Stuttgart, Univ., Diss., 2008.

Thesis (M.L.A.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1994. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 30-31). Also available via the Internet.

abstract: This thesis examines the use of the earth goddess figure in John Varley's Gaean Trilogy (1979-1984). In the figure of Gaea (Varley's alien goddess villain), the reader is presented with a host of popular culture feminine archetypes with connotations connected to the long-standing tradition of associating femininity and materiality, and Varley's literary examination, operating through the exaggeration of these archetypes, displays their essential flaws. The ultimate antagonistic functions of these archetypal figures, relative to the human characters occupying the world underwritten by them, suggests that Varley uses such figural archetypes to deconstruct, via their varied failures, both the archetypes themselves and the evocative symbolic contexts associated with them, therein demonstrating their inherent limitations and providing a cautionary tale that highlights the fallibility of projective archetypal construction-even seemingly positive ones. By examining these archetypes as performances of gender, the thesis illustrates Varley's integration, at the end of the 1970's, of second-wave feminist theoretical ideals into science fiction (a genre with a long history dedicated to the experimental examination of all social typology) initially sets up and then subsequently breaks down the archetypal villain, thus pursuing a political dimension as well. The narrative experiment in typology promotes a turning away from the ancient symbolic associations of femininity to explore a new kind of goddess, one not reliant on pre-existing archetypes but one more attuned to the emergence of "gender" itself as a construct used to define the feminine itself. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. English 2012

Submitted by Edileide Reis (leyde-landy@hotmail.com) on 2014-09-09T12:52:18Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Nei Freitas Nunes Neto.pdf: 1548297 bytes, checksum: d2a73a187d3959051872d9f5a0509926 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Fatima Cleômenis Botelho Maria (botelho@ufba.br) on 2014-09-09T13:08:16Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Nei Freitas Nunes Neto.pdf: 1548297 bytes, checksum: d2a73a187d3959051872d9f5a0509926 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-09-09T13:08:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Nei Freitas Nunes Neto.pdf: 1548297 bytes, checksum: d2a73a187d3959051872d9f5a0509926 (MD5) / Gaia é um programa de pesquisa científico, que foi proposto pelo químico inglês James Lovelock, no final da década de 1960, a partir de estudos desenvolvidos por ele para a NASA, com o objetivo de formular métodos para a detecção de vida em outros planetas. O programa de pesquisa foi fortemente rejeitado pela comunidade científica nos primeiros anos de sua história, ao passo que foi recebido com entusiasmo por grupos espiritualistas e ambientalistas. Entretanto, a rejeição da comunidade científica tem sido significativamente reduzida, sobretudo a partir de meados dos anos 1980 e anos 1990. Neste trabalho, temos como objetivo oferecer uma abordagem consistente para as atribuições e explicações funcionais no pograma de pesquisa. Assim, para alcançar o objetivo, realizamos nosso trabalho em duas vertentes. Na primeira, apresentamos uma discussão sobre o surgimento e o desenvolvimento de Gaia enquanto um programa de pesquisa, as questões epistemológicas suscitadas por ele e suas implicações para a compreensão do sistema Terra. Na segunda vertente, discutimos as atribuições e explicações funcionais na filosofia da biologia, com ênfase para duas teorias: a abordagem etiológica selecionista de Larry Wright e a análise funcional de Robert Cummins. Defendemos que as duas teorias são empreitadas distintas e que não devem ser unificadas numa única abordagem sobre as funções. Isto levanos a apoiar a tese do consenso dualista de Godfrey-Smith. Apresentamos também a crítica de Cummins às abordagens etiológicas selecionistas, as quais ele rotulou de neo-teleologia. Apesar de algumas das críticas de Cummins localizarem corretamente falhas naquela abordagem, outras críticas perdem de vista pontos importantes das abordagens etiológicas de função, que não podem ser deixadas de lado. A partir das críticas de ambos os lados do debate filosófico, a compreensão sobre função na biologia, é sobremaneira enriquecida. Em seguida, a partir das discussões anteriores, nos voltamos especificamente para as atribuições e explicações funcionais em Gaia, construindo uma síntese dos argumentos apresentados nas duas vertentes do trabalho. Buscamos uma solução para a questão teórica investigada a partir da perspectiva sobre as funções de Cummins. Para este filósofo, função é uma capacidade de um ítem à qual recorremos para compreender a realização de uma capacidade do sistema que o contém. Após discutir questões como decomposição e localização em sistemas complexos e em Gaia, aplicamos a teoria de Cummins sobre as funções a um subsistema de Gaia, o sistema proposto pela hipótese CLAW, que interliga algas oceânicas, compostos voláteis de enxofre, nuvens sobre os oceanos e o clima global. O resultado de tal aplicação é um modelo funcional do sistema, onde as capacidades dos componentes são tratadas como as funções destes e explicam, juntamente com a organização do sistema, a realização da capacidade sistêmica em questão, a saber, a produção de nuvens sobre os oceanos. O modelo proposto permite concluir que a análise funcional de Cummins fornece um quadro teórico consistente para a construção de explicações funcionais consistentes em Gaia e pode contribuir também para a superação do problema das explicações teleológicas no programa de pesquisa. Por fim, consideramos as implicações de Gaia para o ensino de ciências, especialmente o de biologia, na medida em que ela já está presente nos livros didáticos de biologia do ensino médio. Além disso, Gaia pode ser uma interessante via de inserção de história e filosofia da ciência no ensino de ciências, assim como pode contribuir para a abordagem de temas ambientais.

