xii, 315 p. / Independent filmmaking in China, with the directors' reiteration of literary and cinematic realism carried on from May Fourth, reflects the nation's social uneasiness triggered by the enlarging division between the enlightenment indenture and the unidirectional modernization project. Resisting the national allegories and Hollywood-style big budget fantasies made by the Fifth Generation, independent filmmakers bring back to the screen the unadorned life of city inhabitants. The meaning of "independent" and "alternative" does not exclusively lie in the production and distribution venues but is galvanized by film directors' perception and cinematic depiction of what constitutes the social realities of contemporary China. The locality of hometown and the corporeality of the filmed subjects help to sustain a legitimate image-space for the socially underrepresented, at a time when the Party co-opts the discourse of nation-state to renew their regime. Directors employ the politics of sexuality, where body is the only thing remaining in their control, to usher in a redefinition of the Party and reassure the agency of Chinese intellectuals who were betrayed during the June Fourth massacre. The exegesis of the independent generation extends to the digital video (DV) filmmakers, whose cinematic language features the increased sense of interrogation between the camera and the characters. For the directors' claims of neither representing the people nor wrestling against the Party, nonetheless, DV films retreat to a safe but enclosed space, in which the aggrandized size of the body on screen displays a fractioned and diminished self cutting off from the outside world and falling short of its full potential. Independent filmmaking in China derives its policy-shaping capacity from its increasing participants (domestic audiences, amateur filmmakers, critics, and scholars) and multiplying operative channels (film funds, online forums, and non-official archives), collectively converting filmmaking from a privilege exclusive to the state apparatus and its elite delegates to a right of self-expression belonging to each individual. / Committee in charge: Alison M. Groppe, Chairperson; Tze-Lan Sang, Member; Alisa D. Freedman, Member; David Li, Outside Member

Este estudo objetivou identificar, apresentar e analisar, à luz do trabalho imaterial, o trabalho e a estratégia de viver a vida de músico da cena autoral e independente na sociedade do hiperespetáculo. Sua base teórica foi fundamentada sob a noção de trabalho imaterial (GORZ, 2005; GRISCI, 2006; LAZZARATO; NEGRI, 2001), sociedade do espetáculo (DEBORD, 1997) e hiperespetáculo (LIPOVETSKY 2015), indústria musical e cena musical independente (GALLETA 2014; HERSCHMANN, 2012; MAUDONNET, 2015; NETO, 2015; FRANCIS, 2011; VIVEIRO; NAKANO, 2008), e estratégia existencial consumista (BAUMAN, 2008a; BAUMAN; RAUD, 2017). A pesquisa caracterizou-se como exploratória qualitativa e contou com a participação de quatorze músicos da cena autoral e independente que participaram, pelo menos, de um de dois coletivos de músicos da cena autoral e independente de Porto Alegre/RS e que estão ativos na cena. A coleta de dados se deu pela realização de um grupo focal com seis participantes de um dos coletivos mencionados e entrevistas semiestruturadas com outros oito músicos de ambos os coletivos. A análise de conteúdo seguiu orientações de Minayo (2001) e resultou três categorias de análise: (i) (auto)composição e trabalho imaterial: a difícil arte de ser músico da cena autoral e independente; (ii) música e cena autoral e independente; e (iii) estratégia de viver a vida em busca de afinação. O estudo permitiu mostrar o esforço em busca de afinação como estratégia de viver a vida de músico da cena autoral e independente. Algo que se dá em meio a tensão – consentir, resistir – no que diz respeito aos princípios e valores que circulam na cena independente cada vez mais dependente. A estratégia de viver a vida em busca de afinação explicita o debate entre a harmonia e a cacofonia, mostrando-se condizente com a estratégia existencial consumista (BAUMAN, 2008a; BAUMAND; RAUD, 2017). / This study aimed to identify, present and analyze, based on immaterial labor, the work and the strategy of living of the authoral and independent scene musical life in the hyper-spectacle society. Its theoretical basis was grounded on the notion of immaterial labor (GORZ, 2005; GRISCI, 2006; LAZZARATO; NEGRI, 2001), spectacle society (DEBORD, 1997), hyper-spectacle society (LIPOVETSKY 2015), music industry and independent musical scene (GALLETA 2014; HERSCHMANN, 2012; MAUDONNET, 2015; NETO, 2015; FRANCIS, 2011; VIVEIRO; NAKANO, 2008) and existential consumerist strategy (BAUMAN, 2008a, BAUMAND, RAUD, 2017). The research was characterized as qualitative exploratory and reached the participation of fourteen authoral and independent scene musicians who have participated at least in one of two collective of musicians of the authorial and independent scene of Porto Alegre/RS and that are active in the scene . The data collection occurred through a focus group with six participants from one of the mentioned collectives and semi-structured interviews with eight other musicians from both collectives. Content analysis followed Minayo's (2001) instructions and supported three categories of analysis: (i) (self)composition and immaterial labor: the hard art of being authorial and independent scene musician; (ii) music and authorial and independent scene; and (iii) the strategy of living life looking for tuning. The study allowed to show the effort in looking for tuning as a strategy of living the authoral and independent scene musicians life. Something that occurs through the tension – consenting, resisting – regarding to the principles and values that circulate in the independent scene, increasingly dependent. The strategy of living life looking for tuning explicitly explains the debate between harmony and cacophony, showing itself to consistent with the existential consumerist strategy (BAUMAN, 2008a; BAUMAND, RAUD, 2017).

