Doctor of Philosophy / Department of History / Mark Parillo / America forged a successful way of war that relied on adaptation, and this trait was not simply an adjunct to industrial might as a reason why the Allies won World War II. An American penchant for organization and corporate management allowed for mass production of war material, which clearly contributed to Axis defeat. However, to claim that the Axis Powers were merely overwhelmed by an avalanche of weapons and supply is reductionist. This dissertation contends that adaptability was as much an American way of war as mass production and overwhelming firepower. The particular nature of American adaptability and its contribution to Allied victory are exhibited in the Army’s use of animal power during a conflict synonymous with mechanized warfare and advanced technology. The application of pre-modern technology in a modern, machine-driven war was not archaic. On the contrary, the nature of American adaptability allowed the Army to move forward by retreating down a culturally constructed hierarchy of modernity and employing the traditional mode of animal transportation. The Army’s technological regression from motors to mules in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and China-Burma-India during World War II is the focus of this work. Americans possessed material abundance in campaigns across Western Europe and the Central Pacific in 1944 and 1945, as German and Japanese prisoners attested. Mountains of artillery shells, fuel, and food, however, did not exist in the backwater “sideshows.” American military success on the periphery was not due to material abundance, nor to a greater sense of determination. America won the backwater campaigns because the nature of American adaptability was cultivated over the centuries and converted from a way of life to an American way of war.

[pt] A pesquisa em redes móveis e computação pervasiva têm demonstrado que adaptação dinâmica e sensibilidade ao contexto são requisitos básicos para aplicações nestes ambientes. Muitos dos trabalhos sobre adaptação dinâmica sensível ao contexto encontrados na literatura se baseiam nas informações de contexto de dispositivos para selecionar e executar uma determinada adaptação, mas somente no próprio dispositivo. Para aplicações distribuídas cientes do contexto envolvendo um grupo de dispositivos portáteis, executando em uma rede sem fio, por vezes faz-se necessária uma adaptação conjunta e coordenada de todos os dispositivos do grupo, adaptação essa que depende de um contexto global do grupo. Este trabalho apresenta Moratus, um protocolo para obter o contexto global de um grupo de dispositivos e executar uma única adaptação de serviços de comunicação em todos os dispositivos de forma coordenada. Este protocolo também leva em conta e trata desconexões involuntárias de membros do grupo durante o processo. O Moratus é o elemento central de um middleware, o SACS, que permite que tal adaptação coordenada ocorra de forma transparente e sem interrupção para a aplicação distribuída que usa o middleware. / [en] Research in mobile networks and pervasive computing has shown that dynamic adaptation and context-awareness are basic requirements for applications executing in such environments. Many of the works about context-awareness dynamic adaptation found in the literature use the device's context information to execute an adaptation only locally at the device. For distributed, context-aware applications composed of a group of portable devices (executing in a wireless network) sometimes it is necessary to perform a collective and coordinated adaptation at all the devices of the group, and where this adaptation depends on the global context of the group. This thesis presents Moratus, a protocol that processes the global context of a group and executes a unique adaptation of a communication service at all devices in the group in a coordinated way. This protocol also handles unplanned disconnections of group members during the adaptation process. Moratus is the central element of a middleware named SACS, which allows that such coordinated adaptation is performed transparently and without disruption for the distributed application based on this middleware.

