Depuis la fin des années 1990, un certain courant du cinéma américain indépendant s'est développé à travers l'instauration d'une nouvelle communauté culturelle (jeune, intellectuelle, 'branchée'), d'où a découlé la constitution d'un nouveau public-niche à l'image de cette communauté ; mais également à travers l'invention d'une nouvelle imagerie, d'une nouvelle esthétique et de nouveaux modes de narration. notre hypothèse de travail est la suivante : le cinéma indépendant américain contemporain est devenu 'à la mode' et se prétend être la seule alternative sincère et indépendante du marché du cinéma plus grand public. il s'est constitué depuis les années 1990 jusqu'à aujourd'hui comme une véritable catégorie culturelle qui affiche son caractère d'opposition à un style commercial dominant. or les films indépendants américains sont devenus des produits culturels, tout autant que les films plus grand public. ce qui fut par exemple étiqueté un temps comme l'esthétique caractéristique des films indépendants américains est également réemployée et réinterprétée par hollywood qui la réintègre dans un style dominant (valorisation d'un effet 'petit budget', d'un style visuel amateur).le caractère indépendant des films n'est donc pas tant économique, industriel (ils sont d'ailleurs pour la plupart financés en partie par des grands studios) ou esthétique mais il est plutôt vécu comme une catégorie culturelle autonome, comme un mode de consommation culturelle (organisé par des stratégies marketing spécifiques). / As it became more popular, American independent cinema developed a perceptible label and a commercial industry. It is no longer a peripheral or marginalindustry and instead a dominant cultural sphere. This explains why this contemporary phase of independent cinema is commonly criticised or questioned.This popularisation of independent cinema developed media saturation. Everyone seems to have its own definition, which explains the discursive conflict and contradictory definitions of independent cinema. This independent position has exceeded its industrial and economic status. The new independent model questions agenuine American independent cinema even though the existence of it is assimilated in the auteuriste, promotional, critic and spectatorial discourses. Though,independent cinema represents now a cultural label, a culture of taste, and acommunity of elitist consumers in opposition of Hollywood. It organizes different interpretive strategies and expectations that are shared among authors, audiences,critics and distributors. Independent cinema coheres as a cultural category and nolonger just as a set of industrial or formal or stylistic conventions. It is the product of a judgment that we make about a certain cinema. Independent cinema is a perceptive film category.

The work described in this thesis is part of the initial development of the open-source visualization software OpenSpace, a collaborative project between Linköping University (LiU), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). The report covers the background and implementation of a rendering system that enables OpenSpace to interactively visualize multiple overlapping space weather events. The system works much like a Deferred Renderer by rendering all objects once and then resolves the final image in a second rendering step. To render a mix of opaque and translucent objects and volumes simultaneously, order-independent transparency solutions are implemented. Performance is compared against traditional methods and possible improvements are discussed. The implemented rendering system is currently powering the OpenSpace visualizations, this gives scientists an interactive tool for studying multiple space weather events, education and public outreach.

This essay deals with verb use in headlines. More specifically, the aim was to see if therewere any differences between two British newspapers in how verbs were used in headlines. Inorder to carry out this study, 100 headlines were collected from each of the newspapers andorganized into groups; headlines that included verbs and headlines that did not. A decisionwas made to only look at two types of verbs; main verbs and auxiliaries.The results showed that The Independent as well as The Sun generally contains verbs. TheIndependent has a slightly higher rate when main verbs and auxiliaries are put together.However, The Sun uses more auxiliaries. Only primary and modal auxiliaries are used in TheSun as well as in The Independent, no semi-auxiliaries were found in any of the newspaperheadlines. Another interesting fact was that The Independent has removed all auxiliaries in theforms of be. Then Sun too seems to prefer headlines without this particular auxiliary but therewere a few headlines which included forms of be.A comparison between the results presented in this study and a study carried out by Mårdhduring the late 1970’s shows similar results. The present study is far more limited in itsmaterial but the parts that could be compared shows that the verb use in newspaper headlineshas not changed much during the past few decades.

