This study researches fictional representations of dead bodies in two television series in which representations of dead bodies are prominent features. The study introduces a brief history of the  human body as a societal metaphor. The narrower theme of the study, the dead body as a cultural surface and carrier of meaning and ritual potential, is discussed through specific popular cultural television productions. The two television series discussed in this study, CSI: Miami and Six Feet Under, are researched both through film analyses and focus group discussions. The film analyses have aimed to show to what use dead bodies are put in the narratives of the programs. The focus group discussions have sought to shed light on the audiences understanding of the meaning of the dead body, and also how this feature of the programs influence the audience and their experience of the programs. The study shows that both series introduce and underline dead bodies as floating in-between subject and object status. A dead person is often introduced as a subject and then stripped of his or her cultural identity and reintroduced as an object or as having an uncertain cultural status which lies somewhere between object and subject. This borderline status of the body serves as a threat in the series, and the subject status of the body is reinstated in every case possible. Order is a central concept for the study and both series strive to reassert and maintain order, either in relationships or on a societal level. The reinstatement of order is reflected on the physical body as a metaphor and narrative device in both series. The reestablishment of the subject status of a dead body is part of this strive for order. The audience research concludes that all focus group members agree that the representations of dead bodies in the programs are important for their experience of the programs. Some find them unpleasant while others think they are interesting. The audience also listed several other themes of the programs which they found important. The representations of dead bodies strike the audience members both as “real” and material, and as metaphors.

Les séries télévisées de fiction suscitent depuis quelques années un intérêt sans précédent dans leur histoire, qui amène à s’interroger sur le sens pris par cette forme de fiction. Mais, à cette question de la signification de l’objet, s’ajoute celle de la méthode permettant d’y répondre. Récits, fictions, les séries sont aussi des produits commerciaux et industriels et, de ce fait, fortement déterminées par leurs contextes de production et de réception.Depuis 1996 et la dérégulation des télécommunications aux Etats-Unis, le paysage médiatique et le marché télévisuel, américains puis internationaux, ont connu d’importants bouleversements économiques et technologiques dont une des conséquences a été l’adoption de stratégies d’expansion et de branding des programmes, qui prennent un tour inédit et auxquelles les séries n’échappent pas.Adaptées, dérivées, reprises, les séries, notamment dramatiques, se franchisent, faisant apparaître alors ce qui constitue une spécificité de la création sérielle, le format. Forme minimale de la fiction, le format consiste en une présentation écrite qui en fixe les constituants fondamentaux permettant non seulement sa sérialisation mais aussi sa distribution.A partir de formats et de franchises de séries dramatiques américaines de la décennie initiée à 1996, cette thèse se propose d’examiner en quoi le format pourrait contribuer à enrichir l’étude des séries télévisées dans une perspective autant théorique qu’interprétative. / Since the beginning of the 2000s, television series arouse an unheard-of interest in their history, which brings to question the sense of this kind of fiction. But, in this issue of the meaning of the object, is also the one of the method to answer it.Narratives and fictions, series are also commercial and industrial products and, therefore, strongly determined by their contexts of production and reception. Since 1996 and the deregulation of telecommunications in the United States, american then international media landscapes and markets have known important economic and technological upheavals which led to new strategies of expansion and branding of the programs, in an unprecedented tourAdapted, spun off, remade, dramatic series lead to franchises, revealing then what establishes a specificity of the serial creation : the format. The television format is a written presentation which sets the fundamental core of the fiction, allowing not only serialization but also its distribution.Studying formats and franchises of American dramatic series of the decade introduced in 1996, this thesis examines how the television format could contribute to enrich the study of television series in a theoretical as well as in an interpretative objective.

