A city is considered as a complex system. It consists of numerous interactivesub-systems and is affected by diverse factors including governmental landpolicies, population growth, transportation infrastructure, and market behavior.Land use and transportation systems are considered as the two most importantsubsystems determining urban form and structure in the long term. Meanwhile,urban growth is one of the most important topics in urban studies, and its maindriving forces are population growth and transportation development. Modelingand simulation are believed to be powerful tools to explore the mechanisms ofurban evolution and provide planning support in growth management. The overall objective of the thesis is to analyze and model urban growth basedon the simulation of land-use changes and the modeling of road networkexpansion. Since most previous urban growth models apply fixed transportnetworks, the evolution of road networks was particularly modeled. Besides,urban growth modeling is an interdisciplinary field, so this thesis made bigefforts to integrate knowledge and methods from other scientific and technicalareas to advance geographical information science, especially the aspects ofnetwork analysis and modeling. A multi-agent system was applied to model urban growth in Toronto whenpopulation growth is considered as being the main driving factor of urbangrowth. Agents were adopted to simulate different types of interactiveindividuals who promote urban expansion. The multi-agent model with spatiotemporalallocation criterions was shown effectiveness in simulation. Then, anurban growth model for long-term simulation was developed by integratingland-use development with procedural road network modeling. The dynamicidealized traffic flow estimated by the space syntax metric was not only used forselecting major roads, but also for calculating accessibility in land-usesimulation. The model was applied in the city centre of Stockholm andconfirmed the reciprocal influence between land use and street network duringthe long-term growth. To further study network growth modeling, a novel weighted network model,involving nonlinear growth and neighboring connections, was built from theperspective of promising complex networks. Both mathematical analysis andnumerical simulation were examined in the evolution process, and the effects ofneighboring connections were particular investigated to study the preferentialattachment mechanisms in the evolution. Since road network is a weightedplanar graph, the growth model for urban street networks was subsequentlymodeled. It succeeded in reproducing diverse patterns and each pattern wasexamined by a series of measures. The similarity between the properties of derived patterns and empirical studies implies that there is a universal growthmechanism in the evolution of urban morphology. To better understand the complicated relationship between land use and roadnetwork, centrality indices from different aspects were fully analyzed in a casestudy over Stockholm. The correlation coefficients between different land-usetypes and road network centralities suggest that various centrality indices,reflecting human activities in different ways, can capture land development andconsequently influence urban structure. The strength of this thesis lies in its interdisciplinary approaches to analyze andmodel urban growth. The integration of ‘bottom-up’ land-use simulation androad network growth model in urban growth simulation is the major contribution.The road network growth model in terms of complex network science is anothercontribution to advance spatial network modeling within the field of GIScience.The works in this thesis vary from a novel theoretical weighted network modelto the particular models of land use, urban street network and hybrid urbangrowth, and to the specific applications and statistical analysis in real cases.These models help to improve our understanding of urban growth phenomenaand urban morphological evolution through long-term simulations. Thesimulation results can further support urban planning and growth management.The study of hybrid models integrating methods and techniques frommultidisciplinary fields has attracted a lot attention and still needs constantefforts in near future. / <p>QC 20130514</p>

La ricerca ha l’obiettivo di esaminare modelli etnici nella criminalità organizzata, esplorando, in particolare, caratteristiche strutturali del crimine e il ruolo dell’etnicità nel mercato della droga in Italia. La tesi si sviluppa in due livelli di analisi, macro e micro. Il livello macro esamina le tendenze della criminalità degli italiani e stranieri nel mercato della droga in Italia, attraverso l'esame dei dati ufficiali sugli autori di reato riportati all’Autorità giudiziaria in Italia per violazione della legge sugli stupefacenti, dal 1991 al 2008. Il livello micro esamina la struttura di una rete criminale composta da italiani e stranieri coinvolti in una serie di attività illegali relative al traffico e spaccio di stupefacenti scoperte in Italia (Operazione Luna Blu), attraverso l’esame delle comunicazioni (intercettazioni telefoniche ed ambientali) incluse nel caso studio. L'analisi di rete (SNA) ha permesso di ricostruire la struttura della rete criminale, identificare il ruolo dell’etnicità nei processi di traffico e spaccio di stupefacenti riportati nel caso studio, e verificare ipotesi relative a modelli etnici nella criminalità organizzata nel mercato della droga. / The research aims to provide a further understanding of ethnic patterns in organized crime, accounting for the structure of crime and ethnic features therein, with a specific focus on the Italian drug market. The research is developed in a two-level analysis. The macro level of analysis provides a general understanding of patterns of ethnic involvement in the drug market in Italy through the examination of official data on drug crimes and offenders reported to the Judicial Authority in Italy, from 1991 to 2008. This is to examine trends in the degree and type of involvement of Italians and foreigners in the Italian drug market over time. The micro level of analysis provides a further elaboration on the structure of crime and ethnic patterns in organized crime in the Italian drug market. It illustrates the structure of a criminal network composed by Italian and foreigner offenders involved in a series of drug distribution operations targeted in Italy (“Operation Luna Blu” case), through the examination of intercepted communication data (wiretaps and electronic surveillance records) included in the case study. Social network analysis (SNA) is applied at this level of analysis as the analytical framework to reconstruct the criminal network structure, identify organizational patterns along ethnic lines, and test hypotheses related to ethnic patterns of interaction amongst Luna Blu network participants.

The purpose of this research project was to analyze the dialectic of co-optation/domestication and resistance as manifested in the experience of racialized Canadian trade unionists. The seven research participants are racialized rank-and-file members, elected or appointed leaders, retired trade unionists, as well as staff of trade unions and other labour organizations. In spite of the struggle of racialized peoples for racial justice or firm anti-racism policies and programmes in their labour unions, there is a dearth of research on the racialized trade union members against racism, the actual condition under which they struggle, the particular ways that union institutional structures domesticate these struggles, and/or the countervailing actions by racialized members to realize anti-racist organizational goals. While the overt and vulgar forms of racism is no longer the dominant mode of expression in today’s labour movement, its systemic and institutional presence is just as debilitating for racial trade union members. This research has uncovered the manner in which the electoral process and machinery, elected and appointed political positions, staff jobs and formal constituency groups, and affirmative action or equity representational structures in labour unions and other labour organizations are used as sites of domestication or co-optation of some racialized trade unionists by the White-led labour bureaucratic structures and the forces in defense of whiteness. However, racialized trade union members also participate in struggles to resist racist domination. Among some of tools used to advance anti-racism are the creation of support networks, transgressive challenges to the entrenched leadership through elections, formation of constituency advocacy outside of the structure of the union and discrete forms of resistance. The participants in the research shared their stories of the way that race and gender condition the experiences of racialized women in the labour movement. The racialized interviewees were critical of the inadequacy of labour education programmes in dealing effectively with racism and offer solutions to make them relevant to the racial justice agenda. This study of race, resistance and co-optation in the labour movement has made contributions to the fields of critical race theory, labour and critical race feminism and labour studies.

The purpose of this research project was to analyze the dialectic of co-optation/domestication and resistance as manifested in the experience of racialized Canadian trade unionists. The seven research participants are racialized rank-and-file members, elected or appointed leaders, retired trade unionists, as well as staff of trade unions and other labour organizations. In spite of the struggle of racialized peoples for racial justice or firm anti-racism policies and programmes in their labour unions, there is a dearth of research on the racialized trade union members against racism, the actual condition under which they struggle, the particular ways that union institutional structures domesticate these struggles, and/or the countervailing actions by racialized members to realize anti-racist organizational goals. While the overt and vulgar forms of racism is no longer the dominant mode of expression in today’s labour movement, its systemic and institutional presence is just as debilitating for racial trade union members. This research has uncovered the manner in which the electoral process and machinery, elected and appointed political positions, staff jobs and formal constituency groups, and affirmative action or equity representational structures in labour unions and other labour organizations are used as sites of domestication or co-optation of some racialized trade unionists by the White-led labour bureaucratic structures and the forces in defense of whiteness. However, racialized trade union members also participate in struggles to resist racist domination. Among some of tools used to advance anti-racism are the creation of support networks, transgressive challenges to the entrenched leadership through elections, formation of constituency advocacy outside of the structure of the union and discrete forms of resistance. The participants in the research shared their stories of the way that race and gender condition the experiences of racialized women in the labour movement. The racialized interviewees were critical of the inadequacy of labour education programmes in dealing effectively with racism and offer solutions to make them relevant to the racial justice agenda. This study of race, resistance and co-optation in the labour movement has made contributions to the fields of critical race theory, labour and critical race feminism and labour studies.

