The intention with this thesis is to improve the method to assess dental wear as an age indicator by examining its correlation with the closure of cranial suture and the influence diet has on dental wear. This thesis explores this correlation through a comparative study between a collection of skulls with unknown context and a control group with known context. Age assessment of cranial sutures is one of the oldest and most questionable methods of physical anthropology. The studies that were carried out in the beginning of the 21st century have shown a useful correlation between the cranial sutures closure and age assessment. Research on food is essential for understanding a society, and dental health has always been important for wellbeing. A difference between populations today and historical populations is the dental wear that causes infections. All these premises make this research interesting to explore further, to learn more about what the teeth can tell us about historic populations.

In this thesis, historical institutional analysis of neo-institutionalism will be adopted as the research approach. The analysis combining the international institutional background and domestic institutional development in China and Hong Kong indicates the structural dynamics and strategic goals why China establishes CEPA with Hong Kong. Besides, I focus on the provisions of CEPA and summarize the difficulties of further development and perspectives. I wish this thesis could be studied as reference for scholars and experts in the field of Mainland China studies.

This thesis investigates how two novels by Dennis Cooper, Closer and Frisk, conceive of queer sexuality as transgressing heteronormative notions of moral standards, and how they challenge these by elevating their subject matters to an excessive degree. Drawing on the concepts of the grotesque and the Gothic, this thesis explores the aesthetics of Closer and Frisk, focusing in particular on the way corporeality figures as a central aspect of how these texts explore the ways in which the body becomes a site for Cooper’s discourses of transgression. Furthermore, drawing on Lee Edelman’s notion of the queer subject as inherently opposed to the value of every social form and structure, it is argued that the adverse representations of Cooper’s subjects work to add to this oppositionality. Thus, this thesis investigates how the queer expressions of desire in the texts are inextricable from the aberrant imagery of the body; the body as Gothically grotesque in the novels provides ways to configure alternative ways of conceptualizing the queer body and investigate its ties to transgression.

Text in English / Although initially dismissed as superficial, Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing, and Patrick Marber’s Closer use the theme of marital betrayal as a trope to investigate metatheatrical and epistemological issues. This study aims to demonstrate how these three plays define and explore the concept of authenticity within the fictional as well as the actual world; how arbitrary the construction and mediation of the characters’ identities are, not only from their own perspective, but also from the audience’s; the significance of the audience’s role in these plays and how issues of authenticity, fictionality and dishonesty impact on a genre that depends on illusion. This study intends to provide a new interpretation of these three texts through an analysis drawn from postmodern and poststructuralist theories, concerning the concept of authenticity within art and language. This study finds that the fictional worlds in these plays are created through mediation, which includes everyday language as well as complex works of art. Authenticity is shown to be an elusive concept. Language is either unsuccessfully used to force authentic responses from characters, or as a shield. In Betrayal, language functions as a protective barrier, preventing the characters from knowing one another. The Real Thing suggests that although inauthenticity may be established, the inverse is not necessarily true. In Closer, the characters try in vain to access authenticity through different registers of language. Furthermore, neither the body nor the mind is shown to be the locus of authenticity in Closer. Within the postmodern context where originality is impossible, mimicry is not seen as something external and inauthentic, but as inextricably part of human existence. The audience is drawn into the fictional world of these plays as its members are able to identify with the disillusionment of the characters and their inability to form a definitive view of each other. Simultaneously, the audience is ousted from the fictional world by being reminded of the author’s presence through metatheatrical devices. These plays take advantage of the fictional status of theatre to explore issues of authenticity, positioning them in direct opposition to postdramatic and verbatim plays. / Afrikaans & Theory of Literature / D. Litt. et Phil. (Theory of Literature)

Text in English / Although initially dismissed as superficial, Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing, and Patrick Marber’s Closer use the theme of marital betrayal as a trope to investigate metatheatrical and epistemological issues. This study aims to demonstrate how these three plays define and explore the concept of authenticity within the fictional as well as the actual world; how arbitrary the construction and mediation of the characters’ identities are, not only from their own perspective, but also from the audience’s; the significance of the audience’s role in these plays and how issues of authenticity, fictionality and dishonesty impact on a genre that depends on illusion. This study intends to provide a new interpretation of these three texts through an analysis drawn from postmodern and poststructuralist theories, concerning the concept of authenticity within art and language. This study finds that the fictional worlds in these plays are created through mediation, which includes everyday language as well as complex works of art. Authenticity is shown to be an elusive concept. Language is either unsuccessfully used to force authentic responses from characters, or as a shield. In Betrayal, language functions as a protective barrier, preventing the characters from knowing one another. The Real Thing suggests that although inauthenticity may be established, the inverse is not necessarily true. In Closer, the characters try in vain to access authenticity through different registers of language. Furthermore, neither the body nor the mind is shown to be the locus of authenticity in Closer. Within the postmodern context where originality is impossible, mimicry is not seen as something external and inauthentic, but as inextricably part of human existence. The audience is drawn into the fictional world of these plays as its members are able to identify with the disillusionment of the characters and their inability to form a definitive view of each other. Simultaneously, the audience is ousted from the fictional world by being reminded of the author’s presence through metatheatrical devices. These plays take advantage of the fictional status of theatre to explore issues of authenticity, positioning them in direct opposition to postdramatic and verbatim plays. / Afrikaans and Theory of Literature / D. Litt. et Phil. (Theory of Literature)

