Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T18:12:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Adelio Goncalves Brito.pdf: 55870463 bytes, checksum: 4884765df8fcc405255c564841ce4601 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-08-10 / The goal of this study is to investigate the semiotic building process of a hero in the graphic novel 300, by Frank Miller, through the identification of a unique style of the author, based on narrative protocols of this media. Object of the investigation and contextualization determinant of this construction, the language of comics is exposed and analyzed in what constitute it, that is, on what defines it as a genre and characterizes it as a singular media, propitious as an entertainment use, especially in its graphic novel format. So, the research predisposes to unravel this language discursive course (Comics in graphic novel format), through which represents and constitutes the character of King Leonidas, leader of the warrior campaign which gives name to the aforementioned graphic novel. Such unraveling is supported by a semiotic analysis of the representation games between the characters and the narrative in the journey of the hero, which justifies the use of a theoretical reflection provided by the narratology of Vladimir Propp, supported by the Haroldian study on Macunaíma and the deepened analysis on that subject made by the studies of Christopher Vogler, and, finally, under the perspective of myth Joseph Campbell. The studies showed a King Leonidas built from a rescue of he old style hero, celebrated in the early days of comics, associated with multiple layers of meanings, which are repeated in two other Miller s characters, while they identified a millerian style, that works with elements of comics language in an unusual way, combining them with other languages, such as film and painting / O objetivo desta pesquisa é investigar o jogo de construção semiótica do herói na graphic novel Os 300 de Esparta, do quadrinista Frank Miller, por meio da identificação de um estilo próprio do autor, embasado nos protocolos narrativos desta mídia. Objeto da investigação e contextualização determinante dessa construção, a linguagem dos quadrinhos é exposta e analisada naquilo que a constitui, ou seja, naquilo que a define como gênero e a caracteriza como uma mídia singular propícia ao uso como entretenimento, especialmente em seu formato de graphic novel. Assim, a pesquisa se predispõe a deslindar os percursos discursivos desta linguagem (História em Quadrinhos em seu formato graphic novel), por meio dos quais se representa e constitui a personagem do Rei Leônidas, que é o condutor da campanha guerreira a que se refere o título da HQ. Tal deslinde está embasado numa análise semiótica dos jogos de representação entre as personagens e a narrativa na jornada do herói, o que justifica o uso da reflexão teórica proporcionada pela narratologia de Vladimir Propp, apoiada pela análise haroldiana do Macunaíma, além dos aprofundamentos que os estudos de Christopher Vogler acrescentam e, por fim, sob a perspectiva do mito de Joseph Campbell. Os estudos apontaram um Rei Leônidas construído a partir do resgate do modelo antigo de herói, celebrado nos primórdios das HQs, associado a múltiplas camadas de significações, que se repetem em outras duas personagens consagradas de Miller, ao mesmo tempo em que identificou-se um estilo milleriano, que trabalha elementos da linguagem dos quadrinhos de maneira inusitada, combinando-os com outras linguagens, como cinema e pintura

[Truncated abstract] This thesis is concerned with the representation of madness in three texts by modernist women: Dorothy Richardson' Pilgrimage, Leonora Carrington's

亨利．米勒作品素以自傳式的性意識著稱，而評家最易忽略的就是將其自傳視為事實，進而混淆敘事者與作者角色的岐異，作品的評論常流於對作者人格的批評。實則性意識的描述只是其整體敘述策略當中的一環。對於人性的惰性與奴性，以及制度的非人性與僵化，不論在家庭、社會、國家、傳統、乃至於宗教各個層面，他都施展了最嚴厲的批判。本文的目的即在彰顯其批判的策略與主題，試圖從《北迴歸線》與《南迴歸線》兩部文本，釐清其片斷、跳躍、而跡近精神分裂式的敘事風格與技巧。本文研究的方法及主題，乃借用法國思想家德勒茲與瓜達里著作裏的觀念，其中包括《反伊底帕斯》、《千座山台》、《卡夫卡》等。主要運用的概念，有遊牧策略、無器官身體、慾望生產及根莖多元論等，以期能更周延的詮釋米勒突破家庭、社會束縛的反隸屬化精神。 　　本論文分成三章：首章探討米勒的遊牧精神，與無器官身體如何達成逃逸陣線的目的。第二章分析米勒如何運用性意識，與對人性的描寫完成其慾望生產。第三章著重米勒的根莖式體裁與語言運用，以窺探其邁向「小」文學的堂奧之處。本文企圖闡明的終極目標即在於呈現反惰性、僵化與隸屬化的自由開放精神。 / Henry Miller is famous/notorious for a long time as an autobiographer coupled with sexual descriptions. Some critics tend to take Miller's auto-novel for a sheer autobiography, thereby identifying the narrator with the autor. In fact, sexuality is merely one of Miller's characteristic narrative strategies opposing to the institutions and establishments. One of his searing assaults is directed toward family, society, tradition, and God, all embody and reify his disappointments toward the inert human nature and dehumanized institutions. 　　This thesis deals with the important themes as represented in Miller's Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn and attempts to illustrate his fragmentary and schizophrenic narrative strategy. I use the conceptions of nomad, body without oragns, desiring- machines and rhizome adopted from Deleuze and Guattari's Anti- Oedipus, A Thousand Plateaus, and Kafka to detect Miller's spirit of deterritorialization. This thesis is divided into three parts: Chapter One deals with how Miller approaches his line of flight through the nomadic spirit and body without organs. Chapter Two Probes into the consummation of desiring-production through Miller's description of sexuality and humanity. Chapter Three emphasizes the crucial points of the minor literature through the functioning of Miller's language and rhizomatic structure. The final goal of the thesis tries to situate Miller's texts in the free spirit of deterritorialization from the institutions.

