A preliminary purpose of this study in the area of business communications was that of determining the status of correspondence improvement in stock life insurance companies in Dallas. However, the major purpose, which stemmed from the preliminary one, was to study intensively the approach used in Great American.

The main focus of this dissertation is to investigate to what extent Japanese English-as-an-additional-language (EAL) learners have mastered default grapheme-phoneme correspondence (GPC) patterns of North American English vowels. The underlying motivation of this research comes from my observation that many mispronunciations of English vowels by Japanese EAL learners in formal learning settings are caused by their misinterpretation of English spellings rather than by phonological factors. Traditionally, Japanese speakers’ mispronunciations of English vowels have been attributed to a phonological factor that there is a mismatch of vowel inventories between English and Japanese. However, Nogita and Lin (2016) found that when vowel length and diphthongization are taken into consideration, native Japanese speakers are able to produce all the 13 North American English vowels although not necessarily in a native-like manner. This seems to suggest that other factors than the vowel inventory difference are responsible for the Japanese speakers EAL pronunciation errors. One such factor can be that Japanese EAL learners have not grasped the English GPC patterns and their misinterpretation of the spellings causes their pronunciation errors. To see if a GPC problem really plays a role, this dissertation examines how Japanese EAL learners map all the 13 North American English vowels with English vowel graphemes. In order to examine Japanese EAL learners’ knowledge of English vowel GPC, I conducted both reading and spelling tasks with English-like one-syllable nonsense words. In the reading task (e.g., reading aloud <snad>, <staw>, <stoe>, <nube>, etc.), the results showed that the Japanese EAL participants read vowel letters differently from native English speaking participants 40.1% of the time. In the spelling task (e.g., listening and spelling out native utterances of such syllables as [sneɪ], [zɑ:d], [gaʊ], [fʌd], etc.), the results showed that the Japanese EAL participants spelled out vowel sounds differently from native English speaking participants 60.0% of the time. These results suggest that the Japanese EAL participants’ English vowel grapheme-phoneme mapping patterns were quite different from those of the native English-speaking participants. In more details, the results showed that some correspondences were performed very well in both grapheme-to-phoneme and phoneme-to-grapheme directions presumably because of the similarities between the English GPC and the standardized Japanese romanization GPC: specifically, <e>-[ɛ] (in a closed syllable) and <oi, oy>-[ɔɪ]. In contrast, some correspondences were performed very poorly in both directions presumably in part because of the differences between the English GPC and the standardized Japanese romanization: specifically, <aw, au>-[ɑ:], <ow, ou>-[aʊ], <uh#>-[ʌ#] (# = word-final), <i>-[ɪ], and to a lesser extent <o>-[ɑ:] (in a closed syllable), and <o#, oe#, oh#>-[oʊ]. There were also correspondences that were performed very well only in the grapheme-to-phoneme direction but not in the other direction: specifically, word-medial <ee>-to-[i:] and <a_e>-to-[eɪ]. To a lesser extent, the <u>-to-[ʌ] conversion was also much less problematic than the [ʌ]-to-<u> conversion, although the <u>-[ʌ] correspondence was performed relatively poorly overall. Finally, none of the correspondences were performed very well only in the phoneme-to-grapheme direction but not in the other direction, but there were correspondences that showed this tendency. For example, the [æ: (æə)]-to-<a> conversion was much less problematic than the <a>-to-[æ: (æə)] conversion. Pedagogically, these results seem to suggest that Japanese EAL learners can benefit from being taught English default GPC patterns in order for them to improve on their graphophonic skills. / Graduate / 2017-08-23 / 0290 / 0279 / akitsugu@uvic.ca

Human activities, such as agricultural activity, housing construction, forest logging, etc., play an important role in vegetation changes. Any disturbance to the ecosystem by a severe change in landscape patterns may reduce the survival capacity of certain plant species. In recent years, many studies have used a geographic information system to establish spatial data on vegetation changes; this information includes both the plant species and their spatial structure. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the trends and patterns of vegetation changes and the degree of correlation with the particular environmental features at Wangan Island and Chimei Island in the Penghu Islands, from 1979 to 2009. Both islands have very similar natural features, including geographic location, natural environment, and economic development, but the spatial structures of the land use type are different. The study makes use of geographic information systems, detrended correspondence analysis, canonical correspondence analysis and landscape ecological indicators as study tools. The results are expected to promote our understanding of the spatial distribution patterns of vegetation types and plant species. The results can be divided into three areas. First, both islands follow the same trend with regard to changes in land cover, but the rates of change are different. And the spatial structure of land use types affects the location of land cover types. Example, the centralized and decentralized villages both impact the distribution of the woodland. The mesh and ring road both impact the location of agricultural land. Second, the grassland plant species are correlated with the environmental factors, but the forest plant species are not. The major woodland specie is Leucaena leucocephala on both islands, whose physiological habits may reduce the degree of the correlation. Third, compared to the two islands, Chimei Island is more significant about that the vegetation types are correlated with the neighboring land use types. Finally, the plant species of the local vegetation types could be predicted by changes in the type of land use. In addition, this study has built a trend scheme of the spatial structure changes on Wangan Island and on Chimei Island, which can be used in the island¡¦s future environmental planning.

