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This study explored the meaning of community engagement of older adults, within a social capital framework, in a community noted for its relatively high concentration of active, older adults. The multiple meanings of community engagement within the creation of a place of age were investigated using concepts derived from a social capital framework. A place of age is where older adults are integral to family life, participate in community life, and bring collective life experiences and wisdom to civic life. This research addresses gaps in the current literature about suburban places and the meanings of community engagement for an aging population within these places. The importance of this research lies with expanding the understanding of the multiple meanings of community engagement and the potential for reinforcing, through public policy, these meanings through the development and support of the social capital created by older adults in places of age. The research methodology was an in-depth case study analysis of West Saint Paul, Minnesota. In-person, semistructured interviews were conducted with 21 individuals, aged 65 years and older, who had been residents of West Saint Paul for at least 25 years. Findings of this study revealed multiple meanings of community and community engagement for study participants, but all had a strong sense of community relative to their neighborhoods and the city of West Saint Paul. All had well-developed social networks that involved family members, friends, and neighbors. Nearly all engaged in neighboring behaviors of helping out when needed and generally looking out for one another. All participants expressed a feeling of trust of others within their own neighborhoods, and most did not feel trusting of others beyond their neighborhoods. All participants had consistently voted, and all engaged in formal civic activities at some point in their lives. All participants, lifelong volunteers, were members of a Christian church, and much of their volunteer time was given to church activities. The key finding from this study was the important role of neighboring behaviors, faith-based affiliation, and family in the meaning of community engagement within each participant's life. / Ph. D.

"Mémoire présenté à la Faculté des études supérieures en vue de l'obtention du grade de Maître en droit (LL.M.)" / En prenant pour acquis qu'il existe bel et bien une relation entre droit d'auteur et évolution médiatique, nous avons tenté d'expliciter cette relation en nous penchant sur le cas des artistes interprètes et exécutants. Ainsi, en mettant à contribution l'une des théories de la communication, la médiologie, nous avons, d'une part, identifié ce que l'on appelle, en jargon médiatique, un média dominant; d'autre part, nous avons caractérisé la mentalité médiatique qui en découle. Enfin, nous avons examiné le droit d'auteur à la lumière de ces caractéristiques afin de déterminer quelle place revenait à l'artiste interprète et exécutant dans un contexte médiatique précis. Plus spécifiquement et conformément à la démarche que nous venons de décrire, la première partie de ce mémoire a donc porté sur l'influence d'un premier média dominant, l'imprimerie. Le statisme et la fixité exigés par la prédominance de ce média a naturellement orienté notre analyse vers l'importance de la fixation en droit d'auteur. Comme la fixation revêt une place de choix en droit d'auteur, la prestation artistique, qui ne répond pas à ce critère, est reléguée au régime des droits voisins. Puis, avec l'avènement d'un second média dominant, le média de réseaux, c'est une toute autre ère qui s'ouvre, celle de la dématérialisation. La fixation devient alors un critère en pleine perte de vitesse. Malgré tout, la communauté internationale continue de croire que la prestation artistique relève du régime des droits voisins Cependant, le Traité de l'OMPI octroie aux artistes interprètes et exécutants plus de droits. Serait-ce le premier signe d'une éventuelle accession des artistes interprètes et exécutants au régime de droits d'auteur? / If we assume that copyright laws and the evolution of media are linked, our analysis of performance artists attempts to clarify this relationship. Using mediology as a tool for communication theory, we first identified a dominant media, or what is referred as a «mediasphere» in mediology. Next, we qualified its resultant mentality. Finally, we used these characteristics to examine copyright laws in an effort to determine the position of performers in a given mediasphere context. More specifically, the first part of this thesis focuses on the influence of the print as a dominant medium. The prevalence of this medium demands a level of statism and fixity which prompts us to analyze the importance of fixation in copyright laws. Considering the predominance of fixation in copyright laws and the transitory nature of the artistic performance, performers are only granted neighboring rights, not copyrights. Nowadays, the emergence of the electronic medium seems to give way to a new mediasphere in which dematerialisation is the key. Therefore, fixation as a criterion for determining whether or not to copyright a work of art is slowly losing its significance. Despite this fact, the international copyright community continues to believe that performers should be protected by neighboring rights. However, the WIPO Treaty of 1996 grants performers greater rights. Is this the first sign ofperformers gaining potential access to authorship?

