Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Virginia, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (105-117). Also available online through Digital Dissertations.

In my thesis, I summarized the main reasons for specific German position towards tobacco advertising directives. In my opinion, the main reason consisted in tobacco companies and lobby groups activity. Adoption of tobacco directive was partly inevitable, but the above mentioned interest groups succeeded (via Germany) in limiting the directive's impact and postponing its adoption. Long-term and elaborated tobacco company's strategy succeeded in persuasion the German public. They, inter alia, indirectly force them to believe that tobacco industry is essential for the German economic growth. In my opinion, the strategy was successful because of its complexity and sophistication. Even though Germany was not successful before European Court of Justice with its second action for directive annulment, it still indirectly achieved to limit the directive impact and postponed its adoption for several years. But at the end, Germany was also forced (under the threat of fine) to implement the directive into its legal system.

Cette thèse est une contribution au développement d’émetteurs-récepteurs monolithiques en bande millimétrique pour réseau de capteurs sans fils. Le déploiement des réseaux de capteurs sans fils autonomes de courte portée s’oriente vers l’intelligence ambiante, modifiant la façon dont nous interagissant avec notre environnement. L’internet des objets se démocratise rapidement, avec une augmentation sans précédent des objets connectés. Ces noeuds, de plus en plus nombreux, doivent être le plus discrets et autonomes, tout en ayant des caractéristiques et performances toujours meilleures. La densification des réseaux de nœuds autonomes amplifie de surcroit les problématiques d’interférences et de multi-trajets. Le développement de capteurs en bandes millimétriques doit permettre de réduire la taille des noeuds. Notamment en réduisant les dimensions de la partie antennaire qui constitue généralement le facteur limitant l’intégration d’un système. Cette intégration sera accompagnée de solutions permettant la réduction de la consommation des capteurs. Ainsi, nous avons conçu des antennes, basées sur le principe de rayonnement des lignes à fentes progressives permettant de réduire les contraintes habituelles de conception des antennes. Les antennes sont réalisables sur des substrats de permittivité élevée et de taille réduite, et directement intégrables en technologie MMIC. Nous avons également effectuée une caractérisation expérimentale d’amplificateurs et une étude poussée de la stabilité des circuits amplificateurs en bande G. Notamment en utilisation la méthode NDF. Ceci nous a permis de concevoir un amplificateur faible bruit dont les grilles peuvent être commandées par des impulsions courte permettant la conception d’un système émetteur/récepteur très faible consommation adapté à une utilisation au sein de réseaux de capteurs autonomes sans-fils. / This thesis is a contribution to the development of transceivers for monolithic millimeter-wave wireless sensors networks. The deployment of short-range and autonomous wireless sensors networks tends towards ambient intelligence, changing the way we interact with our environment. The Internet of Things is democratizing rapidly with an unprecedented increase of connected objects. These nodes must and should become more discrete and independent, while still improving their features and performance. Moreover, the increase in nodes number constituting those networks amplifies well-known issues as interferences and indoor multipath problems. The development of sensors using millimeter-wave communications (D-band and G-band) should allow smaller nodes by reducing the antennas dimensions since the antenna is usually the technological lock in system integration. This integration will be accompanied by solutions for reducing node’s consumption. Thus, we have designed antennas, based on slot-line to reduce the usual constraints of antenna design. The antennas are well on substrates of high permittivity and small dimensions, with MMIC compatible technology. The experimental results are well consistent with the 3D electromagnetic simulation. We have also performed an experimental characterization of amplifiers and extensive study of amplifier’s stability in G-band. This study was performed using NDF method. This has allowed us to design a low noise amplifier that can be controlled by short pulses in order to realize a very low power tranceiver suitable for autonomous wireless networks-sensors.

Thesis (M. P. H.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Also available in print.

Thesis (M.P.H.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006.

Disputes between patients and providers regarding life-sustaining medical treatment (LSMT) are universal across all U.S. states, yet policies regarding these disputes differ significantly. This dissertation determines that all 50 states have advance directive laws that protect a patient’s right to refuse LSMT even when a healthcare provider objects, yet only some states have policies that protect the patient’s right to choose to continue LSMT when a healthcare provider objects (a dispute known as medical futility). Some states have pro-patient laws that protect the patient’s right to make the final decision, while other states have enacted pro-provider medical futility policies that explicitly grant the provider authority to remove LSMT against the patient’s wishes. Finally, in one state, the law delegates the final decision to a third-party: institutional healthcare ethics committees. This dissertation studies the innovation and adoption of these 17 state medical futility policies, examining the theory that values determine both whether the state adopts a medical futility policy as well as what type of medical futility policy a state will adopt- as the policy actors that represent these values: policy entrepreneurs and interest groups. A comparative case study of successful third-party policy adoption in Texas contrasted against a failed effort in Idaho could not affirm the necessity of policy entrepreneurs for policy adoption but did affirm the necessity of interest group consensus and the role of values. Furthermore, quantitative analysis failed to offer statistically-significant evidence of value indicators, but did suggest that government ideology and political party affiliation may potentially become indicators of the type of medical futility policy that states choose to adopt.

