Cheung Pui Yee Albert. / Thesis (M.Div.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / 論文摘要 --- p.iii / Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 1 --- The Kingdom of God/Heaven and Matthew's Church --- p.3 / Chapter 1.1 --- The Kingdom of God/Heaven --- p.3 / Chapter 1.1.1 --- The Kingdom as Apocalyptic Eschatology --- p.4 / Chapter 1.1.2 --- The Kingdom as Realized Eschatology --- p.6 / Chapter 1.1.3 --- The Kingdom in the Present and the Future --- p.7 / Chapter 1.2 --- The Situation of Matthew's Church --- p.9 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- The Kingdom Parables in Matthew 13 --- p.12 / Chapter 2.1 --- The Parables in Matthew --- p.12 / Chapter 2.2 --- The Structure and Context of Matthew 13 --- p.13 / Chapter 2.3 --- The Parable of the Sower --- p.16 / Chapter 2.4 --- The Interpretation of the Parable of the Sower --- p.17 / Chapter 2.5 --- The Parable of the Tares --- p.20 / Chapter 2.6 --- The Interpretation of the Parable of the Tares --- p.23 / Chapter 2.7 --- The Parable of the Mustard Seed --- p.27 / Chapter 2.8 --- The Parable of the Leaven --- p.28 / Chapter 2.9 --- The Parables of the Hidden Treasure and of the Pearl --- p.29 / Chapter 2.10 --- The Parable of the Net --- p.31 / Chapter 2.11 --- Concluding Parable: Treasures New and Old --- p.33 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Matthew's Concepts of the Kingdom of Heaven and of the Church --- p.36 / Chapter 3.1 --- Matthew's Concept of the Kingdom --- p.36 / Chapter 3.2 --- Matthew's Church and His Understanding of the Church --- p.38 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Reflections and Applications --- p.42 / Chapter 4.1 --- Use of Parables --- p.42 / Chapter 4.2 --- Urban and Wealthy Church --- p.43 / Chapter 4.3 --- Making Disciples --- p.44 / Chapter 4.4 --- Handling of Offending Members and Forgiveness --- p.45 / Chapter 4.5 --- The Kingdom of Heaven and the Church --- p.46 / Conclusion --- p.47 / Bibliography --- p.48

Monotheism and its development in Israelite religion is a topic that continues to invite scholarly engagement. Some of the key talking points around it involve whether or not it was developed before or after the exilic period. At the same time, and irrespective of when it was introduced into Israelite religion, the circumstances that facilitated its development have never been acknowledged with unanimity. The purpose of the present study is two-fold: first, it seeks to prove that pre-exilic Israelite religion was as syncretistic as any other ancient Near Eastern tradition, and that exclusive monotheism only became a reality in Persian period Yehud. Secondly, the study is also intended to authenticate the hypothesis that in the wake of the development of monotheism in Yehud, all deities other than Yahweh were demoted to the status of מלאכים, messengers (angels) leaving Yahweh as the only legitimate God. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2018. / Old Testament Department - University of Pretoria / Old Testament Studies / PhD / Unrestricted

The Kitāb al-Aghānī (the Book of Songs) is one of the most important sources for Arabic literature and history. While its compiler, Abū al-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī (died after 356/967), is generally viewed as a “Zaydī Shīʿī”, no study has engaged in depth with the manifestation of his sectarian perspective in the Aghānī. This thesis addresses the question of whether al-Iṣfahānī’s sectarian perspective can be discerned in the Aghānī via literary analysis based primarily upon redaction criticism. By examining the compiler’s interventions (which took place by means of selecting, repeating, and juxtaposing source material, as well as by his comments and editorial remarks), this thesis argues that al-Iṣfahānī indeed presents past people and events central to the Shīʿī worldview in accordance with his sectarian affiliation. Furthermore, this thesis questions the label “Zaydī” that has been attached to al-Iṣfahānī. Based on textual analyses of the Aghānī, as well as evidence from his Maqātil al-Ṭālibīyīn (“The Ṭālibid Martyrs”) and other evidence for the tenth-century context, this thesis suggests that al-Iṣfahānī’s religious thought can be construed as a “mild” form of Shīʿism ― in the sense that it does not entail belief in a specific lineage of imams and repudiation of most of the Companions including the first three caliphs ― but cannot necessarily be identified with any sect, as set down in the heresiography. It is also suggested that this kind of Shīʿism may have been promoted by al-Iṣfahānī’s patron, the Būyid vizier, Abū Muḥammad al-Muhallabī (291–352/903–963) in the complex sectarian context of mid-tenth century Iraq. This thesis comprises seven chapters. Chapters One and Two introduce the life of the compiler, the wider historical context, the Aghānī, its textual problems, and its overarching structure. These two chapters lead to three conclusions: first, the Aghānī, in all likelihood, was dedicated to Abū Muḥammad al-Muhallabī; second, the view that al-Iṣfahānī was a Zaydī is untenable; third, it is very likely that the Aghānī retains its original form (as designed by al-Iṣfahānī). Chapter Three investigates the sources used by al-Iṣfahānī in the Aghānī with regard to their transmission in order to establish that the published text can indeed be subjected to redaction criticism for the purpose of better understanding the compiler’s agenda (or agendas). Chapters Four and Five present the results of the literary analysis of the Aghānī, which demonstrate the articulation of a Shīʿī past in the Aghānī, as well as highlighting the limits of redaction criticism and al-Iṣfahānī’s other editorial concerns. Building upon Chapter Five, which concludes that the Aghānī reflects al-Iṣfahānī’s sectarian vision, Chapter Six characterizes al-Iṣfahānī’s Shīʿī beliefs by examining his treatment of Ghulāt, Imāmīs, Sunnīs, ʿAlids, and the Companions, including the first three caliphs. Chapter Seven puts the results of the analyses into their historical context, specifically in light of the career of his patron, al-Muhallabī. The Conclusion outlines the key findings of this thesis, with remarks on potential avenues for future research.

