The location of the first maximum in the first sojourn of a Dyck path

Analysis of Algorithm

Hidden Markov Models for Time-Inhomogeneous and Incompletely Observed Point Processes

Many point processes such as earthquakes or volcanic eruptions usually have incomplete records with the degree of incompleteness varying over time. Consequently, hazard estimation from such time-inhomogeneous incomplete records is complicated and potentially biased. Since the number of missing events is unknown, two distinct HMM-type methodologies are proposed: one with the observed process having a fixed number of missing events between each pair of consecutively observed events, and the other with the observed process having a variable number of missing events between each pair of consecutively observed events in an incomplete point process record. In the first approach, a general class of inhomogeneous hidden semi-Markov models (IHSMMs) is proposed for modelling incompletely observed point processes when incompleteness does not necessarily behave in a stationary and memoryless manner. The key feature of the proposed model is that the sojourn times of the hidden states in the semi-Markov chain depend on time, making it an inhomogeneous semi-Markov chain. We check a conjecture of consistency of the parameter estimators of the proposed model by simulation study using direct numerical optimization of the log-likelihood function. We apply this class of models to a global volcanic eruption catalogue to investigate the time-dependent incompleteness of the record by proposing a particular IHSMM with time-dependent shifted Poisson distributed state durations and a renewal process as the observed process with a fixed number of missing events between each pair of consecutively observed events in the record. A combination of the Akaike Information Criterion and residual analysis is used to choose the best model. The selected inhomogeneous hidden semi-Markov model provides useful insights into the completeness of a global record of volcanic eruptions during the last 2000 years, demonstrating the effectiveness of this method. In the second approach, shifted compound Poisson-gamma (SCPG) and time-dependent SCPG (TSCPG) renewal processes are introduced in order to model the unknown and time-dependent random variable number of missing events between each pair of consecutively observed events in incompletely observed point processes. The SCPG renewal process models the shifted Poisson distributed number of missing events, and the TSCPG renewal process models the time-dependent shifted Poisson distributed number of missing events between each pair of consecutively observed events in the gamma renewal process. In addition to IHSMMs and SCPG renewal processes, a special case of inhomogeneous hidden Markov models (IHMMs) is developed to examine nonstationary incompleteness of point processes. The multinomial logistic functions are adopted to formulate the time-varying transition probabilities in the proposed IHMM in the way that characterizes the temporal structure of the missingness of events in records. The SCPG and TSCPG renewal processes are used as the observed processes in HMMs, HSMMs, IHMMs and IHSMMs to model the time-dependent incomplete point process records. Simulation experiments are employed to check the performance of proposed renewal processes with different types of HMMs. We apply these models to a global volcanic eruption record during the last 10000 years to analyze and demonstrate how we estimate the completeness of the record and the future hazard rate. All proposed models can be utilized to model other types of inhomogeneous processes with or without missing data

Wanderlust: Young Canadian Professionals’ Movement and Lives Between Canada and Japan

Abstract Wanderlust: Young Canadian Professionals’ Movement and Lives Between Canada and Japan Ravi Jilwah This M.A. anthropology thesis investigates the movement and transnational lives of young Canadian professionals who have worked and lived in Japan. I address the problem of linear notions of the life course and essentialist categorizations of mobile agents. This problem is largely in line with concepts such as the ‘middle class’ that are no longer tied solely to notions of wealth and associated forms of prestige. I approach this problem in engaging with particular moments in young people’s lives that inspire and propel them to pursue opportunities beyond the confines of longstanding western notions of the life course. In this study, I carried out ethnographic fieldwork in organizational events pertaining to this movement. I also interviewed 15 young Canadian professionals who have or were intending to move between Canada and Japan to explore their aspirations, career goals, and future plans. I apply concepts of mobility, youth, and the life course to generate scholarly interest into the lives of young westerners and to demonstrate that we need not necessarily look far and beyond our borders to discover aspects of ‘foreignness’. I furthermore attempt to convince readers that it is not solely the experiences of travel that changes sojourners, but the way and the means in which they internalize, process, and voice their travel experiences at different points in their lives

