Natural sounds are characterized by the distribution of acoustic power over different frequency regions and/or time. This is termed spectral, temporal or spectro-temporal modulation. The auditory system is equipped with banks of filters tuned to different spectral, temporal and spectro-temporal modulation frequencies (SM, TM, STM). The sensitivity of the peripheral system to these modulations can be measured by undertaking a linear systems approach. In addition to understanding the psychophysical sensitivity, studying the neural patterns of their processing is also critical. The current study is an attempt to understand the relationship between the behavioral and neural correlates of spectral, temporal and spectro-temporal processing in ten normal hearing subjects (age range 21-27 years; mean = 23.7 years). In the behavioral experiment, sensitivity to SM, TM and STM frequencies was estimated using a 3-interval, 3-alternative, forced-choice paradigm with a 3-down-1-up tracking algorithm. In the electrophysiological experiment, Electroencephalographs (EEGs) were recorded in a change-detection paradigm in response to the same set of modulation stimuli used in the behavioral experiment presented at 20 dB sensation level (SL). The EEG data were analyzed to determine the global field power and latencies of the N1and P2 components and the amplitude of the N1-P2 complex. Although an overall parietal dominance was observed for all of the components, the N1-P2 complex was strongly lateralized to the right hemisphere in the frontal region, but the hemispheric asymmetry decreased at central and parietal regions. A highly significant but weak to moderate negative correlation between individual behavioral thresholds and N1-P2 amplitudes was observed, and this relationship also was observed when behavioral spectro-temporal transfer functions and N1-P2 amplitude transfer functions were examined together. Thus the current project reveals that a relationship exists between the behavioral measures and neural correlates and gives us hope to work towards establishing this relationship.

One key debate in the critical reception of Shakespearean late romance concerns how best to approach the functionality of the dramatised worlds that constitute it. What I call ‘containment’ readings of late romance argue that the alternative realities explored in the plays – realities of miraculous revivals, pastoral escapes and divine interventions, – serve to affirm the inevitable return of extant power structures. Utopian readings dispute this, making the case that the political and existential destructurations exposed in these plays point toward a new orientation for the dramatic subjects they produce. With the aim of contributing to the debate between containment and utopian readings, I explore in this thesis how late romance produces its subjects. I interrogate the plays’ structures with the help of the anthropological model of the limen, which is shown to be a useful category through which to educe the meaningfulness of certain ritual sequences. The limen’s three phases – separation; limen; aggregation – are employed to make sense of the transitions that subjects undergo in the four plays studied: Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest. To study the liminality of these plays is, I argue, to study how dramatic subjects are produced therein, guided by the fact that their language shares properties with ritual discourse. When studying this discourse the focus falls on that class of language which impinges most lastingly on subjects: performatives. How performatives function in late romance will show us how real the changes induced in liminal subjects are. I examine the four plays in turn and find that their performative language produces subjects in a limen-consistent fashion. Aristocratic subjects are first of all estranged from those discursive practices that nourish their identity; their subjectivities are then glued back together in the ritualised, emblematising language of the limen. The conclusion I draw from my interrogation of the liminal patterns uncovered is that the functionality of late romance is broadly consistent with containment readings; I claim to have extended such readings, however, in showing that Shakespeare’s dramatisation of the state’s return to power usefully exposes its logic and symbolic grammar.

[Truncated abstract] Some children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) show poor performance on behavioural tasks designed to measure rapid auditory processing, such as the Repetition Test developed by Tallal and colleagues. Stemming from concerns about whether this task reflects higher-order, cognitive variables, this thesis sought to determine whether the performance deficits SLI children show were evident at the neurophysiological level, with minimal cognitive influences, such as attention, using paradigms designed to elicit the mismatch negativity (MMN) and late discriminative negativity (LDN). In the first two studies, a MMN paradigm, equivalent to the Repetition Test, was trialled with a group of 8 adults. In this paired paradigm, the second tone of a pair of pure tones ascending in frequency ('low'-'high') was occasionally replaced with a 'low' tone. The aim was to determine a 'long' and 'short' intra-pair interval (IPI) with which MMN was generated utilizing this paradigm and that were congruent with the Repetition Test findings (i.e., a long IPI at which SLI were able to perform the task, and a short IPI at which SLI children's performance was selectively impaired). In Study One, MMN to a within-pair frequency change was generated with the 30 ms IPI, but not the 700 ms IPI. The grouping parameters of the temporal window of integration (TWI) and temporal distinctiveness were considered less than optimal for the grouping of the pairs presented at 700 ms IPI for the pre-attentive system to register the within-pair frequency change. ... The frequency difference limens (DLs) of the SLI group were significantly higher than a group of 18 normally developing age- and intelligence-matched peers, but there was no significant difference between the groups in their performance on a control intensity discrimination task. The iii SLI group also showed poorer reading skills, yet frequency discrimination was related to oral language ability only. In the final study, MMN was measured to examine the pre-attentive neurophysiological basis of the SLI group's frequency discrimination deficit. Two frequency deviants that were just above each group's 75% DL on the frequency discrimination task were employed in a simple frequency change paradigm: 40 Hz difference for the control group, and 80 Hz difference for the SLI group. MMN and LDN were elicited in the group of 15 normally developing children to their 40 Hz suprathreshold frequency difference and to the 80 Hz difference. A significant MMN was not observed in the group of 13 SLI children to the 40 Hz difference, which was below their threshold level. However, despite discrimination at the behavioural level, MMN did not reach significance in the SLI group to their 80 Hz suprathreshold frequency difference, yet LDN was observed. MMN was larger in both groups for the 80 Hz difference. Furthermore, MMN and LDN amplitude to the suprathreshold deviants were predictive of both frequency and intensity DLs. These results suggested that SLI children have a pre-attentive neurophysiologically mediated insensitivity to small frequency differences, and that MMN (and LDN) to suprathreshold frequency deviants is a sensitive indicator of group discrimination differences and brain-behaviour relationships in children with and without SLI.

