De la capacité d’une société à repenser ses liens sociaux, dépend son développement à la fois politique, social et économique. L’État peut, pour contribuer de manière déterminante à la production de sens, développer des outils, entre autres des mécanismes de redistribution, susceptibles d’assurer la solidarité et la cohésion sociale. L’enjeu est d’importance pour certains pays comme la Namibie, dont l'histoire est marquée par le colonialisme et l'apartheid ─desquels il s'est libéré il y a à peine plus de vingt ans─ et qui sont construits sur une logique de séparation inégalitaire des droits et des ressources. À partir de l'exemple du Basic Income Grant (BIG), projet-pilote de revenu citoyen garanti mis en place dans un village de la Namibie entre 2007 et 2009, ce mémoire propose d'explorer l'apport du concept d'empowerment dans ce projet en tant qu'outil de déconstruction de ces structures inégalitaires. Après avoir exposé différentes conceptions des notions de pauvreté, de richesse et de développement, nous aborderons la question du revenu citoyen garanti et de la place qu'il peut prendre dans différents systèmes de protection sociale. Puis, nous tenterons de mieux cerner le concept d'empowerment pour finalement arriver à répondre à notre principal questionnement: le projet BIG permet-il effectivement l'émancipation ou au contraire, fait-il en sorte de renforcer le sentiment de dépendance et d'impuissance vécu par la communauté isolée, vivant dans des conditions d'extrême précarité? Des entrevues ont pour ce faire été conduites auprès de 15 participants, soit des membres du village d'Otjivero, des intervenants engagés dans le regroupement d'acteurs de la société civile namibienne étant à la source de l'initiative, et des représentants gouvernementaux. L’analyse de ces résultats est présentée en dernière partie de travail. / The political, social and economic development of a society depends on its ability to rethink its social ties. To contribute significantly to the production of meaning, the State may develop tools, among which redistribution mechanisms, capable of ensuring solidarity and social cohesion. The challenge may be greater for some countries − such as Namibia, whose history is marked by colonialism and the period of apartheid, which it freed itself of about twenty years ago − that are built around a logic of unequal separation of rights and resources. Based on our study of the implementation of the Basic Income Grant (BIG) pilot project in a Namibian village between 2007 and 2009, this paper proposes to explore the contribution of the concept of empowerment, within a basic guaranteed income project, as a tool for deconstructing these unequal structures. After describing different views of poverty, wealth and development, we will address the issue of basic guaranteed income and the role it can play in different social protection systems. Then we will try to better understand the concept of empowerment before finally focusing on our central question: does the BIG project actually enable emancipation or, conversely, does it strengthen the feelings of dependency and powerlessness experienced by the small isolated community living in extremely precarious conditions? To find an answer to this question, interviews have been conducted with 15 participants: members of the small community of Otjivero, Namibian stakeholders involved in the initiative from the beginning; and representatives from the government. Analyses of these results are presented in the final part of the paper.

This thesis explores the historical evolution of the nature of the link between a product and its place of origin in the European sui generis systems of GI protection, with a specific focus on the EU Regulation 1151/2012 on Geographical Indications for the protection of agricultural products and foodstuffs. It concludes that this link has substantively changed, since the 1930s, when some early forms of sui generis GI systems were introduced in southern Europe, especially in France and Italy. While these regimes were based exclusively on the concept of terroir, a cipher for the physical link between a product and a place, an empirical analysis carried out in the present work reveals that, today, the history of the product and of its method of production is, statistically, the predominant linking factor. Furthermore, the research shows that the historical link is almost always mentioned in the specifications of EU GI products, when protected both by Protected Designations of Origin (PDO) or Protected Geographical Indications (PGI), which are the two quality schemes provided by EU Law. In particular, the terroir element, which characterises PDOs, also appears frequently in PGI specifications, where it should be superfluous, thus suggesting that the differences between these two quality schemes are unclear. Finally, the emergence of the historical element confirms that GIs can contribute to the protection of products that are linked to a geographical area not by physical and environmental factors, but by the socio-cultural traditions of a specific place. Although history can constitute a valid product/link, however, it must be used with caution, as it can be mystified and reconstructed in an arbitrary and unfounded way. This is dangerous, because it can turn GIs into a mere marketing tool, thus damaging the origin function that distinguishes them from the broad family of quality labels.

No description available.

