Comment les Gaziotes parviennent-il à surmonter les épreuves que leur impose un blocus qui, commencé en 2000, est devenu pratiquement total à partir de 2006 ? Comment expliquer la résilience sociale dont ils ont fait preuve jusqu'à maintenant ? À cette question la thèse d'une chercheuse en sociologie et anthropologie, qui a partagé la vie les Gaziotes pendant plus de dix ans, essaie de répondre. L'analyse est fondée sur des entretiens approfondis auprès d'une population de 120 personnes, sur de nombreuses observations de la vie quotidienne ainsi que sur les résultats de diverses études et rapports sur les conditions de vie à Gaza. La thèse montre qu'il faut chercher l'origine de larésilience dans les ressources que sont, pour les Gaziotes, la solidité de leurs institutions sociales et la référence à une histoire partagée. Au-delà du cas de Gaza, ce travail représente une contribution à une réflexion sur ce qui peut permettre aux sociétés comme aux individus, de surmonter les crises. / How to explain the social resilience evidenced by Gazans notwithstanding the challenges imposed by what began as a partial blockade in the year 2000 to become a practically unmitigated situation since the year 2006? Having shared the daily life of Gaza for over ten years, a researcher in sociology and anthropology tries to answer the question. This thesis is the result of the analysis of in-depth interviews of a population of circa 120 individuals , men and women, coupled by immersion in the daily life and availing herself of numerous and diverse reports and studies on the condition of life in Gaza. The researcher concludes that one has to probe for the origin of this resilience in the resources that constitute for the Gazans the solidity of their social institutions and the reference to a shared history.Beyond the Gaza case, this work is a contribution to an analysis of what may allow societies and individuals that conform them to overcome crisis.

Orientador: Tania Regina De Luca / Banca: Antonio Celso Ferreira / Banca: Ângela de Castro Gomes / Resumo: O objetivo da presente dissertação é realizar uma leitura crítica e sistematizada da revista em quadrinhos intitulada Chico Bento - nome da personagem criada por Maurício de Sousa - entre os anos de 1982 e 2000, a fim de analisar as representações elaboradas acerca do campo e da cidade e de seus habitantes. Do mesmo modo, pretende-se investigar de que maneira tais imagens dialogam com outras representações já cristalizadas acerca desses espaços. / Abstract: The objective of the present dissertation is to make a critical and systematized reading of the comic strips entitled Chico Bento - name of the character created by Maurício de Sousa - from 1982 to 2000, in order to analyze the representations elaborated concerning the rural and urban spaces and of their inhabitants. In this way, it intends to investigate that it sorts out such images dialogue with other representations crystallized of those spaces. / Mestre

