The purpose of this thesis is to study the life and labors of Benjamin Franklin Johnson and to examine his contributions to his nation and to his Church.

Forest encroachment is understood to be the main reason for prairie grassland decline across the United States. In Texas and Oklahoma, juniper has been highlighted as particularly opportunistic. This study assesses the usefulness of three remote sensing techniques to aid in locating the areas of juniper encroachment for the LBJ Grasslands in Decatur, Texas. An object based classification was performed in eCognition and final accuracy assessments placed the overall accuracy at 94%, a significant improvement over traditional pixel based methods. Image biomass was estimated using normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) for 1 meter resolution IKONOS winter images. A high correlation between the sum of NDVI for tree objects and field tree biomass was determined where R = 0.72, suggesting NDVI sum of a tree area is plausible. However, issues with NDVI saturation and regression produced unrealistically high biomass estimates for large NDVI. Canopy height model (CHM) derived from 3-5m LiDAR data did not perform as well. LiDAR typically used for digital elevation model (DEM) production was acquired for the CHM and produced correlations of R = 0.26. This suggests an inability for this particular dataset to identify juniper trees. When points that registered a tree height where correlated with field values, an R = 0.5 was found, suggesting denser point spacing would be necessary for this type of LiDAR data. Further refining of the methods used in this study could yield such information as the amount of juniper tree for a given location, fuel loads for prescribed burns and better information for the best approach to remove the juniper and ultimately management juniper encroachment into grasslands.

Abstract not available

Craig Hella Johnson (b. 1963) has emerged as a leader in choral music over the last 20 years. As the conductor of the Austin, TX based chorus Conspirare Johnson implemented the European model of bringing singers together from all over the country to assemble for concerts and recordings over a short period of time. He is known for his collage programs which bring together many styles of music bound by a central theme. Through these programs he has written and arranged many pieces which are now published and being performed by choirs across the globe. Johnson's most significant work to date is a 90 minute passion oratorio which details the story of Matthew Shepard, a college student murdered in a hate crime in 1998. Considering Matthew Shepard (2016) is a wonderful example of Johnson's composition and programming style. Though not a traditional passion story, it is part of the evolution of the genre in the 20th and 21st centuries. The passion oratorio has seen a resurgence in the past 50 years and has undergone a transformation in that time. These new works pay homage to the history of the genre but have begun to stretch it in terms of form and content. This study will highlight the evolution of the passion oratorio focusing on Johnson's Considering Matthew Shepard and offer some insight into the composers style and how this work represents a modern treatment of the passion oratorio.

Det här är en vetenskapsteoretisk uppsats med problemformuleringen hur kan vi förstå nytänkande, mänskligt resonerande och vetenskaplig utveckling ur ett retorikvetenskapligt perspektiv? Arbetet sker utifrån temat det nya, som i ny förståelse av tillvaron. Jag motiverar retorikens relevans i uppsatsen genom att definiera retoriken som en lära om och förmågan att förstå tillvaron. Retorikvetenskapens plats och relevans för problemformuleringen tydliggörs genom att visa hur retoriken kan förstås i relation till några kända och betydelsefulla fysiska teorier och tankar från Einstein och Galileo. Jag inleder min studie med Gärdenfors kognitionsforskning och Castoriadis förståelse av skapandet av nya idéer. Därefter använder jag begreppen inventio, topos och metafor för att vidare ta mig an problemformuleringen. Slutligen visar jag hur vi genom doxologin kan söka nå bortom en förståelse av kunskap och vetande som antingen absolut objektiv eller subjektiv. Vad jag når2fram till och visar i uppsatsen är att retorikvetenskapen visar att all förståelse om tillvaron går genom människan själv, vilket innebär att människan har en roll i den vetenskapliga förändringen. Retorikvetenskapen kan ge oss hjälpmedel att se att underliggande argumentativa strukturer och andra försanthållanden reglerar eller formar det sätt på vilket vi tänker och funderar i olika frågor och därigenom hur desamma kan reglera och forma den vetenskapliga praktiken och teorin. / This is an epistemological thesis dealing with the question how can we understand innovating thinking, human reasoning, and scientific development from a rhetorical perspective? The underlying theme in the thesis is the new, as in new understanding of our world and existence. I motivate the rhetorical relevance in the thesis by defining rhetoric as a science of and the ability of understanding our world and existence. The relevance of rhetoric and its place towards the thesis’ question is clarified by showing how rhetoric could be understood in relation to some known and significant physical theories and ideas by Einstein and Galileo. I begin my study with Gärdenfors’ research of cognitive science and Castoriadis’ understanding of creation of new ideas. After that I use the concepts inventio, topos, and metaphor to further take on the question. Finally, I show how we by the use of doxology can go beyond an understanding of science and knowledge as either totally objective or totally subjective. My conclusion is that rhetoric shows that all understanding of our world and existence go through man himself, which means that humans have a significant role in the scientific development. Rhetoric can give us tools helping us see that underlying argumentative structures and other ideas we hold as true regulate and shape our thinking and understanding, and thereby how the same can regulate and shape the scientific practice and theory.

