<p>In the social sciences, the dominant approach to the study of character—people’s</p> <p>essential interactional dispositions, especially of a moral and durable nature—has been to</p> <p>treat it as a set of objective dispositions lodged within the individual. This dissertation</p> <p>challenges the objectivist orthodoxy in the study of character by examining it from a</p> <p>symbolic interactionist perspective (Mead 1934; Blumer 1969; Strauss 1993). Drawing on</p> <p>14 months of ethnographic research in two Protestant Christian seminaries as an</p> <p>empirical case, I find that character is ultimately a matter of audience definition, a selfother</p> <p>dispositional designation achieved in social interaction. Three empirical papers</p> <p>examine specific aspects of the character-making process. The first paper considers</p> <p>character as a contingency influencing people’s trajectories of involvement in group life.</p> <p>The second paper examines how ministry students define and experience character</p> <p>formation in the seminary. The third paper analyzes how character problems are</p> <p>identified and responded to in the seminary.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Acting is a process of pretending to be someone who the actor is not. While acting is often considered to be a specialized skill of trained professionals, a simple and perhaps universal form of acting occurs during oral storytelling, in which the storyteller acts out the characters of the story during the moments of dialogue and self-reflection. In order to examine this skill experimentally, we had both trained actors and untrained novices read four fairy tales aloud. The stories contained a series of contrastive characters that spanned age, gender, and species. The major dependent variables were the vocal parameters of pitch height, loudness, timbre, and speech rate. The results demonstrated that participants created distinguishable acoustic profiles for each character within a story, regardless of the story’s familiarity. Monotonic trend analyses revealed the sequential changes in vocal parameters that were produced as a function of the age, gender, and species of the represented characters. Linear mixed-effects models showed a significant effect of acting training on character portrayal, with actors showing more-expansive pitch depictions than novices. We argue that portraying characters during storytelling is one of the most fundamental forms of acting in human life. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Acting is a process of pretending to be someone who the actor is not. It is often thought of as a skill of trained professionals. We propose that oral storytelling is a form of everyday acting. When a storyteller reads aloud, they act out the characters of the story during moments of dialogue—when the characters themselves are speaking in the story. We explored the vocal portrayal of contrastive characters by both trained actors and non-actors as they read fairy tales aloud. The results revealed that participants, regardless of acting experience, portrayed the characters as predicted, performed the characters uniquely from each other, and remained consistent in their portrayal across a story. Actors were found to use a larger pitch range than non-actors, specifically for high-pitched characters. We argue that portraying characters during storytelling is one of the most fundamental forms of acting in human life.

Crowd Simulation and Visualization are an important aspect of many applications such as Movies, Games and Virtual Reality simulations. The advantage with crowd rendering in movies is that the entire rendering process can be done off-line. And hence computational power is not much of an overhead. However, applications like Games and Virtual Reality Simulations demand real-time interactivity. The sheer processing power demanded by real time interactivity has, thus far, limited crowd simulations to specialized equipment. In this thesis we try to address the issue of rendering and visualizing a large crowd of animated figures at interactive rates. Recent trends in hardware capabilities and the availability of cheap, commodity graphics cards capable of general purpose computations have achieved immense computational speed up and have paved the way for this solution. We propose a Graphics Processing Unit(GPU) based implementation for animating virtual characters. However, simulation of a large number of human like characters is further complicated by the fact that it needs to be visually convincing to the user. We suggest a motion graph based animation-splicing approach to achieving this sense of realism. / Master of Science

Thriving youth have the capacity to contribute to greater society and develop independence, mastery, generosity, and a sense of belonging. This development is frequently enhanced through youth programming as ability expansion rather than capacity for authority and community engagement. In Virginia 4-H teen-leadership initiatives infused with positive youth development provide opportunities to bolster active and engaged citizenship (AEC). The purpose of this study was to explain AEC through the examination of ethical factors, demographics, and problem-solving disposition of youth participating in leadership-development programs. This study utilized both person- and variable-centered analyses to develop youth profiles and determine the impact of ethical factors, demographics, and problem-solving disposition on AEC for participants in long-term 4-H teen-leadership programs and short-term 4-H leadership trainings. An ex post facto survey design was used to develop clusters of youth and explain the relationship between problem-solving disposition, demographics, ethical factors, and AEC. The findings indicated that both ethical factors and problem-solving disposition significantly explained AEC for both treatments. Additionally, findings indicated significant differences between clusters for AEC, civic duty, and civic skills. These differences were predominately observed through membership in long-term or short-term leadership programs as well as enrollment in honors/AP courses, gender, ethical views, and problem-solving disposition. Findings informed the incorporation of community problem-solving in the youth's AEC model. A conceptual model for Youth in Community Problem Solving (YCPS) was developed based on theory and findings. Sociocultural theory and reasoned actioned approach, situated within relational developmental systems metatheory, provided a foundation for the YCPS model. Additional literature on positive youth development, youth-leadership development, self-consciousness, sense of community, and problem-solving disposition was utilized in support of the model. Evidence for the inclusion of problem-solving disposition in the model was found through a recent study with youth in leadership programs. If youth are to engage in YCPS partnerships, both youth and adults should be equipped with the necessary tools and resources for equal partnership, so they can overcome power dynamics and inner team conflicts. Additionally, Youth leadership practitioners should consider avenues for infusing character and problem-solving development in gender inclusive program curriculum to increase likelihood for contribution. / Ph. D.

Yes / This study aimed to understand which character strengths are most important for people living with dementia and therefore which strengths-based psychological interventions could be most meaningful and acceptable. A participatory design, utilising Delphi methodology, was incorporated into an iterative three stage framework: (1) literature reviewed for Positive Psychology (PP) interventions and patient public involvement to define the character strengths; (2) modified Delphi (N = 10) identified which character strengths are most important for living with dementia; (3) focus groups (N = 14) explored which PP interventions are most acceptable and meaningful. Qualitative data from the focus groups was analysed using thematic analysis. Love, kindness and humour were deemed the most important character strengths for living with dementia. Qualitative data from the focus groups was captured in three superordinate themes: (1) lack of opportunity not capacity; (2) key considerations of PP interventions for people living with dementia; and (3) potential benefits of PP interventions. Love, kindness and humour come naturally to people with dementia, but people may lack social opportunities to use these strengths. Therefore, a PP intervention promoting positive emotion, social relationships and connection to one's values appears most meaningful and acceptable as this may provide a social context to use and maintain these strengths.

Allowing the interaction of two dynamic forces that vie for dominance to be a form, a new character emerges. The character of the new form is present in the qualities of its making. / Master of Architecture

The diploma thesis analyzes the literary characters of Communist protagonists in the novels and short stories published in Czech literature of the last fifteen years. We assume that the time distance dynamically changes the concepts of the representations of the Communist protagonists. The aim of this work is not only to define the stereotypical traits that are associated with the figure of the Communists, but it also attempts to identify the practices of the lifting up of such protagonists from the traditional semiotic connotations. The thesis analyzes the characters of the Communists from the point of the thematic units, as they seem to be the most common semantic units for standard readers.

<p>Istraživanja u ovom radu obuhvatila su analizu najznačajnijih<br />prirodnih i kulturno-socioloških faktora koji utiču na formiranje<br />karaktera predela na području obuvaćenom Prostornim Planom<br />područja posebne namene Fruške gore do 2022. godine. Izdvajanjem i<br />opisom karaktera predela ukazano je na značaj ovog područja u pogledu<br />raznovrsnosti predela, formirana je osnova za praćenje promena<br />karaktera predela, polazna tačka za menadžment planove, kao i osnova<br />za donošenje odluka o zaštiti i uređenju predela. Prikazana i<br />primenjena metodologija u procesu karakterizacije predela pokazala<br />se kao pogodna za primenu i na regionalnom nivou.</p> / <p>The thesis explores the most important natural and socio-cultural factors that influence<br />the creation of Fru&scaron;ka gora landscape character. With the landscape character<br />identification and assessment, the importance of this area in terms of landscape<br />diversity has been pointed out, the basis for monitoring changes in the landscape<br />character has been established as well as input to management plans and the basis<br />for making decisions on landscape protection and planing. The presented and applied<br />methodology in the landscape characterization process proved to be suitable for use at<br />the regional level as well.</p>

沈依嘉. / "2007年9月". / 論文(哲學碩士)--香港中文大學, 2007. / 參考文獻(leaves 124-127). / "2007 nian 9 yue". / Abstract and table of contents also in English. / Shen Yijia. / Lun wen (zhe xue shuo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2007. / Can kao wen xian (leaves 124-127). / Chapter 第一章 --- 上海´Ø漫畫：一些背景 --- p.1 / Chapter 第二章 --- 小丑：早期三毛和《三毛從軍記》 --- p.17 / Chapter 第三章 --- 貧兒：關於《三毛流浪記》 --- p.36 / Chapter 第四章 --- 模範：“新中國´ح的三毛 --- p.48 / Chapter 第五章 --- 結語 --- p.60 / 图版 --- p.74 / 參考文獻 / Chapter Chapter I --- Shanghai-Comics: some backgrounds --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter II --- """Clown"": Early San Mao works and “San Mao joins the army""" --- p.17 / Chapter Chapter III --- """Poor"": about “San Mao's vagrant life""" --- p.36 / Chapter Chapter IV --- """Exemplar"": San Mao in ""New China""" --- p.48 / Chapter Chapter V --- Conclusion --- p.60 / Illustrations --- p.74 / Bibliography --- p.124

by Jian-Zhuang Liu. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-196). / Microfiche. Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI, 1998. 3 microfiches ; 11 x 15 cm.