No / Once torn by ideological conflicts and the dominance of command economies, Southern Africa is now moving towards economic liberalism and openness. In general, the ascendancy of 'market economics' is acknowledged by its governments, albeit with different degrees of enthusiasm. Theoretically rich and empirically engaging this timely book offers a critical insight into the ensuing debate on regionalism and the process of regionalization in southern Africa.

The purpose of this study is to – through a discourse analysis – examine how the parliamentary committee – Ansvarskommittén – legitimizes the need for merging administrative regions. The committee’s investigation is what underlies the present debate on regionalisation and the merging of regions in Sweden. To carry out this discourse analysis, I have used “What’s the problem represented to be?”, by Carol Lee Bacchi as an analytical framework. The analytical framework aids the examination on how political parties construct problems through the solutions they propose. After carefully examining the final dictum of Ansvarskommittén, this study concludes that the committe’s investigation legitimizes the merging of regions primarily through three discourses. First, it is being legitimized through Neo-Regionalism which is also a component in the remaining two discourses. The second discourse is Europeanization that is intended to adapt the regions to the regional standards of the European Union. The third discourse is the financial growth discourse and is intended to maintain the financial growth and competitiveness of regions against other regions. Consequently, the regions are given the responsibility of the state’s wealth instead of the state being responsible for the wealth of the regions as seen in traditional welfare states. / Syftet med den här studien är att med hjälp av en diskursanalys undersöka hur Ansvarskommittén, genom den parlamentariska utredning som gjorts, legitimerar att Sverige behöver slå samman sina regioner. Det är den här utredningen som ligger som till för den debatt som idag förs vad gäller regionalisering och regionsammanslagningar i Sverige. För att utföra diskursanalysen har studien gjorts med hjälp av Carol Lee Bacchis ”What´s the problem represented to be?”, som grund för min analysmodell. Analysmodellen syftar till att undersöka hur aktörer konstruerar problem genom de lösningar som föreslås. Efter att ha granskat Ansvarskommitténs slutbetänkande noggrant, är min slutsats att utredningen legitimerar regionsammanslagningar genom framförallt tre stycken diskurser. Dels genom nyregionalism som även är övergripande för de andra två diskurserna. De andra diskurserna är europeisering, som syftar till att anpassa de svenska regionerna efter den Europeiska Unionen. Och dels en tillväxtdiskurs som innebär att regionerna ska kunna upprätthålla sin egna tillväxt- och konkurrenskraft mot andra regioner. Det blir således regionerna som ska bygga statens välstånd och inte staten som ska upprätthålla regionernas välstånd på det sättet som välfärdstaten är uppbyggd på.

This diploma thesis focuses upon mobility which structures time and space of Prague's hinterland. The time-space regions are conceptualised and serve to explore the structure of suburban space. The positioning data from mobile phones are used to investigate tangential mobility throughout suburban municipalities. It happened in two time-sections which distinguish the working and the service commute. The method of the time-space regionalisation was introduced for this purpose. In total, 45 local centres were found. Moreover, their regions were delimited and two regions without cores were delimited as well. The resulting time-space regions are distinguished into three types: small inner regions, large outer regions and river regions. The case study in Dolní Břežany municipality seeks causes and consequences of centrality in local scale. The significance of the thesis lies in partial, but highly interconnected contributions in all three dimensions: theory, methodology and empirics. Key words: mobility, suburbanisation, structuration, regionalisation, mobile data, Prague, Dolní Břežany

Malignancy within the pancreatic head can arise from pancreatic duct, distal bile duct, ampulla or duodenum. Since September 2000, surgery for all pancreatic head malignancy (PHM) has been centralised into regional pancreatic centres where assessment of preoperative imaging and subsequent surgery is undertaken. As part of this guidance, surgery must be performed within 62-days of referral. This project will assess four aspects of the pre-operative pathway in PHM: 1) Potential variation in outcome of patients referred from different sites within a Cancer Network 2) Potential variation in outcome associated with different intervals to surgery within the 62 day guideline 3) The ability of interpretation of heterogeneous pre-operative CT scans from different hospitals to determine the resectability of PHM 4) The ability of CT scan to distinguish the different tumour types of PHM Images of a consecutive series of patients were re-reported and compared with final pathology reports. Good agreement was noted in determining the tumour origin of PHM (observed agreement = 0.758, Kappa= 0.6 (0.51-0.68)). In the assessment surgical outcomes, geographical isolation from the regional centre was not associated with delay to surgery. Variation in outcome between referral centres was however noted but this was not associated with travel distance. Although little association was noted between delay to surgery and outcome overall, a paradoxical improvement in survival was noted however for the small group of patients with ampullary tumours who waited longer than the median interval to surgery.

