Falun Gong protesters, the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, the spy plane incident and a series of mine accidents are just some of the events over the past decade that involved the Internet. In each incident the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was caught off guard by the circumvention of informational flows as a consequence of the Internet. This is in some ways indicative of the impact the medium is having on the ability of the CCP to manage political discourse within the confines of the country. This thesis examines the way that political discourse in contemporary China is managed in response to the development of the Internet, using the concepts of time and space as conceived by Harold A. Innis. This historical study considers the strategies used in the management of time and space in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) across a broad range of ways in which the medium is used by particular groups, such as online gamers, bloggers, hackers, and activists. I have also looked at the way information flows are managed during a crisis or disaster using critical textual analysis of Internet sources, and specific examples. These sources are both official and unofficial including Chinese government sites, journalistic sources both Chinese and Western and Chinese legal databases that appear on the World Wide Web (WWW). The study finds that there is an emerging shift from propaganda based media manipulation and suppression to a style of stage managed spin. The CCP have used three strategies to contain and maintain their hold over central power, including the rule of law, investment in the development of content and technological means. The development of the Internet in China is marked by a dialect of desire for the technology for economic purposes and the perceived need to control the technology for political purposes. The Internet has also enabled the central government in Beijing to reassert its position as a central authority over local and provincial governments. This study contributes to the existing knowledge about Chinese media policy and the Internet, and will shed light on the ways in which the tehcnology influences the production and consumption of media and the impact that the development of this medium has upon media policy in China. Furthermore, this study will contribute to a greater understanding of CCP's ability to manage information and the impact that this medium will have on the operations of Chinese politics within the space of the Internet, as well as the impact of the technology on politics, and China's interaction with the international community.

Concurrency is concerned with systems of multiple computing agents that interact with each other. Bisimilarity is one of the main representatives of these. Concurrent Constrain Programming (ccp) is a formalism that combines the traditional and algebraic view of process calculi with a declarative one based upon first-order logic. The standard definition of bisimilarity is not completely satisfactory for ccp since it yields an equivalence that is too fine grained. By building upon recent foundational investigations, we introduce a labeled transition semantics and a novel notion of bisimilarity that is fully abstract w.r.t. the observational equivalence in ccp. When the state space of a system is finite, the ordinary notion of bisimilarity can be computed via the partition refinement algorithm, but unfortunately, this algorithm does not work for ccp bisimilarity. Hence, we provide an algorithm that allows us to verify strong bisimilarity for ccp, modifying the algorithm by using a pre-refinement and a partition function based on the irredundant bisimilarity. Weak bisimilarity is a central behavioral equivalence in process calculi and it is obtained from the strong case by taking into account only the actions that are observable in the system. Typically the standard partition refinement can also be used for deciding weak bisimilarity simply by using Milner's reduction from weak to strong; a technique referred to as saturation. We demonstrate that the above-mentioned saturation technique does not work for ccp. We give a reduction that allows us to use the ccp partition refinement algorithm for deciding this equivalence.

In silico ligand docking is a versatile and common technique when predicting ligands and inhibitors for protein binding sites. The various docking programmes aim to calculate binding energies and to predict interactions, thus identifying potential ligands.The currently available programmes lack satisfying means by which to account for structural water molecules which can either mediate protein-ligand contacts or be displaced upon ligand binding. The present project aims to generate data to facilitate the global work of developing scoring functions in docking programmes to account for structural water molecules contribution to ligand binding to fill the said void. This is done by validating the performance of docking using a simple model system (cytochrome C peroxidase (CCP) W191G) containing four well ordered, deeply buried structural water molecules which are known to either interact with a ligand or to be displaced upon ligand binding.Known ligands were docked into eight (crystallographically determined) receptor set-ups comprising the receptor and no, one or two of the water molecules. The performance was validated by comparison of the binding modes of the docked ligands and the crystal structures, comparison of docking scores of the ligands in the different set-ups, enrichment of the ligands from a database of decoys and finally by predicting new ligands from the decoy database. In addition a high resolution crystal structure of CCP W191G in complex with 3-aminopyridine (3AP) was determined in order to resolve ambiguities in the binding mode of this ligand.

