Bc. et Bc. Petra Duspívová Hlávková Místní akční skupina Aktivios a její vliv na rozvoj vzdělávání v regionu prostřednictvím akčního plánování Diplomová práce Abstrakt This thesis is focused on the possible influence of citizens on the development of education in the Blovicko and Přešticko regions through action planning. Citizens in the area can participate in the Local Action Plan for the Development of Education, which is implemented by the Local Action Group Aktivios and participate in processes focused on improving the quality of education. The starting points of the work are theoretical concepts of civic participation and social capital, in the context of which the project Local Action Plan for the Development of Education is presented. In the research part of the thesis are presented data from interviews, there are presented questions how the involved citizens perceive the possibilities of civic participation, what they want to influence by their involvement and how are social ties and networks important for their work in the project. At the end are presented answers to the research questions and the theory with respect to the research results.

Obesity is strongly associated with hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. An activated renin-angiotensin system (RAS) has long been suggested as a critical contributor to elevated blood pressure with obesity. Angiotensin II (AngII), the main effector of an activated RAS, can be catabolized by angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) to form angiotensin-(1-7) (Ang-(1-7)), which, acting through the mas receptor (MasR), has been shown to oppose the effects of an activated RAS. Therefore, further understanding of the mechanisms of this counter-regulatory arm, called the ACE2/Ang-(1-7)/MasR axis, may lead to new therapies for obesity-induced hypertension. Previously, we demonstrated that differences in the regulation of ACE2 in a tissue-specific manner contribute to sexual dimorphism of diet-induced obesity-hypertension in mice. Whereas male mice fed a high fat (HF) diet developed hypertension, HF-fed female mice were protected from obesity-hypertension, and this was associated with increased activity of ACE2 in adipose tissue of females. Both upregulation of adipose ACE2 and protection against obesity-hypertension were lost when females were ovariectomized (OVX). We hypothesized that estrogen-mediated increases in adipose ACE2 reduce the AngII/Ang-(1-7) peptide balance and protect females from obesity-hypertension. To test this hypothesis, we first determined if estrogen restores protection of Ovx female mice from obesity-hypertension, and therapeutically protects male mice from obesity-hypertension. We demonstrated that estrogen administration to Ovx HF-fed females activates adipose ACE2, reduces plasma Ang II concentrations, and decreases blood pressure in wildtype, but not of ACE2-deficient obese females. In contrast, estrogen administration to HF-fed male mice had no on the development of obesity-hypertension, regardless of genotype. These results demonstrate that estrogen protects female mice from obesity-hypertension through an ACE2-dependent mechanism. Next we defined the role of MasR deficiency on the development of obesity-hypertension in male and female mice. In HF-fed MasR-deficient female mice, diastolic blood pressure (DBP) was significantly elevated compared to LF-fed controls, suggesting that protection from obesity-hypertension was abolished by MasR deficiency. In contrast, HF-fed male mice with MasR deficiency exhibited reduced blood pressure compared to wildtype controls which was associated with reduced cardiac function. Overall, these studies indicate that the ACE2/Ang-(1-7)/MasR axis plays an important role in sexual dimorphism of obesity-hypertension, and in the regulation of cardiac function. Moreover, these studies suggest that the effects of this counter-regulatory arm of the RAS may be sex-specific.

