This thesis investigates the political career of Stephen Dorsey, an Ohio industrialist who moved to Arkansas in 1871. Dorsey was elected to the U.S. Senate from Arkansas in 1873, served as secretary of the Republican National Committee for. the election of 1880, and was tried twice, in 1882 and 1883, for the Star Route postal frauds. Although Dorsey was acquitted, the Star Route frauds ended his political career. Separate chapters treat each phase of Dorsey's career. Major sources included the D41 Arkansas Gazette, the Congressional Record, the Garfield Papers, and the official transcripts of the Star Route trials. The thesis concludes that Dorsey's career was, the product of Ulysses S. Grant's influence within the Republican party in. the Gilded Age.

Conventionally, crystalline microporous materials such as zeolites and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are synthesized through the hydrothermal route or the trial-and-error approach. Other synthetic strategies may lead to the synthesis of microporous materials with new architectures or interesting properties. The general aim of this thesis is to investigate some new synthetic routes towards crystalline microporous materials. A top-down and post-synthesis method is reported in Chapter 4. Some zeolites are built up by layers and double-4-ring pillars. Germanium is preferentially located in the double-4-ring sites of a zeolite framework and is hydrolytically unstable. The idea of the top-down method is to disassemble these zeolites to the layer structures by dissolving the Ge-containing pillars and reassemble them to a new framework. This method is applied to the germanosilicate IWW and ITH zeolites for the first time. The effects of framework chemical compositions, Ge distributions and disassembling conditions on the top-down treatment process are investigated. The products obtained from the top-down treatment are characterised. An ionic liquid assisted strategy for the synthesis of zeolites is described in Chapter 5. The ionic liquid assisted strategy is a solvent free reaction. The raw materials are transformed to zeolites through a solid state reaction. The ionic liquids are first used as structure-directing agents (SDAs) in this solvent free reaction to replace the expensive quaternary ammonium hydroxide. A TON zeolite is synthesized using 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide as the SDA. Moreover, the ionic liquid assisted strategy is considered as a “green chemistry” synthetic route due to the high yield of the zeolites and the minor production of waste water. Many aluminophosphates have been successfully synthesized through ionothermal routes. Most of them are synthesized using 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium based ionic liquids. A new ionic liquid, 1-(2-hydroxyl-ethyl)-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([HOEmim]Cl), is prepared and used for the ionothermal synthesis of aluminophosphate materials. A zeolite analogue with the CHA framework has been synthesized. At high synthetic temperatures, the products are large single crystals. The structures of the framework and the SDA are investigated by single crystal diffraction and other characterisation methods. Flexible MOF materials are usually synthesized by a trial-and-error approach. Recently a flexible MOF compound was synthesized using 5-sulfoisophthalic acid (SIP) as the ligand. It was proposed the sulfonate is weakly coordinated to the metal, which brings flexibility to the compound, and the carboxylate groups keep the framework intact. 2-sulfoterephthalic acid (STP) which also contains one sulfonate group and two carboxylate groups is believed to be an alternative ligand for the targeted synthesis of flexible MOFs. In Chapter 7, a MOF compound is synthesized using STP and 4, 4'-bipyridine (Bpy) as ligands to validate the proposed strategy can be generalized. Variable temperature single crystal diffraction analysis solves the structure and reveals a reversible structure transformation upon dehydration and rehydration.

Karlštejn Castle is one of the most popular tourist sights in the Czech Republic. This thesis therefore focuses on the use of this conservation area, especially in the second half of the 20th century and all the 21st century. Based on the available archival documents, in the thesis there are described changes of the expositions in the castle's rooms that are opened to the visitors. The thesis is also focused on the tour routes and development of the visitors' turnout. Last of all, in this thesis there are mentioned past and present events held in the castle and other "crowd-pullers" that are attractive to the visitors. In the first part the thesis also deals with the issue of the castle's ownership and the effort for the integration among the UNESCO sights.

