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Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-22T17:26:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Otavia.pdf: 6108896 bytes, checksum: 1bc89117025db99b2526c9dd3935b18e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-12-09 / This research is a visual-discursive analysis of the characters Tohru, Isuzu, Akito and Ritsu, present in the shojo manga Fruits Basket (1998-2006), by the Japanese author Natsuki Takaya (1973 - ). The main objective is to investigate how the female characters are represented visually and verbally in shojo manga, through the analysis of these four characters. The theoretical support is the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) by Fairclough (2001), Van Dijk (1993, 2008) and Wodak (2000, 2004), the Grammar of Visual Design by Kress and van Leeuwen (1998), Gender Studies by Butler (1998, 2008), Haraway (2004) and de Lauretis (1994), and Japanese pop culture by Gravett (2006), Luyten (1985, 2002, 2005) and Sato (2005, 2007). The research is divided into two chapters: the first chapter consists of the theoretical framework, addressing a bibliographic review of the forementioned areas, and the second chapter contains the methodology and the two parts of the analysis - representation and performance. The study concludes that, despite being a way of disseminating traditional values, the shojo manga presents itself, albeit very lightly, as a subversive space for normative gender relations / Este trabalho constitui uma análise visual-discursiva das personagens Tohru, Isuzu, Akito e Ritsu, presentes no shojo mangá Fruits Basket (1998-2006), da mangaká japonesa Natsuki Takaya (1973 -). O objetivo principal é investigar como são representadas visual e verbalmente as personagens femininas nos mangás shojo, por meio da análise dessas quatro personagens. A fundamentação teórica busca sustentação na Análise Crítica do Discurso (ACD) de Fairclough (2001), Van Dijk (1993, 2008) e Wodak (2000, 2004), na Gramática Visual de Kress e van Leeuwen (1998), nos Estudos de Gênero de Butler (1998, 2008), Haraway (2004) e de Lauretis (1994) e na cultura pop japonesa de Gravett (2006), Luyten (1985, 2002, 2005) e Sato (2005, 2007). O trabalho encontra-se dividido em dois capítulos, constituindo o primeiro o referencial teórico, abordando uma revisão bibliográfica dos fundamentos acima citados, e o segundo capítulo contemplando a metodologia e as duas partes da análise representação e performance. O estudo conclui que apesar de serem um meio de disseminar valores tradicionais, os shojo mangás apresentam-se, ainda que de maneira tímida, como um espaço subversivo para as relações normativas de gênero

Ein Ausfallkorb (Default Basket, Basket Default Swap, BDS) ist die Bündelung einer relativ geringen Anzahl einzelner Kreditpositionen. Der Sicherungsgeber (Investor) verpflichtet sich, den i-ten Forderungsausfall zu übernehmen und wird als ith-to-default-Käufer bezeichnet. Da es sich um die Bündelung einer relativ geringen Anzahl von, möglicherweise sehr heterogenen Kreditpositionen handelt, lassen sich herkömmliche Modellierungsansätze aus dem Kreditrisiko nicht direkt zur Risikobewertung anwenden. Der vorliegende Beitrag stellt deshalb Möglichkeiten vor, eine Risikobewertung für Ausfallkörbe vorzunehmen. Der Modellierungsansatz über das Ein-Faktormodell ist dabei sehr stark an die typische Kreditrisikomodellierung angelehnt, weicht aber in einigen Punkten auch erheblich davon ab. Zentrales Anliegen dieses Artikels ist es daher, die wesentlichen Mechanismen zu verdeutlichen, welche die Risikobewertung in diesem Modell beeinflussen. Hierbei wird insbesondere das Zusammenspiel von Abhängigkeitsstruktur (in Form der Korrelation), Ausfallwahrscheinlichkeiten der Einzelpositionen und den Ausfallwahrscheinlichkeiten für die Risikogeber betrachtet.

