In this thesis I explore the preservation problems occurring in English square pianos from 1770. I have investigated three aspects: Which materials do the instruments normally consist of? Which are the common types of damage? What conservation ethics are widely considered among instrument conservators and restorers? With the information from these three questions have I formulated treatment suggestions and general aspects to be aware of when preserving early square pianos. The most important suggestion is not to make any treatment without reflection. It´s also important to be aware of problems regarding storage, humidity, emissions, materials and tuning when preserving an early square piano. I consider these aspects in formulating treatment suggestions to conserve instruments as historical documents and to restore them to playable state. The treatment suggestions can also help and guide conservators without special knowledge of instruments toward better preservation of early square pianos. This thesis aims therefore to improve the care of this fragile cultural heritage.

The Ph.D. thesis deals with the preparation of highly hydraulic binders based on roman cement. Roman cement (natural cement) is recently not available on the market due to uneconomic production of such a specific binder. On the other hand there is a big lack of information on this hydraulic binder. These results in failure in meeting the basic principle of modern approaches to restoration of historical buildings or monuments made of such kind of materials, which is such, that the materials used for restoration should be compatible with original material. Recognition of the processes of roman cement preparation based on progressive methods of study can provide substantial information for more efficient raw material selection or even for nontraditional utilization, for example for artworks. This work hence is aimed at studying and selection of traditional natural as well as nontraditional raw materials such as clay. This work also studies the preparation of highly hydraulic binders based on roman cement and the kinetics of burning and hydration processes

The diploma thesis deals with medieval mural paintings. Its aim is to describe and classify the collection in terms of time and style in the context of contemporary production of mural paintings in the 14th century in Bohemia. In the introduction, historical realtionships connected with the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit are described and the development of church service in East Bohemia is outlined. The main part is concerned with the description, placement, iconographical determination of mural paintings and their present state. It especially focuses on analysing and specification of the iconography of different scenes, figures of saints and donators. Style analysis qualifies style resemblance, analogy, parallels and confronts the mural paintings with contemporary book, mural and carving production. It also deals with the problematics of over painting accidental intervention into the monument. This part deduces the probable creation time of the whole interior decoration of the decanal sacristy. The final part evaluates and recapitulates the whole problematics. The diploma thesis offers the first detailed analysis and evaluation of the paintings in the decanal sacristy of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Hradec Králové and provides complete drawing and photographic documentation.

Si l’explosion du système Est-Ouest marque la fin de l’idée de confrontation globale en tant que modèle de la guerre depuis la fin du second conflit mondial, on doit plus fondamentalement s’interroger sur les changements intervenus depuis les années 90 en ce qui concerne le statut de la guerre elle-même et sur le rôle des opérations de paix dans les relations internationales. Les crises politiques découlant de conflits internes sont des sources de déstabilisation et de fragilisation des institutions locales qui subissent le tumulte et affaiblissent la capacité des acteurs à sortir d’une telle situation politique. La nécessité de renforcer les capacités locales pendant cette période charnière afin d’éviter les crises récurrentes se traduit par la présence de la Communauté internationale qui déploie une multitude de stratégies. Il existe en effet, dans la grammaire des Nations Unies, un continuum de modes de gestion des crises qui va des formes les plus réservées de la persuasion à certaines modalités de diplomatie coercitive, impliquant un usage limité de la violence. Lorsqu’on examine les opérations de paix en RDC, un ensemble dynamique de tensions et de liaisons, oscillant entre ordre et désordre dans ses expressions institutionnelles, le constat qui se dégage est que la question de la paix exige une analyse qui prenne en compte plusieurs facteurs. D’où le recours à une approche interdisciplinaire, mobilisant des courants critiques au sein des relations internationales tout en alliant la sociologie des relations internationales. Notre approche interdisciplinaire qui est au centre de cette thèse peut aussi être d’un grand intérêt dans le renforcement de l’approche polémologique, elle-même fort utile pour appréhender les modalités de gouvernance par les groupes politico-militaires. Notre étude s’attache à évaluer la pertinence et la cohérence des pratiques et conduites des acteurs internationaux pour mieux dégager les contours axiologiques et idéologiques de la gestion des crises itératives. / If the explosion of the East/West system marks the end of the idea of global confrontation as model of the war since the end of the second world conflict, we more fundamentally have to wonder about the changes which took place since the 90s as regards the status of the very war and about the role of the peace operations in the international relations. The political crises ensuing from internal conflicts are sources of destabilization and weakening of the local institutions which undergo the tumult and weaken the capacity of the actors to go out of such a political situation. The necessity of strengthening the local capacities during this pivotal period to avoid the recurring crises is translated by the presence of the international community which spreads a multitude of strategies. There is indeed in the grammar of United Nations a continuum in the modes of crises’ management which goes the most reserved forms of the persuasion to certain modalities of coercive diplomacy, implying a use limited by the violence. When we examine the peace operations in RDC, dynamic set tensions and connections, oscillating between order and disorder in its institutional expressions, the report which gets free is that the question of the peace requires an analysis which takes into account several factors. Hence the use of an interdisciplinary approach, involving both critical currents in international relations (critical constructivism) while combining the sociology of international relations. Our study attempts to estimate the relevance and the coherence of the practices and the conducts of the international actors in a better way axiological and ideological outlines of the management of the iterative crises.

