This dissertation concerns the study of canonical components of the SL(2, C) character varieties of hyperbolic 3-manifolds. Although character varieties have proven to be a useful tool in studying hyperbolic 3-manifolds, very little is known about their structure. Chapter 1 provides background on this subject. Chapter 2 is dedicated to the canonical component of the Whitehead link. We provide a projective model and show that this model is isomorphic to P^2 blown up at 10 points. The Whitehead link can be realized as 1/1 Dehn surgery on one cusp of both the Borromean rings and the 3-chain link. In Chapter 3 we examine the canonical components for the two families of hyperbolic link complements obtained by 1/n Dehn filling on one component of both the Borromean rings and the 3-chain link. These examples extend the work of Macasieb, Petersen and van Luijk who have studied the character varieties associated to the twist knot complements. We conjecture that the canonical components for the links obtained by 1/n Dehn filling on one component of the 3-chain link are all rational surfaces isomorphic to P^2 blown up at 9n + 1 points. A major goal is to understand how the algebro-geometric structure of these varieties reflects the topological structure of the associated manifolds. At the end of Chapter 3 we discuss common features of these examples and explain how our results lend insight into the affect Dehn surgery has on the character variety. We conclude, in Chapter 4, with a description of possible directions for future research. / text

Scientists say, that sport is an activity, where exercising young man, while reaching lower or higher results has to train his positive character sides: persistence, discipline, responsibility, obedience for rules, positive estimation of himself, individuality etc. A majority of authors understand sport as an ideal means which help to learn to communicate with others, understand what is right and not fair and realize his abilities (Parry, 1994; Mor & Winquist, 2002). That is why it is actual for us to research does sport trains positive character sides for elder class students, because these character sides help to reach good sport results and successful career. Character lineaments developing problems is one of the most common and questionable problems, positive character is very important factor while reaching high sport results and good career therefore it is important to research training peculiarities of positive character sides. In this work we try to answer to question, what positive character sides are typical to going infor sports older students, who take part in after lessons activities and to compare them with character sides of not exercising higher forms students. In our work we hypothesized, that positive character sides will be more typical to older exercising schoolchildrens, who take part in after lessons activities. Our research purpose is to detect sporting and not sporting older schoolchildren’s positive character sides training peculiarities. For... [to full text]

China has long been sceptical on mitigating sentences based on the offender’s good character, while good character mitigation is widely accepted in Canada. This study was to examine the justification of good character mitigation in Canada so that China can better face the future choice in sentencing: whether to consider good character a mitigating factor. Through examining the use of good character in Canadian sentencing practice, the justification of good character mitigation in Canada has been questioned. A three-part argument has been put forward to support the removal of good character as a mitigating factor in Canada: first, the workability of the very concept of “good character” is low; second, theoretical basis for mitigating sentences on good character is problematic; third, the present practice contributes to a form of status-based discrimination. This study shows that the justification of good character mitigation is not as strong as we have expected it to be. Even in Canada, a country which has good character mitigation with a long history, the consideration of good character as a mitigating factor needs further discussion. The adoption of good character mitigation in China should be more cautious. / Thesis (Master, Law) -- Queen's University, 2007-12-17 16:48:45.471

