Estudos de acumulações de gás raso e os efeitos destes fenômenos nas ondas sísmicas são objeto de trabalho de diversos pesquisadores em diferentes partes do planeta. As respostas das acumulações de gás nas ondas sísmicas se diferenciam pelas diversas frequências dos equipamentos sísmicos e trazem informações importantes no que concerne à formação e evolução dos ambientes em questão. O Canal da Bertioga se situa no litoral Sul do Estado de São Paulo, Brasil, e consiste em um ambiente de características estuarinas que conecta a plataforma continental, em sua desembocadura oceânica, e a Baixada Santista em sua desembocadura continental. Trata-se de um sistema de baixa hidrodinâmica, com profundidades máximas de 18m, e sofre influência de seus afluentes oriundos da serra do mar. Na presente pesquisa, foram utilizadas as fontes Pinger (24 kHz), Chirp (2 - 8 kHz) e Boomer (0,5 - 2 kHz) operando simultaneamente para o levantamento de dados geofísicos e amostragens superficiais com um amostrador de mandíbulas do tipo Van Veen. Foram também obtidos cinco testemunhos sedimentares, dos quais foram obtidos dados de taxa de sedimentação. O levantamento sísmico permitiu a identificação de diversas fácies acústicas de gás nos sedimentos assim como padrões de escape. Em função da identificação dos padrões de ocorrência destas formações de gás se pôde dividir o Canal da Bertioga em três setores: Estreito, Largo do Candinho e Canal Leste. No trecho denominado de Estreito as Coberturas acústicas foram predominantes com pouca variação de cota (± 3 m), os escapes de gás foram menos ocorrentes se comparados às outras áreas e se deu especialmente em forma de Pináculos de Turbidez. No Largo do Candinho predominaram as Sombras Negras e Coberturas Acústicas muito rasas, em torno de 1 a 2 m do substrato, com grande ocorrência de escape de gás do tipo Plumas Acústicas. Por fim, O Canal Leste apresentou as maiores variações nas cotas das Coberturas Acústicas, com ocorrências mais profundas (8 m em média) e escapes de gás em forma de Plumas Intrassedimentares. Foram definidas unidades estratigráficas deposicionais que contribuíram para a proposição de uma compartimentação do canal, em função dos padrões de ocorrência de gás. A fonte boomer permitiu identificar quatro unidades estratigráficas No Canal Leste, duas no Largo do Candinho e apenas uma no Estreito, neste último trecho a penetração do sinal foi especialmente comprometida em função da constante ocorrência das Coberturas Acústicas. Diante destas evidências pôde-se concluir que o Canal da Bertioga evoluiu como dois sistemas distintos, os quais foram separados durante as regressões marinhas e conectados novamente em trato de mar alto. A mudança brusca das cotas de ocorrência das Coberturas Acústicas entre o Canal Leste e o Largo do Candinho, além de evidências de falhamentos neotectônicos do Pleistoceno tardio sugerem que a conexão destes ambientes (Estreito + Largo do Candinho e Canal Leste) pode ter sido abrupta. / Studies of shallow gas accumulations and the effects of these components in the seismic waves are studied by several researchers in different parts of the world. The responses of the gas accumulations in the seismic waves are distinguished by different frequencies of seismic equipment and provide important information regarding the formation and evolution of the environments. The Channel of Bertioga is located on the southern coast of São Paulo, Brazil, and it\'s an environment with estuarine characteristics that connects the Sea of Bertioga to its oceanic mouth, and the city of Santos to it\'s continental mouth. This is a low hydrodynamic system with maximum depths of 18m, and is influenced by its tributaries from the Serra do Mar mountains. The present study was conducted with the sources Pinger (24kHz), Chirp (2 - 8 kHz) and Boomer (0.5 - 2 kHz) operating simultaneously for the geophysical survey data, surficial sediment sampling was made with a Van Veen grab. Five cores were also acquired, of which the sedimentation rate was obtained. The seismic survey allowed the identification of several buried gas facies and seepages. Regarding the patterns in the occurrence of gas formations the Bertioga Channel could be split into three sectors: The Narrow Sector, Candinho and Eastern Sector. In the Narrow part, the Acoustic Blankings were predominant with little variation in elevation (± 3 m), seepages occurred less compared to other areas and were mostly consisting of Turbidity Pinnacles. In the Candinho sector, Black Shadows and Acoustic Blankets about 1 to 2m of the substrate prevailed, with high occurrence of seepages in the form of Acoustic Plumes. Finally, the Eastern Sector had the highest changes in the levels of Acoustic Blankets, with the deepest occurrences (8m on average) and seepages in the form of Intrasedimentary Plumes. Some stratigraphic units were defined, which contributed to the previous division by the gas occurrences. The Booomer source allowed the identification of four Stratigraphic Units inthe Eastern Channel, two in the Candinho sector and only one Stratigraphic Unit in the Narrow Sector. In the last sector signal penetration was particularly compromised due to the constant occurrence of Acoustic Blankets. Given this evidence, it was concluded that the Bertioga Channel evolved as two distinct systems, which were separated during the marine regressions and re-connected during marine transgressions. The sudden change in the depths of occurrence in Acoustic Blankets between the Eastern Channel and Candinho, and evidence of neotectonic faulting in the Late Pleistocene suggest that the connection of these environments (Narrow Sector + Candinho and Canal East) may have been abrupt.

