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Thesis (M.A.)--Trinity International University, 2008. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 141-144).

Detta examensarbete handlar om de yngre barnens intra-aktion med ett matematiskt material i förskolan i form av ett sorteringsmaterial samt om detta material utmanar barns matematiska tänkande utan instruktioner från en vuxen. Här är det barnets görande som står i fokus.   Det teoretiska perspektivet i detta examensarbete är Barads (2007) teori om agentisk realism utifrån teorins centrala begrepp intra-agera tolkat av Lenz Taguchi (2012) och Franzén (2015). Intra-agera enligt Franzéns tolkning av Barads begrepp avser relationen mellan material och människor. Lenz Taguchi menar att ting och material inte kan ses som oaktiva redskap som människor beslutar sig för att använda. Istället kan ting och material ses som aktiva medaktörer som samverkar och samhandlar med människan. Fokus i denna teori är vad föremål såväl mänskliga som icke mänskliga gör när de möts i en intra-aktion. Lenz Taguchi förstår lärandet som summan av ett samhandlande där olika aktiva aktörer är inblandade. I detta sammanhang används samhandlande som ett begrepp för när mänskliga och icke mänskliga aktörer tillsammans skapar något eller ändrar det befintliga till något nytt eller något annat än det var innan. Det är kärnan i ett samhandlande och därmed även i intra-aktionen.   I denna undersökning deltog 19 barn i åldrarna 1-3 år som observerades och data samlades in med hjälp av fältanteckningar. Fältanteckningarna har sedan renskrivits och undersökningens resultat har delats in i fyra olika kategorier och tolkats utifrån studiens teoretiska perspektiv. Sorteringsmaterialet, i form av 72 bondgårdsdjur respektive 72 fordon i sex färger uppdelade i sex olika kategorier av bondgårdsdjur och fordon, låg kvar i sin burk med locket uppskruvat och placerades på en matta på golvet. Därmed skapades förutsättningarna för barnens möjlighet till intra-aktion med sorteringsmaterialet utan någon instruktion av en vuxen.   Studiens resultat visar de yngre barnens intra-agerande med sorteringsmaterialet. I intra-aktionen med sorteringsmaterialet startade en lärprocess hos barnen vilket resulterade i att barnen sorterade materialet efter en eller två egenskaper, använde sig av parbildning samt undersökte materialet med sin kropp och sina sinnen.

M.Tech. Fine and Applied Arts. / This study explores the Platonic notion of idealism, specifically applied to the botanical imagery represented in Renaissance paintings and its enamelled jewellery counterparts, as an aid in contemporary enamelled jewellery design. The same process of idealisation found in Renaissance painting and enamel jewels, is applied to South African botanical motifs, which creates a stylistic departure from the botanical images used during the Renaissance. This research employs a literary review on the thought and theory of idealism and its link with Renaissance painting and enamelled jewellery. Images and information on selected Renaissance paintings and enamelled jewellery incorporating botanical motifs are compared and analysed in order to investigate the progression of the idealised motif. Through the analysis of Renaissance jewellery, the basic design framework that was employed in the designing of the piece becomes apparent. The enamelling techniques, types, colours and motifs are re-applied using the notion of idealisation, to South African botanical motifs and a design framework is constructed for contemporary enamel jewellery. This study demonstrates the application of an historical design principle to contemporary jewellery design. As a result, unique collections of enamelled contemporary jewellery are created, translated from the Renaissance idealised botanical motifs into a South African context.

Since the eruption of the Arab Spring, the Middle East is in a fragile situation with major ongoing conflicts. Saudi Arabia is an important regional actor in the political turmoil of the Middle East but is also a violent offender of human rights. This raises questions about the capacity of UN in terms of influencing the development of human rights in Saudi Arabia. This is a qualitative case study that will be based on established theories in international relations, realism and liberalism but also the rentier state theory. International institutions has evolved especially since the fall of the Berlin Wall but realists claim that it is a smaller version of the power structure of the international system where hegemonic powers rule and set the agenda. The lack of resources and fundings of the UN combined with its intergovernmental structure makes it vulnerable to states' interests and willingness. On the other hand, liberals claim that liberal norms and ideas have had an impact on states' behaviour. In the case of Saudi Arabia, there are certain factors that have caused the delay of human rights such as the UN: s unwillingness to put much effort on human rights during the Cold War. Another theory is that rentier states like Saudi Arabia finance the state with the help of their oil resources. Therefore, the citizens cannot demand democratic legitimacy from the ruling family that due to the rentier system, can treat the state as their private property. Certain opinions that can be supported by realist notions are that hegemonic powers are and were not as interested in implementing human rights in the Middle East as they were in establishing control over resources. Other possible factors are Saudi religious legitimacy and regional institutions with its own norms and also, a static religious interpretation of Islam, namely, Wahhabism.

