Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Declaration of Independence'

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2006.
Title from first page of PDF file (viewed October 8, 2006). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 107-115).

The Declaration of Independence commands a special status in American culture. For this reason, it has often been called mythic by Revolutionary historians and scholars of the Declaration alike. Such characterisations tend to be hastily made and pejorative, but the Declaration of Independence takes on a new significance when the characterisation of the Declaration as myth is studied seriously. For Americans, the Declaration serves both a specific and beneficial function which the mere naming of it as myth fails to identify. This identification of the Declaration as myth is one that draws specifically on ideas of the birth of the American nation and the role its authors had in creating that nation. Nowhere is this more obvious than the Declaration's continued use in American political rhetoric today which demonstrates its ever-constant presence as a living document. This understanding of the Declaration has heretofore remained unexplored. By taking the Declaration of Independence seriously as myth, this study looks to both identify the story of the myth of the Declaration and its function in American society by applying to it a theory of myth.

Thesis (M.A.)--Kent State University, 2009-07-07.
Title from PDF t.p. (viewed March 3, 2010). Advisor: Mary Ann Stephens. Keywords: need for independence; osteoarthritis; spousal support; person-environment fit. Includes bibliographical references (p. 37-42).

This paper analyses three of the dominating discourses Anders Behring Breivik used in his compendium, the official title of which is 2083 – A European Declaration of Independence, also known as Breivik's Manifesto. It is believed Breivik posted his Manifesto on the Internet shortly before the attacks in Norway in July, 2011. The number 2083 stands for the year when the "Western European Civil War" was expected to be completed, all traitors executed, and all Muslims deported from Europe. This article will discuss dominating discourses in the Manifesto, seen from a background of a European multicultural backlash, in which the political far-right movement is increasing. Furthermore, this article will end with a discussion of education and the importance of analysis of such phenomena within different subjects.

The relation between the Catalan nationalist forces as well as the other sub-nationalisms and the Spanish Government has been a matter discussed throughout all the Spanish democracy. In recent years the challenge to the Spanish state set by the Catalan government when taking a unilateral approach on Independence has resulted in the imprisonment and exile of political leaders. The aim of this thesis is to analyse the events that occurred in Catalonia after the Catalan elections of 2015 and the unilateral approach on self-determination taken by the Catalan Autonomous Government with the promise of a binding referendum. The laws passed by the Catalan government which were rejected by the Constitutional Court, as the law itself denied the authority of the Constitutional Court and declared independence. This resulted in the application of the 155th article of the Spanish Constitution, suspending autonomous government, to enforce the Constitutional Court’s resolutions by the Spanish government. The essay will focus on the discourses given by politicians to criticize or justify these actions, analysed through theoretical and political normative perspectives.

The purpose of this essay is to examine why some countries in the world decided to support Kosovo’s declaration of independence in 2008, while others did not. The essay is a type of case study, with Kosovo’s independence as the main focus. For the purpose of the essay, main focus will be on the United States of America, Russia, China and Serbia. The countries’ actions will be examined through the theoretical perspectives presented in the book Essence of Decision: Rational Actor Model, Organizational Behavior and Governmental Politics. The conclusion drawn is that countries put their own interests before the good of the international community, sometimes putting other countries at risk of conflict or war, to achieve their own goals. This can be seen in the cases of Russia and China especially, as they did not accept Kosovo’s independence partly because they have similar conflicts in their own states to that of Serbia’s with Kosovo.

The thesis examines the political development in Southern Rhodesia 1960-1962 when two processes, the 1961 Constitutional process and the 1962 General Election, had far-reaching consequences for the coming twenty years. It builds on a hypothesis that the Constitutional process led to a radicalisation of all groups, the white minority, the African majority and the colonial power. The main research question is why the ruling party, United Federal Party (UFP) after winning the referendum on a new Constitution with a wide margin could lose the ensuing election one year later to the party, Rhodesian Front (RF) opposing the constitution. The examination is based on material from debates in the Legal Assembly and House of Commons (UK), minutes of meetings, newspaper articles, election material etc. The hypothesis that the Constitutional process led to a radicalization of the main actors was partly confirmed. The process led to a focus on racial issues in the ensuing election. Among the white minority UFP attempted to develop a policy of continued white domination while making constitutional concessions to Africans in order to attract the African middle class. When UFP pressed on with multiracial structural reforms the electorate switched to the racist RF which was considered bearer of the dominant settler ideology. Among the African majority the well educated African middleclass who led the Nationalist movement, changed from multiracial reformists in late 1950‟s to majority rule advocates. After rejecting the 1961 Constitution they anew changed from constitutional reformists to supporter of an armed struggle. Britain‘s role was ambivalent trying to please all actors, the Southern Rhodesian whites and Africans but also the international opinion. However, it seems to have been its own neo colonial interests that finally determined their position and its fault in the move towards Unilateral Declaration of Independence and the civil war was huge. On the main research question the analysis points to two reasons. Firstly, the decision by the Nationalists to boycott the election and the heavy-handed actions they took to achieve this goal created a white back-lash against the ruling party and the loss of the second vote advantage. Secondly, when the ruling party decided to make the repeal of the Land Apportionment Act a key election issue they lost not only indifferent voters but also a major part of its normal electorate. They threatened the Settler State‟s way of life for the white minority.

The space between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers now known as Zimbabwe is a diverse state endowed with diverse ethnicities. The vast majority of the people in this space were peasants and cultivators in pre-colonial times. These peasants had a strong attachment to land because of its psycho-spiritual significance as the abode of the ancestors and other natural resources. One of the ethnic groups in this space, the Shona, had a strong attachment to land for cattle which were very important in the Shona traditional religion. The inhabitants of the space Between the Zambezi and Limpopo also traded, specialized in crafts and did small-scale mining. Trade was practiced over a wide area during the Great Zimbabwe period (11th-15th century) with Zimbabwean gold found as far away as China, and Chinese and Syrian goods imported into the country. With the opening of the African continent to overseas trade the peasants took up the cultivation of export crops in exchange for imported goods. The advent of colonialism in the land now called Zimbabwe affected the peasants’ way of life in a big way. Indigenous people suffered extremely as a result of colonial land policy which characterised the transition to western-style capitalism in the country. The British South Africa Company (BSAC), representing international capitalism, carved out large areas of land for themselves thereby affecting the close relationship between land, cattle, traditional religion and the local inhabitants. Land ownership between the colonial administrators and indigenous people created conflict which ultimately stimulated black nationalism in the country. This work therefore examines the relationship between the peasantry and nationalism, and shows how conflict over resources can motivate stronger collective action which may lead the conflict to escalate into an armed national struggle as portrayed by the First (1896-7) and Second (1966-79) Chimurenga (War of liberation) in Zimbabwe.

This thesis examines the critical factors leading to the 1948 decision by the United States government to extend recognition to the newly declared State of Israel. In the first of five chapters the literature on the recognition of Israel is discussed. Chapter II presents the theoretical foundation of the thesis by tracing the development of Charles Kegley's decision regime framework. Also discussed is the applicability of bureaucratic structure theory and K. J. Holsti's hierarchy of objectives. Chapters III and IV present the empirical history of this case, each closing with a chapter summary. The final chapter demonstrates the relevance and validity of the theoretical framework to the case and closes with a call for further research into the processes of foreign policy decision-making.

