Essa dissertação tem como objetivo expor a teoria clássico-marxista das vantagens absolutas nas trocas internacionais. Como ponto de partida está o tratamento de Marx a respeito da concorrência entre capitais, dos monopólios, da formação dos preços e dos mecanismos de transferência de valor. A exposição da teoria aqui tratada será contraposta com algumas abordagens marxistas, que apresentam uma compreensão distinta a respeito do funcionamento das trocas de mercadorias e dos fluxos de capitais na esfera internacional. Outra questão central do presente trabalho é o entendimento dado pela teoria clássico-marxista das vantagens absolutas a respeito do processo de transferência de valor em nível global e o desenvolvimento desigual. / This dissertation aims to expose the classical Marxist theory of absolute advantage in international trade. As a starting point is the treatment of Marx about the competition between capitals, monopolies, price formation and mechanisms of value transfer. The exposition of the theory discussed here is contrasted with some Marxist approaches, which have a distinct understanding about the functioning of trade in goods and capital flows in the international sphere. Another central issue of this work is the understanding given by the classical Marxist theory of absolute advantages regarding the transfer value on a global level and uneven development process.

Essa dissertação tem como objetivo expor a teoria clássico-marxista das vantagens absolutas nas trocas internacionais. Como ponto de partida está o tratamento de Marx a respeito da concorrência entre capitais, dos monopólios, da formação dos preços e dos mecanismos de transferência de valor. A exposição da teoria aqui tratada será contraposta com algumas abordagens marxistas, que apresentam uma compreensão distinta a respeito do funcionamento das trocas de mercadorias e dos fluxos de capitais na esfera internacional. Outra questão central do presente trabalho é o entendimento dado pela teoria clássico-marxista das vantagens absolutas a respeito do processo de transferência de valor em nível global e o desenvolvimento desigual. / This dissertation aims to expose the classical Marxist theory of absolute advantage in international trade. As a starting point is the treatment of Marx about the competition between capitals, monopolies, price formation and mechanisms of value transfer. The exposition of the theory discussed here is contrasted with some Marxist approaches, which have a distinct understanding about the functioning of trade in goods and capital flows in the international sphere. Another central issue of this work is the understanding given by the classical Marxist theory of absolute advantages regarding the transfer value on a global level and uneven development process.

A presente dissertação tem como objeto de estudo o impacto dos direitos da propriedade intelectual no desenvolvimento do capitalismo e na construção de um espaço mundial desigual. O trabalho procura demonstrar que os direitos de propriedade intelectual, embora entendidos na seara jurídica como uma formulação natural para a proteção de uma criação do gênio humano, são resultados, na configuração moderna, de uma política deliberada das nações do centro do sistema capitalista e de seus grandes grupos monopolistas transnacionais. Esses direitos visam, na realidade, a manutenção da riqueza e a acumulação do capital através da cobrança de royalties no centro do sistema, gerando, em consequência, uma divisão internacional do trabalho desigual com graves repercussões espaciais. Com base na análise em perspectiva histórica dos países atualmente desenvolvidos, e na análise crítica das legislações internacionais, procura-se demonstrar que para um país progredir, tecnológica e economicamente, se faz necessária a implantação de uma política econômica que contenha o enfrentamento a esses direitos, para conseguir adquirir o conhecimento gerado no centro do sistema, copiando-os e reproduzindo-os com inovação. / The present paper focuses on the impact of intellectual property rights on the development of capitalism and on the construction of an uneven and different space. We search to demonstrate that intellectual property rights, although regarded almost as natural rights, designed to protect the creation of a genius mind, are, on its modern format, the results of public policies of the rich nations and its monopolist groups. These rights aim, in fact, to favor the developed nations, by aiding the maintenance of their wealth within their circles and by helping the accumulation of capital through royalties charging, generating, as a consequence, a more and more unequal world. This paper attempts to demonstrate that technological and economic development can only be achieved through an economic policy that includes the affronting of intellectual property regulation.

The CAREN-Extended system is a fully immersive virtual environment (VE) that can provide stability-challenging scenarios in a safe, controlled manner. Understanding gait biomechanics when stability is challenged is required when developing quantifiable metrics for rehabilitation assessment. The first objective of this thesis was to examine the VE’s technical aspects to ensure data validity and to design a stability-challenging VE scenario. The second and third objectives examined walking speed changes and kinematic strategies when stability was challenged for able-bodied and unilateral transtibial amputees. The results from this thesis demonstrated: 1) understanding VE operating characteristics are important to ensure data validity and to effectively design virtual scenarios; 2) self-paced treadmill mode for VEs with multiple movement scenarios may elicit more natural gait; 3) gait variability and trunk motion measures are useful when quantitatively assessing stability performance for people with transtibial amputations.

This master´s thesis solves the problem of stationary viscous flow of incompressible fluids in thin layers of fluid film lubrication in fixed pad thrust bearings. The parametric computational model of oil domain was created for investigation the distribution of pressure, velocity and thermal fields together with the determination of the basic parameters as axial force, heating up and friction loss. Subsequently this model was applied for investigation influence of uneven bearing clearance. The problem task was solved by final volume method in Ansys CFX 12.0 software.

