This dissertation examines selected literary works by Anita Rau Badami, Denise Chong, Hiromi Goto, Larissa Lai, and Kerri Sakamoto, exploring how their stories respond both to the absence of representations of Asian Canadian women in literary discourses of the early twentieth century and to homogenizing assumptions in official histories. My formulation of (re)presentation in the title recognizes the multiplicity and constructedness of these denoted identities and experiences and the self-representations of these writers as a response to this elision and misrepresentation. The term repair borrows from philosopher Hilde Lindemann Nelson’s theorizing of “narrative repair,” which involves telling counterstories, but also is used in psychological contexts as a healing mechanism. An elaboration of both models, as applied in this study, is optimally useful in diasporic contexts as resistance to the elision and/or racist and gendered discursive constructions of Asian Canadian women and as restoration of damaged identities. The texts under study—Tamarind Mem, The Concubine’s Children, Chorus of Mushrooms, When Fox Is a Thousand, and The Electrical Field—were all published in the mid-1990s, after the initial forays into the writing of novels by Asian Canadian authors such as Joy Kogawa (1981) and SKY Lee (1990). My choice of these sister narratives recognizes the family as central to identity construction and intergenerational (mis)understanding and emphasizes the importance of this period’s second-generation explosion of writings by Japanese, Chinese, and Indo Canadian women that paved the way for the current plethora of writings by authors from these cultural groups that contribute significantly to Canadian representations of diasporic identity. This study explores the nuances and pluralisms of the representations of Asian Canadian women. The texts under consideration are cultural autobiographies and matrilineal or sexually transgressive narratives that reinvent the cultural memory of Canadian women of Asian ancestry; produce cultural fusions through the transcreation of oral traditions and simulations of the oral, transcoding of ancestral tongues, and discursive strategies of silence; and address connections between self and place in examinations of Canada, the adopted country, as (un)homely territory. Presenting unhyphenated diasporic female subjects who exceed socially scripted boundaries of gender, sexuality, race, and nationality, in terms of both Canada and the writers’ and protagonists’ ancestral Asian nations, these “acts of narrative insubordination” (Nelson 8) exemplify emancipatory politics and recuperative and revisionary projects. Interrogating questions of (re)presentation and repair from positions of liminality and across gendered, racial, linguistic, and geographical divides, this research contributes to current urgent discussions of identity, transculturation, multiculturalism, and globalization in literary and cultural studies.

Denna studie syftar till att se på hur barn tar sig an konstruktionsritningar i jämförelse med fritt byggande i en lekfull gruppmiljö. Tidigare forskning visar skillnad mellan mängden män och kvinnor i tekniska yrken och även män och kvinnors inställning till de tekniska ämnena. Vissa forskare visar också på åldersskillnader mellan hur barn lär sig tekniska ämnen. Tar fyra- och femåringar frivilligt sig an konstruktionsritningar, följer dem och färdigställer de konstruktionen? Studien har särskilt tittat på om det fanns skillnader mellan flickorna och pojkarna när de byggde? Hur påverkar barnens eget intresse hur de bygger? Om barn, fyra och fem år gamla kan följa bygginstruktioner? Resultatet av denna studie, i viss mån, stödjer tidigare forskning om att det finns en genus aspekt redan i förskoleåldern, pojkarna var mer försekomna och hade lättare för att följa lego instruktioner än flickorna, men frågan kvarstår; varför finns denna skillnad? Förutom genusaspekten fanns det också ett tydligt resultat som visade på skillnad i byggkunskap mellan fyraåringar och femåringar. Fyraåringarna utforskade främst byggmaterialet, medan många av femåringarna kunde följa en Legobygginstruktion näst intill perfekt. / This study aims to look at how children approach building instructions compared to free building in a playful group environment. Researchers have found age differences, between how young children learn technical subjects. Other studies show that there are differences between the number of men and women in technical professions and also between men and women’s approach to the technical subjects. This study seeks discover if and how four and five year olds voluntarily use, follow, and complete a building exercise using instructional drawings. The study paid close attention to if girls and boys had different approaches to building; how does the children’s own interests affect the process of building? If children aged four and five years are capable of following building instructions. The results of this study to some extent support earlier research that there is a gender difference already at four to five years of age, but the question still remains why this difference exists. As well as the gender difference, there was also a strong result showing a difference in building knowledge between the four year olds and the five year olds. The four year olds mainly explored the building material whereas many of the five year olds could successfully follow the building instructions.

