The thesis underpinning this dissertation is based on the Zulu people’s belief in the living-dead and the fact that the latter control the lives of their living descendants. The living descendants use names to express their dissatisfaction with one another. The families perform rituals to appease the living-dead. The living-dead are perceived as guardian angels who are closer to God. They are believed to be able to reward good behavior and reprimand those who are not behaving in an acceptable manner. Names, as Bhengu (1975:52) states, connect people to their living-dead. It is therefore important that this relationship with the living-dead is maintained. Friction is always going to be a problem in polygynous families. Avoiding confrontation is important to people who want to appease their living-dead, who control their lives. Personal names act as a deterrent to angering the living-dead. In a situation where getting even is not an option, opting for a name to voice your disapproval is the easy way out. Names become communication channels between members of the family and the community at large. This study is done from an ethnographic perspective with an attempt to fully describe a variety of aspects of a cultural group to enhance understanding of the people being studied. Spradley (1980:3) states that “The essential core of ethnography is the concern with the meaning of actions and events to the people we seek to understand”. This understanding may be seen as the basis of the method; through ethnographic study, the researcher comes to comprehend, through detailed observation, the existences of peoples and their cultures. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

The Egyptian religion viewed the whole world as divine and inhabited by both gods and men. Concepts such as death was therefore explained through myths. The ancient society feared death but desired an eternal life. The Egyptians saw death as a physical dismemberment of the body as had happened in the myth of Osiris when death was first introduced to the world. Osiris functioned as a prototype for all men as he had overcome death by finding a new existence in the netherworld. He was not viewed as a resurrected deity but as a god who had found a way to live forever after death. Funerary texts were developed to help the Egyptians navigate the netherworld, overcome trials and dangers, and to become Osiris. These were an extensive corpus of texts which was placed in the grave with the deceased. By analyzing the New Kingdom’s Book of the Dead the Egyptians’ fear of death can be clearly interpreted in the spells which the book contains. In the Book of the Dead there are 189 spells which functions to secure an eternal life after death by protecting the dead from a number of horrible fates. The book depicts a number of dangerous animals and beings in the netherworld which the spells would offer protection from. There are also incantations for things taken for granted on earth such as breathing, walking upright, not eating faeces or drinking urine. The need to formulate these spells shows an underlying fear of death, and deliverance came by using the Book of the Dead. To preserve the body of the deceased in the grave was of the outermost importance since eternal life could only be achieved if the remains worked as a link between the living world and the land of the dead. That is why the Egyptians developed such a complex funerary ritual and mummified the remains, preserving it forever. Fear of death is derived from the descriptions of it as an isolation, total destruction, dismemberment, and decomposition. The purpose of the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead was to counteract this fate as it assured the deceased of an eternal life.

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Robotar är en självklar del av modern automation och produktion. Användningsområdenaär många och innefattar bland annat repetitiva arbetsuppgifter ochuppgifter som kan vara hälsofarliga för oss människor, så som t.ex. målning,punktsvetsning och materialhantering. Ett problem inom robotik är att noggrant skatta position och orientering för robotensverktyg. Detta examensarbete syftar till att ta fram metoder för dennaskattning baserad på mätningar från en Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sommonteras vid robotens verktyg. En IMU är en kombinationsenhet som består av flera sensorer, vanligtvis accelerometeroch gyroskop. Enheten mäter då acceleration och rotationshastighetbaserat på kroppars tröghet. Examensarbetet presenterar tre metoder för att skatta position och orienteringav robotens verktyg. En skattningsmetod endast är baserad på mätningar frånIMU:n, död räkning, samt två filter där även robotkinematiken tillsammans meduppmätta motorvinklar används, extended Kalmanfilter (EKF) och komplementärfilter(CF). Resultat för skattningsmetoderna visas för experimentell data från en högpresterandeIMU tillsammans med en industrirobot med sex frihetsgrader. / Industrial robots have a well established part within modern automation and production.The uses for robots are many and include e.g. repetitive tasks, painting, spot welding and material handling. One problem in robotics is to sufficiently well estimate the position and orientation for the end effector of the robot. This thesis aims to present estimationmethods based on data from an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) mounted onthe end effector of the robot. An IMU is a combination unit typically containing accelerometers and gyroscopes.The unit measures acceleration and rotational speed based on the inertia of bodies. The thesis presents three methods for position and orientation estimation. One based exclusively on IMU data, dead reckoning, and two filters based on IMUdata in combination with robot kinematics and motor angles, extended Kalmanfilter (EKF) and complementary filter (CF). Results for the estimation methods are shown based on experimental data froma high-performance IMU and a industrial robot with six degrees of freedom.

The purpose of this study is to examine how the identity of teenagers is affected by the loss of a parent as well as what coping strategies support identity development. The reactions the teenagers exhibit, in such circumstances, will also be examined. To accomplish this,  a theory package was created, comprising theories in developmental psychology, identity work, coping and theory of grief reactions of children and teenagers. This package provided a broad perspective, which facilitated the analysis. Furthermore, it made it easier to address the purpose and the issue of the analysis. In this study, three fictional books, that deal with the subject, have been used. In the books, the teenagers share their experiences and life stories. By doing a content analysis, the centeral themes and events could be identifyed. The themes of the books were hermeneutically interpreted. The conclusions from this study are that the fictional teenagers feel as if they have lost a part of themselves after the event of death. The most frequently exhibited reaction is that they refuse to believe that one of their parents is dead, through preservation coping. When the teenager realizes that this preservation coping strategy fails, he or she is forced to change strategy. The development of the teenagers identity is stalled; there is a risk that the teenagers sorrow interferes with various developmental stages during adolescence. For this development to resume, the teenager has to decide which coping strategy to use to cope with the loss of a parent.

This project has created electronic music as a dramatic device for the play Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard. An accompanying paper has reported how the project was successful in arousing an emotional response from both cast and audience. In addition, the paper discusses methods and considerations in creating an electronic score for theater.

This investigation aims to ascertain whether or not the Israelites believed in the supernatural beneficent power of the dead. First, a lexicon of selected mortuary practices and beliefs is outlined. In the Israelite context, those rites most likely to reflect this belief are necromancy and those which fall within the purview of the ancestor cult intended to express veneration or worship of the ancestors (ch. 1). Secondly, an evaluation of the relevant texts from Syria-Palestine of the third to first millennia B.C.E. demonstrates that a longstanding West Semitic or Canaanite origin for Israel's belief in the supernatural beneficent power of the dead cannot be established on the basis of these data (chs. 2 and 3). Thirdly, an examination of the Hebrew Bible demonstrates that while a concern to care for or commemorate the dead might be inferred, neither an ancestor cult nor ancestor veneration or worship in particular can be established on the basis of the available literary (or material) evidence. Moreover, while necromancy is occasionally attested, the relevant passages which polemicize against Israel's embrace of this practice originate either in the last days of the Judahite monarchy or, more likely, during the exile itself. The historical reality which gave rise to this polemical tradition was the threat which Mesopotamian religion and magic beginning with the Neo-Assyrian period posed to later (dtr?) Yahwism (ch. 4). Comparative ethnographic data suggests that the longstanding absence of the belief in the beneficent dead in Israel and Syria-Palestine might be partially explained as a reaction to the pervasive fear of the dead. Nevertheless, once this belief was embraced by late Israelite society, owing to contemporary developments in politics (Mesopotamian hegemony), economics (depletion of resources), and religion (popularity of divination), necromancy, not ancestor veneration or worship, presented itself as the preferred ritual expression of this belief (conclusion).

The maintenance of downed woody debris supplies is increasingly being recognized as an integral part of forest management. In order to better manage this resource, it is important to assess its role in supporting biodiversity. In this thesis, I investigate the responses of carabid communities to variation in woody debris availability in an experimental manipulation of woody debris volume in closed canopy forests and following a biomass harvest in a clearcut. Within closed-canopy forests, total carabid abundance and the abundances of eight species increased significantly with increasing volumes of various types of woody debris, particularly large diameter, late-decay conifer wood. Similarly, a strong affinity with woody debris was observed in the clearcut. These findings suggest that reductions in woody debris will have negative consequences for carabids and indicate the need to ensure a diverse and abundant supply of woody debris during stand development.

The maintenance of downed woody debris supplies is increasingly being recognized as an integral part of forest management. In order to better manage this resource, it is important to assess its role in supporting biodiversity. In this thesis, I investigate the responses of carabid communities to variation in woody debris availability in an experimental manipulation of woody debris volume in closed canopy forests and following a biomass harvest in a clearcut. Within closed-canopy forests, total carabid abundance and the abundances of eight species increased significantly with increasing volumes of various types of woody debris, particularly large diameter, late-decay conifer wood. Similarly, a strong affinity with woody debris was observed in the clearcut. These findings suggest that reductions in woody debris will have negative consequences for carabids and indicate the need to ensure a diverse and abundant supply of woody debris during stand development.

Univ., Diss.--Freiburg, 2004. / Literaturverz. S. 377 - 393.