Systems for Challenged Network Environments.

Developing regions face significant challenges in network access, making even simple network tasks unpleasant and rich media prohibitively difficult to access. Even as cellular network coverage is approaching a near-universal reach, good network connectivity remains scarce and expensive in many emerging markets. The underlying theme in this dissertation is designing network systems that better accommodate users in emerging markets. To do so, this dissertation begins with a nuanced analysis of content access behavior for web users in developing regions. This analysis finds the personalization of content access---and the fragmentation that results from it---to be significant factors in undermining many existing web acceleration mechanisms. The dissertation explores content access behavior from logs collected at shared internet access sites, as well as user activity information obtained from a commercial social networking service with over a hundred million members worldwide. Based on these observations, the dissertation then discusses two systems designed for improving end-user experience in accessing and using content in constrained networks. First, it deals with the challenge of distributing private content in these networks. By leveraging the wide availability of cellular telephones, the dissertation describes a system for personal content distribution based on user access behavior. The system enables users to request future data accesses, and it schedules content transfers according to current and expected capacity. Second, the dissertation looks at routing bulk data in challenged networks, and describes an experimentation platform for building systems for challenged networks. This platform enables researchers to quickly prototype systems for challenged networks, and iteratively evaluate these systems using mobility and network emulation. The dissertation describes a few data routing systems that were built atop this experimentation platform. Finally, the dissertation discusses the marketplace and service discovery considerations that are important in making these systems viable for developing-region use. In particular, it presents an extensible, auction-based market platform that relies on widely available communication tools for conveniently discovering and trading digital services and goods in developing regions. Collectively, this dissertation brings together several projects that aim to understand and improve end-user experience in challenged networks endemic to developing regions.Ph.D.Computer Science & EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/91401/1/azarias_1.pd

Social-communicative adaptation and Autism Behavior Checklist: associations in the evolution of institutionalized adolescents with autism

OBJETIVO: Verificar a existência de correlação entre os resultados encontrados no Perfil Funcional da Comunicação, o desempenho sócio-cognitivo, o Autistic Behavior Checklist e a adaptação sócio-comunicativa ao longo de seis meses. MÉTODOS: Foram sujeitos dessa pesquisa oito adolescentes autistas institucionalizados que foram avaliados quanto ao perfil funcional da comunicação e desempenho sócio-cognitivo. Os pais, terapeutas e cuidadores da instituição responderam aos questionários de Adaptação Sócio-Comunicativa e da Autistic Behavior Checklist no início da pesquisa e seis meses depois. Os dados obtidos foram submetidos à análise estatística não paramétrica. RESULTADOS: A maior pontuação no Autistic Behavior Checklist está relacionada a menores escores no desempenho sócio-cognitivo e menor número de atos comunicativos. CONCLUSÃO: Houve correlações entre os resultados da Autistic Behavior Checklist e o perfil funcional da comunicação e o desempenho sócio-cognitivo, mas os resultados da adaptação sócio-comunicativa não se correlacionaram com nenhuma das variáveis.PURPOSE: To verify the existence of correlation between the results found in the Functional Communicative Profile, the social-cognitive performance, the Autism Behavior Checklist, and the social-communicative adaptation along a period of six months. METHODS: Participants were eight institutionalized adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders, assessed regarding their functional communicative profile and social-cognitive performance. Parents, caretakers and therapists answered the Social-Communicative Adaptation and the Autistic Behavior Checklist questionnaires in the beginning of the study and six months later. Data were statistically analyzed using non-parametric techniques. RESULTS: Higher scores on the Autistic Behavior Checklist are associated to lower scores on social-cognitive performance and to lower number of communicative acts. CONCLUSION: There is association between the results in the Autistic Behavior Checklist and the functional communicative profile and the social-communicative performance, but the results in the social-communicative adaptation are not correlated with any of the other variables

Negotiating social memory in postcolonial Mozambique: the case of heritage sites in Mandhlakazi District

Abstract This research deals with the construction, contestation and negotiation of social memory involving the postcolonial state of Mozambique, elites and subaltern social groups with a focus on heritage sites in Mandhalakazi District, Mozambique. Construction of social memory is current in Mozambique, mainly dominated by state attempts at reproducing national memory by establishing a national historical narrative, and in continuity with colonial practices. This is strategically used by Mozambican and South African elites, and contested by subaltern groups in Mandhalakazi. Subaltern contestations outline critiques of precolonial, colonial and postcolonial state power and mainstream historiography. Elites’ use suggests future contests relating to precolonial politics and future dynamics of national and transnational memory and potential heritage tourism involving South Africa and Mozambique. Research was conducted using multi-sited ethnography, participant and nonparticipant observation, semi-structured individual and group interviewing, and archival research in Maputo City, Mandhlakazi and Xai-Xai, for ten weeks, between June and September 2007

