This thesis documents and examines the history of Cornish male voice choirs from their origins in the late nineteenth century through to the present day. The evolution of the choirs has hitherto been charted largely through scattered oral testimonies, whereas this work traces the rise, decline and resurgence of the male choral tradition by drawing from a range of primary sources, including newspapers and repertoire in addition to oral history. The thesis is organised chronologically and the main chapters chart the development of Cornish male voice choirs from the Methodist point of origin, to the subsequent expansion of the male choral movement between the wars and thereafter its seeming atrophy. The opening two chapters focus on the background and emergence of the choirs from c.1820 to 1918. The interwar period is covered in three diverse but linked chapters, assessing the socio-economic context, musicological influences and the importance of geographic locality or ‘place’. The impact of the Second World War on the choirs is examined in Chapter Six. The following chapter traces how the choirs remained vibrant in the face of encroaching secularisation during the 1950s and 1960s, and the final chapter assesses the detrimental effects for the choirs of changed musical behaviours and generational issues in the late twentieth century choir. Four key themes which run throughout the chapters are the influence of Methodism, its teachings and choral hymnody; the significance of repertoire and musical directorship; the importance of the male demographic within the local economy; and secularisation and mass popular culture. The connecting thread of the argument for the thesis as a whole is that male voice choirs both reflect and help shape Cornish identity. As will be seen, identity is a fluid, multi-layered concept, but analysis of the changing role and influence of male voice choirs contributes to a deeper understanding of the complex relationship between music, place and culture.

The aim of this study was to provide an historical analysis of Cornish wrestling and in particular to address the following key questions: How has Cornish wrestling developed as a sport? Why is Cornish wrestling ‘different’? Why has Cornish wrestling survived? It was argued that in order to provide an adequate historical analysis it was necessary to locate the sport within an appropriate and relevant conceptual framework. Two fields of enquiry were identified as having the potential to provide this; mainstream British sport history and the ‘new Cornish Studies’. The main ideas and debates that form the basis for these two areas were reviewed and it was argued that British sport history offered only a partial interpretation for the history of Cornish wrestling as the evidence suggests it is different from other sports. It was further argued that with its emphasis upon ‘difference’ the ‘new Cornish Studies’ in general and Payton’s ‘centre-periphery model’ in particular offers a more appropriate conceptual framework, which is also rooted in a relevant local context. Payton developed his model to answer a number of questions relating to Cornwall’s distinctiveness: Why is Cornwall ‘different’? Why has this persisted? Why is there a strong sense of ‘Cornishness’ and separate identity which has survived until today? He concluded that Cornwall’s ‘difference’ has persisted because of its historical experience, which in each period has been distinct from other areas of Britain and has led directly to a unique identity. In Payton’s model, the privileged ‘centre’, which is the location of power and influence, is based largely in London and the south-east of England; whereas the ‘periphery’ is geographically remote from the ‘centre’, but dependent upon it. Payton proposed three phases of peripherality: ‘First’ or ‘Older Peripheralism’, characterised by geographical and cultural isolation from the centre; ‘Second Peripheralism’, which recognises the central importance of industrial change, producing economic and social marginality and ‘Third Peripheralism’ characterised by a ‘branch-factory’ economy promoting a process of ‘counter-urbanisation’. The structure of the thesis follows the phases of peripherality and argues the evidence is consistent with Payton’s ‘centre-periphery model’. The evidence also demonstrates that Cornish wrestling is ‘different’ and that ‘difference’ has persisted over time because of Cornwall’s historical experience, which in each period of peripherality has been distinct. Furthermore, throughout the entire period of the study, Cornish wrestling has been, and still remains, an important icon of Cornishness, which has ensured its survival.

Master of Science / Department of Statistics / Haiyan Wang / Cancer type classification with high throughput molecular data has received much attention. Many methods have been published in this area. One of them is called PAM (nearest centroid shrunken algorithm), which is simple and efficient. It can give very good prediction accuracy. A problem with PAM is that this method selects too many genes, some of which may have no influence on cancer type. A reason for this phenomenon is that PAM assumes that all genes have identical distribution and give a common threshold parameter for genes selection. This may not hold in reality since expressions from different genes could have very different distributions due to complicated biological process. We propose a new method aimed to improve the ability of PAM to select informative genes. Keeping informative genes while reducing false positive variables can lead to more accurate classification result and help to pinpoint target genes for further studies. To achieve this goal, we introduce variable specific test based on Edgeworth expansion to select informative genes. We apply this test on each gene and select some genes based on the result of the test so that a large number of genes will be excluded. Afterward, soft thresholding with cross-validation can be further applied to decide a common threshold value. Simulation and real application show that our method can reduce the irrelevant information and select the informative genes more precisely. The simulation results give us more insight about where the newly proposed procedure could improve the accuracy, especially when the data set is skewed or unbalanced. The method can be applied to broad molecular data, including, for example, lipidomic data from mass spectrum, copy number data from genomics, eQLT analysis with GWAS data, etc. We expect the proposed method will help life scientists to accelerate discoveries with highthroughput data.