<div>Face redaction is used to deidentify images of people. Most approaches depend on face detection, but automated algorithms are still not adequate for sensitive applications in which even one unredacted face could lead to irreversible harm. Human annotators can potentially provide the most accurate detection, but only trusted annotators should be allowed to see the faces of privacy-sensitive applications. Redacting more images than trusted annotators could accommodate requires a new approach. </div><div>This dissertation leverages the characteristics of human perception of faces in median-filtered images in a human computation algorithm to engage crowd workers to redact faces—without revealing the identities. IntoFocus, a system I developed, permits robust face redaction with probabilistic privacy guarantees. The system's design builds on an experiment that measured the filter levels and conditions where participants could detect and identify faces. </div><div> Pterodactyl is a system that focuses on increasing the productivity of crowd-based face redaction systems. It uses the AdaptiveFocus filter, a filter that combines human perception of faces in median filtered images with a convolutional neural network to estimate a median filter level for each region of the image to allow the faces to be detected and prevent them from being identified.</div>

Orientador: Raquel Salek Fiad / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-04T07:32:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Pasquotte-Vieira_ElianeAparecida_M.pdf: 6298134 bytes, checksum: 41c52bf7ad515702ef7027134c644ead (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Resumo: Tomando como ponto de partida as proposições teóricas de Bakhtin (2003 [1952-1953]) sobre gênero discursivo, enunciação e, conseqüentemente, sobre a relação sujeito/linguagem como um fenômeno social, histórico e essencialmente dinâmico e baseando-se nas discussões elaboradas por Possenti (2002a, 2001 a, 2001 b [1988]) sobre marcas de estilo e indícios de autoria nos projetos escritos de escolares, segundo um ponto de vista lingüístico discursivo, este trabalho tem como proposta investigar, nos projetos escritos de alguns aprendizes, as prováveis marcas de estilo e autoria e seu processo de constituição. Para isso, será enfocado especificamente um tipo de trabalho que os aprendizes fazem em relação ao texto: o modo como vão aprendendo a marcar seu posicionamento a partir do trabalho com "as vozes" discursivas existentes, isto é, a forma como o escrevente marca (ou vai aprendendo a marcar), através de mecanismos lingüísticos-discursivos, o limite entre a voz e o posicionamento do outro e a sua própria voz e posicionamento diante de uma questão - ao dizer o que pode ser dito por qualquer um, o dizer se torna especialmente e de alguma forma um território discursivo ocupado pelo escrevente. Esta pesquisa busca investigaro processo possível de se construir através de marcas de estilo e autoria nos textos de aprendizes escolares, quando estes aprendem a lidar com os discursos existentes que atravessam nosso discursoo tempo todo / Abstract: Not informed. / Mestrado / Ensino-Aprendizagem de Lingua Materna / Mestre em Linguística Aplicada