A tecnologia WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing) e a introdução de OXCs (Optical Cross Connect) e OADMs (Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer) puramente ópticos podem dotar as redes ópticas da função de networking, ou seja, da capacidade de manipular comprimentos de onda de forma a implementar o roteamento destes. Esta possibilidade implica em uma nova forma de relacionamento das aplicações com a camada física, sendo a arquitetura GMPLS candidata a estabelecer tal relacionamento. Soluções eficientes para o problema de alocação de recursos e roteamento de tráfego tornam-se uma necessidade imperiosa em projeto, expansão e gerenciamento de redes ópticas. A contribuição desta tese consiste em relacionar funcionalidades tais como: agregação (grooming) de tráfego, mecanismo de controle de admissão de chamadas (CAC), mecanismos de restauração e alocação de conversores em redes ópticas heterogêneas, avaliando-se as métricas de probabilidade de bloqueio, probabilidade do tráfego bloqueado e imparcialidade (fairness). Tais funcionalidades são tratadas separadamente na literatura. Com este objetivo em mente modela-se a rede com duas camadas: a camada física e a camada virtual. Estabelecem-se duas políticas de agregação de tráfego MrTV (minimização da rota na topologia virtual) e MrTF (minimização da rota na topologia física) e analisa-se o desempenho destas em relação à porcentagem de tráfego bloqueado. Em seguida um mecanismo de controle de admissão de chamadas (CAC) é implementado e sua influência em termos de imparcialidade (fairness) e probabilidade de bloqueio é analisada. A simulação e análise de redes ópticas, como a Rede NSFnet e a Rede Nacional Italiana são executadas por meio da implementação de um grafo baseado em Zhu e Mukherjee [28]. Como resultado, a política MrTF apresenta menor porcentagem de tráfego bloqueado do que a política MrTV para as redes simuladas e a implementação de um mecanismo de janela deslizante (rolling window) tornou o mecanismo de CAC mais otimizado. A utilidade de se implantar conversores de comprimento de onda apenas em alguns nós da rede (conversão esparsa) é estudada e uma análise sobre a probabilidade de bloqueio e a imparcialidade da rede desta distribuição de conversores é apresentada. Finalmente, técnicas de restauração na camada física e virtual são implementadas e uma análise da influência destes sobre a probabilidade de bloqueio e a imparcialidade da rede é executada. / The Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) technology as well as both the introduction of all optical OXCs (Optical Cross Connect) and OADMs (Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer) may provide the optical network with the networking function, i.e, the capacity to manipulate wavelengths in order to implement their routing. This possibility implies a new type of relationship between applications and the physical layer. The likely candidate to establish such relationships is GMPLS architecture. Efficient solutions to both the problems of allocating resources and traffic routing become an enhanced requirement in the design, expansion and management of optical networking. The present study focus at the relationship between functionalities such as traffic grooming, network fairness improvement, protection/restoring mechanisms and wavelength conversion in heterogeneous optical networks, evaluating the metrics of blocking probability, probability of traffic blocked and fairness. These functionalities are separately treated in literature. With this goal in mind, a two-layer representation is used in order to model the network: the physical and virtual layers, respectively. Two policies on traffic grooming are set up, as follows: MrTV (route minimizing on virtual topology) and MrTF (route minimizing on physical topology). The performance of such policies is analyzed regarding the percentage of blocked traffic. Next, a mechanism for call admission control (CAC) is implemented and its influence in terms of fairness and blocking probability is discussed. The simulations of optical networks such as NSFnet and the Italian National Network are carried out through a graph based in Zhu and Mukherjee [28]. As a result, MrTF policy presents a smaller percentage of blocked traffic than the MrTV for the simulated networks and the rolling window mechanism has allowed the optimization of the call admission control (CAC) mechanism. The usefulness of placing wavelength converters in a few networks nodes (spare conversion) is studied and an analysis on the blocking probability is presented. Next, the network fairness for this distribution of wavelength converters is presented. Finally, techniques for restoring both physical and virtual layers are also implemented and an analysis regarding their influence on the blocking probability and the network fairness is carried out.

