Au Yeung Ching Man. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-110). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgement --- p.iv / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- The Semantic Web and Ontologies --- p.3 / Chapter 1.2 --- Motivations --- p.5 / Chapter 1.2.1 --- Fuzziness of Concepts --- p.6 / Chapter 1.2.2 --- Typicality of Objects --- p.6 / Chapter 1.2.3 --- Context and Its Effect on Reasoning --- p.8 / Chapter 1.3 --- Objectives --- p.9 / Chapter 1.4 --- Contributions --- p.10 / Chapter 1.5 --- Structure of the Thesis --- p.11 / Chapter 2 --- Background Study --- p.13 / Chapter 2.1 --- The Semantic Web --- p.14 / Chapter 2.2 --- Ontologies --- p.16 / Chapter 2.3 --- Description Logics --- p.20 / Chapter 2.4 --- Fuzzy Set Theory --- p.23 / Chapter 2.5 --- Concepts and Categorization in Cognitive Psychology --- p.25 / Chapter 2.5.1 --- Theory of Concepts --- p.26 / Chapter 2.5.2 --- Goodness of Example versus Degree of Typicality --- p.28 / Chapter 2.5.3 --- Similarity between Concepts --- p.29 / Chapter 2.5.4 --- Context and Context Effects --- p.31 / Chapter 2.6 --- Handling of Uncertainty in Ontologies and Description Logics --- p.33 / Chapter 2.7 --- Typicality in Models for Knowledge Representation --- p.35 / Chapter 2.8 --- Semantic Similarity in Ontologies and the Semantic Web --- p.39 / Chapter 2.9 --- Contextual Reasoning --- p.41 / Chapter 3 --- A Formal Model of Ontology --- p.44 / Chapter 3.1 --- Rationale --- p.45 / Chapter 3.2 --- Concepts --- p.47 / Chapter 3.3 --- Characteristic Vector and Property Vector --- p.47 / Chapter 3.4 --- Subsumption of Concepts --- p.49 / Chapter 3.5 --- Likeliness of an Individual in a Concept --- p.51 / Chapter 3.6 --- Prototype Vector and Typicality --- p.54 / Chapter 3.7 --- An Example --- p.59 / Chapter 3.8 --- Similarity between Concepts --- p.61 / Chapter 3.9 --- Context and Contextualization of Ontology --- p.65 / Chapter 3.9.1 --- Formal Definitions --- p.67 / Chapter 3.9.2 --- Contextualization of an Ontology --- p.69 / Chapter 3.9.3 --- "Contextualized Subsumption Relations, Likeliness, Typicality and Similarity" --- p.71 / Chapter 4 --- Discussions and Analysis --- p.73 / Chapter 4.1 --- Properties of the Formal Model for Fuzzy Ontologies --- p.73 / Chapter 4.2 --- Likeliness and Typicality --- p.78 / Chapter 4.3 --- Comparison between the Proposed Model and Related Works --- p.81 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- Comparison with Traditional Ontology Models --- p.81 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Comparison with Fuzzy Ontologies and DLs --- p.82 / Chapter 4.3.3 --- Comparison with Ontologies modeling Typicality of Objects --- p.83 / Chapter 4.3.4 --- Comparison with Ontologies modeling Context --- p.84 / Chapter 4.3.5 --- Limitations of the Proposed Model --- p.85 / Chapter 4.4 --- "Significance of Modeling Likeliness, Typicality and Context in Ontologies" --- p.86 / Chapter 4.5 --- Potential Application of the Model --- p.88 / Chapter 4.5.1 --- Searching in the Semantic Web --- p.88 / Chapter 4.5.2 --- Benefits of the Formal Model of Ontology --- p.90 / Chapter 5 --- Conclusions and Future Work --- p.91 / Chapter 5.1 --- Conclusions --- p.91 / Chapter 5.2 --- Future Research Directions --- p.93 / Publications --- p.96 / Bibliography --- p.97

