Dynamic responses of the MR Elastomers and MR gel have been studied care- fully by various research groups. However, to understand completely the dynamic response of the material, it is important to have a clear understanding of quasi-static response of the material. Thus, for the current work, we have studied quasi-static response of the MR gel. For current setup, 27 samples were prepared using Septon, plasticizer and magnetic particles and were tested for 3 rounds over 3 different magnetic fields under plane strain compression. The results from plane strain compression show linear increase in the load taken with the increase in concentration of magnetic particles in absence of any magnetic field. The response characteristics under uniform magnetic field showed a huge leap in the load taken for particular deflection. To study the quasistatic respose, the material is assumed to behave like an isotropic hyperelastic response. Field dependent Neo-Hookean and field dependent Valanis Landel models have been fit to the data, and it was found that simple 1-term field dependent Valanis Landel model with power law coefficient as four agrees well with the shear modulus obtained from experiments. The shear modulus of MAP from the Valanis Landel and Neo Hookean model was assumed to be linearly dependent on the concentration of magnetic particles and magnetic field, and this matched the experimental data well.

This research is based on neo-functionalism to analysis the extent of cooperation in Taiwan and Mainland China in the sector of automobile industry, and how it will affect the government policy between Cross-Strait relations. Since Mainland China to open up its market, there are more and more Taiwanese businessmen to invest in Mainland China. The relation between Taiwan and Mainland China is more closely, especially after accession in WTO. According to the discourse of neo-functionalism interest groups¡]industrial elites¡^and political elites will affect the government attitudes in decision-making. The elite of automobile industry from both sides of Taiwan Straits press both governments to put the policy of ¡§three direct links¡¨ into practice, is the case in point.

In the period of post-Cold War, regional integration is one of the most important trend of international politics, European Union (EU) is the most successful example at present. The EU enlargement to Central and Eastern European countries is a new challenge for itself to run the regional organization. The old EU members would conflict with new EU members for their own advantages. Central and Eastern European countries have broken away from Russia¡¦s control, and expect its modernization will be enhanced by accession to the EU, but the conditions of EU in the area of politics and economy must be reached by Central and Eastern European countries. In this thesis the EU enlargement will be analyzed by Neo-functionalism and Liberal Intergovernmentalism.

Since the opening of economic reform in 1978, mainland China's national power as a whole has been greatly enhanced with more than two decades of economic development. Under the impact of such events as the First Persian Gulf War, the Kosovo War, global anti-terrorist attacks following the 9/11/01 Attacks on America, and the Second Persian Gulf War, mainland China has thus reconstructed its viewpoint of international as well as regional security. This thesis aims to inspect, from the perspective of international regime, China's policy towards UN peacekeeping operations and apply the rationale of Neo-liberal Institutionalism ( which is based on international regime theory ) to explaining and analyzing the evolution of China's peacekeeping policy. China's policy has made a drastic impact on current international relations, involving peace and stability not just of Asian-Pacific but of cross-Strait relations. Due to the two-handed strategy adopted in dealing with ongoing cross-Strait issues, China has always shown reluctance to renounce the use of military force on Taiwan up to the present. As a result, cross-Strait security is now being threatened from enormous military stress. Hopefully, both sides of the Taiwan Strait can resolve existing political conflicts by taking peaceful means. However, in the face of such threats from China's abrupt rise as well as having its veto exercised by force in the UN Security Council and then proceeding to play a zero-sum game in which pure competitions in foreign affairs are doomed to become intensified, I'm deeply convinced that, through peacekeeping operations as well as coordination and cooperation between regional/international organizations ( as they are probed into in the thesis ), possible cross-Strait conflicts can be reduced to a great extent.

<p>Mercosur, som i dag består av Argentina, Brasilien, Paraguay, Uruguay och Venezuela, bildades 1994 i ett försök att förstärka det ekonomiska samarbetet och befästa den omogna demokratin i regionen. Regionalt samarbete inleddes även i avsikt att öka stabilitet och säkerhet i regionen då samarbetet föddes ur askan av en instabil och nedbruten ekonomi. Den dramatiska förändringen från ett inåtvänt militärt styre under större delen av 1900-talet till en liberalisering av både den ekonomiska och politiska sfären, var en annan anledning till regionalt samarbete. Den här uppsatsen behandlar sambandet mellan dessa två fenomen; regional integration och demokrati, och deras parallella utveckling. Den regionala integrationen i området kring Mercosur är annorlunda än andra integrationsprojekt genomförda i världen. Detta är till stor del på grund av den starka statliga interventionalism och presidentialism som historiskt haft en framträdande roll, tillsammans med avsaknad av insyn och brist på civil delaktighet i den politiska sfären. Dessa karakteristiska drag gör det svårt att applicera redan framtagna teorier på Mercosur då dessa främst är utarbetade med hänsyn till Europeiska Unionen. Utvecklingen mot demokrati är betraktad som nödvändighet i förändringsprocessen mot ett förbättrat regionalt samarbete och därmed också regional integration, trots att demokratin fortfarande är begränsad.</p> / <p>Mercosur, which today includes the member states Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezula, was created in 1994 in an attempt to enhance economic cooperation and consolidate democracy in the region. Regional cooperation was also initiated in order to increase stability and security in the region. This since the integration project surged out of the ashes of an unstable, broken economy and a recent shift from an introvert military regime towards a liberalisation of both the economical and the political sphere. This thesis treats the connection between these two phenomena; regional integration and democracy, and their parallel development. The regional integration through Mercosur is different to other integration projects. Among other things this is due to the strong history of state intervention and scarce civil participation, as well as a prominent presidentialism and a current lack of transparency. This makes the implementation of already existing theories that may explain the development of Mercosur hard to apply, since these theories are developed with consideration to the European Union. The development towards democracy is seen as an essential cornerstone in the shift towards a more cooperative stance between the regional neighbours. Even though democracy in the region still is of limited nature, its emergence promoted regional integration.</p>

