Thesis advisor: Mark Reeder / A polynomial is said to be invariant for a group of linear fractional transformations G if its roots are permuted by G. We begin by using a simple group of linear fractional transformations that is isomorphic to S_{3} and finding its invariant polynomials to build up the tools necessary to attack a larger group. We then follow a construction from Toth of the icosahedral group I, and derive a general formula for all polynomials of degree 60 that are invariant under I. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2004. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Mathematics. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

The purpose of my study is to find out whether and how preschool teachers work with biology with the youngest preschool children. I also intend to investigate whether teachers in toodler groups believes that the biology related targets within the curriculum preschool policy document are achievable and how they intend to work with them practically. I have conducted interviews with four preschool teachers who are working with the youngest preschool children. The interviews describe how the preschool teachers work with biology integrated into the everyday practice by taking note of what the children show interest in and then acts together with them. They emphasizes the importance of working close to the child to overcome barriers and demonstrate sustainable approach to nature. The preschool teachers believes that the curriculum documents related to biology are reasonable and achievable, they claims to be working with them on the children's level.

Die vorliegende Arbeit befasst sich mit der Entwicklung physikalisch fundierter, variations-basierter Modelle zur Beschreibung von magneto-aktiven Polymeren bei finiten Deformationen. Die Erarbeitung einer theoretisch und numerisch instruktiven Abhandlung zur Modellierung von nicht-dissipativen sowie dissipativen magneto-mechanischen Systemen stellt dabei einen zentralen Aspekt dieser Arbeit dar. Die konstitutive Modellierung erfolgt in kanonischer Form im Rahmen einer Theorie erster Ordnung auf Basis zweier skalarwertiger Tensorfunktionen -- der totalen Energiedichtefunktion und dem Dissipationspotential -- welche das komplexe konstitutive Verhalten des Systems vollständig charakterisieren. Die Entwicklung fundierter, konstitutiver Makroskalenmodelle für nicht-dissipative sowie dissipative magneto-aktive Polymere erfolgt dabei mikrostrukturgeleitet und im Falle nicht-dissipativer magneto-aktiver Polymere explizit auf Basis eines umfangreichen -- mittels numerischer Homogenisierung erzeugten -- Datensatzes. Das im Rahmen der konstitutiven Modellierung genutzte energie-basierte Setting stellt die natürliche Umgebung für Stabilitätsbetrachtungen dar und erlaubt die Diskussion der materiellen Stabilität der entwickelten konstitutiven Modelle auf Grundlage verallgemeinerter Konvexitätskonzepte. Im Mittelpunkt der numerischen Behandlung der vorliegenden Problemstellungen steht die Konstruktion primaler Variationsprinzipien auf Basis der entwickelten konstitutiven Funktionen in Verbindung mit deren konformen Finite-Elemente-Approximationen. Die zugehörigen diskreten Variationsformulierungen zeichnen sich durch ihre Minimaleigenschaften aus, wodurch diese nicht durch die diskrete inf-sup Stabilitätsbedingung eingeschränkt sind. Die Leistungsfähigkeit und Validität der entwickelten Modelle wird anhand von Benchmark- und Konvergenzstudien im Detail untersucht. Der Fokus weiterer numerischer Studien liegt auf der makrostrukturellen Analyse des magnetostriktiven und magnetorheologischen Effektes. / The present work covers the development of physically motivated, variational-based models for the description of magneto-active polymers at finite deformations. A key aspect of this thesis is to develop a unified theoretical and computational framework for the modeling of non-dissipative and dissipative magneto-active polymers. Within a classical first order theory, a strong emphasis is put on a unifying constitutive modeling framework based on two scalar valued tensor functions, namely the total energy density function and the dissipation potential. This two potential ansatz allows the canonical derivation of thermodynamically consistent constitutive models for a broad spectrum of complex systems in a mathematically elegant manner. The development of a family of constitutive macroscale models for non-dissipative and dissipative magneto-active polymers is based on a microstructure-guided approach, whereby the parametrization of the developed non-dissipative constitutive model is explicitly based on a comprehensive material data set generated via computational homogenization. The energy-based setting provides the natural environment for stability analysis and allows the discussion of the material stability of the developed constitutive models based on generalized notions of convexity. The focus of the variational and computational framework lies on the construction of primal variational principles and their conforming finite element approximations. The associated discrete variational formulations are characterized by their minimization structure and are therefore not restricted by the discrete inf-sup stability condition. The performance and validity of the developed models are investigated in detail by benchmark and convergence studies. The main emphasis of further numerical studies lies on the macrostructural analysis of the magnetostrictive and magnetorheological effect.

