The rapid development of optofluidics, the combination of microfluidics and integrated optics, since its formal conception in the early 2000's has aided in the advance of single-molecule analysis. The optofluidic platform discussed in this dissertation is called the liquid core anti-resonant reflecting optical waveguide (LC-ARROW). This platform uses ARROW waveguides to orthogonally intersect a liquid core waveguide with solid core rib waveguides for the excitation of specifically labeled molecules and collection of fluorescence signal. Since conception, the LC-ARROW platform has demonstrated its effectiveness as a lab-on-a-chip fluorescence biosensor. However, until the addition of optical multiplexing excitation waveguides, the platform lacked a critical functionality for use in rapid disease diagnostics, namely the ability to simultaneously detect different types of molecules and particles. In disease diagnostics, the ability to multiplex, detect and identify multiple biomarkers simultaneously is paramount for a sensor to be used as a rapid diagnostic system. This work brings optofluidic multiplexing to the sensor through the implementation of three specific designs: (1) the Y-splitter was the first multi-spot excitation design implemented on the platform, although it did not have the ability to multiplex it served as a critical stepping stone and showed that multi-spot excitation could improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the platform by ~50,000 times; (2) a multimode interference (MMI) waveguide which took the multi-spot idea and then demonstrated spectral multiplexing capable of correctly identifying multiple diverse biomarkers simultaneously; and, (3) a Triple-Core design which incorporates excitation and collection along multiple liquid cores, enabling spatial multiplexing which increases the number of individual molecules to be identified concurrently with the MMI waveguide excitation. In addition to describing the development of optical multiplexing, this dissertation includes an investigation of another LC-ARROW based design that enables 2D bioparticle trapping, the Anti-Brownian Electrokinetic (ABEL) trap. This design demonstrates two-dimensional compensation of a particle's Brownian motion in solution. The capability to maintain a molecule suspended in solution over time enables the ability to gain a deeper understanding of cellular function and therapies based on molecular functions.

This paper aims to describe and elaborate on a recent discursive change within the new-age movement. Since the seventies and the publishing of speculative popular science books like The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra and The self-aware Universe by Amit Goswami, the idea that quantum physics resonates with spirituality has become the topic of hundreds of books and movies. The quantum-spiritual discourse has three distinct ways to approach quantum physics in its discussion on spirituality: The parallelistic approach which emphasizes the similarities between eastern philosophies and modern physics, the monistic-idealistic approach which tells us that mind is the foundation of matter and the scientific spiritual approach which tries to explain spiritual claims scientifically. In the quantum-spiritual discourse, quantum physical phenomena (e.g. non-locality and entanglement) are being called upon to validate metaphysical statements. The primary assumption of the discourse is that the shift of paradigm due to the establishment of modern physics also is a shift of paradigm of spirituality. With the object to examine the common claims made in the discourse, cross-references between spiritual arguments and facts of quantum physics are being made. A discussion is held about the probable influence of the historical context, with particular focus on the monistic evolvement during the late nineteenth century.

