This Project examines the coexistence of two cultures?–?in this case the host Gulf, and the imported Western?–?and addresses certain problems that still need attention. This Project celebrates the creation of the third, hybrid, culture as a result of their intermingling. In this Research, Postcolonial Theory? and Transitional Object Theory? are used as conceptual frameworks, and are combined with Archaeology and Design as a practice. On a personal level, the Project evolved out of my cross-cultural origin and experiences. On an academic level, the Project serves as an experiment, trying to fill the gaps in the Gulf region’s search for identity. This Project utilized Design in two phases, initially during the research, and then as tool?/ language to mediate the issues found within the cross-cultural context. The Project explores and questions the ways in which artifacts/objects alter our perception, experience and memory. On an interdisciplinary level, this Project claims that Design?–?as a discipline –?is integrated in the process of curating memories through the creation of physical objects. Since objects have always been used as tools to dictate the narratives of our social memory, questions of power and control are essential – the current status of this region is a third culture, a hybrid product of Culture ‘A’ and Culture ‘B’. This project is interested in mechanisms that can be used to preserve this interesting phenomena often stigmatized as negative.

The concept transitional justice refers to a wide range of measures which are applied in times of political and societal transformation. Its starting point is a state of widespread and grave violations of human rights which is typical for undemocratic rules, for times of conflicts including both national and international, but it also existed within some of traditionally democratic countries such as Canada or New Zealand in a form of systematic discrimination against the indigenous population. The target of transitional justice measures is to establish democratic system which protects human rights and fundamental freedoms as a reliable guarantee of sustainable peace. Transitional justice is sometimes considered to fall within measures strengthening the rule of law however some steps such as vetting may temporarily deform the rule of law and equality of citizens before the law which is its integral part. International law regulates transitional justice measures by means of international humanitarian law, international human rights law and international criminal law. International criminal law, or more generally measures of criminal law nature, has been in modern history the primary response to breaches of human rights. Later, other measures were added including those of judicial and non - judicial...

Blended learning is the term used for a course with online and on-campus components. Multiple different versions have proliferated across higher education during the past decade. As with any new learning modality there are many issues which need to be addressed when considering a move of an entire institution's curriculum in this direction. The problem identified for investigation was the phenomenon of transitional change of DeVry University's instructional modality from a traditional on-campus to a blended on-campus experience. The explanatory case study explored the phenomenon through two main factors including the impact of the change on the culture of the university and the change in time format for the courses. Eight themes were analyzed and addressed including course format changes, communicating the change, training faculty, common course shell, workload changes, cultural impacts, communication and evaluation of the transition. The university went from a traditional 15- to 8-week course format while making the transition to blended learning. Reasons given for this schedule change were investigated. When creating a large institutional change communication is a key factor and how the change was communicated to both faculty and students is explored. Training faculty for the new blended environment as well as the introduction to a common course shell for all courses is analyzed. The perceived workload of both faculty and students in the new blended learning environment in regard to faculty course load taught and student credit hours taken is considered. The impacts on culture were addressed during the transition including faculty, students and administration impacts. A comparison is given for communication between faculty and students in the new blended learning environment. The evaluation considered the hiatus of rolling out the common course shells to faculty and students is given as well as the planned assessment for the blended learning environment.

Between the actualized built spaces that the artist moves around and through on a daily basis and the more abstract systems we invent to represent these structures sits the illusion of space and structure found in his drawings and paintings. Constant turnover within the built environment offers not only content, but rich analogy for his artistic practice. The artist’s endeavors in the studio in many ways echo the genesis, evolution and possibility he observes in the transitioning city around him. In the actual making of the work, he gleans from traditional methods of drawing and painting, from the architectural lexicon, from experiments with new materials, from the effects of time and decay and from building processes themselves.

