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1	Black Studies definitions: an archive, a year of promise, and a conceptual approach Robinson, James Alexander, 4th 01 January 2017 (has links) My dissertation, Black Studies Definitions, examines the varied ways that Black Studies has been defined in the United States of America. Investigating the definitions found in college/university catalogues, foundation reports, encyclopedias, dictionaries, textbooks, scholarly articles/books, and the popular press, I suggest that the definitional difficulties surrounding this field can be clarified by considering the archive of these materials, the significance of “the year of promise,” 1968-1969, and a conceptual approach to the discipline. Quite often, observations about Black Studies are grounded in references to limited primary sources. By unearthing and extracting statements about the field from fifty years of materials, “Black Studies Definitions” suggests the inadequacy of such formulations and provides a resource for systematically researching Black Studies. The year of promise has been noted as an important historical landmark; however, its role in the development of Black Studies has not been comprehended accurately. Presenting selected texts that were written during this span, this dissertation identifies 1968-1969 as a vital developmental phase in Black Studies. It does so by using select texts written by the higher education establishment and by intellectuals to abstract key words and kernel elements that provide a basis for defining the discipline. Finally, “Black Studies Definitions” uses a conceptual approach to offer a provisional definition of the field. Addressing more than forty years of unsatisfying efforts, this dissertation points towards techniques that can lay the foundation for a fruitful future in the discipline. My dissertation is an interdisciplinary analysis that aims at a better understanding of Black Studies in higher education. After compiling and analyzing earlier definitions of Black Studies, I noted that these statements were often incomplete. These incomplete statements produced confusion surrounding the identity of the field; however, they also contained details that could provide a fuller understanding of Black Studies. Inquiring into the core concepts of the field, I discovered that Black Studies, which was a new discipline circa 1968, inspired definitions that included a few recurring keywords. My research attempts to determine when and how these keywords appear in materials defining the discipline. By charting such patterns in definitions of Black Studies, I lay the groundwork for a more careful chronicling of the different phases in the field’s public presentation. This kind of chronicling suggests that a conceptual approach to defining the discipline proves fruitful. Despite the proliferation of Black Studies programs between 1968 and 2017, academicians have yet to agree on what is included or excluded from this field. “Black Studies Definitions” addresses this situation with three crucial interventions. My work presents a bibliography of more than one thousand texts that engage the definition of this field. My research establishes 1968-1969 as a revelatory era in identifying the core concepts that underlie Black Studies. Finally, my dissertation illustrates that a conceptual approach provides a fruitful basis for defining this field. Specifically, it argues that Black Studies is a branch of the interdisciplinary human sciences that probe the relations between a state of mind, people and language. Archive Black Studies Concept Definitional Proposition Interdisciplinary Studies People State of Mind and Language
2	Using Haskell to Implement Syntactic Control of Interference Warren, Jared 11 June 2008 (has links) Interference makes reasoning about imperative programs difficult but it can be controlled syntactically by a language's type system, such as Syntactic Control of Interference (SCI). Haskell is a purely-functional, statically-typed language with a rich type system including algebraic datatypes and type classes. It is popular as a defining language for definitional interpreters of domain-specific languages, making it an ideal candidate for implementation of definitional interpreters for SCI and Syntactic Control of Interference Revisited (SCIR), a variant that improves on SCI. Inference rules and denotational semantics functions are presented for PCF, IA, SCI, and SCIR. An extension to Haskell98 is used to define Haskell functions for those languages' semantics and to define type constructions to statically check their syntax. The results in applied programming language theory demonstrate the suitability and techniques of Haskell for definitional interpretation of languages with rich type systems. / Thesis (Master, Computing) -- Queen's University, 2008-06-10 21:23:33.291 programming type system interference haskell embedding definitional interpreter denotational semantics domain-specific language imperative functional