Computer simulations provide a potentially powerful complement to conventional experimental techniques in elucidating the structures, dynamics and interactions of macromolecules. In this thesis, I present three applications of computer simulations to investigate important biomolecules with sizes ranging from two-residue peptides, to proteins, and to whole chromosome structures. First, I describe the results of 441 independent explicit-solvent molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of all possible two-residue peptides that contain the 20 standard amino acids with neutral and protonated histidine. 3JHNHα coupling constants and δHα chemical shifts calculated from the MD simulations correlated quite well with recently published experimental measurements for a corresponding set of two-residue peptides. Neighboring residue effects (NREs) on the average 3JHNHα and δHα values of adjacent residues were also reasonably well reproduced. The intrinsic conformational preferences of each residue, and their NREs on the conformational preferences of adjacent residues, were analyzed. Finally, these NREs were compared with corresponding effects observed in a coil library and the average β-turn preferences of all residue types were determined. Second, I compare the abilities of three derivatives of the Amber ff99SB force field to reproduce a recent report of 3JHNHα scalar coupling constants for hundreds of two-residue peptides. All-atom MD simulations of 256 two-residue peptides were performed and the results showed that a recently-developed force field (RSFF2) produced a dramatic improvement in the agreement with experimental 3JHNHα coupling constants. I further show that RSFF2 also improved modestly agreement with experimental 3JHNHα coupling constants of five model proteins. However, an analysis of NREs on the 3JHNHα coupling constants of the two-residue peptides indicated little difference between the force fields’ abilities to reproduce experimental NREs. I speculate that this might indicate limitations in the force fields’ descriptions of nonbonded interactions between adjacent side chains or with terminal capping groups. Finally, coarse-grained (CG) models and multi-scale modeling methods are used to develop structural models of entire E. coli chromosomes confined within the experimentally-determined volume of the nucleoid. The final resolution of the chromosome structures built here was one-nucleotide-per-bead (1 NTB), which represents a significant increase in resolution relative to previously published CG chromosome models, in which one bead corresponds to hundreds or even thousands of basepairs. Based on the high-resolution final 1 NTB structures, important physical properties such as major and minor groove widths, distributions of local DNA bending angles, and topological parameters (Linking Number (Lk), Twist (Tw) and Writhe (Wr)) were accurately computed and compared with experimental measurements or predictions from a worm-like chain (WLC) model. All these analyses indicated that the chromosome models built in this study are reasonable at a microscopic level. This chromosome model provides a significant step toward the goal of building a whole-cell model of a bacterial cell.

