Mobile communications has gained a growing interest from both customers and service providers alike in the last 1-2 decades. Visual information is used in many application domains such as remote health care, video –on demand, broadcasting, video surveillance etc. In order to enhance the visual effects of digital video content, the depth perception needs to be provided with the actual visual content. 3D video has earned a significant interest from the research community in recent years, due to the tremendous impact it leaves on viewers and its enhancement of the user’s quality of experience (QoE). In the near future, 3D video is likely to be used in most video applications, as it offers a greater sense of immersion and perceptual experience. When 3D video is compressed and transmitted over error prone channels, the associated packet loss leads to visual quality degradation. When a picture is lost or corrupted so severely that the concealment result is not acceptable, the receiver typically pauses video playback and waits for the next INTRA picture to resume decoding. Error propagation caused by employing predictive coding may degrade the video quality severely. There are several ways used to mitigate the effects of such transmission errors. One widely used technique in International Video Coding Standards is error resilience. The motivation behind this research work is that, existing schemes for 2D colour video compression such as MPEG, JPEG and H.263 cannot be applied to 3D video content. 3D video signals contain depth as well as colour information and are bandwidth demanding, as they require the transmission of multiple high-bandwidth 3D video streams. On the other hand, the capacity of wireless channels is limited and wireless links are prone to various types of errors caused by noise, interference, fading, handoff, error burst and network congestion. Given the maximum bit rate budget to represent the 3D scene, optimal bit-rate allocation between texture and depth information rendering distortion/losses should be minimised. To mitigate the effect of these errors on the perceptual 3D video quality, error resilience video coding needs to be investigated further to offer better quality of experience (QoE) to end users. This research work aims at enhancing the error resilience capability of compressed 3D video, when transmitted over mobile channels, using Multiple Description Coding (MDC) in order to improve better user’s quality of experience (QoE). Furthermore, this thesis examines the sensitivity of the human visual system (HVS) when employed to view 3D video scenes. The approach used in this study is to use subjective testing in order to rate people’s perception of 3D video under error free and error prone conditions through the use of a carefully designed bespoke questionnaire.

The current criminal law of England and Wales does not assess mens rea in a consistent manner. The law applies two distinct methods of assessing mens rea – subjectivism and objectivism – which are based on conflicting principles of criminal liability. A subjective test depends upon what the defendant himself foresaw, believed or intended whereas an objective test will label the defendant culpable for what a hypothetical ‘reasonable person’ would have foreseen or how he would have reacted. This thesis will show that, if the law is ever to take a consistent approach to assessing mens rea, both subjectivism and objectivism must be cast aside. As they place undue importance on foresight of the consequences, neither of these doctrines are capable of providing an accurate reflection of an individual’s moral culpability. Subjectivism is too narrow because it ignores any other states of mind that, although inconsistent with subjective foresight, may be considered to display a high degree of moral culpability. Objectivism is too broad because, by labelling all who fall below the reasonable standard as culpable, it takes no account of those individuals who lack the capacity to foresee what the reasonable person would have foreseen. It will be shown that an approach based on the defendant’s attitudes and reasons for acting will allow for a much more accurate inference of an individual’s moral culpability than is achieved by either subjectivism or objectivism. Accordingly, this new approach is one that could be applied across the scope of the criminal law without the need for any special exceptions or illogical deviations from the norm. As a result, the way in which the English and Welsh criminal law assesses mens rea would achieve a consistency that it currently lacks.

