The thesis is an attempt to apply complex systems thinking to the problem of meaning. It is in two parts. Part 1, Chapter 1 introduces the research agenda and overviews the thesis. Chapter 2 establishes the value of adopting a systems approach to the problem of meaning. The next chapter introduces key concepts of complex systems theory as they apply to sociocultural phenomena, and the last chapter in Part 1 reviews three theories of complex meaning systems (Donald Campbell, Jay Lemke, and Paul Cilliers) from which a preliminary model and agenda for theorising complex meaning systems is proposed. Part 2 of the thesis investigates the phenomena of management fads, applying the models of complex meaning systems formulated in Part 1. No primary empirical work is attempted; rather an analytical engagement is conducted using secondary literature on what we know about such fads. The literature, both primary and secondary, is reviewed and critiqued. The final chapters exemplify the problem of meaning using the theory building and agenda setting from Part 1. The concluding chapter reflects on the adequacy of a complex systems approach to meaning, critiques the process of the thesis and comments upon its contribution.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniv., 2009. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Fire, a natural disturbance, regulates species composition in Fescue Prairie. However, little is known about the contribution of different regeneration strategies in altering species composition after burning in Fescue Prairie. The present study was conducted to determine if and how fire and associated fire cues regulate species composition in Fescue Prairie through their effects on seedling recruitment. The effects of fire and various fire cues, including smoke, ash, and smoke plus ash on seedlings emerging in the field and/or from litter, 0-1 cm, and 1-5 cm layers of the soil seed banks were therefore examined. These studies were complimented by a study of testing effects of smoke originated from different plant materials on seed germination and seedling growth of species from Fescue Prairie. Chemical analyses were also conducted to determine whether different active compounds existed in smoke made from different materials, which in turn affect germination and seedling growth differently. Burning increased densities, richness, and diversity of seedlings emerging in the field. This was possibly attributed to direct fire cues of burning. Seedling densities of native forbs and non-native graminoids emerging from the soil seed bank were increased and decreased by burning, respectively. Ash and smoke plus ash increased density of forbs emerging from the soil seed bank. Species composition of seedlings emerging in the field and from the soil seed bank was altered by burning. Complex responses were observed for the effects of smoke on seedling establishment, which depended on the type and dilution of smoke solutions, as well as germination conditions. Smoke solutions partly substituted light requirement for germination of Artemisia ludoviciana. Germination of Cirsium arvense and Conyza canadensis only responded to smoke solutions at 25/15°C, but not at 10/0 °C. Diluted smoke solutions increased radical length of Artemisia ludoviciana. Karrikinolide (KAR1) was in the smoke made from prairie hay and wheat straw, but not in that made from alfalfa. This is the first report that different active compounds existed in smoke made from different materials. Highly concentrated smoke solutions made from alfalfa increased germination and radical length of Conyza canadensis, while the same concentrated smoke solutions made from prairie hay and wheat straw reduced germination of Conyza canadensis at 25/15 °C in darkness. Priming in KAR1 solutions and active fractions obtained from prairie hay and/or wheat straw increased germination of Artemisia frigida, Artemisia ludoviciana, and Conyza canadensis at certain germination conditions. In summary, fire and direct fire cues, smoke and ash specifically, stimulated recruitment of some species, especially early seral species and native forbs, contributing to potential changes in species composition of the Fescue Prairie. Different compounds existed in smoke solutions made from alfalfa as compared with those from prairie hay and wheat straw, showing different effects on seed germination and seedling growth. KAR1, the most important active compound discovered in smoke, was present in the smoke made from prairie hay and wheat straw, but was not in that made from alfalfa.

