Some of the attributes of a perfect being (e.g. first cause, necessary being, intelligent creator) are established on the basis of theological arguments such as the cosmological and the teleological. At the deepest level, these theological arguments are based on principles of rational psychology such as simplicity and sufficient reason. Moreover, belief that the perfect being is the moral omnipotent God is an act of trust and thus based on the rational psychology of trust. Theists in the Abrahamic tradition subscribe to first cause/necessary being/intelligent creator theology and must therefore remain faithful to any psychological principles (simplicity, sufficient reason, trust) that are the rational grounds for believing in the existence of their God. But such faithfulness results in a deep tension within Judeo-Christian theism. For example, a Christian theist who believes in the Trinity must at the same time remain faithful to the principle of simplicity that rejects the Trinity. Because simplicity is the rational basis for the deeply cherished attributes of the Christian God (first cause/necessary being/intelligent creator), it is argued that faithfulness to psychological principles such as simplicity discipline Christian theistic belief, in particular the belief in the Trinity. Examples of this nature offer a framework for a similar disciplining of Islamic hermeneutics on the basis of rational psychology. Muslim interpreters tend not to systematically engage in the philosophy of religion, and for this reason do not explicitly articulate the psychological principles that gave them their theistic Muslim identity. As a result, they deviate from such principles when it comes time to interpret the original sources of Islam (Quran and Sunna). Consistency is one of the demands of rationality, and it is inconsistent to assume principles in arriving at a theistic Muslim identity and then subsequently fail to apply those principles consistently to the task of textual interpretation.

Alors qu’Anatole France (1844–1924) est considéré comme écrivain sceptique et ironique, un de ses contes intitulé « Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame » échappe à une telle définition. Le ton pieux et sincère de ce conte, fondé sur une légende du Moyen Âge, semble aller à l’encontre du scepticisme, de l’anticléricalisme, et du classicisme déclarés de l’auteur. Au lieu de tenir pour exceptionnels ce type de textes qui mettent en scène une forme de « pureté » dans un sens religieux, tenter de les intégrer dans l’œuvre d’A. France permettra de découvrir une nouvelle facette de l’écrivain, et d’appréhender son idée et son œuvre dans une complexité et une profondeur qui sont cachées sous une apparence simple. Dans un premier temps, on mettra en relation les thèmes médiévaux chez A. France et la mode du médiévisme au XIXe siècle, tant dans le domaine scientifique que dans le courant littéraire, afin d’éclairer l’influence de son époque sur son image médiévale, et la signification de cette image. Dans un deuxième temps, on traitera de la pratique de la réécriture. Par une comparaison, d’une part, entre les textes d’A. France et leurs hypotextes, et d’autre part, entre la réécriture francienne et la réécriture chez les écrivains contemporains, on précisera les caractéristiques et les procédés de la réécriture de notre écrivain. En outre, on montrera que la mise en cadre, ainsi que la réécriture, s’impose dans ses textes, soulignant ainsi la modestie de l’auteur, et la diminution de l’autorité auctoriale. Toutes ces analyses révèleront l’importance de la « simplicité » qui apparaît à plusieurs niveaux dans les textes franciens, et qui peut donner accès à une « pureté » harmonieuse. / While Anatole France (1844–1924) is considered a skeptical, ironic writer, one of his short stories, entitled “Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame” can not easily be reduced to such a reading. Instead, it is a pious and sincere story based on a legend from the Middle Ages – a perspective contradictory to his skepticism, anticlericalism, and classicism. Rather than counting as exceptional cases texts like this that portray “purity” in a religious sense, an attempt to integrate them into the overall view of the works of A. France will enable us to discover a new side to the writer and apprehend his ideas and his works in a complexity and depth that are hidden under simple surface appearances. As a first step, we connect the medieval themes of A. France with the medievalist movement of the 19th century, seen in both historical study and literature, in order to clarify the influence of his times on his image of the Middle Ages, and the meaning of that image. As a second step, we consider the practice of rewriting. By comparing the texts of A. France with their sources, and comparing rewriting of those sources by A. France with rewriting of similar sources by his contemporaries, we identify A. France’s method of rewriting and the characteristics of the product. In addition, we find that the use of “frame story” narration is as necessary as rewriting in the texts of A. France, serving to accentuate the modesty of the author and as a result affecting a decrease in authorial authority. All these analyses reveal the importance of the “simplicity” that appears at several levels in the texts of A. France, and which can give access to the harmonious “purity”.

