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This thesis approaches eighteenth-century utopian thinking from a new methodological angle, namely by utilising the Reception Reader, an open-access text reuse detection tool, to study a sub-corpus of 39 utopian works available in ECCO (Eighteenth Century Collections Online), the largest collection of digitised eighteenth-century texts printed in the British and Irish Isles. As the first study of text reuse in utopian thinking, this thesis shows that text reuse detection is a viable method for gaining new insights into eighteenth-century utopian thinking. Engaging with existing theories of text reuse in historical materials, this thesis proposes a theoretical framework that is particularly suited for the study of text reuse in eighteenth-century books, with an emphasis on the interrelationship between text reuse and contemporary print culture. This thesis argues that an investigation of text reuse patterns at three interconnected levels—reflecting print culture, genre popularity, and individual authors’ persuasive strategies—results in a better understanding of the presence and purpose of text reuse in eighteenth-century utopian works. This thesis posits that text reuse was often a deliberate choice on the part of the author to signal belonging to a shared intellectual tradition, and, most importantly, to support the overall critical aim of the utopian work. Individual instances of text reuse in utopian works are signs of deliberate or unintentional engagement with the culture that surrounded these works. A more nuanced interpretation of how utopian thinking interacted with contemporary print culture is crucial for recognising why utopian thinking continued to be prevalent throughout the eighteenth century.

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This study describes the developmental movement of kindergarten children from oral language toward written communication. The study describes and documents evidence of a sample of kindergarten children as they interact with print concepts in a kindergarten environment. The subjects were thirty kindergarten students randomly selected from three specific kindergartens identified as implementing the Key Vocabulary approach of Sylvia Ashton-Warner. The classrooms were public school kindergartens located in a suburban area of North Central Texas. From the findings several conclusions can be drawn. The learning of kindergarten children can be documented and a profile of that learning can be developed that will have possible future use in the learning career of the child. Kindergarten children may perceive the reading of a story to the group differently from the teacher. The perception of the process of writing by kindergarten children may be different from that of adults. There was evidence of children's writing in their movement from oral language toward print.

This thesis shows the development of a quadruped platform inspired by existing quadrupled robot designs. A robot by the name of Mjukost was designed, built, and tested. Mjukost uses 12 Dynamixel AX-12a smart servos and can extend its legs up to 19 cm with an operating height of 16 cm. All the custom parts in Mjukost are ether 3d printable or easy to manufacture, and the total estimated cost of Mjukost is around 900$. Mjukost has a simple control system that can position its body freely in 6 DOF using an inverse kinematic model and walk on flat ground using an open-loop walking algorithm. The performance experiments show that its slow control loopcauses difficulties for the robot to follow precise trajectories, but its still consistent in its motions.

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