L'étude proposée s'inscrit dans le cadre des recherches portant sur les fluctuations des performances attentionnelles dans les transports, et plus précisément dans la conduite automobile. Elle a pour objectif de montrer, dans une perspective développementale et différentielle, l'impact du moment de la journée sur les accidents de la route et les performances attentionnelles et de conduite, selon l'âge, le sexe et la typologie comportementale des conducteurs. Afin de pouvoir procéder à l’identification des performances, 84 onducteurs occasionnels de véhicules légers, dont 42 hommes et 42 femmes, sont répartis en trois groupe d’âge (jeunes (20-29 ans), adultes (30-59ans) et âgés (plus de 60 ans)) et selon leur horaires préférentiels de sommeil (typologie matinalité-vespéralité). Ces conducteurs sont, parallèlement à des tests d’attention (barrage de nombres), soumis à des tests de conduite simulée, à différents moments de la journée : début et fin de matinée, début et fin d'après-midi. Les résultats indiquent que les performances journalières attentionnelles et de conduite (indicées par le temps de réaction au freinage) fluctuent différemment selon l'âge, le sexe, la typologie, et que les niveaux moyens de l'attention et des temps de réaction au freinage diminuent avec l’âge. Le moment de la journée, au travers d’une étude statistique (accidents de la route survenus en France métropolitaine au 1er janvier 2007), semble également avoir un effet différentiel sur les accidents de la route: les conducteurs sont plus fréquemment victimes d’accidents pendant la journée que la nuit ; en revanche, l’indice de gravité semble plus accentué la nuit. Par ailleurs, si les conducteurs jeunes âgés de 20 à 29 ans et les conducteurs d’âge moyen (30 à 59 ans) sont plus souvent victimes d’accidents que les personnes âgées, celles-ci, en revanche, sont surreprésentées dans les accidents mortels. Les femmes sont moins victimes d’accidents que les hommes et restent les moins exposées. Enfin, la description de l’évolution journalière des performances attentionnelles et celle des performances de conduite montre l’existence d’une relation entre le niveau d’attention et le temps de réaction, en fin de matinée et en début d'après-midi. Ces résultats viennent compléter les réflexions menées sur les moments propices pour une bonne conduite, et permettent de souligner la place prépondérante de l’âge, du sexe et de la typologie des conducteurs dans la genèse des accidents. / The proposed survey appears in the setting of the research concerned with the fluctuations of the attention performance in transportation and more precisely in driving conduct. It has for objective to show, in a developmentale and differential perspective, the impact of the moment of the day on road accidents and the attention performance and of conduct, according to age, sex and typology morning-evening. In order to be able to conduct the identification of the performances, 84 occasional drivers of light vehicles, of which 42 men and 42 women, are distributed in thee groups of age (young (20-29 years), adults (30-59 years) and aged (more than 60 years)) and according to their preferential timetables of sleep (typology morning-evening). These drivers are, in the same way to tests of attention (dam of numbers), submitted to tests of simulated conduct, at different moments of the day: the beginning and end of the morning, the beginning and end of the afternoon. The results indicate that the daily performance attention and of conduct (subscripted by the time of reaction to braking) fluctuate differently according to age, sex and typology, and that the middle levels of the attention and the times of reaction to braking decrease with age. The moment of the day, through a statistical study (accidents of the road occurred in metropolitan France to January 1st, 2007), seems to have a differential effect also on road accidents: the drivers are more frequently victims of accidents during the day than the night; on the other hand, the indication of gravity seems more accentuated at night. However, if young drivers aged from 20 to 29 years and middle age drivers (30 to 59 years) are more frequently victims of accidents than oldes people, these, on the other hand, are overrepresented in the fatal accidents. Women are less victims of accidents and remain the less exposed. Finally, the description of the daily evolution of the attention performance and that of conduct indicates a relation between the level of attention and the time of reaction at the end of the morning and the beginning of the afternoon. These results complete the reflections led on the auspicious moments for good driving and permit to underline the major place of age and the typology of the drivers in the cause of the accidents.

