Problème de déploiement de ressources dans le cas des feux de forêts majeurs - Opérations aériennes

Chaque année le feu brûle quelques dizaines de milliers d’hectares de forêts québécoises. Le coût annuel de prévention et de lutte contre les feux de forêts au Québec est de l’ordre de plusieurs dizaines de millions de dollars. Le présent travail contribue à la réduction de ces coûts à travers l’automatisation du processus de planification des opérations de suppression des feux de forêts majeurs. Pour ce faire, un modèle mathématique linéaire en nombres entiers a été élaboré, résolu et testé; introduisant un nouveau cas particulier à la littérature des Problèmes de Tournées de Véhicules (VRP). Ce modèle mathématique concerne le déploiement aérien des ressources disponibles pour l’extinction des incendies. Le modèle élaboré a été testé avec CPLEX sur des cas tirés de données réelles. Il a permis de réduire le temps de planification des opérations d’extinction des feux de forêts majeurs de 75% dans les situations courantes.

Perceptions of the role of the man in family planning, during pregnancy and childbirth : A qualitative study with fifteen Nepali men

Introduction: In Nepal, by tradition, family life and marriage are generally controlled by patriarchal norms, sanctions, values and gender differences. Women in Nepal have limited possibilities to make decisions regarding their sexual and reproductive health, as the husbands and other elders in the family make most of the decisions regarding family planning, pregnancy and childbirth. Aim: To describe the perceptions of Nepali men regarding the role of the man with respect to family planning, pregnancy and childbirth. Methods: A qualitative study was conducted with 15 Nepali men in both urban and rural areas. The material was analyzed through inductive content analysis. Findings: One main category and two generic categories were identified. One generic category contained six subcategories and the other five subcategories. The main category was labeled: “He leads – She follows” and the generic categories were labeled: “Supporting women in family planning, during pregnancy and childbirth” and “Withdrawal from supporting women in family planning, during pregnancy and childbirth”. Conclusion: The role of the Nepali men with respect to family planning, pregnancy and childbirth, was identified as a conflicted approach. This study highlights the importance of understanding the influence of culture and tradition when developing strategies for promoting sexual and reproductive health during family planning, pregnancy and childbirth among families in Nepal.

An appraisal of adaptive management planning and implementation in ecological restoration: case studies from the San Francisco Bay Delta, USA

Adaptive management has been defined and redefined in the context of natural resource management, yet there are few examples of its successful application in ecological restoration. Although the 2009 Delta Reform Act now legally requires adaptive management for all restoration efforts in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, in California, USA, projects in this region still encounter problems with implementation. We used a comparative case study analysis to examine adaptive management planning and implementation both in and around the Delta, assessing not only why adaptive management is not yet well implemented, but also what changes can be made to facilitate the adaptive management approach without sacrificing scientific rigor. Adaptive management seems to be directly and indirectly affected by a variety of challenges and convoluted by ambiguity in both planning documents and practitioner’s interpretations of the concept. Addressing these challenges and ambiguities at the project level may facilitate the adaptive management process and help make it more accessible to practitioners.

Hierarchical Forest Management Planning: A Bilevel Wood Supply Modelling Approach

