Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'In Death Series'

O projeto literário de Gonçalo M. Tavares apresenta-se como uma cartografia performativa em que as Séries demarcam territórios de implementação do pensamento por sua vez materializados nos Cadernos. O propósito do estudo é a análise desse espaço literário, primeiramente, na sua totalidade, num segundo tempo, da Série O Reino e, por último, destacar-se-á o quarto romance da tetralogia, Aprender a Rezar na Era da Técnica. Do fragmento ao romance, passando pela poesia, a epopeia a micro-narrativa e o ensaio, desta escrita ressalva-se a heterogeneidade e hibridez dos registos como marcas distintivas do autor, por isso damos conta da inespecificidade das formas e da aproximação a uma performance da escrita. Os romances, objeto principal da tese, veiculam um discurso de reiteração temática com acento na premissa contemporânea da legibilidade do mal e na racionalidade cujo modelo pós-Auschwitz se pretende questionar. As personagens, na sua caracterização e nas relações com o outro, servem o estrangulamento que esse tempo histórico e o espaço claustrofóbico de uma cidade como cenário transversal delimitam, confrontando-se, a todo o momento, com o medo da morte. Estes elementos, em conjunto com a linguagem, também um instrumento de poder, serão considerados para a reflexão sobre a criação literária, uma zona de compromisso ideológico e estético; ABSTRACT: The literary project of Gonçalo M. Tavares presents itself as a performative mapping in the Series demarcate territories of implementing the thought that, in turn, the Notebooks materialize. The purpose of the study is the analysis of this literary space, first, in its entirety, a second time, series The Kingdom and, lastly, will highlight it fourth novel of the tetralogy, Learning to Pray in the Era of Technology. Fragment of the novel, through poetry, epic micro-narrative and the test of this writing it is emphasized the heterogeneity and hybridity of records as distinguishing the author marks, so we realize the specificity of the forms and the approach to a performance writing. The novels, the main object of the thesis, convey a speech thematic reiteration accented in contemporary premise of readability of evil and rationality whose post- Auschwitz model intended question. The characters in his characterization and relationships with each other, serve the bottleneck that historical time and the claustrophobic space of a city like cross scenario, delimit, clashing, at all times, with the fear of death. These elements, together with language, also an instrument of power, will be considered for reflection on the literary creation, a zone of ideological and aesthetic commitment.

Background: Incidence of death and hospitalizations have been observed to depend on short-term changes in weather and to increase with extreme temperatures. This thesis aims to strengthen the scientific knowledge on the relationship between temperature and daily deaths, but also the relationship between temperature and daily hospital admissions. Methods: We constructed time series regression models using daily counts of death and daily weather from the Stockholm area incorporating adjustment for potential confounding factors, season, and long-term time trends. From these models, we established the short-term relationship with daily temperatures and the associated relative risks on daily deaths allowing for a delay between exposure and subsequent deaths. Daily hospital admissions and daily temperatures were analyzed correspondingly using data from Skåne. Results: Hot and cold temperatures significantly impact on mortality rates as well as rates of hospitalization in Sweden. We found an immediate heat effect on daily deaths, while the impacts of cold temperatures were delayed up to a week after exposure. Cold-related deaths are generally cardiovascular in nature, while deaths resulting from warm temperatures are cardiovascular, respiratory as well as non-cardiorespiratory in nature. The impacts following a heat wave appear to increase proportionally with the length of the extreme hot conditions. The results suggest that the population aged 45 years and older is the main group at elevated risk of death when exposed to high and low temperatures. Moreover, the results suggest that there are several factors of susceptibility on an individual basis that correspond to larger relative risk with high and/or low temperatures. Daily hospitalisations increased in particular among individuals with respiratory illnesses during extreme persistent heat, whereas high temperatures in general have little impact. In contrast, hospitalizations increased for up to two weeks following exposure to cold temperatures. Conclusions: The health impacts related to temperature are a serious concern and the attributed impacts are likely to increase to some extent in the future due to an ageing population. Public health preventive strategies should be developed to prevent health consequences related to heat waves and cold temperatures. Future studies should aim at identifying susceptible individuals with elevated death risk at hot and cold ambient temperature conditions.

