An analysis of the factors that influence regional economic development cooperation

This dissertation is a comparative case study of regional cooperation in the field of economic development. In the 21st century global economy, proponents of regionalism have put forth fresh arguments for collective action. A regional approach to economic development activity presents a classic social dilemma: How can local officials collectively improve the economic prospects of a region, and remain autonomous to act in the best interest of the local community? This research examines the role of social capital in overcoming this social dilemma. ^ Three (3) comparable Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) form the empirical basis of this research. The Houston MSA, the Atlanta MSA and the Miami MSA present distinct variations of regionalized economic development activity. This dissertation seeks to explain this disparity in the dependent variable. The hypothesis is that accrued social capital is crucial to obtaining economic development cooperative agreements.^ This qualitative research utilized secondary demographic and economic databases, survey instruments, interviews, field observations, and a review of legislative and administrative decisions to formulate a clear understanding of the factors influencing the current state of regional economic development cooperation within each region. The study concludes that the legislative and executive decisions of state government exert inordinate influence on the capacity of local officials to cooperate regionally for economic development purposes.^

Cultural perceptions of space and place in the South Florida *environment

Public opinion polls in the United States reveal that a great majority of Americans are aware and show concern about ecological issues and the need to preserve natural areas. In South Florida, natural resources have been subjected to enormous strain as the pressure to accommodate a growing population has led to rapid development. Suburbs have been built on areas that were once natural wetlands and farmlands, and the impact today shows a landscape where natural places have all but disappeared. This dissertation examines the intersection between the perceptions that individuals living in the South Florida region have with respect to the natural environment and local ecological problems with where their relationship to nature takes place. ^ The research is based upon both quantitative and qualitative data. The principal methodology used in this research is the ethnographic method, which employed the data gathering techniques of in-depth interviewing and participant observation. The objective of the qualitative portion of the study was to determine how people perceive and relate to their immediate environment. The quantitative portion of the study employed telephone survey data from the FIU/Florida Poll 2000. Data collected through this survey provided the basis to statistically test responses to the research questions. ^ The findings show that people in South Florida have a general idea of the relationship between the human population and the environment but very little knowledge of how they individually affect each other. The experience of private places and public spaces in everyday life permits people to compartmentalize cultural values and understandings of the natural world in separate cognitive schemas. The appreciation of the natural world has almost no connection to their personal sense of obligation to preserve the environment. That obligation is only felt in their home space even though the South Florida environment overall struggles desperately with water shortages, land encroachment, and a rapidly expanding human population whose activities continuously aggravate an already delicate natural balance. ^

Fuzzy Modeling and Control Based Virtual Machine Resource Management

Virtual machines (VMs) are powerful platforms for building agile datacenters and emerging cloud systems. However, resource management for a VM-based system is still a challenging task. First, the complexity of application workloads as well as the interference among competing workloads makes it difficult to understand their VMs’ resource demands for meeting their Quality of Service (QoS) targets; Second, the dynamics in the applications and system makes it also difficult to maintain the desired QoS target while the environment changes; Third, the transparency of virtualization presents a hurdle for guest-layer application and host-layer VM scheduler to cooperate and improve application QoS and system efficiency. This dissertation proposes to address the above challenges through fuzzy modeling and control theory based VM resource management. First, a fuzzy-logic-based nonlinear modeling approach is proposed to accurately capture a VM’s complex demands of multiple types of resources automatically online based on the observed workload and resource usages. Second, to enable fast adaption for resource management, the fuzzy modeling approach is integrated with a predictive-control-based controller to form a new Fuzzy Modeling Predictive Control (FMPC) approach which can quickly track the applications’ QoS targets and optimize the resource allocations under dynamic changes in the system. Finally, to address the limitations of black-box-based resource management solutions, a cross-layer optimization approach is proposed to enable cooperation between a VM’s host and guest layers and further improve the application QoS and resource usage efficiency. The above proposed approaches are prototyped and evaluated on a Xen-based virtualized system and evaluated with representative benchmarks including TPC-H, RUBiS, and TerraFly. The results demonstrate that the fuzzy-modeling-based approach improves the accuracy in resource prediction by up to 31.4% compared to conventional regression approaches. The FMPC approach substantially outperforms the traditional linear-model-based predictive control approach in meeting application QoS targets for an oversubscribed system. It is able to manage dynamic VM resource allocations and migrations for over 100 concurrent VMs across multiple hosts with good efficiency. Finally, the cross-layer optimization approach further improves the performance of a virtualized application by up to 40% when the resources are contended by dynamic workloads.

