La batalla de l‘Ebre va ser la més sagnant de la Guerra Civil Espanyola. I la més decisiva. Quan va acabar, el resultat del conflicte estava sentenciat. Sobre ella s‘han escrit molts llibres i articles, i elaborat diversos documentals audiovisuals, però no existeix cap estudi a fons sobre la informació que van donar els mitjans de comunicació i de propaganda ni en decurs de la batalla ni al voltant d‘ella. Aquí s‘estudia tant en referència als comunicats de guerra, la premsa i la ràdio espanyoles d‘ambdós bàndols, com a la premsa internacional, que va enviar corresponsals de primer nivell mundial. També allò que fa referència al cinema, els pamflets o la premsa de trinxeres i de les Brigades Internacionals. Tanmateix, s‘aprofundeix i omple buits en molts aspectes relacionats amb el propi entorn polític i militar de la batalla, i s‘aporta àmplia informació sobre la tensa situació europea que deixava molt en segon pla la Guerra Civil Espanyola i devaluava la informació sobre ella.

David William Foster afirmava sobre La batalla de Xile: "Batalla és més la història del poble xilè i l'impacte en la consciència nacional dels esdeveniments dels setanta" que una història del govern de Salvador Allende. Des de la recerca de la memòria històrica i la consciència històrica en el Xile dels anys àlgids de la Guerra freda, veurem quines van ser les estratègies de cada sector social i econòmic involucrat, així com el marc teòric que llavors justificava la particular construcció ideològica de cadascun d'ells, tot això com una manera particular de construir memòria en el període que va des de 1970 a 1973. Per a això utilitzarem la metodologia de la història visual en la seva vessant particular per al cinema, així com l'anàlisi social a partir de fonts gràfiques. Des d'allà, seguint a La batalla de Xile i l'equip de producció, abordarem diversos conceptes que formen al cap ia la fi l'esquelet de l'argumentació d'aquesta investigació, és a dir, consciència i memòria històrica en la producció de La batalla de Xile. Aquests conceptes responen al cap ia la fi a la matèria mateixa de la història, és a dir, al fet que és una font, a la memòria, i al particular objecte de la història en cada procés històric. / David William Foster afirmaba sobre La batalla de Chile: “Batalla es más la historia del pueblo chileno y el impacto en la conciencia nacional de los eventos de los setenta” que una historia del gobierno de Salvador Allende. Desde la búsqueda de l amemoria históricay la consciencia histórica en el Chile de los años álgidos de la Guerra fría, veremos cuáles fueron las estrategias de cada sector social y económico involucrado, así como el marco teórico que entonces justificaba la particular construcción ideológica de cada uno de ellos, todo ello como un modo particular de construir memoria en el periodo que va desde 1970 a 1973. Para ello utilizaremos la metodología de la historia visual en su vertiente particular para el cine, así como el análisis social a partir de fuentes gráficas. Desde allí, siguiendo a La batalla de Chile y al equipo de producción, abordaremos diversos conceptos que forman al fin y al cabo el esqueleto de la argumentación de esta investigación, a saber, conciencia y memoria histórica en la producción de La batalla de Chile. Dichos conceptos responden al fin y al cabo a la materia misma de la historia, es decir, a que es una fuente, a la memoria, y al particular objeto de la historia en cada proceso histórico. / David William Foster said about The Battle of Chile: "Battle is the story of the Chilean people and the impact on the national consciousness of the events of the seventies" a history of the government of Salvador Allende. Since the search for the historical memory and historical consciousness in Chile in the peak years of the Cold War, we will see what were the strategies involved every social and economic sector, as well as the theoretical framework that then justified the particular ideological construction of each of them, all as a particular mode of memory built in the period from 1970 to 1973. We will use the methodology of visual story in his film particularly for slope and social analysis using graphic fonts. From there, following the Battle of Chile and the production team, we will discuss various concepts that form the end of the skeleton of the argument of this research, namely consciousness and historical memory in the production of The Battle of Chile. These concepts respond to after all the very stuff of history, namely that it is a source, memory, and the particular object of history in each historical process.