This thesis suggests an approach to landscapes both in and as performance, in order to explore how identity and belonging are sited and performed in contemporary South Africa. I deploy an inter-disciplinary concept of landscape, drawing from the work of Tim Ingold (2000), who defines landscape as 'a plenum' and argues that we engage with landscapes through a performative process of 'way-finding.' With this in mind, I position myself as a participant-observer in this thesis, and through a process of way-finding aim to 're-trace invisible maps' of identity in a selection of examples ranging from the theatrical to the everyday. Throughout my discussion I analyse how specific performances reflect/resist certain histories and social constructions of belonging. The thesis is divided into three thematic sections which explore how various cultural practices, or forms of 'mapping', attempt to make the world 'knowable', at the same time indicating what escapes or exceeds the limits of their own codes of representation. The first section entitled Fortress City investigates identity formation as a spatially situated process in Cape Town, using the example of the public arts festival Infecting the City and focusing on the period 2009-2011 when it was curated by Brett Bailey. In the second section Frontier Nations, I discuss the temporality of landscape by juxtaposing how collective/national memory and subjective/personal memory both emerge in and through performance. I compare two speeches made by Presidents Mandela and Zuma in Grahamstown in 1996 and 2011 respectively, and contrast the political rhetoric on nationhood with Brett Bailey’s use of mythic time in an experiential site-specific performance Terminal (2009). In the last section Corporeal Networks, I argue that the body acts as primary generator of meaning, identification and belonging. I discuss Juanita Finestone-Praeg’s Inner Piece (2009) a physical theatre work which tackles issues of violence and representation.

Most computer game characters are either ``talkers,' i.e., they engage in dialogue with the player, or ``fighters,' i.e., they engage in actions against or with the player, and that may affect the virtual world. The reason for this dichotomy is a corresponding gap in the underlying development technologies used for each kind of character. Using concepts from task modeling and computational linguistics, we have developed a new kind of character-authoring technology which bridges this gap, thereby making it possible to create richer and more interesting characters for computer games.

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University / Great Britain has adopted two definitive yet different political goals in Africa, each of which has been controlled in large part by the internal situation of the territories. In West Africa, colonial policy has granted power of decision to African political leadership, while in Central Africa, political authority has been given in large measure to the local European minority. Contrasted to these two major decisions, Britain has not adopted specific definitive policy goals for Kenya. The general goal of self-government is too vague to be meaningful to the different members of its disparate multi-racial population. The immediate question is "self-government for whom?" To what racial or ethnic group does the 'self' refer? In West Africa it certainly meant Africans and in Central Africa it has meant Europeans. What accounts for the unwillingness of Britain to define specific and immediate policies in Kenya? It is believed that an answer to this problem through analysis of the internal political and social situation will reveal not only the distinct problems that Kenya poses for policy, but will suggest that the present policy of traditional empiricism may not be able to meet the critical problems of this territory. [TRUNCATED]

We can observe a well-documented decline of trust levels in Western societies: from the reputation of political representatives as being "not trustworthy" to the rise of anti-system-oriented populist parties. Yet the implications of different forms of distrust for a society and democratic institutions have been theorized in conflicting ways so far. In order to illuminate existing inconsistencies in social and democratic theory, this article addresses two research questions: What are the implications of different manifestations of distrust for the acceptance of democracy and democratic institutions? How do different forms of distrust affect the motivation to become engaged in democratic decision-making and in civil society institutions? Taking empirical evidence from 25 focus groups in Germany, our findings show that growing social divisions affect the role distrust plays for political interest representation of social groups and for the acceptance of liberal representative democracy.