Uppsatsens utgångspunkt är att perspektivet utgör en psykosocial länk mellan individ och omvärld. Med grund i Henry Montgomerys perspektivmodell, som bland annat framhåller hur fakta och värderingar är intimt förbundna i social perception, förs ett resonemang kring perspektivets socialpsykologiska förankring i mellanmänskliga sammanhang. Modellens element subjekt, objekt och mental position diskuteras systematiskt utifrån George Herbert Meads perspektivteoretiska ansats samt Alan Page Fiskes socialitetsteori. Syftet är främst att visa på perspektivets deskriptiva och evaluativa konstitution, dess sociala grund och kontextberoende. Tanken är att Meads resonemang fungerar som en formell teoretisk grund för subjektet och dennes kommunikativt grundade intersubjektivitet, genom perspektivtagandet via symbolbruk och den generaliserade andra, emedan Fiskes ansats tar fasta på en bestämd social differentiering genom socialitetsformer vilket i sig utgör fundamentet för värderingars sociala förankring samt människors socialitet i en mer substantiell mening. Teorierna ses som komplementära genom sina universella anspråk och diskussionen mynnar slutligen ut i begreppet socialitetsperspektiv utifrån en social differentiering av den generaliserade andra. Tyngdpunkten ligger här på subjektet som aktör och tanken är att var gång ett socialt perspektiv intas inom ramen för den generaliserade andra så görs det alltid utifrån någon av socialitetsformerna som var och en dessutom antas utgöra perspektivets gräns och variation. Inom ramen för en mellanmänsklig kontext antas därför alltid subjektet uppfatta ett objekt utifrån en bestämd mental social position, ett bestämt socialitetsperspektiv, i social handling och att individens sociala jag fyller en avgörande funktion i en sådan kontextbunden perception. Perspektivframträdandet diskuteras slutligen med grund i Montgomerys perspektivansats och Joop van der Pligts tre attributionsteoretiska slutsatser om hur interna och externa orsaksfaktorer kan korrelera med deskriptiva och evaluativa aspekter i en social kontext. Resonemanget pekar på så vis ut specifika tendenser till att ett visst perspektiv intas till förmån för ett annat beroende på interna och externa orsaker i ett mellanmänskligt sammanhang.

This dissertation examines sensation in twentieth-century narratives of London and argues that vulnerability is a constitutive experience of the post-imperial city. Sensations of vulnerability in London arise because of the built environment of the city: its status as an imperial center and a global capital create important intersections of local, national, and global concerns which render the city itself vulnerable. I chart the trajectory of vulnerability as an affective history of London that is documented in cultural texts ranging from fiction and film to political debates and legal materials. Since the sensational experiences of the present partly arise from the materials of the past embedded in the landscape, affective histories create new ways of understanding history as a spatial experience. The narrated sensations of the city make vulnerability legible as a persistent feature of twentieth-century London life. I begin with a modernist, imperial London, in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway and in Parliamentary debates from the same year (1925). Ambivalence about London's dual status as a local site and as a national and international capital is a response to London's vulnerable position at the end of the Great War. Next, I turn to World War Two London and Elizabeth Bowen's The Heat of the Day. I discuss intimacy as an important national feature in narratives of London during the crisis of this war. National narratives about intimacy constructed by Winston Churchill and heard on BBC radio respond directly to London's defensive vulnerability. My third chapter concerns Margaret Thatcher's 1980s London and the crucial role autonomy plays in constructing London as an invulnerable, international financial and civic capital. Alan Hollinghurst's The Swimming-Pool Library documents Londoners' attempts to make sense of their autonomy in a postimperial capital. My final chapter examines sensations of social and political belonging in contemporary London through reading Stephen Frears's Dirty Pretty Things alongside legal documents about immigration. I contend that reading cultural texts affectively creates counter-histories of the city that accommodate a deeper range of experiences than do traditional histories and offers to literary studies a new way of understanding the relationship between official and unofficial histories. / text

The primary intention of this study is to establish the theoretical significance of silence within the sphere of the twentieth-century Southern African novel in English. Clearly a feature of recent writing, silence is less overtly thematised in earlier work. Since relatively little critical and theoretical attention has been paid to silence as a positive phenomenon, however, modes of reading it are sought within the broader sphere of the social sciences, and specifically its tradition of social constructionism. Care is taken to address the pressures of the local context, identified in terms of the postcolonial paradigm as relating to language and to culture. A deliberate theoretical innovation is the renunciation of the trope of penetration in favour of the notion of an interface between intact language-culture systems, given an understanding of culture as existing between subjects in relations of power. Fictional narrative which addresses cross-culturality is thus read as a process of cultural translation, and the volitional deployment of silence as an act of resistance to its power. The significance of language is registered in the use of speech-act theory, in the insistence on meaning as generated in spatially and temporally situated conversation, and in the exploration of the influence of pronominal relations on identity. Emerging from my investigation is a recognition of the measure offered by silence of the autonomy of character as subject, and a corresponding recognition of the constitutive capacity of the reader to site the power of narration amongst the polyphonic voices within the culture of the text. The postcolonial paradigm indicates the need for a regional rather than a national perspective; thus the interfaces considered in the case studies include, in Plaatje's Mhudi, orality and literacy, tribal membership and non-sectarianism, Tswana and English; in Paton's Too Late the Phalarope the private domain and apartheid as public hegemonic discourse, narration as possession, and the tragic as structuring textual relations; and in Head's Maru the constitution of a postcolonial identity that resists and transcends the discursive hostility of racism, and the dislocation, displacement and alienation of exilic refuge from apartheid. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1992.

