This master's thesis deals with possibilities of modifying and extending functionality of Visual Paradigm with plug-ins as well as the study of tools for creating UML diagrams. The primary goal of this thesis is to describe graphical tools and simultaneously, the less known variants of creating UML diagrams. Those are tools that process text UML formats. Special attention is given to text tool PlantUML and to the graphical tool Visual Paradigm. Furthermore, the thesis deals with use of the Visual Paradigm open interface for programmers to create plug-ins. The main output is an implemented plug-in that allows you to convert UML diagrams between Visual Paradigm and text format PlantUML, which was published as open source software. Grammar for the PlantUML language have also been created for this plug-in.

Different cognitive processes underlie the perception of vocalizations in many mammals, including humans. This perception now extends to a highly specialized form of sonar called echolocation. In habituation-dishabituation experiments, a high duty cycle echolocating bat, Rhinolophus clivosus, dishabituated significantly when echolocation calls of a different gender or individual were played to the habituation. Strong individual and gender signatures but weak geographic signatures were found in both the CF and FM components of their echolocation calls. In the individual discrimination trials reactions were more pronounced to an individual that was less acoustically similar to the habituation than to one that was more similar. Bats reacted to playbacks with a variety of social behaviours. Prior to the analysis of the experiment an ethogram was done on three groups of captive R. clivosus bats. This ethogram was used to categorize the behavioural responses of these bats to the acoustic stimuli in the experiments. The reactions to the habituation-dishabituation experiments show bats perceive gender and individual-specific signatures found in their conspecifics echolocation calls. This is the first study to show behavioural evidence for individual discrimination and second to show gender discrimination of echolocation calls in high duty cycle bats. This evidence supports the theory that echolocation, a system thought to have evolved solely for orientation and foraging, has been coopted for intra-specific communication and mate recognition in bats.

Discussion as exploration has been proposed as an instructional paradigm for use in high-school literature instruction. Its proponents have explained that using it fosters an aesthetic literary environment. For the purpose of study, the paradigm was modified for use in an elementary fifth-grade reading class. A month-long investigation was conducted to explore the effects of using the paradigm, concerns an elementary teacher had as she implemented it, and its effects on participating students' literary stances. Research methodology included participant-observation, surveys, and a single-subject phase withdrawal component. Results of the study confirmed that (a) students were capable of using discussion as exploration, (b) using the paradigm led to movement among students' literary stances, and (c) discussion as exploration engaged groups of students in literature reflection.

No description available.

Thomas Kuhn's 1962 groundbreaking work, The Scientific Revolution, established the process for creating, and the components of, a disciplinary paradigm. This "scientific revolution" has evolved to become the standard for determining a field's claim to disciplinary status. In 2001 and 2003, Ama Mazama, used Kuhn's model to establish the disciplinary status of Africology, through the categorical structuring of the Afrocentric Paradigm. Though her work conclusively made the claim that Africology is a legitimate academic discipline, still more work remained in effort to meet other criterion set forth by Kuhn. Through the use of content analysis, this work extends Mazama's work by addressing four additional areas of paradigm development that was established by Kuhn: (1) the scientific revolutionary moment for the discipline; (2) the nature of consensus among the scholars of the discipline; (3) the intellectual identity of the discipline's scholars; and (4) the distinct intellectual behavior of the discipline's scholars as seen through their evolved epistemic and methodological tradition. This work also reconfirms Africology's fidelity to the roots of the original Black Studies Movement, identifies independent intellectual tools for Black Studies scholars, identifies Afrocentric excellence and rigor, and provides an instructive tool for burgeoning Afrocentric Scholars. / African American Studies