Before Rubens: Titian’s Reception in the Habsburg Netherlands, c. 1550-1600

This research aims to retrace the reception of the art of Titian in the Southern Netherlands from about 1550, when his fame reached its peak at Brussels court, to about 1600, before the crystallization of his artistic “canone” and the developments of the XVIIth century that led to the so-called “Europeanisation of Venetian art”. Whereas the Titianism of the XVIIth century painters Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) and Anton van Dyck (1599-1641) had been thoroughly investigated, the timeframe immediately antecedent presents some gaps and unsolved questions. In particular, did the Flemish artists develop a homogeneous and unequivocal “idea of Titian”, or there were many? And which were the reasons for selecting and using or refusing specific aspects of Titian’s art? In the first chapter, I analyse the court environment of the Brussels court and especially the roles of Charles V (1500-1558), Mary of Hungary (1505-1558) and Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle (1518-1586) in selecting and directing Titian’s production for the court. Their political necessities, artistic taste, and subscription to a language of power oriented towards an all’antica idiom shaped the idea of Titian in the Netherlands. This idea was inherently classical, dealing with Michelangelism and with the Central-Italian art, and the pictorial style was far from the glazed and polished one of the Flemish masters, but it was also not yet the “pittura a macchia” described in 1568 by Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574). The second and the third chapters are devoted to Netherlandish artists who had a direct relation to the Habsburgs, being both court painters for Charles V first and for Philip II (1527-1598) after. The first, Michiel Coxcie (1499-1592), was a history painter who specialised in altarpieces and religious works following the novelties of Roman art, in particular Raphael’s. Being one of the favourite artists of the Brussels court, he was Titian’s peer, and many of their works were hanging next to each other in the Habsburgs palaces. Coxcie used Titian’s motives in his art together with the Central-Italian’s, with no distinction. The second, Anthonis Mor (1520-1577), specialised in portraiture. He adapted the full-length type of portrait that Titian had developed for the Habsburgs for the Flemish-oriented taste of the Netherlandish, German and Spanish aristocracy. His adaptation led to the standardisation of this type as the perfect expression of power through portraiture. After focusing on the court environment under the direct influence of the Habsburgs, I open my view to the artistic production of the city of Antwerp and I identify two macro-themes: the religious paintings and the mythological subjects with the display of naked women. In the fourth chapter, I discuss the issue of Titian’s religious inventions that were adapted and re-invented by the artists in connection to the religious debate. Both Protestants and Catholics expressed their concerns about images, and after the Beeldenstorm (1566) the Netherlandish artists had to experiment and test the boundaries of decorum to find their secure place in the market. Some inventions by the Venetian had particular fortune because of their connection with the Habsburgs (Ecce homo and Mater Dolorosa), but a particular composition had been adapted by painters for its theological implication, namely the engraving of the Adoration of the shepherds (1532/33). The fifth and last chapter studies the reception of the mythological paintings by Titian and of the “Titianesque” mythological themes related to the immense fame of his poesie for Philip II. After discussing the problems of the image debate about lasciviousness and the representation of the nude, I examine how this affected the art market of Antwerp. The depiction of mythologies was not particularly popular in the decades from the 1560s to the 1580s, and few painters specialised in these themes. The artists selected as case studies are Jan Massys (1509-1575), Frans Floris (1517-1570), Jacob de Backer (c. 1555-c. 1585) and Gillis Coignet (1538-1599). These painters worked for circles of rich merchants who collected especially mythological artworks and sold them abroad on the French market and to foreign Princes like Rudolph II (1552-1612). The approaches of these painters to Titian’s art were very sporadic and often too emphasized by the scholars, but they contributed to the process of assimilation of certain themes and compositions into the pictorial language of the end of the century. Gillis Coignet was the first Netherlandish painter who consistently adapted Titian’s inventions and also the first who experimented on the renowned pictorial technique of the Venetian master. In the end, I draw some conclusions on the aspects of Titianisme in the Netherlands before Rubens and the establishment of the Brussels court of Albert VII (1559-1621) and Isabella Clara Eugenia (1566-1633). The research downsized some ideas on the impact of Titian’s art on the Netherlandish painters and revealed the coexistence of different “ideas of Titian” related to the experience of the artists and their intentions. In this study, I also pinpoint some critical issues in the relation between the “idea” of the painter advocated by literature and the one grounded in the practical use of his art

