and c2. If G is a connected interval graph on n vertices, then we give a polynomial time 3-approximation algorithm for finding the cop number of G, and prove that the cop number is O(sqrt(n)). We prove that given n, there exists a connected chordal graph on n vertices with cop number Omega(n/log n). We show a lower bound for the cop numbers of expander graphs, and use this to prove that the random G(n,p) that is not very sparse, asymptotically almost surely has cop number between d1 / p and d2 log (np) / p for suitable constants d1 and d2. Moreover, we prove that a fixed-degree regular random graph with n vertices asymptotically almost surely has cop number Theta(n).

This dissertation uses case study research to evaluate the impact of Information Technology (IT) on the moderator's role in directing a community of practice (CoP) in its Coalescing stage of development. Ten CoPs were studied. While each of these CoPs is in a different stage of development, the analysis focuses on the Coalescing stage because it is considered the most critical. A detailed case study of each CoP, including a survey of moderators and members, and interviews with moderators is presented. Analysis of these cases indicated that use of IT -- defined as communication, software, and hardware tools -- has a reciprocal effect on the role of the moderator. In other words, a moderator can achieve CoP goals and conduct its activities more efficiently and effectively by use of various IT tools. A moderator's competence and inclination to using IT tools also affects his or her role and the way he or she conducts the activities and plans to achieve the CoP goals. Those moderators who used IT tools to conduct their CoP's activities perceived their CoPs to be more successful than those who did not. Other factors such as company support, moderator's position and influence in the company, and the resources available to the CoP were the deciding factors on the moderator's role in facilitating a successful CoP. This dissertation concludes with a list of future research possibilities, obstacles to moderators, and improvement opportunities for large companies with several CoPs. All of the research studies on communities of practice so far have assumed that each company has only one CoP. This dissertation not only provides insight to a company with various CoPs, but it also offers a comparison study among different CoPs within the same company.