The numerical solution of elliptic boundary value problems on rectangular regions with Dirichlet boundary conditions is considered. The well-known finite difference scheme is used to discretize the continuous problem. The solution is now expressed as the unknown vector in a high order matrix equation. In general, efficient direct methods for obtaining the solution of the matrix equation are not known. There are several well-known iteration schemes commonly used to solve such problems. The main disadvantage of these methods is that the number of computations which are required to solve the matrix equation increases in a nonlinear way with the number of equations to be solved. Stone's original and symmetric strongly implicit factorization procedure are considered. The known results concerning the convergence properties of each iteration are presented. A new result concerning the symmetric factorization is presented and the results of numerical investigations are presented. / Science, Faculty of / Mathematics, Department of / Graduate

Memoria (licenciado en ciencias jurídicas y sociales) / Esta tesis presenta una reflexión metateórica de la historia de la filosofía del derecho de los siglos XX y XXI al interior de la tradición analítica. Para dicho propósito se divide en tres ejes argumentativos. El primero presenta la elucidación de la noción de tradición analítica en filosofía, a partir de la distinción entre “tradiciones y concepciones filosóficas” propuesta por M. E. Orellana Benado, con el fin de dar cuenta de sus orígenes, rasgos distintivos y discusiones más relevantes. El segundo ofrece una comprensión iusfilosófica de la tradición analítica en el siglo XX. Sobre la base de: la Teoría Pura del Derecho (1934) de Hans Kelsen y El Concepto de Derecho (1961) de H. L. A. Hart. Analizando las dos aproximaciones metodológicas de este último (al derecho como sociología descriptiva y como teoría jurídica analítica) y sus puntos centrales. Finalmente, revisa las consecuencias que trajo la publicación de la segunda edición de El Concepto de Derecho (1994) con el Postscript, añadido por sus editores, texto en el que Hart responde a sus críticos. El tercer eje argumentativo muestra en dos partes el desarrollo de la filosofía jurídica analítica de los tres primeros lustros del siglo XXI. Una de ellas considera la importancia y actualidad de los proyectos de Kelsen y Hart, mientras que la otra indagará en el surgimiento de nuevas concepciones iusfilosóficas como el naturalismo jurídico, el pragmatismo jurídico, el Law & Economics y los estudios críticos del derecho

In Frank Herbert’s Dune Saga, we find a transhumanist and Nietzschean argument about the evolution of humans achieved as a result of the triggering effect of the Butlerian Jihad against thinking machines. I claim that the metamorphoses of the selected characters reflect the central tenants of the transformation of Nietzsche’s overhuman, or transhumanism’s posthuman. By extending these metamorphoses to include the standpoint of a fictional counterpart such as Dune’s Kwisatz Haderach, this study claims that in Science Fiction we find a possible ground for conceptualizing difficult problems that deal with the future of humanity. This investigation into the need to overcome the human condition will be held in order to see what drives human enhancement, what triggers the need for change, and how this enhancement is realised. Moreover, I claim that the Dune Saga dramatizes a future scenario that furthers the discussion on what is human by questioning the boundary between human and nonhuman.

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Hester Pulter’s (1605-1678) work was discovered in 1996 in the Brotherton Library at the University of Leeds. Pulter composed her poetry in the 1640s-1650s, but her works were not compiled until the 1660s. Overall, her manuscript contains one hundred and twenty poems and emblems in addition to an unfinished prose romance. Pulter recalls her personal life in her poems, and the collection includes her elegiac and lyrical poems on different topics such as politics, religion, childbirth, and the death of her children. In her elegiac poetry, Pulter explores of the experience of childbirth and sickness through a set of conventional Christian ideas about death. However, Pulter’s elegiac poetry also breaks away from Christian conventions, often through the use of astronomical imagery. In this thesis, I argue that Pulter’s grief and consolation strategies sometimes differ from her contemporaries; however, she eventually finds consolation using imagery drawn from her knowledge of the new astronomy, allowing her to reconstruct her identity. Through comparing Pulter with her contemporaries such as George Herber, Katherine Philips, and John Donne, Pulter’s poetry, which has been unstudied until recently, provides an example of a woman writer who is familiar with the seventeenth century poetical conventions; however, she is able to alter them to what is relevant to her condition.

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I förskolan finns det två yrkeskategorier, barnskötare och förskollärare. Förskolan har blivit en egen skolform som fått egen läroplan som reviderats och fått tydligare riktlinjer för förskollärare och arbetslag. Som en följd av detta har kraven på personalen höjts. Med utgångspunkt i begreppen identitet och kompetens samt i identitetsteorier vill vi försöka närma oss en förståelse för hur de båda yrkeskategorierna ser på sin egen och varandras yrkesroll och kompetens. Vi undrar också hur de tänker kring förskolans framtid, kommer det fortsatt att finnas två yrkeskategorier i förskolan? För att få syn på detta har vi gjort en kvalitativ studie och för att samla in vår empiri valde vi att göra halvstrukturerade intervjuer. Vi valde att intervjua tre förskollärare och tre barnskötare från olika arbetslag. Studien visar att förskollärare och barnskötare inte gärna uttalar några tydliga skillnader i yrkesrollerna. En anledning till detta kan vara att det skett en kompetensutjämning vilket innebär att man känner lojalitet i arbetslaget och därför lägger sig på minsta gemensamma nivå trots olika kompetenser. Trots att de gärna inte vill uttala några skillnader blir det tydligt att de faktiskt ser skillnader mellan yrkeskategorierna. Studien visar även att språket är en central del i identitetskonstruktionen, i talet om sin kompetens och yrkesroll urskiljer man sig från de andra. Vidare finns det en allmän uppfattning om att en yrkeskategori vore det optimala och att detta är ett rimligt mål att sträva mot.

Experimental observations have shown that economic agents behave in ways different from the maximization of any utility function. Herbert Simon sought to deal with this by positing that individuals do not maximize, but rather "satisfice." This was a radical departure from the traditional economic framework, and one that still has not been adequately formalized. But Simon's suggestion is only the smallest part of what is needed for a theory that reflects the actual behavior. For instance, Simon's framework cannot deal with the observation that the act of choice changes the chooser. This dissertation is further developing Simon's original ideas through embracing John Dewey's transactional thinking to attain an adequate theory of economic choice that accounts for boundedly rational agents. I clarify that substantive rationality and bounded (procedural) rationality share the same basic utilitarian assumption of predetermined goals. In terms of a Deweyan (transactional) analysis, the idea of utilitarian "optimization" ultimately guides and constrains both theories. But empirical study of choice behavior and the behavior of subjects in experimental laboratories, both indicate that neither substantive nor procedural rationality can effectively account for actual economic choices. I emphasize the importance of treating bounded rationality without reference to the rational framework. To me, bounded rationality implies a realistic picture of behavior, which is associated with emerging goals and not ones that exist prior to the making of a choice. I consider uncertainty as a normal characteristic of the situation, which in turn allows consideration of acting based on inconsistent information, just as people actually do. The basis of a systematic approach to behavior that can capture inconsistency is developed by Tom Burke. He mathematizes Dewey's logic. He allows for impossible worlds in the set of states. Thus, not only can the initial state space hold inconsistent states, the information set can include mutually inconsistent elements. So the current neoclassical paradigm resembles the representative realism, but is there any good reason why we should accept this methodology as economists? Whatever one's ultimate metaphysics and epistemology, I want to show that an alternative approach to economic decision-making may prove highly useful in theory and practice. / Ph. D.

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