In this essay I discuss the magical creatures in the Harry Potter series; not the complete series but Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Many scholars say that the Harry Potter novels are didactic, moralist books in different ways. What I investigate is if the magical creatures in the novels can be read as metaphors for issues that the teenage reader finds difficult to deal with and if they could also offer ways to help. More specifically I look at the giant and the werewolf as metaphors for separate types of outsiders who have to try to handle the prejudice of others; one being strange because of genes and one because of an illness. I also look at the house-elf as a metaphor for various oppressive situations one can encounter as a child and also for how to cope with change. In connection to the house-elves I also discuss racism and social class. The last two creatures I investigate are the Dementor as a metaphor for depression and the Boggart as a symbol for fear. My conclusion is that one can read these creatures as symbols or metaphors for difficulties for teenagers in various ways and that these interpretations almost always also offer a way to handle said difficulty.

The evolution of the movement of virtual creatures is an interesting application of evolutionary algorithms in the field of Artificial Life. The goal of this thesis was to explore the possibilities of its use in computer games. As part of this thesis I proposed a game with the theme of evolution of the movement of virtual creatures, I created a system for their evolution based on information from existing works and expanded it with the features needed for the proposed game. In the course of the work, it turned out that the evolution is too computationally demanding to use in the game. Therefore, I created a simplified game prototype and in my work I focused more on experimenting with various settings of the algorithms for the evolution of virtual creatures.

Fantasy creatures are an essential part of many games, but while there are several studies focusing on body language and how expressive gaming companions may enhance the player’s experience, creatures and animals are rarely the focal points. Personality is closely related to believability, which is what most game developers work towards hence believability may improve the gaming experience. The purpose of this paper was to explore how the personality of a fantasy creature would be perceived by the observer when using different animal motion references. A 3D-model was created and animated in three different styles using motion references from a cat and lizard. A survey with Likert-scales was then formed with the intention to evaluate the animations. The participants in the survey were assigned one of the three animations to rate statements regarding personality and believability. Rather than a certain type of animal being associated with a certain type of personality, the result suggests that it was mainly certain motion cues and postures that affected the participants’ ratings. The study was deemed to be insufficient for a reliable result. In the discussion part, there are ideas on how the study could be improved with the aim of continuing the research to gain a clearer insight into the subject of personality and creatures.

Este estudo da presença de Victor Hugo em A Pata da Gazela, de José de Alencar, objetiva analisar como o conceito de grotesco, teorizado pelo escritor francês no prefácio de Cromwell, experimentado e trabalhado em Han dIslande, Notre-Dame de Paris e Lhomme qui rit, teria sido adaptado por Alencar, escritor de relevante importância para a formação da Literatura Brasileira que faz menção em seu romance a duas criaturas monstruosas de Victor Hugo: Gwynplaine e Quasimodo. Para isso, propomos um olhar para a sociedade francesa e brasileira do século XIX, no intuito de verificar como se deu a contribuição hugoana. / This study of Victor Hugos presence in A Pata da Gazela by José de Alencar, aims to analyze how the concept of grotesque, that was theorized by the French writer in the preface of Cromwell, experienced and worked in Han dIslande, Notre-Dame de Paris and Lhomme qui rit, would have been adapted by Alencar, an important writer for the formation of the Brazilian Literature, who mentions in his novels two monstrous creatures of Victor Hugos: Gwynplaine and Quasimodo. In order to do that, we propose a look to the French and Brazilian societies of the nineteenth-century, to check how important Hugo\'s contribution is.