[pt] A computação móvel cria a necessidade de que as aplicações sejam adaptáveis de acordo com o contexto do usuário. Demandas específicas do usuário, assim como alterações no contexto computacional requerem que aplicações móveis clientes devam ser capazes de se adaptar dinamicamente para se adequar ao novo cenário de execução. Estas adaptações precisam ser apropriadas e devem manter a qualidade de serviço evitando falhas ou degradação do desempenho da aplicação. Este trabalho propõe uma extensão do middleware de componentes Kaluana, que provê um mecanismo de seleção de componentes para aplicações adaptáveis a partir de contratos de reconfiguração. Esta seleção é feita com a noção de equivalência entre suas as interfaces públicas e considera as restrições de execução dos componentes candidatos a serem usados na adaptação de acordo com o contexto computacional do dispositivo para a avaliação dos componentes candidatos a instanciação. Esta seleção visa manter a compatibilidade dos novos componentes com os componentes já implantados bem como com o contexto de execução, ou seja, o estado corrente dos recursos no dispositivo. Com a noção de equivalência entre as interfaces de especificação de componentes, a aplicação tem a possibilidade de selecionar componentes através da interface do serviço requisitado sem a necessidade de conhecer seu nome ou alguma característica específica, evitando assim que uma amarração seja criada com uma determinada implementação. / [en] Mobile computing creates the need for applications to be adaptable according to the user s context. Specific user demands as well as changes in the computational context the mobile applications require clients to be able to adapt dynamically to suit the new scenario of execution. These adjustments should be appropriate and should maintain the quality of service avoiding failures or preventing degradation of application performance. This thesis proposes an extension of Kaluana middleware which provides a mechanism for selection of components for adaptive applications based on the notion of reconfigurations contracts. This selection is done also based on the notion of equivalence between their public interfaces and should consider the execution restrictions of the candidate components to be used in the adaptation in accord to the device s execution context to be used to evaluate the candidate components to the instantiation. This selection aims to maintain the compatibility of new components with the components already used as well as the execution context, i.e. the current status of the device s resources. Due to the notion of equivalence between the interface specifications of components, the application should be able to request a component through the interface of the requested service, avoiding the need to know the component s name or any other specific feature that creates a tie with the given implementation.

Duas dimensões afetam fortemente a vida das pessoas, o trabalho e a família. A dual career, favorece a relação trabalho-família, pois o envolvimento dos cônjuges no atendimento das demandas das duas esferas possibilita o avanço da carreira ao mesmo tempo em que se ajustam na vida familiar. Estar seguro nessa relação endossa a prontidão para lidar com as mudanças de carreiras. A adaptabilidade de carreira envolve a capacidade de um indivíduo de usar vários recursos para lidar com mudanças na carreira. Dessa forma, a fim de conhecer os recursos que as pessoas casadas utilizam para se ajustar ao mundo dinâmico atual, este trabalho propôs-se a compreender como se dão as configurações familiares de pessoas casadas na relação dual career, sob o enfoque da adaptabilidade de carreira? Com base no objetivo proposto, foi realizada uma pesquisa descritiva e quantitativa, com 634 participantes, dos quais 331 pessoas eram casadas e com filhos e 303 pessoas eram casadas e sem filhos. Os resultados foram obtidos pela análise descritiva de dados, utilizando-se a Análise Fatorial Exploratória e análise de conglomerados (cluster). Os resultados a partir dos grupos com filhos e sem filhos revelaram os seguintes agrupamentos: casados com filhos; resolvidos, balanceados, desamparados e desapaixonados. Para o grupo de pessoas casadas e sem filhos outros quatro agrupamentos se destacam, sendo: os indiferentes, desapegados, influenciados e apegados. Os resultados obtidos permitiram caracterizar o perfil de pessoas casadas com filhos e sem filhos, verificando quais deles demonstraram domínios de adaptabilidade de carreira quando relacionadas a perspectiva da dual career. Para aqueles que sentem o apoio (do cônjuge ou organizacional), a adaptabilidade de carreira é percebida, demonstrando que a cooperação e o suporte social estimulam o acesso aos recursos de enfrentamento interno e reforçam as respostas apropriadas as decisões de carreira. / Two dimensions strongly affect the lives of people, work and family. The dual career favors the work-family relationship, since the involvement of the spouses in meeting the demands of the two spheres makes it possible to advance the career while adjusting for family life. Being secure in this relationship endorses readiness to cope with career changes. Career adaptability refers to the ability of an individual to use various resources to deal with career changes. Thus, in order to know the resources which married people use to adjust to the current dynamic world, this study aims to verify how the family configurations of married people work in the dual career relationship, under the approach of career adaptability. Based on the objective, a descriptive and quantitative survey was conducted with 634 participants, of whom 331 were married with children and 303 people were married without children. The results were obtained through descriptive data analysis, using exploratory factorial analysis and cluster analysis. The results from the groups with children and without children revealed the following groupings: married with children; resolved, balanced, helpless and dispassionate. For the group of married without children, four other groups stand out: the indifferent, detached, influenced and attached. The results obtained allowed to characterize the profile of married people with children and without children, verifying which of them demonstrated domains of career adaptability when related to the perspective of the dual career. For those who feel the support (of the spouse or organizational), career adaptability is perceived, demonstrating that cooperation and social support stimulate access to internal coping resources and reinforce appropriate responses to career decisions.