Dans le domaine des plates-formes ouvertes, l’utilisation des cadriciels (frameworks) enrichis par des déclarations pour exprimer les permissions de l’application est de plus en plus répandue. Ceci est une réaction logique au fait qu’il y a une explosion d’adoption des appareils embarqués et mobiles. Leur omniprésence dans notre vie quotidienne engendre des craintes liées à la sécurité et à la vie privée, car l’usager partage de plus en plus ses données et ressources privées avec des tiers qui développent des applications auxquelles on n’a pas de raison de faire confiance. Malheureusement, la manière dont ces langages de spécification ainsi que ces cadres d’applications sont développés est généralement assez ad hoc et repose sur un domaine d’application et un langage de programmation fixes. De plus, ces cadriciels ne sont pas assez restrictifs pour régler le problème de la fuite de données privées et ne donnent souvent pas non plus assez d’informations à l’usager sur le comportement attendu de l’application. Cette thèse présente une méthodologie généraliste pour développer des cadriciels dirigés par des déclarations, qui cible un spectre large de langages de programmation. Nous montrons comment des langages de déclaration expressifs permettent de spécifier avec modularité les droits d’accès aux ressources ainsi que le flux de contrôle d’une telle application. Ces langages peuvent ensuite être compilés en un cadriciel garantissant à l’usager final le respect de ces permissions. Par rapport aux cadriciels existants, notre méthodologie permet de guider la personne qui développe des applications à partir des spécifications ainsi que d’informer l’usager final sur l’usage des ressources sensibles. Contrairement aux travaux existants, la méthodologie présentée dans cette thèse ne repose par sur un langage de programmation particulier. Nous montrons comment mettre en oeuvre de tels cadriciels dans un spectre de langages : des langages avec typage statique ou dynamique, et suivant le paradigme objet ou fonctionnel. L’efficacité de l’approche est montrée à travers des prototypes dans le domaine des applications mobiles dans deux langages très différents, à savoir Java et Racket, ce qui montre la généralité de notre approche
In the domain of open platforms, it has become common to use application programming frameworks extended with declarations that express permissions of applications. This is a natural reaction to ever more widespread adoption of mobile and pervasive computing devices. Their wide adoption raises privacy and safety concerns for users, as a result of the increasing number of sensitive resources a user is sharing with non-certified third-party application developers. However, the approach to designing these declaration languages and the frameworks that enforce their requirements is often ad hoc, and limited to a specific combination of application domain and programming language. Moreover, most widely used frameworks fail to address serious privacy leaks, and, crucially, do not provide the user with insight into application behaviour. This dissertation presents a generalised methodology for developing declaration-driven frameworks in a wide spectrum of host programming languages. We show that rich declaration languages, which express modularity, resource permissions and application control flow, can be compiled into frameworks that provide strong guarantees to end users. Compared to other declaration-driven frameworks, our methodology provides guidance to the application developer based on the specifications, and clear insight to the end user regarding the use of their private resources. Contrary to previous work, the methodology we propose does not depend on a specific host language, or even on a specific programming paradigm. We demonstrate how to implement declaration-driven frameworks in languages with static type systems, completely dynamic languages, object-oriented languages, or functional languages. The efficacy of our approach is shown through prototypes in the domain of mobile computing, implemented in two widely differing host programming languages, demonstrating the generality of our approach

Kia mau ki te rangatiratanga o te Iwi o Hauraki Just as the whakataukī explains Hold fast to the power and authority of the Hauraki tribes the focus of this study is to examine and evaluate the impact of Te Ao Pākehā on Pare Hauraki lands and Tīkapa Moana under the mana of Pare Hauraki Māori and Pare Hauraki tikanga. The iwi of Pare Hauraki have land claims through the, (Wai 100) and the Hauraki Māori Trust Board, before the Waitangi Tribunal highlighting whenua issues and their impact on Pare Hauraki iwi. Also relevant is the foreshore and seabed issue which is documented leading on to the infamous Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004, (for Māori anyway), sparking widespread opposition by Māori throughout the country, and other supportive non-Māori groups because of the issue concerning Māori kaitiiakitanga and guardianship roles. This investigation will commence by outlining the histories of discovery and settlement of Pare Hauraki, the concept of mana-whenua/mana-moana as it applies to Pare Hauraki Māori and our tikanga, and then to subsequent issues leading to land alienation of the early 19th to late 20th cenutries and then to the foreshore issue of the early 21st Century. This research will include information showing that before 1840 to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and thereafter that Pākehā and various Crown agents, through legislation claimed the rights to the lands, waterways and oceanic areas under the kaitiakitanga of my tupuna of Pare Hauraki. Tupuna and other iwi members have expressed their disgust seeing the mana of their traditional lands, waterways, oceanic areas and kaitiaki roles slipping away from them through these activities. Therefore, this thesis is a response to those issues and the impact on (a), Māori as a people, and our tikanga Māori and (b), Pare Hauraki Māori as the kaitiaki/guardians of the Pare Hauraki rohe/territory in accordance with tikanga Māori, and the significance of the responsibilities which arise out of the Māori concepts of kaitiakitanga, manaakitanga and rangatiratanga.

