Local elites are usually the controller of local powers, especially for those local political elites who can make an authoritative allotment for social values and also have a certain influence on the decision-making process of public policies. Even though Taiwan has experienced political democratization and liberalization and most of political, economic and social systems and structures imitate the West, it is worthy of further observations if the law-related cognition, the most important for democracy, has been established, if the concept of Confucianism is still deeply rooted in the mind of citizenry, if parts of Confucianism are preserved and the concept of law-related cognition is existed, and what kind of influence it will have on current political developments. This research is designed to study the relation between the personal characteristics and the values of democracy (the concepts of conflict, local authority limit, honest, minority benefit and political participation) and the relation between the concept of Confucian culture and the law-related cognition. This research assumed the law-related cognition of local elites shall depend on the relation between such concepts and law-related cognitions. This research finds that the relations between the democratic values of local elites and the personal factors are not really all existed. For the democratic values and the Confucian culture concept of local elites, the educational background of local elites and the level of interviewees are most important and their party supports, ages and statuses are second. Those local elites with different characteristics have significant differences in their values of democracy and concepts of Confucian culture, which is from the viewpoint of Micro. This research also finds that the democratic values of local elites appear negative correlation between: 1. the concept of conflict and the concept of local authority limit; 2. the concept of local authority limit & the concept of honest and the concept of political participation & the law-related cognition respectively; 3. the concept of minority benefit and the concept of political participation; and 4. the law-related cognition and the concept of Confucian culture; but present lower positive correlation between: 1. the law-related cognition, the concept of conflict and the concept of political participation, 2. the concept of local authority limit, the concept of minority benefit and the concept of Confucian culture. In future, we can make further operations to build a more perfect model with the style of scales. The whole model shows that the limit of central and local authorities, the concept of political participation and the concept of Confucian culture are commonly significant parts in these three models. The model will not reduce its significance because of increasing variables. The age is also significant for the anticipation of local elites but the educational background is not, which is possible because the interviewee with higher education attainments tends to be younger in our survey data. Actually, the study on domestically local elites is seldom seen and most of studies target at public general. That¡¦s because the study expends much time and many efforts. This survey data is really rare. However, the survey time is far remote from today and the public and social trends have been changed substantially. It is worthy of continuous observations for this issue.

By analyzing my three composition works, the thesis is to discuss the creative ideas of contemporary compositions for Chinese traditional instruments, and to explore musical styles and thoughts of contemporary compositions for Chinese traditional instruments. These three compositions, ¡§Dialogue¡¨, written for erhu and yangqin, ¡§Yangqin Capriccio¡¨, written for yangqin and zheng, and ¡§Yunya¡¨, written for four Chinese traditional instruments and four western instruments, combine the composition techniques of Western music and the emphasis on the concept of lines and timbre of the East, and transform thoughts of traditional music into innovative spirit of contemporary music. Using traditional music and traditional instruments as the main elements of music is one way of composing for many contemporary Eastern composers. In addition to inputting the idea of traditional music into works, composers experiment their own musical thoughts in the music, as well as combining the composition techniques and theory of the Western modern music. This new way of composing has opened up a different world for the Chinese traditional music and instruments, and has shown great varieties of music.

: In our designed culture, every environment, object and picture is analyzed from the viewpoint of colour and light. Colour and light play an important role in social life and culture. This paper springs from an epistemological project about concept formation in the field of colour and light. Based on own observations and scientific and scholarly references it presents a graphic model describing possible constituent relations between colour and light experiences. Design is the art of using knowledge – implicit or explicit – about how humans perceive, experience, and relate to the world around. In design all senses are involved, but when dealing with colour and light we can confine ourselves to vision; designers must understand the conditions of visual perception. Human experience of colour and light has many sources; the given cultural context (conventional meanings of colour and light), the direct experience of the world around (colour and light expressions) and the basic perceptual functions (formal aspects of colour and light). There is need for distinct concepts and concise approaches to understand coherence of aesthetic and functional expressions. Design education calls for coherent and well defined structures that can be used to describe connections and distinctions between experiences of different kinds. / Human Colour and Light Synthesis.Towards a coherent field of knowledge

Denna undersökning syftade till att undersöka om människor uppfattade karaktärers personlighet olika beroende på vilken geometrisk form som vävts in i deras design. För att ge en bakgrund till undersökningen går arbetet igenom tidigare undersökningar gällande geometriska former och känslor, ikonografisk analys av bilder på karaktärer, stereotypiska karaktärer och karaktärsdesign. Som material för undersökningen skapades sex stycken konceptbilder på karaktärer, en kvinnlig och en manlig för var av de geometriska former som undersöktes: Cirkel, rektangel och triangel. Undersökningen utfördes med hjälp av en enkät där högstadieelever fick kryssa i de personlighetsdrag de förknippade med de olika karaktärerna, samt motivera sina val. Resultatet visade att geometriska former påverkade hur respondenterna uppfattade karaktärernas personlighet, men också att många andra attribut spelade en roll, som till exempel ansiktsdrag, kroppshållning och kläder. Slutsatsen skulle kunna bevisas bättre om fler, liknande arbeten gjordes, som fokuserade på flera åldersgrupper eller ställde fler djupgående frågor.