In recent years the ideas of good governance and the responsibility of corporate South Africa to contribute to the society in which they operate have become an undeniable part of organisational conception. Indeed, South Africa is considered to be a leader in the field of corporate governance internationally. Forming part of governance practices is Corporate Social Investment (CSI) whereby corporate organisations contribute to causes and societal groupings in need of financial and other assistance. Among these societal groupings that receive support from CSI activities are non-profit organisations (NPOs) that rely on funding from their corporate donors for survival. Based on the exchange of funding and a shared attempt at social development, a relationship between the two parties emerges. From the perspective of the stakeholder theory, corporate organisations, through their CSI activities, and NPOs are stakeholders of each other and a positive relationship between them could strengthen their individual and collective goals. This study explored and described the relationship between corporate donors and recipient NPOs in order to understand the state of the relationship and to critically consider the way in which the relationship is defined, described and measured. First, the relationship was explored by means of partially structured interviews based on well-known relationship indicators where it appeared that the relationship is not only fraught with negative perceptions from both sides, but also where the relationship indicators used to explore the relationship were not entirely suited for the specific context of this relationship. The negative perceptions and inappropriate relationship indicators formed the basis of a theoretical inquiry of literature on CSI, stakeholder relationships and participatory development communication. Subsequently, the partially structured interviews and the literature review informed the design of two corresponding survey questionnaires that could test both findings quantitatively. The results of validity and reliability testing confirmed the qualitative finding that a contextualised measurement is suited for this relationship. A mix of existing and newly formulated items grouped in contextual elements and redefined relationship indicators was used to describe the relationship. A combined analysis of qualitative and quantitative results indicated that the relationship is not as negative as the qualitative research might have suggested (possibly a result of contextualised measurement); but that very specific relational challenges are present and it is suggested that these challenges need a realistic approach of which accurate description is a starting point. The research contributes twofold with the first contribution being a clearer understanding of the relationship between corporate donors and recipient NPOs and the second being a set of redefined and contextualised relationship indicators with which to define and measure this relationship. / PhD (Communication Studies), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

In recent years the ideas of good governance and the responsibility of corporate South Africa to contribute to the society in which they operate have become an undeniable part of organisational conception. Indeed, South Africa is considered to be a leader in the field of corporate governance internationally. Forming part of governance practices is Corporate Social Investment (CSI) whereby corporate organisations contribute to causes and societal groupings in need of financial and other assistance. Among these societal groupings that receive support from CSI activities are non-profit organisations (NPOs) that rely on funding from their corporate donors for survival. Based on the exchange of funding and a shared attempt at social development, a relationship between the two parties emerges. From the perspective of the stakeholder theory, corporate organisations, through their CSI activities, and NPOs are stakeholders of each other and a positive relationship between them could strengthen their individual and collective goals. This study explored and described the relationship between corporate donors and recipient NPOs in order to understand the state of the relationship and to critically consider the way in which the relationship is defined, described and measured. First, the relationship was explored by means of partially structured interviews based on well-known relationship indicators where it appeared that the relationship is not only fraught with negative perceptions from both sides, but also where the relationship indicators used to explore the relationship were not entirely suited for the specific context of this relationship. The negative perceptions and inappropriate relationship indicators formed the basis of a theoretical inquiry of literature on CSI, stakeholder relationships and participatory development communication. Subsequently, the partially structured interviews and the literature review informed the design of two corresponding survey questionnaires that could test both findings quantitatively. The results of validity and reliability testing confirmed the qualitative finding that a contextualised measurement is suited for this relationship. A mix of existing and newly formulated items grouped in contextual elements and redefined relationship indicators was used to describe the relationship. A combined analysis of qualitative and quantitative results indicated that the relationship is not as negative as the qualitative research might have suggested (possibly a result of contextualised measurement); but that very specific relational challenges are present and it is suggested that these challenges need a realistic approach of which accurate description is a starting point. The research contributes twofold with the first contribution being a clearer understanding of the relationship between corporate donors and recipient NPOs and the second being a set of redefined and contextualised relationship indicators with which to define and measure this relationship. / PhD (Communication Studies), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Thesis (PhD (Pscychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006.

The disertation focuses on Czech School Inspectorate (CSI) and its impact on the preschool institutions in the region of Lanškroun. What are the criteria used in evaluating the work of kindergarten, what laws are governed in their work and what the implications of its findings are to the school management and decision-making processes in them. The thesis comrises the historical introduction of the state supervision over schools, the development of CSI, the comparison of school inspection systems in other EU countries, the extent of competency of the Czech School Inspectorate. The research shows that the Czech School Inspectorate has the positive impact on management in the kindergartens, it gives the essential feedback to the kindergarten headmasters. The headmasters consider the CSI evaluation to be the further step in their work. The determined conclusions are the results of the questionnaire to the headmasters, the analysis of inspection reports as the outcome of CSI activities in selected kindergartens in the region of Lanškroun. KEYWORDS: Czech School Inspektorate (CSI), inspection reports, evaluation standards, kindergarten, decesion making process, conditions, course nad results of education evaluation criteria, process and outcomes of education

