30 research outputs found
Living under the Rubber Boom: Market Integration and Agrarian Transformations in the Lao Uplands
No full textThis thesis investigates market integration and agrarian transformations in the uplands of the Lao PDR through the lens of the rubber ’boom’. The study addresses the processes and consequences of rubber expansion on upland spaces and populations. The thesis draws on fieldwork undertaken in four upland communities in Luang Namtha province in the north-western Lao PDR. The chosen study settlements are different in the levels of market and spatial integration as well as in the form that rubber investment takes. Through employing a mixed-method approach (household surveys and in-depth interviews), the study shows how various actors (market forces and market actors, the transnational and domestic states, state personnel, and uplanders themselves) and conditions (the histories of village settlement and agricultural land access, levels of market and geographical connections, and relations between uplanders and the state and state personnel) have influenced the ways in which rubber has expanded into these upland communities. The study, while recording some particularities of agrarian transformations among the four settlements, also highlights some commonalities. These similarities include: i) changes to the upland economy and land use from semi-subsistence to market-oriented production, ii) transformation of land rights and control from collective to private and quasi-private systems, and iii) increasing risks to the sustainability of upland livelihoods, especially for those who were formerly highly reliant on shifting agriculture. The findings of this study contribute to the existing literature and debates about agrarian transformations in Southeast Asia, the nature of global land grabs, the roles of different actors in shaping agrarian processes, and the evolving place of the state in a time of globalisation. Taken together, the thesis provides a better understanding on the processes of market integration in the frontiers of the ‘reforming’ Lao PDR
Framework for policy aware content reuse on the WWW
No full textThesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2009.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 79-82).This thesis focuses on methods for detecting and preventing license violations, in a step towards policy aware content reuse on the Web. This framework builds upon the Creative Commons (CC) Rights Expression Language, which provides a very clear and a widely accepted set of licenses grounded in Semantic Web technologies. These licenses are machine readable, and indicates to a person who wishes to reuse the content exactly how it should be used. An experiment on CC attribution license violations on Flickr images revealed the attribution license violation rate on the Web to be around 70-90% from samples of Websites that had at least one embedded Flickr image. Therefore, it is evident that there should be robust mechanisms for detecting license violations on the Web and prevent those happening, if possible. The primary objective is to enable the user to do the right thing instead of preventing the user from doing the wrong thing. As a solution, we have implemented (1) "Attribution License Violations Validator" for Flickr images and, (2) the more generic "Semantic Clipboard". The "Attribution License Violations Validator" can be used to validate users' work against any attribution license violation. The "Semantic Clipboard", which is implemented as a component of the Tabulator Firefox extension, allows the user to copy an image with its license metadata expressed in Resource Description Framework in annotations (RDFa) in the original source document to any other document.by Oshani Wasana Seneviratne.S.M
What are the secrets of successful process modelling? Insights from an Australian case study
No full textL'intérêt suscité par la ré-ingénierie des processus et les technologies de l'information révèle l'émergence du paradigme du management par les processus. Bien que beaucoup d'études aient été publiées sur des outils et techniques alternatives de modélisation de processus, peu d'attention a été portée à l'évaluation post-hoc des activités de modélisation de processus ou à l'établissement de directives sur la façon de conduire efficacement une modélisation de processus. La présente étude a pour objectif de combler ce manque. Nous présentons les résultats d'une étude de cas détaillée, conduite dans une organisation leader australienne dans le but de construire un modèle de réussite de la modélisation des processus
An analysis of English-Thai translation of cartoon motion pictures
No full textSubmission note: A thesis submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Linguistics Program, School of Communication Arts and Critical Enquiry, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Bundoora
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No full text© The material presented in this paper are copyrighted to the authors of this work (2007). BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PROCESS MODELING: AN EMERGING RESEARCH FIELD Business process modeling has emerged as an immensely popular purpose of conceptual modeling in practice. Research on business process modeling is based on diverse topics of research methods and covers a wide area including modeling techniques, methodologies, methods and tools, but increasingly also empirical studies related to success factors, complexity drivers, experience reports and success measures. This paper contributes to the related body of knowledge by providing a first consolidated annotated bibliography of process modeling with a focus on Information Systems-related research. The paper discusses the overall article extraction method and gives a snap shot of the current research trends, reporting on different publication outlets and of the rigor of the published work. Moreover, it provides a detailed analysis of the specific content of the papers. As such, it provides not only important references for researchers in this field, but also contributes to the design of a research agenda
What Are the Secrets of Successful Process Modelling? Insights From an Australian Case Study
