Plongé dans une fiction littéraire, le lecteur peut faire l'expérience de sensations somesthésiques. Cette expérience, que nous appelons « lecture empathique », est l'objet de cette thèse. Il est difficile de l'expliquer à l'aide des théories de la lecture et de l'interprétation qui ignorent le rôle du biologique dans les processus de construction de la signification. C'est pourquoi nous proposons d'adopter une approche neuroesthétique dans laquelle le sens émerge de l'interrelation entre la cognition et la sensori-motricité que reconnaissent de nombreux philosophes, neurologues et psychologues contemporains. Cette approche interdisciplinaire constitue un des apports scientifiques de cette thèse, laquelle confronte la pensée littéraire et sémiotique à la complexité d'une réalité empirique ne cadrant pas toujours avec ses théories. À travers cette confrontation, ainsi que par l'analyse d'un corpus réunissant quatre auteurs américains contemporains, la lecture empathique apparaît comme un phénomène dont les aspects varient en fonction des caractéristiques formelles des œuvres qui la suscitent, des prédispositions physiologiques et psychologiques du lecteur, ainsi que du contexte de lecture. Il faut ainsi concevoir la lecture empathique comme un ensemble de pratiques qui s'étendent d'une lecture presque hallucinatoire, où le lecteur s'immerge complètement dans l'univers fictionnel et fait l'expérience étonnante de sensations fantômes, jusqu'à une mobilisation inconsciente du sensori-moteur dans le traitement sémantique du langage écrit. Cette mobilisation inconsciente forme la version faible, diffuse et générale de la lecture empathique. Elle s'explique par le fait que, si l'on en croit les chercheurs défendant une conception incarnée de la cognition, la compréhension d'un concept - et à plus forte raison d'un concept mis en scène dans un récit - implique l'activation de simulations neuronales sensori-motrices. Mais comment passe-t-on de ces simulations inconscientes à l'expérience de sensations fantômes, vécues par un corps hybride faisant interface entre le sémiotique et le somatique? Parce que les sensations peuvent advenir à la conscience sans stimulus en provenance du système nerveux périphérique, il est possible de concevoir que le lecteur empathique puisse entrer en résonance avec les formes sensorielles véhiculées par un texte littéraire. L'intensité de cette expérience empathique dépend notamment du niveau d'implication psychique du lecteur dans cette fiction, de sa capacité et de son désir de s'abandonner au texte, à sa voix et à ses images. Le texte doit, de son côté, créer ce désir puis guider le lecteur à travers un langage riche en sensations. C'est ce qu'accomplit le roman autobiographique de James Frey, A Million Little Pieces. Cette œuvre produit l'équivalent littéraire de la réception des body genres cinématographiques où le corps du spectateur reproduit de manière presque involontaire l'état sensoriel du personnage qu'il contemple. Si la narration de A Million Little Pieces favorise, à travers son expression presque onomatopoiétique de la douleur, une expérience somesthésique de la fiction, le roman Guide, de Dennis Cooper, pousse le lecteur vers un rapport intellectuel et optique (non haptique) aux corps érotiques ou souffrants de ses personnages. De même, et contrairement à sa nouvelle Guts qui met en place une didactique somesthésique efficace, les romans Survivor et Choke, de Chuck Palahniuk, se prêtent mal à la lecture empathique. Pourtant, la perspective d'une littérature capable de toucher physiquement son lecteur apparaît, dans ces œuvres, comme une force capable de contrer la dissolution postmodeme du sens et de la sensation. La perspective de la lecture empathique, et plus généralement celle d'une littérature physicaliste, revêt donc chez Palahniuk un caractère politique. Ce caractère devient métaphysique dans House of Leaves, de Mark Z. Danielewski, un roman que dynamise la possibilité d'une incarnation corporelle de la fiction, incarnation menaçante (puisque prenant la forme d'un monstre métaleptique) qu'il promet à son lecteur en échange de son investissement interprétatif. En mettant l'accent sur l'expérience de ces œuvres littéraires plutôt que sur leur interprétation, le modèle de la lecture empathique développé dans cette thèse permet de repenser la question de leur valeur artistique en termes de puissance sensorielle plutôt que de stimulation cognitive ou d'innovation formelle et générique. Ce modèle fait donc plus que de décrire un phénomène : il revalorise l'effet sensoriel et l'immersion fictionnelle, dessinant ainsi le projet d'une technique de lecture qui vise à intensifier la participation corporelle du lecteur dans son expérience de la fiction littéraire. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Théorie de la lecture, Neurologie et littérature, Théorie de la fiction, Littérature américaine contemporaine, Cognition incarnée, Empathie, Simulation, Immersion

This thesis details the design and development of a solid-state, high power modulator for driving plasma ion implantation systems. A plurality of modulators can be stacked in a Marx geometry to allow complete voltage (implantation energy) scalability. Unlike a classic Marx modulator, the design employs actively controlled charging and discharging paths. This allows maximum modulation flexibility and efficiency. A hybrid Marx bank - pulse transformer configuration was commissioned in a 20keV 12A plasma ion implantation system for the purpose of photonics research. <p>The design portion of this work is accompanied by an investigation, extension and discretization of the Lieberman analytical model of plasma ion implantation dynamics. The model predicts final implantation concentrations as well as system operational limits in specific plasma conditions. A new extension to the model accounts for subtle time-of-flight effects on accelerating ions. Agreement between modeled and measured ion currents is good.<p>Finally, a collection of material processing experiments conducted with the plasma ion implantation system since its inauguration in February 2006 is briefly presented. In it, a new silicon-based light emitting diode is introduced.