In recent years, there has been a flood of continuously changing information from a variety of web resources such as web databases, web sites, web services and programs. Online Social Networks (OSNs) represent such a field where huge amounts of information are being posted online over time. Due to the nature of OSNs, which offer a productive source for qualitative and quantitative personal information, researchers from various disciplines contribute to developing methods for extracting data from OSNs. However, there is limited research which addresses extracting data automatically. To the best of the author's knowledge, there is no research which focuses on tracking the real time changes of information retrieved from OSN profiles over time and this motivated the present work. This thesis presents different approaches for automated Data Extraction (DE) from OSN: crawler, parser, Multi Agent System (MAS) and Application Programming Interface (API). Initially, a parser was implemented as a centralized system to traverse the OSN graph and extract the profile's attributes and list of friends from Myspace, the top OSN at that time, by parsing the Myspace profiles and extracting the relevant tokens from the parsed HTML source files. A Breadth First Search (BFS) algorithm was used to travel across the generated OSN friendship graph in order to select the next profile for parsing. The approach was implemented and tested on two types of friends: top friends and all friends. In case of top friends, 500 seed profiles have been visited; 298 public profiles were parsed to get 2197 top friends' profiles and 2747 friendship edges, while in case of all friends, 250 public profiles have been parsed to extract 10,196 friends' profiles and 17,223 friendship edges. This approach has two main limitations. The system is designed as a centralized system that controlled and retrieved information of each user's profile just once. This means that the extraction process will stop if the system fails to process one of the profiles; either the seed profile (first profile to be crawled) or its friends. To overcome this problem, an Online Social Network Retrieval System (OSNRS) is proposed to decentralize the DE process from OSN through using MAS. The novelty of OSNRS is its ability to monitor profiles continuously over time. The second challenge is that the parser had to be modified to cope with changes in the profiles' structure. To overcome this problem, the proposed OSNRS is improved through use of an API tool to enable OSNRS agents to obtain the required fields of an OSN profile despite modifications in the representation of the profile's source web pages. The experimental work shows that using API and MAS simplifies and speeds up the process of tracking a profile's history. It also helps security personnel, parents, guardians, social workers and marketers in understanding the dynamic behaviour of OSN users. This thesis proposes solutions for web database processing on data extraction from OSNs by the use of parser and MAS and discusses the limitations and improvements.

The turn of the millennium has heralded an explosion in the popularity of adventure sports often also referred to as alternative lifestyle sports or extreme sports. These are offering both new avenues and potential challenges to the traditional ways of conceptualising and practicing sport. This thesis analyses the development of adventure sports, in particular climbing and kayaking, as a subculture. It delivers a socio-economic history of climbing, analyses the role of the media in its development, its participation and its lived experience. Further it investigates the impact of globalisation, commercialisation and consumerism on adventure sports, and considers to what extent they are being brought into the mainstream as a result. The economic impact of participation in adventure sports is reviewed along with a study of how the make up of its participants has changed as the activities have become more accessible. Particular focus is placed on the analysis of the gender order, specifically looking at the experiences of women in adventure sports. For this purpose the sports culture found in climbing and kayaking is examined and the implications for the reconstruction of gender relations are considered. This study employs an ethnographic approach including both semi-structured and structured interviews with both adventure sports experts and participants, document and media analysis, participant observation and the more recent nethnography approach. One of the significant contributions of this thesis has been to provide a comprehensive review and analysis of the social, cultural and media environment of arguably one of the most popular lifestyle sports in the UK. It has also shown the strong interrelationship that exists between the media and adventure sports, and has demonstrated how the increased commercialisation and commodification of the activity has resulted in economic development particularly in some remoter parts of the UK through the packaging and provision of the climbing experience. At the same time some participants see this is ‘selling out’. This research has demonstrated how women’s participation in adventure sports has been subject to marginalisation, sexualisation and trivialisation similar to other mainstream sports. However, this work has also highlighted that there is room for optimism as new discourses of femininity contrary to the traditional male hegemony are emerging. Further research opportunities have been identified concerning issues of ethnicity and participation; the social, cultural and economic relationships between adventure sportspeople and rural communities. Emerging feminist discourses also warrant further investigation.

Cette thèse présente un travail de synthèse et caractérisation de nanocomposites polymères en utilisant comme charge les hydroxydes doubles lamellaires (HDL). Dans la première partie, nous avons caractérisé la charge réactive résultante de l'intercalation des tensio-actifs monomères tels que le sulfopropylméthacrylate (SPMA), le 4[12(methacryloylamino)dodecanoylamino]benzènesulfonate (MADABS) et le 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propane sulfonique (AMPS). De même, des autres phases hybrides obtenues à partir de poly(SPMA) et poly(AMPS) ont été caractérisées. La polymérisation in-situ est réalisée dans le cas de SPMA et AMPS par les spectroscopies (IR et RMN13 C CP-MAS). Pour les nancomposites polymères obtenus à partir de la dispersion des charges HDL hybrides, une structure intercalée a été observée dans le cas de SPMA et MADABS et une autre non miscible dans le cas de AMPS. Des résultats rhéologiques intéressants sont trouvés : dans le cas de SPMA quelque soit la nature des phases hybrides, par la formation d'un réseau de type gel structuré entre la charge et le polymère. Les résultats de rhéologie et de TEM montrent que la nature physico-chimique de la charge est un facteur déterminant dans la dispersion et la structuration du réseau de percolation de charge. Dans la deuxième partie, nous avons caractérisé (DRX, IR, et RMN) la charge fonctionnelle résultante de l'intercalation des colorants tels que : -acid Orange 6 (C12 H9 O5 N2 S Na), direct yellow 50 (C35 H28 N6 O13 S4 Na4), red 75 (C33 H16 O15 N8 S4 Na4), acid green 25 (C28 H22 N2 O8 S2 Na2) et Evan blue (C34 H28 N6 O16 S4) ; Trypan blue (Niagara blue) (C34 H28 N6 014 S4). La carte de densité électronique a montré un arrangement en position inclinée dans l'espace interlamellaire d'un angle de 35° selon l'axe est proposé avant le traitement hydrothermal et en position parallèle après traitement pour le Yellow dans l'espace interfeuillet de l'HDL. L'effet protecteur de la structure HDL est montré puisqu'une stabilité en température des propriétés optiques est observée. Une amélioration des propriétés rhéologiques pour les nanocomposites formés est observée dans le cas de Orange et Niagara par rapport au polystyrène seul. Ceci est expliqué par des interactions de type friction entre les chaînes de PS et les molécules colorantes présentes en surfaces des cristallites, la structure des PS nanocomposites restant apparemment non miscible.