Martina Mikeszová : PHD DISSERTATION - HOUSING MARKET AND RISK OF HOMELESSNESS IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC. ABSTRACT The PhD dissertation focuses on the theme of loss of permanent housing together with the problematic of housing affordability in the Czech Republic. In the first part, the objective is to identify the types of households potentially at risk of being unable to afford housing since 2000, and to trace the development of regional differences in the percentage of at-risk households in the Czech Republic. In the regard to the end of deregulation process in recent years, the analysis of housing (un)affordability of "market" rent housing shows the possible social consequences of the process. Owing to the absence of useful aggregate data on incomes and expenditures for different household types in the regions of the Czech Republic, the alternative data sources and the simulation methodology for measuring housing affordability which combines available regional wage statistics and data on market rents were used. The results indicate that the general risk of being unable to afford rental housing and regional differences in housing affordability are both decreasing. Not only the stagnation of market rent growth related to the growth of household income is behind the development. The main reason is the fact that...

[pt] Os gráficos de controle estão entre as ferramentas indispensáveis para monitorar o desempenho de um processo em várias indústrias. Quando estimativas de parâmetros são necessárias para projetar esses gráficos, seu desempenho é afetado devido aos erros de estimação. Para resolver esse problema, no passado, pesquisadores avaliavam o desempenho desses métodos em termos do valor esperado do número médio de amostras até um alarme falso condicionado às estimativas dos parâmetros (denotado por 𝐶𝐴𝑅𝐿0). No entanto, esta solução não considera a grande variabilidade do 𝐶𝐴𝑅𝐿0 entre usuários. Então, recentemente, surgiu a ideia de medir o desempenho dos gráficos de controle usando a probabilidade de o 𝐶𝐴𝑅𝐿0 ser maior do que um valor especificado – que deve estar próximo do desejado nominal. Isso é chamado de Exceedance Probability Criterion (EPC). Para aplicar o EPC, a função de distribuição acumulada (c.d.f.) do 𝐶𝐴𝑅𝐿0 é necessária. No entanto, para um dos gráficos de controle mais utilizados, o gráfico Xbarra, também conhecido como gráfico x (sob a suposição de distribuição normal), a expressão matemática da c.d.f. não está disponível na literatura. Como contribuição nesse sentido, o presente trabalho apresenta a derivação exata da expressão matemática da c.d.f. do 𝐶𝐴𝑅𝐿0 para três possíveis casos de estimação de parâmetros: (1) quando a média e o desvio-padrão são desconhecidos, (2) quando apenas a média é desconhecida e (3) quando apenas o desvio-padrão é desconhecido. Assim, foi possível calcular o número mínimo de amostras iniciais, m, que garantem um desempenho desejada do gráfico em termos de EPC. Esses resultados mostram que m pode assumir valores consideravelmente grandes (como, por exemplo, 3.000 amostras). Como solução, duas novas equações são derivadas aqui para ajustar os limites de controle garantindo assim um desempenho desejado para qualquer valor de m. A vantagem dessas equações é que uma delas fornece resultados exatos enquanto a outra dispensa avançados softwares de computador para os cálculos. Um estudo adicional sobre o impacto desses ajustes no desempenho fora de controle (OOC) fornece tabelas que ajudam na decisão do melhor tradeoff entre quantidade adequada de dados e desempenhos IC e OOC preferenciais do gráfico. Recomendações práticas para uso desses resultados são aqui também fornecidas. / [en] Control charts are among the indispensable tools for monitoring process performance in various industries. When parameter estimation is needed to design these charts, their performance is affected due to parameter estimation errors. To overcome this problem, in the past, researchers have evaluated the performance of control charts and designed them in terms of the expectation of the realized in-control (IC) average run length (𝐶𝐴𝑅𝐿0). But, as pointed recently, this solution does not account for what is known as the practitioner-to-practitioner variability (i.e., the variability of 𝐶𝐴𝑅𝐿0). So, a recent idea emerged where control chart performance is measured by the probability of the 𝐶𝐴𝑅𝐿0 being greater than a specified value - which must be close to the nominal desired one. This is called the Exceedance Probability Criterion (EPC). To apply the EPC, the cumulative distribution function (c.d.f.) of the 𝐶𝐴𝑅𝐿0 is required. However, for the most well-known control chart, named the two-sided Shewhart Xbar (or simply X) Chart (under normality assumption), the mathematical c.d.f. expression of the 𝐶𝐴𝑅𝐿0 is not available in the literature. As a contribution in this respect, the present work presents the derivation of the exact c.d.f. expression of the 𝐶𝐴𝑅𝐿0 for three cases of parameters estimation: (1) when both the process mean and standard deviation are unknown, (2) when only the mean is unknown and (3) when only the standard deviation is unknown. Using these key results, it was possible to calculate the exact minimum number of initial (Phase I) samples (m) that guarantees a desired in-control performance in terms of the EPC. These results show that m can be prohibitively large (such as 3.000 samples). As a solution to this problem, two new equations are derived here to adjust the control limits to guarantee a desired in-control performance in terms of the EPC for any given value of m. The advantage of these equations (compared to the existing adjustments methods) is that one provides exact results and the other one does not require too many computational resources to perform the calculations. A further study about the impact of these adjustments on the out-of-control (OOC) performance provides useful tables to decide the appropriate amount of data and the adjustments that corresponds to a user preferred tradeoff between the IC and OOC performances of the chart. Practical recommendations for using these findings are also provided in this research work.