This thesis contributes to the literature on language revitalization, a hopeful branch of research that counters the foreboding conclusions of language shift studies. It is based on data collected in May, 1998, at Cumberland House, an Aboriginal community in northeastern Saskatchewan. Fifty-five community members participated in six focus groups organized by the following criteria: administrators, school board trustees, elders, parents, students and teachers. These research participants expressed their vision, expectations, and needs related to an Aboriginal Language Immersion Pilot Program proposed by the Northern Lights School Division. Community members envisioned an education that contributes to their children's Cree and Anglo-Canadian bicultural competence. They expected the Cree immersion program in the provincial school would develop their children's Cree and English bilingual fluency. They needed training, administrative support, materials and ongoing communication between school and community. Factors that instill a sense of optimism about this language revitalization effort, include the role and status of the school, and the strong bonds of kinship and friendship in this community context. The process and content of the research project records the development and product of a research relationship between Aboriginal people. It attests to the value of community involvement in language planning and illustrates the beneficial attributes of community-based participatory action research. Overall, the thesis informs the topic of decolonization at the personal, community, and institutional level.

Study of turbulent flow over a rough bed is highly important due to its numerous applications in the areas of sediment transport and pollutant discharge in streams, rivers and channels. Over the past few decades, many experimental studies have been conducted in this respect to understand the underlying phenomenon. However, there is a scarcity in the number of computational studies conducted on this topic. Therefore, a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) of turbulent flow over a rough channel bed was conducted to contribute further understanding of the influence of bed roughness on turbulent flow properties. For this purpose, an efficient, second order accurate 'immersed boundary method' was implemented into the LES code Hydro3d-GT, and validated for flow past bluff bodies. LES results from the present study showed excellent agreement with previous experimental studies on flow over rough beds. An in-depth analysis of time varying turbulent quantities (like the velocity fluctuations) revealed the presence of coherent structures in the flow. Also, a three dimensional visualization of the turbulent structures provided a good picture of the flow, especially in the near bed region, which is quite difficult to accomplish using experimental studies.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2000. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 252-258). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

ABSTRACT In this narrative inquiry, I examined parents’ stories to gain insight into their journey toward selecting a French Immersion Catholic stream of education for their Kindergarten-aged children. As a teacher, I first noticed a pronounced shift in the parents who were choosing Catholic French Immersion for their school-aged children and, then, as I formed close relationships with a diverse range of parents, I became cognizant that many families were deeply rooted in a faith other than that of Catholicism. With my curiosity piqued, I engaged in research to explore what these diverse parents believe Catholic French Immersion schools have to offer them. Utilizing both Joseph Schwab’s (1973) notion of curricular commonplaces and Allen’s (2007) web of caring as a framework for my research, I demonstrated how important it is that educators invite parent knowledge (Pushor, 2011, 2013) onto the school landscape as they attend to parents’ intentions in making particular school choices for their children. Using a metaphor of painting, and to paint both individual stories and a triptych of stories to capture parents’ influences, thoughts, hopes and dreams for their children that led them to Catholic French Immersion, I chose narrative inquiry methodology. I utilized field texts gathered from three sets of parents, including stories, journals, field notes, letters, conversations, and family stories, to paint an intimate understanding of the research puzzle. In terms of Catholic education, these families value a faith-based school environment but for different reasons. The Nelson family, rooted in Baptist faith, felt it was important that their child be schooled alongside other faithful children and also believed that Catholic schools inherently value the sanctity of each child. The Padrique family, newcomers to Canada, assumed that Catholic education would teach their child important values and that parents in the Catholic system would share parenting philosophies similar to their own. The Larocque family saw that through learning Catholic doctrine in school their children would be provided an opportunity to be exposed to, and to accept or reject, a system of beliefs not taught to their children at home. In terms of French Immersion, the families understood that their children’s ability to speak French would enhance their employment opportunities in the future. Both the Nelsons and the Padriques further viewed French Immersion as a program choice for the more academically inclined. Similarly, the Larocques, whose children have Treaty Status, understood French Immersion as a more challenging program where children become accustomed to working hard. This research will help deepen educators’ understanding of parent motivations for choosing this stream of education and more fully attend in their practice to parent intentions and parent knowledge.

