In an increasing number of use cases, databases face the challenge of managing irregularly structured data. Irregularly structured data is characterized by a quickly evolving variety of entities without a common set of attributes. These entities do not show enough regularity to be captured in a traditional database schema. A common solution is to centralize the diverse entities in a universal table. Usually, this leads to a very sparse table. Although today's techniques allow efficient storage of sparse universal tables, query efficiency is still a problem. Queries that reference only a subset of attributes have to read the whole universal table including many irrelevant entities. One possible solution is to use a partitioning of the table, which allows pruning partitions of irrelevant entities before they are touched. Creating and maintaining such a partitioning manually is very laborious or even infeasible, due to the enormous complexity. Thus an autonomous solution is desirable. In this paper, we define the Online Partitioning Problem for irregularly structured data and present Cinderella. Cinderella is an autonomous online algorithm for horizontal partitioning of irregularly structured entities in universal tables. It is designed to keep its overhead low by incrementally assigning entities to partitions while they are touched anyway during modifications. The achieved partitioning allows queries that retrieve only entities with a subset of attributes easily pruning partitions of irrelevant entities. Cinderella increases the locality of queries and reduces query execution cost.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T19:21:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Iracema Andrea Arantes da Cruz.pdf: 978519 bytes, checksum: 3c1635bc026bcfbd03092fa9af36950f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-10-23 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The present study analyses the Economy of Communion (EoC), a Project launched within the Focolare Movement - a Catholic, Ecumenical, Interreligious and Intercultural Movement present in 182 countries. The study is based on the hypotheses that the EoC represents a possible means of Catholicism to influence the economic system by acting simultaneously both at civil and religious level. The importance and relevancy of this study lies in the fact that it introduces the EoC in a wider context according to the theory of Social Systems by Niklas Luhmann, which understands modern societies as an entity composed of sub-systems, each of them representing diversified, specialized and relatively autonomous, but inter-related functions for the maintenance and evolution of the major society. Thus religion is recognized as a system co-existing side by side with others, finding ways to maintain itself in relation to them, once it lost its hegemony as a source for social order. Based on the analyses to the emergence, delimitation and the role of the EoC according to Luhmann s approach, the present study argues that EoC can be considered a means in which Catholicism influences non-religious fields by assuming an inter-systemic relation / A presente pesquisa analisa a Economia de Comunhão (EdC), um projeto que surgiu no interior do Movimento dos Focolares católico, ecumênico, inter-religioso e intercultural, presente em 182 países, a partir das hipóteses, segundo as quais, a EdC atua simultaneamente nas esferas civil e religiosa, além de ser um possível meio de a religião cristã católica atuar sua influência na esfera civil, neste caso, no sistema econômico. A importância e pertinência deste estudo podem ser justificadas pelo fato de introduzir a EdC em um contexto mais amplo, a questão da função da religião na contemporaneidade, segundo a abordagem da Teoria dos Sistemas Sociais de Niklas Luhmann, considerada adequada, exatamente, por entender a sociedade contemporânea funcionalmente diversificada e especializada, organizada em sistemas relativamente autônomos, que possuem uma lógica própria, mas que estão continuamente em relação com os demais sistemas da sociedade. Assim sendo, a religião é entendida como um sistema que co-existe ao lado dos outros, tendo de encontrar modos de manter-se em relação com eles, uma vez que, a partir da modernidade, perdera a hegemonia como fonte da ordenação social. Ao final da pesquisa, esta dissertação conclui que a EdC pode ser considerada um meio de a religião cristã católica influir em âmbitos não religiosos, a partir da relação inter-sistêmica, tendo analisado a surgimento, a delimitação e o desempenho do projeto, de acordo com a abordagem luhmanniana

