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F. Scott Fitzgerald is valued for his contribution to literary arts, culture and his discussion of the American Dream. I argue that his discussion of the American Dream was a lens through which he gave readers access to political insights and an education about political philosophy, American politics, virtue, and reasoning. The American Dream, at its greatest, for Fitzgerald is a nation building myth but at its lowest is a dull materialistic construct. Throughout his works Fitzgerald connects philosophic ideas to the American Dream in attempts to educate and ennoble his readers. The ability to judge well is a critical piece of self-government that was a focus of Fitzgerald's throughout his body of work. In The Beautiful and Damned, by giving weight to Platonic ideals of beauty and goodness, and Platonic heuristics like the allegory of the cave he attempted to negate the detrimental effects of nihilism in America at his time and after. In The Great Gatsby, by presenting virtue of the contemplative life that could be cultivated by his readers, in his time, and including esoteric teachings on those virtues and values he attempted to negate the detrimental effects of materialism on the American dream. Finally, in The Last Tycoon, by articulating an American alternative to the philosopher-king he put forward a vision of statesmanship that could mitigate the effects of materialism and keep the American Dream alive against a socialist attack.

Ph. D.

We develop computer-assisted methods of proof for rigorous computation of the Evans function in order to prove stability of traveling waves. We use the parameterization method, series solutions, and the Newton-Kantorovich Theorem to obtain precise, rigorous error bounds for the numerical solution of the ODE used in the construction of the Evans function. We demonstrate these methods on a scalar reaction-diffusion model and on the Gray-Scott model.

Why do we laugh at eight-year-old Butters Stotch when he sings about sodomy in South Park? How does the dominant audience understand Michael Scott to be heterosexual following his announcement that he would have sex with a male employee in the American version of The Office? What are the implications of laughing at Bobby Hill when his father expresses embarrassment over Bobby’s plus size modeling career in King of the Hill? I argue that the above characters are versions of the disruptive male character type common in sitcom satires. The sitcom satire is a hybrid genre that follows the sitcom format and contains satirical content. Using tools from queer theory and cultural studies, this thesis examines how particular examples of disruptive characters function in sitcom satires to reinforce cultural codes regarding gender and sexuality. In the first chapter, I suggest that when the male character disrupts normative gender and sexuality the audience laughs at the surprise and incongruity. I argue that the key feature of this character type is that he consistently disrupts cultural codes in ways that would normally mark him as homosexual yet he is not read as a gay character in the shows examined. I suggest that he is queer insofar as he does not fit neatly into the heterosexual/homosexual binary. Following this, in the second chapter, I explain how techniques used in the narrative; such as other characters' reactions, awkward silences, music selection, and scene changes, provide commentary on the disruption. I argue that characters that disrupt expectations of nonnative gender presentation and heterosexuality create anxiety for a dominant audience; the narrative commentary acknowledges that anxiety. Recognizing a character's disruption of cultural codes allows the dominant audience to relieve the anxiety and to reconcile the character's disruption with his heteronormative identity. Finally, in the third chapter I argue that the disruptive character often displays shame or pride in unexpected circumstances and is represented as ignorant I argue that by comparing normative behavior with disruptive or ignorant behavior, the narratives create the preferred or dominant meaning of the desirability of normative behavior. I conclude that the process of disruption, recuperation, and reinforcement reveals two perspectives. First, if disruptions confirm the desirability of the codes they attempt to subvert, then resisting these codes is difficult. Second. disruptions can reveal the construction of these codes; if these cultural codes were as natural as we are to believe, then our culture would not need to work as diligently to uphold them.

