La complexité du système climatique nécessite de recourir à une grande variété d'indicateurs pour reconstruire ses variations passées. A ce titre, les glaces polaires constituent un outil d'investigation privilégié compte tenu de la grande diversité d'informations qu'elles recèlent. Dans cette étude, nous nous intéressons plus particulièrement au forage antarctique côtier de DSS, sur le site du Law-Dome et aux indicateurs climatiques que constituent les teneurs isotopiques et la teneur en air de la glace. Le nombre d'analyses et la précision des mesures isotopiques requises pour l'étude d'un forage polaire demandent une adaptation et une mise en oeuvre spécifique des techniques classiques de spectrométrie de masse. Notre étude présente une technique nouvelle et originale d'injection des échantillons mise au point sur l'un des spectromètre de masse du laboratoire; elle a permis d'accroître sensiblement le rendement de l'appareil en conservant la précision expérimentale. Récemment de nouvelles études ont remis en cause l'interprétation quantitative classique des isotopes en termes de température. L'analyse de nouveaux échantillons de neige de surface sur la zone de l'Antarctique de l'Est nous permet de discuter la validité de la relation spatiale isotope/température et de proposer une estimation de l'erreur associée. L'utilisation de l'excès en deutérium et d'un modèle isotopique simple apportent une information supplémentaire sur l'origine des précipitations actuelles. Face aux interrogations sur l'impact des activités humaines sur le climat, il est essentiel de replacer les fluctuations récentes dans la cadre de la variabilité climatique naturelle. L'unique résolution temporelle offerte par le forage de DSS nous permet d'étudier en détail le climat des 4000 dernières années. L'analyse spectrale des enregistrements suggère l'existence de modes oscillatoires à rapprocher des phénomènes ENSO et/ou de l'onde circumpolaire antarctique. L'analyse de la teneur en air des échantillons de DSS nous apporte enfin une information sur les variations d'altitude probablement subies par le LawDome au cours de la dernière transition climatique.

The general purpose of this dissertation is to evaluate KrAmi – a correctional program for young offenders – regarding socioeconomic profitability. Evaluating socioeconomic results enables us to examine and reflect upon the possibilities of applying socioeconomic models to social work. The basic data, from a long-term follow up study of 140 persons in two KrAmi programs, one Knuff program and two probation programs (treatment as usual), also allow systematic comparisons with more traditional evaluation models The data have been presented in one research report and three articles. The research report examines both the effects in an effect study and the socioeconomic results in a CBA (Cost-Benefit Analysis) and a CEA (Cost-Effectiveness analysis). The overall aim of the socioeconomic study was to examine the socioeconomic profitability of the programmes. We found a halving of expenditure for the KrAmi and Knuff groups and a 25 percent reduction for the two probation programmes compared to the cost one year before rehabilitation started. The 15-year investment analysis (CBA) showed that expenditures decreased and benefits increased by about 2.5 million SEK per individual for the two KrAmi programmes and one non-custodial program, by 0.5-1.0 million SEK for the Knuff program and the other non-custodial program. For the KrAmi programs investment in rehabilitation pays off in 1-1.5 years, for probation in 2.5-4 years and for Knuff in 4 years after the intervention. The benefit-cost ratios were 17.8 - 12.7 for the two KrAmi programs and 5.1 - 5.8 for the two non-custodial programs. For the Knuff program the benefit-cost ratio was 13.2. KrAmi rates are higher for rehabilitation rate (pension points), rehabilitation rate compared to investment costs and benefit-cost ratio, pay-off time is the shortest. The results of both the effect study and socio-economic study, which were presented in the first article, suggest that social improvements for the clients corresponded with socio-economic profitability. However, these findings should be interpreted with caution due to difficulties in comparing short-term data on effects from ASI interviews collected in one period with long-term data concerning socio-economic costs per day per client in a different period. The second article elaborated on these design issues and also examined whether approaching an evaluation from different perspectives and employing different research methods can increase understanding. The conclusion drawn was that it was essential to have knowledge on the dissimilarities in design and measures between the two studies to come to the correct interpretations. These interpretations led to new questions to illuminate the results of the evaluations. In the third article the focus was the long-term follow up period. In this study the Knuff program was excluded from the study and the two KrAmi programs formed the program group and the two probation group formed the control group. The follow-up period was two years during which the socioeconomic costs decreased stepwise for both groups, probation groups more so than program groups. The deteriorations were 70-80% compared to the period before treatment. However rehabilitation to labour market was more successful for program groups than for control groups thanks to the greater socio-economic profitability for program groups. The introductory part of this dissertation focuses on methodological difficulties, and a multivariate regression analysis (MRA) is presented which shows that pre-existing differences in the composition of the program groups and control groups were not responsible for the differences on the socio-economic results. Moreover the introductory section includes a research presentation and the rationale for socioeconomic evaluation.