Toute pratique sportive est dépendante d’un système de règles qui simultanément prescrivent et prohibent. Codifiées, ces règles participent de l’institutionnalisation sportive propre au sport compétitif contemporain. La modalité sportive reposant sur une pratique fédérale, en club, nous intéresse ici. Ce travail de thèse rend compte de la transmission du code du jeu, des représentations sociales des acteurs du sport – pratiquants, entraineurs, arbitres et dirigeants – ainsi que de la gestion de la norme sportive – espaces, durées, règles du jeu – par les institutions référentes. Notre recherche repose sur une approche comparative entre trois sports, distincts par leur degré d’institutionnalisation : le basket-ball, l’escalade et le paintball. Ce travail s’appuie simultanément sur l’usage des observations –séances d’entrainements en club, compétitions –, des entretiens semi-directifs (n = 52) et de la méthode des comparaisons par paires. Il en ressort une perception différenciée de l’application de la règle sportive qui dépend tout autant du niveau d’institutionnalisation – le paintball étant le moins sportifié des trois sports – que des caractéristiques de la pratique (situations sociomotrices ou psychomotrices). La transmission du code du jeu est consubstantielle à une culture en acte de la pratique alors que les représentations sociales se distinguent en fonction de la carrière sportive. La gestion de la norme repose sur des principes différenciés selon le processus de sportification de la pratique. Le basket-ball en club se joue sur un format pérenne et un terrain normalisé, ce qui n’est pas le cas du paintball où de multiples formats de jeu sont encore d’actualité. L’escalade se situe quant à elle dans un entre-deux, sommée de sélectionner une discipline au détriment des autres en vue d’une future olympisation. L’intérêt principal de cette étude réside notamment dans le fait de rendre compte de la socialisation sportive comme inductrice de la réalisation subjective des individus. Cette socialisation s’opère par le biais du rapport à l’institution qu’entretiennent les pratiquants avec la normativité sportive. / Any sport practice is dependent upon sets of rules which simultaneously prescribe and forbid what must or mustn’t be done. These rules are codified, they contribute to the sport institutionalization specific to modern competitive sports. We’ll focus on club-organized practice. This thesis work gives an account of how game codes are passed on, of the social representations of sport’s stakeholders - players, coaches, referees and managers - as well as how its norms – game rules, space, length – are dealt with by the various organizations. Our research is based on a comparative approach between three sports that reflect different levels of institutionalization: basketball, paintball and climbing. This work concurrently builds on the use of observation – i.e. training sessions in clubs, competitions -, semi-structured interviews (n = 52) and the method of pair-wise comparisons. It shows sport rule implementation is perceived differently depending on the level of institutionalization - paintball being the least sportified among the three sports - as much as on the practice characteristics (socio-motor and psycho-motor situations). The passing on of the game’s codes is consubstantial with an actual practice culture whereas social representations can be distinguished by one’s sporting career. Also, the way norms are handled lies on differentiated guidelines depending on the practice’s sportification process. Club basketball playing is performed in a durableformat on a normalized sports ground; this is not the case of paintball for which different game formats are still being explored. As for climbing, its format falls somewhere in-between as it has had to opt in for a specific discipline rather than another with the view of an Olympic status. The particular relevancy of this study lies in the fact that it shows sport socialization can induce the individual’s subjective fulfillment. This socialization operates through the institutional prism of the link the players have with the sport’s normativity. / Toda práctica deportiva depende de un sistema de reglas que prescriben y prohíben al mismo tiempo. Estas reglas están codificadas y forman parte del marco de la institucionalización deportiva propia del deporte de competición contemporáneo. Nos interesan los deportes basados en prácticas federadas, es decir, en clubes. Esta tesis da cuenta de la transmisión de los códigos de juego, de las representaciones sociales de los actores del deporte (practicantes, entrenadores, árbitros, dirigentes) así como de la gestión de la norma deportiva (espacios, duraciones, reglas del juego) por parte de las instituciones de referencia. Nuestra investigación adopta un enfoque basado en la comparación de tres deportes que presentan un grado de institucionalización muy distinto: el baloncesto, la escalada y el paintball. Este trabajo se apoya simultáneamente en el uso de observaciones (sesiones de entrenamiento en clubes, competiciones), entrevistas semi-estructuradas (n = 52) y el método de la comparación por pares. Cabe destacar una percepción diferenciada de la aplicación de la regla deportiva, que depende tanto del nivel de institucionalización (el paintball es la menos deportivizada de las tres disciplinas) como de las características de la práctica (situaciones sociomotrices y psicomotrices). La transmisión de los códigos de juego es consustancial a una cultura activa de la práctica deportiva, mientras que las representaciones sociales se distinguen en función de la carrera deportiva. La gestión de la norma se basa en principios diferenciados que varían según el proceso de deportivización de la práctica. El baloncesto, en club, se juega en un formato perenne y en un terreno normalizado, lo cual no ocurre en el paintball, disciplina en la que varios formatos de juego permanecen en uso. La escalada se sitúa en un punto intermedio, dada la selección necesaria de una disciplina con respecto a otras de cara a un futuro reconocimiento como disciplina olímpica.El principal interés de este estudio recae en el hecho de abordar la socialización deportiva como motor de la realización subjetiva de los individuos. Esta socialización se manifiesta a través de la relación que los practicantes mantienen con la institución y con la normalización deportiva.