Adolescence is an incredibly complex period of life. During this time young people are searching for and wanting to create their own unique identity, however being confronted with a plethora of roles and directions is challenging and confusing. These challenges are reflected in the vast array of young adult literature being presented to young people today. As a result young adult literature has the potential to function as scaffolding to assist teenagers in the struggles of adolescence by serving as an important source of information about the world and the people in it. Teenage novels also give young people the opportunity to try on different identities and vicariously experience consequences of actions while developing their own distinctive personality and character. As this study reveals, the Australian young adult novel has undergone considerable developments, with 1989 serving as a milestone year in which writers and publishers turned in new directions. In general, Australian young adult novels have changed from books set predominately in rural areas, incorporating major themes of child abuse, death, friendship and survival with introverted characters aged between twelve and sixteen in the early 1980s to novels with urban settings, a large increase in books about crime, dating, drugs and mental health and sexually active, extroverted characters aged between fourteen and eighteen in the late 1990s. To chart the progression of these changes and gain an understanding of the messages young adults receive from adolescent novels an evaluative framework was developed. The framework consists of two main sections. The first part applies to the work as a whole, obtaining data about the novel such as plot, style, setting, temporal context, use of humour, issues within the text and ending, while the second part collects information about character demographics including gender, age, occupational status, family type, sexual orientation, relationships with family and authority figures, personality traits and outlook for character. To qualitatively and quantitatively assess the construction of youth in Australian young adult literature a random selection of 20 per cent of Australian young adult books published in each year from 1980 to 2000 were analysed using the evaluative framework, with 186 novels being studied altogether. During the 1990s in particular, Australian young adult literature was heavily criticised for being too bleak, too dark, presenting a picture of life that was all gloom and doom. This research resoundingly dismisses this argument by showing that rather than being a negative influence on the lives of young people, Australian books for young people present a comprehensive portrayal of youth. They probe the entire gamut of teenage experiences, both the good and the bad, providing a wide range of scenarios, roles, relationships and characters for young people to explore. Therefore Australian young adult literature provides an important source of information and support for the psycho-social development of young people during the formative years of adolescence. This research is significant because it gives hard evidence to support the promotion of a representative selection of Australian young adult novels both in the classroom and in home, school and public libraries. By establishing the available range of contemporary Australian young adult literature through this study, young adult readers, teachers and librarians can be confident in the knowledge that appropriate titles are accessible which meet the needs and interests of young people. Consequently, the substantial amount of data gathered from this study will considerably add to the knowledge and understanding ofAustralian young adult novels to date and provide an excellent starting point for further research in the future.

