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<p>This thesis advances a number of claims, some conceptual, some empirical, some normative. The conceptual claims are concentrated in chapters 1 and 2, where a general account of the notion of a source of law is provided. Roughly, sources of law are documents or practices (e.g. statutes, judicial decisions, official customs) from which norms can be derived that function as sources of content-independent reasons for judges to decide legal cases one way or another. The remainder of the thesis is dedicated to discussing whether legal scholarship – or, more precisely, a particular type of legal scholarship that can be described as standard or doctrinal – is used as a source of law (as the concept is defined in chapters 1 and 2) in modern municipal legal systems. The conclusion that legal scholarship is used as a source of law (and thus as a source of content-independent reasons for action) may come as a surprise to those who associate recourse to legal scholarship by judges with judicial activism. It will be argued, however, that legal scholarship can plausibly be used to mitigate discretion. Indeed, it is precisely because it can be used in this way that judges sometimes refer to scholarship deceptively and suggest that it limits discretion in situations in which it in fact does not.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Eyes allow us to see and gather information about the environment. Eyes mainly act as an input organ as they collect light, but they also can be considered an output organ as they indicate the subject's gaze direction. Using the orientation of the head and the position of the eyes, it is possible to estimate the gaze path of an individual. Gaze estimation is a fast growing technology that track a person's eyes and head movements to "pin point" where the subject is looking at on a computer screen. The gaze direction is described as a person's line of sight. The gaze point, also known as the focus point, is defined as the intersection of the line of sight with the screen. Gaze tracking has an infinite number of applications such as monitoring driver alertness or helping track a person's eyes with a psychological disorder that cannot communicate his/her issues. Gaze tracking is also used as a human-machine interface for disabled people that have lost total control of their limbs. Another application of gaze estimation is marketing. Companies use the information given by the gaze estimation system from their customers to design their advertisements and products. / Electrical and Computer Engineering

yes / Purpose: This paper discusses the experiences of a group of ten user and carer researchers from mental health and learning disability services who worked together in a research and evaluation project between 2009 and 2012. The research project aimed to identify changes that took place as over 300 people moved from hostel accommodation into independent tenancies in flats and bungalows. These moves were part of a three year project involving a partnership between a local authority and a housing association. Design / approach: The paper describes the process of involving user and carers in the research process, identifying the challenges and benefits of involving users and carers. The ways in which people were trained and supported to take part and stay involved are outlined, as well as how the group felt they learnt new skills and increased their confidence. Findings: User involvement in research can mean different things with different levels of involvement, from consultation through to user-controlled research. The collaborative study had a range of benefits for the lives of the co-researchers, as well as contributing to the development of a new independent living service. A number of factors contribute to the success of user involvement in research and these are listed. Originality / value: This paper adds the voices of the co-researchers to the literature and provides ‘lessons learned’ for other researchers in this area.

no / Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present results from an evaluation of the experience of a move to independent living for people with mental health needs or a learning disability. The discussion focuses on the shift in organisational culture from providing care within a hostel setting to supporting people in their own tenancies. Design/methodology/approach – The evaluation was underpinned by a participatory action research design. A total of ten co‐researchers with experience of using services or as carers were recruited. Qualitative data was obtained from “before” and “after” interviews with residents, staff and relatives. Findings – Widespread satisfaction was expressed with people's new homes. Many residents were found to be increasingly independent. There was some evidence of concerns regarding the pace and process of change and the introduction of new practices to promote independence. Research limitations/implications – The timing of the evaluation limited the opportunity for comprehensive “before” and “after” data collection. The involvement of co‐researchers required considerable time and support although the experience of those involved was positive. Practical implications – Learning from this evaluation emphasises the importance of support and preparation for staff as well as residents, in moving from hostel to independent living. Social implications – This study highlights the advantages of a participatory design in evaluating a major change in service delivery. Originality/value – This paper raises important issues about organisational change. It contributes to wider debates regarding the implementation of personalisation and recovery‐focused agendas. / © 2013 Emerald. Reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy.

In deformation based morphometry (DBM) group-wise differences in brain structure are measured using deformable registration and some form of statistical test. However, it is known that DBM results are sensitive to both the registration method and statistical test used. Given the lack of an objective model of group variation it has been difficult to determine the extent of the influence of registration implementation or contraints on DBM analysis. In this thesis, we use registration methods with varying levels of theoretic similarity to study the influence of registration mechanics on DBM results. We show that because of the extent of the influence of registration mechanics on DBM results, analysis of changes should always be made with a thorough understanding of the registration method used. We also show that minor variations in registration methods can lead to large changes in DBM results. When using DBM, it would be imprudent to use only one registration method to draw any conclusions about the variations being studied. In order to provide a more complete representation of inter-group changes, we propose a method for combining multiple registration methods using Dempster-Shafer evidence theory to produce belief maps of categorical changes between groups. We show that the Dempster-Shafer combination produces a unique and easy to interpret belief map of regional changes between and within groups without the complications associated with hypothesis testing. Another, often confounding, element of DBM is the parametric hypothesis test used to specify voxels undergoing significant change between the two groups. The accuracy and reliability of these tests are contingent on a number of fundamental assumptions made about the distribution of the data used in the tests. Many DBM studies often overlook these assumptions and fail to verify their validity for the data being tested. This raises many doubts about the credibility of the results from such tests. In this thesis, we propose to perform statistical analysis on DBM data using nonparametric, distribution independent hypothesis tests. With no data distributional assumptions, these tests provide both increased flexibility and reliability of DBM statistical analysis. / Ph. D.

