This thesis analyses artefacts belonging to the playwright, socialist and critic Bernard Shaw, which form part of the collections at Shaw’s Corner, Hertfordshire, now managed as a National Trust property. My original contribution to knowledge is made by revealing Shaw through the artefacts in new or under-explored roles as socialist-aesthete, art patron, connoisseur, photographer, celebrity, dandy, and self-commemorator. The thesis therefore challenges the stereotypical views expressed in the literature which have tended to focus on Shaw at Shaw’s Corner as a Fabian with ascetic characteristics. The thesis aims are achieved by contextualizing the Shaw’s Corner Collections, both extant and absent. Historically the artefacts in the house have been viewed from the perspective of his socialist politics, ignoring his connoisseurial interests and self-fashioning. Hence there was a failure to see the ways in which these elements of his consuming personality overlapped or were in conflict. By examining artefacts from the perspectives of art and design history, focussing on furniture, private press books, clothing, painting and sculpture, Shaw is shown to be a highly complex and at times contradictory figure. The discontinuities and ambiguities become clearer once we examine the possessions from the house which were removed and sold by the National Trust after Shaw’s death. Whilst some Shavian scholars and art historians have acknowledged Shaw’s role as an art critic and the impact it had on his dramaturgy, there has been little recognition of the ways in which this influenced his domestic interiors, consumption, and personal taste, or indeed his interest in the decorative arts and design. Artefacts and furniture in the house today reflect Shaw’s role as a socialist-aesthete, and his involvement with Arts and Crafts movement practitioners and Aestheticism. As an art patron Shaw also shared the aims of artists, connoisseurs and curators working in the first decades of the twentieth century, and we see evidence of this through certain artefacts at Shaw’s Corner. With a strong aesthetic sense, he devoted time to matters of beauty and art, but was equally governed by economics and a desire to bring ‘good’ art and design to everyone. Shaw was considered to be one of the greatest cultural commentators and thinkers of his generation, but he was at the same time a renowned celebrity and influential figure in the mass media. The literature has tended to dismiss the latter role in order to preserve his place among the former, but I argue here that Shaw did not necessarily view the two as separate endeavours. In fact items from the house, notably Shaw’s clothing and sculpture, are considered as the bearers of complex philosophical, symbolic or iconographic meanings relating to his self-fashioning, aesthetic doctrines, and desire for commemoration, which demonstrate the links between the celebrity and the critic. By considering the artefacts in conjunction with the Trust’s archive of Shaw photographs, as well as his representation in popular culture, and by then relating this material dimension to his writings, the thesis brings a new methodological approach to the study of Shaw. More importantly this thesis reveals new knowledge about the philosophical ideas, humanity, generosity, and personal vanity of the man that lay behind those artefacts.

Next generation sequencing is increasingly used as a diagnostic tool in the clinical setting. This is driven by the vast increase in molecular targeted therapy, which requires detailed information on what genetic variants are present in patient samples. In the hospital setting, most cancer diagnostics are based on Formalin Fixed Paraffin Embedded (FFPE) samples. The FFPE routine is very beneficial for logistical purposes and for some histopathological analyses, but creates problems for molecular diagnostics based on DNA. These problems derive from sample immersion informalin, which results in DNA fragmentation, interstrand DNA crosslinking and sequence artefacts due to hydrolytic deamination. Distinguishing such artefacts from true somatic variants can be challenging, thus affecting both research and clinical analyses. In order to identify FFPE-artefacts from true variants in next generation sequencing data from FFPE samples, I developed the novelprogram FUSAC (FFPE tissue UMI based Sequence Artefact Classifier) for the facility Clinical Genomics in Uppsala. FUSAC utilizes UniqueMolecular Identifiers (UMI's) to identify and group sequencing reads based on their molecule of origin. By using UMI's to collapse duplicate paired reads into consensus reads, FFPE-artefacts are classified through comparative analysis of the positive and negative strand sequences. My findings indicate that FUSAC can succesfully classify UMI-tagged next generation sequencing reads with FFPE-artefacts, from sequencing reads with true variants. FUSAC thus presents a novel approach in bioinformatic pipelines for studying FFPE-artefacts.

Architektur umgibt uns permanent. Sie ist so alltäglich wie Sprache, ebenso allgegenwärtig, meistens beiläufig. Diese Arbeit untersucht auf sozialtheoretischer Ebene am Beispiel der Architektur, inwiefern die sozialwissenschaftliche Kategorie der „Definition der Situation“ erweitert werden kann, um Kategorien wie Leiblichkeit oder Räumlichkeit adäquat für den Entwurf sozialer Handlungen zu berücksichtigen.