個人認為必須將皮日休與前、後時代及同期文人縱橫加以考察，以宏觀的角度來總結皮日休的整體表現，並綜合他的思想、文學理論與創作，才能全面地探討他在晚唐文學中的地位。論文的架構先以皮日休的生平事蹟與思想內涵為出發點，進而將他與古文運動、新樂府運動的傳承與聯繫加以論述，再以皮日休與晚唐同期文人的共同表現為主，最後總結皮日休的地位與影響。研究內容的重心如下：第一章「皮日休的生平事蹟與思想內涵」以整個時代環境的轉變為影響的關鍵。他的生平事蹟一直眾說紛紜，其死亦無法確考，本章只作合理的推斷。而皮日休的思想內涵則是傳統的儒家觀念，他延伸孟子的民本思想，提出許多深具改革性的意見，又其本著尚用的思想，而要求文學以及行為上的實用。第二章「皮日休與古文運動的傳承」中唐的古文運動在晚唐並未完全衰落，從古文家的傳承中可以尋得皮日休與前人的關連，尤其在文與道的觀念和踵武前賢的習作上，充分地了解他意欲傳承古文運動的理論與創作方向。第三章「皮日休與新樂府運動的聯繫」皮日休自覺地承襲新樂府運動的使命，他所創作的正樂府，延伸了元結系樂府、白居易新樂府的精神和意涵。另外，他與陸龜蒙的唱和詩也接續元稹、白居易的唱和詩型態。第四章「皮日休與同期文人的共同表現」因為所處環境的相同，所以皮日休在小品文以及詩歌的領域裡，與同期文人有著一致的特色，他們的小品文的確是魯迅所謂「一榻糊塗的泥塘□的光彩和鋒鋩」，在小品文的形式中充分地反映現況、針砭時風。而皮日休晚唐詩人創作的現實主義，表達了田耕宇所言「深沉的反思意識」，他們藉由歷史、現實、、自然四個主題的反思，深化了詩歌的內涵與層面。第五章「皮日休的地位與影響」此章為論文的總結。從皮日休對傳承古文運動、聯繫新樂府運動的努力，以及他與同期文人共同的傑出表現，肯定皮日休在晚唐文學中的地位，最後再由他的思想及創作論及皮日休對宋以後的影響和啟發。

People of late antiquity were subjected to the universal and perennial human woes - injustice, affliction, adversity and pain - that cause suffering. The experience of suffering is subjective. There are however, common sources of and expressions of suffering in humans. The fourth century was a period of significant cultural and social changes which drew responses from pagans that not only reflected traditional knowledge but also engaged with new sets of ideas. This thesis examines the problem of evil and suffering as experienced by pagans of the fourth century of the Common Era. Having received imperial sanction from the emperor Constantine after his conversion in 312, Christianity was gaining momentum in both membership and strength. The Graeco-Roman world had become one where Christianity, it seemed to some, had effectively surpassed pagan state cult Against this backdrop of religious change, pagans had taken on a self-consciousness that engendered a rethinking of many traditional ways of coping with and explaining the evils of the world and the suffering that could result from them. Some rules and conditions had changed, so how and where could pagans seek explanation for, protection from or alleviation of their suffering? The study addresses this question by posing and responding to further questions. Firstly, how did pagans understand the presence of evil and suffering in the world? Secondly, from what sources, natural or supernatural, could they draw hope in the face of evil and suffering? And thirdly, what degree of autonomy could pagans claim in approaching the problem? Religion and philosophy might be perceived by pagans to contain the answers to why there was evil and suffering in the world. The addition of science and the occult to religion and philosophy offered further ways through which pagans might seek to deal with the problem. By drawing primarily on extant literary evidence from the period as well as selected material evidence (predominantly pagan, but including some Christian), the research will trace the evolution of ideas regarding evil and suffering that pagan thinkers were bringing to the contemporary debate. / Thesis (M.A.) - University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, 2008

<p>The Chronica regni Gothorum is the first Latin national history of Sweden. Completed after 1471 by a canon of Uppsala, Ericus Olai, it testifies to the articulation at the Swedish arch see of the dominant political issues of the day: the status of the Swedish realm in the union with Denmark-Norway, and the relations between the king, aristocracy and ecclesiastical leadership. This thesis analyses the discourse on authority in the Chronica. It investigates the normative basis of Ericus’s treatment of contemporary political issues as a source for the social-political outlooks of Sweden’s ecclesiastical power elite, a group not previously studied in this respect. In particular, it argues for the importance of two prescriptive assumptions on social order, which lie at the heart of the authority discourse in the Chronica: God divided the world into self-governing peoples and realms, and He instituted the lay and clerical orders as parallel hierarchies of societal authority.</p><p>The thesis situates the production of the Chronica within the educational concerns of the Uppsala institution. It scrutinizes the commonplaces – derived from various fields of knowledge – through which Ericus articulated his dualist and nationalist assumptions. The realization of these notions in his historical account is examined in sections of the text where matters of importance for the Uppsala church are evident. Special attention is paid to Ericus’s account of the royal martyr, St Erik, the so-called Engelbrekt rebellion, and the contemporary strife between the Uppsala church and the kings. The thesis ends with a study of the reception of the Chronica in the 1520s, a time when the Reformation and the consolidation of a strong national monarchy in Sweden brought the authority issues addressed by Ericus to conclusion.</p>

