A teoria do ciclo político orçamentário tradicional sugere que os governantes são tentados a manipular os instrumentos de política fiscal aumentando o gasto público ao seguirem o calendário eleitoral. A percepção, por parte do eleitorado, de que o governante mais capaz corresponde àquele que provê o maior número de bens públicos através das funções governamentais, apresenta a evolução recente da teoria. O presente estudo objetiva testar a hipótese de ocorrência do ciclo político orçamentário tradicional nas variáveis representantes de bens públicos, identificando aquelas onde parece haver evidência de manipulação eleitoral, nos municípios brasileiros, entre os anos de 2002 e 2015. Foram utilizados métodos econométricos de regressão de dados em painel nos anos que precedem às eleições, nos anos eleitorais e nos pós-pleitos. Os resultados não descartam a hipótese de que o ciclo político orçamentário no gasto ocorreria e que se privilegiariam algumas funções, possivelmente, alterando a percepção do eleitorado sobre a competência dos prefeitos. / The theory of the traditional budgetary policy cycle suggests that rulers are tempted to manipulate fiscal policy instruments by increasing public spending by following the electoral calendar. The perception by the electorate that the most capable ruler corresponds to the one who provides the greatest number of public goods through governmental functions, presents the recent evolution of the theory. The present study aims to test the hypothesis of the occurrence of the traditional budget political cycle in the variables representing public goods, identifying those where there seems to be evidence of electoral manipulation in Brazilian municipalities between 2002 and 2015. Econometric regression Panel Data Models were used in the years leading up to the elections, electoral years and post-election. The results shows the hypothesis that the political budget cycle in spending would occur and that some functions would be privileged, possibly changing the perception of the electorate on the competence of mayors.

Demands to handle individual particles or particle agglomerates have been emerging in the fields of biology and chemistry, and particle trapping and manipulation with mechanical waves generated from ultrasound sources, known as “acoustic tweezing”, has gained great interest by researchers and been proved useful for its unique advantages. With an analogy to optical tweezing, research has demonstrated the possibility to use modulated acoustic fields generated by ultrasound arrays for trapping individual particles and groups of particles at length scales from hundreds of µm to a few mm. This thesis explores and demonstrates particle trapping and manipulation with electronically-controlled miniaturized ultrasound arrays (element pitch around 500 µm or less), focusing on the development of dexterous electronic systems. Generally, in acoustic manipulation applications, low voltage outputs with continuous mode operation are required to create stable acoustic energy potential “landscapes” for trapping without damaging particles or cells. The research work of this thesis is oriented towards integration of control electronics with miniaturized ultrasound arrays. Test fixtures have been carefully designed and fabricated for the characterization of transducer arrays developed by collaborating researchers and array-controlled particle manipulation experiments have been demonstrated with customized fluorescence microscopy equipment. Most importantly, this thesis has established two versions of prototype Field programmable gate array (FPGA) based electronics to drive ultrasound arrays. One is a computer-controlled 16-channel system, with adjustable output frequencies, phases and amplitudes. Another is a 40-channel switching electronics for manual controlled output switching or time-shared output multiplexing. The electronic systems that have been developed are highly scalable and easily adapted for different acoustic tweezing applications. In conclusion, this thesis has proposed prototype electronic toolkits as research platforms to explore diverse possibilities for acoustic tweezing with miniaturized ultrasound arrays.

As robots become more common operating in close proximity to people, new opportunities arise for physical human-robot interaction, such as co-manipulation of extended objects. Co-manipulation involves physical interaction between two partners where an object held by both is manipulated in tandem. There is a dearth of viable high degree-of-freedom co-manipulation controllers, especially for extended objects, as well as a lack of information about how human-human teams perform in high degree-of-freedom tasks. One method for creating co-manipulation controllers is to pattern them off of human data. This thesis uses this technique by exploring a previously completed experimental study. The study involved human-human dyads in leader-follower format performing co-manipulation tasks with an extended object in 6 degrees of freedom. Two important tasks performed in this experiment were lateral translation and planar rotation tasks. This thesis focuses on these two tasks because they represent planar motion. Most previous control methods are for 1 or 2 degrees-of-freedom. The study provided information about how human-human dyads perform planar tasks. Most notably, planar tasks generally adhere to minimum-jerk trajectories, and do not minimize interaction forces between users. The study also helped solve the translation versus rotation problem. From the experimental data, torque patterns were discovered at the beginning of the trial that defined intent to translate or rotate. From these patterns, a new method of planar co-manipulation control was developed, called Extended Variable Impedance Control. This is a novel 3 degree-of-freedom method that is applicable to a variety of planar co-manipulation scenarios. Additionally, the data was fed through a Recursive Neural Network. The network takes in a series of motion data and predicts the next step in the series. The predicted data was used as an intent estimate in another novel 3 degree of freedom method called Neural Network Prediction Control. This method is capable of generalizing to 6 degrees of freedom, but is limited in this thesis for comparison with the other method. An experiment, involving 16 participants, was developed to test the capabilities of both controllers for planar tasks. A dual manipulator robot with an omnidirectional base was used in the experiment. The results from the study show that both the Neural Network Prediction Control and Extended Variable Impedance Control controllers performed comparably to blindfolded human-human dyads. A survey given to participants informed us they preferred to use the Extended Variable Impedance Control. These two unique controllers are the major results of this work.

