The aim of this work is to examine how physical and mental metamorphoses affect the perception of the self. To do this I study the literary characters Apollo (The Hidden Oracle, by Rick Riordan) and Edward Cullen (Midnight Sun, by Stephenie Meyer), both of whom experience these different kinds of metamorphoses. I approach this problem with the help of philosophy of mind and, more specifically, the mind-body problem as well as the problem of personal identity. Amongst other things, I find that the physical metamorphoses are what enable and initiate the mental ones. I also discover that one of the biggest impacts on personal identity and the self comes from whether the characters are immortal or not.

Von Haus aus sind Sibyllinische Orakel eine griechisch-römische Literaturgattung, eine Sammlung von Orakelsprüchen in griechischen Hexametern, die nicht erhalten ist. Die uns überlieferten Sibyllinischen Orakel sind jüdischen, christlichen und teilweise paganen Ursprungs. Die insgesamt 14 Bücher sind in den Jahren 150 vor bis 300 nach Christus entstanden. Bis zu ihrer Wiederentdeckung im Vatikan waren die Sibyllinischen Orakel nur durch Zitate der Kirchenväter bekannt. Buch 3 ist laut Mehrheit der Forscher das älteste der Sammlung und entstand im zweiten vorchristlichen Jahrhundert in Ägypten. Die Arbeit stellt diesen Konsens in Frage. Sie konzentriert sich dabei auf die Vorstellung der Beherrschung des Raumes im dritten Sibyllinischen Orakel. Dabei geht es einerseits um die rein geographische Vorstellung der Welt, die der Sibylle zugrunde liegt und andererseits um die politisch-theologische Vorstellung der Abfolge von Weltreichen, die diese Welt nacheinander beherrschen und schlussendlich von der Herrschaft Gottes abgelöst werden. Das Thema Gottesherrschaft nimmt in den jüdischen Pseudepigraphen eine relativ marginale Rolle ein. Dies könnte sicherlich damit zusammenhängen, dass die Diasporaschriften nicht unmittelbar unter dem Einfluss der sogenannten Antiochenischen Verfolgung und den Makkabäeraufständen standen, anders als z.B. das Danielbuch. In den Texten aus der Diaspora findet sich das Thema Gottesherrschaft sogar nur im dritten Sibyllinischen Orakel und in der Weisheit Salomos. Besonderes Gewicht hat die Gottesherrschaft schließlich in den Schriften des Neuen Testament. Ich hoffe mit meiner Arbeit einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Genese der Vorstellung der Gottesherrschaft im Neuen Testament zu leisten. Der endzeitliche Zustand, den die Sibylle für die Umsetzung der göttlichen Herrschaft auf Erden prophezeit, kann mit dem Begriff Utopie beschrieben werden. / Originally, the Sibylline Oracles were a Graeco-Roman literary genre, namely a collection of oracles composed in Greek hexamters which have not come down to us. The Sibylline Books that we have today are of Jewish and Christian origin and stem from a time when the genre was adapted first by Jews and then Christians. The altogether 14 books have developed between 150 BCE and 300 CE and for the longest time were only known through quotations in the church fathers such as Eusebius and Lactantius. According to the majority of scholars, Book III is the oldest of the Sibylline corpus and developed in the 2nd century BCE in Egypt. This thesis reconsiders the established consensus using old and new evidence alike. It focuses on the image of dominion of space in the Third Sibyl. On the one hand, space is looked at as the geographical image of the world as the Sibyl has access to, on the other, space is looked at as the political-theological image of succession of empires that rule the world consecutively until eventually they are superseded by the dominion of God. The dominion of God only play a minor role in Jewish pseudepigraphy. This could be related to the fact that the writings of the Diaspora were not immediately affected by the so-called Antiochene persecution and the Maccabean revolt unlike, for instance, the Book of Daniel. In the writings of the Diaspora the topic only occurs in the Third Sibyl and in the Wisdom of Solomon. It becomes particularly important in the New Testament. With this thesis I hope to provide an important contribution to the genesis of the image of the dominion of God in the New Testament. The eschatological age that the Sibyl prophecies for the establishment of the divine dominion on earth can be described using the term utopia.

