Cette thèse a pour objet le rapport d’Aragon à la croyance à travers l’examen de son oeuvre poétique, du Crève-coeur au Fou d’Elsa. Si l’engagement n’est pas son unique expression, l’amour fonctionnant comme pôle d’attraction complémentaire, le besoin de croire a trouvé dans la rencontre avec le communisme une incarnation à la fois providentielle et problématique, qui met l’oeuvre à l’épreuve. Après avoir analysé la façon dont la « rupture de cadre » due à la guerre permet à Aragon de renouer avec la poésie, vecteur privilégié d’une foi polymorphe qu’elle reflète autant qu’elle l’alimente, on voit le poète prendre pleinement la mesure de son rôle et endosser la posture hugolienne du prophète, assignant à l’écriture une vocation pragmatique très forte tout en faisant fond sur un syncrétisme éblouissant qui mêle constamment références religieuses et enjeux politiques de défense nationale. Cette période effervescente se clôt avec l’entrée dans la Guerre froide, qui se caractérise par une démarche gestionnaire des emblèmes plus spécifiquement communistes et la dégradation du poème en catéchèse, sur fond de dénégation de la crise de la croyance. C’est en affrontant poétiquement cette crise, en faisant place aux étranglements de la voix, que Le Roman inachevé peut la surmonter, livrant un constat lacunaire et ambivalent sur la perte de l’utopie. Le tournant mystique pris par Le Fou d’Elsa permet de figurer par le destin de Grenade la tragédie de l’Histoire et de préserver, au prix de la déréalisation de l’objet aimé, la passion d’un absolu désormais orphelin de toute incarnation politique. / This doctoral thesis explores the complex set of beliefs espoused by Louis Aragon in his poetical oeuvre from Le Crève-coeur to Le Fou d'Elsa. He drew his inspiration from love and the support for the communist cause. Aragon's life-long commitment to communism was providential and problematic - it put his literary prowess to the test. This thesis examines how the second world war marked a turning point in his life and how it prompted him to resume writing poems. He became a prophet who relentlessly paced his quarterdeck bellowing hugolian stanzas that combined religious references with national politics. In his poems the captain-prophet spelt out the grammar of the all-encompassing communist militant. Aragon then rethinks the role of the poem and transcends its limitations, his aesthetics being based on efficiency. These times came to an end with the advent of the cold war during which he doggedly preached the gospel of communism. His poems recited the catechism and painted the glorious emblems of his faith. He confronted the crisis as a poet and overcame it in Le Roman inachevé by denouncing in an ambivalent whisper the demise of the utopian ideal. In Le Fou d'Elsa Aragon mustered his mystical powers to reveal the tragic dimension of History through the ordeal and fall of Grenada. He was intent on preserving and reaffirming the preeminence of the passionate search for an absolute now devoid of any political motive.

The main objectives of this study were to analyze the efficiency with which Bolivian farmers utilize productive resources as they combine them in crop production and to examine the possibility of interregional resource immobility in the production of agricultural products. Bolivia was divided into seven distinct production regions called departments. A linear program maximizing model was generated for the major crops produced in each department. Land, labor, irrigation, and capital were the input coefficients used in the models. They produced a net return to management, land, and fixed costs associated with land. The linear program using these coefficients generated the profit maximizing hectare combination for each crop by department. These were compared with those reported to have been grown in each department to make an efficiency judgement of production decisions made by Bolivian farmers. The same department linear programs generated value marginal products for resources in short supply in each model . These were compared interdepartmentally to determine any resource immobility that might be in existence. Analysis of the linear program maximizing output indicated that in all of the departments considered, with the exception of Santa Cruz, farmers appeared to be efficiently combining their resources in the production of crops considered in this study. It was also noted that a possible labor immobility existed between the Santa Cruz department and the other six considered.