Aerosol Optical Depth [AOD] is an important input for the atmospheric correction of satellite-derived Earth Observation data, and remains the most difficult variable to properly quantify. The Reflectance Change method utilises time-series data from a Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Model to estimate the surface reflectance which is used as an input into the AOD retrieval model. This approach moves away from previous methods that use band ratio techniques, which are problematic over characteristically arid Australian landscapes.

Ce travail propose d’étudier les relations complexes entre métaphore, tabou et X phémisme. Plus spécifiquement, il analyse la manière dont les domaines tabous de la maladie, de la mort et du sexe sont représentés par le biais de la métaphore dans un corpus de séries télévisées américaines constitué de House, M.D., Grey’s Anatomy, Six Feet Under, How I Met your Mother et Sex and the City. Il s’articule autour de trois chapitres. Les deux premiers permettent de définir le cadre théorique. Dans un premier temps, nous définissons le concept de « tabou » et tentons de dégager les origines historiques et sociales des tabous étudiés. Cela nous mène également à définir les X phémismes – qui sont privilégiés pour mentionner les sujets tabous – et les différentes matrices lexicogéniques qui permettent leur création. Le second chapitre est consacré à la définition de la matrice qui nous intéresse dans le cadre de ce travail : la métaphore. Il adopte une approche cognitiviste et vise essentiellement à exposer le cadre théorique relatif à la métaphore qui est utilisé dans le dernier chapitre. Enfin, le troisième chapitre propose une analyse des métaphores relevées dans le corpus. Il s’agit d’étudier l’influence du domaine source sur la conceptualisation X phémique et les différentes fonctions que peuvent revêtir ces métaphores. Tout au long de ce travail, nous nous attachons à expliquer en quoi les métaphores sont un outil privilégié pour la création de métaphores relatives à des sujets tabous et à réfléchir sur le statut particulier des métaphores dans les séries télévisées
This study explores the complex relations between metaphor, taboos, and X phemisms. More specifically, it focuses on the representation of the taboos of disease, death, and sex through metaphors in a corpus constituted of five American TV series, House, M.D., Grey’s Anatomy, Six Feet Under, How I Met your Mother et Sex and the City. It is divided into three chapters. The first two chapters aim to define the theoretical framework. The study starts with a definition of the concept of “taboo” and its social and historical origins. It leads us to a definition of X phemisms – which are favored to mention taboo topics – and the different word-formation processes that are used for their creation. The second chapter is devoted to the definition of the word-formation process that is central in this study: metaphor. The approach is mainly cognitivist and the aim of the chapter is to define the Conceptual Metaphor Theory. Finally, the last chapter consists in an analysis of the metaphors of the corpus. The aim is to study the influence of the source domains on the creation of metaphorical X phemisms and the different functions that those metaphors may fulfil. One of the main objectives is to explain why metaphors are favored to create metaphors related to taboo topics and to shed light on the particular status of metaphors in TV series