Sobre o problema da mentira na filosofia prática de Kant

The research examines the problem lie in the thought of Immanuel Kant. This field of law, of the history of political morality, we seek to investigate the Kantian rejection of falsehood and unconditional obligation to be truthful. Defends the thesis of the exception to lie and not be objectionable in two cases, namely: the torture and before the murderer. Thus, it is demonstrated that it is possible the exception to lie under the law, politics and history, considering the perspective of harmony of external freedoms and the idea of moral progress. In this sense, it is argued that the source of law is established to guarantee the external freedoms. From the point of view of morality, reaffirmed the absoluteness is that for Kant the duty of veracity, but it points to the possibility of a practical rule that allows the lie based on human dignity, weighting values as political equality, respect for rational agents, as well as the principle of humanity which teaches always treat the other as an end in itself.

Contribuições para estratégia de controle aplicada à geração fotovoltaica interconectada à rede elétrica

Generation systems, using renewable sources, are becoming increasingly popular due to the need for increased use of electricity. Currently, renewables sources have a role to cooperate with conventional generation, due to the system limitation in delivering the required power, the need for reduction of unwanted effects from sources that use fossil fuels (pollution) and the difficulty of building new transmission and/or distribution lines. This cooperation takes place through distributed generation. Therefore, this work proposes a control strategy for the interconnection of a PV (Photovoltaic) system generation distributed with a three-phase power grid through a connection filter the type LCL. The compensation of power quality at point of common coupling (PCC) is performed ensuring that the mains supply or consume only active power and that his currents have low distorcion. Unlike traditional techniques which require schemes for harmonic detection, the technique performs the harmonic compensation without the use of this schemes, controlling the output currents of the system in an indirect way. So that there is effective control of the DC (Direct Current) bus voltage is used the robust controller mode dual DSMPI (Dual-Sliding Mode-Proportional Integral), that behaves as a sliding mode controller SM-PI (Sliding Mode-Proportional Integral) during the transition and like a conventional PI (Proportional Integral) in the steady-state. For control of current is used to repetitive control strategy, which are used double sequence controllers (DSC) tuned to the fundamental component, the fifth and seventh harmonic. The output phase current are aligned with the phase angle of the utility voltage vector obtained from the use of a SRF-PLL (Synchronous Reference Frame Phase-Locked-Loop). In order to obtain the maximum power from the PV array is used a MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) algorithm without the need for adding sensors. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control system.

O envelhecimento no espaço midiático: a produção de sentidos pelos meios jornalísticos

Aging as a social phenomenon is guided in the ways of production and reproduction, that is linked to the peculiarities and compliances of the social structure influence the values and erected senses. The search for the understanding of the reality will be given by the appropriation of knowledge/information that in contemporary times are increasingly tied to the media means, so that they go beyond the mere condition media, reaching the condition of instruments of direct, attitudes and opinions production. Among the media instruments, there are news medias, that are important means of information dissemination and consequently production of senses, including over aging. Thus, the objective is to: apprehend the social representations and meanings associated with aging in the media space about aging; browse the social representations about aging in media space and their influence on the relations that are established in the cultural socio-economic context. To do it The Theory of Social Representation will be used. To collect the data, 57 online news from the three main state newspapers were studied: Tribuna do Norte, Gazeta do Povo and Jornal de Hoje, which were captured through a search tol of these newspaper sites, using the words: “aging””elderly”. These materials were analyzed making use of Bardin’s Qualitative Analysis, which allowed the establishment of five categories, namely: Aging and violence; Aging in contemporary times; Aging and health; Aging and citizenship; and Aging, work and action. In the first category news reporting violent situations are framed the regardless of the victim’s condition or the one charged by the violence, the fragility of elderly persists. In Aging in contemporary times the attempts of the news media to explain the demographic changes of the quantitative increases in the elderly, the burden it may lead to the full development of the country are noticed. In Aging and health is noticed the imminent end of the condition brought on age, as a synonym for diseases and conditions. In the fourth category, Aging and citizenship situations are shown where peculiarities and needs or the elderly need to turn into obligation to be fulfilled, denouncing the condition of low expression and social power of the class. Finally, in Aging, work and action situations that indicate the non-expectation of elderly interaction with new technologies and participation in decision-making directions of society are brought. In a general and specific form this analysis allowed learning the ways of production of meanings about aging in the papers, as these ones tend to represent aging through intentioned situations as hegemonic needs, building the social representation of the elderly as fragile person, submissive, inactive, subject to violence and susceptible to becoming ill.