<p>Denna studie undersökte relationen mellan karaktärsdragen i The Big Five och Health Locus of Control (HLC). Testen NEO-FFI och MHLC användes för att mäta karaktärsdragen och dimensionerna i HLC. 130 studenter vid Växjö universitet deltog i studien. Resultatet visade en relation mellan Conscientiousness och dimensionen Intern HLC. Extraversion hade en något svagare relation till IHLC. Studenter med en högre grad av Conscientiousness eller Extraversion hade generellt en högre grad av IHLC. Neuroticism hade en relation till dimensionen Powerful others (PHLC). Studenterna med en högre grad Neuroticism hade också i allmänhet en högre grad av PHLC. De funna relationerna kan tyda på att karaktärsdragen tillsammans med HLC möjligen kan påverka faktorer som inverkar på hälsan.</p>

<p>This essay aims to explore the development of the common foreign and security policy within the European Union as well as the recent addition of the post of High representative in the field of the common foreign and security policy. This essay will attempt to achieve this trough exploring the questions; how have the aim of the European foreign policy developed, how the forms of cooperation has within this field developed and finally what impact will the recent addition of a high representative for the common foreign and security have. My aim is to answer these questions with the help of neo-functionalism.</p><p>The results that came out of this essay point to the direction that the neo- functionalist premise about spill over effects and the notion about increased supranational influence turn out to have some validity in them. The study has shown that during the time the cooperation within the field of foreign and security policy have developed it is possible to see that supranational institutions will gain influence when the scope of integration within a policy area widens and deepens.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Princeton University, 1988. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 325-380).

Service-Learning is a popular teaching method that is increasingly being adopted by institutions of higher learning throughout the nation and is enthusiastically promoted as a progressive method for mediating the alleged decline in civic responsibility and ameliorating subsequent social ills. Service-learning courses are also seen as an answer to growing student disinterest by connecting students to real world experiences while simultaneously providing much needed community support in the face of receding social services in this Post-Welfare moment (Goode and Maskovsky 2001a). Anthropological insights, born out of a liberal humanistic tradition, can be employed to critically examine this popular educational and social project. Critical anthropology theories and methods help articulate disparity between the promises of service-learning and the realities of implementation. Recent calls from within the discipline challenge anthropologists to do more than simply documenting experiences of poverty and violence, but to become politically engaged by exposing how global and state processes shape and create those realities in the local realm (Hyatt and Lyon-Callo 2003). My internship as a volunteer tutor at a local recreation center provided a unique vantage for critically examining service-learning while simultaneously working to establish a politically engaged anthropology project. Ethnographizing (Lyon-Callo and Hyatt 2003:177) service-learning reveals hidden contradictions that act as substantial barriers to the goals of the generally agreeable and beneficial service-learning program. Expressing an explicitly politically engaged service-learning agenda works to ameliorate these dangers for the creation of a potentially powerful vehicle for social change.

Through a study of Twilight literary texts, fangirls' online discourse, and cinematic adaptations, I theorize the rhetorical dimensions of "neo-Victorian melodrama," a pervasive mode of discourse in girl culture. These rhetorical functions include the validation of girls' emotional lives, especially affective responses to coming-of-age experiences. Through the confessional revelation of interiority, neo-Victorian melodrama promotes empathy and intimacy among girls and functions to critique restrictive constructions of contemporary girlhood, which has inherited Victorian discourses related to female youth. Theorizing these rhetorical dimensions helps advance an appreciation for girls' rhetorical activities and their cultural preferences. These preferences have often been derided by ageist and sexist critiques of Twilight, a phenomenon initiated by Stephenie Meyer's young adult vampire romance. In order to determine the rhetorical dimensions of neo-Victorian melodrama in girl culture, I use generic rhetorical criticism. Specifically, Meyer's Twilight Saga appeals to contemporary girls through melodramatic moments shared with Charlotte Brontë's nineteenth-century Jane Eyre. Fangirls' online discourse certifies this appeal while also demonstrating how melodrama qualifies girls' own speech practices. Thus, generic criticism is complemented by ethnographic approaches to fandom. In addition, a focus on narrating voiceover, a sound convention with a legacy in girls' media, helps make sense of the Twilight cinematic adaptations' translation of neo-Victorian melodrama from page to screen. The rhetorical dimensions of neo-Victorian melodrama in girl culture are consistent with previous feminist theoretical insights related to the revelation of affect, intimacy, and personal experience for the purpose of community building. While feminist rhetoricians have addressed women's rhetorical practices, they have not theorized girls to the same extent, nor have they used generic criticism to account for melodrama's redemptive or progressive potential. Likewise, while scholars of literature, film, and media studies have advanced an appreciation for women's preferences for melodrama, these feminist scholars generally have not treated girls' preferences for the melodramatic mode. And while feminist critics in girls' studies have theorized girls' productive cultural contributions, as well as their complex reading and viewing strategies, such scholarship has not accounted for girls' preferences for melodrama. My study at once builds on and remedies the gaps in this theoretical foundation. / text