本文探討《周易》經傳吉凶觀念，不欲陷入「經傳分觀」與「以傳解經」的爭執中，所以對於《易經》與《易傳》的吉凶觀念討論，採取調和方式，也就是運用「經傳分觀」者的優點，回歸《易經》與《易傳》於各處之時代來加以討論各自的吉凶觀念；運用「以傳解經」者的優點，看《易傳》對《易經》的吉凶觀念，是如何的詮釋。並且嘗試整理存在卜辭中「吉凶觀念」的形成初期，到存在於《周易》經、傳中的「吉凶思想」，由此，一方面得以梳理《周易》經、傳間吉凶觀念承續與再現的問題，一方面得以此為基礎，論析《周易》經、傳思想與思想史間的互動關係，就吉凶思想，追尋其形成、轉化的軌跡，或許更能瞭解《周易》所蘊藏的價值內涵，及《周易》思想與其他思想間的授受關係。 職此，筆者之研究，第一章為緒論，即討論《甲骨卜辭與周易經傳吉凶觀念思想研究》之研究動機與目的，接著討論其研究範圍，之中包含時間與材料兩種範圍的討論，繼而回顧前人對於《周易》中，有關「吉凶」觀念方面研究成果，從中得出當前研究概況，最後提出本文的研究方法與研究進路。 第二章首先對《周易》經、傳形成背景中，可能的思想資源作一探溯，透過殷墟甲骨卜辭中的探問，觀察先民對於吉凶觀念有何種認知、運用與作為，及如何從對卜辭中吉凶的解讀，以達趨吉避凶之道。 第三章探討由甲骨卜辭進入到《易經》中，《易經》吉凶觀念的內容為何？又《易經》對甲骨卜辭中的吉凶觀念繼承與發展了哪些？而從卜辭到《易經》卦爻辭這一時期，恰好歷經商末到西周初的歷史大轉變，其中「思想文化的變化」是殷周之際最顯著的變動。因此，當《易經》卦爻辭，經歷殷周之際的思想文化轉變後，對《易經》卦爻辭中的吉凶觀念和天人關係，起了何種影響？《易經》作者們回應時代潮流，表現於卦爻辭中，其吉凶內容與思想與先前的卜辭，有何不同？此皆是本章所要說明的論點。 第四章探討《易傳》對《易經》吉凶觀念的繼承與發展。我們可從《彖傳》與《象傳》對卦義、卦爻辭的解釋看，《周易》已不只是占筮吉凶用的典籍，而且成了依據天道變化，處理生活得失，治理天下國家和進行道德修養的指南。《易傳》對《易經》的吉凶觀念，有往哲理化發展傾向。而這一發展與春秋戰國時期思想文化變動有關。所以，筆者本章首先探討軸心期思想文化有何突破？而此突破對《易傳》的作者們，起了何種影響？而《易傳》作者們回應時代課題下，其吉凶觀念與天人關係為何？而對《易經》的吉凶觀念與天人關係，有什麼繼承與發展之處？《易傳》的人文化發展如何？此皆是本章的討論重點。 第五章為結論。討論本文研究發現與心得、未盡待研究之處。 / The purpose of this paper is to investigate the auspicious concept of “Chou Yi” classics and commentaries; without involving the arguments of “division of scriptures and commentaries” and “scriptures explained by commentaries”, this paper uses a compromised approach to discuss the auspicious concepts “Yi Scriptures” and “Yi Commentaries”. That is to apply the advantages of “division of scriptures and commentaries” to discuss the auspicious concepts, respectively, in the era when “Yi Scriptures” and “Yi Commentaries” originated and apply the advantages of “scriptures explained by commentaries” to observe the auspicious concepts of “Yi Scriptures” interpreted from the standpoint of “Yi Commentaries”. It intends to collect and organize the initial stage of “auspicious concept” contained in inscriptions and the “auspicious thinking” existed in scriptures and commentaries in “Chou Yi”. Thus, this study examines the inherent and recovery issue of auspicious concepts between scriptures and commentaries of “Chou Yi” in order to discuss and analyze the interaction among the thinking and thinking history of “Chou Yi” scriptures and commentaries. In terms of auspicious thinking, this paper intends to explore the course of its formation and transformation so that people may have more understanding of the content of “Chou Yi” and the reciprocal relationship between “Chou Yi” thinking and the other thinking. Based upon the above objectives, the first chapter of this paper is an introduction to discuss the research motive and goals of “Auspicious Concepts of Oracle Bone Inscriptions and ‘Chou Yi’ Confucian Classics and Commentaries” and the research scope, including time and materials. Next, previous research results of “auspicious” concepts in “Chou Yi” are explored to understand the current findings; finally, research method and prospect are presented in the article. In Chapter 2, the background of “Chou Yi” scriptures and commentaries is studied to investigate the possible foundation of thinking; by exploring oracle bone inscriptions from Shang Dynasty, cognition, application and actions concerning ancient people’s auspicious concepts are observed and how they interpret the indication of oracle bones for pursuing auspicious indication and avoiding bad lucks. Chapter 3 investigates the auspicious concepts in “Yi Scriptures” contained in the oracle bone inscriptions. It also examines the