This article presents an overview of research in an area loosely called belief revision. Belief revision concentrates on the issue of revising systems of beliefs to reflect perceived changes in the environment or acquisition of new information. The paper includes both an essay surveying the literature and a descriptor-indexed bibliography of over 200 papers and books.

This research quantifies the seismic vulnerability of older reinforced concrete frame structures located in Mid-America. After designing a representative three-story gravity load designed reinforced concrete frame structure, a nonlinear analytical representation was used evaluate inter-story drift demands from simulated earthquake time histories that were representative for the region. Limit state story drift capacities were identified for FEMA 273 guidelines, nonlinear pushover analyses, and incremental dynamic analyses. Integrating these two quantities allowed for the creation of fragility curves which relates the probability of exceeding a particular limit state given an imposed spectral acceleration at the fundamental building period. These curves were then used to evaluate the seismic vulnerability of the representatively designed structure. The structure as originally designed was found to be inadequate to resist large lateral loading that would be typical for the Memphis area. So structural retrofit performed by increasing the column-to-beam strength ratio was evaluated by increasing the strength of the column members in the analytical model. The first retrofit raised the column-to-beam strength ratio to 1.2, which is currently required by the ACI code provisions. The second retrofit raised the column-to-beam strength ratio to 1.8, as suggested in previous studies. The story capacity, demand, and fragility curves were once again created for these retrofitted structures. Comparison of these fragility curves is discussed in relation to the retrofit strategy of column strengthening for older reinforced concrete frame structures in Mid-America.

Proteins in nature fold to one dominant native structure. Despite being a heavily studied field, predicting the native structure from the amino acid sequence and modeling the folding process can still be considered unsolved problems. In this thesis I present a new approach to this problem with methods borrowed from theoretical physics. In the first part I show how it is possible to use a discrete Frenet frame to define the discrete curvature and torsion of the main chain of the protein. This method is then extended to the side chains as well. In particular I show how to use the discrete Frenet frame to produce a statistical distribution of angles that works in similar fashion as the commonly used Ramachandran plot and side chain rotamers. The discrete Frenet frame displays a gauge symmetry, in the choice of basis vectors on the normal plane, that is reminiscent of features of Abelian-Higgs theory. In the second part of the thesis I show how this similarity with Abelian-Higgs theory can be translated into an effective energy for a protein. The loops of the proteins are shown to correspond to solitons so that the whole protein can be constructed by gluing together any number of solitons. I present results of simulating proteins by minimizing the energy, starting from a real line or straight helix, where the correct native fold is attained. Finally the model is shown to display the same phase structure as real proteins.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a technology that is developed with the aim of decreasing the emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) in order to mitigate global climate change. However, citizens strongly oppose the technology in areas where carbon storages are supposed to be constructed. With the help of framing theory, this work analyzes four German anti-CCS citizens’ initiatives. Qualitatively studying publicly available material from their websites, their diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational frames on the issue are reconstructed. Guided by a first research question about what frames on CCS are constructed by the citizens’ initiatives, the frames are then compared to each other, showing that political opportunity structures as well as local factors regarding particularly the prevalent type of energy production are taken up to some extent. Systematically retracing the arguments, this study aims on investigating into the connections between local and global issues and interests around CCS. This entails potential for generalization regarding the decision-making process in the area of conflict when society, environment, technology, economic and political actors are involved. Afterwards, a second research question is taken up – the frames’ relation to sustainability. They are discussed in the wider context of sustainable development because of the close connection between the climate change and the sustainability discourse. Moreover, proponents as well as opponents use parts of the sustainability concept for their arguments. This highlights the difficulties of a sustainable decision-making process in which a variety of interests are interwoven and partly contradicting each other. It is concluded that both, comprehensive information and transparent communication, between all actors are the first steps towards a more sustainable decision-making process but that structurally as well as technically more than this is required, especially regarding the acceptance of the outcome. Research on sustainability as an increasingly influential paradigm can pave the way in this regard.