A growing body of research indicates that nature connectedness should be an important component of environmental education programs as emerging empirical evidence shows a correlation between connectedness to nature and environmentally responsible behaviour. Despite an increased interest in further examination of the human-nature relationship, research is lacking in terms of specific factors or conditions that influence nature connectedness. In this study, a mixed methods approach was employed to quantitatively assess the impact winter camping had on nature connectedness and then qualitatively determine specific components of the camp experience that influenced this sense of nature connectedness. Nineteen scouts participated on a three day winter camp at Manning Park in British Columba, Canada, where they experienced many challenges such as sleeping in quinzees (snow caves) and learned new skills such as snowshoeing. The Nature Relatedness Scale was used to assess nature connectedness in this study. A pre-test was administered a few days before the winter camp and the post-test two days afterwards. The results from the paired sample T-test show that there was a statistically significant improvement in nature connectedness following the winter camp experience. Eleven scouts were then selected to participate in semi-structured interviews with the aim of gaining insight to the specific conditions of winter camping that influenced nature connectedness. The results indicate that the location of the camp, the condition of being immersed in nature, interacting with wildlife, the positive experience of challenges, the presence of risk, and freedom from technology are all contributing factors that influenced a sense o f nature connectedness. An increased environmental awareness was also a prevalent theme which supports research suggesting that there is a positive relationship between nature connectedness and pro-environmental behaviour. It is recommended that programs with the aim of promoting nature connectedness or environmental awareness should include as many of these components as possible. Further research should alsobe conducted to confirm that these results apply also to other populations as these results cannot be generalized with a sample size of nineteen.

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

Uppsatsen behandlar upplevelse. Analysen av upplevelse utgår från uppsatsförfattarens möte med den amerikanske videokonstnären Bill Violas installation Five Angels for the Millennium (2001). Forskningsansatsen är främst fenomenologisk vilket innebär att fokus ligger på att undersöka vad som är, vad det föreställer och hur den upplevande uppfattar detta. I bakgrunden står frågan hur upplevelse, med utgångspunkt i en persons möte med ett videokonstverk, kan analyseras teoretiskt. Uppsatsförfattaren för samman ett antal teoretiker som alla skrivit om emotioner, i form av känsla eller affekt, i samband med en tolkningsakt. De forskare som det främst refereras till är Bent Fausing, Mark Hansen, Laura Marks, Janet H. Murray, Lynne Pearce och Roland Barthes. Barthes har även påverkat förhållningssättet till analysen i stort. Den metod som används är att först skildra mötet med verket och att därefter analysera mötet utifrån fyra olika infallsvinklar. Från analysen av vad som mött den upplevande, flyttar perspektivet till att se vad som skett i den upplevande, för att därefter undersöka hur den upplevande utvecklat en relation till verket. Slutligen diskuteras verkets religiositet, bl.a. med hänvisning till Wassily Kandinskys texter om det andliga i konsten, Walter Benjamins beskrivning av upplevelse, nyare forskning om religiös upplevelse och Violas kontext och uttalade avsikt. I texter om Viola framkommer det att de som mött hans verk delar en likartad upplevelse. Analysen är avsedd att ge en förståelse för hur Viola går till väga för att få den som möter hans verk att känna och tänka på ett visst sätt. Slutsatsen är att den upplevande, i mötet med verket, möter Violas ideologi, vilken kan sägas vila i utgångspunkten att människan måste finna en ny form av verklighet. Implicerat är att den värld hon lever i idag inte är människovänlig.

Following a review of the literature on French immersion, this thesis considers the implications of the systematic transcription of oral texts for linguistic analysis. In transcribing a corpus of spoken French by children attending a French immersion school and a corpus of children from Quebec (both from tape recordings and included in the appendice), the transcription conventions proposed by the Groupe Aixois de Recherche en Syntaxe were applied. In chapter III, some of the most common deviations from the norm that occur in the French immersion corpus are discussed, and for the most part these aberrations reflect the results of previous error analyses done on second language learners. In chapters IV and V, a study of "slip-ups" is undertaken. Slip-ups are repetitions or self-corrections, referred to as "rates" in this thesis. They occur frequently both in the Francophone and French immersion corpus. The purpose of this study is to analyse the intrinsic structure of these hesitations (that were previously brushed off as un-grammatical) and to discover whether the repetitions or self-corrections produced by the French immersion speakers share characteristics with or differ from the slip-ups identified in the Francophone corpus. Whereas an enumeration of grammatical errors will almost always show that the French spoken by French immersion pupils is not as "good" as that spoken by Francophone children, the analysis of slip-ups is a more objective endeavor. And indeed, the study reveals some unpredicted results. On certain parts of the sentence, such as the predicate, French native speakers surprisingly slip up more often than French immersion children, while the latter tend to hesitate more often on subjects and indirect objects. Further analysis reveals that native French speakers almost always repeat (or correct) entire word groups, or syntagms, although they don't always complete such groups. The French immersion children, on the other hand, do not always repeat the entire word group when they slip up, but they do seem to finish their construction (or sentence), once it has started. Finally, the situation (formal or informal) appeared to only affect the speakers in the Francophone corpus: they hesitated slightly more often in a formal setting, whereas the situation did not seem to affect the results for the French immersion speakers.