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T18:18:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Mariana Pimenta Cama.pdf: 1094285 bytes, checksum: feaea7b876b6d9926947835492557d27 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-10-23 / The current research intends to reflect in a critical manner about the ways of representation of criminality on audiovisual media, especially on television. The target of this analysis is to point out media processes that highlight and exemplify the way crime is turned into a spectacle, reconfiguring narrative formats of police drama and news currently active. When it comes down to representing images of violence and criminality, the audiovisual media culture has been showing two main slopes: the news that incorporates construction elements typical of soup operas, and the fictional program that intends realism, showing the routine of police in action in big urban areas. Under the eye of speculation promoted by news media, two cases will be analyzed, which took place in 2008: the case of Isabella Nardoni and the young girl Eloá Pimentel, exhaustingly reproduced and detailed on the internet. In the thin line of the crime-spectacle in the universe of fiction, we ll analyze the narrative of TV series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, highlighting the episodes "Grave Danger" and "Monster in a box". From the methodic point of view, the research bases itself on the audiovisual analysis provided for television and in its versions for Internet and DVD, willing to investigate the connection between the subject in question and the visible object, interpreting the spectator as a morbid voyeur. From the theoretical point of view, the research lays on "real shock" concept by Beatriz Jaguaribe, on the hypothesis of intimacy spectacle by Paula Sibilia, presented on O Show do Eu: a intimidade como espetáculo", and on the "A Sociedade do Espetáculo" by Guy Debord. The arguments concerning the News are anchored by work of Eugênio Bucci and Maria Rita Kehl, "Videologias". The reflexion regarding the spectator with violent images is based on the work by Susan Sontag, "Diante da dor dos outros", and on the works of Arlindo Machado, "A Televisão levada a Sério" and "O Sujeito na Tela". In the end, it is concluded that the persistent shocking images that infest the many diverse ways of informational communication operate through contagious systems, which lead to dramatization elements of the journalism of the real for the fictional and spectacle of crime for the News universe, on television and internet / A presente pesquisa pretende refletir de forma crítica sobre os modos de representação da criminalidade nas mídias audiovisuais, em especial na mídia televisiva. O objetivo da análise é apontar processos midiáticos que evidenciem e exemplifiquem o modo como o crime é transformado em espetáculo, reconfigurando os formatos narrativos de dramas policiais e do telejornalismo vigentes. A cultura das mídias audiovisuais, no que diz respeito à representação das imagens de violência e criminalidade, vem demonstrando duas vertentes predominantes: o telejornalismo que incorpora elementos de construção típicos das telenovelas e a programação ficcional que se pretende realista, retratando o cotidiano da polícia em ação nos grandes centros urbanos. Sob a ótica da espetacularização promovida pela mídia jornalística, serão analisados dois crimes ocorridos no ano de 2008: o caso da menina Isabella Nardoni e o da jovem Eloá Pimentel, fartamente reproduzidos e detalhados na internet. No que tange ao crime-espetáculo no universo da ficção, analisaremos a narrativa seriada televisiva CSI:Crime Scene Investigation, com destaque para os episódios "Grave danger" e "Monster in a box . Do ponto de vista metodológico, a pesquisa baseia-se na análise dos audiovisuais concebidos para televisão e em suas versões para internet e DVD, a fim de investigar a relação entre o sujeito vidente e o objeto visível, entendendo o espectador como voyeur-mórbido. Do ponto de vista teórico, a pesquisa apoia-se no conceito de "choque do real" de Beatriz Jaguaribe, na hipótese de espetacularização da intimidade de Paula Sibilia, apresentada em O show do eu: a intimidade como espetáculo" e na obra "A sociedade do espetáculo" de Guy Debord. As discussões sobre telejornalismo são ancoradas na obra de Eugênio Bucci e Maria Rita Kehl, "Videologias". A reflexão sobre a relação do espectador com as imagens de violência baseia-se na obra de Susan Sontag, "Diante da dor dos outros", e nas obras de Arlindo Machado, "A televisão levada a sério" e "O sujeito na tela". Ao final, conclui-se que as insistentes imagens de choque e violência que assolam os mais diversos meios informacionais de comunicação operam por sistemas de contágio, que levam elementos da dramatização do real do telejornalismo para o universo ficcional e de espetacularização do crime para o universo do telejornal, na televisão e internet