<p>This thesis explores how cognitive artefacts contribute to the process of reaching common ground within collaborative groups through a study of both Clark's theory of Common Ground and of how artefacts are understood to be used, both by individuals and as seen in distributed cognition. This was accompanied by an ethno-methodologically inspired study in the natural setting of a kitchen to observe how artefacts are used when negotiationg common ground. After the study's completion, participants were interviewed in order to establish whether common ground was successfully established ant to look for consistency between obeservations from the study and how the participants motivate their actions. The study was analysed in order to find patterns, of which four distinct kinds were indentified; these categories were then related to facts established in the study of Common Ground and artefacts.</p>

Cette thèse aborde les problèmes liés à la formation des images numériques. L'étape d'échantillonnage nécessaire à la formation d'une image discrète à partir d'une image continue peut introduire différents types d'artefacts qui constituent des dégradations majeures de la qualité de l'image. La motivation principale de cette thèse a été l'étude de ces artefacts que sont le flou, le ringing et l'aliasing. Dans la première partie, nous rappelons tout d'abord le processus de formation des images numériques puis nous proposons des définitions de ces artefacts. Dans la deuxième partie, nous définissons une mesure conjointe du flou et du ringing dans le cadre d'un filtrage passe bas précédant l'échantillonnage. La troisième partie est dédiée à la détection automatique de ces artefacts dans les images. Enfin, en quatrième partie, la détection automatique est testée dans des applications concrètes de la restauration d'images: la déconvolution aveugle et le débruitage.

Ivan Vladislavić’s fiction shows a preoccupation with the South African past in terms of both time and space and with the influence of ideology on the interpretation of the past and of cultural artefacts such as cityscapes, buildings, monuments, photographs, and fine art within the South African context. No study has yet considered Vladislavić’s entire oeuvre in terms of the interaction between time and space and their particular manifestation in concrete cultural expressions that generate meaning that can only be recognized over time and within the limits of different perspectives. In order to situate his work within such a paradigm, this thesis discusses various theories on the representation of time and space and their application and argues that Vladislavić represents concrete reality and abstract ideas about the past and ideologies in an interrelated manner, in order to illuminate the ways in which concrete reality influences perceptions of the past and its associated ideologies, but also how past and ideology, in turn, influence how concrete reality is perceived. His fiction can thus be described as exploring the complex dynamic between concrete and abstract. Perspective plays an important role in his fiction in terms of both his representation of concrete (city and artefacts) and abstract reality (past and ideology). Characters’ perspectives come into play as they negotiate, create and interpret concrete and abstract reality, and in the light of how they ‘see’ the world, their identities are shaped. Vladislavić shows that perspective is inevitably blurred with ideological prejudice. He does so, in such a way, that a reader is often led to reconsider her/his own way of perceiving both concrete and abstract. Cultural artefacts, in particular, mediate perceptions of time and of place; they are (in)formed by ideology and also have singular signifying possibilities and limitations. By drawing attention to his own expression in language, by creating seemingly random lists, or focusing on the multiple meanings of a word in a playful manner, Vladislavić shows that, like artefacts, language too is a medium for mediation that is subject to and formative of ideology. / Thesis (PhD (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Ivan Vladislavić’s fiction shows a preoccupation with the South African past in terms of both time and space and with the influence of ideology on the interpretation of the past and of cultural artefacts such as cityscapes, buildings, monuments, photographs, and fine art within the South African context. No study has yet considered Vladislavić’s entire oeuvre in terms of the interaction between time and space and their particular manifestation in concrete cultural expressions that generate meaning that can only be recognized over time and within the limits of different perspectives. In order to situate his work within such a paradigm, this thesis discusses various theories on the representation of time and space and their application and argues that Vladislavić represents concrete reality and abstract ideas about the past and ideologies in an interrelated manner, in order to illuminate the ways in which concrete reality influences perceptions of the past and its associated ideologies, but also how past and ideology, in turn, influence how concrete reality is perceived. His fiction can thus be described as exploring the complex dynamic between concrete and abstract. Perspective plays an important role in his fiction in terms of both his representation of concrete (city and artefacts) and abstract reality (past and ideology). Characters’ perspectives come into play as they negotiate, create and interpret concrete and abstract reality, and in the light of how they ‘see’ the world, their identities are shaped. Vladislavić shows that perspective is inevitably blurred with ideological prejudice. He does so, in such a way, that a reader is often led to reconsider her/his own way of perceiving both concrete and abstract. Cultural artefacts, in particular, mediate perceptions of time and of place; they are (in)formed by ideology and also have singular signifying possibilities and limitations. By drawing attention to his own expression in language, by creating seemingly random lists, or focusing on the multiple meanings of a word in a playful manner, Vladislavić shows that, like artefacts, language too is a medium for mediation that is subject to and formative of ideology. / Thesis (PhD (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Since their discovery 150 years ago, Neanderthals have been considered incapable of behavioural change and innovation. Traditional synchronic approaches to the study of Neanderthal behaviour have perpetuated this view and shaped our understanding of their lifeways and eventual extinction. In this thesis I implement an innovative diachronic approach to the analysis of Neanderthal faunal extraction, technology and symbolic behaviour as contained in the archaeological record of the critical period between 80,000 and 30,000 years BP. The thesis demonstrates patterns of change in Neanderthal behaviour which are at odds with traditional perspectives and which are consistent with an interpretation of increasing behavioural complexity over time, an idea that has been suggested but never thoroughly explored in Neanderthal archaeology. Demonstrating an increase in behavioural complexity in Neanderthals provides much needed new data with which to fuel the debate over the behavioural capacities of Neanderthals and the first appearance of Modern Human Behaviour in Europe. It supports the notion that Neanderthal populations were active agents of behavioural innovation prior to the arrival of Anatomically Modern Humans in Europe and, ultimately, that they produced an early Upper Palaeolithic cultural assemblage (the Châtelperronian) independent of modern humans. Overall, this thesis provides an initial step towards the development of a quantitative approach to measuring behavioural complexity which provides fresh insights into the cognitive and behavioural capabilities of Neanderthals.