Submitted by Dilene Paulo (dilene.fatima@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-01-26T12:31:49Z No. of bitstreams: 1 ANDRESSA BARBOSA DE FARIAS LEANDRO – DISSERATAÇÃO PPGH 2014.pdf: 6317371 bytes, checksum: 3e67250e7bed6b958831bfad5d66be6b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-01-26T12:31:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ANDRESSA BARBOSA DE FARIAS LEANDRO – DISSERATAÇÃO PPGH 2014.pdf: 6317371 bytes, checksum: 3e67250e7bed6b958831bfad5d66be6b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / O presente estudo tem como objetivo problematizar as práticas escoteiras vivenciadas, na cidade de Campina Grande-PB, nas décadas de 1980-1990, refletindo sobre o disciplinamento dos corpos e a construção de identidades nos Grupos de Escoteiros (General Sampaio, Santos Dumont e Baturité). Deste modo, com base, na análise de fontes orais, na documentação dos arquivos dos referidos Grupos de Escoteiros, nos registros da União dos Escoteiros do Brasil, fotografias e jornais, buscamos refletir como um movimento educativo pensado para a realidade dos jovens ingleses do início do século XX, conseguiu atrair tantas crianças para as suas fileiras na cidade de Campina Grande, na década de 1980-1990, quase cem anos depois de sua criação? Partindo da premissa de que os Grupos de Escoteiros são espaços disciplinares, cujo objetivo é a formação do jovem educado, cumpridor dos seus deveres e útil para a sociedade, refletimos sobre a aplicação do Método Escoteiro, entendido em nosso trabalho como um mecanismo que cumpre a função de disciplinar o corpo, a mente e as emoções dos escoteiros. Analisamos ainda as práticas simbólicas que perpassam o escotismo, responsáveis por estabelecerem a coesão e o sentimento de pertença entre os membros escoteiros, buscando a construção de uma identidade comum. Para a concretização desta pesquisa dialogou-se como alguns autores, a exemplo de FOUCAULT (1987) e suas reflexões teóricas sobre o poder disciplinar, BOSI (1994) e HALBWACHS (1990) acerca da memória, HALL (2005) que nos deu subsídio para discutir a produção de identidades, CHARTIER (1990) e sua análise sobre as representações sociais, CERTEAU (1994) sobre as táticas de resistência, dentre outros. / The following study has as objective to problematize the scouts practices lived, in the city of Campina Grande - PB, in the decades of 1980-1990, reflecting about the discipline of the bodies and the building of identities in the scout groups (General Sampaio, Santos Dumont and Batiruté). Thus, based on the analysis of oral sources, in the files documentation of the referred scout groups, in the records of the Union of Scouts Brazil, photographs and newspapers, we reflect as an educational movement thought to the reality of young Englishmen of the early twentieth century, has attracted many children to their ranks in the city of Campina Grande, in the decade of 1980-1990, nearly a hundred years after its creation? Assuming that the Scout Groups are disciplinary spaces, whose goal is the formation of an educated young, aware of their duties and availabilities to society, we reflected on the implementation of the Scout Method, seen in our work as a mechanism whose function is to discipline the body, mind and emotions of the scouts. We also analyzed the symbolic practices that pervade the scouting, responsible for establishing cohesion and sense of belonging among scouts members seeking the construction of a common identity. To achieve this research, it was discussed as some authors, like FOUCALT (1987) and his theoretical reflections on disciplinary power, BOSI (1994) and HALBWACHS (1990) on the memory, HALL (2005) who gave us allowance to discuss the production of identities, Chartier (1990) and his analysis of the social representations, Certeau (1994) on resistance tactics, among others.

The introduction to the dissertation is devoted to a brief overview of the development and emergence of teeth and the characteristics of the internal and external influences that affect the emergence. In addition to the influence of physical constitution on permanent teeth emergence, other factors such as socioeconomic influences, premature birth, premature loss of deciduous teeth, or the influence of craniofacial morphology are described. The term biological age and the possibilities of its determination were also discussed. In research part we carried out research into permanent tooth emergence in Czech children aged 4 to 15, as a knowledge of the timing and sequence of the emergence of permanent is important for dental prevention treatment planning, particularly in orthodontics and pediatric dentistry and also is essential in forensic anthropology for the estimation of an individual's age. We also focused on the evaluation of the differences in the time of emergence of the contralateral and opposing permanent teeth. Attention was also paid to some important internal and external factors that affect the time of emergence of the permanent dentition. Our results were compared with the conclusions of similar studies conducted throughout the world. Key words: permanent teeth, emergence time,...