The present thesis is based on a scientifically-informed, contextualized and historicized reading of Ludwik Fleck. In addition to his monograph, the material studied includes his additional philosophical writings, his internationally-published scientific articles and two, thus-far-unstudied postwar Polish papers related to his Buchenwald experiences. The sources provided by Fleck have been traced back to the time of their origin. Based on the above material, it is argued that, rather than relativizing science and deeply influencing Kuhn, Fleck, attempting to participate in the current debates, is an ardent proponent of science, offering an internal account of its pursuit that accords with his oft-contested epistemic concepts, e.g., Denkzwang, Sinnsehen and Kopplungen. The exposure of his description of the Wassermann reaction discloses a highly selective reading of the sources available at the time, but also reveals its relation to the current debate on Einzelwissenschaften, or the standing of new emerging disciplines versus age-old ones, all occasioned by the remarkable progress of science that has also affected philosophy. The divide between philosophers and scientists on the philosophical implications of modern physics is exposed, as is Fleck’s heuristic use of the latter topic in his epistemology. A more realistic account of his often-valued scientific accomplishments is provided. It is argued that the modern interpretation or received humanist view of Fleck is based on the opposition, at the time Fleck’s monograph was rediscovered, of STS writers to a scientifically-informed reading of his texts. An additional corrective to the received view of Fleck is found in some of his postwar Polish papers related his Buchenwald experiences. The latter might also provide an answer to some of the contradictions inherent in the modern mythology surrounding Fleck. In amply exposing the precarious situation of the time, and the complexity of the ethical issues at stake, Fleck’s papers in fact generate age-old philosophical questions still worth contemplating. / QC 20100826

A major driving force for development of new catalyst systems is the need for more efficient synthesis of chemical compounds essential to modern life. Catalysts having superior performance offer significant environmental and economic advantages, but their discovery is not trivial. Well-defined, homogeneous catalysts can offer unparalleled understanding of ligand effects, which proves invaluable in directing redesign strategies. This thesis work focuses on the design of ruthenium complexes for applications in dinitrogen activation and olefin metathesis. The complexes developed create new directions in small-molecule activation and asymmetric catalysis by late-metal complexes. Also examined are the dual challenges, ubiquitous in catalysis, of adequate interrogation of catalyst structure and performance. Insight into both is essential to enable correlation of ligand properties with catalyst activity and/or selectivity. Improved methods for accelerated assessment of catalyst performance are described, which expand high-throughput catalyst screening to encompass parallel acquisition of kinetic data. A final aspect focuses on direct examination of metal complexes, both as isolated species, and under catalytic conditions. Applications of charge-transfer MALDI mass spectrometry to structural elucidation in organometallic chemistry is described, and the technique is employed to gain insight into catalyst decomposition pathways under operating conditions.