Believing that one thing was real only if it corresponded with others, Ray Johnson highlighted the connections between himself and famous artists such as Marcel Duchamp. The ways the two artists thought and how they shaped their lives corresponded like two elements in Johnson's collages. My study of Johnson through the lens of Duchamp allows me to discuss two highly intellectual and creative artists. I address the few direct interactions between Johnson and Duchamp as well as their mutual acquaintances who served as conduits of information, particularly in Johnson's direction. This dissertation focuses on Johnson's creative engagement with Duchamp and begins to explicate the depth and richness of that interchange. Each chapter focuses on several key works by Johnson, ranging from some of his earliest collages to what was perhaps the last work he completed. Through these works I explore the correspondences between the two artists outside of their individual works, with each chapter looking at one major theme including language, the viewer, performance, and identity. I outline the relationship between Duchamp and Johnson, using the selected collages to demonstrate how the synergy of the two artists is manifested in Johnson's work. My work sheds light on the enigmatic Johnson who has only very recently come under critical and historical investigation. By looking at Duchamp from this unique perspective I am also contributing to our understanding of one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. Most artists after Duchamp felt that they worked in his shadow but Johnson's relationship to the elder artist was different. He seems to have understood Duchamp better than almost anyone and therefore was able to selectively choose his inheritance--defining himself alongside and against Duchamp. / text

In this thesis we study a particular realization of the Domain wall/Quantum Field Theory correspondence, a modification of the Anti de-Sitter/Conformal Field Theory correspondence that is used to study deformations of a Conformal Field Theory. In theQuantum gravity side of the duality we analyze a N = 1 gauged supergravity theory in 7 dimensions which presents two different Anti de-Sitter vacua, one of which preserves the full supersymmetry and one that breaks half of the supercharges. We will find a scalar 1/2-BPS solitonic solution describing a domain wall in an asymptotically Anti de-Sitter spacetime which interpolates between the supersymmetric AdS vacuum and a divergent AdS space situated at infinity, and we will calculate its tension and the effective mass of the scalar field when evaluated at the AdS vacuum. The dual theory of our gauged  supergravity is the 6-dimensional N = (1,0) Superconformal Field Theory, and the scalar 1/2-BPS field is dual to two relevant operators that induce a relevant deformation of the SCFT which can be identified with a renormalization group-flow. Here we will first compute the scaling dimension and the one-point functions of these operators in the SCFT, as well as indicating how to compute the two-point and three-point functions, and then we will study the c-function along the renormalization group-flow they induce and the beta function that characterizes this flow in order to derive some properties of the resulting Quantum Field Theory.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Text of thesis restricted indefinitely for privacy issues. Contact the Center for Digital Scholarship: digschol@iupui.edu.

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This is a study of Chava Shapiro, a woman writer, born in 1876 in the Ukraine, who died in 1943 in Nazi Czechoslovakia. It describes her conventional Hasidic upbringing, her successful rebellion against it and her subsequent studies in Switzerland which led to a career in Hebrew journalism. It follows her return to Russia in 1914, her escape to Czechoslovakia after the pogroms of 1919 and 24 years later her tragic end in Terezin. / Dominating the study is the well-known Hebrew writer, Reuven Brainin, 1862-1939, with whom Chava Shapiro fell in love and who exerted an extraordinary influence on her life. / Using original, never before published materials from the Jewish Public Library Archives in Montreal, the study seeks to define the woman as a feminist and a Hebrew writer.

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Thomas Hardy described himself as "churchy". Yet his later novels and poetry gave him the reputation of being an agnostic, an atheist and a heathen. He denied that there was any particular philosophy behind his work claiming that it was the result of impressions not convictions. However, I wish to show that Hardy's fiction and poetry expose specific religious beliefs and doubts, that gave rise to his notoriously pessimistic art. By investigating the themes of sin, atonement and salvation, as reflected in the Mosaic Law and the New Testament against Hardy's mature novels, and examining Hardy's concept of God in his poetry, I aim to show that Hardy rejected the miraculous and the doctrine of redemption but retained a belief in the Biblical premiss that the earth is cursed and that humanity is governed by the Biblical Laws which dictate the consequences of sin. Hardy depicts a universe in which humankind is cursed from birth, resides on a cursed earth and is denied the possibility of salvation or redemption. Hardy's profoundly pessimistic world view is a result of his inability to accept the Christian doctrines that offer man a means to rise above the curse of original sin. The characters and plots he created in his fiction were born out of doubt and despair. Consequently, his imaginative universe is permeated with doom and damnation. / English Studies / M.A. (English)