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The Moche fineline painting corpus contains hundreds of representations of winged figures, but these have never been analyzed as a group. This thesis is an investigation of these winged figures, focusing on iconographic methodology. I have identified and categorized representations of birds (ducks, the Falconidae family, owls,hummingbirds, vultures and condors, etc.), mammals (bats) and insects (dragonflies) in the fineline paintings. Special attention has been paid to genus and family, including the attributes and behaviors of these animals. This has yielded several important observations about how the Moche represented and linked winged figures. In the second part of this thesis I use semiotic analysis to consider winged figures as symbols rather than naturalistic representations. I also examine anthropomorphic winged figures, and analyze the interpretive possibilities and the implications of these interpretations. / text

This thesis presents a model of institutional values transmission through cross-case analysis of values education undertaken in three UK secondary schools. Since the early 1980s a significant amount of research has been carried out on cultural transmission and the transmission of values, though it has focused on intergenerational transmission within families and the interaction between the school and the family in terms of converging and diverging values and worldviews. Very little work has been done on the process of transmission of values in schools or other organisations that is evidence-based. An increasing number of governments and organisations, as well as schools, are beginning to invest seriously in values education programmes, but whether the idea of values education is theoretically coherent is still disputed. Through an evaluation of the philosophical, psychological and sociological literature on values and employing phenomenological and semiotic analyses, a theory of values as transmissible entities is developed, which is then extended to a general concept of values transmission using the twin terms invocation and evocation, to denote modes of bringing value concepts to the awareness of an audience and of generating group cohesion through a shared experience linked to particular values, respectively, these terms themselves emerging from the theory of values. Through data collection, analysis and modelling of values education in three schools – a state comprehensive, a faith school and an independent – a plausible mechanism for institutional values transmission is developed. This mechanism integrates two partial models: a permeation-authority inculcation model of transmission flow with a resistance-transformation model of moral autonomy. At its heart it envisages a systemically robust cycle of institutional values discourse, institutional cultural expectations and the generation of a sense of community shored up by individual commitment. A two tier qualitative approach is used in this research, having both an inductive, theory generating phase of field research, data capture and analysis, and a deductive, hypothesis-led confirmatory phase. The inductive phase uses a case study format and cross-case analysis, providing data for analysis and for testing a set of hypotheses in the deductive phase. The development of a mechanism for institutional values transmission is carried out using an institutional model of the schools as a data collection and analytical instrument, based on three structural aspects: an authority hierarchy; an interiority/exteriority duality in the institutional lived-experience; and a system hierarchy. Multiple data collection and analytic methods are employed in each case study, in order to build up a ‘three-dimensional’ picture of the transmission of values in each school. Both comparative and iterative cross-case analyses are carried out. The findings emerging from the case studies suggest the following tentative conclusions: schools have varying degrees of awareness of the values that they impart, although all consider values education to be an important part of what they do and to impact on student performance and behaviour; while there is some explicit values-oriented pedagogy, most teaching of values is implicit; schools with greater ethnic diversity have more challenges to build a cohesive community, as this is at odds with the ‘spontaneous sociality’ of the pupils; there is a broad convergence on the same values found most widely distributed throughout schools across the widest range possible with respect to forms of governance, educational philosophy and demography. The findings carry a number of pedagogical implications: general support is found for explicit values education programmes and the linking between behavioural standards and academic achievement; the importance of the development of a ‘moral community’ around the ethos of the school and the creation of opportunities for multiple belonging is highlighted; and resistance to institutional authority structures is explored for its significant potential for transformation to an acceptance of institutional values.