Cette thèse porte sur l'étude de l’efficacité d’une Aire Marine Protégée (AMP) comme outil de restauration des ressources marines et de gestion des stocks halieutiques en zone tropicale ouest africaine. L’étude concerne trois AMP. Il s’agit de l’AMP de Bamboung située en zone estuarienne (sous influence marine), à l'intérieur d'un delta et fermée à l’exploitation halieutique depuis 2004. La deuxième AMP est celle des îles d’Urok créée en 2005 et située dans la réserve de biosphère de l’archipel des Bijagos dans la partie littorale de la Guinée-Bissau. Elle est divisée en trois zones et la pêche y est autorisée avec une pression de pêche de plus en plus forte de la zone centrale vers la zone périphérique. La troisième AMP est le Parc National du Banc d’Arguin situé le long de la côte mauritanienne. Il a été créé en 1976 et les activités de pêche y sont pratiquées de façon réglementée. Beaucoup d’AMP ont été évaluées à travers le monde et les résultats obtenus sont dans la majeure partie des cas positifs. Dans les milieux tropicaux, les variabilités interannuelles et intra-annuelles des paramètres environnementaux influent sur l’organisation spatio-temporelle des peuplements de poissons. Par conséquent, la mise en place d’AMP dans une zone tropicale a suscité des interrogations quant à leur efficacité en rapport avec l’influence des paramètres de l’environnement. Selon l’AMP étudiée, une approche spatiale ou temporelle sera utilisée pour répondre aux questions posées. Les méthodes d’analyse utilisées sont de type comparatif. L’analyse des données biologiques est précédée par celle des paramètres physico-chimiques qui a mis en évidence des variabilités saisonnières dans chaque AMP. Ce résultat justifie le choix d’analyser les données biologiques par saison afin de minimiser au mieux l’influence des variations environnementales. En ce qui concerne l’AMP de Bamboung, les résultats de l’analyse suivant une approche globale ont clairement montré son rôle positif dans la restauration des ressources marines. L’approche saisonnière a mis en évidence ce rôle de restauration mais en saison froide et non en saison chaude et humide. En 9 années de protection, l'AMP de Bamboung a contribué au retour de gros poissons dans le bolon de Bamboung. Son rôle dans l’enrichissement de la zone proximale à travers le phénomène de «Spillover» n’a pas pu être mis en évidence. Une tendance à la baisse des indicateurs biologiques en fonction de la distance à l'AMP a été observée surtout en saison chaude et en saison humide. De même l’analyse des indicateurs liés à la reproduction ne montre pas que l’AMP de Bamboung améliore la reproduction des poissons. Concernant, l’AMP des îles d’Urok et le Parc National du Banc d’Arguin, les analyses n’ont pas donné de résultats clairs quant à leur rôle dans l’amélioration des rendements de pêche et de la reproduction des poissons. Cependant, pour l’AMP des îles d’Urok, les tendances observées semble montrer une forte concentration de biomasse dans la zone centrale, un rôle d’équilibre joué par la zone intermédiaire et un rôle de pourvoyeur de biomasse de poisson de la zone périphérique. Pour le PNBA, le secteur intérieur semble contribuer à l’enrichissement du secteur extérieur par un transfert de biomasse. La faible quantité de données récoltées dans les AMP pourrait être à l’origine des résultats négatifs. Ainsi, l’idée