L’interrogativo di fondo dell’elaborato è il seguente: se e con quali limiti possa prevedersi statutariamente una forma di tutela indennitaria per il vizio di omessa informazione preassembleare, alternativa ai rimedi invalidativo e risarcitorio previsti dall’art. 2377 c.c. e preclusiva di questi ultimi. Viene analizzata in termini funzionali la disciplina dell’informazione preassembleare, particolarmente quella relativa alle deliberazioni di aumento del capitale, riduzione del capitale, approvazione del bilancio, fusione e scissione. Viene poi esaminato il rapporto tra diritto di informazione e diritto di voto, anche sulla base delle conclusioni sviluppate in proposito dalla dottrina tedesca. Ed ancora vengono analizzate le peculiarità della tutela risarcitoria (2377, comma 4, c.c.) contro vizi (del procedimento assembleare) di carattere informativo: evidenziandosi altresì l’irriducibilità di quella tutela ad un indennizzo (nonostante – peraltro – la diversa opinione di una parte della dottrina). Viene infine individuata la giustificazione assiologica della clausola di indennizzo dell'informazione preassembleare: (i) nella disciplina di tutela patrimoniale dell’informazione preassembleare prevista per le fusioni semplificate ex art. 2505-bis c.c.; (ii) e nella disciplina dell’attività di direzione e coordinamento, segnatamente nella parte in cui attribuisce valenza organizzativa all’indennizzo – e a i vantaggi compensativi – quale strumento di tutela delle minoranze esterne al controllo. / The paper deals with the role of information in shareholder decision-making. The attention is paid to companies which do not have an actual market: in these companies the meeting is often an unnecessary encumbrance (Davies-Worthington, Gower and Davies’ Principles of modern company law9, London, 2012, 436) and the members can rely on a set of rules that are flexible. In my paper the information is regarded from the perspective of: (i) the relationship between directors and members of the company, and (ii) the conflict among majority and minority shareholders. And the paper tries to check if the articles of incorporation can give the majority the power of sacrificing minority’s rights to information in exchange for a compensation.

Vilhelm Fredrik Palmblad (1788–1852) was one of the leading men of the Romantic circle in Uppsala, known as the “New school” or the “fosforists”. Among the men in this group, Palmblad was the one devoting most attention to the novel, and he broke sharply with the dominating negative view of the genre. This thesis examines Palmblad’s conception of the novel genre, using his critical writings as well as his own novels. Palmblad holds that the novel originates from the chivalrous romances of the Middle Ages. Like these romances, the novel is, and should be, a “wonderful story”, dealing with adventures and heroic deeds in service of God and womanhood. It is of decisive importance that the novel is elevated from mundane life: the stature of the characters and the story are crucial criteria of value. Palmblad also emphasizes the importance of portraying characters and their circumstances in an individualized way. Influenced in particular by Walter Scott, Palmblad gradually opens his conception of the novel towards depictions of everyday life. However, this opening is surrounded by restrictions showing that Palmblad still adheres to his Romantic aesthetics. The study challenges the previous understanding of Palmblad’s development from Romantic to Realist. Instead, the shifts of his aesthetics towards a stronger connection with reality ought to be understood as endeavours to preserve the ideals of the Romantic novel at a time when they were contested. From a wider horizon, the study also questions the prevalent understanding of the transition from the Romantic to the realistic novel. The aesthetic contrast between “Romanticism” and “Realism” ought to be played down. The truly important opposition among the Swedish novelists of the time is rather a political conflict between conservatives and liberals.