En prenant pour acquis qu'il existe bel et bien une relation entre droit d'auteur et évolution médiatique, nous avons tenté d'expliciter cette relation en nous penchant sur le cas des artistes interprètes et exécutants. Ainsi, en mettant à contribution l'une des théories de la communication, la médiologie, nous avons, d'une part, identifié ce que l'on appelle, en jargon médiatique, un média dominant; d'autre part, nous avons caractérisé la mentalité médiatique qui en découle. Enfin, nous avons examiné le droit d'auteur à la lumière de ces caractéristiques afin de déterminer quelle place revenait à l'artiste interprète et exécutant dans un contexte médiatique précis. Plus spécifiquement et conformément à la démarche que nous venons de décrire, la première partie de ce mémoire a donc porté sur l'influence d'un premier média dominant, l'imprimerie. Le statisme et la fixité exigés par la prédominance de ce média a naturellement orienté notre analyse vers l'importance de la fixation en droit d'auteur. Comme la fixation revêt une place de choix en droit d'auteur, la prestation artistique, qui ne répond pas à ce critère, est reléguée au régime des droits voisins. Puis, avec l'avènement d'un second média dominant, le média de réseaux, c'est une toute autre ère qui s'ouvre, celle de la dématérialisation. La fixation devient alors un critère en pleine perte de vitesse. Malgré tout, la communauté internationale continue de croire que la prestation artistique relève du régime des droits voisins Cependant, le Traité de l'OMPI octroie aux artistes interprètes et exécutants plus de droits. Serait-ce le premier signe d'une éventuelle accession des artistes interprètes et exécutants au régime de droits d'auteur? / If we assume that copyright laws and the evolution of media are linked, our analysis of performance artists attempts to clarify this relationship. Using mediology as a tool for communication theory, we first identified a dominant media, or what is referred as a «mediasphere» in mediology. Next, we qualified its resultant mentality. Finally, we used these characteristics to examine copyright laws in an effort to determine the position of performers in a given mediasphere context. More specifically, the first part of this thesis focuses on the influence of the print as a dominant medium. The prevalence of this medium demands a level of statism and fixity which prompts us to analyze the importance of fixation in copyright laws. Considering the predominance of fixation in copyright laws and the transitory nature of the artistic performance, performers are only granted neighboring rights, not copyrights. Nowadays, the emergence of the electronic medium seems to give way to a new mediasphere in which dematerialisation is the key. Therefore, fixation as a criterion for determining whether or not to copyright a work of art is slowly losing its significance. Despite this fact, the international copyright community continues to believe that performers should be protected by neighboring rights. However, the WIPO Treaty of 1996 grants performers greater rights. Is this the first sign ofperformers gaining potential access to authorship? / "Mémoire présenté à la Faculté des études supérieures en vue de l'obtention du grade de Maître en droit (LL.M.)"

This thesis addresses flight control of the perch landing maneuver for micro-aerial vehicles. A longitudinal flight model is constructed for a pigeon-sized aircraft. In addition to a standard elevator control surface, wing-rotation also considered as a non-standard actuator for increasing low-speed aerodynamic braking. Optimal state and control trajectories for the perch landing maneuver are computed using commercial software. A neighboring optimal control law is then developed and implemented in a set of flight simulations. Simulations are run with both a quasisteady and an unsteady aerodynamic model. The effectiveness of wing rotation and of the neighboring optimal control law is discussed, as is the importance of unsteady aerodynamics during the maneuver. Wing rotation was found to be minimally effective in this case, but it showed potential to be more effective in further research. The unsteady aerodynamic model has significant influence over the success or failure of the maneuver.