Data masses on the World Wide Web can hardly be managed by humans or machines. One option is the formal description and linking of data sources using Semantic Web and Linked Data technologies. Ontologies written in standardised languages foster the sharing and linking of data as they provide a means to formally define concepts and relations between these concepts. A second option is visualisation. The visual representation allows humans to perceive information more directly, using the highly developed visual sense. Relatively few efforts have been made on combining both options, although the formality and rich semantics of ontological data make it an ideal candidate for visualisation. Advanced visualisation design systems support the visualisation of tabular, typically statistical data. However, visualisations of ontological data still have to be created manually, since automated solutions are often limited to generic lists or node-link diagrams. Also, the semantics of ontological data are not exploited for guiding users through visualisation tasks. Finally, once a good visualisation setting has been created, it cannot easily be reused and shared. Trying to tackle these problems, we had to answer how to define composable and shareable mappings from ontological data to visual means and how to guide the visual mapping of ontological data. We present an approach that allows for the guided visualisation of ontological data, the creation of effective graphics and the reuse of visualisation settings. Instead of generic graphics, we aim at tailor-made graphics, produced using the whole palette of visual means in a flexible, bottom-up approach. It not only allows for visualising ontologies, but uses ontologies to guide users when visualising data and to drive the visualisation process at various places: First, as a rich source of information on data characteristics, second, as a means to formally describe the vocabulary for building abstract graphics, and third, as a knowledge base of facts on visualisation. This is why we call our approach ontology-driven. We suggest generating an Abstract Visual Model (AVM) to represent and »synthesise« a graphic following a role-based approach, inspired by the one used by J. v. Engelhardt for the analysis of graphics. It consists of graphic objects and relations formalised in the Visualisation Ontology (VISO). A mappings model, based on the declarative RDFS/OWL Visualisation Language (RVL), determines a set of transformations from the domain data to the AVM. RVL allows for composable visual mappings that can be shared and reused across platforms. To guide the user, for example, we discourage the construction of mappings that are suboptimal according to an effectiveness ranking formalised in the fact base and suggest more effective mappings instead. The guidance process is flexible, since it is based on exchangeable rules. VISO, RVL and the AVM are additional contributions of this thesis. Further, we initially analysed the state of the art in visualisation and RDF-presentation comparing 10 approaches by 29 criteria. Our approach is unique because it combines ontology-driven guidance with composable visual mappings. Finally, we compare three prototypes covering the essential parts of our approach to show its feasibility. We show how the mapping process can be supported by tools displaying warning messages for non-optimal visual mappings, e.g., by considering relation characteristics such as »symmetry«. In a constructive evaluation, we challenge both the RVL language and the latest prototype trying to regenerate sketches of graphics we created manually during analysis. We demonstrate how graphics can be varied and complex mappings can be composed from simple ones. Two thirds of the sketches can be almost or completely specified and half of them can be almost or completely implemented
Datenmassen im World Wide Web können kaum von Menschen oder Maschinen erfasst werden. Eine Option ist die formale Beschreibung und Verknüpfung von Datenquellen mit Semantic-Web- und Linked-Data-Technologien. Ontologien, in standardisierten Sprachen geschrieben, befördern das Teilen und Verknüpfen von Daten, da sie ein Mittel zur formalen Definition von Konzepten und Beziehungen zwischen diesen Konzepten darstellen. Eine zweite Option ist die Visualisierung. Die visuelle Repräsentation ermöglicht es dem Menschen, Informationen direkter wahrzunehmen, indem er seinen hochentwickelten Sehsinn verwendet. Relativ wenige Anstrengungen wurden unternommen, um beide Optionen zu kombinieren, obwohl die Formalität und die reichhaltige Semantik ontologische Daten zu einem idealen Kandidaten für die Visualisierung machen. Visualisierungsdesignsysteme unterstützen Nutzer bei der Visualisierung von tabellarischen, typischerweise statistischen Daten. Visualisierungen ontologischer Daten jedoch müssen noch manuell erstellt werden, da automatisierte Lösungen häufig auf generische Listendarstellungen oder Knoten-Kanten-Diagramme beschränkt sind. Auch die Semantik der ontologischen Daten wird nicht ausgenutzt, um Benutzer durch Visualisierungsaufgaben zu führen. Einmal erstellte Visualisierungseinstellungen können nicht einfach wiederverwendet und geteilt werden. Um diese Probleme zu lösen, mussten wir eine Antwort darauf finden, wie die Definition komponierbarer und wiederverwendbarer Abbildungen von ontologischen Daten auf visuelle Mittel geschehen könnte und wie Nutzer bei dieser Abbildung geführt werden könnten. Wir stellen einen Ansatz vor, der die geführte Visualisierung von ontologischen Daten, die Erstellung effektiver Grafiken und die Wiederverwendung von Visualisierungseinstellungen ermöglicht. Statt auf generische Grafiken zielt der Ansatz auf maßgeschneiderte Grafiken ab, die mit der gesamten Palette visueller Mittel in einem flexiblen Bottom-Up-Ansatz erstellt werden. Er erlaubt nicht nur die Visualisierung von Ontologien, sondern verwendet auch Ontologien, um Benutzer bei der Visualisierung von Daten zu führen und den Visualisierungsprozess an verschiedenen Stellen zu steuern: Erstens als eine reichhaltige Informationsquelle zu Datencharakteristiken, zweitens als Mittel zur formalen Beschreibung des Vokabulars für den Aufbau von abstrakten Grafiken und drittens als Wissensbasis von Visualisierungsfakten. Deshalb nennen wir unseren Ansatz ontologie-getrieben. Wir schlagen vor, ein Abstract Visual Model (AVM) zu generieren, um eine Grafik rollenbasiert zu synthetisieren, angelehnt an einen Ansatz der von J. v. Engelhardt verwendet wird, um Grafiken zu analysieren. Das AVM besteht aus grafischen Objekten und Relationen, die in der Visualisation Ontology (VISO) formalisiert sind. Ein Mapping-Modell, das auf der deklarativen RDFS/OWL Visualisation Language (RVL) basiert, bestimmt eine Menge von Transformationen von den Quelldaten zum AVM. RVL ermöglicht zusammensetzbare »Mappings«, visuelle Abbildungen, die über Plattformen hinweg geteilt und wiederverwendet werden können. Um den Benutzer zu führen, bewerten wir Mappings anhand eines in der Faktenbasis formalisierten Effektivitätsrankings und schlagen ggf. effektivere Mappings vor. Der Beratungsprozess ist flexibel, da er auf austauschbaren Regeln basiert. VISO, RVL und das AVM sind weitere Beiträge dieser Arbeit. Darüber hinaus analysieren wir zunächst den Stand der Technik in der Visualisierung und RDF-Präsentation, indem wir 10 Ansätze nach 29 Kriterien vergleichen. Unser Ansatz ist einzigartig, da er eine ontologie-getriebene Nutzerführung mit komponierbaren visuellen Mappings vereint. Schließlich vergleichen wir drei Prototypen, welche die wesentlichen Teile unseres Ansatzes umsetzen, um seine Machbarkeit zu zeigen. Wir zeigen, wie der Mapping-Prozess durch Tools unterstützt werden kann, die Warnmeldungen für nicht optimale visuelle Abbildungen anzeigen, z. B. durch Berücksichtigung von Charakteristiken der Relationen wie »Symmetrie«. In einer konstruktiven Evaluation fordern wir sowohl die RVL-Sprache als auch den neuesten Prototyp heraus, indem wir versuchen Skizzen von Grafiken umzusetzen, die wir während der Analyse manuell erstellt haben. Wir zeigen, wie Grafiken variiert werden können und komplexe Mappings aus einfachen zusammengesetzt werden können. Zwei Drittel der Skizzen können fast vollständig oder vollständig spezifiziert werden und die Hälfte kann fast vollständig oder vollständig umgesetzt werden

This thesis deals with an aspect of the divorce argument not previously addressed in Milton scholarship - Milton's hermeneutics, and how they change over the course of his divorce tracts. Though his hermeneutics remain fundamentally the same throughout the argument, in the final tract, Tetrachordon, certain principles come to dominate. Milton's combination, and subsequent application, of specific principles warrants particular attention, for through them he would not only justify divorce scripturally but also hypothesize a legal independence which permitted him to defy Parliament's legal authority and to act according to his own polygamous concepts of matrimony. This thesis also studies the considerable influence of John Selden on Milton's thought. Selden's work on natural and Hebraic law was pivotal in the development of Milton's own theories on law, and on marriage and divorce in particular. Such a study of Milton's hermeneutics, and of his subsequent legal theories, has implications for the reading of Paradise Lost. Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes. and for the political tracts justifying regicide. The period of 1643-5 was a tumultuous one for Milton, with his disastrous marriage, with the negative reaction of both Parliament and pulpit to his arguments and, finally, with the onset of his blindness. He entered this period with the confident flush of his success with the antiepiscopal tracts but suffered continuous opposition on virtually all fronts, emerging a very changed man. This thesis examines the stages of that change through close textual analysis of the divorce tracts, and draws conclusions which bear upon the remainder of Milton's life and work.
Arts, Faculty of
English, Department of
Graduate

Thesis (M.A.) -- Central Connecticut State University, 2006.
Thesis advisor: Matthew Warshauer. "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-98). Also available via the World Wide Web.