Mobile Ad-Hoc Network (MANET) facilitates the creation of dynamic reconfigurable networks, without centralized infrastructure. MANET routing protocols have to face high challenges like link instability, node mobility, frequently changing topologies and energy consumption of node, due to these challenges routing becomes one of the core issues in MANETs. This Thesis mainly focuses on the reactive routing protocol such as Ad-Hoc On-Demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing protocol. Reliable and Efficient Reactive Routing Protocol (RERRP) for MANET has been proposed to reduce the link breakages between the moving nodes. This scheme selects a reliable route using Reliability Factor (RF); the RF considers Route Expiration Time and Hop Count to select a routing path with high reliability and have less number of hops. The simulation result shows that RERRP outperforms AODV and enhance the packet delivery fraction (PDF) by around 6% and reduces the network routing load (NRL) by around 30%. Broadcasting in MANET could cause serious redundancy, contention, and collision of the packets. A scheme, Effective Broadcast Control Routing Protocol (EBCRP) has been proposed for the controlling of broadcast storm problem in a MANET. The EBCRP is mainly selects the reliable node while controlling the redundant re-broadcast of the route request packet. The proposed algorithm EBCRP is an on-demand routing protocol, therefore AODV route discovery mechanism was selected as the base of this scheme. The analysis of the performance of EBCRP has revealed that the EBCRP have controlled the routing overhead significantly, reduces it around 70% and enhance the packet delivery by 13% as compared to AODV. An Energy Sensible and Route Stability Based Routing Protocol (ESRSBR) have also been proposed that mainly focuses on increasing the network lifetime with better packet delivery. The ESRSBR supports those nodes to participate in the data transfer that have more residual energy related to their neighbour nodes. The proposed protocol also keeps track of the stability of the links between the nodes. Finally, the ESRSBR selects those routes which consist of nodes that have more residual energy and have stable links. The comparative analysis of ESRSBR with AODV and recently proposed routing protocol called Link Stability and Energy Aware (LSEA) routing protocol revealed that the proposed protocol ESRSBR has a significantly affect the network lifetime, increases it around 10% and 13% as compared to LSEA and AODV protocols respectively. The ESRSBR also decreases the routing overhead by 22% over LSEA and by 38% over AODV.

This dissertation has three contributions in the area of path planning for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Search And Track (SAT) missions. These contributions are: (a) the study of a novel metric, G, used to quantify the value of the target information gained during a search and track mission, (b) an optimal planning horizon that minimizes time-error of a planning horizon when interrupted by Poisson random events, and (c) a modified Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm for search missions that uses the prior target distribution in the generation of paths rather than just in the evaluation of them. UAV route planning is an important topic with many applications. Of these, military applications are the best known. This dissertation focuses on route planning for SAT missions that jointly optimize the conflicting objectives of detecting new targets and monitoring previously detected targets. The information theoretic approach proposed here is different from and is superior to existing approaches. One of the main differences is that G quantifies the value of the target information rather than the information itself. Several examples are provided to highlight G’s desirable properties. Another important component of path planning is the selection of a planning horizon, which specifies the amount of time to include in a plan. Unfortunately, little research is available to aid in the selection of a planning horizon. The proposed planning horizon is derived in the context of plan updates triggered by Poisson random events. To our knowledge, it is the only theoretically derived horizon available making it an important contribution. While the proposed horizon is optimal in minimizing planning time errors, simulation results show that it is also near optimal in minimizing the average time needed to capture an evasive target. The final contribution is the modified PSO. Our modification is based on the idea that PSO should be provided with the target distribution for path generation. This allows the algorithm to create candidate path plans in target rich regions. The modified PSO is studied using a search mission and is used in the study of G.