Sans corps, pas d'histoires. Vecteur d'action, instrument de la narration, et support d'un lien d'identification fort entre le spectateur et le personnage, le corps est la principale figure des médiums cinématographique et télévisuel. Si le cinéma a toujours, depuis ses balbutiements, glorifié la vivacité inépuisable des corps, parallèlement déjà, planait la face inversée de cette exposition, la menace muette de la mort. Mais si le dernier souffle avant la mort est bien souvent encore, au cinéma et à la télévision, synonyme d'ultime communion avec la vie et de résistance à la mort, qu'en est-il du corps et du personnage quand la mort s'en est saisi à jamais et qu'il ne reste plus aux vivants, personnages et spectateurs, qu'à se confronter au cadavre ? Figure parasitaire, le cadavre n'est ni un personnage ni même un figurant. A la fois signe vide et noyau narratif, c'est à partir de lui et de son examen pendant l'autopsie ou sur les lieux du crime que va se nourrir et se développer l'intrigue policière. Et s'il peut paraître secondaire, voire accessoire, à regarder les fictions policières sous l'angle de son non-regard fixe et opaque, il donne à voir quelque chose du crime, de son caractère profondément injuste, et des rapports qu'entretiennent les vivants avec une mort qui se présente sur la table d'autopsie, sous ses traits les plus abjects. L'enjeu de cette thèse sera d'envisager la façon dont les fictions policières mettent en scène le cadavre comme le reflet, d'une troublante précision, d'un défaut contemporain de distanciation face à la mort. Il s'agira bien pour nous, et selon un principe analogue à celui qu'applique le philosophe Maxime Coulombe dans son essai sur les zombies, de considérer le cadavre fictionnel comme « analyseur de la société contemporaine » et comme « symptôme de ce qui taraude la conscience de notre époque »
Without bodies, no stories. A vehicle of action, a narrative agent, and the support of a strong identification link between the audience and the character, the body is the main figure of cinematographic and television mediums.If cinema has always, from its early stages, glorified the endless liveliness of bodies, the reverse side of this exposure has simultaneously been lingering: the mute threat of death. However, in films or in television series, if the last breath before death is often synonymous with a ultimate communion with life and with a resistance to death, what happens to the body and the character when death has seized them for ever, and the living – characters and audience – are only left facing the corpse? As a parasite figure, the corpse is neither a character nor even an extra. Both an empty sign and a narrative core, the crime plot will indeed develop from the corpse and its examination, during the autopsy or on the crime scene. And whereas the corpse may seem secondary, even minor, if we look at crime fictions from the angle of its fixed and opaque non-look, it still allows us to see something of the crime and of its deeply unfair nature, and of the relations between the living and a death that appears in its most abject features on the autopsy table. In this study, we will examine how crime fictions stage corpses as disturbingly precise reflects of a contemporary lack of perspective in front of death. Similarly to the philosopher Maxime Coulombe in his essay on zombies, we will consider the fictional corpse as an "analyser of contemporary society" and as a "symptom of what is tormenting the consciousness of our time"

Thesis (M.A.)--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 2001.
Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2824. Typescript. Abstract appears on leaf [2]. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-84).

Thesis (M.P.A.)--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 2003.
Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2954. Typescript. Abstract precedes thesis as 2 preliminary leaves. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 55-58).

Short-chain fatty acids are the major by-products of bacterial fermentation of undigested dietary fibers in human large intestine. SCFAs, mostly propionate and butyrate, inhibit proliferation and induce apoptosis in colon cancer cells, but clinical trials had mixed results regarding the anti-tumor activities of SCFAs. Herein we demonstrate that propionate and butyrate induced autophagy in human colon cancer cells to dampen apoptosis whereas inhibition of autophagy potentiated SCFA induced apoptosis. Colon cancer cells, after propionate treatment, exhibited extensive characteristics of autophagic proteolysis: increased LC3-I to LC3-II conversion, acidic vesicular organelle development and reduced p62/SQSTM1 expression. Propionate-induced autophagy was associated with decreased mTOR activity and enhanced AMP kinase activity. The elevated AMPKα phosphorylation was associated with cellular ATP depletion and overproduction of reactive oxygen species due to mitochondrial dysfunction involving the induction of MPT and loss of Δψ. In this context, mitochondria biogenesis was initiated to recover cellular energy homeostasis. Importantly, when autophagy was prevented either pharmacologically ii (3-MA or chloroquine) or genetically (knockdown of ATG5 or ATG7), the colon cancer cells became sensitized toward propionate induced apoptosis through activation of caspase 7 and its downstream effector caspase-3. The observations indicate that propionatetriggered autophagy serves as an adaptive strategy for retarding mitochondria-mediated apoptotic cell death, whereas application of an autophagy inhibitor (Chloroquine) is expected to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of SCFAs in inducing colon tumor cell apoptosis.