Kurialuka : webdocumentário sobre o autocuidado entre mulheres negras

Trabalho de conclusão de curso (graduação)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Comunicação, Departamento de Jornalismo, 2016.O webdocumentário Kurialuka tem a proposta de pesquisar por meio das narrativas autobiográficas de mulheres negras de diferentes perfis os diversos aspectos envolvidos na construção da subjetividade e da perspectiva de si e de como os mecanismos de exploração, de violência e de submissão do racismo e do sexismo atravessaram este processo, incidindo em questões como saúde física e psíquica, afetividade e sexualidade e autoestima. Cuidar de si, assim, é uma proposta estratégica de resistência para emancipar as mulheres negras desde dentro, pois implica em reconhecimento e amor interior. Cuide-se, kurialuka, da língua banto quimbundo, é um convite para reflexão e busca para o bem viver

Crossroads in Cairo, 1942

University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.The focal point of this non-traditional Ph.D. thesis is the apartment at no. 19, rue Hawayati in central Cairo, where my mother Sol, one of the last of a long line of Spanish Jews, lived in the nineteen thirties and forties. The two sections bookending this thesis, Section 1: ZACCARIA and Section 3: DONOVAN explore the hitherto unknown stories of my mother’s two husbands, both wartime intelligence agents, one an Italian anti-fascist spy working in clandestinity for the British in Egypt, the other an officer in British Army Intelligence and the Secret Intelligence Service, both of them meeting entirely different fates. Section 2: NAHUM, set in between, traces the background of her people over fifteen centuries, from Jerusalem to Spain, then, successively, Amsterdam, Smyrna, Cairo and Sydney. Exploring these three narratives took me down three paths to the crossroads in Cairo, 1942, namely to 19, rue Hawayati, the point of intersection of the three routes that I follow in the thesis. Each of the paths that converged on that focal point emerged from one of the three empires: the Austro-Hungarian for the ZACCARIA section, the Ottoman (NAHUM) and the British (DONOVAN). I followed all those paths in situ, undertaking several journeys over the forty months of this project, visiting nine countries and some nineteen institutes and organisations. I have woven into the text my own research experiences, and occasionally, some clearly signaled imaginative reconstructions where no sources were available, and have sought to place the individual stories firmly within their historical contexts. Several themes appear throughout: the effects of nationalist impulses on the societies where they appear; the complexities of identity, especially in the Levant; the role of memory in the recreation of historical narrative; and, perhaps most fundamentally, the way individuals may either be swept along by larger historical forces, or find ways of facing them head on and emerging undefeated

Figuras femininas escondidas nas ciências

Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso (graduação)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade UnB Planaltina, 2019.Nos últimos anos tem ocorrido uma valorização do papel das mulheres nas ciências, pois durante muito tempo houve a predominância de figuras masculinas nas descobertas científicas. As mulheres por muitos séculos foram impedidas de realizar atividades científicas, entretanto, muitas não aceitaram essa condição e se dedicaram às pesquisas que muito contribuíram para o desenvolvimento das ciências. Porém, hoje sabe-se que muitas não tiveram seu empenho e dedicação à ciência reconhecidos. O presente trabalho visou realizar uma pesquisa sobre projetos e ações que estimulem a participação feminina nas ciências, bem como destacar a biografia de algumas mulheres cientistas ainda pouco divulgadas. Como metodologia foi utilizada uma pesquisa em sites e artigos disponíveis na Internet. Houve uma preocupação na busca de cientistas não divulgadas, pois apenas encontramos em alguns livros Marie Curie, enquanto outras personagens, também importantes para a história das ciências, são desconsideras. Observamos que há poucos artigos que abordam as biografias femininas nas ciências, mas notamos que há uma valorização dessas importantes personagens que ocorrem a partir da publicação de livros e filmes que revelam suas histórias.In recent years, there has been a valorization of the role of women in Science, for a long time there was a predominance of male figures in scientific discoveries. The women during many centuries were prevented from conducting scientific activities, however many didn’t accept this condition and dedicated yours searches that many contributed from the development of Science. But, today known that many haven’t had their commitment and dedication of sciences recognized. The present work aimed at carrying out research on projects and actions that stimulate women's participation in the sciences, well as highlight biography of some women’s scientists still little disclosed. The methodology used was a qualitative research on websites and articles available on the Internet. There was a concern in the search for undisclosed scientists, as we find only in some Marie Curie books, while other characters, also important for the history of the sciences, are disregarded. Observe that there are few articles addressing female biography in the sciences, but we note that there is an appreciation of these important characters that occur from the publication of books and films that reveal their storie