Regionalization of hydrometeorological variables such as rainfall and temperature is necessary for various applications related to water resources planning and management. Sampling variability and randomness associated with the variables, as well as non-availability and paucity of data pose a challenge in modelling the variables. This challenge can be addressed by using stochastic models that utilize information from hydrometeorologically similar locations for modelling the variables. A set of locations that are hydrometeorologically similar are referred to as homogeneous region or pooling group and the process of identifying a homogeneous region is referred to as regionalization. The thesis concerns development of new approaches to regionalization of (i) extreme rainfall,(ii) maximum and minimum temperatures, and (iii) rainfall together with maximum and minimum temperatures. Regionalization of extreme rainfall and frequency analysis based on resulting regions yields quantile estimates that find use in design of water control (e.g., barrages, dams, levees) and conveyance structures (e.g., culverts, storm sewers, spillways) to mitigate damages that are likely due to floods triggered by extreme rainfall, and land-use planning and management. Regionalization based on both rainfall and temperature yield regions that could be used to address a wide spectrum of problems such as meteorological drought analysis, agricultural planning to cope with water shortages during droughts, downscaling of precipitation and temperature. Conventional approaches to regionalization of extreme rainfall are based extensively on statistics derived from extreme rainfall. Therefore delineated regions are susceptible to sampling variability and randomness associated with extreme rainfall records, which is undesirable. To address this, the idea of forming regions by considering attributes for regionalization as seasonality measure and site location indicators (which could be determined even for ungauged locations) is explored. For regionalization, Global Fuzzy c-means (GFCM) cluster analysis based methodology is developed in L-moment framework. The methodology is used to arrive at a set of 25 homogeneous extreme rainfall regions over India considering gridded rainfall records at daily scale, as there is dearth of regionalization studies on extreme rainfall in India Results are compared with those based on commonly used region of influence (ROI) approach that forms site-specific regions for quantile estimation, but lacks ability to delineate a geographical area into a reasonable number of homogeneous regions. Gridded data constitute spatially averaged rainfall that might originate from a different process (more synoptic) than point rainfall (more convective). Therefore to investigate utility of the developed GFCM methodology in arriving at meaningful regions when applied to point rainfall data, the methodology is applied to daily rainfall records available for 1032 gauges in Karnataka state of India. The application yielded 22 homogeneous extreme rainfall regions. Experiments carried out to examine utility of GFCM and ROI based regions in arriving at quantile estimates for ungauged sites in the study area reveal that performance of GFCM methodology is fairly close to that of ROI approach. Errors were marginally lower in the case of GFCM approach in analysis with observed point rainfall data over Karnataka, while its converse was noted in the case of analysis with gridded rainfall data over India. Neither of the approaches (CA, ROI) was found to be consistent in yielding least error in quantile estimates over all the sites. The existing approaches to regionalization of temperature are based on temperature time series or their related statistics, rather than attributes effecting temperature in the study area. Therefore independent validation of the delineated regions for homogeneity in temperature is not possible. Another drawback of the existing approaches is that they require adequate number of sites with contemporaneous temperature records for regionalization, because the delineated regions are susceptible to sampling variability and randomness associated with the temperature records that are often (i) short in length, (ii) limited over contemporaneous time period and (iii) spatially sparse. To address these issues, a two-stage clustering approach is developed to arrive at regions that are homogeneous in terms of both monthly maximum and minimum temperatures ( and ). First-stage of the approach involves (i) identifying a common set of possible predictors (LSAVs) influencing and over the entire study area, and (ii) using correlations of those predictors with and along with location indicators (latitude, longitude and altitude) as the basis to delineate sites in the study area into hard clusters through global k-means clustering algorithm. The second stage involves (i) identifying appropriate LSAVs corresponding to each of the first-stage clusters, which could be considered as potential predictors, and (ii) using the potential predictors along with location indicators (latitude, longitude and altitude) as the basis to partition each of the first-stage clusters into homogeneous temperature regions through global fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm. A set of 28 homogeneous temperature regions was delineated over India using the proposed approach. Those regions are shown to be effective when compared to an existing set of 6 temperature regions over India for which inter-site cross-correlations were found to be weak and negative for several months, which is undesirable. Effectiveness of the newly formed regions is demonstrated. Utility of the proposed maxTminT homogeneous temperature regions in arriving at PET estimates for ungauged locations within the study area was demonstrated. The estimates were found to be better when compared to those based on the existing regions. The existing approaches to regionalization of hydrometeorological variables are based on principal components (PCs)/ statistics/indices determined from time-series of those variables at monthly and seasonal scale. An issue with use of PCs for regionalization is that they have to be extracted from contemporaneous records of hydrometeorological variables. Therefore delineated regions may not be effective when the available records are limited over contemporaneous time period. A drawback associated with the use of statistics/indices is that they (i) may not be meaningful when data exhibit nonstationarity and (ii) do not encompass complete information in the original time series. Consequently the resulting regions may not be effective for the desired purpose. To address these issues, a new approach is proposed. It considers information extracted from wavelet transformations of the observed multivariate hydrometeorological time series as the basis for regionalization by global fuzzy c-means clustering procedure. The approach can account for dynamic variability in the time series and its nonstationarity (if any). Effectiveness of the proposed approach in forming homogeneous hydrometeorological regions is demonstrated by application to India, as there are no prior attempts to form such regions over the country. The investigations resulted in identification of 29 regions over India, which are found to be effective and meaningful. Drought Severity-Area-Frequency (SAF) curves are developed for each of the newly formed regions considering the drought index to be Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI).