Recent studies have addressed the importance of identifying determinants of parental emotion socialization (ES) to clarify how and why parents engage in ES practices. Furthermore, emotions occur within cultural contexts. Recent work has drawn attention to the importance of cross-cultural research for developmental science. Consistent with these calls for research, I examined parents' beliefs about emotions and self-construals as two sets of distinct factors guiding parental ES responses in China and the United States (US). Three emotion-related beliefs (manipulation [children can use emotions to manipulate parents]; parental knowledge [parents have to know all about their child's emotions]; autonomy [children can work through emotions on their own]) and two self-construals (independence [view self as unique entity]; interdependence [view self as connected with others]) were highlighted. One hundred seven parents with 7- to 11-year-old children (75 Chinese, 32 US; 90 mothers, 17 fathers) completed online questionnaires in their native language. MANCOVA analyses indicated cultural differences. Compared with Chinese parents, US parents less strongly endorsed beliefs about manipulation, parental knowledge, and autonomy. US parents endorsed more supportive and less nonsupportive responses towards children's emotions than Chinese parents. There was a trend for Chinese parents to endorse more interdependence than independence in self-construals, whereas no within-person difference was found for US parents' endorsement of these two self-construals. For both Chinese and US parents, beliefs about emotions and self-construals were significantly associated with ES responses. Linear regressions showed that parents' stronger manipulation belief was associated with higher nonsupportive responses to positive and negative emotions. Parents with stronger parental knowledge or autonomy beliefs reported more supportive responses to negative emotions and explanations of positive emotions. Stronger belief in parental knowledge was also related to more endorsed encouragement of positive emotions and lower nonsupportive responses to negative emotions. After controlling for the effects of beliefs, parents with higher interdependent self-construal reported more supportive responses to negative emotions and more explanatory responses to positive emotions. Parents who endorsed higher independent self-construal reported more encouraging responses to positive emotions and less nonsupportive responses to negative emotions. Results are discussed in relation to meaning and significance within socio-cultural contexts. / Doctor of Philosophy / Parental emotion socialization (ES) refers to the process through which parents socialize children's social and emotional competence. Parents from different cultures may enact different ES practices. To better clarify the cross-cultural similarities and differences as well as to better understand how and why parents endorse various ES practices, I conducted the current study. I worked with Chinese and US families and examined how parents' beliefs and perceptions of self (self-construal) as guiding factors were associated with parental ES responses to children's emotions. I focused on three beliefs about emotions: manipulation (children can use emotions to manipulate parents); parental knowledge (parents need to know all about their child's emotions); autonomy (children can handle emotions on their own) and two self-construals: independence (view self as unique entity); interdependence (view self as connected with others). One hundred seven parents (75 Chinese, 32 US; 90 mothers, 17 fathers) participated and their children were 7- to 11-year-old. Parents completed online questionnaires in their native language. I found cultural differences in parents' beliefs and ES responses. Compared with Chinese parents, US parents believed less strongly in children using emotions as manipulations, in parents knowing all about their child's emotions, and in children being able to work through emotions on their own. US parents reported more supportive and less nonsupportive responses to children's emotions than Chinese parents. I found no cultural differences in how parents' beliefs and self-construals associated with their ES responses. For both Chinese and US parents, the more strongly they believed children using emotions to manipulate others, the more nonsupportive responses they endorsed towards children's emotions. Parents' stronger beliefs in parents knowing their child's every emotion and in child's own capability of handling emotions were both related to their more supportive and exploratory responses to children's emotions. In terms of the effects of parents' self-construals, the higher parents viewed themselves as connected to others, the more support and explanation they reported in reaction to children's emotions. Meanwhile, the higher parents viewed themselves as unique and independent, the more encouraging and less nonsupportive responses towards children's emotions they reported. Overall, findings contributed to the understanding of parental ES within the cultural context in relation to parents' beliefs about emotions and perceptions of self.

Significant research in cultural psychology has underlined differences in Eastern and Western cultures. While differences in many cognitive domains have been examined, there is a gap in cross cultural research on information processing and integration. This research explores the effect of independent or interdependent thinking on how a subject processes information. It is hypothesized that subjects with an interdependent mindset will process information holistically and subjects in an independent context will process information individually, or with an attribute based approach. A preliminary study tested the averaging and additive effects of information processing and served as the foundation for two subsequent explorations. The first examined cultural differences in information processing through presenting subjects of different cultural backgrounds with presenter and evaluator situations. In the second study, individualistic and collectivist priming methodology was used to prompt subjects' ability to process information individually or holistically. Established measures of religiosity and connectedness were examined as possible moderators of the relationship between self-construal and information integration. Results show that differences between subjects primed in the interdependent condition were moderated by religiosity. Possible explanations for this effect are discussed. / Master of Science