Music is often used by its advocates as a vehicle to promote positive changes in students, academically, emotionally, and socially (Catterall, Chapleau & Iwanaga, 1999; Fiske 1999). In this study, I examined the implementation, in my own public elementary classroom, of a five-month Character Really Matters! songwriting program that I developed. The study is designed to provide insight into the potential impact of such songwriting music programs on students’ character development. The study examined the connections students made between the songwriting program and their lives. The data for this study were derived from a guided student reflection form used as a normal part of teaching. To provide further elucidation of the impact of the songwriting program on students’ character development, I supplemented the reflection-form data with my direct classroom observations using field notes and a character-tracking checklist. Findings from the research revealed connections between songwriting and its impact on developing children’s work habits in collaboration, cooperation, commitment to quality work, and in turn, character development. By writing songs, students were able to tell stories and reflect on their learning from their songwriting experiences. The findings from this study inform the justification and improvement of the program and contribute to the school board’s body of evidence used to examine its character education program. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2013-01-06 19:24:02.226

An abundance of information regarding the structure of a finite group can be obtained by studying its irreducible characters. Of particular interest are monomial characters – those induced from a linear character of some subgroup – since Brauer has shown that any irreducible character of a group can be written as an integral linear combination of monomial characters. Our primary focus is the class of M-groups, those groups all of whose irreducible characters are monomial. A classical theorem of Taketa asserts that an M-group is necessarily solvable, and Dade proved that every solvable group can be embedded as a subgroup of an M-group. After discussing results related to M-groups, we will construct explicit families of solvable groups that cannot be embedded as subnormal subgroups of any M-group. We also discuss groups possessing a unique non-monomial irreducible character, and prove that such a group cannot be simple.

The Nature of Things is a collection of stories and a preface that examine character motivation. The author is concerned with unexpected reactions and surprising outcomes. The stories are independent of each other and involve a wide range of characters.

Autour du shaman ou du montreur de marionnettes des liens se tissent pour faire face au désordre grâce à une parole en mouvement. A une représentation humaine ou animale, à un objet animé rituel ils insufflent une vie crédible car simulée et porteuse de l'énergie paradoxale des morts-vivants. La Chine porte la marque profonde de la culture des shamans : on amène un esprit dans la figure pour "jouer les dieux". Voyage initiatique en Thaïlande, Malaisie, Indonésie où l'on confortera cette idée. Mythes et rites se réduisent à des règles formelles... ou retrouvent vie et prise sur l'actualité. Le personnage de bois ou de terre apparaît, dans les mythes africains, comme un secret rapporté du monde des morts ou des esprits. Chez les Papous, en Afrique, en Europe, l'épouvantail, le mannequin, l'effigie permettent de contourner, symboliquement, la reproduction sexuée. Au Moyen Age, en Europe, le marmouset (marionnette, idole, fantôme, épouvantail) et son théâtre, se cachent derrière une chantefable, dans les fabliaux, aux origines de la farce et du castelet. Entre le shamanisme des origines grec et celui des Barbares se resitue l'apport de Platon dans sa définition de l'âme. Comment se définit le "je" chez les Papous, chez le poète Fernando Pessoa, dans le mythe moderne de Pinocchio, chez le marionnettiste qui vit "plusieurs vies" ? L'art dramatique du XIXe siècle se meurt, épuisé par l'ego des comédiens ou écrasés par le réalisme naïf des marionnettes et la Grande Guerre amène à découvrir la prothèse, la vie simulée, l'acteur mécanique, l'effigie. Entre l'absence de conscience du mannequin et la conscience infinie du dieu, dirait Kleist, on agit dans les règles du jeu / Around the shaman or the puppet master, links be forged to face up to disorder thanks to a speech in motion. They inspire a life, credible because simulated and bearing the living dead's paradoxal energy, to a human or animal representation, to a ritual-caracterized animated object. China keeps the deep mark of the shamans' culture : a spirit is brought into the character to "play the gods". In Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia will strenghthen this idea : myths and rituals are reduced to formal rules... or recover life and have a hold over the current events again. The wooden or clay character appears, in African myths, like a secret brought back from the world of the dead or of the spirits. In New Guinea, in Africa, in Europe, the scarecrow, the dummy, the effigy allow bypassing sexed reproduction in a symbolic way. In the Middle Ages in Europe, maumet (for puppet, ghost, scarecrow) and its theater, deserve being looked for behind the "chantefable", in "fabliaux", in the origins of the farce. Platon would have fetched among barbarians relationships between the body and the soul. This search will lead us to numerous definitions of "I" among Papuans, with fernando Pessoa, in puppet masters' practice, in the modern myth of Pinocchio, with the puppet master who experiences "several lives". XIXth century drama is dying, worn out by actors ego or emptied of its meaning by a puppet in search of naive realism, the Great War brings about discovering the prosthesis, the simulated life, the mechanical actor, the effigy. Between the dummy's absence of consciousness and the god's infinite consciousness. The shaman-puppet master van decide to act according to his own game rules

The purpose of this thesis is to create the character of Dabby Bryant in Timberlake Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good, which was selected for the third production in the University of New Orleans' 2004-2005 theatre season. The steps involved in creating Dabby Bryant's character involve using specific methods as outlined by the Acting Program of UNO as well as the text A Practical Handbook for the Actor by Melissa Bruder, et. al. I also utilized specific instructions from the director of the production, David Hoover, also my major professor. I also had to use the novel The Playmaker by Thomas Keneally as this is the text from which the Wertenbaker play is taken. The process also includes the journal kept during the rehearsal process and performance run as well as scene scores created as a blueprint for the creation of the character.