On the 17 February 2008, Kosovo’s Provisional Institutions of Self-Government unilaterally declared their independence from Serbia and, since this time, a significant number of the worlds existing states have conferred recognition upon it. Serbia and its allies ardently contest its legality, however; reaffirming their right to territorial integrity and, as such, their continued sovereignty over the territory that is so often said, by the citizens of it, to be the ‘heartland’ of their country. The Kosovar Albanians, on the other hand, assert their right to self-determination, and the concomitant ‘freedom’ that it offers them from a regime at whose hands they have suffered – in recent decades in particular – abuses of immeasurable gravity. This thesis submits that the nascent state of Kosovo satisfies the general requirements of statehood, as set out in the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States (1933) – especially in light of the leniency with which borderline cases are so often assessed – and, also, that independence was not precluded under the provisions of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244.1 As such, and although the resolution did not itself confer a right to independence upon the people of Kosovo, it remained an alternative available to them to the extent that it was also available under the framework of international law in the more general sense. On this front, this thesis endorses the legality of Kosovo’s declaration of independence, and third states subsequent recognition of it, in accordance with what is commonly referred to as a ‘remedial right’ to secession. This right, it is submitted, allows those ‘people’ that have suffered ‘grievous wrongs at the hands of the parent State from which it wishes to secede’ – including the denial of their right to internal self-determination, and/or serious and widespread violations of their fundamental human rights – to break away, as a ‘last resort’ and in the absence of any further, realistic and effective remedies for the peaceful settlement of the conflict.

This thesis contends that from the inception of Zionist ideology until the formation of Israel, the Zionist leadership, through the skillful use of narratives and the process of articulating a specific position and constraining opposing narratives, has been highly effective in creating and molding the historic perspectives and collective memories which have shaped, and continue to shape, Jewish identity and experience in Palestine. This study argues that the Israeli Declaration of Independence of May 1948 formalized core Zionist narratives and national myths within Israeli national self-identity, while simultaneously promoting their acceptance among world Jewry and the international community. This paper also maintains that these key narratives were used to legitimize the attitudes and actions of the early Zionists, and later Israelis, towards the indigenous (and surrounding) Arab populations. The impact of these narratives and national myths on the Palestinian Arabs, the effects of which continue to reverberate, is particularly addressed.

碩士
東吳大學
法律學系
101
The term ‘peoples’ right to self-determination’ (hereinafter PRSD) is not unfamiliar to many since there has been no shortage of secessionists in international community holding aloft the banner of PRSD to fortify the legitimacy of their claim for independence in both legal and political dimensions. In Taiwan, people often fall into the maelstrom of unification or independence; hence, politicians, scholars, and even common people never lessen their concern about this topic. The concept of PRSD, which first emerged more than a century ago, has not only been enshrined in the Charter as one of the purposes and principles of the U.N., but also became the common Article 1 of the two 1966 International Human Rights Covenants. However, the issues of “self of whom” and “determination of what” still remain unsolved except that people under colonial rule can choose their international political status by exercising external PRSD. After the decolonization era, due to vast ideological differences among blocs of States and different considerations of interests, there has been no consensus on whether PRSD should continue to exist and how to exercise it. On 17 February 2008, Kosovo, the former Autonomous Province of Serbia, which had been under the interim international administration, made a unilateral declaration of independence (UDI). Such promulgation angered the Serbian Government. After failing to settle Kosovo issue in the UN Security Council, the Serbian Government turned to the UN General Assembly, requesting an ICJ advisory opinion on the legality of UDI by the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government of Kosovo. The ICJ advisory opinion of 22 July 2010, instead of seizing this rare opportunity to discuss if people not under colonial rule could also exercise the external PRSD through UDI, only expounded on the legality or otherwise of the “act of declaration” without addressing the legality of “secession per se”, especially the scope of PRSD after the decolonization era and the broader issue of remedial secession. So the writer first discusses, in Chapter 2, the development of PRSD and sums up the opinions and attitude of States and international organization towards PRSD. In Chapter 3, the author attempts to answer the important questions of: 1. who can exercise PRSD? 2. what are contents of the PRSD ? 3. incompatibility between PRSD and territorial integrity, an utmost important principle of international law. The writer then tries to answer the question of ‘who’ can exercise and ‘how’ to exercise the PRSD in post-colonial context? Finally, the author analyzes the crucial question of whether Kosovo’s establishment of independent State is consistent with the current international regulations on PRSD, and hopes to add an item to vast literature in international law by trying to pierce the mystic veil of PRSD through this case study.

碩士
國立臺灣大學
科際整合法律學研究所
107
Kosovo has an area of around 10,800 square kilometers and a population of only about 2 million. Since March 1991 the Kosovar Albanian issued a Declaration of Independence, the independence movement in Kosovo has been surging. After the bloody genocide, the civil war and the interference of the United Nations, on February 17, 2008, Kosovar Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi presented a declaration of independence to the National Assembly. After the vote of the National Assembly, he declared that Kosovo is a sovereign and independent State. Kosovo soon has won the recognitions from 69 States. Serbia as the former “home State” of Kosovo expressed severe protests and finally brought it to the UN General Assembly. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an advisory opinion on Kosovo’s declaration of independence at the request of the UN General Assembly. The advisory opinion was announced on July 22, 2010, and concluded that the adoption of the declaration of independence of 17 February 2008 did not violate any applicable rule of international law. As soon as this advisory opinion came out, 22 states including the United States and European States declared their support to the advisory opinion; on the other hand, Russia, China and five States in Europe opposed it. There are still disputes between the two sides. International law scholars have asserted that this is a victory for “the right of self-determination” and “democracy”. They believe that the decision of the ICJ to declare Kosovo’s independence does not violate international law will bring legal basis and power to the political organizations and groups which is pursuing independence. After the ICJ has declared that Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence is in accordance with international law, does it mean that any political entity can declare independence in any situation without violating international law? Whether the Kosovo Advisory Opinion has clearly declared the right of political entities to pursue independence, and whether this advisory opinion has brought the non-state political entities a sufficient legal basis to pursue the desired national independence would be the questions that this thesis would like to find out. Therefore, this thesis directly discusses the specific content of the advisory opinion, which is decided by the ICJ on Serbia’s accusation of the illegality of Kosovo’s declaration of independence and the violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity. We try to analyze it in a comprehensive way, and discuss it from the perspective of international law. We hope to understand the explanation of the advisory opinion and the limitation of the scope of the case; and furthermore, to identify what the legal basis that the advisory opinion has brought to the legality of the unilateral declaration of independence in international law. We also try to predict the implications and consequences of the first-ever advisory opinion which discusses the unilateral declaration of independence, and what it would contribute to the true meanings of the rights of self-determination, secession, and independence movement of the people in international law.

