abstract: Toward the ambitious long-term goal of a fleet of cooperating Flexible Autonomous Machines operating in an uncertain Environment (FAME), this thesis addresses several critical modeling, design and control objectives for ground vehicles. One central objective was to show how off-the-shelf (low-cost) remote-control (RC) “toy” vehicles can be converted into intelligent multi-capability robotic-platforms for conducting FAME research. This is shown for two vehicle classes: (1) six differential-drive (DD) RC vehicles called Thunder Tumbler (DDTT) and (2) one rear-wheel drive (RWD) RC car called Ford F-150 (1:14 scale). Each DDTT-vehicle was augmented to provide a substantive suite of capabilities as summarized below (It should be noted, however, that only one DDTT-vehicle was augmented with an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and 2.4 GHz RC capability): (1) magnetic wheel-encoders/IMU for(dead-reckoning-based) inner-loop speed-control and outer-loop position-directional-control, (2) Arduino Uno microcontroller-board for encoder-based inner-loop speed-control and encoder-IMU-ultrasound-based outer-loop cruise-position-directional-separation-control, (3) Arduino motor-shield for inner-loop motor-speed-control, (4)Raspberry Pi II computer-board for demanding outer-loop vision-based cruise- position-directional-control, (5) Raspberry Pi 5MP camera for outer-loop cruise-position-directional-control (exploiting WiFi to send video back to laptop), (6) forward-pointing ultrasonic distance/rangefinder sensor for outer-loop separation-control, and (7) 2.4 GHz spread-spectrum RC capability to replace original 27/49 MHz RC. Each “enhanced”/ augmented DDTT-vehicle costs less than 􀀀175 but offers the capability of commercially available vehicles costing over 􀀀500. Both the Arduino and Raspberry are low-cost, well-supported (software wise) and easy-to-use. For the vehicle classes considered (i.e. DD, RWD), both kinematic and dynamical (planar xy) models are examined. Suitable nonlinear/linear-models are used to develop inner/outer-loopcontrol laws. All demonstrations presented involve enhanced DDTT-vehicles; one the F-150; one a quadrotor. The following summarizes key hardware demonstrations: (1) cruise-control along line, (2) position-control along line (3) position-control along curve (4) planar (xy) Cartesian stabilization, (5) cruise-control along jagged line/curve, (6) vehicle-target spacing-control, (7) multi-robot spacing-control along line/curve, (8) tracking slowly-moving remote-controlled quadrotor, (9) avoiding obstacle while moving toward target, (10) RC F-150 followed by DDTT-vehicle. Hardware data/video is compared with, and corroborated by, model-based simulations. In short, many capabilities that are critical for reaching the longer-term FAME goal are demonstrated. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Electrical Engineering 2015

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Arte como Religião é um convite à reflexão sobre religião por meio de trabalhos artísticos. A pesquisa artística, poética e filosófica sobre a relação fronteiriça entre arte e religião teve seu ponto de partida na minha história pessoal e foi desenvolvida relacionando as ideias de separação e alteridade como essenciais para a religião, e as ideias de transgressão e linguagem como essenciais para a observação da arte. O conceito poético foi delimitado pelos trabalhos artísticos Relicários de Santos Vivos e Canonizador AcSeita Coletivo, que partindo da ideia da separação busca isolar a figura dos santos como os seres autorizados à busca religiosa e à prática de lidar com o sagrado, passando-se a observar, por meio dos objetos utilizados pelos mesmos, as mudanças de valores sociais / Art as Religion is an invitation to reflect on religion through artwork. The artistic, poetic and philosophical research on the border relationship between art and religion had its starting point in my personal history and was developed relating the separation of ideas and diversity as essential to religion, and the transgression of ideas and language as essential to the observation of art. The poetic concept was defined by artwork Reliquary of Saints Alive and Canonizador AcSeita Collective, which on the idea of separation seeking to isolate the figure of the 'saints' as being authorized to the religious quest and the practice of dealing with the sacred, going-to observe, through the objects used by them, changes in social values