Agility is referred to as the ability of a firm to proactively or reactively adapt successfully to rapid changes within the business environment both internally and externally. The Post-Merger Integration (PMI) phase is characterized by rapid organizational changes which require new strategy methods that suit the nature of today’s fast paced business environments. Though characterized by changes, the PMI presents an opportune moment for the transformation of a business by exploring and exhausting the innovation potential of the integrating firms through the use of agile aspects that seek to identify risks and explore opportunities in a nimble manner. These aspects are several, but in this study, we delve into three namely, flexibility, adaptability and customer focus. The aspects of agility originated from fields of Software Development and are fairly new to the discipline of Business Administration but are considered to be evolving and popular across other fields of study. The current era is noted by scholars as the Scaled Agile Framework Development Era which is characterized by an emergence in agile frameworks that aid in large scale programs of an organization, such as the PMI in this case. This era represents a steppingstone to business agility, the future of agility that seeks to transform an organization to be adaptive to changes. The purpose of this study is to develop an agile framework drawing from empirical findings of the use of agility aspects in the context of a merger and acquisition, more specifically, the post-merger integration phase, to act as an innovation catalyst. To obtain insights and a better understanding on what we set ourselves to research, we explore an embedded single case study of a firm operating in a traditional industry, the maritime industry, in order to investigate the following research question:How can agility in the context of a Post-Merger Integration (PMI) contribute toinnovation? Eight semi-structured interviews with senior executives and senior managers of the case company were conducted in order to draw insights on their previous experiences with mergers and acquisitions. Empirical evidence was collected and coded in line with the Gioia methodology and with the aid of references to extant literature we began to build theory thereof. Our findings revealed that agile aspects may be adopted to complement and not necessarily replace existing hierarchical structures, procedures and processes within the PMI. Additionally, all three aspects of agility we sought to investigate prove to be useful to promote innovation in PMIs when adopted. The theoretical contribution of our study is the development of an agile framework that may be utilized in the PMI to identify, exploit and exhaust the innovation potential of the M&A activity. Furthermore, the framework may be validated in a different company or setting other than the company under study.

A socioecologia estuda a diversidade dos sistemas sociais a partir dos princípios da ecologia comportamental. Roedores são bons modelos para o estudo dos sistemas sociais por apresentarem elevada variação no comportamento social, a qual pode ser uma adaptação selecionada no passado evolutivo e/ou uma resposta adaptativa ao contexto ecológico atual. Estudar preás para investigar a flexibilidade da organização social é relevante porque, apesar de explorarem vários ambientes diferentes, esses animais podem apresentar certa rigidez comportamental. Nesse contexto, a hipótese que avaliamos é a de que a organização social dos preás Cavia magna, um herbívoro pouco estudado, encontrado do Norte do Uruguai ao Sul do Brasil, depende de determinantes ecológicos atuais, sendo uma resposta adaptativa. A hipótese alternativa é a de que a organização social é uma resposta adaptada, limitada por características selecionadas no passado. Para isso, (1) caracterizamos suas interações sociais; (2) avaliamos as distâncias interindividuais durante o forrageamento, (3) analisamos o padrão de agregação dos indivíduos e (4) comparamos seus comportamentos e organização social com os dados disponíveis de uma população da espécie ocorrente no Uruguai e com os dados de Cavia intermedia, uma espécie endêmica das Ilhas Moleques do Sul, em Santa Catarina que apresenta adaptações ao habitat insular. Os preás foram observados em uma área urbana costeira, dentro do campus do Instituto Federal de Santa Catarina (IFSC), em Florianópolis. Esse local apresenta isolamento da população em área pequena e com pouco risco de predação, isto é, uma área semelhante ao habitat insular. Observamos os preás na estação fria-seca e quente-úmida, por 60 dias. Concluímos que a população de C. magna do IFSC é social, pois