Magnetic flux emergence is a fundamental process in the Sun, during which magnetic fields emerge from the solar interior to the surface, to build up active regions and give onset to spectacular dynamic phenomena, such as eruptions and jets. In this thesis, we performed 3D, resistive MHD simulations to study the emergence and the associated magnetic activity of a quadrupolar region in the Sun. Our aim behind the setup of this initial condition (i.e. a quadrupolar region) was to study a magnetic field configuration, which has not been studied in detail before, although it has been repeatedly observed in the Sun and it has been shown that it can host intense magnetic activity (e.g. in the form of jets, flares and eruptions). The results of our experiments showed that the internal dynamics of such regions leads to the onset of eruptions in the form of twisted magnetic flux tubes (flux ropes). These eruptions are recurrent but they cannot escape the outermost field of the emerging flux (envelope field). They remain confined within the envelope field, as the downward tension of the outermost field lines overwhelms the upward Lorentz force of the erupting field. When we add an ambient magnetic field in the solar atmosphere, external reconnection between the emerging and the ambient field triggers the emission of (standard) reconnection jets. The external reconnection also releases the tension of the ambient field lines and, thus, the eruptions move in an ejective way towards the outer space. Namely, the confined eruptions become ejective eruptions, which escape from the numerical domain. These ejective eruptions drive a newly observed class of jets, the so called "blowout" jets. Our experiments reproduce some of the main observed characteristics of the "blowout" jets. We showed that "blowout" jets emit hot and cool plasma into the outer solar atmosphere simultaneously, and they undergo untwisting motion due to the relaxation of twist during their ejection. We found that the untwisting motion of the "blowout" jets is associated with the propagation of torsional Alfvén waves. Finally, we performed a parametric study to explore the effect of the ambient field strength on the onset and dynamics of the eruptive events. We found that one of the main effects is that the stronger ambient field suppresses the vertical expansion of the magnetic envelope of the quadrupolar region due to the higher magnetic pressure above it. This result has an effect on the emission of jets, which are emitted due to reconnection between the two fields. When the ambient field is relatively weak, it is pushed away from the strong emerging field and reconnection between them is not so persistent. On the other hand, when the ambient field is relatively strong, we find that more jets are ejected due to more efficient and more frequent reconnection between the two flux systems. As a consequence, we find that more mass and flux is being transferred into the solar corona by the reconnection jets. Also, we find that there are more eruptions when the ambient field is stronger. The study of the total energy flux carried by the jets showed that it is sufficient to provide the energy required to accelerate the high speed solar wind. This indicates that the "blowout" jets may play an important role in driving the solar wind.

Systems chemistry aims at studying and developing "smart" materials displaying reactivity to external stimuli, metabolism, self-repair abilities and self-replication properties. These features constitute the principal characteristics of living systems that smart materials tend to mimic. The synthesis strategies of these materials are still in their infancy, and identifying the mechanisms underlying emergent phenomena could lead to a better control and use of these behaviours in the synthesis of new materials. The complex dynamics of biological systems usually arises from the coupling of compartmentalised units in which nonlinear chemical reactions take place. In this thesis, we are interested in the complex dynamics emerging from such compartmentalisation of a reactive system. First, we analyse the impact of fluctuations of concentration on the dynamics of a chemical oscillatory reaction, namely the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction. We show that oscillations are more robust against fluctuations than other behaviours generated by the reaction (birhythmicity, chaos, ) and highlight different mechanisms by which oscillations can arise from fluctuations. Then, we study a model for chemical chaos, the so-called Willamowsky-Rössler model, in which we incorporate fluctuations and crowding effects. Fluctuations have a destructive effect on chaotic dynamics but when the reaction takes place on a surface where the different species can diffuse and react, a synergy develops between fluctuations, crowding effects and the mobility of the particles. This synergy enhances the re-emergence of chaos and the development of new behaviours. Finally, we show throughout different modelling approaches that compartmentalisation effects play a central role in the intracellular calcium dynamics and emphasise how microscopic properties of the system shape the global behaviour of this system. Compartmentalised nonlinear dynamics thus offer a wide range of future prospects for the synthesis of smart materials