Is luxury consumption incompatible with simple living? ... or not? For most of the people the question and the answer are obvious. On the first sight, it seems that there is no compatibility at all. How can luxury that is often connected and used as a synonym for opulence, excessive useless things and so on be even placed in one sentence with such a frugal concept as simple living? The purpose of this thesis is to define the framework and the issues that arise when putting the two concepts together. The findings of the thesis can be treated in deeper research that can follow and be inspired by this thesis. In order to prove and explain the analytical part, the findings are applied on real life examples. The theoretical part defines what luxury is, what its specific attributes are and why it stands apart from the "traditional" marketing approach. What is more, the impact of internalization and globalization on the luxury products and services is particular and cannot be treated in the same manner as for the mass consumption brands. The second analytical part treats the concept of simple living, the common misunderstandings and the philosophy of the concept. The two concepts are then put together in order to search for some for the points in common and the incompatibilities. The last chapter is dedicated to a practical illustration of the theory stated. Five star spa hotel and forest retreat Chateau Mcely is used as an example of luxury meeting simple living in some areas. The hotel is briefly introduced starting with the history of the building and then the modern history of the today's hotel after it was acquired by the actual owners, Inéz and James Cusumano. The mission statement and the principal idea of the project are detailed same as is the marketing mix of Chateau Mcely. And finally, the sustainability and ways of creating it are presented in order to underline the symbiosis of luxurious hotel and simple living, at least in some domains.

Though generally recognized as a formative force in his philosophy, Thomas Reid’s Newtonianism and his philosophy of science has not received due attention among scholars. My aim is to inaugurate a detailed survey. In ch. 1 it is shown that Reid demarcates physics as against metaphysics and theology, making his brand of Newtonianism different from first generation moral and religious Newtonianism. In ch. 2 it is argued that "Newtonian" is not an apt label on Reid’s call for a Science of the human mind. Neither his practice within the field, nor his methodological views, make lawlike connections the central kind of truth to be discovered. Ch. 3 is devoted to Reid’s account of the 1st and 2nd of Newton’s Regulae Philosophandi, and an ensuing notion of explanation which approaches the deductive-nomological model. It is shown that Reid’s account is very much his own, though presented as an explication of Newton’s intentions. Reid’s dismissive view towards simplicity as a guide in scientific reasoning leans on Bacon’s theory of idols and Reid’s theory of first principles of common sense. Ch 4 concerns hypotheses in connection with Newton’s phrase Hypotheses non fingo. It is argued that Reid does not mind speculation about unobservable or theoretical entities, and that his objections to particular ether theories are scientific rather than principled. Nonetheless, since Reid does not explain the difference between powerful conjecture and established truth, his notion of scientific reasoning remains elusive. Ch 5 concerns Reid’s views on the concept and ontology of forces of attraction. It is argued that Reid takes forces to be physical entities open for empirical enquiry, and that forces are neither active, nor efficient. Finally, Reid’s view of metaphysics is considered, and further differences with early Newtonians emphasised.

This thesis is concerned with multigraphs and their complexity which is defined and quantified by the distribution of edge multiplicities. Two random multigraph models are considered.  The first model is random stub matching (RSM) where the edges are formed by randomly coupling pairs of stubs according to a fixed stub multiplicity sequence. The second model is obtained by independent edge assignments (IEA) according to a common probability distribution over the edge sites. Two different methods for obtaining an approximate IEA model from an RSM model are also presented. In Paper I, multigraphs are analyzed with respect to structure and complexity by using entropy and joint information. The main results include formulae for numbers of graphs of different kinds and their complexity. The local and global structure of multigraphs under RSM are analyzed in Paper II. The distribution of multigraphs under RSM is shown to depend on a single complexity statistic. The distributions under RSM and IEA are used for calculations of moments and entropies, and for comparisons by information divergence. The main results include new formulae for local edge probabilities and probability approximation for simplicity of an RSM multigraph. In Paper III, statistical tests of a simple or composite IEA hypothesis are performed using goodness-of-fit measures. The results indicate that even for very small number of edges, the null distributions of the test statistics under IEA have distributions that are  well approximated by their asymptotic χ2-distributions. Paper IV contains the multigraph algorithms that are used for numerical calculations in Papers I-III.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / In this study, we analyse Vida Simples magazine - published monthly by Abril company -, a publication that intends to show an alternative and simpler lifestyle. However, this proposal also involves the issue of consumption and further articulates the dimensions of the individual and the collective in a project that is based on reflexivity. Therefore, the aim of this research is to understand the relationship between consumption and simplicity in the discourse of Vida Simples magazine. To this end, the method used is Discourse Analysis, a theoretical and methodological construction that presents speech as a producer of meanings, from which the subject means himself and others. In the analysis, we found 314 discursive sequences cut of 114 texts, where the reiterations of meaning are grouped into eight paraphrastic families. These paraphrastic families indicate the composition of three discursive formations, which demonstrate that the discourses of Vida Simples magazine are tensioned between the encouragement of individual consumption, of one that considers the environmental and of consumption politicized. That is, all three discursive formations represent ways more or less politicized of understanding the simplicity and consumption, with ideological disputes that are materialized in discourse. Based on the identification of meanings, we understand the ideological formations that discursive formations are linked to, we found the sociocultural aspects that constitute the discourse and we contextualize the meanings found in the magazine, entering the debate on reflexivity and on the individual in contemporary society. Through analysis of the reiterations of sense, especially landslides and interweaving of these senses, we understand there is a hegemonic ideological formation in Vida Simples magazine, which is based on a dominant ideology of our time: that the individual is the measure of everything. The theme of this work is relevant to the research line, Identities Contemporary Media, of the Graduate Program in Communication from UFSM, since it is a study on the role of mediated communication in the construction of social dynamics, and vice versa. / Neste trabalho, analisamos a revista Vida Simples, da Editora Abril, publicação que se propõe a divulgar um estilo de vida alternativo e mais simples. Entretanto, essa proposição também passa pela temática do consumo e mais, articula as dimensões do individual e do coletivo num projeto que tem por base a reflexividade. Portanto, o objetivo geral desta dissertação é compreender a articulação que se dá entre simplicidade e consumo no discurso da revista Vida Simples. Para tanto, o método adotado é a Análise de Discurso de linha francesa (AD), construção teórico-metodológica que apresenta o discurso como produtor de sentidos, a partir dos quais o sujeito significa a si mesmo e ao outro. Na análise, encontramos 314 sequências discursivas, recortadas de 114 textos, em que as reiterações de sentido são agrupadas em oito famílias parafrásticas. Essas famílias parafrásticas indicam a constituição de três formações discursivas, que demonstram que os discursos da Vida Simples estão tensionados entre a incitação a um consumo individual, a um consumo que considera o ambiental e a um consumo politizado. Ou seja, as três FDs representam formas de compreensão da simplicidade e do consumo mais ou menos politizadas, havendo disputas ideológicas que se materializam no discurso. A partir da identificação dos sentidos, verificamos os aspectos socioculturais que constituem e atravessam esse discurso e contextualizamos os sentidos localizados na revista, inserindo o debate sobre a reflexividade e o indivíduo na contemporaneidade. Através da análise das reiterações de sentido, e especialmente dos deslizamentos e entrecruzamento desses sentidos, entendemos haver uma formação ideológica hegemônica na revista Vida Simples, que se ancora numa ideologia dominante na nossa época: a de que o indivíduo é a medida de tudo. A temática da dissertação é pertinente à linha de pesquisa Mídia e Identidades Contemporâneas, do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Comunicação da UFSM, visto que se trata de um estudo sobre o papel da Comunicação Midiática na construção de dinâmicas sociais, e vice-versa.

