Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file viewed on (February 21, 2007) Includes bibliographical references.

Sammanfattning Letter of intent, vilket torde kunna översättas till avsiktsförklaring på svenska, är ett vanligt förekommande element vid avtalsförhandlingar. I doktrinen har det skett en uppdelning mellan ”rena” och ”orena” letter of intent. Med ”orena” letter of intent avses de dokument som innehåller juridiska förpliktelser, exempelvis i form av skilje-, ersättnings- och sekretessklausuler. I motsats till detta återfinns inte några juridiska förpliktelser i ”rena” letter of intent. Typiskt sett uttrycks i ett letter of intent en avsikt att i framtiden ingå avtal. Emellertid innebär denna avsikt vanligen ingen skyldighet att ingå förevarande avtal. Den första frågeställningen som ligger till grund för detta arbete är om ”rena” letter of intent, utan bindande klausuler, kan medföra rättsverkningar? Vidare följer frågan – om ett ”rent” letter of intent anses kunna medföra rättsverkningar – under vilka förutsättningar är detta möjligt? Det finns vare sig lagregler eller förarbeten att tillgå inom svensk rätt beträffande rättsinstitutet letter of intent. Emellertid har letter of intent behandlats i såväl rättsfall som doktrin. I dessa rättskällor råder det delade meningar om ”rena” letter of intent kan medföra rättsverkningar. De som anser att rättsverkningar av ”rena” letter of intent är uteslutet argumenterar för att de i grund och botten endast är avsiktsförklaringar och inget annat. De anser således att affärsmännen genom letter of intent skapat ett icke bindande dynamiskt instrument som kan överbrygga de statiska reglerna i AvtL. Omvänt anser de som är förespråkare för att ”rena” letter of intent kan medföra rättsverkningar att man inte kan begränsa sig till detta synsätt. Juridiska förpliktelser av ”rena” letter of intent torde enligt dessa förespråkare kunna utgå på grund av exempelvis konkludent handlande, lojalitetsplikten och principen om culpa in contrahendo. Sedan allt relevant material på området studerats och analyserats torde man kunna dra den slutsatsen att ”rena” letter of intent, utan bindande klausuler, kan medföra rättsverkningar. På vilka grunder kan då detta ske? Den allmänna uppfattningen synes vara att det inte kan uppstå några juridiska förpliktelser av ”rena” letter of intent i sig. Emellertid torde ”rena” letter of intent i kombination med andra omständigheter kunna medföra rättsverkningar. De omständigheter som åsyftas är konkludent handlande, åsidosättande av lojalitetsplikten samt klandervärt beteende vid avtals ingående (culpa in contrahendo). Några övriga omständigheter, förutom de nyss nämnda, förefaller dock inte kunna medföra rättsverkningar av ”rena” letter of intent.

The purposes of this study were first to determine if there were significant differences in living environment press, i.e., the pressure on an individual to behave in a certain way, between those fraternity chapters that had the highest freshman pledge retention rates and those that had the lowest. If significant differences were determined to exist, the second purpose was to investigate how those differences related to differences in the retention rates for freshman fraternity pledges. The data were obtained from the records of all freshman pledges in the Oregon State University fraternity system for a four-year period. From these data the high pledge retention and low pledge retention fraternities were determined. The sample for the remainder of this study was two of the three highest and two of the three lowest pledge retention fraternities. The highest and lowest pledge retention fraternities were eliminated. Analyses included: Pearson Correlation Coefficients to determine if there were significant correlations between retention of pledges in the fraternity system and six factors involving grades and the number of members and pledges living in the fraternities; two-way, fixed analyses of variance to determine if there were significant differences between the high retention fraternities (HRFs) and the low retention fraternities (LRFs) with respect to pledge high school grade point averages and Scholastic Aptitude Test scores; chi square contingencies to determine if there were significant differences between the HRFs and the LRFs with respect to 14 different characteristic, background, and satisfaction variables; and F-test analyses to determine if there were significant living environment differences between the HRFs and the LRFs on each of the subscales of the University Residence Environment Scale, Form R. The conclusions of the study were: 1. Neither high school nor college grades, SAT scores, nor individual characteristics, background, and satisfaction levels can be used to define differences in pledge retention between the HRF and LRF houses. 2. The differences within the living environment, and primarily the relationship dimension of that environment, of the two groups offer the best explanation of the pledge retention differences between the two groups. 3. The overt pressure exerted by the LRFs on their pledges to study and achieve academic success did not result in greater academic success than in HRFs, but did tend to limit the degree of social integration achieved by their pledges. 4. Social integration has a significant positive impact on pledge retention, while overt pressure toward academic integration has a probable negative impact on pledge retention. 5. Successful social integration, while having a positive impact on pledge retention, does not have a negative impact on academic performance. In fact, the impact on academic performance may be positive. 6. A crucial element in the Tinto (1987) model should be a relationship building block within the peer group interactin portion of the social system. Recommendations for further study were made. / Graduation date: 1991