L'utilisation de franges d'interférence en lumière blanche comme une sonde optique en microscopie interférométrique est d'une importance croissante dans la caractérisation des matériaux, la métrologie de surface et de l'imagerie médicale. L'Interférométrie en lumière blanche est une technique basée sur la détection de l'enveloppe de franges d'interférence. Il a été démontré antérieurement, la capacité des approches 2D à rivaliser avec certaines méthodes classiques utilisées dans le domaine de l'interférométrie, en termes de robustesse et de temps de calcul. En outre, alors que la plupart des méthodes tiennent compte seulement des données 1 D, il semblerait avantageux de prendre en compte le voisinage spatial utilisant des approches multidimensionnelles (2D/3D), y compris le paramètre de temps afin d'améliorer les mesures. Le but de ce projet de thèse est de développer de nouvelles approches n-D qui sont appropriées pour une meilleure caractérisation des surfaces plus complexes et des couches transparentes. / The use of white light interference fringes as an optical probe in microscopy is of growing importance in materials characterization, surface metrology and medical imaging. Coherence Scanning Interferometry (CSI, also known as White Light Scanning Interferometry, WSLI) is well known for surface roughness and topology measurement [1]. Full-Field Optical Coherence Tomography (FF-OCT) is the version used for the tomographic analysis of complex transparent layers. Both techniques generally make use of some sort of fringe scanning along the optical axis and the acquisition of a stack of xyz images. Image processing is then used to identify the fringe envelopes along z at each pixel in order to measure the positions of either a single surface or of multiple scattering objects within a layer.In CSI, the measurement of surface shape generally requires peak or phase extraction of the mono dimensional fringe signal. Most of the methods are based on an AM-FM signal model, which represents the variation in light intensity measured along the optical axis of an interference microscope [2]. We have demonstrated earlier [3, 4] the ability of 2D approaches to compete with some classical methods used in the field of interferometry, in terms of robustness and computing time. In addition, whereas most methods only take into account the 1D data, it would seem advantageous to take into account the spatial neighborhood using multidimensional approaches (2D, 3D, 4D), including the time parameter in order to improve the measurements.The purpose of this PhD project is to develop new n-D approaches that are suitable for improved characterization of more complex surfaces and transparent layers. In addition, we will enrich the field of study by means of heterogeneous image processing from multiple sensor sources (heterogeneous data fusion). Applications considered will be in the fields of materials metrology, biomaterials and medical imaging.

La tomographie par courants de Foucault peut être utilisée pour évaluer la forme et le volume de défauts dans des plaques métalliques de générateur de vapeur de centrale nucléaire. L'objectif du travail présenté est de cartographier la distribution d'une grandeur représentative du défaut, ici la conductivité relative. Ce problème est difficile à résoudre car mal-posé et non-linéaire. Afin de le résoudre un modèle numérique est nécessaire. Nos travaux ont tout d'abord consisté à étudier les modèles directs existants pour choisir le plus adapté à notre cas. Il s'est avéré que les méthodes différentielles, différences finies ou éléments finis, étaient les plus adaptées à notre cas. Une fois que le modèle direct a été choisi, nous avons adapté les méthodes de type contrast source inversion (CSI) à ce modèle, puis proposé un nouveau critère à minimiser. Les méthodes de type CSI sont basées sur la minimisation de l'erreur quadratique pondérée des équations du modèle, observation et couplage. Par construction, elles autorisent une erreur sur ces équations. Il apparaît que les résultats de reconstruction s'améliorent lorsque l'erreur sur l'équation de couplage diminue. Afin de contraindre cette équation en évitant des problèmes de conditionnement, on a eu recours à une technique de Lagrangien augmenté. Enfin, le caractère mal-posé de ce problème peut être contourné en introduisant des informations a priori adéquates notamment sur la forme générale des défauts à reconstruire ainsi que sur les valeurs possibles de la conductivité relative. L'efficacité des méthodes développées est illustrée avec des cas simulés en 2D.

X-ray lasers bring us into a new world in photon science by delivering extraordinarily intense beams of x-rays in very short bursts that can be more than ten billion times brighter than pulses from other x-ray sources. These lasers find applications in sciences ranging from astrophysics to structural biology, and could allow us to obtain images of single macromolecules when these are injected into the x-ray beam. A macromolecule injected into vacuum in a microdroplet will be affected by evaporation and by the dynamics of the carrier liquid before being hit by the x-ray pulse. Simulations of neutral and charged water droplets were performed to predict structural changes and changes of temperature due to evaporation. The results are discussed in the aspect of single molecule imaging. Further studies show ionization caused by the intense x-ray radiation. These simulations reveal the development of secondary electron cascades in water. Other studies show the development of these cascades in KI and CsI where experimental data exist. The results are in agreement with observation, and show the temporal, spatial and energetic evolution of secondary electron cascades in the sample. X-ray diffraction is sensitive to structural changes on the length scale of chemical bonds. Using a short infrared pump pulse to trigger structural changes, and a short x-ray pulse for probing it, these changes can be studied with a temporal resolution similar to the pulse lengths. Time resolved diffraction experiments were performed on a phase transition during resolidification of a non-thermally molten InSb crystal. The experiment reveals the dynamics of crystal regrowth. Computer simulations were performed on the infrared laser-induced melting of bulk ice, giving a comprehension of the dynamics and the wavelength dependence of melting. These studies form a basis for planning experiments with x-ray lasers.