inherent auspicious concept and its development from oracle bone inscriptions in “Yi Scriptures”. During the time between inscription to “Yi Scriptures” divination when a historical transition occurred in the end of Shang Dynasty and early West Chou Dynasty, “changes of thinking culture” is the most significant transformation during the era of Shang and Chou. Hence, after the cultural transition in Shang and Chou Dynasties, what effect of “Yi Scriptures” divination due to the auspicious concepts and relationship of heaven and human contained in “Yi Scriptures” divination. In response to changes of time, what difference between the divination content presented by the authors of “Yi Scriptures” and the ancient inscription is the focal point stated in this chapter. Chapter 4 examines the heritage and development of auspicious concept in “Yi Scriptures” from “Yi Commentaries”. From the divination interpretation of “Tuan Commentaries” and “Image Commentaries”, “Chou Yi” is not only an ancient book of divination and also becomes a guideline to deal with life, govern a nation and the world, and to have moral trainings based upon changes of natural revolution. There is philosophical tendency in the development of auspicious concept of “Yi Scriptures” from “Yi Commentaries”. This development is relevant to the cultural and thinking changes during the era of Spring Autumn and Warring States. Hence, this chapter begins with the breakthrough of thinking culture during a core period and what effect of this breakthrough on the authors of “Yi Commentaries”. In response to the issue of times, what is the auspicious concepts and relationship of heaven and human from the authors of “Yi Commentaries”, what do they inherit from “Yi Scriptures” and what are their developments? How is the cultural development of “Yi Commentaries”? These are all the crucial discussions in this chapter. Chapter 5 is the conclusion to discuss research findings, lessons learned and follow-up efforts to be focused for the study.

À partir des observations Z(n) = {(Xi, Yi), i = 1, ..., n} satisfaisant Yi = f(Xi) + ζi, nous voulons reconstruire la fonction f. Nous évaluons la qualité d'estimation par deux critères : le risque Ls et le risque uniforme. Dans ces deux cas, les hypothèses imposées sur la distribution du bruit ζi serons de moment borné et de type sous-gaussien respectivement. En proposant une collection des estimateurs à noyau, nous construisons une procédure, qui est initié par Goldenshluger et Lepski, pour choisir l'estimateur dans cette collection, sans aucune condition sur f. Nous prouvons ensuite que cet estimateur satisfait une inégalité d'oracle, qui nous permet d'obtenir les estimations minimax et minimax adaptatives sur les classes de Hölder anisotropes. / From the observation Z(n) = {(Xi, Yi), i = 1, ..., n} satisfying Yi = f(Xi) + ζi, we would like to approximate the function f. This problem will be considered in two cases of loss function, Ls-risk and uniform risk, where the condition imposed on the distribution of the noise ζi is of bounded moment and of type sub-gaussian, respectively. From a proposed family of kernel estimators, we construct a procedure, which is initialized by Goldenshluger and Lepski, to choose in this family a final estimator, with no any assumption imposed on f. Then, we show that this estimator satisfies an oracle inequality which implies the minimax and minimax adaptive estimation over the anisotropic Hölder classes.