L'étude de l'influence sur les réseaux sociaux et en particulier Twitter est un sujet de recherche intense. La détection des utilisateurs influents dans un réseau est une clé de succès pour parvenir à une diffusion d'information à large échelle et à faible coût, ce qui s'avère très utile dans le marketing ou les campagnes politiques. Dans cette thèse, nous proposons une nouvelle approche qui tient compte de la variété des relations entre utilisateurs afin d'estimer l'influence dans les réseaux sociaux tels que Twitter. Nous modélisons Twitter comme un réseau multiplexe hétérogène où les utilisateurs, les tweets et les objets représentent les noeuds, et les liens modélisent les différentes relations entre eux (par exemple, retweets, mentions et réponses). Le PageRank multiplexe est appliqué aux données issues de deux corpus relatifs au domaine politique pour classer les candidats selon leur influence. Si le classement des candidats reflète la réalité, les scores de PageRank multiplexe sont difficiles à interpréter car ils sont très proches les uns des autres.Ainsi, nous voulons aller au-delà d'une mesure quantitative et nous explorons comment les différentes relations entre les noeuds du réseau peuvent déterminer un degré d'influence pondéré par une estimation de la crédibilité. Nous proposons une approche, TwitBelief, basée sur la règle de combinaison conjonctive de la théorie des fonctions de croyance qui permet de combiner différents types de relations tout en exprimant l’incertitude sur leur importance relative. Nous expérimentons TwitBelief sur une grande quantité de données collectées lors des élections européennes de 2014 et de l'élection présidentielle française de 2017 et nous déterminons les candidats les plus influents. Les résultats montrent que notre modèle est suffisamment flexible pour répondre aux besoins des spécialistes en sciences sociales et que l'utilisation de la théorie des fonctions de croyances est pertinente pour traiter des relations multiples. Nous évaluons également l'approche sur l'ensemble de données CLEF RepLab 2014 et montrons que notre approche conduit à des résultats significatifs. Nous proposons aussi deux extensions de TwitBelief traitant le contenu des tweets. La première est l'estimation de la polarisation de l'influence sur le réseau Twitter en utilisant l'analyse des sentiments avec l'algorithme des forêts d'arbres décisionnels. La deuxième extension est la catégorisation des styles de communication dans Twitter, il s'agit de déterminer si le style de communication des utilisateurs de Twitter est informatif, interactif ou équilibré. / Influence in complex networks and in particular Twitter has become recently a hot research topic. Detecting most influential users leads to reach a large-scale information diffusion area at low cost, something very useful in marketing or political campaigns. In this thesis, we propose a new approach that considers the several relations between users in order to assess influence in complex networks such as Twitter. We model Twitter as a multiplex heterogeneous network where users, tweets and objects are represented by nodes, and links model the different relations between them (e.g., retweets, mentions, and replies).The multiplex PageRank is applied to data from two datasets in the political field to rank candidates according to their influence. Even though the candidates' ranking reflects the reality, the multiplex PageRank scores are difficult to interpret because they are very close to each other.Thus, we want to go beyond a quantitative measure and we explore how relations between nodes in the network could reveal about the influence and propose TwitBelief, an approach to assess weighted influence of a certain node. This is based on the conjunctive combination rule from the belief functions theory that allow to combine different types of relations while expressing uncertainty about their importance weights. We experiment TwitBelief on a large amount of data gathered from Twitter during the European Elections 2014 and the French 2017 elections and deduce top influential candidates. The results show that our model is flexible enough to consider multiple interactions combination according to social scientists needs or requirements and that the numerical results of the belief theory are accurate. We also evaluate the approach over the CLEF RepLab 2014 data set and show that our approach leads to quite interesting results. We also propose two extensions of TwitBelief in order to consider the tweets content. The first is the estimation of polarized influence in Twitter network. In this extension, sentiment analysis of the tweets with the algorithm of forest decision trees allows to determine the influence polarity. The second extension is the categorization of communication styles in Twitter, it determines whether the communication style of Twitter users is informative, interactive or balanced.