Thesis (M.A.)--Eastern Illinois University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-123).

Thesis (M.S.)--Eastern Illinois University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 46-51).

This essay seeks to explore the various representations of fatherhood in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Although The Scarlet Letter is Hawthorne’s most-studied text, very little critical attention has been paid to Hawthorne’s rendering of paternity in the story. This essay attempts to fill that void by examining the roles of the many father figures in the novel. I argue that Hawthorne’s anxiety about fatherhood, made manifest by his constant doubling and expunging of father figures, dominates the narratives of both The Scarlet Letter and “The Custom-House,” binding the texts together and providing the framework of the novel. The structure of The Scarlet Letter relies on Hawthorne’s continual introduction of potential fathers for Pearl, auditioning and discarding various paternal models – a process that carries implications both for Pearl, and for American fatherhood. I further contend that the figure of the absent father is a key thematic component of the American Renaissance as a whole, reflecting not only the authors’ personal fears, but also their anxieties about England’s paternal relationship to America – a concern that pervades the text of The Scarlet Letter. / text

Focusing on the ‘second reign’ of Queen Elizabeth I (1588-1603), this thesis constitutes the first significant socio-political examination of Elizabethan Devon – a geographically peripheral county, yet strategically central in matters pertaining to national defence and security. A complex web of personal associations and informal alliances underpinned politics and governance in Tudor England; but whereas a great deal is now understood about relations between both the political elite and the organs of government at the centre of affairs, many questions still remain unanswered about how networks of political actors functioned at a provincial and neighbourhood level, and how these networks kept in touch with one another, central government and the court. Consequently, this study is primarily concerned with power and communication. In particular, it investigates and models the interconnected networks of government within late-Elizabethan Devon and explains precisely how the county’s officials (at every level) shared information with the Crown and each other. The raison d’être of this study is, therefore, to probe the character and articulation of the power geometries at the south-western fringe of Elizabethan England. The closing years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I represent a decisive phase in the evolution of the English nation state, one that saw the appointment of lord lieutenants on a more widespread and long-standing basis, the consistent training of certain sections of the county militias, the expansion of the pre-existing government post-stage service, a heightened degree of dealings between every echelon of administration and an obvious increase in the amount of information that flowed from the localities into the capital. The primary causes of each of these developments were the Elizabethan war with Spain (1585-1604) and the rebellion in Ireland (1594-1603), and it is demonstrated throughout this thesis that Devon, a strategically essential county during this period of political turmoil, provides an excellent case study for evaluating the impact that each had on the Crown’s ability to control the periphery whilst being spatially anchored at the court. Furthermore, by examining each of these developments the thesis fundamentally undercuts the tenacious assertion that geographically marginal regions of Tudor territory were inward-looking, remote and disconnected from events that were unfolding on a national and international level.