3	Retrieving Definitions from Scientific Text in the Salmon Fish Domain by Lexical Pattern Matching Gabbay, Igal 01 1900 (has links) While an information retrieval system takes as input a user query and returns a list of relevant documents chosen from a large collection, a question answering system attempts to produce an exact answer. Recent research, motivated by the question answering track of the Text REtrieval Conference (TREC) has focused mainly on answering ‘factoid’ questions concerned with names, places, dates etc. in the news domain. However, questions seeking definitions of terms are common in the logs of search engines. The objective of this project was therefore to investigate methods of retrieving definitions from scientific documents. The subject domain was salmon, and an appropriate test collection of articles was created, pre-processed and indexed. Relevant terms were obtained from salmon researchers and a fish database. A system was built which accepted a term as input, retrieved relevant documents from the collection using a search engine, identified definition phrases within them using a vocabulary of syntactic patterns and associated heuristics, and produced as output phrases explaining the term. Four experiments were carried out which progressively extended and refined the patterns. The performance of the system, measured using an appropriate form of precision, improved over the experiments from 8.6% to 63.6%. The main findings of the research were: (1) Definitions were diverse despite the documents’ homogeneity and found not only in the Introduction and Abstract sections but also in the Methods and References; (2) Nevertheless, syntactic patterns were a useful starting point in extracting them; (3) Three patterns accounted for 90% of candidate phrases; (4) Statistically, the ordinal number of the instance of the term in a document was a better indicator of the presence of a definition than either sentence position and length, or the number of sentences in the document. Next steps include classifying terms, using information extraction-like templates, resolving basic anaphors, ranking answers, exploiting the structure of scientific papers, and refining the evaluation process. question answering definition questions salmon definitional questions computational linguistics natural language processing QH301 QA75 P1 Q1 AI
4	The value of narrative practices in pastoral conversations Dickson, Nicole 08 February 2013 (has links) The purpose of this research is to explore how narrative practices can be meaningful in pastoral conversations with women living with breast cancer. A theoretical collaboration between narrative therapy, feminism and pastoral theology has been used in order to facilitate meaning-making, to give ‘voice’ to local knowledge, and to co-create a more holistic understanding of the experiences of illness narratives and breast cancer. The methodology of this research is ‘interdisciplinary’ and uses qualitative, co-participatory action research and reflexivity as its research design. Conversations with the co-researchers explore illness narratives, breast cancer, spirituality and faith, life-giving relationships, femininity and body image, socially constructed discourses and pivotal moments that enable alternative stories. Values of respect, curiosity and listening have been upheld in order to provide a safe place for the co-researchers to give voice to their stories and experiences of breast cancer in a way that supports the researcher position of ‘witness’. / Practical Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology, with specialisation in Pastoral Therapy) Breast cancer Narrative practices Feminist ideas Pastoral theology Hope Faith Spirituality Stories Externalization Discourses Meaning-making Witnessing Voices Alternative stories Definitional ceremonies 259.419699449 Church work with women Women -- Pastoral counseling of Women -- Religious life Narrative therapy
5	The value of narrative practices in pastoral conversations Dickson, Nicole 08 February 2013 (has links) The purpose of this research is to explore how narrative practices can be meaningful in pastoral conversations with women living with breast cancer. A theoretical collaboration between narrative therapy, feminism and pastoral theology has been used in order to facilitate meaning-making, to give ‘voice’ to local knowledge, and to co-create a more holistic understanding of the experiences of illness narratives and breast cancer. The methodology of this research is ‘interdisciplinary’ and uses qualitative, co-participatory action research and reflexivity as its research design. Conversations with the co-researchers explore illness narratives, breast cancer, spirituality and faith, life-giving relationships, femininity and body image, socially constructed discourses and pivotal moments that enable alternative stories. Values of respect, curiosity and listening have been upheld in order to provide a safe place for the co-researchers to give voice to their stories and experiences of breast cancer in a way that supports the researcher position of ‘witness’. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology, with specialisation in Pastoral Therapy) Breast cancer Narrative practices Feminist ideas Pastoral theology Hope Faith Spirituality Stories Externalization Discourses Meaning-making Witnessing Voices Alternative stories Definitional ceremonies 259.419699449 Church work with women Women -- Pastoral counseling of Women -- Religious life Narrative therapy
6	Computational Issues in Calculi of Partial Inductive Definitions Kreuger, Per January 1995 (has links) We study the properties of a number of algorithms proposed to explore the computational space generated by a very simple and general idea: the notion of a mathematical definition and a number of suggested formal interpretations ofthis idea. Theories of partial inductive definitions (PID) constitute a class of logics based on the notion of an inductive definition. Formal systems based on this notion can be used to generalize Horn-logic and naturally allow and suggest extensions which differ in interesting ways from generalizations based on first order predicate calculus. E.g. the notion of completion generated by a calculus of PID and the resulting notion of negation is completely natural and does not require externally motivated procedures such as "negation as failure". For this reason, computational issues arising in these calculi deserve closer inspection. This work discuss a number of finitary theories of PID and analyzethe algorithmic and semantical issues that arise in each of them. There has been significant work on implementing logic programming languages in this setting and we briefly present the programming language and knowledge modelling tool GCLA II in which many of the computational prob-lems discussed arise naturally in practice. / <p>Also published as SICS Dissertation no. SICS-D-19</p> Theory of computation algorithms logic proof-theory partial inductive defi-nitions definitional reflection disunification closure completion negation constructive negation quantification logic programming meta programming quantification skolemization self-reference program semantics declarative control proof-search theorem-proving. Computer and Information Science Data- och informationsvetenskap