Internal combustion (IC) engines that consume hydrocarbon fuels have dominated the propulsion systems of air-vehicles for the first century of aviation. In recent years, however, growing concern over rapid climate changes and national energy security has galvanized the aerospace community into delving into new alternatives that could challenge the dominance of the IC engine. Nevertheless, traditional aircraft sizing methods have significant shortcomings for the design of such unconventionally powered aircraft. First, the methods are specialized for aircraft powered by IC engines, and thus are not flexible enough to assess revolutionary propulsion concepts that produce propulsive thrust through a completely different energy conversion process. Another deficiency associated with the traditional methods is that a user of these methods must rely heavily on experts experience and advice for determining appropriate design margins. However, the introduction of revolutionary propulsion systems and energy sources is very likely to entail an unconventional aircraft configuration, which inexorably disqualifies the conjecture of such connoisseurs as a means of risk management. Motivated by such deficiencies, this dissertation aims at advancing two aspects of aircraft sizing: 1) to develop a generalized aircraft sizing formulation applicable to a wide range of unconventionally powered aircraft concepts and 2) to formulate a probabilistic optimization technique that is able to quantify appropriate design margins that are tailored towards the level of risk deemed acceptable to a decision maker. A more generalized aircraft sizing formulation, named the Architecture Independent Aircraft Sizing Method (AIASM), was developed for sizing revolutionary aircraft powered by alternative energy sources by modifying several assumptions of the traditional aircraft sizing method. Along with advances in deterministic aircraft sizing, a non-deterministic sizing technique, named the Probabilistic Aircraft Sizing Method (PASM), was developed. The method allows one to quantify adequate design margins to account for the various sources of uncertainty via the application of the chance-constrained programming (CCP) strategy to AIASM. In this way, PASM can also provide insights into a good compromise between cost and safety.

Submitted by Edileide Reis (leyde-landy@hotmail.com) on 2015-04-08T22:07:57Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Isabella Vargas de Souza Lima.pdf: 9375405 bytes, checksum: a3d913a7254631a76ea5f2fc0da63ddc (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-08T22:07:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Isabella Vargas de Souza Lima.pdf: 9375405 bytes, checksum: a3d913a7254631a76ea5f2fc0da63ddc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / É reconhecida a interface entre a reumatologia, particularmente no que diz respeito às doenças autoimunes, e a infectologia, seja pela hipótese de agentes infecciosos atuando como gatilho das disfunções imunológicas, seja pelo risco infeccioso atribuído aos tratamentos imunossupressores. Adicionalmente, tem sido observada a produção de alguns autoanticorpos no curso de infecções. Por exemplo: em pacientes com tuberculose (TB), foi demonstrada a produção de anticorpos descritos como de alta especificidade para artrite reumatóide (AR) como os anticorpos antipeptídeos citrulinados (ACPAs) e, do mesmo modo, foi demonstrada a presença de anticorpos anticitoplasma de neutrófilos (ANCA) dentre os quais antiproteinase 3 (anti-PR3) e antimieloperoxidase (anti-MPO), que são marcadores de vasculites sistêmicas. Objetivos: a) revisar as publicações sobre positividade dos ACPAs em doenças infecciosas, b) pesquisar a prevalência destes anticorpos assim como do ANCA em uma população de portadores de tuberculose. Métodos: a) inicialmente foi realizada uma revisão sistemática sobre os estudos avaliando a presença de ACPAs em doenças infecciosas; b) posteriormente, um grupo de 50 pacientes com TB pulmonar não tratada ou com até 30 dias do início do tratamento foi avaliado quanto à presença de sintomas reumatológicos e, principalmente, quanto à positividade de anticorpos ACPAs, incluindo antipeptídeo citrulinado cíclico (anti-CCP) e antivimentina citrulinada modificada (anti-MCV) e quanto à positividade de ANCA por imunofluorescência indireta (IFI) e anticorpos anti-PR3 e anti-MPO por enzimaimunoensaio (ELISA). Resultados: a) a revisão sistemática foi publicada e encontra-se apresentada “Revisão de literatura” com o título Antibodies against cyclic citrullinated peptides in infectious diseases – a systematic review. Clin Rheumatol 2010, Dec 29(12): 1345-51. b) encontrou-se positividade de ACPAs em apenas dois (4%) dos 50 pacientes com TB e não houve positividade de ANCA por IFI ou a presença de anticorpos anti-PR3 ou anti-MPO por ELISA no soro desses pacientes. Estes resultados estão apresentados em dois artigos que foram submetidos para a revista Clinical Rheumatology (Canadá, fator de impacto 2011: 1,996), aguardando o parecer do corpo editorial. As versões submetidas encontram-se na sessão “Artigos”. Conclusões: embora estudos prévios tenham relatado a presença de ACPAs e ANCA em pacientes com TB, no presente estudo a positividade dos ACPAs foi baixa e não foi observada positividade para ANCA, anti-PR3 e anti-MPO, confirmando a alta especificidade destes testes para AR e vasculites sistêmicas, respectivamente.

