<p>'The un/selfish' leader explores notions of selfishness, as they were perceived by people in the village of Ekkaraiyur, Tamil Nadu, India, at a time they associated with thorough changes in their lives.</p><p>Discussing locally held notions about agrarian change, seen as causing the erosion of earlier village loyalties and leading to the emergence of a new type of leaders, the study focus on the censure of the alleged corruption of these leaders. Expressed in a rich repertoire of stories about the ideals of leadership and about the excellence of the past and foreign societies, the censure was routinely voiced in public debates and in everyday conversations.</p><p>Set against a background an increasing role of the state for the people in Ekkaraiyur, the censure of leaders implied a critique of the contemporary society they were taken to represent. Moreover, the study argues that the critique was grounded in evaluations of individualism and selfishness in human nature.</p><p>The study is based on fieldwork carried out in Ekkaraiyur between 1988 and 1990</p>

The goal of this study was to examine the views and perspectives of Tamil mental health outpatients and mental health care workers on the impact social activities and social network has on mentally ill patients’ general and mental health. The study was conducted at an outpatient mental health program at a Canadian hospital, using the grounded theory approach. Data were collected through questionnaires, document review and semi-structured interviews. Results showed that the mental health program had a positive impact on the mental health outpatients’ quality of life, including improvement in mental health, physical health, social network and social skills. The importance of cultural integration in mental health programs was discussed. Furthermore, barriers in accessing and utilizing mental health resources were highlighted and recommendations for program development were provided. Mental health programs can be effective in helping to improve the quality of life for Tamil consumers of outpatient mental health services. / UOIT

This dissertation examines the concept of living liberation in the Tirumantiram, a work recognised as one of the Tamil Saiva canonical texts composed around the ninth century. Modern scholarship has thus far attempted to comprehend the Tirumantiram in terms of the post-Tirumantiram traditions that developed after the thirteenth century: Tamil Saiva Siddhànta and Tamil Siddha. Consequently, the unity and coherence of the text are subjected to question, and the dual literary and cultural roots of the Tirumantiram remain largely uninvestigated. Besides, the significance of the Tirumantiram as one of the earliest vernacular works directly dealing with the question of soteriology for Tamil speaking populace, most of whom are not qualified for liberation and preceptorhood according to the Saivàgamas with which the text identifies itself, is not fully recognised. This dissertation argues that the concept of living liberation constitutes the unifying theme of the Tirumantiram, which is an outcome of the synthesis of Tamil and Sanskrit traditions, and demonstrates that the Tirumantiram-which does not apparently promote the ideology of temple cult around which the Tamil bhakti movement and Saivàgamas of Southern Saivism developed–exemplifies an alternative religious vision centred on the human body. This dissertation consists of four chapters. The first chapter examines the Tamil legacy to the concept of living liberation. The second examines the ambiguous relations between the Sanskrit traditions and the Tirumantiram. How the Tamil and Sanskrit traditions are fused together to produce a unique version of yoga, the means to attain living liberation, is the concern of the third chapter. The final chapter establishes through an analysis of sexual symbolism expressed in connotative language that the Tirumantiratm is an esoteric text. Thus, the Tirumantiram reflects the blending of an esoteric tantric sect with the leading mainstream bhakti religion, probably to win approval of and recognition in the Tamil Saiva community during the medieval period.

This dissertation examines the concept of living liberation in the Tirumantiram, a work recognised as one of the Tamil Saiva canonical texts composed around the ninth century. Modern scholarship has thus far attempted to comprehend the Tirumantiram in terms of the post-Tirumantiram traditions that developed after the thirteenth century: Tamil Saiva Siddhànta and Tamil Siddha. Consequently, the unity and coherence of the text are subjected to question, and the dual literary and cultural roots of the Tirumantiram remain largely uninvestigated. Besides, the significance of the Tirumantiram as one of the earliest vernacular works directly dealing with the question of soteriology for Tamil speaking populace, most of whom are not qualified for liberation and preceptorhood according to the Saivàgamas with which the text identifies itself, is not fully recognised. This dissertation argues that the concept of living liberation constitutes the unifying theme of the Tirumantiram, which is an outcome of the synthesis of Tamil and Sanskrit traditions, and demonstrates that the Tirumantiram-which does not apparently promote the ideology of temple cult around which the Tamil bhakti movement and Saivàgamas of Southern Saivism developed–exemplifies an alternative religious vision centred on the human body. This dissertation consists of four chapters. The first chapter examines the Tamil legacy to the concept of living liberation. The second examines the ambiguous relations between the Sanskrit traditions and the Tirumantiram. How the Tamil and Sanskrit traditions are fused together to produce a unique version of yoga, the means to attain living liberation, is the concern of the third chapter. The final chapter establishes through an analysis of sexual symbolism expressed in connotative language that the Tirumantiratm is an esoteric text. Thus, the Tirumantiram reflects the blending of an esoteric tantric sect with the leading mainstream bhakti religion, probably to win approval of and recognition in the Tamil Saiva community during the medieval period.