O direito penal do inimigo na atualidade: Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty – MLAT, em matéria penal, celebrado entre a República Federativa do Brasil e os Estados Unidos da América bem como seus reflexos na jurisdição brasileira

In view of the climate of instability and deep social inequalities, it has been evident in the Brazilian reality, a new way to punish systematic already developed and consolidated in other countries, in which, among other things, the criminality is anticipated only by danger that the individual sports. It appears, therefore, that the theory developed by Günter Jakobs, nominated Criminal Law of the Enemy, became subtly inserted in the Brazilian reality as well as in international relations signed. In this sense, the Brazilian State, in order to carry out the international legal cooperation in the criminal field, signed a mutual assistance agreement with the government of the United States of America. Forward the conclusion of Mutual legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT), the signatory countries voiced a desire to cooperate in order to facilitate the implementation of tasks of the authorities responsible for law enforcement in both countries, comprising research, investigation, prosecution and prevention of crime, said internalized adjustment in the Brazilian legal system by means of Decree No. 3810 of 02 May 2001. Alongside these considerations, the present study aims to analyze the Criminal law of the Enemy today, seeking to find evidence of that theory in the MLAT, international legal cooperation instrument signed between the government of the Federative Republic of Brazil and the government of the United States of America. Moreover, it has the objective to describe its effects on the Brazilian jurisdiction, especially as concerns the relativity and the suppression of human rights. Once done the introit, analysis will be carried out in the first chapter, on the definition and main features of the theory of Criminal Enemy of the law, it is imperative to approach the humanistic aspect that preceded the theory as well as the dealings given to some controversial issues surrounding it, such as the anticipation of the enemy's punishment and the disproportionality of the penalties imposed. In the second chapter will present the conceptual assumptions, historical evolution and the positives aspects, as well as the barriers and the pursuit of effectiveness of international legal cooperation. In the chapter, bedroom effective analysis of specific modality of cooperation will be held, the Mutual legal Assistance Treaty - MLAT in criminal matters, signed between the Federative Republic of Brazil and the United States of America, in which the general aspects will be addressed and the MLAT reflections on the Brazilian jurisdiction, which includes analysis about the relativity or suppression of human rights, future trends and creating stricter laws, followed by the presentation of the seized conclusion on the subject, in which, among other approaches, will be voiced understanding about the unconstitutionality certain service requests that, from these, there is the bad use of the agreed instrument.

Le script de l'intervention policière auprès des personnes en état mental perturbé : déroulement et facteurs de l'usage de force par les policiers

Travail dirigé présenté à la Faculté des études supérieures et postdoctorales en vue de l’obtention du grade de maîtrise ès sciences (M.SC) en criminologie, option sécurité intérieure

King Democracy: Do Democratic Nations Mitigate Conflict Over Transboundary Freshwater Resources Better Than Other Nations?

The prospect of water wars and conflict over water are ideas that are frequently dramatized in media and also studied by scholars. It is well-established that bona fide wars are not started over water resources, but conflict over water does exist and is not well understood. One would suppose, as scholars often do, that dyads composed of two democratic nations would be the best at mitigating conflict and promoting cooperation over freshwater resources. General conflict research supports that supposition, as does the argument that democracies must be best at avoiding conflicts over resources because they excel at distributing public goods. This study provides empirical evidence showing how interstate dyads composed of various governance types conflict and cooperate over general water and water quantity issues relative to each other. After evaluating the water conflict mitigating ability of democratic-democratic, democratic-autocratic, and autocratic-autocratic dyads, this study found that democracy-autocracy dyads are less likely to cooperate over general water issues and water quantity issues than the other two dyad types. Nothing certain can be said about how the three dyad types compare to each other in terms of likelihood to conflict over water quantity issues. However, two-autocracy dyads seem to be most likely to cooperate over water quantity issues. These findings support the established belief that democratic-autocratic pairs struggle to cooperate while also encouraging greater scrutiny of the belief that democracies must be best at cooperating over water resources.

Conseiller les mères sur l’éducation de leurs enfants pendant l’entre-deux-guerres : les chroniques d’Odette Oligny

Cette étude porte sur les chroniques d’Odette Oligny sur l’éducation des enfants publiées dans Le Canada de 1931 à 1936. Cette journaliste écrit à une époque durant laquelle l’éducation est influencée par la montée des experts, qui comme Oligny, conseillent les mères sur les comportements et les pratiques à adopter pour former les futurs citoyens. Dans le premier chapitre de ce mémoire, nous traitons des responsabilités, selon la journaliste, qu’ont les mères envers leurs enfants. La charge de les éduquer revient exclusivement aux femmes et elles sont sévèrement critiquées par les experts lorsqu’elles ne peuvent ou ne veulent pas se conformer à leurs normes. Le deuxième chapitre analyse la discipline familiale qui doit être mises en oeuvre par les mères. De l’avis d’Oligny, certaines d’entre elles utilisent de façon excessive les punitions corporelles alors que d’autres sont trop indulgentes avec leur progéniture. Enfin, le troisième chapitre de ce mémoire se consacre au discours sur l’éducation des filles et des garçons. Les mères ont le devoir de développer des qualités chez leurs enfants qui leur permettront de remplir leurs futurs rôles de citoyens. À travers l’analyse des chroniques d’Oligny, nous montrerons qu’elle agit, en vulgarisant les connaissances, comme un pont entre les experts et la population qui n’a pas nécessairement accès aux travaux de ces derniers.