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T12:16:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 2555321 bytes, checksum: a880be8bb20cc9ddf44f40071355ff43 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-09-30 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The present work defines and analyzes the spatial configuration of the Landless Workers Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra - MST) in the Northeast in the year of 2007. It seeks to understand the existing relation between the MST and the development capitalist in Brazil and in the region. It maintains that the distribution/spatial organization of the MST in the Northeast is a reflection of the broader movement of social reproduction own way determined by taking the capitalist accumulation in Brazil.. Following the method of political economy, the MST is interpreted as a political representation of the conflict between social classes forged in the midst of the development process of national capitalism. The movement of social reproduction materialized spatial forms of social relations representative in each period and place. The settlements are taken as spatial forms that represent a moment of the process of social reproduction. But its configuration space, a concept that in this work allows geographically captures the social reality, no more than the appearance of the process of social reproduction. We must overcome such appearance falling within the relationships and social conflict implied therein. The spatial configuration of the MST in the Northeast has the main feature of the merger that is spots close to achieving activity centers of agricultural capitalist in the Northeast. It is understood that the MST is a political expression of the class of expropriated. This social group is analyzed in political economy from the strength-of-class work. In a capitalist society is the capital who commands the force-of-work. Brazilian social formation in the manner specified taking the capitalist accumulation brought the formation of an army of marginal strength-of-work that can not be absorbed by the capitalist circuit. The very process of capitalist accumulation that leverage the existence of such an army. The import of technology and capital goods needed for the acceleration of industrialization, provoked a rising in the organic composition of capital and reduced the amount of labor employed. This mechanism formatted a labor market that focuses on population centers of capitalist accumulation. The strength-of-work not consumed in the production process that occurs in such clusters is the social basis on which it raises the political expression of the MST. The spatial configuration of the MST in Northeast follows, therefore, the distribution of agricultural capitalist activity in the region. / O presente trabalho define e analisa a configuração espacial do Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) no Nordeste no ano de 2007. Busca compreender a relação existente entre o MST e o desenvolvimento capitalista no Brasil e na região. Sustenta que a distribuição/organização espacial do MST no Nordeste é um reflexo do movimento mais geral de reprodução social determinado pela maneira própria que toma a acumulação capitalista no Brasil. Seguindo o método da economia política, o MST é interpretado como uma representação política do conflito entre classes sociais forjadas no bojo do processo de desenvolvimento do capitalismo nacional. O movimento de reprodução social materializa formas espaciais representante das relações sociais existentes em cada período e lugar. Os assentamentos são tomados como formas espaciais que representam um momento do processo de reprodução social. Mas a sua configuração espacial, conceito que no presente trabalho permite capturar geograficamente a realidade social, não representa mais do que a aparência do processo de reprodução social. É preciso superar tal aparência relevando as relações e o conflito social nela implícito. A configuração espacial do MST no Nordeste tem como principal característica as manchas de concentração que se aproximam dos pólos de realização da atividade agrícola capitalista no Nordeste. Entende-se que o MST é uma expressão política da classe dos expropriados. Esse grupo social é analisado na economia política a partir da categoria força-de-trabalho. Em uma sociedade capitalista é o capital que comanda a força-de-trabalho. Na formação social brasileira a maneira especifica que toma a acumulação capitalista engendrou a formação de um exército marginal de forçade- trabalho que não consegue ser absorvido pelo circuito capitalista. É o próprio processo de acumulação capitalista que alavanca a existência desse exército. A importação de tecnologia e bens de capital necessária à aceleração da industrialização, provocou a elevação da composição orgânica do capital e reduziu a quantidade de mãode- obra empregada. Esse mecanismo formatou um mercado de trabalho que concentra população nos pólos de acumulação capitalista. A força-de-trabalho não consumida nos processo de produção que ocorrem em tais pólos é a base social sobre a qual se levanta a expressão política do MST. A configuração espacial do MST no Nordeste segue, por isso, a distribuição da atividade agrícola capitalista na região.