Mind-wandering was until recently not a mainstream topic of research. The aim of this literature review is to present current views on the definition of mind-wandering and how the phenomenon is experienced. Furthermore, it gives an account of the implications of mind-wandering on cognitive performance, as well as its neurological correlates. In addition, the methods used to study mind-wandering are reviewed.The study of mind-wandering reveals a highly frequent phenomenon with practical consequences on a broad scale, both disruptive and supportive to goal-related behaviour and wellbeing in general. Originating from the default network, and its regions related to representations of self, memory, Theory of Mind, empathy and creativity, mind-wandering is hypothesized to be a function for planning one’s future life. Suggested further research concerns how mind-wandering can be countered, detected from the outside and whether it alters the physical feature of the brain.

Abstract The goal of this study was to explore preoperative evaluation of patients with intracranial tumours using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods: oedema-attenuated inversion recovery (EDAIR) sequence in low-field MRI, and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and resting-state functional MRI (fMRI) in high-field MRI. The aim was also to increase our knowledge about the effects of brain surgery on eloquent brain cortices using new MRI techniques. The total number of patients in these studies was 50 (24 women). Enhancement of the tumour in ten patients after intravenous administration of gadolinium-based contrast agent in low-field MRI was examined with a new sequence, EDAIR, and compared with more conventionally used partial saturation spin echo sequences. EDAIR may facilitate the perception of small enhancing lesions and is valuable in low-field imaging, where T1-based contrast is inferior to high-field imaging. DWI was performed on 25 patients in order to evaluate the potential of this imaging method to assist in differential diagnosis of intracranial tumours. It was shown that apparent diffusion coefficient values of the tumour and peritumoural oedema produced by DWI were different in benign and malignant tumours. Resting-state blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI was performed on eight patients and ten healthy volunteers to examine if functional sensorimotor areas in the brain could be determined without any task-related activations. It was shown that intracranial tumours do not appear to hamper visualization of the sensorimotor area in resting-state BOLD fMRI when independent component analysis is performed, and this method may be used in preoperative imaging when activation studies cannot be performed. Conventional BOLD fMRI with motor and auditory stimuli was used with seven patients as the effect of brain surgery was studied. The results suggest that resection of a tumour with preoperative oedema probably decreases pressure on the brain and makes the functional cortex transiently more easily detectable in BOLD fMRI. In conclusion, the MRI imaging methods used in this study can give valuable additional information about the tumour, specifically for preoperative imaging and planning for surgery.

The right to an independent and impartial tribunal is one of core elements of a fair trial. Therefore, it is vital to lay emphasis on this requirement. Independent and impartial tribunals are the cornerstone of a democratic and modern society respecting the rule of law. Effective fulfilment of this requirement promotes faith in courts, the judicial system and justice itself. Independent and impartial tribunals are a necessary prerequisite to protection of other rights. Although the right to an independent and impartial tribunal is enshrined in many international treaties, this requirement is not always met in practice. This problem is emphasised, inter alia, by the Council of Europe which adopted the Plan of Action on Strengthening Judicial Independence and Impartiality in 2016, due to unsatisfactory fulfilment of this requirement among European countries. The main subject of this thesis is an analysis of judgements of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights concerning the right to an independent and impartial tribunal in a wider international context. Case law of the European Court of Human Rights significantly influences not only the general European view on human rights but it has also a substantial impact on the Czech legal environment. This thesis is divided into three...

The aim of this dissertation is to investigate what linguistic meanings the concept of quality is imbued with in different educational arenas and to discuss the consequences of such meanings for education. From this aim the main research question is: What does the concept of quality do to education and what does education do to the concept of quality? The question indicates an interest in understanding how the concept of quality and education mutually influence each other. The empirical material consists of national texts written by the government and the national school authorities, mainly between the years of 1997 to 2008, as well as interviews with different people from three local school authorities and schools. Theoretically the approach is inspired by Quentin Skinner and speech-act theory as well as Reinhart  Koselleck and conceptual history. While Skinner is mainly interested in the rhetorical use of concepts, Koselleck’s interest lies in investigating how concepts carry historical time. For this study, some analytical concepts are lifted from these two theories and are applied to the empirical material. From the analysis, four concluding criteria of application are formulated: education quality, result quality, market quality and system quality. The result shows that certain meanings, which for a long time have been connected to education and, in this study, are incorporated under the umbrella criterion education quality, have been challenged and partly  marginalized. Instead, the dominance of result quality, market quality and system quality lead to an acceptance of new social perceptions in education. The different national and local structures that are developed to measure quality have a high impact on local practice. As a consequence of a shift from goal to result, overriding goals are clarified and made juridically controllable. The changes also lead to consequences for the different actors in the education system, as well as for teachers, national politicians and for national and local school administrations.

