Ce travail examine la façon dont l’écriture styronienne met en lumière la faille temporelle de l’existence. Utilisant le mode d’analyse défini par la narratologie, il commence par étudier les variations spatio-temporelles que créent les analepses styroniennes. Puis, il montre comment ces variations permettent de dépasser l’illusion référentielle de l’histoire pour découvrir l’univers opératif du récit styronien. Enfin, il révèle la façon dont ce récit se fait à travers les drames, toujours différents, que donne le théâtre de l’expérience humaine. Se référant aux théories énoncées par la psychanalyse, et plus particulièrement par la psychanalyse lacanienne, ce travail étudie ensuite comment les romans styroniens dévoilent l’aporie temporelle dans laquelle l’homme évolue. Puis, il montre la façon dont ils dépeignent l’effet de cette aporie, l’Autre en l’homme, puis l’homme lui-même, alors qu’il préfère souvent ignorer le Nom-du-Père pour ne pas entendre la loi primordiale de l’existence. La dernière partie de cette recherche examine la manière dont les romans styroniens s’introduisent dans le domaine de l’histoire. Elle met d’abord en lumière le mouvement ternaire qu’adoptent, pour se former, le récit historique et le récit de fiction styronien, et montre que ce dernier procède d’un travail de signifiance et non de « représentance ». Puis, elle analyse comment William Styron décrit les hommes préférer la mémorisation à la re-mémorisation et produire ainsi l’oubli dans leur âme. Apparaît, en conclusion, le rôle que cet auteur propose de faire jouer à l’écriture romanesque comme remède à l’oubli historique aussi bien qu’à son œuvre destructrice. / This work examines the way Styronian writing highlights the temporal gap of existence. Using the mode of analysis defined by narratology, it begins by studying the variations of time and space that are created by Styronian analepses. Then, it shows how those variations allow the reader to go beyond the referential illusion of the story to discover the operative universe of the Styronian narrative. Finally, it reveals how the latter is constructed on the ever-changing dramas staged in the theatre of human experience. Then, referring to the theories of psychoanalysis and more particularly of Lacanian psychoanalysis, this work explores how Styronian novels disclose the temporal aporia in which man evolves. It also shows the way they describe the effect of this aporia, the Other in man, then man himself often preferring to ignore the Name-of-the-Father so as not to hear the primordial law of existence. The last part of this research examines the way Styronian novels enter the field of history. It starts by highlighting the ternary movement that both the historical narrative and the fictional narrative of William Styron adopt to construct themselves, and shows that the latter proceeds from a work of significance and not of “representance”. Then, it analyses how William Styron describes men preferring memorization to re-memorization thus creating oblivion in their souls. To conclude, it reveals the part this author offers fictional writing to play as a remedy for historical oblivion as well as for its destructive consequences.