This doctoral thesis aims to explore the underlying rationale of the (by modern standards) wide use of character evidence in the courts of classical Athens. Linking divergent areas of social sciences such as law, history, psychology and social anthropology, this interdisciplinary quest examines under a socio-political prism the question of legal relevance in Athenian forensic rhetoric. Specifically, I am concerned with an in-depth analysis of the surviving court speeches placed in their context in order to reveal the function of the Athenian courts and the fundamental nature of Athenian law. I explore the utmost aims of the first democratic system of justice and give a verdict as to its orientation towards the attainment of key notions such as the rule of law, equity and fairness, or social stability through utilitarian dispute resolution. My claim is that, although ancient and modern definitions of such ideals are in essence incomparable, the Athenians achieved the rule of law in their own terms through the strict application of legal justice in their courts. In such a legal system, no ‘aberrations’ or irrelevant ‘extra-legal’ arguments may carry significant weight. Central for my argument is the homogeneous approach to (legal and quasi-legal) argumentation from Homer to the orators, in a period covering more than four centuries. Close analysis of the dispute-resolution passages in ancient Greek literature exposes the striking similarities with the rhetoric of litigants in the Athenian courts. Therefore, instead of isolating (in time and space) the sphere of the Athenian courts of the mid-5th to the late-4th centuries, my holistic approach discloses the need for an all-embracing interpretation of the wide use of character evidence in every aspect of argumentation. I argue that the explanation for this practice is to be found (on a subjective level) in the Greek ideas of ‘character’ and ‘personality’, the inductive method of reasoning, and (on an objective level) in the social, political and institutional structures of the ancient Greek polis. Thus, a new exegesis to the question of legal relevance for the Greeks emerges.

M.Com. (Informatics) / This dissertation examines the field of computer vision, with special attention given to the recognition of alpha numeric characters on video images using OCR software. The study may be broadly divided into four sections. The first section offers an introduction to standard OCR (Optical Character Recognition) methods that have evolved over the years and have been incorporated into some commercial software packages currently. The second section covers the problem of reading characters in a dynamic environment and also the problems experienced with the compatibility of current OCR software products. The third section of the dissertation looks at solutions for the problem mentioned in section two and creates a framework for a generic model in which any application should fit. The generic model is then described in detail. The framework should provide a foundation for interested parties to build, modify or improve the model. The final section gives examples of how the model should present a solution. Experimental results are looked at and the model is critically evaluated.

Thesis advisor: Daniel J. Harrington / Holy Scripture throughout history has been a source of inspiration for human beings. One important theme that emerges from Scripture is the notion of mercy, which is a capital virtue in the gospel of Luke. The Gospel according to St. Luke has traditionally merited the title “The Gospel of Mercy” and contains parables such as “The Parable of the Good Samaritan” and “The Parable of the Prodigal Son,” which are unique to Luke’s gospel. These parables highlight the divine merciful actions of a Samaritan and of a father respectively; they show us a path of divine mercy through concrete actions. This thesis will focus on the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:25-37). / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

Surely, moral education is not merely intended to result in theoretical knowledge, but instead attempts to change people's behavior. However, when examining and evaluating current trends in moral education, it appears that hitherto moral education has fallen short of its goal to make people better. In this paper, I try to determine what has caused this perceived failure of moral education and conclude that approaches that focus on teaching moral reasoning skills rather than on teaching actual moral content, i.e., values and virtues, are generally ineffective for moral improvement. However, a more traditional form of moral education, namely character education, appears to be a viable alternative to the moral reasoning methods. Since character education can be regarded as the practical application of virtue ethics, I first describe and evaluate virtue ethics and defend it against potential criticisms. I then examine what methods are effective for teaching virtues, and how such methods can potentially be incorporated into the curriculum. Since virtues cannot be taught through theoretical instruction, the acquisition of good habits constitutes the necessary foundation for the establishment of good moral character. Some methods that have been suggested for laying the foundation for virtue are the use of stories, role play, as well as the inclusion of physical and outdoor activities, etc. Furthermore, habituation constitutes the basis for the acquisition of good habits, and as such it requires the application of rewards and punishment by a caring tutor, who at the same time can serve as a role model for virtuous behavior. Finally, I extrapolate if and how character education can be employed to make people more environmentally conscious citizens. I conclude that environmental virtue or character education is the most effective method of environmental education, since it affects how an individual understands, views, and subsequently interacts with the natural environment.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries