Dans cette thèse nous présentons une approche générale et robuste pour la décomposition des jeux décrits en Game Description Language (GDL). Dans le domaine du General Game Playing (GGP), les joueurs peuvent significativement diminuer le coût de l'exploration d'un jeu s'ils disposent d'une version décomposée de celui-ci. Les travaux existants sur la décomposition des jeux s'appuient sur la structure syntaxique des règles, sur des habitudes d'écriture du GDL ou sur le coûteux calcul de la forme normale disjonctive des règles. Nous proposons une méthode plus générale pour décomposer les jeux solitaires ou multijoueurs. Dans un premier temps nous envisageons une approche fondée sur l'analyse logique des règles. Celle-ci nécessite l'utilisation d'heuristiques, qui en limitent la robustesse, et le coûteux calcul de la forme normale disjonctive des règles. Une seconde approche plus efficace est fondée sur la collecte d'informations durant des simulations (playouts). Cette dernière permet la détection des liens de causalité entre les actions et les fluents d'un jeu. Elle est capable de traiter les différents types de jeux composés et de prendre en charge certains cas difficiles comme les jeux à actions composées et les jeux en série. Nous avons testé notre approche sur un panel de 597 jeux GGP. Pour 70% des jeux, la décomposition nécessite moins d'une minute en faisant 5k playouts. Nous montrons de 87% d'entre eux peuvent être correctement décomposés après seulement 1k playouts. Nous ébauchons également une approche originale pour jouer avec ces jeux décomposés. Les tests préliminaires sur quelques jeux solitaires sont prometteurs. / This PhD thesis presents a robust and general approach for the decomposition of games described in Game Description Language (GDL). In the General Game Playing framework (GGP), players can drastically decrease game search cost if they hold a decomposed version of the game. Previous works on decomposition rely on syntactical structures and writing habits of the GDL, or on the disjunctive normal form of the rules, which is very costly to compute. We offer an approach to decompose single or multi-player games. First, we consider an approach based on logical rule analysis. This requires the use of heuristics, which limit its robustness, and the costly calculation of the disjunctive normal form of the rules. A second more efficient approach is based on information gathering during simulations of the game (playouts). The latter allows the detection of causal links between actions. It can handle the different classes of compound games and can process some difficult cases like synchrounous parallel games with compound moves and serial games. We tested our program on 597 games. Given 5k playouts, 70% of the games are decomposed in less than one minute. We demonstrate that for 87% of the games, 1k playouts are sufficient to obtain a correct decomposition. We also sketch an original approach to play with these decomposed games. Preliminary tests on some one-player games are promising. Another contribution of this thesis is the evaluation of the MPPA architecture for the parallelization of a GGP player (LeJoueur of Jean-Noël Vittaut).

In 2009, Cobb County School District (CCSD) and Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) received a competitive federal grant to implement an idle and tailpipe emission reduction program in the CCSD bus fleet. The project is designed to reduce school bus idling by installing GPS and idle detection systems in the bus, providing bus dispatchers with a web system to track vehicle activity and idling in real-time, and to automatically shut off the engine when idle thresholds at specific locations are exceeded. A team of Georgia Tech researchers is implementing the anti-idle program and estimating the emissions and fuel savings from the project using approved modeling methods. This thesis presents the results of the emission modeling process, as well as an analysis of baseline school bus idling activity. EPA's MOVES mobile source emission model was used to develop emission rates for school buses for each operating mode, which are defined by the instantaneous vehicle speed, acceleration and scaled tractive power. Local data for Cobb County and Atlanta were collected and input into the MOVES model. The pollutants modeled include carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, particulate matter (coarse and fine), oxides of nitrogen, and gaseous hydrocarbons. The vehicle activity data collected through the GPS and communications equipment installed in the buses were classified into the operating mode bins for each second of recorded data, and multiplied by the corresponding emission rate to determine the total modal emissions before and after project implementation. Preliminary results suggest that thousands of gallons of diesel fuel and thousands of dollars can be saved with the project, improving overall fleet fuel efficiency by 2%, as well as reducing emissions in some categories by as much as 38%.