The thesis combines D.N. Rodowick’s concept of the figural, denoting the complex nature of filmic signification; Roland Barthes’ distinctions between the readerly and the writerly, which are different methods of engaging with a text; and Thierry Kuntzel’s concept of semiotic constellations, the reading of recurring yet fragmented motifs that occur throughout the film. Here reintroduced through the concept of eddies—discursive fields within the film which displace the connection between the signifier and signified (the flow of signification), instead distinguished by signifiers engendering new signifiers (the swirl of signification)—to unlock a new method of reading a film. This method focuses on interpreting the latent meanings of the plural of the text; the residual signs in the film which hold little to no bearing on its narrative, but through their deconstruction and later reassembly they may guide to viewer to new meanings. By first delineating the method proposed for this type of reading, the thesis then applies this method to the reading of one such eddy in the art-film Out 1: Noli me tangere from 1970, which is connected to the discursive field of Prometheus Bound, a play rehearsed within the film by a group of six actors who engage in various exercises, which at first glance seem to be entirely unconnected to the play. In this case, the method reveals through the figural activity of the film that the exercises of the group are engaged in dialogue with themes touched upon in the play.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:32:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Carlos Eduardo Gomes da Silva.pdf: 2410255 bytes, checksum: 5b9a708bfa7a37cc4c94cc7da6aca478 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-15 / Fundo Mackenzie de Pesquisa / Several studies show that one of the major problems in understanding the accounting information relies on its terminology. Accordingly, this study aimed to understand how the communication process between journalists and companies Investors Relations areas is, in order to verify where the problems to understand accounting information are, considering that accounting information has a closed structure and its own taxonomy. The choice of journalists was due to the fact that they act as translators of accounting information received to the general public, while the Investors Relations area is seen as the spokesman for the company s shareholders, both considered, then, as a secondary source of accounting information. The survey covered as sample two hundred journalists and 155 companies that have shares listed on BM&F BOVESPA. Data were collected through a questionnaire containing open and closed questions, made available on the web and treated by techniques of content analysis and factor analysis. In general, the analysis of the results enabled to verify that journalists use the same sources of accounting information that the other external users, however there is not effective interaction with the Investor Relations areas. Additionally, it was found that accounting needs further simplification in its terminology, because it is seen that their translators cannot perfect fulfill this role. / Diversos estudos mostram que um dos maiores problemas da compreensão da informação contábil está em suas terminologias. Em vista disso, o presente estudo buscou compreender como se dá o processo de comunicação entre os jornalistas e as áreas de Relações com Investidores de empresas com o objetivo de verificar onde se encontram os problemas de compreensão da informação contábil, considerando-se que a mesma possui uma estrutura fechada e uma taxonomia própria. A escolha por jornalistas deveu-se ao fato de que os mesmos atuam como tradutores da informação contábil recebida para o grande público, enquanto a área de Relações com Investidores é entendida como o porta-voz da empresa para os acionistas, sendo ambos, então, considerados fonte secundária da informação contábil. A pesquisa contou com uma amostra de duzentos jornalistas e 155 empresas que possuíam ações listadas no BM&F BOVESPA. Os dados foram coletados por meio de questionário contendo perguntas abertas e fechadas, disponibilizado na web e tratados por meio das técnicas de análise de conteúdo e análise fatorial. Em linhas gerais, a análise dos resultados possibilitou verificar que os jornalistas utilizam as mesmas fontes de informação contábil que os demais usuários externos, contudo, não existe uma interação efetiva com as áreas de Relações com Investidores. Adicionalmente, verificou-se que a Contabilidade precisa de uma maior simplificação em suas terminologias, pois foi possível perceber que os seus tradutores podem não cumprir perfeitamente este papel.