As a result of recent advances in micro and nanotechnology, the tiny movements of nanoscale active and passive objects in fluids can be probed with ultrahigh sensitivity and time resolution. The overarching theme of this dissertation is to harness these movements in fluids in order to study fundamental fluid dynamics and develop novel biomedical devices. First, we use the oscillatory movements of nanocantilevers to investigate the scaling behavior of unsteady fluid flow. Here, our expansive experimental data and rigorous theoretical analysis suggest that a generalized scaling parameter combining the length and time scales of the flow governs the scaling. Second, we turn our attention to nanoscale movements of bacteria in a buffer. We develop a simple, robust and sensitive experimental method to detect and track the random movements of bacteria. Using this method, we show evidence that these random movements of bacteria correlate with their antibiotic susceptibility. In the first part of this thesis, we explore, through experimental and theoretical work, the breakdown of the Navier-Stokes equations in oscillatory fluid flows. The Navier-Stokes equations of hydrodynamics are based on two crucial assumptions. First, the fluid is approximated as a continuum, with a well-defined ``fluid particle." Second, the stress in the fluid is assumed to be a linear function of the rate-of-strain, resulting in a so-called Newtonian fluid. If a fluid such as an ideal gas is gradually rarefied, the Navier-Stokes equations begin to fail and a kinetic description of the flow becomes appropriate. The failure of the Navier-Stokes equations can be thought to take place via two different physical mechanisms: either the continuum hypothesis breaks down as a result of a finite size effect; or the local equilibrium is violated due to the high rate of strain. Our experimental approach is to create an unsteady flow by oscillating a finite-sized body in a gas and to measure the dissipation (or the drag force) acting on the body. By using micro and nanofabrication techniques, we independently tune the relevant linear dimensions and the frequencies of the oscillating bodies. We then measure the pressure-dependent dissipation of these micro/nano oscillators in three different gases, Helium, Nitrogen, and Argon. We observe that the scaling of the fluidic dissipation is governed by a subtle interplay between the length scale and the frequency, embodied respectively in the dimensionless Knudsen (Kn) and the Weissenberg ( Wi) numbers. We collapse all the experimental data using a single scaling parameter: Wi + Kn. This new dimensionless parameter, which can be regarded as a generalized Knudsen number, combines the relevant linear dimension and the frequency of the body; it is rooted in Galilean invariance and can be obtained rigorously from the Chapman-Enskog expansion of the Boltzmann equation. In the second part of the thesis, we turn to the movements of active micro-swimmers in a buffer. This portion of the work is motivated by a serious global public health problem: the rise of multi-drug resistant bacteria. One way to prevent this threat from growing is to treat bacterial infections with effective antibiotics using the minimum dosage. However, currently-used antibiotic susceptibility tests (ASTs), which determine whether or not bacterial isolates from a patient are susceptible to administered antibiotics, take too long. Here, we aim to develop a robust and rapid AST by exploiting a recently-observed microbiological phenomenon: various nanomechanical movements of bacteria subside promptly (within minutes) when the bacteria are exposed to an effective antibiotic. Our approach is to transduce bacterial movements into electrical voltage fluctuations in a microchannel filled with a buffer solution. When a small but constant current is driven through the microchannel, bacterial movements are converted into strong voltage fluctuations due to the fact that they modulate the effective microchannel diameter. Our experiments with E. coli show that the proposed detection method can provide antibiotic susceptibility results in ~1 hour, making it a promising rapid AST. Because this approach is based on a simple electrical measurement and does not require delicate process steps and instrumentation, it may eventually be used at the point of care. / 2019-03-09T00:00:00Z

Studiens syfte är att bidra med kunskap om hur pedagoger i Sverige och USA uppmärksammar och resonerar kring sambandet mellan trygghet och övergångsobjekt och dess användning i förskolan. Det är en kvalitativ studie som utförts i två länder. Genom att utföra studien i två olika länder gavs en bredare syn på pedagogers resonemang kring övergångsobjekt. Metoden som användes för att samla in data var fokusgruppsintervjuer. I studien har sammanlagt elva fokusgruppsintervjuer genomförts, en fokusgrupps-intervju i USA och tio fokusgruppsintervjuer i Sverige. Sammanlagt deltog tjugotvå verksamma pedagoger, två pedagoger i USA och tjugo pedagoger i Sverige. I varje fokusgrupp deltog två pedagoger från samma avdelning. Resultatet har analyserats genom innehållsanalys. Trygghetsaspekten i studien uppkom genom och efter intervjuerna i USA därför tillkom uppfattning av trygghet i samband med datainsamlingen i Sverige. I resultatet redovisas hur pedagoger från Sverige och USA definierar övergångsobjekt samt båda ländernas förhållningssätt till användandet av övergångsobjekt i förskolan. Det redovisas även hur pedagogerna i Sverige uppfattar trygghet. Socialpsykologi är den teoretiska utgångspunkten som tillsammans med anknytningsteorin och objektrelationsteorin förklarar hur man kan förstå resultatet. Studiens slutsatser visar bland annat att pedagoger i Sverige ser sambandet mellan trygghet och övergångsobjekt samt ser objektet som betydelsefullt för barnet. Samtliga pedagoger från Sverige och USA har kunskap kring övergångsobjektens betydelse för barn och värdesätter objekten. Sverige och USA har en samsyn kring användandet av napp och båda länderna anser att det är ett objekt som bör fasas ut för att inte ge eventuellt negativa effekter på tandstruktur. / The purpose of this study is to contribute to knowledge on how pedagogues in Sweden and USA observe and reasons around safety in children and transitional objects and the use of these objects in preschool. It´s a qualitative study that has been conducted in two countries. By conducting the study in two countries we were able to have a wider view on the reasons around transitional objects. Focus-group interviews as a method of conducting data have been elaborative. In this study eleven focus-group interviews has been conducted, one focus-group interview in USA and ten focus-group interviews in Sweden. Altogether twenty two pedagogues participated, two in USA and twenty in Sweden. In each focus-group there were two pedagogues from the same ward. The results has been analyzed trough content analysis. The aspect of safety in children in this study arised trough and after the interviews took place in USA. The results shows how pedagogues in both Sweden and USA defines transitional objects and how both countries approach transitional objects in preschool. The results also shows how teachers observe safety in children. Socialpsykolgi is the main theoretical starting point that together with attachment theory and object relation theory explains how we can understand the results.The conclusions of this study are that pedagogues in Sweden sees the connection between safety in children and transitional objects and the value of the object. All pedagogues, both from Sweden and USA, has knowledge around the transitional objects meaning and values the objects. Sweden and USA has an consensus about the use of pacifiers and that children shouldn´t use them too long because it could give negative effects on the teeth structure.