Uma das três obras que influenciaram profundamente gerações de escritores e leitores de quadrinhos no ano de 1986, junto a O Cavaleiro das Trevas, de Frank Miller e Maus, de Art Spiegelman, Watchmen, de Alan Moore e Dave Gibbons, é o mais próximo que se pode chegar de um cânone dos quadrinhos. A obra venceu o Prêmio Hugo de Ficção Científica de 1988, na categoria Outras Formas, e é considerada um dos melhores romances de todos os tempos pela revista Time. Um dos primeiros quadrinhos a sair da esfera das publicações especializadas e receber atenção de outras mídias, Watchmen é menção obrigatória para se entender a história do meio. Ainda assim, só começou a ser estudado com profundidade recentemente. A maior parte dos trabalhos sobre o quadrinho é centrada em suas propriedades históricas, a psicologia das personagens ou de que maneira estes se relacionam com a Filosofia – diferentes aspectos de uma obra meritória, que ao longo de muitos anos atingiu um grande público. O que esses estudos têm em comum é que, ao focar sua atenção nos detalhes, esquecem da narrativa – a estória que a obra conta. Esta dissertação enfoca o quadrinho como um todo; sua história e a maneira como é construída, através da teoria narrativa, considerada apropriada para este fim. A teoria narrativa é o foco da primeira parte do trabalho, junto à introdução por razões de espaço. Os trabalhos mais significativos na área são revisados e comentados. A linguagem dos quadrinhos e suas especificidades são o tema da segunda parte, também apresentando uma leitura das principais obras sobre o assunto. A terceira parte é dedicada às poucas tentativas realizadas com o intuito de conciliar ambas as linhas teóricas. A análise de Watchmen acontece na quarta seção. Além de listar os diferentes componentes narrativos, como eventos, cenário, tempo (dividido em ordem, duração e frequência), narrativa e focalização, também há uma extensa análise do estilo e das cores do traço, apresentada como um passo necessário na compreensão do tom e visão do narrador, dividido aqui entre meganarrador, monstrador e recitador. Na última parte, dedicada às considerações finais sobre o trabalho e que fins atingiu, se apresenta também uma interpretação do quadrinho, baseada em uma leitura pessoal. / One of three books that deeply influenced generations of comics writers and readers in 1986, together with Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns and Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, is as close to a canonic work as one could get, regarding comics. It won the 1988 Hugo Award, for science fiction books, in the Other Forms category, and was mentioned as one of the hundred best novels by Time magazine. One of the first comics to break out of the sphere of specialized reviews and receive acknowledgement from other media, it is an obligatory mention whenever one attempts to understand the History of the medium. And yet, it has not been thoroughly studied until recently. Most works dealing with the comic focus on its historical properties, the psychology of its characters or how they relate to Philosophy – different aspects of a merited novel which has achieved a large public throughout the years. But what these studies have in common is that, focusing on the detail, they overlook the narrative – the story presented in the work. This work focuses on the comic as a whole, its story and the way it is construed, through narrative theory – a theory based on the understanding of narratives and their constitutive parts, and, as such, clearly appropriate for the task. Narrative theory is the focus of the first part of the work, put together with the introduction for economy reasons. The most prominent works on the subject are reviewed and commented. The language of comics and its specificities are the theme of the second part of the work, also with reviews of its most significant works. The third part is dedicated to a few attempts of conciliation between both theoretical frameworks already developed. The analysis of Watchmen takes place in the fourth chapter. Besides listing the comic’s different narrative components, such as events, setting, time (divided in order, duration and frequency), narrative and focalization; there is also an extensive analysis of style and colors, presented as a necessary step in understanding the tone and views of the narrator, here divided into meganarrator, monstrator and reciter. In the final part, dedicated to considerations about the research and what it may have achieved, an interpretation of the novel is also presented, based on a personal reading.

