Although music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries makes frequent use of non-isochronous meter (meters involving beats of different length, such as 5/4 and 7/8), most studies on meter and metric dissonance focus on isochronous meters (meters involving beats of the same length, such as 4/4 and 9/8). This dissertation bridges this gap by developing two methodologies to account for metric dissonance involving non-isochronous pulses: modified ski-hill graphs and the composite beat attack point system. Modified ski-hill graphs, adapted from Richard Cohn's ski-hill graphs, illustrate metric states involving non-isochronous pulses and reveal degrees of dissonance in musical passages that share time spans, as in 5/4 grouped 3+2 vs. 5/4 grouped 2+3. The composite beat attack point system uses rhythmic notation to illustrate metric states involving any pulse duration or time span, revealing specific points of dissonance and consonance, relative strength of dissonance and consonance, and patterns of dissonance and consonance. The methodology is used to closely examine the treatment of metric dissonance in Holst's "Mars," from The Planets, Ligeti's Hungarian Rock (Chaconne), and Ligeti's Désordre. The analyses focus on passages where the metric dissonance becomes ever more pronounced and ends up obliterating any sense of meter.

From our earliest days of childhood, our exposure to certain species is confusing and contradictory, with animals like the beloved characters who fill our storybooks moulded into unrecognisable shapes and served up to us in deceptively happy packaging. With a recognition of this cognitive dissonance as a starting point, this report seeks to highlight the inconsistency of teaching children to love and respect animals whilst at the same time to accept the eating and usage of them.  Whilst the topic of animal farming is finally beginning to be taken seriously in conversations about environmental sustainability, its ethical implications for both humans and nonhumans remain massively overlooked. My project aims to bring the conversation about animal rights to the forefront of our moral considerations with childhood education as an entry point.  In collaboration with a primary school class (ages 9-11) and an animal sanctuary, I ran a three-part workshop designed to encourage interspecies thinking and provide a space for students to critically evaluate mainstream attitudes and assumptions towards nonhuman animals and, by extension, to question current norms surrounding animal use and consumption.

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This work aims to determine the causes and consequences of workaholism in women working in corporate who had to move from offices to home offices during the coronavirus crisis. The research is conducted on a sample of fourteen women respondents and one male respondent. The selection was made using the snowball method based on age, education, marital status and employment in Alza.cz or Mall.cz e-shops. All participants answered open questions in essays focused on their home office work habits, daily routine and family relationship. Data were analyzed using grounded theory, based on which I developed eight categories - interest in work, stress/fear, workspace, work schedule, setting boundaries between work and personal life, leisure activities, social interactions and roles in the household. These I subsequently organized and discussed in connection with previous research focused on workaholism, work from home and work-family conflict, such as Samantha Ammons, Cecilia Andreassen or Bryan Robinson. The conclusion of the thesis summarizes the results, the limits of the study and recommendations for future research.

For the Himba, deeply embedded cultural symbols—traditional daily way of life, traditional beliefs about the sacredness of cattle, and religious beliefs of ancestral worship—are of ancient origin and have been retained in their culture throughout all of recorded history. While they still exist in Himba society today, some scholars have observed a potential widespread generational shift in adherence to these core cultural values and beliefs. This study presents the findings of 41 in-depth interviews with members of the Himba tribe in northern Namibia—specifically Opuwo and Otutati—ages 18 to 65. It examines the degree to which cultural differences are emerging as a result of exposure to various influences including modern media. Special attention is given to differences among generational groups—young, middle-aged, and older Himba—that have occurred in the Himba daily way of life. Cultural differences are indicated by beliefs regarding dress and living style, cattle, and ancestral worship—the three major, deep-rooted Himba cultural symbols. Three theoretical explanations for culture change are discussed in order to explain observed differences among generational groups. Implications for culture change are provided as well as areas requiring future study. This study is unlike any other conducted among the Himba in that it formally addresses the degree to which cultural change of core cultural values exists. Himba culture has proven to be resilient to foreign influences, but some observers suggest that this is changing. Given the resources, times, and methodological restraints involved in this study, it was necessary to limit its scope to just an exploration of the existence of a potential widespread generational difference in Himba cultural values, and not an in-depth exploration of the reasons behind it. This research hopes to provide a foundation of research from which subsequent researchers can progress in our collective understanding of what Himba generational changes are occurring and how these potentially unprecedented changes have occurred.

When using Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) to train Artificial Neural Networks, gradient variance comes from two sources: differences in the weights of the network when each batch gradient is estimated and differences between the input values in each batch. Some architectural traits, like skip-connections and batch-normalization, allow much deeper networks to be trained by reducing each type of variance and improving the conditioning of the network gradient with respect to both the weights and the input. It is still unclear to which degree each property is responsible for these dramatic stability improvements when training deep networks. This thesis summarizes previous findings related to gradient conditioning in each case, demonstrates efficient methods by which each can be measured independently, and investigates the contribution each makes to the stability and speed of SGD in various architectures as network depth increases.

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Although Republicans and Democrats frequently disagree ideologically, the leaders of both parties share one commonality in particular--they inevitably make flawed judgments. To adequately understand the extent to which psychological filters act as a fundamental factor in decision making, this thesis shall analyze current political events and observe how partisans within both administrations deal with information incompatible with their own values and beliefs. Specifically referencing the war in Iraq, weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), civil unrest, national security, the national economic climate, and the housing market, this study examines the way leaders deal differently with conflicting information. Although all subjects in the latter shall be discussed, the primary focus is directed towards weapons of mass destruction during the Bush administration and the economic climate during the Obama administration. During their presidencies, both administrations faced different circumstances and congruently possessed different ideologies in respect of how to resolve current problems. Therefore, both President Obama and Bush shall equally be observed in order to adequately compare the extent to which each succumbs to cognitive biases when faced with dissonant information. In addition, groupthink theory, schema theory, and self-justification shall be discussed as complimentary forces which impair political members' decisions. Overall, qualitatively assessing both Republican and Democratic parties in one comprehensive examination breaks the bounds of usual political science studies because both partisans are linked more by their similarities than differences.

Analyzing the relationship between the visual imagery used in music videos, and the sexual cognition of viewers. Sexual cognition is the awareness of one's own sexual behavior, and its implications. The visual content of music videos was analyzed focusing only on the imagery used. The Heterosexual Script (Jhally, 2007) in particular is observed in most music videos, highlighting the sexual objectification of women and the dominant role of males. The direction of causality between the visual imagery and sexual cognitions can only be speculated using a number of theories, namely cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957), cultivation theory (Gerbner et al., 1994), Objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997), Social Learning theory (Bandura, 2001; 2002), and that of semantic constructs. Significant results would suggest that music videos have the potential to alter an individual's sexual cognitions, which may lead to riskier sexual behavior and negative views of women sexually.

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