<p>This research aims to explore a new mobile application platform for group travel planning to improve the experience of communication and cooperation in teamwork. The inspiration was from my own travel experience. Being the leader or one of the people who managed the travel group during the past years, I realized that group travels have been full of fun. However, I also faced a variety of challenges at the stages of planning, preparing, managing, and accounting before travel, during travel, and after travel.</p> <p>According to the literature review, some general problems of group travel were found out. Dealing with the problems in planning, scheduling, packing, communicating, and cooperating with travel partners, and financial issues are defined as the most general travel stressors for travelers. Therefore, travel relieves our living stress, meanwhile, brings new stressors from the other hand. </p> <p>The research started off understanding the current market condition and main competitors through doing market research. Peer product analysis and product positioning map were done during the market research. Then the user study was conducted through an online survey, user interviews, and field research using observational study method. The design direction and target users of the research were defined afterward. The design process began with the brainstorming session, followed by going through App flow structuring, interface wireframing, and visual designing to come out with the mobile application – CooP, a group travel platform to cooperatively manage teamwork and facilitate communication.</p> <p>Thus, a map-list alternating planning platform was developed for more efficient planning in CooP. Users can switch between the map view and the list view to plan the route. Besides, the group checklists, tasks distribution, and group account features were designed to facilitate teamwork in planning. Additionally, A group chat platform was hidden in every page corners to improve group communication. The CooP can also split the group flexibly when different people want to visit different places separately. By connecting with physical devices, CooP can track the people for protection and safety.</p> <p>The usability testing of the post-travel evaluation gathered some future improvements that can be achieved later. From the perspective of technology, AI technology can be better utilized in providing suggestions and recommendations voluntarily based on the user’s data to enhance the efficiency and smoothness of the working experience. From the map perspective, providing a real route line between locations would be more preferred than the straight-line segments. The coop can recommend mid-way attractions for users to select. Overall, CooP achieved the goal of improving communication and cooperation in group travel planning. It innovated the traditional way of doing a group travel plan by combining different functions into CooP to create a multitasking platform which speeds up the process of planning.</p>

Fondée sur une enquête de terrain menée dans des villages jàa du sud ouest du Burkina Faso, cette thèse s'attache à définir l'éligibilité au regard des deux formes socio-spatiales que sont la maison et la route. La maison se présente comme un espace de rivalités, qui ont été provoquées par l'émergence d'un nouveau lieu de pouvoir. Elle témoigne de la création de liens de parenté originaux, mais elle matérialise également l'existence d'une double métamorphose de la virilité dans la société jàa. Cette double métamorphose se caractérise par l'établissement de relations « érotiques » entre les sexes et par la monétarisation de la virilité guerrière. La route, forme socio-spatiale complémentaire et antagonique à la maison, est le lieu à l'origine de ces transformations. Elle incarne le désordre dans la production des hiérarchies politiques : elle figure la propension des candidats aux élections à semer rituellement le chaos lors des meetings politiques et elle est le site depuis lequel s'introduit la déstabilisation du pouvoir. Elle éclaire, en cela, la chute de Blaise Compaoré en octobre 2014. Elle concrétise, plus largement, l'arrivée perçue comme menaçante de migrants Mossi dans les villages et le rôle de l'itinérance dans la révolution des hiérarchies politiques et initiatiques dans la société jàa. La maison et la route composent ainsi une dyade, permettant de décrire, selon une perspective topographique, les transformations des hiérarchies politiques dans une société ouest-africaine. Or, pour concevoir le caractère cadastrable des hiérarchies politiques, il faut situer, au centre de la relation des hommes au territoire, la médiation des croyances et des pratiques religieuses, plutôt que d'envisager une infrastructure économique au pouvoir. / Grounded on a field survey in jàa villages, located in South West Burkina Faso, this thesis aims at defining eligibility from the standing of two socio-spatial forms: the house and the road. The house appears to be a space of rivalries, which have been provoked by the creation of a new centre of power. It highlights the reform of kinship, but it also materializes the double metamorphose of virility in jàa society. This double metamorphose is characterized by the establishment of "erotic" relationships between men and women and by the monetarization of war virility. The road, a complementary and antagonistic socio-spatial form to the house, is the place which gives rise to these changes. It represents the disorder in the political hierarchies production process: it indicates the propensity of local election candidates to ritually create chaos during political meetings and it is the site from which the destabilization of power is introduced. As such, it informs of Blaise Compaoré's fall in October 2014. More broadly, it materializes the intrusion, seen as threatening, of Mossi migrants in villages and the role of roaming in the revolution of political and initiatory hierarchies. Thus, the house and the road compose a dyad, which allows to describe the transformations of political hierarchies in a West African society, following a topographic perspective. Yet, to design the geographical dimension of political hierarchies, it requires placing the mediation of religious beliefs and practices in the centre of the relations between humans and the territory, instead of considering an economical infrastructure of politics.

