Human language is both a cognitive and a cultural phenomenon. Any evolutionary account of language, then, must address both biological and cultural evolution. In this thesis, I give a mainly cultural evolutionary answer to two main questions: firstly, how do working systems of learned communication arise in populations in the absence of external or internal guidance? Secondly, how do those communication systems take on the fundamental structural properties found in human languages, i.e. systematicity at both a meaningless and meaningful level? A large, multi-disciplinary literature exists for each question, full of apparently conflicting results and analyses. My aim in this thesis is to survey this work, so as to find any commonalities and bring this together in order to provide a minimal account of the cultural evolution of language. The first chapter of this thesis takes a number of well-established models of the emergence of signalling systems. These are taken from several different fields: evolutionary linguistics, evolutionary game theory, philosophy, artificial life, and cognitive science. By using a common framework to directly compare these models, I show that three underlying commonalities determine the ability of any population of agents to reliably develop optimal signalling. The three requirements are that i) agents can create and transfer referential information, ii) there is a systemic bias against ambiguity, and iii) some mechanism leading to information loss exists. Following this, I extend the model to determine the effects of including referential uncertainty. I show that, for the group of models to which this applies, this places certain extra restrictions on the three requirements stated above. In the next chapter, I use an information-theoretic framework to construct a novel analysis of signalling games in general, and rephrase the three requirements in more formal terms. I then show that we can use these 3 criteria as a diagnostic for determining whether any given signalling game will lead to optimal signalling, without the requirement for repeated simulations. In the final, much longer, chapter, I address the topic of duality of patterning. This involves a lengthy review of the literature on duality of patterning, combinatoriality, and compositionality. I then argue that both levels of systematicity can be seen as a functional adaptation which maintains communicative accuracy in the face of noisy processes at different levels of analysis. I support this with results from a new, minimally-specified model, which also clarifies and informs a number of long-fought debates within the field.

L'analyse des textes internationaux démontre que les règles du droit anglo-américain sont les plus sollicitées pour régir les contrats internationaux dès leur formation et jusqu'à leur extinction. La combinaison de différents facteurs explique ce phénomène actuel d'influence du droit anglo-américain et dévoile son ampleur. D'une part, le phénomène de la mondialisation, qui s'exprime essentiellement par l'internationalisation de l'économie, a entraîné une concurrence entre les nations, relative à l'attractivité de leur droit. La flexibilité et le pragmatisme du droit anglo-américain semblent, d'autre part, l'avoir emporté sur le légicentrisme du droit civil. Enfin, l'expansion des outils issus de l'analyse économique du droit dans les différents systèmes juridiques cosmopolites matérialise indubitablement ce phénomène anglo-américain de pénétration de la dimension économique dans la sphère juridique. Par ailleurs, plusieurs mécanismes contractuels anglo-américains sont importés dans les projets d'unification du droit des contrats; ceux-ci véhiculent effectivement la philosophie juridique des « commonlawyers ». Par rapport aux autres normes incorporées dans les textes internationaux essentiellement du droit romano-germanique, l'intégration des règles anglo-américaines a abouti à un renforcement des principes directeurs de la liberté et de la loyauté contractuelle ainsi qu'un affaiblissement du principe de la sécurité contractuelle / The analysis of international texts shows that the rules of Anglo-American law are the most used to regulate International contracts from their formation until their extinction. The combination of various factors explains this current phenomenon of influence of Anglo-American law and reveals its magnitude. On the one hand, the phenomenon of globalization, which is expressed essentially by the internationalization of the economy, has led to competition between nations for the attractiveness of their norms. The flexibility and pragmatism of Anglo-American law, on the other hand, seem to have prevailed over the legitimacy of civil law. Finally, the expansion of the tools resulting from the economic analysis of the law in the different cosmopolitan legal systems undoubtedly materializes this Anglo-American phenomenon of penetration of the economic dimension in the legal sphere. In addition, several Anglo-American contractual mechanisms are imported into the the projects of unification of the law of international contracts ; the effectively convey the legal philosophy of the common lawyers. The integration of Anglo-American rules has resulted in a strengthening of the guiding principles of freedom and contractual loyaulty, as well as weakening of the principle of contractual security

In investigating the ways social actors experience and interact with mass media texts, I examine how cosplay, as a performative practice of identity in relation to popular culture, enables social actors to subvert and reproduce marginalization towards minority status groups. Theoretical arguments apply a constructionist framework in order to examine the participants’ meaning making processes. The study addresses the following research questions: (1) what social function does cosplay serve for participants; (2) how do cosplayers perform race and gender; (3) how do cosplayers resist, negotiate, or reinforce race and gender-based marginalization? Drawing upon qualitative data gathered from observing two large metropolitan comic book conventions and from conducting nine in-depth interviews, the author forms two arguments. First, cosplayers are capable of both subverting and reinforcing marginalization. Second, the processes of identity-making, social capital, and social cohesion that promote cultural capital in cosplay are stratified along race and gender.

