This dissertation focuses on the return and revitalization of traditional Christian themes in contemporary postmodern novels. It offers an examination of how these themes materialize in novels written by writers who are not explicitly religious, or in novels which do not have an overtly religious focus. Some contemporary novels generate a privileged space in which the return of the religious can take place. The sacred is back, not just as a re-enchantment, but manifests itself in fundamentally new and productive ways (Ward, 2001:xv). The first matter under consideration is the fact that the co-existence of belief and unbelief is apparent in all the novels under discussion. As such, the reader as active participant in the novel is bound to be affected by these mutually inter-dependent and inextricably inter-connected sides of a coin. The themes of providence, sacrifice and the miraculous become evident in John Irving‟s A prayer for Owen Meany while the themes of sin, guilt and redemption feature in Ian McEwan‟s Atonement. Secondly, the study compares two novels that deal with the same supernatural phenomena, namely visions, faith healing and stigmata. Jodi Picoult is a non-believer and is the author of Keeping Faith, while Ron Hansen is a devout Catholic who wrote Mariëtte in ecstasy. These works, on the one hand, create a space for supernatural phenomena even though fiction cannot prove the reality of their existence. Postmodern people seem to have a definite longing for the miraculous and these novels seem to satisfy that yearning. On the other hand, both novels portray disbelief in the miraculous while subtly allowing room for characters or readers in a liminal space between belief and disbelief. The theories of Jean François Lyotard and specifically his notion of “incredulity towards metanarratives” provide a framework to explore this matter. Lyotard proposes “petit recits” or many small stories instead of the grand narratives. He contends that there is no objective knowledge and that narrative and scientific knowledge are subject to legitimization. The Christian story therefore needs no scientific basis as justification, which means that it is being newly considered after the mistrust created during the Enlightenment period. Gianteresio Vattimo‟s ideas on the role of religion in contemporary life and the possible convergences of postmodernity and the Christian faith also come into play. He advocates weak thought as opposed to strong thought and sees caritas (charity or neighbourly love) as essential. This concept of weak thought allows for plurality and tolerance. Vattimo sees Christ‟s kenosis (self-emptying) as essentially linked to a secularization in which humankind needs to retrace the path to the original Biblical message of love. Emphasis is on a non-doctrinal, anti-dogmatic spirituality and this manifests in the novels discussed. This study employs diverse reader-response theories to gauge the reaction of the reader to texts containing Biblical themes and supernatural phenomena. Stanley Fish‟s interpretive communities and Wolfgang Iser‟s implied reader are helpful and Michael Edwards‟s pattern of sin, the fall and redemption is of particular interest to this dissertation. Edwards believes that most novels, whether written by religious or non-religious writers, follow this pattern. Readers find themselves either on the side of the believing or unbelieving camp in the novels discussed. However, many readers may hover in the liminal space between belief and unbelief. Interpretation depends on many factors that constitute the world view of the reader, hence the plurality of interpretations. / MA (English), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Controlled Auto Ignition (CAI) combustion is a new combustion principle in internal combustion engines which has in recent years attracted increased attention. In CAI combustion, which combines features of spark ignition (SI) and compression ignition (CI) principles, air/fuel mixture is premixed, as in SI combustion and auto-ignited by piston compression as in CI combustion. Ignition is provided in multiple points, and thus the charge gives a simultaneous energy release. This results in uniform and simultaneous auto-ignition and chemical reaction throughout the whole charge without flame propagation. CAI combustion is controlled by the chemical kinetics of air/fuel mixture with no influence of turbulence. The CAI engine offers benefits in comparison to spark ignited and compression ignited engines in higher efficiency due to elimination of throttling losses at part and idle loads. There is a possibility to use high compression ratios since it is not knock limited, and in significant lower NOx emission (≈90%) and particle matter emission (≈50%), due to much lower combustion temperature and elimination of fuel rich zones. However, there are several disadvantages of the CAI engine that limits its practical application, such as high level of hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions, high peak pressures, high rates of heat release, reduced power per displacement and difficulties in starting and controlling the engine. Controlling the operation over a wide range of loads and speeds is probably the major difficulty facing CAI engines. Controlling is actually two-components as it consists of auto-ignition phasing and controlling the rates of heat release. As CAI combustion is controlled by chemical kinetics of air/fuel mixture, the auto-ignition timing and heat release rate are determined by the charge properties such as temperature, composition and pressure. Therefore, changes in engine operational parameters or in types of fuel, results in changing of the charge properties. Hence, the auto-ignition timing and the rate of heat release. The Thesis investigates a controlled auto-ignition (CAI) combustion in internal combustion engines suitable for transport applications. The CAI engine environment is simulated by using a single-zone, homogeneous reactor model with a time variable volume according to the slider-crank relationship. The model uses detailed chemical kinetics and distributed heat transfer losses according to Woschini's correlation [1]. The fundamentals of chemical kinetics, and their relationship with combustion related problems are presented. The phenomenology and principles of auto-ignition process itself and its characteristics in CAI combustion are explained. The simulation model for representing CAI engine environment is established and calibrated with respect to the experimental data. The influences of fuel composition on the auto-ignition timing and the rate of heat release in a CAI engine are investigated. The effects of engine parameters on CAI combustion in different engine concepts fuelled with various fuels are analysed. The effects of internal gas recirculation (IEGR) in controlling the auto-ignition timing and the heat release rate in a CAI engine fuelled with different fuels are investigated. The effects of variable valve timings strategy on gas exchange process in CAI engine fuelled with commercial gasoline (95RON) are analysed.