1 Samuel 11:1-11 is royal ideology for the kingship of Saul. The biblical text informs that Saul was divinely sanctioned as leader of Israel. The heroic leadership of Saul was prominent to rescue his people from the imposed national shame by Nahash the Ammonite. The leadership of Saul was endorsed by the spirit of Yahweh. The spirit of Yahweh pinpoints the prophetic connection of Saul with a group of ecstatic prophets from the high place (1 Sm 9). An original textual context for the royal ideology is referred to 1 Samuel 9:1-10:16 that provided a prophetic connection with the royal ideology. 1 Samuel 11:1-11 was involved in various textual and historical processes to form the present text and context. Through delicate redactional intentions the biblical text was incorporated in the macro-context of the royal ideology of David. In 1 Samuel 9:1-10:16 Saul was anointed as nagid by Samuel as the answer for the crying of the people (1 Sm 9:16). The anointing guaranteed a divine sanction for the leadership of Saul (1 Sm 11:1-11). The tradition of Saul (1 Sm 9:1-10:16; 11:1-11) idealized the leadership of Saul as a divinely sanctioned kingship after the defeat of the Ammonites (cf 1 Sm 11:15). However, Saul was judged as the rejected and unfaithful king of Israel throughout the Deuteronomistic History (DH). Strikingly, Saul was connected with the evil origin of the kingship in Israel. The kingship of Saul can be perceived in the background of the ancient Near East (ANE) in terms of royal ideology. A prominent characteristic of the royal ideology in the ANE is to emphasize a divine sanction of the kingship in the ANE. In the ANE the king had to prove his divine sanction for the kingship. The tradition of Saul tells how the kingship of Saul was divinely sanctioned in the perspective of the ANE. On the other hand, the Deuteronomist emphasized the divine sanction of Saul was illegitimate in connection with his prophetic connection with a group of ecstatic prophets from the high place. Further Saul was characterized as lacking of divine knowledge in the DH. The research shows that 1 Samuel 11:1-11 is the royal ideology for Saul. The appearance of the kingship of Saul was inevitable in the critical period of the Israelite history. The leadership of Saul was divinely sanctioned in the prophetic manner. Such a prophetic characteristic of Saul was highly welcomed by the people. It is a comprehensive approach resulting from synthesizing various approaches such as historical critical approaches, new literary approaches, and social scientific approaches. The methodology distinguished embedded historical information in the text from a final redactional intention, that is, theological purpose of the redactor. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Old Testament Studies / unrestricted

La réponse tissulaire des patients soumis à une radiothérapie, malgré des protocoles de traitement identiques, est variable avec des extrêmes importants. Une des questions posées à la radiobiologie est d'expliquer ces variations (approche a posteriori) et si possible de les prévoir (approche a priori). La réponse d'un organisme et de tissus complexes à la radiothérapie est la résultante de nombreux déterminants. Certains appartiennent à la dynamique et à l'homéostasie tissulaire (inflammation, cytokines, etc.) d'autre à la sensibilité et à la réponse cellulaire (sensibilité intrinsèque, réparation de l'ADN, régulation de la mort cellulaire, etc.). Concernant les déterminants cellulaires, l'Equipe d'Accueil a proposé de classer les humains en 3 groupes de radiosensibilités différentes, le premier considéré comme normal est de loin le plus important (près de 75% des individus), le groupe II de radiosensibilité intermédiaire représente la majeure partie des individus pour lesquels une réponse anormale est constatée après radiothérapie. Le groupe III rassemble des pathologies particulièrement rares associées à une hyper-radiosensibilité marquée, voire très marquée. Les patients du groupe II présentent donc une réponse thérapeutique inattendue et / ou des effets secondaires précoces ou tardifs sévères à des doses d'irradiation dont on attend une tolérance normale. Les patients du groupe II peuvent aussi être caractérisés par une forte prédisposition au cancer et aux tumeurs radio induites. Il existe une variabilité intrinsèque liée à des facteurs endogènes tels que la qualité de réparation de l'ADN, ou la production spontanée de micronoyaux ; et des facteurs exogènes. A cet égard, certaines médications sont susceptibles de modifier la réponse cellulaire à la radiothérapie, telles que les statines, les anticoagulants ou les antiagrégants plaquettaires. Approche a posteriori : par une étude clinique unicentrique de 65 patients atteints de cancers de la prostate et traités par le même radiothérapeute dans les mêmes conditions, la fréquence et la gravité des effets secondaires rectaux par rapport à la prise ou non de statines ont été étudiées : un effet radioprotecteur des statines vis-à-vis de la rectite radique a été mis en évidence in vivo sur des arguments statistiques pertinents. Approche a priori : par l'étude de la réponse cellulaire et moléculaire aux radiations de fibroblastes humains (notamment issus de tissus intestinaux sains). Ont été étudiés : la réparation et la signalisation des cassures double-brin de l'ADN par l'analyse des foci nucléaires H2AX et pATM ; le transit radioinduit de la protéine ATM du cytoplasme vers le noyau a été observé pour la première fois sur des fibroblastes humains rectaux. Les statines semblent accélérer ce transit, produisant un effet modérateur de la sévérité des rectites. L’étude des différents produits antioxydants et stimulateurs de la réparation de l’ADN a permis de montrer que les statines ont effet non équivoqué sur la réparation cellulaire après irradiation. Ces résultats ouvrent des perspectives pour des études plus approfondies de l'usage de médications facilement accessibles capables de moduler la gravité des effets secondaires de la radiothérapie. / The tissue response of patients undergoing radiotherapy, despite identical treatment protocols, could have important variations. One of the questions asked to the radiobiology is to explain these variations (a posteriori approach) and if possible to predict it (a priori approach). The response of an organism and complex tissues to radiotherapy is the result of many determinants. Some belong to the tissue dynamics and homeostasis (inflammation, cytokines, etc.) and others to the sensitivity and cellular response (intrinsic sensitivity, DNA repair, regulation of cell death, etc.). About cellular determinants, our research team proposed to classify humans into three groups of different radiosensitivity levels, the first considered as normal is by far the largest (almost 75% of individuals), group II of intermediate radiosensitivity represents the majority of individuals having an abnormal response to radiotherapy. Group III gathers extremely rare conditions associated with marked or very marked hyper-radiosensitivity which are usually life threatening. Therefore patients in group II show either unexpected therapeutic response or severe radiation early or late side effects after doses for which normal tolerance is expected. Patients in group II can also be characterized by a strong predisposition to cancer and radiation-induced tumors. There is an inherent variability related to endogenous factors, such as the quality of DNA repair, or the spontaneous production of micronuclei; and exogenous factors. In this regard, certain medications may alter the cellular response to radiation therapy, such as statins, antiplatelet agents or anticoagulants. A posteriori approach: a single-center clinical study of 68 patients with prostate cancer treated by the same radiation oncologist in the same conditions, the frequency and severity of rectal side effects are compared to the use or not of statins : a radioprotective effect of statins toward radiation proctitis cannot be excluded. A priori approach: by studying the cellular and molecular radiation response in human fibroblasts (especially from healthy bowel tissue). Were studied: signaling and repair of DNA double-strand breaks by analysis of nuclear foci of MRE11; H2AX and pATM; radiation induced ATM protein transit from the cytoplasm to the nucleus was observed for the first time in rectal tissue fibroblasts. Statins appear to speed up this transit, making possible a radioprotective effect. These results open perspectives for further studies for the use of medications readily available that can modulate the severity of side effects of radiotherapy.