<p>Dividend policy has significant impact on the company's capital market, in particular the dynamics of the price of its shares. Dividends represent cash income of shareholders and to some extent, signal them about success of the firm they have invested. From that point of view dividend policy has crucial impact on investment decisions.</p><p>Numbers of valuation models based on dividend payouts exist in the financial theory and they imply importance of dividends in making investment decisions. Alternatively some authors argue that role of the dividends is overestimated, as investors do not separate dividends and capital earnings. I believe that dividend policy has broad influence not only on share valuation, but also on capital structure of the company and its stock market liquidity.</p><p>Study intended to discover if dividend payouts and future earnings can be predicted based on stock market liquidity and capital structure. I have analysed 72 companies associated with Nordic information technologies market and tried to find main characteristics of dividend policy adopted in those companies. I have divided my research question into three parts and studied hypotheses which are associated with the research question.</p><p>I found relationship of dividend policies with future earnings growth power, firm capital structure and market liquidity. As a result of my study I have observed financial statements data and obtained the following outcome: (1) with stable dividend policy, payout ratio is positively related to the future earnings growth rate (2) companies that have less liquid stock markets are more likely to pay dividends (3) companies with low leverage ratios have more probability of paying dividends. Also I have found that historically low payout ratio is harbinger of low or even negative earnings growth rates.</p><p>I believe that based on findings mentioned above, effective investment policy could be created. For the investor who favours to invest in company with high earnings growth perspectives and receive high dividends in the future, results of the study could be interesting. According to the results of the research, for “dividend preferring” investor, funds should be invested in the company with constantly high payout ratio, low stock market liquidity and debt-to-equity ratio below 1. In that case the probability of meeting investment expectations would be much higher.</p>

The Heart's Portrait is a twelve movement composition for SATB choir and string quartet. The eight poems selected as the text for this work were penned by the eminent American poet Emily Dickinson. The text for the first movement, Dickinson's poem "If I can stop one Heart from breaking," succinctly describes the themes she commonly expounded upon in her writings: life, love, aching, pain, and purpose through faith. The remaining seven poems were chosen because they also explore these elemental themes. The main poem returns in variation throughout the piece, resulting in a modified rondo. To complement the four-part consort of voices, I selected a consort of strings in the form of a string quartet. The role of the quartet varies throughout the work from subservient to the vocal part, to dominant of the entire texture, to an equal partnership with the voices; these relationships are dictated by the text. Throughout the movements, I was able to explore a range of compositional techniques, both traditional and contemporary, while maintaining the primary purpose of unifying the text and music. This paper illustrates the initial compositional decisions made to begin the piece, the texts chosen and their placement within the work, the poet's history as it relates to the composition, a brief discussion on composers who have set Dickinson's words, and a thorough analysis of the work itself.

On January 29-30, 2008 a squall line of thunderstorms moved through the Ohio Valley resulting in four deaths and one injury. Such events highlight the importance of accurate forecasting for public safety. Mesoscale Modeling plays an important role in any forecast of a potential squall line. The focus of this study was to examine the performance of several parameterization scheme combinations in the Weather Research and Forecasting Model version three (WRF) as they related to this event. These examinations included cloud microphysics (WRF Single-Moment 3-class, 6-class, and Goddard), cumulus parameterization (Kain-Fritsch and Bets-Miller-Janjic) and planetary boundary layer schemes (Yonsei-University and Mellor-Yamada-Janjic). A total of 12 WRF simulations were conducted for all potential scheme combinations. Data from the WRF simulations for several locations in south central Kentucky were analyzed and compared using Kentucky Mesonet observations for four locations: Bowling Green, Russellville, Murray and Liberty, KY. A fine model resolution of 1 km was used over these locations. Coarser resolutions of 3 km and 9 km were used on the outer two domains, which encompassed the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys. The model simulation performance was assessed using established statistical measures for the above four locations and by visually comparing the North American Regional Reanalysis dataset (NARR) along with modeled simulations. The most satisfactory scheme combination was the WRF Single-Moment 3-class Microphysics scheme, Kain-Fritsch cumulus parameterization scheme and Yonsei University scheme for the planetary boundary layer. The planetary boundary layer schemes were noted to have the greatest influence in determining the most satisfactory model simulations. There was limited influence from different selections of microphysics and cumulus parameterization schemes. The preferred physics parameters from these simulations were then used in six additional simulations to analyze the affect different initialization data sets have with regards to model output. Data sets used in these simulations were the Final Operational Analysis global data, North American Regional Reanalysis (3 and 6 hour) and the North American Mesoscale Model at 1, 3 and 6 hour timesteps, for a total of six simulations. More timesteps or an increase in model resolution did not materially improve the model performance.