Uma das três obras que influenciaram profundamente gerações de escritores e leitores de quadrinhos no ano de 1986, junto a O Cavaleiro das Trevas, de Frank Miller e Maus, de Art Spiegelman, Watchmen, de Alan Moore e Dave Gibbons, é o mais próximo que se pode chegar de um cânone dos quadrinhos. A obra venceu o Prêmio Hugo de Ficção Científica de 1988, na categoria Outras Formas, e é considerada um dos melhores romances de todos os tempos pela revista Time. Um dos primeiros quadrinhos a sair da esfera das publicações especializadas e receber atenção de outras mídias, Watchmen é menção obrigatória para se entender a história do meio. Ainda assim, só começou a ser estudado com profundidade recentemente. A maior parte dos trabalhos sobre o quadrinho é centrada em suas propriedades históricas, a psicologia das personagens ou de que maneira estes se relacionam com a Filosofia – diferentes aspectos de uma obra meritória, que ao longo de muitos anos atingiu um grande público. O que esses estudos têm em comum é que, ao focar sua atenção nos detalhes, esquecem da narrativa – a estória que a obra conta. Esta dissertação enfoca o quadrinho como um todo; sua história e a maneira como é construída, através da teoria narrativa, considerada apropriada para este fim. A teoria narrativa é o foco da primeira parte do trabalho, junto à introdução por razões de espaço. Os trabalhos mais significativos na área são revisados e comentados. A linguagem dos quadrinhos e suas especificidades são o tema da segunda parte, também apresentando uma leitura das principais obras sobre o assunto. A terceira parte é dedicada às poucas tentativas realizadas com o intuito de conciliar ambas as linhas teóricas. A análise de Watchmen acontece na quarta seção. Além de listar os diferentes componentes narrativos, como eventos, cenário, tempo (dividido em ordem, duração e frequência), narrativa e focalização, também há uma extensa análise do estilo e das cores do traço, apresentada como um passo necessário na compreensão do tom e visão do narrador, dividido aqui entre meganarrador, monstrador e recitador. Na última parte, dedicada às considerações finais sobre o trabalho e que fins atingiu, se apresenta também uma interpretação do quadrinho, baseada em uma leitura pessoal. / One of three books that deeply influenced generations of comics writers and readers in 1986, together with Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns and Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, is as close to a canonic work as one could get, regarding comics. It won the 1988 Hugo Award, for science fiction books, in the Other Forms category, and was mentioned as one of the hundred best novels by Time magazine. One of the first comics to break out of the sphere of specialized reviews and receive acknowledgement from other media, it is an obligatory mention whenever one attempts to understand the History of the medium. And yet, it has not been thoroughly studied until recently. Most works dealing with the comic focus on its historical properties, the psychology of its characters or how they relate to Philosophy – different aspects of a merited novel which has achieved a large public throughout the years. But what these studies have in common is that, focusing on the detail, they overlook the narrative – the story presented in the work. This work focuses on the comic as a whole, its story and the way it is construed, through narrative theory – a theory based on the understanding of narratives and their constitutive parts, and, as such, clearly appropriate for the task. Narrative theory is the focus of the first part of the work, put together with the introduction for economy reasons. The most prominent works on the subject are reviewed and commented. The language of comics and its specificities are the theme of the second part of the work, also with reviews of its most significant works. The third part is dedicated to a few attempts of conciliation between both theoretical frameworks already developed. The analysis of Watchmen takes place in the fourth chapter. Besides listing the comic’s different narrative components, such as events, setting, time (divided in order, duration and frequency), narrative and focalization; there is also an extensive analysis of style and colors, presented as a necessary step in understanding the tone and views of the narrator, here divided into meganarrator, monstrator and reciter. In the final part, dedicated to considerations about the research and what it may have achieved, an interpretation of the novel is also presented, based on a personal reading.

