Putting Makeup on Dead People is a collection of ten short stories narrated by Donna that relate key moments in her life from early childhood through her mid-thirties. Because of the author's belief in the circularity of time and of what makes up human identity (what we do, what happens to us, to whom we are related), the stories do not progress chronologically. The collection pays particular attention to Donna's relationship with key family members: her father Nicky, her mother Martha, her Uncle Lou, her Aunt Selena, and her siblings, Linnie and B. Many of the stories also attend to Donna's relationship with Charlie, the man who finally becomes her husband. Through these stories of one woman's life, this collection explores themes of loss, healing, and personal growth. Ultimately, this work encapsulates one person's discovery of her core identity, underneath and in addition to all of the layers added to that core, through relationships, life experiences, successes, and failures.

SuperNEC is a method of moments (MoM) electromagnetic eld solver based on the Numerical Electromagnetics Code (NEC). Much of the simulation time can be attributed to the lling of the impedance matrix, which is performed at each frequency point of interest. Impedance matrix interpolation methods have been implemented in SuperNEC to reduce the computational time required to ll the impedance matrix [Z]. Elements in [Z] vary predictably over frequency and can be approximated by a second order polynomial. A second improved method is implemented where the dominant frequency variation term is removed prior to calculating the tting function. A method of determining the optimum sample range relative to simulation range and maximum interaction distance has been developed. Given the correct choice of sample range the mean error in the MoM solution is less than 10% over the frequency range and the input impedance can be reproduced with good agreement over a wide bandwith. Improvement in the simulation e ciency of 1.7 times can be expected if su cient frequency points are of interest to account for the computational time required to sample the matrix and determine tting function coe cients. This method has been applied to a dipole antenna, an LPDA and a horn antenna. To increase the simulation bandwidth and retain an acceptable level of accuracy, the bandwidth is split into multiple sub-bands.

This thesis explores the ways in which the young mothers who participated in the online community of Girl-Mom.com were influenced by the dominant website discourses. Young mothers are positioned as deviant throughout time, with specific consequences related to notions of stratified reproduction. Girl-Mom.com exists within social relations of third wave feminism, and in the social context of cyberspace. Within this background, feminist post-structuralism is employed to read discussion forum posts to note how concepts of discourse, power and knowledge, subjectivity and resistance create discursive effects. The Girl-Mom discourse emerges as a major theme. The qualities of the Girl- Mom discourse enlist young mothers in their own emancipation and the creation of self- knowledge while invoking processes of normalization, regulation and discipline between members. In the process, motherhood is valued as a biological act in which women are revered for their reproductive capabilities, with different effects for racialized women. / Graduate / 0452 / leanne.gislason@gmail.com

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T15:58:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo4728_1.pdf: 3434765 bytes, checksum: ac76cbf9a3705f40566be5c4bd013ddb (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2004 / Atualmente, a maioria dos sistemas de informação corporativos utiliza uma infraestrutura de comunicação, conhecida como middleware, para a troca de mensagens com outros sistemas. O middleware fornece um conjunto de serviços (ex., segurança, transação e eventos) atuando como uma interface para que a aplicação seja construída sem que o desenvolvedor tenha que tratar diretamente com a complexidade dos mecanismos de comunicação de baixo nível. Os sistemas de middleware são normalmente categorizados de acordo com o tipo de primitiva fornecida para interação entre as aplicações: middleware procedural (chamada remota de procedimento), middleware orientado a mensagem (passagem de mensagem), middleware transacional (transação distribuída) e middleware orientado a objetos (invocação de método remoto). Dentre estas categorias, os sistemas de middleware orientado a mensagem (MOM) são os mais amplamente utilizados como infra-estrutura de comunicação de aplicações corporativas. Os requisitos de troca de mensagens são cada vez mais sofisticados e complexos, exigindo que os MOMs utilizados atendam a requisitos como: aumento no volume de dados, concorrência, escalabilidade, disponibilidade, garantias de entrega das mensagens, controle de assincronismo, tolerância a falhas, balanceamento de carga e transparência de localização. Neste contexto, este trabalho propõe um middleware orientado a mensagem chamado Hermes. O Hermes implementa todas as funcionalidades exigidas para um MOM, e incorpora características adicionais, otimizando algumas implementações relativas às escalabilidade e disponibilidade, e adicionando elementos funcionais que tornam seu uso mais fácil e abrangente. O Hermes implementa ainda o padrão JMS (Java Message Service), que propõe a implementação de um conjunto de interfaces e de características comuns a qualquer middleware orientado a mensagem. Podem ser enumeradas as seguintes contribuições deste trabalho: a apresentação detalhada das características e das formas de implementação de um MOM, e a concepção de uma arquitetura modular e componentizada para o MOM