Detta examensarbetes syfte var att undersöka möjligheter till förbättring av hantering av lagernivåer för Bygg Ole Saltsjö-Boo. En kombination av aspekter från både systemteknik och industriell ekonomi har använts. I rapporten applicerades Guaranteed Service-Level modellen baserad på historisk försäljning i kombination relevanta teorier om lagerkostnad. Rapporten var begränsad till att behandla utvalda produkter med hög omsättning från två utvalda leverantörer till Bygg Ole. Efterfrågan för alla produkter i rapporten utom en är icke säsongsberoende. Särskild hänsyn har dessutom tagits till servicenivå, kapitalkostnader och variation i efterfråga. Resultatet gav att en implementering av modellen skulle ge lägre lagernivåer och därmed lägre lagerkostnader. Slutsatsen från rapporten var att modellen skulle kunna implementeras, eventuellt med höga administrativa kostnader i början. Bygg Ole har också en möjlighet att använda ett ordersystem baserat på den matematiska GSL-modellen (Guaranteed Service-Level) i kombination med prognoser över efterfrågan producerade av försäljningsavdelningen på Bygg Ole. Detta skulle potentiellt kunna öka precisionen i lagerhanteringen. Den nuvarande lagerräntan är relativt lågt bestämd och därför minskas de beräknade besparingarna från implementering av modellen. Om lagerräntan skulle vara högre skulle den ekonomiska fördelen med implementeringen vara tydligare. Rekommendationen till Bygg Ole är att tillämpa den rekommenderade GSL-modellen i kombination med ett system för prognos över efterfrågan på några utvalda produkter och sedan utvärdera resultatet. / The aim of this thesis was to examine possible improvements in the inventory management and procedure of ordering at Bygg Ole Saltsjö-Boo. A combination of aspects from both Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering and Management has been used. In the report, a Guaranteed Service-Level model based on historical data of sales in combination with relevant theories about inventory carrying cost has been applied. The study was limited to specific chosen products with high sales from two selected suppliers of Bygg Ole. All these products in the study except one experienced low seasonal variety in demand. Furthermore special consideration was taken to service level, cost of capital and variability of demand. The result was that an implementation of the model would yield lower inventory levels and therefore lower carrying costs of inventory. The conclusion from the report was that the model could be implemented, although with possibly high administrative costs in the beginning. Bygg Ole also has a possibility of using an ordering system based on the mathematical GSL-model (Guaranteed Service-Level) in combination with forecasts of demand conducted by the sales department of Bygg Ole. This could potentially increase precision in the inventory management. The current inventory carrying charge is compounded relatively low and therefore decreases the calculated savings from implementing the model. If the carrying charge would be higher, the benefits of implementation would be more evident. The recommendation for Bygg Ole is to apply the recommended GSL-model in combination with a demand forecast planning system on a few selected products and then evaluate the result.

The Cornish Colony (1895 - 1920) was a group of artists, writers, actors, musicians and public figures attracted to the rural beauty of Cornish, New Hampshire. The colony developed into a social and innovative community of common interests and artistic values that included over 75 artists who shared a love of classical traditions in literature and art. Colony Members included: Augustus Saint-Gardens, Thomas Dewing, Charles Adams Platt, Louis Evan Shipman, Juliet Barrett Rublee, Maxfield Parrish, Lucia Fairchild Fuller, Percy MacKaye and Winston Churchill. This thesis will explore the theatrical productions in the colony based in collaboration between visual and theatrical artists in the Colony and how this collaboration extended to the townspeople. It will also explore how the Colony’s dramatics had an influence on the artistic growth of Cornish and the surrounding Upper Valley of Vermont and New Hampshire.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on July 18, 2008) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