[pt] Com a era da globalização e a introdução da filosofia de Gestão da Cadeia de Suprimentos, os clientes têm se tornado cada vez mais exigentes no que diz respeito à qualidade e prazos de entrega, gerando uma competitividade crescente e uma busca por serviços cada vez mais customizados que, para as empresas de distribuição de produtos, tem se tornado um fator cada vez mais importante na obtenção de vantagem competitiva e conquista de fatias cada vez maiores do mercado. Nesse sentido, muitas empresas de transporte têm tentado dar maior confiabilidade, mais velocidade e flexibilidade, buscando obter maior eficiência e pontualidade nas tarefas de entrega e/ou coleta; um melhor aproveitamento da frota e dos motoristas; menores tempos de ciclo; melhor planejamento das rotas, gerando assim sensíveis reduções de custos operacionais, melhoria da imagem da empresa no mercado e, em função disso, uma conquista cada vez maior de mercado. Nesse sentido, de modo a obter excelência nos processos de distribuição física, muitas empresas têm adquirido os chamados sistemas de roteirizarão e programação de veículos ou, simplesmente, roteirizadores. Dado o crescimento na utilização de roteirizadores para redução de custos operacionais e a possibilidade por parte do autor de participar da implementação dessa tecnologia em uma empresa, os objetivos dessa dissertação são: Descrever a operação da Empresa Alfa onde foi realizada a implementação do roteirizador de veículos e a apresentação do processo de implementação do roteirizador na operação. Como o autor fez parte da implementação do roteirizador na Empresa Alfa, a metodologia utilizada para a elaboração desse trabalho incluiu: pesquisa bibliográfica, visitas in loco e entrevistas não estruturadas junto aos envolvidos na operação. O resultado desta dissertação é uma análise da operação da Empresa Alfa durante a implementação do roteirizador, mostrando seus pontos positivos e suas dificuldades extraídos apos finalizado o processo de implementação. / [en] Nowadays with the globalization and the introduction of the Supply chain management philosophy, the customers become more demanding in order to get better quality in delivery time, increasing competitiveness and a search for customized services that, for distribution companies, it has become the most important factor in order to get competitive advantage and to increase the market share. In accordance with these ideas, many distribution companies have tried to improve the reliability, speed and flexibility, in order to get higher efficiency and punctuality in the deliveries; better fleet and drivers utilization; lower time to planning routes, generating cost reduction, improvements of the company`s image in the market, and higher market share. Trying to get excellence in distribution process, many companies have acquired the routing and scheduling systems. Due to the growth of routing systems use and the possibility for the author to participate in an implementation of this technology in a company, the objectives of this work are: to describe the operation of the Alpha Company`s where the implementation has been done; and present the routing system implementation process. Since the author was part of the team in the implementation of routing system in the Alpha Company, the methodology used for the elaboration of this work included: bibliographical research, visits in loco to the Alpha Company`s operations and non structuralized interviews with the involved parts in the operation. As a result of this work, we have an analysis of the operation during the implementation of the Routing System in line with the main results getting after finished the implementation process.

O presente trabalho teve como objetivo estudar a síntese do biodiesel por transesterificação etílica de diferentes matérias-primas lipídicas empregando catalisadores heterogêneos (químico e bioquímico). Para cumprir com os objetivos propostos foram selecionadas matérias-primas lipídicas de baixo impacto no setor alimentício, entre as quais destacam-se: óleos vegetais (andiroba, babaçu, macaúba, palma e pinhão manso) e gordura residual (sebo bovino) e catalisadores de comprovada potencialidade como óxido de nióbio impregnado com sódio (químico) e a lipase de Burkholderia cepacia imobilizada em suporte híbrido sílicaalcool polivinílico (bioquímico). O trabalho foi desenvolvido em três etapas. Inicialmente, foram determinadas as propriedades físico-químicas das diferentes matérias-primas lipídicas, algumas ainda pouco exploradas, para verificar se apresentavam potencial para serem utilizadas na reação de transesterificação. Em seguida foram preparados os catalisadores propostos por protocolos já estabelecidos, sendo obtido para o catalisador químico elevado teor de sódio impregnado no óxido de nióbio (25,43 ± 0,29%) e para catalisador bioquímico elevada atividade hidrolítica (1814 ??281 U/g). Na segunda etapa, as reações de transesterificação foram conduzidas em regime de batelada em condições adequadas para cada catalisador em termos de temperatura, tempo e proporção de catalisador. Na terceira etapa, os produtos obtidos