This thesis was motivated by turn-of-the-century concerns in Chinese translation studies about the validity of the long-held translation principles proposed by Chinese translator Yan Fu and about the relevance of Yan's paradigmatic translation project to future research. It rereads the translation practice and intellectual thought of Yan Fu by adopting an interdisciplinary approach restructuring past studies that have been isolated in the areas of intellectual history and translation theory. The examination of his translation practice through a series of metaphor suggests, contrary to existing consensus, that faithfulness to the source text is irrelevant to his translation project. His translation principles are not pure literary notions; rather they are tied to the Confucian literary and exegetical tradition. These findings unfold new potentialities for a major research topic that has been challenged as having reached a cul-de-sac and point to a new direction for development in Chinese translation studies. New findings from the field of intellectual history help to clarify existing inconsistencies and political biases concerning Yan Fu's persona and historicize him as a persistent seeker of the Confucian dao. This testifies to the need to reassess his translation project in relation to the Confucian-based Chinese tradition. Close examination of his remarks on translation, correspondence and other writings suggests that his words and deeds are steeped in Confucian poetics, which represents a totally different concept from modern pure literary poetics. His commitment to Confucian ontological faith and ultimate concern for spiritual or cosmological transcendence are similar to the ends of some of the most influential translators in Chinese history and marks a higher level operation of translation as a tool for higher learning than as an occupation. Through translation as-intellectual critique, Yan mended indigenous coordinates for gauging alien propositions and constructed a hybridized discourse for reforming indigenous epistemology and methodology. His manipulative translations, as he claimed in his last extended translation, were intended for metaphorical explication of a certain subject with the source text as a point of departure, rather than an end to return to. Ironically the repercussions of the manipulative evolutionary discourse he engendered became further manipulated by the newer generations and fuelled more violent changes in a system on the verge of a crisis. While this subsequently led to the disruption of the conservative Confucian poetics and the gradual reform agenda he had desired, the reexamination of his translations and translation practice sheds light on system regeneration and the inheritance of Chinese culture in a modern world. The presentation of Yan Fu's translations suggests that he followed the Confucian literary tradition, which allowed exegetical and eisegetical interpretation of classics and commentaries for narrating the dao, and attempted mediation of a changing dao through translation as intellectual critique. Hermeneutical rereading of his xin-da-ya translation principles in relation to the Confucian exegetical tradition frees the study of his principles from recurrent perspectives and offers a systematic approach to the study of xin, da and ya as core values in Confucian poetics meaning faith, decorum and virtue respectively. His exercise of Confucian cosmological faith through translation releases the source text for a dialogue with a broader cosmic text, whereby the interaction of time and tradition-bound discourses obliges the translator to repeatedly highlight and transcend his own interpretive horizons and move the physical text beyond its original psychological and historical contexts, evincing dynamic interaction with the reader. This perspective offers a philosophical dimension to translation and valourizes translation as a virtuous act of conduct in the Chinese tradition and as cosmological transference of concepts and images in human's pursuit of truth and being. The promotion of the complex notion of translation beyond the word itself to the realm of metaphor facilitates exchange between languages and systems at the level of tertium comparationis and enables reasoning at the level of the universal logos. In the present study of Yan Fu, this helps to avoid recurrent arguments and leads to more balanced and constructive perspectives for the future development of a major research topic in Chinese translation studies. It also opens the possibility of exchange between a traditional theory and modern theories and between the Chinese translation tradition and other traditions.

