Thesis (Ph.D.)--Baylor University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 248-257)

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Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 94-105).

Cette étude porte sur le développement de modèles et de méthodes numériques pour prédire les propriétés électriques et mécaniques des nanocomposites polymères/graphènes.Dans une première partie, un modèle nonlinéaire de conduction électrique prenant en compte l’effet tunnel est introduit pour déterminer la conductivité effective de ces nanocomposites au travers d’une procédure d’homogénéisation numérique. Celle-ci, basée sur une formulation éléments finis a mis en évidence l’influence des paramètres microstructuraux sur la conductivité effective au travers d’une étude statistique.Ensuite, un modèle atomistique de l’interface polymère/graphène a été proposé pour valuer les propriétés de l'interface et de l'interphase. Les champs de contrainte et de déplacement ont été identifiés par une extension de la procédure d'Hardy-Murdoch à partir des simulations de mécanique moléculaire. À l'aide de ces champs, un modèle élastique continue avec des interfaces imparfaites a été identifié et comparé aux résultats des simulations de mécanique moléculaire. Finalement, le modèle atomistique a permis d’identifier un modèle de zone cohésive nonlinéaire pour modéliser la décohésion à l’interface polymère/graphène. Une procédure d’homogénéisation numérique par la méthode des éléments finis a été introduite pour estimer les propriétés mécaniques effectives dans le cadre des transformations finies. Les microstructures déformées ont été utilisées dans le modèle électrocinétique pour déterminer l’impact de la décohésion interfaciale sur la conductivité effective. / This work contributes to developing numerical methodologies for predicting the electrical and mechanical properties of graphene/polymer nanocomposites, which can provide a better view for the design of new materials.First, a nonlinear electrical conduction model taking into account the tunneling effect is introduced to determine the effective conductivity of the graphene/polymer nanocomposites through a numerical homogenization procedure. The influences of barrier height and microstructural parameters on the conductivity were demonstrated.Then, to characterize the properties of interphases and interfaces, we employed the Murdoch-Hardy procedure combined with the molecular dynamics method to study the mechanical properties of the graphene/polymer nanocomposites. The stiffness tensor components of the interphase, interface andnbulk polymer region are identified. Based on these fields, a continuous elastic model with imperfect interface has been identified and compared with the results of molecular dynamics simulations.Finally, the atomistic model was used to identify a nonlinear cohesive zone model to simulate the decohesion at the interface of polymer and graphene. A numerical homogenization procedure by finite element method was introduced to estimate the effective mechanical properties in the framework of the finite strains. The proposed mechanical modeling is finally extended to the finite strain problem to predict the evolution of percolation threshold under tension within the proposed electrical model.

Die Dissertation liefert einen Beitrag zur Modellierung und optimalen Ansteuerung von vernetzten hybriden Energiesystemen. Die Arbeit beschreibt die Entwicklung einer modellprädiktiven Regelung (MPC) für konkrete Energiesysteme. Dafür wird eine Betrachtung zu berücksichtigender wirtschaftlicher und technischer Rahmenbedingungen vorgenommen, die zur Formulierung notwendiger Nebenbedingungen für die MPC genutzt wird. Für den Umgang mit dem ansteigenden Rechenbedarf der MPC bei steigender Systemzahl wird ein alternativer Ansatz auf Basis eines auktionsbasierten Algorithmus vorgestellt. Die Modellierung der Energiesysteme wird ausgehend von einer bestehenden Laboranlage vorgenommen. Die Erprobung der vorgestellten Ansätze erfolgt in einer Simulationsumgebung, die die Untersuchung verschiedener Szenarien erlaubt. Im Rahmen der Simulationsszenarien mit unterschiedlicher Systemzahl und Zusammensetzung der Energie-systeme wird eine Sensibilitätsanalyse der vorgestellten MPC vorgenommen. Die Interpretation der Ergebnisse erfolgt auf Basis numerischer und empirischer Bewertungskriterien.

The point of departure of this thesis is derived from a modern tendency to create a dichotomy between selfless love and human flourishing. Modern attempts to liberate the human being from heteronomous oppression and the moral norms promoting this have sometimes led to the conclusion that selfless love is harmful to human flourishing. Such a conclusion has gained momentum also through modernist re-conceptualisations of the self as an autonomous but empty consciousness which must guard itself against determination by the other. In effect, significant thinkers have replaced the notion of selfless love with a call for self-assertion over against the other, as key to the individual person’s well-being. This has been matched by Christian dismissals of the individual’s pursuit of human flourishing. In the face of modern insights into the ‘desirous’ nature of the human being, modern Christian theology has equally struggled to sustain the tension between the traditional Christian notion of selfless or self-giving love and human beings’ desire to affirm themselves and to find personal fulfilment in this world. Strands of Christian theology have, for instance, affirmed a self-surrendering love at the cost of dismissing the individual’s worldly desires entirely. In this thesis, I outline this situation in modern thought and its problematic consequences. With a view to discerning whether selfless love and human flourishing can be re-connected, I then undertake close studies of the theologian Paul Tillich’s and the moral philosopher and novelist Iris Murdoch’s conceptualisations of the self and of love. As I will argue, Tillich’s and Murdoch’s engagement with modern thought leads them to develop accounts of the self, which correspond with understandings of love as both selfless and conducive to human flourishing. On the basis of their thought I thus argue that selfless love and human flourishing can be understood as interdependent even today.

