The present study deals with the predictive role of past and future self-continuity on procrastination at work. Self-continuity refers to how connected individuals feel to their past and future selves. Procrastination at work is a common issue with negative consequences for individuals and organizations. Previous research has shown a relationship between procrastination in the academic context and future self-continuity. Individuals with lower levels of future self-continuity are more likely to procrastinate because they perceive their future selves as strangers. The present study examines both past and future self-continuity in relation to procrastination in the workplace, rather than focusing on the academic domain. We collected quantitative data using an online questionnaire to answer the research questions. The results showed that both, past and future self-continuity, significantly predicted procrastination at work. Past self-continuity proved to be a stronger predictor than future self-continuity. Even after controlling for conscientiousness, past self-continuity robustly predicted procrastination at work. The mediation analysis did not show significant results for consideration of future consequences as a mediator. These findings emphasize the importance of considering individuals' connections to their past selves in understanding procrastination at work. They underscore the need for interventions that promote reflection on past experiences and goal setting to reduce procrastination tendencies. Our study provides new insights into self-continuity and procrastination in an organizational context and initiates future research and practical interventions.

Yes / Objectives Studies of the carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios (δ13C and δ15N) of modern tissues with a fast turnover, such as hair and fingernails, have established the relationship between these values in mothers and their infants during breastfeeding and weaning. Using collagen from high-resolution dentine sections of teeth which form in the perinatal period we investigate the relationship between diet and physiology in this pivotal stage of life. Materials and Methods Childhood dentine collagen δ13C and δ15N profiles were produced from horizontal sections of permanent and deciduous teeth following the direction of development. These were from two 19th-century sites (n = 24) and a small number (n = 5) of prehistoric samples from Great Britain and Ireland. Results These high-resolution data exhibit marked differences between those who survived childhood and those who did not, the former varying little and the latter fluctuating widely. Discussion Breastfeeding and weaning behavior have a significant impact on the morbidity and mortality of infants and the adults they become. In the absence of documentary evidence, archaeological studies of bone collagen of adults and juveniles have been used to infer the prevalence and duration of breastfeeding. These interpretations rely on certain assumptions about the relationship between isotope ratios in the bone collagen of the adult females and the infants who have died. The data from this study suggest a more complex situation than previously proposed and the potential for a new approach to the study of maternal and infant health in past populations.

(in English) This thesis explores relationships among the tenses that express the past in the English language. Among these tenses are: past simple, past continuous, present perfect, present perfect continuous, past perfect, and past perfect continuous. The research focuses on the variation between the past simple (which also includes past continuous) and the present perfect (which also includes progressive constructions). The researched variation is the use of the past simple in the context of the present perfect in which the Present-Day English (PDE) would use the present perfect, and vice versa. Three decades (1731-1740, 1791-1800, and 1861-1870) were chosen from the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries. The findings were compared to the PDE situation. The material was collected from an online database called The Proceeding of the Old Bailey, which is believed to be one of the most reliable sources that are representative of the spoken language of the day. It was thought that the variation would be observed best in spontaneous spoken language. The aim was to study spoken language that was influenced by the grammatical prescriptivism of the age only marginally. There was an expectation that the occurrence of the past simple in the context of the present perfect would gradually decrease...

In this thesis we study two probabilistic models defined on graphs: the Stochastic Block model and the Exponential Random Graph. Therefore, this thesis is divided in two parts. In the first part, we introduce the Krichevsky-Trofimov estimator for the number of communities in the Stochastic Block Model and prove its eventual almost sure convergence to the underlying number of communities, without assuming a known upper bound on that quantity. In the second part of this thesis we address the perfect simulation problem for the Exponential random graph model. We propose an algorithm based on the Coupling From The Past algorithm using a Glauber dynamics. This algorithm is efficient in the case of monotone models. We prove that this is the case for a subset of the parametric space. We also propose an algorithm based on the Backward and Forward algorithm that can be applied for monotone and non monotone models. We prove the existence of an upper bound for the expected running time of both algorithms. / Nessa tese estudamos dois modelos probabilísticos definidos em grafos: o modelo estocástico por blocos e o modelo de grafos exponenciais. Dessa forma, essa tese está dividida em duas partes. Na primeira parte nós propomos um estimador penalizado baseado na mistura de Krichevsky-Trofimov para o número de comunidades do modelo estocástico por blocos e provamos sua convergência quase certa sem considerar um limitante conhecido para o número de comunidades. Na segunda parte dessa tese nós abordamos o problema de simulação perfeita para o modelo de grafos aleatórios Exponenciais. Nós propomos um algoritmo de simulação perfeita baseado no algoritmo Coupling From the Past usando a dinâmica de Glauber. Esse algoritmo é eficiente apenas no caso em que o modelo é monotóno e nós provamos que esse é o caso para um subconjunto do espaço paramétrico. Nós também propomos um algoritmo de simulação perfeita baseado no algoritmo Backward and Forward que pode ser aplicado à modelos monótonos e não monótonos. Nós provamos a existência de um limitante superior para o número esperado de passos de ambos os algoritmos.