The present research try to analyze the objectively patterns of visitor behavior focused on 5 and 12 years old kids, which visited the museums of the city of Girona in a non organized tour. We combined different methodologies for the data collection: survey, non participant direct observation and symbolic language from offered and self-administered written response. As a result, we know how children interact with museum materials, how they make relations with the different group members, how they use supplementary materials to do the visit, what itinerary they do, how they visit the rooms, what kind of texts they read, in which Units of Attention they provide more interest, what colors attract the most, what effects in their behavior can have the lighting, the noise and the temperature, what are their preferences, and in general, which are the profiles of families who visit the museums of Girona. / El present treball de recerca consisteix en estudiar i analitzar les pautes de comportament objectivables del visitant lliure entre 5 i 12 anys d’edat, que visita de forma no organitzada els museus de la ciutat de Girona. Així, mitjançant la combinació de diferents metodologies per a l’obtenció de dades (enquesta, observació directe no participant i llenguatge simbòlic a partir de resposta escrita autoadministrada i oferta), hem sabut de quina forma aquests interaccionen amb els materials, com es relacionen amb els diferents membres del grup, com utilitzen els materials complementaris a la visita, quin recorregut fan i com fan la visita a les sales, quins textos llegeixen, a quines Unitats d’Atenció presten més interès, quins colors els atrauen més, quins efectes en el seu comportament pot tenir la il•luminació, el soroll, la temperatura ambiental, quines son les seves preferències, i a trets generals, quins son els perfils de famílies que visiten els museus gironins.

Begging as a phenomenon has again become a hot topic of debate both in the public and the media. Actions have been discussed and motions have been given to social authorities in the country. During the last two years people from other parts of Europe who engage in street begging have been seen on the streets of Kristianstad. The purpose of this paper is to find out the individuals, certain authorities and other participants experiences of people begging in public places in Kristianstad. We have used a combination of qualitative, quantitative and literature review method and we have a social constructionist perspective as a basis. The participants and authorities we have included in the study are the police, the social services, security guards, a shop owner and two other assistance agencies. Interviews have been carried out with participants and authorities, and a survey has been done by individuals. A series of articles and history books have been reviewed since the begging is a historical phenomenon as well as a contemporary. The results show a clear division into two camps regarding experiences and opinions about street beggars and begging as a phenomenon. The majority expresses dissatisfaction and many propose measures and actions. Our final discussion is marked by our own thoughts and values ​​that emerged during the work, which we tried to moderate through the rest of the essay. / Tiggeri som fenomen har på nytt blivit ett hett ämne för debatt både för allmänhet och i media. Åtgärder har diskuterats och motioner om förbud lämnas till socialnämnder i landet. I Kristianstad har det under de senaste två åren kommit personer hit från andra delar av Europa som ägnar sig åt gatutiggeri. Syftet med denna uppsats är att ta reda på privatpersoners, vissa myndigheters och andra aktörers uppfattning av personer som tigger på offentlig plats i Kristianstad. Vi har använt oss av en kombination av kvalitativ, kvantitativ och litteraturstudie som metod och vi har ett socialkonstruktionistiskt perspektiv som grund. De aktörer och myndigheter vi tagit med i undersökningen är polis, socialtjänst, vakter, butiksägare och två andra biståndsverksamheter. Intervjuer har gjorts med aktörerna och myndigheterna och en enkätundersökning har gjorts med privatpersoner. En rad artiklar och historieböcker har gåtts igenom då tiggeri ju är ett historiskt fenomen såväl som ett nutida. Resultatet visar på en klar uppdelning i två läger gällande uppfattningar och åsikter om gatutiggare och tiggeri som fenomen. Majoriteten uttrycker ett missnöje och många föreslår åtgärder och insatser. Vår slutdiskussion präglas av våra egna tankar och värderingar som framkommit under arbetets gång, vilka vi försökt tona ner i resten av uppsatsen.