L’expression des gènes est un ensemble hautement régulé de mécanismes ayant pour objectifs de synthétiser les protéines fonctionnelles dont la cellule a besoin à partir des codes inscrits dans l’ADN. Pour contrôler la quantité de signal utilisé et pour que ce message puisse physiquement traverser la cellule, celle-ci utilise la transcription des ARN messagers comme intermédiaire. Pour assurer la qualité de ce signal et pour contrôler son niveau d’expression, plusieurs mécanismes de dégradation des ARNm se coordonnent dans les organismes en fonction de leurs spécificités propres. La littérature a depuis longtemps démontré les liens entre les machineries de synthèse des ARNm et celles de leur dégradation en identifiant comment ceux-ci travaillent ensemble pour assurer une bonne régulation génique. Un de ces mécanismes induit une terminaison dans la région non-codante en 3’ de certains gènes à partir d’un clivage par la ribonucléase III. Dans ce mémoire, nous voulons démontrer qu’un mécanisme similaire dépendant de la ribonucléase III peut induire une terminaison prémature de la transcription à l’intérieur même de séquences codantes. Ce mécanisme semble être indépendant du promoteur et du terminateur des gènes, préférant réguler sa sélectivité à partir de la structure liée au clivage de l’ARNm. Plusieurs séquences et structures sous forme de tige-boucles d’ARNm peuvent être reconnues par la ribonucléase III. Cependant, il existe des différences fonctionnelles entre les différentes tige-boucles et toutes n’induisent pas un mécanisme de terminaison prématurée. Comme ce type de mécanisme doit être inductible et/ou permissible afin de ne pas empêcher complètement l’expression des gènes cibles, nous pouvons potentiellement faire affaire à un nouveau modèle de régulation génique. / Abstract : Gene expression is a highly regulated coordination of processes with the objective of producing functional proteins from the DNA code of the cell. To control the amount of proteins produced, cells use messenger RNAs as an intermediate to permit genomic information to move across the cell. To assure the quality of this signal and to control the level of gene expression, many RNA degradation mechanisms coordinate together according to their own specificities. Scientific literature has demonstrated long ago the existing interactions between RNA synthesis and RNA degradation pathways and how they closely work together to achieve viable gene expression regulation. One of those mechanisms induces transcription termination in the 3’ untranscribed region of coding genes initiated with a RNA cleavage from a ribonuclease III. In this master thesis, we show that a similar RNase III dependent mechanism can induce premature transcription termination inside the coding sequence. This mechanism seems promotor and terminator independent and depends mostly on the sequence coding for a stem-loop structure in the mRNA. Different sequences can induce a stem-loop structure recognizable by RNase III. However, there are some functional differences between stem-loop structures and not all of them can induce premature transcription termination. Since this mechanism must not happen every time and somehow must be inducible to permit gene expression when needed, this could possibly lead to a new gene regulation model.