This paper sought to examine conspiracy theory (CT) use across three types of groups: radical violent extremists (RVE), non-violent extremists, and moderates. Using the theory of significance quest, or the desire for one’s life to have meaning (Kruglanski, Chen, Dechesne, Fishman, & Orehek, 2009), I sought to determine whether RVE groups were more likely to use CTs, invoke need for cognitive closure (NFCC) via the use of time pressure, elicit anomie, and promote significance quest through violence than the other groups. Using text analysis software, I pulled passages from six groups – two from each level of extremism - that had conspiratorial language and then coded for the variables described above. RVE groups were significantly more likely than the other groups to use CTs and invoke NFCC through time pressure but were less likely than non-violent groups to elicit anomie. In addition, RVE groups were more likely to promote significance gain through action, but not significance restoration or prevention of significance loss. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Dispositional optimism, as a stable outcome expectancy, has been shown to predict health outcomes in several contexts. Research has demonstrated that health-impaired subjects with optimistic outlooks fared better than those with a pessimistic outlook. Choice of coping strategies has been theorized as the mediating factor through which optimism operates. However, the construct of dispositional optimism has been challenged as a polar opposite of neuroticism, thus contending that optimism is not an independent notion. The present study was designed to evaluate further the theoretical underpinnings of dispositional optimism theory. Subjects were selected from a population of cardiac patients who received an automatic implantable cardioverter defibrillator (AICD). This device, designed to save the patient from sudden cardiac death, dispenses an electric shock to the heart should it exhibit sustained ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation. This research project examined the relationship of dispositional optimism, coping, and neuroticism to psychological distress, life satisfaction, health perception, and frequency of prior AICD discharges. Intact data from 50 of the 60 participants were examined in multiple regression analyses. The results of the analyses were diverse. Principal findings were (a) general psychological distress was predicted solely by neuroticism but optimism predicted the majority of unique variance in the "style" with which subjects approach the assessment of distress; (b) optimism was subsumed under neuroticism in predicting health perception; (c) avoidance coping interacted with optimism in predicting a significant amount of unique variance over and above neuroticism in the number of AICD discharges experienced by the patients. In this latter finding, pessimistic patients who did not use avoidance coping received a greater number of discharges. Thus, optimism and neuroticism were not parallel constructs in all dependent variables. Also, the optimism/avoidance coping interaction in predicting an actual medical outcome was unprecedented. Limitations and directions for future research were discussed.

<p>The purpose of this dissertation is to examine how teachers in the municipal Music schools Schools of arts (kulturskolor) estimate the quality of their teaching rooms, which factors that are significant for their opinion, and if they have experienced any tendencies of improvement in the quality of their teaching rooms. The examination is built on a questionnaire, which was sent to a number of music- and “culture schools” in Sweden. From the answers you can read that the majority (66%) of the teachers are satisfied with their teaching rooms, even if a relatively large part (33%) seems to be unsatisfied. The single factor that are of most importance for their opinion are how much of their teaching they spend in rooms that doesn’t belong to the music- or “culture school” and also are used for other kinds of education. You can also see that the teachers have experienced a slight improvement in the quality of the education room’s throughout the years. A large majority consider that the rooms are of great significance for their teaching and the student’s experience of the education, which also is confirmed by other research.</p>

The present dissertation examines how culture in terms of webs of significance comprises even everyday genres, and how everyday genres in turn partake in creating cultural contexts. The theoretical cornerstones of this study are to be found in a dialogical notion of context and a semiotic notion of culture. Furthermore, the study benefits from the analytical concept of communicative genre by which texts can be set in the broader context of societal or socio-cultural relevancy. The methodological framework – with contrastive viewing as an overall heuristic approach – has been developed by combining elements from linguistic hermeneutics, literary cultural analysis, and critical discourse analysis. The study shows that the most significant trait of Swedish milk package texts is the recontextualization of national historical topics, closely entangled with elements of school discourse and children’s literature. This endows the texts with a certain socio-cultural meaning, even though this meaning is dependent on other interactive resources. However, on recent milk packages, changes of communicative patterns can be seen, indicating socio-cultural change. The most significant trait of German milk packages is – besides the ubiquitous use of fresh generating an advertising context – the recontextualization of the fictionalizing topos of locus amoenus, closely intertwined with control and surveillance. The contrastive viewing of 19th-century texts in the dissertation makes clear that contemporary German milk packages still imply urban-bourgeois perspectives on rurality. Finally, the study shows that culture in terms of webs of significance has no location where it is, but a location where it is represented – for instance in everyday genre texts. It illustrates how linguistic hermeneutics can be done.

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine how teachers in the municipal Music schools Schools of arts (kulturskolor) estimate the quality of their teaching rooms, which factors that are significant for their opinion, and if they have experienced any tendencies of improvement in the quality of their teaching rooms. The examination is built on a questionnaire, which was sent to a number of music- and “culture schools” in Sweden. From the answers you can read that the majority (66%) of the teachers are satisfied with their teaching rooms, even if a relatively large part (33%) seems to be unsatisfied. The single factor that are of most importance for their opinion are how much of their teaching they spend in rooms that doesn’t belong to the music- or “culture school” and also are used for other kinds of education. You can also see that the teachers have experienced a slight improvement in the quality of the education room’s throughout the years. A large majority consider that the rooms are of great significance for their teaching and the student’s experience of the education, which also is confirmed by other research.