Existant auparavant sur le plan constitutionnel au mieux à l’état latent, sous forme de principe fondamental reconnu par les lois de la République voire sous forme de coutume constitutionnelle, le principe constitutionnel de francité de la langue de la République existe expressément dans notre droit positif depuis la révision de la Loi fondamentale du 25 juin 1992 sous la formule apotropaïque « la langue de la République est le français ». Sa constitutionnalité expressément sécurisée, et ne pouvant être mise en doute, pourrait même se muer en supra-constitutionnalité, dès lors que ce concept serait admissible en droit français. Mais en dépit de sa constitutionnalisation, le principe de francité de la langue de la République ne trouve pas à étendre tous ses effets potentiels dans la sphère infra-constitutionnelle, paradoxalement freiné dans son déploiement par différents acteurs, notamment par le Conseil constitutionnel lui-même. Sa constitutionnalité s’y figure ainsi minimisée. La négligence de cette constitutionnalité du principe, décelable dans cette dimension verticale, se révèle également dans une dimension horizontale, puisque sa constitutionnalité est peu ou mal utilisée dans la sphère constitutionnelle elle-même. Sur un plan purement interne, non seulement elle ne permet qu’une reconnaissance falote de ce principe cardinal comme droit ou liberté constitutionnellement garanti, mais au surplus elle n’est malheureusement pas vue comme constitutive d’une garantie essentielle à l’efficience d’autres règles et principes, notamment d’autres droits et libertés, de valeur constitutionnelle. Or, la francité de la langue de la République, par son objet même et l’acquisition de sa valeur constitutionnelle, le permet indubitablement. En outre, sur un plan moins exclusivement interne, sa constitutionnalité n’a toujours pas permis d’y voir un principe ou une règle inhérent à l’identité constitutionnelle de la France, alors qu’il est en théorie l’élément-phare de cette catégorie à vocation défensive encore fantôme. Par ailleurs, d’un point de vue plus offensif, la francité de la langue de la République cherche ingénument à s’exporter grâce à sa constitutionnalité, alors qu’elle ne le peut justement pas sur ce point, par essence, en tant que principe juridique strictement propre à notre République circumterrestre. La constitutionnalité de ce principe - protéiforme - de francité de la langue de la République a donc été depuis sa naissance l’objet d’une négligence préjudiciable qu’il a fallu révéler afin d’y remédier. / Formerly existing in the constitutional field at best in a latent state, as a fundamental principle acknowledged in the laws of the Republic or as a constitutional custom, the constitutional principle of Frenchness of the language of the Republic expressly exists in our inner law since the revision of the Constitution of June 25th, 1992 through the formula "the language of the Republic shall be French". Thus its constitutionality is secured, what cannot be questioned, and could even change into supraconstitutionality, if this concept was admitted in French law. But in spite of its incorporation into the Constitution, the principle of Frenchness of the language of the Republic does not spread all its potential effects into the infra-constitutional sphere, paradoxically slowed down in its deployment, notably by the Constitutional Council. So, its constitutionality is clearly minimized.The carelessness of this constitutionality of the principle, detectable through that vertical approach, is also visible in a horizontal approach : indeed, its constitutionality is badly used in the constitutional sphere. On an internal level, it allows a weak acknowledgment of this fundamental principle as right or freedom constitutionally guaranteed, but besides it is unfortunately not seen as an essential guarantee in the efficiency of the other constitutional rules and principles, in particular the other rights or freedoms. However, the Frenchness of the language of the Republic would allow it indubitably, by its object and the acquisition of its constitutional value. Besides, on a less exclusively internal front, its constitutionality did not yet allow to consider it as a principle or rule inherent to the constitutional identity of France, while it is in theory the main element of this category which still remains empty. Besides, from a more offensive point of view, the Frenchness of the language of the Republic tries ingenuously to be exported thanks to its constitutionality, while it cannot afford it, by definition, as strictly French legal principle. Thus the constitutionality of this protean principle of Frenchness of the language of the Republic is the object of a prejudicial carelessness which it is advisable to remedy.