<div><div><div><p>Face redaction is needed by law enforcement and mass media outlets to guarantee privacy. In this thesis, a performance analysis of several face redaction/obscuration methods, such as blurring and pixelation is presented. The analysis is based on various threat models and obscuration attackers to achieve a comprehensive evaluation. We show that the traditional blurring and pixelation methods cannot guarantee privacy. To provide a more secured privacy protection, we propose two novel obscuration methods that are based on the generative adversarial networks. The proposed methods not only remove the identifiable information, but also preserve the non-identifiable facial information (as known as the utility information), such as expression, age, skin tone and gender.</p><p>We also propose methods for change detection in satellite imagery. In this thesis, we consider two types of building changes: 2D appearance change and 3D height change. We first present a model with an attention mechanism to detect the building appearance changes that are caused by natural disasters. Furthermore, to detect the changes of building height, we present a height estimation model that is based on building shadows and solar angles without relying on height annotation. Both change detection methods require good building segmentation performance, which might be hard to achieve for the low-quality images, such as off-nadir images. To solve this issue, we use uncertainty modeling and satellite imagery metadata to achieve accurate building segmentation for the noisy images that are taken from large off-nadir angles.</p></div></div></div>

A lot has been written on the development of the Shona novel and the influence of orature on it. This research while acknowledging the importance of such an observation makes yet another one. This other view is that there is also another element that has had a significant impact on the development and growth of the Shona novel. This research has endeavoured to highlight that the Shona novel is a product of the society where it is found which is influenced by The Bible. The novelists Chakaipa, Chidzero, Makari, Musengezi, Tsodzo, Zvarevashe and Ngugi wa Thiong'o's A Grain of Wheat which has been translated into Shona as Tsanga Yembeu have used The Bible as the backbone of their novels. Although these novelists have all used The Bible they have not used it in the same way and for the same purpose. They have used The Bible to justify the themes embedded in their works. This research at the end shows that it is difficult to label a literary product as either a success or a failure. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)

For those who have the courage to doubt, it can be said that the Bible which is highly regarded in Africa is not only an innocent book but also a guilty one because of the many social, political and religious evils that have bedevilled Africa from time to time and which it has condoned and has been used to sanction. Using postcolonial biblical criticism, and as a way of demonstrating that the entire Bible is another text of the empire, this thesis argues that imperial ideology promoted in Luke's socio-economic parables has contributed to another social evil i.e. the gap between the rich and the poor in Kenya. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.