Sexuality is one of the most central elements of human existence. Throughout history, attacks on women have been common during armed conflict. Frequently military forces have viewed sexual violence as a spoil of war, a punishment to defeated populations, or as the deviance of rogue soldiers. However, there are conflicts in which sexual violence is used as a weapon. In these conflicts, sexual violence evolves from a facet of conflict to genocide. When a military force’s command utilizes systematic and widespread sexual violence as a weapon of war, in both intent and effect, it fulfills every condition of the Geneva Convention standards of genocide. Three cases are analyzed within this thesis: Chile under the Pinochet dictatorship, Rwanda during its genocide, and Bosnia during the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. Motivations for each of the conflicts varied. However, the constant in all three conflicts was the intended elimination of a specific group and the implementation of a policy of sexual violence in order to do so. In order for crimes to be considered genocide they must fulfill one of the following conditions, as stated in Article 2 of the Geneva Conventions, any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such: A. Killing members of the group; B. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; C. Deliberately inflicting on the group the conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; D. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; E. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. Egregious acts of sexual violence and torture were utilized by all three respective commands in order to murder, incur grievous mental and physical harms, destroy the group’s ability to procreate in the future and impose measures upon the group intended to bring about its end. This work demonstrates that irrespective of the cause of a conflict, when systematic and widespread sexual violence is used as a weapon of war, it is genocide.

L’étude de la durée des délégations de service public a été pour longtemps marginalisée bien que cette notion constitue un élément essentiel du contrat. Néanmoins, depuis le début des années 1990 et notamment avec l’adoption de la loi Sapin, la conception de la fixation de la durée et de l’encadrement de sa prolongation a connu une importance grandissante. Elle a été conçue comme le moyen le plus apte à garantir la lutte contre la corruption et les rentes de situations. Cependant les modalités de la détermination de la durée ont été rattachées à des notions variables tel l’amortissement, ce qui a rendu la fixation préalable de la durée d’une impossibilité évidente. De ce fait, cette fixation telle qu’exercée aujourd’hui en matière des délégations de service public, souffre d’une grave incohérence tant dans sa conceptualisation que dans son application. Par conséquent, cette théorie n’a pas réussi à préserver le service public et à trouver une sorte de compromis entre le délégant et le délégataire qui tient compte primordialement de l’intérêt du service et de l’usager. Il semble que seule la théorie de la durée variable, liée aux résultats de l’exploitation saurait remédier aux difficultés que soulève une constante variation des circonstances. Dans cette perspective, désencombrer la durée nous pousse à amplifier le contrôle et à élargir l’imperium du magistrat pour assurer la sauvegarde du service public. / The study of the duration of delegation of public services has long been marginalized despiet it being an essential element of the contract. However, since the early nineties, and with the adoption of the Sapin law, the concept of the determination of the duration and of the frames setting out its extension has received increased attention. It has been seen as the most appropriate means to guarantee the fight against corruption. Nonetheless, the modalities of determination of the duration have been linked to multiple notions such as amortization, which has rendered an early determination of the duration impossible. As a consequence, the determination of the duration, as practised today, suffers from serious incoherences in both concept and application. Therefore, this theory has failed to protect public services and permit compromise between the delegate and the person being delegated to, primarily taking into account the best interests of the service and the user. It appears that only a theory of a variable duration, linked to the results of the operation would remedy the difficulties raized by the ever-changing circonstances. In this perspective, simplifiying the duration would lead to increased control and power of the judge in order to safeguard public services.

The theoretical part of diploma thesis The Treatment of Prisoners of War in Afghanistan addresses the international law response to events related with the "war on terror". It also highlights the fact that the application of international law is necessary for harmonization national legislation of the states with international rules. In this case the United States of America. The empirical part of the thesis points out to the case of prison torture in detention center Bagram. The aim of this thesis is posing a question whether nowadays it is possible to capture and define the legal issues that arise with the torture of prisoners of war.

Submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Master’s Degree in Technology: Chiropractic, Department of Chiropractic and Somatology, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2016. / Background Chiropractic is practiced in over 100 countries and is considered to be the fastest growing health care profession internationally. Several studies investigating the practice characteristics of chiropractors have been conducted in selected countries, however, as far as is known, no study has been conducted where chiropractors from countries across the globe are assessed for their practice characteristics in order to determine if regional differences exist. Gaining insight into chiropractic practice and its influencing factors, relating to both the profession itself and the chiropractor can enable organisations such as the World Federation of Chiropractic to have a greater understanding of how chiropractors are currently practicing and how the profession is being utilised by the public. Improved insight into the profession provides a baseline description for the public and other health care practitioners to fully comprehend what chiropractors can offer to the health care system. Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the demographic profile and practice characteristics of chiropractic delegates attending the World Federation of Chiropractic’s 12th Biennial Congress 2013. Method A pre-validated questionnaire and letter of information and consent was distributed to all registered chiropractic delegates (N = 406) attending the World Federation of Chiropractic Congress in Durban, Kwa-Zulu Natal 2013. The questionnaire was part of the delegate packages and they self-selected to participate. Due to a low response rate at the congress, the questionnaire was made available electronically on Survey Monkey®, for six weeks after the congress. Questions relevant to this study were coded, reduced where necessary and utilised for data analysis with IBM SPSS Version 21. Descriptive data was then summarised and presented using tables and graphs. The study was approved by the Durban University of Technology’s Institutional Research Ethics committee. Results: The response rate was 34.72%, with 52.5% being female, mean age was 42 (SD ± 13years, and all seven geographical regions were represented. The majority of respondents were from Africa (51.1%), followed by North America (22.7%) then Europe (14.2%). South Africa (48.6%) was the most represented country. Respondents held either a Master’s degree in Chiropractic (51.8%) or a Doctor of Chiropractic (DC) degree (48.2%). The mean years since graduating as a chiropractor was 15.7 years (SD ± 3.6). The majority of respondents (71.2%) engaged in full-time clinical practice, for between 5 to 15 years (39.8%) with 51.4% purporting to have an evidence based philosophical approach to practice. The majority (72.5%) viewed the role of a chiropractor in the health care system as a primary health care practitioner with a focused scope of practice. The majority of respondents (n = 52) personally treated 50 patients or less per week, with approximately one third of the respondents (n = 34) having high volume practices (>100 patients weekly). The respondents favoured being one of two chiropractors (36.9%) in a practice setting followed by sole practices (31.6%). The top chiropractic technique utilised was the diversified technique (74.5%) followed by extremity adjusting (68.8%). Various adjunctive, active and passive, axillary techniques were utilised in the daily management of patients. The patient demographics were majority female (55.7%), older than 30 years of age (66.7%) and Caucasian (77%), complaining of head, neck, mid-back and low back pain, which was mostly acute in nature. Trends suggested that females were more likely to select an evidence-based philosophical orientation than males. Females were more likely to delegate adjunctive therapies to non-chiropractic assistants (p = 0.029), and favoured sending patients to a physical therapist (p = 0.018), whereas males were more likely to refer to nutritionists and paediatricians (p = 0.030 and p = 0.038, respectively). Females were less likely to utilise mobilisation techniques (p = 0.008), massage therapy (p = 0.018) and nutritional counselling (p = 0.032). In terms of age, those selecting an evidence-based approach were significantly older than those who adopted a mixer approach to practicing (p = 0.002). The mean age of the respondents, irrespective of the region, was not significantly associated with the number of patients treated per week (p = 0.377) or the hours worked per week (p = 0.474). Trends show that the number of years spent in practice differed among the regions with North American chiropractors spending more years in practice than those from Europe and Australasia. The respondents from South Africa spent fewer years in practice (15 years or less) than respondents from Asia, Australasia, Europe and North America. Geographic region was not significantly associated with practice setting (p = 0.182). The only chief complaint that differed between regions was patients presenting with headaches accompanied by neck pain (p = 0.007), where Asian and North American respondents reported seeing less patients than their colleagues from other regions. Trends suggested that the respondents who attained a Masters of Technology in Chiropractic were more inclined to select a mixer orientation whereas those with a DC qualification selected an evidence-based philosophical approach. Conclusion: The WFC congress provided a platform to successfully determine the demographic profile and practice characteristics of chiropractors from various regions. Similar demographics were evident, with males no longer showing dominance within the profession. Chiropractors adopting an evidence-based and mixer philosophical orientation are synonymous in the role that they play in the health care system and display similarities in chiropractic practice and patient management. Investigating chiropractors who adopt a straight philosophical approach would be beneficial as it will allow for better comparison of demographics and practice characteristics. It is evident that selected demographics do influence how one would opt to practice, with regional differences showing that the chiropractic profession in South Africa is still relatively young. / M

