Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / The action research project documented in this thesis was informed by Jurgen Habermas' theory of knowledge-constitutive interests. In this theory Habermas postulates three anthropologically deep-seated interests that inform our search for knowledge. These interests are the technical, the practical and the emancipatory. In the action-research project, which was done in collaboration with a group of first year art students at Bellville College of Education, I attempted to uncover the values, assumptions and interests underlying our educational interaction in the hope of transforming it to be more empowering and emancipatory. The project went through three stages, each of which was informed by a different interest. The first stage could be described as having a technical interest because it was based on positivist assumptions of reductionism, duality and linearity. In this "- stage art was understood as being value-free, objectively describing and reflecting visual reality. It was believed that theory and skills could be applied to achieve a predetermined product. In the second stage of the project the positivist paradigm of perception was replaced by the assumption that our relationship to others and the world is mediated by language which needs to be interpreted in a socio-political and historical context. Art does not only have a descriptive role but it can express subjective understandings of the networks of meanings and social rules involved in experienced reality. Finally, the third stage evolved within a critical framework informed by an emancipatory interest. In the drawing project we looked critically at aspects of our society which frustrate and constrain individuals to sustain dependence, inequality and oppression. We tried to uncover existing power relations and the historical, social and material conditions underlying certain problems we were experiencing. We hoped to find ways in which we could contribute to the transformation of ourselves and our society. The process of making art was here seen as a form of communicative action which can be empowering, emancipatory and transformative.

Thesis advisor: Maureen Ritchey / Regulating negative emotions that arise while recalling an unpleasant event presents a persistent challenge. As a reconstructive process, recall offers an opportunity to ease the burden of repeated regulation by updating negative memories, with the potential for long-term reductions in the negative affect associated with a memory. However, little is known about the recall-related brain processes that support lasting effects of emotion regulation on episodic memories. Across three studies, the current project examined the behavioral and neural correlates of regulating emotionally negative memories. First, a stimulus database of real-life news videos optimized for studying naturalistic emotional memory was developed. Then, the behavioral effects of two emotion regulation strategies, memory reappraisal and memory suppression, were tested. Finally, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to investigate the brain processes associated with lasting reappraisal-related changes in memory valence. We found that reappraisal was associated with lasting reductions in the negative valence of naturalistic memories, whereas suppression had no effect on memory valence. We also found that recall-related activity in lateral occipital cortex was associated with a reappraisal-mediated reduction in negative valence 24-hours after reappraisal. These results suggest that brain processes involved in the initial retrieval of negative content also support the emotion regulation of those memories, consistent with research showing that memory reactivation is critical for robust memory updating. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Psychology.

Air- and spaceborne radars play an important role for civilian and military use. There are numerous applications such as earth observations, surveillance and others. High performance clutter suppression is a crucial part of many of these radar systems. Space time adaptive processing(STAP)has become a topic of interest for clutter suppression applications. Although for most moving target indication(MTI) radars other applications are used for clutter suppression. This master thesis analyses STAP on two antenna configuration for airborne radar applications. The first configuration is based on auxiliary antennas, the second configuration is based on a multitapering method called discrete prolate spheroidal sequences(DPSS). This theses shows that both antenna configurations are valid choices for STAP applications. Although the later configuration, DPSS, has a higher clutter suppression performance in general. However, there are fundamental limitations with the DPSS configuration. These limitations are shortly discussedin this theses but more work should be done before implementing the DPSS configuration

The absence of water mains in rural areas has the potential to seriously complicate rural wildfire and structure fire suppression. The installation of dry fire hydrants can tremendously reduce these difficulties. But fire managers must then decide where to place these hydrants to efficiently and effectively serve their area of concern. This thesis investigates the role of GIS location-allocation model (LAMs) as a tool to aid fire managers in planning the locations of numerous dry hydrants. LAMs are designed to place central service facilities in a configuration that optimally serves geographically dispersed demand. One of the objectives of this thesis is to determine whether or not this optimization is achieved based on the management needs of the Virginia Department of Forestry. Many variations of LAMs are examined and the most appropriate model, the Maximal Covering Location Problem (MCLP), is selected. The flexibility of the MCLP model is then tested by imposing fine manipulations of hydrant demand weighting schemes. / Master of Science

