Recognising the accounting implications of Islamic business principles, initiatives have been taken to develop a framework that primarily aims to serve the financial reporting needs of Islamic financial industry. Those initiatives started with the objective of developing separate Islamic accounting standards. However, they have ended up with significantly heterogeneous objectives. Employing Institutional Logics Perspective (ILP) as a theoretical framework and case-study approach as a research design, this study provides comparative accounts into the role of selected institutional logics (religion, profession, market, community and state) in shaping two Islamic financial reporting standardisation projects initiated by the Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) and the Malaysian Accounting Standard Board (MASB). Moreover, utilising ILP supplemented by remarks from the institutional entrepreneurship concept, this study examines the role of actors in initiating and then differently shaping the standardisation policies of these projects. Research findings informed by semi-structured interviews and document analysis indicate that Islamic financial reporting standardisation projects have been historically mapped by certain institutional logics. The dominance of those logics has experienced significant changes over time, resulting in subsequent changes in the standardisation strategies of those projects. Influential actors have also played an important role in shaping those projects through promoting certain organisational strategies in line with the institutional logics in which they are embedded This study concludes that the heterogeneity which AAOFI and MASB have shown in their standardisation strategies is attributed to: the relative dominance of certain logics in each institutional context; the centrality of those logics to organisational mission and goals; the extent to which prevailing institutional logics are represented within the organisation and the balance of power between different logics' representatives; and the extent to which actors have been able to promote their entrepreneurial vision and mobilise allies behind it.

The religion of Manichaeism emerged from third-century Persian Mesopotamia from the self styled prophet and apostle of Christ, Mani. Through missionary endeavours, Manichaeism proliferated throughout the Roman Empire, Asia and China between the third and eighth centuries, before succumbing to persecution from rival faiths. Mani’s dramatic cosmological mythology forms the core of Manichaean practice and soteriology. This thesis explores the constructions of gender in Mani’s mythology and its development in subsequent Manichaean literature. The analysis considers constructions of gender embedded in six portraits of Manichaean cosmological figures. Gendered roles, attributes and epithets are explored, revealing hierarchical systems of roles and relations.

Fostering religious commitment in schools and considering children’s cultural diversity arguably enhances pupils’ tolerance and integration, which may have the potential to reduce racism and discrimination. Faith schools are religiously and culturally diverse institutions and typically appreciated for their core values, good behaviour and academic standards. However, their impact on school culture and ethos is under explored. Although, the role of faith has gained attention both in policy and practice, relatively little is known about its impact in the context of primary education. As such, this research explores the complex influence of faith on school culture and ethos. In addition, critical analysis is undertaken to investigate the impact of faith on pupils’ behaviour and understanding in school. The main research aims are to: explore the multiple ways in which faith is manifested in two schools, determine the influence of faith on school culture and ethos, and establish the impact of faith on pupils’ behaviours and understanding in school. This research takes an ethnographic approach to explore how faith is manifested in two primary schools in the North West of England. The ethnography enabled a deeper immersion in to the school culture as data were generated through observations, interviews, focus groups and documentary analysis in two schools: A denomination school, Church of England, and a community school with an Islamic ethos. The research was conducted in the North West of England which has many diverse faith-based schools. Critical Race and Feminist Theories were used as lenses of analysis to examine faith in school. Critical Race Theory is a framework employed to examine the role of race and power in education. This research provides rich ethnographic description and analysis of faith as understood, practiced and experienced in the two schools. The findings reveal two major themes, first, a mismatch between school policy/values and its practice. Second, a lack of integration of staff and children into the school. Despite schools’ efforts to embrace diversity and encourage integration, schools policies were found to be empty rhetoric with regards to fostering religious commitment and cultural diversity. Exploring the issue of recognising cultural diversity within schools, findings indicated that both schools did not acknowledge or teach other cultural traditions, therefore, impacting on issues of integration. Poor behaviour, bullying and racism amongst children were major issues at both schools. Data analysis suggests the source of misbehaviour was due to the lack of emphasis placed on teaching about different religions, insufficient knowledge of cultural traditions and lack of visits to places of worship. This research concludes that there is a need for schools to develop awareness of religions and cultural diversity; thereby, encouraging integration, community cohesion and respect for similarities and differences.