Le processus de planification forestière hiérarchique présentement en place sur les terres publiques risque d’échouer à deux niveaux. Au niveau supérieur, le processus en place ne fournit pas une preuve suffisante de la durabilité du niveau de récolte actuel. À un niveau inférieur, le processus en place n’appuie pas la réalisation du plein potentiel de création de valeur de la ressource forestière, contraignant parfois inutilement la planification à court terme de la récolte. Ces échecs sont attribuables à certaines hypothèses implicites au modèle d’optimisation de la possibilité forestière, ce qui pourrait expliquer pourquoi ce problème n’est pas bien documenté dans la littérature. Nous utilisons la théorie de l’agence pour modéliser le processus de planification forestière hiérarchique sur les terres publiques. Nous développons un cadre de simulation itératif en deux étapes pour estimer l’effet à long terme de l’interaction entre l’État et le consommateur de fibre, nous permettant ainsi d’établir certaines conditions pouvant mener à des ruptures de stock. Nous proposons ensuite une formulation améliorée du modèle d’optimisation de la possibilité forestière. La formulation classique du modèle d’optimisation de la possibilité forestière (c.-à-d., maximisation du rendement soutenu en fibre) ne considère pas que le consommateur de fibre industriel souhaite maximiser son profit, mais suppose plutôt la consommation totale de l’offre de fibre à chaque période, peu importe le potentiel de création de valeur de celle-ci. Nous étendons la formulation classique du modèle d’optimisation de la possibilité forestière afin de permettre l’anticipation du comportement du consommateur de fibre, augmentant ainsi la probabilité que l’offre de fibre soit entièrement consommée, rétablissant ainsi la validité de l’hypothèse de consommation totale de l’offre de fibre implicite au modèle d’optimisation. Nous modélisons la relation principal-agent entre le gouvernement et l’industrie à l’aide d’une formulation biniveau du modèle optimisation, où le niveau supérieur représente le processus de détermination de la possibilité forestière (responsabilité du gouvernement), et le niveau inférieur représente le processus de consommation de la fibre (responsabilité de l’industrie). Nous montrons que la formulation biniveau peux atténuer le risque de ruptures de stock, améliorant ainsi la crédibilité du processus de planification forestière hiérarchique. Ensemble, le modèle biniveau d’optimisation de la possibilité forestière et la méthodologie que nous avons développée pour résoudre celui-ci à l’optimalité, représentent une alternative aux méthodes actuellement utilisées. Notre modèle biniveau et le cadre de simulation itérative représentent un pas vers l’avant en matière de technologie de planification forestière axée sur la création de valeur. L’intégration explicite d’objectifs et de contraintes industrielles au processus de planification forestière, dès la détermination de la possibilité forestière, devrait favoriser une collaboration accrue entre les instances gouvernementales et industrielles, permettant ainsi d’exploiter le plein potentiel de création de valeur de la ressource forestière.

GeoPlexo: um material manipulável para o ensino dos números complexos

This study aims to develop a manipulative material to assist the teaching and learning of Complex Numbers. Primarily, It tries to define the status of the current teaching of Complex Numbers, having as guide the bias of the research produced in dissertations and published on the website of Capes and the Virtual Library of Profmat from 2004 to 2014. It presents historical aspects of the theme, a mathematical foundation and a discussion of the use of manipulative materials as teaching resources for the teaching of mathematics. It introduces the manipulative material called GeoPlexo and a sequence of activities of potentiation and settling of complex numbers, explaining its use. It concludes with the importance of manipulative materials as a teaching resource for the teaching of Complex Numbers, especially regarding the geometric visualization of this mathematical object.

Close encounters: international exhibitions and the material culture of the British Empire, c.1880-1940

Apparitions of empire and imperial ideologies were deeply embedded in the International Exhibition, a distinct exhibitionary paradigm that came to prominence in the mid-nineteenth century. Exhibitions were platforms for the display of objects, the movement of people, and the dissemination of ideas across and between regions of the British Empire, thereby facilitating contact between its different cultures and societies. This thesis aims to disrupt a dominant understanding of International Exhibitions, which forwards the notion that all exhibitions, irrespective of when or where they were staged, upheld a singular imperial discourse (i.e. Greenhalgh 1988, Rydell 1984). Rather, this thesis suggests International Exhibitions responded to and reflected the unique social, political and economic circumstances in which they took place, functioning as cultural environments in which pressing concerns of the day were worked through. Understood thus, the International Exhibition becomes a space for self-presentation, serving as a stage from which a multitude of interests and identities were constructed, performed and projected. This thesis looks to the visual and material culture of the International Exhibition in order to uncover this more nuanced history, and foregrounds an analysis of the intersections between practices of exhibition-making and identity-making. The primary focus is a set of exhibitions held in Glasgow in the late-1880s and early-1900s, which extends the geographic and temporal boundaries of the existing scholarship. What is more, it looks at representations of Canada at these events, another party whose involvement in the International Exhibition tradition has gone largely unnoticed. Consequently, this thesis is a thematic investigation of the links between a municipality routinely deemed the ‘Second City of the Empire’ and a Dominion settler colony, two types of geographic setting rarely brought into dialogue. It analyses three key elements of the exhibition-making process, exploring how iconographies of ‘quasi-nationhood’ were expressed through an exhibition’s planning and negotiation, its architecture and its displays. This original research framework deliberately cuts across strata that continue to define conceptions of the British Empire, and pushes beyond a conceptual model defined by metropole and colony. Through examining International Exhibitions held in Glasgow in the late-Victorian and Edwardian periods, and visions of Canada in evidence at these events, the goal is to offer a novel intervention into the existing literature concerning the cultural history of empire, one that emphasises fluidity rather than fixity and which muddles the boundaries between centre and periphery.

