Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis is an exploratory study into the signification potential of contemporary, postmodern picturebooks, specifically focusing on the way in which a seemingly 'simplistic' medium has the potential to initiate a vastly complex play of meanings. Picturebooks are traditionally considered to be a medium which implies a child reader, and conveys a simple linear narrative for educational and entertainment purposes. Traditional picturebooks thus assume a clear division between an author and reader, whereby the author is a 'knowing' adult, who conveys a moral or message to a passive child reader. These assumptions are arguably unsettled by the appearance of postmodern picturebooks, broadly defined as a medium which, while retaining the traditional picturebook format, opens itself up to multiple interpretations, instead of presenting the reader with an encoded message or 'meaning'. A number of postmodern picturebook authors, such as Shaun Tan, intentionally subvert the traditional dynamic between the author and reader of picturebooks by creating complex texts which display a general absence of clear accessible 'meaning', thereby allowing the reader to actively participate in the meaning-making process. With aid of the theories of signification set out by poststructuralist Jacques Derrida, this study aims to illustrate how a purposeful absence of apparent 'meaning' in picturebooks has the potential to allow for unlimited interpretations of a single text, thus by extension widening the 'implied' audience of such picturebooks. The objective is to set postmodern picturebooks apart from other texts (in particular more traditional picturebooks), and to provide a new outlook on the ways picturebooks are created, and the way they are read. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis is 'n ondersoekende studie na die betekenispotensiaal van kontemporêre, post-moderne prenteboeke, met spesiale verwysing na die manier waarop 'n sogenaamde “simplistiese” medium die potensiaal openbaar om 'n hoogs-komplekse verskeidenheid betekenisse te ontlok. Prenteboeke word tradisioneel gesien as 'n medium van eenvoudige, liniêre vertellings gerig op die jong leser met die doel om op te voed of te vermaak. Tradisionele prenteboeke handhaaf dus 'n duidelike afbakening tussen die leser en die outeur, die sogenaamde “alwetende” volwassene, wat 'n morele les/ boodskap aan 'n passiewe, jong leser oordra. Hierdie veronderstelling word egter omvergewerp deur die verskyning van die post-moderne prenteboek wat, alhoewel in die tradisionele formaat van die prenteboek gegiet, die leser die geleentheid bied om veelvoudige interpretasies te maak in plaas van om net die beoogde geënkodeerde betekenis of boodskap van die boek te aanvaar. 'n Aantal post-moderne prenteboekskrywers soos Shaun Tan het die tradisionele dinamiek tussen prenteboekskrywer en -leser bewustelik omver kom werp deur komplekse teks te skep wat gekenmerk word aan die afwesigheid van 'n duidelik waarneembare betekenis en wat die leser dus toelaat om aktief deel te neem aan die interpretasieproses. Die doel van hierdie studie is om met behulp van die betekenispotensiaal-teorie, soos uiteengesit deur post-strukturalis Jacques Derrida, te illustreer hoe die doelbewuste weglating van 'n duidelik waarneembare betekenis of boodskap dit moontlik maak om die teks op veelvoudige maniere te interpreteer en daarmee saam ook die lesersprofiel van prenteboeke te verbreed. Die hoofdoel van hierdie studie is dus om die post-moderne prenteboek te onderskei van die tradisionele prenteboek en ander tekste en om nuwe waarnemings en insigte te verskaf in die wyse waarop prenteboeke geskep en gelees word.

In a narrative the narrator tells the story, and the focalizer is a character through whose eyes the story is seen. The narrator is thus the one who speaks, whilst the focalizer is silent. The identification of these two narratological features is made with the help of verbal cues such as personal pronouns for instance. Determining the narrator and the focalizer can sometimes be challenging due to ambiguous cues in the analyzed text, as well as narratological aspects which at times can be difficult to distinguish from each other. Determining the narrator and the focalizer in graphic narratives (comics) with no narrative voice, or which completely lack words, must be done with the help of pictorial cues instead. In this thesis, Shaun Tan’s wordless graphic narrative The Arrival is used in order to show how the narrator and the focalizer can be determined by combining pictorial cues with the reader’s general knowledge of storytelling as well as his or her experiences from real life scenarios. To analyze narratological features in The Arrival, I employ terminology from comics studies, literary and film narratology. My analysis shows that determining the narrator and the focalizer in narratives lacking explicit narrative voice is possible by using only pictorial cues.

