Reading Pitscottie's Cronicles: a case study on the history of literacy in Scotland, 1575-1814

This thesis addresses a range of research questions regarding literacy in early modern Scotland. Using the early modern manuscripts and printed editions of Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie’s late sixteenth-century 'Cronicles of Scotland' as a case study on literacy history, this thesis poses the complementary questions of how and why early modern Scottish reading communities were encountering Pitscottie’s 'Cronicles', and how features of the material page can be interpreted as indicators of contemporary literacy practices. The answers to these questions then provide the basis for the thesis to ask broader socio-cultural and theoretical questions regarding the overall literacy environment in Scotland between 1575 and 1814, and how theorists conceptualise the history of literacy. Positioned within the theoretical groundings of historical pragmatics and ‘new philology’ – and the related approach of pragmaphilology – this thesis returns to the earlier philological practice of close textual analysis, and engages with the theoretical concept of mouvance, in order to analyse how the changing ‘form’ of Pitscottie’s 'Cronicles', as it was reproduced in manuscript and print throughout the early modern period, indicates its changing ‘function’. More specifically, it suggests that the punctuation practices and paratextual features of individual witnesses of the text function to aid the highly-nuanced reading practices and purposes of the discrete reading communities for which they were produced. This thesis includes extensive descriptive material which presents previously unrecorded data regarding twenty manuscripts and printed witnesses of Pitscottie’s 'Cronicles', contributing to a gap in Scotland’s literary/historiographical canon. It then analyses this material using a transferable methodological framework which combines the quantitative analysis of micro-data with qualitative analysis of this data within its socio-cultural context, in order to conduct diachronic comparative analysis of copy-specific information. The principal findings of this thesis suggest that Pitscottie’s 'Cronicles' were being read for a combination of devotional and didactic purposes, and that multiple reading communities, employing highly nuanced reading practices, were encountering the text near-contemporaneously. This thesis further suggests that early modern literacy practices, and the specific reading communities which employ them, should be described as existing within a spectrum of available practices (i.e. more or less oral/aural or silent, and intensive or extensive in practice) rather than as dichotomous entities. As such, this thesis argues for the rejection of evolutionary theories of the history of literacy, suggesting that rather than being described antithetically, historical reading practices and purposes must be recognised as complex, coexisting socio-cultural practices, and the multiplicity of reading communities within a single society must be acknowledged and analysed as such, as opposed to being interpreted as universal entities.

Las relaciones comerciales de Costa Rica en el Pacífico (1575-1821)

IntroducciónLos inicios de la colonización de Costa Rica y el comercio con Panamá En 1575 podemos situar los inicios de la sociedad colonial de Costa Rica y el fin del largo periodo de inestabilidad que caracterizó a la conquista. La colonización del interior del país se sustentó en el establecimiento del régimen de encomienda sobre la población indígena de gran parte de los habitantes originales del Valle Central del país, sobrevivientes a la catástrofe demográfica provocada por la conquista española…

The influence of social communication networks on intentions to purchase on the web

Despite the increased offering of online communication channels to support web-based retail systems, there is limited marketing research that investigates how these channels act singly, or in combination with online channels, to influence an individual' s intention to purchase online. If the marketer's strategy is to encourage online transactions, this requires a focus on consumer acceptance of the web-based transaction technology, rather than the purchase of the products per se. The exploratory study reported in this paper examines normative influences from referent groups in an individual's on and offline social communication networks that might affect their intention to use online transaction facilities. The findings suggest that for non-adopters, there is no normative influence from referents in either network. For adopters, one online and one offline referent norm positively influenced this group's intentions to use online transaction facilities. The implications of these findings are discussed together with future research directions.

An activity theory framework for industrial design

Ethnography has gained wide acceptance in the industrial design profession and curriculum as a means of understanding the user. However, there is considerable confusion about the particularities of its practice accompanied by the absence of an interoperable vocabulary. The consequent interdisciplinary effort is a power play between disciplines whereby the methodological view of ethnography marginalises its theoretical and analytical components. In doing so, it restricts the potential of ethnography suggesting the need for alternative methods of informing the design process. This article suggests that activity theory, with an emphasis on human activity as the fundamental unit of study, is an appropriate methodology for the generation of user requirements. The process is illustrated through the adaptation of an ethnographic case study, for the design of classroom furniture in India.

Heavy truck suspension optimization based on modified skyhook damping control

This paper presents a multi-objective optimization strategy for heavy truck suspension systems based on modified skyhook damping (MSD) control, which improves ride comfort and road-friendliness simultaneously. A four-axle heavy truck-road coupling system model was established using functional virtual prototype technology; the model was then validated through a ride comfort test. As the mechanical properties and time lag of dampers were taken into account, MSD control of active and semi-active dampers was implemented using Matlab/Simulink. Through co-simulations with Adams and Matlab, the effects of passive, semi-active MSD control, and active MSD control were analyzed and compared; thus, control parameters which afforded the best integrated performance were chosen. Simulation results indicated that MSD control improves a truck’s ride comfort and roadfriendliness, while the semi-active MSD control damper obtains road-friendliness comparable to the active MSD control damper.

The role of product involvement in e-service evaluations

This paper provides conceptual and empirical insights into consumers’ evaluations of online services and their consequent behavioural intentions. We show that behavioural intentions in online contexts are driven primarily by two factors, namely online service satisfaction and perceived service quality. Perceived sacrifice and service quality are found to have an indirect effect on online service satisfaction through their influences on perceived value associated with the online service. In addition, we examine the moderating effects of product involvement and discuss the implications of our research findings.

The role of land use and psycho-social factors in high density residents' work travel mode choices : implications for sustainable transport policy

Imperatives to improve the sustainability of cities often hinge upon plans to increase urban residential density to facilitate greater reliance on sustainable forms of transport and minimise car use. However there is ongoing debate about whether high residential density land use in isolation results in sustainable transport outcomes. Findings from surveys with residents of inner-urban high density dwellings in Brisbane, Australia, suggest that solo car travel accounts for the greatest modal share of typical work journeys and attitudes toward dwelling and neighbourhood transport-related features, residential sorting factors and socio-demographics, alongside land use such as public transport availability, are significantly associated with work travel mode choice. We discuss the implications of our findings for transport policy and management including encouraging relatively sustainable intermodal forms of transport for work journeys.

Quality assurance in higher education : for whom and of what?

Over the past two decades the quality assurance of higher education institutions has captured a growing interest as evidenced by the increasing number of national and transnational bodies engaged in this area. Yet as the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close, higher education systems and thus the regimes designed to ensure their quality are faced with significant complexity. Issues of accountability, authority and responsibility are paramount when responding to industry bodies, to globalisation and the transnational provision of higher education and to the use of market mechanisms. In this paper we raise some of the challenges for quality assurance for higher education presented by this growing complexity through the question, quality assurance in higher education, for whom and of what, highlighting our concern for a need to expand the centrality of accountability to include authority and responsibility as part of the quality assurance regimes for higher education