When observing the values which repeatedly appear in early American literature, we encounter ideas such as liberty, freedom, or the importance of the individual, but while property and ownership are often also core ideas and motivations for many Americans, their appearance is much more limited and excluded from certain contexts. However, property was always a key issue and economic profitability was always considered as foremost both on political and individual level. This can be seen all throughout American history since its beginning until the present, yet there is the curious trend of downplaying the importance of property in politically oriented text. While no one questioned its value in the past, Americans outwardly replaced property with liberty. Nevertheless, its importance cannot be hidden so easily and through careful examination it is shown as being understood as a pre-requisite of freedom and security, even as it is never the central focus of any major early American political text. This thesis explores the concept of property in the context of early American political writing in the area between eighteenth and nineteenth century; drawing from texts such as the Declaration of Independence, The Federalist, The Anti-Federalist Papers, Common Sense and other contemporary political pamphlets...

碩士
銘傳大學
財務金融學系碩士在職專班
102
This paper explored five aspects regarding corporate governance, especially focusing on the major responsibility of the Board. The issue that the members of the Board must be obliged by Law of Independent Directors and Supervisors implemented on 1 January 2006 has provoked much discussion in recent years. It is hoped that this exploration could benefit the future development of listed enterprises and companies. Fueled by the re-election of the directors and supervisors, the battle for chips is bound to be broken out. The triennial re-election of directors and supervisors, the quiet entry of speculative buying, and the well preparation of domestic and foreign legal persons and entrepreneurs, all made Directors and Supervisors Re-election Concept Stock jump to the short-term strength group, such as power of attorney shareholding limit. With all these forces fighting overtly and covertly for the management of the company, the subject of re-election of directors and supervisors has signs of early germination. The introduction to corporate governance can be divided into two aspects, namely promoting what is beneficial and abolishing what is harmful. The former can strengthen the effectiveness of strategy management and ensure the correct direction of the company strategy; and the latter requests listed companies to have independent directors and supervisors to monitor the managers through transparent real-time information to ensure the interests of outside shareholders and creditors as well as other interests of other stakeholders, in pursuit of fairness and competition to enhance business performance and strengthen company’s value. The Empiricalresults of this research are as follows: 1.Event Study. Sampling on seven stocks of independent directors and supervisors, the study explored the share-price volatilities and the average abnormal return differences in three days both before and after the day; it turned out by ANOVA that the significances were both higher than 0.1 for that data of that day and three days before and after that day between the group, while the average abnormal return had no difference. 2.ANOVA on five attributes of corporate governance. 1). For the education qualification higher than postgraduate, the comparison and assessment of the rights of shareholders, the stakeholders interests, the information disclosure and transparency, and the responsibility of the Board differed significantly, while the fair treatment to all shareholders had no significant difference. 2). For the position higher than manager, the comparison and assessment of the rights of shareholders, the information disclosure and transparency, and the responsibility of the Board differed significantly, while the fair treatment to all shareholders and interests of stakeholders had no significant difference.

Text in Afrikaans
In hierdie verhandeling word die tekste van onderskeidelik Mireille Cottenje (Dagboek van Carla - 1968), Daisy Ver Boven (Mayana - I974 ), Henriette Claessens (Afscheid van Rumangabo - 1983) en Lieve Joris (Terug naar Kongo - 1987) bespreek as verteenwoordigend van die koloniale literatuur deur die vroulike outeur. Die doel is om vas te stel hoe daar deur die vroue outeur in die Vlaamse letterkunde aan die Afrika-ervaring gestalte gegee is. Eerstens word 'n oorsig van die begrip koloniale literatuur gegee en daama word literer-histories op die Vlaamse Afrika-literatuur vanaf die prekoloniale- tot die postkoloniale era gefokus. Nadat 'n analise van die tekste gedoen is om die individuele perspektiewe te evalueer, blyk dit dat die vroue outeurs in 'n groot mate gemeenskaplike visies in hul siening van die koloniale era openbaar. 'n Beeld van die koloniale Kongo soos dit in die ervaringswereld van die vroue outeurs bly voortleefhet, kan so verkry word
In this thesis, the texts of Mireille Cottenje (Dagboek van Carla - 1968), Daisy Ver Boven (Mayana - 1974), Henriette Claessens (Afscheid van Rumangabo - 1983) and Lieve Joris (Terug naar Kongo - 1987) were respectively studied as representative of the colonial literature written by female authors. The aim is to establish how stature is given in the literature to the Africa experience by the female author. In the first instance the concept colonial literature is discussed followed by a historical review of the Flemish African literature from the pre-colonial to the postcolonial era. After an analysis has been completed to evaluate the individual perspectives of the different authors, it appears that the female authors reveal shared perspectives in their views on the colonial era. Through knowledge of the work of these authors, an image of the colonial Congo can be found, as it lives on in the world of the female literator
Afrikaans & Theory of Literature
M.A. (Afrikaans)

