La préhension manuelle est une des habilités de l’homme la plus développée et la plus utilisée dans la vie de tous les jours. Cette capacité nous permet de saisir et de manipuler des objets dans des configurations aussi nombreuses que complexes. Malheureusement, la main est aussi le siège de nombreuses blessures qui, de par l’importance de la préhension, sont fortement handicapantes. Face à ce constat, comprendre les contraintes mécaniques qui sont exercées dans les muscles, les tendons, les articulations et les ligaments lors de gestes de la vie quotidienne apparaît comme un enjeu majeur pour la prévention, la réhabilitation et l’ergonomie. L’objectif de ce travail doctoral était de développer un modèle biomécanique de la préhension permettant une estimation de ces variables non mesurables. A titre d’exemple,le paradigme de la pince pouce-index a été utilisé. Dans une première étude, les modèles biomécaniques de la pince disponibles dans la littérature ont été développés et comparés.Suite à cette évaluation, il a été constaté que ces modèles, en particulier le pouce,nécessitaient des améliorations pour permettre une évaluation physiologiquement réaliste lors de la préhension. Dès lors, plusieurs améliorations ont été proposées. Premièrement, une procédure expérimentale a été développée afin d’évaluer et d’inclure les participations mécaniques passives (ligaments, tissus mous, butées osseuses) de l'articulation trapèzométacarpienne. Deuxièmement, des mesures effectuées par IRM ont été utilisées afin d’intégrer l’action mécanique du muscle First Dorsale Interosseous dans l’équilibre du pouce,ce muscle étant alors négligé malgré son importance dans les tâches de préhension.Troisièmement, une méthode expérimentale permettant d’évaluer plus facilement et plus précisément, in situ, les axes de flexion/extension et d’adduction/abduction de l’articulation trapèzométacarpienne a été proposée et évaluée. Enfin, le modèle biomécanique incluant ces améliorations a été mis en œuvre dans une dernière étude ergonomique visant à étudier l’effet de la taille de l’objet manipulé sur les forces musculaires et articulaires. / Manual precision grip is one of man's most developed and most used ability in everyday lifeactivities. The negative outcome is the high exposure of the hand to repetitive stress injurieswhich are often very disabling. Thus, the understanding of the mechanical stress exerted inmuscles, tendons, joints and ligaments during gripping tasks appears as a major issue forinjury prevention, rehabilitation and ergonomic considerations. This doctoral work aimed atdeveloping a biomechanical model of the grip to estimate the unmeasurable internal loads. Asan example, the classical paradigm of the thumb - index finger grip was used. In a first study,the biomechanical models of the thumb available in the literature were compared and severalimprovements proposed in order to obtain more physiologically realistic predictions. First, anexperimental method was developed to evaluate and include passive structures moment intothe equilibrium of the trapeziometacarpal joint (TMC). Secondly, MRI was used to integratethe mechanical action of the First Dorsal Interosseous muscle at the TMC, since this musclehas commonly been neglected in thumb models but seems essential during pinch grip.Thirdly, the kinematic model which has to be used with the anthropometric data of tendonmoment arms was evaluated and compared to our proposition of a functional method toassess, in situ, the axes of rotation of the TMC. Finally, the biomechanical model includingthese improvements was implemented in an ergonomic study. We investigated the effect ofobject width on grip forces and muscles/joints loads. This doctoral work finds its consistencyin its desire to develop and apply the biomechanical modelling of the hand in the fields ofclinical and ergonomics.

This thesis deals with the analysis of daily newspapers with nationwide impact. In the practical part we will research lexicon of MF DNES, Hospodářské noviny and Právo from the periods of June 2012 and June 2015. For more information we will use personal interviews with chief editors and main editors.