This multiple ethnographic case studies aims to investigate the critical literacy which emerged and emanated in the Chinese classrooms using drama as pedagogy. Drawing on the perspectives of Critical theories, Bakhtin Mikhail's dialogism, and also the literatures on critical literacy, this study argues that there is disparity of statuses of languages, knowledges, cultures and peoples within the Chinese language classrooms. Considering that indoctrinated teaching, official Chinese language and functional literacy are deeply ingrained within Chinese education, this study explore the efficacy of drama to promote pupils' voices and transform the Chinese language education. Concepts grounded in dialogism such as habitus, anwerability, voice, carnival were applied to constitute a theoretical frame for data analysis. Finally, six Chinese classrooms were selected as cases for in-depth discussion. It was found that there was an absence of dichotomous practice of critical dialogical literacy when drama was used. Instead, shades of grey of criticality and dialogicality were identified within those case study classrooms, showing that the dynamic and intricate power relations between pupils and teachers, as well as the interplay between the official language, culture, knowledge and habitus and those of the unofficial. The results also revealed that the more drama was applied in the classroom, more lively and carnivalesque the classroom was, and hence a higher degree of criticality and dialogicality. It was found that drama allows pupils to participate and create their learning content and environment. In addition to the use of drama, the use of space, the classroom order, the teaching materials, the classroom talk and discussion, the pupils' bodily response all are crucial for giving rise to a dialogic space for drama to take place. All these elements worked as the integral architectonics which affected the emergence and development of pupils' voices.

The Department of Applied Physics and Electronics at Umeå University offers education and conducts research in the field of automation and robotics. To raise the competence in automation in the CODESYS development environment it’s proposed to build a remote controlled self-balancing robot as a testing platform which is then programmed using CODESYS for Raspberry Pi.   The chassis of the robot consists of laser-cut plexiglass plates, stacked on top of each other and fixed using threaded rods, nuts and washers. On these plates the robots’ electrical components, wheels and motors are attached.   The control system is designed as a feedback loop where the robots’ angle relative to the gravity vector is the controlled variable. A PID-controller is used as the system controller and a Kalman Filter is used to filter the input signals from the IMU board using input from both the accelerometer and the gyro.   The control system is implemented in CODESYS as a Function Block Diagram (FBD) using both pre-made, standard function blocks and customized function blocks. By using the in-built web-visualization tool the robot can be remote controlled via Wi-Fi.   After tuning the Kalman Filter through plot-analysis and the PID-controller through Ziegler-Nichols method the robot can stay balanced on a flat surface.   The robots’ performance is tested through a series of test scenarios of which it only completes one out of four. The project ran out of time before further testing could be done.   For future work one could improve the performance of the PID-controller through more sophisticated tuning methods. One can also add a steering-function or test different type of controllers.

The dissertation focuses on the structure of π-regular (regular) rings.