Programmed Cell death (PCD) is a highly conserved and genetically controlled event that plays important roles in animal development, homeostasis and disease. Our first objective was to discover and characterize new genes involved in PCD. Since many PCD genes are conserved in Drosophila, and steroid-induced PCD of larval salivary glands (SGs) is transcriptionally regulated with features of both apoptosis and autophagy, we used this exceptionally well-suited in vivo system and performed Serial Analysis of Gene Expression (SAGE) in three pre-death stages. SAGE identified 1244 expressed transcripts, including genes involved in autophagy, apoptosis, immunity, cytoskeleton remodeling, and proteolysis. Of the 1244 transcripts, 463 transcripts belonged to knownlpredicted genes and were 5-fold differentially expressed prior to cell death. Next, we investigated the role of differentially expressed genes from SAGE, in cell death or cell survival, by RNA interference (RNAi ) in l(2)mbn haemocyte Drosophila cells. l(2)mbn cells undergo morphological changes in response to ecdysone treatment, and ultimately undergo PCD. We used cell viability, cell morphology, and apoptosis assays to identify the death-related genes and determined their ecdysone dependency and function in cell death regulation. Our RNAi screen identified six new pro-death related genes, including SH3PXJ and Soxl4, and 21 new pro-survival genes including SoxN. Identification of Soxl4 as pro-death and SoxN as pro-survival suggests that these Sox box proteins may have opposing roles in ecdysone-mediated cell death. Our final objective was to elucidate the function of CG409], a Drosophila homologue of human TNF-alpha induced proteins 8 (TNFAIP8) we identified from SAGE. We created loss-of-function and overexpression mutants of CG4091 to study gene function in vivo and employed immunoprecipitation and mass-spectrometry assays to identify proteins interacting with CG409] in vitro. We identified two proteins that are involved in n-fatty acid oxidation and several cytoskeletal proteins as interaction partners. Immunofluorescence based assays in vivo and in vitro revealed that CG409] is necessary for cytoskeletal remodeling. Further, defects in CG4091 expression affect cellular functions such as autophagy and lipid metabolism/trafficking that require an intact cytoskeleton. Together, our studies provided new insights into the molecular mechanisms involved in Drosophila SG cell death.

This thesis is a population-based ecological study designed to investigate the issue of mortality displacement (or "harvesting" effect) in the assessment of temperature-related deaths in Brisbane, Australia. It examines the temperature impacts on mortality, and assesses the harvesting effects on the temperature–related deaths. This study contributes to the knowledge base of understanding the temperature-mortality relationship and assists in formulating and evaluating public health intervention strategies within the context of climate change.

Aerosols are particles in the solid or liquid phase that are suspended in the atmosphere. They have an important influence on the atmospheric chemistry and physics, affect the tropospheric chemical composition, can reduce visibility and have important impacts on human health. Aerosols also influence the Earth’s radiation budget. Although a lot of research has been done to investigate the influence of aerosols on the climate, they remain key contributors to the uncertainties in current climate studies due to the lack of information concerning their temporal and spatial distribution. One of the parameters that is of importance to understand the influence of aerosols is the aerosol optical depth (AOD), an integral measurement of the combined aerosol scattering and absorption in the atmospheric column. The first part of this PhD describes an adapted and improved method for the retrieval of AOD values using sun scan measurements from a Brewer spectrophotometer at 340 nm at Uccle. The retrieved AOD values are subjected to a cloud screening technique and are compared to quasi simultaneous, collocated CIMEL AOD values. The good agreement between both instruments highlights that the Brewer is largely sensitive to AOD at 340 nm and it justifies its use in sun scan mode to expand the AOD retrieval network of instruments. The monthly and seasonal behavior of the retrieved AOD values is also studied in this work and our results agree with results found in literature.Another point of concern in scientific communities is the known adverse effect of UV radiation on human health, the biosphere and atmospheric chemistry. Apart from its obvious relation with global solar radiation and ozone, the amount of UV radiation that reaches the surface of the Earth also depends on the characteristics and quantity of aerosols in the atmosphere and accuracy in UV prediction can be improved if the influence of aerosols on surface UV radiation is clarified. For this reason, the second part of this work focuses on the relation between the erythemal UV dose, global solar radiation, total ozone column and AOD (at 320 nm) at Uccle. Simultaneous measurements of these variables are available for a time period of 25 years (1991–2015) and this time series is long enough to allow for reliable determination of significant changes. Different analysis techniques (linear trend analysis, change point analysis and multiple linear regression) are combined to allow for an extensive study of the relations between the variables.
Doctorat en Sciences
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The study analyzed a convenience sample of published accounts of death penalty cases and life without parole cases. The objective of the study was to explore factors that influence the selection of cases for coverage in books, think tank reports (e.g., Heritage Foundation), and periodicals and factors related to coverage of homicides resulting in a death penalty sentence or a life without parole sentence (often termed “America’s other death penalty”). Since this study was exploratory, hypotheses were not offered. However, prior research on the death penalty and on life without parole offered several clues. For example, since black offender/white victim homicides were more likely to result in a death penalty sentence, it was expected that such homicides would more likely to be covered. Since conservatives were more likely to favor the death penalty and liberals were likely to oppose it, it was expected that coverage would vary by how conservative or liberal the coverage source. For example, how the Heritage Foundation covered cases was expected to be different from coverage by Human Rights Watch. In summary, my study revealed opposite results of previous research studies. The results of my study are probably skewed because of the small sample size. A bigger sample size would more than likely resulted in more accurate and reliable results.