Baigiamajame magistro darbe analizuojami ugdymo paradigmų realizavimo pradinėse klasėse ypatumai. Lietuvos švietimo sistema šiandien išgyvena kaitos procesą: nuo mokymo paradigmos pereinama prie mokymosi paradigmos, kurios svarbiausias uždavinys - atsigręžti į žmogų kaip absoliučią vertybę, sudaryti sąlygas atsiskleisti jo individualybei, pažadinti siekimą per saviugdą tapti asmenybe. Darbo problema - vaiką ir į žinias orientuotų ugdymo paradigmų realizavimo aspektai pradinėse klasėse. Darbo objektas – ugdymo paradigmų realizavimas pradinėse klasėse. Darbo tikslas – išanalizuoti ugdymo paradigmų realizavimo pradinėse klasėse ypatumus. Darbo metodai: mokslinės literatūros analizė, anketinė apklausa. Mokslinės literatūros ir atlikto mokymo ir mokymosi paradigmų raiškos pradinėse klasėse tyrimas atskleidė, kad Vilniaus miesto ir rajono mokytojai ugdymo procese dar kartais remiasi mokymo paradigma, tačiau iš esmės jau dirba vadovaudamiesi mokymosi paradigma. Siekdami ugdyti bendruosius mokinių gebėjimus, mokytojai taiko ir tradicinius poveikio mokiniui metodus (aiškina, iliustruoja, vadovauja diskusijai), tačiau daugiau naudoja aktyvaus mokymo metodų ir būdų (darbas grupėse, darbas porose, projektai, bandymai, ekskursijos ir kt.). Siekdami ugdyti bendruosius mokinių gebėjimus, mokytojai taiko aktyvaus mokymo metodus ir būdus, naudoja priemones ir veiklas, skatinančias eksperimentuoti, tyrinėti ir spręsti iškylančias problemas. Ugdymo procesui naudojami ir už mokyklos sienų... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Final masterwork analyzes the features of realization of educational paradigms in primary classes. Lithuanian education system today is going through the process of change: from teaching paradigm shift to learning paradigm, which main task is to turn to someone as an absolute value, to allow one’s individuality to unfold, awaken the desire to become a personality. The object – the realization of aspects of education paradigm oriented to the child and the knowledge in primary of classes. The aim – to analyze the realization of features of educational paradigms in primary classes. The methods: analysis of scientific literature, a questionnaire survey. The research of scientific literature and teaching and learning paradigms resolution in primary classes revealed that primary school teachers refer on learning paradigm. To develop students' general skills, teachers use active teaching methods and techniques, use tools and activities that encourage experimentation, research and solving problems. Educational process uses training (learning) resources, which are outside the school. Students are more active participants in their learning than passive recipients of information. Assessment for learning in which students evaluate their own friends and evaluates learning outcomes is applied. The most common problems faced by teachers, realizing learning paradigm, there are instructional materials, lack of ICT, lack of... [to full text]

A dynamic interpretation of the Prayer of St. Benedict provides a methodology for understanding and explicating Christian faith consistent with enduring elements in the theological tradition and meaningful to the contemporary milieu. Within the overarching structure of the Prayer as a meta-paradigm, are three subsidiary paradigms that describe characteristics of approaches to faith. The structure, content, and intention of the Prayer reveal these to be experiential, critical, and transcendental. Wisdom is asserted as integrating and orienting the discussion, which is a constructed on a Personalist foundation and is a postcritical reflection on faith. Faith is grounded in the affirmations and assumptions of faith, discerned in the enfolding appeals, and the supplications, a basis for an expository discourse on the dimensions of faith. / Systematic Theology & Theological Ethics / M. Th. (Systematic Theology)

The present study is located within a broader problematic of how inequality is generated and legitimated within schools. It has as its centre of focus three Greek mathematics teachers who are seen as mediating forces between state curricular intentions and the learners. Having social justice as my primary motive for conducting this thesis research, I use the critical theoretic research paradigm as a guiding framework in order to investigate the teachers’ conceptions of the socio-political dimension of the assessment of pupil attainment in mathematics. Through an analysis of the socio-political role of educational assessment I argue that the investigated issue may be considered as a privileged window that can provide a broad perspective from which I can observe how the participants of this study are positioned with respect to the role of mathematics education in the reproduction of unequal class relations. To obtain answers to my assessment-related research questions, through a series of interviews I examine the teachers’ theoretical positions but in addition to that I observe their classroom cultures in the formation of which they play a protagonistic role. Through the teachers’ discourses and their annotated actions, I try to uncover the ways they respond to the contradictions and the dilemmas that might be posed to them by the given educational reality, as well as the tensions they might experience whenever they perceive the incompatibility of what they espouse and what they can achieve. Moving beyond the cognitive and psychological approaches that characterise most of research literature on teacher beliefs into the realm of ideology critique, I use Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis to depict teacher discourses as parts of social practices that are conditioned by social-historical factors and try to show what reproductive effects these discourses can have on social structures, sustaining them or contributing to their transformation.

