This paper studies the use of violations of conversation principles in the written dialogue of Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones. The aim is to establish if and how these violations aid in making him seem clever. The character's dialogues are matched against three theoretical principles: Politeness Theory, The Cooperative Principle and Turn-taking Principles. The findings suggest that by breaking basic principles of conversation, Tyrion provides entertaining dialogue and manages to create unexpected solutions to different threatening situations. Results show an even distribution of strategic violations, among the three theoretical approaches, which could suggest that the dialogue is consciously written to help make the audience feel impressed by the character's features. Tyrion's violations of conversation principles is a contribution in what makes him seem witty. This ability in the character seems to be closely linked to a lack of fear for any negative social consequences. The character's ability to act free from rules of social behavior could be considered one of the reasons behind his popularity among fans of the show.

The thesis From the sickle and hammer to the oak. The role of the opinion currents in the Italian Communist Party during the transformation process deals with the transformation of the Italian Communist Party (Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) into the post-communist Democratic Party of the Left (Partito Democratico della Sinistra, PDS) and with the role which the intraparty opinion currents played in this process. It will be evaluated their influence on the very own process of the party transformation and their key role in influencing the membership base. The thesis will also focus on analysing of political behavior of the actors on the middle level of decision-making in the party (secretaries of local sections, bosses of trade unions, local and regional politicians) in the light of precipitous events of the examined period. It will be also mentioned the external factors which influenced actions of single groups and how these groups responded to the new challenges in front of which were put almost ad hoc. Subject of this work is defined by the open outbreak of the intraparty crisis during the succession of Achille Occhetto to the post of the secretary general in 1988 and by the parliamentary elections in 1994 in which the party entered fully prepared after the complete conversion and nevertheless...

High-throughput genomics projects have resulted in a rapid accumulation of protein sequences. Therefore, computational methods that can predict protein functions and functional sites efficiently and accurately are in high demand. In addition, prediction methods utilizing only sequence information are of particular interest because for most proteins, 3-dimensional structures are not available. However, there are several key challenges in developing methods for predicting protein function and functional sites. These challenges include the following: the construction of representative datasets to train and evaluate the method, the collection of features related to the protein functions, the selection of the most useful features, and the integration of selected features into suitable computational models. In this proposed study, we tackle these challenges by developing procedures for benchmark dataset construction and protein feature extraction, implementing efficient feature selection strategies, and developing effective machine learning algorithms for protein function and functional site predictions. We investigate these challenges in three bioinformatics tasks: the discovery of transmembrane beta-barrel (TMB) proteins in gram-negative bacterial proteomes, the identification of deleterious non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (nsSNPs), and the identification of helix-turn-helix (HTH) motifs from protein sequence.

The dissertation thesis is focused on specific segment of contemporary visual artists from Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and the Slovak Republic, whose work reflects the recent past. The thesis maps and interprets artistic reflections of the past with emphasis on the era of socialism in the region of Central Europe, and defines the characteristic features of the generation of artists born in the 70s and their position in the post-socialist situation. These artistic approaches are categorized and anchored in the broad current of the so-called historiographical turn in contemporary art and put in a broader cultural and art historical context. Keywords contemporary art, Central Europe, historiographic turn, archive, socialist modernism, nostalgia

This thesis has analyzed the relationship between the punitive turn and the crime policies of the Green party (Miljöpartiet de Gröna) and the Sweden democrats (Sverigedemokraterna) to answer the research question; what influence the punitive turn has had on the parties policies. The choice of method has fallen on a quantitative content-analysis with a qualitative complementarity and qualitative facilitation. From an account of the punitive turn has a word-list with recording units been created, of those recording units has a computer-search been made of the two parties most recent official documents which accounts for the parties holistic politics; MP´s Partyprogramme from 2013, and SD´s Principleprogramme from 2011. The result of the qualitative complementarity shows; a greater frequency of recording units for MP than for SD. The analysis of the qualitative facilitation-result shows; a lesser direct influence of the punitive turn for MP than for SD. The result and analysis are discussed regarding whether the research question has been answered, and no such conclusion is considered to be made by the researcher, instead are the result and analysis open for interpretation of the reader.