Denna uppsats fokuserar på den etableringsprocess som har skett i Jönköpings kommun vid införandet av familjecentraler. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur införandet av familjecentraler kan förstås och genom det skapa fördjupad kunskap om etableringsprocesser i socialt arbete. Studien har genomförts i form av en fallstudie. Empiri har samlats in genom intervjuer och genom offentliga allmänna handlingar. Materialet har analyserats genom ett adhoc-förfarande inspirerat av fallstudieanalys. Teorier som använts i analysen grundar sig i agenda-settingteori och i nyinstitutionell organisationsteori. Resultatet visar att familjecentraler som idé är omtolkningsbart vilket resulterat i en omfattande översättningsprocess. I den processen har socialtjänstens roll varit decimerad, vilket avspeglas i det utrymme som socialtjänsten ges på familjecentralerna där deras roll definieras av andra professioner än de själva. Det som gör att familjecentralerna kommer att etableras är en kritik mot och från barnhälsovården rörande relationen med socialtjänsten. Detta ackompanjeras av en ökad oro för föräldraskapet samt ökade krav på billigare och bättre verksamheter inom den offentliga sektorn. Dock får familjecentralsetableringen ett abrupt avbrott i och med att studier lyfts fram som indikerar att det finns bristande kunskaper rörande familjecentralernas effekt, vilket skapar hinder för nyetableringar. Detta medför inte att befintliga familjecentraler läggs ner vilket kan förstås i att familjecentralspolicyn visar en hög grad av institutionalisering, en stark förgivettagen tro på familjecentralerna, där dessa upphör att behöva legitimeras i form av problemadressering och resultat. / This bachelor thesis focuses on the establishment process of family centers in Jönköping municipality, Sweden. The purpose of this case-study is to examine on which terms the establishment of family centers can be understood aiming for the creation of in-depth knowledge about establishment processes in social work. Data has been collected via semi-structured interviews and via open records. The data has been analyzed via ad-hoc analyses inspired by cases study analyses. Theoretical framework used in the study is Kingdon’s agenda setting theory and neo-institutional organization theory. The study presents that family centre policy is highly interpretable and therefore has been a case of policy translation, which has resulted in a decimated part for the social services in the family centers, highly defined by other professions. The establishment of family centers is a result of a critique aimed against and from the child health care services, accompanied with an increased worry for parenthood and demands for more economically efficient function within the public sector. The process is interrupted by studies that indicate insufficient knowledge about the efficiency of the family centers. However this doesn’t result in closure of family centers because the function has reached a high degree of institutionalization, where it is legitimized by presumptions and beliefs rather than results and problem addressing.

This research constructs the theoretical framework through documentary analysis; it utilizes the approach of ¡§state and society relations¡¨ on the micro-level of the comparative politics, supplemented with the concept of ¡§corporatism¡¨. This research includes ¡§in-depth interview¡¨ and ¡§case study¡¨ to aim at examining two issues. While the Chinese government has been the central power, the enterprises are the key players in the businesses of modern China. When the private sector has prospered vigorously, the government faced increasing pressure from economic system reform. This indicates that the power of government will shift to the industry and trade association. This research finds that the trade association, deriving from ¡§top down¡¨ model, which can gain more self-Governance, is the successful case of transformation. Its character is that it neither seeks for power from the government during the transformation nor interest from the private sector, but, instead, serves for social welfare and receives more credibility from the public and better organizing autonomy. Since the south patrolling of Deng Xiaoping in 1992, the socialist market economy has been the goal China pursues. In 1998, the ninth session national representatives passed Decision of the structural reform of the State Council plan, and it pointed out ¡§establish a government administrative system with the Chinese characteristics and suitable to the socialist market economic system¡¨. In October 2003, the Third Plenary Session of the 16th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China passed Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Some Issues concerning the Improvement of the Socialist Market Economy . Obviously, in addition to the concept of open policy of the trade market, the policy on decentralization of governmental structural reform is in place. Those changes push the market mechanism to expand gradually, and accelerate the transformation of trade association. It makes the influence of trade association on industrial policy making grow. Particularly, Guangdong Province's economy opened early and also led the development of trade association. This research found that the system and development of trade association in Guangdong Province has exceeded that of the central government. ¡§Guangdong Food Profession Union¡¨ is one of the best examples. This research analyzes the development of food industry of both China and the Guangdong Province, in order to explain the relations among government, the business (market) and the society. Second, to analyze the development of trade association's of China and Guangdong Province to explain the formation of civil society. Third, using the case of ¡§Guangdong Food Profession Union¡¨ to study on its philosophy, institution and interest setting in order to map out the interaction among ¡§Guangdong Food Profession Union (GFPU)¡¨, government and business. Finally, it induces the relations among state, the market, the civil society. This research not only points out the similarities and differences between the study case and the general situation in China, but also classifies three kinds of trade association and within which the trade association of successful transformation might be called ¡§NGO with the Chinese characteristic¡¨. In brief, the social scope of trade association derived from ¡§top down¡¨ model, will de unavoidably deprived by the government. In the social scope formed by the trade association of successful transformation, the administrative authority is (Economic and Trade Commission) no longer in charge of them, but the ideology of Chinese Communist Party still exists. It was the ¡§civil society with the Chinese characteristic.¡¨