Previously, research on multinational teamwork with various nationalities and cultures involved, which looked at the aspect of communication, was largely based on the examination of specific facilitators and barriers to its communication (i.e. Watson, et al., 1993; Hofner Saphiere, 1996). There it was found that multinational teams might have specific communication facilitators dependent upon the cultures involved. This is reflected in the theoretical development in the field of intercultural management, which gives guidance for culturally complex team settings (i.e. Trompenaars, 1993). The complexity managers’ face is increasing further through China’s involvement in the implementation of globalization strategies (Podsiadlowski, 2002). Recently, the relevance of China’s involvement has been increasing for Germany, in particular given Chinese companies’ investments in Germany. Therefore, the study of various nationalities in one research project has been reconsidered and currently there is new demand for studies, which seek to understand the complexity of Sino-German teamwork (Podsiadlowski, 2002). However, besides non-research based literature, research focusing solely on Sino-German teamwork occupies a marginal place (i.e. Podsiadlowski, 2002). Additionally, much of the multinational team research (for example, Watson, et al., 1993) looked at outcomes and disregarded the team members’ experience itself by using quantitative methods. It provided an understanding influenced by positivistic perspectives, saying that certain factors are pre-conditions for successful team communication. This study recognized these positions, but questioned the positivist bias demonstrated there. Throughout this research, associated factors were understood as being non-linear and interrelated, representing the complexity managers are experiencing. As a result this study argued that Chinese and Germans working in teams were marginalised in the intercultural management research field until today and their needs were not addressed by much of the existing research. These led to my conclusion that there is a need to conduct research that for the first time is informed by a postmodern theoretical framework that seeks to privilege multiplicity and diversity and that also attends to the silences surrounding this group. Therefore, a postmodern framework provided the theoretical lens through which this research, and its authorial, methodological, and interpretive characteristics were construed and represented. This perspective emphasised local stories about experiences, attended to ‘difference’, was concerned with the multiple nature of ‘reality’, and recognised the importance of language as a medium for the social construction of what may be considered ‘truth’ (Cheek, 2000). Narrative inquiry represented in this thesis the postmodern epistemological framework to understand subjective experiences by exploring the stories of twelve Chinese and German participants and the meanings derived from these. These stories were themselves experiences structured and recalled inside wider cultural and social contexts (Kirkman, 2002; Webster & Mertova, 2007). The socio-cultural contexts were woven into the language used by the participants to explain their experiences and signified the meanings of these experiences. However, Chinese and Germans not only differed with regards to language and language variety, but also with respect to their patterns of usage and how meaning was generated in interactive situations on the basis of socio-cultural knowledge. Therefore, my narrative inquiry took into account both linguistic and sociocultural aspects and addressed the relations between interactive communication strategies and larger social and cultural phenomena. Within the context presented above, the focus and contribution of this study were the descriptions of the intercultural communication experiences of members of Sino- German teams and the analysis of factors relating to interferences in communication to provide a thicker explanation of communication interferences in intercultural communication, where theoretical attempts so far remained rather fragmented, and to contribute findings from different perspectives on what has traditionally been viewed from a positivistic standpoint. Through sharing the participants’ lived experiences of working and communicating with Chinese and Germans and vice versa, a number of linguistic and socio-cultural factors influencing communication behaviour and causing interferences were uncovered. The factors identified from the study resonate with a number of factors previously established in existing multinational teamwork research and whilst others contributed new information that adds to the understandings of the meanings that may be made from such experience of communication interferences. Comparing the experiences related by Chinese participants with those related by German participants showed a substantial consensus with regards to the communication interferences experienced in Sino-German teams and the factors relating to these interferences, as well as observable differences in communication behaviours. The lack of foreign language proficiency on the side of both Chinese and German individuals was stated as being a major factor for communication interferences that was further enhanced through the strong linguistic barrier between these two languages. Good language proficiency minimises the occurrence of misunderstandings and miscommunications. It allows better personal contact between the team members since it better enables people to establish personal contacts and relationships, as well as to use an interlinked communication structure that allows informal communication and therefore compliance with the Chinese cultural ‘rules of the game’. However, foreign language proficiency alone is not a guarantee for successful intercultural communication in Sino-German teams. This study also analysed, in addition to the practical and theoretical significance of language and language skills, the cultural influences on the communication between Chinese and German team members. Many participants were either unaware (especially on the German side) or only partially aware of the fact that differences in communication behaviour are based on different culture-specific communication conventions and strategies. It was found that intercultural awareness on the part of individuals in a team, meaning the knowledge and awareness of culture-specific conventions and norms, had a positive influence on communication within the team. Knowledge of the meaning of the two key terms mianzi and guanxi plays an important role in Sino-German teams. On the other hand, an ethnocentric perspective on either one or both sides inevitably results in mutual negative attributions. This findings added to the understanding how this communication could be improved and, most importantly, as a prerequisite for actions of any kind to achieve improvements, to draw the attention of German team members to the relevance of communication when working with their Chinese colleagues and vice versa. Furthermore, the study functioned as an act of empowerment, a way to give voice to managers and team members who were methodologically not heard.

This thesis attempts to investigate the structure of Libyan Arabic discourse in general and interviews as a text-genre text-form in particular. This investigation includes conjunctions and their influence on the cohesion of interviews and certain other textual phenomena, i.e. repetition, parallelism and their unequivocal significance in text cohesion. To this effect, random samples were taken from two Libyan Arabic interviews, i.e. sample text 1 and sample text 2 to who how the structure of these texts is made up. To achieve these objectives, this study uses a semantic, structural and pragma-semio-textual approach to analyse and then translate the texts chosen, as language in this study is considered to be a form of behaviour (Halliday 1973) that cannot be studied in isolation from its social, cultural and contextual contexts in which it is used. Our textual analysis has shown interesting results. First, interviews have their own generic structure and such structure is presented in specific stages. Second, interviews favour the cohesive type of lexical repetition not only for cohesion purposes but also for persuasive functions as well. Third, interviews use many parallel constructions for conviction and persuasive functions.