Neste trabalho apresenta-se um procedimento de projeto para sistemas dinâmicos com não linearidades do tipo setor. Um sistema linear com incerteza estruturada é utilizado para descrever o sistema não linear, permitindo encontrar funções de Lyapunov, subconjuntos do domínio de atração e regiões invariantes do sistema não linear de forma relativamente simples. O controlador de ganho programado utiliza os estados do sistema para chavear controladores lineares robustos em subconjuntos do domínio de atração do sistema em torno do ponto de operação. O procedimento garante a estabilidade do sistema em malha fechada e reduz o conservadorismo que resulta quando uma grande região de atração é considerada. Além disto, também considera-se o problema de transição garantida entre pontos de operação, utilizando um caminho pré especificado no espaço de estado. Para o controle do sistema linear com incerteza, apresenta-se uma técnica de controle de custo garantido utilizando desigualdades de matrizes lineares. Um sistema de suspensão magnética e um sistema de bioxidação microbiana de sorbitol a sorbose são apresentados como exemplos de aplicação do controlador de ganho programado. / In this work a gain scheduling controller design procedure for dynamic systems with sector nonlinearities is given. An uncertain linear system with structured uncertainty is used to describe the nonlinear system, yielding an easy way to obtain Lyapunov functions, invariant sets and subsets of the system domain of attraction. The gain scheduling controller proposed uses the system state to switch linear robust controllers in subsets of the system domain of attraction around the operating point. The procedure guarantees the stability ofthe closed loop system and reduces the amount of conservatism that results when a large region of attraction around the operating point is considered. In addition, we also consider the problem of guaranteed transition between operating points by using a pre specified path in the state space for the system operating points. A guaranteed cost control law for uncertain linear systems using linear matrix inequalities is also presented. A magnetic suspension system and a sorbitol to sorbose microbial oxidation system are presented as applications of the gain scheduled controller.

Le contexte de nos travaux de thèse est l'intégration de l'énergie éolienne sur les réseaux insulaires. Ces travaux sont soutenus par EDF SEI, l'opérateur électrique des îles françaises. Nous étudions un système éolien-stockage où un système de stockage d'énergie doit aider un producteur éolien à tenir, vis-à-vis du réseau, un engagement de production pris un jour à l'avance. Dans ce contexte, nous proposons une démarche pour l'optimisation du dimensionnement et du contrôle du système de stockage (gestion d'énergie). Comme les erreurs de prévision J+1 de production éolienne sont fortement incertaines, la gestion d'énergie du stockage est un problème d'optimisation stochastique (contrôle optimal stochastique). Pour le résoudre, nous étudions tout d'abord la modélisation des composants du système (modélisation énergétique du stockage par batterie Li-ion ou Sodium-Soufre) ainsi que des entrées (modélisation temporelle stochastique des entrées incertaines). Nous discutons également de la modélisation du vieillissement du stockage, sous une forme adaptée à l'optimisation de la gestion. Ces modèles nous permettent d'optimiser la gestion de l'énergie par la méthode de la programmation dynamique stochastique (SDP). Nous discutons à la fois de l'algorithme et de ses résultats, en particulier de l'effet de la forme des pénalisations sur la loi de gestion. Nous présentons également l'application de la SDP sur des problèmes complémentaires de gestion d'énergie (lissage de la production d'un houlogénérateur, limitation des rampes de production éolienne). Cette étude de l'optimisation de la gestion permet d'aborder l'optimisation du dimensionnement (choix de la capacité énergétique). Des simulations temporelles stochastiques mettent en évidence le fort impact de la structure temporelle (autocorrélation) des erreurs de prévision sur le besoin en capacité de stockage pour atteindre un niveau de performance donné. La prise en compte de paramètres de coût permet ensuite l'optimisation du dimensionnement d'un point de vue économique, en considérant les coûts de l'investissement, des pertes ainsi que du vieillissement. Nous étudions également le dimensionnement du stockage lorsque la pénalisation des écarts à l'engagement comporte un seuil de tolérance. Nous terminons ce manuscrit en abordant la question structurelle de l'interaction entre l'optimisation du dimensionnement et celle du contrôle d'un système de stockage, car ces deux problèmes d'optimisation sont couplés. / The context of this PhD thesis is the integration of wind power into the electricity grid of small islands. This work is supported by EDF SEI, the system operator for French islands. We study a wind-storage system where an energy storage is meant to help a wind farm operator fulfill a day-ahead production commitment to the grid. Within this context, we propose an approach for the optimization of the sizing and the control of the energy storage system (energy management). Because day-ahead wind power forecast errors are a major source of uncertainty, the energy management of the storage is a stochastic optimization problem (stochastic optimal control). To solve this problem, we first study the modeling of the components of the system. This include energy-based models of the storage system, with a focus on Lithium-ion and Sodium-Sulfur battery technologies. We then model the system inputs and in particular the stochastic time series like day-ahead forecast errors. We also discuss the modeling of storage aging, using a formulation which is adapted to the control optimization. Assembling all these models enables us to optimize the energy management of the storage system using the stochastic dynamic programming (SDP) method. We introduce the SDP algorithms and present our optimization results, with a special interest for the effect of the shape of the penalty function on the energy control law. We also present additional energy management applications with SDP (mitigation of wind power ramps and smoothing of ocean wave power). Having optimized the storage energy management, we address the optimization of the storage sizing (choice of the rated energy). Stochastic time series simulations show that the temporal structure (autocorrelation) of wind power forecast errors have a major impact on the need for storage capacity to reach a given performance level. Then we combine simulation results with cost parameters, including investment, losses and aging costs, to build a economic cost function for sizing. We also study storage sizing when the penalization of commitment deviations includes a tolerance threshold. We finish this manuscript with a structural study of the interaction between the optimizations of the sizing and the control of an energy storage system, because these two optimization problems are coupled.