<p>Regionalisation out of step - the varying growth of regional cooperation councils</p><p>Traditionally regionalisation is either seen as a bottom up movement or as state reform politics from above. From that perspective, Sweden contains both parts. The state enables regionalisation through legislation, promote it through policies and encourage it in rhetoric’s. But the formation of new regional institutions can only be done by the municipalities themselves. Without their belief in stronger and more self governed regions or their will to act and together build capacity in their region, the regionalisation is halted.</p><p>Sweden is a unitary state and there is no real tradition of strong and self governing regions. In that perspective the regional experiments during the second half of the 1990th can be seen as a rather big step. These experiments inspired other parts of Sweden and in the millennium shift, all counties was interested in forming some kind of selfgoverning regional body. In 2002, when legislation made it possible to build new political regional institutions, these new institutions were formed in seven counties. Since then, yet six counties have formed these new regional bodies. This variation raises several empirical questions. The main purpose of this study is to describe and explain the variation in growth of these new regional institutions.</p><p>The analysis follows three different perspectives. The first is a structural one and aims to investigate municipalities need for economic development as a driving force. The second is an institutional perspective where norms are supposed to promote cooperation. The third focus on promoting actors as a force behind the growth of new regional institutions. Through a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods this thesis shows that different kinds of social norms promoting collaboration are the most important factor in explaining the variation in growth of new regional institutions. The analysis also showed that political actors play an important, both in building and maintaining coopera-tive norms, and probably also in bridging the lack of them.</p>

Die wesentlichen sozio-ökonomischen Prozesse, die die vermehrten anthropogenen CO₂-Emissionen verursachen, können durch die Determinanten Bevölkerung, Wohlstand (Bruttoinlandsprodukt pro Kopf) und Technologie (Energie- und Kohlenstoffintensität) vereinfacht beschrieben werden. Der Einfluss dieser Determinanten auf die Emissionsänderungen ist nicht für alle Länder der Erde gleich.<br /> Zeitreihen der CO₂-Emissionen aus der Verbrennung fossiler Energieträger, der Bevölkerung, des Bruttoinlandsproduktes und des Primärenergieverbrauches von 121 Ländern bilden die Grundlage für das entwickelte statistische Verfahren zur schrittweisen Informationsverdichtung, mit dem der gesamte Datenraum zu 6 energiewirtschaftlichen Ländertypen schrittweise zusammengefasst wird.<br /> Zur Beschreibung dieser Ländertypen wird mit Hilfe der Dekompositionsanalyse der Einfluss der Bevölkerungs-, der Wohlstands- und der Technologiekomponenten an den Emissionsänderungen quantifiziert. Die Ländertypen können vereinfacht als Repräsentanten unterschiedlicher Entwicklungsstufen und -richtungen angesehen werden. Sie bilden unter anderem eine Grundlage für die Weiterentwicklung und Kalibrierung regionalisierter makro-ökonomischer Modelle zu den sozio-ökonomischen Hintergründen der vermehrten anthropogenen CO₂-Emissionen. / The principal socio-economic processes that cause the increased anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide can be modeled by the variables population, affluence (gross domestic product per capita) and technology (energy intensity and carbon intensity). The impact of these variables on the changes of the CO₂ emissions is not the same for all countries of the earth.<br /> Time series of carbon dioxide emissions from burning of fossil energies, population, gross domestic product and of primary energy supply of 121 countries were analyzed. A statistical method for the stepwise aggregation of these data into six classes of countries according to their energy use profile.<br>The impact of population, affluence and technology components on the changes of the emissions of carbon dioxide is quantified by decomposition analysis. The classes of countries according to their energy use profile can be regarded as representative of different states and of different paths of development. These classes are also a basis for the elaboration and calibration of regionalized macro economic models to analyze the socio economic determinants of the increased anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide.

