Hart Crane's poetry has always been the subject of widely differing views. In recent years, after a long period of neglect, there has been an attempt to find a new sense of the poetry's meaning and value. There have been notable biographical and contextual works by Paul Marian (2000) and Paul Giles (1986) as well as provocative studies which dwell upon Crane's sexuality, but there is still scope for a work that concentrates in detail upon Crane's themes of quest and the inspirational importance of the female 'other' he pursues. This thesis seeks to develop the tradition of close reading of Crane established by R.W.B. Lewis (1967) and Sherman Paul (1972). Where it differs from these excellent studies is in the emphasis laid upon the theme of quest and, in particular, the stress on the interplay between those different impulses which form the basis of Crane's finest work. The thesis tracks Hart Crane’s gaze toward some idea of betterment, the other side of which is Hell. It concentrates mainly, but not entirely, on Crane's longer poems in the belief that in these works his major successes are found. After an introduction which explains the aim and approach of the thesis, what follows are studies of the poems. Chapter one examines 'For the Marriage of Faustus and Helen,’ while chapter two explores 'Voyages.' Chapter three is the first of four chapters upon Crane's major achievement, The Bridge: it introduces the poem and examines the first two sections. The fourth, fifth and sixth chapters follow Crane on his journey through the poem. The thesis is brought to a conclusion in a coda which argues that the difficulties associated with reading Crane should be re-assessed.

Tennessee Williams utilise pour la première fois l’expression « théâtre plastique » en 1944, dans un essai où il évoque les limites du langage verbal. Ce qu’il recherche, c’est un langage « des sons, des couleurs et des mouvements », un au-delà des mots censé redonner vie à un théâtre réaliste jugé moribond. Il se fixe ainsi pour objectif de retranscrire sur la page la totalité de l’expérience théâtrale. Créateur d’images, le dramaturge se compare fréquemment à un peintre et puise dans l’art pictural les éléments de son nouveau langage. Gauguin, Van Gogh, De Chirico, Hofmann ou encore Pollock font partie de la longue liste d’artistes qui lui ont permis d’échapper à la pétrification dans un mimétisme réaliste associé à l’image photographique. Cités dans ses essais ou dans ses pièces, ils orientent son théâtre vers l’abstraction à laquelle le dramaturge aspire. Or, l’influence des images sur le « théâtre plastique » ne se limite pas seulement à la peinture, la fascination de Williams pour le cinéma a également contribué à façonner son écriture, élargissant encore davantage l’alphabet de son langage théâtral. L’image apparaît en ce sens comme un agent libérateur du langage, un au-delà des mots dans lequel se profile un « je » en marge de la représentation comme système culturellement prédéterminé et prédéterminant. L’écriture de Williams désire l’image. De là vient sa puissance subversive. Le processus créateur tout entier se fonde sur l’entrelacement des logiques sémiotiques propres au langage et à l’image, faisant de l’un l’envers de l’autre, sa moitié indispensable. Le rapport de complémentarité qui unit l’image au langage dans toute l’œuvre de Williams met à jour l’originalité d’une écriture animée par un désir d’image, écriture vivante du théâtre. / When Tennessee Williams coined the phrase “plastic theater” in 1944, he described it as a language of “sounds, colors and movements,” a language freed from the limitations of words. His aim was to breathe new life into what he called “the exhausted theater of realistic conventions.” His ability to put the totality of theatrical experience into words manifests itself in the scripts of his plays. Williams is a creator of pictures, a playwright in the true sense of the word who found in painting and cinema the images he needed to elaborate his new language for the stage and move away from a “photographic likeness” he rejected because it was associated with realism. Gauguin, Van Gogh, De Chirico, Hofmann or Pollock are but a few of the many painters mentioned in his plays or essays who provided him with the means to enrich his vocabulary for the stage and lead his “plastic theater” toward “something more abstract.” But cinema also influenced him, giving him the opportunity to explore new possibilities and create a space between words and images where the elusive truth could be revealed. Images thus helped liberate Williams from the literary traditions as well as from the cultural codes that had defined and confined his writing from the very beginning. The writer who felt “wrapped up in literary style like the bandages of a mummy” found in images the subversive power he needed to express his true self and breathe life into words that he had always wanted to be “more than words.” From “the language of vision” to “organic writing,” Williams’s “plastic theater” evinces a desire for images.

