I will examine how immigration into the United Kingdom has changed due to globalization, the strength of immigrant transnational networks, and rising hostile nativism. Changing immigrant experiences in the United Kingdom are contextualized by Britain’s “leave” Brexit vote and devolution of integration systems. I will argue that economic and local political integration are the most important contributors to improving immigrant outcomes and reducing tensions between minority and majority groups in the United Kingdom. Using policies from Denmark and Germany, I will compare how different integration regimes across Europe include immigrants as stakeholders in social and economic processes and how transnational networks interact with policy. I will recommend a set of policies at the national and local level to combat rising tensions between minority and majority groups. I will conclude by forecasting the likely and ideal scenarios for the future of minority-majority relations and integration regimes in the United Kingdom.

This master’s thesis is focused on the analysis, design and creation of an information system created for ophthalmic opticians. This information system will accompany users in the vast majority of processes associated with the operation of the optician's branch.

The diploma thesis deals with the design and implementation of a transparent resource management system at the portfolio level. Its primary task is to present and implement this system, but also to describe the situations that occurred during its implementation at Garrett Motion. In order to better understand the issue, the theoretical foundations of project management and resource management are presented at the beginning of the thesis. These serve as the basis for the following analysis of the company's environment, design and subsequent implementation of the system.

Résumé : L’informatique diffuse est le passage du paradigme informatique vers l’informatique partout. L’émergence couvre principalement l’informatique mobile et distribuée, les réseaux de capteurs, l’interaction homme-machine et l’intelligence artificielle sous l’égide de l’informatique diffuse. Des efforts considérables ont été mis sur les recherches dans ce domaine, mais il n’existe pas de normes ou des méthodologies communément acceptées pour évaluer ces systèmes et de définir des nouvelles orientations de recherche dans le futur. Cette thèse s’attaque au problème d’évaluation des systèmes informatiques ubiquitaires. La question de recherche notamment le quoi et comment évaluer n’a pas encore été résolue. Dans l’objectif de trouver une réponse à cette question et d’élaborer un cadre général d’évaluation, nous avons procédé comme suit. Pour répondre à la première partie de la question, “Quoi évaluer”, nous avons tout d’abord classè les systèmes en se basant sur certains critères, et nous avons défini ensuite les principaux paramètres pour évaluer ces systèmes. Pour ce faire, nous avons étudié différents aspects de l’informatique diffuse et nous les avons classés en onze différents aspects d’évaluation. Pour chaque aspect, nous avons identifiè les principaux paramètres qui peuvent être caractérisés et mesurés. Cette taxonomie n’est pas assez exhaustive, mais elle reflète le schéma de classification le mieux adaptè pour des évaluations effectives. Cependant, pour que l’évaluation soit la plus complète possible, nous avons jugé nécessaire d’incorporer l’utilisateur dans le processus d’évaluation. À cet effet, nous avons proposè un modèle d’évaluation qui prend en compte les besoins de l’utilisateur, le contexte dans lequel la technologie sera utilisée, et l’environnement d’exploitation dans lequel le système va être déployé. Le modèle proposè constitue une première étape vers le développement des directives et standards d’évaluation qui peuvent être utilisés peuvent être utilisées pendant les évaluations formatives et sommatives. Une autre question complémentaire à l’évaluation des performances est la validation fonctionnelle d’un système en cours d’exécution, qui confirme que le système est conforme aux exigences fonctionnelles et ne contient pas de failles. Pour répondre à la deuxième partie de la question à savoir “comment évaluer”, nous avons adoptè les techniques formelles de vérification et de validation. Comme le champ d’application du projet est très large, nous sommes concentrés sur l’évaluation au premier stade de la conception afin de vérifier et de valider l’exactitude fonctionnelle de la conception de systèmes. Pour la preuve de concept, nous avons appliqué deux méthodes, dans la première méthode, nous avons étudié les approches de vérification automatique et nous avons choisi la technique la plus connue qu’est le “model checking” pour vérifier les exigences fonctionnelles d’un système de gestion des médicaments basé sur le contexte pour des personnes âgées dans une maison Intelligente. Cette approche est complémentaire aux tests et à l’évaluation et permet aux concepteurs de vérifier le comportement de leurs systèmes par rapport aux exigences fonctionnelles avant le développement du prototype de système. Certaines propriétés de base, telles que la disponibilité ou la vivacité, l’interblocage, la comparaison des spécifications et implémentations et l’analyse d’accessibilité, sont également vérifiées à ce stade. Dans la deuxième méthode, nous avons étudié les approches de vérification d’exécution et nous avons adoptè la technique de conception par le contrat pour modéliser et vérifier la sémantique et exigences de l’interopérabilité des services dans les environnements intelligents. L’avantage de cette approche réside dans la vérification automatique en temps réel de l’interopérabilité des services dans les environnements intelligents. // Abstract : Summary performance evaluations. The proposed model is a step towards forming standard evaluation guidelines that can be used during formative and summative evaluations. A complementary issue to performance evaluation is functional correctness of a running system, which confirms that the system fulfills its functional requirements and does not contain any flaws. To address the second part of the question that is “ how to evaluate ”, we have adopted the well-known formal verification and validation techniques. As the scope of the project is very big, the focus of this thesis is on early design stage evaluation to verify and validate the functional correctness of the systems design. For the proof-of-concept, we applied two methods: In the first method, we studied automatic verification approaches and used a well-known model checking approach to model and verify the functional requirements of a context aware medication management system for the elderly in a Smart House. This approach is complementary to testing and evaluation, it allows designers to verify their system behavior against its functional requirements before developing the system prototype. Some basic properties like the availability or liveliness, deadlock checking, matching of specification and implementation, and reachability analysis are verified. In the second method, we studied the runtime verification approaches and used design by contract technique to model and verify the semantic and pragmatic service interoperability requirements in smart environments. The analysis of this technique and results are presented. The benefit of the approach is automatic verification of services interoperability in smart environments on the fly.