Ao longo de nossa trajetória como professora de língua espanhola, deparamo-nos com diversas dificuldades, entre elas a escolha de materiais didáticos adequados ao nosso público e contexto de ensino. Nesse sentido, uma de nossas maiores preocupações é a relação entre língua e cultura, visto que, muitas vezes, nesses materiais, elas se encontram dissociadas. Como os indivíduos se comunicam por meio dos gêneros discursivos e, assim, estabelecem uma interconexão da linguagem com a vida social (FIORIN, 2006, p. 61), entendemos que essas formas ou tipos de enunciados relativamente estáveis (BAKHTIN, 2003) são importantes para conhecer o contexto sociocultural da língua meta. Uma das formas por meio das quais os sujeitos estabelecem relações e expressam crenças e opiniões é a tira cômica, objeto de nosso estudo, pois, se por um lado ela aparenta simplicidade pela proximidade com a oralidade e pelo uso de imagens que facilitam o entendimento, por outro, ressalta a sua dificuldade pela interpretação da intersecção do verbal e do visual e que implicam, normalmente, a recorrência a referências como o contexto de produção e o conhecimento dos elementos que integram a linguagem dos quadrinhos, os quais podem compor-se não somente por uma sequência predominantemente narrativa, mas também pela conversacional-dialogal ou pela argumentativa (SILVEIRA, 2003). Dada a potencialidade que o estudo com esse gênero tem para estimular a reflexão crítica do alunado, pautada pelos multiletramentos, analisamos a presença de aspectos culturais nas propostas que fazem uso das tiras cômicas em dois livros didáticos de espanhol selecionados pelo Programa Nacional do Livro Didático de 2012 e 2015, a saber, Síntesis: curso de lengua española (MARTIN, 2011, 2011a, 2011b) e Cercanía Joven (COIMBRA; CHAVES; BARCIA, 2013, 2013a, 2013b). Para fundamentar este trabalho, estudamos o termo cultura (THOMPSON, 1995; CUCHE, 1999; EAGLETON, 2005; BOAS, 2010) a fim de evidenciar como esse conceito está presente no ensino e aprendizagem de línguas. Em seguida, aprofundamo-nos na concepção, características e papel das tiras cômicas (EGUTI, 2001; SILVA JUNIOR, 2004; RAMOS, 2007, 2011; CAGNIN, 2014) com o intuito de situá-las no contexto educacional e compreendê-las melhor para afastá-las de terminologias equivocadas. Nossa pesquisa, de cunho exploratório e bibliográfico, abarcou tanto dados quantitativos, coletados nos LD e organizados em gráficos e quadros, quanto qualitativos, os quais, com base na Análise de Conteúdo (FRANCO, 2012), possibilitaram a inferência de crenças, valores e ideologias dos autores das obras didáticas selecionadas. Concluímos que a maioria das atividades incluídas nos manuais se pauta em atividades de compreensão, que, em geral, buscam a exploração de informações explícitas dos textos e cujo principal objetivo é a ilustração de um item gramatical. Isso posto, confiamos que as discussões apresentadas servirão para estimular a reflexão crítica de autores e editores de livros didáticos, com vistas à exploração da potencialidade da tira cômica, principalmente no que concerne ao aspecto cultural, e também de professores e alunos para que ambos possam desenvolver maior criticidade em relação ao seu objeto de estudo. / Throughout our history as a Spanish language teacher, we are faced with several difficulties, among them the choice of teaching materials appropriate to our public and teaching context. In this sense, one of our major concerns is the relationship between language and culture, since in these materials they are often dissociated. As individuals communicate through discursive genres and thus establish an \"interconnection of language with social life\" (FIORIN, 2006, 61), we understand that these relatively stable forms or types of utterances (BAKHTIN, 2003) are important to know the socio-cultural context of the target language. One of the ways in which subjects establish relationships and express beliefs and opinions is the comic strip, object of our study, because, on the one hand, it seems simple by its proximity to orality and by the use of images that facilitate the understanding; on the other , emphasizes its difficulty in interpreting the intersection of verbal and visual and which usually imply the recurrence to references such as the context of production and knowledge of the elements that integrate the language of comics, which may be composed not only of a predominantly narrative sequence, but also by conversational-dialogal or argumentative sequence (SILVEIRA, 2003). Given the potential that the study with this genre has to stimulate the critical reflection of the student, guided by the multiliteracies, we analyze the presence of cultural aspects in the proposals that make use of the comic strips in two Spanish textbooks selected by the Programa Nacional do Livro Didático of 2012 and 2015, namely, Síntesis: curso de lengua española (MARTIN, 2011, 2011a, 2011b) and Cercanía Joven (COIMBRA, CHAVES, BARCIA, 2013, 2013a, 2013b). In order to substantiate this work, we study the term culture (THOMPSON, 1995; CUCHE, 1999; EAGLETON, 2005; BOAS, 2010) so as to show how this concept is present in language teaching and learning. Afterwards, we delve into the concept, characteristics and role of comic strips (EGUTI, 2001; SILVA JUNIOR, 2004; RAMOS, 2007, 2011; CAGNIN, 2014) in order to situate them in the educational context and better understand them away from the wrong terminology. Our exploratory and bibliographical research encompassed both quantitative data, collected and organized in graphs and charts, as well as qualitative ones, which, based on the Content Analysis (FRANCO, 2012), enabled the inference of the beliefs, values and ideologies of authors of the selected textbooks. We conclude that most of the activities included in the manuals are based on comprehension exercises, which, in general, seek the exploration of explicit information of the texts and whose main objective is the illustration of a grammatical item. In light of this, we understand that the discussions presented will serve to stimulate the critical reflection of authors and editors of textbooks, in view of exploring the potentiality of the comic strip, especially in what concerns the cultural aspect, as well as teachers and students so both may become more critical to their object of study.