and fosters the development of nanoreactors based on these properties. / Doctorat en Sciences / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This thesis addresses the complexities in the design of System of Systems, by providing a flexible, case independent method to analyse and rank the alternatives that are capable of performing the desired missions or operations assigned by decision makers. Although its methods involve only low-fidelity models, these proved to be the best choice as the design space created and, consequently, the number of analysis grow explosively with the increase of available options to perform the required tasks. This is due to the combinatory approach used in the generation of the design space. Another goal is to provide a demonstration of possible improvements with the addition of ontologies to the early stages of design, especially when complex solutions are expected. This also diminishes the probability of human error by decreasing the amount of work demanded when adding alternatives or changing their characteristics, displaying again the feasible application of knowledge based and automated solutions to the engineering design process. With these advantages, the flexibility of altering the set of inputs is enhanced, adding to the resilience of the framework, as it can be attached to any available compatible ontology and perform in that specific domain without hindrance. Due to the lack of techniques and the probable cost of these once made available, the evaluation of emergence is not considered in this work, and is not reccomended to be directly done once ready for use, at least not on the full result array. Moreover, the modular implementation of the framework makes the exchange of functions a rather simple task, enabling users to adapt it to their own needs. Some immediate implementations are mentioned to greatly improve the general performance and relevance of results provided.

Actuellement, la musicologie de l’improvisation s’appuie pour l’essentiel sur une lecture intentionnelle du projet artistique ; notre thèse propose une approche différente, en regardant l’improvisation comme un processus complexe, comportant une dimension auto-organisée, à l’image des comportements collectifs observés dans les sociétés animales. Ceux-ci résultent de composantes aléatoires, de nombreuses interactions, de logiques d’amplification et de processus non linéaires. Les outils et les concepts mis au point à l’interface physique-biologie pour comprendre ces dynamiques naturelles nous permettent de construire une démarche de modélisation propre à la musicologie, qui décrit les actes de l’improvisateur à partir d’intuitions musicales pour analyser l’interaction entre ce qui participe de savoir pré-construits et de l’intention, d’une part, et ce qui peut être compris comme un réglage de l’aléatoire, d’autre part. Cette démarche de modélisation est mise en oeuvre sur deux transcriptions du pianiste américain Brad Mehldau. Pour la première (Am Zauberberg), la démarche itérative de modélisation est exposée en détail, partant du modèle le plus pauvre jusqu’à la nécessité d’incorporer le geste de la main. Pour la seconde (Bard), cette démarche est étendue à la conception harmonique, chaque voix d’accompagnement étant conçue comme mue d’un mouvement propre au sein de contraintes d’espace donnée par les autres voix. Nous concluons en ouvrant des perspectives de possibles expérimentations inspirées par ces modèles, du côté de l’enseignement de l’improvisation ou de celui du musicien cherchant à incorporer à son jeu une dimension de lâcher-prise qui est au cœur du processus d’improvisation. / Currently, the musicology of improvisation essentially highlights the intentional part of an artistic project ; our thesis starts with a quite distinct approach, looking at improvisation as a complex process, with a self-organization dimension inspired of the way biologists analyse collective behaviors in animal societies. These behaviors are todays perceived as the result of combined statistical processes at the individual scale, with numerous inter-individual interactions, amplifications, and non linear loops. Such an analysis of observed natural phenomena led biologists and physicists to introduce and set-up concepts and tools that we use here to propose a modeling approach adapted to Musicology. We start with musical intuitions to propose a description of the perceptions and actions of the improviser that puts forward the deep interaction between what is made of pre-builded knowledge and intention, on one side, and of « tuning random behaviors », on the other. This modeling approach is carried out on two transcriptions of the american pianist Brad Mehldau. With the first piece (Am Zauberberg), we fully describe the iterative process leading from the poorest model to the need of incorporating hand-gestures. With the second piece (Bard), we dress the question of improvising harmony, each voice being conceived as animated of its own displacement rules, but spatially constrained by the others. We conclude by opening up prospects of experiments inspired by these models, some concerning the teaching of improvisation, others aiming at better understanding the process by which a musician seeks to incorporate to his play more « letting go », at the heart of what improvisation is about.