Microfinance is a development tool used to reduce poverty among extremely poor households. Impoverished households can access lines of credit through microfinance institutions (MFIs), in order to create a new business, smooth household consumption, fund medical emergencies, etc. Many authors postulate that MFIs are drifting from a welfarist to an institutionalist approach to lending. Using MIXMarket data on specific MFIs in 118 countries between 1995 and 2011, the average loan balance of these organizations will be regressed against measure of outreach and sustainability of these institutions by charter type through a series of four, fixed effects models. The main research question is: given that a positive, overall shift in average loan balance indicates an institutionalist shift in mission, how does this impact microfinance institutions and the demographics they target on the intensive and extensive margins? These analyses will test the theory that MFIs with larger average loan balances serve households closer to the subsistence poverty level, a manifestation of mission drift toward the institutionalist philosophy of lending. The phenomenon of mission drift directly impacts the outcomes of microfinance institutions and the target demographic of the organization. The results of this study indicate that the mission of these organizations is drifting toward the institutionalist philosophy of lending. With this general result, mission drift can be observed within both the internal and external margins of the microfinance industry, which influences the chosen target market, profit generated, and structure of MFIs, as determined by the mission of the organization.

Connecting Urban Residents to Their Watershed with Green Stormwater Infrastructure: A case study of Thornton Creek in Seattle, Washington.

This paper investigates two aspects of the United States Foster Care System: racial inequality and privatization. Investigating the racial disproportionality of foster care children reveals that racial inequalities result from disproportionate rates of child maltreatment among minority children. The extended lengths of stay of minority children and difficulties in placing minority children in adoptive homes reveal that racial biases can impact the system, and overcoming these biases requires reforming child welfare either through developing orphanages, altering pay structures, racial matching, or privatization. Privatization, however, does not always result in improved quality and reduced costs. This paper analyzes the state-wide privatization initiative of Kansas and prison privatization movement to draw recommendations about the efficacy of future privatization efforts in the child welfare space.