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:32:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Carlos Eduardo Gomes da Silva.pdf: 2411835 bytes, checksum: 93240c6894f29fa5d8eef732f116d4ff (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-15 / Fundo Mackenzie de Pesquisa / Several studies show that one of the major problems in understanding the accounting information relies on its terminology. Accordingly, this study aimed to understand how the communication process between journalists and companies Investors Relations areas is, in order to verify where the problems to understand accounting information are, considering that accounting information has a closed structure and its own taxonomy. The choice of journalists was due to the fact that they act as translators of accounting information received to the general public, while the Investors Relations area is seen as the spokesman for the company s shareholders, both considered, then, as a secondary source of accounting information. The survey covered as sample two hundred journalists and 155 companies that have shares listed on BM&F BOVESPA. Data were collected through a questionnaire containing open and closed questions, made available on the web and treated by techniques of content analysis and factor analysis. In general, the analysis of the results enabled to verify that journalists use the same sources of accounting information that the other external users, however there is not effective interaction with the Investor Relations areas. Additionally, it was found that accounting needs further simplification in its terminology, because it is seen that their translators cannot perfect fulfill this role. / Diversos estudos mostram que um dos maiores problemas da compreensão da informação contábil está em suas terminologias. Em vista disso, o presente estudo buscou compreender como se dá o processo de comunicação entre os jornalistas e as áreas de Relações com Investidores de empresas com o objetivo de verificar onde se encontram os problemas de compreensão da informação contábil, considerando-se que a mesma possui uma estrutura fechada e uma taxonomia própria. A escolha por jornalistas deveu-se ao fato de que os mesmos atuam como tradutores da informação contábil recebida para o grande público, enquanto a área de Relações com Investidores é entendida como o porta-voz da empresa para os acionistas, sendo ambos, então, considerados fonte secundária da informação contábil. A pesquisa contou com uma amostra de duzentos jornalistas e 155 empresas que possuíam ações listadas no BM&F BOVESPA. Os dados foram coletados por meio de questionário contendo perguntas abertas e fechadas, disponibilizado na web e tratados por meio das técnicas de análise de conteúdo e análise fatorial. Em linhas gerais, a análise dos resultados possibilitou verificar que os jornalistas utilizam as mesmas fontes de informação contábil que os demais usuários externos, contudo, não existe uma interação efetiva com as áreas de Relações com Investidores. Adicionalmente, verificou-se que a Contabilidade precisa de uma maior simplificação em suas terminologias, pois foi possível perceber que os seus tradutores podem não cumprir perfeitamente este papel.

‘Holistic Order’ is a new term used in this study. In literature, its synonyms such as beauty, order, visual order, and aesthetic order have been in usage for a long time. Historical studies on arts & crafts from philosophical and aesthetic perspectives reveal that the term ‘beauty’ no longer holds the same meaning as it used to for centuries. ‘Holistic Order’ is the new term being proposed in place of ‘beauty’ in product design. It is argued that this term is more appropriate in present day context. Beauty has been a study of interest to philosophers, aestheticians, poets, artists, scientists, and the common man alike for time immemorial. Though the field of industrial design has been in existence since the industrial revolution in the early 20th century, the roots of this field originates from the time of Plato and Aristotle, more than 2400 years ago. In spite of this long history, there has not been a reliable tool / framework available to product designers, which they can rely on in their pursuit to designing products that are holistic i.e. able to please not only to the physical senses but also to the emotional and mental faculties. Studies in the history of arts & crafts and fundamentals of aesthetics from a new perspective have revealed a perceptible gap in the most widely used design approach. This research work is an attempt to fulfil that gap. Using semiotic and communication theory, existence of dichotomy in product design has been established. Based on this and the widely used elements and principles approach in product design, a new integrated conceptual framework for holistic order in product design has been proposed. It is argued that this framework is more suited to designing holistically than any of the available ones. The objective of this framework is to enable better understanding of the different aspects involved in the aesthetics of product design, their relationships, and the resulting attainments. Knowledge of this framework is useful to designers for designing products in a holistic manner. In the process, more attractive, appealing, and meaningful designs are enabled. Also, it is useful to design critics for identifying factors that are responsible for aesthetic qualities and values in product design. All the interdependent nature of relationships among various parts of the framework of holistic order have been explained. ‘Holistic Order Index’ is proposed as a new measure of design qualities in product design. The Framework of Holistic Order and Holistic Order Index have been validated through qualitative and quantitative methods in two studies, one involving 30 designers and another involving 108 subjects representing the society at large. In another study involving 32 subjects, reliability of the methodology has been established. Results of these studies have been discussed in the thesis and the contributions summarized.