In this study, regularly measured long-term leachate data from Bursa Municipal Solid Waste Landfill (MSWL) were analyzed using conventional statistical, time series and factor analyses to investigate in detail the temporal variability of leachate quality and quantity, trend, randomness, seasonality and the auto- and cross- correlations of leachate pollutants. Evaluating the results of data analyses, leachate management recommendations, including sampling strategies in monitoring programs and treatment alternatives for old and fresh leachates, were developed. Statistically analyzed leachate parameters included BOD, COD, pH, SS, electrical conductivity, total CrO4, Cr6+, Fe, Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd, CN-, Cl, F, total P, NH4-N, total N, SO4, S2-, total alkalinity and leachate flow rate. Results indicated that the majority of pollutant concentrations varied in large ranges. Leachate parameters usually showed non-normal distributions and high variability in the closed T Valley compared to the open Main Valley. The majority of leachate parameters was autocorrelated and had statistically significant correlations amongst themselves. Factor analysis showed that different inter-relationships were present between leachate parameters for closed and open valleys. The sampling frequency and the number of leachate parameters need to be measured were determined to be higher for open landfills than for closed landfills. It was recommended that leachates, having high organic strength, in open landfill be treated using biological and physical/chemical processes. However, after the closure of the landfill, physical/chemical processes were recommended for leachate treatment, as it gradually completes transition from fresh to old leachate.

Performance-based landfill design approach is a relatively new design approach adopted recently in solid waste management and applied in USA, European Union countries and some developing-economy countries like South Africa. This approach rejects the strict design criteria and accommodates a design that selects the most appropriate design components of a landfill (final cover, bottom liner, and leachate collection system) and their design details to result in the best overall performance with respect to performance criteria (groundwater contamination and stability) considering the system variables (climatic conditions of the site, site hydrogeology, and size of the landfill). These design components, performance criteria and design variables involved in decision process make performance-based landfill design a complex environmental problem. Decision support systems (DSS) are among the most promising approaches to confront this complexity. The fact that different tools can be integrated under different architectures confers DSSs ability to confront complex problems, and capability to support decision-making processes. In this thesis study, a DSS to aid in the selection of design components considering the design variables and performance criteria for performance-based landfill design was developed. System simulation models and calculation modules were integrated under a unique DSS architecture. A decision support framework composed of preliminary design and detailed design phases were developed. The decision of appropriate design components leading to desired performance was made based on stability issues and vulnerability of groundwater, using knowledge gathered from DSS. Capabilities and use of the developed DSS were demonstrated by one real and one hypothetical landfill case studies.

This study was carried out to evaluate the potential of high-rate anaerobic digestion of high-solids organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) for the production of organic acids and alcohols in leaching bed reactors (LBRs). For this purpose, two different experimental set-ups, namely Set-1 and Set-2, were operated. In the Set-1, only OFMSW without paper was studied in two identical LBRs, whereas, four identical LBRs, fed with OFMSW with paper and cow manure in different proportions, were operated in the Set-2. In this study, 50-60% of hydrolysis efficiency was achieved in the LBRs of Set-1, whereas this value was decreased to 20-25% in the LBRs of Set-2 / which was resulted from OFMSW containing cellulose and less volume of water addition in the Set-2. The mass of total volatile fatty acids (tVFA) production was found as 7000-9000 mg at the end of 80 days in the LBRs of Set-1, fed with OFMSW without paper, whereas it was 3000 mg at the end of 40 days in the LBR of Set-2, containing only OFMSW with paper. It was also observed that cow manure addition increased the amount of tVFA production in the LBR of Set-2. In conclusion, LBRs were found as alternative reactors for the degradation of OFMSW compared to completely stirred tank reactors (CSTRs) in terms of rapid hydrolysis and acidification, which can result in high hydrolysis yield and tVFA production.

The objective of this study is to illustrate that phase separation improves the efficiency of an anaerobic system which digests semi-solid organic wastes. Organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) was the semi-solid organic waste investigated. In the first part of the study, the optimum operational conditions for acidified reactor were determined by considering the volatile solid (VS) reductions and average acidification percentages at the end of two experimental sets conducted. Organic loading rate (OLR) of 15 g VS/L.day, pH value of 5.5 and hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 2 days were determined to be the optimum operational conditions for the acidification step. Maximum total volatile fatty acid and average acidification percentage were determined as 12405 mg as HAc/L and 28%, respectively in the reactor operated at optimum conditions. In the second part, an acidification reactor was operated at the optimum conditions determined in the first part. The effluents taken from this reactor as well as the waste stock used to feed this reactor were used as substrate in the biochemical methane potential (BMP) test. The results of BMP test revealed that the reactors fed by acidified samples indicated higher total chemical oxygen demand (tCOD) removals (39%), VS reductions (67%) and cumulative gas productions (265 mL). The result of this study indicated that the separation of the reactors could lead efficiency enhancement in the systems providing that effective control was achieved on acidified reactors.