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A clear understanding of interactions between the arid Southwestern environment and that area's prehistoric inhabitants has been a goal of Southwestern archaeology. This research has reconstructed annual corn and dry bean crop yields for southwestern Colorado from A.D. 650 to 1968, as well as the amounts of those foods available for each of those years. Colorado's five southwestern county dry farming corn and dry bean crop records were combined to create two regional crop series. Modern technology's increasing influence was recognized as being present in the two series. This influence was felt to parallel Colorado's statewide fertilizer consumption and was removed using a multiple regression procedure. Two modern technology free regional crop series resulted. These two series, along with the original two historic crop series were calibrated against five Four Corners tree-ring chronologies from four localities. Both Douglas-fir and pinyon were employed in the calibration. The calibration process used multiple regression so that each series' current annual crop yield could be predicted using one or more of 25 separate dendrochronological predictors. The regression equation deemed most suitable for predicting each of the four crop series was utilized to reconstruct annual crop yield estimates for the A.D. 652-1968 period. Normal verification was impossible since additional independent crop data were lacking. The reconstructed crop yield series were evaluated statistically. Portions of them were compared against historically recorded events. These two types of testing suggested that the retrodictions were probably valid. The crop yield reconstructions provided the basic data for four sets of storage simulations that attempted to determine corn and dry bean availability for each year from A.D. 652 to 1968, given certain assumptions about the levels of storage technology available to the Anasazi of southwestern Colorado. A. E. Douglass' A.D. 1276-1299 "Great Drought" appears to be confirmed. A number of additional famines or food crises have also been recognized. In addition, periods when food was super abundant have been identified. It now appears that much of the Four Corners large public construction projects were undertaken during and perhaps because of these periods of excess surplus.

We propose two alternative approaches to evaluate numerically credit basket derivatives in a N-name structural model where the number of entities, N, is large, and where the names are independent and identically distributed random variables conditional on common random factors. In the first framework, we treat a N-name model as a set of N Bernoulli random variables indicating a default or a survival. We show that certain expected functionals of the proportion L_N of variables in a given state converge at rate 1/N as N [right arrow - infinity]. Based on these results, we propose a multi-level simulation algorithm using a family of sequences with increasing length, to obtain estimators for these expected functionals with a mean-square error of epsilon ² and computational complexity of order epsilon⁻², independent of N. In particular, this optimal complexity order also holds for the infinite-dimensional limit. Numerical examples are presented for tranche spreads of basket credit derivatives. In the second framework, we extend the approximation of Bush et al. [13] to a structural jump-diffusion model with discretely monitored defaults. Under this approach, a N-name model is represented as a system of particles with an absorbing boundary that is active in a discrete time set, and the loss of a portfolio is given as the function of empirical measure of the system. We show that, for the infinite system, the empirical measure has a density with respect to the Lebesgue measure that satisfies a stochastic partial differential equation. Then, we develop an algorithm to efficiently estimate CDO index and tranche spreads consistent with underlying credit default swaps, using a finite difference simulation for the resulting SPDE. We verify the validity of this approximation numerically by comparison with results obtained by direct Monte Carlo simulation of the basket constituents. A calibration exercise assesses the flexibility of the model and its extensions to match CDO spreads from precrisis and crisis periods.

An "in-basket" test (representative sample of work usually found in the incoming mail basket of a person in a specific desk job) was designed to be used under limitations imposed by Civil Service Statute 1269m concerning merit examinations for the position of police sergeant. This test was used in conjunction with the traditional cognitive skills. test and performance evaluations. Subjects were 20 white male police officers. Peer and supervisory evaluations and predictions of who would make the best sergeant were correlated with total scores on the three-part test. Results indicate that the in-basket test contributes a unique and viable dimension to the traditional merit examination, and aids in the selection of those considered most qualified. Use of the in-basket test under Code 1269m was subsequently approved by the Civil Service Commission.

