Currently 884 million people worldwide are living without access to an improved source of drinking water (WHO/UNICEF, 2011). Piped-water on premises is the ultimate goal of World Health Organization (WHO) due to the ability to treat all of the water and distribute it safely in pressurized pipes. However, Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage (HWTS) is an option for improving the quality of drinking water where that infrastructure is not yet developed, especially where there is a risk of recontamination between point of collection and point of use (Clasen, 2006). This study analyzed one such HWTS, the ceramic pot water filter. The study compared the hydraulic properties of the FilterPure (FP) and Potters for Peace (PFP) ceramic pot filters through a thirteen-month field study in the Dominican Republic and laboratory studies at the University of South Florida. In the field study 55 filters were tested for first hour flow rate and hydraulic conductivity. Eight first hour flow rate tests were conducted in the field on one month intervals during months 7- 13. FP filters had an average first hour flow rate of 553 ml/hr and PFP Filters had a first hour flow rate of 395 ml/hr. No significant change in first hour flow rate was observed over time in FP filters. PFP experienced an average increase of 31 ml/hr per month during the seven-month testing period. Falling head tests were conducted on four filters in the laboratory and the flow rate was modeled to determine hydraulic conductivity. Hydraulic conductivity values for FP filters ranged from k = 0.0495 - 0.0831 cm/hr and for PFP filters ranged from k = 0.0136 - 0.0389 cm/hr. Eight out of 29 (26%) Potters for Peace filters in the field had first hour flow rates of less than 250 ml/hr by month nine of the study and had to be replaced and removed from the study. In total 24 of 55 (44%) filters (8 FP and 16 PFP) had to be removed from the study due to several reasons discussed in this thesis.

Globalisation has made logistics more important than ever in developing countries. If one business function raises their costs on a service, the end customer will usually pay the price in the store. When the end customers cannot afford the end price on a product, they will turn to other alternatives. This thesis examines how process management would affect the local population within the Dominican Republic. By beginning to question why some functions exist the effect will be economically visible in a DuPont according to the theories. Supply chain management seeks to manage the whole processes from A to Z in the most efficient way possible. The study was conducted during 8 weeks in the Dominican Republic. Eleven managers were interviewed to see how important SCM is for DR. The conclusions of the study is that Supply Chain Management is very important for DR. Well managed supply chains allow higher quality goods such as medicine and food to be accessed at a lower price by the local population. By targeting the economical position of working capital in a process an organisation can reach an increased ROI without the use economical means (increase the income/delivery service or reduce the costs). / MFS study financed by the Swedish International Development cooperation Agency, SIDA

When writing about Junot Díaz’s Drown (1996) Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007) and This is How You Lose Her (2012), I focus on the iterations of masculinity depicted and embodied by Yunior de las Casas, the primary narrator of this collection. I explore the links between diaspora, hybridity, masculinity, and trauma, arguing that both socio-historical and personal traumatic experience reverberates through the psyches and bodies of Díaz’s characters. I demonstrate the relationship between Yunior’s navigation of the United States and the Dominican Republic and his ever-shifting sexuality, self-presentation, and gender identity. The physical and discursive spaces he must traverse contain multiple, contradictory narratives about how to be a man; within Díaz’s collection, we witness Yunior’s coming-to-terms with the way that these stories of masculinity are rendered dysfunctional and incoherent. Accordingly, Yunior uses the hegemonic discourses of masculinity as a way to cloak his own queer difference, ambivalently interacting and identifying with characters marked as Other. In this analysis, I read Yunior’s masculinity as reactionary to the expectations of Domincan society, and also explore how he shaped by migration, trauma, and unspeakable queer desire.

<p>This is a study about how Swedish travel magazines write about tropical islands with a history of colonization. The study investigates how the islands of Mauritius, the Seychelles, Haiti, the Maldives, the Dominican Republic, Aruba, Zanzibar and Guadeloupe are being portrayed in four Swedish travel magazines.</p><p>Travel articles published in the travel magazines Vagabond, Allt om Resor, Res and Escape 360° during the period January 2004 to December 2009 have been analyzed through critical discourse analysis.</p><p>The study concludes that the travel magazines tend to idealize and aestheticize the tropical islands. The islands are being presented as paradises on earth. They are described as fairy tales, magical, dreams and as playgrounds for Westerners. The inhabitants of the tropical islands are being judged by how well they attend to the tourists’ needs and wishes. The inhabitants are presented as unreliable, while the tourists are presented as reliable. The inhabitants are also being portrayed as childish, exotic and primitive. </p><p>Theories about how old colonial ways of thinking continue to flourish in travel journalism are being used to give depth to the findings of the study.</p><p><strong> </strong></p>