Letter position plays an important role in lexical access. But are some positions more important than the others? Findings from numerous studies support the notion that in lexical access, initial letters produce strongest activation, which weakens towards the end of the word. In order to create a metric for computing the activation produced by each letter position in a correctly spelled word versus a word in which some or all letters are transposed, the formula for calculating a word's orthographic match coefficient (OMC) was developed and tested. Utilizing the masked priming paradigm and a lexical decision task, Experiments 1-5 test the accuracy and reliability of the OMC predictions, and look at neighborhood density in conjunction with different types of letter movement. Results from these experiments provide empirical support for the OMC as a reliable predictor of priming that involves transposed letters, and offer insight into possible mechanisms of word recognition.

Correspondence is written forms of communications, for example, SMS, E-mail, or letters, and when something is written, it may constitute a literary work protected by copyright. As there is no formal procedure for acquiring copyright, it is not always easy to determine when it exists and therefore know how to impose common rules. In Sweden, the moment of publication of a literary work is when an author makes his work available to the public. This occurs when a work is presented publicly, displayed publicly, or when copies are distributed to the public. This moment is imperative due to the legal effects that enter into force when a work is published. Until the point in time when a work is published, an author has absolute rights to his work, meaning that it is not possible to use a work legally without the author’s consent. As correspondence is a mean of communication, it is inherent in its nature to be transferred to someone else in order to fulfil its purpose. This means that an author has technically published his work the moment he sends it to someone else. However, arguments are raised in case law that a work cannot be published unless the author has intended it to be. This thesis concludes that both assessments of when a work is published are in fact correct. The important aspect that has to be considered when assessing if a work is published or not, is the intended usage of the protected work. Consequently, one may use the results of this thesis either as an argument to apply unbiased provisions of law, in accordance to their wording, or to apply subjective assessments on a case-to-case basis, in order to find an optimal solution.