Jag har valt att skriva en studie om trygghet i förskolan i syfte att bidra med kunskap om trygghet på yngreavdelningar. Studiens resultat är framtaget genom semistrukturerade intervjuer för att få svar på hur förskollärare beskriver sin syn på vad trygghet inom förskolan innebär, hur de arbetar med trygghet i förskolan och vilka utmaningar de ser i arbetet med trygghet i förskolan. Resultatet visar att trygghet är grunden i all pedagogisk verksamhet och att förskollärarna behöver vara närvarande och lyhörda för att kunna hålla barnens anknytningssystem i viloläge. De yngsta barnen i förskolan visar trygghet genom att våga gå ifrån förskollärarna och utforska omgivningen och leka. De vågar även delta i olika aktiviteter, prova nya saker och ta egna initiativ. Introduktionen ses som en viktig del i förskollärarnas arbete med tryggheten där man är överrens om att en föräldraaktiv introduktion är att föredra. Den största utmaningen i arbetet med barns trygghet i förskolan är personalantalet i förhållande till antal barn i barngruppen. / I have chosen to write a study about safety in preschool in purpose of contributing the knowledge about safety in junior departments. The results of this study were developed through semi-structured interviews in order to answer how pre-school teachers describe their perceptions of safety in preschools, how they work with pre-school safety and the challenges they face in the work of safety in preschool. The result shows that safety is the foundation of all educational activities and that the preschool teachers need to be present and responsive, if they will manage to keep the children's connection system in hibernation. The youngest children in preschool show that they feel safe when they dare to leave the preschool teachers in order to explore the surroundings. They also dare to participate in different activities, try new things and take their own initiatives. The introduction is seen as an important part of the preschoolers' work with safety, where one agrees that a parental active introduction is preferable. The biggest challenge in the work with child safety in preschool is the number of staff in relation to the number of children in the child group.

[pt] O presente trabalho objetiva identificar de que forma os fundos de pensão podem se tornar instrumentos financeiros essenciais ao financiamento da economia brasileira, levando-se em consideração o acentuado desenvolvimento e internacionalização dos mercados mundiais. Para isso, faz- se necessário avaliar seu desempenho nos mercados de capitais, bem como de que forma podem se tornar eficientes, através da otimização de sua estratégia de risco. Nesse sentido, fez-se uso de diversos modelos conhecidos na teoria de finanças, como o Modelo de Markowitz, o modelo do Índice Único de Sharpe, modelo CAPM, e as técnicas para a determinação de fronteiras eficientes de Elton e Gruber, bem como das diversas medidas de desempenho de nvestimentos existentes como: taxa de retorno ponderado pelo tempo, desvio padrão, coeficiente beta, Índice de Sharpe, Índice de Modigliani,Índice de Jensen, Índice de Treynor, Apprasial Ratio e Índice de Modigliani, para que se pudesse analisar e comparar o resultado dos 20 maiores fundos de pensão existentes no Brasil. / [en] The present objective work intend to identify the forms that the pension funds can become financial instruments essential to financing the Brazilian economy, taking in consideration the accented development and internationalization of the world-wide markets. For this one becomes necessary to evaluate its performance in the stock markets, as well as of that it forms can become efficient, through the optimization of its risk strategy. In this direction, use of diverse models known in the theory of finances became, as the Markowitz s Model, the Sharpe s Single Index Model, the Capital Asset Pricing Model - CAPM, and the techniques for the determination the efficient borders of Elton and Gruber, as well as of the diverse measures of performance of existing investments as: Return tax, standard deviation, beta coefficient, Sharpe s Index, Modigliani s Index, Jensen s Index, Treynor s Index, Appraisal Ratio and Modigliani s Index, so that if it could analyze and compare the result of the 20 existing greater pension funds in Brazil.

