This dissertation enquires into the nature and value of a phenomenon which is typically found in art. Chapter 1 attempts to get clear on what phenomenon is being discussed by considering various thinkers' attempts to talk about it, and by considering artworks which exemplify (or are) it. I call the phenomenon 'art' and roughly characterise it as the expression of emotion. Chapter 2 considers the role of artists' intentions to the meaning of the artworks they create, and more broadly the role of utterers' intentions to the meanings of their utterances. This is done because certain positions regarding the role of intentions to utterances' meanings breaks the communicative link between the utterer of an utterance and the apprehender of the utterance, which link is important to the thesis advanced. Chapter 3 argues for a particular analysis of what I call art in Chapter 1, and briefly argues that it is very valuable.

My dissertation examines the presence of the “North of England” in medieval texts, a presence that complicates the recent work of critics who focus upon an emergent nationalism in the Middle Ages. Far removed from the ideological center of the realm in London and derided as a backwards frontier, the North nevertheless maintains a distinctly generative intimacy within the larger realm as the seat of English history—the home of the monk Bede, the “Father of English History”—and as a frontline of defense against Scottish invasion. This often convoluted dynamic of intimacy, I assert, is played out in those literary conversations in which the South derides the North and vice versa—in, for example, the curt admonition of one shepherd that the sheep-stealer Mak in the Wakefield Master’s Second Shepherd’s Play stop speaking in a southern tongue: that he “take out his southern tooth and insert a turd.” The North functioned as a contested geography, a literary character, and a spectral presence in the negotiation of a national identity in both canonical and non-canonical texts including Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, William of Malmesbury’s Latin histories, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and the Robin Hood ballads of the late Middle Ages. We see this contest, further, in the medieval universities wherein students segregated by their “nacion,” northern or southern, engaged in bloody clashes that, while local, nevertheless resonated at the national level. I argue that the outlying North actually operates as a necessary, if not sufficient, condition for the processes of imagining nation; that regionalism is both contained within and constitutive of its apparent opposite, nationalism. My longue durée historicist approach to texts concerned with the North—either through narrative setting, character, author or textual provenance—ultimately uncovers the emerging dialectic of region and nation within the medieval North-South divide and reveals how England’s nationalist impulse found its greatest expression when it was threatened from within by the uncanny figure of the North. / text

Ce mémoire propose des lectures croisées de la mémoire urbaine dans Dora Bruder de Patrick Modiano et La Québécoite de Régine Robin. Les deux récits mettent en scène des narrateurs héritiers de la mémoire de la Shoah qui déambulent dans les villes de Paris et Montréal. La ville est espace d’intelligibilité dont les signes sont porteurs de sens à activer par l’observateur. À l’aide de la sémiotique de la ville (Benjamin) et des pratiques de la ville (De Certeau) et en tenant compte de la position particulière des narrateurs autour des enjeux du témoignage et de l’écriture, ce mémoire cherche à étudier comment la ville participe au déploiement d’une mémoire juive en même temps qu’elle contribue à son inévitable perte. La Deuxième Guerre mondiale a eu lieu en partie à Paris, qui en porte les traces dans une forte densité mémorielle, tandis que Montréal, ville diasporique où les événements ne se sont pas déroulés, accueille les mémoires écorchées qui se fixent d’une autre manière dans l’espace urbain. Dans les deux récits, l’espace urbain est nécessaire à la mise en texte de la rupture et de la perte, qui se dévoilent à la fois au niveau thématique (destruction urbaine, échecs répétés, perte identitaire) et formel (remise en question du récit, hybridité générique.) / This thesis offers crossed readings of urban memory in Dora Bruder from Patrick Modiano and La Québécoite from Régine Robin. Both stories depict narrators heirs of the Holocaust memory who roam the cities of Paris and Montreal. The city is a space of intelligibility whose signs are meaningful to the observer. Using the semiotics of the city (Benjamin), the practices of the city (De Certeau) and taking into account the specific position of both narrators on the issues of testimony and writing, this study seeks to explore how the city spreads the Jewish memory while at the same time contributing to its inevitable loss. The Second World War took partly place in Paris, which bears the traces in a high density of memory, while Montreal, a city where Holocaust events did not unfold, is hosting memories otherwise within its urban space. In both stories, the city is necessary to the writing of the breakdown and loss, which reveal themselves both in the background (urban destruction, repeated failures, loss of identity) and form (question of the story, generic hybridity.)