This study probes selected stories from Bessie Head's The Collector of Treasures (1977) in order to elicit instances of contiguity and disjuncture between orality and literacy, to establish Head's complex identity configurations which are often manifested in the interactions between aesthetic form and content, authorial consciousness, character delineation, and narrative voice. At the same time, the dissertation explores her portrayal of the proscribed condition of women, the subversive consciousness that undercuts women's subjugation by patriarchy, and her vision for the liberatory possibilities for women from the exigencies of patriarchal domination. I also examine Head's (re-)vision of culture within the framework of hybridity and creolity and determine how some of these perspectives are crystallized in discourses such as When Rain Clouds Gather (1968), Maru (1971) and A Question of Power (1973). I juxtapose my reading of Head with other African writers such as Bâ, Emecheta and Nwapa to draw references in instances where the context permits. The dominant critical approach adopted in this thesis is a contextual approach. I consider this approach useful for my purposes because of its flexibility, the attention it pays to the formal properties of literary texts and, its cognizance of the socio-historical genesis of texts and its demonstration of literature's timeless value. / English Studies / M.A. (English)

The education of youth in the United States has become a highly contested subject over the past decades. This thesis argues that one of the earliest institutions American citizens encounter – the public school system – organizes the work of many teachers in ways that reproduce inequality of opportunity for students. Drawing on qualitative data from fourteen in-depth interviews with experienced elementary school teachers in Los Angeles, this thesis illustrates how teachers experience and navigate specific structural barriers to the pursuit of equity in the classroom. Applying social reproductive theory to teacher interviews, this research discovered how, despite rhetorical commitment to equality of opportunity in education student outcomes continue to vary according to the socioeconomic status of the student population. This will help us understand systemic barriers built into the structure of the education system. These barriers operate as obstacles that teachers and students must navigate, in order to achieve success. This thesis argues that teachers should begivenmore flexibility to assess the needs of each specific class and adapt their curriculum and strategies to meet those needs. Unfortunately, in the current test-score driven system, schools with the lowest performing students are the ones whose administrations are under the most pressure to improve the low scores rather than fix the problems associated with low scores. As such, the teachers that need this flexibility the most, are the ones whose administrations keep them on the tightest rein, further reducing their ability to utilize their knowledge and implement effective strategies in the classroom. The result is the self-perpetuating cycle of inequality reproduction that we can see across North America today. / Graduate / 2019-08-13

Submitted by Viviane Lima da Cunha (viviane@biblioteca.ufpb.br) on 2016-09-14T16:15:04Z No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 2412011 bytes, checksum: adf2606f46d74fde5f51bff921362506 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-14T16:15:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 2412011 bytes, checksum: adf2606f46d74fde5f51bff921362506 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-29 / Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq / Human aging causes different decline in many cognitive function. Episodic processing, among all memory systems, shows to be the most affected along aging. The episodic memory is a subsystem of memory responsible for receiving and storing information about certain episodes or events, temporally dated, high lighting a spatiotemporal relationship between them. One way of assessing this construct would be using behavioral criteria for identifying information about what happening, where and when, which are the basic components of “What-Where-When” paradigm, or else, by proposing to replace the temporal component by context, “What-Where-Which” paradigm. Thus, the objective of this research was to analyze the effect of aging on episodic memory, assessed by two experimental paradigms, to study the correlation of these tests with classic measures of episodic memory. We used a sample with 70 volunteers, divided in two group: younger (N = 35, M = 22,74; SD= 2,99) and older (N = 35, M = 62,54; SD = 4,82) adults. The evaluation protocol was composed of: (i) test based on the paradigm "What-Where-When"; (ii) test based on the paradigm "What-Where-Which"; (iii) classic episodic memory tests; and (iv) a neuropsychological battery, the latter being applied only to the elderly group. The results showed that different episodic memory task apparently measuring something in common. Comparisons between group showed effective impairment associated with aging for all aspects evaluated by the test "What-Where-When", and the integration aspect was the component that suffered the greatest decline associated with age [F(1, 68)= 53,86; p < .001; η² = .442]. Other results showed that Free Recall also presented decline [F(1, 68)= 18,60; p < .001; η² = .215]. However, it was not found significant differences between groups for the task based on the paradigm "What-Where-Which". The findings of this study show that task-based paradigm "What-Where-When" and "What-Where-Which" are promising instruments for measurement of episodic memory. However, apparently the temporal aspect was more sensitive to detect possible changes related to age. / O envelhecimento humano provoca declínios em diversas funções cognitivas. O processamento episódico, dentro todos os sistemas de memória, demonstra ser um dos mais afetados durante a velhice. A memória episódica é um subsistema mnemônico responsável por receber e armazenar informações sobre determinados episódios ou eventos temporalmente datados, existindo uma relação espaço-temporal entre eles. Uma forma de avaliação desse construto seria através de critérios comportamentais para identificação de informações sobre o que aconteceu, onde e quando, sendo esses os componentes básicos do paradigma “Que-Onde-Quando”, ou então, por meio de outra proposta que substitui o componente temporal pelo contextual “Que-Onde-Qual contexto”. Diante disso, o presente trabalho objetivou analisar o efeito da idade sobre a memória de integração, mensurada por dois paradigmas experimentais, e estudar os correlatos destas tarefas com medidas clássicas de memória episódica. Para tal utilizou-se uma amostra de 70 voluntários, dividida em dois grupos: Adultos jovens - GA (N = 35, M = 22,74; DP= 2,99) e Idosos – GI (N = 35, M = 62,54; DP = 4,82). O protocolo de avaliação utilizado foi composto por: (i) Teste baseado no paradigma “Que-Onde-Quando”; (ii) Teste baseado no paradigma “Que-Onde-Qual contexto”; (iii) Testes clássicos de memória episódica; e (iv) uma bateria neuropsicológica, sendo essa última aplicada apenas ao grupo de idosos. Os resultados mostraram que as diferentes medidas de memória episódica utilizadas aparentemente estão medindo algo em comum. As comparações efetivamente mostraram haver comprometimento, associado ao envelhecimento, de todos os aspectos avaliados pelo teste baseado no paradigma “Que-Onde-Quando”, sendo a “integração” o componente que sofreu maior declínio proporcional associado ao aumento da idade [F(1, 68)= 53,86; p < .001; η² = .442]. Achados similares a esse também foram verificados para tarefa de Recordação Livre Imediata (testes clássico de memória episódica) [F(1, 68)= 18,60; p < .001; η² = .215]. Entretanto, não foi registrada diferença significativa entre os grupos para a tarefa baseada no paradigma “Que-Onde-Qual contexto”. Os achados do presente estudo evidenciaram que tarefas baseadas no paradigma “Que-Onde-Quando” e “Que-Onde-Qual contexto” são promissores instrumentos válidos de mensuração da memória episódica. Porém, aparentemente a proposta relacionada ao aspecto temporal mostrou-se mais sensível para detecção de possíveis alterações relacionadas à idade.