nova sede para o MASP, Museu de Arte de São Paulo, projetado pela arquiteta Lina Bo Bardi em 1957 e inaugurado em 1968 na Avenida Paulista, em São Paulo, constitui importante episódio de experimentação entre arquitetura e cidade, no contexto do desenvolvimento industrial e urbano acelerado de São Paulo. Marca, entre outros exemplares, a consolidação do deslocamento da centralidade urbana em direção às áreas de expansão a sudoeste. O trabalho procura compreender criticamente as propostas do projeto, que engendra aspectos da arquitetura moderna italiana e internacional com as condições particulares da modernização brasileira durante o segundo pós-guerra. Nesse sentido, serão enfatizadas as respostas disciplinares dadas por Lina Bo Bardi e a arquitetura moderna frente ao desafo da criação de uma espacialidade específca no contexto da metropolização periférica. A refexão promovida pela pesquisa pretende explicitar tanto o impulso original da solução quanto os sentidos decorrentes das estratégias de projeto de Lina Bo Bardi para uma refexão acerca de novas possibilidades de interação entre os conteúdos disciplinares da arquitetura e o paradigma urbano brasileiro. / Te new building for MASP, Museum of Art of São Paulo, designed by the architect Lina Bo Bardi in 1957 and inaugurated in 1968 in São Paulo, constitutes an important episode of experimentation between architecture and the city in the context of the accelerated industrial and urban development of São Paulo. It marks, among others examples, the consolidation of a shif from the centrality of the city towards areas of expansion to the southwest. Te work tries to understand critically the proposals of the project, which engenders aspects of italian and international modern architecture with the particular conditions of Brazilian modernization during the post second world war. In this sense, the disciplinary responses given by Lina Bo Bardi and modern architecture in relation to the challenge of creating a specifc spatiality in the context of peripheral metropolization will be emphasized. Te refection promoted by the research intends to explain both the original impulse of the solution and the meanings deriving from Lina Bo Bardi \'s design strategies for a refection about new possibilities of interaction between the disciplinary contents of the architecture and the Brazilian urban paradigm.

Este trabalho investiga os pressupostos e fundamentos da Teoria das Cores de Goethe (Farbenlehre) como parte dos seus empenhos enquanto cientista da natureza. Apresenta a tradução de um texto seu sobre o método científico (Kautelen des Beobachters) e de um segundo texto sobre experimentos prismáticos (Beitrag zur Optik), no qual ele lança as bases do seu trabalho de mais de 30 anos sobre as cores. Estes textos, até então inexistentes em português, fornecem os subsídios para um entendimento mais amplo da Farbenlehre. E a pesquisa como um todo se orienta no sentido de contribuir para um resgate da fenomenologia goetheana para o ambiente cultural da atualidade. / This work investigates the principles and bases of Goethe\'s Theory of Colours (Farbenlehre\") as part of his studies as a Natures scientist. A translation of Goethe\'s essay on scientific methods (\"Kautelen des Beobachters\") and another on prismatic experiments (\"Beitrag zur Optik\"), where he sets the bases of his 30 years work on colours studies, are presented in this work too. The papers translated here were never before available in Portuguese, and they represent relevant subsidies for a comprehensive understanding of the \"Farbenlehre\". This research aims to contribute to the recovery of the Goethean\'s Phenomenology for the cultural enviroment of our days.

Este trabalho investiga os pressupostos e fundamentos da Teoria das Cores de Goethe (Farbenlehre) como parte dos seus empenhos enquanto cientista da natureza. Apresenta a tradução de um texto seu sobre o método científico (Kautelen des Beobachters) e de um segundo texto sobre experimentos prismáticos (Beitrag zur Optik), no qual ele lança as bases do seu trabalho de mais de 30 anos sobre as cores. Estes textos, até então inexistentes em português, fornecem os subsídios para um entendimento mais amplo da Farbenlehre. E a pesquisa como um todo se orienta no sentido de contribuir para um resgate da fenomenologia goetheana para o ambiente cultural da atualidade. / This work investigates the principles and bases of Goethe\'s Theory of Colours (Farbenlehre\") as part of his studies as a Natures scientist. A translation of Goethe\'s essay on scientific methods (\"Kautelen des Beobachters\") and another on prismatic experiments (\"Beitrag zur Optik\"), where he sets the bases of his 30 years work on colours studies, are presented in this work too. The papers translated here were never before available in Portuguese, and they represent relevant subsidies for a comprehensive understanding of the \"Farbenlehre\". This research aims to contribute to the recovery of the Goethean\'s Phenomenology for the cultural enviroment of our days.