Compressed sensing and matrix completion are two new data acquisition techniques whose efficiency is achieved by exploring low dimensional structures in high dimensional data. Despite the combinatorial nature of compressed sensing and matrix completion, there has been significant development of computationally efficient algorithms which can produce accurate desired solutions to these problems. In this thesis, we are concerned with the development of low per iteration computational complexity algorithms for compressed sensing and matrix completion. First, we derive a locally optimal stepsize selection rule for the simplest iterative hard thresholding algorithm for matrix completion, and obtain a simple yet efficient algorithm. It is observed to have average case performance superior in some aspects to other matrix completion algorithms. To balance the fast convergence rates of more sophisticated recovery algorithms with the low per iteration computational cost of simple line-search algorithms, we introduce a family of conjugate gradient iterative hard thresholding algorithms for both compressed sensing and matrix completion. The theoretical results establish recovery guarantees for the restarted and projected variants of the algorithms, while the empirical performance comparisons establish significant computational advantages of the proposed methods over other hard thresholding algorithms. Finally, we introduce an alternating steepest descent method and a scaled variant especially designed for the matrix completion problem based on a simple factorization model of the low rank matrix. The computational efficacy of this method is achieved by reducing the high per iteration computational cost of the second order method and fully exploring the numerical linear algebra structure in the algorithm. Empirical evaluations establish the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms, compared with other state-of-the-art algorithms.

In the thesis the design of process tolerant, use-aware radio-frequency front-ends were explored. First, the design of fuzzy logic and equation based controllers, which can adapt to multi-dimensional channel conditions, are proposed. Secondly, the thesis proves that adaptive systems can have multiple modes of operation depending upon the throughput requirements of the system. Two such modes were demonstrated: one optimizing the energy-per-bit (energy priority mode) and another achieving the lowest power consumption at the highest throughput (data priority mode). Finally, to achieve process tolerant channel adaptive operation a self-learning methodology is proposed which learns the optimal re-configuration setting for the system on-the-fly. Implications of the research are discussed and future avenues of further research are proposed.

The positive contributions of entrepreneurship towards the economic development were already proved by the previous researchers. The main aim of this study was to analyse the determinants of entrepreneurial activity in the Nordic countries over the period of years 2004‑2013 to provide the supportive empirical analysis for the Nordic entrepreneurial policy makers. Data were obtained from the various databases and were formed into the panel dataset. Entrepreneurial activity was quantified by the two variables, rate of registered business activity and established business ownership rate. For each entrepreneurial activity, acting as the dependent variable, was estimated the set of econometric models following the econometric approach with the Fixed Effects Estimator. The results obtained for the both dependent variables did not substantially differ from each other and were generally in agreement with the results obtained by the previous scholars. The hypothesis stating the positive relationship between unemployment rate, GDP per capita and entrepreneurial activity, during the analysed period, were accepted. Also the negative impact of administrative barriers on entrepreneurial activity was confirmed. However, no statistically significant empirical support was obtained for the hypothesis assuming the positive relationship between R&D sector and entrepreneurial activity.