Currently in Iowa, the amount of RAP materials allowed for the surface layer is limited to 15% by weight. The objective of this project was to develop quality standards for inclusion of RAP content higher than 15% in asphalt mixtures. To meet Superpave mix design requirements, it was necessary to fractionate the RAP materials. Based on the extensive sieve-by-sieve analysis of RAP materials, the optimum sieve size to fractionate RAP materials was identified. To determine if the higher percentage of RAP materials than 15% can be used in Iowa's state highway, three test sections with 30.0%, 35.5% and 39.2% of RAP materials were constructed on Highway 6 in Iowa City. The construction of the field test sections was monitored and the cores were obtained to measure field densities of test sections. Field mixtures collected from test sections were compacted in the laboratory in order to test the moisture sensitivity using a Hamburg Wheel Tracking Device. The binder was extracted from the field mixtures with varying amounts of RAP materials and tested to determine the effects of RAP materials on the PG grade of a virgin binder. Field cores were taken from the various mix designs to determine the percent density of each test section. A condition survey of the test sections was then performed to evaluate the short-term performance.

The effect of initial microstructures of an 0.05 wt.% C low carbon steel, acicular ferrite (AF), Bainite (B), polygonal ferrite (PF), fine polygonal ferrite (FPF), and a microstructure produced by direct strip casting (DSC) (termed SC), on the deformation and recrystallization behaviour of cold rolled low carbon (LC) steel, was investigated. The initially prepared samples with the initial microstructures were cold rolled to 50, 70 and 90% reductions, then annealed isothermally in the temperature range 580 ??? 680 oC. The microstructures and textures produced by deformation and annealing were studied by optical microscopy, XRD, TEM, SEM and EBSD. The initial microstructures were characterized mainly by optical microscopy and EBSD. Using EBSD, the ferrite grain size of the AF, B and SC samples was considerably larger than that found by optical microscopy with a large fraction of low angle grain boundaries (LAGBs) observed within prior austenite grains. All samples exhibited a very weak texture close to random. After cold rolling, the microstructures of AF and SC contained shear bands with PF and FPF generating deformation bands. For AF and SC, the pearlite phase was more extensively elongated in rolling direction compared with PF and FPF. After 90% cold rolling reduction, PF, FPF and SC consist mainly of the texture component and AF and B . It was found that FPF recrystallized most rapidly followed by B, PF and AF with SC recrystallizing orders of magnitude more slowly due to the solution drag caused by its uniformly distributed higher Mn content. Very strong (???-fibre) texture was generated in cold rolled PF followed by FPF, with AF, SC and B generating very weak textures. The texture evolution during annealing 90% reduction PF was examined in further detail. The behaviour of nucleation and grain growth provides strong evidence of orientated nucleation as the dominant factor for CRA texture development in this material.

<p>Feature extraction from a tensor based local image representation introduced by Knutsson in [37] is discussed. The tensor representation keeps statements of structure, certainty of statement and energy separate. Further processing for obtaining new features also having these three entities separate is achieved by the use of a new concept, tensor field filtering. Tensor filters for smoothing and for extraction of circular symmetries are presented and discussed in particular. These methods are used for corner detection and extraction of more global features such as lines in images. A novel method for grouping local orientation estimates into global line parameters is introduced. The method is based on a new parameter space, the Möbius Strip parameter space, which has similarities to the Hough transform. A local centroid clustering algorithm is used for classification in this space. The procedure automatically divides curves into line segments with appropriate lengths depending on the curvature. A linked list structure is built up for storing data in an efficient way.</p> / Ogiltigt nummer / annan version: I publ. nr 290:s ISBN: 91-7870-815-X.