Η παρούσα μελέτη αποσκοπούσε στη διερεύνηση των επιμορφωτικών αναγκών των νεοδιόριστων δασκάλων. Μετά τον προσδιορισμό και την καταγραφή των προβλημάτων που αντιμετωπίζουν οι δάσκαλοι στο καθημερινό τους έργο, προσπαθήσαμε να προσδιορίσουμε τις προσωπικές τους ανάγκες για επιμόρφωση, διαχωρίζοντάς τες σε συνειδητές και ρητές και σε συνειδητές και μη ρητές. Στη συνέχεια εξετάσαμε κατά πόσο το πρόγραμμα της εισαγωγικής επιμόρφωσης το οποίο είναι υποχρεωμένοι να παρακολουθήσουν οι νεοδιόριστοι δάσκαλοι, ανταποκρίθηκε στα προβλήματα και κάλυψε τις επιμορφωτικές ανάγκες τους. Για τη μελέτη των παραπάνω θεμάτων, χρησιμοποιήσαμε τη θεωρία των κοινωνικών συστημάτων και ως ερευνητικό εργαλείο το ερωτηματολόγιο. Για την επεξεργασία των δεδομένων χρησιμοποιήθηκαν τόσο η ποσοτική ανάλυση, όσο και η ποιοτική ανάλυση περιεχομένου. Τα αποτελέσματα της μελέτης έδειξαν, ότι τα προβλήματα και οι επιμορφωτικές ανάγκες είναι πολλά, ενώ το πρόγραμμα της εισαγωγικής επιμόρφωσης δεν ανταποκρίθηκε στα προβλήματα και στις ανάγκες που είχαν οι νεοδιόριστοι δάσκαλοι για επιμόρφωση. / The study aimed to analyze the training needs of newly appointed primary teachers. After defining and recording the daily problems that schoolteachers face in their work, we tried to impose their personal needs for in-service training by dividing them into two categories: conscious and explicit ones and in conscious and not explicit ones. The next step was to examine the grade to which the program of introductive in-service training which, the newly appointed primary teachers are obliged to follow, covered their training needs and gave solution to some of the existing problems. In order to investigate the above-mentioned subjects, we applied the theory of social systems. As a research tool in our study we used the questionnaire. Quantitative as well as qualitative content analysis, have been used in order to analyze data. The study showed multiple problems, and indicated the great need for future training. Finally, the introductive training program did not correspond to the problems and the needs that the newly appointed primary teachers faced

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No. of bitstreams: 1 hass_hd_me_fran.pdf: 1139407 bytes, checksum: c26e6bdd8b44d3d2328fb41fa379742f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-06-14 / Este estudo tem por objetivo analisar a capacidade do Poder Judiciário em lidar com questões relativas a políticas públicas de assistência farmacêutica, bem como examinar a eficiência distributiva pela qual vem promovendo este direito social. O government by policies, a constitucionalização dos direitos sociais e a crise de representatividade política têm levado os Tribunais a assumirem um papel central na efetivação destes direitos. Contudo, trata-se de um tema que necessita aprofundamento, tendo em vista as formas com que o Judiciário intervém e as implicações que provoca. Esta proposta investigativa não pretende discutir a possibilidade de existência do fenômeno, tampouco a legitimidade democrática da atuação jurisdicional. O diferencial está no enfrentamento da questão a partir da compreensão dos limites da capacidade operacional do sistema jurídico, na análise interdisciplinar de políticas públicas e na demonstração empírica de seus impactos. Pretende-se, assim, examinar se o padrão de funcionamento judicial é adequado e válido para substituir o crivo político-administrativo e lidar com todos os elementos necessários da implementação da política pública e, além disso, se mostra-se consciente do conjunto de processos que constituem uma política pública. Por fim, verificaremos quais os efeitos distributivos da decisão judicial, com base em uma pesquisa documental qualitativa, no intuito de avaliar se a judicialização assiste os mais vulneráveis e reduz as desigualdades sociais ou se, na verdade, acaba por inverter a lógica distributiva, beneficiando os já favorecidos. Tudo isso no intuito de averiguar se o Judiciário é capaz ou não de desempenhar a função política que atualmente desagua nele ou se seu protagonismo evidencia uma disfuncionalidade. / The objective of this study is to analyze the capacity of the Judiciary to deal with issues related to public policies of pharmaceutical assistance, as well as to examine the distributive efficiency that this social right has been promoted. The governments by policies, constitutionalization of social rights and crisis of the political representation have led the Courts to play a central role in the realization of these rights. However, this is a subject that needs to be deepened, considering the ways in which the Judiciary intervenes and the implications that it causes. This investigative proposal does not intend to discuss the possibility of existence of the phenomenon, nor the democratic legitimacy of the judicial action. The differential lies in confronting the issue by understanding the limits of the operational capacity of the legal system, the interdisciplinary analysis of public policies and the empirical demonstration of its impacts. The aim is to examine whether the standard of judicial functioning is adequate and valid to replace the political-administrative sieve and to deal with all the necessary elements of the implementation of public policy. In addition, we intend to analyze if the Judiciary is aware of the set of processes that constitute a public policy. Finally, we verify the distributive effects of the judicial decision, based on a qualitative documentary research, in order to evaluate if the judicialization assists the most vulnerable and reduces social inequalities or reverses the distributive logic. All this in order to find out if the Judiciary is capable of performing the political function that currently drains in him or if its protagonism shows a dysfunctionality.