L'objectif général de cette thèse de doctorat est de résoudre des problèmes liés aux notions de concepts rythmiques, techniques et stylistiques dans la création de lignes de contrebasse jazz, en questionnant les modèles traditionnels d'accompagnateurs et de solistes reliés à cet instrument. Pour ce faire, j'ai concentré mon attention sur les innovations apportées à la contrebasse jazz par Scott LaFaro dans l'Amérique de la fin des années 1950, début 1960. Une partie de son travail, plus particulièrement celui qu'il a effectué avec le trio de Bill Evans, a été le sujet d'études et de recherches, mais l'analyse de son jeu de contrebasse du point de vue technique et stylistique en lien avec ses innovations n'a pas été abordée. J'ai donc compilé et analysé les écrits, les entrevues et les transcriptions concernant le jeu de contrebasse de Scott LaFaro. Je me suis attardé sur son jeu technique et stylistique en écoutant et en transcrivant plusieurs enregistrements auxquels il a participé. J'ai comparé son jeu avec celui de trois contrebassistes contemporains qui sont considérés comme des acteurs marquant de l'histoire du jazz. Ces approches combinées m'ont permis de dégager cinq innovations de la contrebasse jazz apportées par LaFaro, et ce, au profit de ma propre démarche d'interprète et de compositeur. J'ai pu effectivement observer que l'identification et l'intériorisation de ces éléments innovateurs présents dans le jeu de Scott LaFaro ont eu un impact sur ma façon de créer en me permettant d'accéder à de nouveaux outils pour revitaliser mon jeu de contrebasse. Je termine cette recherche en faisant un lien entre la tradition, LaFaro et mes nouvelles approches personnelles tout en proposant également d'autres pistes à explorer.

Le développement d'un modèle thermodynamique prédictif PPR78, basé sur le concept de contributions de groupes, a été entrepris afin de pouvoir prédire avec précision, le comportement des fluides pétroliers. PPR78 utilise l’équation d’état de Peng et Robinson et les règles de mélange de Van der Waals avec un seul coefficient d’interactions binaires kij, dépendant de la température. Cette approche est rigoureusement équivalente à l’utilisation de règles de mélange à compacité constante avec un modèle d’énergie de Gibbs molaire d’excès, gE, de type Van Laar. Pour développer ce modèle, une étude approfondie des équilibres entre phases fluides des systèmes binaires a été réalisée en deux temps. Dans un premier, une étude phénoménologique permet d'éclairer sous un jour nouveau la classification proposée par Van Konynenburg et Scott qui décrit qualitativement les comportements de ces systèmes. Dans un second temps, quelques principes généraux de calcul des diagrammes d’équilibre de phases isothermes, isobares et globaux sont exposés. L’étude de la stabilité thermodynamique globale occupe une place essentielle au sein de ces calculs. Une fois ces étapes préliminaires franchies, l’extension du modèle aux groupes CO2, N2, H2S et sulfhydryle est réalisée. Une bonne précision du modèle est obtenue pour décrire les systèmes binaires impliquant ces quatre groupes. Enfin, le comportement des fluides pétroliers est souvent prédit avec une précision de l'ordre de l'erreur expérimentale par PPR78 / A predictive thermodynamic model, based on the group contribution concept, and called PPR78, has been developed in order to be able to predict, with high accuracy, the behaviour of petroleum fluids. PPR78 uses the Peng-Robinson equation of state with Van der Waals mixing rules and a temperature dependent binary interaction parameter kij. This method is the equivalent to the constant packing fraction mixing rules with a Van Laar excess Gibbs energy model (gE). To develop the model, an in-depth study on binary systems fluid phase equilibria, was carried out. It was divided into two parts. Firstly, a phenomenological study made a reappraisal of the Van Konynenburg and Scott classification possible. Secondly, some general rules for the calculation of isothermal, isobaric and global phase equilibrium diagrams were demonstrated. It is important to note that the study of the global thermodynamic stability is essential in the calculations. Once these preliminary steps were realized, the extension of the model to the CO2, N2, H2S and sulfhydryl groups was performed. The fluid phase behaviour of binary systems involving these four groups was accurately calculated by the PPR78 model. Finally, the properties of petroleum fluids were predicted by PPR78 with an accuracy close to the experimental uncertainty