Conservation tillage programs have been successfully implemented for many agronomic cropping systems, but adoption of reduced tillage for vegetable crops has been slow. As many conventionally managed conservation tillage programs rely on synthetic herbicides for clean cultivation, alternative methods must be devised to suppress weed pressure and reduce reliance on mechanical cultivation to aid in the development of reduced tillage programs for organic cropping system. Strip tillage is a reduced tillage method that is well suited to vegetable crop production, and the utilization of cover crops and living mulches between rows provides a viable weed management option for organic systems. The adoption of reduced tillage and the inclusion of cover crops and living mulches have the potential to alter the agroecosystem in ways that impact plant development and crop yield, and augment weed, insect and disease pressure. The current study focuses on the use of strip tillage and the interplanting of spring-seeded living mulches and overwintered cover crops for early-season organic broccoli production. Data were collected on ground cover provided by cover crops and living mulches, crop physiological status (petiole sap nitrate, photosynthetic rate, plant growth and crop biomass) and pest pressure (weed relative abundance, insect density and disease incidence and severity). Living mulches provided the greatest ground coverage when cover crop establishment was poor; however, when cover crops produced a large amount of biomass, living mulch establishment was suppressed. Decreases in herbivorous pests and suppression of grassy and cool-season weed species were also observed, indicating that strip tillage and the use of spring-seeded living mulches and overwintered cover crops may provide beneficial pest management strategies. Decreases in crop growth and biomass, and decreases in petiole sap nitrate were observed, however, indicating reductions in crop vigor and yield may be expected with the implementation of strip tillage and living mulch crops. It is suggested that the utilization of strip tillage and living mulch crops may provide benefits to pest management which may outweigh declines in yield.

Digital imaging systems for medical applications must bebased upon highly efficient detectors to ensure low patientdose. This is particularly important in screening mammographybecause of the large number healthy women that is examined. Amammography system must also provide high spatial and contrastresolution. Different approaches are compared in this thesis,and it is argued that a system based on photon countingdetectors in a scanned multi-slit geometry provides aperformance superior to established technologies. The system is realized using silicon strip detectorsirradiated at a small angle relative to the wafer surface,thereby offering large absorption depth. A linear pixelarray isscanned across the breast to obtain the complete image.Pulse-processing electronics rejecting all detector andelectronics noise count the number of photons that aredetected, forming the pixel values of the image. Optimization of the detector design is discussed in detail.The detector has been carefully simulated to investigate chargemotion and signal formation after photoninteraction. Based onthese simulations, the impact of the detector characteristicson the image quality has been evaluated. Detectors have been manufactured and evaluated both assingle components and as part of experimental imaging devicesincluding custom readout electronics. Presented in this thesisare the measured detector characteristics including a verifi-cation of charge collection efficiency and confirmation thatthe quantum efficiency is 90% for a typical mammographyspectrum. Modulation transfer functions and noise power spectrawere recorded and the detective quantum efficiency calculated.A prototype mammography system was also assembled and themodulation transfer function recorded. The interpretation ofthe modulation transfer function and detective quantumefficiency is discussed for digital systems in general and fora scanned multi-slit system in particular. <b>Keywords:</b>x-ray, imaging, silicon, detector, digital,mammography, scanning, photon counting.