Prior studies have shown that returns exhibit certain predictable patterns that are inconsistent with the mainstream finance theory. In this thesis, I explore the behaviour of returns following three different types of market events with a particular focus on behavioural and non-behavioural factors that are attributable to the predictability of post-event returns. This thesis consists of three self-contained empirical essays. The first essay examines the information role of large S&P500 futures trades (commercial, noncommercial, dealers, asset managers, and hedge funds) in shaping future index returns. I find that commercial firms’ net trading level appears positively correlated with future index returns but the relationship is not stable across time. Based on more recent data, hedge funds appear superior in terms of access to information and/or trading ability but this advantage is only preserved at high frequency. Therefore, the current weekly Commitment of Traders (COT) report - published with a three-day delay - prevents timely public access to this type of information. Also, trading signals based on two of the more popular position-based sentiment indicators do not produce significant average returns. Overall, this calls into question the reliability of COT-based trading signals used by market professionals. The second essay studies the impacts of short sellers’ trading in shaping the behaviour of stock returns following extreme price moves using data from stock market in mainland China where short sales were initially prohibited. Extreme price moves occurring under non-prohibitive/prohibitive short-sale constraints are defined as shortable/non-shortable events. I find shortable events exhibit less post-event price drift/reversals than non-shortable ones, indicating an increase in the efficiency of stock prices reacting to unexpected events. Further analysis of short sellers’ trading activities on the price event days suggests that they are successful in trading informed price shocks but not in trading uninformed ones. Finally, I find evidence of massive short-covering that amplifies price shocks. The third essay investigates investors’ reaction to stock market rumours using data from China where listed companies are required to clarify rumours appearing in the media. I find that post-clarification abnormal returns exhibit continuation of pre-clarification momentum for rumours that are not denied by the listed companies and reversals for those which are denied. These results suggest that investors are unable to distinguish the reliable rumours from the false ones, as they under-react to rumours containing material information and over-react to those without. Further regression analyses on post-clarification abnormal returns using various subsamples of rumour events show that investors respond more efficiently to rumours when they are more informed about news topics or the rumoured companies.