Esta tese propõe avaliar a integridade estrutural de projetos de válvulas do tipo esfera trunnion e/ou gaveta. Por meio desta pesquisa, são avaliados os principais modos de falhas e parâmetros funcionais. Os estudos foram realizados utilizando a técnica dos elementos finitos e permitiram a construção de modelos para avaliar os seguintes modos de falha. (i) colapso estrutural dos principais componentes; (ii) vazamento na interface esfera/sede; (iii) travamento do sistema de acionamento devido à influência da vazão de escoamento do fluido. A avaliação da integridade estrutural é de fundamental importância para mitigar e/ou evitar erros, durante a fase de desenvolvimento de válvulas. Os modelos desenvolvidos também possibilitam o aprimoramento de novos projetos de válvulas e o aperfeiçoamento de projetos já desenvolvidos. O estudo proposto pode ser utilizado como indicador da qualidade de projeto de válvulas, auxiliando a equipe de desenvolvimento no dimensionamento de novos produtos, permitindo assim a avaliação dos requisitos funcionais e a avaliação da possível melhoria do projeto. Os resultados mostraram que o uso do método dos elementos finitos durante as fases iniciais do processo de desenvolvimento de válvulas é extremamente útil na concepção de novos produtos, permitindo a elaboração de produtos otimizados, sendo que por meio de um conhecimento multidisciplinar falhas prematuras podem ser detectadas nas fases iniciais do processo de desenvolvimento de projeto de válvulas, possibilitando com isso o desenvolvimento de um projeto mais racional com melhoria significativa de qualidade, confiabilidade, desempenho e competividade. O uso do método dos elementos finitos também possibilita uma redução do número de ensaios com protótipos físicos, o tempo de desenvolvimento e consequentemente o custo final do produto. / This thesis proposes to evaluate the structural integrity of the trunnion ball valves and/or gate. By means of this research, are evaluated main failure modes and functional parameters. The studies were conducted using the finite elements technique and allowed the construction of models to evaluate the following modes of failure. (i) structural collapse of the main components; (ii) leakage in the ball/seat interface; (iii) torque and/or locking of drive system due the influence of fluid flow rate. The evaluation of the integrity structural is of fundamental importance to mitigate and/or avoid errors, during the valve development phase. The models developed also enable the improvement de new valves design and the upgrade the valves design already developed. The proposed study can be used as an indicator the quality of valves design, assisting the development team in the design of new products, thus enabling the assessment of the functional requirements and evaluation of possible improvements in the design. The results showed that the use of finite element method during the early stage of valve development process is extremely useful in the conception the new products, allow to develop products optimized, and by means of a multidisciplinary knowledge premature failures can be detected in the early stages of the product design, besides enable the development of a design more rational with significant improvement in quality, reliability, performance and competitiveness. The use of finite element method also allows reduction the number of with physical prototype tests, time of development and the final cost of the product.

Finding revenue is a challenge that faces many municipalities in the United States. As the tax base continues to decline and demand for government services increases, local governments are forced to make hard choices. Low on the list of priorities for local governments is the maintenance, and construction of infrastructure. Traditionally there have been several ways for local governments to fund long-term infrastructure projects including, federal-aid through the process of earmarking. The practice of earmarking has been around since the first congress, but hit its peak between 2003 and 2007. The earmarking process is controversial for several reasons; earmarking bypasses traditional merit procedures for distribution of federal-aid, earmarking is said to add costs to the agency awarded the funding, and earmarking has been linked to Congressional scandals and wasteful spending. In this paper I explore how an earmark, designated to local governments to fund long-term infrastructure projects, contributes to the costs of the project.

India does not fit easily into existing models of thought on the nature of a state and defies ease of understanding. Though India is most often considered to be a subsidy state, I show in this thesis the notion of the subsidy state does not capture the true nature of the Indian state. Chapter two of the paper looks at various models of understanding the nature of the Indian state and draw out three essential features: competing interest groups, how economic liberalization facilitates corruption and works against India’s aim of equalizing the capabilities and freedoms of all its citizens, and the role of the Indian state in development and how the failure to engage its citizens in the process has resulted in the current system. Chapter three looks at subsidies and cash transfers, discussing the problem of targeting and the design of programs. The fourth chapter, I share the methodology I used to categorize 581 centrally sponsored schemes. I did this to be able to disaggregate centrally sponsored schemes. For each scheme, I identified the state associated with each scheme, the target groups (intended beneficiaries) of each scheme, the types of benefits delivered, whether the receipt of the benefits were conditional or not, and the relevant policy areas of each scheme. I concluded that a closer look at the Indian state reveals that India may actually be more accurately identified as a developmental state which facilitates the enhancement of its citizens’ capabilities and freedoms.