The role of populist parties in the geopolitical discourse in Lithuania

This thesis examines the geopolitical position of two non-mainstream, populist Lithuanian parties, Labour Party and Order and Justice, in several parliamentary debates dealing with geopolitically important issues. The study is based on electoral cleavage theory with the pro-soviet/anti-soviet cleavage identified as the main cleavage in Lithuania that partly overlaps with the winners/losers of transition and urban/rural cleavages. In the frame of quantitative and qualitative content analysis, several analytical categories are introduced, including topics, ideas and tactics used by the representatives of the parties. The analysis showed that Labour Party hardly displays any characteristics that would qualify them as strikingly pro-Russian, populist or a combination of these two, perhaps due to its ongoing transformation into a mainstream party. In the case of Order and Justice, what differentiates them from other Lithuanian parties and makes it interesting from the point of view of the research are the ideas that can be recognized from their rhetoric: these partly show resemblance with the official rhetoric of the Kremlin and partly mirror common notions about Russia. Populism in the case of these parties seems to mean rather identifying with the mind-set of a significant part of the population. As for the role of the two parties in the geopolitical discourse, the study concludes that they represent a voice in geopolitical matters that is to some extent different from the rhetoric of the mainstream parties, but they are not consequent enough, do not have a coherent set of ideas and lack a firm stance based on it. Their behaviour in geopolitical debates is rather opportunistic. Although they use some ideas that may originate from the Kremlin (‘double standards’, ‘depicting the EU and NATO as colonizers’) there is no sufficient evidence to state that they act as agents of Russia. The parties’ relative passivity and moderation in these debates can be explained by their lack of interest in geopolitical issues and general ideological emptiness pointed out by analysts as well as their possible fear of ostracism in case of harshly contradicting the mainstream geopolitical discourse and their presence in the government during most of the debates. Keywords: Lithuania, Russia, geopolitics, populism, cleavages, parliamentary rhetorichttp://www.ester.ee/record=b4614518*es

EU Law and International Cooperation in Criminal Matters: a tale of legal competence and political competency

This chapter provides an analysis of EU criminal justice as an external policy. It identifies its restrictions based on the lack of criminal law competence in the foreign policy realm. In lieu of the lack of such competence, the chapter will then discuss the advancement of indirect EU international cooperation in criminal matters by identifying briefly the instruments available and their legal basis. It will then turn to some case studies, starting with a consideration of the EU’s strategic partnership with Russia and the potential for a new EU-Russia legally binding agreement with criminal law implications and the issues of legislative competence surrounding it. The chapter also considers EU policy on capabilities enhancement in the Western Balkans as part of the development of regional cooperation with a view to EU accession. Once legal competence is established in this context, the purpose is to evaluate the political competency of the EU to influence public policy in the field of criminal justice

Wind Turbine Fault Detection: an Unsupervised vs Semi-Supervised Approach

The need for renewable energy has been growing in recent years for the reasons we all know, wind power is no exception. Wind turbines are complex and expensive structures and the need for maintenance exists. Conditioning Monitoring Systems that make use of supervised machine learning techniques have been recently studied and the results are quite promising. Though, such systems still require the physical presence of professionals but with the advantage of gaining insight of the operating state of the machine in use, to decide upon maintenance interventions beforehand. The wind turbine failure is not an abrupt process but a gradual one. The main goal of this dissertation is: to compare semi-supervised methods to at tack the problem of automatic recognition of anomalies in wind turbines; to develop an approach combining the Mahalanobis Taguchi System (MTS) with two popular fuzzy partitional clustering algorithms like the fuzzy c-means and archetypal analysis, for the purpose of anomaly detection; and finally to develop an experimental protocol to com paratively study the two types of algorithms. In this work, the algorithms Local Outlier Factor (LOF), Connectivity-based Outlier Factor (COF), Cluster-based Local Outlier Factor (CBLOF), Histogram-based Outlier Score (HBOS), k-nearest-neighbours (k-NN), Subspace Outlier Detection (SOD), Fuzzy c-means (FCM), Archetypal Analysis (AA) and Local Minimum Spanning Tree (LoMST) were explored. The data used consisted of SCADA data sets regarding turbine sensorial data, 8 to tal, from a wind farm in the North of Portugal. Each data set comprises between 1070 and 1096 data cases and characterized by 5 features, for the years 2011, 2012 and 2013. The analysis of the results using 7 different validity measures show that, the CBLOF al gorithm got the best results in the semi-supervised approach while LoMST won in the unsupervised scenario. The extension of both FCM and AA got promissing results.A necessidade de produzir energia renovável tem vindo a crescer nos últimos anos pelas razões que todos sabemos, a energia eólica não é excepção. As turbinas eólicas são es truturas complexas e caras e a necessidade de manutenção existe. Sistemas de Condição Monitorizada utilizando técnicas de aprendizagem supervisionada têm vindo a ser estu dados recentemente e os resultados são bastante promissores. No entanto, estes sistemas ainda exigem a presença física de profissionais, mas com a vantagem de obter informa ções sobre o estado operacional da máquina em uso, para decidir sobre intervenções de manutenção antemão. O principal objetivo desta dissertação é: comparar métodos semi-supervisionados para atacar o problema de reconhecimento automático de anomalias em turbinas eólicas; desenvolver um método que combina o Mahalanobis Taguchi System (MTS) com dois mé todos de agrupamento difuso bem conhecidos como fuzzy c-means e archetypal analysis, no âmbito de deteção de anomalias; e finalmente desenvolver um protocolo experimental onde é possível o estudo comparativo entre os dois diferentes tipos de algoritmos. Neste trabalho, os algoritmos Local Outlier Factor (LOF), Connectivity-based Outlier Factor (COF), Cluster-based Local Outlier Factor (CBLOF), Histogram-based Outlier Score (HBOS), k-nearest-neighbours (k-NN), Subspace Outlier Detection (SOD), Fuzzy c-means (FCM), Archetypal Analysis (AA) and Local Minimum Spanning Tree (LoMST) foram explorados. Os conjuntos de dados utilizados provêm do sistema SCADA, referentes a dados sen soriais de turbinas, 8 no total, com origem num parque eólico no Norte de Portugal. Cada um está compreendendido entre 1070 e 1096 observações e caracterizados por 5 caracte rísticas, para os anos 2011, 2012 e 2013. A ánalise dos resultados através de 7 métricas de validação diferentes mostraram que, o algoritmo CBLOF obteve os melhores resultados na abordagem semi-supervisionada enquanto que o LoMST ganhou na abordagem não supervisionada. A extensão do FCM e do AA originou resultados promissores