Since language is an important means of communication between human beings, it is held that writers or speakers can affect their readers or hearers by using certain linguistic means. The manipulation of semantics and syntax, namely the use of emotive language, is seen as an affective means resorted to by text producers to influence the people's acceptance of the truth. Emotional language aims ultimately at persuading the addressee to accept the facts as they are presented by writers. It is regarded as a necessary condition for persuasion to be successful. This is due to the persuasive force of emotive meaning exerted upon the receiver. In addition, the employment of emotive language may be attributed to ideological considerations. This will be demonstrated in Chapter II. Emotiveness, as a means of persuasion, can be expressed by using certain devices such as repetition, intertextuality, word-order, figures of speech, intensifiers ... etc. These strategies will be discussed in detail with reference to translation in Chapter III. Furthermore, I must say that some of my remarks have been based on the findings of outstanding grammarians and linguists, and therefore, I have been obliged to quote from such works to substantiate my points of view. Before proceeding with the investigation, I must point out that the entire data of my work will be confined only to news reports and editorials both in Arabic and English, and for this end a number of articles have been used from official newspapers in both languages.

The present study was conducted to investigate possible interpretation discourse level effects of processing instruction and re-exposure to processing instruction on the acquisition of a specific feature of the Japanese linguistics system: namely Japanese passive forms. Processing instruction is a type of focus on form which is framed around the input processing theoretical framework. In order to carry out this investigation two separate experimental studies were conducted. All participants were native English speakers and were randomly assigned to two groups. In both experimental studies, one group received processing instruction which involved an explicit instruction component and structured input practice directed at altering the way L2 learners process input; the other group was used as a control group and received no instruction. Interpretation and production sentence level tasks, and discourse level tasks were used to measure performance after a one day instruction. A pre-test/post-test design was adopted to collect data in both studies. In the second experimental study, the processing instruction group received a re-exposure treatment between the post-test and the delayed post-test. Based on previous research carried out on the effectiveness of processing instruction, it was hypothesised that processing instruction would have positive effects on the accuracy with which subjects interpreted and produced sentences containing Japanese passive forms. A further hypothesis was that the effects of re-exposure to the processing instruction treatment (after the first post-test) would further improve subjects ability to interpret and produce sentences containing Japanese passive forms. A set of two hypotheses were formulated on possible interpretation discourse effects for processing instruction. It was hypothesised that the group receiving processing instruction would improve in its ability to interpret discourse (guided recall: dialogue and story version) containing Japanese passive forms, and that learners in this group, receiving re-exposure to the processing instruction treatment would further improve in their ability to interpret discourse containing Japanese passive forms. Overall the statistical analyses carried out on the raw scores of all the measures used supported the four hypotheses of this study. The results obtained in this research provide clear evidence that processing instruction has positive effects on the acquisition of Japanese passive construction. The present study showed that processing instruction was successful in altering the way in which learners processed the input and its effects had also an impact on the way learners produced Japanese passive construction forms. The main findings of the present study also provided new evidence on the effectiveness of processing instruction in improving learners’ performance on interpretation discourse level tasks. In addition to this, it also provides new evidence that learners receiving re-exposure to the processing instruction treatment between a post-test and a delayed post-test can further improve in their ability to interpret and produce the target feature at sentence level and interpret the target feature at discourse level. The results obtained in the two studies have implications at two levels. At the theoretical level this research provides further support for the role that input processing plays in SLA. At the pedagogical level it demonstrates the effectiveness of processing instruction on the acquisition of a different linguistic feature of the Japanese grammar system (passive forms), not only on an interpretation and production sentence level task but also on an interpretation discourse level task. It also demonstrated the important role of a re-exposure instructional treatment.