Study abroad: perspectives on transitions to adulthood

The Irish immrama literary style seems the most appropriate way to represent student narratives based on their study abroad experiences in Ireland. The chapters containing the immrama of students are an ethnographic experiment in which the reflexivity students demonstrated through the interview process is presented in narrative form. This writing style provides the context for the examination of issues related to academic aspirations, professional, and personal wandering, and how study abroad experiences and tourism behaviour contribute to the transition to adulthood. The immrama are located in the evennumbered chapters. Daily challenges and student-organised travel experiences that develop as part of a study abroad have the potential to transform the participants. Eight months of fieldwork in the Republic of Ireland during the 2008/9 academic year revealed the types of activities students independently organised during their period as educational tourists in an international context and the nature of the learning outcomes. The most reported outcome of their sojourn was increased self-confidence. Wandering among academic settings, geographic locations, and social interactions resulted in the development of intercultural competences and the shift in frames of reference. Chapter 3 recounts the theoretical and epistemological basis for this thesis. Anthropology provides the basis for discussion of adulthood, liminality, and the development of friendship through learning opportunities inherent in study abroad programmes. Andragogical theories identify and define adult learning as independent and student-directed. This approach allows for discussion of learning such as intercultural competences, the outcomes of studying abroad, settings that foster personal development, experiences that transform students, and learning as a transition to adulthood. Chapters 5 and 7 examine the opportunities for learning and personal development that result from independent travel. Students developed friendship groups by living and travelling together. The establishment of friendship networks facilitated intercultural competences through interactions with other international students and the travel that they undertook together. Students did not think of themselves as tourists in Limerick, but did when travelling on the continent. At other times, they needed to host guests who came to visit. Study abroad was not without risks associated with credit for courses taken, personal risks associated with travel, and online risks in the use of social media. Travel and overcoming challenges resulted in the development of a sense of self-confidence and self-reliance. Students felt they learned more from travelling than they did in their courses. Chapter 9 presents the methodology that was established to conduct this research and the strategies used to collect data. The multi-sited field combined with multiple methods of data collection yielded a rich set of data. This writer participated in the activities with students during the fieldwork period, becoming an observant wanderer. Data collection was designed to elicit students’ points of view about the value and challenges of the experience. Educational ethnography in the future will need to consider issues relating to multisited ethnography, the researcher as a primary site, and autoethnography. The relationship between the students and the observer became important because as memory, storytelling and writing revealed the power of reflexivity, the ethnographer was challenged to represent the intertextuality of the process. Chapter 10 identifies the implications of methodological positioning: the importance of wandering as a legitimate strategy for learning, accounting for intertextuality in fieldwork and analysis, and the need to reconceptualise the educational ethnographic field

Making Space for Dying: Portraits of Living with Dying

In Making Space for Dying: Portraits of Living with Dying, I describe the everyday lived experience of dying and the care culture within freestanding, community-based, end-of-life residences (CBEOLR) utilizing portraiture and arts-based research. I craft four case studies into “portraits,” based on interviews, on-site visits, up-close observation, and field notes. In the person-centered portraits, I reveal the inner landscape of two terminally ill women, with data represented in poetry. In the place-centered portraits, I “map” the social topography of two CBEOLRs to illustrate how lives and care of the dying are emplaced, from the perspectives of community leaders, residence staff, volunteers, family members, and residents, with data presented as aesthetic (storied) narrative. Collage and photographs further enhance the text. Little has been written about the meaning of home and the centrality of a home-like environment in the healthcare milieu, specifically in the context of the end-of-life care setting. My research helps to fill a gap in understanding care culture in the freestanding CBEOLR, a care-setting genre rarely examined in the literature. Additionally, my study develops the notion of a “good place to die” and introduces the Home for the Dying, a CBEOLR model unique to New York State. Lastly, building on the literature on liminality, and informed by clinical practice as an oncology social worker, my study specifically highlights the terminal stage of cancer and introduces the concept terminal liminality, characterized by descent. Two broad dimensions emerged: Nesting-in-Being and Nesting-in-Place. Together, these dimensions created a framework for exploring care culture and ways of working with existential suffering. The bird’s nest, as a utilitarian though temporal structure, provided an elegant metaphor for the special end-of-life residence. Three linked sub-themes related to care culture emerged, Nest of Simple Things (meaning making), Nest of Belonging (community making), and Nest of Everydayness (home making). Implications for leading change in end-of-life care highlight an initiative to establish and maintain a CBEOLR in my own community. This dissertation contains embedded jpg images and two supplemental files [MP4 video, MP3 audio]. The electronic version of this Dissertation is at AURA, http://aura.antioch.edu/etds/ and OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/et