The continued spread of glyphosate-resistant common waterhemp [Amaranthus tuberculatus (Moq.) Sauer (syn. rudis)] and Palmer amaranth [Amaranthus palmeri (S. Wats.)] have complicated weed control efforts in soybean and corn production in Illinois. A thorough understanding of the weed biology of these species is fundamental in developing effective weed management strategies. The determination of emergence patterns as well as the influence of tillage practices on soil microclimate and soil seed bank will allow control strategies to be implemented at the most effective timing. Field experiments were conducted in southern Illinois throughout the growing season of 2013 and 2014 on two separate sites with populations of common waterhemp and Palmer amaranth. Three tillage treatments were evaluated: no-tillage; early tillage, preferably performed around a recommended soybean planting date of May 1st; and late tillage, preferably performed on June 1st to simulate a late soybean planting. Amaranthus seedlings were identified and enumerated in the center 1 m2 quadrat of each plot within a 7-day interval from April through November or first frost. All weed seedlings were removed from the plot area after each enumeration. Soil temperature and soil moisture were recorded hourly throughout the experiment using data loggers established in the plot area. First emergence of common waterhemp occurred earlier in the season than did Palmer amaranth. In 2013, initial emergence of common waterhemp and Palmer amaranth was observed at the first and second week of May, respectively. In 2014, initial common waterhemp emergence was observed in late April, while Palmer amaranth initial emergence was similar to previous year. Palmer amaranth emerged over a longer period compared to waterhemp. By the end of June, 90% of common waterhemp had emerged regardless of tillage or year. By the same measure, Palmer amaranth emergence was extended to the third week of July and second week of August in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Soil temperature did not differ across tillage treatments in both years. On the other hand, differences in soil moisture were observed, mostly over two weeks following each tillage operation. The single best predictor for common waterhemp emergence was soil temperature (weekly highs and lows) followed by soil moisture. For Palmer amaranth emergence the single best predictor was spikes in soil moisture (high for the week). In 2013, common waterhemp emergence was initially positively and later in the growing season negatively interacted with maximum temperature 13 days prior to counts, with temperatures above 30 C observed with decreased emergence (R2 = 0.35). In the same year spikes in soil moisture interacted with Palmer amaranth emergence were those observed 11 days before each seedling enumeration date (R2 = 0.30). In 2014, with first common waterhemp emergence in April, a positive interaction to high soil temperature was initially observed followed by a positive interaction to minimum temperatures later in the season (R2 = 0.55). Spikes in soil moisture observed 2 weeks prior to emergence and weekly high temperatures 8 days prior to emergence were the best predictors of Palmer amaranth emergence in 2014 (R2 =0.37). Soil seed bank depletion was also estimated by comparing field emergence with greenhouse experiment results of soil seed bank estimation. Greater emergence of common waterhemp from the soil seed bank was observed in early tillage in 2013 and no-tillage in 2014 than late tillage, respectively; for Palmer amaranth, the greatest emergence from the soil seed bank was observed in no-tillage and late tillage in 2013, and no-tillage, in 2014. The emergence patterns observed in this research suggest that although common waterhemp and Palmer amaranth exhibit discontinuous emergence throughout the growing season, greater attention should be placed on managing peaks of emergence from late April to late July, which is critical to provide a foundation for early-season weed management. Furthermore, knowledge regarding the emergence patterns of common waterhemp and Palmer amaranth combined with monitoring environmental factors such as soil moisture and soil temperature may assist efforts for scouting fields to determine the likely presence of these weed species. The timing of viable postemergence herbicide options for control of glyphosate-resistant waterhemp and Palmer amaranth is critical and monitoring weather patterns to direct scouting efforts may improve the timeliness of these postemergence applications.