Uma das três obras que influenciaram profundamente gerações de escritores e leitores de quadrinhos no ano de 1986, junto a O Cavaleiro das Trevas, de Frank Miller e Maus, de Art Spiegelman, Watchmen, de Alan Moore e Dave Gibbons, é o mais próximo que se pode chegar de um cânone dos quadrinhos. A obra venceu o Prêmio Hugo de Ficção Científica de 1988, na categoria Outras Formas, e é considerada um dos melhores romances de todos os tempos pela revista Time. Um dos primeiros quadrinhos a sair da esfera das publicações especializadas e receber atenção de outras mídias, Watchmen é menção obrigatória para se entender a história do meio. Ainda assim, só começou a ser estudado com profundidade recentemente. A maior parte dos trabalhos sobre o quadrinho é centrada em suas propriedades históricas, a psicologia das personagens ou de que maneira estes se relacionam com a Filosofia – diferentes aspectos de uma obra meritória, que ao longo de muitos anos atingiu um grande público. O que esses estudos têm em comum é que, ao focar sua atenção nos detalhes, esquecem da narrativa – a estória que a obra conta. Esta dissertação enfoca o quadrinho como um todo; sua história e a maneira como é construída, através da teoria narrativa, considerada apropriada para este fim. A teoria narrativa é o foco da primeira parte do trabalho, junto à introdução por razões de espaço. Os trabalhos mais significativos na área são revisados e comentados. A linguagem dos quadrinhos e suas especificidades são o tema da segunda parte, também apresentando uma leitura das principais obras sobre o assunto. A terceira parte é dedicada às poucas tentativas realizadas com o intuito de conciliar ambas as linhas teóricas. A análise de Watchmen acontece na quarta seção. Além de listar os diferentes componentes narrativos, como eventos, cenário, tempo (dividido em ordem, duração e frequência), narrativa e focalização, também há uma extensa análise do estilo e das cores do traço, apresentada como um passo necessário na compreensão do tom e visão do narrador, dividido aqui entre meganarrador, monstrador e recitador. Na última parte, dedicada às considerações finais sobre o trabalho e que fins atingiu, se apresenta também uma interpretação do quadrinho, baseada em uma leitura pessoal. / One of three books that deeply influenced generations of comics writers and readers in 1986, together with Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns and Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, is as close to a canonic work as one could get, regarding comics. It won the 1988 Hugo Award, for science fiction books, in the Other Forms category, and was mentioned as one of the hundred best novels by Time magazine. One of the first comics to break out of the sphere of specialized reviews and receive acknowledgement from other media, it is an obligatory mention whenever one attempts to understand the History of the medium. And yet, it has not been thoroughly studied until recently. Most works dealing with the comic focus on its historical properties, the psychology of its characters or how they relate to Philosophy – different aspects of a merited novel which has achieved a large public throughout the years. But what these studies have in common is that, focusing on the detail, they overlook the narrative – the story presented in the work. This work focuses on the comic as a whole, its story and the way it is construed, through narrative theory – a theory based on the understanding of narratives and their constitutive parts, and, as such, clearly appropriate for the task. Narrative theory is the focus of the first part of the work, put together with the introduction for economy reasons. The most prominent works on the subject are reviewed and commented. The language of comics and its specificities are the theme of the second part of the work, also with reviews of its most significant works. The third part is dedicated to a few attempts of conciliation between both theoretical frameworks already developed. The analysis of Watchmen takes place in the fourth chapter. Besides listing the comic’s different narrative components, such as events, setting, time (divided in order, duration and frequency), narrative and focalization; there is also an extensive analysis of style and colors, presented as a necessary step in understanding the tone and views of the narrator, here divided into meganarrator, monstrator and reciter. In the final part, dedicated to considerations about the research and what it may have achieved, an interpretation of the novel is also presented, based on a personal reading.