Die Arbeit ist der regelungstheoretischen Betrachtung von mechanischen Systemen mit mehr Freiheitsgraden als Stellgrößen gewidmet. Dabei werden Aspekte aus den Teilgebieten Modellbildung, Systemanalyse, Steuerungsentwurf und Reglerentwurf behandelt. Den Ausgangspunkt bilden die aus dem Lagrange-Formalismus resultierenden Bewegungsgleichungen, für welche neben verschiedene partiell linearisierten Zustandsdarstellungen auch eine spezielle Byrnes-Isidori-Normalform eingeführt wird. Im Unterschied zu einer früher vorgeschlagenen ähnliche Normalform existiert diese "Lagrange-Byrnes-Isidori-Normalform" immer. Weiterhin wird die bedeutende Eigenschaft der differentiellen Flachheit im Zusammenhang mit mechanischen Systemen untersucht. Die bestehende Lücke zwischen den bekannten notwendigen und hinreichenden Flachheitsbedingungen bildet die Motivation zur Anpassung der Regelflächenbedingung auf mechanische Systeme in Lagrange-Byrnes-Isidori-Normalform. Parallel dazu wird die Flachheitsanalyse auf Basis des sogenannten Variationssystems betrachtet. Dabei handelt es sich um ein System von 1-Formen, die durch Anwendung der äußeren Ableitung auf die impliziten Systemgleichungen entstehen. Äquivalent dazu können auch die in einer rechteckigen Polynommatrix bezüglich des Zeitableitungsoperators zusammengefassten Koeffizienten der Basisformen untersucht werden. Die Flachheit eines Systems ist nun gerade äquivalent zur Existenz einer unimodularen Vervollständigung dieser Matrix, welche zudem noch eine bestimmte Integrabilitätsbedingung erfüllen muss. Durch Anwendung des Satzes von Frobenius können aus diesen in der bisherigen Formulierung nur schwer überprüfbaren Bedingungen deutlich einfachere hergeleitet werden. Für den Eingrößenfall ergibt sich dadurch eine erheblich Verringerung des Rechenaufwandes im Vergleich zum Referenzansatz. Im Mehrgrößenfall ist die Situation komplizierter: Durch das Fallenlassen der Unimodularitätsforderung und die Ausnutzung der speziellen Struktur mechanischer Systeme erhält man eine neue notwendige Bedingung für Flachheit, welche sich in endlich vielen Schritten auswerten lässt. Allerdings konnte mit dieser die vermutete Nichtflachheit für die untersuchten mechanischen Beispielsysteme nicht nachgewiesen werden. Einen weiteren Untersuchungsgegenstand bildet das Konzept der Konfigurationsflachheit. Für diese Eigenschaft ist gefordert, dass ein flacher Ausgang existieren muss, der nur von den Konfigurationskoordinaten abhängt. Basierend auf theoretischen Überlungen und dem Fehlen von Gegenbeispielen wird die Hypothese aufgestellt, dass für konservative mechanische Systeme Flachheit und Konfigurationsflachheit äquivalent sind. Für lineare mechanische Systeme kann diese Hypothese mit Hilfe der Kronecker-Normalform von Matrizenscharen verifiziert werden. Bezüglich des Entwurfs von Solltrajektorien werden neben der Darstellung bekannter Verfahren für lineare und für flache Systeme zwei weitere Ansätze genauer diskutiert. Der erste basiert auf der numerischen Lösung des aus dem Steuerungsentwurf resultierenden Randwertproblems. Dazu