Les professions libérales sont définies par la loi du 22 mars 2012 et sont caractérisées par leur degré de qualification, leur indépendance et leur grande ancienneté pour certaines comme les médecins ou les avocats. En effet, leurs racines peuvent remonter jusqu' à l'Antiquité gréco-romaine et de ce fait, elles sont profondément ancrées dans nos sociétés occidentales.Les professions libérales ont surmonté les grandes crises des siècles passés tout en conservant les règles et traditions qui leurs sont intrinsèques comme l'indépendance ou le respect de règles déontologiques. Néanmoins, ces professions se sont peu à peu rapprochées des modèles classiques du monde des affaires en s'assimilant elles-mêmes à des entrepreneurs et en se regroupant pour exercer. Actuellement, elles font face à de nouveaux changements initiés par la volonté des institutions de l'Union européenne de les rendre plus compétitives et de les soumettre aux règles du droit de la concurrence. La récente et difficile adoption de la loi dite "Macron" en est la parfaite illustration. Ainsi, l'étude de leurs origines et de leur développement permet, d'une part, de comprendre les raisons de l'existence de structures d'exercice qui leurs sont propres et d’autre part, de se questionner sur leur nature, la préservation de leurs caractéristiques et les potentielles limites à l'évolution de leurs modes d'exercice en commun. / Independent professions, which are called in french « professions libérales », are a certain type of professionals highly qualified such as lawyers or medical doctors, for instance.Their common roots are deeply attached to the long history of occidental societies starting from the Greek and Roman Antiquity.They faced and overcame several crisis during their evolution but they managed to preserve their main features such as independence or specific codes of ethics.Indeed, step by step, they started to merge with the common classic business structures and adapt their specificities to the modern economy.Nowadays, they still have to adapt themselves to new major economic stakes including those coming from the European Union requirements of becoming more competitive and follow the rules of competition law.On the one hand, studying the origins of those professions and the way they built themselves, allow us to understand why they needed their own structures and ways of working together. On the other hand, this approach leads us to the following question: Are the independent high qualified professions, or liberal professions, doomed to reach limits in their evolution toward modernity because of their own nature?In France, it seems like they are, and will be, undergoing changes for years to come and maybe their legal definition will also have to evolve with them.

This Master’s Thesis was part of the project called Multimodalanalysis at the Depart-ment of Biomedical Engineering and Informatics at the Ume˚ University Hospital inUme˚ Sweden. The aim of the project is to develop multivariate measurement anda,analysis methods of the skeletal muscle physiology. One of the methods used to scanthe muscle is functional ultrasound. In a study performed by the project group datawas aquired, where test subjects were instructed to follow a certain exercise scheme,which was measured. Since there currently is no superior method to analyze the result-ing data (in form of ultrasound video sequences) several methods are being looked at.One considered method is called Independent Vector Analysis (IVA). IVA is a statisticalmethod to find independent components in a mix of components. This Master’s Thesisis about segmenting and analyzing the ultrasound images with help of IVA, to validateif it is a suitable method for this kind of tasks.First the algorithm was tested on generated mixed data to find out how well itperformed. The results were very accurate, considering that the method only usesapproximations. Some expected variation from the true value occured though.When the algorithm was considered performing to satisfactory, it was tested on thedata gathered by the study and the result can very well reflect an approximation of truesolution, since the resulting segmented signals seem to move in a possible way. But themethod has weak sides (which have been tried to be minimized) and all error analysishas been done by human eye, which definitly is a week point. But for the time being itis more important to analyze trends in the signals, rather than analyze exact numbers.So as long as the signals behave in a realistic way the result can not be said to becompletley wrong. So the overall results of the method were deemed adequate for the application at hand. / Multimodalanalys

The masters's thesis is focused on the Czech B2B market with car spare parts. First chapter explains theoretical marketing terms and methods that are later used in a practical part of the thesis. Second part of the master's thesis reflects current situation on automotive aftermarket. The reader will learn about subjects conducting business in the industry, about unions and trade associations that are entered by the subjects to protect their rights and interests. The chapter also includes block exemption that has legislatively changed rules of selling counterparts and of car repair. The third part describes Opel Spare Parts Programme, which was created to sell original spare parts Opel to independent services. Similar programmes of other car producers are compared in this chapter, and it also draws a comparison between offers of competitors in form of independent distributors of spare parts. B2B marketing research can be found at the end of the master's thesis, its aim was to identify levels of satisfaction with content and rules of the Opel Spare Parts Programme. Representatives of authorised Opel services became research respondents. Results of the research were used for planning marketing activities for 2013 schedule.

The diploma thesis Printed Independent Magazines in Post-Digital Age tries to discover the motivation of editors-in-chief/art directors for creating a printed, independent magazine in Central Europe and at the same time how these magazines are influenced by post-digital trends. It uses a qualitative method of Grounded Theory based on data from semi-structured interviews. In the practical part of the research, nine authors from Austria, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary were approached. From the total number of respondents, data was obtained from seven of them. In the theoretical part, the work is focused on the history of independent print, in terms of technological changes in the printing field and it defines the term "printed independent magazine". The main contribution of the work is a mapping of the Central European independent magazine scene, which has not been thoroughly examined in any academic work yet. The text puts this scene in the international context, and it points out the certain specifics which are associated with Central Europe.

The diploma thesis Printed Independent Magazines in Post-Digital Age tries to discover the motivation of editors-in-chief/art directors for creating a printed, independent magazine in Central Europe and at the same time how these magazines are influenced by post-digital trends. It uses a qualitative method of Grounded Theory based on data from semi-structured interviews. In the practical part of the research, nine authors from Austria, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary were approached. From the total number of respondents, data was obtained from seven of them. In the theoretical part, the work is focused on the history of independent print, in terms of technological changes in the printing field and it defines the term "printed independent magazine". The main contribution of the work is a mapping of the Central European independent magazine scene, which has not been thoroughly examined in any academic work yet. The text puts this scene in the international context, and it points out the certain specifics which are associated with Central Europe.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Interpretive textual analysis, informed by a feminist perspective, is applied to five independent films written and directed by female filmmakers in order to understand to what extent the rhetorical construction of motherhood as presented in the films deviates from or supports a patriarchal Western vision. This study provides a rich textual analysis of Amreeka (2009), Frozen River (2008), Waitress (2006), The Dead Girl (2006), and Lovely and Amazing (2001); five films that each considers the role of contemporary mothering as a central part of its plot. Each film has been distributed within ten years of the inception of this study, is considered an independent film, has received some degree of critical acclaim, and is written and directed by a female filmmaker. Using a feminist critical interpretive lens, this study investigates the public and private sphere identification of the mothers, the mother-child relationships, and the family systems that work to unveil a vision of motherhood in contemporary independent film and identify the extent to which this vision challenges or adheres to traditional representations. The readings of these films rely on theoretical insights of feminist film criticism and feminist theory. In addition, feminist rhetorical perspectives provide the framework to reveal the broader cultural implications of the representation of contemporary motherhood in public discourse. The analysis reveals a subversive reading of contemporary mothering characterized by the rejection of domesticity and other traditional mothering ideologies. Informed by resistance theory, the findings suggest the female filmmakers utilize the symbolic inversion tactic as a tool to resist their subordinate status. The subversive discourses give voice to female filmmakers attempting to negotiate power in a traditionally patriarchal forum by invoking a rhetoric of resistance. However, the rhetorical construction of the “indie” mother is characterized by maternal sacrifice and maternal autonomy which ultimately forces women to negotiate their mothering identity in relation to the hegemonic childrearing model of intensive mothering. The production of contradictory messages illustrates an attempt to adapt to existing conditions rather than transform the patriarchal system suggesting that independent film is a dynamic medium that both reflects hegemonic discourse while remaining open to ideological variance.

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In this dissertation I shall give a brief historical survey of Black Theology and the African Independent Churches (AI Cs). The study focuses mainly to the developments of the two trends in South Africa. This was done after realising that Black Theologians often ignored the history of Black people, including that of the AI Cs which has in the end stymied their efforts. The immediate effects were negative in that little results were produced. ATCs and Black Theology have interesting histories which complement each another. I will present the current state of affairs and give some guidelines on how the future debate can be carried out. The two theological trends have weaknesses and strengths which are clearly identifiable. In chapter four I give guidelines for future debates and possible new developments. This study is also carried out to expand the scope of dialogue and constructive debate among the two. / Missiology / M. Th. (Missiology)