<p>As Catherine Clément argues in her 1979 publication "L'Opéra ou la Défaite des Femmes" most female operatic characters befall a tragic ending: death, suicide, madness, murder. Building on Clément and observations of more recent feminist scholars (Carol Gilligan, Susan McClary, Marcia Citron), and on the compositional work of Paula Kimper and others, the current project strives to problematize opera's dominant paradigm, and to use my artistic work as a composer to present a different one. With a dearth of stories that highlight the relationship between a mother and a daughter, I have sought to create an artistic work with strong female leads featuring women whose lives carry on and, even, thrive. It was a propitious opportunity to have been approached by conductor Sara Jobin and feminist theorist and author Carol Gilligan (under the auspices of A Different Voice Opera Project) to develop such an opera based upon Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter". What better way to break free from a paradigm than to do so with a popular and well-loved novel? The present artistic foray seeks thus to depart from an accepted paradigm while remaining within the bounds of something fundamentally familiar and popular. In a separately available essay "Gender and Music: A Survey of Critical Study, 1988-2012", I explored a wide survey of scholarship on gender. </p><p>The feminist reinterpretation of "The Scarlet Letter" was first developed into a play, "The Scarlet Letter", work-shopped and staged at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA, the Culture Project in New York City, the National Players, and the Primary Stage Theatre. It was ripe for development into a libretto for operatic presentation by a Different Voice Opera Project. As the selected composer, I began a long collaboration with Sara Jobin, Carol Gilligan, and poet Jonathan Gilligan (co-author of the libretto). Pearl, the opera, was presented in workshop versions by A Different Voice Opera Project at Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, MA during the summers of 2012 and 2013. Subsequently, our collaborative efforts were expanded through the addition of Sandra Bernhard, a dramaturg and director for a community outreach program at the Houston Grand Opera. Through conversations with Sandra, the opera became more streamlined and I was able to give it a smoother dramatic flow. In particular, Sandra's advice informed much of the opera in terms of increasing the presence of the chorus to provide the medium through which Pearl understands her past. Musically, the chorus also becomes the third part of what I call "Dimmesdale's triangle of pressure" in which he is caught within a patriarchy and pulled by three separate forces: his love and family (Hester and Pearl), his responsibility as a minister (the townspeople represented by the Chorus), and a father figure and mentor (Reverend Wilson). The present work, extensively revised during 2013-2015, grew out of these experiences.</p><p>In Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter", Pearl is a seven-year-old girl, born from the love affair of Hester Prynne and minister, Arthur Dimmesdale. The pregnancy of Hester immediately places her upon dangerous footing with her only preservation being silence. She is required to permanently wear a scarlet A upon her chest, whereas the minister, Dimmesdale, hides his identity as the father of the child both for himself and for the protection of his lover and child, also through silence. In the times of Puritan New England during the 17th century, a crime such as adultery (a term that is never mentioned in Hawthorne's novel) would have been punishable by death. Needless to say, the ability of Pearl and others to speak the truth within this story becomes much too perilous for the characters to voice. The silence surrounding the life of this little girl is the focus behind the development of our main character for the opera: Pearl as a grown adult, thus making this opera a sequel, of sorts, to "The Scarlet Letter". As quoted in Gilligan's 2003 publication, "The Birth of Pleasure": "At turning points in psychic life and also in cultural history - and I believe we are at one now - it is possible to hear with particular clarity the tension between a first-person voice, an "I" who speaks from human emotional experience, and a voice that overrides what we know and feel and experience, that tells us what we should see and feel know." </p><p>Pearl as a grown woman, reflects back upon her life as a child where she is both the main character and the narrator of the story, often breaking the fourth wall. In this sense, this opera is reminiscent of the term "memory play"; a term coined by Tennessee about his work, "The Glass Menagerie". In the opening of his play, Tom, the main character, begins with: </p><p>The play is memory. Being a memory play, it is dimly lighted, it is sentimental, it is not realistic. In memory everything seems to happen to music. That explains the fiddle in the wings. I am the narrator of the play, and also a character in it. </p><p>With the creation of Pearl, a new character, the opera is able to integrate the relationships that do not exist within Hawthorne's novel, providing the libretto fertile material through which to explore Carol Gilligan's psychological theories . (See page vi, Note 2). We now see the story through the lens of Pearl as she remembers her childhood with highlights upon her relationships with her mother (Hester Prynne), her father (Arthur Dimmesdale), her mother's husband (Roger Chillingworth, née Roger Prynne), the townspeople, her father's mentor, Reverend Wilson, and herself as a child, allowing for the creation of duets, trios, and ensembles to highlight these relationships. The most notable of these relationships is the one between Adult Pearl and her child self, Child Pearl. In this way, and reminiscent of Williams' "memory play", Pearl's memories and current life can now be juxtaposed, together in time, memorialized through the music that binds these events and memories together.</p><p>In life we can experience our past through memory. In film we can be provided with visual flashbacks to offer a retrospective. However, it is only within music where the relationship between two eras of self can be juxtaposed. Thus, the gambit of my opera is to find musical means where the audience may now experience the character of Pearl as a child, as an adult, and as both child and adult in duet, as an echo, as a memory, a reflection. This phenomenon is most effectively evoked within opera or musical theatre. While a libretto must fundamentally be created using fewer words than say a novel or a play - it takes longer to sing a line than it would to speak it - it falls to music to express that which cannot be extrapolated through words alone. This dilemma creates a most wonderful opportunity for music to soar with tension and emotion. It is the music that can bridge together certain characters and scenes through the creation of themes that represent (in the case of this opera) truth/honesty, a patriarchy, and love, among other themes as well as the representation of particular characters. The necessity for the score to embellish the drama through music's tools: melody, harmony, motivic development and orchestration, essentially enables the audience to draw closer to the story and the characters by means that only music can provide.</p><p>In creating Pearl, it was my hope to birth the first of many such operas that shift one operatic paradigm on its head. To create an opera where the main characters are women and where they both have independent voices and thrive. As I have written elsewhere: "Some, throughout history, have argued that music has been exhausted. That everything that can be said, particularly within the Western language of tonality, has already been said. However, I must wonder, did any of the authors of such statements consider that the female voice has yet to really sing? For, we are just beginning. And I cannot wait to hear what `she' has to say."</p> / Dissertation