In this thesis we investigate the formation of patterns in a simple activator-inhibitor model supplemented with an inhibitory nonlocal coupling term. This model exhibits a wave instability for slow inhibitor diffusion, while, for fast inhibitor diffusion, a Turing instability is found. For moderate values of the inhibitor diffusion these two instabilities occur simultaneously at a codimension-2 wave-Turing instability. We perform a weakly nonlinear analysis of the model in the neighbourhood of this codimension-2 instability. The resulting amplitude equations consist in a set of coupled Ginzburg-Landau equations. These equations predict that the model exhibits bistability between travelling waves and Turing patterns. We present a study of interfaces separating wave and Turing patterns arising from the codimension-2 instability. We study theoretically and numerically the dynamics of such interfaces in the framework of the amplitude equations and compare these results with numerical simulations of the model near and far away from the codimension-2 instability. Near the instability, the dynamics of interfaces separating small amplitude Turing patterns and travelling waves is well described by the amplitude equations, while, far from the codimension-2 instability, we observe a locking of the interface velocities. This locking mechanism is imposed by the absence of defects near the interfaces and is responsible for the formation of drifting pattern domains, i.e. moving localised patches of travelling waves embedded in a Turing pattern background and vice versa.

Το ερευνητικό αντικείμενο και ο στόχος της διδακτορικής διατριβής είναι η πρόταση μιας ολοκληρωμένης λύσης για την υποστήριξη τηλεπικοινωνιακών εφαρμογών σε ασύρματα δίκτυα τα οποία δεν στηρίζονται σε σταθερές δικτυακές υποδομές. Ένα τέτοιο δίκτυο, το οποίο αναφέρεται στη διεθνή βιβλιογραφία ως Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET), είναι ένα αυτο-οργανώσιμο αυτο-σχηματιζόμενο ασύρματο δίκτυο με διαδρομές πολλαπλών τμημάτων (multi-hop), όπου η δομή του δικτύου αλλάζει δυναμικά λόγω της κινητικότητας των κόμβων ή αλλαγές στην τοπολογία. Η αρχιτεκτονική που προτείνεται για την ικανοποίηση των τιθέμενων απαιτήσεων στηρίζεται στην ανάπτυξη ενός ολοκληρωμένου επικοινωνιακού αρχιτεκτονικού πλαισίου για MANET δίκτυα το οποίο περιλαμβάνει μηχανισμούς μείωσης της κατανάλωσης ενέργειας που οφείλεται σε επικοινωνιακές λειτουργίες, την ανάπτυξη ενός εξειδικευμένου πρωτοκόλλου δρομολόγησης, τροποποιήσεις του πρωτοκόλλου TCP στο επίπεδο μεταφοράς και την υλοποίηση ενός νέου πρωτόκολλου διαχείρισης δικτύου. Η απόδοση της προτεινόμενης επικοινωνιακής διαστρωμάτωσης είναι υψηλή σε περιβάλλον με μεγάλη κινητικότητα των κόμβων και δυναμική αλλαγή της τοπολογίας ενώ παράλληλα η κατανάλωση ενέργειας των κόμβων παραμένει σχετικά χαμηλή. Οι αλγόριθμοι και τα πρωτοκόλλα που παρουσιάζονται σχεδιάστηκαν και υλοποιήθηκαν λαμβάνοντας υπόψη τους περιορισμούς και τις απαιτήσεις ενός ενσωματωμένου συστήματος, ενώ η απόδοση και αξιοπιστία τους τεκμηριώνονται θεωρητικά και με εξομοιώσεις. / The research objective of this thesis is a complete solution so as to support the implementation of telecommunication applications in wireless networks that operate without the presence of fixed infrastructure. Such a network, cited as Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) in international literature, is a self-organized, auto-configured wireless network with multi-hop routing paths where its structure is modified dynamically due to node mobility and topological changes. In order to meet the above requirements a new communication framework for MANET networks is presented, which consists of the adaptation of communication-related energy reduction techniques, development of a specialized routing protocol at the network layer, modifications of the TCP protocol at the transport layer and the implementation of a novel network management protocol. The performance of the proposed protocol stack is satisfactory in dynamic network topologies with increased node mobility, whereas the node energy consumption remains in low levels. The presented algorithms and protocols are designed and implemented considering the constraints and requirements of an embedded system, while their performance and reliability is proved theoretically and by simulation results.