Homogenization of elliptic problems in thin domains with oscillatory boundaries

Los dominios finos, es decir, dominios sustancialmente más pequeños en alguna o varias de sus direcciones que en el resto, aparecen en muchos campos de la ciencia. Por ejemplo, dinámica de fluídos (lubricación, conducción de fluídos en tubos delgados, dinámica de oceanos...), mecánica de sólidos (barras delgadas, placas o cáscaras) o incluso en fisiología (circulación de la sangre). Así, el amplio número de posibles aplicaciones a situaciones reales ha hecho que la investigación de modelos de ecuaciones en derivadas parciales en dominios finos se convierta en un tema muy estudiado en los últimos años. Desde un punto de vista matemático, el estudio de las soluciones de una EDP en un dominio fino es un caso particular de la cuestión general relativa a cómo la variación de los dominios afecta al comportamiento de las soluciones de la EDP. En este marco, obtener la ecuación límite del modelo considerado, comparar la solución de la ecuación límite y las soluciones del problema en el dominio fino, analizar los coeficientes de la ecuación límite y comprender cómo la geometría del dominio afecta a la ecuación límite son algunos de los objetivos que deberían ser alcanzados. De hecho, es importante señalar que este tipo de cuestiones no sólo proporcionan importantes resultados teóricos sino que son muy relevantes desde el punto de vista de las aplicaciones. Por ejemplo, ser capaz de reducir el problema original a un problema mucho más sencillo, problema límite, que refleje las principales características del problema de partida puede ser muy útil para ingenieros y físicos...

Transactions, space and otherness : borders and boundaries in Palestine-Israel

Peer reviewed

Economising, Strategising and the Vertical Boundaries of the Firm

Acknowledgments: We are grateful to Celine Azemar, Ron Davies, Rodolphe Desbordes, Hartmut Egger, Holger Görg, Michael Moore, Ali Naghavi, Peter Neary, Pascalis RaimondosMøller, Ian Wooton and two anonymous referees for useful comments and suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies.

Organisational system and performance of post-disaster reconstruction projects

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Organisational system and performance of post-disaster reconstruction projects

Un document accompagne la thèse et est disponible pour consultation au Centre de conservation des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal (http://www.bib.umontreal.ca/conservation/).

Nagaland: Borders, Boundaries, Belonging: Contested spaces and disputed narratives

In 2011 I travelled to three of the ‘Seven Sister’ states of old Assam, Nagaland, Meghalaya & Assam. My journey to this remote and politically sensitive region, bordering Chinese occupied Tibet, Bangladesh and Myanmar was prompted by my father’s experiences in the region during WW2 in the Burma Campaign and brought into sharp relief on-going themes in my work, the impact the past has on the present, the relationship of time and place, identity and memory and the transcultural experiences caused by war, colonisation and migration. The drawings I made on location, the objects I collected and the notes and photographs I took formed the basis of the bookwork: NAGALAND borders boundaries belonging. When making the finished work the material quality of the object and the processes by which it was made become very important. The historical resonance of the medium and the time consuming nature of the process reflect the embedding of form and idea, and paid homage to the material culture of the Naga hill tribes. The bookwork was hand-bound, handset and printed by letterpress. Some spreads were printed in 6 colours and the book took over a year to produce. I see my practice as echoing that of generations of Lady travellers; embracing the need to journey, be in a liminal space, to have a plan but not be afraid to divert from it. To be alone, take a sketchbook and make images is, for me, the definition of the itinerant illustrator; one who travels widely in geographic space, visual forms and ideas, in order to get lost and find the unlooked for.

Organisational factors affecting transition from children’s to adult services by young adults with life-limiting conditions in Ireland

The making of professionals: Embedded civil society development in a transition country