James Lovelock and Henry Thoreau propose a world view based on the connections between an individual and their personal landscape. This viewpoint is an alternative to the more prevalent world view of our mass society. The pervasive outlook disregards these connections and concentrates instead on isolationism. By viewing elements of the natural world as isolated entities, individuals are unable to comprehend the larger context, or environment of which these entities are a part. William James, a philosopher of the early twentieth century, poses a philosophical foundation which reinforces Lovelock's and Thoreau's ideas. James' philosophy is "pragmatism, proposing ideas of relational thinking and the absence of absolutes. Lovelock and Thoreau il1ustrate the philosophy of James in the exploration of three concepts: (1) Beauty; (2) Spirituality; and, (3) Human Experience and Knowledge. The acknowledgment and internalization of these concepts leads to a different understanding of an individual's place in the world. Since this conception is not the prevalent viewpoint of the general public, this difference has the potential of creating a communication gap between student and professor, and between landscape architect and client. The implications of this communication gap are discussed. / Master of Landscape Architecture

Java is a very commonly used computer programming language, although its use amongst the scientific and High Performance Computing (HPC) communities remains relatively low. In this thesis, the option of using Java for developing scientific applications intended for execution in HPC environments is investigated. The data reduction pipeline for the Gaia space astronomy mission is an example of a large software project that has been written in Java, and will run in HPC environments. The efficient execution of the Gaia data reduction pipeline was one of the main motivations behind this thesis, although this thesis largely remains a general investigation into the use of Java in HPC. HPC is a fast changing field, in terms of hardware, software, and the scale of the problems that are being tackled. Amongst the most significant trends in HPC in recent years have been the increase in the number of cores per computing node, and the increase in the size of datasets that must be processed. A significant challenge in HPC is ensuring that data is made available in a particular node, when a core is ready to process it, thereby avoiding deadtime and providing high throughput. One danger to throughput is a decrease in the performance of shared storage devices, as the number of concurrent processes that are accessing those devices increases. Given the trends mentioned above, efficient data communication is very important for many applications running in HPC environments. In this thesis, we present an investigation into the current options for providing efficient data communication to Java applications in HPC environments. We investigate a number of implementations of Message Passing in Java (MPJ) and compare their performance. We present a new communication middleware application, called MPJ-Cache. This middleware makes use of an underlying implementation of Message-Passing in Java (MPJ), and adds prefetching, caching, and file-splitting functionality. It presents application developers with a high-level API, thus providing high-performance, as well as enabling high productivity amongst application developers. We compare the aggregate data rate that can be achieved though the use of this middleware, against that which can be achieved though direct access of a high performance shared storage device (GPFS), while distributing data amongst the nodes of a computer cluster. The use of MPJ-Cache has shown to provide an aggregate data rate of up to 103Gbps. Java applications are executed within a Java Virtual Machine (JVM), which is a managed runtime environment. The execution of applications within such a runtime environment is very different from the execution of native code, that was compiled ahead-of-time. The Java runtime environment consists of several sophisticated components, including the core runtime system, a garbage collector and a Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler. Modern JVMs strive to provide out-of-the-box high-performance, however in some situations, users may want to tune the JVM to better suit the behaviour and needs of a particular application. In order to do this, a profile of the target application should be obtained.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-11-09T11:21:25Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Homero Jorge Mazzola.pdf: 6715257 bytes, checksum: 0ca8ade2e27bf06bea8cc8e5da6d6b4d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-11-09T11:21:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Homero Jorge Mazzola.pdf: 6715257 bytes, checksum: 0ca8ade2e27bf06bea8cc8e5da6d6b4d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-11-27 / To build a sustainable future is humanity's great mission in a world characterized by deep social inequalities and environmental changes. Saint-Exupéry said: "The future is not a place where we are going, but a place we are creating. The path to it is not found but built and the act of doing so transforms both the creator and his destiny". Man has the competence to