The goal of this master´s thesis is to describe individual characters, especially the main characters, in selected prose of the well-known Czech writer Ladislav Fuks. This thesis will be primarily focused on the unusual behavior, peciliarities, features and the character of the protagonists. The biographical part of the thesis will be focused on the author´s personality and lifestyle. The bibliographical part will be focused on a detailed analysis of the protagonists in selected titles. More than ten characters will be compared. The primary method used in this thesis will be: analysis, interpretation, along with the use of the description and confrontation of the individual protagonists. The prime benefit of this thesis lies in a more detailed description and comparison of the behavior and character of the individual figures.

ix, 318 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / This dissertation explores the interaction between filmmaking and the changing exigencies of leftist political ideologies in China at different stages of modernity: semi-colonial modernity, socialist modernity, and global modernity. Besides a historical examination of the left-wing cinema movement in the 1930s and socialist cinema in the Mao era, it focuses on the so-called "main melody" films that are either produced with financial backing by the state or sanctioned by governmental film awards in 1990s China. As products of globalization, Chinese "main melody" films are growing in complexity and maturity with the deepening of globalization, especially in competition with Hollywood cinema. Inspired by Louis Althusser, this dissertation attempts to address the lacunae of existing scholarship on Chinese "main melody" films by analyzing the role of the film medium as a significant ideological state apparatus (ISA) in serving ideological transitions occurring in 1990s China. Meanwhile, it also examines how the operation of the ideological mechanism in Chinese "main melody" films is different from the Althusserian definition. An examination of the polyphonic narration of history shows how the revolutionary history has been retold in "main melody" films in different ways to create a rich discursive space in post-socialist China. Special attention has also been paid to the cinematic representation of Chinese nationalism, contending that the instigation of nationalism in non-EuroAmerican societies--despite the fact that nationalism can be easily appropriated by the state as an effective ideological discourse to conceal domestic social conflicts--calls attention to the often ignored historical linkages between colonialism and the expanding global capitalism. In addition, it also examines the role of Chinese intellectuals in the discursive construction of nationalism. An analysis of Chinese masculinity shows that recent changes in gender discourse are closely related to China's socio-economic development in the era of globalization. Based on Stuart Hall's "encoding/decoding" model, the last part of this dissertation explores how the Chinese spectator as a subject can negotiate the ideological interpellation by the "main melody" film text in his/her own way. / Adviser: Tze-Ian Sang

