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Estudamos a entropia em várias situações na gravidade, verificando se seu comportamento é holográfico, obedecendo à lei de área de Bekenstein. Inicialmente, usando o método da \"parede de tijolos\", calculamos, em diversos casos, a entropia estatística de um campo escalar num fundo não trivial. Tal fundo é gerado por buracos negros de 4 ou 5 dimensões com cargas. A fórmula da entropia de Bekenstein é geralmente satisfeita, mas algumas correções são discutidas no caso pentadimensional. Este método é também aplicado para soluções tipo buracos negros na gravidade de Lovelock. Resulta que o método de \"parede de tijolos\", apesar de correto para a teoria de Einstein-Hilbert, pode não ser válido em geral, o que também acontece com a lei área. Algumas propriedades concernentes à teoria de cordas, especialmente a tecnologia das D-branas, são revistas naqueles aspectos necessários para este trabalho. Também estudamos e calculamos o limite superior da entropia para a gravidade de Lovelock. Finalmente, verificamos a validade do princípio holográfico num universo de (4 + n) dimensões numa fase inflacionária assimétrica. / We study the entropy for various situations in gravity, checking whether its behavior is holographic, obeying Bekensteins area law. First, using the brick wall method, we compute the statistical entropy of a scalar field in a nontrivial background in different cases. Such a background is generated by four and five dimensional black holes with charges. The Bekenstein entropy formula is generally obeyed, but corrections are discussed in the latter case. This method is applied also to the black hole solutions of the Lovelock gravity. It turns out that the brickwall method, through correct for the Einstein-Hilbert theory, may fail in general. The same happens to the area law. Some properties concerning string theory, especially the D-branes technology, are reviewed while necessary to this work. Furthermore, we study and compute the upper limit of the entropy for the Lovelock gravity. Finally, we check the validity of the holographic principle in a (4+n) dimensional universe in an asymmetric inflationary phase.

This study aims to examine whether and to what extent Cypriot primary school teachers understand and engage in reflective practice and the implication of this for their professional development. In particular this study explores the Cypriot primary school teachers’ understanding of professional development; their engagement in and understanding of reflective practice; the changes brought about in practice through reflective practice; the factors associated with these changes; and the extent to which Cypriot primary school teachers set themselves long term goals for professional development as an outcome of reflection. The study is qualitative and uses semi-structured interviews in which 18 Cypriot primary school teachers describe and explain their experiences and illustrate these with examples from their practice. The analysis of the interviews revealed that Cypriot primary school teachers perceive professional development as the receipt of knowledge from an official authority, mainly the Ministry of Education and Culture (MOEC). Whereas the Cypriot primary school teachers use reflective practice to compare their practice with performance outcomes, comparison of their practice with espoused beliefs is either ignored or limited. Espoused beliefs are only analysed through reflective practice in relation to teaching methods. The study reveals how changes in practice, which are brought about as an outcome of reflective practice, are associated with the following factors: a) length of teaching experience; b) theories in use which can either restrict or promote the critical examination of practice and change; c) the kind of professional exchange in which the teachers engage. In addition a mismatch emerged between the Cypriot primary school teachers’ views of reflection and their long term goals for professional development. This study concludes by discussing the implications of the findings and suggests ways in which Cypriot primary school teachers can be encouraged to recognize the knowledge which they develop from their own practice and to increase their understanding and use of reflective practice. It also identifies the need for changes in the organizational environments in Cypriot primary schools in order to support the developmental needs of its teachers including the reconsideration of the dual role of inspectors who are responsible for both professional development and evaluation.

This thesis argues that although the anorexic patient is subjugated in the medical encounter, subjects find ways to resist and disrupt this subversion. The analysis is largely based on life history interviews with teenage girls with a medical diagnosis of anorexia. Other data sources include interview field-notes, my research journal and selected popular magazines. The data was analysed using a discourse analytic methodology to explore how girls constituted hospitalisation, anorexia, doctors and patients, among other issues. The analysis draws on insights from poststructuralist theory. In the earlier chapters, an analysis of the complex medical, psychological and feminist theories of anorexia nervosa; and a description of the hospitals where girls are treated is developed to situate the study in its socio-historical context. The analysis consists of three main arguments. The first is that clinical notions of food, eating and embodiment are in direct contrast to social discourses on these topics. Girls draw on this discrepancy in their resistance to hospital practices. The second argument is that girls are aware they are positioned as irrational because of their malnourished state and are also aware that if they blatantly resist treatment they will be subjected to further surveillance. Girls take up medical discourses in different ways and to different effects in constituting themselves as agenetic subjects. The third argument focuses on the shifting construction of the anorexia subject in the clinic. Although discourses of anorexia and psychiatry have a powerful impact on the girls; girls resist these positionings, finding other ways to constitute themselves. The contention of this thesis is that clinical constructions of anorexia work to form the subject and provide the possibilities for the creation of other subjectivities. On the basis of this research, some suggestions for how inpatient treatment regimes may work differently are provided. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

6d (2, 0) theory on M5 branes is investigated by considering its KK modes on a 2d space. Selecting KK modes on different 2d spaces amounts to choosing different set of selfdual strings as the perturbative degrees of freedom thus will give the 6d theories related to each other by U-duality. The 4d effective theory for the KK modes is studied via the M5-D3 duality. Except for the (p, q) open strings, which is the KK mode arising from the selfdual strings, the 3-string junction should also be added since it is the bound state of the (p, q) open strings. The quantization of the 3-string junctions gives the fields, which, when lifted to 6d, may account for the conformal anomaly of the 6d (2, 0) theory. The interaction between the open strings and the 3-string junctions is also considered. The Lagrangian and the corresponding N=4 supersymmetry transformation is obtained up to some additional terms to be added. Although the original 6d (2, 0) theory is not constructed directly, the 4d effective theory for the KK modes gives an equivalent description, from which the 6d S-matrix can be calculated.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed September 17, 2009). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 444-468).

