The past several decades have witnessed a remarkable increase in the number of amicus curiae briefs filed at the U.S. Supreme Court. While scholars debate the effectiveness of amicus curiae briefs, they generally agree on the effectiveness of briefs filed by executive attorneys. A plethora of studies address the amicus curiae brief activity of the solicitor general, but relatively few examine state attorneys general. State attorneys general are the legal representatives of the states and have become increasingly successful as amici since the early 1980s. I explore state attorney general amicus curiae brief activity and argue that existing theories of amicus curiae participation by the solicitor general and interest groups, are inadequate for state attorneys general because of the unique institutional context in which state attorneys general operate. State attorneys general, I argue, must balance political, legal, and administrative factors when filing amicus curiae briefs. I also recognizes that amicus curiae briefs are not a singular event and are instead a process in which actors make several decisions across a variety of contexts. Within each context each factor takes on a different weight. I conclude state attorneys general are strategic political actors who consider political, legal, and administrative factors in their amicus curiae briefs.

A presente pesquisa foi elaborada a partir de um projeto prático, realizado no período entre 2010 e 2012. Desse modo, a reflexão que segue foi desenvolvida a partir dos procedimentos de trabalho, procurando identificar as recorrências, as referências, as escolhas, e suas consequentes implicações conceituais. O objeto de pesquisa compreende a troca de desejos por desenhos, feita através da internet e usando as redes sociais. Buscou-se aprofundar os importantes aspectos relacionais presentes nessa dinâmica, bem como aqueles relativos ao meio em que as trocas foram realizadas. A instauração e a articulação de três coleções distintas objetivou organizar os documentos de trabalho e as questões que concernem a apropriação, refletindo sobre como essas práticas se articulam e contribuem para a ampliação das possibilidades do trabalho criativo. / The herein presented research was elaborated based upon the practical work executed between the years of 2010 and 2012. The following reflection was developed from work procedures, trying to identify the recurrences, the references, the choices and its resulting conceptual implications. The object of research includes the exchange of desires for drawings, made through the internet and social networks. It searched to deepen the important relational aspects present in this dynamic, as well as aspects relating to the environment in which exchanges were made. The establishment and articulation of three distinct collections aimed to organize the working documents and the issues that concern appropriation, reflecting on how these practices work together and contribute to the expansion of creative possibilities.

Submitted by Tatiana Lima (tatianasl@ufba.br) on 2015-03-25T18:39:05Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Lagemann, Gerson Volney.pdf: 3122863 bytes, checksum: a7480d949ece8acabb8fd3550bb96c04 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Tatiana Lima (tatianasl@ufba.br) on 2015-04-06T18:13:51Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Lagemann, Gerson Volney.pdf: 3122863 bytes, checksum: a7480d949ece8acabb8fd3550bb96c04 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-06T18:13:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lagemann, Gerson Volney.pdf: 3122863 bytes, checksum: a7480d949ece8acabb8fd3550bb96c04 (MD5) / O empreendedorismo tem sido amplamente incentivado no mundo e não é diferente no Brasil. Os universitários cada vez mais são informados sobre as possibilidades de abrir seu próprio negócio. São lançados em projetos, em grande número dos casos de base tecnológica, que envolvem inovação e incubação. Às incubadoras cabe aumentar a possibilidade de que após as empresas cumprirem seu estágio na incubação, tenham condições de competir e de se manter no mercado. Faz parte do perfil do empreendedor características tanto técnicas de como projetar e produzir o produto ou serviço, quanto comportamentais como, por exemplo, de líder e de agente formador de redes de relacionamento. Há pesquisas que associam continuidade e mortalidade de empresas a fatores de relacionamento. Este estudo foi desenvolvido em três etapas. A primeira, objetiva verificar nos processos de seleção e incubação, sob o ponto de vista do gestor de empresa incubada, a importância atribuída pela incubadora (real) e pelo próprio gestor (ideal) a um conjunto de critérios de seleção e práticas de gestão. É um estudo descritivo, de natureza quantitativa, realizado por meio de um survey eletrônico. A pesquisa nesta etapa envolveu treze incubadoras nos estados de SC, PR e RS, e setenta e duas empresas incubadas. Os resultados desta etapa demonstram que os gestores das empresas incubadas