南方想像是日本帝國主義的慾望產物。在廣邈的南方想像中，台灣是帝國慾望主軸。明治中期開始，南方作為日本投射帝國慾望的一個想像地理，透過各種文本的鋪陳漸漸建構出一套南進論述。不論是公共政策的社會層面，或是私人意識型態的精神層面，南方論述慢慢滲透成為帝國主義的文化血脈。本論文的研究主題，即在於探討從明治中期以降日人作家的台灣書寫，尤其聚焦在小說與紀行文體。筆者縱貫討論1910年代前後以降至1940年代的日人作家作品，主要對象包括1910年代前後的竹越與三郎、中村古峽，1920年代的佐藤春夫，1930年代的中村地平、真杉靜枝，1940年代的西川滿與《文藝台灣》。誠然，不同的歷史階段，往往會呈現殊異的南方論述。會選擇這些日人作家與文本，源自於他們在各年代的象徵性意義。不難發現，日人作家的「南方」觀，除了帶有異國情調的異色幻想，也投射強大的帝國慾望。 從明治時期到1940年代，日人作家所帶來的文學／文化／地理想像問題，充滿無數臆想。檢視他們南方書寫的內涵，可以發現其中歷經了三個階段的衍變：從領台初期混沌未明的南方憧憬階段，藉助各種文化與帝國論述的傳播，逐漸成為日本人集體的政治無意識，最後在戰爭期則演進為日本帝國的強大意志。台灣作為被觀看的南方客體，透過各種話語敘事，從模糊概念而逐漸顯現清晰的形體。到了南進政策明確的階段，「前進南方」不再是潛藏在個人內心的集體無意識，它一躍而為昭然若揭的意志、隨處可見的口號。就東亞文學與後殖民主義的觀點而論，日治時期日人作家台灣書寫的發展，誠然具有複調的文化意涵。文化自身是一個包含細緻化與提升性要素的概念，它也會被許多政治與意識形態主張在其上彼此相互交涉對話。這些帶有豐富暗示的帝國文本，和日本從明治時期以降的南進論述，甚至昭和時期的大東亞共榮圈構想，在政治對文學的動員關係上形成深刻的影響。不可否認的，作品所呈現出來的文化思維與美學形式，乃是衍生自每位作者的歷史經驗。南方作為帝國慾望的一部分，自明治中期以降逐漸在文學之上形成一條「南方」系譜，追根究柢，帝國的政治與文化之間的聯繫誠然極其貼近。本論文企圖以再閱讀與再詮釋的方式，進入日至時期日人作家台灣書寫的歷史脈絡，探討他們所形塑的南方憧憬，進而解構日人作家所建構或虛構的南方敘事。 / The imagination of South was the product of Japanese Imperial desire. In its extensive imagination, Taiwan was the pivotal axis of the imperial desire. Since the mid-Meiji era, South had been seen an imaginative geography projected from this desire, based on which various kind of literary texts were developed in the construction of discourse on military advance to south. Discourse on advance to south was gradually becoming a major thinking of Japanese imperialism, in the forms of public policies on social level or in the forms of personal ideology on the mental level. This dissertation proposes to examine Japanese authors’ writing of Taiwan from the mid-Meiji era onward especially by focusing on the genres of novels and travel writings. The texts in the discussion include works by Takekoshi Yosaburo and Nakamura Kokyu in the 1910’s, Sato Haruo in the 1920’s, Nakamura Jihei and Masugi Shizue in the 1930’s, and Nishikawa Mitsuru and his magazine Bungei Taiwan in the 1940’s. It is indeed that in the different historical stages, the contents of the discourse on advance to South varied. The reason why these authors and their texts are selected for examination is because each of them possessed symbolic meanings for their own times. It is not hard to find that Japanese authors’ perspectives on Taiwan were not only tinged with exotic and erotic fantasies, but also strongly implied their imperial desire. 　　As we can find, there were three stages of development when examining the contents of Japanese writing of South: first, in the initial acquisition of Taiwan in the early 20th century, the longing for south remained vague; second, during the 1920’s and 1930’s, thanks to the spreading of cultural elaboration and imperialist discourses, the image of south steadily became a political unconsciousness; and third, during the war period in the 1940’s, the ideas about south were finally elevated to a strong will of the empire. The south as an imagination for imperial expansion was not any more a hidden consciousness, but an overt action as embodied in its military advance to Southeast Asia. From the context of East Asia literature and viewpoint of post-colonialism, therefore, it is truth that the development of Japanese authors’ writing of Taiwan during colonial period, did have its plural political implications. These imperial texts with ample implications had mutual influences with the discourse on advance to south in Meiji era and the formation of ideas about Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Circle in Showa period. It is no doubt that the cultural thinking and aesthetical forms as expressed in literary works were derived from each author’s historical experience. The purpose of this dissertation, with rereading and reevaluating source materials, aims to investigate how Japanese authors, when writing Taiwan, developed their imagination of south and further reconstructed their south narratives.