In recent years, second-hand products have received more attention and the demand for secondhand products has increased. In line with the demand for second-hand products, ethical consumption has also increased. There have been earlier studies done on ethical consumption and the drivers of its consumers. Meanwhile, there is a lack in the research regarding what it is that drives and motivates consumers to purchase second-hand products. The purpose of this study was to explore what drives and motivates consumers to shop second-hand products. The study used a qualitative method. The data was collected through interviews with employees and volunteers at second-hand stores, and through a focus group with second-hand customers. The empirical findings show that there are various drivers and motivations for second-hand consumption. However, there are some drivers and motivations which are more common than others. The conclusion is that consumers are motivated and driven by various factors. They are motivated by consumer responsibility, decrease of impulse purchases and reference groups. They are driven by dissonance, self-fulfillment, thrill of the hunt and finding unique products.

This thesis presents extended program notes for a recorded graduate classical guitar recital consisting of the following works for solo guitar with string quartet and chamber orchestra: Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Quintet for Guitar and Strings, Op. 143; Leo Brouwer: Concerto No. 3 (“Elegiaco”). Both works are pioneering and invaluable contributions to guitar literature. Tedesco’s Quintet for Guitar and Strings, Op. 143 is the first quintet ever composed to properly showcase the virtuosity of the guitar within a chamber setting. Concerto “Elegiaco” demonstrates the refinement of Leo Brouwer’s use of post-modern tonality and minimalism within classical form, and showcases his unique compositional style.

This master thesis focuses on information systems, describing the current state of relevant literature and terminology, defining information systems implementation requirements and proposing exact steps of IS implementation and management process. Practical part of this thesis aims on assessing the pros and cons of a set of economic information systems, selecting the best solution for a chosen company and proposing steps leading to its successful implementation.

The present paper describes an innovative electro-hydraulic system developed for automated side loaders. The system is based on Intelligent Flow Control (IFC), a concept where open circuit electric displacement controlled pumps are coupled with EH directional control valves. IFC was selected in order to achieve the level of performance required, in terms of efficiency and productivity (i.e. cycle times), and also to provide the best possible control of the side loader arm. The paper describes the system layout and the basics of the controls: from the alghorithms of the arm actuators to the vehicle on board telemetry and diagnostic. The paper reports the comparison between the IFC system (implemented on the vehicle) and a more traditional approach based on a Load Sense Flow Sharing concept. The benefits of the IFC solution are highlighted focusing on the energy efficiency (very important especially in the case of CNG engines, where the torque available at idle is significantly lower than diesel engines), but also in terms of controlability and response (due to the lack of load sensing signal lines).