On propose un outil de description fonctionnelle permettant une description rigoureuse de spécification fonctionnelle. L'accent étant mis sur : la possibilité d'une description progressive; la possibilité de décrire des systèmes complexes repartis et à fonctionnement parallèle (entre les différents sous-systèmes et a l'intérieur d'un sous-système); la possibilité de vérification fonctionnelle (blocages, conflit, etc.)

La réactivité chimique du bois traité thermiquement a été étudié vis à vis de différents réactifs tels que des anhydrides d’acides et des isocyanates. Les résultats obtenus indiquent une forte diminution de la réactivité du bois traité thermiquement comparativement au bois non traité. Cette baisse de réactivité s’explique par une dégradation importante des hémicelluloses lors du traitement thermique conduisant à une diminution de la quantité de groupements hydroxyle libres susceptibles de réagir avec les réactifs utilisés. Suite à cette étude, nous nous sommes intéressés à l’utilisation de la spectroscopie XPS pour suivre l’évolution de la composition chimique du bois au cours du traitement thermique. Utilisée dans le cas d’éprouvettes de hêtre traitées thermiquement ou non, cette technique a permis de mettre en évidence une forte diminution du rapport O/C traduisant la formation de produits de carbonisation à l’intérieur du bois. Appliquée à des résineux comme le pin ou l’épicéa, la spectroscopie XPS n’a pas permis d’obtenir des résultats exploitables du fait de problèmes liés à la migration des extractibles lipophiles à la surface des échantillons durant l’analyse. La formation de produits de carbonisation résultant de la dégradation des polysaccharides a par la suite été confirmée par analyses chimiques et par RMN du solide. L’évolution du taux de carbonisation du bois a finalement été évalué par analyse élémentaire en fonction de différentes conditions de traitement. L’étude de la composition centésimale du bois met en évidence une forte corrélation entre l’évolution des pourcentages de carbone et d’oxygène et la perte de masse causée par les réactions de thermodégradation lors du traitement. / The chemical reactivity of heat treated wood was studied using various reagents such as acid anhydrides and isocyanates. The results indicate an important decrease of the reactivity of heat treated wood compared to untreated one. This decrease of reactivity is explained by an important degradation of hemicelluloses during the heat treatment leading to a reduction in the quantity of free hydroxyl groups able to react with the reagents used. Evolution of the chemical composition of wood during the heat treatment was then investigated using XPS spectroscopy. This method indicated an important decrease of O/C ratio of heat treated beech wood attributed to the formation of carbonization products inside the wood structure. Applied to softwood species, like the pine or the spruce, XPS spectroscopy do not allow to obtain useable results because of the migration of lipophilic extractives on the surface of the samples during the analysis. The formation of carbonization products resulting from the degradation of polysaccharides was confirmed by chemical analyses and CP/MAS 13C NMR. Formation of carbonization products was finally investigated by micro-analysis on samples subjected to different heat treatment conditions. Centesimal composition of wood highlight a strong correlation between the evolution of the carbon and oxygen percentages and the loss of mass caused by the reactions of thermodegradation during the treatment.