Fererkundliches monitoring von Landnutzungswandel ist eine Grundvoraussetzung um negative Auswirkungen globaler Umweltveränderungen zu reduzieren. Verfügbare Methoden unterliegen jedoch räumlichen und zeitlichen Einschränkungen. Die Öffnung des Landsat Archivs, bessere Datenqualität, fortgeschrittene Algorithmen und Rechenkapazitäten erlauben verbessertes Verständnis von Muster-Prozess Zusammenhängen, falls diese Einschränkungen überwunden werden. Das Ziel dieser Dissertation war es, Methoden zu entwickeln und anzuwenden, die eine bessere Nutzung des Landsat Archivs ermöglichen, um Landnutzungswandel in den Karpaten seit 1985 zu quantifizieren. Das sekundäre Ziel war es zu untersuchen, wie der Zusammenbruch des Sozialismus und der Beitritt zur Europäischen Union den regional Landnutzungswandel beeinträchtigt hat. Dafür wurde zunächst ein zeitreihenbasiertes Verfahren genutzt, um mittels verbesserter zeitlicher Auflösung ein besseres Verständnis von Waldstörungsdynamiken während der Umstrukturierung von Forstbesitzverhältnissen zu erlangen. Anschliessend wurden Compositing Algorithmen entwickelt, und mittels dieser die regionalen forst- und landwirtschaftlichen Veränderungen quantifiziert. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass das Ende des Sozialismus zu einer drastischen Reduzierung der Waldstörungen geführt hat und gleichzeitig weitflächig Ackerland aufgegeben wurde. Insgesamt nahm die Waldfläche leicht zu aber übermäßige Störungen erfolgten in verschiedenen Gebieten, verursacht durch den kombinierten Effekt forstwirtschaftlicher Vermächtnisse, natürlicher Störungen sowie Waldbewirtschaftung. Nach dem EU-Beitritt nahmen Störungsdynamiken in den Karpaten im Vergleich zu den ersten Übergangsjahren wieder zu, was auf neuorganiserte Forstwirtschaft mit Zugang zu EU Märkten hindeuten kann. Aufgegebene Ackerflächen wurden in den letzten Jahren vermehrt wiederbewirtschaftet, wahrscheinlich bedingt durch die Agrarpolitik der EU sowie einen zunehmenden Einfluss globaler Märkte.
Remote sensing based monitoring of land change is a prerequisite to reduce the negative impacts of global environmental change. However, available monitoring methods suffer from spatial and/or temporal limitations. The opening of the Landsat archive, advancements in data quality, processing algorithms and capabilities, can improve pattern-process understanding if these limitations are overcome. The overall aim of this dissertation was first, to develop and apply methods that better utilize the rich Landsat record and to map and quantify land change in the Carpathian ecoregion since 1985. The secondary objective is to investigate how the collapse of socialism and accession to the European Union (EU) affected regional land change. First, a trajectory based change detection approach was used to investigate how increased observation frequency helps understanding how forest ownership changes affected forest disturbance dynamics. Second, compositing algorithms are developed to facilitate mapping and change detection over large areas. This allowed assessing changes in forest cover and agriculture. Results showed that overall the collapse of socialism led to drastic declines in forest disturbances and simultaneously to widespread cropland abandonment. Forest cover overall expanded but excessive harvesting prevailed in certain areas, due to combined effects of land use legacies, natural disturbances and forest management. Following the EU accession, disturbance levels increased compared to the transition years, potentially relating to a re-established forestry sector with access to EU timber markets. Abandoned cropland was recultivated throughout the Carpathians during the most recent years, likely influenced by the EU Common Agricultural Policy and increasingly by global markets. This dissertation exemplifies the value of the Landsat archive for land change research which can improve our understanding of land change globally and thus help mitigate its negative impacts.