Most books written about American drama concern definitions of masculinity, the American dream, and the family in a society that encourages people to surpass their competences and limits. American playwrights of the twentieth century reveal the anxiety and insecurity of men who do not rise up to the standards of the American dream. In concentrating on these themes, most critics have analyzed the main characters and plots but have left aside hints about other myths. This study aims to analyse the extended use of the cowboy, of salesman, and of pirate in Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. The recurrence of these three myths touches on the core of American drama that playwrights and critics have tried to define endlessly: the definition of the male in the American society.

Through a combination of personal interviews and participant-observation in three field sites ? the Tim Miller workshop and performance of October 2010 and the student organizations Cepheid Variable and the GLBT Aggies ? I argue that manifestations of utopian desire and performance circulate within and among marginalized groups on the Texas A&M University campus, undermining the heteronormative and monolithic utopia the university attempts to present. I participated in each night of rehearsal during the Tim Miller workshop, as well as the creation and performance of my own solo autobiographical monologue as a part of the ensemble. My participant-observation in Cepheid Variable and the GLBT Aggies was concurrent, consisting of attendance at both weekly organizational meetings and outside events sponsored by the organizations over two years. I argue that the Tim Miller workshop and performance is best understood by examining the intersection of queer intimacy, utopia, and performance. I argue that processes of connection, sharing, and mutual transformation allowed it to function as an example of queer utopian performance qua performance at Texas A&M. I explore the links between the ?nerd,? ?queer,? and ?family? identities of Cepheid Variable, arguing that the intersection of these identity-markers and the performance practices which reinforce them enable Cepheid Variable to create a utopian space on the Texas A&M campus for those students who do not fit traditional notions of Aggie identity. I explore two Cepheid performance practices: noise-making and storytelling, arguing that they construct, support, and interweave each element of Cepheid identity, allowing the organization to perpetuate and reaffirm its utopian and counterpublic statuses at Texas A&M. I explore what the GLBT Aggies claims to provide in theory, juxtaposed with what it actually accomplishes in practice. I examine a moment of crisis the LGBTQ community at Texas A&M faced in spring 2011. I argue that the utopia the GLBTA promises remains unfulfilled because the marginalization of the LGBTQ community at large leaves diversity within that community unaddressed. I conclude that utopian communities persist if able to adapt, and that the strength of the intimacy built into queer utopias in particular sustains them through time.

The depictions of women in film noir and neo-noir have long been objects of interest for feminist scholars. In this report, I extend this scholarship to examine Frank Miller's Sin city graphic novel series as a version of neo-noir that is both intimately connected to noir tradition and innovative in its approach, specifically in terms of his representation of women. Miller depicts his female characters in a variety of ways that reflect both the positive and negative imagery of women in classic noir and neo-noir; in doing so, he creates a new and complex vision of women in noir. This report uses three different characterizations of women in film noir--the spider woman, the femme moderne, and the angel--to explore the ways in which Miller's female characters can be understood to simultaneously uphold and challenge these conventions. / text

Dividend policy has significant impact on the company's capital market, in particular the dynamics of the price of its shares. Dividends represent cash income of shareholders and to some extent, signal them about success of the firm they have invested. From that point of view dividend policy has crucial impact on investment decisions. Numbers of valuation models based on dividend payouts exist in the financial theory and they imply importance of dividends in making investment decisions. Alternatively some authors argue that role of the dividends is overestimated, as investors do not separate dividends and capital earnings. I believe that dividend policy has broad influence not only on share valuation, but also on capital structure of the company and its stock market liquidity. Study intended to discover if dividend payouts and future earnings can be predicted based on stock market liquidity and capital structure. I have analysed 72 companies associated with Nordic information technologies market and tried to find main characteristics of dividend policy adopted in those companies. I have divided my research question into three parts and studied hypotheses which are associated with the research question. I found relationship of dividend policies with future earnings growth power, firm capital structure and market liquidity. As a result of my study I have observed financial statements data and obtained the following outcome: (1) with stable dividend policy, payout ratio is positively related to the future earnings growth rate (2) companies that have less liquid stock markets are more likely to pay dividends (3) companies with low leverage ratios have more probability of paying dividends. Also I have found that historically low payout ratio is harbinger of low or even negative earnings growth rates. I believe that based on findings mentioned above, effective investment policy could be created. For the investor who favours to invest in company with high earnings growth perspectives and receive high dividends in the future, results of the study could be interesting. According to the results of the research, for “dividend preferring” investor, funds should be invested in the company with constantly high payout ratio, low stock market liquidity and debt-to-equity ratio below 1. In that case the probability of meeting investment expectations would be much higher.