Plusieurs organismes ont besoin d’information à propos de la valeur des alternatives afin de prendre la meilleure décision dans plusieurs contextes importants tels que l’approvisionnement, le choix d’un habitat ou d’un partenaire de reproduction. L’utilisation d’information sociale qui provient des congénères est généralement considérée comme avantageuse, dans la mesure où elle est peu couteuse à acquérir. Cependant, elle peut s’avérer néfaste lorsque celle-ci est incorrecte, désuète ou émise par un émetteur malhonnête dans le but de duper. Ainsi, deux questions cruciales se posent lorsque qu’un organisme a accès à de l’information sociale : quand copier ? et qui copier ? Parmi plusieurs autres facteurs, les capacités cognitives des individus pourraient affecter leur probabilité de copier et d’être copié. Spécifiquement, un individu ayant de bonnes capacités d’apprentissage serait plus certain de son information personnelle et devrait de ce fait moins utiliser l’information sociale qu’un individu moins performant. Les démonstrateurs ayant de meilleures aptitudes (en termes par exemple de capacité à résoudre de nouveaux problèmes) devraient également être considérés comme plus fiables et, de ce fait, être copiés préférentiellement. Afin de tester ces deux hypothèses, nous avons effectué une expérience avec des diamants mandarins (Taenyopigia guttata), dans laquelle les sujets pouvaient copier le choix de 2 démonstrateurs qui leur procuraient tous les deux une information sociale contradictoire à leur information personnelle mais différaient dans leur capacité à résoudre un problème. Les sujets étaient par la suite testés dans une tâche d’apprentissage associatif. À l’encontre de nos hypothèses, les individus plus performants dans la tâche d’apprentissage n’ont pas utilisé l’information sociale moins souvent que ceux qui ont eu besoin d’un grand nombre d’essais pour atteindre le critère d’apprentissage. Par contre, nous avons trouvé que les sujets qui avaient une préférence plus marquée utilisaient moins l’information sociale que ceux qui avaient fait un choix plus aléatoire. De plus, les individus qui ont utilisé l’information sociale ont copié plus fréquemment le choix du démonstrateur qui avait été observée en train de réussir une tâche de résolution de problème plutôt que celui qui avait échoué. Ainsi notre étude démontre que les diamants mandarins évaluent la pertinence de l’information personnelle et social en considérant leur niveau d’incertitude et les performances cognitives des démonstrateurs dans une tâche de résolution de problème. / Animals frequently rely on others’ choice to decide with whom to mate or what to eat. Because social information use may lead to maladaptive decisions, individuals should not rely on social information unconditionally. In particular, reliance on social information should be more frequent when uncertainty about how to behave is high, and hence in individuals with poor learning abilities. When individuals who are copied provide contradictory social information, social learners should also preferentially copy the decisions of the most reliable model, and so, for instance, better-performing models in cognitive tasks. Here we conducted an experiment with zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) on which we measured (i) the preference for three colored feeders before and after they had received conflicting information from two models that respectively succeeded or failed to resolve a novel problem and (ii) the performance on an associative learning task. We found no evidence that individuals that were quicker to learn a new association relied less on social information compared to slower learners. Yet, the birds who exhibited a stronger initial preference used social information to a lesser extent compared to those who showed a less pronounced preference. Furthermore, we found that individuals copied more frequently the choice of the problem-solver over the non-solver model. Thus, our findings demonstrate that zebra finches weight personal and social information based on their level of uncertainty and the models’ performance in cognitive tasks.