Language competence is decisively important in international business and could increase efficacy, efficiency, sales and profits. Language is an underresearched area in business studies though language constitutes management and the managers building structures, processes, cultures and personalities being the most vital working tool to get things done and make them understandable. Since 1970 Swedish companies lose market shares globally and in Europe. In an era requiring better foreign language skills there is a declining trend among young Swedish business people and students in other languages than English. The aim of this study is to investigate and analyse the role of language in intercultural business communication between Swedish expatriates and locals in Serbia, The Czech Republic, Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria and indirectly also Russia and Poland. To understand the business culture in these countries the author has learned the local language in these seven countries taking 3687 private language lessons. This improves the researcher’s understanding of the culture and its people giving directness and depth in communication, independence and receptivity. This ethnographically inspired hermeneutic study holds semi-structured interviews with expatriates. Better language skills among expatriates – particularly in the local language - could make them more self-dependent and win contracts and it strengthens closeness to customers, relationship and trust, strategic view and ability and also operational effectiveness and efficiency enabling their companies to gain market shares. Using Weber’s ideal types the cultural significance structures emerge featuring the cultures in these countries showing that expatriates have to strengthen the ability of the locals in the areas of trust, responsibility and initiative, independent thinking, holistic view, win-win thinking and reduce fear while the expatriates’ own abilities in these areas are strengthened if they speak the local language. Language strategies permitting the expatriate to be more communicatively and linguistically self-dependent are having a common company language, using multilingualism or having the expatriate speak or learn to speak the local language where the advantages, disadvantages and characteristics of these and other aspects of the role of language are given in ideal types.

The question many investors ask is whether or not it is possible to beat the market andearn money by being active on the stock market. In efficient markets this should not be possible, but several researches have come up with strategies that prove the opposite. There are certain market movements that cannot be explained by the arguments of the traditional efficient market hypothesis and such market movements are in the standard finance theory called anomalies. Two well-known anomalies are the P/E effect and the small firm effect. The P/E effect means that portfolios with low P/E stocks attain higher average risk-adjusted returns than portfolios with high P/E stocks. Similarly, the small firm effect means that companies with small market capitalization earn higher return than those with large market capitalization. Even though these anomalies were discovered in the US, they occur on other markets as well. However, most of the studies regarding these have focused on developed markets. Therefore, the focus in this study has been on emerging markets, more specifically the Baltic market. The problem we aimed to answer with this study is whether or not it is possible to attain abnormal returns on the Baltic stock market by using the P/E effect or the small firm effect. Further on, we found it interesting to investigate which one of the two anomalies that is the best investment strategy. By doing this, we have also been able examine if the Baltic market is efficient or not. The study investigates all listed firms (both active and dead) with available data on Nasdaq OMX Baltic between the years 2000-2014. There are two different samples, a P/E sample and a market capitalization sample. The firms in the samples are ranked and grouped into portfolios and then tested to see if there is significant evidence of the existence of the P/E effect and the small firm effect. The results of the tests show that the Baltic market is not completely efficient, since statistical support was found for the small firm effect. This implies that it is possible to attain abnormal returns on the Baltic market by investing in small capitalization stocks. However, the tests showed no significant evidence of the P/E effect. For this reason, with the assumptions made, we recommend the small firm effect as an investment strategy on the Baltic stock market.