El sector textil mundial, como se sabe, genera desperdicios a través de todos los procesos productivos, que, por lo general son manejados de manera inadecuada. Las empresas buscan implementar conciencia ambiental para que la producción se realice de manera eficiente y sostenible. Esta situación resulta de mayor impacto en las empresas textiles de menor envergadura, por ejemplo, las MYPES. Por ello, el presente artículo propone la aplicación de la filosofía Lean. Al respecto, se han realizado estudios que demuestran el impulso de esta filosofía al desarrollo Green, obteniendo resultados eficientes para las empresas. El objetivo de este trabajo es proponer un nuevo modelo Lean-Green, el cual está estructurado en seis fases: Fase 0 Formación del pensamiento ambiental, Fase 1 Estabilización de los flujos de valor, Fase 2 Identificación de los aspectos e impactos ambientales, Fase 3 Medir el flujo de valor ambiental, Fase 4 mejora de una corriente continua, Fase 5 mejora continua. La herramienta Lean que se implementará es el KAIZEN y, el modelo se validó en una empresa de confección textil, cuyos resultados implicaron un 25% de aumento en la producción y un 15% en la reducción del impacto ambiental. / As is known, textile industry produce wastes through all the production process that usually are poor handled. Businesses try to implement environmental awareness to make the production efficient and sustainable. This have more impact on small textile businesses like MYPES. Thus, this article propose the application of the Lean philosophy. There have been studies that this philosophy helps to develop the Green with great results for the business. The aim of this article is to propose a new Lean-Green model structured in six steps: Phase 0 create an environmental way of thinking, Phase 1 stabilization of flow values, Phase 2 recognition of environmental aspects and impacts, Phase 3 measure the environmental value flux, Phase 4 improvement of a continuous flow, Phase 5 continuous development. The Lean tool to apply is the Kaizen and the model have been validated on a textile production business. The results of this shows a 25% increase of the production and a 15% decrease of environmental impact. / Tesis

The effect of irrigation efficiency upon the water demand for agricultural purposes in the Utah Lake drainage area has been evaluated in this study . Irrigation demand is the quantity of water at the supply source necessary to satisfy crop water requirements, taking into account irrigation efficiency. The Utah Lake drainage area was divided into hydrologic subareas and districts to facilitate analysis. The demand, surplus, and deficit quantities for each area was determined. The computations were made using constant mean quantities. Within a given area, the diverted water was assumed to be applied uniformly to satisfy agricultural crop demands, and the contribution of groundwater was neglected. The quantity of major interest is the surplus or deficit, which has been computed for present and potential future irrigation effiencies taking into account historical diversions and precipitation, and estimated root zone storage. The crop demand is not adequately met in the study area. There is a surplus in the Provo district (29,000 acre-feet annually), while deficits occur in the Spanish Fork district (69,000 acre-feet annually) and Northern Juab Valley subarea (38,000 acre-feet annually). The common pattern is excessive diversions in May and insufficient diversions in July through September. The present mean irrigation efficiency of 36 percent in the Utah Lake dra inage area results in an annual deficit of 111,000 acre-feet, of which 69,000 acre-feet occurs in Utah Valley. The maximum monthly deficit is 76,000 acre-feet, which occurs in August. Provided irrigation efficiencies were increased to 68 percent, surplus would exist in every month and the annual surplus would be 159,000 acre-feet. The combination of additional storage facilities to modify the diversion to coincide with crop demand, reallocation of water from water -plenty to water -short areas, and increasing the irrigation efficiency would provide the best economic use of water for the benefit of the area. (169 pages)

he Department of Energy names executing and integrating high-performance sustainable design and green building best practices a Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan goal under the Executive Order 13514 (U.S DOE, 2009). As sustainability becomes a primary goal for engineers, a decision making framework is needed to guide their choice of materials and processes; and then to carry out the evaluation of their chosen design. Sustainable design process, and the products developed through its application, work concurrently with functionality and sustainability evaluation methodologies to cultivate a continuous loop of design, implementation, assessment and improvement. In this context, an alternative insulation prototype exploring the use of evacuated packets of pyrogenic silica substituting for conventional insulation for refrigeration applications was developed and assessed. Assessment criteria included experimental comparison of heat transfer characteristics and the energy efficiency of the new insulation as well as its life cycle as it related to environmental sustainability. Results indicate that by utilizing alternative insulation design, heat flux decreased by an average of 36%, and energy efficiency improved by 5.1% over a 24 hour period. The new insulation design also resulted in improved environmental sustainability, resulting in a savings of 0.257 metric tons of CO2e over 20 years for a single unit. Results provide an alternative insulation design for use in commercial insulation applications, and a framework by which to assess the efficiency and environmental performance of similar products.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 290-309) Investigates aspects of the intake and utilization of barley grain and grain legume supplements by sheep fed low quality pasture hay and when grazing mature summer pastures.