L’objectif ici était de développer une méthode de détection des tumeurs cérébrales via des agents de contraste pour l’IRM du 19F à 7 teslas. Nous évaluons en particulier le potentiel de cette méthode à mettre en évidence l’angiogenèse tumorale à l’aide d’agents de contraste fonctionnalisés avec le peptide RGD et ciblant l’intégrine ανβ3, biomarqueur surexprimé à la surface des néo-vaisseaux irriguant la tumeur. Du fait des basses concentrations locales en agent de contraste, les efforts portent dans un premier temps sur l’optimisation d’une séquence multi échos de spin dédiée à l’imagerie du PFOB (perfluorooctyl bromure), perfluorocarbure biocompatible choisi pour constituer la base de nos agents de contraste. Nous montrons qu’un paramétrage minutieux de cette séquence permet la suppression de la J-modulation et un rehaussement du T2, conduisant à une excellente sensibilité in vitro. La séquence est ensuite testée pour des mesures d’oxygénation dans le foie et la rate chez la souris, après injection d’une émulsion de PFOB. Les résultats indiquent une très bonne précision des mesures après injection d’une seule dose d’émulsion. Notre séquence est également utilisée pour réaliser une étude de biodistribution dynamique, permettant de suivre l’accumulation des nanoparticules d’émulsion dans le foie et la rate juste après injection. Nous montrons par ailleurs qu’il est possible d’évaluer la furtivité d’émulsions contenant différentes quantités de PEG (Poly Ethylène Glycol) en ajustant les données expérimentales sur un modèle pharmacocinétique empirique. La séquence est enfin utilisée pour détecter des nanoparticules d’émulsions fonctionnalisées pour cibler l’intégrine ανβ3 dans un modèle souris U87 de glioblastome. Nous comparons les concentrations en agent de contraste obtenues dans la tumeur avec une émulsion contenant le peptide RGD, et une émulsion contrôle. Les résultats indiquent des concentrations significativement plus élevées avec l’émulsion RGD qu’avec l’émulsion contrôle, supposant un ciblage spécifique d’ανβ3 par les nanoparticules fonctionnalisées. Un dernier chapitre est dédié à une nouvelle méthode de spectroscopie de diffusion en 19F, dont le but est d’éliminer le signal vasculaire provenant des nanoparticules de PFOB circulantes afin d’évaluer le signal ne provenant que des particules liées. / This study aimed at developing a method for detection of brain tumors at 7 teslas thanks to 19F MRI contrast agents. We particularly assessed the potential of this method to highlight tumor angiogenesis with RGD-functionalized contrast agents targeting ανβ3 integrin, a biomarker over-expressed at the surface of new capillary blood vessels. Owing to low local concentrations in contrast agent, the first step consisted in optimizing a multi spin echo sequence dedicated to a well-known biocompatible perfluorocarbon, perfluorooctylbromide (PFOB). We show that careful adjustment of sequence parameters allows cancellation of J-modulation and T2 enhancement, and yields an excellent sensitivity in vitro. Our sequence was then tested for oxygenation measurements in the mouse liver and spleen after injection of a PFOB emulsion. The results demonstrate very good accuracy of the measurements after one single infusion of emulsion. We also perform a dynamic biodistribution study in order to monitor emulsion nanoparticle uptake in the liver and spleen. Moreover, we show that stealth of emulsions grafted with different quantities of polyethylene glycol (PEG) can be assessed by fitting experimental data with a pharmacokinetic empirical model. Our sequence was finally used to visualize ανβ3-targeted nanoparticles in a U87 glioblastoma mouse model. Concentrations found in tumors after injection of an RGD-functionalized emulsion and a control emulsion are compared. Concentrations are found to be significantly higher with the RGD emulsion than with the control emulsion, suggesting specific binding of functionalized nanoparticles with ανβ3 integrin. The last part is dedicated to a new diffusion-weighted 19F NMR spectroscopy sequence. This method aims at suppressing vascular signal coming from circulating PFOB nanoparticles in order to evaluate signal coming from bound nanoparticles only.