Alternate reality games (ARG) are a relatively new type of game that distributes game content across several media without explicitly identifying that content as part of a game. While players benefit from this aesthetically immersive experience the type of game has the potential to cause confusion over the status of its dispersed content as real or as part of a game. This thesis offers a case study of the 2012 game. The case is contextualized within the disciplines of media studies and games studies, in a wider digital culture where the ubiquity of technology converges to user experience design. A theoretical framework based on Charles S. Peirce’s semiotic, supplemented by Erving Goffman’s frame analysis and James J. Liszka’s transvaluation theory is used to explain the ARG’s problematic relation to the experience of reality.

Chatelaine, Canada’s longest running women’s magazine (1928-present), has seen various changes in relation to women’s presence in society, specifically women’s health and bodies. The purpose of this study is to investigate the framing methods employed in the presentation of health content in relation to the evolution of feminism throughout this publication’s existence. Drawing upon Michel Foucault’s (1979; 1980) investigation of power, the body, and sexuality; Susan Bordo’s (1993b) feminist theorizing on the cultural meanings of the female body; Erving Goffman’s (1974) Frame Analysis; and further theoretical foundations of frame analysis by scholars in media and communication studies, this thesis examines the ways which health knowledge in Chatelaine aids in the empowerment and modernization of women. The research design of this thesis employs a quantitative media content analysis and qualitative semi-structured in-depth interviews to explore the presence and production of health content in this publication between 1928 and 2010. Findings demonstrate Chatelaine’s interaction with the feminist movement in Canada—as feminist initiatives and activism in Canada flourish, Chatelaine covers an increasingly broad and diverse body of health topics. The analyses reveal the sophistication in Chatelaine’s health content, which is evidenced in the employment of various journalistic techniques that aid in the development of an increasingly pervasive media text. In doing so, Chatelaine demonstrates its ability to empower women through current, clear, and concise health knowledge.

This work is a compilation of ideas intended as a framework for an alternative approach to engaging ‘site’ in the design process, an approach that maintains and explores the complexities and subtleties of a landscape, of a place. Through two parallel explorations - one that considers an expanded and inclusive interpretation of landscape as the frame through which we engage with, and design, our surroundings, and one that examines the specific nature of this engagement as exchange between the self and the milieu - such an approach has been developed. This approach is called RECONNAISSANCE. Through encouragement of explicit, conscious consideration of how we perceive and experience a landscape, how this contributes to an understanding of a particular place and how this relates to and informs the practice of landscape architecture (both the process and the outcome), RECONNAISSANCE contributes to a strengthening of our abilities and actions as landscape architects. / February 2008

Alternate reality games (ARG) are a relatively new type of game that distributes game content across several media without explicitly identifying that content as part of a game. While players benefit from this aesthetically immersive experience the type of game has the potential to cause confusion over the status of its dispersed content as real or as part of a game. This thesis offers a case study of the 2012 game. The case is contextualized within the disciplines of media studies and games studies, in a wider digital culture where the ubiquity of technology converges to user experience design. A theoretical framework based on Charles S. Peirce’s semiotic, supplemented by Erving Goffman’s frame analysis and James J. Liszka’s transvaluation theory is used to explain the ARG’s problematic relation to the experience of reality.

Chatelaine, Canada’s longest running women’s magazine (1928-present), has seen various changes in relation to women’s presence in society, specifically women’s health and bodies. The purpose of this study is to investigate the framing methods employed in the presentation of health content in relation to the evolution of feminism throughout this publication’s existence. Drawing upon Michel Foucault’s (1979; 1980) investigation of power, the body, and sexuality; Susan Bordo’s (1993b) feminist theorizing on the cultural meanings of the female body; Erving Goffman’s (1974) Frame Analysis; and further theoretical foundations of frame analysis by scholars in media and communication studies, this thesis examines the ways which health knowledge in Chatelaine aids in the empowerment and modernization of women. The research design of this thesis employs a quantitative media content analysis and qualitative semi-structured in-depth interviews to explore the presence and production of health content in this publication between 1928 and 2010. Findings demonstrate Chatelaine’s interaction with the feminist movement in Canada—as feminist initiatives and activism in Canada flourish, Chatelaine covers an increasingly broad and diverse body of health topics. The analyses reveal the sophistication in Chatelaine’s health content, which is evidenced in the employment of various journalistic techniques that aid in the development of an increasingly pervasive media text. In doing so, Chatelaine demonstrates its ability to empower women through current, clear, and concise health knowledge.

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