O conceito de autoconsciência em psicologia é definido como a habilidade de o indivíduo se tornar objeto de sua própria consciência. Este trabalho visou a investigar essa tradicional definição de forma teórica e empírica. Considerações sobre o conceito de autoconsciência sob a perspectiva da fenomenologia, do pragmatismo e da semiótica sugerem uma abordagem da autoconsciência não apenas como objeto da consciência, mas como uma instância presente em toda a experiência humana. Esta conclusão da parte teórica é posta à prova empírica em dois contextos que viabilizam o estudo da autoconsciência em psicologia: as medidas de autorrelato e a conversa interna verbalizada em tarefas de resolução de problemas. Para realizar estes dois estudos empíricos, a tese ainda envolveu a adaptação de três medidas de autorrelato relacionadas à autoconsciência para a população brasileira: a Escala de Autoabsorção, a Escala de Autorrelfexão e Insight e a Escala Filadélfia de Mindfulness. Os estudos empíricos que se seguiram apontaram resultados que sugerem inovações no conceito de autoconsciência em psicologia, no sentido de contemplar não apenas sua dimensão reflexiva, mas também pré-reflexiva. Tais achados puderam ser observados tanto nas dimensões resultantes da análise fatorial realizada com todos os itens das medidas de autorrelato integrantes do estudo, assim como na conversa interna verbalizada dos participantes que resolveram a problemas analíticos e de insight. / Self-consciousness has been definied within the Psychological Science as a capacity that one has to become the object of their own consciousness. This dissertation aimed to investigate such traditional definition using theoretical and empircal procedures. Considerations on the concept of self-consciousness in the phenomenological, pragmatical and semiotic approaches suggest an understanding of self-consciouness not only as an object of consciousness, but also as an instance that is present throughout the whole human experience. This conclusion is under empirical testing in two contexts that allow the study of selfconsciousness in Psychology: self-report measures and verbalized inner speech in problem-solving tasks. In order to proceed with these two empirical studies, this dissertation had to include the adaptation to the Brazilian population of three selfreport measures related to self-consciousness: the Self-Absorption Scale, the Self- Reflection and Insight Scale and the Philadelphia Mindfulness Scale. The following empirical studies suggested results related to inovations in the concept of self-consciousness to the Psychological Science, so that it would include not only its reflexive dimension, but also its pre-reflective one. Such outcomes were observed not only in the resulting dimensions of a factorial analysis of all the items from the self-report measures used in this study, but also in the verbalized inner speech of those participants who solved analytical and insight problem tasks.

The purpose of the investigation was to determine the effectiveness of Zen meditation practice in facilitating positive change on the personality variables time competence, inner direction, locus of control, and field independence, as well as to investigate the subjective experiences of novice meditators. Two population groups were included in the study: a student group and a clinical group. The student-population group consisted of forty-six undergraduate college students. The student subjects were randomly assigned to one of three groups: experimental group (Zen meditation group taught to focus attention on the breath, as well as a formal Zen posture), placebo group (formal Zen posture only), or control group (no treatment). The clinical-population group consisted of thirty-seven in-patient volunteers from the alcoholic-drug unit of a psychiatric state hospital. The clinical subjects were randomly assigned to either an experimental group (Zen meditation group which practiced focused attention on the breath, as well as a formal Zen meditation posture) or a control group (no treatment).

Abordamos os romances Guia afetivo da periferia, do escritor brasileiro Marcus Vinícius Faustini, e Marginais, do escritor cabo-verdiano Evel Rocha, com o interesse de estudar seus protagonistas, personagens pobres que vivem em zonas urbanas. Motivou-nos o interesse de entender como estão representadas e, por isso, tratamos de investigar suas experiências cotidianas, a partir do que pudemos identificar algumas de suas características e atitudes. Essa investigação teve como suporte teórico textos que defendem a importância de uma hermenêutica do cotidiano, recomendando a sua realização como uma forma de se potencializar a documentação de experiências de vidas anônimas e de demandas sociais legítimas, mas escondidas para a conveniência dos grupos hegemônicos. Essa hermenêutica se baseia na compreensão de que aquilo que se vive informalmente deve ser entendido como uma alavanca para o conhecimento humano. Analisamos cinco unidades temáticas mínimas que se evidenciaram comuns aos romances: vida, morte, doença, trabalho e território. Constatamos que a forma como os dois textos retratam a vida na periferia são complementares, não obstante, individualmente, privilegiem visões unívocas da realidade social que retratam. Também constatamos que os romances tanto inovam na abordagem de alguns temas, como o combate à tuberculose e a opção pelo autoemprego, como, de algum modo, ratificam posições que cerceiam os seres humanos, como quando atrelam a noção de decência ao fato de se estar ou não empregado e a pobreza à criminalidade. / We have addressed the novels Guia afetivo da periferia, by the Brazilian writer Marcus Vinícius Faustini, and Marginais, by the Cape Verdean writer Evel Rocha, in order to study their protagonists, characters that live in poverty in urban areas. Our motivation was the need to understand how they are portrayed. We therefore delved into the investigation of their daily experiences, and from that we were able to identify some of their characteristics and attitudes. The investigation was based on theoretical texts that defend the importance of a hermeneutic of everyday life, pointing to it as a way of optimizing the recording of anonymous life experiences and legitimate social demands that are hidden at the hegemonic groups\' convenience. Such hermeneutic is based on the understanding that informal life experiences should be understood as leveraging human knowledge. We have analyzed five motifs that proved to be common to both novels: life, death, disease, work and territory. We found that the way both texts portray life in the inner cities are complementary, although, individually, they emphasize one-sided visions of the social reality they portray. We have also found that the novels innovate in the way they address some themes, such as the fight against tuberculosis and the option for self-employment, and at the same time somehow ratify positions that restrain human beings, for example when they link the notion of decency to having or not employment contract and poverty to criminality.