Data masses on the World Wide Web can hardly be managed by humans or machines. One option is the formal description and linking of data sources using Semantic Web and Linked Data technologies. Ontologies written in standardised languages foster the sharing and linking of data as they provide a means to formally define concepts and relations between these concepts. A second option is visualisation. The visual representation allows humans to perceive information more directly, using the highly developed visual sense. Relatively few efforts have been made on combining both options, although the formality and rich semantics of ontological data make it an ideal candidate for visualisation. Advanced visualisation design systems support the visualisation of tabular, typically statistical data. However, visualisations of ontological data still have to be created manually, since automated solutions are often limited to generic lists or node-link diagrams. Also, the semantics of ontological data are not exploited for guiding users through visualisation tasks. Finally, once a good visualisation setting has been created, it cannot easily be reused and shared. Trying to tackle these problems, we had to answer how to define composable and shareable mappings from ontological data to visual means and how to guide the visual mapping of ontological data. We present an approach that allows for the guided visualisation of ontological data, the creation of effective graphics and the reuse of visualisation settings. Instead of generic graphics, we aim at tailor-made graphics, produced using the whole palette of visual means in a flexible, bottom-up approach. It not only allows for visualising ontologies, but uses ontologies to guide users when visualising data and to drive the visualisation process at various places: First, as a rich source of information on data characteristics, second, as a means to formally describe the vocabulary for building abstract graphics, and third, as a knowledge base of facts on visualisation. This is why we call our approach ontology-driven. We suggest generating an Abstract Visual Model (AVM) to represent and »synthesise« a graphic following a role-based approach, inspired by the one used by J. v. Engelhardt for the analysis of graphics. It consists of graphic objects and relations formalised in the Visualisation Ontology (VISO). A mappings model, based on the declarative RDFS/OWL Visualisation Language (RVL), determines a set of transformations from the domain data to the AVM. RVL allows for composable visual mappings that can be shared and reused across platforms. To guide the user, for example, we discourage the construction of mappings that are suboptimal according to an effectiveness ranking formalised in the fact base and suggest more effective mappings instead. The guidance process is flexible, since it is based on exchangeable rules. VISO, RVL and the AVM are additional contributions of this thesis. Further, we initially analysed the state of the art in visualisation and RDF-presentation comparing 10 approaches by 29 criteria. Our approach is unique because it combines ontology-driven guidance with composable visual mappings. Finally, we compare three prototypes covering the essential parts of our approach to show its feasibility. We show how the mapping process can be supported by tools displaying warning messages for non-optimal visual mappings, e.g., by considering relation characteristics such as »symmetry«. In a constructive evaluation, we challenge both the RVL language and the latest prototype trying to regenerate sketches of graphics we created manually during analysis. We demonstrate how graphics can be varied and complex mappings can be composed from simple ones. Two thirds of the sketches can be almost or completely specified and half of them can be almost or completely implemented.:Legend and Overview of Prefixes xiii 1 Introduction 1 2 Background 11 2.1 Visualisation 11 2.1.1 What is Visualisation? 11 2.1.2 What are the Benefits of Visualisation? 12 2.1.3 Visualisation Related Terms Used in this Thesis 12 2.1.4 Visualisation Models and Architectural Patterns 12 2.1.5 Visualisation Design Systems 14 2.1.6 What is the Difference between Visual Mapping and Styling? 14 2.1.7 Lessons Learned from Style Sheet Languages 15 2.2 Data 16 2.2.1 Data – Information – Knowledge 17 2.2.2 Structured Data 17 2.2.3 Ontologies in Computer Science 19 2.2.4 The Semantic Web and its Languages 19 2.2.5 Linked Data and Open Data 20 2.2.6 The Metamodelling Technological Space 21 2.2.7 SPIN 21 2.3 Guidance 22 2.3.1 Guidance in Visualisation 22 3 Problem Analysis 23 3.1 Problems of Ontology Visualisation Approaches 24 3.2 Research Questions 25 3.3 Set up of the Case Studies 25 3.3.1 Case Studies in the Life Sciences Domain 26 3.3.2 Case Studies in the Publishing Domain 26 3.3.3 Case Studies in the Software Technology Domain 27 3.4 Analysis of the Case Studies’ Ontologies 27 3.5 Manual Sketching of Graphics 29 3.6 Analysis of the Graphics for Typical Visualisation Cases 29 3.7 Requirements 33 3.7.1 Requirements for Visualisation and Interaction 34 3.7.2 Requirements for Data Awareness 34 3.7.3 Requirements for Reuse and Composition 34 3.7.4 Requirements for Variability 35 3.7.5 Requirements for Tooling Support and Guidance 35 3.7.6 Optional Features and Limitations 36 4 Analysis of the State of the Art 37 4.1 Related Visualisation Approaches 38 4.1.1 Short Overview of the Approaches 38 4.1.2 Detailed Comparison by Criteria 46 4.1.3 Conclusion – What Is Still Missing? 60 4.2 Visualisation Languages 62 4.2.1 Short Overview of the Compared Languages 62 4.2.2 Detailed Comparison by Language Criteria 66 4.2.3 Conclusion – What Is Still Missing? 71 4.3 RDF Presentation Languages 72 4.3.1 Short Overview of the Compared Languages 72 4.3.2 Detailed Comparison by Language Criteria 76 4.3.3 Additional Criteria for RDF Display Languages 87 4.3.4 Conclusion – What Is Still Missing? 89 4.4 Model-Driven Interfaces 90 4.4.1 Metamodel-Driven Interfaces 90 4.4.2 Ontology-Driven Interfaces 92 4.4.3 Combined Usage of the Metamodelling and Ontology Technological Space 94 5 A Visualisation Ontology – VISO 97 5.1 Methodology Used for Ontology Creation 100 5.2 Requirements for a Visualisation Ontology 100 5.3 Existing Approaches to Modelling in the Field of Visualisation 101 5.3.1 Terminologies and Taxonomies 101 5.3.2 Existing Visualisation Ontologies 102 5.3.3 Other Visualisation Models and Approaches to Formalisation 103 5.3.4 Summary 103 5.4 Technical Aspects of VISO 103 5.5 VISO/graphic Module – Graphic Vocabulary 104 5.5.1 Graphic Representations and Graphic Objects 105 5.5.2 Graphic Relations and Syntactic Structures 107 5.6 VISO/data Module – Characterising Data 110 5.6.1 Data Structure and Characteristics of Relations 110 5.6.2 The Scale of Measurement and Units 112 5.6.3 Properties for Characterising Data Variables in Statistical Data 113 5.7 VISO/facts Module – Facts for Vis. Constraints and Rules 115 5.7.1 Expressiveness of Graphic Relations 116 5.7.2 Effectiveness Ranking of Graphic Relations 118 5.7.3 Rules for Composing Graphics 119 5.7.4 Other Rules to Consider for Visual Mapping 124 5.7.5 Providing Named Value Collections 124 5.7.6 Existing Approaches to the Formalisation of Visualisation Knowledge . . 