Les Systèmes multi-agents ou SMA proposent une approche originale de conception de systèmes intelligents et coopératifs. Ils se caractérisent par la distribution du contrôle global du système et par la présence d'agents autonomes évoluant dans un environnement partagé et dynamique. De plus, il existe plusieurs interdépendances entre les buts des agents, leurs capacités et les ressources qu'ils utilisent, donc afin d'éviter d'éventuels conflits, de favoriser la synergie des activités des agents et de partager les ressources de l’environnement commun, il est important que les agents coordonnent leurs actions. Nous nous sommes intéressés, dans le cadre de cette thèse, au déploiement des systèmes multi-agents sur une architecture pair à pair (Peer-to-Peer ou P2P) et ceci dans le but d’établir la communication entre ces agents et les relier entre eux. Cependant, du fait de la nature dynamique des systèmes P2P où chaque pair peut apparaître et disparaître à tout moment, des nouveaux problèmes se posent pour la coordination d’agents nécessitant des mécanismes de coordination adaptés au contexte spécifique des P2P. Pour cela, nous avons proposé une méthode de formation de groupe comme solution à ces problèmes. Nous nous sommes intéressés ensuite à l’application des systèmes multi-agents à architecture P2P au domaine d’apprentissage collaboratif en ligne où des apprenants contribuent aux apprentissages du groupe, et en retour, le groupe contribue à ceux des apprenants et c’est la cohérence du collectif qui permet d’atteindre l’objectif. Cependant, l’apprentissage collaboratif à distance implique des nouveaux rôles pour l’enseignant ainsi que pour les apprenants. Il est donc essentiel de définir ces rôles pour identifier les besoins qui en découlent pour pouvoir intégrer à l’outil informatique des fonctionnalités afin de satisfaire ces besoins. En effet, il est essentiel de fournir aux enseignants et apprenants la possibilité d’avoir des informations sur la progression de leur apprentissage ainsi que sur les niveaux de collaboration et de sociabilité de chaque apprenant et du groupe. Enfin, nous avons proposé, comme application de nos travaux, un système appelé COLYPAN (COllaborative Learning sYstem for Project mANagment) conçu pour l’apprentissage à distance et de façon collaborative de la gestion des projets. / Multi-Agents systems (MAS) propose an original approach to design intelligent and cooperative systems. They are characterized by the distribution of the overall system control and the presence of autonomous agents operating in a shared and dynamic environment. In addition, there are many interdependencies between: agents' goals, their abilities and used resources. So, in order to avoid possible conflicts, promote synergy of agents activities and share resources of the common environment, it is important that the agents coordinate their actions. We are interested, in the context of this thesis, in the deployment of multi-agents systems on Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks in order to establish communication between these agents. However, because of the dynamic nature of P2P systems where each peer may appear and disappear at any time, new problems arise concerning the coordination of agents. Thus, coordination mechanisms adapted to the specific context of P2P are required. For that, we have proposed a group formation method to solve these problems. Then, we were interested in the usage of multi-agents systems with P2P architecture in the field of collaborative e-learning. In such applications, each learner contributes in the learning process of the group, and in return, the group contributes in the learning process of its members. The consistency of the whole group allows to achieve the goal. However, collaborative e-learning implies new roles for teachers as well as for learners. It is therefore essential to define these roles in order to identify the users needs and integrate, in the platform, the functionalities that allows us to satisfy such needs. Indeed, it is essential to provide teachers and learners with the opportunity to obtain information about the progress of their learning processes as well as the level of collaboration and sociability of each learner in the group. Finally, we have proposed, as an application of our work, a system called COLYPAN (COllaborative Learning sYstem for Project management) designed for the collaborative e-Learning project management.