Desde una primera mirada a las minorías de Siria, nos encontramos con que viven completamente integradas en el país y disfrutan de una vida plena, en paz y sin problemas. Aunque detrás de todo ello existe un muro invisible ocasionado por la situación política actual, si nos asomamos a través del muro, vislumbramos una segunda mirada y es entonces, cuando contemplamos el objeto de mi investigación, que se ha centrado en analizar el papel de las minorías sirias, principalmente la cristiana, sus relaciones con las otras minorías y con la mayoría suní, durante los XXI siglos de su existencia y centrándome especialmente en las últimas décadas. Es necesario el estudio desde su inicio, en el año 0 de la era cristiana, para saber cómo nacieron estas minorías, como luego se segregaron y como empezaron a formar diferentes grupos, llamados Tawa’ef en árabe (Confesiones religiosas). Se ha analizado la situación jurídica del país para llegar a entender el porqué del estatuto personal cristiano distinto al de los musulmanes y al de los drusos, así como el debilitamiento de su poder, que podemos atribuir a la nacionalización de muchas empresas ocurrida durante los años 60. La búsqueda de la ciudadanía y de la participación en sectores de la vida como el político, ocasionó el inicio de la revolución, en la cual también participaron los cristianos, la finalidad de la cual es alcanzar la libertad y los derechos negados con el régimen de Al-Assad, soñando que la revolución árabe cambiaría la situación de Siria y la transformaría en un estado laico dónde la religión y la política no estuviesen unidas. Esa llamada a la libertad es la causante de la emigración para el logro de una vida pacífica en países con estabilidad política. El motivo de este trabajo entonces, es conocer la situación de las minorías bajo regímenes totalitarios, analizar la identidad cristiana siria y su ciudadanía amén de su integración en el país y sus perspectivas de futuro. / Taking an initial glance at minorities in Syria, we see that they are completely integrated into the country and that they enjoy a full life, in peace without problems. Even though behind all this exists an invisible wall resulting from the current political situation. However, if we look beyond this wall, it is here where we start to see things differently and is where we find the objective of my investigation; focusing on the analysis of the roll of Syrian minorities, mainly the Christian minority, their relation with other minorities and with the majority during the twenty-one centuries from the beginning of the existence of Christianity and particularly over the most recent decades. To know how these minorities were born, it is important to study them from the beginning, from the very start of the Christian era and to know how they later emerged and started to form different groups that were called Tawa´ef in Arabic (religious confessions). The legal situation of the country has also been analyzed to reach an understanding of the reasons why the family code of Christians was different from that of Muslims and Druze. During the sixties the nationalization of many companies caused the loss of the acquired influence of these minorities, which weakened their power. The search for citizenship and participation in all sectors of life including the political one was one of the main reasons that initiated the revolution, in which Christians also participated. Their objective being to achieve liberty and all the rights that were denied under the regime of Al-Assad, dreaming that the Arab spring would change the situation in Syria and transform it into a secular state where religion and policy are not united. This same call for liberty is the cause of the emigration towards a peaceful life in countries with political stability. I have formed this work as a study of the situation of minorities under totalitarian regimes, analyzing the Syrian Christian identity and citizenship, its integration in the country and its future prospects.

Understanding variation in key functional traits across gradients in high diversity systems and the ecology of community changes along gradients in these systems is crucial in light of conservation and climate change. We examined inter- and intraspecific variation in leaf mass per area (LMA) of sun and shade leaves along a 3330-m elevation gradient in Peru, and in sun leaves across a forest-savanna vegetation gradient in Brazil. We also compared LMA variance ratios (T-statistics metrics) to null models to explore internal (i.e., abiotic) and environmental filtering on community structure along the gradients. Community- weighted LMA increased with decreasing forest cover in Brazil, likely due to increased light availability and water stress, and increased with elevation in Peru, consistent with the leaf economic spectrum strategy expected in colder, less productive environments. A very high species turnover was observed along both environmental gradients, and consequently, the first source of variation in LMA was species turnover. Variation in LMA at the genus or family levels was greater in Peru than in Brazil. Using dominant trees to examine possible filters on community assembly, we found that in Brazil, internal filtering was strongest in the forest, while environmental filtering was observed in the dry savanna. In Peru, internal filtering was observed along 80% of the gradient, perhaps due to variation in taxa or interspecific competition. Environmental filtering was observed at cloud zone edges and in lowlands, possibly due to water and nutrient availability, respectively. These results related to variation in LMA indicate that biodiversity in species rich tropical assemblages may be structured by differential niche-based processes. In the future, specific mechanisms generating these patterns of variation in leaf functional traits across tropical environmental gradients should be explored.

In today’s multicultural society it is increasingly important that information is made available in a way that allows it to reach as many people as possible. The present study investigates the readability of the information provided in English on a Swedish municipality’s website. While Umeå Municipality sets a good example when it comes to providing information in foreign languages, the question is how easy the information is to read. The methods used to measure the readability of the texts were three automated readability formulas as well as additional analyses focusing on sentence structure and the number of clauses per word. The results show that despite obvious efforts to follow the guidelines for providing public information, more attention needs to be given to the form of the texts themselves. The complexity of the texts as gauged by the reading formulas was in all cases greater than what is recommended for information written for the general public. Some of the texts would seem to require the reader to have a college degree to fully comprehend the information. The supplementary analyses, especially when it comes to the number of clauses per sentence, confirmed the complexity of the texts. The importance of ‘writing for your audience’ thus seems to have been neglected for parts of the analysed material, which implies that some readers may not fully understand their rights and responsibilities regarding the areas addressed on the municipality’s website.