Cette thèse s'attache aux liens existant entre la théorie des représentations sociales et celle de l'identité sociale dans le domaine des espaces régionaux. Plus précisément, nous avons cherché à mettre en évidence les processus identitaires en jeu dans la représentation sociale des régions.A travers nos expériences, nous avons pu dégager deux concepts sous-jacents aux dynamiques des représentations sociales. Nous avons ainsi mis en évidence l'existence d'une part, d'identités endogroupes à l'intérieur des représentations sociales des régions, et d'autre part, de différenciations intergroupes dans les représentations sociales des régions. Ces identités régionales endogroupe et ces différenciations régionales intergroupes sont donc perçues comme des supports des représentations sociales des régions.Ainsi puisque nous avons pu déduire que les représentations sociales des régions soutiennent ces deux types d'identités, il nous reste enfin à déterminer si l'image des régions s'appuie sur les identités régionales endogroupes ou sur les différenciations régionales intergroupes. / The goal of the research proposed in this thesis, is to enforce the links between socialrepresentation theory and social identity theory in the regional geographical area context.Precisely, we wanted to put in evidence the identity processes involved into the social representation of the regional identity. Based on our experiments, we have found two main concepts based on social representation dynamics. First, we proved the existence of endogroupes identytites inside social representation of regional identity. Second, we show the existence of inter-group differenciation of the social representation of the regional identity. The endogroupe and intergroup regional identities build the basement of the social reprensentations of the regionalidentities.Finally, as we have been able to deduct that the social representations of the regional identities are absed on these two types of representation, we have determined if the outside point of view of a region, is based on the endo-group identity or the inter-group differenciations of the social representation

(The importance of universities for the development of regions, possible benefits and risks) In the framework of this thesis, the present state of Czech university education system will be described in the opening chapter. After defining the methodology of research, the relation between universities and the particular regions will be analysed and possible forms of cooperation described. Within the investigation the level of cooperation between universities and companies in the region Hradec Králové will be evaluated, based on outcome of the research problematic areas of cooperation defined and steps toward future effective cooperation proposed.

This diploma thesis deals with selected economic and non-economic characteristics of Greece. First, provides basic geographic and economic information on Greece and information on historical developments in the country since the Second World War. Then we look at the current economic situation of the Greece and public administration. The last part is focused on the characteristics of the Greek regions, not only through economic characters.

In the introduction of the master thesis, the historical development and the reasons for the emergence of microfinance are described. The thesis focuses on comparison of the functioning of microfinance in various developing regions of the world, as well as on the analysis of the overall functioning, effectiveness, strengths and weaknesses, potential threats and opportunities in the microfinance markets. The conclusion offers several possibilities and insights on how microfinance could be more efficient in financial terms. The thesis also presents a brief evaluation of the benefits of microfinance and based on findings provides a prediction of further development of microfinance.