7	Human rights education or human rights in education : a conceptual analysis Keet, Andre 19 June 2007 (has links) The purpose of this research is to conduct a concept analysis and conceptual historical analysis as well as to develop a conceptual cartography of the concept of Human Rights Education (HRE) with reference to human rights in education. HRE has evolved into a burgeoning pedagogical formation that sources its currency from the perceived consensus on human rights universals. However, the proliferation of HRE is paradoxically not matched by a sustained and meaningful theoretical analysis of HRE though it has far-reaching implications for educational systems worldwide. This study provides a comprehensive theoretical analysis of HRE by examining the meanings that organise and construct the conceptual structure of HRE. The origins of the concept of HRE and its changing meanings are traced over time and paradigmatically analysed across a variety of theoretical orientations. This study also shows that HRE is a concept that is subjected to an unexplored and unexplained conceptual eclecticism that hampers its pedagogical potential as a counter-measure to human rights violations and human suffering. Amongst all the conceptual possibilities that could have been developed as an analytical interplay between the conceptual cartography, models, approaches and typologies of HRE, this study demonstrates that the dominant conceptual structure of HRE has grown into a declarationist, conservative, positivistic, uncritical, compliance-driven framework that is in the main informed by a political literacy approach. Consequently, this study develops alternative conceptual principles buttressed by a non-declarationist conception of HRE that stands in a critical and anti-deterministic relationship with human rights universals. / Thesis (PhD (Education Management and Policy Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted Human rights Human rights education Conceptual historical analysis Concept analysis Discourses Conceptual cartography Narratives Theoretical orientations Human rights in education UCTD
8	Who are we and what do we measure? : A case study of the dynamic relationship between performance measurement and organizational identity Källgren, Marcus, Vejbrink Kildal, Adrian January 2022 (has links) Performance measurements have been described as a tool by which management can communicate expected standards of behavior as well as a shared meaning among members regarding the intended direction of the firm. In parallel, the organizational identity field relies on the premise that members can answer the question “who are we as an organization?” through a sense of shared understanding. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the implications a performance measurement system has on the employees’ perception of “who we are“, related to the theoretical framework of organizational identity. This paper utilizes a qualitative research method, a case-based approach of a Swedish life science company which is conducted in an exploratory manner. The case company is chosen due to its contextual setting regarding the newly implemented performance measurement system, along with the inherent characteristics of the industry in general, which is typically considered to be incongruent with such quantitative measurements. The empirical data is collected through eight interviews with members from the chosen case company, as well as through internal documents describing its performance measurement system. The authors propose a revised theoretical framework in which performance measurements and organizational identity are investigated through a conceptual model which explores their dynamic relationship. The findings reinforce well-known ideas of performance measurements and organizational identity, along with providing new insights on the dynamics between them. Keywords: Organizational Identity, Performance Measurement System, Performance Management, Identity-Dynamics organizational identity performance measurement system performance management identity-dynamics PMS HR human resources acquisition change management HR-metrics employee reward system evaluation appraisal organizational performance employee performance perception tracking monitoring organizational culture organizational control medium who we are who we are as an organization qualitative measurement quantitative measurement case study life science organizational members shared understanding we-ness dynamic relationship relationship interrelationship central enduring distinctive CED implications identity-related adjustments top-down initiative strategic initiative strategic sensemaking sensemaking ideational definitional component attributes loose couplings innovation enhancing reinforcing guiding stretching enabling challenging threatening constraining R&D research development idealized identity desired identity Business Administration Företagsekonomi

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