encontramos grandes tamanhos médios de agregação, elevados Índices de Associação entre os indivíduos, e associações preferenciais em três grupos com conformação típica de harém. Constatamos que são poligínicos, porque o acesso às fêmeas diferiu entre os machos, e estes apresentaram mais comportamentos agonísticos que as fêmeas. A presença de hierarquia de dominância e ausência de comportamento territorialista dos machos indicaram que a poliginia foi sem defesa. Apesar de termos encontrado um sistema social semelhante ao de C. intermedia, não encontramos características típicas de síndrome insular. Dessa forma, corroboramos a hipótese de que a organização social dos preás é uma resposta adaptativa / Socioecology studies social systems applying the behavioral ecology principles. Studying rodents social systems represents a valuable opportunity once this group shows high variations on social behavior, which may be an adaptation selected in evolutionary past and/or an adaptative feedback to the ecological context. Investigate the social organization flexibility by studying cavies is relevant because of its relative behavioral rigidity, despite their occupation of different environments. In this context, we intend to evaluate our hypothesis on the Cavia magna, cavie social organization: it depends on current ecological factors, being an adaptive answer. C. magna is an herbivore found on northern Uruguay and south of Brazil. The alternative hypothesis is that the social organization is an adaptive answer, limited by reaction rules selected on the past. The cavies was observed in a coast urban area, inside of the Instituto Federal de Santa Catarina (IFSC), in continental Florianópolis, Brazil. The population is isolated in a small area with low predatory risk, being similar to an insulated habitat. We collected data on social interaction, interindividual distances during foraging, grouping pattern and sexual ratio. This data was compared to the available data of Cavia intermedia, from the Moleques do Sul archipelago, specie that was probably derived from C. magna and presents adaptations to the insular habitat. Cavies were observed for 60 days in cold-dry and hot-wet season. We have concluded that the studied C. magna population is social, given that we have found relatively large mean groups size, high Association Indexes between individuals, and preferred associations in three clusters with typical harem structure. We have also found that the population is polygynous, because the access to females differed between male individuals, and the males performed significantly more agonistic behaviors than females. The existence of a dominance hierarchy and the absence of male territorial behavior pointed to polygyny without defense. Even though the studied social system is similar to the one observed on C. intermedia, we did not encounter typical insular syndrome features on C. magna. Accordingly, we have supported the hypothesis that the cavies social organization is an adaptive answer

Thesis advisor: David L. Blustein / Deficit-oriented research has ignored the strengths of urban adolescents of color, perpetuating interpretations that they are deviant and pathological (Spencer et al., 2006). Generally unacknowledged by problem-focused perspectives is how youths of color grapple with vulnerability to negative socialization messages, prejudice and discrimination, thus they possess competencies that warrant attention (Blustein et al., 2010; Franklin, 2004; Nicolas et al., 2008; Spencer et al., 2006). The purpose of this study is to examine psychosocial influences that promote career adaptability in a sample of 84 urban adolescents of color. Exploratory questions about the contributions of critical consciousness and racial identity to career outcome expectations and subjective well-being were investigated. The results of the regression analyses offer support for considering selected racial identity schemas (Helms, 1995b) as integral parts of counseling interventions to promote career adaptability. Internalization was significantly associated with both outcome variables. Additionally, decreased levels of Dissonance and Immersion-Resistance were found to be related to higher levels of satisfaction with school and work. Implications for programming and policy include recognizing and strengthening abilities of high school students of color to value their racial identity in the vocational process. These findings enhance the understanding of urban adolescents' psychological armor against social injustice and add to the career development literature by counteracting the negative portrayal of this group. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology.

