Abstract I. Introduction a. Thesis statement: What is the process for modeling a stylized character and how does this differ from a semi-realistic character? b. Expanded thesis statement: The two styles differ from start to finish in a variety of ways. I believe that semi-realistic characters require more source material when drawing and modeling; however stylized characters require a different level of creativity and artistic ability in creation. Modeling semi-realistic characters will be more dependent on source images while stylized characters may require special attention with non-standard texture, style, etc. Rendering techniques will also differ when it goes to presenting the final polished versions with the stylized character focusing on rendering styles that flatten the character while the semi realistic character will require rendering techniques that make it seem more real visually.

This study analyzed the top 3 successful snatch attempts by individual lifters in each weight class at a U.S. National Championship weightlifting meet. Two-dimensional (2-D) body position and characteristics of the lifts were compared via 2D video analysis in groups of lifters who displaced forward, showed no displacement, or displaced backward to receive the bar. No significant group differences (p > 0.05) were noted for body mass, bar mass, or hip angle. The rearward displacement group had a significantly greater horizontal distance between the shoulder and heel at the end of the pull (determined as the point where the bar ceases to accelerate vertically). Hip angles for the no displacement group had a small-to-moderate effect size (0.50) in comparison to the forward displacement group, but they only showed a small effect size (0.17) when compared with the rearward displacement group. The forward displacement group showed a small-to-moderate effect size compared with both the no displacement group (0.51) and the rearward displacement group (0.55) concerning the horizontal distance from the shoulder to the heel. These data seem to suggest that rearward displacement in the drop-under phase in the snatch is not detrimental to performance and actually seems to be a preferred technique in U.S. national level lifters. In addition to evidence that rearward displacement is exhibited in elite lifters and is coached globally, it seems this is the preferred technique in international competitions. This technique may be considered a viable variation of the snatch by coaches and athletes of all levels.

Collected Stories revolves around characters in Pennsylvania, California, and Oregon. Though the stories are not linked, the theme of displacement and abandonment are explored throughout my work. Characters are displaced, such as Vietnam veterans and Russian international students living in America. Some protagonists are displaced simply by the actions or circumstances of their parents. Such parents choose not to act as parental figures or have passed away, leaving the children to figure out their roles in their families. The children decide, essentially, how to redefine themselves.

Urban communities often lack the ability to recover after disaster plans have been implemented because of a lack of coordinated resources among federal, state, and local agencies. As a result, economically marginalized citizens find themselves in risky conditions, particularly concerning finding and securing post-disaster housing. Using social conflict theory as a guide, the purpose of this exploratory case study of an urban area in a southern state was to better understand the specific vulnerabilities of urban communities and develop solutions for challenges related to emergency or temporary shelters to victims. Data were primarily collected through interviews with 10 residents who experienced a series of tornadoes in 2011. These data were inductively coded and then subjected to a thematic analysis. Findings indicate that participants tended to consider themselves as displaced, but not homeless, even though temporary housing needs ranged between 45 days and 18 months. Participants also reported that coordination efforts to distribute funding to displaced residence failed, as did private insurance in most cases. As a result, competition for scarce resources was significant and most people tended to rely upon financial help from friends and family members. The positive social change implications stemming from this study include recommendations to city planners and emergency managers to strengthen relationships with community leaders to assess needs prior to a disaster and establish a 'bottom-up' planning policy rather than wait for a disaster to assess the availability of federal or state funding that may not come in order to proactively protect vulnerable community members from post-disaster housing deficiencies.

The primary aim of this dissertation was to seek the answer to the question: “Is the single transition-state model appropriate for the fundamental reactions in organic chemistry?” The goal was accomplished by performing enormous kinetic data collection and detailed mechanistic analysis on several typical fundamental organic chemical reactions. Three new methodologies for differentiating between a simple one-step and complex multi-step mechanism were developed and extensively confirmed during the application in the kinetic studies of all of the reaction discussed in this dissertation. The three methods consist of (1) half-life dependence of kapp, (2) sequential linear pseudo-first-order correlation, and (3) revised instantaneous rate constant analysis. A detailed kinetic investigation of the formal hydride transfer reaction of NADH models [N-benzyl-1,4-dihydronicotinamide (BNAH) with Nmethylacridinium (MA+) and N-methyl-9,10-dihydroacridine (MAH) with tropylium ion (Tr+)] confirmed that both these reactions take place in more than one step and involve kinetically significant reactant complex intermediates, which are noncovalentlly bound intermediates. Computations at the M06-2x/6-311++G(d,p) level provided the structure of the reactant complex intermediate. A reinvestigation of the formal hydride transfer reaction of 1-benzyl-3- cyanoquinolinium ion (BQCN+) with N-methyl-9,10-dihydroacridine (MAH) in acetonitrile (AN) confirmed that the reaction takes place in more than one step and revealed a new mechanism that had not previously been considered. It was observed that even residual oxygen under glove box conditions initiates a chain process leading to the same products. The combination reactions studied include the reaction between a carbocation and an anion as well as the reaction of trans-β-nitrostyrene with nitroethide ion. Conventional pseudo-first-order analysis as well as instantaneous rate constant analysis confirmed that the combination reactions do not follow the simple one-step mechanism. The SN2 displacement of halide ions by the 4- nitrophenoxide ion was also investigated and the kinetic data are inconsistent with the concerted single transition-state model.