wird ein angepasstes Kollokationsverfahren konstruiert, welches die Elimination von Systemgrößen durch die explizite Berücksichtigung von Integratorketten ermöglicht, die bei partiell linearisierten Systemen stets auftreten. Unter bestimmten Bedingungen bewirkt dies eine erhebliche Reduktion der Rechenzeit. Der zweite Ansatz betrachtet die Überführung zwischen zwei Ruhelagen und beruht auf der Zeitumkehrsymmetrie, die alle konservativen mechanischen Systeme aufweisen. Er besteht aus mehreren Schritten: Zunächst wird für beide Ruhelagen eine Rückführung mit möglichst großem Attraktivitätsgebiet entworfen. Danach wird das System simulativ ausgehend von der Zielruhelage in der Startruhelage stabilisiert. Die so erhaltene Eingangstrajektorie kann dann bezüglich der Zeit invertiert werden, um das System aus der Startruhelage in die Nähe der Zielruhelage zu überführen, wo schließlich der entsprechende Regler aktiviert wird. In praktischen Realisierungen von unteraktuierten Regelungssystemen treten auf Grund von Effekten wie trockener Reibung und Getriebespiel oft Dauerschwingungen mit schwer vorhersagbaren und beeinflussbaren Parametern auf. Als Alternative zur klassischen Stabilisierung einer (theoretischen) Ruhelage wird deshalb eine Rückführung hergeleitet, welche für ein gegebenes lineares System einen stabilen Grenzzyklus mit vorgebbarer Frequenz und Amplitude asymptotisch stabilisiert.

Die Dissertationsschrift widmet sich einer systemtheoretischen Untersuchung zur verkehrsabhängigen Steuerung von Lichtsignalanlagen in Straßennetzwerken. Aus einem mathematischen Modell für den Verkehrsablauf auf Knotenzufahrten wird ein Verfahren abgeleitet, mit dem sich Umschaltzeitpunkte und Phasenwechsel flexibel an das tatsächliche Verkehrsgeschehen anpassen lassen. Der Ansatzpunkt ist, die einzelnen Knotenpunkte des Netzwerks lokal zu optimieren. Eine "Grüne Welle" soll sich von selbst einstellen, und zwar genau dann, wenn dadurch lokal Wartezeiten eingespart werden. Indem die lokale Optimierung in ein lokales Stabilisierungsverfahren eingebettet wird, können Instabilitäten aufgrund netzwerkweiter Rückkopplungen ausgeschlossen werden. Das vorgestellte Verfahren setzt sich aus drei Teilen zusammen: (i) einem lokalen Prognoseverfahren zur Bewertung von Schaltzuständen und Phasenübergängen bezüglich zukünftig entstehender Wartezeiten, (ii) einem lokalen Optimierungsverfahren, das jeder Phase einen dynamischen Prioritätsindex zuweist und die Phase mit höchster Priorität zur Bedienung auswählt und (iii) einem lokalen Stabilisierungsverfahren, das zum Einhalten einer mittleren und einer maximalen Bedienperiode korrigierend in die lokale Optimierung eingreift. Indem die Knotenpunkte ausschließlich über die Verkehrsströme gekoppelt sind, ergeben sich die Umschaltzeitpunkte unmittelbar aus den Ankunftszeitpunkten der Fahrzeuge selbst. Die Phasenwechsel stellen sich somit von selbst bedarfsgerecht ein. Simulationsergebnisse machen deutlich, dass sich aufgrund der höheren Flexibilität sowohl die Wartezeiten als auch der Kraftstoffverbrauch senken lassen.