In New Zealand, a formal tree improvement and breeding programme for Pinus radiata (D.Don) commenced in 1952. A countrywide series of progeny trials was progressively established on over seventy sites, and is managed by the Radiata Pine Breeding Company (RPBC). Diameter at breast height data from the series were used to investigate genotype x environment interaction with a view to establishing the need for partitioning breeding and deployment efforts for P. radiata. Nearly 300,000 measurements made this study one of the largest for genotype x environment interaction ever done. Bivariate analyses were conducted between all pairs of sites to determine genetic correlations between sites. Genetic correlations were used to construct a proximity matrix by subtracting each correlation from unity. The process of constructing the matrix highlighted issues of low connectivity between sites; whereby meaningful correlations between sites were established with just 5 % of the pairs. However, nearly two-thirds of these genetic correlations were between -1.0 and 0.6, indicating the presence of strong genotype x environment interactions. A technique known as multiple regression on resemblance matrices was carried out by regressing a number of environmental correlation matrices on the diameter at breast height correlation matrix. Genotype x environment interactions were found to be driven by extreme maximum temperatures (t-statistic of 2.03 against critical t-value of 1.96 at 95 % confidence level). When tested on its own, altitude was significant with genetic correlations between sites at the 90 % confidence level (t-statistic of 1.92 against critical t-value of 1.645). In addition, a method from Graph Theory using proximity thresholds was utilised as a form of clustering. However, this study highlighted the existence of high internal cohesion within trial series, and high external isolation between trial series. That is, grouping of sites (in terms of diameter) was observed to be a reflection of the series of trials for which each site was established. This characteristic is particularly unhelpful for partitioning sites into regions of similar propensity to genotype x environment interaction, as the genotype x environment effect is effectively over-ridden by the genotype effect. Better cohesion between past, present and future trial series, and more accurate bioclimatic data should allow more useful groupings of sites to be extracted from the data. Given this, however, it is clear that there are a large number of interactive families contained in the RPBC dataset. It is concluded that partitioning of New Zealand’s P. radiata breeding programme cannot be ruled out as an advantageous option.

Regionalisation out of step - the varying growth of regional cooperation councils Traditionally regionalisation is either seen as a bottom up movement or as state reform politics from above. From that perspective, Sweden contains both parts. The state enables regionalisation through legislation, promote it through policies and encourage it in rhetoric’s. But the formation of new regional institutions can only be done by the municipalities themselves. Without their belief in stronger and more self governed regions or their will to act and together build capacity in their region, the regionalisation is halted. Sweden is a unitary state and there is no real tradition of strong and self governing regions. In that perspective the regional experiments during the second half of the 1990th can be seen as a rather big step. These experiments inspired other parts of Sweden and in the millennium shift, all counties was interested in forming some kind of selfgoverning regional body. In 2002, when legislation made it possible to build new political regional institutions, these new institutions were formed in seven counties. Since then, yet six counties have formed these new regional bodies. This variation raises several empirical questions. The main purpose of this study is to describe and explain the variation in growth of these new regional institutions. The analysis follows three different perspectives. The first is a structural one and aims to investigate municipalities need for economic development as a driving force. The second is an institutional perspective where norms are supposed to promote cooperation. The third focus on promoting actors as a force behind the growth of new regional institutions. Through a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods this thesis shows that different kinds of social norms promoting collaboration are the most important factor in explaining the variation in growth of new regional institutions. The analysis also showed that political actors play an important, both in building and maintaining coopera-tive norms, and probably also in bridging the lack of them.