MSW: from pollution/degradation source to resource

Municipal Solid Waste is one of the biggest challenges that cities are facing: MSW is considered of the main sources of energy consumption, urban degradation and pollution. This paper defines the major negative effects of MSW on cities and proposes new solutions to guide waste policies. Most contemporary waste management efforts are focused at regional government level and based on high tech waste disposal by methods such as landfill and incineration. However, these methods are becoming increasingly expensive, energy inefficient and pollutant: waste disposal is not sustainable and will have negative implications for future generations. In this paper are proposed all the principle solutions that could be undertaken. New policy instruments are presented updating and adapting policies and encouraging innovation for less wasteful systems. Waste management plans are fundamental to increase the ability of urban areas effectively to adapt to waste challenges. These plans have to give an outline of waste streams and treatment options and provide a scenario for the following years that significantly reduce landfills and incinerators in favor of prevention, reuse and recycling. The key aim of an urban waste management plan is to set out the work towards a zero waste economy as part of the transition to a sustainable economy. Other questions remain still opened: How to change people’s behavior? What is the role of environmental education and risk perception? It is sure that the involvement of the various stakeholders and the wider public in the planning process should aim at ensuring acceptance of the waste policy.

O ensino da química na perspectiva da literacia química: recursos didácticos para o ensino básico

Defende-se hoje que o Ensino Básico deve, acima de tudo, dotar os alunos de competências que lhes permitam interagir com a sociedade em que se inserem, o que legitima as expectativas no sentido da formação de cidadãos capacitados para exercer a sua responsabilidade social. O processo de Reorganização Curricular do Ensino Básico actualmente em curso, em Portugal, segue esta orientação e propõe um ensino das ciências no sentido da formação dos alunos para a literacia científica. Ora, neste contexto o movimento CTS (Ciência-Tecnologia-Sociedade) assume-se como uma filosofia de ensino que muito se coaduna com os fins pretendidos. Para tal, é importante ter recursos didácticos consonantes com esta perspectiva, que suportem as práticas dos professores. O presente estudo teve por objectivo conceber e validar recursos didácticos CTS utilizáveis por professores e alunos, no âmbito do ensino e da aprendizagem do tema Sustentabilidade na Terra, no 3º ciclo do Ensino Básico. O percurso metodológico seguido incluiu várias etapas de entre as quais se destacam pela sua importância: a selecção de um contexto viável para a abordagem do tema Sustentabilidade na Terra; a planificação da abordagem CTS do referido tema; a formulação de questões-problema centradas nos domínios científico, social e tecnológico; a definição dos objectivos CTS na abordagem do problema em causa; a organização de estratégias de exploração das questões problema; a validação dos Recursos Didácticos por professores de Química qualificados e experientes. Optou-se, de uma forma fundamentada, pelo contexto geral “Barragem de Alqueva”. O produto final do presente estudo apresenta-se na forma de um Caderno de Recursos Didácticos CTS constituído por catorze actividades, organizado em Notas para o Professor, Tarefas para o Aluno e Resposta Adequada, concebidas para o contexto geral Barragem de Alqueva, e estruturadas em torno de quatro sub-temas orientadores: Água, Energia, Materiais e Resíduos. Com vista à validação dos Recursos Didácticos construídos planificou-se e realizou-se o Workshop “Sustentabilidade na Terra – perspectivas didácticas para a sua abordagem” que foi dinamizado pela autora e dirigido a um painel de treze Professores Avaliadores e no qual participaram também, como Avaliadoras Externas, duas professoras especialistas em formação de professores. VII O processo de validação evidenciou que na opinião dos avaliadores: o contexto Barragem de Alqueva é de grande relevância social e adequado à abordagem da temática Sustentabilidade na Terra; os recursos didácticos são adequados quanto ao interesse e extensão dos textos inseridos nas problemáticas desenvolvidas, quanto à adequabilidade da linguagem à faixa etária a que se destinam, quanto ao grau de profundidade dos objectos de ensino, favorecem o desenvolvimento de uma atitude crítica, favorecem o desenvolvimento de uma atitude investigativa, de recolha de dados e busca de informação complementar, contribuem para o desenvolvimento de atitudes de preservação do ambiente e contribuem para a compreensão do tema Sustentabilidade na Terra; as questões que constituem as Tarefas para o Aluno são, em geral, exequíveis pelos alunos a que se destinam. O processo de validação foi considerado quer pelos Professores Avaliadores, quer pelas Avaliadoras Externas, adequado aos objectivos do Workshop e, de um modo geral, muito importante na formulação de uma opinião sobre os Recursos Didácticos. As Avaliadoras Externas consideraram-no válido e fiável o que legitima as conclusões dele decorrentes. Deste modo, pode dizer-se que o contributo do presente estudo para a inovação no ensino da Química se reflecte no Caderno de Recursos Didácticos construído bem como na explicitação de uma metodologia útil para investigadores e professores interessados na concepção e construção de recursos CTS.

Urban Planning 3. Informal notes from the course's theoretical and practical content

This document compiles in an informal manner, some of the theoretical teaching content considered for the Urban Planning 3, course 2013- 2014. It also includes the outline and hand-in instructions of the two practical exercises developed during the course. The purpose of this compilation of teaching notes is to serve as reference and basis for future courses taught in English, as this was the first experience for the subject Urban Planning 3.

Living on Both Sides of the Fence: A Phenomenological Study of Human Resource Development Professionals as Downsizing Survivors and Strategic Human Resource Development Facilitators

This phenomenological study explored how HR professionals who identified themselves as facilitators of strategic HRD (SHRD) perceived the experience of being an organizational agent-downsizing survivor. Criterion and snowball sampling were used to recruit 15 participants for this study. A semi-structured interview guide was used to interview participants. Creswell’s (2007) simplified version of Moustakas’s (1994) Modification of the Stevick-Colaizzi-Keen Method of Analysis of Phenomenological Data was used to analyze the data. Four main themes and corresponding sub-themes emerged from an inductive data analysis. The four main themes were a) the emotionality of downsizing, b) feeling responsible, c) choice and control, and d) possibilities for growth. Participants perceived downsizing as an emotional organizational change event that required them to manage their own emotions while helping others do the same. They performed their roles within an organizational atmosphere that was perceived as chaotic and filled with apprehension, shock, and a sense of ongoing loss, sadness and grieving. They sometimes experienced guilt and doubt and felt deceptive for having to keep secrets from others when planning for downsizing. Participants felt a strong sense of responsibility to protect employees emotionally, balance employee and organizational interests, and try to ensure the best outcomes for both. Often being there for others meant that they put on their games faces and took care of themselves last. Participants spoke of the importance of choosing one’s attitude, being proactive rather than reactive, and finding ways to regain control in the midst of organizational crisis. They also perceived that although downsizing was emotionally difficult to go through that it provided possibilities for self, employee, and organizational growth.

Multi-Scale Governance of Sustainable Natural Resource Use—Challenges and Opportunities for Monitoring and Institutional Development at the National and Global Level

In a globalized economy, the use of natural resources is determined by the demand of modern production and consumption systems, and by infrastructure development. Sustainable natural resource use will require good governance and management based on sound scientific information, data and indicators. There is a rich literature on natural resource management, yet the national and global scale and macro-economic policy making has been underrepresented. We provide an overview of the scholarly literature on multi-scale governance of natural resources, focusing on the information required by relevant actors from local to global scale. Global natural resource use is largely determined by national, regional, and local policies. We observe that in recent decades, the development of public policies of natural resource use has been fostered by an “inspiration cycle” between the research, policy and statistics community, fostering social learning. Effective natural resource policies require adequate monitoring tools, in particular indicators for the use of materials, energy, land, and water as well as waste and GHG emissions of national economies. We summarize the state-of-the-art of the application of accounting methods and data sources for national material flow accounts and indicators, including territorial and product-life-cycle based approaches. We show how accounts on natural resource use can inform the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and argue that information on natural resource use, and in particular footprint indicators, will be indispensable for a consistent implementation of the SDGs. We recognize that improving the knowledge base for global natural resource use will require further institutional development including at national and international levels, for which we outline options.

Evaluación de la exposición laboral a material particulado en empresas pertenecientes a diferentes sectores económicos en Colombia, 2014