Esta tesis parte de un primer análisis de un corpus de largometrajes de M. Night Shyamalan que revela una continuidad estilística y temática en todos ellos. A partir de este paradigma, se ha investigado si sus características argumentales y expresivas -presentes también en un conjunto de series televisivas contemporáneas- constituyen una tendencia compartida y articulada bajo la cual observar el panorama actual de la ficción audiovisual, el fantástico como modo y su incidencia en el espectador. Con tal fin, se han estudiado desde la perspectiva hermenéutica, la estética, la narrativa y la fenomenológica el mayor grueso de la filmografía M. Night Shyamalan y las series televisivas Perdidos (J.J. Abrams y Damon Lindelof), Fringe (J.J. Abrams), The Leftovers (Damon Lindelof), Les Revenants (Fabrice Gobert) y Resurrection (Aaron Zelman). En todos estos relatos -atravesados por la muerte- se ha detectado, por un lado, un horizonte compartido con tradiciones anteriores de tipo religioso, dramático, literario y cinematográfico y, por otro, una renovación retórica y poética a través de las metáforas de lo sublime que los mismos relatos articulan. La idiosincrasia de esas figuras provoca la pausa enunciativa y existencial en sus diégesis y la ambigüedad de las identidades que las habitan. Finalmente, de este análisis también se concluye que la lectura que desencadenan estas ficciones se caracteriza por un especial trabajo de reactualización semántica y narrativa y por una hermenéutica de la soledad del receptor frente al umbral final. De todo esto resulta una tendencia del fantástico que prepara a su espectador para la muerte.
This thesis starts with a first corpus of M. Night Shyamalan’s full-length films, which reveals a thematic and stylistic continuity in all of them. From this paradigm, it has been researched whether their plot and expressive similarities are also present in a group of contemporary TV series, representing a new shared and articulated trend which is observed in the current scene of audiovisual fiction, the fantastic as a form and its impact on the spectator. To this end, the large majority of filmography by M. Night Shyamalan and the TV series Lost (J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof), Fringe (J.J. Abrams), The Leftovers (Damon Lindelof), Les Revenants (Fabrice Gobert) and Resurrection (Aaron Zelman) have been studied from a hermeneutical, esthetic, narrative, and phenomenological perspective. On one hand, in all these stories which are crossed by death, it has been detected that they all share horizons with old religious, dramatic, literary and cinematographical traditions, but also on the other hand, they bring together a rhetorical and poetical renovation through metaphors of the sublime. The idiosyncrasy of these figures causes the enunciative and existential pause in its diegesis and the ambiguity of the identities which inhabit them. Finally, from this analysis, it can also been determined that the reading of these fictions is distinguished by a semantical and narrative special work of reupdating and also by a hermeneutical solitude of the reader in the face of final threshold. This all causes a fantastic trend that gets the spectator ready for his death.

碩士
靜宜大學
英國語文學系研究所
92
There has been a change in the attitude towards death in the past half century. People are more willing to face it, and adults try to teach children how to face death through education. Adults can discuss the pain of the loss of a parent with children so as to teach them how to face death. It is an effective way for adults to discuss death with children through a children’s book where death is not so threatening to children as it is in real life. Therefore, to choose an appropriate children’s book is important. The thesis will compare how the Grimm’s tales and the Harry Potter books present death in order to know how to use them as materials in the education on death. This thesis contains five chapters. Chapter I explains the direction of the education about death in current studies and literature. Chapter II, Afterlife in the Grimm’s Tales and the Harry Potter Series, is concerned with the afterlife in Rowling’s books and the Grimm’s tales. Chapter III, The Death of Blood Relatives, focuses on the comparison of the death of blood relatives in Rowling''s books and the Grimm’s tales. Rowling’s books properly present death according to children’s cognitive ability. Chapter IV, Death of Wizards and Witches, focuses on the comparison of the death of the witches and wizards in Rowling’s books and the Grimm’s tales, on the characterization of the witches and wizards, the wizarding world, the symbol of the witches and their fate to die. Chapter V summarizes the difference in presenting death in the Grimm’s tales and Rowling’s books and the changes in people''s views towards death. It is found that, in Rowling’s books, afterlife is redefined and uncertainty about afterlife prevails. In Rowling, death is not a consequence of evil. In the arrangement of death, Rowling often presents a Manichean worldview towards good and evil. Also, her books depict in detail the pain of the loss of a parent, which is similar to the real-life experience. Besides, in the Harry Potter books, witches and wizards are like human beings, threatened by death. By discussing the death of the witches and wizards, children can understand the threat of the death.