This diploma thesis "MES / MOM Systems in the Industry 4.0 concept" deals with the analysis, design and implementation of these systems. The first focus is on Industry 4.0 analysis, where are describe each part of Industry 4.0. Based on this knowledge, there were specified the changes in the MES / MOM systems. According to the changes and knowledge were designed and implemented the MES / MOM concept. The system communicates with the PLC using its own communicator and represents the data in the application environment. The application implements the Historian module and system modules. The PLC has an MS SQL protocol implemented so that the device can read and write data without the need to communicate with the parent system. This implementation is in line with Industry 4.0’s concept.

Formulations for analysis of printed antenna structures are derived and compared, to determine one to implemented in SuperNEC based on the efficiency of its numerical solution in terms of memory usage and solution time. SuperNEC is a software application for computing the response of electromagnetic structures to electromagnetic fields. SuperNEC cannot be used for simulation of printed antenna structures. This is because the formulation that is implemented in SuperNEC does not account for the effect of the substrates that the radiating elements of the antenna structure are printed on, and it is also not intended for antenna structures whose radiating elements are surfaces. Two MoM (Method of Moments) formulations and a FEM (Finite Element Method)-MoM formulation are presented, together with different models for the antenna feed. The FEM-MoM formulation is selected for implementation in SuperNEC because it is argued that it is likely to be more memory efficient when compared to the MoM formulations, and also that less time is required to fill the matrices resulting from the numerical solution of the formulation. The formulation is implemented in a stand alone software application, which will be integrated into SuperNEC. Numerical results that are computed using the software application are presented to illustrate correct implementation of the formulation. The results are compared to: an exact solution, results from another publication, and results computed using a different formulation. Good agreement is obtained in each case.