Submitted by Erika Demachki (erikademachki@gmail.com) on 2017-01-02T19:05:10Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Cleber de Sousa Carvalho - 2016.pdf: 4402314 bytes, checksum: e2bad7f5fa3908ba2cb1a855795cd2d6 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2017-01-03T09:54:53Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Cleber de Sousa Carvalho - 2016.pdf: 4402314 bytes, checksum: e2bad7f5fa3908ba2cb1a855795cd2d6 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-01-03T09:54:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Cleber de Sousa Carvalho - 2016.pdf: 4402314 bytes, checksum: e2bad7f5fa3908ba2cb1a855795cd2d6 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-09-19 / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Goiás - FAPEG / This dissertation shows reflections about the Festivity in Honor of Our Lady of the Rosary and Saint Benedict of Village João Vaz (Goiânia, GO) and the body movements of the congo’s dancers of Terno de Congo Verde e Preto focusing on processing procedures and permanence which are subject traditions and expressions of popular culture. The Rosary celebrations of black men are also known as Congada parties or Congado are produced from a conversion universe to Catholicism present in Brazil, since the colonial period with an ambiguous character who reconstructed and a new meant the sacred made its own and articulated with knowledge and concepts bounded to the ancestral notion of Bantu people. Onwards from a theoretical reference aligned by an interdisciplinary aproach the research purpose is to perceive how the congadeiros of Village João Vaz, especially the participants of congo’s dancers, they living the processes of transformation and permanence of their rituals and body movements (dancing, singing and drumming). To do this, initially, will be shown the structure of the Feast of the João Vaz, its relations with Congada Party of Catalan (GO), and main ceremonies, enabling the perception of the cycle of the Feaste, from the participation of Terno de Congo Verde e Preto. Then we will discuss about the contact’s points between the processes of urbanization and modernity and the ceremonies of the Feast of João Vaz that have presented to “congadeiros” the necessity of modifications and new meanings in their rituals, as the demands of urban life. So understand that, the same time that the life settings in the city point to the formation of an individualistic and apathetic subjectivit based on monetary values it was observed as the existence of manifestations of popular culture as the Congada between others present in regions considered marginalized comunities that they went occupied by people with limited financial resources who value sociability, solidarity coexistence affection and friendship. Finally, we will discuss about how the dancers of Terno de Congo Verde e Preto are living the changes and continuities in the configuration of body movements and rituals they perform, in view of the embodiment of knowledge that are manifested in dancing, singing and drumming, as basic features make up the african-Brazilian performances. The survey conducted the understanding of the interrelationships between the material sphere of existence and spiritual or symbolic sphere that operated in the manifestations of popular culture. This being one of the aspects that allow the observation of their movements and transformations and the realization that the knowledge of Congada that are sedimented in Congadeiro(congo dancer) body in built-in memory, the formation of a habitus, which manifests in festive ceremonies and celebration rituals. / Esta dissertação apresenta reflexões sobre a Festa em Louvor a Nossa Senhora do Rosário e São Benedito da Vila João Vaz (Goiânia, GO) e os movimentos corporais dos dançadores do Terno de Congo Verde e Preto, tendo como foco os processos de transformação e permanência, os quais estão sujeitas as tradições e manifestações da cultura popular. As festas do rosário dos homens pretos, também conhecidas como Festas de Congada, ou Congado, são produzidas a partir de um universo de conversão ao catolicismo, presentes no Brasil, desde o período colonial possuindo um caráter polissêmico, que reconstituiu e ressignificou o sagrado feito de uma forma própria e articulada a saberes e concepções vinculadas à noção de ancestralidade dos povos Bantos. Partindo de um referencial teórico alinhado por um eixo interdisciplinar, o intuito da pesquisa é perceber como os congadeiros da Vila João Vaz, em especial os participantes do Terno de Congo Verde e Preto, vivenciam os processos de transformação e permanência de seus rituais e movimentos corporais(danças, cantos e batuques). Para tanto, inicialmente, será apresentada a estrutura da Festa da João Vaz, suas relações com a Festa de Congada de Catalão (GO) e principais cerimônias, possibilitando a percepção do ciclo da Festa, a partir da participação do Terno de Congo Verde e Preto. Em seguida, será discutido a respeito dos pontos de contato entre os processos de urbanização e da modernidade e as cerimônias da Festa da João Vaz que têm apresentado aos congadeiros a necessidade de modificações e ressignificações em seus rituais, conforme as exigências da vida urbana. Percebe-se que, ao mesmo tempo em que as configurações da vida na cidade apontam para a formação de uma subjetividade individualista e apática, fundamentada por valores monetários, observa-se, também, a existência de manifestações da cultura popular, como a Congada, entre outras, presentes em regiões consideradas marginalizadas, ocupadas por populações com poucos recursos financeiros, que valorizam a sociabilidade, a convivência solidária o afeto e a amizade. Finalmente, discutiremos sobre como os congadeiros do Terno de Congo Verde e Preto vivenciam as transformações e permanências na configuração dos movimentos corporais e rituais que realizam, tendo em vista a corporificação de saberes que são manifestados no dançar, cantar e batucar, como características básicas que compõem as performances afro-brasileiras. A pesquisa possibilitou o entendimento das inter-relações entre a esfera material da existência e a esfera espiritual ou simbólica que operam nas manifestações da cultura popular, sendo este um dos aspectos que permitem a observação de seus movimentos e transformações; bem como a percepção de que os saberes da Congada estão sedimentados no corpo do congadeiro, em uma memória incorporada, pela constituição de um habitus, que se manifesta nas cerimônias festivas e nos rituais de celebração.

This study explores the use of English in the texts of product packages sold in Swedish retail. This includes looking at the proportion of English of the packages of four brands God Morgon, Froosh, Oatly and Wellness, as well as exploring what moves are most likely to be in English and furthermore, what cultural values are conveyed by the texts. The most significant findings are that the proportion of English varies among both between and within the brands, depending on the specific niche the products have. Furthermore, in line with previous studies, English is mainly found in the attention-grabbing moves such as headlines and leads, whereas Swedish is more frequent in the copy which serves a more explanatory and detailing function. This is true except for the texts of the brand Oatly, with the main copy also in English. The cultural values conveyed by the texts, finally, both support previous findings, but it may be suggested that some of the values, such as nature and morality, have just recently begun to be associated to English.