Die Dissertation beschäftigt sich mit dem Partikularrecht mittelalterlicher Ordensgemeinschaften, wobei im Mittelpunkt der Untersuchung ein struktureller Vergleich der Statuten und Konstitutionen ausgewählter religiöser Orden und Kommunitäten des Hoch- und Spätmittelalters steht. Vom ius commune blieb das Recht der Orden recht unberührt, wobei einer der Gründe - neben der unüberschaubaren Vielfalt - die den Orden vom Papst zugebilligte weitgehende Rechtsautonomie gewesen sein dürfte. Die Orden nutzten diesen Freiraum in extensiver Weise und schufen sich eigene partikulare Rechtstexte. Zu den basalen Normen der hochmittelalterlichen Orden und Gemeinschaften gehören die Regel, sodann consuetudines, Statuten und weitere normative Texte. Es hat jedoch den Anschein, dass für die Zeitgenossen oft keine klaren Unterscheidungsmerkmale zwischen den verschiedenen Bezeichnungen existierten. Der kleinste gemeinsame Nenner der bisherigen Forschung für eine Definition von Statutentexten ist wohl der, dass es sich um schriftliche, im Konsens gesatzte, in die Zukunft wirkende Normen handelt. Die Studie soll diese Auslegung überprüfen und genauer bestimmen. Dabei wird ein möglichst breiter Vergleich der Statutentexte verschiedener mittelalterlicher Orden und Religiosengemeinschaften angestrebt. Hierbei muss freilich auch auf die Eigenheiten und unterschiedlichen Verfassungsstrukturen der Verbände eingegangen werden, um zum einen diejenigen Institutionen zu beschreiben, welche legislative Kompetenzen besaßen und zum anderen zu erörtern, wie stark diese Befugnisse jeweils ausgeprägt waren. Ein weiterer Schritt ist schließlich die vergleichende Untersuchung der Texte selbst sein. Hierbei steht weniger der inhaltliche, sondern vielmehr der strukturelle Vergleich im Vordergrund, um Aussagen zum Typus ‚Statut‘ treffen zu können. Das heißt, dass Aufbau und Anlagemethode der Texte sowie ihr eigentümlicher Duktus beziehungsweise Formulierungsmuster beleuchtet werden. Im Ergebnis zeigen sich vergleichend unterschiedliche Entwicklungen und Strukturmuster auf.

L’apparition de l’image du Mongol dans les peintures italiennes est un phénomène particulier et marginal aux XIIIe et XIVe siècles. Notre thèse s’interroge et analyse comment les artistes représentent cette nouvelle image de l’autre, si étrangère et siimpensable, et considère la formation et la transformation des images dans différents contextes. L’image du Mongol s’inscrit dans l’histoire transculturelle qui correspond à la période de la Pax Mongolica s’étendant entre 1250 et 1350. Après la conquête mongole, l’Empire mongol construisit une période de paix dans le vaste territoire de l’Eurasie. L’autorité mongole fit un grand effort pour faciliter les routes commerciales, elle construisit un réseau de routes qui permit aux marchands, ambassadeurs et missionnaires de circuler facilement entre l’Europe et l’Asie. A partir de ce moment, les figures mongoles, comme image d’altérité, pénètrent, d’une manière anachronique, dans les narrations évangéliques, comme l’Adoration des mages, la Crucifixion, la Pentecôte et la Résurrection. Elles ne jouent pas toujours un rôle péjoratif, mais changent leur image selon les contextes et les moments : elles ont été représentées comme Gog et Magog à la fin des temps, soldat partageant la tunique du Christ, spectateur et témoin devant le martyr et la Crucifixion, et rois orientaux adorant l’enfant Jésus. Tout cela constitue, dans une certaine mesure, une image oscillatoire qui crée une tension entre la terreur et l’espoir. Notre thèse tente de penser cette complexité du contexte dans la représentation de la figure mongole et dans ce processus, de démontrer comment l’image donne, à son tour, une visibilité des mentalités de la fin du Moyen Âge. / The appearance of Mongol images in Italian paintings is a particular and marginal phenomenon in the late 13th and 14th centuries. My thesis examines and analyses how artists represent this new image of the Other, so foreign and so unthinkable, and considers the formation and transformation of images in different contexts. The Mongol image inscribed in a transcultural history corresponds to the period of the Pax Mongolica between 1250 and 1350. After the Mongol conquest, the Mongol Empire built a period of peace in the vast territory of the Eurasia. The Mongolian authority made a great effort to facilitate the trade routes, and built a network of roads that allowed merchants, ambassadors and missionaries to circulate easily between Europe and Asia. From this moment, the Mongol image, as an image of otherness, penetrates into evangelical narrations in an anachronistic way, such as the Adoration of the Magi, the Crucifixion, Pentecost and the Resurrection. The role of Mongol is not univocally negative. It changes according to the moments and contexts: they were represented as Gog and Magog at the end of time; as soldier dividing the tunic of Christ; as spectator and witness watching the crucifixion or martyrdom scenes; as oriental kings worshiping the newborn Christ-child. All of this constitute, to some extent, an oscillating image that creates a tension between terror and hope. My thesis aims to consider the complexity of the context in the representation of the Mongol image and to demonstrate how, in this process, the image gives, in turn, a visibility of the mentalities of the end of the Middle Ages.