Este estudo da presença de Victor Hugo em A Pata da Gazela, de José de Alencar, objetiva analisar como o conceito de grotesco, teorizado pelo escritor francês no prefácio de Cromwell, experimentado e trabalhado em Han dIslande, Notre-Dame de Paris e Lhomme qui rit, teria sido adaptado por Alencar, escritor de relevante importância para a formação da Literatura Brasileira que faz menção em seu romance a duas criaturas monstruosas de Victor Hugo: Gwynplaine e Quasimodo. Para isso, propomos um olhar para a sociedade francesa e brasileira do século XIX, no intuito de verificar como se deu a contribuição hugoana. / This study of Victor Hugos presence in A Pata da Gazela by José de Alencar, aims to analyze how the concept of grotesque, that was theorized by the French writer in the preface of Cromwell, experienced and worked in Han dIslande, Notre-Dame de Paris and Lhomme qui rit, would have been adapted by Alencar, an important writer for the formation of the Brazilian Literature, who mentions in his novels two monstrous creatures of Victor Hugos: Gwynplaine and Quasimodo. In order to do that, we propose a look to the French and Brazilian societies of the nineteenth-century, to check how important Hugo\'s contribution is.

This thesis looks at two cases of women who murdered women - the Papin sisters (Le Mans, 1933) and Parker-Hulme (Christchurch, 1954) - and considers their diverse representations in theatre and film, paying particular attention to Jean Genet’s play The Maids (1947), Peter Jackson’s film Heavenly Creatures (1994) and Peter Falkenberg’s film Remake (2007), in which I played a part. What happens when two women (sisters, girl friends) commit violent acts together - not against a man, or a child, but against another woman, a mother or (as in the case of the Papin sisters) against women symbolically standing in place of the mother? How are these two cases - the Papin sisters and Parker-Hulme - presented in historical documents, reinterpreted in political, psychoanalytic and feminist theories, and represented in theatre and film? How might these works of theatre and film, in particular, be seen to explain - or exploit - these cases for an audience? How is the relationship between prurience - the peeping at women doing something bad - and the use of these cases to produce social commentary and/or art, better understood by looking at these objects of fascination ourselves? My thesis explores how these cases continue to interest and inspire artists and intellectuals, as well as the general public - both because they can be seen to violate fundamental social taboos against mother-murder and incest, and because of the challenge they pose for representation in theatre or film.

Title: Evolution and Learning of Virtual Robots Author: RNDr. Peter Krčah Department: Department of Software and Computer Science Education Supervisor: RNDr. František Mráz, CSc. Abstract: Evolutionary robotics uses evolutionary algorithms to automatically design both body and controller of a robot. We describe two contributions to automated design of virtual robotic creatures. First, we introduce a nature-inspired method that allows virtual robots to modify their morphology through lifetime learning. We show that such morphological plasticity makes it possible to evolve robots that can dynamically adjust their morphology to the environment they are placed into. We also show that by reshaping the fitness landscape, learning reduces computation cost required to evolve a robot with a given target fitness even in a single environment. In the second contribution, we show that for certain problems in evolutionary robotics, premature convergence to local optima can be avoided by ignoring the original objective and searching for any novel behaviors instead (a technique known as Novelty Search). Keywords: Evolution of Virtual Creatures, Body-brain Coevolution, Morphological Plasticity, Neural Networks, Learning

No description available.

Les Yokai sont les créatures mythiques qui tapissent le folklore japonais. Bien qu’on traduise souvent le mot Yokai par « monstre », ils ne sont pas toujours méchants. En fait, un même Yokai peut être à la fois bon ou mauvais – leur personnalité est changeante selon les histoires. Je me demande alors si le contexte historique peut expliquer ces changements caractériels. J’observe donc lors de mon étude trois différents Yokai (Kappa, Tanuki et Tengu) dans les contes de trois ères historiques japonaises différentes afin de voir s’il y a vraiment un lien – et à l’inverse, voir s’il est possible de dater un conte de par le comportement du Yokai qui y figure. / Yokais are mythical creatures found in Japanese folklore. This word is often translated with “monster”, however this does not mean that they are always evil. In fact, one same creature can be both good and bad – their personalities vary depending on the tale. I am thus wondering if historical context can explain these characteristic changes. Therefore, I will here study the behaviour of three different Yokais (Kappa, Tanuki and Tengu) in tales of three different Japanese eras to see if there is indeed a connection – and also the other way around, to see if it would be possible to date a tale based on its Yokais’ behaviour.