No abstract available

Depression is one of the most common psychiatric health problems worldwide which causes great suffering among the affected individuals and causes heavy national economic losses. Few studies have examined the treatment effects of various treatment components in Internet cognitive behavioral therapy (ICBT) as well as the long term effects for depression. The treatment method as such has indicated large effects both immediately after treatment and in limited follow ups, up to one year. In the present study long time effects in ICBT and the various 4 treatment components support type, who is in charge of the content in treatment and supervision has been examined with a mixed factorial design within a group of adults suffering from depression (N=197). Further, the impact of acquired knowledge about treatment content on symptom reduction examined two years post treatment. Previous research has indicated divergent results in the interaction between acquired knowledge and treatment outcome. The results indicated moderate to large effects of treatment two years post treatment independent of treatment component (d =.51- 1.63). Persistent treatment effects were found in the majority of the outcome measures, measured immediately after treatment to the follow up two years post treatment. One advantage was found for the participants who received therapist with supervision on the outcome of sleeping difficulties in comparison with those who received a therapist without supervision (ղᵖ²=.076). One further advantage was found for acquired knowledge among participants who was assigned content in treatment chosen by the therapist and at the same time received support on demand in comparison with participants who got to choose treatment content by themselves and was received scheduled support. Also participants who got to choose treatment content by themselves and received scheduled support had an advantage in comparison with those who got to choose treatment content by themselves and received support on demand (ղᵖ²=.045; ղ ᵖ²=.039). Acquired knowledge did not indicate any correlations with depressive symptoms. The findings of the study indicate that ICBT is an effective treatment method among adults suffering from depression even in long term follow ups, and that the importance of specific treatment components need further research.

Submitted by Caroline Xavier (caroline.xavier@pucrs.br) on 2017-06-13T18:59:29Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DIS_RAFAEL_BRONZATTI_COMPLETO.pdf: 1595553 bytes, checksum: 21e473bbe7d7e0fdf38aa203d14a82d4 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-13T18:59:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DIS_RAFAEL_BRONZATTI_COMPLETO.pdf: 1595553 bytes, checksum: 21e473bbe7d7e0fdf38aa203d14a82d4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-03-29 / The dysfunctional customer behavior (DCB) has been a frequent theme among studies in the marketing and ethics field in the last decades. The phenomenon analysis involves since the main types, motivators, inhibitors and other variables that influence its occurrence. Two important variables in the study of the dysfunctional behaviors are its severity and the victim of de DCB. Severity, or gravity, can be represented by the type of behavior and also by the size of the injury; the victim can be represented by a firm, brand, employees or even by other clients. Few studies have analyzed, jointly, the size of the injury and the size of the victim; however, it is known that big firms are the most frequent victims of the DCB. In this research, severity was represented by the size of the injuries caused by two different types of DCB, and the victim refers to the firm that suffers the prejudice caused by the customer. Two studies were performed in order to analyze the effects of the size of the injuries and the size of the victim on the acceptability of the dysfunctional behavior. Study 1 analyzed these effects based on a passive behavior scenario, where the customer takes advantage of a firm?s mistake, while study 2 were based on an active behavior, with the clear intention of the customer to commit DCB, but the prejudice to the retailer are not clear. Results have indicated that the dysfunctional behavior acceptability varies according to the type of DCB and the size of of the injuries and that when it is practiced against big firms it is considered more acceptable than when practiced against small firms. These outcomes corroborate other studies findings and what is proposed by the social distance theory and the Robin Hood Effect. / O comportamento disfuncional do consumidor (CDC) tem sido tema recorrente em estudos no campo do marketing e da ?tica nas ?ltimas d?cadas. An?lises do fen?meno envolvem desde os principais tipos, motivadores, inibidores e outras vari?veis que influenciam na ocorr?ncia do mesmo. Duas vari?veis importantes no estudo dos comportamentos disfuncionais s?o a sua severidade e a v?tima do CDC. A severidade, ou gravidade, pode ser representada pelo tipo de comportamento e tamb?m pelo tamanho dos danos; a v?tima pode ser representada pela empresa, marca, funcion?rios ou mesmo outros clientes. Poucos estudos analisaram conjuntamente o tamanho dos danos e o tamanho da v?tima; contudo, sabe-se que grandes empresas s?o v?timas mais frequentes de CDC. Nesta pesquisa, a severidade foi representada pelo tamanho dos danos causados em dois tipos diferentes de CDC, enquanto que a v?tima foi traduzida na empresa que sofre com os preju?zos causados pelo consumidor. Foram realizados dois estudos que analisaram os efeitos do tamanho dos danos e do tamanho da v?tima na aceitabilidade do comportamento disfuncional. O estudo 1 analisou estes efeitos tendo como base um cen?rio com comportamento passivo, onde o consumidor tira proveito de uma falha da empresa, enquanto que o estudo 2 utilizou um comportamento ativo, com clara inten??o do consumidor cometer o CDC, mas os preju?zos ao varejista n?o s?o claros. Os resultados indicaram que a aceitabilidade do comportamento disfuncional varia de acordo com o tipo de CDC e o tamanho dos danos e que quando ? praticado contra grandes empresas ? considerado mais aceit?vel do que quando praticado contra pequenas empresas. Estes resultados corroboram os achados de outros estudos e o proposto pela teoria da dist?ncia social e o Robin Hood Effect.