Accompanying the globalisation of the world economy and the internationalisation of Chinese CBs, the research in terms of the international competitiveness of the CBI and Chinese CBs has become urgent and significant. The motivations and targets of this research are to understand the status quo of international competitiveness of the CBI and Chinese CBs; to recognise the actual gap in the aspects of international competitiveness between Chinese CBs and the Western advanced CBs; to find out the issues and main causes that existed in and determined the international competitiveness of Chinese CBs; and to work out the approaches to solve the issues and boost the international competitiveness of the CBI and Chinese CBs. According to the analyses of the international background, domestic context and specific situation, and the review of previous relevant literatures in terms of the international competitiveness and international competitiveness of CB, the general framework of this research is based on the fundamental theory – New Institutional Economics (NIE), especially the Institutional Change Theory (ICT), and applied four key factors – Business Scale, Profitability, Asset Quality and Overseas Business Margin, as well as some necessary macro and micro -specific determinants, to multi-dimensionally examine and comprehensivelyevaluate the real level of international competitiveness of the CBI and some Chinese CBs during the last three decades, in particular during the last decade since 2003. This basic framework established the theoretical foundation for this research; it is the general framework that is jointly consisted of the constitution, determinants and evaluation sub-frameworks of international competitiveness of CB. In this research, the international competitiveness of CB mainly includes: Business Scale International Competitiveness, Profitability International Competitiveness, Soundness International Competitiveness and Overseas Business International Competitiveness. These four aspects of international competitiveness of CB can be all measured by relative indicators that can be calculated through relative financial data; thus, the international competitiveness of CB could be then synthetically, directly andexternally evaluated and reflected. Basically, the determined framework of international competitiveness of CB is referred to reveal how the international competiveness of CB is determined. According to the value theory of dialectical-materialism, object development is decided by its internal and external causes; therefore, in this research, the scale, management, technology and international administration are considered as the major internal factors to determine the international competitiveness of CB, while the governmental functions, horizontal industrial competition, market supply and demands, and industrial trend at home and abroad are suggested as themajor external factors to reflect the international competitiveness of CB. Based on the determined framework and the internal-external cause theory, as well as considering the cross-border competition as the mainstream of the international competition for CBs, it can be seen that the deciding model and evaluation model are combined together to set up the overall models for evaluating and reflecting the international competitiveness of China’s CBs. According to the results calculated by the models, the separate and joint evaluations are made to jointly estimate the real level of international competitiveness of Chinese CBs; then the internal and external critical analyses are taken into consideration to reveal how the internal and external major factors reflect and influence the international competitiveness of CBI. Finally, a set of approaches in terms of how to further improve and boost the internationalcompetitiveness of the CBI and Chinese CBs are accordingly suggested. The findings of this research present that the historical evolution of China’s banking is fundamentally driven by the institutional changes and the shifts of administrative ideologies of the CCP; and intrinsically influenced by the dominant culture of Confucianism in China. The international competitiveness of the CBI has been increasingly improving, in particular since 2003; the development of the CBI has been actually always adhering to the reform and opening-up guideline in terms of “Crossing the River by Touching the Stones”, and the internationalisation of the CBI has been mostly suggested to insist on a strategy of “Incremental Approach”, which also represents the Way of the Golden Mean (Zhong Yong Zhi Dao) of Confucian ideology and acting philosophy. According to the evaluation results, Chinese CBs hold a very strong IC on the Business Scale and Home-base Profitability; their Soundness IC has bee also hugely improved; however, if comparing with their foreign advanced peers, such like HSBC and JP Morgan etc., their overseas business IC has been relatively much weaker; this means that the internationalisation of CBI and Chinese CB still has a long way to go to strategically catch up and explore. Additionally, other sense of the banking industry is also highly recognised. The real essence of China’s banking reform has been eventually designed by the elites and ultimately influenced by the special interest groups. The fundamental issues of the banking sector have been not completely handled; the financial ecology of the banking business has been one of the greatest factors for the banking performance; the international competitiveness of Chinese CBs has been mostly country-specific and home-based; and the whole banking system has been seemingly-seriously captured by the housing market and the municipal platform debts; hence, these huge potential operating risks have been seriously concerned. Conclusively, the international competitiveness of Chinese CBs would have been significantly damaged if the banking industry could not be further improve the regulatory regime, optimise the business environment, reform the corporate governance structure, consummate the operational system; and work out the deep and ingenerate issues such as lending mechanism, profitability model, risk management, technological innovation, political intervention, internationalising strategy, etc. Even though this researcher has taken great efforts to make his own contributions in this project, the findings and conclusions are still thought to be not sophisticate and significant enough; hence, further research of this specific theme will be more deepening and focusing, in particular on the improvement of the research methodology, the data collection and the financial ecology of the CBI.