begin its construction, however, must transform himself to make it happen. The purpose of this thesis, elaborated in the form of an essay, is to explore possibilities to build this auspicious future, committed to future generations without under valuating the forces that defend the continuity of our way of life. Three fundamental questions ground this work: where do we come from, what are we and where are we going to, that are structured in three human journeys: past, present and future. In the first we find the lessons and learnings of the evolution process, essential for understanding the present and planning the future. The second journey depicts both the human capacity to transform the planet, adapting it to its needs and desires, as the resistance of those who stand against the continuity of the capitalist world system and defy humanity to metamorphose into a meta system rich in possibilities or to sink in a generalized insignificance. On the last journey, the future, it is approached a vision of the complexity of the world and the human psychic nature, which feed discussions about the individual and collective transformations that must occur to generate a desired future. Man has before him uncertainties, bifurcations and dilemmas, which can result in catastrophe or well-being. The social and climatic deterioration, perverse by itself, can also be good, taking the humanity off passivity, leading it to an overall transformation. A plausible path is a new civilizing context grounded in holistic and ecological educational reform, and structured through a truly global society: the World-Society. There is a great challenge ahead. What will happen, however, only the future will show / Construir um futuro sustentável é a grande missão da humanidade em um mundo assinalado por desigualdades sociais enraizadas e mudanças ambientais profundas. Saint-Exupéry disse: “O futuro não é um lugar para onde estamos indo, mas um lugar que estamos criando. O caminho para ele não é encontrado, mas construído e o ato de fazê-lo transforma tanto o realizador quando o destino”. O homem tem competência para iniciar sua construção, mas deverá se transformar para concretizá-lo. Com esta tese, elaborada na forma de um ensaio, exploram-se possibilidades para se construir esse futuro auspicioso, comprometido com as gerações futuras, sem desprezar as forças que defendem a continuidade do nosso modo de vida. Três questões fundamentais a embasam: de onde viemos, quem somos e para onde vamos, que na tese são abordadas na forma de jornadas humanas: passada, presente e futura. Da primeira extraem-se as lições e aprendizados da história evolutiva, imprescindíveis para se compreender o presente e planejar o futuro. A segunda jornada retrata tanto as profundas transformações que o homem produziu no planeta, adequando-o às suas necessidades e desejos, como as reações dos se posicionam contra a continuidade do sistema mundo capitalista e convidam a humanidade a metamorfosear-se em um metassistema rico em possibilidades ou sucumbir no abismo da insignificância generalizada. Na última jornada, a futura, são abordados conhecimentos sobre a complexidade do mundo e sobre a natureza psíquica humana, que alimentam discussões sobre as transformações individuais e coletivas que devem ocorrer para que se possa engendrar um futuro desejado. O homem tem diante de si incertezas, bifurcações e dilemas, que podem conduzi-lo à catástrofe ou ao bem-estar. A deterioração social e climática, perversa por si, pode ser também um bem e tirar a humanidade da passividade, conduzindo a uma mudança abrangente. Um caminho plausível é um novo contexto civilizatório embasado em uma reforma educacional holística e ecológica, e estruturado através de uma sociedade realmente global: uma Sociedade-Mundo. Há um grande desafio à frente. O que acontecerá, entretanto, só o futuro dirá

The thesis argues that Neopaganism on the Web is an example of mythopoesis and aims at showing both the novelty and the limits of such mythopoesis. I use the term "mythopoesis" in its original Greek meaning, i.e. "the creation (the making/crafting) of a myth or myths", thus stressing the dynamic way in which the process of creation (of myths, rituals, divinities, identities—all implicitly or explicitly played out, connected, and organised as "stories", which can be told, written or performed, as well as represented as images) unfolds in Neopaganism. Neopagan mythopoesis on the Web is new, original, and structurally different from other previous and contemporary examples of mythopoesis, either religious or not, since it does not refuse, put aside, or implicitly contradict, the rational framework elaborated by Western culture. The research involves exploring the contemporary cultural and historical context that allows for mythopoesis to take place and the technology that allows for it to develop. It analyses the key features of Neopaganism on the Web as they emerge from the mythopoeic recreation of two ancient goddesses (Gaia, and Artemis/Diana) and an ancient ritual (the Eleusinian mysteries). In covering several different fields (from ancient religions, to the Internet, to myth and ritual theory), and in examining a range of heterogeneous materials (from ancient texts, Neopagan hymns and art, to hypertexts), the analysis adopts an interdisciplinary approach.