[pt] Esta tese, mais que uma pesquisa sobre o Cântico das Criaturas, é o estudo sobre a mística de Francisco expressa em síntese poética. O texto dispõe de uma base adequada à mística contemporânea. A partir do viés hermenêutica, objetivado e proposto pelo pobre de Assis, entendemos ser possível oferecer uma contribuição relevante para a experiência mística, sob os impactos das interpelações que a realidade, com os embaraços da pós-modernidade tende esvaziar no ser humano. O objetivo é motivar a experiência mística do louvor com as criaturas e pelas criaturas, sem perder de vista o compromisso de salvaguarda e responsabilidade para com toda a criação e do direito à vida dos empobrecidos, sempre as primeiras vítimas entre as criaturas. Neste salmo místico, jubiloso, empolgado, a oração de Francisco reconciliado, harmônico entre o céu e a terra, com todas as criaturas convoca, provocando-nos à bondade matinal do paraíso: irmãos e irmãs com os seres da criação, resgatando a dimensão do sagrado presente nas criaturas. A mística de Francisco em sinopse: louvor genuíno, pura vibração. Aurora no crepúsculo da vida. Um transbordamento de espírito voltado para o alto (doxa) e para baixo (kénosis). É a vibração mística cosmológica que integra o ser humano à fraternidade universal do Reino de Deus antecipado em seus sinais. O ser humano, imagem de Deus, ocupa um lugar especial na criação e, como imagem do Altíssimo, Onipotente, Bom Senhor é chamado a responder pela própria vida, pelas relações inter-humanas e pela natureza, diante do Criador. Ouvir, recitar e rezar o Cântico é uma experiência geratriz e reencontro, sobretudo com o que de mais humano teimosamente insiste morar em nós. Encontro místico com necessidades arque típicas e arcaicas, fraternidade fervorosa e compromisso incansável com todas as criaturas e com o Criador. / [fr] Cette thèse, beaucoup plus qu une recherche sur le Cantique des Créatures c est l étude sur la mystique de François exprimée en synthèse poétique. Le texte possède une base adéquate à la mystique contemporaine. À partir du biais hermeneutique, objectivé et proposé par le pauvre d Assis, nous comprenons que c est possible offrir une contribution très importante pour l expérience mystique, sous les impacto des interpellations que la réalité avec les embarras de la post-modernité, elle cherche à vider dans l être humain. L objectif est motiver l expérience mystique du louange avec les créatures, et par les créatures, en observant toujours le compromis de sauvegarde et re responsabilité pour toute la création et du droit à l avie des appauvris qui sont toujours les premières vitimes parmi les créatures. Dans ce psaume mystique que, prenant, empoignant, la prière de François, reconcilie harmonique entre le ciel et la terre, nous appelle, en nous conduisant à la provoquant la bonté matinale du paradis: des frères et des soeurs ave les êstres de la création, en reprenant la dimension du sacré présent das les créatures. La mystique de François en synopsis, pure louange et vibration. Aurore dans le crepuscule de la vie. Um dépassement d esprit tourné en haut (doxa) et en bas (Kénosis). C est la vibration mystique, cosmologique qui conduit l être humain à la fraternité universelle du Royaume de Dieu avancé dans ses signes. L être humain, l image de Dieu, occupe une place spéciale dans la création, et comme un image de Dieu l omnipotant, le bon Seigneur est appelé à répondre par sa vie elle-même, par les relations interhumaines et par la nature, devant le Créateur. Écouter, réciter et prier le Cantique c est une expérience génératrice et un rencontre surtout avec ce qu il y a de plus humain dans nous-même. Un rencontre mystique avec des nécéssités archétipiques et archaiques, fraternité fervent et compromis infatigable avec toutes les créatures et avec le Créateur.