Appréhender le volet contentieux d'une discipline juridique suppose préalablement de déterminer son champ matériel et spatial. Le contentieux de l'environnement est transversal, transfrontalier et par conséquent, suppose le dépassement du cadre national et du cadre environnemental. Ce contentieux va imprégner l'échelon international, communautaire et européen. L'office du juge est prégnant et sa jurisprudence est « orientée » afin de respecter l'objectif de protection de l'environnement. Le contentieux de l'environnement résulte de l'intégration du droit de l'environnement dans les autres branches juridiques. Il implique d'une part, de faire application de certains mécanismes empruntés aux procédures existantes et d'autre part, d'adapter certains outils juridiques afin de répondre de manière optimale à sa finalité. La particularité du contentieux de l'environnement réside dans l'originalité de son droit. Ce dernier conduit et pousse le juge à contrôler certaines « créations » spécifiques à la matière environnementale faisant ainsi de sa jurisprudence une véritable source du droit. Le contentieux de l'environnement s'affranchit peu à peu des procédures classiques afin de mettre en évidence des raisonnements propres à l'enjeu environnemental. Cette émergence tend vers unité du droit de l'environnement et de son action contentieuse à tel point que se décèle une réelle spécificité juridique. / Understanding the litigation aspect of a legal discipline implies to determine beforehand its material and spatial field. Environmental litigation is transversal, cross-border and therefore implies to go beyond both the national and the environmental frame. This litigation will influence the international, national and European level. The judge's office is central and its legal precedents are “oriented” in order to meet the objective of environment protection. Environmental litigation results from the integration of the environment laws in other legal branches. It involves, on the one hand, to apply some mechanisms borrowed from existing procedures and on the other hand, to adapt some legal tools in order to respond optimally to its purpose. The peculiarity of environmental litigation resides in the originality of its legal frame. It encourages and pushes the judge to control some environmental specific “creations” turning his case into a true source of law. The environmental litigation slowly frees itself from classical procedures to highlight environment focused concerns. This emergence tends to unify the environmental law and its contentious action leading to a real legal specificity.

Advance directives (ADs) convey consumers' wishes about accepting or refusing future treatment if they become incompetent. The issue of making a particular AD, more commonly referred to as a living will, is the focus of this thesis. The typical direction of the living will is that life-sustaining activities such as the provision of mechanical ventilation should be withheld so that a person may die what is hoped to be a 'peaceful death'. Clearly the whole basis of the thinking behind the recognition of ADs is that patients' wishes should prevail. ADs have been championed by some as a means of preserving both dignity and autonomy at the end of life in the face of increasing medical advances in technology to preserve life indefinitely. ADs are seen as a means of promoting peace of mind in will-makers, of allowing carers and family to honour the person's wishes and of stimulating communication between all involved parties.While at present there is no statutory right for people in New Zealand to make ADs, it is considered they have rights to do so in common law as consumers of health and disability services in this country. Little is known about the views of New Zealanders making ADs or their justification for doing so. This small qualitative study, using a discourse analysis approach after Potter and Wetherell (1987), aimed to investigate how the participants justified making ADs. Six people were interviewed and the transcriptions were analysed identifying three dominant interpretative repertoires and three corresponding subject positions.The findings indicated that the participants positioned themselves: as independent self-determining individuals who knew when they were ready to make ADs after witnessing undesirable deaths of close family members; as judges of knowing when inappropriate treatments lead to undignified deaths; and as concerned parents who want to relieve their families of uncertainty in the future when making surrogate end-of-life decisions for them. Witnessing a prolonged family member's death in the past was a contributing factor to the participants making ADs. The participants' recall of these events led them to make their wishes known in advance so that their families, in turn, would not have to go through a similar experience at the terminal stages of their lives. The overarching motivations for formalising ADs was to avoid having life artificially prolonged by receiving life-sustaining treatments as well as the desire to die a dignified death.This study highlights the need for healthcare professionals to value the importance of advance planning with well adults before they lose the capacity to give informed choices at the end of life. The taking of a values history as part of this advance planning may inform family and healthcare professionals about peoples' general values and at the same time confirm and record end-of-life choices for future reference.

This dissertation proposes a multi-level explanatory framework that strengthens explanations of variation in European Union member states’ compliance with the Anti-Discrimination Directives, and offers novel approaches to testing relationships between key constructs situated at multiple levels of analysis. The framework entails three different yet inter-related levels: system structure, organizational design of public agencies, and the attitudinal and behavioral attributes of civil servants. The theoretical model, proposed in this dissertation, conceptualizes compliance from an integrative approach, and also enables more accurate explanations of the role of information in modifying compliance behavior. This dissertation relies on a multi-method empirical approach, and a combination of secondary and primary sources (i.e. surveys, interviews, observations, and primary documents) to provide answers to the research questions raised in this dissertation.

This dissertation proposes a multi-level explanatory framework that strengthens explanations of variation in European Union member states’ compliance with the Anti-Discrimination Directives, and offers novel approaches to testing relationships between key constructs situated at multiple levels of analysis. The framework entails three different yet inter-related levels: system structure, organizational design of public agencies, and the attitudinal and behavioral attributes of civil servants. The theoretical model, proposed in this dissertation, conceptualizes compliance from an integrative approach, and also enables more accurate explanations of the role of information in modifying compliance behavior. This dissertation relies on a multi-method empirical approach, and a combination of secondary and primary sources (i.e. surveys, interviews, observations, and primary documents) to provide answers to the research questions raised in this dissertation.