A qualitative study on a sample of 12 Puerto Rican women was conducted in Puerto Rico. The purpose of this study was to explore the various ways in which sexual meanings are created, changed, and modified as the nature of social discourse and personal experience changes. The two theoretical frameworks that guided the methodology and analysis of the data were social constructionism and feminism. I assumed that sexuality is socially constructed, shaped by social, political, and economic influences, and modified throughout life. Feminist theories assisted in documenting the ways in which females' sexuality in Puerto Rico is shaped by culture and by institutions that disadvantage females and other oppressed groups by silencing their voices. The theories guided the discussion of the contradicting messages about women's sexualities and their experiences, as these women fought, conformed to, and even colluded with their oppression. Analysis of the participants' written and oral narratives produced the overarching theme of sexual meanings/scripts, along with three interrelated sub-themes: sources and nature of sexual scripts, determining experiences, and social discourses of female sexuality. Participants reported three institutional sources of sexual messages: family, religion-culture, and institutions of education. Their determining experiences follow a common thread that weaves a common story line: the life-long struggle with the incongruencies between the social constructions of female sexuality and the realities of these women's sexual experiences. Sexuality is defined as being challenged and modified through the participants' lives. Four social discourses of female sexuality emerged from the analysis of the data: source of guilt and shame, vulnerability and sexual victimization, ambivalence, and empowerment. A theory of ambivalence was developed from the data as a means to understand the participants' process of developing the paradigms for their own sexuality. / Ph. D.

Pornography is today easy to find on the internet and is used by a majority of young women and men. This study aims to investigate how pornography use affects young women and men. Our study intends to answer if the are differences between young women and mens pornographic consumption and attitudes towards the material. The study also aims to investigaste if there are connections between young women and mens attitudes towards pornographic consumtion and views on gender. It will also investigate if there are connections between young women and men regarding perceptions and expectations about sex. Our study is based on a quantitative approach in the form of a survey study with 211 respondents (132 women and 79 men). The theoretical framework is based on Hirdmans gender theory and Gagnon and Simons theory about sexual scripts. Our main results shows that there are big differences in pornography use and attitudes towards the material. On one hand, men are more likely to use pornography and have a neutral attitude. On the other hand, women are more likely to have a negative attitude against pornography. The motives for consumption are the same for both sexes. Our study can show that there is a connection between women, the attitude against pornography and the view on gender. Women who have a negative attitude against pornography are more likely to think that it is important to question gender roles. Men don’t link pornography with gender equality, for them pornography is only sex. The respondents agrees that other peoples perceptions and expectations can be influenced by pornography, but not their own. Although our study shows interesting findings they may not be a consequence of pornography. Our respondents can be influenced by other factors than pornography use.

Talking about sexuality -Medical staffs´ experiences of conversations about sexuality with patients at a cardiology unit The background of this essay is the taboo to talk about sexuality among people who suffer from some kind of illness. When a person gets ill and need medical attention, his or her life changes dramatically. The patients get treatment for their symptoms. The illness and treatment have often an influence on the patient’s sexuality. This study has taken place on a special medical unit for patients with cardiovascular diseases. The patients get treatment for eight weeks at the unit. It is very unusual that a patient is treated by a small team of medical staff during such a long time. This situation gives patients the opportunity to develop a trust and confidence that could lead to discussions about sexuality. But how do the doctors and nurses deal with patients regarding sexual problems? The purpose of this study was to examine the medical staffs´ experience of conversations about sexuality with patients at a cardiovascular unit. A total of 13 medical staff was interviewed about their experiences concerning sexual problems in patients with cardiac disorders. The data was analyzed using latent content analysis. A number of categories were identified. Some staff have conversations with the patients about sexuality and some staff mean they do not have enough knowledge in the matter. Sometimes the staff is well prepared and sometimes they feel there is a lack of knowledge in dealing with problems concerning sexuality among patients. The staff had a wish for guidelines and more in-depth knowledge about sexuality, in order to be better prepared to deal with patient questions concerning sexuality.

We propose a novel approach for analyzing scribal behavior quantitatively using information about the handwriting of characters. To implement this approach, we develop a computational framework that recovers this information and decomposes the characters into primitives (called strokes) to create a hierarchically structured representation. We then propose a number of intuitive metrics quantifying various facets of scribal behavior, which are derived from the recovered information and character structure. We further propose the use of techniques modeling the generation of handwriting to directly study the changes in writing behavior. We then present a case study in which we use our framework and metrics to analyze the development of four major Indic scripts. We show that our framework and metrics coupled with appropriate statistical methods can provide great insight into scribal behavior by discovering specific trends and phenomena with quantitative methods. We also illustrate the use of handwriting modeling techniques in this context to study the divergence of the Brahmi script into two daughter scripts. We conduct a user study with domain experts to evaluate our framework and salient results from the case study, and we elaborate on the results of this evaluation. Finally, we present our conclusions and discuss the limitations of our research along with future work that needs to be done.

