Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Qualitative interviews of college students with disabilities indicated that students were reporting significant discrimination and disability stigma effects. Until recently, however, no formal instruments had been developed specifically to measure disability stigma in college students. The purpose of this study was to develop the Postsecondary Student Survey of Disability-Related Stigma (SSDRS), a Likert-type scale that measured amount of perceived stigma in college students with disabilities. The SSDRS was patterned after similar instruments developed to measure race-related stigma and other forms of perceived social discrimination, and was designed to be administered through disability support service offices. The SSDRS consisted of five subscales: personal feelings, global events, academics, group identity, and personal relationships. The questionnaire was pilot tested at two schools, a small, private liberal arts college and a medium-sized, urban community college (n=85). A preliminary exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis suggested minor changes to the instrument. The pilot results also provided justification for further sampling and more formal analysis of the instrument with a larger data set. The scale was then administered to students with disabilities at a large urban research university. The results were similar to those from the pilot.After aggregating the data (N = 121), another exploratory factor analysis was conducted to identify the underlying structures measured by the instrument. The five subscales suggested by the literature were confirmed, and subscale reliability of scores improved. Analysis of the aggregate data also suggested the removal of several items that did not appear to function well in the instrument.The results of the study suggested that disability stigma is a significant issue for college students with disabilities. Disability support personnel at the postsecondary level could use an instrument like the SSDRS for benchmarking, analyzing the disability climate on campus, or designing specific student interventions. The results also suggested that the phenomenon of disability stigma is measurable, and worthy of future study.

CONTENTS vi Title: Implementation of parallel query processing in PostgreSQL Author: Bc. Daniel Vojtek Department: Department of Software Engineering Supervisor: Mgr. Július Štroffek Supervisor's e-mail address: julo@stroffek.cz Abstract: Parallel query processing can help with processing of huge amounts of data stored in database systems. The aim of this diploma the- sis was to explore the possibilities, analyze, design and finally implement parallel query processing in open source database system PostgreSQL. I used a Master/Worker design pattern, in which standard PostgreSQL backend process is a master. As workers I used processes created from postmaster. In the thesis I focused on preparing an infrastructure nec- essary for parallel processing. I defined a new top level memory context over shared memory, which allows efficient and convenient memory al- locations. Then I implemented creation of new worker processes, based on master process requirements. To be able to control these workers I defined controlling structures using state machines. Then I implemented parallel sort operation and SQL operator UNION ALL using this infras- tructure. The result of this diploma thesis is not only implementation of infrastructure and some parallel operations, but also description of the problems encountered during the...

This theoretical study attempts to reflect the general problematic of modern society in complexity, the gradual constitution and development of estranged being as well as the contemporary effort to interconnect being as an integral whole. The study also contains an analysis of altered states of consciousness, which are understood as a certain means to view the world as integrated. We use the notion of consciousness to define the altered states of consciousness. The structure of the thesis is divided into five chapters. While the first chapter is focused on description and analysis of alienation and other negative aspects of modern society, the second chapter is based on this reflection of the crisis of western society. Its subject is the work of several scientists who contribute by their works to a qualitative change of the mechanistic and materialistic conception of the world and who promote holistic approach to reality. The key topic of the third chapter is phenomenon of consciousness and interdisciplinary theories of consciousness. We deal also with the qualitative altered states of consciousness, that offer some potential. The fourth chapter concentrates on the history and methods of research of altered states of consciousness and delineates their basic characteristic and their functions. The...

Shawnee is a language whose alignment system is of the type first proposed by Nichols (1992) and Siewierska (1998): hierarchical alignment. This alignment system was proposed to account for languages where distinctions between agent (A) and object (O) are not formally manifested. Such is the case in Shawnee; there are person-marking inflections on the verb for both A and O, but there is not set order. Instead, Shawnee makes reference to an animacy hierarchy and is an inverse system. This thesis explores how hierarchical alignment is accounted for by Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG), and also applies Paradigm Function Morphology to LFG’s m(orphological)-structure as most of the alignment system in Shawnee is realized in the inflectional morphology.