126 5.7.7 The VISO/facts/empiric Example Knowledge Base 126 5.8 Other VISO Modules 126 5.9 Conclusions and Future Work 127 5.10 Further Use Cases for VISO 127 5.11 VISO on the Web – Sharing the Vocabulary to Build a Community 128 6 A VISO-Based Abstract Visual Model – AVM 129 6.1 Graphical Notation Used in this Chapter 129 6.2 Elementary Graphic Objects and Graphic Attributes 131 6.3 N-Ary Relations 131 6.4 Binary Relations 131 6.5 Composition of Graphic Objects Using Roles 132 6.6 Composition of Graphic Relations Using Roles 132 6.7 Composition of Visual Mappings Using the AVM 135 6.8 Tracing 135 6.9 Is it Worth Having an Abstract Visual Model? 135 6.10 Discussion of Fresnel as a Related Language 137 6.11 Related Work 139 6.12 Limitations 139 6.13 Conclusions 140 7 A Language for RDFS/OWL Visualisation – RVL 141 7.1 Language Requirements 142 7.2 Main RVL Constructs 145 7.2.1 Mapping 145 7.2.2 Property Mapping 146 7.2.3 Identity Mapping 146 7.2.4 Value Mapping 147 7.2.5 Inheriting RVL Settings 147 7.2.6 Resource Mapping 148 7.2.7 Simplifications 149 7.3 Calculating Value Mappings 150 7.4 Defining Scale of Measurement 153 7.4.1 Determining the Scale of Measurement 154 7.5 Addressing Values in Value Mappings 156 7.5.1 Determining the Set of Addressed Source Values 156 7.5.2 Determining the Set of Addressed Target Values 157 7.6 Overlapping Value Mappings 158 7.7 Default Value Mapping 158 7.8 Default Labelling 159 7.9 Defining Interaction 159 7.10 Mapping Composition and Submappings 160 7.11 A Schema Language for RVL 160 7.11.1 Concrete Examples of the RVL Schema 163 7.12 Conclusions and Future Work 166 8 The OGVIC Approach 169 8.1 Ontology-Driven, Guided Editing of Visual Mappings 172 8.1.1 Classification of Constraints 172 8.1.2 Levels of Guidance 173 8.1.3 Implementing Constraint-Based Guidance 173 8.2 Support of Explicit and Composable Visual Mappings 177 8.2.1 Mapping Composition Cases 178 8.2.2 Selecting a Context 180 8.2.3 Using the Same Graphic Relation Multiple Times 181 8.3 Prototype P1 (TopBraid-Composer-based) 182 8.4 Prototype P2 (OntoWiki-based) 184 8.5 Prototype P3 (Java Implementation of RVL) 187 8.6 Lessons Learned from Prototypes & Future Work 190 8.6.1 Checking RVL Constraints and Visualisation Rules 190 8.6.2 A User Interface for Editing RVL Mappings 190 8.6.3 Graph Transformations with SPIN and SPARQL 1.1 Update 192 8.6.4 Selection and Filtering of Data 193 8.6.5 Interactivity and Incremental Processing 193 8.6.6 Rendering the Final Platform-Specific Code 196 9 Application 197 9.1 Coverage of Case Study Sketches and Necessary Features 198 9.2 Coverage of Visualisation Cases 201 9.3 Coverage of Requirements 205 9.4 Full Example 206 10 Conclusions 211 10.1 Contributions 211 10.2 Constructive Evaluation 212 10.3 Research Questions 213 10.4 Transfer to Other Models and Constraint Languages 213 10.5 Limitations 214 10.6 Future Work 214 Appendices 217 A Case Study Sketches 219 B VISO – Comparison of Visualisation Literature 229 C RVL 231 D RVL Example Mappings and Application 233 D.1 Listings of RVL Example Mappings as Required by Prototype P3 233 D.2 Features Required for Implementing all Sketches 235 D.3 JSON Format for Processing the AVM with D3 – Hierarchical Variant 238 Bibliography 238 List of Figures 251 List of Tables 254 List of Listings 257
Datenmassen im World Wide Web können kaum von Menschen oder Maschinen erfasst werden. Eine Option ist die formale Beschreibung und Verknüpfung von Datenquellen mit Semantic-Web- und Linked-Data-Technologien. Ontologien, in standardisierten Sprachen geschrieben, befördern das Teilen und Verknüpfen von Daten, da sie ein Mittel zur formalen Definition von Konzepten und Beziehungen zwischen diesen Konzepten darstellen. Eine zweite Option ist die Visualisierung. Die visuelle Repräsentation ermöglicht es dem Menschen, Informationen direkter wahrzunehmen, indem er seinen hochentwickelten Sehsinn verwendet. Relativ wenige Anstrengungen wurden unternommen, um beide Optionen zu kombinieren, obwohl die Formalität und die reichhaltige Semantik ontologische Daten zu einem idealen Kandidaten für die Visualisierung machen. Visualisierungsdesignsysteme unterstützen Nutzer bei der Visualisierung von tabellarischen, typischerweise statistischen Daten. Visualisierungen ontologischer Daten jedoch müssen noch manuell erstellt werden, da automatisierte Lösungen häufig auf generische Listendarstellungen oder Knoten-Kanten-Diagramme beschränkt sind. Auch die Semantik der ontologischen Daten wird nicht ausgenutzt, um Benutzer durch Visualisierungsaufgaben zu führen. Einmal erstellte Visualisierungseinstellungen können nicht einfach wiederverwendet und geteilt werden. Um diese Probleme zu lösen, mussten wir eine Antwort darauf finden, wie die Definition komponierbarer und wiederverwendbarer Abbildungen von ontologischen Daten auf visuelle Mittel geschehen könnte und wie Nutzer bei dieser Abbildung geführt werden könnten. Wir stellen einen Ansatz vor, der die geführte Visualisierung von ontologischen Daten, die Erstellung effektiver Grafiken und die Wiederverwendung von Visualisierungseinstellungen ermöglicht. Statt auf generische Grafiken zielt der Ansatz auf maßgeschneiderte Grafiken ab, die mit der gesamten Palette visueller Mittel in einem flexiblen Bottom-Up-Ansatz erstellt werden. Er erlaubt nicht nur die Visualisierung von Ontologien, sondern verwendet auch Ontologien, um Benutzer bei der Visualisierung von Daten zu führen und den Visualisierungsprozess an verschiedenen Stellen zu steuern: Erstens als eine reichhaltige Informationsquelle zu Datencharakteristiken, zweitens als Mittel zur formalen Beschreibung des Vokabulars für den Aufbau von abstrakten Grafiken und drittens als Wissensbasis von Visualisierungsfakten. Deshalb nennen wir unseren Ansatz ontologie-getrieben. Wir schlagen vor, ein Abstract Visual Model (AVM) zu generieren, um eine Grafik rollenbasiert zu synthetisieren, angelehnt an einen Ansatz der von J. v. Engelhardt verwendet wird, um Grafiken zu analysieren. Das AVM besteht aus grafischen Objekten und Relationen, die in der Visualisation Ontology (VISO) formalisiert sind. Ein Mapping-Modell, das auf der deklarativen RDFS/OWL Visualisation Language (RVL) basiert, bestimmt eine Menge von Transformationen von den Quelldaten zum AVM. RVL ermöglicht zusammensetzbare »Mappings«, visuelle Abbildungen, die über Plattformen hinweg geteilt und wiederverwendet werden können. Um den Benutzer zu führen, bewerten wir Mappings anhand eines in der Faktenbasis formalisierten Effektivitätsrankings und schlagen ggf. effektivere Mappings vor. Der Beratungsprozess ist flexibel, da er auf austauschbaren Regeln basiert. VISO, RVL und das AVM sind weitere Beiträge dieser Arbeit. Darüber hinaus analysieren wir zunächst den Stand der Technik in der Visualisierung und RDF-Präsentation, indem wir 10 Ansätze nach 29 Kriterien vergleichen. Unser Ansatz ist einzigartig, da er eine ontologie-getriebene Nutzerführung mit komponierbaren visuellen Mappings vereint. Schließlich vergleichen wir drei Prototypen, welche die wesentlichen Teile unseres Ansatzes umsetzen, um seine Machbarkeit zu zeigen. Wir zeigen, wie der Mapping-Prozess durch Tools unterstützt werden kann, die Warnmeldungen für nicht optimale visuelle Abbildungen anzeigen, z. B. durch Berücksichtigung von Charakteristiken der Relationen wie »Symmetrie«. In einer konstruktiven Evaluation fordern wir sowohl die RVL-Sprache als auch den neuesten Prototyp heraus, indem wir versuchen Skizzen von Grafiken umzusetzen, die wir während der Analyse manuell erstellt haben. Wir zeigen, wie Grafiken variiert werden können und komplexe Mappings aus einfachen zusammengesetzt werden können. Zwei Drittel der Skizzen können fast vollständig oder vollständig spezifiziert werden und die Hälfte kann fast vollständig oder vollständig umgesetzt werden.:Legend and Overview of Prefixes xiii 1 Introduction 1 2 Background 11 2.1 Visualisation 11 2.1.1 What is Visualisation? 