"Who controls the past [...] controls the future: who controls the present controls the past". In the first century BCE Diodorus of Sicily described a corner of the British Isles he called Belerion and drew attention to the ingenious way the inhabitants extracted tin and the civilised manner they had acquired through trading that metal. In 2012 a tourist may stay in a bed and breakfast near Penzance or buy books from a shop named after that promontory. However, during the nineteenth century a debate amongst historians arose as to the meaning of Diodorus' Greek text, its relationship to other classical texts and the status of Cornwall in antiquity. The discussion involved at least ten treatments specifically of the topic in Cornwall alone and was incorporated into a variety of other narratives. The debate offers an unusual insight into the role of classical texts in the description and understanding of local identity. This thesis looks at passages from the classical world that have been linked to Cornwall and which often have very little academic scholarship relating to them, and examines how they have been interpreted by Cornish historians. It will show how, despite the inconclusiveness of the ancient material, a connection between Cornwall and Greek and Roman traders has been constructed by Cornish writers, and why they were interested in doing so. This thesis suggests that the political and social contexts of local historiographers has actively shaped the interpretations of the texts often assigning a meaning to classical texts that allows a narrative of independence, cultural sophistication and unbroken mining innovation to be constructed concerning Cornwall. As such this thesis will form part of a rapidly expanding inter-disciplinary interest in our understanding of responses to the Classics and to our conception of the formation of regional historical narrative.

The purpose of this project is to validate the adequacy of the Standard formula, used to calculate the Solvency Capital Requirement (SCR), with respect to a Swedish insurance company. The sub-modules evaluated are Equity risk (type 1) and Interest rate risk. The validation uses a quantitative assessment and the concept of Value at Risk (VaR). Additionally, investment strategies for risk free assets are evaluated through a scenario based analysis. The findings support that the Equity shock of 39%, as proposed in the Standard formula, is appropriate for a diversified portfolio of global equities. Furthermore, to some extent; the Equity shock is also sufficient for a diversified global portfolio with an overweight of Swedish equities. Additionally, the findings shows that the Standard formula for Interest rate risks occasionally underestimates the true Interest rate risk. Furthermore, it’s shown that there are some advantage of selecting an investment strategy that stabilizes the Own fund of an insurance company rather than a strategy that minimizes the SCR. / Syftet med detta arbete är att utvärdera Standardformeln, som används för att beräkna solvenskapitalkravet (SCR) under Solvens II, med avseende på dess lämplighet för ett svensk försäkringsbolag. Modulerna som utvärderas är aktierisk (typ 1) och ränterisk. Utvärderingen genomförs med kvantitativa metoder och utifrån konceptet Value at Risk (VaR). Dessutom utvärderas investeringsstrategier för riskfria tillgångar genom en scenariobaserad analys. Resultaten stödjer att den av Standardformeln föreskrivna aktiechocken på -39 % är tillräcklig för en diversifierad global aktieportfölj. Dessutom är aktiechocken även tillräcklig för en diversifierad global portfölj med en viss övervikt mot svenska aktier. Vidare visar resultaten att Standardformeln under vissa omständigheter underskattar ränterisken. Slutligen visar den scenariobaserade analysen att det är fördelaktigt att välja en investeringsstrategi som stabiliserar Own fund, hellre än en strategi som minimerar SCR.

One of the major problem faced by banks is how to manage the risk exposure in large portfolios. According to Basel II regulation banks has to measure the risk using Value-at-Risk with confidence level 99%. However, this regulation does not specify the way to calculate Valueat- Risk. The easiest way to calculate Value-at-Risk is to assume that portfolio returns are normally distributed. Altough, this is the most common way to calculate Value-at-Risk, there exists also other methods. The previous crisis shows that the regular methods are unfortunately not always enough to prevent bankruptcy. This paper is devoted to compare the classical methods of estimating risk with other methods such as Cornish-Fisher Expansion (CFVaR) and assuming generalized hyperbolic distribution. To be able to do this study, we estimate the risk in a large portfolio consisting of ten stocks. These stocks are chosen from the NASDAQ 100-list in order to have highly liquid stocks (bluechips). The stocks are chosen from different sectors to make the portfolio welldiversified. To investigate the impact of dependence between the stocks in the portfolio we remove the two most correlated stocks and consider the resulting eight stock portfolio as well. In both portfolios we put equal weight to the included stocks. The results show that for a well-diversified large portfolio none of the risk measures are violated. However, for a portfolio consisting of only one highly volatile stock we prove that we have a violation in the classical methods but not when we use the modern methods mentioned above.