d'effectuer des suivis biologiques à court terme et d'analyser les indicateurs liés à la reproduction au niveau population ont été envisagés pour les trois AMP afin de trouver des résultats clairs quant à leur rôle dans la gestion des stocks halieutiques. / This thesis focuses on the study of the effectiveness of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) as restoration tools of marine resources and fish stocks management in tropical West Africa. The study involves three MPAs. The first one is the Bamboung MPA, a marine reserve located in estuarine areas (with marine influence), closed to fishing since 2004. The second is the Urok Islands MPA established in 2005 and located in the biosphere Reserve of Bijagos archipelago in the coastal part of Guinea-Bissau. It is divided into three areas and fishing is allowed there with a fishing pressure becoming stronger from the central area to peripheral area. The third MPA is the Banc d‟Arguin National Marine Park located along the coast of Mauritania. It was created in 1976 and fishing activities are restricted. Many AMP were evaluated worldwide and the results are in the main part positive. In tropical zones, the variability of environmental parameters affects the spatial and temporal organization of fish assemblage. Therefore, the MPA establishment in a tropical zone has raised questions about their effectiveness inrelation to the influence of environmental parameters. According to the AMP, spatial or temporal approach will be used to answer questions. Comparison analysis will be used. The analysis of biological data comes after those of the physicochemical parameters that show strong seasonal variability in each MPA. This result justifies the choice of seasonal analysis of biological data in order to minimize the influence of environmental variations.Regarding the Bamboung MPA, the results of global approach clearly confirm that it is an effective tool for restoring marine resources. The seasonal approach shows this role in cold season, but not in hot and wet seasons. In 9 years of protection, the Bamboung MPA contributed to attract big fish in the Bamboung bolon. The spillover effect in Bamboung MPA is not clearly demonstrated according to our results. A downward trend of biological indicators according to the distance to the MPA has been observed especially in hot season and wet season. Similarly, the analysis of indicators related to reproduction does not show that the Bamboung MPA improve fish reproduction. Regarding Urok Islands MPA and Banc d’Arguin National marine Park, the results do not confirm that these AMP are fish stock management tools (improved yields of fishing activities and fish reproduction). However, for Urok islands MPA the observed trends suggest a biomass concentration in the central area, an equilibrium role played by the intermediate area and a role of fish biomass provider of the peripheral area. For Banc d’Arguin National Marine Parc, the inside area seems to contribute to the enrichment of the external area by transferring fish biomass. Non-specific results could be explained by the small data collected in the MPAs. So the idea to conduct a short-term biological monitoring and to analyze reproduction indicators in population level has been considered for the three MPA to find clear results on their role in the management of fish stocks.