[pt] Trata-se de um estudo sobre narrativas de desenvolvimento sustentável e fim de mundo baseado na Rio+20, evento ocorrido em junho de 2012 na cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Fazendo a leitura da Rio+20 como um conjunto de rituais, o estudo tem como fonte principal os eventos do Fórum ICSU, sediado na PUC-Rio, da Cúpula dos Povos, no Aterro do Flamengo, do Humanidade 2012, no Forte de Copacabana, e da UNCSD, no Riocentro. Para situar a interpretação de narrativas, o trabalho oferece um resumo histórico e teórico sobre os temas em discussão, evidenciando negociações e disputas nos últimos 40 anos. Além disso, elabora-se um mapeamento etnográfico descritivo dos lugares percorridos, propiciando a visualização desses espaços como situações sociais específicas. A tese busca identificar, com base na análise comparativa de narrativas selecionadas, elementos que caracterizem diferentes perspectivas em torno do desenvolvimento sustentável. Aponta para as disputas internas e externas à ciência e aos movimentos sociais, tendo como linha de interpretação o englobamento. Chama a atenção para o paradoxo contemporâneo entre desafios planetários e governabilidade nacional. Destaca algumas dicotomias presenciadas no campo entre ciência e saberes tradicionais, crescimento econômico e bem-estar/bem viver e felicidade, Conferência e Cúpula, conflito e cooperação, holismo e individualismo e teoria e prática. Em meio à diversidade do campo, identifica como ideias praticamente onipresentes as noções de totalidade, interdependência, cooperação, coerência, desindustrialização, localização e movimento. Inspirado na visão humanista da revolução do amor , o estudo indaga se mudanças significativas que garantam futuros para a humanidade e o planeta devam passar necessariamente pelos laços de afeto. / [en] This consists of a research about narratives of sustainable development and end of the world based on Rio+20, an event held in June 2012 in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Considering Rio+20 as a group of rituals, its main sources are: ICSU Forum, hosted by PUC-Rio, the People s Summit in Aterro do Flamengo Humanidade 2012 in Forte de Copacabana, and the UNCSD in Riocentro. To better situate the analysis of narratives, the work offers a historical and theoretical summary about discussed themes testifying negotiations and conflicts over them for the last forty years. The study offers a descriptive ethnographic mapping of visited places, enabling the visualization of such spaces as socially specific situations. Using comparative interpretation of selected narratives this thesis seeks to identify what characterizes different perspectives on sustainable development, pointing at internal and external disputes in science and social movements which are better interpreted by the idea of englobing. It calls attention to the contemporary paradox between planetary challenges and national governability. The study describes some dichotomies on the field between science and traditional knowledge, economic growth and wellbeing/buen vivir and happiness, Conference and Summit, conflict and cooperation, holism and individualism, theory and practice. Amongst the diversity of the field it identifies the concepts of totality, interdependence, cooperation, coherence, deindustrialization, localization and movement as common denominator when dealing with sustainable development. Inspired in the humanist vision of revolution of love , the study inquires if significant changes to guarantee future for humanity and the planet should necessarily be built upon bonds of affection.