Die Dissertation beschäftigt sich mit dem Partikularrecht mittelalterlicher Ordensgemeinschaften, wobei im Mittelpunkt der Untersuchung ein struktureller Vergleich der Statuten und Konstitutionen ausgewählter religiöser Orden und Kommunitäten des Hoch- und Spätmittelalters steht. Vom ius commune blieb das Recht der Orden recht unberührt, wobei einer der Gründe - neben der unüberschaubaren Vielfalt - die den Orden vom Papst zugebilligte weitgehende Rechtsautonomie gewesen sein dürfte. Die Orden nutzten diesen Freiraum in extensiver Weise und schufen sich eigene partikulare Rechtstexte. Zu den basalen Normen der hochmittelalterlichen Orden und Gemeinschaften gehören die Regel, sodann consuetudines, Statuten und weitere normative Texte. Es hat jedoch den Anschein, dass für die Zeitgenossen oft keine klaren Unterscheidungsmerkmale zwischen den verschiedenen Bezeichnungen existierten. Der kleinste gemeinsame Nenner der bisherigen Forschung für eine Definition von Statutentexten ist wohl der, dass es sich um schriftliche, im Konsens gesatzte, in die Zukunft wirkende Normen handelt. Die Studie soll diese Auslegung überprüfen und genauer bestimmen. Dabei wird ein möglichst breiter Vergleich der Statutentexte verschiedener mittelalterlicher Orden und Religiosengemeinschaften angestrebt. Hierbei muss freilich auch auf die Eigenheiten und unterschiedlichen Verfassungsstrukturen der Verbände eingegangen werden, um zum einen diejenigen Institutionen zu beschreiben, welche legislative Kompetenzen besaßen und zum anderen zu erörtern, wie stark diese Befugnisse jeweils ausgeprägt waren. Ein weiterer Schritt ist schließlich die vergleichende Untersuchung der Texte selbst sein. Hierbei steht weniger der inhaltliche, sondern vielmehr der strukturelle Vergleich im Vordergrund, um Aussagen zum Typus ‚Statut‘ treffen zu können. Das heißt, dass Aufbau und Anlagemethode der Texte sowie ihr eigentümlicher Duktus beziehungsweise Formulierungsmuster beleuchtet werden. Im Ergebnis zeigen sich vergleichend unterschiedliche Entwicklungen und Strukturmuster auf.

Metoděj Habáň (1899-1984): A Probe into the History of Czech Neothomism Abstract The thesis is focused on the depiction of the life and work of Metoděj Habáň (1899-1984), Czech Dominican priest and philosopher. It follows two main goals: First, it strives to present accurate reconstruction of Habáň's life and his involvement in the Czech Church and society. Secondly, it presents Metoděj Habáň's thinking as a specific type of Thomism and analyse his work in the context of the paradigmatic changes, which the Church and society went throught in the 20th century. The thesis is therefore divided into two main parts - first is focused on Habáň's life, second on his work. In the first chapter it present main sources of inspiration for his work and thinking. In the following chapters it describes his life journey, beginning with his studies and spiritual formation within the Dominican order. It continues with his role in the inner life of the order in the position of Novice Master and Prior Provincial (1938-1942). Attention is also paid to his involvement in the public life of the interwar society. In the period after the second world war we follow Metoděj Habáň to Litoměřice, a town in northwest Bohemia and we describe his imprisonment in the 1950s and subsequently his involvement in public life in the 1960s. His...

The Convent of Dominicans on the Hare Island in Budapest. The topic of the master thesis is the architectural analysis of the Nunnery of Dominicans on the Hare Island in Budapest, which was established with Bela the IV. to his daughter Margaret - later Saint Margeret of Hungary. The Nunnery was originated around the middle of the 13th century (the most probably between 1246-1252). And is presented as an example of the archtitecture of Nunnery of the Orders of Dominicans in Europe. This master thesis presents the history of this Nunnery and also the origin of the guild of the nunnery. The guild was working all around Buda for the king of Hungary - Béla IV. Some of the Hungarian Art Historians think, that the guild originally came to Hungary after they finished their works on the Nunnery of the Cistercianer Order in Porta Coeli in Tišnov near Brno. The person of Saint Margaret of Hungary and her Cult in Hungary and Europe is also discussed in this master thesis.

Systematic Theology & Theological Ethics / (M.Th. (Systematic Theology))