O presente estudo teve por objetivo explorar os diferentes estilos de conversa interna (CI) ou reflexividade, definidos como comunicativo, autônomo, metarreflexivo, e fraturado. Os autorrelatos da experiência da conversa interna foram obtidos por entrevistas com sete mulheres e três homens, de formações e ocupações diversificadas, com idade variando entre 24 e 63 anos. Os relatos foram analisados e interpretados de acordo com a orientação fenomenológica. A descrição focalizou a apreensão do fenômeno em uma estrutura simples e básica de um agente primário (capacitações cognitivas gerais e compartilhadas): quando ocorre, como se realiza, sobre quais conteúdos, para que serve e em que ajuda. A redução apontou três especificações de um agente corporativo (organizado e articulado): 1) quanto à experiência em si (comum, natural, habitual); 2) quanto à generalidade e à normalidade (não seria coisa de louco)? e 3) quanto à forma (se metódica e organizada; se espontânea e quase inconsciente). Interpretou-se que os modos de reflexividade, enquanto traslados qualitativos interculturais e atemporais sustentam-se em sua replicabilidade, com possíveis variações em implementações, preferências e manifestações. / This study intended to explore the different styles of internal conversation (IC) or reflexivity, defined as communicative, autonomous, meta-reflexive, and fractured. The self-reported experiences of internal conversation were obtained by interviewing seven women and three men of diverse backgrounds and occupations, aged between 24 and 63 years. The self-reported experiences were analyzed and interpreted in accordance with the phenomenological orientation. The description focused on understanding the phenomenon in a simple and basic structure of a primary agent (general and shared thinking skills): when it happens, how it happens, what are its contents, what purpose it serves and in which way it is helpful. The reduction pointed to three specifications of a corporate agent (organized and articulated): 1) in regards to the experience itself (common, natural, habitual); 2) whether it is general and normal (isn’t it something crazy?), and 3) regarding its form (is it methodical and organized or spontaneous and almost unconscious?). It was inferred from this study that the styles of reflexivity, while having inter-cultural and timeless qualities, are sustained in their universality, with possible variations in implementations, preferences and manifestations.