The armed conflict in Syria is complex and bloody. This paper aims to provide a better understanding of how and why the conflict started in Syria. The purpose of the study is to identify the key actors in the conflict, both internal and external actors and the impact of these actors in the Syrian conflict and what role they have played to achieve their goals. Furthermore, this paper also seeks to explore the changing character of conflict over time and the main obstacles for the peace in Syria. The study’s method is a comparative case study. A comparison between 2011-2017 is used to draw general conclusions. The theoretical framework to analyze are realism and liberalism. The materials used for this study are books, articles and documents etc. In conclusion, this paper finds that Assad's family has ruled Syria with an iron fist for many decades and a lack of freedom and economic problems caused protests  against Assad’s rule. The nature of war has changed in the period 2011 to 2017. Syria was a state of war of all against all. Syria was divided between many actors and they strove for power and dominance. The main obstacles to peace, there are various divisions within the opposition and most of them living abroad and  the external actors has impacted conflict. The reform of the United Nations Security Council  is a prerequisite for peace in Syria. The UN should send peacekeeping forces to Syria and Syria needs a Marshall Plan.

Orientador: Márcia Valéria Zamboni Gobbi / Banca: Lílian Lopondo / Banca: Sonia Helena de Oliveira Raymundo Piteri / Banca: Maria Lúcia Outeiro Fernandes / Banca: Odil José de Oliveira Filho / Resumo: O presente estudo tem como objetivo principal apresentar os desdobramentos do realismo mágico numa análise de A jangada de pedra (SARAMAGO, 2006) e em leituras de As intermitências da morte (SARAMAGO, 2005) e Ensaio sobre a cegueira (SARAMAGO, 2007), em que o procedimento literário em questão - tendo em conta a figura do narrador - adquire uma função dialógica, que se dá por meio de referências intertextuais com mitos, lendas e outras formas de narrativa da tradição literária ocidental. A análise literária baseia-se nas concepções de Gerárd Genette e outros autores sobre o narrador; para a concepção de realismo mágico, utilizamos essencialmente as reflexões de Irlemar Chiampi e Willian Spindler; no que diz respeito aos diálogos promovidos pela intertextualidade, recorremos aos conceitos propostos por Mikhail Bakhtin, Lauren Jenny e Lucien Dällembach. De posse destes e de outros estudos da teoria da narrativa, analisamos os textos literários, com a preocupação de identificar elementos que inserem os romances mencionados na perspectiva do realismo mágico, procedendo também à reflexão sobre o diálogo que o autor português realiza com a literatura hispano-americana por meio desse procedimento, procurando compreender o processo de construção dos romances pelo viés da narrativa mágica e suas contribuições para a literatura contemporânea / Abstract: This study aims to present the features of magical realism in an analysis of A jangada de pedra (SARAMAGO, 2006) and in readings of As intermitências da morte (SARAMAGO, 2005) and Ensaio sobre a cegueira (SARAMAGO, 2007), in which that narrative procedure - taking into account the narrator - acquires a dialogical function, that comes to the fore through intertextual references about myths, legends and other forms of the Western literary tradition. The literary analysis is based on the ideas of Gerárd Genette and other authors about the narrator; for the concept of magical realism, we use essentially the reflexions of Irlemar Chiampi and William Spindler; as for the dialogues induced by the intertextuality, we make reference to the concepts proposed by Mikhail Bakhtin, Lauren Jenny and Lucien Dällembach. Using those and other studies of narrative theory, we analyze Saramago‟s texts, bearing ever in mind the need to identify elements that insert those novels in the perspective of magical realism, proceeding also to reflect about the dialogue the Portuguese author creates with the Spanish-American literature through this procedure, aiming to understand the process of novel building through the lens of magical narrative and its contributions to contemporaneous literature / Doutor