The thesis called Phone hacking scandal of News of the World journal and its display in the Czech news agency deals with foreign coverage of the Czech news agency concernig the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.The thesis mainly focuses on the second half of 2011, especially on June, when the scandal broke out. Firstly the thesis deals with history and present of British press, then with Rupert Murdoch's (the last owner of the journal and media mogul) operation in media, with formation, development and extincion of the News of the World journal. It also informs about the phone-hacking scandal's profile and about the news service of the Czech news agency - foreign coverage, reporting formats and so on. It focuses on changes of the amount of news during time, on used formats of coverage, on priorities, services, cathegories and also on sources which the agency used during preparing the news mainly in June 2011. Numbers of news are organized to tables which illustrate the development of amounts of the news published in relation to the scandal. Then the thesis more briefly focuses on remaining months of the second half of 2011 and on previous and subsequent periods. This thesis also finds out how the phone-hacking scandal influenced media regulation of Great Britain.

This diploma thesis deals with the British Sunday tabloid paper News of the World. By using the method of historical analysis it covers all its history from its foundation to its closure. The aim of this thesis is to put the newspaper's beginning, growth and end into the context of its era. The first chapters describe the rise of periodical press in Great Britain and in connection with that the social situation and technological progress in print. The chapters also deal with the first stage of development of News of the World, that is, when it was owned by the Carr family. On the grounds of socio-economic and political situation the chapters discover which factors added to the massive growth of circulation and big popularity of this Sunday paper. The second half of this thesis covers the development of the newspaper under the ownership of Rupert Murdoch, starting with the battle over its buy out against Robert Maxwell. The thesis analyses changes Murdoch implemented and brings examples of scandals and controversies this newspaper had throughout all its history.The last chapter addresses the phone-hacking scandal which led to the paper's closure after 168 years and its consequences to Murdoch's media empire News Corporation, as well as to the British newspapers market and its self-regulatory principles.

In this dissertation I analyse and contextualise stereotypical notions associated with the concept of home, and what that constitutes, in the work of South African artists Antoinette Murdoch, Bronwen Findlay, Doreen Southwood and Penelope Siopis, each of whom displays a different perspective of the concept in their artwork. I further consider how these selected South African artists engage with the dichotomies surrounding issues of home and the gendered position assigned to women in this area. I address the strategies the selected artists use in bringing the realm of the private sphere into the public arena and how they transgress the boundaries of private and public spaces. In addition I consider how concepts of home are reflected in my own work and how they are informed by a feminist perspective. The choice of white female artists as the subject of this research is a conscious one, in that I wish to avoid an investigation into cross-cultural gendered subjectivities which will inevitably become entangled with questions of race, politics and culture. As western feminist thought often tends to ignore the specific experiences of ethnic groups located outside western cultural experience, my focus on artists whose context is in part shared by my own is intended to provide an insider perspective. In the context of this research, 'home' is defined as a traditionally acknowledged place where woman is identified in relation to domesticity and the family unit. The term 'home' is therefore partly applicable to a type of domestic environment regardless of its geographic and cultural associations. Home has been defined as a 'group of persons sharing a home or living space (whereas) most households consist of one person living alone, a nuclear family, an extended family or a group of unrelated people' (Scott and Marshall 2005:276). The home is regarded as a place of security where the most intimate of relationships takes place, but it is also an arena of complex human relationships associated with domestic, family, personal and cultural identity. The home is further regarded as a private space and as being somewhat inaccessible, as opposed to the public domain which is open to scrutiny. The home houses a corridor of emotion, however, and may often become a place of entrophy. A subtle shifting and subverting of the conventions which society places upon women and men to conform to particular behavioural constructs will be deconstructed to reveal the concept of home as a site where the boundaries between reality and illusion become blurred. My own artistic practice is concerned with the deconstruction of the home as an idealised space and the façade that often conceals a dystopian reality that lurks beneath such idealisation. I share assumed cultural and class values with the selected artists and will critique the subject from a personal perspective, in part as a self-narrative. Within the context of this research, the term 'middle class' is defined as 'the class of society between the upper and working classes, including business and professional people' (The Oxford English Dictionary 1994:509). / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.