Increasingly there has been a new model for inner-city redevelopment and revitalization, in which an urban area is commodified and turned into a festival market and an exclusive shopping district referred to as a shopertainment area. Ybor City in Tampa, Florida, is typical of this new model of redevelopment where urban entertainment and shopping with an active nightclub and dinning scene, entices new visitors to area, and most recently a growing residential population. The residential population that is developing is one of exclusivity and privilege, exceedingly far removed from Ybor City's humble beginnings as a company town or the blighted area that was sacrificed to Urban Renewal polices of the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's. Ybor City is changing into a themed city in which ethnic identity and history is being commodified and the historical and cultural capital of the area is being marketed by the city government and private developers in order to attract daytrippers, seasonal tourists, homeowners and other residents. This thesis deconstructs the gentrifying effects that Camden, Ybor City's first residential apartment complex, has had on the area by examining how the contemporary literature deals with gentrification. Additionally, this thesis will examine the demographic changes in Ybor's population as the area shifts away from residents who historically represented Ybor City, advancing the theory that Ybor City is an exclusive community that is indeed being gentrified.

Uppsatsen är en fallstudie som berör ett förflyttningsprojekt av invånare i informella bosättningar, allmänt känt som slumområden, i Sri Lankas kommersiella huvudstad Colombo. FN:s hållbarhetsmål för Agenda 2030 belyser utvecklingen av den informella bostadssektorn som ett problem i flera utvecklingsländer, däribland Sri Lanka. Utvecklingen som ofta är ett resultat av urbaniseringsprocesser tenderar att skapa ett ökat tryck på mark och kan därmed begränsa de fattigas förmåga att äga mark och bostäder. Modernisering av städer tenderar att förändra stadens rumsliga struktur och gå i linje med marknadsdriven markanvändning och kommersialisering som är tänkt att främja den ekonomiska tillväxten. Marknaden och kommersiell utveckling som ställer stor efterfrågan på central och attraktiv mark i Colombo ockuperas till stor del av informella bosättningar. Marknaden, en statlig agenda för utveckling och modernisering kan vara pådrivande faktorer till att grupper i befolkningen blir förflyttade och tvingade till att påbörja nya liv i en ny livsmiljö. Som ett svar på liknande omständigheter initierades ett omfattande förflyttningsprojekt i Colombo år 2011. Projektet vid namn Urban Regeneration Project grundades med visionen att förflytta 68.000 familjer från informella boendeformer till nybyggda höghuskomplex, och därmed uppgradera invånares levnadsstandard, samt nyttomaximera markanvändningen i staden. Förvisso kan ett projekt av denna sort i flera avseenden ses som någonting positivt, där många människor får en förbättrad boendesituation. Däremot, när omstruktureringar av staden sker tenderar inte bara den fysiska miljön att moderniseras, utan även invånarnas vardagsliv. Människor och grupper i alla dess konstellationer av nätverk och relationer kan ses som väsentliga för en levande och fungerande stad. Invånare investerar år av sina liv för att bygga upp relationer till sitt grannskap och medmänniskor vilka inte enkelt är utbytbara. Dessa relationer och nätverk bringar en känsla av tillhörighet men också tillit till sin omgivning som främjar stabilitet och trygghet. / The study concerns a relocation project of residents in informal settlements, commonly known as slums, in Sri Lanka's commercial capital Colombo. The UN's Sustainability Goal for Agenda 2030 highlights the development of the informal housing sector as an issue in several developing countries, including Sri Lanka. The development that is often a result of urbanization processes tends to create increased pressure on land and can thus limit the poor's ability to own land and housing. Modernization of cities tends to change the spatial structure of the city and align with market-driven land use and commercialization that are intended to promote economic growth. The market and commercial development stand great demand on central and attractive land in Colombo are largely occupied by informal settlements. The market, a state agenda for development and modernization can be driving factors why groups of the population are being displaced and forced to start new lives in a new living environment. In response to similar circumstances, an extensive relocation project was initiated in Colombo in 2011. The project called the Urban Regeneration Project was founded with the vision to move 68,000 families from informal housing to newly built high- rise complexes, thereby upgrading the living standards of residents, and maximizing land use benefits in the city. Indeed, a project of this kind can in many respects be seen as something positive, where several inhabitants get an improved housing situation. On the other hand, when restructuring of the city takes place, not only the physical environment tends to be modernized, but also the everyday lives of the inhabitants. People and groups in all its constellations of networks and relationships are essential for a living and functioning city. Residents invest years of their lives to build relationships with their neighborhood and fellow human beings that are not easily interchangeable. These relationships and networks bring a sense of belonging but also trust in their surroundings that promotes stability and security.