This study investigated the accuracy and quality across five different translations of the Quran from Arabic into English, focusing on euphemism. It evaluated the degree of faithfulness or deviation in meaning from the original and corroborated whether this is due to the translating approach or inadequate understanding of the meaning of Quranic text. It assessed the main features of euphemistic expressions in the Quran, how euphemistic expressions have been translated, and provided recommendations on how to improve the translation of euphemistic expressions in the Quran. Throughout its long history, translation and translation studies have never been free from conflicting views. Translation is one of the most researched topics and no other issue has preoccupied theorists and practitioners as much as the translation debate which has brought about a split of views, specifically into those who claim that translation is an art and those who believe that translation is a science. Each camp puts forward unrealistic expectations of what translation is and what it can achieve. Despite the boom in translation studies over the last decades which has provided interesting and fresh insights, it remains an area which has little theoretical base and very few research landmarks. Translation has rarely managed to rise above mere comparative analysis of language pairs, examining their cross linguistic and cultural differences. Translation approaches, procedures and techniques are not one size fits all. They may work well for Indo-European languages but may not for Semitic languages, for instance. They are often prescriptive, abstract and lack practical implications. Highly expressive and colourful components of any language are often deliberately substituted by euphemistic expressions. Euphemism is thus a purposeful act of softening existing terms or expressions with neutral, courteous and ‘clean’ words. Euphemism is said to be a form of deception. This study examined the translation of euphemism in the Quran focusing on the English versions of the Quran by Abdel Haleem, Khan and Al-Hilali, Yusuf Ali, Arberry, and Pickthall. It was found that translators often underestimate the complexity of translation, particularly the translation of euphemism in the Quran Based on the nature of the problem and the research questions, the method adopted in this study used a qualitative approach starting with text based analysis of a broad sample of euphemistic expressions from the five selected versions of translations of the Quran. This was supported by semi-structured interviews with professional translators to gauge their views and perceptions regarding the meanings of euphemism in the Quran. The key findings suggest that there is no single method which will address all of the challenges faced by the translators of euphemisms of the Quran. Moreover, many Islamic concepts and cultural bound items are untranslatable, thus loss of some meaning is inevitable. Findings revealed that straightforward and mechanical transfer of euphemisms from the Quran produces meaningless or clumsy utterances because there is no direct correspondence between Arabic and English euphemistic expressions. Therefore, translating euphemism in the Quran goes beyond mere linguistic transfer. This study has several practical implications. Firstly, it will benefit translators of the Quran by providing fresh insights into dealing with some of the challenges of translating euphemism from the Quran. Secondly, it will provide a platform for further research on translating euphemism as it has expanded the existing literature on translating euphemistic expressions from the Quran to benefit future researchers.

Many philosophers hold that moral agency is defined by an agent’s capacity for rational reflection and self-governance. It is only through the exercise of such capacities, these philosophers contend, that one’s actions can be judged to be of distinctively moral value. The moral phenomenology of the Danish philosopher and theologian K. E. Løgstrup (1905-1981), currently enjoying a revival of interest amongst Anglo-American moral philosophers, is an exception to this view. Under the auspices of his signature theory of the ‘sovereign expressions of life,’ Løgstrup provides a rich moral phenomenology aimed at establishing the ethical value of ‘spontaneous,’ non-deliberative actions, such as those exemplified in the showing of trust and acts of mercy. In this thesis, my aim is to investigate what mode of moral agency, if any, is compatible with Løgstrup’s phenomenology of the sovereign expressions of life. I argue that Løgstrup’s moral phenomenology is compatible with a distinctive medio-passive mode of agency. According to this conception of moral agency, the subject’s agency is constituted not through her capacity to stand back and make a judgment on how to act, but rather in the way the subject comports herself in relation to situations and encounters that are experienced first-personally as overwhelming and encompassing. I will proceed by providing detailed analyses of the core aspects of Løgstrup’s moral phenomenology and his theory of the sovereign expressions of life. In the process, I will elucidate the decisive influence that thinkers such as Martin Heidegger, Martin Luther and Søren Kierkegaard had on Løgstrup’s way of thinking about ethics. Thus, in this thesis my aim is to contribute both to Løgstrup scholarship and to central on-going debates in moral philosophy and the philosophy of action.