Thesis (M. A. (English Studies)) --University of Limpopo, 2018 / This study contributes to the rekindled interest in rhetoric in the 21st century, with the rise of important politicians on the world stage. It investigates the different rhetorical devices used by politicians to get their audiences to consent to their ideas. Selected political speeches analysed in this study highlight the different rhetorical techniques used by notable politicians in public speaking platforms. These techniques include the use of plural pronouns, repetition, allusion, rhetorical questions, negation, comparatives, present and future tense, hyperbole, and personification. The political speeches analysed here are Barack Obama’s inauguration speech (2009), Nelson Mandela’s inauguration speech (1994), Thabo Mbeki’s “I am an African” speech (1996), Muhammadu Buhari’s inauguration speech (2015), and Mmusi Maimane’s SONA Debate speech (2015). The study found that all the five speeches make use of the identified rhetorical devices to ‘sell’ their ideas to their listeners and canvass their support. The study clarifies the concept of rhetoric in public speaking and also explains why people (listeners) may be persuaded by politicians to ‘buy’ their ideas, conveyed through manipulative political language. It is imperative that people be made aware of the influence that political rhetoric could have on their decision-making, particularly when public opinion is formed regarding events announced on public media. Members of the public or prospective voters will be able to distinguish the truth from falsehood, if they are familiar with the elements of rhetoric in political speeches. Politicians are likely to be stopped in their tracks from betraying public trust for personal gains. It is also important to realise that there is nothing wrong if politicians apply rhetoric in public speaking, as long as they have no intention of deceiving the listeners. However, modern-day politicians seem to use it differently. This study has identified various rhetorical devices used in the selected speeches that provide some understanding of how other terms such as persuasion and manipulation are related to rhetoric.Key words: language and power, manipulation, persuasion, politicians, political rhetoric, public speaking.

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This thesis describes the Drag language. Drag is a general purpose, gradually typed, lexically scoped, and multi-paradigm pro- gramming language. The essence of Drag is to build the abstract syntax trees of the programs directly and interactively. Our work includes the language specification and a prototype program. The language specification focuses on the syntax, the semantic model, and the type system. The prototype consists of an interactive editor and a compiler that targets several plat- forms, among which we focus on the LLVM platform in this thesis.

Throughout history, skin manipulation was primarily practiced for cultural, tribal, or religious purposes. In the contemporary landscape, skin manipulation has been objectified and commercialized. This is exemplified through bio-upholstery, foreign materials under our skin and changing the skin structure. This thesis investigates skin manipulation, with the intent to focus experimentation on the skin’s lines of cleavage, a topographical map drawn on our skin and used to define the direction where skin has the most and least flexibility. The aim is to connect and explore materials that can be used as a second skin, while at the same time examining and utilizing the lines of cleavage found within the structure of skin. The focus of this thesis is to examine the potential of different materials, as a second skin that enhances our skin and its properties of protection. Through experimentation I aim to explore an alternate second skin’s function, through a series of experiments that address flexibility, protection, and memory.

Résumé indisponible. / Résumé indisponible.

The population consisting of young people with Behavioral/Emotional/Learning challenges typically experiences poorer outcomes related to employment, in part due to lower performance levels. Effective strategies, which have a positive impact on work performance for this population, are needed. Goal setting has been used to bring about behavior change, or increase 'motivation', in many fields of study. Goal setting can be conceptualized as an establishing operation (EO), which increases the reinforcing value of goal achievement, and thereby increases the probability of the occurrence of behaviors related to reaching the goal, i.e., task completion. This study empirically examined the impact of a goal setting procedure on work-related behaviors through the use of a singlecase experimental design, to detect the individual results of the goal setting intervention, which included the manipulation of environmental events to explain behavior change, or 'motivation'. It was hypothesized that the goal setting procedure would have a positive impact on work performance for these young people with challenges in a work-type setting. Results showed that the goal setting procedure did have a positive impact on the work performance of both participants, especially when additional prompts were included in the goal setting procedure. Although goal setting may serve as an EO, the goal setting procedure, which included additional elements such as prompts and feedback, seemed to be more effective.

Individuals with disabilities yearn for an increased level of independence, seeking to supplement their missing function(s) and to carry on with their lives with minimal or no assistance from another person. A review of the existing assistive-care products has revealed that many of the defects in these devices, particularly in wheelchair-mounted robots, can be alleviated. Surveys have also identified tasks that users would like to perform by themselves, but are constrained from doing so by using currently available devices. An attempt has been made here to try to resolve these issues by developing a prototype of a marsupial robot that can dock into the powered wheelchair that is used for manipulation purposes. The primary function of this system is to assist the user in his/her daily tasks such as pick-up small objects and place them as per the user's commands, push to open/close doors and remove obstacles from the wheelchair path. It is with the objective of providing an enhanced quality of life to a person with impairment(s) that a proposal for a simple, safe and inexpensive approach to assist him/her in performing an activity is made here.