Gegenstand des Promotionsvorhabens ist die Anwendung der Mustertheorie als systemtheoretische Methode zur Beschreibung verbreiteter Lösungen für wiederkehrende Probleme bei der Gestaltung und Entwicklung videobasierter Lernumgebungen. Diese sogenannten Design Patterns beschreiben dabei abstrakte, generische Lösungen bezüglich des Wissensmanagements, der sozialen Interaktion und der Anreicherung von Inhalten in hypervideo-basierten Lernumgebungen. Um neben rezeptiven und selbstgesteuerten auch kollaborative Lernszenarien in solchen Lernumgebungen zu ermöglichen, werden Materialien, Aufgaben sowie Gruppenzusammensetzungen mit Hilfe von CSCL-Scripts strukturiert. Auf Grundlage der entwickelten Design Patterns und Scripts wurden ein Software-Framework sowie mehrere Lernumgebungen implementiert und in Feldstudien evaluiert.

Les crises épileptiques sont des épisodes paroxysmiques d'activité cérébrale hypersynchrone. Ce travail de thèse s'attache à examiner les mécanismes de propagation des crises d'épilepsie sur une échelle temporelle lente et une grande échelle spatiale dans le cerveau humain et à les appliquer au contexte clinique. Chez les patients souffrant d'épilepsie partielle réfractaire, les crises débutent dans certaines régions localisées du cerveau, dénommées zone épileptogène, avant de recruter des régions distantes. Le succès de l'ablation chirurgicale de la zone epileptogène dépend principalement de sa délimitation adéquate, un problème souvent épineux en pratique clinique. À cela s'ajoute notre compréhension parcellaire des mécanismes à l'origine des crises et de leur propagation. Nous utilisons un modèle mathématique de masse neuronale reproduisant le décours temporel de l'activité moyenne critique et intercritique d'une région cérébrale, guidé de manière autonome par une variable permittive lente. Nous introduisons tout d'abord un couplage permittif lent entre ces masses neuronales, afin de révéler l'importance de la variété lente dans le recrutement des régions cérébrales dans la crise. Nous présentons ensuite un pipeline de traitement des données structurelles et de diffusion IRM pour reconstruire automatiquement le cerveau virtuel d'un patient. Nous utilisons ensuite une analyse de stabilité linéaire et la connectivité large-échelle pour prédire la zone de propagation. Nous appliquons notre méthode à un jeu de données de 15 patients épileptiques et démontrons l'importance du connectome pour prédire la direction de propagation des crises. / Epileptic seizures are paroxysmal hypersynchronizations of brain activity, spanning several temporal and spatial scales. In the present thesis, we investigate the mechanisms of epileptic seizure propagation on a slow temporal and large spatial scale in the human brain and apply them to a clinical context. For patients with partial refractory epilepsy, seizures arise from a localized region of the brain, the so-called epileptogenic zone, before recruiting distant regions. Success of the resective surgery of the epileptogenic zone depends on its correct delineation, which is often difficult in clinical practice. Furthermore, the mechanisms of seizure onset and recruitment are still largely unknown. We use a mathematical neural mass model to reproduce the time course of interictal and ictal mean activity of a brain region, in which the switching between these states is guided by an autonomous slow permittivity variable. We first introduce a slow permittivity coupling function between these neural masses, hypothesizing the importance of the slow manifold in the recruitment of brain regions into the seizure. Before exploring large-scale networks of such coupled systems, we present a processing pipeline for automatic reconstruction of a patient's virtual brain, including surface and connectivity (i.e., connectome), using structural and diffusion MRI, and tractography methods. Using linear stability analysis and large-scale connectivity, we predict the propagation zone. We apply our method to a dataset of 15 epileptic patients and establish the importance of the connectome in determining large-scale propagation of epileptic seizures.

Lorsqu’elle se manifeste publiquement dans la ville, la sexualité est-elle une forme consubstantielle de l’urbanité ? Sur les plans sociologique, historique et urbanistique, quels relations peut-on établir entre cultures urbaines et subcultures sexuelles ? En mêlant apprentissages théoriques et arpentages empiriques, cette thèse parcourt trois terrains exemplaires de tels rapports : les lieux de l’homosexualité masculine, les territoires de la prostitution, les commerces érotico-sexuels à Paris au début des années 2000. La méthode d’enquête combine l’analyse cartographique et l’observation ethnographique en défendant une heuristique du regard et de la description. Sous un angle territorial et macro-géographique, l’analyse met en exergue des processus d’agrégation, de dispersion et de diffusion des pratiques et des lieux, à différents niveaux de visibilité et d’accessibilité. Sous la focale ethnographique, elle décrit comment des « scripts sexuels » s’adaptent à l’environnement urbain et, inversement, comment des architectures dédiées à la sexualité publique altèrent ou reconfigurent les pratiques. Ces interactions singulières entre le spatial et le sexuel sont enfin rassemblées sous quatre registres d’interprétation : écologique, économique, moral et imaginaire. Ce sont également quatre paradigmes pour comprendre comment la ville se conjugue à la sexualité. / Is sexuality, exhibited in public spaces of the city, a consubstantial part of urbanity ? What relationships can we uncover, from a sociological, historical and urbanistic standpoint, between sexual subcultures and urban culture? Mixing theorical examinations and empirical inquiry, the dissertation focuses on three exemplary cases in order to investigate such relationships : male homosexuality in urban places, prostitution areas, and adult business and sex market in early 2000s Paris. The data collection method brings together mapping tools and ethnographic observation, while defending a heuristics of gaze and description. On a geographical scale, the analysis points out processes of aggregation, scattering and diffusion at different levels of visibility and accessibility. From an ethnographic point of view, it describes the ways in which "sexual scripts" get organized in public urban environments and, conversely, the ways in which architecture and urban design dedicated to public sexuality affect these practices. Finally, these particular interactions between space and sex are regrouped under interpretative schemes : ecology, economy, morals and imaginaries. These themes indeed constitute four paradigmatic ways to elucidate the ways in which the city and sexuality mingle.