O conceito de autoconsciência em psicologia é definido como a habilidade de o indivíduo se tornar objeto de sua própria consciência. Este trabalho visou a investigar essa tradicional definição de forma teórica e empírica. Considerações sobre o conceito de autoconsciência sob a perspectiva da fenomenologia, do pragmatismo e da semiótica sugerem uma abordagem da autoconsciência não apenas como objeto da consciência, mas como uma instância presente em toda a experiência humana. Esta conclusão da parte teórica é posta à prova empírica em dois contextos que viabilizam o estudo da autoconsciência em psicologia: as medidas de autorrelato e a conversa interna verbalizada em tarefas de resolução de problemas. Para realizar estes dois estudos empíricos, a tese ainda envolveu a adaptação de três medidas de autorrelato relacionadas à autoconsciência para a população brasileira: a Escala de Autoabsorção, a Escala de Autorrelfexão e Insight e a Escala Filadélfia de Mindfulness. Os estudos empíricos que se seguiram apontaram resultados que sugerem inovações no conceito de autoconsciência em psicologia, no sentido de contemplar não apenas sua dimensão reflexiva, mas também pré-reflexiva. Tais achados puderam ser observados tanto nas dimensões resultantes da análise fatorial realizada com todos os itens das medidas de autorrelato integrantes do estudo, assim como na conversa interna verbalizada dos participantes que resolveram a problemas analíticos e de insight. / Self-consciousness has been definied within the Psychological Science as a capacity that one has to become the object of their own consciousness. This dissertation aimed to investigate such traditional definition using theoretical and empircal procedures. Considerations on the concept of self-consciousness in the phenomenological, pragmatical and semiotic approaches suggest an understanding of self-consciouness not only as an object of consciousness, but also as an instance that is present throughout the whole human experience. This conclusion is under empirical testing in two contexts that allow the study of selfconsciousness in Psychology: self-report measures and verbalized inner speech in problem-solving tasks. In order to proceed with these two empirical studies, this dissertation had to include the adaptation to the Brazilian population of three selfreport measures related to self-consciousness: the Self-Absorption Scale, the Self- Reflection and Insight Scale and the Philadelphia Mindfulness Scale. The following empirical studies suggested results related to inovations in the concept of self-consciousness to the Psychological Science, so that it would include not only its reflexive dimension, but also its pre-reflective one. Such outcomes were observed not only in the resulting dimensions of a factorial analysis of all the items from the self-report measures used in this study, but also in the verbalized inner speech of those participants who solved analytical and insight problem tasks.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka sambandet mellan Stockholms parker och offentliga grönområdena i relation till den rådande förtätning staden genomför. Stockholm har en tydlig strategi på att skapa en tät stad vilket medför effekter på stadens parker och offentliga grönområden. Studien diskuterar de värden som tillkommer och går förlorade när exploateringen av staden ökar samtidigt som den totala arealen grönområden minskar. Vidare diskuteras det offentliga grönområdenas funktion i den täta staden. De metoder som använts i studien består av semistrukturerade informantintervjuer i kombination med telefon- och e-postintervjuer följt av en bred litteraturundersökning. Materialet i studien utöver vetenskapliga artiklar inkluderar planer, styrdokument och program på lokal, regional, nationell och internationell nivå. Den täta staden kan såväl generera en bättre livsmiljö och minska en negativ miljöpåverkan likväl som att den kan bli ohållbar och skapa sämre livsmiljöer. Parker och offentliga grönområden fyller viktiga funktioner för Stockholm. Parallellt minskar mängden grönområden i städerna och centrala värden förbises i den fysiska planeringen. Med bra planering går det emellertid att utveckla en tätare stad och samtidigt skydda grönområden.

Syftet med denna studie var att få insikt i före detta intagnas upplevelse av sitt fängelsestraff samt sin återgång till det fria samhället. För att besvara studiens frågeställningar som lydde; hur påverkas individen av sitt fängelsestraff och hur har individen återanpassats i samhället efter fängelsevistelsen, delades resultatet upp i två avsnitt som rör tiden i fängelset och tiden efter fängelset. Urvalet bestod av sex män som har avtjänat ett fängelsestraff i Sverige, de var mellan 25-60 år. Data samlades in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Resultatet visar att fängelsestraff påverkar individerna både psykiskt och fysiskt på ett negativt vis. Resultatet visar även att individens inre motivation är av stor vikt när det gäller återanpassning till samhället. För att återanpassning ska ske på ett tillfredsställande vis är det av vikt att samhällsstödet erbjuds i rätt tid. / This study aimed to get insight in former inmates’ experiences, about their imprisonment and their re-entry into the free society. To answer the aim, the following questions were formulated; how does imprisonment affect the individual and how has the individual re-entered the society after imprisonment. The studies result was divided in two larger themes that concerned the time in prison and the time after. The selection for the study was six men that have been imprisoned in Sweden; they were between 25-60 years. Data was collected through semistructured interviews. The results show that imprisonment affect the individual in a negative way, both physical and psychological. The results also show that individuals inner motivation is very important when they re-entry the society and social support needs to be available to the former inmates in the right time.

The role of soft factors in the development of the inner periphery of the Eastern Bohemia Abstract In recent years, research on conditionality process of space polarization and regional development puts emphasis on understanding importance of endogenous and "soft" factors. General theories of regional development (formed mainly on the basis of evaluating "hard" data) are verified by frequent case studies because of their limited explanatory power. In these case studies, especially qualitative approaches of evaluation are applied. Influence and validity of "soft" factors significantly increases with decreasing hierarchical level, so it is desirable to conduct empirical research at the municipal level. Diploma thesis aims to analyze "soft" factors of regional development and understand the nature of differences in socio-economic development at the municipal level in the inner periphery of Bohemia. The concept of the institutional thickness has become the theoretical basis. This concept has logical overlap to the concept of the social capital. The objects of research are the spatial co-operation of actors of regional development (mayors), their reciprocal trust and engagement in local activities. Thesis aims to identify and to explain the nature of relations, direction of interactions and impact of political...