La demande pour des systèmes RF plus compacts avec des bandes plus larges a poussé l'exploration de bandes toujours plus hautes en fréquence forçant un transfert des technologies existantes et l'invention de nouvelles pour ces bandes. Parmi les principaux obstacles rencontrés dans cet effort, se trouvent le problème du confinement de champ, les pertes diélectriques importantes, et les difficultés d'intégration entre deux systèmes conçus avec une technologie différente. Afin de pallier à ces problèmes, plusieurs nouvelles technologies sont apparues durant ces deux dernières décennies. Une des plus prometteuse est le guide d'onde intégré au substrat (ou SIW pour Substrate Integrated Waveguide). Sa caractéristique principale est la possibilité d'intégrer les guides d'onde dans un substrat, le plus souvent en intégrant des cylindres métalliques ou diélectriques densément disposés, dans un substrat dont les faces, inférieure et supérieure, sont hautement conductrices. Cette technologie offre une liberté sans précédent à la gamme de systèmes pouvant être réalisés. La richesse de possibilités de designs, la robustesse et la solidité des performances ont conduit à un nombre très larges de systèmes SIW, certains d'entre eux trouvant place dans des applications commerciales. L'inconvénient de cette technologie provient du très grand nombre d'élément nécessaire et de la complexité de son agencement. Par conséquent, ils présentent un défi du point de vue d'un concepteur, nécessitant des analyses numériques et des optimisations. Les solveurs les plus couramment utilisés à cette fin sont basés sur la FÉM, la FDTD / FDFD et MoM, ou sur une fusion de plusieurs méthodes. Bien qu'ils soient à la hauteur pour une vaste gamme de structures, les plus rapides et plus précis sont très recherchés. Cette thèse porte sur une méthode numérique hybride adaptée à l'analyse d'une vaste gamme de structures SIW planaires. Elle repose sur une représentation efficace des champs dans des guides d'ondes à parois parallèles, chargés avec des diélectriques planaires simples ou multicouches contenant des cylindres ; elle permet la construction de systèmes linéaires dont les solutions donnent les amplitudes de champ post-dispersion. Ce problème est ce que nous appelons le mode-matching, et fournit des moyens de calcul rapide de champ en présence de cylindres métalliques et diélectriques. Étant donné qu'une part importante de ces dispositifs utilise des fentes rectangulaires étroites comme éléments de couplage et de rayonnement, nous proposons une approche basée sur les MoM pour leur analyse. Grâce à l'application du principe d'équivalence, chaque fente remplacée par des courants magnétiques équivalents; la procédure divise efficacement le problème le plus large en plusieurs plus petits, chacun appartenant à une région délimitée par des plaques PEC parallèles (un seul guide d'ondes à plans parallèles). En exerçant les conditions aux limites sur les surfaces des fentes et en effectuant la pondération Galerkin, on obtient un système linéaire dont les solutions sont les amplitudes des courants magnétiques. De là, nous procédons au calcul des quantités pertinentes telles que les paramètres S, Y et Z. Nous fournissons des critères empiriques pour choisir le nombre de modes / fonctions de base suffisantes pour une grande précision. En outre, nous présentons des techniques d'approximation et montrons comment exploiter les symétries inhérentes à des dispositifs SIW afin d'accélérer encore plus la méthode. Nous présentons les résultats de l'analyse de plusieurs structures SIW, obtenus par notre code en interne sur la base de la méthode exposée ici, et les comparons à ceux obtenus avec un solveur commercial standard. Les résultats obtenus montrent une excellente précision et efficacité de la méthode proposée. Le facteur d'accélération, la robustesse et la généralité en font un outil attrayant pour être utilisé dans la conception et l'optimisation des dispositifs SIW. / With constant demand for larger band and more compact RF devices, the rapid shift to higher frequency regions, as high as the W-band (75 to 110 GHz), forces microwave designers to both transfer existing technologies to and invent new ones for these bands. The major obstacles encountered in this endeavour are the problem of efficient field confinement, problematic electrical contacts, high dielectric losses, and difficult integration between devices realized with different technologies, to name a few. To overcome these issues, several competing technologies emerged in the past two decades. One of the most promising is the substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) paradigm. Its key feature is the possibility of integrating waveguides into substrates, most often done by embedding densely-packed metal and dielectric cylinders into substrates bounded by highly-conductive layers, e.g. PCB-type ones. This provides unprecedented freedom in the range of devices that can be realized. Though commonly planar, these devices may have sidewalls of almost arbitrary shape and can be easily integrated with ones realized in alternative technologies, such as the coplanar-waveguide or microstrip technology. The richness in design possibilities, robustness and solid performance has led to a very large number of SIW devices, some of them finding place in commercial applications. Unfortunately, they often comprise a large number of elements and have complex layouts. Hence, they present a challenge from a designer’s perspective, necessitating numerical analysis and optimization. The most common solvers used for that purpose are based on FEM, FDTD/FDFD, and MoM, or merge several methods. Though they are up to the task for a vast range of structures, faster and more accurate ones are highly sought for. This thesis is concerned with a hybrid numerical method suited to the analysis of a vast range of planar SIW structures. It relies on an efficient representation of fields in parallel-plate waveguides, loaded with either single or multi-layer planar dielectrics, containing circular cylindrical posts; it enables the construction of linear systems whose solutions yield post-scattered field amplitudes. This problem is what we refer to as mode-matching, and provides means of fast computation of field in presence of metal and dielectric posts. Since a significant share of such devices use narrow rectangular slots as coupling and radiating elements, we propose an MoM-based approach to their analysis. Through the application of the equivalence principle, each slot replaced by equivalent magnetic currents; the procedure effectively partitions the larger problem into several smaller ones, each pertaining to a region bounded by parallel PEC plates (a single parallel-plate waveguide). Enforcing the boundary conditions at surfaces of slots and performing Galerkin weighting, we obtain a linear system whose solutions are the amplitudes of magnetic currents. From there we proceed to the computation of relevant quantities such as S, Y and Z parameters. We provide empirical criteria for choosing the number of modes/basis functions sufficient for high accuracy. Moreover, we present approximation techniques and show how to exploit symmetries inherent in SIW devices to speed up the method even further. To stress the features rendering our approach advantageous over the alternatives,we compare it to ones found in literature representing what we believe to be the most successful attempts. We present the results of analysis of several SIW structures of varying complexity, obtained by our in-house code based on the method exposed here, and compare them against the ones obtained with a standard commercial solver. The obtained results show excellent accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method. The speed-up factor, the robustness and generality make it an attractive tool to be used in design and optimization of SIW devices.