Post-apartheid writing has been characterized by an ardent search for a voice that truly depicts the painful apartheid past. The establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) promoted a confessional mode of writing as a means to obtaining healing, hence reconstitution. Such a paradigm shift in writing necessitated imagined characters to re-invent and re-align themselves with the new post-apartheid dispensation if they were to remain relevant to South African readership. Reinvention of characters is made possible through several means and various organs of reconstitution such as history, narration, possession of one’s landscape and a disavowal of belonging as depicted in The Native Commissioner. This study seeks to examine the process of self-constitution undergone by the co-protagonist and surrogate narrator, Sam Jameson, following his failure to function as an individual and father in post-apartheid South Africa. To this end, a close reading of the novel is done, to better understand the context of Sam’s trauma. The study traces the self-reconstitutive process of Sam from the moment he decides to re-visit his father’s past, to the moment when he finds release from the trauma. I argue that an investigation of his father’s life, as well as his, ultimately gives him agency over his own. Sam’s identity shifts from his childhood past, in which apartheid exerts primary influence, to that of an adult who lives in the post-apartheid moment, having come to terms with his past. Telling his story, to him becomes an act of re-creation and self-invention and the means by which he formulates his own identity. At the end of the story, it is a totally liberated individual that the reader witnesses. / English Studies / M.A. (English)

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-04T18:29:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dalva Alice Rocha Mol.pdf: 3149572 bytes, checksum: f806553a69f59c46eb1df3caf215be1e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-05-18 / The assessment of cognitive abilities of children who have learning disabilities (slow learners) is a major topic in psychology research. This doctorate thesis investigates the cognitive abilities of schoolchildren who have difficulty learning. Two different groups of informants were analyzed. The first group comprised 60 7- and 8-year-old schoolchildren of both genders 30 slow learners and 30 fast learners from two state schools in the State of S?o Paulo, Brazil. The second group comprised 8 primary school teachers also from two state schools in the State of S?o Paulo. We used Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities (WJ-III) composed of 10 tests, a questionnaire filled out by the teachers and an analysis of the pupils marks in Portuguese, Math and Science. The results from the Multivariate and Univariate Analysis of Variance showed significant differences between the group of slow learners and the group of fast learners. The Pearson Assessments showed the children s performance improved as they moved to higher grades. The children s marks were consistent with the results from the WJ-III. Therefore we concluded that the cognitive abilities are significantly different between fast and slow learners and that WJ-III can be used to analyze learning disabilities. / A avalia??o das habilidades cognitivas de crian?as que apresentam dificuldades de aprendizagem constitui-se um importante campo de investiga??o psicol?gica. Este estudo objetivou investigar as habilidades cognitivas de crian?as com e sem dificuldades de aprendizagem pela Bateria Woodcock-Johnson. Duas amostras foram compostas: a primeira amostra por 60 crian?as de ambos os sexos, sendo 30 participantes sem indica??o de dificuldades de aprendizagem e 30 com indica??o de dificuldades de aprendizagem, que freq?entavam a primeira e segunda s?rie do Ensino Fundamental de duas escolas p?blicas do interior do estado de S?o Paulo. A segunda amostra foi composta por oito professores de primeira e segunda s?ries de duas escolas p?blicas do interior do estado de S?o Paulo. Utilizou-se a Bateria de habilidades cognitivas Woodcock-Johnson III (WJ III), composta por 10 testes, um question?rio escolar preenchido pelos professores e as notas escolares obtidas em Portugu?s, Matem?tica e Ci?ncias. As An?lises da Vari?ncia Multivariada e Univariada apontaram os efeitos significativos no tipo de grupo e de s?rie escolar das habilidades cognitivas avaliadas pela WJ III. A correla??o de Pearson mostrou a rela??o entre as habilidades cognitivas e os indicadores de dificuldades de aprendizagem, apontados pelo professor, sobre as crian?as com e sem dificuldades de aprendizagem. As notas escolares tamb?m se associaram significativamente aos resultados da WJ III. Desta forma, concluiu-se que existem diferen?as significativas nas habilidades cognitivas entre crian?as com dificuldades e crian?as sem dificuldades de aprendizagem, e que a WJ III ? uma medida v?lida para avaliar tais dificuldades.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-04T18:29:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcelo Gulini Chiodi.pdf: 2654186 bytes, checksum: 8afcc46d0d34b2195ce3af9b190696ab (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-28 / Pontif?cia Universidade Cat?lica de Campinas / The study on how the different intellectual abilities interact and operate has always aroused man's curiosity due to his need to explain individual differences in the use of information. In this sense, this paper aims to adapt and validate the ten subtests that make up the extended version of the Woodcock-Johnson III Cognitive Abilities Battery (WJ-III Extended) taking into account the Brazilian reality. To this end, we developed four different studies: 1 - Adaptation of the battery (translation, creation and adaptation of items to the Brazilian reality); 2 - Convergent validation by comparing the results of the WJ-III Standard Battery with the Extended version; 3 and 4 - Validation of convergent criteria by comparing the results of two clinical groups, i.e., children diagnosed with Benign Childhood Epilepsy with Centrotemporal Spikes (BCECS) and children diagnosed with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). To perform study 2, convergent validation, we evaluated 70 public primary and secondary school children, 43 male and 27 female, aged between 7 and 12. The obtained results were analyzed using Pearson's correlation and a Variance Analysis regarding sex and age of each instrument. Significant correlations were found between the total scores of the expanded WJ-III version and total scores of the standard WJ-III version (0.80), as well as between the subtests which assess Crystallized Intelligence (Gc) of both the expanded and the standard WJ-III (Gc) (0.77). Significant correlations were also observed when we compared the subtests used to assess other skills of both versions of the WJ-III battery (0.73). The Age variable differed significantly in both the expanded and the standard version, whereas the influence of the Sex X Age variable was only significant in the WJ-III standard version. To perform studies 3 and 4 that validated convergent criteria, we analyzed 21 children diagnosed with BCECS and 20 children diagnosed with ADHD aged between 7 and 12 of both sexes. The two clinical groups were matched with children without neurological disorders of the same age and sex. Information obtained in the tests was analyzed by means of a Variance Analysis for group, sex and age. The results of study 3 showed a lower performance of all evaluated skills in the BCECS group compared to the performance of children without neurological disorders. Regarding Study 4, the ADHD children group also showed lower performance in all skills when compared to the control group. Those data demonstrate the convergent validity between the Extended WJ-III and the Standard WJ-III, as well as the convergent criteria validity by differentiating two clinical groups. This could contribute to a more detailed diagnosis of the different cognitive abilities and widen the range of instruments used for intellectual evaluation. / O estudo da intera??o e funcionamento das diferentes habilidades intelectuais sempre despertou curiosidade devido ? necessidade do ser humano de esclarecer as diferen?as individuais no uso das informa??es. Neste sentido, o presente trabalho prop?s a adaptar e validar, para a realidade brasileira, os dez subtestes que comp?em a vers?o Ampliada da Bateria de Habilidades Cognitivas Woodcock-Johnson III (WJ-III Ampliada). Para a realiza??o deste projeto foram desenvolvidos 4 diferentes estudos: 1- adapta??o da bateria (tradu??o, cria??o e adapta??o de itens para a realidade brasileira); 2- validade convergente, comparando os resultados da bateria WJ-III Padr?o com a Ampliada; 3 e 4 - validade de crit?rio tipo concorrente, comparando os resultados de dois grupos cl?nicos, crian?as diagnosticadas com Epilepsia Benigna da Inf?ncia com Pontas centro-temporais (EBICT) e crian?as com o diagn?stico de Transtorno do D?ficit de Aten??o e Hiperatividade (TDAH). Para o estudo 2 de validade convergente, foram avaliadas 70 crian?as de escola p?blica do Ensino Fundamental e M?dio, sendo 43 do sexo masculino e 27 do sexo feminino, com faixa et?ria entre 7 e 12 anos. Os resultados obtidos foram analisados segundo a correla??o de Pearson e An?lise da Vari?ncia entre sexo e idade para cada instrumento. Foram encontradas correla??es significativas entre as pontua??es totais da WJ-III Ampliada e as pontua??es totais na WJ-III vers?o Padr?o de (0,80), assim como, entre os subtestes que avaliam Intelig?ncia Cristalizada (Gc) da WJ-III Ampliada com a WJ-III Padr?o (Gc) (0,77). Tamb?m foram observadas correla??es significativas quando relacionados os subtestes que avaliam as demais habilidades de ambas as vers?es da Bateria WJ-III (0,73). Houve diferen?a significativa para a vari?vel Idade tanto na vers?o Ampliada quanto na vers?o Padr?o. J? a influ?ncia da vari?vel Sexo X Idade foi significativa apenas na vers?o Padr?o da WJ-III. Com rela??o aos estudos 3 e 4 de validade de crit?rio do tipo concorrente, foram estudadas 21 crian?as diagnosticadas com EBICT e 20 diagnosticadas com TDAH, com faixa et?ria entre 7 e 12 anos e de ambos os sexos. Os dois grupos cl?nicos foram pareados por crian?as de mesma idade, sexo e diagnosticadas sem dist?rbios neurol?gicos. As informa??es obtidas nos testes foram analisadas segundo a An?lise de Vari?ncia entre grupo, sexo e idade. Os resultados do estudo 3 apontaram para um desempenho inferior em todas as habilidades avaliadas no grupo EBICT em compara??o ao desempenho de crian?as diagnosticadas sem dist?rbios neurol?gicos. No estudo 4 o grupo de crian?as diagnosticadas com TDAH tamb?m apresentou desempenho inferior em todas as habilidades ao comparar com o desempenho do grupo controle. Portanto, tais dados indicam que a Bateria WJ-III vers?o Ampliada possui validade convergente com a WJ-III vers?o Padr?o e validade de crit?rio tipo concorrente ao diferenciar dois grupos cl?nicos, podendo assim contribuir para um diagn?stico mais detalhado das v?rias habilidades cognitivas e enriquecer ainda mais as possibilidades de instrumentos para avalia??o intelectual.