Dados de 111.101 pesos a desmama ajustado aos 205 dias de idade (PES205), 50.860 pesos ajustados aos 390 dias (PES390) e 47.462 ganhos de peso até 185 dias após a desmama (GP185) foram analisados para avaliar a interação genótipos-ambientes e estimar parâmetros de adaptabilidade para sete combinações genotípicas de bovinos cruzados para corte, criados em três diferentes ambientes do Brasil. A interação genótipos-ambientes foi fonte de variação significativa (P<0,01) para todas as características avaliadas. As decomposições das somas de quadrados das interações genótipos-ambientes, para cada variável estudada, foram realizadas pelo método de regressão. Foram verificados por meios dos coeficientes angulares que, para PES205, os animais de composição genotípica 7 foram considerados como de adaptabilidade ampla. Os genótipos 2, 3 e 6 foram considerados de adaptabilidade específica a ambientes favoráveis e as composições genotípicas 1, 4 e 5 foram classificadas como de adaptabilidades específicas a ambientes desfavoráveis. Para PES390, os animais considerados como de adaptabilidade ampla foram os de composições genotípicas 1 e 3. Os de combinações genotípicas 2, 6 e 7 foram considerados de adaptabilidade específica a ambientes favoráveis e os genótipos 4 e 5 foram classificados como animais com adaptabilidade específica a ambientes desfavoráveis. Para GP185, verificou-se que os animais considerados como de adaptabilidade ampla foram os de composição genotípica 4 e 5, enquanto que as combinações genotípicas 1, 2 e 3 foram considerados de adaptabilidade específica a ambientes favoráveis e as composições genotípicas 6 e 7 foram classificados como de adaptabilidades específicas a ambientes desfavoráveis. / Data from 111,101 weaning weight adjusted to 205 days (WW), 50,860 yearling weight adjusted to 390 days (YW) and 47,462 weight gain from weaning to yearling (WG) were analyzed to evaluated the genotype-environmental interactions and estimates adaptability parameters for seven genotype combinations of crossbreed beef cattle, raised in three environment of the Brazil.. The genotypeenvironmental interation effect was significative (P<0.01) for all de traits analyzed. The sum squares decompositions of genotype-environmental interations, were accomplishment by regression method for each trait analyzed. Were verified, through the slopes of the regression lines that, for WW, the animals considered as wide adaptability were genotype composition 7. The genotype compositions 2, 3 and 6 were considered of specific adaptability for favorable environments, and genotype compositions 1, 4 and 5 were classified as combinations with specific adaptability for unfavorable environments. For YW, the animals considered as wide adaptability were genotypes compositions 1 and 3. The genotype compositions 2, 6 and 7 were considered of specific adaptability for favorable environments and genotype compositions 4 and 5 were classified as combinations with specific adaptability for unfavorable environments. For WG, the animals with genotype composition 4 and 5 were considered as wide adaptability, while the genotype compositions 1, 2 and 3 were considered of specific adaptability for favorable environments and genotype compositions 6 and 7 were classified as combinations with specific adaptability for unfavorable environments.

O código genético é altamente conservado e está presente na maior parte dos organismos vivos. Uma questão que tem intrigado os cientistas é se o código genético é fruto do acaso ou de um processo evolutivo. Se qualquer associação entre aminoácidos e códons é possível, então existem cerca de 1, 51 × 1084 códigos possíveis. A hipótese de que o código genético evoluiu é suportada por sua robustez frente a mutações. Duas metodologias tem sido utilizadas para estudar esta hipótese: a abordagem estatística, que estima o número de códigos aleatórios melhores que o código genético padrão, e a abordagem por engenharia, que compara o código padrão com os melhores códigos hipotéticos obtidos por meio de um algoritmo de otimização. A utilização de ambas abordagens têm sido feita considerando-se apenas uma função objetivo, baseada na robustez frente a mutações quando uma determinada propriedade dos aminoácidos é considerada. Neste trabalho, propõe-se considerar mais de um objetivo simultaneamente para a avaliação dos códigos genéticos. Para isso, três abordagens multiobjetivo utilizando Algoritmos Genéticos são empregadas. São elas: abordagem lexicográfica, ponderada e de Pareto. Os resultados indicam que a utilização de mais de um objetivo é promissor, sendo os códigos hipotéticos gerados mais similares ao código genético padrão, quando comparados com os resultados obtidos por outros autores. / The genetic code is highly preserved and it is present in most living organisms. If we consider all codes mapping the 64 codes into 20 amino acids and one stop codon, there are more than 1.51 × 1084 possible genetic codes. The main question related to the organization of the genetic code is why exactly the standard code was selected among this huge number of possible genetic codes.The hypothesis that the genetic code has evolved is supported by its robustness against mutations. Many researchers argue that the organization of the standard code is a product of natural selection and that the codes robustness against mutations would support this hypothesis. Two methodologies have been used to investigate this hypothesis: the first one is the statistical approach which estimates the number of random codes which are better than the standard genetic code. The second is the engineering approach, which compare the standard code with the best hypothetical codes obtained by an optimization algorithm. Both approaches have been used considering only one objective function, which is usually based on the robustness against changes using the polar requirement. In this research, we propose to consider more than one objective simultaneously for the evaluation of genetic codes. For this purpose, three approaches using multi-objective genetic algorithms were employed, are they: lexicographic, weighted, and Pareto-based. The results indicate that considering more than one objective function is promising: the hypothetical codes generated are more similar to the standard genetic code, when compared with the results obtained by the monoobjective approach.