<p>The purpose of this essay is to examine how young members of Free Churches relate to issues connected with lifestyle and identity, based on the changed conditions for the self in late modernity. More specifically, I want to examine how they deal with the increased degree of detraditionalisation and institutional individualization in late modernity.</p><p>My research-question is:</p><p>How do young members of Free Churches relate to issues connected with lifestyle and identity, with the increased degree of personal freedom and institutional individualization in late modernity as a starting point?</p><p>The empiric part of the essay is carried out by qualitative in-depth interviews with five young members of Free Churches. These semi-structured interviews are focused on a number of different areas of the changed conditions for the self in late modernity.</p><p>My theoretical perspective has been constructed from the theories of Anthony Giddens, Zygmunt Bauman, Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim. From these theories a focus on certain relevant areas of the condition of the self in late modernity, has developed. These are work, consumption, marriage, love, sexuality, body and health.</p><p>The general way of relating to issues of lifestyle and identity that I could interpret from my interview-respondents’ answers was that they exercised a form of opposition against the dominant way of life in late modernity, in issues that can be connected to detraditionalisation. Examples of such issues are those related to marriage and sexuality. But they relate more according to the dominant late modern way of life, in issues that can be connected to the institutional individualization, such as issues of work, consumption and body.</p>

<p>In the Late Iron Age, the Mälaren region contained a clearly stratified society and many sites in the landscape indicate the presence of an upper stratum, an elite. This concept – elite – may perhaps be seen as problematic, but in this case it is decidedly more neutral, and considerably less limiting and excluding than many other concepts.</p><p>The elite was a group that we know possessed larger farm buildings, more monumental and richly equipped graves as well as control over a large part of the specialised handicraft. The people in this elite group of society clearly advertised that they belonged to a special social unit. There are indications that these people had clear similarities with the nobility of the Middle Ages, but they were active in a society without any towns, Christianity or church administration. This dissertation discusses a number of issues concerning the elite of the Late Iron Age. Two studies are central. The first concerns six sites in the Mälaren region: Old Uppsala, Helgö, Vendel, Valsgärde, Husby in Glanshammar parish, and Ancient Sigtuna. The sites are compared to study the similarities and differences of elite settings. I investigate the evidence of different sources for the presence of great landownership, and of their importance for the rulers compared to other resources such as plunder, trade and taxation. The results indicate that the sites had many structural and economic similarities. At the same time, the resource use varied, and each site had its own unique character. The study is concluded with a discussion on the economic structure of the sites.</p><p>The second study deals with the elite in the vicinity of Uppsala, an area that mainly through Old Uppsala and the presence of boat graves are usually connected with ancient rulers. The investigation is mainly based on a number of excavated as well as non-excavated graves, some of which have never been published. In addition, a number of placenames and three unique ritual deposits are discussed. The study indicates that the people usually included in the concept of elite were quite common. This provides a new perspective for our view of two long renowned sites: Old Uppsala and Valsgärde.</p>

This dissertation examines Goethe’s portrayal of femininity in Die Wahlver-wandtschaften and how his depiction of all three central female characters relates to feminine ideals that were promoted through the theoretical gender debate of the late 1700s in Germany and Western Europe. I analyze Charlotte’s, Luciane’s, and Ottilie’s actions and interactions in various triadic character constellations in order to offer new insights into Goethe’s portrayal of femininity. In so doing, I argue that Goethe’s depiction of Charlotte holds the key to understanding how far Die Wahlverwandtschaften functions as (critical) commentary on the late Enlightenment gender discourse. I maintain that the actions and interactions of these three women show them as at times ‘unfit’ and/or unwilling to meet feminine ideals promoted in the late Enlightenment. I apply central concepts of Julia Kristeva’s psychoanalytic theory from the 1970s and 1980s as analytical tools to examine how far Goethe’s Wahlverwandt-schaften can be viewed as a critique of the norms and expectations commonly expressed in the late Enlightenment. I primarily focus on Kristeva’s concepts of subjectivity formation, semiotic and symbolic modalities, abjection, and her theorizing of motherhood. Kristeva’s emphasis on the pivotal role of the maternal function in the child’s identity formation and her representation of femininity as alterity allow me to explore the significance of Charlotte’s prevalence among the characters and to approach Goethe’s ambiguous and complex portrayal of unsteady, constantly shifting, and interrelated models of femininity in Charlotte, Luciane, and Ottilie as a narrative experiment in which he tests the viability of such models within the surrounding social discourse. In the main body of this dissertation, I begin by concentrating on Charlotte’s partnerships with men, and then I focus on her maternal role in relation to Luciane, Ottilie, and Otto. By making Charlotte the ‘epicenter’ of this investigation, I explore how far Goethe shapes her, Luciane, and Ottilie as characters who transgress late Enlightenment gender boundaries and thus deviate from what were considered ‘feminine ideals’ in order to underscore the arbitrary and contradictory nature of the prevalent social order.