Nas últimas décadas, tem-se observado uma forte tendência de edificações cada vez mais altas, esbeltas e flexíveis, o que exigiu novas considerações no cálculo estrutural de edifícios, tornando a ação do vento um elemento de grande relevância nos projetos. Além disso, o denso agrupamento de edificações nos centros de grandes cidades adicionou uma variável para um fenômeno que já era complexo: devido à proximidade, um edifício passa a influenciar o campo aerodinâmico de outros, podendo provocar grandes alterações nas pressões, além de fenômenos dinâmicos difíceis de determinar por métodos analíticos. Instruções normativas, em geral, limitam-se a prédios altos com padrões arquitetônicos regulares, afastando-se da realidade dos projetos construídos na prática, que vêm exibindo geometrias cada vez mais complexas e não convencionais. Este cenário justifica a realização de extensos estudos dentro do tema em questão, a fim de que se obtenha uma melhor compreensão dos fenômenos dinâmicos envolvidos e uma orientação mais abrangente na etapa de pré-dimensionamento da estrutura. Neste contexto, a proposta desta pesquisa consiste em dois estudos de caso, de edifícios construídos no Brasil e ensaiados em túnel de vento, que possuem uma geometria similar (em formato de “V”), mas com dimensões e detalhes arquitetônicos distintos. O objetivo é o de promover uma caracterização aerodinâmica, avaliando os carregamentos atuando global e localmente, tanto para o modelo considerado isolado quanto incluindo as condições de vizinhança. Além das ações, estudou-se o espectro do vento que se aproxima, e determinou-se as funções de admitância aerodinâmica correspondentes. Em ambos os edifícios, verificou-se que a incidência do vento aproximadamente perpendicular a uma das abas corresponde a uma direção crítica em termos de efeitos dinâmicos: os espectros dos carregamentos globais se mostraram muito similares, apresentando picos pronunciados que indicam a possibilidade de desprendimento cadenciado de vórtices; as funções de admitância aerodinâmica também evidenciaram um formato muito semelhante. O estudo em questão oferece um meio de validação para estudos futuros que utilizem modelos de ensaio simplificados, além de servir de referência para uma possível revisão da norma brasileira NBR 6123/1988 – Forças devidas ao vento em edificações, contribuindo com os avanços do conhecimento relativo a efeitos dinâmicos do vento em edifícios altos e irregulares. / In the last decades we observed a strong trend in constructing buildings increasingly tall, slender and flexible, which has asked for new consideration in the structural calculus of buildings, making the wind a relevant element in the design procedures. The grouping of buildings downtown in big cities has added another variable to an already complex phenomenon: due to the proximity, a building influences in the aerodynamic field of others, leading to pressure modifications and dynamic effects hard to determine by analytical methods. Instruction codes, in general, are limited to regular tall buildings, in contrast to the reality of projects built in practice, which have been exhibiting architectonic patterns increasingly complex and unconventional. This scenario justifies extensive studies among aerodynamic of irregular tall buildings, with the purpose of acquiring a better comprehension regarding the dynamic phenomena involved and a more accurate direction on the pre-design phase. In this context, the proposal of this research consists of two case studies about buildings constructed in Brazil and tested in wind tunnel, which have a similar geometry (V-shaped) but different dimensions and architectonic details. The objective is to promote a complete aerodynamic characterization, assessing the loads acting as a whole and also locally, with both isolated and interference conditions. Besides the action, the velocity spectrum of the approaching wind and the corresponding aerodynamic admittance were studied. Either case, it was verified that the wind incidence nearly perpendicular to one of the frontal facades is a critical direction from the perspective of dynamic effects: the spectra of global loads were very similar, with a peak emerging on the graphs, which indicate the possibility of vortex shedding; the admittance function also showed a very close format. This study offers an instrument of validation for future researches that use simplified test models, besides to fit as a reference to a possible revision of the Brazilian code NBR 6123/1988 – Wind load on building structures, contributing to the knowledge advances regarding dynamic effects on irregular tall buildings.