foram purificados e quantificados por cromatografia gasosa, RMN 1H, viscosimetria e análise termogravimétrica (TGA). O conjunto de dados obtidos demonstrou que a formação de ésteres etílicos a partir das diferentes matérias-primas é viável para os catalisadores testados. Ambos os catalisadores (químico e bioquímico) atuaram de forma eficiente convertendo os ácidos graxos presentes nas matérias-primas lipídicas nos ésteres etílicos correspondentes e apresentaram elevada estabilidade em bateladas consecutivas, com destaque para o catalisador bioquímico que revelou um tempo de meiavida de 290 h. Entretanto, a qualidade da matéria-prima lipídica interferiu a atuação dos catalisadores de maneira diferenciada. Enquanto, o catalisador químico foi sensível a presença de níveis elevados de acidez, como o constatado no óleo de macaúba, a atuação do catalisador bioquímico sofreu influência da presença de peróxidos indicativo de oxidação apresentada pelo óleo de andiroba. Com exceção dos óleos de macaúba e andiroba que apresentaram qualidade comprometida, todas as matérias-primas lipídicas originaram amostras de biodiesel com características adequadas para serem usadas como combustível, incluindo valores de viscosidade entre 3,9 a 6,0 (cSt) que atendem as especificações estabelecidas na ASTM 6751- 02. Apesar do desempenho similar dos catalisadores testados, a via química foi superior em termos de produtividade em relação à via bioquímica. Entretanto, essa baixa produtividade pode ser incrementada utilizando métodos não convencionais de aquecimento, como por exemplo, irradiação de micro-ondas e ultrassom. Os resultados obtidos neste trabalho demonstram ainda que os catalisadores heterogêneos testados possuem potencial para substituir os sistemas homogêneos normalmente empregados na síntese do biodiesel. Essa substituição oferece vantagens, que podem propiciar um aumento considerável nas perspectivas de sustentabilidade sócio-ambiental de todo o processo de produção. / The present work aimed at studying the biodiesel synthesis by transesterification reaction from several lipidic feedstocks via ethyl route employing heterogeneous catalysts (chemical and biochemical). To attain the proposed objectives non-edible feedstock having low impact in the food segment, among which stand out: vegetable oils (andiroba, babassu, macauba, palm and Jatropha curcas) and residual fat (beef tallow) and potential catalysts as niobium oxide impregnated with sodium (chemical) and lipase from Burkholderia cepacia immobilized on silica-polyvinyl alcohol matrix (biochemical) were previously selected. The work was developed in three steps. Initially, the physico-chemical properties of the different lipidic feedstocks were investigated, some of them still little explored, to identify their potential as reactants in the transesterification reactions. Then the proposed catalysts were prepared by protocols already established, being obtained for the chemical catalyst high level of sodium impregnated in the niobium oxide (25.43 ± 0.29%) and for the biochemical catalyst high hydrolytic activity (1,814± 281 U/g). In the second step, the transesterification reactions were carried out in batch reactors under appropriated conditions for each catalyst in terms of temperature, time and catalyst proportion. In the third step, the obtained products were purified and quantified by gas chromatography, 1H NMR spectroscopy, viscosimetry and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The dataset obtained demonstrated that the formation of ethyl esters from the different feedstocks was feasible for the tested catalysts. Both catalysts (chemical and biochemical) were efficient in converting all fatty acids present in the lipidic feedstock into the corresponding ethyl esters and showed high stability under consecutive batch runs, with emphasis for the biochemical catalyst with a half-life time of 290 h. However, the poor quality of the feedstocks strong affected the performance of the catalysts in a different way. While the chemical catalyst was sensitive to high acidity levels, as verified in the macauba oil, the biochemical catalyst performance was influenced by the presence of peroxides indicating oxidation as showed in the andiroba oil. Except for these oils, all the other feedstocks originated biodiesel samples with appropriate characteristics to be used as fuel, including viscosity values between 3.9 to 6.0 (cSt) that are in accordance with specifications recommended by ASTM 6751-02. Even though the catalysts showed similar performances, the chemical route gave higher productivity than that attained by biochemical route. However, such lower productivity can be increased using non conventional heating systems as for instance, micro-wave irradiation and ultrasound. The results obtained in this work demonstrated that the selected heterogeneous catalysts possess potential to replace the homogeneous systems usually employed in the biodiesel synthesis. Such replacement offers advantages that can provided a considerable increase in the perspectives to attain an environmental sustainability of process as a whole.