Le script de l'intervention policière auprès des personnes en état mental perturbé : déroulement et facteurs de l'usage de force par les policiers

Travail dirigé présenté à la Faculté des études supérieures et postdoctorales en vue de l’obtention du grade de maîtrise ès sciences (M.SC) en criminologie, option sécurité intérieure

Perceptions of Underprepared Community College Students regarding their Educational Achievement

The purpose of this study was to understand the perceptions of underprepared college students who had participated in learning communities and who persisted to complete developmental classes and earned at least 30 college-level credit hours to graduate and the perceptions of their peers who had dropped out of college. The theories posed by Tinto, Astin, and Freire formed the framework for this case study. The 22 participants were graduates or transfer students now attending a public university, currently-enrolled sophomores, and students no longer enrolled at the time of the study. Semi-structured individual interviews and a group interview provided narrative data which were transcribed, coded, and analyzed to gain insights into the experiences and perspectives of the participants. The group interview provided a form of member checking to increase accuracy in interpreting themes. A peer reviewer provided feedback on the researcher’s data analysis procedures. The analysis yielded four themes and 14 sub-themes which captured the essence of the participants’ experiences. The pre-college characteristics/traits theme described the students’ internal values and attributes acquired prior to college. The external college support/community influence theme described the encouragement to attend college the students received from family, friends, and high school teachers. The social involvement theme described the students’ participation in campus activities and their interactions with other members of the campus. The academic integration theme described students’ use of campus resources and their contacts with the faculty. The persisters reported strong family and peer support, a sense of responsibility, appreciation for dedicated and caring faculty, and a belief that an education can be a liberatory means to achieve their goals. The non-persisters did not report having the same sense of purpose, goal orientation, determination, obligation to meet family expectations, peer support, campus involvement, positive faculty experiences, and time management skills. The researcher offers an emerging model for understanding factors associated with persistence and three recommendations for enhancing the academic experience of underprepared college students: (a) include a critical pedagogy perspective in coursework where possible, (b) integrate co-curricular activities with the academic disciplines, and (c) increase student-faculty interaction.

El problema de la iniciativa privada y la acción pública en los delitos sexuales (Bs. As., 1863 y 1921)

El presente trabajo propone problematizar las interpretaciones jurídicas en torno a la instancia privada así como a las posibilidades de actuación de la fiscalía una vez instada la acción en los delitos contra la honestidad. En este sentido, se busca mostrar cómo más allá del carácter "mixto" (combinación de instancia privada y acción pública) establecida por los códigos y sostenida por la doctrina, la cuestión se encontró controvertida en la práctica forense. Esta situación además, permite volver a debatir sobre los valores que entraron en juego a la hora de lidiar con estos crímenes, así como la pregunta sobre quién o quienes debían ser considerados víctimas de ellos así como explorar brevemente algunas relaciones entre derecho y género/sexualidad

El problema de la iniciativa privada y la acción pública en los delitos sexuales (Bs. As., 1863 y 1921)

El presente trabajo propone problematizar las interpretaciones jurídicas en torno a la instancia privada así como a las posibilidades de actuación de la fiscalía una vez instada la acción en los delitos contra la honestidad. En este sentido, se busca mostrar cómo más allá del carácter "mixto" (combinación de instancia privada y acción pública) establecida por los códigos y sostenida por la doctrina, la cuestión se encontró controvertida en la práctica forense. Esta situación además, permite volver a debatir sobre los valores que entraron en juego a la hora de lidiar con estos crímenes, así como la pregunta sobre quién o quienes debían ser considerados víctimas de ellos así como explorar brevemente algunas relaciones entre derecho y género/sexualidad

El problema de la iniciativa privada y la acción pública en los delitos sexuales (Bs. As., 1863 y 1921)

El presente trabajo propone problematizar las interpretaciones jurídicas en torno a la instancia privada así como a las posibilidades de actuación de la fiscalía una vez instada la acción en los delitos contra la honestidad. En este sentido, se busca mostrar cómo más allá del carácter "mixto" (combinación de instancia privada y acción pública) establecida por los códigos y sostenida por la doctrina, la cuestión se encontró controvertida en la práctica forense. Esta situación además, permite volver a debatir sobre los valores que entraron en juego a la hora de lidiar con estos crímenes, así como la pregunta sobre quién o quienes debían ser considerados víctimas de ellos así como explorar brevemente algunas relaciones entre derecho y género/sexualidad