Real-Time Optimization (RTO) is a family of techniques that pursue to improve the performance of chemical processes. As general scheme, the method reevaluates the process conditions in a frequent basis and tries to adjust some selected variables, taking into account the plant state, actual operational constraints and optimization objectives. Several RTO approaches have born from the academy research and industrial practices, at the same time that more applications have been implemented in real facilities. Between the main motivations to apply RTO are the dynamic of markets, the seek for quality in the process results and environmental sustainability. That is why the interest on deeply understand the phases and steps involved in an RTO application has increased in recent years. Nevertheless, the fact that most of the existing RTO systems have been developed by commercial organizations makes it difficult to meet that understanding. This work studies the nature of RTO systems from a software point of view. Software requirements for a generic system are identied. Based on that, a software architecture is proposed that could be adapted for specfic cases. Benefits of the designed architecture are listed. At the same time, the work proposes a new approach to implement that architecture as a Multi-Agent System (MAS). Two RTO system prototypes were developed then, one for a well-know academic case study and the other oriented to be used in a real unit. The benefits of the MAS approach and the architecture, for researching on the RTO field and implementation on real plants, are analyzed in the text. A sub-product of the development, a software framework covering main concepts from the RTO ontology, is proposed as well. As the framework was designed to be generic, it can be used in new applications development and extended to very specific scenarios. / Otimização em Tempo Real (OTR) é uma família de técnicas que buscam melhorar o desempenho dos processos químicos. Como esquema geral, o método reavalia frequentemente as condições do processo e tenta ajustar algumas variáveis selecionadas, levando em considera ção o estado da planta, restrições operacionais e os objetivos da otimização. Várias abordagens para OTR t^em surgido da pesquisa acadêmica e das práticas industriais, ao mesmo tempo em que mais aplicações têm sido implementadas em plantas reais. As principais motivações para aplicar OTR são: a dinâmica dos mercados, a busca de qualidade nos resultados dos processos e a sustentabilidade ambiental. É por isso que o interesse em entender as fases e etapas envolvidas em uma aplicação OTR cresceu nos últimos anos. No entanto, o fato de que a maioria dos sistemas OTR em operação foram desenvolvidos por organizações comerciais dificulta o caminho para chegar nesse entendimento. Este trabalho analisa a natureza dos sistemas OTR desde o ponto de vista do software. Os requerimentos para um sistema genérico são levantados. Baseado nisso, é proposta uma arquitetura de software que pode ser adaptada para casos específicos. Os benefícios da arquitetura projetada foram listados. Ao mesmo tempo, o trabalho propõe uma nova abordagem para implementar essa arquitetura: Sistema Multi-Agentes (SMA). Dois protótipos de sistema OTR foram desenvolvidos. O primeiro aplicado num estudo de caso bem conhecido na literatura acadêmica. O segundo voltado para ser usado em uma unidade industrial. Os benefícios da abordagem SMA e da arquitetura, tanto na pesquisa relacionada com OTR, quanto na implementação em plantas reais, são analisados no texto. Um arcabouço de software que abrange os principais conceitos da ontologia OTR é proposto como resultado derivado do desenvolvimento. O arcabouço foi projetado para ser genérico, possibilitando seu uso no desenvolvimento de novas aplicações OTR e sua extensão a cenários muito específicos.

Submitted by Irvana Coutinho (irvana@ufpa.br) on 2017-03-16T15:58:12Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Dissertacao_CinemaLiteraturaTransito.pdf: 8295484 bytes, checksum: a0096a6b5b06127b17e99e72b4ed4fff (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Irvana Coutinho (irvana@ufpa.br) on 2017-03-16T15:58:44Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Dissertacao_CinemaLiteraturaTransito.pdf: 8295484 bytes, checksum: a0096a6b5b06127b17e99e72b4ed4fff (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-03-16T15:58:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Dissertacao_CinemaLiteraturaTransito.pdf: 8295484 bytes, checksum: a0096a6b5b06127b17e99e72b4ed4fff (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-06-28 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / A literatura e o cinema, campos de produção sígnica distintos, cuja relação torna-se possível em virtude (entre tantas possibilidades) da visualidade impressa em ambas as modalidades textuais, permite ao texto literário a sua transformação em películas. Não é de hoje que o cinema se utiliza de outras artes ou outros signos para a construção, reconstrução, criação e recriação fílmica. Na contemporaneidade, esse processo a que se convencionou chamar de tradução intersemiótica ocorre de forma incomum: se antes o cinema se valia da literatura como hipotexto, desta vez, a literatura vale-se do cinema para sua criação narrativo-verbal. Nosso corpus de análise será os filmes “Bonitinha, mas ordinária”, dirigido por J.B. de Carvalho, Braz Chediak e Moacir Góes, baseados na peça teatral homônima do dramaturgo Nelson Rodrigues. / Literature and cinema, sign production, whose relation becomes possible because (among other many possibilities) of Visuality printed in both textual modes, allows the literary text transformation movies. Today is not that the film uses other gear or other signs for the construction, reconstruction, creation and filmic recreation. In contemporary times, this process is called of intersemiotic translation, is so unusual: If before the cinema if value of literature as hipotexto, this time, the literature is the cinema for its creation-verbal narrative. Our corpus analysis of the films will be "cute but ordinary", directed by JB de Carvalho, Braz Chediak and Moacir Goes, based on the play's namesake playwright Nelson Rodrigues.