En la gestión de terminales portuarias se ha evidenciado un problema común, alto tráfico de camiones y largos tiempos de espera dada la variabilidad en la llegada de camiones. Este es un desafío importante para los puertos no solo en los países emergentes, sino también en los más desarrollados. Esta situación ha dado la oportunidad de investigar en esta materia y hacer uso de un Sistema de Citas para Camiones (TAS, por sus siglas en inglés) junto con otras herramientas correspondientes a la ingeniería industrial para la optimización de los procesos de atención de camiones dentro de una terminal portuaria en Perú. Para ello, se realiza un diagnóstico de la empresa objeto de estudio y mediante una simulación de sistemas discretos se valida la viabilidad técnica de la propuesta. Se demostró que un procedimiento de atención basado en citas, gestión Último en Entrar, Primero en Salir (UEPS) para contenedores y desarrollo de la gestión visual dentro del patio de contenedores; es una opción altamente viable para reducir tiempos de espera y movimientos improductivos de contenedores. / In the management of port terminals a common problem has been evidenced, high traffic of trucks and long waiting times given the variability of trucks arrival. This is a significant challenge for ports not only in emerging countries, but also in the more developed ones. This situation has given the opportunity to investigate in this matter and make use of a Truck Appointment System (TAS) together with other tools corresponding to industrial engineering for the optimization of truck service processes within a port terminal in Peru. To do this, a diagnosis is made of the company object of study and through a simulation of discrete systems, the technical viability of the proposal is validated. It was demonstrated that a procedure of attention based on appointments, Last in, First Out (LIFO) management for containers and development of visual management within the container yard; it is a highly viable option to shorten waiting times and unproductive movements of containers. / Trabajo de Suficiencia Profesional

This master's thesis deals with the development of EU's music policy and investigates one of its projects, the Liveurope platform. Liveurope is an initiative supporting music venues across Europe in their effort to promote emerging, up-and-coming European artists and thus significantly contributes to the development of European diversity in the area of live music. Since its establishment in 2014, the platform has undergone significant development, but as a result of the Coronavirus crisis, which has led to closure of venues and restrictions of cross- border free movement, it has been subjected to an unprecedented test of viability. It is within this context that the case is being investigated, during the time period of March 2020 to May 2021, in order to answer the research question: "Was the transnational Liveurope project, supported by the EU music policy, able to react to the Coronavirus crisis and keep on fulfilling its objectives in the unprecedented context of this crisis? The theoretical part of the thesis analyzes the academic debate on cultural policy, the role of music within the social sciences and music policy. As the EU music policy is an under-researched field, the thesis analyzes its historical development and current state for the contextualization of the case study of Liveurope...

Arimaa is a strategic board game for two players. It was designed to be simple for human players and difficult for computers. The aim of this thesis is to design and implement the program with features of the artificial intelligence, which would be able to defeat human players. The implementation was realized in the three key parts: evaluation position, generation of moves and search. The program was run on the game server and defeated many bots as well as human players.