In this dissertation the effects of variations in stimulus properties and CTOA, in auditory attention tasks were explored using recently developed approaches to EEG analysis including LIMO. The last experiment was structured using information theory, designing an effective experiment. Four studies were carried out using a number parity decision task, that employed different combinations of cueing Tone (T), Novel (N) and the Goal (G) stimuli. In the first EEG study, contrary to previous findings (Polich 2002, 2007) in control participants, no correlation between the time of a novel condition to the next novel condition and P300 amplitude was found. Therefore single trial across-subject averaging of participants’ data revealed significant correlations (r > .3) of stimulus properties (such as probability, frequency, amplitude and duration) on P300, and even r > .5 was found when N was an environmental sound in schizophrenic patients. In the second EEG study, simultaneously with fMRI recordings, the participants that showed significant behavioural distraction evoked brain activations and differences in both hemispheres (similar to Corbetta, 2002, 2008) while the participants, as a whole, produced significant activations mainly in left cortical and subcortical regions. A context analysis was run in distracted participants contrasting the trials immediately prior to the G trials, resulting in different prefrontal activations, which was consistent with studies of prefrontal control of visual attention (Koechlin 2003, 2007). In the third EEG study, the distractor noise type was manipulated (white vs environmental sounds) as well as presence or absence of scanner background noise in a blocked design. Results showed consistent P300, MMN and RON due to environmental noise. In addition, using time constants found in MEG results (Lu, Williamson & Kaufman, 1992) and adding the CTOA to the analysis, an information theory framework was calculated. After the simulation of the information of the experiment, a saddle indentation in the curve of the information measure based on the states of the incoming signal at around 300 ms CTOA was found. This saddle indentation was evident in more than 60 novel trials. In the fourth study, the CTOA and stimulus properties were manipulated in a parametric experiment. Based on the three studies, reducing complexity if the task (first study), using more than 60 stimuli in the novel conditions (third study). The CTOA randomly varying between 250 ms or 500 ms. Thirty-eight ANCOVA with 2 categorical and 1 continuous regressors were conducted and determined which time and channels elicited reliably signatures (p <.05) in the whole participants at short CTOA. Results revealed differences for the waveforms of current condition by depending on which condition appeared previously as well in terms of frequency and duration in scalp frontal electrodes (such as the second study). These results were interpreted as a consequence of switching between modes of attention and alerting states which resulted in the activation of frontal areas. Moreover, contextual analyses showed that systematic manipulation of stimulus properties allowed the visualization of the relationships between CTOA, executive function and orienting of attention.

<p>Vårt syfte med denna uppsats var att studera varför människor väljer att ansluta sig till två olika nya religiösa rörelser, Hare Krishna-rörelsen respektive Scientologikyrkan. Dessa två rörelser skiljer sig åt på flera olika sätt. Det mest tydliga är att Hare Krishna-rörelsen har en gudsbild (monistisk) till skillnad från Scientologikyrkan som istället tror på ett högre väsen, en personlig gud.</p><p>Vår utgångspunkt är antagandet att den nya tidens samhälle har skapat en större strävan efter individualitet och att samhällets medborgare söker efter tydlighet och enkelhet både vad gäller ledarskap och tro. Vi antar dessutom att samhällets sekularisering och den förändring som skett med tanke på skolans undervisning inom ämnet religion leder till en större nyfikenhet och till ett större intresse för nya religiösa rörelser.</p><p>Uppsatsen grundar sig på åtta djupintervjuer, med fyra medlemmar från Hare Krishna-rörelsen och fyra från Scientologikyrkan. Vi har även använt oss av litteraturstudier för att skapa en grund för vår undersökning. Resultatet visar att behovsuppfyllande var en återkommande orsak till anslutning och vidare att intervjuobjektens behov var skiftande.</p>

Vårt syfte med denna uppsats var att studera varför människor väljer att ansluta sig till två olika nya religiösa rörelser, Hare Krishna-rörelsen respektive Scientologikyrkan. Dessa två rörelser skiljer sig åt på flera olika sätt. Det mest tydliga är att Hare Krishna-rörelsen har en gudsbild (monistisk) till skillnad från Scientologikyrkan som istället tror på ett högre väsen, en personlig gud. Vår utgångspunkt är antagandet att den nya tidens samhälle har skapat en större strävan efter individualitet och att samhällets medborgare söker efter tydlighet och enkelhet både vad gäller ledarskap och tro. Vi antar dessutom att samhällets sekularisering och den förändring som skett med tanke på skolans undervisning inom ämnet religion leder till en större nyfikenhet och till ett större intresse för nya religiösa rörelser. Uppsatsen grundar sig på åtta djupintervjuer, med fyra medlemmar från Hare Krishna-rörelsen och fyra från Scientologikyrkan. Vi har även använt oss av litteraturstudier för att skapa en grund för vår undersökning. Resultatet visar att behovsuppfyllande var en återkommande orsak till anslutning och vidare att intervjuobjektens behov var skiftande.

La reapertura de Japón y la transformación del período Meiji tuvieron implicaciones regionales que llevaron al reforzamiento de los vínculos con las colonias asiáticas del imperio español durante la segunda mitad del siglo XIX. En el marco de las relaciones iniciadas con el proyecto para la firma del tratado hispano-japonés de 1868, destacaron tres procesos históricos. El primero fue la incorporación del gobierno español al sistema de “tratados desiguales” vigente en Japón. En segundo lugar, el papel de las islas Filipinas, Marianas y Carolinas en la nanshin-ron 南進論 o “teorías del avance hacia el sur” a la hora de fomentar la penetración de los intereses japoneses en el Nanyō 南洋o región de los “mares del sur”. Finalmente, destacó la intensificación de las relaciones entre los archipiélagos japonés y filipino durante la última década de este siglo. El análisis de estos procesos permite observar cómo el declive de un imperio español que trataba de conservar sus colonias asiáticas, discurrió paralelamente al ascenso de Japón como una nueva potencia que exploraba las posibilidades de expandir sus intereses en la región donde estaban localizadas dichas colonias. / The reopening of Japan and the transformation during the Meiji period had regional implications linked to the intensification of the relationship with the Asian colonies of the Spanish empire during the second half of the 19th century. In the context of the relationships initiated with the project for the Japanese-Spanish treaty of 1868, it is possible to highlight three historic processes. First is the Spanish project to join the unequal treaty system established in Japan. Secondly is the role of the Philippine, Marianas and Caroline islands within the nanshin-ron 南進論 or “theories of the advance towards the South Seas” to promote the penetration of the Japanese interest in the Nanyō 南洋 or “South Seas”. Lastly is the process of strengthening linkages between Japan and the Philippines during the last decade of this century. The analysis of these processes allows us to observe how the decline of a Spanish empire trying to maintain its Asian colonies was parallel to the rise of Japan as a new power, which explored new possibilities to expand its interests in the region where these colonies were located.

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