A tecnologia WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing) e a introdução de OXCs (Optical Cross Connect) e OADMs (Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer) puramente ópticos podem dotar as redes ópticas da função de networking, ou seja, da capacidade de manipular comprimentos de onda de forma a implementar o roteamento destes. Esta possibilidade implica em uma nova forma de relacionamento das aplicações com a camada física, sendo a arquitetura GMPLS candidata a estabelecer tal relacionamento. Soluções eficientes para o problema de alocação de recursos e roteamento de tráfego tornam-se uma necessidade imperiosa em projeto, expansão e gerenciamento de redes ópticas. A contribuição desta tese consiste em relacionar funcionalidades tais como: agregação (grooming) de tráfego, mecanismo de controle de admissão de chamadas (CAC), mecanismos de restauração e alocação de conversores em redes ópticas heterogêneas, avaliando-se as métricas de probabilidade de bloqueio, probabilidade do tráfego bloqueado e imparcialidade (fairness). Tais funcionalidades são tratadas separadamente na literatura. Com este objetivo em mente modela-se a rede com duas camadas: a camada física e a camada virtual. Estabelecem-se duas políticas de agregação de tráfego MrTV (minimização da rota na topologia virtual) e MrTF (minimização da rota na topologia física) e analisa-se o desempenho destas em relação à porcentagem de tráfego bloqueado. Em seguida um mecanismo de controle de admissão de chamadas (CAC) é implementado e sua influência em termos de imparcialidade (fairness) e probabilidade de bloqueio é analisada. A simulação e análise de redes ópticas, como a Rede NSFnet e a Rede Nacional Italiana são executadas por meio da implementação de um grafo baseado em Zhu e Mukherjee [28]. Como resultado, a política MrTF apresenta menor porcentagem de tráfego bloqueado do que a política MrTV para as redes simuladas e a implementação de um mecanismo de janela deslizante (rolling window) tornou o mecanismo de CAC mais otimizado. A utilidade de se implantar conversores de comprimento de onda apenas em alguns nós da rede (conversão esparsa) é estudada e uma análise sobre a probabilidade de bloqueio e a imparcialidade da rede desta distribuição de conversores é apresentada. Finalmente, técnicas de restauração na camada física e virtual são implementadas e uma análise da influência destes sobre a probabilidade de bloqueio e a imparcialidade da rede é executada. / The Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) technology as well as both the introduction of all optical OXCs (Optical Cross Connect) and OADMs (Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer) may provide the optical network with the networking function, i.e, the capacity to manipulate wavelengths in order to implement their routing. This possibility implies a new type of relationship between applications and the physical layer. The likely candidate to establish such relationships is GMPLS architecture. Efficient solutions to both the problems of allocating resources and traffic routing become an enhanced requirement in the design, expansion and management of optical networking. The present study focus at the relationship between functionalities such as traffic grooming, network fairness improvement, protection/restoring mechanisms and wavelength conversion in heterogeneous optical networks, evaluating the metrics of blocking probability, probability of traffic blocked and fairness. These functionalities are separately treated in literature. With this goal in mind, a two-layer representation is used in order to model the network: the physical and virtual layers, respectively. Two policies on traffic grooming are set up, as follows: MrTV (route minimizing on virtual topology) and MrTF (route minimizing on physical topology). The performance of such policies is analyzed regarding the percentage of blocked traffic. Next, a mechanism for call admission control (CAC) is implemented and its influence in terms of fairness and blocking probability is discussed. The simulations of optical networks such as NSFnet and the Italian National Network are carried out through a graph based in Zhu and Mukherjee [28]. As a result, MrTF policy presents a smaller percentage of blocked traffic than the MrTV for the simulated networks and the rolling window mechanism has allowed the optimization of the call admission control (CAC) mechanism. The usefulness of placing wavelength converters in a few networks nodes (spare conversion) is studied and an analysis on the blocking probability is presented. Next, the network fairness for this distribution of wavelength converters is presented. Finally, techniques for restoring both physical and virtual layers are also implemented and an analysis regarding their influence on the blocking probability and the network fairness is carried out.

The focus of this thesis is on the most commonly used types of stone, the methods of quarrying stone, stone working, the tools developed and used for that purpose, and the ways in which stone was transported and hoisted into place. This is starting from the earliest times in which large temples or buildings were constructed, namely the Neolithic, up till the time of the Roman Empire. Besides being a kind of compendium of most aspects of stone working, which could be found, also attention is given to the ideal conditions under which the construction of a large temple or monument could take place. The framework, which is developed from the description of the construction of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem in I Kings 5 and I Chronicles 28, is used to analyse the construction of a number of other temples in different times, places and settings, and with the use of different materials, to test if the framework is applicable in all these situations. Moreover, also other aspects of stone working, such as mosaics and the manufacturing of stone vessels in Jerusalem are described and analysed as to their origins and uses. The intention is to give an overview of the many ways in which stone has been used, so that the reader can get an idea of how large temples and monuments were built and to gain an understanding of what kind of technical know-how and ingenuity existed in antiquity. / Religious Studies and Arabic / D. Phil. (Religious Studies (Biblical Archaeology))