L’estimation de l’aléa hydrologique en sites non jaugés présente un enjeu important pour la gestion des risques. La complexité du phénomène réside à la fois dans la nécessité d’avoir une approche multivariée (estimation de caractéristiques multiples des crues : durées, périodes de retour) qui propose une extrapolation raisonnable des événements. SHYREG est une méthode basée sur la simulation de scénarios de crues, qui présente ces avantages. Évaluée lors du projet ANR ExtraFlo, elle présente de bonnes performances en justesse et en stabilité lorsqu'elle est calée sur des données locales de débits. Cette méthode vise à estimer des débits de crue en tout point du territoire. Elle doit donc pouvoir être appliquée en site non jaugés.Le travail de thèse présenté ici se focalise sur le transfert de la méthode vers le non jaugé en s’intéressant aux valeurs des débits simulés mais aussi à leur cohérence. Tout d’abord, une révision du calage a permis de s’assurer de la cohérence des débits simulés le long d’un cours d’eau. Ensuite, l’application d’un large panel de méthodes de régionalisation a permis de déterminer que la régionalisation devait s’appuyer à la fois sur la structure spatiale et sur les caractéristiques physiographiques des bassins. Finalement, une méthode qui régionalise SHYREG simultanément à son calage a été retenue. Une comparaison avec d’autres approches régionalisées a mis en évidence la qualité du modèle développé. / Flood hazard estimation in ungauged sites presents a major challenge for risk management. The complexity of the phenomenon arises from both the need for a multivariate approach (estimation of different flood characteristics: peak flow, volume, duration ...), and for an approach which offers a reasonable extrapolation of extreme events. The SHYREG method is based on the simulation of flood scenarios and presents these benefits. It has been evaluated during the ANR ExtraFlo project. It showed good performance in both accuracy and stability when calibrated against local discharge data. However, weaknesses have been identified when implemented in ungauged sites.The objective of the present thesis is to develop the method in order to improve the SHYREG performances in ungauged sites. Two kinds of modifications were implemented. First, the calibration of the method in gauged sites was reviewed. The main idea was to integrate more data and to take more into account the coherence between simulated discharges in different sites. Then, diverse regionalisation schemes extracted from the scientific literature were considered. Their application demonstrated the necessity to exploit information from nearby sites and the physical properties of the catchments. Finally, a version which realises the regionalisation simultaneously to the calibration has been selected. Its comparison with other method showed the quality of this new version of SHYREG.

La région andine est un territoire constitué par quatre pays d'Amérique Latine : la Bolivie, la Colombie, l'Equateur et le Pérou, regroupés au sein d'une même association régionale, le Pacte Andin, depuis 1969. Ce Pacte porte l'appellation de Communauté Andine des Nations (CAN), depuis 1996. L'objectif de la thèse est de qualifier le processus régional actuellement à l´œuvre dans la CAN, en utilisant comme point de départ la typologie des processus régionaux établie par Figuière et Guilhot (2006, 2007, 2009) qui permet de distinguer et de qualifier les deux piliers de l'intégration économique régionale : l'intensification des flux économiques intra régionaux et l'institutionnalisation des relations interétatiques, soit, la régionalisation et le régionalisme. L'analyse va permettre de montrer que, si des nombreuses institutions aux vocations très variées ont vu le jour dans la CAN au fil de quatre décennies, la part des échanges intra régionaux n'est quant à elle pas parvenue à franchir le seuil des 10% sur cette période. Ces résultats témoignent d'une part, de la mise en place progressive d'un régionalisme en profondeur, dans la mesure où les réglementations qui sont élaborées par les institutions régionales provoquent l'harmonisation de pratiques à l'intérieur des Etats-nations, et d'autre part, de l'absence d'une véritable régionalisation. Le processus actuellement à l'œuvre au sein de la CAN ne peut donc être qualifié d'intégration économique régionale (IER). L´attraction exercée par l´économie américaine constitue l´un des facteurs explicatifs de ce décalage entre le processus institutionnel régionale plus sophistiqué et une régionalisation qui ne démarre pas. / Andean region consists of four Latin American countries: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru unified within a regional association, Andean Pact, in 1969, that became the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) in 1996. The purpose of this thesis is to identify the regional process that is actually being implemented within CAN. In this aim, we use the typology of regional processes established by Figuière and Guilhot (2006, 2007, and 2009) as the starting point of analysis. This analytical framework leads to identify two distinct pillars in regional economic integration: intensification of intra-regional economic flows and institutionalization of interstate relations, namely regionalism and regionalization. This analysis will show that, even though numerous institutions with various purposes emerged within CAN during the last four decades, the proportion of intra-regional trade did not exceed 10% during this period. These results reflect on the one hand, the phase-in of regionalism in depth, insofar as the regulations that are developed by regional institutions cause the harmonization of practices within nation States, and on the other hand, the absence of a genuine regionalization.. On the other hand, they point to a lack of a sound regionalization. Therefore the ongoing CAN process cannot be qualified as a regional economic integration (IER). This discrepancy between a more sophisticated regional institutional framework and a regionalization that does not take off may partially be explained by the significant economic attractiveness of the US economy.