elencam como mais importantes critérios e práticas técnicas. A segunda etapa, parte de um estudo longitudinal multicaso. Foram selecionadas cinco empresas incubadas, em diferentes estágios de incubação, na Softville. Em três momentos, num intervalo de doze meses, foram aplicados questionários sociométricos aos integrantes das empresas, cujo objetivo era a elaboração e acompanhamento dos indicadores (tamanho, coesão, densidade e diversificação) de quatro redes: confiança, informação I (técnica), informação II (gestão) e informação III (outras empresas). Paralelamente, em cada momento de aplicação dos questionários sociométricos, foram também coletados os dados de desenvolvimento da empresa (tamanho da equipe, número de clientes e faturamento). A terceira etapa do estudo comparou os indicadores das redes com os indicadores de desempenho, buscando verificar a evolução dos indicadores de desempenho vis a vis os indicadores de rede. Os resultados da terceira etapa sugerem que as empresas incubadas na Softville com redes mais coesas e diversificadas apresentam melhores desempenhos. De forma geral, a pesquisa sugere que critérios de seleção de projetos para incubação e práticas de suporte às empresas incubadas devem privilegiar a formação de redes de relação, visto que essa prática contribui positivamente para o melhor desempenho das empresas. The entrepreneurship has been widely promoted in the world and is no different in Brazil. The university are increasingly informed about the possibilities of opening your own business. They are launched into projects, in most cases technology-based, involving innovation and incubation. To the Incubators apply to ensure that after the companies fulfill their internship fase, it are able to compete and stay on the market. It is part of the profile of the entrepreneur both technical and behavioral characteristics, eg, leadership trainer and agent networks facilitator. It is urgent that entrepreneurs and incubators give special attention to the formation of networks, since there is research linking business continuity and mortality to relationships factors. This study consists of three steps. The first step, aims to verify in the processes of selection and incubation, under the viewpoint of the manager incubated company, the importance attached by the incubator (real) and by the manager (ideally) a set of criteria and practices listed by the researcher. It is a descriptive study, quantitative, conducted through a email survey. The research involved in this step thirteen incubators in the states of SC, PR, RS, and seventy-two incubated companies. The results of this step show that when the managers of the incubated company think of the importance that the incubators and themselfes attributed to the selection criteria and to the practices of incubation, both list that the most important selection criteria and incubation practices are technical. The second step, is a longitudinal multicase study. Five incubated companies was selected at different stages of incubation in Softville. On three different moments, at an interval of twelve months, sociometric questionnaires were administered to the members of companies, whose goal was the development and monitoring of indicators (size, cohesion, density and diversity) of four networks: trust, information I (technical), information II (management) and information III (other companies). In addition, at each moment of sociometric questionnaires application, were also collected data about the company development (team size, number of customers and revenue). The third step of the study compared the networks indicators with the performance indicators, seeking to associate better performance with better network indicators. The results of the third step suggest that the Softville incubated companies with more cohesive and diverse networks have better performance. Overall the research suggests that criteria for selecting projects for incubation and practical support to incubated companies should focus on network formation, since this practice contributes positively to the improved performance of companies.

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Esta dissertação busca investigar imaginários sobre memória social nas redes sociais on-line. Para tanto, analisam-se comentários deixados nas fan pages (páginas de fãs) Fortaleza Nobre, de Fortaleza, e O Rio de Janeiro Que Não vivi, do Rio de Janeiro, no site de rede social Facebook. O trabalho parte da hipótese de que os comentadores experimentam uma experiência com a cidade sensível ao curtir, comentar e compartilhar imagens antigas na sociabilidade, entendida como expressão comunicativa, observada nas duas comunidades virtuais. O principal objetivo da pesquisa é descobrir o que dão a ler os textos deixados em postagens públicas, no que diz respeito a espacialidades, temporalidades e sensorialidades evocadas pela cidade habitada e pela cidade perpassada pelo imaginário. Para tal abordagem, utiliza-se como metodologia de pesquisa a etnografia em