This thesis focuses on guaranteed investment funds, which have become very popular among investors in the Czech Republic in recent years. The reason for this popularity is the conservativeness of a typical domestic investor, who appreciates the lower bound for the value of his investment. Guaranteed funds characteristically have a complex structure and valuation of their profitability based solely on intuition is therefore impossible. This analysis tries to provide an answer to the question if investing in these funds is reasonable. A large part of the thesis is dedicated to the option theory and option valuation methods, including the famous Black-Scholes formula, as guaranteed investment funds have the characteristics of an option. Thanks to the complicated structure of these products, the analysis itself is done by Monte Carlo simulation.

Bien que la commande prédictive fasse appel à des paramètres ayant une signification concrète, la valeur de ces derniers impacte fortement les performances obtenues du système à contrôler. Leur réglage n’étant pas trivial, la littérature fait état d’un nombre conséquent de méthodes de réglage. Celles-ci ne garantissent cependant pas des valeurs optimales. L’objectif de cette thèse est de proposer une approche analytique et originale de réglage de ces paramètres. Initialement applicable aux systèmes MIMO linéaires, l’approche proposée a été étendue aux systèmes non linéaires avec ou sans contraintes et pour lesquels il existe un modèle Takagi-Sugeno (T-S). La classe des systemès non linéaires considérés ici est écrite sous la forme quasi-linéaire paramétrique (quasi-LPV). Sous l’hypothese que le système soit commandable et observable, la méthode proposée garantit la stabilité optimale de ce système en boucle fermée. Pour ce faire, elle s’appuie, d’une part, sur une technique d’amélioration du conditionnement de la matrice hessienne et, d’autre part, sur le concept de rang effectif. Elle présente également l’avantage de requérir une charge calculatoire moindre que celle des approches identifiées dans la littérature. L’intérêt de l’approche proposée est montré à travers l’application en simulation à différents systèmes de complexité croissante. Les travaux menés ont permis d’aboutir à une stratégie de commande prédictive auto-adaptative dénommée "ATSMPC" (Adaptive Takagi-Sugeno Model-based Predictive Control). / Even though predictive control uses concrete parameters, the value of these latter has a strong impact on the obtained performances from the system to be controlled. Their tuning is not trivial. That is why the literature reports a number of adjustment methods. However, these ones do not always guarantee optimal values. The goal of this thesis is to propose an analytical and original tuning tuning approach of these parameters. Initially applicable to linear MIMO systems, the proposed approach has been extended to non-linear systems with or without constraints and for which a Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) model exists. The class of nonlinear systems considered here is written in quasi-linear parametric form (quasi-LPV). Assuming that the system is controllable and observable, the proposed method guarantees the optimal stability of this closed-loop system. To do this, it relies, on the one hand, on a conditioning improving technique of the Hessian matrix and, on the other hand, on the concept of effective rank. It also has the advantage of requiring a lower computational load than the approaches identified in the literature. The interest of the proposed approach is shown through the simulation on different systems of increasingcomplexity. The work carried out has led to a self-adaptive predictive control strategy called "ATSMPC" (Adaptive Takagi-Sugeno Model-based Predictive Control).