Issues as to the suitability of executive compensation packages have obtained an ever increasing profile in recent years. Whilst there has been quite extensive empirical investigation of pay-performance sensitivity, the framework of performance-pay has received less attention in the literature and examination to date. Besides this - whilst there has been a quantum of investigation of relationships between compensation and performance, there has been less focus on case study based analysis. In this context, the current study makes a twofold contribution to the examination of executive directors’ remuneration in FTSE 350 companies. First, this research aims to empirically investigate linkages between the nature and amount of compensation packages and company performance with a particular focus on examining the extent of interrelationships between pay and performance over a ten year period from 1999 to 2008. Within the scope of a variety of theoretical perspectives, this deductive study puts a focus on addressing the question of whether managerial compensation is the greater influence on firm performance or whether it is the latter which has the greater influence on the former. Second, this study seeks to qualitatively add to the relevant literature by means of a longitudinal case study of remuneration at UK based major multi-national company, BP, over a ten year period from 2001 till 2010. Within the context of a variety of theoretical and institutional perspectives, this inductive study explores, by means of investigation of BP’s Directors Remuneration Reports, the role of the BP remuneration committee in setting the mechanisms and structures which determine the nature and extent of executive remuneration packages at BP and considers the wider generalisability of the findings therefrom. Overall the current study utilises a mixed methods approach via a combination both quantitative and qualitative modes of analysis – an approach which is relatively rare in the discipline of research into corporate governance and related issues. The outcomes from the empirical work show evidence of the presence of dual positive associations between executive compensation and company performance. However, the results do indicate that executive compensation is more influential in its effect on firm performance than the framework of performance-related pay. This finding is interpreted as lending support to the stewardship and/or tournament theories as to underlying drivers of executive remuneration in comparison with agency theory, represented by agent-principal or managerial hegemony perspectives, as an explanatory of the construction of executive remuneration and the link with firm performance. Similar to prior literature, the empirical findings indicate that equity-based compensation is more robust in the linkage with firm performance than cash pay dominated packages. However, the results showed that the existence of remuneration committees in general reveals insignificant and negatively related to total CEO/executive remuneration. This finding highlights therefore the need to put a focus on the actual role of compensation committee in setting the type and extent of executive pay packages in a large UK company. The outcomes from the archival case study also suggest that it is difficult to find significant support for a pure agency theory approach whereby shareholders seek to align their interests directly with those of their managers as a driver of executive compensation packages. There is more evidence suggestive of a managerial power/hegemony perspective which is heavily mediated by the presence of powerful non-executive directors and the institutional presence of the remuneration committee. Perhaps the most significant aspects to emerge from the case study are the importance of personal relationships and power at boardroom level. Beyond this the inferences of the supplementary content analysis conducted specifically on the Directors Remuneration Reports are suggestive of a focus on overall BP performance rather than on the specific activities and achievements of individual executive directors. In conclusion, the findings of the present study provide a wealth of detail both quantitative and qualitative as to the manner in which executive remuneration has been set in the UK in recent years and as to linkages both with corporate performance and underlying theories of the determinants of executive remuneration. As such it sheds light on an area of importance and one of continued private and public concern and may be of interest to those responsible for governance within firms and to wider public and regulatory interest as well as future researchers in the field.

The primary aim of this dissertation is to examine the hermeneutical foundation, the biblical basis, the historical principle, and then to formulate a four-bridge application paradigm based on four distinguished processes--exegetical, doctrinal, homiletical, and transformational--aiming at transforming the lives of listeners for the glory of God. Chapter 1 analyzes the indispensability of a well-balanced hermeneutical application paradigm by arguing the relationship between hermeneutics and application, by reexamining application paradigms and bridge-building models, and by refocusing the four bridge paradigm. Chapter 2 examines the sermons of biblical prototypes--Moses, Ezra, the Minor Prophets, and Paul--and their features of application paradigms by means of a paradigmatic analyses rather than an exhaustive one. This chapter thoroughly explores Paul's sermons in his epistles, his preaching in Acts, and his hermeneutical bridge-building paradigm. The essential characteristics of these biblical models lead to a four-bridge life-changing application paradigm. Chapter 3 investigates four exemplary historical models--John Chrysostom, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, and John Broadus--and examines their illustrative sermons to identify their indispensable principles of application paradigms and to apply these historical facets for formulating a contemporized application paradigm. Four models provide a historical validation to formulate a legitimate life-changing application paradigm. Chapter 4 proposes a four-bridge application paradigm rooted in hermeneutical, biblical prototypes and historical models. The chapter systemizes (1) an exegetical bridge for discerning the aim of author-intended signification and the criteria for transferring universal principles of application (2) a doctrinal bridge for examining seven master keys to unlock the universal principles of ethical application, (3) a homiletical bridge for identifying a variety of relevance categories, legitimate methodologies of audience exegesis and adaptation, and an appropriate degree of transfer, and (4) a Spirit-led transformational bridge that is legitimate to change the lives of listeners. Chapter 5 concludes that contemporary preachers, as bridge-builders, need to seek a life-transforming application paradigm by utilizing the exegetical bridge, the doctrinal bridge, the homiletical bridge and the Spirit-led transformational bridge.