Literary scholars agree that William Shakespeare used Samuel Daniel's First Four Books of the Civil Wars as a source for his play Richard II, launching an interaction between the authors that lasted for many years. What has not been recognized, however, is that they may have influenced each other's works on English history before the publication of Daniel's epic poem. Textual, bibliographical and biographical evidence suggests that Daniel borrowed from some of Shakespeare's earliest works, the Henry VI plays, while writing The First Four Books, and that Shakespeare could have used a pre-publication manuscript of The Civil Wars to write Richard II. A review of extant versions of The Civil Wars, the Henry VI plays and Richard II reveals a complex relationship between the authors as they wrote and revised works on the Wars of the Roses while both had connections to the Countess of Pembroke and the Earl of Essex. This analysis illuminates the works while disclosing one of the first instances of Shakespeare's plays inspiring another artist, challenging images of Daniel as a poet who disdained theater and Shakespeare as a playwright who cared only about the popularity of his works on stage.

The object of this study has been to present as complete a picture of the Salisbury Court theatre as evidence permits. Throughout the thesis, an effort has been made to avoid being influenced by preconceived impressions of the 'Elizabethan’ or the ‘Caroline’ theatre, in the hope that variations between the Salisbury Court and generalised impressions of theatres of the times might be brought to light.

This thesis explores how the changing masculinities of the 21st century have affected how young men connect to musical theatre as a genre that has been stereotypically seen as gay. The investigation is first located in the theoretical framework of masculinities, utilising the concepts of the male sex role, hegemonic masculinities and inclusive masculinity to chart how the performance of the male gender has changed over the past century. The project then adopts an empirical approach to a group of 161 men and 25 women, establishing a methodological framework for correlating sexual orientation with attitudes towards musical theatre. There is a further honing of this methodology through the adoption of Jenifer Toksvig's 'The Fairytale Moment' exercise, which identifies how each participant connects to narrative through a core emotional drive. Finally, this data is tested through three case studies of how individual participants connect to 'Les Misérables', 'Wicked' and 'Soho Cinders', concluding that the emotional content of musical theatre is now as desirable to straight men as it is to women and LGBT men.

My thesis explores Restoration repertory theatre in the 1670-71 season, examining all of the new and revived works performed, including the premières of plays by dramatists such as Behn, Dryden, Shadwell, and Wycherley. These canonical writers are studied alongside the lesser-known works of playwrights including John Crowne, Edward Howard, Elizabeth Polwhele, and Elkanah Settle. Offering new readings of neglected plays by resituating them within their theatrical, literary, and political contexts, I use contemporary evidence from diaries, letters, pamphlets, and parliamentary records to demonstrate how theatre was inextricably bound with wider circumstances. Tracing the interaction between the playhouses, print, manuscript, and court cultures, my thesis argues that it was in this season that drama became evermore focused on King Charles II and his court, as playwrights looked for answers to increasingly pressing dramatic and political questions and offered cautious, and often cautionary, comments on the monarch. Analysing the main anxieties and impulses evident within drama, including the political influence of the royal mistresses, the emergence of female playwrights, worry about the succession, and the contentious influence of libertine ideology, my thesis concludes with a discussion of Buckingham’s The Rehearsal, a play that looks back to, and reflects on, the 1670-71 season.

This thesis investigates the relationship between dramatic performance and space at English royal palaces between 1509 and 1642. I argue that palatial performance spaces, including, but not limited to, great halls, great chambers, banqueting houses, and tiltyards, created meaning in relation to one another. Underlying the history and evolution of the performance spaces I examine is the pressing notion that spaces represented different sites of meaning for spectators already accustomed to the spatial languages of palaces and great households. The venues/rooms/chambers themselves performed for inhabitants, and as court drama developed throughout this period, so did their spaces. Part one examines performance spaces in palaces understood to be the “greater” palaces of the realm and in those maintained primarily by consorts and royal children. Part two focuses primarily on how banqueting houses evolved into essential royal buildings in England. As these buildings became performance sites, court presentations of drama shifted from household-based indicators of hospitality to representations of prestige by the monarch. The final section, chapters five and six, examines how all of the architectural and dramatic frameworks discussed in the first four chapters were exemplified at Whitehall, the most important palatial venue of the period.