11 2.1.2 What are the Benefits of Visualisation? 12 2.1.3 Visualisation Related Terms Used in this Thesis 12 2.1.4 Visualisation Models and Architectural Patterns 12 2.1.5 Visualisation Design Systems 14 2.1.6 What is the Difference between Visual Mapping and Styling? 14 2.1.7 Lessons Learned from Style Sheet Languages 15 2.2 Data 16 2.2.1 Data – Information – Knowledge 17 2.2.2 Structured Data 17 2.2.3 Ontologies in Computer Science 19 2.2.4 The Semantic Web and its Languages 19 2.2.5 Linked Data and Open Data 20 2.2.6 The Metamodelling Technological Space 21 2.2.7 SPIN 21 2.3 Guidance 22 2.3.1 Guidance in Visualisation 22 3 Problem Analysis 23 3.1 Problems of Ontology Visualisation Approaches 24 3.2 Research Questions 25 3.3 Set up of the Case Studies 25 3.3.1 Case Studies in the Life Sciences Domain 26 3.3.2 Case Studies in the Publishing Domain 26 3.3.3 Case Studies in the Software Technology Domain 27 3.4 Analysis of the Case Studies’ Ontologies 27 3.5 Manual Sketching of Graphics 29 3.6 Analysis of the Graphics for Typical Visualisation Cases 29 3.7 Requirements 33 3.7.1 Requirements for Visualisation and Interaction 34 3.7.2 Requirements for Data Awareness 34 3.7.3 Requirements for Reuse and Composition 34 3.7.4 Requirements for Variability 35 3.7.5 Requirements for Tooling Support and Guidance 35 3.7.6 Optional Features and Limitations 36 4 Analysis of the State of the Art 37 4.1 Related Visualisation Approaches 38 4.1.1 Short Overview of the Approaches 38 4.1.2 Detailed Comparison by Criteria 46 4.1.3 Conclusion – What Is Still Missing? 60 4.2 Visualisation Languages 62 4.2.1 Short Overview of the Compared Languages 62 4.2.2 Detailed Comparison by Language Criteria 66 4.2.3 Conclusion – What Is Still Missing? 71 4.3 RDF Presentation Languages 72 4.3.1 Short Overview of the Compared Languages 72 4.3.2 Detailed Comparison by Language Criteria 76 4.3.3 Additional Criteria for RDF Display Languages 87 4.3.4 Conclusion – What Is Still Missing? 89 4.4 Model-Driven Interfaces 90 4.4.1 Metamodel-Driven Interfaces 90 4.4.2 Ontology-Driven Interfaces 92 4.4.3 Combined Usage of the Metamodelling and Ontology Technological Space 94 5 A Visualisation Ontology – VISO 97 5.1 Methodology Used for Ontology Creation 100 5.2 Requirements for a Visualisation Ontology 100 5.3 Existing Approaches to Modelling in the Field of Visualisation 101 5.3.1 Terminologies and Taxonomies 101 5.3.2 Existing Visualisation Ontologies 102 5.3.3 Other Visualisation Models and Approaches to Formalisation 103 5.3.4 Summary 103 5.4 Technical Aspects of VISO 103 5.5 VISO/graphic Module – Graphic Vocabulary 104 5.5.1 Graphic Representations and Graphic Objects 105 5.5.2 Graphic Relations and Syntactic Structures 107 5.6 VISO/data Module – Characterising Data 110 5.6.1 Data Structure and Characteristics of Relations 110 5.6.2 The Scale of Measurement and Units 112 5.6.3 Properties for Characterising Data Variables in Statistical Data 113 5.7 VISO/facts Module – Facts for Vis. Constraints and Rules 115 5.7.1 Expressiveness of Graphic Relations 116 5.7.2 Effectiveness Ranking of Graphic Relations 118 5.7.3 Rules for Composing Graphics 119 5.7.4 Other Rules to Consider for Visual Mapping 124 5.7.5 Providing Named Value Collections 124 5.7.6 Existing Approaches to the Formalisation of Visualisation Knowledge . . 126 5.7.7 The VISO/facts/empiric Example Knowledge Base 126 5.8 Other VISO Modules 126 5.9 Conclusions and Future Work 127 5.10 Further Use Cases for VISO 127 5.11 VISO on the Web – Sharing the Vocabulary to Build a Community 128 6 A VISO-Based Abstract Visual Model – AVM 129 6.1 Graphical Notation Used in this Chapter 129 6.2 Elementary Graphic Objects and Graphic Attributes 131 6.3 N-Ary Relations 131 6.4 Binary Relations 131 6.5 Composition of Graphic Objects Using Roles 132 6.6 Composition of Graphic Relations Using Roles 132 6.7 Composition of Visual Mappings Using the AVM 135 6.8 Tracing 135 6.9 Is it Worth Having an Abstract Visual Model? 135 6.10 Discussion of Fresnel as a Related Language 137 6.11 Related Work 139 6.12 Limitations 139 6.13 Conclusions 140 7 A Language for RDFS/OWL Visualisation – RVL 141 7.1 Language Requirements 142 7.2 Main RVL Constructs 145 7.2.1 Mapping 145 7.2.2 Property Mapping 146 7.2.3 Identity Mapping 146 7.2.4 Value Mapping 147 7.2.5 Inheriting RVL Settings 147 7.2.6 Resource Mapping 148 7.2.7 Simplifications 149 7.3 Calculating Value Mappings 150 7.4 Defining Scale of Measurement 153 7.4.1 Determining the Scale of Measurement 154 7.5 Addressing Values in Value Mappings 156 7.5.1 Determining the Set of Addressed Source Values 156 7.5.2 Determining the Set of Addressed Target Values 157 7.6 Overlapping Value Mappings 158 7.7 Default Value Mapping 158 7.8 Default Labelling 159 7.9 Defining Interaction 159 7.10 Mapping Composition and Submappings 160 7.11 A Schema Language for RVL 160 7.11.1 Concrete Examples of the RVL Schema 163 7.12 Conclusions and Future Work 166 8 The OGVIC Approach 169 8.1 Ontology-Driven, Guided Editing of Visual Mappings 172 8.1.1 Classification of Constraints 172 8.1.2 Levels of Guidance 173 8.1.3 Implementing Constraint-Based Guidance 173 8.2 Support of Explicit and Composable Visual Mappings 177 8.2.1 Mapping Composition Cases 178 8.2.2 Selecting a Context 180 8.2.3 Using the Same Graphic Relation Multiple Times 181 8.3 Prototype P1 (TopBraid-Composer-based) 182 8.4 Prototype P2 (OntoWiki-based) 184 8.5 Prototype P3 (Java Implementation of RVL) 187 8.6 Lessons Learned from Prototypes & Future Work 190 8.6.1 Checking RVL Constraints and Visualisation Rules 190 8.6.2 A User Interface for Editing RVL Mappings 190 8.6.3 Graph Transformations with SPIN and SPARQL 1.1 Update 192 8.6.4 Selection and Filtering of Data 193 8.6.5 Interactivity and Incremental Processing 193 8.6.6 Rendering the Final Platform-Specific Code 196 9 Application 197 9.1 Coverage of Case Study Sketches and Necessary Features 198 9.2 Coverage of Visualisation Cases 201 9.3 Coverage of Requirements 205 9.4 Full Example 206 10 Conclusions 211 10.1 Contributions 211 10.2 Constructive Evaluation 212 10.3 Research Questions 213 10.4 Transfer to Other Models and Constraint Languages 213 10.5 Limitations 214 10.6 Future Work 214 Appendices 217 A Case Study Sketches 219 B VISO – Comparison of Visualisation Literature 229 C RVL 231 D RVL Example Mappings and Application 233 D.1 Listings of RVL Example Mappings as Required by Prototype P3 233 D.2 Features Required for Implementing all Sketches 235 D.3 JSON Format for Processing the AVM with D3 – Hierarchical Variant 238 Bibliography 238 List of Figures 251 List of Tables 254 List of Listings 257