<p>The different mapping techniques that are used increases the details on surfaces without increasing the number of polygons. Image Based Sculpting tools in the program Modo and Z-Brush is used to create folds and wrinkles from photographs of actual fabrics instead of trying to create these shapes by modeling them. This method makes it easier to achieve photorealistic renderings and produce as realistic fabric dynamics as possible when they are applied on objects.</p>

<p>The refugee problem is a canker in contemporary human affairs without the ‘limboness’ that protractedness adds to it. Yet many refugee situations, especially in Africa, become forgotten emergencies as women assume new roles both at the family and community level, whilst children are born and bred in camps which were meant to be temporary in the first place.</p><p>This study explores the life situation of Liberian Refugee Women and Children at the Gomoa Budumburam Refugee Settlement in Ghana. It examines the livelihood means they employ as a means of coping, emphasisng their security and educational concerns. It touches on the challenges faced by the camp children or the youth a they strive to deal with their situation and assign meaning to their lives. Actor-oriented theories help conceptualise ways in which the refugees display agency in mediating the structures that enable them and/or constrain them in their protracted displacement. In view of the need to find solutions to the refugee problem, the three proposed solutions are examined in the light of the reasons informing refugees’ choice of one solution over the other. The concepts of Space and Place help analyse the realities of the solutions available vis-à-vis the preferred choice of the refugees. Highlighting the importance of hearing refugees’ voice on problems and solutions they consider viable in their situation, a qualitative methodological approach is employed. This is complemented by observations, focus group discussions, informal conversations as well as secondary data sources.</p><p>The analysis relates the data collected to the outlined objectives, research questions and theories. It brings to the fore the resourcefulness displayed by the refugees as they employ various strategies to cope on a short and long term basis. The study has also revealed the refugees’ ideas about “home” as where one makes it, rather than a nostalgic country of origin to which one must return for life to be complete. (S) GBV has been highlighted as an area needing more attention than that accorded it presently if the causes of women’s vulnerabilities are to be addressed in a wholesome way. Suggestions have been made based on refugees’ recommendation as well as that of the organizations in place and the researcher’s.</p>

<p>Essay 1: Hurst and Lusardi (2004) use higher-order polynomials in wealth in estimating the relationship with entrepreneurship. They find evidence conflicting with the existence of extensive liquidity constraints in the United States. In this paper, their approach is replicated on Swedish data. A positive relationship between wealth and entrepreneurship is found, which supports the liquidity constraints hypothesis. Alternative methods attempting to handle the endogeneity problem and distinguish between absolute decreasing risk aversion and liquidity constraints give further support to the hypothesis. The paper suggests that there exist liquidity constraints in Sweden, which are possibly more extensive than in the United States.</p><p>Essay 2: Displacement is expected to decrease the reservation wage of self-employment by decreasing earnings in paid employment and increasing the probability of unemployment. This paper examines whether displacement increases the probability of self-employment using propensity score matching on Swedish register-based data. The data include all individuals displaced due to plant closures in 1987 and 1988, and a random sample of 200,000 employed individuals. The results suggest that displacement almost doubles the probability of entering self-employment the year after displacement. A sub-sample analysis indicates that individuals with a potentially worse position on the labor market react more strongly to displacement in terms of entering self-employment.</p><p>Essay 3: A large literature has studied the effect of displacement on labor market outcomes in general, but no one has evaluated how the displaced succeed as self-employed. This paper studies how the survival of the business is affected by displacement in connection to entry, using a discrete-time proportional hazard model on a matched sample of displaced and non-displaced individuals. The main result of the paper is that, as a consequence of previous displacement, the probability of switching from self-employment to paid employment decreases and the probability of switching to unemployment is unaffected.</p>