The claim that economic crisis matters for well-being seems intuitive; supporting evidence, however, remains elusive. The present study aims to examine the individual and contextual determinants of well-being across regions in Europe during the 2007-2008 economic crisis. This study contributes to the existing research on the determinants of well-being in three ways. First, while most studies explain the determinants of well-being in the context of non-crisis, this study examines the determinants during a period of crisis. Second, while most research on well-being focuses on cross-national comparisons of well-being, this study investigates variations at both the regional and national levels. Third, while most studies use either individual or aggregate analyses to examine the determinants of well-being, this study uses multilevel models. This study uses datasets that combine individual, regional and country level data. Individual data is taken from the 2008 European Values Study (EVS) and the 2004-2010 European Social Survey (ESS). Regional level data comes from Eurostat and Euroboundarymaps, while country level data comes from the Inglehart Index, UNU-WIDER and Esping-Andersen categorisation on welfare states. To analyse the data, this study uses various multilevel models including multivariate multilevel model, multilevel simultaneous equations model and spatial dependence multilevel model. The main findings show that during the crisis under consideration, well-being is associated not only with individual determinants, but also with regional and national determinants. Results suggest that happiness and health are positively correlated at individual, regional and national levels. In terms of social capital, this study shows the reciprocal relationship between association membership and trust. Frequent Internet use at the time of crisis is positively associated with well-being. Finally, the findings suggest that, by means of unobserved factors, well-being is spatially correlated with the well-being of those neighbouring regions.

This is the history of the peasant community of Cannock Chase (Staffs. ) between 1546, when Sir William Paget was granted the Chase, and 1597 when his grandson recovered the lands. It shows that whilst the varying fortunes of the Paget family were closely reflected in the history of the area, most noticeably during the years of attainder when the Crown's lessee destroyed the oak forest, their influence was balanced by the actions and aspirations of many other individuals and groups. The peasant land market is described and the significance of the high incidence of sub-tenanting is considered; evidence on the real cost of copyhold land is presented. The importance of the Chase in the peasant economy, particularly as a place of common pasture for a large communal flock, of which two unique censuses survive, is discussed. The influence and significance of the manor court in both its civil and its criminal jurisdictions is considered, and the peasants' response to a number of social and economic problems is revealed through a detailed study of the court's records. A series of enclosure riots, and other disturbances on the Chase are recounted. Finally, an attempt is made to describe the peasants' attitudes to the Church and to the harsh realities of birth and death.