The thesis is focused on lubricants and roll wear in striprolling. Regarding lubricants, the possibility of introducing newones, which are less detrimental towards environment, isstudied in laboratory scale. This is done for cold rolling,both of an Al- alloy and a low carbon steel. The lubricationperformance of such newly developed–water-based–synthetic lubricants is compared with currently used mineraloils and emulsions. By using the experimental method of"forward slip" measurements combined with slab methodcalculations and FE- simulations, friction coefficients areevaluated for different single pass reductions. Lubricantsbearing capacity and the product surface roughness are alsoevaluated. The results are encouraging. A synthetic water-based lubricant, used in the cold rollingof an Al- alloy, showed good lubrication capability, betterthan the mineral oil but worse than the emulsion. The rolledAl- strip finish was found to be finest for the syntheticlubricant followed by the mineral oil and the emulsion. Similarresults were obtained from the steel rolling. Here foursynthetic lubricants were compared with two mineral oils andone emulsion. The best lubricant was found to be one of thewater-based synthetics, showing the lowest value of thefriction coefficient and a smooth product surface. The aim of the wear study is to develop an accurateroll-wear prediction for hot strip finishing mills, which takesmore influential parameters into account. A new model of higheraccuracy is presented. This model is based on a large amount ofproduction campaigns. The strategy of the work is describedbelow. After a comprehensive literature study a promising modelstructure was found. The corresponding equation is tested ontwo hot strip mills. Predicted wear is found to be inqualitative agreement with industrial experience and measuredwear. Thus the structure–taking the influence of back-uprolls into account–was chosen for further development.This was done on behalf of results obtained from one mill builtup by six stands and three different work-roll materials.Campaigns of "mixed" and "similar" strip grades were used. Theobtained model is tested successfully in two other hot stripmills. Contradictory to the currently used on-line model, the newmodel takes the work roll flattening and back-up rolls contactarea into consideration. Also the influence of strip- and workroll grades is included. The model enables increased rolledstrip length and prolonged lifetime of the rolls, because ofimproved process control. Further more, grinding cost and timefor roll changing can be minimized. Of course thesepossibilities should result in considerable energy saving. <b>Keywords:</b>Strip rolling, lubricants, environment, rollwear modeling, production campaigns, regression analysis

Investigation of the Double-Y Balun for Feeding Pulsed Antennas Jaikrishna Venkatesan 232 Pages Directed by Dr. Waymond Scott, Jr. In this research, a double-y balun implemented with coplanar waveguide (CPW) and coplanar strip (CPS) was investigated for use with pulsed antennas. The balun was modeled using two commercial electromagnetic simulators: Momentum and HFSS. Using these numerical solvers, design information such as the design of CPW bridges, aspect ratio of the double-y balun, and stub lengths of the CPW and CPS open and short stubs were studied. A dipole, along with the outer conductor of a coaxial line was modeled in NEC. The model was used to study the currents along the arms and feedline of balanced and unbalanced dipoles. Normalized amplitude patterns were generated along the azimuth and elevation planes for balanced and unbalanced dipoles. These patterns were used later for comparison with measured patterns. Experimental work was conducted to measure the performance of a double-y balun designed to feed a resistively loaded V-dipole. The performance of the balun was investigated via VSWR, insertion loss, and antenna pattern measurements. Antenna pattern measurements along the azimuth plane were conducted for a 5 cm dipole fed without a balun, a 5 cm dipole fed with the double-y balun, a 5 cm dipole fed with the sleeve balun, a 12 cm dipole fed without a balun, and a 12 cm dipole fed with the double-y balun. The dipoles fed without a balun were fed directly with a 50 W coaxial line. An optical link, consisting of a laser modulator (LM) unit and a laser receiver (LR) unit, was constructed to measure the patterns along the elevation plane of the above dipoles. Resulting patterns agreed closely with patterns generated with NEC models. In addition, the patterns of a resistively loaded V-dipole were measured along the E-plane using the optical link. The measured patterns for the V-dipole were compared with numerical results obtained from literature. The experimental work conducted in this research illustrates the improvement obtained in the patterns of a dipole and a resistively loaded V-dipole with the use of the double-y balun.