In today’s globalized world leaving one’s country of origin to move abroad has become more common,which often results in families and loved ones living apart from each other. This qualitative study aimsto explore professional women’s experiences of living abroad and their ways of coping with being awayfrom their loved ones. The study relies on theoretical concepts and prior research on transnationalfamilies, the sense of home and identity, guilt and coping strategies when longing for loved ones. Inaddition, the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications for travel has also beentaken into account. The primary data for thisstudy is based on ten semi-structured interviews with womenthat have been living and working or studying in Sweden for over a year, with loved ones abroad. Thedata is analyzed by a relational and partly narrative analysis and the study has been done from a feministperspective. The results show that moving abroad has impacted individual relationships with loved ones.Our participants expressed longing for physical co-presence with their loved ones, although they weremostly satisfied with their current situation. As our interviews showed, COVID-19 has not significantlyaffected their relationships with loved ones abroad, since the women have already been living apart -some of them quite long distances. In addition to the results the discussion will focus on key issuesencountered during the study, its limitations, strengths and suggestions for further research. / I denna globaliserade värld har det blivit mer vanligt att lämna sitt hemland och flytta utomlands, ochdärmed inte bo nära sina nära och kära. Syftet med denna kvalitativa studie är att få en djupare förståelseför kvinnor som bor i ett annat land än deras nära och kära och hur de hanterar det. Studien är baserad påteoretiska koncept och tidigare forskning om transnationella familjer, flyttens inverkan på identiteten ochatt känna sig hemma, skulden av att bo på avstånd och strategier för att klara av att ha sina nära och kärapå avstånd. Detta sätts i perspektivet till den rådande COVID-19 pandemin och de begränsningar, inombland annat resande, som det innebär. Studiens primärdata baseras på tio semistrukturerade intervjuermed kvinnor som bott och jobbat eller studerat i Sverige i minst ett år och har sina nära och kärautomlands. En relationell analysmetod kombineras med narrativ analys och studien har en feministiskutgångspunkt. Resultatet visar att kvinnornas flytt utomlands har påverkat deras relationer med nära ochkära. Deltagarna i studien uttryckte en längtan efter fysisk samvaro med nära och kära i deras hemländer,men ansåg sig mestadels nöjda med deras rådande situation. Det framkom i våra intervjuer att COVID19 pandemin inte hade någon större inverkan på kvinnornas relationer med nära och kära, då de redanbefann sig på ett längre geografiskt avstånd. Utöver resultatet lyfter diskussionen viktiga frågor sompåträffades under studien, styrkor och svagheter samt förslag på vidare forskning.

This essay discusses rape and silence in J.M. Coetzee’s novel Disgrace, with focus on how and why the characters Melanie and Lucy are silenced after being raped. Paying special attention to gender and race, as well as the novel’s South African context, an attempt is made to consider how rape is represented in Disgrace, and how this representation is related to the silence of Melanie and Lucy. The discussion’s theoretical framework is based on feminist theories on sexual violence and rape, as well as theory on cultural scripts, sexual scripts, and rape myths. This essay finds that the rapes in J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace are representations of South Africa’s inverted racial power structures, and its traditional gender structures; structures that contribute to silencing Melanie and Lucy. This essay argues that Coetzee has deliberately activated South African cultural scripts in the text in an attempt to expose problematic viewpoints regarding gender and race in society, as well as in the reader.

Generating computer animation from natural language instructions is a complex task that encompasses several key aspects of artificial intelligence including natural language understanding, computer graphics and knowledge representation. Traditionally, this task has been approached using rule based systems which were highly successful on their respective domains, but were difficult to generalise to other domains. In this thesis, I describe the key theories and principles behind a domain-independent machine learning framework for constructing natural language based animation systems, and show how this framework can be more flexible and more powerful than the prevalent rule based approach. / I begin this thesis with a thorough introduction to the goals of the research. I then review the most relevant literature to put this research into perspective. After the literature review, I provide brief descriptions to the most relevant technologies in both natural language processing and computer graphics. I then report original research in semantic role labelling and verb sense disambiguation, followed by a detailed description and analysis of the machine learning framework for natural language based animation generation. / The key contributions of this thesis are: a novel method for performing semantic role labelling of prepositional phrases, a novel method for performing verb sense disambiguation, and a novel machine learning framework for grounding linguistic information in virtual worlds and converting verb-semantic information to computer graphics commands to create computer animation.