This thesis deals with the topic of borders and includes art series, which focuses on the development of social perception and thinking of pupils of second grade of primary school. The theoretical part of the thesis maps the border issue within society. The beginning of the work clarifies the borders in terms of psychology. Afterwards, different ways of dealing with the subject boundaries in art are presented. There are primarily highlighted figures of visual arts and artistic styles that inspired the creation of art series. Works of artists are chronologically ordered into artistic styles and semantically clarified with regard to time, cultural and social context. The next part of this work is devoted to a school curriculum and the possibilities of including the chosen theme to teaching of art subject within the school educational programs, for which the project was implemented. At the end of the theoretical part there is outlined the history of the project teaching and the method used for the creation of the art series.The project part is a set of seven lessons dealing with the topic of boundaries, which are focused on working with different techniques. The whole project was based on the perception and understanding of the issue of boundaries by the pupils of primary school during particular lessons. The course of the lessons and their content is described chronologically. The end of the practical part presents additional possibilities of how, according to the author of this qualification work, the topic of boundaries can be used for further processing.

Background: This thesis explores the effects of medication prescribing on patient outcomes in an ageing population, specifically, the population of Australian veterans. The primary source of data is the computerised administrative claims database maintained by the Commonwealth Department of Veterans' Affairs. This database is a valuable resource yet knowledge about how these data can be analysed and interpreted to study the effects of medicine use in the Australian setting is limited. An important source of bias in observational studies relating medication prescribing to health outcomes arises from confounding by the reason for prescription, or confounding by indication. The extent to which traditional pharmacoepidemiological studies utilising administrative claims databases can deal with confounding is limited as these data sources often lack information on many potentially important confounders, such as clinical information, life style factors and disease severity. Aim: The aim of this thesis was to investigate the use of two methods, developed to overcome possible bias in observational studies due to unmeasured confounding; instrumental variable analysis and the self-controlled case-series design. To illustrate how these techniques may be used to overcome confounding, I investigate how they apply to the assessment of the adverse effects of antipsychotic prescribing in the elderly. Methods: The instrumental variable analysis was used to compare the risk of death, hip fracture and pneumonia between the antipsychotic classes. The instrumental variable analysis aims to control for unmeasured confounding by attempting to mimic the process of random assignment in a randomised controlled trial. The self-controlled case-series design was used to investigate the risk of hospitalisation for stroke, hip fracture and pneumonia associated with antipsychotic initiation. The self-controlled case-series design uses a patient as their own control, thereby implicitly controlling for constant patient specific confounders, even those that are unmeasured. Results: Using a cohort of 20,205 elderly patients aged over 65 years of age, I have shown that the profiles of patients receiving antipsychotic medicines vary between the class of antipsychotic initiated and those variables that differ are likely to be associated with the reported adverse events of these medicines. This indicates the potential for confounding in observational studies of antipsychotics and suggests that appropriate study designs are required to minimise the effect of confounding in order to get a clear understanding of the potential adverse events of these medicines. The instrumental variable analysis suggested that typical antipsychotics were associated with an extra 24 (95% confidence interval (CI) 18-30) deaths per 100 patients per year compared to atypical antipsychotics, and an extra 10 (95% CI 7-14) deaths per 100 patients per year among nursing home residents. In this analysis I proposed a new instrument, facility prescribing preference, as an alternative to the doctor prescribing preference instrument; the latter which has been used extensively in the pharmacoepidemiological literature. I was able to show that facility preference may be a valid instrument for further work in this area as it was highly correlated with actual treatment (Odds Ratio 19.2; 95% CI 17.1-21.6), provided a good balance of measured patient characteristics and was consistently strong over time. While the instrumental variable