This thesis explores theories of postfeminism and discourses of “can-do” and “at-risk” girlhood as they are enacted in MTV’s teen pregnancy franchise, which I define as including 16 and Pregnant, Teen Mom, and Teen Mom 2. Specifically, this project examines how MTV frames the young mothers featured across this franchise as what I label “postfeminist failures.” Within its teen pregnancy programming, MTV exploits the shortcomings of the featured teen mothers. These failures include broken relationships, prison sentences, and subsequent pregnancy scares and pregnancies. Furthermore, these failures all stem from the teen mothers’ initial failure to adequately manage her sexuality, as evidenced by getting pregnant at age sixteen. These failures constitute much of the plot of MTV’s docu-dramatic series and have also spilled over into paratexts related to MTV’s franchise. I contest in this thesis that the rhetoric of postfeminist failure, first articulated and exploited in 16 and Pregnant, Teen Mom, and Teen Mom 2, is then reproduced in the franchise’s paratextual materials. These paratexts range from reunion shows hosted by Dr. Drew Pinsky to tabloid magazine coverage. I also interrogate the celebrity status of MTV’s featured teen mothers, especially those on Teen Mom and Teen Mom 2, and problematize publicity and fame rooted in the failure of these girls to adhere to normative standards of postfeminist womanhood. MTV’s teen pregnancy franchise is categorized as reality television, a genre derided by many scholars as lowbrow and devoid of substance. In order to combat these assumptions about reality television, particularly because this teen pregnancy franchise is promoted as educational for its audience, MTV has fostered strategic partnerships with The Kaiser Family Foundation’s “It’s Your (Sex) Life Campaign” and The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. Through these partnerships, MTV has infused its reality content with pathways to information-rich websites about contraceptives and pregnancy prevention sponsored by each non-profit. Through analyzing these partnerships and cultural discourses surrounding teen pregnancy, I question the assumption by many proponents and critics of the franchise that the content must either be educational for its viewers or purely entertaining programming. / text

Based on the combined surface and volume RWG (Rao-Wilton-Glisson) basis functions, a simulator of a patch antenna on a finite dielectric substrate using the Method of Moments (MoM) has been implemented in Matlab. The metal surface is divided into planar triangular elements whereas the (inhomogeneous) dielectric volume is divided into tetrahedral elements. The structure under study is comprised of a typical patch antenna consisting of a single patch above a finite ground plane, and a probe feed. The performance of the solver is studied for different mesh configurations. The results obtained are tested by comparison with the commercial ANSOFT HFSS v8.5 and WIPL-D simulators. The former uses a large number of finite elements (up to 30,000) and adaptive mesh refinement, thus providing the reliable data for comparison. Behavior of the most sensitive characteristic ¡V antenna input impedance ¡V is tested, close to the first resonant frequency. The error in the resonant frequency is estimated at different values of the relative dielectric constant ƒÕr, which ranges from 1 to 20. The reported results show reasonable agreement. However, the solver needs to be further improved.

Les technologies intergicielles se révèlent de plus en plus comme des ingrédients indispensables dans les systèmes mobiles. Dans le cadre de cette thèse, nous avons mené une réflexion sur les différents types d'intergiciels et leurs aptitudes à relever le défi de la mobilité. Nous avons opté pour les intergiciels orientés messages (MOMs), car ils se caractérisent, par un style de communication permettant un fort découplage entre les entités réparties. Le premier volet de nos travaux concerne la conception et la réalisation de MobileJMS, un intergiciel basé sur la spécification JMS. Par rapport aux MOMs existants, MobileJMS se distingue par l'adaptabilité et la sensibilité au contexte qui caractérisent la communication. MobileJMS intègre dans son module de communication des services qui peuvent être utilisés et configurés dynamiquement afin de réagir à des évènements comme la variation de la bande passante ou les déconnexions fréquentes. Le deuxième volet concerne la définition et la mise oeuvre d'un gestionnaire d'adaptation globale. Ce gestionnaire repose sur un modèle qui prend des décisions d'adaptation à partir des préférences des utilisateurs, des besoins des applications et des paramètres du contexte d'exécution. Nous exprimons les préférences des utilisateurs par des critères de performance comme la vitesse de transmission ou l'économie d'énergie. Les besoins des applications sont représentés sous forme de politiques d'adaptation. La fonction principale du modèle est le choix de la politique la plus adaptée au contexte actuel et à l'usage que l'utilisateur souhaite faire de l'application.