This thesis involves exploring enhancement of estimating the probability of a critical station blackout in nuclear power plant operations by the use of direct numerical evaluation of multidimensional nonrecovery integrals. This requires development of computational methods with data provided from South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company (STPNOC). Several methods that are currently used in the industry to estimate such probabilities often overestimate the value substantially. The computational integral method developed in the thesis will reduce excess conservatism while maintaining plant safety standards. This computational integral is calculated using a MATLAB research code referred to generally as "STP-TAMIL" which is for South Texas Project --Texas A&M Improved LOOP. The code itself (along with the user manual) was developed in conjunction with this Thesis. STP-TAMIL is successful in reducing the estimated probability of critical station blackout by a significant amount (about 88.47 percent ) with the incorporation of recovery of offsite and onsite power for South Texas Project̕ s nuclear plants, and results were verified. This thesis also describes an asymptotic justification for to the non-recovery integral used. Applications to the industry, or STPNOC, which will use the "TAMIL" code are addressed. Some assumptions used throughout the problem suggest that if more dynamic rates or distributions are used then more recovery can be obtained, which will decrease the probability of critical station blackout. Methodology developed in this thesis will be used in future work to develop this STP-TAMIL research code into a model used industry wide in commercial nuclear power plants.

Master's thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 321-336).

In this thesis, we investigate several processes affecting coronals and velars in Tamil and Malayalam, two Dravidian languages spoken in southern India. We begin by discussing two assimilation processes which apply adjacent to front vowels, Palatalization, where anterior coronals become palatoalveolar, and Coronalization, where velars are fronted to palatoalveolar. We compare and contrast the feature geometries proposed by Sagey (1986) and Hume (1992) in their ability to adequately express these processes. In Sagey's model, front vowels are argued to be Dorsal. It is thus impossible to express either Palatalization or Coronalization as spreading. In Hume's model, where front vowels are Coronal, both processes involve spreading. However, the model does not formally distinguish between these two processes across languages; thus, it fails to capture the fact that Palatalization is widely attested but Coronalization seems to be restricted to diachronic alternations. In order to express this asymmetry, we adopt the model advanced by Goad & Narasimhan (1994), a revision of Goad (1993), where Palatalization involves spreading but Coronalization is a two-step process, spreading followed by reanalysis. In this model, a single feature (front), defined as "front of articulator", is doubly dependent on both Dorsal and Coronal nodes. Its interpretation is thus partly determined by the node to which it links; it marks apicality in coronals and front of tongue body in dorsals. In Chapter 3, we demonstrate how this model allows us to capture the fact that in Malayalam, only a subset of the anterior coronal consonants, the apicals, form a natural class with front vowels. In Chapter 4, we provide support for the model from languages other than Tamil and Malayalam, both Dravidian and non-Dravidian.

'The un/selfish' leader explores notions of selfishness, as they were perceived by people in the village of Ekkaraiyur, Tamil Nadu, India, at a time they associated with thorough changes in their lives. Discussing locally held notions about agrarian change, seen as causing the erosion of earlier village loyalties and leading to the emergence of a new type of leaders, the study focus on the censure of the alleged corruption of these leaders. Expressed in a rich repertoire of stories about the ideals of leadership and about the excellence of the past and foreign societies, the censure was routinely voiced in public debates and in everyday conversations. Set against a background an increasing role of the state for the people in Ekkaraiyur, the censure of leaders implied a critique of the contemporary society they were taken to represent. Moreover, the study argues that the critique was grounded in evaluations of individualism and selfishness in human nature. The study is based on fieldwork carried out in Ekkaraiyur between 1988 and 1990

I examine the concept of "culture" being promoted in the Canadian policy of multiculturalism and by Tamil refugees safeguarding their culture in Quebec. I take culture in its relation to power as my focus. I explore what culture means to the Tamils, and how the Canadian ideology of multiculturalism is implicated in the way Tamil "culture keepers" (re)construct their cultural identity. / This research addresses popular "multiculturalism" movements which use anthropological notions of culture but fail to problematize the notion of culture itself. I illustrate how and why the concept of culture is itself culturally embedded and historically shaped, and thus dense with political implications. / It also addresses anthropological approaches which avoid realist ethnography because of its political implications. I argue that a focus on culture in its relation to power is necessary in order to examine anthropology's own continuing involvement in imperialism.