Itch lies second only to disturbance of body image as a reported symptom in dermatology. This study started by concentrating on improving the measurement of itch. Itch has a paired physical response, scratch. The pairing can be exploited: preliminary work by this unit had validated the use of wrist-worn movement-measuring machines called ‘accelerometers’ to measure itch-related movement (scratch and rub). The first part of this research developed use of these machines. Simple accelerometers (‘Actiwatch Plus’) were used to observe the pattern of variation of itch over clusters of nights and in different conditions. The accelerometer scores were able to identify controls’ scores from those with itchy disease. Considerable variation (56%) was discovered in objective score between subject and considerable variation was noted (46%) even within subject. More complex accelerometers, (‘DigiTrac’) which could potentially specifically identify itch-related movement on the basis of frequency of action derived from Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), were validated against the ‘gold standard’ measurement of itch-related movement, directly observed movement (via infra red video recording). It was necessary to characterise the ‘frequency of action’ of itch on video and, as an aside, the characteristics of human itch-related movement were compared to other mammals’ itch-related movement ‘frequency of action’. The ‘frequency of action’ and video data was used to enrich the DigiTrac readouts to improve specificity of itch-related movement detection. During the accelerometer studies, an unexpected finding came to light: objective score of itch was not related to subjective score. To try to explain the lack of relationship, a 42 day longitudinal study of atopic dermatitis patients’ subjective and objective scores was undertaken. The results demonstrated autocorrelation for subjective scores, but not for the objective scores but still did not fully explain the lack of relationship. In an effort to explain the disconnect between subjective and objective scores a second tranche of experiments and the second part of this research interrogated whether the methods with which we measure disease as a whole in dermatology are robust. One study investigated whether the way patients are asked about subjective symptoms in general was resistant to the effects of focusing and framing bias. The results were reassuring as they suggested that the commonly used and recommended symptom scoring systems were robust in the face of bias. In order to assess whether perspective or perception of disease explained the disconnect, a study was designed in collaboration with the Edinburgh College of Art. A series of computer-generated images of different psoriasis severities were created and used to assess how doctors and patients assessed disease-extent. This study showed that, whilst each group had a naturally divergent opinion of extent of disease, by scoring disease using the models it was possible to unify the perspective and perception of extent. Finally, an exploratory study to reduce recall bias to a minimum, in case this had caused the disconnect between objective and subjective, was undertaken. This employed a novel questionnaire, the Day Reconstruction Method.

Submitted by Luanna Matias (lua_matias@yahoo.com.br) on 2015-02-06T12:43:44Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Icaraí Daiane Santana - 2014.pdf: 871758 bytes, checksum: e080d0aa6afeb2277e2fb2d524bd2a1b (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2015-02-19T13:06:39Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Icaraí Daiane Santana - 2014.pdf: 871758 bytes, checksum: e080d0aa6afeb2277e2fb2d524bd2a1b (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-02-19T13:06:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Icaraí Daiane Santana - 2014.pdf: 871758 bytes, checksum: e080d0aa6afeb2277e2fb2d524bd2a1b (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-08-29 / Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq / This work‟s object of study is the concept of formation in the perspectives of T. W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer, and it tries to understand the difficulties and the possibilities of a project of cultural formation (bildung) taking into consideration the context in which the individual constitutes and humanizes himself. In order to do so, we have resorted to bibliographic research. Reflecting about the matter of formation is a crucial task to turn educational activity into an education that forms autonomous, ethical subjects that can contribute to the creation/rescue of values that dignify men. The bildung is a polysemic concept that reaches the political, economic, social and cultural aspects that determine it. It requires reflection about it, about its limits and about its social determinants and denounces the exploitation of reason and formation. It is essential, in this discussion, that we apprehend the following categories: reason (subjective and objective), semi-formation (haldbildung) and formative experience, enlightenment and individual. Such concepts are made explicit in the critical theory of the "Frankfurt School" when they analyze the constitutive nexus that shape the capitalist society and the implications for formation. Adorno and Horkheimer denounce that the thinking and the effective practice for formation are obstructed by the domination of instrumental rationality that is deep-seated in all aspects of social life. They indicate elements and principles in the perspective of a formation leading to autonomy and critical thinking, as well as the limits of the current notion of formation and its nature of adaptation, reproduction and maintenance of the social conditions in vigor, turning into semi-formation. / Este trabalho tem como objeto de estudo a concepção de formação na perspectiva de T. W. Adorno e Max Horkheimer, buscando compreender os entraves e as possibilidades de um projeto de formação cultural (bildung) considerando o contexto no qual o indivíduo se constitui e se humaniza. Para tanto, recorremos à pesquisa bibliográfica. Pensar a questão da formação é tarefa crucial para transformar a ação educativa em uma educação formativa de sujeitos autônomos e éticos que possam contribuir para a criação/resgate de valores que dignificam o homem. A bildung é um conceito polissêmico que alcança as dimensões política, econômica, social e cultural que a determinam. Exige a reflexão sobre si mesma, seus limites e determinantes sociais, denunciando a instrumentalização da razão e da formação. É fundamental, nessa discussão, a apreensão das categorias razão (subjetiva e objetiva), semiformação (haldbildung) e experiência formativa, esclarecimento e indivíduo. São conceitos explicitados na teoria crítica da “Escola de Frankfurt”, quando esta analisa os nexos constitutivos que conformam a sociedade capitalista e as implicações para a formação. Adorno e Horkheimer denunciam que o pensamento e a prática efetiva para a formação encontram-se obstacularizados pelo domínio da racionalidade instrumental arraigada em todas as instâncias da vida social. Apontam elementos e princípios na perspectiva de uma formação para a autonomia e o pensamento crítico, assim como os limites da concepção de formação atual e seu caráter de adaptação, reprodução e manutenção das condições sociais vigentes, convertendo-se em semiformação.