The neural mechanisms that support learning and memory are still poorly understood. Much work has focused on changes in neurotransmitter receptor expression, while changes in voltage-gated ion channel expression have been largely unexplored, despite the fact that voltage-gated ion channels govern neuronal excitability. Here we used eyeblink conditioning (EBC) in rats, a model of learning and memory with a well-understood neural circuit, to examine regulation of voltage-gated ion channels as a consequence of learning. EBC is a form of classical conditioning that involves pairings of a behaviorally neutral conditioned stimulus (CS) and an eyeblink eliciting unconditioned stimulus (US) over many trials to produce an eyeblink conditioned response (CR) to the CS in anticipation of the US. The acquisition and generation of the eyeblink CR is governed by plasticity at various sites in the cerebellum, both in the cerebellar cortex and the interpositus nucleus (IPN). Purkinje cells (PCs) are the primary neuron in the cerebellar cortex and these cells represent the sole output of the cerebellar cortex. PCs tonically inhibit the neurons of the IPN; the IPN is the start of the eyeblink pathway. In order for a CR to be generated, the inhibition of the IPN by PCs must be lifted. Basket cells (BCs) are small inhibitory interneurons that form synapses near the PC soma. These neurons are strategically located to strongly regulate PC output through inhibitory input near the axon hillock. BC axon terminals have the highest expression of Kv1.2, an alpha subunit of the Kv1 (Shaker) family of voltage-gated potassium channels, in the cerebellum. In addition, significant Kv1.2 expression is found on PC dendrites. Blocking Kv1.2 leads to increased GABAergic input to PCs and facilitates EBC. In the current work, we addressed the question of whether EBC itself regulates surface expression of Kv1.2 in cerebellar cortex. Rats received three days of either EBC, explicitly unpaired stimulus presentations, or no stimuli, and cerebellar tissue was harvested and analyzed via biotinylation/western blot (WB) and multiphoton microscopy (MP) techniques. In the first experiment, the Unpaired group showed significantly reduced surface Kv1.2 expression at BC axon terminals as measured by MP, but no changes observed with the WB measure, which measures expression at both BC axon terminals and PC dendrites. The second experiment used the same procedures but examined cerebellar tissue following a shorter training procedure. We hypothesized that the Paired and Unpaired groups would show similar Kv1.2 surface expression earlier in training. The Unpaired group showed increased surface Kv1.2 compared to the other two groups in the WB measures, but no differences were observed in the MP measure. Paired group rats that did not exhibit CRs showed the same pattern as the Unpaired group. Overall, we observed training and location specific changes in surface Kv1.2 expression, suggesting that learning does appear to regulate voltage-gated ion channel expression in the mammalian brain. Increased surface Kv1.2 early in training before CR expression emerges may set the stage for other mechanisms to govern the expression of the learned response. Prolonged stimulus input that is unmodulated by expression of a learned response, such as in the Unpaired group in the first experiment, leads to long-term changes in surface Kv1.2 expression exclusively at BC axon terminals.

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Hikaru Hanawa Peterson / This thesis focuses on the question of the effect of commodity pricing and Federal programs on the cost of food in the United States. For many decades the debate around subsidy payments has been argued in the halls of Congress and in farm fields across the country. Corn, wheat, and soybeans are the three largest crops subsidized in the United States today; arguably, the prices of these crops are influenced by subsidy payments. The goal of this thesis is to determine the effects of the prices of the top three subsidized crops on the thrifty market basket for families for four published by the USDA, factoring in transportation costs, market spread, agricultural technology advancements, and market value share. Previous studies have focused on direct subsidy payments as a whole and their aggregate influence on the price of food. This paper builds on the past studies by evaluating the effects of crop-specific programs on the cost of food. Econometric regression analysis was used to analyze the data gathered to support or refute the hypothesis that commodity prices and Federal payments do influence the cost of food. Initially data were gathered from January 1960 to December 2012. The data were adjusted for inflation using the Producer Price Index and Consumer Price Index where appropriate. After multiple attempts of modeling it was discovered that data from 1960 to 1970 needed to be discarded due to the difference in the market basket price calculations from the rest of the series. Furthermore, the model was adjusted based on the presence of multicollinearity, and the Hildreth-Lu Method was utilized to correct for the autocorrelation in error. The regression results illustrated that the only commodity of the three considered in the study that had a positive and statistically significant impact on the cost of food over the sample period was corn (p-value = 0.005). The coefficients on wheat and soybean prices were statistically insignificant. The historical fuel price had the expected positive sign and was statistically significant. The agricultural technology factor was not significant. The results also suggested that the cereal grains supply chain has significantly increased the cost of food. Both the cereal grain farm value share and the retail-to-farm spread for cereal grains were statistically significant (p-value < 0.000) with positive coefficients. The price spread of fruit was statistically significant, (p-value = 0.000), but the farm value was not. The regression results were initially surprising for the crop price variables. The overall analysis supports previous studies that crop subsidies alone may not have impacted food prices per se, but biofuel policies may have had unintended consequences. Crop-specific results provide more information to consider when discussing The Farm Bill and the implications of such a complicated and omnibus piece of legislation.