meios digitais aliada às contribuições teóricas da hermenêutica, a partir da abordagem ricoeuriana de texto. Tendo em vista o caráter histórico e transdisciplinar do objeto, verdadeiros rastros escritos, a pesquisa tem como referenciais teóricos textos da Escola de Toronto, da História Cultural, da Geografia Cultural e da antropologia. Também serão caras à análise contribuições da sociologia do imaginário, dos estudos em memória social e a perspectiva de pesquisadores brasileiros que problematizam as relações entre comunicação e o sensível. A pesquisa aponta para a ocorrência do devaneio na web como expressão desse contato com a cidade sensível. Os comentários falam de uma valorização da experiência vivida e de construções arquetípicas sobre o espaço e o tempo condutoras de relações sacralizadas e monumentais com a memória e com as fotografias / This dissertation investigates imaginary about social memory in online social networks. Therefore, it analyzes comments left in fan pages Fortaleza Nobre, from Fortaleza, and O Rio de Janeiro Que Não Vivi, from Rio de Janeiro, based on networking site Facebook. The paper takes as assumption that the commenters experience an experience with the sensitive city by to like, commenting and sharing old pictures by sociability, understood as communicative expression, observed in both virtual communities. The main objective of the research is to find out the meanings of the texts left in public posts, with regard to spatiality, temporality and sensorialities evoked by the inhabited city and the city permeated by the imaginary. For this approach, the research methodology is based on ethnography in digital media combined with the theoretical contributions of hermeneutics, mainly from the ricoeurian approach of text. Given the historical character and transdisciplinary of the object, seen as written tracks, the research dialogues with theoretical texts of the of the Toronto School of Communication, Cultural History, Cultural Geography and anthropology. Also will be costly to the analysis contributions from sociology of imaginary and social memory studies, besides the prospect of Brazilian researchers that discuss about the relationship between communication and the sensitive. The research points to the occurrence of daydream on the web as an expression of this contact with the sensitive city. The comments tell us about a recovery of lived experience and archetypal texts about time and space. They conduce to sacralized and monumental relationship with memory and photographs

Online social networks (OSNs) have become the most popular Internet application that attracts billions of users to share information, disseminate opinions and interact with others in the online society. The unprecedented growing popularity of OSNs naturally makes using social network services as a pervasive phenomenon in our daily life. The majority of OSNs service providers adopts a centralised architecture because of its management simplicity and content controllability. However, the centralised architecture for large-scale OSNs applications incurs costly deployment of computing infrastructures and suffers performance bottleneck. Moreover, the centralised architecture has two major shortcomings: the single point failure problem and the lack of privacy, which challenges the uninterrupted service provision and raises serious privacy concerns. This thesis proposes a decentralised approach based on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks as an alternative to the traditional centralised architecture. Firstly, a self-organised architecture with self-sustaining social network adaptation has been designed to support decentralised topology maintenance. This self-organised architecture exhibits small-world characteristics with short average path length and large average clustering coefficient to support efficient information exchange. Based on this self-organised architecture, a novel decentralised service discovery model has been developed to achieve a semantic-aware and interest-aware query routing in the P2P social network. The proposed model encompasses a service matchmaking module to capture the hidden semantic information for query-service matching and a homophily-based query processing module to characterise user’s common social status and interests for personalised query routing. Furthermore, in order to optimise the efficiency of service discovery, a swarm intelligence inspired algorithm has been designed to reduce the query routing overhead. This algorithm employs an adaptive forwarding strategy that can adapt to various social network structures and achieves promising search performance with low redundant query overhead in dynamic environments. Finally, a configurable software simulator is implemented to simulate complex networks and to evaluate the proposed service discovery model. Extensive experiments have been conducted through simulations, and the obtained results have demonstrated the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed model.