On-road vehicles are a major source of transportation carbon dioxide (CO2) greenhouse gas emissions in all the developed countries, and in many of the developing countries in the world. Similarly, several criteria air pollutants are associated with transportation, e.g., carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and particulate matter (PM). The need to accurately quantify transportation-related emissions from vehicles is essential. Transportation agencies and researchers in the past have estimated emissions using one average speed and volume on a long stretch of roadway. With MOVES, there is an opportunity for higher precision and accuracy. Integrating a microscopic traffic simulation model (such as VISSIM) with MOVES allows one to obtain precise and accurate emissions estimates. The new United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) mobile source emissions model, MOVES2010a (MOVES) can estimate vehicle emissions on a second-by-second basis creating the opportunity to develop new software ―VIMIS 1.0‖ (VISSIM/MOVES Integration Software) to facilitate the integration process. This research presents a microscopic examination of five key transportation parameters (traffic volume, speed, truck percentage, road grade and temperature) on a 10-mile stretch of Interstate 4 (I- 4) test bed prototype; an urban limited access highway corridor in Orlando, Florida. iv The analysis was conducted utilizing VIMIS 1.0 and using an advanced custom design technique; D-Optimality and I-Optimality criteria, to identify active factors and to ensure precision in estimating the regression coefficients as well as the response variable. The analysis of the experiment identified the optimal settings of the key factors and resulted in the development of Micro-TEM (Microscopic Transportation Emissions MetaModel). The main purpose of Micro-TEM is to serve as a substitute model for predicting transportation emissions on limited access highways in lieu of running simulations using a traffic model and integrating the results in an emissions model to an acceptable degree of accuracy. Furthermore, significant emission rate reductions were observed from the experiment on the modeled corridor especially for speeds between 55 and 60 mph while maintaining up to 80% and 90% of the freeway‘s capacity. However, vehicle activity characterization in terms of speed was shown to have a significant impact on the emission estimation approach. Four different approaches were further examined to capture the environmental impacts of vehicular operations on the modeled test bed prototype. First, (at the most basic level), emissions were estimated for the entire 10-mile section ―by hand‖ using one average traffic volume and average speed. Then, three advanced levels of detail were studied using VISSIM/MOVES to analyze smaller links: average speeds and volumes (AVG), second-bysecond link driving schedules (LDS), and second-by-second operating mode distributions (OPMODE). This research analyzed how the various approaches affect predicted emissions of CO, NOx, PM and CO2. v The results demonstrated that obtaining accurate and comprehensive operating mode distributions on a second-by-second basis improves emission estimates. Specifically, emission rates were found to be highly sensitive to stop-and-go traffic and the associated driving cycles of acceleration, deceleration, frequent braking/coasting and idling. Using the AVG or LDS approach may overestimate or underestimate emissions, respectively, compared to an operating mode distribution approach. Additionally, model applications and mitigation scenarios were examined on the modeled corridor to evaluate the environmental impacts in terms of vehicular emissions and at the same time validate the developed model ―Micro-TEM‖. Mitigation scenarios included the future implementation of managed lanes (ML) along with the general use lanes (GUL) on the I-4 corridor, the currently implemented variable speed limits (VSL) scenario as well as a hypothetical restricted truck lane (RTL) scenario. Results of the mitigation scenarios showed an overall speed improvement on the corridor which resulted in overall reduction in emissions and emission rates when compared to the existing condition (EX) scenario and specifically on link by link basis for the RTL scenario. The proposed emission rate estimation process also can be extended to gridded emissions for ozone modeling, or to localized air quality dispersion modeling, where temporal and spatial resolution of emissions is essential to predict the concentration of pollutants near roadways

Abstract Although researchers have studied the effects of platooning, most of the work done so far has focused on fuel consumption. There are a few studies that have targeted the impact of platooning on the highway operations and safety. This thesis focuses on the impact of heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) platooning on highway characteristics. Specifically, this study aims at evaluating the effects of platooning of HDVs on capacity, safety, and CO2 emissions. This study is based on a hypothetical model that was created using the VISSIM software. VISSIM is a powerful simulation software designed to mimic the field traffic flow conditions. For model validity, the model outputs were compared with recommended values from guidelines such as the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) (Transportation Research Board, 2016). VISSIM was used to obtain the simulation results regarding capacity. However, in addition to VISSIM, two other software packages were used to obtain outputs that cannot be assessed in VISSIM. MOVES and SSAM are two simulation software packages that were used for emission and safety metrics, respectively. Both software packages depended on input from VISSIM for analysis. It was found that with the presence of HDVs in the model, the capacity, the emission of CO2, and the safety of the roadway would improve positively. A capacity of 4200 PCE/h/ln could be achieved when there are enough HDVs in platoons. Furthermore, more than 3% of the traffic flow emission of CO2 reduction is possible when 100% of the HDVs used in the model are in platoons. In addition to that, a reduction of more than 75% of the total number of conflicts might be obtained. Furthermore, with the analysis of the full factorial method and the Design of Experiment (DOE) conducted by using Excel and Minitab respectively, it was possible to investigate the impact of the platoons’ factors on the highway parameters. Most of these factors affect the parameters significantly. However, the change in the desired speed was found to insignificantly affect the highway parameters, due to the high penetration rate. Keywords: VISSIM, MOVES, SSAM, COM-interface, HDVs, Platooning, Number of Conflicts