This research explores the role of blockchain technology in advanced information sharing systems with the applications of energy systems and healthcare. Essay 1 proposes a blockchain application to improve resilience in smart grids by addressing cyber security and peer-to-peer trading potentials. The results show that blockchain-based smart contracts are positively related to smart grid resilience. The findings also show that blockchain-based smart contracts significantly contribute to zero trust cybersecurity, which results in a better capability to mitigate cyber-attacks. Essay 2 proposes a blockchain application to improve electronic health record (EHR) systems by increasing patient's empowerment. Confirmatory factor analysis is used for the validity and reliability tests of the model. The results show that blockchain-based information systems can empower patients by providing the perception of control over their health records. The usage of blockchain technology motivates patients to share information with healthcare provider systems and has the advantage of reducing healthcare costs and improving diagnosis management. Essay 3 contributes to the existing literature by using a multimethod approach to propose three new mediators for blockchain-based healthcare information systems: digital health care, healthcare improvement, and peer-to-peer trade capability. Based on the findings from the text analysis, we propose a research model drawing upon stimulus-organism-response theory. Through three experimental studies, we test the research model to explain the patient's willingness to share their health records with others, including researchers. A post hoc analysis is conducted to segment patients and predict their behavior using four machine learning algorithms. The finding was that merely having peer-to-peer trade capability by ignoring healthcare improvement does not necessarily incentivize patients to share their medical reports.

The demand for automated decision making, learning and inference in uncertain, risk sensitive and dynamically changing situations presents a challenge: to design computational approaches that promise to be widely deployable and flexible to adapt on the one hand, while offering reliable guarantees on safety on the other. The tension between these desiderata has created a gap that, in spite of intensive research and contributions made from a wide range of communities, remains to be filled. This represents an intriguing challenge that provided motivation for much of the work presented in this thesis. With these desiderata in mind, this thesis makes a number of contributions towards the development of algorithms for automated decision-making and inference under uncertainty. To facilitate inference over unobserved effects of actions, we develop machine learning approaches that are suitable for the construction of models over dynamical laws that provide uncertainty bounds around their predictions. As an example application for conservative decision-making, we apply our learning and inference methods to control in uncertain dynamical systems. Owing to the uncertainty bounds, we can derive performance guarantees of the resulting learning-based controllers. Furthermore, our simulations demonstrate that the resulting decision-making algorithms are effective in learning and controlling under uncertain dynamics and can outperform alternative methods. Another set of contributions is made in multi-agent decision-making which we cast in the general framework of optimisation with interaction constraints. The constraints necessitate coordination, for which we develop several methods. As a particularly challenging application domain, our exposition focusses on collision avoidance. Here we consider coordination both in discrete-time and continuous-time dynamical systems. In the continuous-time case, inference is required to ensure that decisions are made that avoid collisions with adjustably high certainty even when computation is inevitably finite. In both discrete-time and finite-time settings, we introduce conservative decision-making. That is, even with finite computation, a coordination outcome is guaranteed to satisfy collision-avoidance constraints with adjustably high confidence relative to the current uncertain model. Our methods are illustrated in simulations in the context of collision avoidance in graphs, multi-commodity flow problems, distributed stochastic model-predictive control, as well as in collision-prediction and avoidance in stochastic differential systems. Finally, we provide an example of how to combine some of our different methods into a multi-agent predictive controller that coordinates learning agents with uncertain beliefs over their dynamics. Utilising the guarantees established for our learning algorithms, the resulting mechanism can provide collision avoidance guarantees relative to the a posteriori epistemic beliefs over the agents' dynamics.