This is a thesis in variationist sociolinguistics. It attempts to make a contribution to the study of a dialect of Arabic—Palestinian Arabic—spoken in a region where the population is gradually becoming engulfed in a language, which was once quite similar to Arabic, namely Hebrew, but has undergone drastic changes, particularly in its phonological structure, as a result of contact with European languages. Now, Modern Hebrew is acting as a colonizing language vis-à-vis Palestinian Arabic, and in this study we are exploring the effects the contact between the two languages on the phonology of Arabic in the town of Jaffa, where Arabic-speaking Palestinians and Hebrew-speaking Israeli Jews reside, perhaps not in harmony, but nonetheless in the same urban space. Employing quantitative methods for one linguistic variable and a sociohistorical analysis for another, we make the case that the two variables observed in this study are but a fragment of the entire complex. Examples from the data collected are provided and briefly analyzed, some of which are from other domains of the language, and these will be further explored at a later date.

Variationen im Gen der Tryptophanhydroxylase 2 (TPH2), das den geschwindigkeitsbestimmenden Schritt der Serotoninsynthese katalysiert, wurden mit psychiatrischen Erkrankungen, die durch emotionale Dysregulation charakterisiert sind, in Verbindung gebracht. Die vorliegende Arbeit evaluierte die Rolle von TPH2 Varianten und Haplotypen bei Persönlichkeitsstörungen der Cluster B und C. Dazu wurden 420 Patienten mit Cluster B oder Cluster C Persönlichkeitsstörung (nach DSM-IV-TR) sowie 336 gesunde Probanden als Kontrollgruppe bezüglich TPH2 SNPs (rs4570625, rs11178997, rs4341581, rs4565946) genotypisiert. Die Persönlichkeitsstörungen wurden mit Hilfe des „Strukturierten Klinischen Interviews für DSM-IV-TR, Achse II“ (SKID-II) diagnostiziert und in die Cluster A, B und C eingeteilt. Die vorliegenden Resultate verknüpfen potentiell funktionelle TPH2 Varianten – insbesondere den rs4570625 SNP – mit Cluster B und Cluster C Persönlichkeitsstörungen. Für beide Patientengruppen zeigte sich eine signifikante globale Assoziation. Das T-Allel von rs4570625 war sowohl mit Cluster B als auch Cluster C Persönlichkeitsstörungen signifikant assoziiert. Diese Ergebnisse bestätigen TPH2 als ein Suszeptibilitäts- und/oder Modifier-Gen von affektiven Spektrumsstörungen. Die Relevanz für die Ätiologie von adulten ADHS und dramatisch-emotionalen Cluster B beziehungsweise ängstlich-furchtsamen Cluster C Persönlichkeitsstörungen muss durch weitere Studien untersucht werden. / Variation in the tryptophan hydroxylase-2 gene (TPH2) coding for the rate-limiting enzyme of serotonin (5-HT) synthesis in the brain has been linked to a spectrum of clinical populations characterized by emotional dysregulation. Here, a set of common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in and downstream of the transcriptional control region of TPH2 (rs4570625, rs11178997, rs4341581, rs4565946) was testet for association in two cohorts comprising of 336 healthy individuals and 420 patients with personality disorders. Personality disorders were diagnosed with the Structured Clinical Interview of DSM-IV and were allocated to clusters A, B, and C. Individual SNP and haplotype analyses revealed significant differences in genotype frequencies between controls and cluster B as well as cluster C patients, respectively. In both patient groups, overrepresentation of T allele carriers of a functional polymorphism in the upstream regulatory region of TPH2 (SNP G-703T, rs4570625) was observed. The results link potentially functional TPH2 variants to cluster B and cluster C personality disorders. These findings confirm TPH2 as a susceptibility and/or modifier gene of affective spectrum disorders. The relevance for the etiology of adult ADHD as well as Cluster B and Cluster C personality disorders needs further study.