A major driving force for development of new catalyst systems is the need for more efficient synthesis of chemical compounds essential to modern life. Catalysts having superior performance offer significant environmental and economic advantages, but their discovery is not trivial. Well-defined, homogeneous catalysts can offer unparalleled understanding of ligand effects, which proves invaluable in directing redesign strategies. This thesis work focuses on the design of ruthenium complexes for applications in dinitrogen activation and olefin metathesis. The complexes developed create new directions in small-molecule activation and asymmetric catalysis by late-metal complexes. Also examined are the dual challenges, ubiquitous in catalysis, of adequate interrogation of catalyst structure and performance. Insight into both is essential to enable correlation of ligand properties with catalyst activity and/or selectivity. Improved methods for accelerated assessment of catalyst performance are described, which expand high-throughput catalyst screening to encompass parallel acquisition of kinetic data. A final aspect focuses on direct examination of metal complexes, both as isolated species, and under catalytic conditions. Applications of charge-transfer MALDI mass spectrometry to structural elucidation in organometallic chemistry is described, and the technique is employed to gain insight into catalyst decomposition pathways under operating conditions.

Software project management is arguably the most important activity in modern software development projects. In the absence of realistic and objective management, the software development process cannot be managed in an effective way. Software development effort estimation is one of the most challenging and researched problems in project management. With the advent of object-oriented development, there have been studies to transpose some of the existing effort estimation methodologies to the new development paradigm. However, there is not in existence a holistic approach to estimation that allows for the refinement of an initial estimate produced in the requirements gathering phase through to the design phase. A SysML point methodology is proposed that is based on a common, structured and comprehensive modeling language (OMG SysML) that factors in the models that correspond to the primary phases of object-oriented development into producing an effort estimate. This dissertation presents a Function Point-like approach, named Pattern Point, which was conceived to estimate the size of object-oriented products using the design patterns found in object interaction modeling from the late OO analysis phase. In particular, two measures are proposed (PP1 and PP2) that are theoretically validated showing that they satisfy wellknown properties necessary for size measures. An initial empirical validation is performed that is meant to assess the usefulness and effectiveness of the proposed measures in predicting the development effort of object-oriented systems. Moreover, a comparative analysis is carried out; taking into account several other size measures. The experimental results show that the Pattern Point measure can be effectively used during the OOA phase to predict the effort values with a high degree of confidence. The PP2 metric yielded the best results with an aggregate PRED (0.25) = 0.874.

Scholars widely acknowledge that democratic political leaders seek public support for their policy endeavors, particularly when conducting costly policies as in the case of military interventions. A deeper understanding of the factors that affect public support for military interventions is crucial to explaining more definitively the determinants of foreign policy decisions regarding military interventions. However, most studies in this area of research examine the public as an undifferentiated mass that reacts uniformly to changes in the course of an intervention. In addition, scholars often overlook the varying dynamics of public support across different phases of a military intervention. Given these shortcomings in the literature, the objective of this dissertation is to examine the formation of public support as a function of political information levels and intervention stages. This dissertation is important in both methodological and theoretical terms. Methodologically, the major contribution of my dissertation is the adoption of a multimethod approach that is almost non-existent in this line of research. By bringing together a formal framework, experimentation, and statistical analyses of public opinion survey data, I develop a more refined theory and attain more robust empirical results. Theoretically, the study challenges the dominant mode of research on military interventions in which public opinion is treated as a homogenous mass. Specifically, I explore how major factors related to public support for military interventions (such as casualty rates) play different roles and weigh differently in their impact on the opinions of politically informed versus less informed individuals across stages of an intervention. The results of the experiments and survey data analyses demonstrate that politically informed individuals express less support for a military intervention at the starting (rally) phase of that intervention compared to the less informed. That said, as the intervention proceeds and casualties are incurred, support of politically uninformed individuals decreases at higher rates than does support of politically informed ones. In other words, politically informed individuals demonstrate more stable levels of support across intervention stages. In addition, both experimental and survey data analyses show that policy-specific information is generally a more influential factor on public support for military interventions compared to general political information.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves : [84]-89).

published_or_final_version / Medical Sciences / Master / Master of Medical Sciences

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