This dissertation discusses the rebuilding of cities after war in the context of the changing character of warfare and the increased expectations for societies to deal with difficult pasts. Departing from studies that approach post-war reconstruction focusing on the functional dimension of infrastructural repair and housing relief or on debates about architectural form, this dissertation examines reconstruction through the lens of the process of 'coming to terms with the past'. It explores how understandings of victimhood and responsibility influence the rebuilding of urban space. Conversely, it argues that cities and architecture, through the meanings ascribed to them by various actors, play an important role in dealing with the past. Building on the moral philosophy of Theodor Adorno and Hannah Arendt, it discusses the potential of reconstruction for societies to work through the past, then it engages with frictions highlighted by three situations of rebuilding after different types of war. First, it examines the rebuilding of Belgrade as the capital of socialist Yugoslavia after the aerial bombings typical of the Second World War. Second, it analyses reconstruction debates in the same city after the 1999 NATO bombings, a high-tech operation, framed by NATO as a preventative, humanitarian intervention against a 'perpetrator' state. Third, it discusses rebuilding processes in Sarajevo, where destruction was inflicted between 1992 and 1995 by actors internal to the country, albeit with international ramifications, exemplary of Mary Kaldor's 'new wars'. Based on thirteen months of fieldwork conducted in Belgrade and Sarajevo between 2012 and 2015, it analyses intentions and consequences of reconstruction acts. It suggests the potential and the challenges of a reflective reconstruction, which engages critically with the past, and of a syncretic place-making reconstruction, which focuses on place and its agonistic promise. Its main contribution is to highlight the essential relationship between reconstruction and coming to terms with the past, arguing for an understanding of reconstruction with regards to conflict itself.

The thesis consists of the novel The Fox and the Mirror and an accompanying exegesis. The novel is an historical fantasy set in a world based on early medieval (12-13th century) Japan. The main characters are a young female shaman, Hatsu, and a young warrior’s assistant, Sada, who is a Buddhist believer. When Hatsu’s village and shrine are destroyed by warriors and her summoning mirror is stolen, she is abandoned by her kami . To experience the kami’s presence again, she must follow the thief and retrieve the mirror before it can be used to resurrect an ancient evil. Sada must capture Hatsu and bring her back to his lord, or his family will suffer. Yet he is entranced by Hatsu and feels guilt at the destruction of her village. He must choose whether to abandon his former life and stay with Hatsu, or betray her. In the novel I have tried to invoke the feel of a place and time where the supernatural is as real as the physical world; I also try to imagine how a religion as alien to Japanese native beliefs as Buddhism became a part of that country’s spiritual culture. In the exegesis I reflect upon how I used various kinds of history, both written and unwritten, to build the world, characters and narratives of The Fox and the Mirror, and thereby explore some ways in which historical fantasy, as a sub-genre of historical fiction, is capable of presenting an ‘authentic’ view of the past, in spite of its non-realistic nature. I identify three main ways historical fantasy writers can provide an authentic view of the past: by using telling details from an historical era; by incorporating documented events and persons into the story; and by portraying the world as people in the past believed it to be. Historical fantasy is different from realistic historical fiction in that it can more easily incorporate elements belonging to shared cultural heritage, such as beliefs regarding the dead and the supernatural. This characteristic involves writers in research using material that involves other ways of knowing the past—in particular the expressions of belief such as religion, popular customs, folk tales, and oral history. With the broadening of our historiological perspectives in the postmodern climate, historical fantasy based on non-documentary forms of history may come to be seen as another way of knowing the past.

In this thesis we study two probabilistic models defined on graphs: the Stochastic Block model and the Exponential Random Graph. Therefore, this thesis is divided in two parts. In the first part, we introduce the Krichevsky-Trofimov estimator for the number of communities in the Stochastic Block Model and prove its eventual almost sure convergence to the underlying number of communities, without assuming a known upper bound on that quantity. In the second part of this thesis we address the perfect simulation problem for the Exponential random graph model. We propose an algorithm based on the Coupling From The Past algorithm using a Glauber dynamics. This algorithm is efficient in the case of monotone models. We prove that this is the case for a subset of the parametric space. We also propose an algorithm based on the Backward and Forward algorithm that can be applied for monotone and non monotone models. We prove the existence of an upper bound for the expected running time of both algorithms. / Nessa tese estudamos dois modelos probabilísticos definidos em grafos: o modelo estocástico por blocos e o modelo de grafos exponenciais. Dessa forma, essa tese está dividida em duas partes. Na primeira parte nós propomos um estimador penalizado baseado na mistura de Krichevsky-Trofimov para o número de comunidades do modelo estocástico por blocos e provamos sua convergência quase certa sem considerar um limitante conhecido para o número de comunidades. Na segunda parte dessa tese nós abordamos o problema de simulação perfeita para o modelo de grafos aleatórios Exponenciais. Nós propomos um algoritmo de simulação perfeita baseado no algoritmo Coupling From the Past usando a dinâmica de Glauber. Esse algoritmo é eficiente apenas no caso em que o modelo é monotóno e nós provamos que esse é o caso para um subconjunto do espaço paramétrico. Nós também propomos um algoritmo de simulação perfeita baseado no algoritmo Backward and Forward que pode ser aplicado à modelos monótonos e não monótonos. Nós provamos a existência de um limitante superior para o número esperado de passos de ambos os algoritmos.