I am connected to the Yorta Yorta, Wamba Wamba, Mutti Mutti and Boonurong people through my heritage. My connection to these four language groups provides the framework for my arts practice research project. Totems are an important component of my work. Totems govern life in Koori tribal language groups. For example, they dictate who you can talk to and marry, and govern rights for making art, including men's business and women's business. This translates as 'Lore' in Koori culture. Lore is a Koori term meaning a way of being that encompasses kinship systems, responsibilities, and beliefs, as they interconnect with a particular area of country. In the past, when the Museum acquired Aboriginal artefacts, they sometimes did not record all the details. This meant there was then a break in the knowledge. Aboriginal people have our own collection of artefacts in various cultural institutions, but we do not have that layer of information about what the designs were about. The totems are not necessarily in the designs on the shields and artefacts. They are generally designs relating to those different areas. Gunnai/Kurnai can be quite different to Latje Latje, for example. Some of the designs on the banners may represent the totems. This can reflect an artist's interpretation of the meanings within such designs. My work incorporates a re-interpretation of a range of different totems connected to the language groups I have a blood connection to.

Studiens syfte är att belysa hur några pedagoger ser på utomhusmiljön. Studien utgår ifrån följande frågeställningar: Vilka möjligheter kan pedagogerna se i att använda sig utav utomhusmiljön i verksamheten? Vilka begränsningar kan pedagogerna se i att använda sig utav utomhusmiljön i verksamheten? Vilka argument finns för att gå ut och när går man ut?Studien är genomförd med ljudinspelade besöksintervjuer för att nå ett så tillförlitligt och trovärdigt resultat som möjligt. I studien ingår fem förskollärare på fyra olika förskolor. Urvalet är med hänsyn till såväl intresset från respondenter som tidsaspekten att tre av förskolorna ligger i samma kommun för att minimera restiden.Det som synliggjorts i resultatet är att samtliga intervjuade pedagoger ser stora möjligheter, men även begränsningar, i användandet av utomhusmiljön. En möjlighet som nämns är pedagogernas möjlighet att erbjuda barnen lärtillfälle i såväl naturen som på förskolegården. En begränsning som samtliga pedagoger nämner är ekonomin och tiden i verksamheten, då verksamheten är beroende av pengar för införskaffandet av artefakter och tiden för att underhålla och genomföra alla idéer som finns för konstruktionen och användning av utomhusmiljön. Pedagogerna belyser barnens hälsovinst som argument för varför de går ut, men även hur förskolans traditioner och dess inrutade arbetssätt gör att de går ut vid vissa klockslag.