The 19th century saw great changes occurring in the political organisation as well as the demographical distribution of the people living within southern Africa. These changes would lead to the creation of the ikhanda (plural amakhanda) settlement form which was unique in both its organisation and demographic composition. In recent years there has been a renewed interest in the study of settlements within southern Africa, with the main settlement model, the Central Cattle Pattern (CCP) coming under continued criticism. The aim of this study was to create a structural model for the organisation of an ikhanda settlement by drawing from ethnographic, historical and archaeological sources. This model was then compared with homesteads (imizi) within Kwa-Zulu Natal in order to determine whether an ikhanda can be distinguished from an umuzi, archaeologically. This study identified a number of differences which would potentially enable archaeologists to distinguish between amakhanda and other settlements. This model indicated that an ikhanda was organised into three structural sections namely the central enclosure, regimental housing and isigodlo; each of which was used for very specific purposes. Additionally, this study was able to identify and explain the functionality of previously unexplained features observed in the original excavations at uMgungundlovu. Despite sharing many similarities with settlements constructed according to the CCP model, the ikhanda’s unique organisation and function illustrate the limitations of using the CCP model as an umbrella term for all southern African settlements. The simultaneous existence of CCP-based imizi alongside amakhanda undermines the static nature that southern African settlements are believed to have had; indicating that superficial physical appearances may actually hide significant social, demographic and structural differences. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria,2015. / Anthropology and Archaeology / Unrestricted

