Thesis advisor: John F. Baldovin / This dissertation forges a conversation between Martin Luther and Louis-Marie Chauvet on the connection between sacraments and ethics. In conducting an ecumenical conversation concerning the nature and implications of this connection, the dissertation strives to name and develop theological resonances between the two thinkers that provide new ways forward in areas where formal Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialogues have either been historically quite difficult (sacramental theology) or largely silent (ethics). The first chapter of the dissertation locates the project within the field of liturgy and ethics, especially as it developed through the Liturgical Movement in the United States in the 20th century. The chapter then moves to outlining the philosophical background of Chauvet and the hermeneutical lens through which the dissertation approaches Luther. The dissertation reads Chauvet as a faithful Roman Catholic who nevertheless wishes to re-cast sacramental theology in terms distinct from reigning Thomistic categories, and it approaches Luther through the Finnish School of Luther Interpretation, a movement that, analogously to Chauvet, has re-cast Luther's theology in terms distinct from more traditional readings of Luther. The second chapter moves to Luther himself in earnest. Outlining his sacramental theology and arguing that the way he conceives of the connection of sacraments to ethics is as unification with Christ, the chapter poises Luther for conversation with Chauvet. Likewise, the third chapter summarizes Chauvet's theology in terms of his treatment of the symbol and the symbolic, his theological anthropology, and finally his sacramental understanding of symbolic exchange and its connection to ethics. The fourth chapter builds upon the substance of the second and third chapters by actually conducting the conversation that is the dissertation's ultimate goal. Beginning by arguing that the nexus point between the two theologians is their conviction that gratuitousness and graciousness provide the ground for sacramental theology, the chapter uses that nexus to allow Chauvet and Luther to enrich each other's theologies. Specifically, tensions exist in the theological anthropologies of both Luther and Chauvet that can be eased by allowing each to inform the other. Similarly, the concept of communal ethics and the role of the sacramental community in society provide fertile ground for the theologians' mutual enrichment. The dissertation ends by gesturing toward further implications of the discussion, and by outlining possible avenues for future work. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

As a result of modern medical practices, our bodies are becoming increasingly transparent. This transparency not only adds to the perceived omnipotence of medicine, but to curiosities with these modes of bodily exploration. Even with this new visibility, many questions remain as curiosity continues.

Symbolic computation has been widely applied to Combinatorics, Number Theory, and also other fields. Many reliable and fast algorithms with corresponding implementations now have been established and developed. Using the tool of Experimental Mathematics, especially with the help of mathematical software, in particularly Mathematica, we could visualize the data, manipulate algorithms and implementations. The work presented here, based on symbolic computation, involves the following two parts. The first part introduces a systematic integration method, called the Method of Brackets. It only consists of a small number of simple and direct rules coming from the Schwinger parametrization of Feynman diagrams. Verification of each rule makes this method rigorous. Then it follows a necessary theorem that different series representations of the integrand, though lead to different processes of computations, do not affect the result. Examples of application lead to further discussions on analytic continuation, especially on Pochhammer symbol, divergent series and connection to Mellin transform of the Method of Brackets. In the end, comparison with other integration methods and a Mathematica package manual are presented. The second part provides a symbolic approach on the study of Bernoulli numbers and its generalizations. The Bernoulli symbol $\mathcal{B}$ originally comes from Umbral Calculus, as a formal approach to Sheffer sequences. Recently, a rigorous footing by probabilistic proof makes it also a random variable with its density function a shifted hyperbolic trigonometric function. Such an approach together with general method on random variables gives a variety of results on generalized Bernoulli polynomials, multiple zeta functions, and also other related topics. / Lin Jiu

<p><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0cm; line-height:150%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} .MsoPapDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; margin-bottom:10.0pt; line-height:115%;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:70.85pt 70.85pt 70.85pt 70.85pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --><p><strong>The Symbolism of Power in William Golding’s <em>Lord of the Flies</em></strong></p><p> </p><p>An important theme in William Golding’s novel <em>Lord of the Flies</em> is social power relations.  These power relations are everywhere on the island, and are shown at different levels throughout the novel. These power relations are illustrated by symbols in the novel, which center on two different power systems, a democratic system, with Ralph as the head, and a dictatorial system with Jack as the leader. Sometimes these symbols are tied so closely together to both power systems that they mean different things for each of them. The aim of this essay is to investigate the different kinds of symbols that are used in the novel, and to show how they are tied to its social power relations. Those symbols that I have found are always important items that either Ralph or Jack use intentionally or unintentionally. The use of symbols is crucial to this novel, thus Golding shows us that an item is more powerful than it first seems.</p></p>