The inter-subjective and dialogical nature of narrative therapy, as commonly practiced, remains unarticulated. Further, there currently exists no rigorous empirical research investigating the process or outcome of narrative therapy. The research aim, to investigate the process and outcome of narrative therapy, comprised theoretical and empirical objectives. The first objective was to articulate a theoretical synthesis of narrative theory, research and practice. The process of narrative reflexivity was identified as a theoretical construct linking narrative theory with narrative research and practice. The second objective was to substantiate this synthesis empirically by examining narrative therapy processes, specifically narrative reflexivity and the therapeutic alliance, and their relation to therapy outcomes. The third objective was to support the proposed synthesis of theory, research and practice and provide quantitative evidence for the utility of narrative therapy, by evaluating depressive symptom and inter-personal relatedness outcomes through analyses of statistical significance, clinical significance and benchmarking. Founded in theories of self, language and narrative (James, 1890; Bruner, 1986; Gergen, 1991; Hollway, 2006; Vygotsky, 1934/ 1987), narrative therapy was conceptualized as involving dialogical and intra-personal processes. Narrative therapists generally apply a story metaphor and commonly focus on the inter-personal field (White, 2007). This thesis recognised the storied and inter-personal nature of narrative therapy, but proposed this does not represent narrative therapy in its entirety. The notion of story connotes monological processes, inconsistent with the conversations of narrative practice, and neglect of intra-personal dimensions is inconsistent with narrative notions of inter-subjectivity. This thesis proposed an integration of dialogical narrative theory (Cooper, 2003; Hermans & Kempen, 1993; Lysaker & Lysaker, 2006) and narrative research (Angus, Levitt, & Hardtke, 1999) provides a model for understanding narrative therapy (White, 2007) as involving the inter-subjective and dialogical process of narrative reflexivity. During the process of narrative reflexivity, a person engages in dialogue with his or her own self and others as extensions of self, interpreting experience from diverse perspectives in the context of personal aspects, such as beliefs, values and intentions that give meaning to experience, to achieve a rich narrative and a sense of well-being. To support this theoretical synthesis, a process-outcome trial evaluated eight-sessions of narrative therapy for 47 adults with major depressive disorder. Dependent process variables were narrative reflexivity (assessed at Sessions 1 and 8) and therapeutic alliance (assessed at Sessions 1, 3 and 8). Primary dependent outcome variables were depressive symptoms and inter-personal relatedness. Primary analyses assessed therapy outcome at pre-therapy, post-therapy and three-month follow-up and utilized a benchmarking strategy to the evaluate pre-therapy to post-therapy and post-therapy to follow-up gains, effect size and pre-therapy to post-therapy clinical significance. Results indicated that when a sub-sample of clients were categorised into five least-improved and five most-improved groups (according to depressive symptom change), there was a differential change in the percentage of reflexive sequences in the discourse of clients at the end of therapy depending on outcome. Improvement in the quality of the working alliance was associated with improvements in depressive symptoms and inter-personal relatedness, with working alliance improvement from Session 1 to 8 sharing 19% of the variance in depressive symptom improvement and 17% of the variance in inter-personal relatedness improvement from pre-therapy to post-therapy. The clinical trial provided empirical support for the utility of narrative therapy in improving depressive symptoms and inter-personal relatedness from pre-therapy to post-therapy: the magnitude of change indicating large effect sizes (d = 1.10 to 1.36) for depressive symptoms and medium effect sizes (d = .52 to .62) for inter-personal relatedness. Therapy was effective in reducing depressive symptoms in clients with moderate and severe pre-therapy depressive symptom severity. Improvements in depressive symptoms, but not inter-personal relatedness, were maintained three-months following therapy. The reduction in depressive symptoms and the proportion of clients who achieved clinically significant improvement (53%) in depressive symptoms at post-therapy were comparable to improvements from standard psychotherapies, reported in benchmark research. This research has implications for assisting our understanding of narrative approaches, refining strategies that will facilitate recovery from psychological disorder and providing clinicians with a broader evidence base for narrative practice. Despite limitations of a repeated-measures research design, use of a standardised intervention protocol, coupled with outcome evaluation of clinical significance enhanced internal validity. Future research could examine narrative therapy in a larger sample, with different disorders, and with an alternative therapy or control group. Coding a greater number of therapy transcripts for evaluating associations of narrative reflexivity with working alliance and outcomes could enhance understanding of narrative reflexivity. Thesis strengths included a strong theoretical foundation underpinning the research design and arguments, examination of therapy process in the context of outcome, and a parsimonious evaluation of narrative therapy outcomes.