This thesis explores the impact of democratic institutions amongst the Asian developing countries. There has been debate about the successful economic rise of these seven countries; however, questions remain over the differing levels of economic performance. Institutional literature has paid scant attention to the role of democracy, and how this has influenced economic development throughout Asia. This thesis explores the relationships between four democratic institutions - cabinets, party-systems, electoral systems and bicameralism - and economic performance across six developing democracies, in addition to Japan. Using current democratic institutional literature derived from OECD countries, this thesis expands the scope to include new countries. The analysis employs both statistical methods and case studies to assess the relationships between four democratic institutions and seven socio-economic indicators between 1986 and 2005. The linear regressions provided evidence that coalition cabinets are correlated with lower levels of inflation and unemployment, but large multi-party legislatures are not. This thesis also found correlations between strong second legislative chambers and higher FDI, lower tariffs and higher income inequality. Although this is an exploratory thesis, I suggest that democratic institutional analysis within Asia does warrant further examination; an assessment of the specific institutions may provide us with clearer notions regarding economic development.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Indiana University of Pennsylvania. / Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

Integration of sensors and silicon-based electronics for harsh environment applications is driven by the automotive industry and the maturity of semiconductor processes that allow embedding sensitive elements onto the same chip without sacrificing the performance and integrity of the electronics. Sensor devices post-processed on top of electronics by surface micromachining allow the addition of extra functionality to the fabricated ICs and creating a sensor system without significant compromise of performance. Smart sensors comprised of sensing structures integrated with silicon carbide-based electronics are receiving attention from more industries, such as aerospace, defense and energy, due to their ability to operate in very demanding conditions. This thesis describes the design and implementation of a novel, integrated thin film temperature sensor that uses a half-bridge arrangement to measure thin film platinum sensitive elements. Processes have been developed to fabricate temperature insensitive thin film tantalum nitride resistors which can be combined with the platinum elements to form the temperature transducing bridge. This circuit was designed to be integrated with an existing silicon carbide-based instrumentation amplifier by post-CMOS processing and to be initially connected to the bond pads of the amplifier input and output ports. Thin films fabricated using the developed TaN and Pt processes have been characterized using resistive test structures and crystallographic measurements of blanket thin film layer samples, and the relationship between the measurement results obtained has been analyzed. An initial demonstration of temperature sensing was performed using tantalum nitride and platinum thin film resistor element chips which were fabricated on passivated silicon substrates and bonded into high temperature packages. The bridge circuit was implemented by external connections through a printed circuit board and the bridge output was connected to a discrete instrumentation amplifier to mimic the integrated amplifier. The temperature response of the circuit measured at the output of the amplifier was found to have sensitivity of 844 μV·°C–1 over the temperature range of 25 to 100 °C. Two integrated microfabrication process flows were evaluated in this work. The initial process provided a very low yield for contact resistance structures between TaN and Pt layers, which highlighted problems with the thin film platinum deposition process. Multiple improvement options have been identified among which removal of the dielectric layer separating TaN and Pt layers and thicker Pt film were considered and a redesign of both layout and the process flow has resulted in improved yield of platinum features produced directly on top of TaN features. Temperature sensitivity of the integrated sensor devices was found to depend significantly on parasitic elements produced by thin film platinum step coverage, the values of which were measured by a set of resistive test structures. A new microfabrication design has enabled the production of a group of integrated temperature sensors that had a sensitivity of 150.84 μV·°C–1 in the temperature range between 25 and 200 °C on one of the fabricated wafers while the best fabricated batch of sensors had a sensitivity of 1079.2 μV·°C–1.