Realist depictions of bad housing are pervasive in the canon of twentieth-century American literature. Insufficient abodes crisscross the literary map of the United States, appearing regularly in settings from New York to Los Angeles and from Alaska to Florida. This dissertation examines three case studies that themselves crisscross the map, and represent the diverse contexts of this common thematic concern. Anzia Yezierska writes of the deplorable housing in New York’s East Side tenements, Richard Wright tells of life in South Side Chicago’s kitchenettes, and N. Scott Momaday depicts dark and cold apartments in Los Angeles as well as emptying homes on the reservation. What is shared by all three writers is their use of realism to depict abject housing, their clear engagement with public discourses about living spaces, and the way their works expose the production of space by social, economic, and legislative factors. All three published works that were widely received by the reading public and thereby contributed to the discourses in powerful and surprising ways. All three literary authors of this dissertation register a sense of space that is produced by power. Yezierska, Wright, and Momaday provide fictional, narrative modes of engagement that employ a particularly material-spatial register to depict spatial injustice. In order to read the production of space in these texts, I draw on the work of the theorists Henri Lefebvre, David Harvey, and Edward Soja to help explain the wider circumstances causing disenfranchisement, exploitation, and disempowerment that all three authors investigate. What is at stake here is a more complete picture of social crisis. By illustrating how bad housing is a result of political, economic, and social powers rather than the result of an individual’s laziness or lack of character, Yezierska, Wright, and Momaday add another perspective to prominent social discourses about housing in the twentieth century. The literary houses they depict uncover a history of systematic inequality in which prevalent national attitudes led to policy that put lower-classes and minority populations in bad housing and consequently foreclosed their potential to partake in the supposed full possibilities of citizenship. / 2020-11-07T00:00:00Z

My research explores the leadership challenge faced by contemporary higher education institutions. Globally, the need for high quality academic leadership has never been greater. Yet growing evidence suggests few academics are keen to engage. In this study, I investigate academic educational leadership (AEL) at the University of Exeter (UoE) from organisational and academic perspectives. My purposes are to clarify early career academics’ (ECAs) attitudes and stances towards AEL, what may lie behind these and to make recommendations about how to nurture their future interest in AEL. My study adopts a theoretical and methodological pluralistic approach. Theoretically, I draw on the leadership research of Mats Alvesson and Richard Bolden, relating to organisational culture and structure. In particular, I adapt Alvesson’s model of ‘multiple cultural configurations’. I also draw on the socio-cultural theories of Margaret Archer relating to ‘agentic reflexivity’. Methodologically, I adopt the role of ‘bricoleur’ (Kincheloe, 2001), drawing on an eclectic range of perspectives and principles derived from pragmatism and applied critical realism. By synthesising these, I create a ‘personal enquiry paradigm’. My theoretical research outcomes add to growing evidence about academic ‘defensive routines’ (Martin, 1999). I suggest that ECAs adopt diverse and nuanced attitudes and stances towards AEL, summarized in a ‘reluctance to lead’ typology. I identify a wide range of influential mechanisms and causal powers (M&CPs) which I summarise in an elaborated three dimensional framework. Influential M&CPs include attitudinal dissonance and misalignment between institutional strategies and processes which help explain reluctance. I argue that nurturing future AELs needs to reflect more closely the priorities of ECAs, set in a wider context of institutional cultural reconciliation and strategic realignment. Adopting a normative stance, I provide an example of how this might be possible. My methodological contribution develops through a series of three dimensional frameworks that suggest that multiple configurations of influences operate at different levels and through time at UoE. Overall, my research contributes strongly to the growing body of theories and methodologies investigating higher education cultures. Whilst the case study findings may not be generalizable, other institutions might benefit from some of the insights provided.

In this thesis we present an interactive motion adaptation scheme for close interactions between skeletal characters and mesh structures, such as navigating restricted environments and manipulating tools. We propose a new spatial-relationship based representation to encode character-object interactions describing the kinematics of the body parts by the weighted sum of vectors relative to descriptor points selectively sampled over the scene. In contrast to previous discrete representations that either only handle static spatial relationships, or require offline, costly optimization processes, our continuous framework smoothly adapts the motion of a character to deformations in the objects and character morphologies in real-time whilst preserving the original context and style of the scene. We demonstrate the strength of working in our relationship-descriptor space in tackling the issue of motion editing under large environment deformations by integrating procedural animation techniques such as repositioning contacts in an interaction whilst preserving the context and style of the original animation. Furthermore we propose a method that can be used to adapt animations from template objects to novel ones by solving for mappings between the two in our relationship-descriptor space effectively transferring an entire motion from one object to a new one of different geometry whilst ensuring continuity across all frames of the animation, as opposed to mapping static poses only as is traditionally achieved. The experimental results show that our method can be used for a wide range of applications, including motion retargeting for dynamically changing scenes, multi-character interactions, and interactive character control and deformation transfer for scenes that involve close interactions. We further demonstrate a key use case in retargeting locomotion to uneven terrains and curving paths convincingly for bipeds and quadrupeds. Our framework is useful for artists who need to design animated scenes interactively, and modern computer games that allow users to design their own virtual characters, objects and environments, such that they can recycle existing motion data for a large variety of different configurations without the need to manually reconfigure motion from scratch or store expensive combinations of animation in memory. Most importantly it’s achieved in real-time.