abstract: The relationship between Chinese modern and contemporary artistic creation and the national sovereignty of China is a worthy subject of debate. Within it, modernism and intellectual/artistic subjectivity are two necessary starting points. However, there is still a good deal of uncertainty around these two points. First, can the modernization process of China be accepted as the general meaning of modernization? Second, are some Chinese modern and contemporary artists actually modern intellectuals? Based on clarification of the above two uncertainties, this thesis is an attempt to argue that the Chinese artists who regard themselves, their artworks and creations, as intellectual, reflect the collision domain between themselves and the political entity of national sovereignty in China: the communist regime controlled by the CCP, Chinese Communist Party中國共産黨. In this thesis, three chapters discuss the relationship between Chinese modern and contemporary art and the CCP. In my theoretical exposition, I argue that the artistic/intellectual subjectivity of modern Chinese artists gradually developed and changed during the conflict and struggle with the Communist rule. In the first chapter, I introduce the biography and artistic creation of Chinese literati painters under the communist rule, exemplified by Wu Hufan吳湖帆. I analyze and demonstrate how the subjectivity of the traditional literati gradually lost strength under the pressure of nationalism, the disenchantment with modernization, and communism. In the second chapter, I focus on the Scar Art art movement of the 1970s to the 1980s, as well as representative artists and their works in this direction of art, such as Cheng Conglin程叢林 and Gao Xiaohua高小華. In this chapter, I use feminism and Foucault's political-philosophical theories to explain these visual expressions of the memory of historical trauma in Scar Art during this period. In Chapter 3, by discussing the works of two artists, He Gong何工 and Ai Weiwei艾未未, in the context of Foucault’s political philosophy, I argue that artists how to express their intellectual subjectivity and political resistance through their contributions to Chinese contemporary art. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Art History 2020

Testing of the Electronic Control Unit is a very important step before delivering the software to customer. Due to increasing complexity in the requirements and the timing constraints, it is needed that the testing should be proper and on time. To meet the timing constraints it is needed to automate the entire process of testing. Although the current testing tool support the automation process, it is very slow. In this thesis a new tool has been developed which will support calibration using CCP and XCP on CAN bus. Secondly, the tool will also provide the feature of automation, where user can write their own script to test the ECU. This will make the entire process of testing very fast. Finally both the solutions will be compared with respect to time for deducing the final conclusion.

A l'aide d'un modèle électrique précis du réacteur plasma, la mesure avec une méthode vectorielle de l'impédance RF à l entrée du réacteur a permis, après correction de la perturbation des impédances parasites, de calculer l impédance du plasma dans une large gamme de fréquences (13,56-100 MHz) et de pressions (0,1-1 torr). Son interprétation a dégagé des lois d'échelle de variation des paramètres plasma avec la fréquence et la pression en accord avec celles déduites des modèles numériques. La résonance série du plasma a été observée à 90 MHz et 0,1 torr. Ce type de décharge a été étudié dans les années 70 dans le cassymétrique où le potentiel d auto-polarisation est nul. Dans le cas asymétrique, nous constatons que ce potentiel continu passe par unmaximum égal à la tension RF appliquée à la résonance. La comparaison de la mesure vectorielle de la puissance couplée avec la méthode soustractive montre qu il est possible d utiliser cette dernière en VHF. Un autre effet bénéfique de la VHF est l augmentation de l'efficacité du couplage de la puissance RF. Les sondes RF utilisées pour réaliser cette étude se sont révélées délicates à mettre en oeuvre. Cela a motivé la mise au point d unnouveau capteur de courant-tension RF (brevet INPI n̊ 875 304) répondant aux problèmes métrologiques se posant face à l augmentation de la fréquence et de la puissance dans l'industrie.La densité du plasma a été dans un premier temps mesurée avec des sondes de Langmuir délicates à utiliser au dessus de 0,1 torr dans l'hydrogène. Pour pallier aux limitations de celles-ci, un nouveau type de sonde à onde de surface (la sonde plasma à transmission) a été développé (brevet INPI n̊ 876 536).