No full textContemporary management and IT concepts emphasize the importance of process-oriented management concepts as a business paradigm. While there has been much research and publications on alternative process modelling techniques and tools, little attention has focused on post-hoc evaluation of actual process modelling activities or on deriving comprehensive guidelines on 'how-to' conduct process modelling effectively. This study aims at addressing this gap, and reports on a detailed case study conducted at a leading Australian organisation, with the aim of building a process modelling success model.L'intérêt suscité par la ré-ingénierie des processus et les technologies de l'information révèle l'émergence du paradigme du management par les processus. Bien que beaucoup d'études aient été publiées sur des outils et techniques alternatives de modélisation de processus, peu d'attention a été portée à l'évaluation post-hoc des activités de modélisation de processus ou à l'établissement de directives sur la façon de conduire efficacement une modélisation de processus. La présente étude a pour objectif de combler ce manque. Nous présentons les résultats d'une étude de cas détaillée, conduite dans une organisation leader australienne dans le but de construire un modèle de réussite de la modélisation des processus
An analysis of English-Thai translation of cartoon motion pictures
No full textSubmission note: A thesis submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Linguistics Program, School of Communication Arts and Critical Enquiry, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Bundoora
Using normalised difference infrared index patterns to constrain semi-distributed rainfall–runoff models in tropical nested catchments
No full textA parsimonious semi-distributed rainfall–runoff model has been developed for flow prediction. In distribution, attention is paid to both the timing of the runoff and the heterogeneity of moisture storage capacities within sub-catchments. This model is based on the lumped FLEXL model structure, which has proven its value in a wide range of catchments. To test the value of distribution, the gauged upper Ping catchment in Thailand has been divided into 32 sub-catchments, which can be grouped into five gauged sub-catchments at which internal performance is evaluated. To test the effect of timing, first the excess rainfall was calculated for each sub-catchment, using the model structure of FLEXL. The excess rainfall was then routed to its outlet using the lag time from the storm to peak flow (TlagF) and the lag time of recharge from the root zone to the groundwater (TlagS), as a function of catchment size. Subsequently, the Muskingum equation was used to route sub-catchment runoff to the downstream sub-catchment, with the delay time parameter of the Muskingum equation being a function of channel length. Other model parameters of this semi-distributed FLEX-SD model were kept the same as in the calibrated FLEXL model of the entire upper Ping River basin (UPRB), controlled by station P.1 located at the centre of Chiang Mai province. The outcome of FLEX-SD was compared to the (1) observations at the internal stations, (2) calibrated FLEXL model, and (3) the semi-distributed URBS model – another established semi-distributed rainfall–runoff model. FLEX-SD showed better or similar performance during calibration and especially in validation. Subsequently, we tried to distribute the moisture storage capacity by constraining FLEX-SD on patterns of the NDII (normalised difference infrared index). The readily available NDII appears to be a good proxy for moisture stress in the root zone during dry periods. The maximum moisture-holding capacity in the root zone is assumed to be a function of the maximum seasonal range of NDII values and the annual average NDII values to construct two alternative models, namely FLEX-SD-NDIIMaxMin and FLEX-SD-NDIIAvg. The additional constraint on the moisture-holding capacity (Sumax) by NDII, particularly in FLEX-SD-NDIIAvg, improved both the model performance and the realism of its distribution across the UPRB, which corresponds linearly to the percentage of evergreen forests (R2=0.69). To check how well the models represents simulated root zone soil moisture (Sui), the performance of the FLEX-SD-NDII models was compared to the time series of the soil water index (SWI). The correlation between the Sui and the daily SWI appeared to be very good and was even better than the correlation with the NDII, which does not provide good estimates during wet periods. The SWI, which is model-based, was not used for calibration but appeared to be an appropriate index for validation
Assessment of proximal and peripheral airway dysfunction by computed tomography and respiratory impedance in asthma and COPD patients with fixed airflow obstruction
No full textOBJECTIVE: To ascertain: (i) if elderly patients with fixed airflow obstruction (FAO) due to asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have distinct airway morphologic and physiologic changes; (ii) the correlation between the morphology of proximal/peripheral airways and respiratory impedance.
METHODS: Twenty-five asthma cases with FAO and 22 COPD patients were enrolled. High-resolution computed tomography was used to measure the wall area (WA) and lumen area (LA) of the proximal airway at the apical segmental bronchus of the right upper lobe (RB1) adjusted by body surface area (BSA) and bronchial wall thickening (BWTr) of the peripheral airways and extent of expiratory air trapping (ATexp). Respiratory impedance included resistance at 5 Hz (R5) and 20 Hz (R20) and resonant frequency (Fres). Total lung capacity (TLC) and residual volume (RV) were measured.
RESULTS: Asthma patients had smaller RB1-LA/BSA than COPD patients (10.5 ± 3.4 vs. 13.3 ± 5.0 mm2/m2, P = 0.037). R5 (5.5 ± 2.0 vs. 3.4 ± 1.0 cmH2O/L/s, P = 0.02) and R20(4.2 ± 1.7 vs. 2.6 ± 0.7 cmH2O/L/s, P = 0.001) were higher in asthma cases. ATexp and BWTr were similar in both groups. Regression analysis in asthma showed that forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and Fres were associated with RB1-WA/BSA (R2 = 0.34, P = 0.005) and BWTr (0.5, 0.012), whereas RV/TLC was associated with ATexp (0.38, 0.001).
CONCLUSIONS: Asthma patients with FAO had a smaller LA and higher resistance of the proximal airways than COPD patients. FEV1 and respiratory impedance correlated with airway morphology