The aim of the diploma thesis is to design a drying chamber for meat/salami processing. The design itself comes after the necessary information regarding meat drying and curing has been given. The chamber comprises a main frame, stainless steel chamber, chain conveyor, powertrain and a ductwork for the air treatment. All the parameters of moist air are given as calculated for the states encountered during the drying process, i.e. air dehumidification, when passing the cooling coil, and heating. The control system to meet the required environment condition is also suggested.

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Syftet med studien har varit att kartlägga Norrvattens kommunikation kring hållbar vattenanvändning med sina medlemskommuner och medlemskommunernas kommunikation med kommuninvånarna. Ytterligare ett syfte med studien har varit att kartlägga hur andra VA-organisationer har kommunicerat kring hållbar vattenanvändning. Kartläggningarna har gjorts utifrån perspektiven hur kommunikationen genomförts, vad som kommunicerats och med vilket syfte. För att synliggöra kommunikationen har en didaktisk analys gjorts utifrån de didaktiska frågorna vem, vad, varför, när och hur. Slutligen har studien syftat till att utveckla ett underlag för en kommunikationsstrategi för Norrvattens kommunikation med medlemskommuner och kommuninvånare. Grunden i resultatet av kartläggningen av kommunikationen och enligt tidigare forskning ska kommunikationen syfta till att stärka möjligheter att hantera dricksvattenefterfrågan för hållbar vattenanvändning. I studien framkom att kommunikationen kring hållbar användning av vatten syftar till att förändra individers beteenden, för att minska den onödiga användningen av vatten. Respondenterna lyfter också fram att kommunikationen bör syfta till att öka vattnets värde samt öka kunskapen kring produktionen och produktionskapaciteten. Innehållsmässigt visar resultaten att kommunikationen ska beröra konkreta och praktiska handlingar, teknisk fakta och vattnets kretslopp i det större perspektivet. Olika kommunikationskanaler passar för olika typer av kommunikation, där resultatet visar att navet för kommunikationen med kommuninvånare är webben och sociala medier. Tonalitet, timing och sociala aspekter av kommunikationen framställdes i resultatet också som viktiga delar. Dessa har på olika sätt inkluderats i kommunikationsstrategin. Kommunikationsstrategin har utvecklats baserat på en modell framställd utifrån den teoretiska grund som använts i studien. Modellen har framställts som ett fundament medan resultatet från kartläggningarna av Norrvatten, medlemskommunerna och VA-organisationernas kommunikation tillsammans med tidigare forskning har utgjort innehållet. / The aim of this study was to map Norrvatten’s communication regarding sustainable water usage with Norrvatten’s municipalities and the municipalities’ communication with the municipal residents. Furthermore, the aim has also been to map how other water and sewerage organizations have communicated about sustainable water use. Focus of the systematic mapping of the communication was on how the communication was carried out, what was communicated and for what purpose. To understand the communication, a didactic analysis was carried out based on the didactic questions of who, what, why, when, and how. The last purpose of the study aimed to develop basis for a communication strategy for Norrvatten's communication with member municipalities and municipal residents. This was done based on the results of the communication mapping and previous research. The communication intends to strengthen opportunities to handle potable water demand relative to sustainable use of water. The result showed that communication about sustainable use of water aim to change individuals' behaviors, to reduce the unnecessary use of water. The respondents also emphasize that communication should aim to increase the value of water and increase knowledge of the production and production capacity. In terms of content, the results show that the communication touches on concrete and practical actions, technical facts, and the water cycle in the larger perspective. Communication channels are suitable for different types of communication, where the results show that the hub of communication with municipal residents is the website and social media. Tonality, timing, and social aspects of the communication were also presented in the result as important parts. These have been included in the communication strategy. The communication strategy was developed on a model produced on the theoretical basis used in the study. The model has been presented as a foundation, while the results from the communication mapping of Norrvatten, the member municipalities and the VA organizations' communication together with previous research have constituted the content.