Detta arbetes syfte har varit att undersöka ifall det går att visuellt förmedla digitala samlarkortspels karaktärers personlighet och egenskaper, samt vilken miljö de vistas i, väl på en mobiltelefon trots dess begränsade skärmyta.

This Master thesis is within the area of innovative production. The authors are Master students at Mälardalen University in the field of production and process development. The purpose of the thesis is to design a production development process and to apply it in the case study performed at ABB Control Products in Västerås, Sweden. The new production concept developed is needed due to several changes in production of large size contactors that will take place during 2012; a new product size will be introduced, a new design of current products will be implemented, and production capacity for future increasing demands must be investigated. The approach to generate the production concept has been based on theoretical methods and models with focus on the lean philosophy. Through the theoretical framework a process for production development has been designed with the stages; Planning and Preparation, Current State Analyze, Concept Generation, Concept Analyze and Selection, and Visualization of Concept. The outcome of the thesis project is a mapping and disturbance analyze of current production, and a new production concept with an automation solution and a new balancing of the production line included. Finally the new production concept has been visualized in a 3D-simulation model. The main differences of the new production concept compared to current production is that conveyors are used as transportation system through the entire production process and two parallel flows is used in the production line in aim to shorten the lead time.

Character design is applied widely both in the game and movie industry. For character designers, it is essential to design intuitively and to avoid repeated and unfulfilling designs. To understand certain methodologies used in design, this degree project investigates if there are further limitations or considerations that need more attention when designing purposeful characters. To get an overview if culture, age and gender affect the choice of shapes and colour schemes of characters, as a method, the online survey was used providing results based on answers from 72 participants.

L'attention de l'auteur se porte sur la nécessité d'interroger, en tant qu'être pensant qui pense dans l'existence, le concept de concept. Qu'est-ce qu'un concept? Toute intelligibilité du concept réclame un savoir qui dépasse sa définition comme « objet fixé », c'est-à-dire qu'elle implique de s'attarder à « ce qu'il est », en deçà et par-delà l'évènementiel. L'auteur présume que les diverses formes du concept ne sont pas une « pluralité de définitions » à partir de laquelle il conviendrait d'isoler la « vraie », mais indique bien davantage les divers moments, les diverses articulations ou les multiples dimensions à travers lesquels il se forme et se « trans-forme » jusqu'à se signifier, dans un temps déterminé, de telle ou telle façon. Le concept se donne au présent. Toute conceptualisation qui prétendrait lui donner un contenu unitaire, a-temporel ou intemporel ne pourrait que le ramener aux phénomènes ou apparitions qu'il nomme. L'auteur propose ici une réflexion, en devenir, sur le concept « derrière » le concept: le concept de concept. À travers la voix de l'exception, exemple paradigmatique de la réduction du concept à l'évènementiel qu'il nomme, l'auteur cherche à dégager le rituel de la fondation et de la refondation du concept afin d'ouvrir les possibilités permettant de le penser en tant qu'unité ouverte, invention toujours inachevée et création évanescente où le sens se cristallise jusqu'à devenir l'assise d'une nouvelle création de sens. Au-delà d'une articulation du concept de concept, cette thèse de maîtrise n'est pas tant reliée à un « objet de recherche » qu'elle est une modalité pour trouver le « commun » : dépasser tous les éléments réfléchis en son parcours pour dégager une intelligibilité transcendante qui relierait toutes les voies ouvertes dans l'écriture. L'écriture et la parole s'expriment ici aux « risques et périls » de l'auteur. Leur domaine n'est pas donné d'avance, il est sans destination. C'est une écriture signante qui, en écrivant, renvoie à d'autres, mais est forcée prend sur soi le propos; malgré et envers tout l'héritage qu'elle transporte. C'est l'expérience d'une traversée questionnante. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Pensée (penseur subjectif existant), Concept, Concept de concept, Oubli, Création, Exception, Deleuze (1925-1995).

Social capital and self-concept were measured in a sample of 86 primarily African American female adolescents before and after participating in the Cool Girls, Inc. program, and in 89 comparison girls. Two dimensions of social capital (the diversity of girls’ social networks and the number of life domains in which girls were able to access help) were examined. It was hypothesized that participation in Cool Girls would be associated with increases in social capital and that this would mediate the relationship between participation in Cool Girls and increases in self-concept. Cool Girls participants experienced increases in social capital. Cool Girls and comparisons both experienced gains in most domains of self-concept, except for behavioral conduct, that were related to increases in number of help domains. Furthermore, there was a significant indirect effect of participation on social acceptance, global self-worth, and body image mediated through number of help domains. Implications are discussed.

Self-concept, or feelings about oneself, encompasses various areas including social and academic domains and has been suggested to be a predictor and mediator of other outcomes (Bryne, 1996). In this study, the relationships between achievement, intelligence scores, and self-concept in children with mild intellectual disabilities were examined. Self-concept and WISC verbal intelligence scores evidenced significant relationships. Additionally, relationships were demonstrated between gains in achievement and higher ratings of self-concept. These results suggest that relationships exist between intelligence, achievement, and self-concept in elementary school children with MID. Specifically, a positive relationship was demonstrated between achievement gains and self-concept. Associations between intelligence and self-concept also were demonstrated, where higher intelligence scores were related to both lower nonacademic self-concept and higher cognitive self-concept.