<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0cm; line-height:150%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} .MsoPapDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; margin-bottom:10.0pt; line-height:115%;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:70.85pt 70.85pt 70.85pt 70.85pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -->The Symbolism of Power in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies   An important theme in William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies is social power relations.  These power relations are everywhere on the island, and are shown at different levels throughout the novel. These power relations are illustrated by symbols in the novel, which center on two different power systems, a democratic system, with Ralph as the head, and a dictatorial system with Jack as the leader. Sometimes these symbols are tied so closely together to both power systems that they mean different things for each of them. The aim of this essay is to investigate the different kinds of symbols that are used in the novel, and to show how they are tied to its social power relations. Those symbols that I have found are always important items that either Ralph or Jack use intentionally or unintentionally. The use of symbols is crucial to this novel, thus Golding shows us that an item is more powerful than it first seems.

Previous work suggests that both concrete (e.g., hat, shoes) and abstract (e.g., god, devil) concepts with spatial associations engage attentional mechanisms, affecting subsequent target processing above or below fixation. Interestingly, both facilitatory and inhibitory effects have been reported to result from compatibility between target location and the meaning of the concept. To determine the conditions for obtaining these disparate effects, we varied the task (detection vs. discrimination), SOA, and concept type (abstract vs. concrete) across a series of experiments. Results suggest that the nature of the concepts underlies the different attentional effects. With abstract concepts, facilitation was observed across tasks and SOAs. With concrete concepts, inhibition was observed during the discrimination task and for short SOAs. Thus, the particular perceptual and metaphorical associations of a concept mediate their subsequent effects on visual target processing.

The objective of this dissertation is to develop a practical methodology for designing full and reduced order H[infinity] filter for plants with polytopic model uncertainty. Because the polytopic model description is convex, it is amenable to a Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) formulation. Reduced order filters are desirable in applications where fast data processing is necessary. To improve robustness to model uncertainties, this dissertation reformulates an H2 filter design technique as a reduced order H[infinity] filter design methodology. Lyapunov functions are replaced with parameter-dependent Lyapunov functions to provide less conservative results. As the problem is formulated as an LMI, an admissible filter with suitable dynamic behavior can be obtained from the solution of a convex optimization problem. The advantages of this approach over earlier approaches are highlighted in a simple computational example. This filtering technique is used to design a fault detection filter. Robust fault detection filter (RFDF) design is formulated as a multi-objective H[infinity] optimization for a polytopic uncertain system. The order of the RFDF is reduced using LMI techniques and the detection performance is compared with the full order filter. An adaptive threshold is used to reduce the number of false alarms. Examples are presented to illustrate effectiveness of the order reduction. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering. / Includes bibliographic references (leaves 70-76). / "May 2006."

Previous work suggests that both concrete (e.g., hat, shoes) and abstract (e.g., god, devil) concepts with spatial associations engage attentional mechanisms, affecting subsequent target processing above or below fixation. Interestingly, both facilitatory and inhibitory effects have been reported to result from compatibility between target location and the meaning of the concept. To determine the conditions for obtaining these disparate effects, we varied the task (detection vs. discrimination), SOA, and concept type (abstract vs. concrete) across a series of experiments. Results suggest that the nature of the concepts underlies the different attentional effects. With abstract concepts, facilitation was observed across tasks and SOAs. With concrete concepts, inhibition was observed during the discrimination task and for short SOAs. Thus, the particular perceptual and metaphorical associations of a concept mediate their subsequent effects on visual target processing.

This essay comprises a study of the bridal crowns of Tjust, with respect to their national history, concept and aspect of mythological symbol. The tradition of bearing the parochial bridal crown is closely associated with religious medieval politics, and has also come to include elements of superstition and folklore. Attention is paid to these aspects dealing with the position of the bridal crown within current forms of tradition and culture and the impact on brides of this day and age. As the tradition of Church-owned bridal crowns is intrinsic to this country, and especially in the area of which Tjust is a part, possible solutions to the continued tradition are investigated.

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