The dissertation analyses criminal liability for illegal reproduction of literary, scientific, artistic work or object of related rights, distribution, transportation or storage of illegal copies thereof. Conception and attributes of intellectual property, evolution of laws of intellectual property in the world and in Lithuania and legal sources which provides criminal liability for illegal reproduction of literary, scientific or artistic work or object of neighboring rights, distribution, transportation or storage of illegal copies thereof are examined in the dissertation. The dissertation also discusses the elements of crimes prohibited in Article 192 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania, examines interpretation and application of Article 192 of the Criminal Code and distinguishes crimes prohibited in Article 192 from administrative offences. Furthermore, the dissertation discusses criminal legal consequences threatening the offender who commits crimes prohibited in Article 192 of the Criminal Code: sanctions according to Article 192 of the Criminal Code and confiscation of property. At the end of the dissertation a new wording of Article 192 and a new Article 1921 of the Criminal Code is proposed. / Disertacijoje analizuojama baudžiamoji atsakomybė už literatūros, mokslo, meno kūrinio ar gretutinių teisių objekto neteisėtą atgaminimą, neteisėtų kopijų platinimą, gabenimą ar laikymą. Disertacijoje aptariami intelektinės nuosavybės samprata ir požymiai, įstatymų, reglamentuojančių intelektinės nuosavybės apsaugą, raida pasaulyje ir Lietuvoje bei teisiniai šaltiniai, numatantys baudžiamąją atsakomybę už literatūros, mokslo, meno kūrinio ar gretutinių teisių objekto neteisėtą atgaminimą, neteisėtų kopijų platinimą, gabenimą ar laikymą, ir jų ypatumai. Disertacijoje atskleidžiami BK 192 straipsnyje numatytų nusikaltimų objektas ir dalykas, nusikaltimų objektyvioji pusė, subjektas ir nusikaltimų subjektyvioji pusė, be to, aptariamas BK 192 straipsnio interpretavimas ir taikymas bei BK 192 straipsnyje numatytų nusikaltimų atribojimas nuo administracinių teisės pažeidimų. Taip pat disertacijoje aptariami baudžiamieji teisiniai padariniai, gresiantys asmeniui, padariusiam BK 192 straipsnyje numatytus nusikaltimus, – bausmės pagal BK 192 straipsnį ir turto konfiskavimas. Disertacijos pabaigoje pateikiamas pasiūlymas dėl naujos BK 192 straipsnio redakcijos ir naujo BK 1921 straipsnio.

Disertacijoje analizuojama baudžiamoji atsakomybė už literatūros, mokslo, meno kūrinio ar gretutinių teisių objekto neteisėtą atgaminimą, neteisėtų kopijų platinimą, gabenimą ar laikymą. Disertacijoje aptariami intelektinės nuosavybės samprata ir požymiai, įstatymų, reglamentuojančių intelektinės nuosavybės apsaugą, raida pasaulyje ir Lietuvoje bei teisiniai šaltiniai, numatantys baudžiamąją atsakomybę už literatūros, mokslo, meno kūrinio ar gretutinių teisių objekto neteisėtą atgaminimą, neteisėtų kopijų platinimą, gabenimą ar laikymą, ir jų ypatumai. Disertacijoje atskleidžiami BK 192 straipsnyje numatytų nusikaltimų objektas ir dalykas, nusikaltimų objektyvioji pusė, subjektas ir nusikaltimų subjektyvioji pusė, be to, aptariamas BK 192 straipsnio interpretavimas ir taikymas bei BK 192 straipsnyje numatytų nusikaltimų atribojimas nuo administracinių teisės pažeidimų. Taip pat disertacijoje aptariami baudžiamieji teisiniai padariniai, gresiantys asmeniui, padariusiam BK 192 straipsnyje numatytus nusikaltimus, – bausmės pagal BK 192 straipsnį ir turto konfiskavimas. Disertacijos pabaigoje pateikiamas pasiūlymas dėl naujos BK 192 straipsnio redakcijos ir naujo BK 1921 straipsnio. / The dissertation analyses criminal liability for illegal reproduction of literary, scientific, artistic work or object of related rights, distribution, transportation or storage of illegal copies thereof. Conception and attributes of intellectual property, evolution of laws of intellectual property in the world and in Lithuania and legal sources which provides criminal liability for illegal reproduction of literary, scientific or artistic work or object of neighboring rights, distribution, transportation or storage of illegal copies thereof are examined in the dissertation. The dissertation also discusses the elements of crimes prohibited in Article 192 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania, examines interpretation and application of Article 192 of the Criminal Code and distinguishes crimes prohibited in Article 192 from administrative offences. Furthermore, the dissertation discusses criminal legal consequences threatening the offender who commits crimes prohibited in Article 192 of the Criminal Code: sanctions according to Article 192 of the Criminal Code and confiscation of property. At the end of the dissertation a new wording of Article 192 and a new Article 1921 of the Criminal Code is proposed.