The Black Country was, and remains, an area characterised by insular and conservative social attitudes. These charactersistics were already strongly evident by the 1860s and thereafter were intensified by the collapse of the area's prosperity consequent on the rapid decline of its two basic industries, coal mining and iron manufacture, and the transformation of its traditional metal using trades by the widespread application of machine methods. The divisive consequences of industrial decline, depressed living standards and social stagnation for working class organisation were compounded by the extreme local particularism of its sub-regions, deriving in the main from an intense localisation of industry. Within this context the progress of the working class movement in the area was uncertain and slow. The first large group of workers to organise were the ironworkers: in the spring of 1863. At this time the impetus to organisation given by a sharp upturn of trade in a strongly cyclical industry proved strong enough to overcome the obstacles inherent in the structure of the industry, and the Associated Ironworkers of Great Britain was formed. The union survived for only five years, but the conflicts which arose with the rival association of the northern ironworkers, the National Association of Ironworkers, during this short time left a legacy of suspicion and hostility between the two groups of ironworkers which long outlasted the two unions. the National Association of Ironworkers narrowly survived the depression of 1867-8 which brought the collapse of the Associated Ironworkers and was re-formed as the National Amalgamated Association of Ironworkers. When the first onset of the great coal and iron boom in 1869-70 brought no recovery of unionism in the Black Country the National Amalgamated Association took the initiative in organising the area and in 1872 its status as the national association for ironworkers was recognised by the Black Country men. Despite the spectacular success of the National Amalgamated Association in the Black Country during the early 1870s the tensions between the south Staffordshire ironworkers and those in the north of England persisted and were again clearly revealed when the dramatic collapse of the iron and coal boom effectively destroyed union organisation in the Black Country. The conciliation movement which had accompanied the rise of the National Amalgamated Association in the Black Country survived the collapse of unionism. The ad hoc South Staffordshire Iron Trade Board which had been established in 1872 broke up in 1875 but was quickly reformed and placed on a firmer institutional basis as the South Staffordshire Mill and Forge Wages Board. Over the next decade leadership of the local ironworkers was exercised by this board, and with its influence in favour of conciliation being strongly reinforced by the continuing shrinkage of the south Staffordshire iron trade the adjustment to decline was made without undue difficulty. The success of the wages board largely obscured the weakness of organisation on the men's side, but intensified pressure on wages consequent on a further marked down turn in trade in the mid 1880s brought into . sharp, focus the importance of complementing conciliation machinery with effective union organisation and the Black Country ironworkers took a leading part in re-forming the National Amalgamated Association of Ironworkers as the Associated Iron and Steel Workers of Great Britain during 1887. The return of union organisation to the south Staffordshire iron trade in turn prompted calls for re-organisation of the wages board and in the following year this was successfully carried through, the change being marked by re-naming the board the Midland Iron and Steel Wages Board. The question of the relationship between the union and the men's representatives on the wages board was resolved at an early stage, and over the next two decades union and board combined to preserve as much as possible of the declining south Staffordshire trade. During this time the position of the Associated Iron and Steel Workers as the strongest union in the iron and steel trade was increasingly challenged by the rise of the British Steel Smelters Association, committed to replacing the subcontract system by direct labour. This development had particularly important implications for the south Staffordshire iron industry, which was organised entirely on a sub-contract basis and while there was no direct challenge to the Associated Iron and Steel Workers in the Black Country the possible consequences of an inter-union clash for the fragile prosperity of the area's industry were dramatically demonstrated at"Hawarden Bridge in 1909- 11. Thereafter such resistance as remained among Black Country ironworkers to the idea of rationalising the industry's fragmented union structure crumbled rapidly and they offered no resistance to the process of union consolidation which culminated in the formation of the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation in 1917. The formation of district associations by Black Country miners followed directly from the establishment and initial success of the Associated Ironworkers of Great Britain, and the area was strongly represented at the Leeds conference of November 1863 at which the Miners' National Association was formed. When the National Association failed to support them during a long strike in 1864 the Black Country men rebelled against Alexander Macdonald's leadership and took a leading part in forming the breakaway, P ractical Miners' Association. This organisation collapsed within two years, but doubts about the value of alliances with miners of other areas persisted and were an important factor in shaping the attitudes of Black Country miners for the next half century. These doubts were temporarily overcome during the great boom of the early 1870s. The revival of organisation in the north-east sector of the coalfield was led by the Amalgamated Association of Miners, formed in 1869, and during 1873 the associations of the south-west sector reaffiliated to the National Association. With the collapse of union organisation at the end of the boom doubts revived. Only two Black Country associations affiliated to the ' Miners' National Union, formed in 1875 from what remained of the National and the Amalgamated, and by 1878 both had seceded. By this time a second important characteristic of Black Country miners' organisations, namely marked differences of "temper" between the associations in the northeast and south-west sectors of the coalfield, was becoming increasingly evident. This difference had first become apparent during the great boom when the associations of the south-west sector had acted as pace-setters in the drive for improved wages and shorter hours, but had been largely obscured at that time by the dramatic success of unionism and the wages movement. The collapse of prosperity in 1874 was followed by a long strike as the miners resisted the owners* attempt to impose a wage reduction, and when this ended with the establishment of a sliding scale of wages the difference in temper between the miners! associations of the southwest and north-east sectors were clearly revealed in attitudes to the scale. The difference intensified through the 1880s. Even the necessity of making common cause against the owners during the long strike of 1884 failed to bring any lasting reconciliation, and by 1890 the rise of a powerful national organisation, the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, and changes in the structure of local unionism had produced a situation where Black Country miners were divided into two hostile camps. The miners in the central districts of the coalfield accepted the authority of the South Staffordshire and East Worcestershire Coal Trade, Wages Board while two militant enclaves to north and south were affiliated to the Miners' Federation of Great Britain. / Hostility between the two camps made the 1890s a particularly difficult decade for mining trade unionism in the Black Country, but the growing influence of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain progressively undermined the authority of the wages board until in 1899 the miners of the central districts affiliated and the wages board was reconstituted as a board of conciliation. Resolution of the local position in relation to the Miners' Federation of Great Britain did not, however, eradicate the long standing difference of temper between rival local associations. These persisted to 1914 and beyond and were clearly revealed in differing densities ofiunion membership, differing attitudes to the question of employers' liability and in the different levels at which demands were pitched during the strike for the individual district minimum wage in 1912. The craftsmen of the Black Country were slower to organise than the ironworkers and the miners. The flintglass makers and flint-glass cutters had established strong unions during the 1840s and 1850s, but in the metal using trades no lasting association of workers was formed until 1870 when the nut and bolt workers established a union. This achieved some success during the 1870s, but thereafter its position was progressively undermined as technological change eroded the craft basis of the nut and bolt industry.