This research explores whether Environmental Management Accounting can be applied to assist an Australian cogeneration company in improving both its financial performance as well as its environmental performance. Cogeneration or 'combined heat and power', in this particular case, involves the simultaneous production of heat and electricity using a single fuel, that is, natural gas. The heat generated is then used to produce steam to meet the customers' requirements as well as boost the production of electricity. Therefore, cogeneration provides greater efficiencies compared to traditional electricity generation methods because it utilizes heat that would otherwise be wasted. In addition, greenhouse gases emissions can be reduced substantially. The approach taken in this research is to assess whether an improvement in the energy efficiency of the cogeneration plant can lead to a reduction in greenhouse gases emissions. An improvement in energy efficiency means that either: • less gas is consumed, thus leading to cost savings; or • more electricity is generated for the same quantity of gas consumed, which leads to an increase in income and consequently profit. Therefore, an improvement in energy efficiency means an improvement in the financial performance. In addition, a reduction in the quantity of gas consumed or generating as much electricity as possible from a given quantity of gas can lead to a reduction in greenhouse gases emissions which means an improvement in the company's environmental performance. A case study method, which involves an Australian cogeneration company, is adopted because this would provide valuable in-depth practical insight into the operations and mechanisms of a company that is involved in combined heat and power generation. A review of the literature and the evidence collected indicated that a cogeneration plant's efficiency can be improved at least back to near the plant's designed efficiency. And, further improvements may be achieved by utilizing the latest technology although this involves capital investment. It is also established that an improvement in plant efficiency can reduce greenhouse gases emissions. This research then concludes that Environmental Management Accounting can help the case study company improve its financial and environmental performances. An Environmental Management Accounting system can provide the physical information that is not available in the existing management accounting system. Physical information such as the physical quantities of gas consumed, electricity and steam produced, and greenhouse gases emitted, can help the company in decision-making relating to improving plant efficiency as well as reducing greenhouse gases emissions.

Web crawlers are the component of a search engine that must traverse the Web, gathering documents in a local repository for indexing by a search engine so that they can be ranked by their relevance to user queries. Whenever data is replicated in an autonomously updated environment, there are issues with maintaining up-to-date copies of documents. When documents are retrieved by a crawler and have subsequently been altered on the Web, the effect is an inconsistency in user search results. While the impact depends on the type and volume of change, many existing algorithms do not take the degree of change into consideration, instead using simple measures that consider any change as significant. Furthermore, many crawler evaluation metrics do not consider index freshness or the amount of impact that crawling algorithms have on user results. Most of the existing work makes assumptions about the change rate of documents on the Web, or relies on the availability of a long history of change. Our work investigates approaches to improving index consistency: detecting meaningful change, measuring the impact of a crawl on collection freshness from a user perspective, developing a framework for evaluating crawler performance, determining the effectiveness of stateless crawl ordering schemes, and proposing and evaluating the effectiveness of a dynamic crawl approach. Our work is concerned specifically with cases where there is little or no past change statistics with which predictions can be made. Our work analyses different measures of change and introduces a novel approach to measuring the impact of recrawl schemes on search engine users. Our schemes detect important changes that affect user results. Other well-known and widely used schemes have to retrieve around twice the data to achieve the same effectiveness as our schemes. Furthermore, while many studies have assumed that the Web changes according to a model, our experimental results are based on real web documents. We analyse various stateless crawl ordering schemes that have no past change statistics with which to predict which documents will change, none of which, to our knowledge, has been tested to determine effectiveness in crawling changed documents. We empirically show that the effectiveness of these schemes depends on the topology and dynamics of the domain crawled and that no one static crawl ordering scheme can effectively maintain freshness, motivating our work on dynamic approaches. We present our novel approach to maintaining freshness, which uses the anchor text linking documents to determine the likelihood of a document changing, based on statistics gathered during the current crawl. We show that this scheme is highly effective when combined with existing stateless schemes. When we combine our scheme with PageRank, our approach allows the crawler to improve both freshness and quality of a collection. Our scheme improves freshness regardless of which stateless scheme it is used in conjunction with, since it uses both positive and negative reinforcement to determine which document to retrieve. Finally, we present the design and implementation of Lara, our own distributed crawler, which we used to develop our testbed.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Typescript (photocopy) Includes bibliographical references (leaves 223-249) Investigates the relationship between feed conversion efficiency and physiological variables among several lines, generations and breeds of hen fed ad libitum or on restricted amounts of feed; and, of the consequences to egg shell quality of restriction of food supplied to laying hens.