Of all the States in the Union, certainly no other underwent the trials and tribulations that Utah expertenced in her quest for admission. Faced with controversy dealing with geopolitical and theological problems, the struggle occupied the second half of the Nineteenth Century. Utah's initial quest for statehood suffered from that dilemma of almost all the Western territories, insufficient population. When Utah numbers increased sufficiently, the official pronouncment of "polygamy" as a basic tenet of the Mormon Church, the dominant religion in the Territory, alienated many, the East especially, as being contrary to our western Anglo-Saxon heritage. Utah, looked upon with suspicion by the rest of the nation, was doomed in the early seeking of admission. The problem of entering the Union was further complicated by the tug-of-war that each new area experienced as the North and the South struggled over the "free or slave" issue. From the middle 1850's, Utah's denial of recognition centered around the problem of "polygamy," the refusal of the leaders of the predominantly Mormon population to consider at any great length any revision of their theological beliefs, which they coupled to Constitutional protection, together with the firm insistence of the Federal legislators that the practice be abolished made the struggle bitter and drawn out, as each refused to yield. The territorial constitutional conventions were of "rubber-stamp" nature until the 1870's, when the general influx of non-Mormons forced a small but continuing change of attitude. The sentiment of the 1850's and 1860's was such as to refuse to even voice the issue of "polygamy," seeming to mask the problem with the air that it is our own personal business, and no concern of theirs. The refusal to face the political actualities of the times extended over innumerable memorials, and five statehood conventions, concluding in a surrender to the ever-rising trend of Federal supremacy over local issues with the final achievement of Statehood in 1896. Utah's first steps towards civil government, the organization of the "State of Deseret," have been examined by Mr. Dale Morgan in his thorough "History of the Stat of Deseret," as well as in several Master's theses and Ph.D. dissertations. The history of Utah's territorial statehood conventions have just been mentioned in passing. It is my purpose to examine each territorial convention beginning with a summary of the initial stage in 1849 and to examine in detail the territorial stages starting in 1856 nd nding in 1895, to compare the resultant constitutions that emerged from each, and to show the influence that forced the gradual surrender of a people to Federal supremacy and "popular" insistence.

This research is a replication of part of Dr. Catherine Price's dissertation study "An Empirical Study of Professional Association Meetings from the Perspective of Attendees" (1993). The paper presented is a research study in the area of meeting/conference attendee preferences. This research tested which attributes of meeting selection were of importance to a particular population. Dr. Price (1993) identified four variables as important attributes for attendees in their selection of a meeting. They were: a) education, b) leadership, c) networking, and d) professional savvy. The primary hypothesis was directed at confirming the validity of these attributes. Four factors emerged in the analysis of this study. Three factors were identical to the Price (1993) study. These factors were: a) education, b) leadership, and c) networking. The fourth factor that emerged was named potpourri. Ultimately, this study attempted to be significant in assisting meeting planners in the preparation of more effective meetings. / Master of Science

Meteorological and other multidimensional, georeferenced data is used extensively in science and engineering. These datasets are produced, shared, and used by organizations all over the world. Conventions have been developed specifying the metadata and format of these datasets in an effort to standardize the data and make it compatible with current and future software and web services. By necessity, the conventions are complex and difficult to implement correctly, resulting in useful datasets that are unusable in many applications due to lack of compliance with the conventions. By programmatically assigning metadata and guiding the dataset creator through the dataset creation process, convention compliant datasets can be consistently and repeatably created by people with a limited knowledge of the standards. These datasets can then be used in any application that supports the specific standard. This paper examines the process of building multidimensional, georeferenced netCDF datasets that are compliant with the Climate and Forecast Conventions and presents a new python package called cfbuild that automates the process of making the datasets compliant.