Patterns from the past have frequently been a source of creative ideas for fashion textiles. Culturally-inspired fashion products reflect traditional beauty, cultural identity, and national image, and preserve national cultural heritage (Perivoliotis, 2005; Hyun and Bae, 2007; Cho, 2009). The 'Tree of Life' or, as it is sometimes known, the 'Flower of Life', is a motif used to express ideas about immortality and the origins of life. As such, this motif has been an important element of traditional art and craft, frequently being incorporated into traditional textiles. The findings of Chinese interviews show that tree worship is still important, as are 'Tree of Life' patterns in China. Chinese 'Tree of Life' patterns are associated with fertility worship, longevity (long life) and immortality (eternal life). The review of literature and the findings from Taiwanese interviews indicate that elements of traditional Chinese patterns are suitable use in modern fashion, because Chinese imagery is a rich source of inspiration for contemporary textile designs, and China chic is pervasive in today's fashion. Exploring the relevance of the 'Tree of Life' pattern for the Taiwanese market, it was found that Taiwanese customers would be happy to see traditionally patterned designs of textile or clothing. This was felt to be important for the Taiwanese textile and fashion industry, which is currently in a state of change as it becomes design-focused rather than purely manufacturing-led. With fieldwork carried out in both China and Taiwan, and an investigation into the design process, the research concludes that the 'Tree of Life' can be re-created and adapted in different ways for fashion textile designs for the Taiwanese market. In addition, a model of a new design process for reinterpreting traditional patterns into contemporary ones is proposed. University students and designers can apply this design process model to any textile design project based on traditional patterns.

There are ~12 supergroups of complex-celled organisms (eukaryotes), but relationships among them (including the root) remain elusive. For Paper I, I developed a dataset of 37 eukaryotic proteins of bacterial origin (euBac), representing the conservative protein core of the proto-mitochondrion. This gives a relatively short distance between ingroup (eukaryotes) and outgroup (mitochondrial progenitor), which is important for accurate rooting. The resulting phylogeny reconstructs three eukaryote megagroups and places one, Discoba (Excavata), as sister group to the other two (neozoa). This rejects the reigning “Unikont-Bikont” root and highlights the evolutionary importance of Excavata. For Paper II, I developed a 150-gene dataset to test relationships in supergroup SAR (Stramenopila, Alveolata, Rhizaria). Analyses of all 150-genes give different trees with different methods, but also reveal artifactual signal due to extremely long rhizarian branches and illegitimate sequences due to horizontal gene transfer (HGT) or contamination. Removing these artifacts leads to strong consistent support for Rhizaria+Alveolata. This breaks up the core of the chromalveolate hypothesis (Stramenopila+Alveolata), adding support to theories of multiple secondary endosymbiosis of chloroplasts. For Paper III, I studied the evolution of cox15, which encodes the essential mitochondrial protein Heme A synthase (HAS). HAS is nuclear encoded (nc-cox15) in all aerobic eukaryotes except Andalucia godoyi (Jakobida, Excavata), which encodes it in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) (mt-cox15). Thus the jakobid gene was postulated to represent the ancestral gene, which gave rise to nc-cox15 by endosymbiotic gene transfer. However, our phylogenetic and structure analyses demonstrate an independent origin of mt-cox15, providing the first strong evidence of bacteria to mtDNA HGT. Rickettsiales or SAR11 often appear as sister group to modern mitochondria. However these bacteria and mitochondria also have independently evolved AT-rich genomes. For Paper IV, I assembled a dataset of 55 mitochondrial proteins of clear α-proteobacterial origin (including 30 euBacs). Phylogenies from these data support mitochondria+Rickettsiales but disagree on the placement of SAR11. Reducing amino-acid compositional heterogeneity (resulting from AT-bias) stabilizes SAR11 but moves mitochondria to the base of α-proteobacteria. Signal heterogeneity supporting other alternative hypotheses is also detected using real and simulated data. This suggests a complex scenario for the origin of mitochondria.