The aim of this thesis was to develop a questionnaire for cognitive functioning, which could possibly be used as a screening instrument for early signs of dementia in the future. The introduction discusses the often made distinction between subjective and objective measures. A background to the four articles is provided, focussing on findings of weak relationships between self-report- and laboratory measures of memory/cognition. Studies I and II provided results and conclusions that guided instrument development and validation in Studies III and IV. All studies were based on data from participants in the Betula Prospective Cohort Study. Study I investigated predictors of scores on an established self-report instrument for memory failures (PRMQ). Candidate predictors were memory performance on laboratory tests, age, depressive symptoms, and personality traits. There was no relation to age, and test performance did not predict self-reported memory, but depressive symptoms and personality did. Given the finding of a lack of a relation to age, and a bulk of research articles claiming that memory complaints are common in the elderly or increase with age, Study II used a global rating of problems with memory, and reports of perceived causes. In contrast to Study I, problems ratings were related to age, such that increasing age meant higher severity of problems. Furthermore, perceived causes of memory problems differed across age. The elderly reported aging while the young reported stress and multitasking as primary causes. With these results as a background, the purpose of Study III was to develop a new instrument (the Cognitive Dysfunction Questionnaire - CDQ) with the explicit aim that scores should be related to laboratory test performance. A global construct of cognitive functioning with an emphasis on memory systems was adopted, and an item pool was generated. Based on exploratory principal components analysis and correlations with criterion measures (laboratory test performance), twenty items in six domains were selected. Preliminary psychometric evidence showed that the CDQ was reliable, and related to age and objective measures, but not to depressive symptoms. In Study IV, twenty additional items were constructed, and the CDQ was responded to by participants in independent samples. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the factor structure derived from Study III, and refinement was undertaken by collapse of two domains and exclusion of items. The final factor structure was cross-validated. Competing models and measurement invariance across age and sex was tested. Psychometric properties were investigated for the final 20-item version.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 303-325) / The topic of God’s beauty, while receiving attention in theological aesthetics, is not often a focused pursuit in Christian spirituality. The study attempts to answer the question of what the nature would be of an Evangelical Protestant Christian spirituality predicated upon seeking and apprehending God’s beauty. The study establishes the relevance of beauty to Christian spirituality. It then develops a definition of God’s beauty from Jonathan Edwards. God’s beauty is found to be his love for his own being. Examining Scripture and Christian history, the study establishes that God’s beauty was regarded as an objective reality until the Enlightenment. The focus of the research then turns to the subjective apprehension of beauty, and examines the methodology of pursuing beauty in art, and finds parallels in spirituality. The study considers the epistemological dichotomy of subject and object with reference to beauty, and considers Christian proposals for a form of correspondence theory for transcendentals. The findings are united in a model of spirituality. Apprehension of God’s beauty occurs through the subject possessing a correspondent form of God’s love. Findings from the aesthetic and epistemological study are united with theology to suggest that this love can be cultivated through four areas: Christian imagination, an implanted new nature, the exposure to communion with God, and the nurture of spiritual disciplines. Each of these areas is explained and justified as means to cultivate correspondent love. The postures and approaches found in the study of art and epistemology are used for explaining the nature of correspondent love. Evangelical Protestant Christian spirituality predicated upon seeking and finding God’s beauty is one which cultivates love for God that corresponds with God’s own love. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Christian Spirituality)

This doctoral study explores social workers’ shared understandings of spirituality as lived experience in their personal lives and professional practice. It examines Canadian social workers’ shared conceptualizations of spirituality as lived experience, what it entails, its role and purpose (why), and how it informs professional practice. Data collection involved three steps: a national publicity led to 24 completed self-screening questionnaires (SSQ); 14 in-depth interviews conducted through constructivist grounded theory’s theoretical sampling and; the preliminary findings were validated by the 24 SSQ participants. This study generated two key findings. The central concepts category of the conceptual schema of spirituality as lived experience emerged as Transcendent Life Energy (TLE) as Unconditional Love (UL) in Transformative Relationships (TR) With Self (WS) in Support of Wellbeing (SW)- i.e. TLE-UL-TR-WS-SW. Second, the conceptual schema analyzed through Self as body-mind-emotions-spirit-social (B-M-E-S-S) being—the social work practitioners—illuminated that spirituality as lived experience is about inherent, interconnected, transformative relationships that involve individuation as a life-long process that support healing, development of personal values, growth, and wellbeing in participants’ lives, their clients’ and social life. These findings unveiled interrelated discoveries of significance in social work practice. The wellbeing of Self is inherently interconnected with practitioners’ professional practice, their clients’ and others’ wellbeing. This confirmation is consistent with the concerns about the use of Self in countertransference and religion/culture. However, the personal values that participants developed through the conceptual schema were consistent with human rights and social work values; they included: respect for inherent dignity and worth of persons, self-determination, personal and professional integrity, do no harm, and social justice. Participants’ process of developing personal values exposed a distinction between beliefs and values acquired through socialization and those developed through the conceptual schema. These findings illuminate the function of social work as catalyst for transformative relationships and clarify the role of individuation as directly related to wellbeing, in the midst of cultural and embodied hegemony. Furthermore, the findings illuminate how, why, and what spirituality as lived experience entails and; highlight the multidisciplinary nature of social work practice and theory as inherently interconnected, encompassing human, natural, and social sciences. / October 2016

“Linguistic relativity” has been studied for a long time. Many empirical studies have been conducted on cross-linguistic differences to find support for the influence of language on thought. This study proposes viewpoint (defined as the point from which the conceptualizer sees and construes the event) as a cross-linguistic difference, and explores whether the linguistic constraint and preference of subjective/objective construal can affect one’s cognitive activity as viewpoint. As Japanese is a subjectivity-prominent language whereas Swedish is not, data elicited from monolingual adolescences (aged 12-16) in Japan and Sweden were compared. A set of tasks which consisted of non-verbal tasks (scene-visualisation) and verbal tasks (narrative of comic strips) was performed in order to elicit the participants’ viewpoints. The same set of tasks was assigned to simultaneous Swedish-Japanese bilingual adolescences in Sweden. The bilinguals took the set of non-verbal and verbal tasks twice, once in Swedish and once in Japanese. The results demonstrated a clear difference between the monolingual groups both in the non-verbal and verbal tasks. The Japanese monolinguals showed a higher preference for subjective viewpoint. The bilinguals’ viewpoint preference had a tendency to fall between that of monolinguals of both languages. This finding indicates that the bilinguals’ viewpoint preference may be influenced by both languages. This study demonstrates for the first time that the speaker’s viewpoint can be affected not only in verbal tasks but also in non-verbal tasks. The findings suggest that a language may influence the speaker’s way of construing events. It is also implied that the influences from different languages in bilinguals can be bidirectional. However, the influence does not seem to be all or nothing. Regardless of the language, one’s event construal is more or less the same. Nevertheless, the findings indicate that the linguistic subjectivity in a language tends to counteract the universal construal. / Språkrelativitet (Linguistic relativity) har studerats under lång tid. Många empiriska studier har studerat om och i så fall hur språk påverkar tänkandet och eventuella skillnader mellan olika språk. Denna studie föreslår perspektivpreferens för att beskriva ur vilket perspektiv en berättare återger skeenden. Studien utforskar om ett språks lingvistiska begränsningar och preferens för subjektiva/objektiva tolkningar av skeenden påverkar personers kognitiva aktivitet som val av perspektiv. Japanska är ett tydligt subjektivt framträdande språk medan svenskan inte är det. Därför jämfördes data från enspråkiga ungdomar (12-16 år gamla) i Japan och i Sverige. För att klarlägga deltagarnas perspektivpreferens genomfördes två delstudier, dels en icke-verbal studie (en scenvisualisering) och dels en verbal studie (ett återberättande av tecknade serier). Samma delstudier genomfördes också till simultant svensk-japanska tvåspråkiga ungdomar i Sverige. De tvåspråkiga deltagarna gjorde de verbala och icke-verbala delstudierna i två omgångar, en gång på svenska och en gång på japanska. Resultatet visade en klar skillnad mellan de enspråkiga grupperna, både i den icke-verbala och verbala delstudien. De japanska enspråkiga deltagarna visade högre preferens för subjektiva tolkningar. De tvåspråkiga deltagarnas perspektivpreferens hade en tendens att komma mellan de enspråkiga deltagarnas preferenser. Detta indikerar att de tvåspråkigas val av perspektiv påverkades av deras tvåspråkighet. Studien visar för första gången att berättarens val av perspektiv kan påverkas inte bara i verbala uppgifter utan också i icke-verbala uppgifter. Resultaten från studien indikerar att ett språk kan påverka en berättares sätt att tolka händelser, och att påverkan från de olika språken hos tvåspråkiga kan vara dubbelriktad. Oberoende av språk återges skeenden på ett likartat sätt. Studien indikerar emellertid att lingvistisk subjektivitet i ett språk tenderar att motverka ett universellt återgivande av perspektiv.