This diploma thesis studies the transformation of the image of conquistador Lope de Aguirre in selected pieces of Hispanic literature. The introductory compilation explains the historical context of the colonial background in which Aguirre's rebellion took place. Some historical facts about Aguirre himself are added as well. The analytical part of this thesis concentrates on Aguirre's image in literature written in Spanish, from the second half of the 16th century till present. The four hundred year development of a historical persona into a myth is very briefly captured. Given the amount of possible research samples we choose to primarily focus on Aguirre's image in 16th century chronicles written by witnesses, namely the chronicle of Francisco Vázquez. Secondarily, we also look into the image created by post-boom writers in the seventies in the 20th century, with special consideration of Abel Posse's novel Daimón. As a result, we can make a limited comparison between one of the very first and one of the very last literary images of Aguirre. Based upon these images we also try to deduce the influence of contemporary values and mentality on the creation of said images.

This Bachelor’s thesis explores the relationship between borders, boundaries and migration, and their effect on identity making from a diasporic perspective. The study focuses on notions of national, regional, cultural, tribal and ethnic identity, and set in relation to the influence borders and boundarieshave on these processes. It investigates this topical realm within the specific conditions of the Angolan-Namibian border, following the developments from the era of colonization, independence struggle and decolonization and the transformation of Angola and Namibia into self-asserting and sovereign states, in which it focuses on the identity making of the Angolan diaspora residing in the border town of Rundu, northern Namibia. In doing so, it sets out to investigate the connection between macro variables and processes such as colonialism, the Cold War in Africa, and independence movements, to micro processes focusing on the living conditions and experiences of border residents. The study aims at a holistic approach drawing from theoretical developments within border and boundary studies stemming from disciplines such as political geography and anthropology, along with migration studies and social psychology. The results suggest that differing dominant conditions of the Angolan and Namibian states in terms of historical and political development, living conditions and the manifestation of the border and political assertion of the nation-states, has indeed helped to inform and construct different social categories and identities. In terms of the Angolan diaspora, the results indicate that migrants acquiring Namibian citizenships and thereby rights, did redefine their national identity to a greater extent than those denied documentation as their agency has become curtailed, leaving this group in an identity-limbo. The main contribution of this study is an investigation of what the border-migration-identity nexus means in terms of the Angolan diaspora and the Kavango region.

Master of Science / Department of Biological & Agricultural Engineering / Naiqian Zhang / Permittivity is an important property of dielectric materials. By measuring the permittivity of a material, it is possible to obtain information about the material’s physical and chemical properties, which are of great importance to many applications. In this study, a realtime control system for a frequency-response (FR) permittivity sensor was developed. The core of the hardware was a kitCON167 microcontroller (PHYTEC America, LLC), which controlled and communicated with peripheral devices. The system consisted of circuits for waveform generation, signal conditioning, signal processing, data acquisition, data display, data storage, and temperature measurement. A C program was developed in the TASKING Embedded Development Environment (EDE) to control the system. The control system designed in this study embodied improvements over a previously designed version in the following aspects: 1) it used a printed circuit board (PCB); 2) the measurement frequency range was extended from 120 MHz to 400 MHz; 3) the resolution of measured FR data was improved by using programmable gain amplifiers; 4) a data storage module and a real-time temperature measurement module were added to the system; 5) an LCD display and a keypad were added to the system to display the FR data with corresponding frequencies and to allow users to enter commands. Impedance transformation models for the sensor probe, the coaxial cable that connects the control system with the sensor probe, and the signal processing circuit were studied in order to acquire information on the permittivity of measured materials from measured FR data. Coaxial cables of the same length terminated with different loads, including an open circuit, a short circuit, a 50 resistor, and a 50 resistor paralleled by a capacitor, were tested. The results indicated that the models were capable of predicting the impedances of these specific loads using the FR data. Sensor probes with different sizes and coaxial cables with two different lengths terminated with the same sensor probe were also tested. The results were discussed. Additional tests for the gain and phase detector were conducted to compare FR data measured by the gain and phase detector with those observed on an oscilloscope. The results were discussed.

Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Huston Gibson / In 2011, the United States Secretary of the Interior approved a proposal for expansion of the Harry S. Truman National Historic Landmark District in Independence, Missouri. The expansion of the historic district and the subsequent press resulting from the expansion was the inspiration for this report. The topic area of this report is historic preservation. Historic districts come with increased rules and regulations that can be seen as limiting a resident’s use of the properties within these districts. This report is concerned with the actual condition within a historic district with a central hypothesis that historic districts do have a positive association with property condition. In order to answer the research question, a multiple-case replication explanatory case study was performed using the original landmark district boundaries and two comparable nearby neighborhoods outside of the historic landmark district. The case study utilized secondary sources and in-field observations to analyze seven researchable factors about the parcels within the study areas. These factors were compared and contrasted during the cross case analysis. To further the understanding of the study area, a detailed profile of the City of Independence, Missouri, was produced. This profile looked at the historical development of the city, as well as economic and demographic statistics. The theoretical framework behind historic districts was also analyzed for this report. It is beneficial to look at this question in order to evaluate the potential implementation of a historic district that a planner may face in their municipality such as whether historic preservation regulations should be maintained, expanded, or eliminated or a historic district should be put in place. The report ends with a conclusionary chapter including recommendations, lessons for planning professionals, and ideas for further research.

This thesis argues that Isabel Archer of Henry James’s novel The Portrait of a Lady and Lily Bart of Edith Wharton’s novel The House of Mirth were nineteenth-century characters struggling to assert their social and sexual independence in a male dominated society. Although Isabel inherits a fortune that allegedly enables her to have more autonomy than Lily, both characters are negatively affected by their inability to conceive of their lives outside of social convention.

I explore three main points in Alfred Tarski’s Semantic Conception of Truth and the Foundation of Theoretical Semantics: (1) his physicalist program, (2) a general theory of truth, and (3) the necessity of a metalanguage when defining truth. Hartry Field argued that Tarski’s theory of truth failed to accomplish what it set out to do, which was to ground truth and semantics in physicalist terms. I argue that Tarski has been adequately defended by Richard Kirkham. Development of logic in the past three decades has created a shift away from Fregean and Russellian understandings of quantification to an independent conception of quantification in independence-friendly first-order logic. This shift has changed some of the assumptions that led to Tarski’s Impossibility Theorem.

O presente experimento teve como objetivo replicar o estudo de Finn, Miguel e Ahearn (2012), manipulando a presença do quadro autoclítico de mandos e tatos e avaliar o efeito do treino de mandos e tatos de peças de duas tarefas de construção na emergência de tatos e mandos (não treinados) destas peças. Quatro participantes eram ensinados a montar duas tarefas de construção e, em seguida, a emitirem respostas vocais (pseudopalavras) com funções de tatos e mandos. Um contrabalanceamento foi aplicado para que cada participante iniciasse a fase de treinos com o treino de um operante verbal diferente (tatos ou mandos) das peças de uma Tarefa de Construção diferente (Tarefa de Construção 1 ou Tarefa de Construção 2), os participantes, então, passavam pela fase de teste dos dois operantes verbais para todas as peças das duas tarefas de construção. Após essa fase, os participantes passavam por mais uma fase de treino, do outro operante verbal diferente da primeira fase, para a outra tarefa de construção e, então, mandos e tatos eram testados para todas as peças das duas tarefas de construção. Todos os participantes emitiram tatos após o treino de mandos e apenas um participante (P3) não emitiu mandos após o treino de tatos para as peças das tarefas de construção. A emergência dos operantes verbais não treinados aconteceu em menores taxas do que as observadas nos achados de Finn et al (2012), demonstrando influência da ausência dos quadros autoclíticos nos treinos e testes de mandos e tatos. O segundo treino teve influência nos resultados dos testes da primeira tarefa de construção para os participantes P2 e P5, o que indica que a história de reforçamento de diferentes operantes verbais em condições semelhantes às das fases de teste podem favorecer a emergência de operantes verbais / The present experiment aimed to replicate the study by Finn, Miguel and Ahearn (2012), manipulating the presence of the autoclitic frame of mands and tacts and evaluating the effect of the training of mands and tacts of pieces of two construction tasks in the emergence of untrained mands and tacts of these pieces. Four participants were taught to set up two construction tasks and then to emit vocal responses (pseudowords) with mands and tacts functions. A counterbalance was applied so that each participant started the training phase with the training of a different verbal operant (mand or tact) of the parts of a different Construction Task (Construction Task 1 or Construction Task 2), the participants, then, went through the testing phase of the two verbal operants for all the pieces of the two construction tasks. Afterwards, the participants went through another training phase, from the other verbal operant, to the other construction task, and then mands and tacts were tested for all the pieces of the two construction tasks. All participants emitted tacts after the mand training and only one participant (P3) did not emit mands after the training of tacts for the pieces of the construction tasks. The emergence of the untrained verbal operants occurred at lower rates than those observed in Finn et al (2012), demonstrating the influence of the absence of autoclitic frames on mands and tacts training and tests. The second training had influence on the results of the tests of the first construction task for the participants P2 and P5, which indicates that the history of reinforcement of different verbal operants in conditions similar to those of the test phases can favor the emergence of verbal operants