S'appuyant sur une pratique personnelle du dessin, du collage et de la photographie, cette thèse de poïétique explore le thème de l'enfance dans l'art. Conçue comme un " work in progress", elle part d'une recherche sur l'intimité du dessin afin de construire un regard singulier sur : l'exposition de photographies et de vidéographies témoignant de traumas d'enfants. Elle vérifie l'hypothèse selon laquelle l'artiste puise dans sa propre enfance et dans celle des autres afin de conquérir des territoires de créations ignorés, là où prend corps l'altérité intime. La première partie analyse notamment les œuvres de Louise Bourgeois, Mike Kelley et Rosemarie Trockel, pour comprendre comment leurs processus créateurs réactivent l'espace transitionnel et ses phénomènes en nous immergeant dans des souvenirs d'enfances perdus. Dans une deuxième partie, c'est la transfiguration et l'altération radicale des visages d'enfants photographiés par Diane Arbus, Lewis Hine, Sebastiâo Salgado, ou filmés par Gillian Wearing qui sont interrogées. La réflexion se poursuit autour d'enjeux esthétiques et politiques liés à l'utilisation de ces images par des artistes tels que Mathieu Pemot et Catherine Poncin. Enfin, la troisième partie est centrée sur l'œuvre de Gerhard Richter traitant du transfert en tant que processus permettant d'actualiser, par la répétition, les événements passés qui le hantent. Le faire-œuvre qui en témoigne fait corps, devenant ainsi capable de figer ces blessures. Notre thèse, c'est que l'expérience d'un« absorbement » total dans ces œuvres nous incluant et nous excluant simultanément permet à l'artiste et au regardeur de reconnaître l'histoire des autres en lui. / Relying on personal experience in drawing, collage and photography, this thesis on poiesis explores the subject of childhood in Art. Designed as a work in progress, it stems from the intimacy of drawing and aims at constructing a singular outlook from the display of photography and films depicting childhood trauma. It verifies the hypothesis stating that the artist peers into his own childhood and that of others in order to conquer creative fields hitherto ignored, at the threshold of the intimate other. The first section scrutinizes the works of Louis Bourgeois, Mike Kelley and Rosemarie Trockel striving to understand how their creative processes reactivate transitional space -and its associated phenomena- by immersing us in distant recollections of childhood. The second section questions the transfiguration and the dramatic alteration of children's faces filmed and photographed by Diane Arbus, Lewis Hine, Sebastiâo Salgado and Gillian Wearing. The thesis then pursues on to evaluate the aesthetic and political stakes bound to the use of these images by artists, the likes of Mathieu Pemot and Catherine Poncin. Ultimately, the third part is centred on the work of Gerhard Richter dealing with transfer as a means of resurfacing -through reiteration- past events that haunt him. The resulting product thus making it possible to set these wounds in stone. Mythesis is that the experience of total absorption/immersion in these works -simultaneously including and excluding us- makes it possible for the artist and the observer to acknowled e the narratives of ethers within themselves.