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Estudamos a entropia em várias situações na gravidade, verificando se seu comportamento é holográfico, obedecendo à lei de área de Bekenstein. Inicialmente, usando o método da \"parede de tijolos\", calculamos, em diversos casos, a entropia estatística de um campo escalar num fundo não trivial. Tal fundo é gerado por buracos negros de 4 ou 5 dimensões com cargas. A fórmula da entropia de Bekenstein é geralmente satisfeita, mas algumas correções são discutidas no caso pentadimensional. Este método é também aplicado para soluções tipo buracos negros na gravidade de Lovelock. Resulta que o método de \"parede de tijolos\", apesar de correto para a teoria de Einstein-Hilbert, pode não ser válido em geral, o que também acontece com a lei área. Algumas propriedades concernentes à teoria de cordas, especialmente a tecnologia das D-branas, são revistas naqueles aspectos necessários para este trabalho. Também estudamos e calculamos o limite superior da entropia para a gravidade de Lovelock. Finalmente, verificamos a validade do princípio holográfico num universo de (4 + n) dimensões numa fase inflacionária assimétrica. / We study the entropy for various situations in gravity, checking whether its behavior is holographic, obeying Bekensteins area law. First, using the brick wall method, we compute the statistical entropy of a scalar field in a nontrivial background in different cases. Such a background is generated by four and five dimensional black holes with charges. The Bekenstein entropy formula is generally obeyed, but corrections are discussed in the latter case. This method is applied also to the black hole solutions of the Lovelock gravity. It turns out that the brickwall method, through correct for the Einstein-Hilbert theory, may fail in general. The same happens to the area law. Some properties concerning string theory, especially the D-branes technology, are reviewed while necessary to this work. Furthermore, we study and compute the upper limit of the entropy for the Lovelock gravity. Finally, we check the validity of the holographic principle in a (4+n) dimensional universe in an asymmetric inflationary phase.

Les effets non-perturbatifs jouent un rôle extrêmement important dans la physique théorique contemporaine. Par exemple, ils sont connus d’être responsables de divers phénomènes physiques tels que le confinement des quarks et les dualités. Une arène particulièrement riche pour ces effets est fournie par des théories de jauge et des cordes. En particulier, pour les théories avec la supersymétrie N=2 à 4 dimensions, les années récentes ont marqué un progrès remarquable en compréhension leur dynamique non-perturbative. Peut-être un des résultats les plus intrigants est l'apparition de l’intégrabilité dans plusieurs problèmes de cette sorte. Ces résultats fournissent des relations non-triviales entre différents systèmes physiques et constructions mathématiques et donnent l’espoir que beaucoup de problèmes de longue date peuvent être en fait exactement solubles. La thèse est supposée d’explorer ces relations entre les effets non-perturbatifs et l’intégrabilité. Plus précisément, il est suggéré d'étudier le problème des compactifications des théories des cordes qui préservent la supersymétrie N=2. Leur action effective à basses énergies est complètement déterminée par une métrique sur un certain espace de modules qui est connu à recevoir des corrections instantoniques. Bien que beaucoup d'entre elles aient été déjà trouvées, la description non-perturbative complète est encore absente. D'autre part, sa importance va beaucoup au delà de l'action effective mentionnée ci-dessus puisqu'elle devrait contenir des informations sur la S-dualité, symétrie miroir non-perturbative, croisement de murs, trous noirs supersymétriques. Ainsi, le travail dans cette direction permettra non seulement obtenir des résultats intéressants, mais étudier également beaucoup de proches sujets dans la théorie des cordes, mathématiques et d'autres domaines de recherche. / Non-perturbative effects play an extremely important role in the moderntheoretical physics. For example, they are known to be responsible forvarious physical phenomena such as confinement and dualities.An especially rich arena for these effects is provided by gauge andstring theories. In particular, for theories with N=2 supersymmetry in4 dimensions, recent years marked a remarkable progress in understandingtheir non-perturbative dynamics. May be one of the most intriguing findingsis the appearance of integrability in several, sometimes differentlylooking problems. These results provide non-trivial relations betweendifferent physical systems and mathematical constructions and givea hope that many longstanding problems can be in fact exactly solvable.The thesis is supposed to explore these relations between non-perturbativeeffects and integrability. More precisely, it is suggested to study the problemof compactifications of string theories which preserve N=2 supersymmetry.Their low-energy effective action is completely determined by a metricon a certain moduli space which is known to receive instanton corrections.Although many of them have been already found, the complete non-perturbativedescription is still out of reach. On the other hand, its relevance goes muchbeyond the effective action mentioned above since it should encode informationabout S-duality, non-perturbative mirror symmetry, wall-crossing, supersymmetricblack holes. Thus, working in this direction would allow not only to obtaininteresting results, but also to study many related subjects in string theory,mathematics and other research areas.

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