<div> <div> <div> <p>Speech quality is a demand in voice commanded systems and in telephony. The voice communication system in real time often suffers from audible echoes. In order to cancel echoes, an acoustic echo cancellation system is designed and applied to increase speech quality both subjectively and objectively. </p> <p>In this research we develop various nonlinear adaptive filters wielding the new channel sparsity-aware recursive least squares (RLS) algorithms using a sequential update. The developed nonlinear adaptive filters using the sparse sequential RLS (S-SEQ-RLS) algorithm apply a discard function to disregard the coefficients which are not significant or close to zero in the weight vector for each channel in order to reduce the computational load and improve the algorithm convergence rate. The channel sparsity-aware algorithm is first derived for nonlinear system modeling or system identification, and then modified for application of echo cancellation. Simulation results demonstrate that by selecting a proper threshold value in the discard function, the proposed nonlinear adaptive filters using the RLS (S-SEQ-RLS) algorithm can achieve the similar performance as the nonlinear filters using the sequential RLS (SEQ-RLS) algorithm in which the channel weight vectors are sequentially updated. Furthermore, the proposed channel sparsity-aware RLS algorithms require a lower computational load in comparison with the non-sequential and non-sparsity algorithms. The computational load for the sparse algorithms can further be reduced by using data-selective strategies. </p> </div> </div> </div>

Dans le parler des jeunes du Mexique, on retrouve, entre autres formes de vitalité linguistique, un usage fréquent de jeux phoniques qui transforment ou substituent des lexèmes et syntagmes sans qu'il y ait altération significative du signifié. Ce phénomène linguistique utilise trois procédés phoniques: la suffixation parasitaire, la substitution lexicale basée sur la similitude phonique et l'enchaînement en écho. Le présent mémoire contribue à remplir un vide dans la littérature scientifique et faire connaître ce phénomène peu étudié en explorant les aspects formels linguistiques et les fonctions sociales. Nous cherchons à établir les relations qui existent entre la structure linguistique et les fonctions linguistiques et sociales inhérentes à l'usage de jeux phoniques. L'étude empirique menée dans la ville de Puebla (Mexique) a permis la collecte d'un corpus de plus de deux cents jeux phoniques et la réalisation d'entrevues sociolinguistiques avec dix-huit jeunes de Puebla usagers des expressions étudiées. Nous proposons une classification du corpus de jeux phoniques basée sur la structure formelle afin d'apprécier que le phénomène réponde à des patrons fixes de construction. Suite à une analyse thématique des entrevues que nous appuyons d'exemples de jeux phoniques, nous verrons que l'usage de jeux phoniques joue principalement une fonction poétique, ludique ainsi qu'une fonction de cohésion sociale et une fonction identitaire. La présente étude confirme que le caractère non normatif et cryptique intrinsèque aux jeux de mots sert à renforcer ces fonctions sociales, à la manière d'un parler argotique. / In the youth speech of Mexico a frequent use of phonic wordplays that transform or substitute lexemes and phrases without significant alteration of the signifier are found among linguistic vitality signs. This linguistic phenomenon uses three phonic techniques: parasitic suffixation, lexical substitution based on phonic similarity and echo chaining. This report contributes by filling a void in the scientific literature and to expose this overlooked phenomenon by exploring its formal linguistic aspects and social functions. The aim of this study is to establish the relationship between linguistic structure and linguistic and social functions inherent to phonic wordplay use. The empiric study conducted in Puebla (Mexico) allowed the collection of a corpus of more than two hundred phonic wordplays and the realization of sociolinguistic interviews with eighteen Puebla youth, who employ the studied expressions. This work proposes a classification of the corpus based on their formal structure in order to highlight that the phenomenon conforms to fixed patterns of construction. After a thematic analysis of the interviews, with an emphasis on phonic wordplay examples, we observe that the use of phonic wordplays mainly accomplishes poetic and ludic, as well as social cohesion and identity functions. This study confirms that the non-normative and cryptic characteristics intrinsic to phonic wordplays help to reinforce the aforementioned social functions as an argotic speech. / En el habla de los jóvenes de México encontramos, entre otras muestras de vitalidad lingüística, un uso frecuente de juegos fónicos que transforman o sustituyen lexemas y sintagmas sin que haya alteración significativa del significado. Este fenómeno lingüístico utiliza tres recursos fónicos: la sufijación parasitaria, la sustitución léxica por similitud fónica y el