BACKGROUND:Scientists rarely reuse expert knowledge of phylogeny, in spite of years of effort to assemble a great "Tree of Life" (ToL). A notable exception involves the use of Phylomatic, which provides tools to generate custom phylogenies from a large, pre-computed, expert phylogeny of plant taxa. This suggests great potential for a more generalized system that, starting with a query consisting of a list of any known species, would rectify non-standard names, identify expert phylogenies containing the implicated taxa, prune away unneeded parts, and supply branch lengths and annotations, resulting in a custom phylogeny suited to the user's needs. Such a system could become a sustainable community resource if implemented as a distributed system of loosely coupled parts that interact through clearly defined interfaces.RESULTS:With the aim of building such a "phylotastic" system, the NESCent Hackathons, Interoperability, Phylogenies (HIP) working group recruited 2 dozen scientist-programmers to a weeklong programming hackathon in June 2012. During the hackathon (and a three-month follow-up period), 5 teams produced designs, implementations, documentation, presentations, and tests including: (1) a generalized scheme for integrating components / (2) proof-of-concept pruners and controllers / (3) a meta-API for taxonomic name resolution services / (4) a system for storing, finding, and retrieving phylogenies using semantic web technologies for data exchange, storage, and querying / (5) an innovative new service, DateLife.org, which synthesizes pre-computed, time-calibrated phylogenies to assign ages to nodes / and (6) demonstration projects. These outcomes are accessible via a public code repository (GitHub.com), a website (http://www.phylotastic.org webcite), and a server image.CONCLUSIONS:Approximately 9 person-months of effort (centered on a software development hackathon) resulted in the design and implementation of proof-of-concept software for 4 core phylotastic components, 3 controllers, and 3 end-user demonstration tools. While these products have substantial limitations, they suggest considerable potential for a distributed system that makes phylogenetic knowledge readily accessible in computable form. Widespread use of phylotastic systems will create an electronic marketplace for sharing phylogenetic knowledge that will spur innovation in other areas of the ToL enterprise, such as annotation of sources and methods and third-party methods of quality assessment.

Like few other concepts in the history of science, Darwinian evolution prompted humans to question their most basic assumptions about themselves. Among the theory's most controversial implications, the principle of common descent insisted that humans were kin to other species. As such, common descent challenged the previously unquestioned tradition of anthropocentrism, which held that humans were distinct from and superior to other species. In order to discern common descent's impact on anthropocentrism, I will examine three court cases from an eighty-year span of American history, where resistance to common descent was especially virulent. Courtrooms provided the nation's leading critics of common descent an arena in which to protest the theory's most egregious offenses. As common descent garnered increasing support from scientists and educators, however, anthropocentrists modified their position accordingly. Initially, they stigmatized monkeys and apes precisely because those animals were the most genealogically proximate to humans. As common descent became more accepted, however, this position became increasingly difficult to defend. Accordingly, many anthropocentrists abandoned their obsession with primates and instead engaged the entire tree of life, including its mysterious origin. By the turn of the millennium, even as some anthropocentrists increasingly accepted humanity's kinship to other species, many continued to cite human intelligence as legitimate grounds for anthropocentric behavior. Thus, while anthropocentrism survived the threat of common descent, it had to accommodate the Darwinian onslaught in order to do so. / Master of Arts

This thesis aims to explore theories in aesthetics and philosophy of criticism,in order to understand why disagreement occur in film evaluations and possible reasons. Subsequently, the relationship between subjective preferences and objective properties in film evaluations will also be explored. In the first section of the thesis, a theoretical foundation will be provided for context. Malick as a director will be introduced, together with theories regarding intention, value, objectivity, and aesthetics. In the second section, three film reviews with different ratings from three film critics will be analyzed, to distill the essence of film evaluations. This thesis will show that there is reason to believe that objective properties exist in film objectsand that there are ways to evaluate these properties. The results will also show that an evaluation has several components, and that it is possible to judge one evaluation to be more or less justified than another, based on the strength of this reasoning and inclusion of the different components.

Kūrybinio darbo ašis – tai sakralusis žmogaus tapatybės virsmas kūrybinio akto procesuose. Simbolių kalboje asmenybės evoliucijos raidą įkūnija Gyvybės Medžio samprata. Tarsi dieviškasis augalas, tarp dvasios ir materijos pasaulių, žmogus savo šaknimis stiebiasi į dangų, o šakomis leidžiasi žemyn. Būties tobulumo siekiamybė yra kopimas šiuo medžiu į centrą, sugrįžimas į pirmapradę, nedalomą ir amžiną Būtį. Daugiaprasmiai simboliai – tai suvokimo pakopos, vedančios tiesos ieškotoją dieviškojo pažinimo link. Gyvybės Medžio simbolika įprasmina Būties dualumo sampratą, atskleidžia žmogaus ir kosmoso santykius, jų tarpusavio vienovę ir saitus. Tai Dangiškosios Jungtuvės tarp dvasios ir materijos pasaulių, tarp vyriškojo ir moteriškojo pradų, tarp to, kas regima mirtingosiomis akimis, ir to, kas dar nepažinta. / The axis of creative work - is sacred transformation of human identity in the process of creative act. Symbolism of the Tree of Life gives gives meaning to the concept of duality of existence, reveals relationships between human and space and the unity of these links.

No description available.