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:22:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fernando Hideo Iochida Lacerda.pdf: 1457772 bytes, checksum: b9aecec24ea84eaf447c16136ce8b004 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-10-28 / The scope of the present work is to propose boundaries for the criminalization of our time, from an overview of the juridical value as an evolutionary acquisition. In this sense, the juridical value corresponds to the structural coupling between criminal law and criminal policy, being a product of evolutionary differentiation that operated between the legal and political systems. With that purpose, Niklas Luhmann s theory of systems was adopted as a conceptual assumption, as well as a view of time, considering that we live in a risk society, according to the notions of Ulrich Beck. Applying these scientific references, this thesis proposes a new discussion of the relationship between the Constitution, the juridical value, the criminal law, criminal procedure and criminal policy, defending the idea that it is a function of the legislature to identify the juridical value as a basis for creating criminal law, considering that all the process of penal intervention is positively limited by constitutional norms. The dissertation deals with the criminalization of our time: regarding criminal intervention as a product of politics - analyzing the (non) existence of constitutional warrants binding the production of non constitutional rules, from a vision of the Constitution as a threshold of criminal law, whose foundation would be the juridical value - or concerning the moment of criminal intervention as an operation of the legal system, from the (non) possibility of challenging the constitutional procedural safeguards aiming to adapt risk society's expectations. It is a search for foundations, limits and parameters for the penal system of our time: the minimum criminal law and criminal procedure, informed by constitutional principles / Escopo deste trabalho é a proposta de balizas para a criminalização de nosso tempo, a partir de uma visão do bem jurídico como aquisição evolutiva. Nesse sentido, o bem jurídico penal corresponde ao acoplamento estrutural entre o direito penal e a política criminal, produto da diferenciação evolutiva que se operou entre os sistemas jurídico e político. Para tanto, são adotados como pressupostos conceituais basilares a teoria dos sistemas de Niklas Luhmann e uma visão da sociedade de risco como o tempo em que vivemos, a partir de noções formuladas por Ulrich Beck. Empregando esses referentes científicos, a presente dissertação rediscute a relação entre Constituição, bem jurídico, direito penal, processual penal e política criminal, defendendo a ideia de que é função do legislador a identificação do bem jurídico como fundamento de normas penais incriminadoras, estando todo o processo de intervenção penal limitado positivamente pelas normas constitucionais. A dissertação trata da criminalização de nosso tempo: seja no momento da intervenção penal como produto político ― analisando-se a (in)existência de mandados constitucionais que vinculariam a produção normativa infraconstitucional, a partir de uma visão da Constituição como limite do direito penal, cujo fundamento seria o bem jurídico ―, quer no momento da intervenção penal como operação do sistema jurídico, a partir da (im)possibilidade de relativização das garantias processuais de natureza constitucional para adequação às expectativas da sociedade de risco. É uma busca por fundamentos, limites e parâmetros para o sistema penal de nosso tempo: do direito penal mínimo e do processo penal garantista, informados pelos princípios constitucionais

This study aims at exploring the social, affective and cognitive variables that would be related to the use of the address form usted in Chilean Spanish. Specifically, we refer to the use that can be observed in interactions between Chileans residing in Sweden. A particular aspect of this situation is that, while the majority group almost exclusively use the form that is commonly associated with solidarity (in this case the Swedish pronoun du), the minority group referred to maintains the pronoun that normally is associated with power, distance, formality and politeness: usted. In other words, while the equivalent in Swedish of usted (ni) is seldom used in majority language, the opposite is observed in the minority language object of study. We believe that the motives for the use of usted in this minority context are more complex than they appear to be. Consequently, an alternative hypothesis has been worked out with reference to theories within the area of Social Psychology. On this basis the following main hypothesis was formulated: Individuals representing the minority group in ethnic contact situations tend to increase their identification with the minority group in order to be admitted by and adhere to this group, if they feel that they are rejected by the majority group. The form usted is not the result of a fortuitous situation, nor can it be explained by the fact that it is the normal usage in the native country, but that it fulfils a strategic objective: to mark the affiliation with the minority group. The method has consisted in grouping together and correlating factors pertaining to the environment, the agent and the guest according to the Ecological Triad, the interaction of which contributes to the appearance of the observed behaviour that underlies this study. The statistical analysis enabled us to verify what was put forward in the hypothesis.