Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 132-141). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2008. Graduate Programme in Communication and Culture. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-91). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR38821

M. Tech. Architecture (Professional) / This dissertation presents the proposal of a museum to map sensory experiences in central Pretoria where a sensory anthropology can be observed. This research project focuses on a sensory experience which provides a place of reflection and relief within the city and explores how the phenomenology of architecture can be preserved. The envisaged site is the existing ruin of the Capitol Theatre which is located on the immediate south western periphery of Church Square.

Impulsive personality traits have been found to be robust predictors of substance use and problems in both cross-sectional and longitudinal research. Studies examining the relations of substance use and impulsive personality over time indicate bidirectional effects, where substance use is also predictive of increases in later impulsive personality. The mechanism(s) accounting for the impact of substance use on later personality remain unknown. The present study sought to explore the bidirectional relations of alcohol use with the impulsive personality traits over three time points, and to examine two potential mechanisms that could account for the impact of alcohol use on personality: the development of alcohol-related problems and social norms for substance use. Participants were 525 college students (48.0% male, 81.1% Caucasian), who completed self-report measures assessing personality traits and a structured interview assessing past and current substance use. Data collection took place at three different time points: the first occurred during participants’ first year of college (T1), and follow-ups took place approximately one-year (T2) and two-years (T3) later. Bidirectional relations were examined using structural equation modeling to control for the relations among the variables of interest within time points and the stability of the variables across time. T1 sensation seeking and lack of premeditation predicted higher levels of alcohol use at T3, and T1 alcohol use predicted higher levels of all three impulsive traits at T3. T2 friend norms for drug use were found to significantly mediate the relation between T1 alcohol use and T3 sensation seeking, and T2 alcohol problems were found to significantly mediate the relation between T1 alcohol use and T3 negative urgency. Findings provide greater resolution in characterizing the bidirectional relation between impulsive personality traits and substance use, and demonstrate that sensation seeking and negative urgency are impacted through distinct mechanisms.

This thesis examines the processes of writerly and editorial literary production undertaken by women sensation authors in the 1860s and 1870s. This focus represents a shift from the prevailing critical emphasis on the consumption of sensation fiction to the realm of production and therein allows the thesis to analyse the ways in which sensation operates as a set of rhetorical and linguistic strategies for women writers in the changing publishing conditions of mid-to-late Victorian society. I consider the ways in which sensation is an idiom that permeates all aspects of magazine publishing in this period and demonstrate how it could be adapted and become an empowering discourse for women writers and editors. Furthermore, this thesis sees sensation as an important component in the transformation of the press in the 1860s and 1870s. By analysing the specific ways in which sensational strategies were appropriated and transformed, this thesis reassesses the role of sensation in the creation of women’s writing in the second half of the nineteenth century, and consider its legacies in later ‘New Woman’ writers. I achieve this by examining three women editors, who were part of the transformation of magazine publishing in the period. Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835-1915), Ellen (Mrs. Henry) Wood (1814-1887), and Florence Marryat (1837-1899) all operated as writers and editors in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. They produced varying types of sensational fiction that they serialised in their own monthly magazines, Belgravia, Argosy, and London Society respectively. Sensation provided a dynamic and flexible means for these women author-editors to assert their status in the context of the expansion of the press in the 1860s and 1870s. I argue that their work invites a more fluid and generous critical definition of sensation.

Studies indicate a high level of risk taking behavior among student-athletes in the college setting. There are questions as to whether risk-taking behaviors stem from the unique social and academic environment experienced by intercollegiate athletes, or due to other factors such as sensation seeking or other personality traits, perceived norms, peer influence or an amplification of the common college experience of experimentation. However, most research has focused on student-athletes from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). This study examined (1) health risk taking behaviors, (2) sensation seeking and (3) perceived norms among gender and sport-type (contact or non-contact) in a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) population. Participants (N=63) completed a 78-item questionnaire and reported on risk-taking behaviors (alcohol, marijuana, gambling and sexual risks, for a 12 month period), sensation seeking and perceived norms. Findings from this research indicate that non-contact athletes are more likely than contact athletes to use alcohol during the season of competition. Male and female athletes showed not significant differences in alcohol use, marijuana use and sexual risk behaviors, they did however, have significant differences in gambling behavior. High sensation seekers show strong, positive correlations with alcohol frequency and quantity during the off-season. Perceptions of others (athletes/teammates and general college population) health risk-taking behaviors are higher than their own behaviors. Additional research is needed in many of these domains to further elucidate the relationships and significance of these findings. / text

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the critique Richard Shusterman is raising towards Maurice Merleau-Pontys view on consciousness of bodily sensations and habit. Richard Shusterman critique towards Merleau-Ponty is found to have no other basis than Shusterman own subjective view on what the task of philosophy is.

Tarptautinė apšvietimo komisija (TAK) 1931 m. akies reakcijai į spalvas aprašyti eksperimentiškai nustatytos ir pradėtos naudoti r(λ), b(λ), g(λ) funkcijos. Tačiau šių funkcijų analizinės išraiškos gana netikslios (Gauso funkcija) ir gremėzdiškos (Furje eilutė). / The thesis problem. The International Commission on Illumination (CIE) to describe eye reaction to colours in 1931, experimentally identified and began using functions r(λ), b(λ), g(λ). However, the analytic expressions of these functions are not explicit enough (the Gaussian function) and cumbersome (a Fourier series). The main aim of the thesis – to find simple analytic expressions of the functions r(λ), b(λ), g(λ), which could be adapted for practical calculations.

This thesis investigates how individuals perceive and describe the texture of solid foods. To date, minimal research has been done to investigate individual texture perception and the influence of oral physiological parameters. The current study is a three phase project. First, using Temporal Dominance of Sensation (TDS), the dynamic process of panellists’ texture perception was investigated. The results showed two very distinct groups of panellists who differed based on their texture perception response. The second phase attempted to understand these groups by testing oral physiological parameters surrounding the individuals and their bolus. Few significant results were found between the two groups indicating. The final phase of this project supported the hypothesis that vocabulary use was not a factor in the division of the two groups. To conclude, saliva, both in regard to the amount and composition, seems to have a large influence on how individuals perceive the texture of solid food. / New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) under contract C02X0807 (Food Structure Platform).

It is well established that there is an increase in substance use among college students. In the literature, this increase in use has been attributed to different personality factors, such as sensation seeking. However, what has not received sufficient attention is the possibility that the new peer groups, afforded by the transition to college, introduce unique influence on the relationship between personality and substance use. The purposes of the current study were to explore whether personality predicted substance use across the transition to college whether peer substance use moderated that relationship. The current study examined developmentally the relations among personality, peers, and substance use as students transitioned to college. It built upon previous work by disentangling how the multifaceted trait of impulsivity may interact with the aspects unique to the transition to college, such as dynamic peer groups and substance use behavior in different contexts. This study added to the literature as it was the first to examine negative urgency and its relation to peer influence. The results of the current study aid in understanding the development of substance use among college students and the environmental contexts likely to influence use across time. Participants (N= 229) were assessed longitudinally in order to examine changes in substance use. The participants completed an array of measures that included personality measures (i.e. sensation seeking and negative urgency), a life history calendar of substance use, a measure of problematic alcohol use, and a questionnaire examining the substance use of peers. The current study suggests differences in the way that sensation seeking and negative urgency predict alcohol use and problematic drinking across the transition to college and demonstrated that peers’ drinking had a moderating effect on the relationship between personality and drinking during particular times during the transition to college.