There is a long-held assumption that Outdoor Adventure Education (OAE) can develop character. However, little research has explored this belief. While many practitioners, and some scholars, remain committed to character development through OAE, the literature also reveals a growing body of discomfort and suspicion surrounding this assumption. This dissent centres on the vague nature of the term “character,” and the moral philosophical complexities surrounding the concept of character itself. Until “character” is more clearly explicated, any resolution to the current confusion is unlikely. This thesis employs Aristotle’s virtue theory, as espoused in his Nicomachean Ethics, to articulate an understanding of character. Although several scholars have used virtue ethics, commonly referred to as character ethics, to support their claims of character development through OAE, these treatments have been preliminary, warranting this more detailed account. When viewed from this virtue ethical perspective, the question, “Can character be developed through OAE?,” becomes problematic. For Aristotle cautions that different subjects of inquiry yield differing levels of accuracy, and with regard to ethical investigations, such as those into character, one must be content to “indicate the truth roughly and in outline” (I 3§4). Further complicating the matter, Aristotle asserts that virtue, a disposition, and the building block of character is gradually and arduously inculcated over long periods of time (I 7§16). While virtue theory implies that radical character transformation is, in any context, unlikely over brief stints of time, this does not mean that OAE programmes are of little moral worth. To the contrary, a detailed examination into a virtue ethical understanding of character suggests that certain elements of OAE programmes may xii have strong moral relevance. This relevance is found in Aristotle’s three conditions that cultivate the development of virtue, conditions readily found within many OAE courses: moral reflection; moral practice; and sharing in the moral lives of others. Drawing on my own interest and experience within OAE, an expedition seemed an ideal setting to explore the presence and content of Aristotle’s three conditions. In hope of discovering this moral narrative, a qualitative case study was conducted on a two-week wilderness expedition in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. The expedition was a first-year transition experience for students attending a Christian liberal college in the United States. Utilising interviews as a primary method, and observations and texts as secondary methods, the research explored the participants’ expedition experience from a virtue ethical perspective. A thematic analysis revealed that participants reported reflecting on their moral lives in both formal (e.g. group reviews, solo, journals) and informal (e.g. while hiking and performing camp chores) settings. Similarly, whether through the mental and physical endurance required in off-trail navigation, or the care expressed through the acts of service and gracious tolerance necessitated by the social demands of expeditionary life, the participants viewed their wilderness travel as a constant opportunity for moral practice. Lastly, the participants identified the community formed on their expedition to be integral to their increased moral self-perception. Although a virtue ethical perspective precludes claiming anything definitive regarding the participants’ character development, at the least, the expedition can be said to have contributed to their moral journey in ways that are directly relevant to their character.

This thesis analyses the transmission of the Deirdre legend in adaptations from the earliest written sources to the versions of the writers of the early twentieth century Irish Literary Revival. Its aim is to trace the way that the refashioning of the story is informed by the cultural and political contexts within which each writer was working, as well as the more personal and aesthetic motivations behind the various adaptations. The texts chosen for close study represent key moments in the transmission process, both for their treatment of the legend and for the specific context to which this treatment responds. After an introduction dealing with the medieval versions, the thesis is divided into six chapters which chart these key moments in chronological order, ending with J. M. Synge's play Deirdre of the Sorrows, published in 1910. Part of the conclusion is given over to tracing the legend's fate in adaptations since the advent of Irish independence. The chronological framework adopted allows a new perspective to emerge which reveals that the Deirdre legend provided a means of reflecting on the various cultural and political conflicts in which Irish identity has been implicated. The thesis demonstrates that the ancient Irish material was used to valorise the writers' contemporary Irish or Scottish culture at times when this culture was under threat, and that following independence the connection between Deirdre and Eire largely disappeared. The particular use to which the legend was put therefore depended on two factors: the specific conflicts with which each writer was engaging and the various connections which they perceived between the present and the mythical past.

This study examines the description of characters' education in twelfth- and thirteenth-century French epic and romance with two broad aims: to establish how education is described, and to suggest reasons why it is portrayed in the particular way that it is. The discussion is divided into three parts. The first provides the contextual framework for the second two, and presents a brief overview of the history of education in the period, together with a survey of the theory and practice of education in school and at home. Critics and historians have noted the link between education and literature and we provide a model of contemporary educational background, theory and practice, against which literary descriptions may be compared and understood. In Part II we analyse these literary descriptions, hitherto not comprehensively explored. Taking a large corpus of works, we examine the content of characters' education, drawing comparisons across genre and timespan, and with the model from Part I. This, together with further examination of where poets draw their inspiration, what they choose to include and how it is presented, provides a context within which particular features, descriptions or texts may be discussed. Part III examines particularly interesting treatments of education. Five different studies of individual works or groups of texts illustrate the range of ways education may function, and help us to establish the status of the education description in Old French literature. We conclude that poets deliberately describe and exploit education in various ways. These range from delineation of character, where we see authors shaping the raw material of narrative for their own ends, to major thematic use, essential for understanding a text. Study of the theme of education reveals its contribution to and reflection of the importance of medieval education and its influence on vernacular literature.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Mar. 10, 2008). Directed by Denise Baker; submitted to the Dept. of English. Includes bibliographical references (p. 61-62).

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol. inst., 2002. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Liberty University, 2008. / Dissertation submitted electronically. Includes bibliographical references (p. 104-110).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 422-435) Also available in print.