Submitted by VANESSA PREZOTTO XIMENES SATOLO null (vanessapxi@terra.com.br) on 2016-04-15T12:06:37Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_Final_Repositório.pdf: 4211786 bytes, checksum: f1f7a33f70bb1da42f35e9e0f74449ee (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Felipe Augusto Arakaki (arakaki@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2016-04-18T18:31:22Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 satolo_vpx_me_tupa.pdf: 4211786 bytes, checksum: f1f7a33f70bb1da42f35e9e0f74449ee (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-18T18:31:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 satolo_vpx_me_tupa.pdf: 4211786 bytes, checksum: f1f7a33f70bb1da42f35e9e0f74449ee (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-19 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / A presente pesquisa buscou estudar o percurso realizado na construção do Programa de Mestrado Interdisciplinar Acadêmico em Agronegócio e Desenvolvimento do Câmpus de Tupã, da Universidade Estadual Paulista, UNESP e do Programa de Pós-graduação em Agronegócios - Mestrado Interdisciplinar do campus de Dourados, da Universidade Federal da Grande Dourados, UFGD, de modo a compreender de que forma o agronegócio torna-se campo de inter-relação de áreas de conhecimento favorecendo a interdisciplinaridade. O objetivo da pesquisa foi acompanhar o início dos programas, relatando seus desafios, limitações e contribuições, buscando a práxis pedagógica, identificando in loco questões há muito debatidas no campo teórico, porém com poucas experiências práticas registradas, por meio da comparação entre as práticas apresentadas. Para tanto, optou-se pelo estudo de caso (múltiplos casos) como base metodológica, devido a este propiciar uma análise do contexto dos programas, da formação e produção do corpo discente e docente e suas relações em ambas as instituições de modo comparativo, por meio da análise por comparações constantes, bem como da formação de redes. Os resultados refletem que a interdisciplinaridade é cada vez mais necessária para a análise de objetos e temáticas complexos, exigindo atitude interdisciplinar, traduzida em humildade, capacidade dialógica e busca pela visão sistêmica. / This study aimed to study the route construction of the Academic Interdisciplinary Master`s Programme in Agribusiness and Development, Tupa Campus, São Paulo State University, UNESP and the Post-Graduate Programme in Agribusiness - Interdisciplinary Master, Dourados campus, Federal University of Grande Dourados, UFGD, in order to understand how agribusiness becomes field of interrelation of knowledge areas favoring the interdisciplinarity. The objective was to accompany the start of the programs, reporting their challenges limitations and contributions, seeking pedagogical praxis, identifying on-site issues long debated in theory, but with few registered practical experience, through the comparison of the presented practices . To this end, opted for the case study (multiple cases) as a methodological basis, because this provides an analysis of the programs context, training and production of the student body and faculty and their relationships in both comparative mode institutions, analyzing by constant comparisons, as well as the formation of networks. The results reflect that interdisciplinarity is increasingly necessary for the analysis of objects and complex issues requiring interdisciplinary attitude, translated into humility, dialogue capacity and pursuit of systemic vision.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-08-20T17:09:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2015-02-25. Added 1 bitstream(s) on 2015-08-20T17:26:23Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000839746.pdf: 3105733 bytes, checksum: 3f4c76b92c7648a2ebfbee939237fcb4 (MD5) / Este trabalho apresenta o processo de planejamento de uma rede social para o nicho da gastronomia, convergente com programas de TV, sites especializados e outras mídias sociais, a partir dda adoção da metodologia ágil para desenvolvimento de software Scrum. Como justificativa do trabalho, são apresentados dados sobre a valorização de temas gastronômicos no cenário contemporâneo, e sobre as tendências de uso de redes sociais no Brasil. Para a definição do escopo do projeto e das funcionalidades do produto, foram analisados programas de TV, sites especializados e canais de mídias sociais que tratam do tema. Como resultados, o trabalho apresenta o modelo de negócios concebido para o produto, um roadmap cronológico que define versões para seu lançamento no mercadoe um protótipo que demonstra o conceito e algumas funcionalidades dessa rede social. / This research presents the planning process of a niche social network about gastronomy convergent with TV shows, specialized sites and other social media, with the adoption of agile software development Scrum. As justification, presents data about the importance of gastronomic themes in the contemporary scene and on social networking usage trends in Brazil. To define the project scope and product features. TV programs, specialized websites and social media channels about the theme are analyzed. As results, presents the business model designed for the product, a chronological roadmap that defines versions to-market and a prototype that demostrates the concept and some features of the social network

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-03T11:52:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2014-08-27Bitstream added on 2015-03-03T12:07:28Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000809633_20161231.pdf: 75017 bytes, checksum: 6d20744af95cc96cc739cecd045bd984 (MD5) Bitstreams deleted on 2017-01-02T15:03:39Z: 000809633_20161231.pdf,. Added 1 bitstream(s) on 2017-01-02T15:05:04Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000809633.pdf: 1646803 bytes, checksum: b3f448b7516385f55c882bb836fa5d72 (MD5) / Este trabalho procura compreender o impacto da internet e das redes sociais na contemporaneidade. O estudo perpassa pela história de desenvolvimento da internet, pelo conceito de juventude, traz ainda concepções de educação, capital cultural e pós-modernidade, para facilitar nosso entendimento acerca da relação que os jovens estabelecem com as redes sociais da internet. Por fim, norteados pela metodologia survey e análise do discurso, lançamos nosso olhar sobre as imagens mais compartilhadas no Facebook durante os meses de protesto no Brasil em 2013. Observamos que o discurso fotográfico, a ideia de panfletagem e a superficialidade na discussão dos temas são fortes características deste fenômeno social que conseguiu mobilizar milhões de pessoas e deixou toda a sociedade mais atenta às possibilidades que a internet oferece ao mundo contemporâneo / This work aims to understand the impact of social networks in contemporaneity. The study goes through the history of development of the Internet, the concept of youth, brings also the conceptions of education, cultural capital and post modernity, to facilitate our understanding of the relationship between young people and social networks of the internet. As a final point, guided by the survey methodology and the discourse analysis, we launched our eye on the most shared images on Facebook during the months of protests. We understand that the photographic discourse, the idea of leafleting and superficiality in the discussion of the themes are strong features of this social phenomenon, which was able to mobilize millions of people and has made society more open to discuss the possibilities that the internet offers to the contemporary world

abstract: US Senate is the venue of political debates where the federal bills are formed and voted. Senators show their support/opposition along the bills with their votes. This information makes it possible to extract the polarity of the senators. Similarly, blogosphere plays an increasingly important role as a forum for public debate. Authors display sentiment toward issues, organizations or people using a natural language. In this research, given a mixed set of senators/blogs debating on a set of political issues from opposing camps, I use signed bipartite graphs for modeling debates, and I propose an algorithm for partitioning both the opinion holders (senators or blogs) and the issues (bills or topics) comprising the debate into binary opposing camps. Simultaneously, my algorithm scales the entities on a univariate scale. Using this scale, a researcher can identify moderate and extreme senators/blogs within each camp, and polarizing versus unifying issues. Through performance evaluations I show that my proposed algorithm provides an effective solution to the problem, and performs much better than existing baseline algorithms adapted to solve this new problem. In my experiments, I used both real data from political blogosphere and US Congress records, as well as synthetic data which were obtained by varying polarization and degree distribution of the vertices of the graph to show the robustness of my algorithm. I also applied my algorithm on all the terms of the US Senate to the date for longitudinal analysis and developed a web based interactive user interface www.PartisanScale.com to visualize the analysis. US politics is most often polarized with respect to the left/right alignment of the entities. However, certain issues do not reflect the polarization due to political parties, but observe a split correlating to the demographics of the senators, or simply receive consensus. I propose a hierarchical clustering algorithm that identifies groups of bills that share the same polarization characteristics. I developed a web based interactive user interface www.ControversyAnalysis.com to visualize the clusters while providing a synopsis through distribution charts, word clouds, and heat maps. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Computer Science 2015

abstract: This dissertation treats a number of related problems in control and data analysis of complex networks. First, in existing linear controllability frameworks, the ability to steer a network from any initiate state toward any desired state is measured by the minimum number of driver nodes. However, the associated optimal control energy can become unbearably large, preventing actual control from being realized. Here I develop a physical controllability framework and propose strategies to turn physically uncontrollable networks into physically controllable ones. I also discover that although full control can be guaranteed by the prevailing structural controllability theory, it is necessary to balance the number of driver nodes and control energy to achieve actual control, and my work provides a framework to address this issue. Second, in spite of recent progresses in linear controllability, controlling nonlinear dynamical networks remains an outstanding problem. Here I develop an experimentally feasible control framework for nonlinear dynamical networks that exhibit multistability. The control objective is to apply parameter perturbation to drive the system from one attractor to another. I introduce the concept of attractor network and formulate a quantifiable framework: a network is more controllable if the attractor network is more strongly connected. I test the control framework using examples from various models and demonstrate the beneficial role of noise in facilitating control. Third, I analyze large data sets from a diverse online social networking (OSN) systems and find that the growth dynamics of meme popularity exhibit characteristically different behaviors: linear, “S”-shape and exponential growths. Inspired by cell population growth model in microbial ecology, I construct a base growth model for meme popularity in OSNs. Then I incorporate human interest dynamics into the base model and propose a hybrid model which contains a small number of free parameters. The model successfully predicts the various distinct meme growth dynamics. At last, I propose a nonlinear dynamics model to characterize the controlling of WNT signaling pathway in the differentiation of neural progenitor cells. The model is able to predict experiment results and shed light on the understanding of WNT regulation mechanisms. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 2017