Estrelas anãs brancas são o último estágio evolutivo observável de mais de 95% das estrelas e também um resultado comum na evolução de estrelas binárias. O estudo de anãs brancas é, portanto, uma ferramenta poderosa na compreensão da evolução de estrelas simples e binárias, da função de massa inicial local, e da perda de massa após a sequência principal, levando-nos a uma melhor compreensão do histórico de formação e evolução estelar de diferentes populações. Para que esses estudos sejam possíveis, é necessária uma amostra grande e preferencialmente completa de anãs brancas, cobrindo todo o intervalo de parâmetros físicos. A maneira mais simples de obter isso é utilizando dados de grandes projetos de mapeamento. O Sloan Digital Sky Survey já permitiu o aumento do número de anãs brancas conhecidas em cinco vezes até o data release 10. Neste trabalho, estendemos a busca por anãs brancas aos novos objetos no data release 12, descobrindo 3 157 novas anãs brancas e 1 349 novas subanãs. Pela primeira vez, estendemos essa busca para log g < 6.5, correspondente a M < 0.3 M⊙. Anãs brancas abaixo desse limite de massa não podem formar-se em um tempo de Hubble; contudo, se a estrela é parte de um sistema de binárias próximas, a perda de massa pode ser tão intensa que a anã branca resultante tem massa inferior ao limite por evolução simples. Esses objetos são chamados anãs brancas de massa extremamente-baixa (ELMs, do inglês extremely-low mass white dwarfs) Elas têm Teff < 20 000 K e 5.0 . log g . 6.5 e espectros muito similares a estrelas A de sequência principal. Menos de cem são conhecidas, e a maioria dos objetos foi descoberta tendo em conta um critério de seleção tendencioso, que excluiu ELMs frias (Teff < 9 000 K) e com mais baixa massa (M . 0.15 M⊙), tornando difícil verificar modelos e compreender as propriedades das ELMs como classe. Nós identificamos milhares de objetos cujas propriedades físicas, temperatura efetiva e log g, estão no intervalo de produtos de evolução binária, como as ELMs. Nós os chamamos de sdAs, referindo-nos ao seu log g que as coloca abaixo da sequência principal e seu espectro dominado por hidrogênio. As sdAs parecem conter populações estelares sobrepostas, e encontramos que 7% são mais compatíveis com (pre-)ELMs do que com objetos de sequência principal. Obtivemos espectroscopia resolvida temporalmente para 26 objetos e pudemos confirmar que 15 estão em binárias. Um objeto faz parte de um sistema eclipsante, enquanto outro é pulsante — o oitavo membro da classe de ELMs pulsantes. Outros seis objetos também apresentaram pulsações em nossas observações, cinco desses estão na vizinhança da faixa de instabilidade das ELMs. Com estes resultados, aumentamos a população de ELMs por um fator de 20%, elevando a fração de ELMs de 4 para 20%, um valor que é consistente com as previsões de modelos evolucionários. / White dwarf stars are the final observable evolutionary state of over 95% of stars and also a common outcome in binary evolution. Therefore, studying white dwarfs is a powerful tool to understand both single and binary stellar evolution, local initial mass function, and post-main sequence mass loss, leading us to a better comprehension of the history of stellar formation and evolution of different stellar populations. In order to make this type of studies possible, a large and preferably complete sample of white dwarf stars, covering the whole range of physical parameters, is required. The simplest way to achieve that is to take advantage of data provided by large surveys. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey has already allowed the increase of the number of known white dwarf stars fivefold up to its data release 10. In this work, we extended the search for white dwarfs to the new objects in the data release 12, discovering 3 157 new white dwarfs and 1 349 new subdwarfs. For the first time, we have extended this search to log g < 6.5, corresponding to M < 0.3 M⊙. White dwarfs below this mass limit cannot be formed through single evolution within a Hubble time; however, if the star is part of a close binary system, the mass loss of the system may be so intense that the resulting white dwarf has mass below the single evolution limit. These objects are known as extremely-low mass white dwarfs (ELMs) They show Teff < 20 000 K and 5.0 . log g . 6.5 and spectra very similar to main sequence A stars. Less than a hundred of them are known, and most objects were discovered relying on biased selection criteria, that excluded cool (Teff < 9 000 K), lowermass (M . 0.15 M⊙) ELMs, making it difficult to validate the models and comprehend the properties of the ELMs as a class. We have identified thousands of objects whose physical properties, effective temperature and surface gravity, place them in the range of by-products of binary interaction such as the ELMs. We have called them sdAs, referring to their sub-main sequence log g and hydrogen dominated spectra. They seem to be composed of overlapping stellar populations, and we found that at least 7% are more likely ELMs or their precursors, the pre-ELMs, than main sequence stars. Obtaining time-resolved spectroscopy for 26 objects, we could confirm 15 to be in close binaries. One of them is also an eclipsing system, while another is a pulsator — the eighth member of the pulsating ELM class. Other six new pulsators were found as part of our follow-up, five of them in the vicinity of the ELM instability strip. With these results, we increase the population of ELMs by 20%, raising the fraction of cool ELMs from 4 to 20%, which is consistent with the predictions from the evolutionary models.

Pensamos que a seletividade do capital, conferida pela informação, somada a uma mudança de paradigma na produção do espaço urbano lançam um novo olhar sobre a cidade. Buscamos nesta dissertação identificar e analisar novos fatores condicionantes da produção do espaço na periferia metropolitana tendo como exemplo o caso de São Gonçalo (RJ, Brasil). Através da interseção entre a divisão do trabalho, a forma e função da cidade e a política urbana tendo como ferramenta o plano diretor criamos fundamentos para corroborar a premissa de que a competição entre as cidades passa a não ser apenas prerrogativa das metrópoles, mas também das cidades da periferia metropolitana, onde os governos e o poder local tem adotado o princípio do empreendedorismo urbano, como princípio norteador da modernização do território da cidade. Partindo do princípio de que o espaço é político, identificamos também a participação popular, o planejamento estratégico e as mudanças em curso no espaço urbano da cidade de São Gonçalo, a modernização seletiva e o lançamento de produtos imobiliários, como caminho para analisar em que medida a pobreza da periferia é um processo real. Podemos também pensar o contrário e questionar se a pobreza de São Gonçalo é um discurso utilizado para fins políticos, uma vez que quanto mais carente parecer a cidade, maior visibilidade terão as poucas ações dos poderes locais na promoção de melhorias coletivas na cidade. Como marco desta questão, elegemos a elaboração da última edição do seu plano diretor e o anúncio do Complexo Petroquímico do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, devido a grande expectativa e mobilização criada em torno destes dois eventos. Esperamos identificar então, uma qualificação do espaço gonçalense, através da valorização do mesmo, embora acreditemos que o governo local continue a priorizar os investimentos na cidade direcionados pela dinâmica econômica regional, sem, no entanto, construir melhorias que atendam a todos os habitantes da cidade que, confinados à condição periférica, não são contemplados por estes investimentos.