Dans cette thèse nous nous intéressons aux problèmes de la sélection de variables en régression linéaire. Ces travaux sont en particulier motivés par les développements récents en génomique, protéomique, imagerie biomédicale, traitement de signal, traitement d’image, en marketing, etc… Nous regardons ce problème selon les deux points de vue fréquentielle et bayésienne.Dans un cadre fréquentiel, nous proposons des méthodes pour faire face au problème de la sélection de variables, dans des situations pour lesquelles le nombre de variables peut être beaucoup plus grand que la taille de l’échantillon, avec présence possible d’une structure supplémentaire entre les variables, telle qu’une forte corrélation ou un certain ordre entre les variables successives. Les performances théoriques sont explorées ; nous montrons que sous certaines conditions de régularité, les méthodes proposées possèdent de bonnes propriétés statistiques, telles que des inégalités de parcimonie, la consistance au niveau de la sélection de variables et la normalité asymptotique.Dans un cadre bayésien, nous proposons une approche globale de la sélection de variables en régression construite sur les lois à priori g de Zellner dans une approche similaire mais non identique à celle de Liang et al. (2008) Notre choix ne nécessite aucune calibration. Nous comparons les approches de régularisation bayésienne et fréquentielle dans un contexte peu informatif où le nombre de variables est presque égal à la taille de l’échantillon. / We are interested in variable sélection in linear régression models. This research is motivated by recent development in microarrays, proteomics, brain images, among others. We study this problem in both frequentist and bayesian viewpoints.In a frequentist framework, we propose methods to deal with the problem of variable sélection, when the number of variables is much larger than the sample size with a possibly présence of additional structure in the predictor variables, such as high corrélations or order between successive variables. The performance of the proposed methods is theoretically investigated ; we prove that, under regularity conditions, the proposed estimators possess statistical good properties, such as Sparsity Oracle Inequalities, variable sélection consistency and asymptotic normality.In a Bayesian Framework, we propose a global noninformative approach for Bayesian variable sélection. In this thesis, we pay spécial attention to two calibration-free hierarchical Zellner’s g-priors. The first one is the Jeffreys prior which is not location invariant. A second one avoids this problem by only considering models with at least one variable in the model. The practical performance of the proposed methods is illustrated through numerical experiments on simulated and real world datasets, with a comparison betwenn Bayesian and frequentist approaches under a low informative constraint when the number of variables is almost equal to the number of observations.