encadenamiento en eco. La presente memoria contribuye a llenar un vacío en la literatura científica y dar a conocer este fenómeno poco estudiado, explorando los aspectos formales lingüísticos y las funciones sociales. Buscamos establecer las relaciones que existen entre la estructura lingüística y las funciones lingüísticas y sociales inherentes al uso de los juegos fónicos. El estudio empírico que se llevó a cabo en la ciudad de Puebla (México) permitió la recolección de un corpus de más de doscientos juegos fónicos y la realización de entrevistas sociolingüísticas con dieciocho jóvenes poblanos usuarios de las expresiones estudiadas. Proponemos una clasificación del corpus de juegos fónicos basada en la estructura formal para apreciar que el fenómeno responde a patrones fijos de construcción. Tras un análisis temático de las entrevistas, que apoyamos con ejemplos de juegos fónicos, veremos que el uso de juegos fónicos cumple principalmente una función poética, lúdica, así como una función de cohesión social y una función identitaria. El presente estudio confirma que el carácter no normativo y críptico intrínseco a los juegos fónicos sirve para reforzar estas funciones sociales, a modo de habla argótica.

Submitted by Cristiane Chim (cristiane.chim@ucpel.edu.br) on 2018-06-14T12:40:00Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Aline R. da Silveira.pdf: 3230152 bytes, checksum: d6a475a47a49747c52af95d8b5076e61 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-06-14T12:40:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Aline R. da Silveira.pdf: 3230152 bytes, checksum: d6a475a47a49747c52af95d8b5076e61 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-28 / This dissertation deals with the governmental divulgation discourse of the secondary educational system reform in Brazil. To do so, it is affiliated with Pêcheux’s Discourse Analysis Theory (AD). Both Archive and corpus were compiled over the “News” section from the Ministry for Education website. The period comprehended by the analysis spans from May 12th, 2016, date of Michel Temer’s taken of government, to the publication of the decree that establishes the reform, in September of the same year. This dissertation is organized in four chapters. The first presents essential notions to an AD analyses, such as subject, meaning and interpretation. The second discusses our analyzed discourse’s production conditions. The third chapter approaches the governmental divulgation discourse, as well as the analytical dispositive construction. The fourth chapter is dedicated to the analysis, by developing a theoretical-analytical gesture. This latter chapter is composed by five analytical gestures, methodologically defined to reckon its specific objectives. This chapter departs from an approximation between journalism and Discourse Analyses. The functioning of: (i) the repeatability, (ii) the exteriority, (iii) the silencing are examined. From this analysis, it was possible to formulate the notion of an echo chamber, as well to comprehend this discourse functioning while propaganda and, therefore, to be constituted as a ‘langue du vent’. Such metaphor, translated as language of wind, describes, in AD, a language use specific to propaganda messages circulation, messages constituted by an emotional appeal and characterized by the ephemerality of the information it publicize. / Com filiação na Análise de Discurso pecheuxtiana, a dissertação trata do funcionamento do discurso de divulgação governamental sobre a reforma do Ensino Médio. O arquivo e também o corpus foram constituídos a partir da seção “Notícias” do portal do Ministério da Educação (MEC). O período compreendido pela análise tem início em 12 de maio de 2016, quando da tomada do poder pelo governo de Michel Temer, e vai até o contexto de promulgação da Medida Provisória que instituiu a referida reforma, em setembro do mesmo ano. A dissertação está organizada em quatro capítulos. No primeiro, são apresentadas noções essenciais para uma análise em AD, tais como sujeito, sentido e interpretação. No segundo, são abordadas as condições de produção do discurso em análise. O terceiro capítulo trata do discurso de divulgação governamental (DDG), bem como da construção do dispositivo analítico. O quarto capítulo ocupa-se com a análise, empreendendo um movimento teórico-analítico. Esse capítulo está formado por cinco gestos de análise, metodologicamente definidos de forma a contemplar os objetivos específicos. Nesse capítulo, parte-se de uma aproximação do jornalismo com a análise do discurso; examina-se o funcionamento: (i) da repetibilidade; (ii) da exterioridade; (iii) do silenciamento. A partir dessas análises, foi possível chegar a formular a noção de câmara de eco, bem como entender o funcionamento desse discurso enquanto propaganda e, por conseguinte, constituir-se como uma língua de vento. Tal metáfora, em AD, descreve o uso da linguagem para a circulação de mensagens que sirvam à propaganda de Estado, constituídas pelo apelo emocional e caracterizadas pela efemeridade das informações que veiculam – quando assim o fazem.