In Sweden, during the 1920s, the past played a definite part in the folklore research. The folklore scholars argued for collecting the cultural memories (folkminnen) of “the people”, as they were understood to disappear due to a threat from the modern civilization, which was thought to spread across the countryside at an ever-accelerating pace. This study shows that the past is constructed through discourse – not as a predefined object but rather as a dynamic process of temporal constructions. This study analyses the construction of the past in folklore research in Sweden during the 1920s. Two methodological tools have been primarily used to help unfold the process in which the past is constructed. First, by discourses of the past (förflutenhetsdiskurser) which is how, in my case the scholars, relate to the past by various verbal practices. Secondly, by identifying binary characterizations. In this study, the construction of the past, in folklore research, has been shown through three main themes. First, by understanding the importance of collecting the cultural memories of “the people” as an urgent project – due to their inevitable disappearing – but also as a duty towards the people of the past and as a duty towards future generations. Secondly, by identifying three different dichotomies which all functioned as part of the process of the construction of the past. Thirdly, by analyzing “the people” as a category that best is described as a compound of both culture and human.

This dissertation represents an interpretation of the different forms of negativity in the modernist work that can be understood in terms of that which is unsaid, unsayable, or any other means of refusing to give an affirmative proposition regarding the world the work describes. It explores this negativity as both a representation of that which cannot be represented, and as an operational negativity, or negation, that takes part in the unmaking of the work's figures. The function of this negativity, as interpreted in Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past (1913-1927), James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) and Krapp's Last Tape (1959) by Samuel Beckett, is to rewrite the representations of the work. Negativity is then also understood as a transformation and conditioning of elements already present in the literary work, that lead to ambivalent and problematic representations in the work. In this sense, negativity can be understood as a form of rewriting of the work's representations. The interpretations of the works of Proust, Joyce and Beckett are guided by this understanding, as given in the introduction, of negativity. In the analysis of Proust's novel, in "The Unmaking of Proust: Negation and Errors in Remembrance of Things Past", this form of negativity is situated in relation to Proust's handling of epistemological questions and mimetic references to reality in his work. The analysis of Joyce's work in "The Wandering of Language in James Joyce's Ulysses" discusses his treatment of language and the origins of language as being characterized by a negation that increases the difficulty of the language, and attempts to negate its origins. Finally, in the analysis of Beckett's "Krapp's Last Tape", in "Beckett, Proust, and the End of Literature", it is shown that negativity conditions both the reception of the influence of Proust by Beckett, and the play's attempt to suggest the end of writing. In conclusion the dissertation returns to the idea of negativity as a form of rewriting, and briefly indicates that the function of negativity in these novels can be understood as a form of invention. / Thesis (M.A.)--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2000.

This dissertation represents an interpretation of the different forms of negativity in the modernist work that can be understood in terms of that which is unsaid, unsayable, or any other means of refusing to give an affirmative proposition regarding the world the work describes. It explores this negativity as both a representation of that which cannot be represented, and as an operational negativity, or negation, that takes part in the unmaking of the work's figures. The function of this negativity, as interpreted in Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past (1913-1927), James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) and Krapp's Last Tape (1959) by Samuel Beckett, is to rewrite the representations of the work. Negativity is then also understood as a transformation and conditioning of elements already present in the literary work, that lead to ambivalent and problematic representations in the work. In this sense, negativity can be understood as a form of rewriting of the work's representations. The interpretations of the works of Proust, Joyce and Beckett are guided by this understanding, as given in the introduction, of negativity. In the analysis of Proust's novel, in "The Unmaking of Proust: Negation and Errors in Remembrance of Things Past", this form of negativity is situated in relation to Proust's handling of epistemological questions and mimetic references to reality in his work. The analysis of Joyce's work in "The Wandering of Language in James Joyce's Ulysses" discusses his treatment of language and the origins of language as being characterized by a negation that increases the difficulty of the language, and attempts to negate its origins. Finally, in the analysis of Beckett's "Krapp's Last Tape", in "Beckett, Proust, and the End of Literature", it is shown that negativity conditions both the reception of the influence of Proust by Beckett, and the play's attempt to suggest the end of writing. In conclusion the dissertation returns to the idea of negativity as a form of rewriting, and briefly indicates that the function of negativity in these novels can be understood as a form of invention. / Thesis (M.A.)--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2000.