[pt] Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo demonstrar que o Apocalipse oferece aos seus leitores uma densa cristologia desde o início do livro e propõe a certeza da realidade transcendente através de um oráculo que evoca e celebra a vinda da supremacia divina a partir da experiência histórica e trans-histórica do próprio Cristo, a fim de proporcionar encorajamento e esperança às comunidades do cristianismo originário que atravessavam seus próprios desafios. / [en] This research aims to demonstrate that the Revelation offers its readers a dense Christology since the beginning of the book and offers the assurance of the transcendent reality through an oracle that evokes and celebrates the coming of the divine supremacy from the historical and trans-historical experience of Christ himself, in order to provide encouragement and hope to communities of Early Christianity who faced their own challenges.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T18:15:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Nadia Maria Lebedev Martinez Moreira.pdf: 4678006 bytes, checksum: 73d01e7fc9a37307118ccc3bbf867acb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-11 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / The research aim to establish a direct relationship between its subjects, the Oracle and the Media. The main hypothesis is that the media has an oracular character. This reflection seems to be new within the Media Theory studies, and speculates that the future has a present event status. The oracles, or oracular character figures, when performing their predictions, design the future in the present, building scenarios that guide both the individual in his private life, as the society as a whole. The adopted methodological strategy sought to develop an archeology of the oracles in the West - especially the Oracle of Delphi, given its importance to the emergence of Western civilization and its institutions, including the media itself understanding them as backers of information, also a defining characteristic of the media. Researches concepts proposed by the Theory of Media in the reflections of Norval Baitello, Harry Pross and Flusser. Anxiety about the future is read from Soren Kierkegaard and Carl Gustav Jung. Within the concept of cultural anxiety Rafael Lopez-Pedraza, thinks the relationship of individuals and society in the future, this relationship also studied by Julian Jaynes in his deconstruction of the bicameral mind. Also Norbert Elias, who investigates what he calls a society of individuals. The hypothesis is tested trough media examples that analyze topics such as the economic crisis brought by the US housing bubble; Brazilian water crisis in 2015; and predictions about games results in sporting championships / A pesquisa procurou estabelecer uma relação direta entre seus objetos de estudo, o Oráculo e a Mídia. A hipótese principal é que a mídia possui um caráter oracular. Essa reflexão parece ser nova dentro dos estudos da Teoria da Mídia, e especula sobre o futuro como um estado de acontecimento presente. São os oráculos, ou de figuras de caráter oracular, que ao realizarem suas previsões, projetam o futuro no presente, construindo cenários que orientam tanto o indivíduo em sua vida particular, quanto à sociedade como um todo. A estratégia metodológica adotada buscou elaborar uma arqueologia dos oráculos no Ocidente principalmente do Oráculo de Delfos, dada sua importância fundante para o surgimento da civilização Ocidental e de suas instituições, entre elas, a própria mídia , entendendo-os como veiculadores de informações, característica também definidora do midiático. A pesquisa estuda conceitos propostos pela Teoria da Mídia nas reflexões de Norval Baitello, Harry Pross e Vilém Flusser. A angústia com relação ao futuro é lida a partir de Soren Kierkegaard e Carl Gustav Jung. Com o conceito ansiedade cultural de Rafael Lopez-Pedraza, pensa-se a relação dos indivíduos e da sociedade com o futuro, relação essa estudada também em Julian Jaynes com sua desconstrução da mente bicameral. Além de Norbert Elias, que investiga o que ele mesmo denomina de sociedade dos indivíduos. A hipótese é testada a partir de exemplos midiáticos que analisam temas como a crise econômica instaurada pela bolha imobiliária americana; a crise hídrica brasileira em 2015; e previsões feitas sobre resultados de jogos em campeonatos esportivos

本文廣泛的探討了從遠古到秦漢時期先民對風這一自然現象的崇拜意識，初步將古人的風神崇拜原因分為兩大類，包括因為處於地理環境上的多風性質或伴隨風而來的天象而成為風神化身的自然神崇拜和季風氣候下風向和季節的必然性所衍申出的風向與時節對應的具神聖性之傳統觀念。並指出後者是古代風神崇拜的主流，從早期的利用瞽者聽風以判定時節到刻有四風和代表四季徵象的四方風名甲骨，更衍成以風向與時節的對應與否來判定兵家攻守或醫家虛實的依據都是這一支風神觀念極度發展的結果。 　　本文在探討中國古代風神崇拜之餘，並從文字學的角度論風字的產生與演變過程，其次更由四方風名甲骨片的文字指出了經典上文字的來由及歷來經說不當之處。 / This is a comprehensive discussion on early man's worship and consciousness of the natural phenomanon of wind,from ancient times until the Han period.First of all the reason for early man 's wind spirit worship are divided into two main categories : includingthe natural spirit worship of the many types of wind in an inhabited geographical environment or the natural phenomena which accompany wind and become the embodiment of wind spirit; and the traditional concepts and the effect of the season and climate on the direction;the inevitability of the development of wind direction and the corresponding times of the spirit divinity moreover,the discussion point out that the latter is main trend of ancient wind spirit worship, from the use of the blind in early times to feel for wind to judge the times and season,to the (four corners wind name) oracle bone carved with the four winds and the symbol of four season,it is further developed to the corresponding non coprespondance of wind dire- ction and times to determine military manoeuvres or the bases for madical fact. These are all the results of the extreme degree of development of this branch of wind spirit concept. 　　This discussion,in addition to exploring ancient wind spirit worship in China,also discusses,from a linguistic point of view,the emergence and the development process of the character wind furthermore,the discussion uses the words carved on the (four corners wind name) oracle bone fragment to point out the origin of characters contained in the classics, and also to point out any in appropriate areas which have existed until now in the ex-planation of the classics.