abstract: Gas turbine efficiency has improved over the years due to increases in compressor pressure ratio and turbine entry temperature (TET) of main combustion gas, made viable through advancements in material science and cooling techniques. Ingestion of main combustion gas into the turbine rotor-stator disk cavities can cause major damage to the gas turbine. To counter this ingestion, rim seals are installed at the periphery of turbine disks, and purge air extracted from the compressor discharge is supplied to the disk cavities. Optimum usage of purge air is essential as purge air extraction imparts a penalty on turbine efficiency and specific fuel consumption. In the present work, experiments were conducted in a newly constructed 1.5-stage axial flow air turbine featuring vanes and blades to study main gas ingestion. The disk cavity upstream of the rotor, the 'front cavity', features a double seal with radial clearance and axial overlap at its rim. The disk cavity downstream of the rotor, the 'aft cavity', features a double seal at its rim but with axial gap. Both cavities contain a labyrinth seal radially inboard; this divides each disk cavity into an 'inner cavity' and a 'rim cavity'. Time-averaged static pressure at various locations in the main gas path and disk cavities, and tracer gas (CO2) concentration at different locations in the cavities were measured. Three sets of experiments were carried out; each set is defined by the main air flow rate and rotor speed. Each of the three sets comprises of four different purge air flow rates, low to high. The mass flow rate of ingested main gas into the front and aft rim cavities is reported at the different purge air flow rates, for the three experiment sets. For the present stage configuration, it appears that some ingestion persisted into both the front and aft rim cavities even at high purge air flow rates. On the other hand, the front and aft inner cavity were completely sealed at all purge flows. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Engineering 2015

abstract: The availability of a wide range of general purpose as well as accelerator cores on modern smartphones means that a significant number of applications can be executed on a smartphone simultaneously, resulting in an ever increasing demand on the memory subsystem. While the increased computation capability is intended for improving user experience, memory requests from each concurrent application exhibit unique memory access patterns as well as specific timing constraints. If not considered, this could lead to significant memory contention and result in lowered user experience. This work first analyzes the impact of memory degradation caused by the interference at the memory system for a broad range of commonly-used smartphone applications. The real system characterization results show that smartphone applications, such as web browsing and media playback, suffer significant performance degradation. This is caused by shared resource contention at the application processor’s last-level cache, the communication fabric, and the main memory. Based on the detailed characterization results, rest of this thesis focuses on the design of an effective memory interference mitigation technique. Since web browsing, being one of the most commonly-used smartphone applications and represents many html-based smartphone applications, my thesis focuses on meeting the performance requirement of a web browser on a smartphone in the presence of background processes and co-scheduled applications. My thesis proposes a light-weight user space frequency governor to mitigate the degradation caused by interfering applications, by predicting the performance and power consumption of web browsing. The governor selects an optimal energy-efficient frequency setting periodically by using the statically-trained performance and power models with dynamically-varying architecture and system conditions, such as the memory access intensity of background processes and/or coscheduled applications, and temperature of cores. The governor has been extensively evaluated on a Nexus 5 smartphone over a diverse range of mobile workloads. By operating at the most energy-efficient frequency setting in the presence of interference, energy efficiency is improved by as much as 35% and with an average of 18% compared to the existing interactive governor, while maintaining the satisfactory performance of web page loading under 3 seconds. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Electrical Engineering 2016