Genome annotation is an important topic since it provides information for the foundation of downstream genomic and biological research. It is considered as a way of summarizing part of existing knowledge about the genomic characteristics of an organism. Annotating different regions of a genome sequence is known as structural annotation, while identifying functions of these regions is considered as a functional annotation. In silico approaches can facilitate both tasks that otherwise would be difficult and timeconsuming. This study contributes to genome annotation by introducing several novel bioinformatics methods, some based on machine learning (ML) approaches. First, we present Dragon PolyA Spotter (DPS), a method for accurate identification of the polyadenylation signals (PAS) within human genomic DNA sequences. For this, we derived a novel feature-set able to characterize properties of the genomic region surrounding the PAS, enabling development of high accuracy optimized ML predictive models. DPS considerably outperformed the state-of-the-art results. The second contribution concerns developing generic models for structural annotation, i.e., the recognition of different genomic signals and regions (GSR) within eukaryotic DNA. We developed DeepGSR, a systematic framework that facilitates generating ML models to predict GSR with high accuracy. To the best of our knowledge, no available generic and automated method exists for such task that could facilitate the studies of newly sequenced organisms. The prediction module of DeepGSR uses deep learning algorithms to derive highly abstract features that depend mainly on proper data representation and hyperparameters calibration. DeepGSR, which was evaluated on recognition of PAS and translation initiation sites (TIS) in different organisms, yields a simpler and more precise representation of the problem under study, compared to some other hand-tailored models, while producing high accuracy prediction results. Finally, we focus on deriving a model capable of facilitating the functional annotation of prokaryotes. As far as we know, there is no fully automated system for detailed comparison of functional annotations generated by different methods. Hence, we developed BEACON, a method and supporting system that compares gene annotation from various methods to produce a more reliable and comprehensive annotation. Overall, our research contributed to different aspects of the genome annotation.

Plant efficiency and profitability are becoming increasingly important and operating at the most optimal point is a necessity. The definition of proper operational bounds on output variables such as product quality, production rates etc., is critical for plant optimisation. The use of operational bounds that do not lie within the region of the output operational space of the plant can result in the control system attempting to operate the plant in a non attainable region. The use of operational bounds that lie within the bounds of the output operational space of the plant and if the output operational space is non convex can also result in the control system attempting to operate the plant in a non attainable region. This results in non feasible optimisation. A numerical intersection algorithm has been developed that identifies the feasible region of operation known as the desired operational space. This is accomplished by finding the intersection of the required operational space and the achievable output operational space. The algorithm was simulated and evaluated on a case study under various scenarios. These scenarios included specifying operational bounds that lie partially within the bounds of the achievable operational space and also specifying operational bounds that lie within the bounds of the operational space which was non convex. The results yielded a desired operational space with bounds that were guaranteed to lie within an attainable region on the output operational space. The desired operational space bounds were also simplified into a rectangle with high and low limits that can be readily used in control systems. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Chemical Engineering / unrestricted