<p> In six conditioned suppression experiments with rats, two conditioned stimuli (CSs) were individually trained and then tested as a compound. In one set of experiments, the suppressing effect of the compound was greater than that of either CS presented alone. This result is referred to as compound summation. In a second set of experiments, the suppressing effect of the compound was less than that of the "stronger" suppressing individual CS. This result is referred to as compound attenuation. The combination of summation and attenuation makes it possible to determine whether CSs with unknown properties are weakly excitatory (i.e., weak suppressors) or inhibitory (i.e., conditioned characteristics that are opposite the excitatory suppressing effect). If an unknown CS is tested in compound with a second CS known to be excitatory, summation indicates that the unknown stimulus is excitatory, while attenuation indicates that the unknown stimulus is inhibitory. In a final set of experiments, this compound test procedure was used to examine extinction and differential conditioning as inhibitory training procedures. Extensive extinction of a previously trained CS, even far beyond the point at which suppression vanished, was found to be an ineffective inhibitory training procedure. Rather, compound tests showed that the stimulus retained excitatory properties. Differential conditioning was found to be a very effective inhibitory training procedure, regardless of whether presentations of a previously trained CS and shock, shook alone, or the previously trained CS - alone accompanied the unreinforced CS undergoing inhibitory conditioning. These findings are discussed in terms of current theories of conditioning and unresolved issues surrounding the acquisition and maintenance of inhibitory properties.</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p> This thesis is concerned with control procedures employed in Pavlovian conditioning, in particular, the "truly random" control. Pilot work indicated that this procedure employed in a CER paradigm resulted in response suppression. Our first objective then was to examine this finding in a more formal experiment, as well as attempting to determine the cause of the observed suppression. In a second experiment, a variable predicted to affect the amount of conditioning within traditional conditioning theory was employed to determine the possible role of this variable in suppression produced by the random control procedure.</p> <p> It was found, in the first experiment, that two variations of the random procedure resulted in suppression in testing. The results of a third group indicated that the suppression was not due to a between-session discriminative function of the CS. A fourth group demonstrated, within contingency logic, inhibitory control, but this group, like the others, showed suppression.</p> <p> In the second experiment, variations of stimulus conditions, none of which made the US contingent on the CS, resulted in marked differences in suppression in testing. Further, significantly different recovery rates of the operant baseline were noted both as a function of the recovery condition and of the CS employed in training.</p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

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Despite many positive outcomes associated with emotion coaching, factors related to individual differences in emotion coaching have yet to be explored. The current study examined cultural differences in the role of maternal characteristics, specifically emotional awareness and emotion regulation, as determinants of emotion coaching. These findings will facilitate culturally desired emotion socialization practices leading to optimal emotional development of children. In the current study, I translated two English-based questionnaires into Chinese to assess maternal emotional awareness and emotion coaching. Next, I examined relations of reappraisal, suppression, and emotional awareness to maternal emotion coaching. I also investigated the role of maternal emotional awareness as a mediator in the relation of maternal use of reappraisal and suppression to maternal emotion coaching in both Chinese and American cultures. Participants included American (n=164) and 163 Chinese (n=163) mothers. Maternal emotional awareness was measured using subscales of Toronto Alexithymia Scale 20 and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. Emotion regulation strategies were assessed using Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. To measure emotion coaching, mothers completed Parents' Beliefs about Children's Emotions questionnaire. Structural equation models were estimated to examine how maternal emotional awareness and emotion regulation related to emotion coaching. Results confirmed the reliability and validity of the Chinese questionnaires. Maternal emotion coaching did not include mothers' views about negative emotions because equivalence could not be established across Chinese and American cultures; therefore, the emotion coaching discussed in this study is different from previous research on emotion coaching that typically involves responses to negative emotions. Maternal emotional awareness was associated with their emotion coaching in both samples and the strength of the association was not different across cultures. However, relations of reappraisal and suppression to emotional awareness and emotion coaching were different across Chinese and American samples. Emotional awareness mediated the relation of reappraisal to emotion coaching only in the American sample. Additionally, emotional awareness was a mediator of the relation of suppression to emotion coaching in both samples. Overall, the findings of this study supported that maternal emotional awareness and use of emotion regulation strategies are important determinants of maternal emotion coaching in both cultures. / Ph. D.

Yes / Although their eyes are pointing in different directions, people with long-standing strabismic amblyopia typically do not experience double-vision or indeed any visual symptoms arising from their condition. It is generally believed that the phenomenon of suppression plays a major role in dealing with the consequences of amblyopia and strabismus, by preventing images from the weaker/deviating eye from reaching conscious awareness. Suppression is thus a highly sophisticated coping mechanism. Although suppression has been studied for over 100 years the literature is equivocal in relation to the extent of the retina that is suppressed, though the method used to investigate suppression is crucial to the outcome. There is growing evidence that some measurement methods lead to artefactual claims that suppression exists when it does not. Methodology/Results: Here we present the results of an experiment conducted with a new method to examine the prevalence, depth and extent of suppression in ten individuals with strabismic amblyopia. Seven subjects (70%) showed no evidence whatsoever for suppression and in the three individuals who did (30%), the depth and extent of suppression was small. Conclusions: Suppression may play a much smaller role in dealing with the negative consequences of strabismic amblyopia than previously thought. Whereas recent claims of this nature have been made only in those with micro-strabismus our results show extremely limited evidence for suppression across the central visual field in strabismic amblyopes more generally. Instead of suppressing the image from the weaker/deviating eye, we suggest the visual system of individuals with strabismic amblyopia may act to maximise the possibilities for binocular co-operation. This is consistent with recent evidence from strabismic and amblyopic individuals that their binocular mechanisms are intact, and that, just as in visual normals, performance with two eyes is better than with the better eye alone in these individuals.