Dans l’œuvre dramatique de Shakespeare, la voix a le pouvoir de séduire et de faire naître le désir, d’atteindre l’âme comme les émotions et d’y insuffler un mouvement, d’ordonner et d’harmoniser les rapports entre les hommes, ou encore d’agresser, de blesser, de maudire, voire de tuer. La belle acoustique du Théâtre, du Globe ou des Blackfriars, permettait à la voix de résonner en se mêlant à des effets musicaux et à des bruits pour former des paysages sonores qu’il s’agit d’entendre et de déchiffrer. / In Shakespeare’s plays, the voice is an agent of seduction and desire as well as a source of inspiration which animates the soul, moves the heart and arouses emotions. It has the power to civilize men and form harmonious bonds between them, but it may also be a weapon used to curse and kill. At theatres such as the Globe and the Blackfriars which were designed to produce the best acoustic conditions, the actor’s voice resounded and blended with a multiplicity of musical effects and noises to compose soundscapes that the audience was meant to hear and decipher.

A growing recognition of the need for effective marine environmental management as a result of the increasing exploitation of marine biological resources has highlighted the need for high speed ecological seabed mapping. The practice of mapping making extensive use of satellite remote sensing and airborne platforms is well established for terrestrial management. Marine biological resource mapping however is not readily available except in part from that derived for surface waters from satellite based ocean colour mapping. Perhaps the most fundamental reason is that of sampling difficulty, which involves broad areas of seabed coverage, irregularities of seabed surface and depth. Conventional grab sample techniques are widely accepted as a standard seabed mapping methodology that has been in use long before the advent of acoustic techniques and continue to be employed. However. they are both slow and labour intensive, factors which severely limit the spatial coverage available from practical grab sampling programs. While acoustic techniques have been used for some time in pelagic biomass assessment, only recently have acoustic techniques been applied to marine biological resource mapping of benthic communities. Two commercial bottom classifiers available in the market that use normal incidence echosounders are the RoxAnn and QTC View systems. Users and practitioners should be cautious however when using black box implementations of the two commercial systems without a proper quality control over raw acoustic data since some researchers in their studies have indicated problems with these two bottom classifiers such as, among others, a depth dependence. In this thesis, an alternative approach was adopted to the use of echosounder returns for bottom classification. / The approach used in this study is similar to,~ used in the commercial RoxAnn system. In grouping bottom types however, Multivariate analysis (Principal Component Analysis and Cluster Analysis) was adopted instead of the allocation system normally used in the RoxAnn system, called RoxAnn squares. In addition, the adopted approach allowed for quality control over acoustic data before further analysis was undertaken. As a working hypothesis, it was assumed that on average 0 and aE2 = 0 where E1 and E2 are the roughness and hardness indices, respectively, and RO is the depth. For roughness index (E1), this was achieved by introducing a constant angular integration interval to the tail of the first OM returns whereas for hardness index (E2), this was achieved by introducing a constant depth integration interval. Since three different frequencies, i.e. 12, 38 and kHz, were operated, Principal Component Analysis was used here to reduce the dimensionality of roughness and hardness indices, formed from the three operated qu frequencies separately. The k-means technique was applied to the first principal component of roughness index and the first principal comp component of hardness index to produce separable seabed types. This produced four separable seabed types, namely soft-smooth, soft-rough, hard-smooth and hard-rough seabeds. / Principal Component Analysis was also used to reduce the dimensionality of the area backscattering coefficient sA, a relative measure of biomass of benthic mobile biota. The bottom classification results reported here appear to be robust in that, where independent ground truthing was available, acoustic classification was generally congruent with ground truth results. When investigating the relationship between derived bottom type and acoustically assessed total biomass of benthic mobile biota, no trend linking the two parameters, however, appears. Nevertheless, using the hierarchical agglomerative technique applied to a set of variables containing average first principal component of the area backscattering coefficient sA, the average first principal component of roughness and hardness indices, the centroids of first principal component of roughness and hardness indices associated with the four seabed types and species composition of fish group of the common species in trawl stations available, two main groups of quasi acoustic population are observed in the North West Shelf (NWS) study area and three groups are observed in the South East Fisheries (SEF) study area. The two main groups of quasi acoustic population in the NWS study area and the three main groups of quasi acoustic population in the study area are associated with the derived seabed types and fish groups of the common species.