In Paradigm Function Morphology, it is usual to model affix position classes with an ordered sequence of inflectional rule blocks. Each rule block determines how (or whether) a particular affix position is filled. In this model, competition among inflectional rules is assumed to be limited to members of the same rule block; thus, the appearance of an affix in one position cannot be precluded by the appearance of an affix in another position. I present evidence that apparently disconfirms this restriction and suggests that a more general conception of rule competition is necessary. The data appear to imply that an affixation rule may in some cases override a rule introducing an affix occupying another, distinct position. I propose that each inflectional rule R carry two indices — the first, as usual, specifying the position of the affix introduced by R. The second, however, specifies the position(s) that R satisfies. By default, these two indices identify the same position. However, where one affix precludes another, the second index of the appearing affix specifies two affix positions: the one in which it appears and the one which it precludes. With both blocks satisfied, no other rules which fill either may be applied.

Abstract Josh Fox's film Gasland, released in 2010, started the national debate concerning the process of hydraulic fracturing and launched the term "fracking" into the public consciousness. Gasland, nominated for four Emmy Awards, was the winner of the 2010 Environmental Media Award for Best Documentary, the Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize, and the Yale Environmental Film Festival Grand Jury Prize. Using the momentum from the film's popular reception, Fox and the Gasland team successfully established a grassroots movement that was responsible for helping create the Frack Act and a moratorium of fracking in the Delaware River Shed. This thesis intends to determine what made Gasland so influential. Through a rhetorical criticism and media analysis, I will show how Fox's film ignited the debate on domestic natural gas production and has created a multi-public literacy that enables social change.

Modular Multilevel Converters (MMC) are being widely considered for medium to high voltage DC generation systems. Integrated system design optimization of the generator-MMC system through multi-objective optimization is of interest, because such an approach allows the trade-off between competing objectives (for example, mass and loss) to be explicitly and quantitatively identified. In this work, such an optimization based design paradigm for MMC based generator rectifier systems is developed. To formulate the design problem as a multi-objective optimization problem, it is required that the system waveforms can be obtained to facilitate the imposition of constraints and the estimation of power losses. Similarly, it is also desired to include detailed electric machine magnetic and electrical analysis in design optimization, as well as aspects such as the inductor and heat sink design. Such development typically requires detailed component design and simulation models for the electric machine and converter which are computationally expensive. As an alternative, the proposed work utilizes an electric machine metamodel, heat sink metamodel, and high-speed steady-state simulation model for the MMC to facilitate multi-objective optimization minimizing system metrics of interest while satisfying system constraints. Using the developed component simulation and design models, a multi-objective optimization based design of an MMC based generator-rectifier system is conducted.

Thesis advisor: Bonnie Jefferson / This thesis analyzes the discourse surrounding two of the most celebrated professional athletes in the present generation. Kobe Bryant and LeBron James are two highly talented basketball players who have both been hailed within the world of sports ever since they left high school and entered directly into the NBA. This study argues that the media has presented the careers of both Bryant and James in the form of carefully constructed and familiar narratives. The analysis incorporates concepts drawn from Walter R. Fisher, Seymour Chatman, Karyn and Donald Rybacki and Kenneth Burke, in order scrutinize the narrative elements existing within specific artifacts presented by the media. The analysis demonstrates how the selected artifacts uphold plotlines that are already recognizable to the audience. Through influential rhetorical devices, the media frames the careers of Bryant and James so that the two men are featured as the mythological heroes of their tales. This study reveals the power of framing a message as an identifiable narrative as well as the implications the construction has for both the athletes and the audience. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Communication Honors Program. / Discipline: Communication.

Abstract This paper presents the thesis that, in certain circumstances and despite the dichotomous nature of capitalism, economic self-interest, or profit, may be reconciled to ethical business practice. These circumstances require that: i) a business enterprise be conducted outside of a traditional business model, in what will be referred to as a stakeholder model of business; ii) this stakeholder model must be grounded in a Rawlsian conception of contractualism, where all players are ‘free, equal, rational and reasonable’, with the emphasis on reasonableness; and where, iii) matters of Aristotelean character are the currency for determining reasonableness and the degree to which players are able to agree, or at least not reject, a particular course of action.