The Milky Way galaxy, like all spiral galaxies, is surrounded by a roughly spherical distribution of stars called the halo. The halo was largely formed when the galaxy merged with smaller galaxies. The stellar population of the inner halo is dominated by debris from one major such merging event, called the Gaia-Enceladus-Sausage, and the outer halo population is completely built up by several mergers. To properly understand this accretion history, the halo needs to be investigated out to large distances so that as much substructure as possible can be traced. The substructure is expected to leave an imprint in the halo's metallicity structure. In this thesis, we use a catalogue of intrinsically bright stars, giants, to probe the metallicity structure of the halo to large distances. It contains 205,727 stars that all have photometric metallicities from the Pristine survey and distances derived from isochrone fitting, and reaches down to [Fe/H] = -4.0 dex and out to d = 96.16 kpc. Its purity is 90 % and completeness is 67 %. We calculate the distance errors by Monte Carlo simulations and introduce a new cut in colour that is dependent on metallicity to reduce contaminants in the sample. This introduces a metallicity bias in the sample that we can correct for because we coupled metallicity and colour. The correction is done by computing weights for different metallicity bins. The final catalogue allows us to create metallicity distribution functions of the halo as a function of distance. These show us that as heliocentric distance, the distance from the Galactic centre or the Galactic plane increases, the overall metallicity decreases. At the closest distances, the thick disk metallicity peak at -0.7 dex dominates, but as we move further out this smoothly shifts to -1.3 dex and then to -1.6 dex, representing the inner halo, while a peak at -2.2 dex, representing the outer halo, starts to become visible beyond 6 kpc and dominates the metallicity distribution past 26 kpc. These peaks are remnants of merger events in the halo, with the inner halo peak being due to the massive Gaia-Enceladus-Sausage merger and the outer halo peak being due to the many, low-mass and thus low-metallicity galaxies accreted there. We are able to see signals from the Sagittarius stream and Gaia-Enceladus-Sausage's apocentric pile-ups in the metallicity distribution functions, showing that the halo's metallicity changes with not only distance but also sightline. We also detect a diffuse, very metal-poor cloud in the southern footprint that may be an until now unknown structure. This catalogue and its resulting metallicity distribution functions are thus a suitable addition to literature at the metal-poor and distant end, as well as the faint end where e.g. Gaia mission data is unable to provide metallicities and distances. / Vintergatan är, som alla spiralgalaxer, omringad av en ungefärligen sfärisk distribution av stjärnor som kallas halon. Denna halo bildades när galaxen sammansmälte med mindre galaxer. Stjärnpopulationen i den inre halon domineras av stjärnor som kom in med en sådan, väldigt stor, sammanslagning med en annan galax som eter Gaia-Enceladus-Sausage, och den yttre halons stjärnpopulation har helt och hållet byggts upp av sammanslagningar med flera galaxer. För att kunna kartlägga Vintergatans alla sammanslagningar med andra galaxer behöver vi därför undersöka den yttre halon så långt ut som möjligt, för att spåra så mycket substruktur i halon som uppstod till följd av sammanslagningar som möjligt. Sådan substruktur förväntas göra ett avtryck i halons metallicitetsstruktur. I denna masteruppsats används en katalog av intrinsiskt ljusstarka stjärnor, jättar, för att kartlägga halons metallicitetsstruktur till stora avstånd. Katalogen innehåller 205,727 stjärnor som alla har fotometriska metalliciteter från Pristine-undersökningen samt avstånd från isokronanpassning. Den når [Fe/H] = -4.0 dex och d = 96.16 kpc. Mängden jättar i katalogen är 90 % och katalogen behåller 67 % av alla jättar i ursprungskatalogen. Avståndens osäkerhet beräknas med Monte Carlo-simulationer, och det införs ett nytt klipp med färg som är beroende av metallicitet för att undvika kontamination. Detta inför en metallicitetssnedvridning av katalogen som vi kan korrigera eftersom att vi kopplade ihop metallicitet och färg. Korrektionen sker genom att vi beräknar vikter för olika metallicitetsintervall i katalogen. Den slutgiltiga katalogen låter oss skapa metallicitetsdistributioner för halon som beror på avstånd. Dessa distributioner visar oss att när stjärnors avstånd till solen, från galaxens centrum samt från galaxdisken ökar, så minskar den genomsnittliga metalliciteten. Vid väldigt nära avstånd är distributionerna centrerade runt -0.7 dex som motsvarar den tjocka disken, men när avstånden ökar, flyttas denna topp till -1.3 dex och sedan till -1.6 dex, vilket motsvarar den inre halon, samtidigt som en topp vid -2.2 dex, som motsvarar den yttre halon, framträder bortom 6 kpc och dominerar metallicitetsdistributionen för halon bortom 26 kpc. Dessa toppar är kvarlevor efter sammanslagningar mellan Vintergatan och mindre galaxer, där toppen i den inre halon uppstod p.g.a. Gaia-Enceladus-Sausage och toppen i den yttre halon kommer från de många lågmassiva och därmed metallfattiga dvärggalaxer som assimilerats där. Metallicitetsdistributionerna visar signaler från Sagittariusströmmen och Gaia-Enceladus-Sausages apocentriska hopsamlingar, vilket visar att halons metallicitet inte bara beror på avstånd utan även på observationsvinkel. Katalogen visar spår av ett diffust metalfattigt moln i det södra observationsfönstret som potentiellt är en hittills oupptäckt struktur. Denna katalog och dess resulterande metallicitetsdisitributioner är en viktig addering till existerande litteratur i den metallfattiga och avlägsna regimen, samt i den ljussvaga regimen där t.ex. data från Gaiateleskopet inte kan bidra med metallicitets- eller avståndsvärden.