La spectroscopie non-linéaire femtoseconde cohérente multidimensionnelle est une technique optique analogue à la résonance magnétique nucléaire multidimensionnelle. Ce travail présente la première démonstration de spectroscopie bidimensionnelle visible (800 nm)- infrarouge (10µm) par transformée de Fourier. Cette technique permet de cartographier l'émission infrarouge d'un échantillon suivant deux dimensions spectrales : l'une dans l'infrarouge moyen, l'autre dans le domaine visible des transitions électroniques. La carte obtenue permet de corréler des spectres infrarouges et des spectres Raman vibrationnels au niveau microscopique et au plus bas ordre de non-linéarité. Cette technique est particulièrement adaptée à l'étude de molécules ou de nanostructures semiconductrices. Notre implémentation de spectroscopie bidimensionnelle visible-infrarouge a conduit à la mesure de la réponse non-linéaire du deuxième ordre pour un processus de différence de fréquences dans un cristal à l'accord de phase. Une telle mesure de la réponse effective du deuxième ordre Xi(2)(−omega2,omega3) d'un émetteur non-centrosymétrique a été effectuée par la mesure cohérente du champ infrarouge (15-40 THz) émis suite à l'excitation de l'échantillon noncentrosymétrique par une séquence de deux impulsions visibles (340-400 THz) de 16 fs parfaitement verrouillées en phase. Par ailleurs, la mesure de la dépendance spectrale complète de la réponse non-linéaire d'un échantillon plus complexe à puits quantiques asymétriques nous a permis d'observer la construction d'une règle de somme quantique sur les états de valence. Le verrouillage de phase des impulsions excitatrices a été également mis à profit pour réaliser la mise en forme indirecte d'impulsions infrarouges sur une bande spectrale inédite. Cette démonstration a été obtenue par redressement optique du battement entre deux impulsions visibles à dérive de fréquence décalées temporellement. Les développements expérimentaux détaillés dans ce travail (montage portatif Chideuportatif', contrôle tout numérique des délais et verrouillages de phase, détection auto-référencée, cales piézoélectriques longue course substituées au moteur pas-à-pas) sont cruciaux pour nos expériences où les transformées de Fourier imposent un très bon contrôle des axes temporels. Ces développements sont applicables à toutes les expériences de spectroscopie multidimensionnelle par transformée de Fourier et à de nombreuses expériences de spectroscopie optique utilisant des séquences d'impulsions pour l'excitation d'un échantillon ou la détection du champ signal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

This thesis sets out to examine the role of the poems in Echo (a supplement to the Natal Witness) that were published between 1986 and 1994. I will be exploring these poems in the light of the political conflict that was taking place between Inkatha, on the one hand, and the United Democratic Front/Congress ofSouth African Trade Unions (UDF/COSATU), and later on the African National Congress (ANC), on the other. The introductory chapter will deal with the scope ofmy research. It will outline what it is that I will be researching and the direction of my research. I will also begin to introduce some of the key theoretical assumptions around izibongo (praise poetry) and some of its key definitions as a dominant tradition that influenced some of the Echo poets. Chapter Two will deal with the history of the Echo Poetry Corner itself. It looks at its early beginnings, who conceived the idea and why, and what the editorial policy of this page was. It will also shed some light on how complex issues, such as the originality and authenticity of the poems, were dealt with. The third chapter deals with the background to the political conflict in the Natal Midlands and in Pietermaritzburg in particular. It will be an analysis of violence, its origins and its interpretations, and will show how violence affected the people and the poets around Pietermaritzburg. In Chapter Four I will begin to critically analyse the poems, looking at various themes that were expressed in the poems. I will also define the role that these poems played in the political conflict, looking at whether they engaged with the reality of the time or tried to escape it. In conclusion, Chapter Five deals with my findings on the role that the Echo poems played during the political conflict. It will also address the issue of the role of the poet or poetry in a violent society. The positive role of poetry during war will also be dealt with. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.