The aim of this essay, As only the deceived one can love, is to investigate the city character in the book Mina drömmars stad (City of dreams) by swedish author Per Anders Fogelström. I will do this by using narratology and making a narrative analysis of the city as a protagonist, with help from Jimmy Vulovic’s Narrativanalys (”narrative analysis”) and Claes Göran Holmberg’s & Anders Ohlssons Epikanalys – En introduktion (”epic analysis – an introduction”). All of these three theorists use the narratological tool-box of Gérard Genette, and I will use his tools in this essay as well. By doing this I will try to point out what this kind of personification of the city does to the story, and how it affects the readers point of view. One of the steps of the narrative analysis is to seek for information about the protagonist in its own environment, to see if there are any hidden clues about the identity of their character. In his book A universe of the mind – A semiotic theory of culture, Jurij M. Lotman writes about the semiosphere of the home, and how the ultimate place to seek for details about someone’s character is in someone’s home environment or surroundings. He demonstrates his thesis by analyzing the meaning of different homes in Michail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita. Even if I try to read the city as a main character in City of dreams, it is inevitable that the city is also a stage, a scene and the environment where the story takes place. In the end of my analysis I will look to the environment of the city to try to draw conclusions about who this city of dreams really is.

The amount of data accumulated by organizations have grown significantly during the last couple of years, increasing the importance of data quality. Ensuring data quality for large amounts of data is a complicated task, but crucial to subsequent analysis. This study investigates how to maintain and improve data quality in a data warehouse. A case study of the errors in a data warehouse was conducted at the Swedish company Kaplan, and resulted in guiding principles on how to improve the data quality. The investigation was done by manually comparing data from the source systems to the data integrated in the data warehouse and applying a quality framework based on semiotic theory to identify errors. The three main guiding principles given are (1) to implement a standardized format for the source data, (2) to implement a check prior to integration where the source data are reviewed and corrected if necessary, and (3) to create and implement specific database integrity rules. Further work is encouraged on establishing a guide for the framework on how to best perform a manual approach for comparing data, and quality assurance of source data. / Mängden data som ackumulerats av organisationer har ökat betydligt under de senaste åren, vilket har ökat betydelsen för datakvalitet. Att säkerställa datakvalitet för stora mängder data är en komplicerad uppgift, men avgörande för efterföljande analys. Denna studie undersöker hur man underhåller och förbättrar datakvaliteten i ett datalager. En fallstudie av fel i ett datalager på det svenska företaget Kaplan genomfördes och resulterade i riktlinjer för hur datakvaliteten kan förbättras. Undersökningen gjordes genom att manuellt jämföra data från källsystemen med datat integrerat i datalagret och genom att tillämpa ett kvalitetsramverk grundat på semiotisk teori för att kunna identifiera fel. De tre huvudsakliga riktlinjerna som gavs är att (1) implementera ett standardiserat format för källdatat, (2) genomföra en kontroll före integration där källdatat granskas och korrigeras vid behov, och (3) att skapa och implementera specifika databasintegritetsregler. Vidare forskning uppmuntras för att skapa en guide till ramverket om hur man bäst jämför data genom en manuell undersökning, och kvalitetssäkring av källdata.

The purpose of this study was to examine how male and female celebrities are represented on the 24 covers of e+, a weekly entertainment magazine that was published by Dubai-based Al Nisr Publishing. This cross-sectional, exploratory study used a qualitative visual semiotic analysis and quantitative content analysis to examine how male and female celebrities are constructed and represented on covers published between October 2010 and September 2011. In addition, the study explored whether the myths and ideologies found on the covers made an impression on the perceptions and tastes of teenagers living in the UAE. A subsequent self-administered questionnaire was completed by 30 teenagers living in the UAE aged between 16 and 19 with the purpose of determining how teenagers experienced representations of celebrities. Furthermore, to gain a deeper understanding of how teenagers experienced celebrity culture, three focus-group interviews, each comprising of six participants, are conducted. The study found that both male and female celebrities were represented in gender stereotypical roles. Results showed that male celebrities were represented as active, strong, decisive and dominant. Male celebrities were associated with success, fast cars and dangerous weapons. On the other hand, female celebrities were predominantly represented as submissive. The representations of female celebrities focused on beauty and fashion. The survey and focus-group results revealed that celebrity culture does have an influence on teenagers. Participants reported that they bought products that they saw celebrities wearing or using, emulated the celebrities’ behaviour and copied hairstyles and make-up looks. However, the study found that, in addition to celebrity culture, teenagers’ perceptions are also shaped by their peers, parents and other people they interact with such as teachers. / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication Science)