Much has been studied about the impact of transitional justice mechanisms as well as gendered impactof armed conflict. However, less is known about the gendered impact of transitional justice, includingtruth commissions. This thesis aims to fill this research gap by exploring the long-term consequencesof gender sensitive and gender-blind truth commissions for women’s security in post-conflict societies.Combining and building upon feminist critiques on transitional justice and discourses on thetransformative potential of truth commissions, I argue that truly gender sensitive truth commissionscan facilitate improvement of women’s security, as the reparations and institutional reformsrecommended by such commissions are also gender sensitive and help address root causes of violenceagainst women (VAW). The argument is tested through a structured focused comparison of two cases– South Africa and Sierra Leone. The results provided meager support for the theorized relationship.South Africa, which was characterized by low gender sensitivity of its truth commission, shows nochange in terms of the prevalence of VAW; whereas Sierra Leone with a highly gender sensitive truthcommission demonstrated improvement in some areas of women’s security. However, the evidencebase is thin while the poor implementation of the recommendations obscures the observable impactof the Sierra Leone truth commission, which compels further research with a larger number of casesand robust data collection strategy.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo compreender as características das relações adictivas, analisando casos em que a relação conjugal é vivida como se fosse um tipo de adicção. Proponho apresentar uma compreensão das adicções com base na perspectiva proposta por Donald Winnicott, para quem a adicção é um tipo de problema cuja gênese está relacionada com falhas que ocorreram na fase da transicionalidade; bem como, nos desenvolvimentos dessa perspectiva, feita por Joyce McDougall, que ampliou o ponto de vista indicado por Winnicott, e chamou a atenção para o fenômeno que denominou como sendo os relacionamentos adictivos. Nesta direção, procurei mostrar que os relacionamentos adictivos correspondem a modos de defesa contra três tipos de angústia, a saber: as angústias impensáveis, as que derivam de falhas na vivência dos fenômenos transicionais e, por fim, à deprivação num momento em que os indivíduos já têm uma certa organização psíquica que torna possível a distinção Eu- Nãoeu / The purpose of this study is to understand the characteristics of addictive relations through the analysis of cases showing the conjugal relationship experience as a sort of addiction. I will show an understanding of addictions based on Donald Winnicotts perspective who considered addiction as a problem whose origin is connected with failures occurred during the transitional phase as well as based on the unfolding of this perspective by Joyce McDougall who broadened Winnicotts point of view and draw our attention to the phenomenon she called addictive relations. Consequently, I try to show that addictive relations correspond to defense modes against three types of anxiety, namely: unthinkable anxieties, those resulting from failures in experiencing transitional phenomena and, at last, deprivation when individuals already have a certain psychic organization enabling the differentiation between Me and Not-me

Thesis advisor: Stephen J. Pope / Transitional justice responds to injustices and violations of human rights following a period of repressive rule or civil war. This dissertation argues that the needs of post-conflict societies are best served by local, participatory approaches to transitional justice. In the case of Guatemala, it was essential for the nation to embrace its common religious narrative as a resource for rebuilding the republic. The Guatemalan Catholic Church worked to build peace out of the ashes of state sponsored terror. It demonstrated the prophetic role of the Church by offering a collective voice condemning those in positions of authority for their neglect of the basic human rights of the majority of Guatemalans. The CEG also highlighted the reconciliatory function of the Church by promoting forgiveness and reconciliation within the public square. This experience calls for theological ethical reflection on how the Catholic Church could best serve the needs of civil society in the wake of nearly forty years of political violence. Responding to the need for critical theological reflection, this dissertation proposes a transformationalist understanding of the relation of love to justice for transitional justice. It draws its inspiration from a selective reading of Augustine and Augustinian scholarship. An Augustinian approach to transitional justice brings together the high moral ideas of love, justice, forgiveness, and peace while at the same time acknowledging the ever-present reality of sin and human weakness. It attempts to transform a post-conflict society into a moral community whose citizens are on a journey toward the destination of temporal peace. It realizes that we may never reach our destination of temporal peace, but we can glimpse it from afar. This dissertation offers the following ten Augustinian insights as a framework for a theological approach to transitional justice. 1) Charity is the motivating force for transitional justice and the pursuit of socio-political reconciliation; 2) Charity transforms our understanding of justice from noninterference and retribution to rehabilitating and reconciling; 3) Transitional justice ought to be contextual, paying attention to the unique concerns of a given post-conflict society; 4) Distinguishing, without bifurcating, the ends of the temporal and celestial commonwealths offers a positive, but not naïve, evaluation of the Church’s potential to be an instrument of social transformation; 5) Post-conflict societies need to foster conditions that allow for pluralism and social cohesion through civic friendship; 6) Post-conflict societies must develop social practices to train citizens in the civic virtues of love, justice, and friendship; 7) Transitional justice requires an ethical retrieval of the truth through the healing of memory; 8) Transitional justice upholds the moral obligation to admonish and correct sinful social behavior; 9) Transitional justice ought to foster the just and prudential protection of society through the use of coercive force on behalf of society’s most vulnerable citizens; and 10) Post-conflict societies need to cultivate and sustain an ethos of active hope that, far from inducing political passivity, promotes civic engagement. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.