Traditionally manufacturing job shops either have a process layout or a product layout. The advantages of one type of layout tend to be a disadvantage for the other. Hybrid cellular constructs represents a novel fusion of process and product layouts. In this thesis, hybrid cellular constructs specifically Hybrid Flow Shops and Reoriented andamp; Reshaped Cells are clearly described in terms of their structure, key features, and modes of operation. An engineering procedure is illustrated by cases and particular manufacturing circumstances where each concept would be most useful are identified. This thesis then defines the lean practices that are compatible with the structure in question and identifies what practices are incompatible. It suggests how to modify lean practices to fit and at least obtain some benefits for the incompatible ones. Finally, a procedure for design of logistics management systems for assembly cells and lines is presented.

In Renaissance culture there was an iconographic and literary language of trees, related to the motif of the tree of life, an ancient symbol of immortality associated with paradise. The properties of trees were used to express a range of ideas, including the death and resurrection of Christ, the fall and regeneration of political regimes, and virtue and vice within the individual soul. The juxtaposition of the tree of knowledge with the tree of life, as motifs of sterility and fertility, expressed aspects of the human condition and constructions of spiritual history and destiny. This thesis explores the language of trees in visual art and a range of English Renaissance texts from the late-sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth century: two plays by Shakespeare, two country-house poems, and a prose treatise on growing fruit-trees. Each of the writers drew on arboreal metaphors and motifs in unique and innovative ways. However there are numerous parallels and connections between the texts, and with contemporary and antecedent visual art, to justify considering these works together. In Shakespeare’s tragedy Titus Andronicus (1594) Lavinia, when she has her hands cut off, is metaphorically described as a tree with lopped branches and linked with the stricken political entity of Rome. Shakespeare evokes the tree of virtue, the classical myth of Daphne, and the arboreal language of virtue and vice. In the late tragicomedy Cymbeline (1610), the king is symbolized in a dream vision as a tree, with its cut branches representing the princes who are initially stolen but then reunited with the king. The tree represents the family tree as well as the political state, two interlinked concepts in the play and in contemporary iconography and ideology. Since Cymbeline’s reign heralded the Nativity, the prophecy of the lopped and regenerated tree invokes the idea of Christ as the tree of life and the fruit of the tree of Jesse. In both plays, Shakespeare’s tree imagery comments on the exercise of political power and the resultant health of the state. Shakespeare’s contemporary Aemilia Lanyer wrote “The Description of Cooke-ham” (1611), part of a published volume of poetry entitled Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum. In the poem she imagines a prominent tree on the estate as the tree of life. An abstract metaphor is envisaged as part of the physical landscape. The motif transforms the estate to sacred terrain, enabling her to claim access to a space she is otherwise excluded from by class and gender. Lanyer links the sap from the tree of life with her writing, seeking to legitimize her claim as a female poet. Such strategies are part of her bid for patronage from the Countess of Cumberland, her primary dedicatee. In another country-house poem, Andrew Marvell’s “Upon Appleton House, to my Lord Fairfax” (1651), the poet creates a forest of the mind in which he explores different aspects of the language of trees. The speaker imagines himself encircled by vines and crucified by thorns, in imitation of Christ as the tree of life, while a fallen oak tree suggests the regicide. He takes on various roles including that of the enigmatic Green Man. I place Marvell’s imagery in the context of the Civil War and the relationship with his employer Lord Fairfax. Marvell’s exploration of arboreal motifs also subjects Christian tree of life imagery to the challenge of its pagan antecedents and reflects anxieties over the natural processes that threaten metaphors of regeneration. Lastly, in Ralph Austen’s A Treatise of Fruit-trees and Spiritual Use of an Orchard (1653), the author blends advice on horticultural practices in growing fruit-trees with religious metaphors. For Austen, gardening is both a physical and a metaphysical pursuit. His readers are expected to plant fruit-trees in orchards that evoke the idea of Christ as the tree of life and related ideas. His use of the motif is part of his advocacy of agricultural and social reform, motivations that were part of those in the circle surrounding Samuel Hartlib. Austen’s text is situated at the end of the English Renaissance and at the beginnings of the Scientific Revolution, when emblematic and symbolic frameworks for interpreting the natural world were subject to new pressures derived from empirical and rationalistic outlooks. What becomes apparent from these works is that tree metaphors were literalized, just as they had been in visual art, and given a new naturalism as they were projected onto landscapes. Symbolic trees merged with botanical trees in imagined landscapes, creating hybrid terrains that were both descriptive and mythical. Recognition of the language of trees in Renaissance culture opens up new readings of both canonical and lesser-known texts and highlights the porous disciplinary border between literature and art. Our historical readings are richer for understanding the potent language of trees. Overall the thesis highlights the importance and cultural preoccupation with trees in European visual and literary traditions.

Not too much is known today about religion of ancient Mesoamerica, and it will only be through an intensive comparative study of the various deities as presented in the heiroglyphic manuscripts and native writings, and of the symbolic religious art in the architectural and sculptural remains, that greater knowledge of the subject will be gained. The "Tree of Life," one of the most striking religious symbols of the area, may be one key to such knowledge.