This thesis explores the work of three contemporary Japanese artists - Yasumasa Morimura, Mariko Mori and Takashi Murakami - in relation to cross-cultural exchanges and differences between Japan and the West. In carrying out such an investigation, this study illustrates how these artists play with Japanese and Western cultural forms in the context of postmodern challenges to concepts of essence and authenticity, and in a technologically transformed world shaped by unprecedented global flows of information, people, products and capital. In Morimura's art-making, this play is characterized by appropriations and parodies of Western cultural icons. The idea of identity-as-essence is superseded by a vision of identity-as-performance - a conception of identity as a creative act, taking place within an immanent system of global exchanges. Whilst Morimura's work tends to reify difference, for Mori the opposite is true. Melding arcane scientific and religious ideas, Mori creates technological spectacles with which she fantasizes a vanishing of determinate identities and difference within the encompassing field of a culturally amorphous techno-holism. Murakami's 'superflat' art raises the possibility of resolving this tension between the reification and effacing of difference. In his work, 'Japan' and 'the West' are represented as discrete entities that, at the same time, emerge already entangled, as effects in a preexisting system of global exchanges.

Non-negative matrices arise naturally in population models. In this thesis, we first study Perron- Frobenius theory of non-negative irreducible matrices. We use this theory to investigate the asymptotic behaviour of discrete time linear autonomous models. Then we discuss an application for this in age structured population. Furthermore, we study Liapunov stability of a general non-linear autonomous model. We consider a general nonlinear autonomous model that arises in structured population. We assume that the associated nonlinear matrix of this model is non-increasing at all density levels. Then, we show the existence of global extinction. In addition, we show the stability condition of the extinction equilibrium of the this model in the Liapunov sense. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.

Mathematical models of isothermal chemical systems in reactor problems and Turing's theory of morphogenesis with an application in sea-shell patterning are studied. The reaction-diffusion systems describing these models are solved numerically. First- and second-order difference schemes are developed, which are economical and reliable in comparison to classical numerical methods. The linearization process decouples the reaction-diffusion equations thereby allowing the use of different time steps for each differential equation, which may be large due to the excellent stability properties of the methods. The methods avoid having to solve a non-linear algebraic system at each time step. The schemes are suitable for implementation on a parallel machine.

This thesis mainly focuses on analyzing and pricing European swaption via Crank{Nicolson Finite Dierence method. This paper begins with some rather common instruments, denitions and valuations are also provided. MATLAB is the main computer language used throughout this paper, for the numerical examples, the MATLAB codes are also provide in the appendix in order for reader to reproduce the result. Also, the paper extends to price cancellable swap in the end.

Previous cultural research found that East Asian pictorial representations (e.g., paintings) contained more elements than North American ones, and that East Asians were more likely than North Americans to prefer context-rich information to context-impoverished information (Miyamoto, Nisbett, & Masuda, 2006; Masuda, Gonzalez, Kwan, & Nisbett, 2008). Four studies were conducted to examine the cultural variations of the complexity difference between East Asians and North Americans. Study 1 analyzed the posters collected at the SPSP conference and the results indicated that East Asians were more likely than North Americans to design complex posters when posters contained two or more studies; however, no cultural effect was found when posters contained a single study. In Study 2, I analyzed portal pages of governments and universities in East Asian (e.g., China, Japan, Korea) and North American societies (e.g., USA and Canada), and found that East Asian portal pages were more complex than North American ones. Based on the findings, I further investigated peoples speed in dealing with complex web information in Study 3 and simple web information in Study 4. The results showed that East Asians were faster than North Americans in dealing with information on complex WebPages, especially at the bottom of sections, but no cultural effect was found when participants were asked to perform the same tasks on simple WebPages. This research reinforced the previous cultural research on visual representations, and suggested that East Asians were more likely than North Americans to prefer to complex designs, which in turn can affect peoples patterns of attention and cognition. (255 words)

This dissertation seeks to recover the relational quality of the Holy Spirit who is the Lord and the Giver of life as enshrined in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed (381). Neo-Scholastic theology had utilized the conceptual categories of Aristotelian metaphysics with its orientation to foundationalism and immobility in a manner destructive of difference, plurality, and the relational language of the Spirit as witnessed in the Bible. One of the upshots became the totalizing bent of Western epistemology which eventually found concretion in colonialism and the slavery of Africans among others. This dissertation utilizes the category of "relationality," a core tenet of West African Weltanschauungen, as an organizing and interpretive device for reinterpreting the creedal affirmation in a way that allows for new understandings of the Spirit. In our world in which there is an increasing awareness of the simultaneity of the dialectic of differences and interconnectedness due to the process of globalization, we are compelled to seek ways of living together without subordinating difference to the regime of sameness. The thesis is that relational pneumatology provides template for negotiating an other discourse on the Triune God which recognizes and respects equality-in-difference. To develop this thesis, I utilize an anthropological, interdisciplinary, critical, and descriptive approach. I argue that relational pneumatology invites that subalternized epistemic potentials be foregrounded and legitimized in a manner that fosters "solidarity of others." I also draw the implications of this perspective for the Nigerian church with regard to ecclesial structures and authority, interreligious dialogue, and the question of holistic liberation that fosters justice and peace. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts / Theology / PhD / Dissertation

High order accurate finite difference methods for hyperbolic and parabolic initial boundary value problems (IBVPs) are considered. Particular focus is on time dependent wave propagating problems in complex domains. Typical applications are acoustic and electromagnetic wave propagation and fluid dynamics. To solve such problems efficiently a strictly stable, high order accurate method is required. Our recipe to obtain such schemes is to: i) Approximate the (first and second) derivatives of the IBVPs with central finite difference operators, that satisfy a summation by parts (SBP) formula. ii) Use specific procedures for implementation of boundary conditions, that preserve the SBP property. iii) Add artificial dissipation. iv) Employ a multi block structure. Stable schemes for weakly nonlinear IBVPs require artificial dissipation to absorb the energy of the unresolved modes. This led to the construction of accurate and efficient artificial dissipation operators of SBP type, that preserve the energy and error estimate of the original problem. To solve problems on complex geometries, the computational domain is broken up into a number of smooth and structured meshes, in a multi block fashion. A stable and high order accurate approximation is obtained by discretizing each subdomain using SBP operators and using the Simultaneous Approximation Term (SAT) procedure for both the (external) boundary and the (internal) interface conditions. Steady and transient aerodynamic calculations around an airfoil were performed, where the first derivative SBP operators and the new artificial dissipation operators were combined to construct high order accurate upwind schemes. The computations showed that for time dependent problems and fine structures, high order methods are necessary to accurately compute the solution, on reasonably fine grids. The construction of high order accurate SBP operators for the second derivative is one of the considerations in this thesis. It was shown that the second derivative operators could be closed with two order less accuracy at the boundaries and still yield design order of accuracy, if an energy estimate could be obtained.

Bibliography: leaves 179-215 / 1 v. (various pagings) ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Psychology, 1993

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Baylor University, 2006. / In abstract "th, n, i, n-2, n-1" are superscript. Includes bibliographical references (p. 42-44).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.