O różnych wariantach definicji leksykograficznej – od taksonomii do kognitywizmu

The study compares the methods of defining concepts proposed by Anna Wierzbicka and Jerzy Bartmiński. Two variants of the maximal definition are identified: the extended variant, where the definition assumes the form of a narrative explication (Bartmiński), and the synthetic variant, with condensed content of the full definition (Wierzbicka, Bartmiński). Similarities and differences in the approaches of the two scholars to the problem of defining are discussed. The similarities include: the idea that a full understanding of a concept should be accounted for, the proposal that all linguistically, culturally, and communicatively relevant features be reconstructed, a facet-based ordering of the defining sentences, the importance of linguistic evidence for the features being included in the definition. The differences are identified in: the language being used, the use made of the data, the approach to the stability of features in the concept being defined, the ultimate shape (static or dynamic) of the reconstructed image.Autorka dokonuje porównania sposobów eksplikowania pojęć przez Annę Wierzbicką i Jerzego Bartmińskiego. Wyodrębnia dwa warianty definicji maksymalnej – wariant rozbudowany o charakterze narracyjnej eksplikacji (Bartmiński) oraz wariant syntetyczny, zawierający skondensowane treści definicji pełnej (Wierzbicka, Bartmiński). Zestawia podobieństwa i różnice w podejściu do kwestii definiowania przez obydwoje badaczy. Podobieństwa łączy z realizacją postulatu pełnej analizy pojęcia i z odtwarzaniem w definicji wszystkich cech relewantnych językowo, kulturowo i komunikacyjnie, z fasetowym porządkowaniem zdań definiujących i z dbałością o „dowody językowe” dla powoływanych cech. Różnic upatruje w używanym języku, wykorzystywaniu podstaw materiałowych, podejściu do kwestii stabilizacji cech w definiensie oraz w ostatecznym – statycznym lub dynamicznym – kształcie zrekonstruowanego wyobrażenia

Metaphorical expressions of biblical and sacral origin in Russian secular literary texts, with reference to their English equivalents

In this dissertation, I examine metaphorical expressions of biblical and sacral origin (bibleisms) that occur in Russian narrative literary texts. The interpretation of bibleisms is carried out within the framework of interaction theories of metaphor, making it possible to account for the use of bibleisms in Modern Russian, and for the role of their original meanings in the development of their new metaphorical associations. This is viewed as a set of intertextual relationships between the biblical and sacral texts, the Modern Russian language and the literary texts in which the expressions occur. Different types of metaphor are distinguished in terms of interaction theory. This has implications for the translation of bibleisms. It is demonstrated that in different interactive situations, the same bibleism can be referred to different types of metaphor, and hence the translation procedure may only be determined by taking into account the metaphorical language in each individual case.Afrikaans and Theory of LiteratureM.A. (Theory of Literature

Sustainability in Southeast Nigeria Through Indigenous Environmental Education

This dissertation aims to illuminate why Indigenous Knowledge is declining in Igbo land, southeastern Nigeria, and the possibilities of using Indigenous Environmental Education to re-generate Igbo Indigenous Knowledge. The research, focusing on both Nigerian Igbo and diasporic Igbo, has the potential to add nuance and complexity to the discussion of Indigenous Knowledge in the context of Igbo people. This study is motivated by the research question “why is Igbo Indigenous knowledge declining and how has this decline impacted on Igbo language preservation, socio-cultural and ecological sustainability of Igbo people”? In exploring this fundamental question, I argue that a culturally based Indigenous environmental education rooted in Igbo language instruction may assist in preserving Igbo Indigenous knowledge, and local ecological resources. Drawing on postcolonial theory, decolonization and critical pedagogy as theoretical frames, I argue that these approaches interrogate Eurocentric dominant views, rooted in colonialism, that misrepresent and undermine African Indigenous knowledge. This dissertation also offers insight into how a persistent colonial mentality, continues to undermine Igbo worldviews. In conducting this research, I employ Indigenous Methodologies, involving Indigenous approaches to epistemology – stories and personal narratives. These are supplemented with interviews and document analysis. Since Igbo are well-dispersed people, the research design also considers Igbo Diaspora in Toronto to illustrate the effect of locatedness and the influence of a westernized environment on Igbo language and Indigenous Knowledge preservation. The findings from the research suggests that complementary epistemology, through a creative integration of Igbo Indigenous Knowledge and Western epistemic approaches in the school curriculum, presents a viable means of preserving Igbo Indigenous knowledge. Findings further suggest that Igbo youths are interested in Igbo Indigenous knowledge, nevertheless, society’s inability to transfer Indigenous knowledge and widespread western influences presents challenges to the preservation of Indigenous knowledge. Ultimately we must consider how to incorporate Igbo and other Indigenous knowledges, into the educational system so that the low-status accorded to them may be reversed. In the Igbo case, I argue, this warrants an epistemological approach grounded in Igbo language instruction and knowledge of the local environment