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Although evolution is a very important concept in contemporary biology, it does not help to answer the question to the origin of the human consciousness. If all reductionist theories are ruled out because it tries to reduce consciousness to an objective aspect of the natural world and ignore the storytellers’ (consciousness) subjective side, panpsychism seems to be a favourable candidate for an alternative theory. The so called Copenhagen-interpretation furthermore brought an end to determinism and classical objectivity and pointed out that our reality is partly created by the observer. The work of Alfred North Whitehead establish the basis on which Christian de Quincey build his theory and attempt to build a bridge between the objective physical and the subjective psyche. Panpsychism provide a post-modern solution to the problem of identifying the origin of consciousness by presenting a relationship between psyche and physis as two temporal ordained poles of the same experiencing individual entity. The interaction between psyche and matter become a relationship between events or “moments of experience” where, through the natural process of the flow of time, subjects (psyches) become objects (physical matter). Time, as the lost link in the recurring body/mind problem is the radical solution for the explanation gap between physical systems and conscious systems. The reductionist solution demand an ontological leap (the emergence of an entity with an interior, subjective viewpoint from completely objective entities); and this is not the case with panpsychism (where primordial experience are already subjective and the emergence of consciousness or conscious experience are not an ontological objective to subjective leap). Mind and body is separated on a numerical level but not on an ontological level. Mind and body is of the same sort, type or reality – the inevitable creation and decline of experience. Psyche is therefore the unifying process of all the total hierarchy of events. Panpsychism however has many deficiencies and these deficiencies are also critically analysed. / MPhil, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Although evolution is a very important concept in contemporary biology, it does not help to answer the question to the origin of the human consciousness. If all reductionist theories are ruled out because it tries to reduce consciousness to an objective aspect of the natural world and ignore the storytellers’ (consciousness) subjective side, panpsychism seems to be a favourable candidate for an alternative theory. The so called Copenhagen-interpretation furthermore brought an end to determinism and classical objectivity and pointed out that our reality is partly created by the observer. The work of Alfred North Whitehead establish the basis on which Christian de Quincey build his theory and attempt to build a bridge between the objective physical and the subjective psyche. Panpsychism provide a post-modern solution to the problem of identifying the origin of consciousness by presenting a relationship between psyche and physis as two temporal ordained poles of the same experiencing individual entity. The interaction between psyche and matter become a relationship between events or “moments of experience” where, through the natural process of the flow of time, subjects (psyches) become objects (physical matter). Time, as the lost link in the recurring body/mind problem is the radical solution for the explanation gap between physical systems and conscious systems. The reductionist solution demand an ontological leap (the emergence of an entity with an interior, subjective viewpoint from completely objective entities); and this is not the case with panpsychism (where primordial experience are already subjective and the emergence of consciousness or conscious experience are not an ontological objective to subjective leap). Mind and body is separated on a numerical level but not on an ontological level. Mind and body is of the same sort, type or reality – the inevitable creation and decline of experience. Psyche is therefore the unifying process of all the total hierarchy of events. Panpsychism however has many deficiencies and these deficiencies are also critically analysed. / MPhil, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Since the 1980s microbreweries in Ontario have gained in popularity, winning over beer drinkers in the province and earning the support of the provincial government that funds the expansion of this creative industry. The Emergence of Ontario Microbreweries, adopting the theoretical perspectives of Margaret Archer and Michel Foucault, looks at the factors explaining the emergence of the craft beer industry. Through the morphogenetic approach, which sees enablements take shape through entrepreneurial pursuits, and disenablements through Foucauldian disciplinary processes, we observe that Ontario microbreweries were constrained by strict government laws. Enforced by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), these laws acted upon the individuals and their ability to consume alcohol both privately and publicly. Over time, the strict governmental regimes which constrained beer drinkers and micro-brewed beer producers gradually transformed to allow for the expansion of microbreweries that create unique, distinct and authentic products that have specific geographic links to community.

This thesis deals with two related questions. The first relates to a critical inquiry into the processes of curriculum creation and formation within a medical school which has undergone a significant curriculum revision. I explore the notion that such processes can be understood as a form of practice in which the relationship between content and process is held together by what is explored in the thesis as an indivisible, paradoxical tension. Exploring curriculum as a kind of process is a novel approach in a school steeped in the traditions of the natural sciences. The common metaphors for curriculum in this setting refer to blueprints, models, behavioural competencies and objective standards. These are all founded on the belief in an objective observer who can maintain some form of distance between themselves and the subject in question. Issues of method are, therefore, central to my explorations of how we might, instead, locate curriculum in social processes and acts of evaluation involving power relations, conflict and the continuous negotiation of how it is we work together. The paradox of process and content in this way of understanding is that participants in curricular practice are simultaneously forming and being formed by their participation. In this way of thinking, it makes no sense to say one can either “step back” to “reflect” on their participation or that there is a way to approach participation “objectively.” The other question I address in this thesis has to do with the emergence of excellence. By emergence, I refer to thinking in the complexity sciences which attempts to explain phenomena which have a coherence which cannot be planned for or known in advance. “Excellence” is a kind of idealization which has no meaning until it is taken up and “functionalized” within specific settings and situations. In the setting of participating in curriculum formation, excellence may be understood as one possible outcome of persisting engagement and continuous inquiry which itself influences the ongoing conversation of how excellence is recognized and understood. In other words, excellence emerges in social processes as a theme simultaneously shaping and being shaped by curricular practice. This research was initiated as a result of a mandate to establish a program which could demonstrate excellence in the area of relationships in health care. The magnitude of this mandate felt overwhelming at the time and raised a lot of anxiety. I found that the traditional thinking regarding participation in organizational change processes (which, within my setting, could be understood as “set your goal and work backwards”) did not satisfactorily account for the uncertainties and surprises of working with colleagues to create something new. The method of inquiry can be read as another example of a process / content paradox through which my findings regarding curriculum and excellence emerged. This method involved taking narratives from my experience as an educator and clinician and a participant in varied forms of curricular processes and inquiring into them further by both locating them within relevant discourses from sociology, medical education and organizational studies and also sharing them with peers in my doctoral program as well as colleagues from my local setting. This method led to an inquiry and series of findings which was substantively different from my starting point. This movement in thinking offers another demonstration of an emergent methodology in which original findings are “discovered” through the course of inquiry. These findings continue to affect my practice and my approach to inquiry within the setting of medical education. The original contributions to thinking in medical education occur in several ways. One is in the demonstration of a research method which takes my own original experience seriously and seeks to challenge taken for granted assumptions about a separation of process and content, instead exploring the implications of understanding these in a relation of paradox. By locating my work within social processes of engagement and recognition, I explore the possibility that excellence can also be understood as an emergent property of interaction which is under continuous negotiation which itself forms the basis for further recognition and exploration of “excellence.” The social processes which shape and are shaped by “excellence” are fundamental to the practice of curriculum itself. Both curricula and “excellence” emerge within the interactions of people with a stake in the desired outcomes as the product of continued involvement and consideration of ongoing experience. Finally, a process view of medical education is presented as a contribution to understanding the work of training physicians who are comfortable with the uncertainties and contingencies involved in the humane care of their patients.

Existing variance studies of venture capital (VC) provide an incomplete understanding of VC emergence, emphasizing either macro-level enabling conditions or the efficient fund-level operation of the VC cycle. While important, such perspectives do not provide for a complete understanding of the systemic, processual character of VC emergence. A multistage process model of emergence is developed, linking industry structural characteristics and their underlying processes to precursor resources through the intermediate processes of coproduction and diffusion. Using data from multiple embedded case studies in South Africa and Botswana, this model integrates four processes--simultaneity, coproduction, diffusion, and the VC cycle. These processes are linked by a logic that is dominated by initial conditions and includes elements of rational choice (conditioned by path dependence) and altruism. The establishment of appropriate simultaneity conditions enables the diffusion of the established VC model and related institutions from other populations. In the presence of a market failure, government investors and private fund managers can then cooperate to fill the equity gap, creating the signal necessary for replication of additional VC funds through the functioning of the VC cycle.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) causes severe illness in millions of people worldwide, but the epidemic strains responsible for most infections arose within the past hundred years and represent only a small part of total HCV diversity. In this thesis I combine laboratory and computational methods to study HCV in Africa. I aim to characterize its current genetic diversity and its historical transmission prior to the global HCV epidemic. In Chapter 2 I begin by screening samples from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for HCV and the related human pegivirus. I find high HCV sequence diversity, including a putative new subtype, and find significantly higher HCV prevalence in those born before 1950. Chapter 3 continues this screening, and combines the sequences obtained with those from online databases. Using molcular clock methods I estimate that genotype 4 originated in central Africa around 1733, and that multiple lineages, including subtype 4a which dominates the HCV epidemic in Egypt, have moved to north Africa since ~1850. In Chapter 4 I analyse sequences sampled from an elderly population in Kinshasa to estimate HCV’s transmission history there during the 20th century. The results indicate a rapid increase in HCV transmission between 1950 and 1970 in multiple independent lineages. Possible causes of this increase are discussed. This study population also exhibits high HCV genetic diversity, including the second genotype 7 sample discovered to date. Finally, Chapter 5 uses a range of sequencing techniques, including RNAseq, to characterise two putative HCV recombinants from Cameroon. I confirm that both sequences are recombinants, and generate a full genome sequence for one. I also develop new tools to distinguish between dual infection and recombination in next-generation sequencing data, and discuss how recombination might affect HCV diversity and treatment.

Thesis advisor: Mary Ann Glynn / This dissertation examines the decline and re-emergence of the Swiss mechanical watch industry from 1970-2008, exploring how, when, and why market demand for legacy technologies resurrect and reshape a mature field. Extending existing research on technology emergence and death, I reveal the dynamics of technology and field re-emergence. I focus on the mechanisms of identity and institutional change associated with re-emergence, as well as how institutional leaders and guardians serve as agents of change who simultaneously preserve and reframe the values and product conceptions associated with a legacy technology. Additionally, I advance the notion of identity ambidexterity by examining how organizations explore and exploit multiple elements of their identity simultaneously during such periods of instability. Using qualitative and quantitative methods, I analyze a wide range of interview, archival, historical, and observational data at the levels of the industry and the organization. More broadly, I seek to demonstrate how the reclamation of legacy identities reshapes the institutional environment of a mature field, and how incumbent firms re-define their organizational identities after a technological innovation threatens to destroy their dominant market position. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Management and Organization.

Emergence is a phenomenon where we study the implicit or hidden meaning of an image. We introduce this concept in image database access and retrieval of images using his as an index for retrieval. This would give an entirely different search outcome than ordinary search where emergence is not considered, as consideration of hidden meanings could change the index of search. A feature of an image, which is not explicit would be emergent feature if it can be made explicit. There are three types of emergence: computational emergence, thermodynamic emergence and emergence relative to a model. In computational emergence, it is assumed computational interactions can generate different features or behaviors. This is one of the approaches in the field of artificial life. Thermodynamic emergence is of the view that new stable features or behaviors can arise from equilibrium through the use of thermodynamic theory. In emergence relative to a model, deviation of the behavior from the original model gives rise to emergence. We would use this latter view in our work. Two classes of shape emergence have been identified: embedded shape emergence and illusory shape emergence. In embedded shape emergence all the emergent shapes can be identified by set theory procedures on the original shape under consideration. For example, in a set S= {a,b,c,d,e}, we can find subsets like S1={a,b,c}, S2={c,d,e}, S3={a,c,e} and so on. But in illusory shape emergence, where contours defining a shape are perceived even though no contours are physically present, this kind of set theory procedures are not enough and more effective procedures have to be applied to find these hidden shapes. These procedures could be based on geometrical, topological or dimensional studies of the original shape. Content-based Image Retrieval (CBIR) techniques, so far developed, concentrated on only explicit meanings of an image. But more meanings could be extracted when we consider the implicit meanings of the same image. To find out the implicit meanings, we first destroy the shape of the original image which gives rise to unstructured image. Then we process the unstructured image to bring out the new emergent image. We discuss emergence, calculation of emergence index and accessing multimedia databases using emergence index in this dissertation. To calculate emergence index in the access of multimedia databases, we take an input image and study the emergence phenomenon of it. Also we study the emergence phenomenon of the images of the database. Both input image and images of database would give rise to more meanings because of emergence as we explained earlier. Based on the new meanings, wherever there would be a match between input image and images of database, we would pick that record up for selection. We defined emergence index as EI = f(D,F,V,C,E) where D stands for domain of the database, F for features of the image, V for various variables that define the image, C for constraints which represent the image and E for emergence phenomenon. We calculate these five variables to get emergence index for each image of the database. Also we calculate these five variables for input image as well. We talk about global aspects of features. It means features of the entire image. Examples are area, perimeter or rectangles, triangles. In some searches, to consider the global features could be advantageous in that a symmetry with the input image could be obtained on the basis of global features only. But as is clearly the case, to consider global features could overlook the individual objects that constitute the image as a whole. In the kind of searches we propose, we take into account the global features of the image of the database while considering in detail local features. Various objects that lie within an image constitute local features. In our example, there are three objects in the image, namely, a lake and two houses. Studying the features of these three objects would add to studying the features of the image globally. We took the example of a geographic location in the thesis and then showed how destruction of original image is done and further processing of the unstructured image gives new emergent image. Partial implementation of this concept is also presented at the end. In implementation, we consider the retrieval of image globally. We do not consider break-up of image into multiple objects which is left for future research.

Any computation is facilitated by some physical process, and the observable quantities of any physical process can be viewed as a computation. These close ties suggest that the study of what universal computers are capable of may lead to additional insight about the physical universe, and vice versa. In his thesis, we explore three lines of research that are linked to this central theme. The first partition shows how notions of non-computability and undecidability eventually led to evidence of emergence, the concept that even if a ‘theory of everything’ governing all microscopic interactions were discovered, the understanding of macroscopic order is likely to require additional insights. The second partition proposes a physically motivated model of computation that relates quantum complexity, quantum optimal control, and Riemannian geometry. Thus insights in any one of these disciplines could also lead to insights in the others. The remainder of this partition explores a simple application of these relations. The final partition proposes a model of quantum computation that generalizes measurement based computation to continuous variables. We outline its optical implementation, whereby any computation can be performed by single mode measurements on a resource state that can be prepared by passing a collection of squeezed states through a beamsplitter network.