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In July of 1863 the photographs A Harvest of Death, Field Where General Reynolds Fell, A Sharpshooter's Last Sleep, and The Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter were taken after the battle at Gettysburg by a team of photographers led by Alexander Gardner. In the decades that followed these images of the dead of the battlefield became some of the most iconic representations of the American Civil War. Today, Gardner's Gettysburg photographs can be found in almost every contemporary history text, documentary, or collection of images from the war, yet their journey to this iconic status has been little discussed. The goal of this thesis is to expand the general understanding of these Civil War photographs and their legacy by considering their use beyond the early 1860s. Although part of a larger scope of influence, the discussion of the photographs presented here will focus particularly on the years between 1894 and 1911. Between those years they were made available to the public through large photographic histories and other history texts as well. The aim of these texts, which framed and manipulated Gardner's images, were to disseminate a propagandistic history of the war in a way that outlined it as a nationally unifying experience, rather than one of division. These texts mark the beginning of the influence the Gettysburg photographs would have on American memory of the war. Within these books the four photographs became part of a larger effort to reconnect with the past and shape the war into a source for a unified American identity.

Two way left turn lanes (TWLTL) and raised medians are common median treatments on roadways. This research focused on evaluating the safety effectiveness of conversion of TWLTLs into raised medians using Before-After and Cross Sectional Studies. In the Before-After Studies, we evaluated the effect of this treatment using the Naive, Before-After with Comparison Group (CG), and Before-After with Empirical Bayes (EB) Methods. In order to apply these methods, a total of 33 segments of a treated group and 109 segments of a comparison group have been collected. Also, safety performance functions (SPFs) have been developed using the negative binomial model in order to calibrate crash modification factors (CMF) using the Before-After with Empirical Bayes Method. This research also evaluated the safety effectiveness of this treatment on four and six lane roads using Before-After with CG and Before-After with EB. The type of raised medians was further evaluated using Before-After with CG and EB. In sum, the results from this study show that applying the before-After and Cross Sectional studies have proved that the conversion from a TWLTL to a raised median helped to reduce total, fatal and injury, head on, angle, and left turn crashes. It significantly reduces crashes for head-on and left turn crashes, by restricting turning maneuvers. Also, this study has proved that the treatment is more effective on four rather than six lane roads. Furthermore, two types of raised medians, concrete and lawn curb, were evaluated after the conversion from TWLTLs. It was found that both medians have similar effects due to the conversion, and both median types helped in reducing the number of crashes.

Crashes categorized as running red light or left turning are most likely to occur at signalized intersections and resulted in substantial severe injuries and property damages. This dissertation mainly focused on these two types of vehicle crashes and the research methodology involved several perspectives. To examine the overall characteristics of red-light running and left-turning crashes, firstly, this study applied 1999-2001 Florida traffic crash data to investigate the accident propensity of three aspects of risk factors related to traffic environments, driver characteristics, and vehicle types. A quasi-induced exposure concept and statistical techniques including classification tree model and multiple logistic regression were used to perform this analysis. Secondly, the UCF driving simulator was applied to test the effect of a proposed new pavement marking countermeasure which purpose is to reduce the red-light running rate at signalized intersections. The simulation experiment results showed that the total red-light running rate with marking is significantly lower than that without marking. Moreover, deceleration rate of stopping drivers with marking for the higher speed limit are significantly less than those without marking. These findings are encouraging and suggesting that the pavement marking may result in safety enhancement as far as right-angle and rear-end traffic crashes at signalized intersections. Thirdly, geometric models to compute sight distances of unprotected left-turns were developed for different signalized intersection configurations including a straight approach leading to a straight one, a straight approach leading to a curved one, and a curved approach leading to a curved one. The models and related analyses can be used to layout intersection design or evaluate the sight distance problem of an existing intersection configuration to ensure safe left-turn maneuvers by drivers.

The aim of my essay is to examine the discourse on the human rights within the Swedish political parties from a right-left perspective. Through an idea and ideology analysis of Liberalerna and Vänsterpartiet party programs from 1944, 1972, 1990 and 2013, the tworesearch questions will be answered. The idea and ideology analysis will be conducted into three parts, first i will conduct a text analysis to determine the subject matter of the text and understand what ideology is presented in the analyzed text.The first research question deals with how Liberalerna and Vänsterpartiet present human rights in their party programs, the second question will be addressing if there has been a change in how the parties present human rights based on the historical turn in human rights. The previous research in the essay will provide and establish a basic understanding between human rights and the political parties in Sweden. The analysis will conclude that there has been a change in how the parties talk about human rights and that human rights are closely linked to a liberal thought tradition. The analys will also conclude that the human rights has been more beneficial for liberal ideology and liberal thought in comparison to socialism and to some extent marxism