This thesis is a diachronic study of a branch of modern Jainism that was established at the beginning of the twentieth century. It makes extensive use of ethnographic data collected during field-research in Gujarat, Mumbai (India) and London (UK). Members of this branch of Jainism follow a Jain layman from Gujarat called Srimad Rajcandra (1867 to 1901 CE). Srimad was profoundly dissatisfied with contemporary Jainism. He believed that its soteriological message had been subverted by empty rituals and groundless theorizing, and that spiritual ignorance had resulted in sectarian division, something to which he vehemently opposed. Today there are numerous ashrams and temples dedicated to Srimad. Most are in Gujarat, from where the majority of his followers originate, but some are also found in other regions of India. Srimad's following extends beyond India into diaspora Jain communities in North America and Europe, including Britain. This thesis argues that Srimad's devotees are unified by an inclusive history and ideology that is centred in the life and teachings of Srimad Rajcandra, and so can be viewed collectively as a distinct movement within modern Jainism. Two tangible factors that distinguish Srimad's followers from other Jains are their acceptance of his writings (in Gujarati) as scripture and their veneration of his image in the form of photographs and statues. Such an argument is necessary because the structure of the Srimad Rajcandra movement is fragmentary. It is a composite of various disparate, autonomous lay communities and individuals. Each community has its own local history and independent tradition, which influence its specific beliefs and practices. This thesis discusses the internal causes for the movement's organizational structure. These include Srimad's lay status and anti-sectarian values, his interpretation of self realisation as a religious experience, and his teaching about guru 'bhakti' as a means of attaining liberation.

We have studied luminescence properties of Mg-doped GaN grown by hydride vapor phase epitaxy. Steady state photoluminescence (PL) spectra have been analyzed. Exciton, ultraviolet luminescence (UVL) and blue luminescence (BL) bands are the dominant PL bands in the spectra. At low temperature, Exciton and UVL bands show almost no shift with excitation intensity, whereas the BL band blueshifts by almost 0.4 𝑒𝑉 with increasing excitation intensity by seven orders of magnitude. Such shifting nature of bands with excitation intensity is explained by assuming that the BL band is detected from the region of the sample where potential fluctuations are very large, but the UVL and exciton bands originate from the region of the sample where there are no potential fluctuations. After the careful analysis of potential fluctuations model and the donor-acceptor pair model, we conclude that the BL band in the studied GaN:Mg sample is not a separate band but the UVL band itself, which is significantly distorted by potential fluctuations. Now, we call this band the BL* band. Temperature dependence of the BL*, UVL and Exciton peak intensity is analyzed. We see abrupt and tunable thermal quenching of the BL* and Exciton bands. Temperature dependence of the BL* and UVL bands at fixed excitation intensities but at different environmental conditions is also investigated. Finally, giant redshift of the BL* band with increasing temperature is explained by a combination of potential fluctuations and abrupt quenching of the BL* band with temperature.

We investigate the multiwavelength behaviour of the high-energy peaked BL Lac object (HBL) Mrk 421 at redshift z = 0.031 in the period 2007-2015. We use optical photometric, spectroscopic, and polarimetric data and near-infrared data obtained by 35 observatories participating in the GLAST-AGILE Support Program (GASP) of the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope (WEBT), as well as by the Steward Observatory Support of the Fermi Mission. We also employ high-energy data from the Swift (UV and X-rays) satellite to study correlations among emission in different bands.

Submitted by Adriana Alves Rodrigues (aalves@espm.br) on 2018-10-05T15:56:00Z No. of bitstreams: 1 ppgcom - fernanda muto kushima.pdf: 6953165 bytes, checksum: f6fc9e746f61d36775a583c74151699a (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Alves Rodrigues (aalves@espm.br) on 2018-10-05T15:56:26Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 ppgcom - fernanda muto kushima.pdf: 6953165 bytes, checksum: f6fc9e746f61d36775a583c74151699a (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Debora Cristina Bonfim Aquarone (deborabonfim@espm.br) on 2018-10-08T11:53:01Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 ppgcom - fernanda muto kushima.pdf: 6953165 bytes, checksum: f6fc9e746f61d36775a583c74151699a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-10-08T11:54:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ppgcom - fernanda muto kushima.pdf: 6953165 bytes, checksum: f6fc9e746f61d36775a583c74151699a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-03-26 / The Japan created for consumption refers to the imagery forged about Japan from the engendering of specific discursive strategies (GREINER, 2016). This imagery, once created by the West and currently exported by Japan itself, provides several models to be followed for something to have the "made in Japan" stamp. In this way, many media that wish to approach this "aesthetic", use these models to signify and re-significate their productions. Based on these assumptions, the objective of this research is to study the narrative strategies used in the Brazilian BL manga entitled Vitral, having the models girl-for-consumption and love-for-consumption as its thematic axes. The genre BL (Boy's Love) refers to works whose narrative focus is the love and / or sexual relationship between two male characters, targeting women as the main audience. For this, we will use as theoretical and methodological assumptions the Umberto Eco's concepts of "Model Author" and "Model Reader", in order to understand what remains of this Japanese imaginary for consumption and what escapes the expected model in the themes of girls and love. Accordingly, we will also analyze the conventions that these specific models engender from the interweaving of the cultural elements to the discursive elements, present in the construction strategies of Vitral's "Model Reader", in order to understand in a more detailed way some of the elements present in the dynamics between communication and consumption. / O Japão Inventando para o consumo se refere ao imaginário criado sobre o Japão a partir do engendramento de estratégias discursivas específicas (GREINER, 2016). Este imaginário, uma vez criado pelo Ocidente e, atualmente, exportado pelo próprio Japão, fornece diversos modelos a serem seguidos para que algo possua o selo ―made in Japan‖. Desta forma, muitas mídias que desejam se aproximar desta ―estética‖, se utilizam destes modelos para significar e ressignificar suas produções. A partir desses pressupostos, o objetivo deste trabalho de pesquisa é estudar as estratégias narrativas utilizadas no manga BL nacional de título Vitral, tendo como eixos temáticos os modelos de garota para consumo e de amor para consumo. O gênero BL (Boys‘ Love) se refere a obras cujo foco narrativo é o relacionamento amoroso e/ou sexual entre dois personagens do sexo masculino e possui como público alvo as mulheres. Para isso, utilizaremos como pressuposto teórico-metodológico os conceitos de Autor-Modelo e Leitor-Modelo de Umberto Eco, a fim de compreender o que se mantém deste imaginário do Japão para o consumo e o que escapa do esperado nas temáticas do modelo de garota e de amor. Em consonância a isso, analisaremos também as convocações que estes modelos específicos engendram a partir do entrelaçamento dos elementos culturais aos elementos discursivos presentes nas estratégias de construção de Leitor-modelo em Vitral, para entendermos de forma mais pormenorizada alguns dos elementos presentes nas dinâmicas entre comunicação e consumo.

We report on long-term multiwavelength monitoring of blazar Mrk 421 by the GLAST-AGILE Support Program of the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope (GASP-WEBT) collaboration and Steward Observatory, and by the Swift and Fermi satellites. We study the source behaviour in the period 2007-2015, characterized by several extreme flares. The ratio between the optical, X-ray and gamma-ray fluxes is very variable. The gamma-ray flux variations show a fair correlation with the optical ones starting from 2012. We analyse spectropolarimetric data and find wavelength-dependence of the polarization degree (P), which is compatible with the presence of the host galaxy, and no wavelength dependence of the electric vector polarization angle (EVPA). Optical polarimetry shows a lack of simple correlation between P and flux and wide rotations of the EVPA. We build broad-band spectral energy distributions with simultaneous near-infrared and optical data from the GASP-WEBT and ultraviolet and X-ray data from the Swift satellite. They show strong variability in both flux and X-ray spectral shape and suggest a shift of the synchrotron peak up to a factor of similar to 50 in frequency. The interpretation of the flux and spectral variability is compatible with jet models including at least two emitting regions that can change their orientation with respect to the line of sight.