The goal of this thesis is to provide comprehensive analysis of constitutional framework and position of the Public prosecution. By term constitutional framework of the Public prosecution. I understand its definition and subsumption under the Constitution of the Czech Republic. By position of the Public prosecution I understand its degree of autonomy and its position within the system of public administration bodies including its relations with them. In relation to the goal of this thesis I also deal with the historical development of public prosecution and consideration over the possible amendments of its framework. The public prosecution service is a system of state offices which represent the state in protecting public interest. The constitution entrusts the Public prosecution office with the task of representing public prosecution in penal proceedings. And that is what makes the Public Prosecution office unique and irreplaceable institution, which together with the courts takes part in the exercise of penal justice and shall be therefore considered as necessary institution for the state governed by the rule of law. The thesis is divided into six main chapters except for its introduction and final part. The first chapter provides the overview of historical development of public prosecution with...

The aim of this work is to answer the question of whether the judge's remuneration represent a constitutional guarantee of judicial independence and thus whether they can have a real impact on the judges' decisions. In view of this, the thesis will first deal with the definition of the term "judicial independence" and its possible categorizations. Subsequently, the diploma thesis will focus on Czech legal regulation of judicial remuneration and documentation from important international institutions. The focus of this thesis will be devoted to the analysis of Act No. 236/1995 Sb., o platu a dalších náležitostech spojených s výkonem funkce představitelů státní moci a některých státních orgánů a soudců a poslanců Evropského parlamentu, ve znění pozdějších předpisů (about salary and other elements associated with the performance of State representatives, bodies, judges and members of the European Parliament duties). Specifically looking at case law from the Constitutional Court on the issue of judge's remuneration, in particular with regard to the method of calculating judges' salaries and restrictive interventions in the judiciary, including the removal of additional salaries, the freezing of salaries and changes in the statistical index. The aim of this chapter will be to find out, in particular,...

The purpose of this quantitative study was to ascertain the extent to which the level of postsecondary readiness among youth residing in Independent Living Programs is influenced by the level of one or more of the following; graduation preparedness, independent living skills, sustainable independent living skills, and knowledge of their foster care rights. Approximately 15% of the 437,465 youth residing in foster care during FY 2016–2017 reached the age of emancipation. A quantitative research design was used in this descriptive study to examine the relationship between postsecondary readiness among youth residing in Independent Living Programs and their level of (a) graduation preparedness, (b) independent living readiness, (c) sustainable independent living skills, and (d) knowledge of their foster care rights. Participants placed in Georgia Independent Living Programs and preparing to exit the foster care system or emancipated from foster care were selected for this study using the purposive sampling method. Each of the 69 participants completed the Postsecondary and Education Readiness Survey. The instrument was pilot tested with 10 participants and determined to be valid and reliable. The data for the study were analyzed using the following statistical tests: descriptive statistics, frequency distribution, standard deviation, cross tabulation, and Spearman Rho. Participants represented a diverse group, including male, female, between the ages of 16 to 20 years old, black/African American, white, Hispanic/Latino/Spanish, other ethnic background, and between 1 and 18 years in foster care. The following results related to the four research questions/hypotheses: (a) there was a significant (moderately positive) relationship between the postsecondary readiness and graduation preparedness variables; (b) there was a significant (weak positive) relationship between the postsecondary readiness and independent living skills variables; (c) there was a significant (weak positive) relationship between the postsecondary readiness and sustainable independent living skills; and (d) there was a significant (weak positive) relationship between the postsecondary readiness and foster care rights variables. The following recommendations were inspired by the results of this study: increase funding for the Educational Training Voucher (ETV) program, provide additional independent living training for foster care youth and caregivers, and partner with other agencies serving young adults.