Avaliações agronômicas em diversos locais podem gerar dados para análise de adaptabilidade e estabilidade, que minimiza o efeito da interação genótipo x ambiente na escolha do genótipo. Os objetivos do trabalho foram: avaliar a produção de grãos e massa verde total da planta de 16 genótipos de milho, na entressafra e safra verão, na região centro-sul do Estado do Tocantins; estudar adaptabilidade e estabilidade e; classificá-los, quanto à tendência da finalidade produtiva. Foram realizados oito experimentos em 2010, seis no município de Gurupi-TO e dois no de Palmas-TO, considerados como ambientes distintos, diferenciados pela adubação de semeadura e cobertura e, safra. Foi avaliada a produção de massa verde total da planta (Massa Verde) e a de grãos, utilizadas na análise de adaptabilidade e estabilidade e, na classificação da tendência da finalidade produtiva. Ambas as características foram influenciadas significativamente pela interação genótipo vs. ambiente. No ambiente caracterizado pelo cultivo na entressafra com adubação orgânica de semeadura mais a de cobertura nitrogenada, os genótipos apresentaram maior produção de grãos (140 g planta-1) e, maior Massa Verde (960 g planta-1). Na produção de grãos, três ambientes foram considerados favoráveis pela metodologia de adaptabilidade e estabilidade e, na Massa Verde, cinco. A distinção dos genótipos foi mais visível através da produção de grãos do que pela Massa Verde. O genótipo H01, quanto à produção de grãos, foi adaptado a ambientes favoráveis e apresentou tendência da finalidade produtiva para esta característica. Os genótipos P06 e P02 foram adaptados a ambos ambientes e a ambientes favoráveis, respectivamente, quanto à Massa Verde e, tiveram tendência da finalidade produtiva para esta característica. / The agronomic evaluated at different locals may be produced data for the analysis of adaptability and stability, that minimize the effect this interaction for the choice of the genotypes. This work aim: to evaluate the grain yield and green weight of the 16 corn genotypes, in the intercrop and crop, at the Center-South of Tocantins State; to study the adaptability and stability; and classify them, about the tendency of the productive purpose: grain or green weight. The eight experiments were conducted in 2010, six at Gurupi-TO and two at Palmas-TO, when each one was a different environment, and they were distinguished for the fertilization of seeding and coverage and, season. They were evaluated: green weight of plant and the grain yield (g plant-1). After this, it has done through the analysis of the adaptability and stability, and the classification of the genotype tendency of the productive purpose. The boot characteristics were significantly influenced by the interaction genotype x environment. In the environment with organic fertilization (seeding) plus nitrogen fertilization (covered) at intercrop, the genotypes had shown de highest grain yield (140 g planta-1) and green weight (960 g planta-1). At the grain yield, three environments were classified like a favorable by the adaptability and stability methodology and, at the green weight, were five. The genotype H01, in grain yield, was adapted for favorable environment and has shown tendency of the productive purpose for this characteristic. The genotype P08 and P02 were adapted for both environments and favorable environments, respectively, in green weight of plant and, had shown tendency of the productive purpose for this characteristic.