The study deals with roots of (a) rise of political tensions and (b) roots of rise of political Islam (from Muslim Brotherhood and Turkish AKP up to militant Islamic organizations) in the Middle East in the second half of the 20th century. So it deals with conflict between corrupt and highly unpopular political and economical elite and its challengers recruiting from Islamic movements. The basic roots of this conflict and rise of political Islam are seen in highly uneven modernization process: (1) very rapid social and demographic change (urbanization, media expansion, demographic transition, and educational system expansion), (2) slow going and unstable economic development and (3) unchanging political subsystem. This uneven and deformed Middle Eastern modernization pattern is in detail documented by empirical macro-indicators. It is systematically compared with the modernization process in other post-colonial world macro-regions as well as with early European modernization which was accompanied by sharp social conflict, however dominated by rival secular ideologies. The Middle Eastern highly uneven pattern of modernization is under way in the context of discredited secular ideologies and in the context of Islamic religion with its political relevant imaginary, concepts and symbolism as well as...

The submitted diploma thesis deals with the issue of regional development of Slovenia and Croatia. The theme of regional differences and territorial differentiation is one of the classic themes of social and political geography. The main goal of the diploma thesis is - a comparative analysis of the regional development of Croatia and Slovenia at several scale levels. At the same time, the aim is to map the change in the regional image of Slovenia and Croatia over a longer period of time, especially since the end of the war in the Balkans, which took place here in the early 1990s. At the same time, the work aims to find out what general and specific factors play the most important role in regional development. A data set covering a wide range of socio-economic and demographic variables serves to achieve the proposed objectives. With the help of quantitative methods, the trends of regional disparities of the monitored countries, the influence of the most developed areas and the monitoring of regional variability of both countries are examined. Data comparing the regional development of both countries confirm that Slovenia is becoming a stronger dimension of social and regional policy than Croatia, where a significantly higher deepening of regional disparities and the concentration of production in...

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Viscoelastic materials have been used widely in different applications, such as constructing tires, artificial joints, shoe heels, and soles. A study on the different characteristics of viscoelastic materials has always been a matter of interest in order to improve their properties for various applications. In the automotive industry, rubber, as a viscoelastic material, has been used in several subsystems, such as vehicle interior, suspension, steering joints, and tires. The tire and terrain's contact characteristics are among the essential factors for assessing the performance of the tire and the vehicle in general. Friction and tread wear are two of these contact characteristics. Considering the tire's functionality, for most applications, it is desired to have higher friction to have better traction and a lower wear rate to minimize the material loss of the tread. The friction coefficient and the rubber's wear rate depend on various parameters such as rubber material properties, terrain characteristics, temperature (tread and the environment), and the load. To obtain the wear rate and friction of a viscoelastic material, three approaches have been used for this study: Experimental, Analytical, and Numerical. The results obtained using these approaches have been compared and validated. Several test setups have been designed and implemented to study the wear and friction of the rubber experimentally. Also, a new linear friction tester has been designed and manufactured by the author to achieve this project's objectives. The new test setup has several advantages over existing test setups in this field, such as covering a higher range of velocities while maintaining high precision. The designed Linear Friction tester and the modified dynamic friction tester at the CenTiRe laboratory at Virginia Tech were used to measure the rubber's friction and wear for different testing conditions such as different normal loads, different velocities, and various surfaces such asphalt and sandpaper. The data collected by the experiment will later be used for the validation of the developed models. In order to obtain the wear rate of the rubber using the analytical approach, the real contact area and friction of the rubber were calculated using Persson's model. The simulation has created the surface to obtain the friction coefficient and the real contact area. After obtaining the friction coefficient and the real contact area, the rubber's wear rate was calculated using a novel approach by combining the Persson Powdery Rubber Wear model with the Crack Propagation model. The results from the improved model compare well with the results from the original model. For the last step of this project, a Finite Element approach was used for modeling a tread block and round rubber sample. A new semi-empirical model for wear was developed by improving the Archard wear model. The novel approach was implemented to Abaqus by using the Umeshmotion subroutine and adaptive mesh motion (ALE) and subroutine UFric and UFric_Coef in two categories: The Node base method and the Ribbon base method. For finite element modeling, the visco-hyper elastic material model has been used to define the rubber's material properties. / Doctor of Philosophy / Viscoelastic materials have been used widely in different applications, such as constructing tires, artificial joints, shoe heels, and soles. Therefore, studying the different characteristics of viscoelastic materials has always been a matter of interest in improving their properties for various applications. In the automotive industry, rubber, as a viscoelastic material, has been used in several subsystems, such as vehicle interior, suspension, steering joints, and tires. The tire and terrain's contact characteristics are among the essential factors for assessing the performance of the tire and the vehicle in general. Friction and tread wear are two of these contact characteristics. Considering the tire's functionality, for most applications, it is desired to have higher friction to have better traction and a lower wear rate to minimize the material loss of the tread. This study used different approaches such as experimental, analytical, and numerical methods to predict the friction and wear of the rubber sample in contact with different surfaces. For the experimental parts, the author designed and manufactured a linear friction test setup. For the numerical parts, a new semi-empirical model was created to predict rubber samples' wear accurately.