Η διπλωματική εργασία με τίτλο «Μέθοδοι για Ανίχνευση και Χαρακτηρισμό Βιοσημάτων σε Θορυβώδεις Χρονοσειρές βασισμένοι στο Μετασχηματισμό Hilbert-Huang» μελετάει ζητήματα που σχετίζονται με βιοϊατρικά σήματα και την ανάλυση τους. Γίνεται διερεύνηση των διαθέσιμων τεχνικών και μεθόδων ανάλυσης βιοϊατρικών σημάτων, επισημαίνονται τα ιδιαίτερα χαρακτηριστικά των χρονοσειρών που προκύπτουν από την παρατήρηση και καταγραφή των σημάτων και έμφαση δίνεται στη μη στασιμότητα, την μη γραμμικότητα των υποκείμενων φυσικών διεργασιών και την ανάγκη προσαρμοστικότητας της μεθόδου. Μια μέθοδος που ικανοποιεί αυτές τις απαιτήσεις είναι η εμπειρική μέθοδος αποσύνθεσης η οποία αναλύει ένα σήμα σε ένα σύνολο συνιστωσών (IMFs) από τις οποίες ένα υποσύνολο θεωρείται ότι έχει φυσική σημασία. Επιπλέον, με το μετασχηματισμό Hilbert ανιχνεύονται οι στιγμιαίες συχνότητες και διαμορφώνεται η χρονοσυχνοτική κατανομή του σήματος. Τα θέματα που διερευνώνται αναφορικά με την εμπειρική μέθοδο αποσύνθεσης αφορούν τη στατιστική σημαντικότητα των IMFs, την αποθορυβοποίηση βιοϊατρικών σημάτων, την εξαγωγή χαρακτηριστικών από ηλεκτροκαρδιογράφημα και την απόδοση της μεθόδου. Ειδικά η απόδοση της εμπειρικής μεθόδου αποσύνθεσης είναι κρίσιμη παράμετρος για συστήματα με περιορισμένους πόρους όπως είναι οι κόμβοι ασύρματων δικτύων αισθητήρων ή τα ενσωματωμένα συστήματα. Η μοντελοποίηση μεθόδων που υλοποιούνται στο επίπεδο κόμβων ασύρματου δικτύου αισθητήρων είναι απαραίτητη για τη βέλτιστη διαχείριση πόρων και τον προγραμματισμό διεργασιών ώστε να μην διαταραχθεί η λειτουργία και λειτουργικότητα του συστήματος / This diploma thesis entitled "Methods for Identification and Characterization of Biosignals in Noise corrupted Time Series based on Hilbert-Huang Transform " studies issues concerning biomedical signal analysis. There is a review of the available techniques and methods for biomedical signal analysis pointing at certain characteristics of biomedical time series such as non stationarity, the non linearity of the underlying physical process and the need for the adaptive nature of the analysis method. One method that meets these requirements is considered to be the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) which decomposes a signal into a set of components (IMFs) that a subset of them is believed to have a physical meaning. Application of Hilbert Transform on these IMFs provides the instantaneous frequencies and forms the time-frequency distribution of the signal. Issues studied are related to the statistical significance of the IMFs, denoising of biomedical signals, characteristics extraction and feature selection out of the electrocardiogram as well as the performance of the method. Particularly, the performance of empirical mode decomposition is considered to be a critical parameter especially in the case of implementation on nodes of wireless sensor networks or generally embedded systems due to the limited amount of resources available onboard. Modeling method's performance and demand for resources is a significant task facilitating the optimum resource management and task execution schedule of these systems.