This feminist analysis addresses Lindsey Collen’s intertextual use of myth in The Rape of Sita and how her reformation of the parodied texts becomes a resistance to patriarchy. Collen’s examination of possible counteractions against patriarchy is analysed and it is determined whether or not she posits writing, especially demythologization, as the best resistance to patriarchal discourse. Also, her assertion that transformation and a unity of the sexes are needed to bring about equality is studied. The methodology used is qualitative and inductive. The sources are examined and interpreted through close-reading strategies which reveal the complexities of the text and the way in which Collen subverts myth. Classical and Hindu myths and other texts, such as T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, are re-read and re-examined to investigate to what extent they have challenged or championed patriarchal ideology, through which it is hoped that a greater understanding of the way in which mythology contributes to attitudes to rape is gained. Three other texts dealing with rape are also studied, in order to better place Collen’s novel in context of the genre. Primarily, feminist criticism, particularly with an African feminist viewpoint, is used. However, because a conflation of post-colonial and postmodern approaches is embedded within feminism, these concepts are dealt with also. Theorists drawn upon include Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes, Mircea Eliade and Margaret Atwood. / Dissertation (MA (English))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / English / MA / unrestricted

La transfictionnalité, concept proche de celui de transtextualité, est définie par Richard Saint-Gelais comme « le phénomène par lequel au moins deux textes, du même auteur ou non, se rapportent conjointement à une même fiction, que ce soit par reprise de personnages, prolongement d’une intrigue préalable ou partage d’univers fictionnel ». Ce mémoire de recherche-création étudie l’usage qu’Alan Moore et Kevin O’Neill font de la transfictionnalité dans leur bande dessinée The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (1999-2019), et plus spécifiquement leur recyclage du matériel narratif du XIXe siècle britannique, marqué par la Révolution industrielle et les politiques impérialistes du règne de la reine Victoria. Il s’agit de mieux comprendre comment les personnages de la littérature de l’époque victorienne sont réappropriés par les auteurs, transformés et recontextualisés de manière à critiquer la culture et la société qui les a d’abord générés. Fiction Party est quant à lui un récit transfictif et autofictif dans lequel Francis, le personnage principal, est invité par erreur à une soirée donnée en l’honneur de la fiction au château de Dracula. Il y fait la rencontre d’innombrables personnages des littératures de tous les pays et de toutes les époques, parmi lesquels Antigone, Meursault, Emma Bovary, Don Quichotte, ou encore le shérif de Nottingham. Au cours de la fête, cependant, un meurtre est commis, et ces grandes figures littéraires doivent alors résoudre le mystère et identifier l’assassin, dans un hommage aux récits d’enquêtes d’Arthur Conan Doyle et Agatha Christie. / Transfictionnality, a concept close to that of transtextuality, is defined by Richard Saint Gelais as "the phenomenon by which at least two texts, from the same author or not, relate jointly to the same fiction, whether by resumption of characters, extension of a previous plot or sharing a fictional universe". This Master’s thesis in research-creation examines Alan Moore's and Kevin O'Neill's use of transfictionnality in their graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (1999-2019), and more specifically their recycling of narrative material from nineteenth century Great Britain, which is marked by the Industrial Revolution and the imperialist policies of the reign of Queen Victoria. Our aim is to better understand how the characters of literature of the Victorian era are appropriated by the authors, transformed and recontextualized so as to criticize the culture and the society that first generated them. Fiction Party is a transfictive and autofictional narrative in which Francis, the main character, is mistakenly invited to a party in honor of fiction at Dracula's Castle. He meets countless literary characters from every country and every epoch, including Antigone, Meursault, Emma Bovary, Don Quixote, and the sheriff of Nottingham. During the festivities, however, a murder is committed, and these great literary characters must then solve the mystery and identify the culprit, in a tribute to the detective fiction of Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie.