Univ., Diss--Bamberg, 2007.

Zugl.: Potsdam, Univ., Diss.

Thesis (doctoral)--Université de Paris 1, 2005. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 522-557).

Thesis (doctoral)--Université de Paris 1, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 522-557).

This thesis examines the political trajectory of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) during the period from the 1982 eviction of the Palestinian factions from their headquarters in Beirut, to the 2006-07 division between Hamas and Fatah in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). During this period, the PFLP experienced a process of decline that resulted in its marginalisation within the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the wider Palestinian national movement. This study addresses the issue of the PFLP’s decline by focusing on its own political agency to determine the role of policy and decision making, ideology and political narrative in the marginalisation process. This work therefore, on the one hand, aims at putting the PFLP’s decline into historical perspective, identifying it as a process rather than simply the effect of outstanding events as it is often argued. On the other, its goal is to ascribe to ‘subjective factors’, namely aspects directly linked to the PFLP’s agency, the adequate weight in determining its decline. This appears particularly significant as the weakening of the Palestinian left has been frequently explained as a by-product of global and local external or ‘objective’ developments such as the downfall of the Soviet Union or the emergence of political Islam. By providing a comprehensive and processual analysis of the PFLP’s decline, this study not only aims at complementing the literature on the Palestinian national movement, which still lacks a focused approach on the main Palestinian leftist force. It also aims at shedding light on a major cause, and its historical origins, of the current Palestinian political impasse, namely the absence of an alternative between Hamas and the PNA’s governing entities, both crippled by a legitimacy crisis and unable to progress Palestinian interests. By virtue of its close survey of the PFLP’s conduct, a further goal of this thesis is to address the historical role of the PLO and its de-facto heir, the PNA. What is evidenced is the double, and contradictory, role of the essential but also constraining framework that the PLO and later the PNA represented for the PFLP’s policies. The focus on the PFLP’s political agency allows the identification of a pattern in its policy which affected negatively its standing within the Palestinian national movement. Throughout the period addressed, policy fluctuation marked the PFLP’s action, undermining the effectiveness of its political line and jeopardising its political weight. The present study highlights how such a policy fluctuation pattern originated from major dilemmas and contradictions that the PFLP had to consider while producing its policies. The main dilemma, informing all other sources of tensions affecting the PFLP, has been defined as an ‘opposition-integration’ dilemma. In other words, the PFLP, while opposing the PLO leadership’s policies, first and foremost its quest for a diplomatic settlement with Israel under US patronage, needed to maintain its integration within the PLO regime, which represented an essential economic and political framework. This produced inconsistent, ‘fluctuant’ policies that prevented the PFLP from maintaining its political weight and stopping its marginalisation process. This opposition-integration dilemma was combined with other sources of tensions marking the PFLP such as: relations with other PLO opposition factions, relations with Arab partners, its contacts with Palestinian Islamists, the confrontation with the PNA after the 1993 Oslo accords or the internal divide between the exiled leadership and the cadres located in the OPT. The PFLP’s official publications, mainly retrieved from its mouthpiece, Al-Hadaf magazine, embodied the main source upon which this study relies. Beside this corpus of documents, other primary sources, such as documents issued by relevant actors, have been scrutinised, while all information has been read against the background of the wider academic literature currently available on the Palestinian national movement. This research also drew information from interviews with former and current PFLP members as well as with experts of the Palestinian national movement.

This diploma thesis provides a complete information about local politics in the town of Vlašim. Theoretical basis is primary focused on the theory of coalitions and its typology. Then characterizes socio - economic indicators of the municipality, which have the main effects on the local political system. Further, it describes election periods from the year of 2002 to 2010. This part is important to know all contexts that have influenced today's composition of coalition and in fact the whole situation in the city council. The last chapter applies the theory of coalition at the local level. For the correct interpretation and understanding of the formation of coalitions in Vlašim it is fundamental to detect the local specificities such as motivation of creating partnership between the parties, relationships between councilors etc. Now it is possible to understand the local political scene and subsequently the principles of local coalitions.

This research examines the poetry of A.M Maphumulo by utilising selected strategies from the deconstructive literary theory. The exploration involves a critical analysis and application of deconstruction to isiZulu poetry, and more specifically to a selection of Maphumulo’s poems. This research shows that deconstruction does not constitute a traditional analysis of poetry, but that the theory attempts to interplay various meanings at the same time without giving prominence to a singular meaning. Perceptions regarding deconstruction are highlighted such as that the readings merely dismantle creative works without contributing much to its value. This research sets out to prove this observation wrong by first providing a deconstructive thematic reading of two themes of Maphumulo; that of death and education. Furthermore, the deconstruction approach is outlined and applied with specific attention to the multiplicity of meaning in Maphumulo’s poetry. Intertextuality and influence are also examined as it is evident that the poet Maphumulo was influence by his culture, the Bible and nature, amongst other influences. It is shown how the poet synthesises different influences and styles of poetry into a new original mode. Although this research focuses on selected aspects of the deconstructive procedure in analysing isiZulu texts, it is finally recommended that more research should be effected on deconstruction, and especially on Maphumulo’s poetry. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)

Le Carbure de Silicium (SiC) va permettre de repousser les limites des convertisseurs dans trois directions : tenue en tension élevée, haute température de fonctionnement et forte vitesse de commutation. Aujourd’hui, les premiers modules MOSFET SiC sont disponibles sur le marché et semblent prometteurs. L’objectif de ces travaux de thèse consiste plus particulièrement à mettre en œuvre des montages permettant de caractériser ces premiers modules de puissance MOSFET SiC en vue de les utiliser dans les convertisseurs ferroviaires. Le premier chapitre est consacré à l’état de l’art d’une chaîne de traction de Tramway. C’est ce type de chaîne de traction sur lequel se concentrent les études des premières implantations de composants en SiC. Le deuxième chapitre présente un état de l’art des composants semi-conducteurs de puissance en SiC. Il rappelle tout d’abord les propriétés du matériau et détaille ensuite différentes structures de composants en SiC. Le troisième chapitre concerne les modélisations et les simulations de modules de puissance MOSFET SiC au sein d’une cellule de commutation. Les phases de commutation de ces composants sont étudiées en détail, les influences de différents paramètres sont mises en évidence et des simulations multi-physiques permettent de concevoir les bancs d’essais nécessaires à la caractérisation. Le quatrième chapitre présente les résultats des caractérisations statiques et dynamiques de modules de puissance MOSFET SiC. Ces résultats d’essai sont comparés à des modules IGBT Si de même calibre. Le cinquième chapitre est consacré à la mise en œuvre d’un banc d’essai utilisant la « méthode d’opposition ». Celui-ci permet de comparer les modules IGBT Si et les MOSFET SiC en fonctionnement onduleur grâce à des mesures électriques et calorimétriques. Le sixième et dernier chapitre présente des conclusions et donne des perspectives d’utilisation des composants MOSFET SiC dans les convertisseurs ferroviaires. Différents projets visant à utiliser des MOSFET SiC sur des applications ferroviaires y sont présentés. / Silicon Carbide (SiC) technology is pushing the limits of switching devices in three directions: higher blocking voltage, higher operating temperature and higher switching speed. Nowadays, samples of Silicon Carbide (SiC) MOSFET modules are available on the market and seem promising. The aim of the thesis is to characterize these first power modules thanks to dedicated test beds in order to use them in railway converters. The first chapter focuses on the state of the art of Tramway traction chain. It is this type of traction chain which is the target application of these SiC components. The second chapter presents a state of the art of the SiC devices. First, we recall the material properties and then we detail different structures of SiC components. The third chapter concerns modelling and simulations of SiC MOSFET power modules within a commutation cell. The switching phases of these components are studied in detail and the influences of various parameters are highlighted. Multi-physicals simulations allow designing test benches necessary for the characterization. The fourth chapter presents the results of static and dynamic characterizations of SiC MOSFET power modules. The test results are compared with Silicon IGBT modules of the same rating. The fifth chapter is dedicated to the achievement of a test bench based on the "opposition method". This test bench allows comparing Si IGBT and SiC MOSFET modules in a voltage source inverter (VSI) operation by using electrical and calorimetric measurement methods. The sixth and last chapter presents conclusions and provides outlook for SiC MOSFET components in railway converters. Different projects targeting to use SiC MOSFET on railway applications are presented.

Submitted by Oliveira Santos Dilzaná (dilznana@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-04-11T14:14:48Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação de Vladimir Meira Nunes.pdf: 2467427 bytes, checksum: f43b436137fb8e26bfd9f1e82c1d40e7 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ana Portela (anapoli@ufba.br) on 2016-04-28T18:16:51Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação de Vladimir Meira Nunes.pdf: 2467427 bytes, checksum: f43b436137fb8e26bfd9f1e82c1d40e7 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T18:16:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação de Vladimir Meira Nunes.pdf: 2467427 bytes, checksum: f43b436137fb8e26bfd9f1e82c1d40e7 (MD5) / FAPESB / O estudo analisa a Geografia do Voto dos Deputados Estaduais e Partidos na Bahia, nas eleições de 2002, 2006 e 2010, buscando captar e avaliar supostos impactos produzidos sobre a localização das suas bases eleitorais, por força de seus reposicionamentos face às variáveis condições de ser governo, ou oposição, nos planos nacional e estadual. Além disso, procurou correlacionar as votações agregadas dos principais partidos no Estado com indicadores sociais, como IDH e População Rural dos municípios, visando mapear os perfis de suas bases, no que diz respeito às características urbanas e sociais e saber se eles sofreram modificações no período, também tendo em vista os referidos reposicionamentos. Buscou, ao mesmo tempo, problematizar essas questões a partir de referenciais da Teoria Democrática, assim como na literatura institucional acerca dos Sistemas Partidário e Eleitoral. Foram identificadas mudanças significativas na geografia das bases eleitorais dos principais partidos a partir dos reposicionamentos, mesmo com a manutenção dos respectivos padrões de votação antes predominantes. Nesse sentido, a análise das mudanças na geografia eleitoral dos deputados estaduais e partidos baianos ao longo das três eleições estudadas, apontou que o padrão de votação horizontalmente “disperso” é mais vinculado a deputados e partidos de governo, enquanto o padrão vertical “dominante” não é necessariamente governista, sendo afetado, também, pela trajetória anterior de cada partido. Os resultados sugerem também que o Legislativo baiano não possui um padrão oligárquico de competição, já que 52% dos seus parlamentares possuem votação Não-Dominante, ou seja, compartilham seus redutos eleitorais. Apesar disso, observou-se que o reposicionamento estadual provocado pelos resultados das eleições de 2006 atenuou, sem reverter, a tendência à ampliação da competitividade eleitoral nos municípios baianos, provocada pelo realinhamento nacional ocorrido em 2002.The study analyzes the geography of the Vote of Parties and State Representatives in Bahia in the 2002, 2006 and 2010 elections, seeking to capture and evaluate alleged impacts produced on the location of their constituencies , by virtue of its repositioning in the face of changing conditions to be government or opposition, in the national and state plans. In addition, sought to correlate the votes aggregates of the major parties in the state with social indicators such as HDI and Rural Population of the municipalities, aimed at mapping the profiles of their bases, with regard to urban and social characteristics and whether they have been changed in the period also with a view to repositionings. Search at the same time, discuss these issues from references of Democratic Theory, as well as in institutionalist literature on the Partisan and Electoral systems. Significant changes were identified in the geography of constituencies of the major parties from the repositioning, even with the maintenance of their voting patterns before prevailing. In this sense, the analysis of changes in electoral geography of state representatives and Bahian parties over the three studied elections, pointed out that the voting pattern horizontally "dispersed" is more linked to MPs and parties of government, while the vertical standard "dominant" is not necessarily ruling, being affected also from the previous path of each parties. The results also suggest that the Bahian legislative does not have an oligarchic pattern of competition, since 52% of its parliamentarians have vote Non- Dominant, ie shared their bailiwicks. Nevertheless, it was observed that the in state repositioning, caused by the results of the 2006 elections, were attenuated, without reversing the trend to expand the electoral competitiveness in Bahia municipalities, caused by national readjustment in 2002.

The recent growth of social media and other internet technologies is believed to diminish the control of political elites over information flows and enable citizens to be active participants of political processes. Practice shows, however, that this general tendency acquires different forms in different geopolitical contexts. This master thesis intends to investigate how social media are used for the purposes of daily communication of political opposition in Belarus, where dominant traditional media channels are monopolized by the government. The analysis involves mixed approach methodology, which combines content analysis of Facebook posts of Belarusian opposition representatives and qualitative interviews with them. The research articulates an important role of social media in Belarus as one of a few mediums where opposition politicians can exist without pervasive control of authorities. However, the results show that the presence of opposition on social media doesn't necessarily increase their chances to gain political weight or activates civic participation in the country. The effectiveness of their communication is to a large extent predefined by social and political environment in the country. A practical implication of the study is that potentially effective directions for political communication of Belarusian opposition have been outlined.