analysis can provide information regarding the comparative risk of antipsychotics between the classes it cannot inform about the individual risk of these medicines compared to no treatment. To answer this question I used the self-controlled case-series design to estimate the excess risk of hospitalisation for stroke, hip fracture and pneumonia after initiation of an antipsychotic. Atypical antipsychotics were not associated with an increased risk of stroke, which is consistent with randomised controlled trial evidence. No such evidence is available for typical antipsychotics in the elderly, however, the case-series analysis suggests that there is a small but significantly increased risk of hospitalisation for stroke in the first week after initiation (Incidence Rate Ratio (IRR); 2.1, 95% CI 1.1-4.2). For pneumonia the risk was raised in all periods after antipsychotic initiation. This risk was highest in the first week after initiation and remained significantly raised by 50% with more than 12 weeks of treatment (Typical antipsychotics IRR; 1.5, 95% CI 1.2-1.9, Atypical antipsychotics IRR; 1.5, 95% CI 1.3-1.7). The risk of hip fracture was significantly increased for both classes but this risk was sustained only with long-term typical antispychotic use (IRR; 1.3, 95% CI 1.1-1.6). The self-controlled case-series design has been used extensively in the investigation of vaccine safety. I have found, however, that the application of this design to the study of the effects of medicine prescribing in the elderly may require the addition of an unexposed group to control for the increasing incidence of hospitalisation with age in this population. I also explored the use of risk periods prior to initiating therapy with antipsychotics. Patients were more likely to have had a hospitalisation for stroke in the week prior to initiating typical antipsychotics (IRR; 6.9, 95% CI 4.7-10.0) while atypical antipsychotic initiators had no excess risk in the same period (IRR; 1.2, 95% CI 0.5-2.6). These results suggest that the use of pre-exposure risk periods may be required in medicine outcome studies when the outcome of interest is a hospitalisation event that leads to an increased likelihood of initiating treatment. Conclusion: This thesis has illustrated that identifying and reducing confounding will enhance the validity of observational studies investigating the safety of medicines using computerised claims databases. By employing methods that help to overcome the problem of confounding I was able to demonstrate that antipsychotic use in the elderly is associated with significant harm and the increasing use of these medicines in Australia poses a major public health concern. Randomised controlled trial evidence suggests that for every 100 patients treated with atypical antipsychotics over 12 weeks, only 8 to 33 would show any benefit, however, there would be 1 additional death and 2 additional cerebrovascular events. Using the self-controlled case-series design I estimated that there would be 8 additional pneumonias, and 2.5 additional hip fractures for every 100 patients treated with atypical antipsychotics over 12 weeks. In addition, typical antispychotics were found to be associated with at least equivalent, if not more, harm. The knowledge obtained in this thesis will help to inform how Australian computerised claims databases may be interrogated to examine the safety of medicines that are under investigated in randomised controlled trials. This information will allow prescribers and policy makers to make more informed decisions about the risks of medicines.
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Population Health and Clinical Practice, 2010

碩士
國立中山大學
海洋地質及化學研究所
96
This study investigates depth and temporal variability of organic carbon (POC), total nitrogen (TN) and their isotopic compositions in sinking particulate organic matter collected at station KK (18°15’N; 115°5’E), northern South China Sea. Sinking particles collected from two separate sediment trap moorings conducted from August 8, 2004 to February 16, 2005 (KK-3) and from April 1, 2005 to October 10, 2005 (KK-4). Results show that their variations respond closely to the strong seasonality in the surface layer, but are modified considerably by subsequent remineralization and large terrigeneous input in the deep water. The highest of Al concentrations at 3500m is equivalent approximately to 58% of lithogenic material. Sinking particles of terrestrial origins has lower δ13C values of POM. Terrigeneous input should make the δ13C values increase but decrease from 600m to 3500m. Based upon data measured in this study, a C/N increase rate of 0.21 unit per 1 km of water depth. The C/N ratio of POM collected in the winter is significantly higher than those collected in the rest of the year (9.05 vs. 7.02). With this regard, cyanobacteria, which have been reported as an important N2-fixer may attribute to the insufficiency in new production sources. The δ15N values prove the occurrence of nitrogen fixation in the surface water of the South China Sea in summer.