Nas últimas décadas, tem-se observado uma forte tendência de edificações cada vez mais altas, esbeltas e flexíveis, o que exigiu novas considerações no cálculo estrutural de edifícios, tornando a ação do vento um elemento de grande relevância nos projetos. Além disso, o denso agrupamento de edificações nos centros de grandes cidades adicionou uma variável para um fenômeno que já era complexo: devido à proximidade, um edifício passa a influenciar o campo aerodinâmico de outros, podendo provocar grandes alterações nas pressões, além de fenômenos dinâmicos difíceis de determinar por métodos analíticos. Instruções normativas, em geral, limitam-se a prédios altos com padrões arquitetônicos regulares, afastando-se da realidade dos projetos construídos na prática, que vêm exibindo geometrias cada vez mais complexas e não convencionais. Este cenário justifica a realização de extensos estudos dentro do tema em questão, a fim de que se obtenha uma melhor compreensão dos fenômenos dinâmicos envolvidos e uma orientação mais abrangente na etapa de pré-dimensionamento da estrutura. Neste contexto, a proposta desta pesquisa consiste em dois estudos de caso, de edifícios construídos no Brasil e ensaiados em túnel de vento, que possuem uma geometria similar (em formato de “V”), mas com dimensões e detalhes arquitetônicos distintos. O objetivo é o de promover uma caracterização aerodinâmica, avaliando os carregamentos atuando global e localmente, tanto para o modelo considerado isolado quanto incluindo as condições de vizinhança. Além das ações, estudou-se o espectro do vento que se aproxima, e determinou-se as funções de admitância aerodinâmica correspondentes. Em ambos os edifícios, verificou-se que a incidência do vento aproximadamente perpendicular a uma das abas corresponde a uma direção crítica em termos de efeitos dinâmicos: os espectros dos carregamentos globais se mostraram muito similares, apresentando picos pronunciados que indicam a possibilidade de desprendimento cadenciado de vórtices; as funções de admitância aerodinâmica também evidenciaram um formato muito semelhante. O estudo em questão oferece um meio de validação para estudos futuros que utilizem modelos de ensaio simplificados, além de servir de referência para uma possível revisão da norma brasileira NBR 6123/1988 – Forças devidas ao vento em edificações, contribuindo com os avanços do conhecimento relativo a efeitos dinâmicos do vento em edifícios altos e irregulares. / In the last decades we observed a strong trend in constructing buildings increasingly tall, slender and flexible, which has asked for new consideration in the structural calculus of buildings, making the wind a relevant element in the design procedures. The grouping of buildings downtown in big cities has added another variable to an already complex phenomenon: due to the proximity, a building influences in the aerodynamic field of others, leading to pressure modifications and dynamic effects hard to determine by analytical methods. Instruction codes, in general, are limited to regular tall buildings, in contrast to the reality of projects built in practice, which have been exhibiting architectonic patterns increasingly complex and unconventional. This scenario justifies extensive studies among aerodynamic of irregular tall buildings, with the purpose of acquiring a better comprehension regarding the dynamic phenomena involved and a more accurate direction on the pre-design phase. In this context, the proposal of this research consists of two case studies about buildings constructed in Brazil and tested in wind tunnel, which have a similar geometry (V-shaped) but different dimensions and architectonic details. The objective is to promote a complete aerodynamic characterization, assessing the loads acting as a whole and also locally, with both isolated and interference conditions. Besides the action, the velocity spectrum of the approaching wind and the corresponding aerodynamic admittance were studied. Either case, it was verified that the wind incidence nearly perpendicular to one of the frontal facades is a critical direction from the perspective of dynamic effects: the spectra of global loads were very similar, with a peak emerging on the graphs, which indicate the possibility of vortex shedding; the admittance function also showed a very close format. This study offers an instrument of validation for future researches that use simplified test models, besides to fit as a reference to a possible revision of the Brazilian code NBR 6123/1988 – Wind load on building structures, contributing to the knowledge advances regarding dynamic effects on irregular tall buildings.