The present thesis analyzes possible determinants shaping attitudes of selected relevant political parties from the EU27 Member States to the potential Turkish accession to the European Union. Bilateral relationships between the EU and the Turkish Republic have been evolving multifariously and long-windedly. However, the question of the direct Turkish participation in the EU's project remains unresolved, and still resonates across all stakeholders. The phenomenon of the eventual Turkish joining is a very topical issue. In particular, the views of the political parties on this particular problem are studied, since these subjects operate with an exclusive position in representative democracies. They symbolize the necessary interconnection between the state and society. Moreover, in the context of the eventual EU enlargement to Turkey, they will likely discuss its confirmation in parliamentary procedures, or they will mobilize voters and form their attitudes in the case of ratification referenda. The present thesis distinguishes between two main groups of explanatory variables. In regarding to the accepted theoretical framework, these are supposed to explicate the views of the selected political parties on the eventual Turkish enlargement qualifiedly. Particularly, the ideological and (general)...

This essay examines the changing behavior of young Swedish voters in the 2022 election, showing a shift towards right-wing parties compared to older voters. Focusing on the period from 2010 to 2022, it analyzes the influence of gender and education on subjective political alignment and party choice of young voters in parliamentary elections. The study relies on a statistical analysis of exit poll surveys from Swedish Television, from the elections that took place during the period. Previous research suggests that today's younger generations lean towards post- materialistic or libertarian values due to improved material and economic security, while older generations lean towards materialistic and authoritarian values. As older voters pass away and young people gain voting rights, support for libertarian parties is expected to increase while backing for authoritarian parties should decline. However, this essay challenges the previous research, suggesting that despite increased opportunities for higher education and affluence, certain demographic groups, particularly young men who opt out of these opportunities, are more likely to adopt authoritarian values. The results disclose that both gender and education significantly impact the political alignment and party choice of young people throughout the studied period, with the most significant changes observed among the youngest men.

No description available.

The equatorial Quasi Biennial Oscillation (QBO) is known to be an important source of inter-annual variability at mid and high latitudes in both hemispheres. Coupling between QBO and the polar vortex has been extensively studied over the past few decades, however, less is known about QBO influences in the mid-latitude mesosphere. One reason for this is the relative lack of instrumentation available to study mesospheric dynamics at mid-latitudes. In this study, we have used the mid-latitude SuperDARN HF radar at Saskatoon (52.16 N, -106.53 E) to study inter-annual variation in mesospheric winds. The specific aim was to determine whether or not a Quasi Biennial signature could be identified in the Saskatoon mesosphere, and if so, to understand its relationship with the equatorial stratospheric QBO. To achieve this goal, a technique has been developed which extracts meteor echoes from SuperDARN near-range gates and then applies least-squares fitting across all radar beam directions to calculate hourly averages of the zonal and meridional components of the mesospheric neutral wind. Subsequent analysis of 13 years (2002-2014) of zonal wind data produced using this technique indicates that there is indeed a significant QBO signature present in Saskatoon mesospheric winds during late winter (Jan-Feb). This mesospheric QBO signature is in opposite phase with the equatorial stratospheric QBO, such that when QBO (at 50 hPa) is in its easterly (westerly) phase, the late winter winds in Saskatoon mesosphere become more (less) westerly. To further examine the source of the signature, we also analyzed winds in the Saskatoon stratosphere between 5 hPa and 70 hPa using the ECMWF ERA-Interim reanalysis data set, and found that the late winter stratospheric winds become less (more) westerly when QBO is easterly (westerly). This QBO signature in the mid-latitude stratospheric winds is essentially the same as that observed for the polar vortex in previous studies but it is opposite in phase to the mid-latitude mesospheric QBO. We therefore conclude that filtering of gravity waves through QBO-modulated stratospheric winds plays a major role in generating the mesospheric QBO signature we have identified in the Saskatoon HF radar data. When the Saskatoon stratospheric winds are anomalously westward during easterly QBO, the gravity waves having westward momentum might be filtered out, depositing a net eastward momentum in the mesosphere as they propagate upwards. This would result in increased westerly mesospheric winds at Saskatoon. The opposite would happen when the equatorial QBO is westerly. / Master of Science