La configuration du droit des affaires en Afrique est intimement liée à l’histoire coloniale, histoire d’une compétition entre puissances qui se décline aujourd’hui en compétition de fait entre systèmes juridiques. Le processus de l’OHADA, entamé et mené en grande pompe, s’est contenté d’une harmonisation interne du droit des pays civilistes, avec une large coïncidence entre les règles adoptés et celles qui constituent le droit français des affaires. Ce droit « harmonisé » des affaires laisse donc de côté le droit des pays de common law, l’autre facette du paysage juridique africain et il s’en dégage des clivages entre juristes de deux bords.Mais les clivages ne se limitent pas à cette dichotomie droit civil-common law. A côté de ces systèmes proclamés, existe une régulation informelle dont la prise en compte est indispensable à qui veut comprendre la règle qui régit les affaires en Afrique. L’enjeu est dès lors multiple : Un rapprochement est souhaitable et possible entre le droit OHADA et la common law. La proximité entre les pays et les peuples dont relèvent ces deux systèmes est telle qu’on se demande comment est-ce possible de maintenir les cloisons. Rapprocher la common law de l’OHADA ne voudrait pourtant pas dire les remplacer par un système de substitution et de consensus, belle vue de l’esprit du reste. C’est donc plus la compatibilité que l’uniformité qui est recherchée. Cet objectif parait en tout cas plus en adéquation avec la logique de recherche d’attractivité qui est celle du droit des affaires. Cette étude insiste donc sur cette ouverture vers « l’autre » système, tout en soulignant l’importance du secteur informel, des us et coutumes qui en découlent. / The configuration of business law in Africa is intimately linked to its colonial history, a story of competition between powerful groups, evident today in the competition between legal systems. The process of “OHADA”, which started with such ceremony, has ultimately contented itself with an internal harmonization of the legal systems of countries with a civil law system. There is a notable correlation between the adopted rules and French business law. This “harmonized” law, therefore, ignores countries with common law systems, the other facet of the African legal landscape, generating tensions between lawyers on both sides.Nevertheless, the divisions are not limited to the dichotomy civil law-common law. Informal regulation exists alongside both these legal systems, and they must be taken into account if the rules that govern business in Africa are to be understood. This generates a multiple challenge: bringing OHADA law and common law closer is both desirable and possible. The proximity between these people and countries is too close to justify the existing differences. Nevertheless, bringing common law and OHADA closer, does not mean replacing them with a new common system, which seems unrealistic. Compatibility, rather than uniformity, would be the desired result, offering a better fit with the search of attractiveness, which is in the essence of business law. This study therefore promotes an open approach of the “other” system, while underlining the importance of the informal sector, based on custom and usages.

This paper concerns aliasing removal methods during the shadow displaying. Method of shadow mapping, its principles, procedure and mainly its drawbacks in the form of aliasing development are described. For the removal of this undesirable phenomenon, several aliasing suppressing methods are described - Percentage Closer Filter, Variance Shadow Map, Convulotion Shadow Map, Exponential Shadow Map a Bilateral Filter. I conclude my work with a proposal and implementation of a demonstrative application, which demonstrates the implemented results adequately. Also, the comparison of individual methods on the basis of their quality and computational demands is included.

The main task of the thesis entitled Differentiation of European Integration Process is historical excursus into the development of the policy of differentiation and flexibility within the European integration member countries. The thesis points out the comparison of the speeches delivered by leading representatives that helped forming theoretical basis of this european policy. The thesis then also characterises the main models of differentiated collaboration and evaluates their present contribution and future utilisation. With help of theoretical foundings the thesis then analyses three particular examples of differentiation in existing European integration process.

This thesis aims at answering two research questions at the topic of Reshaping the Future of the European Union. The questions are: Will the future of the European Union be flexible? and if so, Which model will be the most suitable one?. To answer these questions flexibility is analyzed through the context that necessitates its usage, its earlier and recent models, its evolution at the official realm, and the institutional and country views on it chapters. At the end of this analysis, this thesis&amp / #8217 / answer to the first question is: Yes, although there is quite skepticism against the term flexibility at almost every realm of the Union / its gradual evolution at all dimensions of the Union shows that this term would continue to develop and has a chance to become the main ruling mechanism at the future. The answer of the second question is: a modified Variable Geometry in addition to the introduction of radical comprehensive structural changes would be the most sufficient future flexible model of integration at the future.

Jim Wayne Miller’s poetry examines how human history and topography join to create place. His work often incorporates images of land and ecology; it deliberately questions the delineation between place and self. This thesis explores how Miller presents images of water to describe the relationship between inhabitants and their location, both with the positive image of the spring and the negative image of the flood. Additionally, this thesis examines how the Brier, Miller’s most prominent persona character, grieves his separation from home and ultimately finds healing and reunification of the self through his return to the hills. In his poetry, Miller argues that an essential piece of people’s identity is linked with the land, and, through recognition of the importance of topography on the development of the self, individuals can foster a deeper sense of community through appreciation of their place.