Många forskare har under flera års tid studerat fenomenet kollektivt lärande och ännu fler harstuderat ledarskap. Syftet med denna studie är att bidra med kunskap om den kollektivalärprocessen i en organisation där medarbetarna arbetar relativt självständigt. Syftet är även attsynliggöra relationen mellan det kollektiva lärandet och ledarskapets påverkan.Frågeställningarna lyder därför: Hur ser den kollektiva lärprocessen ut för medarbetarna i enorganisation där medarbetarna arbetar självständigt? Hur skapar chefen förutsättningar för detkollektiva lärandet i arbetsgruppen på en arbetsplats där medarbetarna arbetar självständigt? Vihar genomfört en fallstudie och använt oss av en kvalitativ forskningsmetod där vi genomförtåtta semistrukturerade intervjuer samt två observationer av avdelningsmöten. Intervjuerna harvarit uppdelade på två avdelningar där vi för varje avdelning har genomfört fyra intervjuer varaven har varit med avdelningschefen. Forskningsresultaten visar att medarbetarna på dennaarbetsplats lär kollektivt till viss grad, trots att de arbetar relativt självständigt. Våra slutsatservisar också på att det tycks finnas en relation mellan chefens ledarskap och medarbetarnaskollektiva lärande. De båda cheferna påverkar således det kollektiva lärandet men på olika sätt. / For many years, researchers have studied the phenomenon of collective learning. Even moreresearchers have studied the phenomenon leadership. The purpose of this study is to contributewith knowledge about the collective learning process in an organization where employees workrelatively independently. The aim is also to make the relationship between collective learningand leadership's influence visible. The questions are therefore: What does the collective learningprocess look like to employees in an organization where employees work independently? Howdoes the manager create conditions for collective learning in a workgroup where the employeeswork independently? We have conducted a case study and used a qualitative research methodwhere we conducted eight semistructured interviews and two observations of departmentalmeetings. The interviews have been divided into two departments where we have conductedfour interviews for each department, one of which has been with the head of department. Ourresults shows that the employees in this workplace are collectively educated to some extent,despite working relatively independently. Our conclusions also shows that there seems to be arelationship between the managerial leadership and the collective learning of the employees.The two leaders thus influence collective learning but in different ways.

A basic premise of the investigation is that the acquisition and exercise of advanced reading skills are essential for effective adolescent learning. For the benefits of reading to accrue maximally, learners should continue to read avidly during leisure and long after basic reading instruction, traditionally the domain of the primary school, has ceased. The purpose of this study is to investigate factors that influence the voluntary reading of some South African adolescents, specifically at an age when they undergo emotional, intellectual, social and physical changes which influence their behaviour, habits and choices. The research problem focuses on the transition from primary to secondary school, since extant literature shows that numerous factors influence adolescents’ reading habits during this phase, sometimes resulting in declining voluntary reading. Parameters for the investigation are set by the theoretical framework, centring on four domains that highlight the research problem, namely adolescence, literature, literacy and voluntary reading. Facets of these domains are explored, specifically motivation, qualitative change and the influence of home, school and community. Vygotsky’s theories on adolescent development underscore the research, as well as research on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation since, axiomatically, reading strategies develop optimally with high motivation. Stage-environmental fit theories - applied to motivation, self-efficacy or reading development - assert that learners have different sets of psychological, cognitive and psychosocial needs at different developmental levels, and unless these needs are met, academic achievement, appreciation for learning and effective reading development can decline. The often critical transition from primary to secondary school can result in a variety of lifestyle changes, and periodicity theories support the pattern and scaffolding of these transformational factors. Merging the relevant domains with developmental theories creates a matrix of Piagetian cognitive stratification. Chall’s model of developmental reading stages crafts an epistemological foundation and further refines constructivist principles developed by Vygotsky. Together they form a network explaining factors of transitional change that influence adolescents’ voluntary reading activities. The study’s methodology is delineated and followed by a description of the qualitative research design, data collection, data analysis strategies and ethical considerations. The course of the inquiry is refined in a closer focus on three domains and an explanation of the research instruments. The strengths and limitations of the study are discussed, as well as issues of reliability, validity, authenticity and generalisability. The empirical results are extrapolated from face-to-face interviews with ten respondents and their views generate the findings after a four-tiered analysis of the interview transcripts. Themes and conclusions are couched in three domains of the theoretical framework in an endeavour to address the research problem. The final chapter offers a synthesis by interweaving the theoretical outline and empirical findings. A hypothesis opening future avenues for investigation is identified, namely the factor of the internalisation of speech on reading in general and voluntary reading in particular. Two significant findings indicate that developmental stage theories effectively describe the transitional nature of the reading experiences of Grade Eight learners, and that intrinsic motivation, mastery learning and self-efficacy views play central roles in the continuation of voluntary reading. / Thesis (PhD (Learning Support, Guidance and Counselling))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted