This doctoral research project intends to institute the study of the unique and significant Huangmei Opera film genre by pioneering in making a series of documentaries and writing an academic text. The combination of a documentary series and academic writing not only explores the relationship between the distinctive characteristics of the Huangmei Opera film genre and its enduring popularity for its fans, but also advances a film research mode grounded in practitioner research, where the activity of filmmaking and the study of film theory support and reflect on each other. The documentary series, which incorporates three interrelated subjects - Classic Beauty: Le Di, Scenic Writing Director: Li Han Hsiang and Brother Lian: Ling Po - explores the remarkable film careers of each figure while discussing the social and cultural context in which they worked. The section on Le Di introduces the subject of melodrama as a Chinese tradition. The section on Li Han Hsiang discusses Li's film aesthetics and his representation of a utopian Chinese world of the imagination. The final section focuses on the popularity actor Ling Po gained through her roles of male impersonation. All three topics provide an opportunity to rethink our understanding of the social, political and cultural forces that contribute to the genre, and to build an emotional connection between past and present for the viewers. Meanwhile, by interviewing those surviving key figures and assembling materials that have been lost, the documentary series not only fulfils the needs of many fans, but also serves field studies in the area by setting a direction in research and providing a valuable resource for scholars involved in Chinese film and cultural studies. It is both accessible to mainstream audiences and academically warranted. As an adjunct to the documentary series, the written text explores aspects of the same material in more depth through the use of structuralist methodology, and psychoanalytic, auteur and genre theories. The text combines these Western approaches with aspects of Chinese culture, philosophy and aesthetic traditions, proposing links between Chinese aesthetics and Western film theories that contribute new understandings to both Chinese and Western film studies. On the other hand, because these film theories were originally developed to study Western films, the Chinese origins of the Huangmei Opera film genre may challenge existing theoretical paradigms and so provide new interpretations. This doctoral project also includes a complete report of all phases of the documentary production and design process, and a unique, comprehensive filmography of Huangmei Opera films, and as such supplies a research foundation for both documentary filmmakers and academics who are interested in studying the Huangmei Opera film genre further.

Despite a constant rise in the attainment of Sats results year on year, the perception remains that British primary school children are underachieving and that they are reluctant readers and writers. In order to motivate their students, some teachers use films as a visual stimulus to provide students with ideas and create a personal and emotion connection with the written text. In the school years of 2013/14 I followed 21 primary classes which were taking part in a ‘film literacy’ scheme run by Bradford UNESCO City of Film. This initiative saw the training of teachers in the use of film as a tool in literacy lesson with the hope to raise attainment and motivation. Students and teachers completed questionnaires and interviews which were analysed in conjunction with observations and the students’ literacy grades. The research showed that both students and teachers recorded an increase in motivation. Further, significant progress in attainment also became evident: film literacy students raised their grades by 23.3% beyond the expected year-on-year increase. Improvements in inference, comprehension and vocabulary were especially praised. Students from schools with a low-income environment benefitted in particular. The research discusses six potential reasons for these changes, two of which are based on the belief that film is a particularly suitable medium for teaching as it engages students emotionally. Although the thesis acknowledges that Bradford involved a unique group of schools in the film literacy training and research, it nevertheless argues that film could be useful addition to primary classrooms due to its potential ability to raise standards and engage reluctant young writers.

The Integrated Film Activated Sludge Process (IFAS) was developed to reduce the cost of additional facilities required to complete year round nitrification in the design of new or retrofit wastewater treatment plants. The purpose of this project was to develop a computer-based mechanistic model, called IFAS, which can be used as a tool by scientists and engineers to optimize their designs and to troubleshoot a full-scale treatment plant. The program also can be employed to assist researchers conducting their studies of IFAS wastewater treatment processes. IFAS enables the steady-state simulation of nitrification-denitrification processes as well as carbonaceous removal in systems utilizing integrated media, but this current version supports only sponge type media. The IFAS program was developed by incorporating empirical equations for integrated biofilm carbonaceous uptake and nitrification developed by Sen and Randall (1995) into the general activated sludge model, developed by the International Association on Water Quality (IAWQ, previously known as IAWRC), plus the biological phosphorus removal model of Wentzel et al (1989). The calibration and evaluation of the IFAS model was performed using existing data from both an IFAS system and a conventional activated sludge bench-scale plant operated over a wide range of Aerobic Mean Cell Residence Times (Aerobic MCRT's). The model developed provides a good fit and a reasonable prediction of the experimental data for both the IFAS and the conventional pilot-scale systems. The phosphorus removal component of the model has not yet been calibrated because of insufficient data and the lack of adequately defined parameters. / Master of Science

During the beginning of the cinema media era around the turn of 20th century, a debate prevailed in Sweden about the film’s harmful and negative moral impact on children and young people. This study aims to investigate the debaters’ knowledge claims regarding a preview of a publicly shown film and if it is related to their morality. The following questions were asked: 1. What knowledge claims are made in connection with the need for prior control over the film that is shown in public? 2. What is presented as the basis for the legitimacy of these knowledge claims? 3. How do these knowledge claims change during its path to legal text? 4. What was the relationship between the presented knowledge claims and a moral perception prevailing among the debaters? A debate paper, a parliamentary motion from 1909 and the public inquiry before the decision to create the Swedish Agency of Movie Censors were analysed with argumentation analysis and thematic analysis with a perspective of history of knowledge. This study points at various aspects such as medical, psychological, social structure and moral arguments, which were put forward as arguments for a regulation of the new film medium. The knowledge claims were justified by professional expertise, general knowledge, experiences from other countries and the debaters’ prior knowledge of the subject. A strong fear of ruining a good existing moral conception that exists in the growing generation emerges. The analysis describes a change in knowledge claims: the moral arguments diminish along the way towards the legal text. Furthermore, the study points at the necessity for continued research to increase the understanding of how legitimacy of knowledge is created by an influential group and then passed on.

This diploma thesis The image of American Movie Production in Czechoslovak Media of 1970's focuses on how the Czechoslovak media in the 1970's created the public perception of movies which had come from the American distribution to Czechoslovakia or were projected in the cinemas among the years 1970-1979. This thesis analyzes the manner in which selected national print media, influenced by the political trends, being partly designed for the general public (daily newspaper Rudé právo, Lidová demokracie) and partly addressed to specific target groups (film periodical Film a doba, Filmový přehled, Kino), reflected the issue and the contribution of individual movies; all of that under specific political and cultural circumstances. The main theme is the usage of the movie production and its presentation as a contemporary propaganda tool. The analytic part is based on examination of several articles and reviews found in some selected media and connected to the movies or its actors and makers. The analysis is focused on important arguments and assessments in the frame of the contemporary political development. The comparison of how the issue was perceived by the daily newspapers and by the film journals hopes to bring a new aspect and a new point of view to the film and history studies. .

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