The Cultural Landscape Inventory is a comprehensive inventory of all historically significant landscapes within the National Park Service. This cultural landscape inventory documents the Johnson Settlement Area at the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park in Johnson City, Texas. The Johnson Settlement Area served as the headquarters for former president Lyndon B. Johnson’s paternal grandparents, Samuel Ealy Johnson and Eliza Bunton’s, open-range cattle ranch from 1867 through 1872. After the collapse of the cattle ranching enterprise, the land was sold to James Polk Johnson and later converted into a small-scale farm by John Bruckner. From 1970 through 1972, Lyndon B. Johnson was involved with the planning, acquisition, and donation of a portion of the original settlement property to the National Park Service. In 1972, a major restoration and reconstruction project was completed as the property was converted into an historic interpretive landscape administered by the National Park Service. The Johnson Settlement Area is primarily an open pastoral landscape with reconstructed livestock corrals and a cluster of restored and reconstructed building and structures that collectively convey the ranching and frontier heritage of former president Lyndon B. Johnson. The cultural landscape inventory documents the physical development and historical significance of the Johnson Settlement Area. The inventory evaluates the landscape characteristics of the district and considers the integrity and overall condition of this historic vernacular landscape. Further, the inventory assesses eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places. The Johnson Settlement Area Cultural Landscape Inventory expands the 1990 National Register of Historic Places nomination in its period of significance, boundaries and acreage, and National Register Criteria. / text

Based on a Ph.D. thesis - Liverpool Hope University College. / Includes bibliographical references and index.