La thèse se place dans le cadre de l'apprentissage statistique. Elle apporte<br />des contributions à la communauté du machine learning en utilisant des<br />techniques de statistiques modernes basées sur des avancées dans l'étude<br />des processus empiriques. Dans une première partie, les propriétés statistiques de<br />l'analyse en composantes principales à noyau (KPCA) sont explorées. Le<br />comportement de l'erreur de reconstruction est étudié avec un point de vue<br />non-asymptotique et des inégalités de concentration des valeurs propres de la matrice de<br />Gram sont données. Tous ces résultats impliquent des vitesses de<br />convergence rapides. Des propriétés <br />non-asymptotiques concernant les espaces propres de la KPCA eux-mêmes sont également<br />proposées. Dans une deuxième partie, un nouvel <br />algorithme de classification a été<br />conçu : la Kernel Projection Machine (KPM). <br />Tout en s'inspirant des Support Vector Machines (SVM), il met en lumière que la sélection d'un espace vectoriel par une méthode de<br />réduction de la dimension telle que la KPCA régularise <br />convenablement. Le choix de l'espace vectoriel utilisé par la KPM est guidé par des études statistiques de sélection de modéle par minimisation pénalisée de la perte empirique. Ce<br />principe de régularisation est étroitement relié à la projection fini-dimensionnelle étudiée dans les travaux statistiques de <br />Birgé et Massart. Les performances de la KPM et de la SVM sont ensuite comparées sur différents jeux de données. Chaque thème abordé dans cette thèse soulève de nouvelles questions d'ordre théorique et pratique.

<p>For researches in the field of the data mining and machine learning the necessary condition is an availability of various input data set. Now researchers create the databases of such sets. Examples of the following systems are: The UCI Machine Learning Repository, Data Envelopment Analysis Dataset Repository, XMLData Repository, Frequent Itemset Mining Dataset Repository. Along with above specified statistical repositories, the whole pleiad from simple filestores to specialized repositories can be used by researchers during solution of applied tasks, researches of own algorithms and scientific problems. It would seem, a single complexity for the user will be search and direct understanding of structure of so separated storages of the information. However detailed research of such repositories leads us to comprehension of deeper problems existing in usage of data. In particular a complete mismatch and rigidity of data files structure with SDMX - Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange - standard and structure used by many European organizations, impossibility of preliminary data origination to the concrete applied task, lack of data usage history for those or other scientific and applied tasks.</p><p>Now there are lots of methods of data miming, as well as quantities of data stored in various repositories. In repositories there are no methods of DM (data miming) and moreover, methods are not linked to application areas. An essential problem is subject domain link (problem domain), methods of DM and datasets for an appropriate method. Therefore in this work we consider the building problem of ontological models of DM methods, interaction description of methods of data corresponding to them from repositories and intelligent agents allowing the statistical repository user to choose the appropriate method and data corresponding to the solved task. In this work the system structure is offered, the intelligent search agent on ontological model of DM methods considering the personal inquiries of the user is realized.</p><p>For implementation of an intelligent data and metadata exchange repository the agent oriented approach has been selected. The model uses the service oriented architecture. Here is used the cross platform programming language Java, multi-agent platform Jadex, database server Oracle Spatial 10g, and also the development environment for ontological models - Protégé Version 3.4.</p>