The paper addresses the development of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in transition settings. Caught in the balance of knowledge exchange and translation of ideas from abroad, organisations in turbulent setting legitimise their existence by learning through professional networks. By association, organisational actors gain acknowledgement by their sector by traversing the corridors of influence provided by international partnerships. What they learn is how to conduct themselves as agents of change in society, and how to deliver on stated missions and goals, therefore, legitimising their presence in a budding civil society at home. The paper presents a knowledge production and learning practices framework which indicates a presence of dual identity of NGOs - their “embeddedness” locally and internationally. Selected framework dimensions and qualitative case study themes are discussed with respect to the level of independence of organisational actors in the East from their partners in the West in a post-socialist context. A professional global civil society as organisations are increasingly managed in similar, professional ways (Anheier & Themudo 2002). Here knowledge “handling” and knowledge “translation” take place through partnership exchanges fostering capable and/or competitive change-inducing institutions (Czarniawska & Sevon 2005; Hwang & Suarez 2005). How professional identity presents itself in the third sector, as well as the sector’s claim to expertise, need further attention, adding to ongoing discussions on professions in institutional theory (Hwang & Powell 2005; Scott 2008; Noordegraaf 2011). A conceptual framework on the dynamic involved for the construction professional fields follows: • Multiple case analysis provides a taxonomy for understanding what is happening in knowledge transition, adaptation, and organisational learning capacity for NGOs with respect to their role in a networked civil society. With the model we can observe the types of knowledge produced and learning employed by organisations. • There are elements of professionalisation in third sector work organisational activity with respect to its accreditation, sources and routines of learning, knowledge claims, interaction with the statutory sector, recognition in cross-sector partnerships etc. • It signals that there is a dual embeddedness in the development of the sector at the core to the shaping the sector’s professional status. This is instrumental in the NGOs’ goal to gain influence as institutions, as they are only one part of a cross-sector mission to address complex societal problems The case study material highlights nuances of knowledge production and learning practices in partnerships, with dual embeddedness a main feature of the findings. This provides some clues to how professionalisation as expert-making takes shape in organisations: • Depending on the type of organisations’ purpose, over its course of development there is an increase in participation in multiple networks, as opposed to reliance on a single strategic partner for knowledge artefacts and practices; • Some types of organisations are better connected within international and national networks than others and there seem to be preferences for each depending on the area of work; • The level of interpretation or adaptation of the knowledge artefacts is related to an organisation’s embeddedness locally, in turn giving it more influence within the network of key institutions; An overreaching theme across taxonomy categories (Table 1)is “professionalisation” or developing organisational “expertise”, embodied at the individual, organisational, and sector levels. Questions relevant to the exercise of power arise: Is competence in managing a dual embeddedness signals the development of a dual identity in professionalisation? Is professionalisation in this sense a sign of organisations maturing into more capable partners to the arguably more experienced (Western) institutions, shifting the power balance? Or is becoming more professional a sign of domestication to the agenda of certain powerful stakeholders, who define the boundaries of the profession? Which dominant dynamics can be observed in a broadly-defined transition country civil society, where individual participation in the form of activism may be overtaking the traditional forms of organised development work, especially with the spread of social media?

Efficient simulations with electronic open boundaries

We present a reformulation of the hairy-probe method for introducing electronic open boundaries that is appropriate for steady-state calculations involving nonorthogonal atomic basis sets. As a check on the correctness of the method we investigate a perfect atomic wire of Cu atoms and a perfect nonorthogonal chain of H atoms. For both atom chains we find that the conductance has a value of exactly one quantum unit and that this is rather insensitive to the strength of coupling of the probes to the system, provided values of the coupling are of the same order as the mean interlevel spacing of the system without probes. For the Cu atom chain we find in addition that away from the regions with probes attached, the potential in the wire is uniform, while within them it follows a predicted exponential variation with position. We then apply the method to an initial investigation of the suitability of graphene as a contact material for molecular electronics. We perform calculations on a carbon nanoribbon to determine the correct coupling strength of the probes to the graphene and obtain a conductance of about two quantum units corresponding to two bands crossing the Fermi surface. We then compute the current through a benzene molecule attached to two graphene contacts and find only a very weak current because of the disruption of the π conjugation by the covalent bond between the benzene and the graphene. In all cases we find that very strong or weak probe couplings suppress the current.

Shadow policing: the boundaries of community-based ‘policing’ in Northern Ireland

The intention of this article is to provide a structural and operational analysis of policing beyond the police in Northern Ireland. While the polity enjoys low levels of ‘officially’ recorded crime as part of its post-conflict status, little empirical analysis exists as to the epistemological roots of security production outside that of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. The empirical evidence presented seeks to establish that beyond more prominent analyses related to paramilitary ‘policing’, the country is in fact replete with a substantial reservoir of legitimate civil society policing – the collective mass of which contributes to policing, community safety and quality of life issues. While such non-state policing at the level of locale was recognised by the Independent Commission for Policing, structured understandings have rarely permeated governmental or academic discourse beyond anecdotal contentions. Thus, the present argument provides an empirical assessment of the complex, non-state policing landscape beyond the formal state apparatus; examines definitions and structures of such community-based policing activities; and explores issues related to co-opting this non-state security ‘otherness’ into more formal relations with the state.