No description available.

Species translocations result in demographic bottlenecks that may produce inbreeding depression and reduce genetic variation through random sampling and drift, an outcome that could decrease long-term fitness and adaptive potential of many New Zealand species. Despite considerable evidence for costs associated with inbreeding and reduced genetic variation, some species have recovered from a small number of individuals and are thriving, perhaps via high growth rates, differential survival of heterozygous individuals or inbreeding avoidance. I examined the genetic consequences of species translocations in saddlebacks (Philesturnus carunculatus) with additional data provided for robins (Petroica australis) where possible. I first assessed whether contemporary genetic variation represented historical levels or a decline following demographic bottlenecks. I then examined whether sequential demographic bottlenecks caused sequential genetic bottlenecks and reviewed whether populations founded with a small number of birds were likely to go extinct. This analysis was followed by an investigation of two mechanisms that may maintain or reduce fitness costs, differential survival of heterozygous individuals and mate choice to avoid genetically similar individuals. Evidence from museum specimens suggests that low levels of genetic variation in contemporary saddlebacks is no different to historical genetic variation in the only source population, Big South Cape Island. An ancient founding event to Big South Cape Island is probably the cause of severe genetic bottlenecking rather than the demographic bottleneck caused by rats in the 1960s. In robins, genetic variation decreased slightly between museum and contemporary samples suggesting that recent population declines and habitat fragmentation have caused reductions in current levels of genetic variation. Serial demographic bottlenecks caused by sequential translocations of saddlebacks did not appear to decrease genetic variation. Loss of genetic variation due to random sampling was probably minimized because the low level of genetic variation remaining in the species was probably represented in the number of birds translocated to new islands. Models assessing future loss of genetic variation via drift showed that high growth rates combined with high carrying capacity on large islands would probably maintain existing genetic variation. In contrast, low carrying capacity on small islands would probably result in considerable loss of genetic variation over time. Saddleback populations on small islands may require occasional immigrants to maintain long-term genetic variation. Saddleback and robin populations established with a small number of founders did not have an increased risk of failure, suggesting that inbreeding was not substantial enough to prevent populations from growing and recovering. However, modelling showed that translocated saddleback and robin populations grow exponentially even when egg failure rates (a measure of inbreeding depression) are extremely high. Although inbreeding depression may be considerable, populations may be judged healthy simply because they show strong growth rates. Discounting the problem of inbreeding depression may be premature especially under novel circumstances such as environmental change or disease. Finally, two mechanisms proposed to avoid or delay the costs of inbreeding depression and loss of genetic variation do not appear to be important in saddlebacks or robins. Heterozygosity was not related to survivorship in saddlebacks that successfully founded new populations, and neither saddlebacks nor robins chose genetically dissimilar mates to avoid inbreeding. In conclusion, most saddleback populations should not require genetic management, although populations on small islands will probably need occasional immigrants. In robins, large, unfragmented populations should be protected where possible.

Real-time system refers to the computing, communication, and information system with deadline requirements. To meet these deadline requirements, most systems use a mechanism known as the schedulability test which determines whether each of the admitted tasks can meet its deadline. A new task will not be admitted unless it passes the schedulability test. Schedulability tests can be either direct or indirect. The utilization based schedulability test is the most common schedulability test approach, in which a task can be admitted only if the total system utilization is lower than a pre-derived bound. While the utilization bound based schedulability test is simple and effective, it is often difficult to derive the bound. For its analytical complexity, utilization bound results are usually obtained on a case-by-case basis. In this dissertation, we develop a general framework that allows effective derivation of schedulability bounds for different workload patterns and schedulers. We introduce an analytical model that is capable of describing a wide range of tasks' and schedulers'€™ behaviors. We propose a new definition of utilization, called workload rate. While similar to utilization, workload rate enables flexible representation of different scheduling and workload scenarios and leads to uniform proof of schedulability bounds. We introduce two types of workload constraint functions, s-shaped and r-shaped, for flexible and accurate characterization of the task workloads. We derive parameterized schedulability bounds for arbitrary static priority schedulers, weighted round robin schedulers, and timed token ring schedulers. Existing utilization bounds for these schedulers are obtained from the closed-form formula by direct assignment of proper parameters. Some of these results are applied to a cluster computing environment. The results developed in this dissertation will help future schedulability bound analysis by supplying a unified modeling framework and will ease the implementation practical real-time systems by providing a set of ready to use bound results.

We consider a Sturm-Liouville boundary value problem in a bounded domain D of R^n. By this is meant that the differential equation is given by a second order elliptic operator of divergent form in D and the boundary conditions are of Robin type on bD. The first order term of the boundary operator is the oblique derivative whose coefficients bear discontinuities of the first kind. Applying the method of weak perturbation of compact self-adjoint operators and the method of rays of minimal growth, we prove the completeness of root functions related to the boundary value problem in Lebesgue and Sobolev spaces of various types.