Cette thèse comporte quatre chapitres qui examinent plusieurs aspects de la politique économique- dans son rapport à la mondialisation et à l'intégration économique. Le premier chapitre considère la question du lien entre spécialisation commerciale et croissance. Les résultats identifient un lien empirique robuste entre niveau initial de sophistication et croissance du PIB réel par tête dans le cas de la Chine. Le second chapitre étudie le lien entre la structure du système bancaire chinois et la structure des exportations L'étude empirique révèle la présence de contraintes de crédit pesant sur les firmes privées domestiques) qui exportent relativement moins dans les secteurs les plus dépendants de financements extérieurs. Le troisième chapitre étudie l'impact de l'immigration sur les marchés du travail dans un cadre de marchés régionaux fragmentés. Il montre que dans ce cadre, la mobilité spatiale des travailleurs immigrés contribue à augmenter l'efficacité des marchés du travail, mais que la politique d'immigration devient plus restrictive, sous certaines conditions. Le quatrième chapitre étudie les déterminants des accords préférentiels de libre-échange entre pays. Il montre que les gains en termes d'accès au marché sont un déterminant plus fort de la probabilité de signer un accord que ceux des consommateurs. / This thesis consists of four chapters that examine various aspects of economic policy in its relation to globalization and economic integration. The first chapter considers the question of the link between trade specialization and growth. The results identify a robust empirical ink between initial level of sophistication at province level and real GOP per capita growth in the case of China. The second chapter examines the relationship between the structure of the Chinese banking system and the structure of exports. The empirical study reveals the presence of credit constraints weighing on domestic private firms, which export relatively less in sectors more dependent on external financing. The third chapter examines the impact of immigration on labor markets in a setting with fragmented regional markets. It shows that in this framework, the spatial mobility of migrant workers contributes to increase the efficiency of labor markets, but immigration policy becomes more restrictive under certain conditions. The fourth chapter examines the determinants of preferential free trade agreements. It shows that the gains in market access are a stronger determinant of a country's probability of signing an agreement than the gains accruing to consumers in the form of lower prices

Pensamos que a seletividade do capital, conferida pela informação, somada a uma mudança de paradigma na produção do espaço urbano lançam um novo olhar sobre a cidade. Buscamos nesta dissertação identificar e analisar novos fatores condicionantes da produção do espaço na periferia metropolitana tendo como exemplo o caso de São Gonçalo (RJ, Brasil). Através da interseção entre a divisão do trabalho, a forma e função da cidade e a política urbana tendo como ferramenta o plano diretor criamos fundamentos para corroborar a premissa de que a competição entre as cidades passa a não ser apenas prerrogativa das metrópoles, mas também das cidades da periferia metropolitana, onde os governos e o poder local tem adotado o princípio do empreendedorismo urbano, como princípio norteador da modernização do território da cidade. Partindo do princípio de que o espaço é político, identificamos também a participação popular, o planejamento estratégico e as mudanças em curso no espaço urbano da cidade de São Gonçalo, a modernização seletiva e o lançamento de produtos imobiliários, como caminho para analisar em que medida a pobreza da periferia é um processo real. Podemos também pensar o contrário e questionar se a pobreza de São Gonçalo é um discurso utilizado para fins políticos, uma vez que quanto mais carente parecer a cidade, maior visibilidade terão as poucas ações dos poderes locais na promoção de melhorias coletivas na cidade. Como marco desta questão, elegemos a elaboração da última edição do seu plano diretor e o anúncio do Complexo Petroquímico do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, devido a grande expectativa e mobilização criada em torno destes dois eventos. Esperamos identificar então, uma qualificação do espaço gonçalense, através da valorização do mesmo, embora acreditemos que o governo local continue a priorizar os investimentos na cidade direcionados pela dinâmica econômica regional, sem, no entanto, construir melhorias que atendam a todos os habitantes da cidade que, confinados à condição periférica, não são contemplados por estes investimentos.