Introducción El material particulado son partículas sólidas y líquidas emitidas al aire, las cuales pueden generar diferentes alteraciones en la salud, variando desde cuadros respiratorios alérgicos, a episodios asmáticos, dermatitis o inclusive llegar a facilitar la génesis de enfermedades de tipo neoplásico. Estos pueden tener origen natural e industrial, encontrandose en diferentes actividades económicas. Objetivo Evaluar la exposición laboral a material particulado en empresas pertenecientes a diferentes sectores económicos afiliadas a una ARL en Colombia, en el periodo comprendido entre 2011 al 2014 Metodología Es un estudio de corte transversal, analizando una base de datos de 257 empresas con 1108 mediciones de material particulado, recolectados entre 2011 – 2014. Las variables usadas fueron: región, actividad económica, área, oficio, tiempo de exposición y concentración de material particulado. Se realizó distribuciones de frecuencia, medidas de tendencia central y de dispersión. Se evaluaron las diferencias de las distribuciones de los tiempos de exposición y el porcentaje de exposición entre los grupos con y sin riesgo (los que sobrepasaban o no los límites permisibles), con la prueba asintótica no paramétrica de Mann Whitney. Resultados Las principales mediciones ambientales en las empresas fueron en la industria química con un 31%, siendo 2 de cada 3 datos pertenecientes a la región andina, las cuales tienen como principales contaminantes químicos las partículas no fraccionadas con el 70,9%. Respecto a las concentraciones ambientales de material particulado en las empresas participantes, se encontró un promedio de 1,72 mg/m3 ± 3,613, con una mediana de 0,480 mg/m3 y un coeficiente de variación de 210,05%. El 2,9% sobrepasaron los valores límites establecidos por la ACGIH (American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists) y el 92,5% según los límites de la EPA (Agencia de Protección del Ambiente), presentando mayor riesgo en el personal operativo con 93,3% (p= 0,002). Conclusión El riesgo según los límites establecidos por la ACGIH para las mediciones realizadas en Colombia fue bajo, aunque al utilizar los parámetros de la EPA, el riesgo fue alto, por lo cual se requiere hacer un seguimiento específico a estas empresas y fomentar la implementación del sistema de gestión en seguridad y salud en el trabajo.

On the motion planning & control of nonlinear robotic systems

In the last decades, we saw a soaring interest in autonomous robots boosted not only by academia and industry, but also by the ever in- creasing demand from civil users. As a matter of fact, autonomous robots are fast spreading in all aspects of human life, we can see them clean houses, navigate through city traffic, or harvest fruits and vegetables. Almost all commercial drones already exhibit unprecedented and sophisticated skills which makes them suitable for these applications, such as obstacle avoidance, simultaneous localisation and mapping, path planning, visual-inertial odometry, and object tracking. The major limitations of such robotic platforms lie in the limited payload that can carry, in their costs, and in the limited autonomy due to finite battery capability. For this reason researchers start to develop new algorithms able to run even on resource constrained platforms both in terms of computation capabilities and limited types of endowed sensors, focusing especially on very cheap sensors and hardware. The possibility to use a limited number of sensors allowed to scale a lot the UAVs size, while the implementation of new efficient algorithms, performing the same task in lower time, allows for lower autonomy. However, the developed robots are not mature enough to completely operate autonomously without human supervision due to still too big dimensions (especially for aerial vehicles), which make these platforms unsafe for humans, and the high probability of numerical, and decision, errors that robots may make. In this perspective, this thesis aims to review and improve the current state-of-the-art solutions for autonomous navigation from a purely practical point of view. In particular, we deeply focused on the problems of robot control, trajectory planning, environments exploration, and obstacle avoidance.

Effect Of Platform Connection And Abutment Material On Stress Distribution In Single Anterior Implant-supported Restorations: A Nonlinear 3-dimensional Finite Element Analysis.

Although various abutment connections and materials have recently been introduced, insufficient data exist regarding the effect of stress distribution on their mechanical performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of different abutment materials and platform connections on stress distribution in single anterior implant-supported restorations with the finite element method. Nine experimental groups were modeled from the combination of 3 platform connections (external hexagon, internal hexagon, and Morse tapered) and 3 abutment materials (titanium, zirconia, and hybrid) as follows: external hexagon-titanium, external hexagon-zirconia, external hexagon-hybrid, internal hexagon-titanium, internal hexagon-zirconia, internal hexagon-hybrid, Morse tapered-titanium, Morse tapered-zirconia, and Morse tapered-hybrid. Finite element models consisted of a 4×13-mm implant, anatomic abutment, and lithium disilicate central incisor crown cemented over the abutment. The 49 N occlusal loading was applied in 6 steps to simulate the incisal guidance. Equivalent von Mises stress (σvM) was used for both the qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the implant and abutment in all the groups and the maximum (σmax) and minimum (σmin) principal stresses for the numerical comparison of the zirconia parts. The highest abutment σvM occurred in the Morse-tapered groups and the lowest in the external hexagon-hybrid, internal hexagon-titanium, and internal hexagon-hybrid groups. The σmax and σmin values were lower in the hybrid groups than in the zirconia groups. The stress distribution concentrated in the abutment-implant interface in all the groups, regardless of the platform connection or abutment material. The platform connection influenced the stress on abutments more than the abutment material. The stress values for implants were similar among different platform connections, but greater stress concentrations were observed in internal connections.