Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'William’s function'

The presented diploma thesis deals with the problem of determining the stress singularity exponent of the V-notch. This task can be divided into two parts. The first deals with the theoretical background, that means the basic relations of mechanics and the basic concepts of fracture mechanics. The second part deals with the elaboration of the Williams method and the creation of a program for calculating the stress singularity exponent.

Studies investigating executive functioning (EF) - namely skills involving higher-order cognitive activity and/or the concurrent storage and processing of material – in individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) and Down syndrome (DS) – have not generally treated task modality (verbal vs. visuospatial) as a meaningful factor. This is surprising, given the respective ability profiles which with the two conditions have been associated. Individuals with WS display relative verbal strengths, along with visuospatial processing difficulties, while individuals with DS are often reported to display verbal difficulties more marked than their overall, or non-verbal, levels of cognitive functioning would suggest. Of the studies which have treated task modality as a meaningful factor, very few have examined skills in more than one EF domain, and none have compared individuals from either population with any other specific diagnostic group, rendering difficult considerations of whether performance patterns are syndrome-specific. The principal aim of this thesis was thus to specify the finer-grained nature of EF skills in both populations, across a wider range of EF domains than previously employed. Another aim was to better enable a consideration of the syndrome specifity of each group‟s performance, by including both populations. Four empirical research studies were undertaken. In each, children and adolescents with WS and DS were presented with an analogous verbal and visuospatial task pair, within a specific EF domain; executive-loaded working memory (ELWM), inhibition, fluency and switching respectively. The two groups were compared to typically-developing (TD) children using regression 2 techniques controlling for factors which may influence executive performance. The hypotheses were a) that individuals with WS would show relative verbal EF strengths, as indicated by comparison to the TD group, with weaker performance on the corresponding visuospatial measures, b) that individuals with DS would show relative visuospatial EF strengths, as indexed in the same way, and c) that syndrome specifity would be indicated by differences between the performance patterns of each group. Findings across the four studies were mixed. Individuals with WS showed expected relative verbal strengths with regard to both ELWM and fluency. However, verbal and visuospatial inhibitory difficulties, as well as a relative verbal switching weakness, were also observed. Individuals with DS displayed the expected relative visuospatial strength on the switching task. However, no effect of task modality was found for inhibition and fluency in this group, while difficulties were observed across both verbal and visuospatial ELWM tasks. A preliminary indication of syndrome specificity was offered by the differing patterns displayed by the two groups, across EF domains. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for a more multi-faceted understanding of the respective EF profiles of individuals with WS and DS, which attempts to account for the effect of task modality across a number of EF domains

The musical and spiritual life of Mary Lou Williams (1910 - 1981) came together in her later years in the writing of Mary Lou's Mass. Being both Roman Catholic and a jazz pianist and composer, it was inevitable that Williams would be the first jazz composer to write a setting of the mass. The degree of success resulting from the combination of jazz and the traditional forms of Western art music has always been controversial. Because of Williams's personal faith and aesthetics of music, however, she had little choice but to attempt the union of jazz and liturgical worship. After a biography of Williams, discussed in the context of her musical aesthetics, this thesis investigates the elements of conventional mass settings and oral tradition found in Mary Lou's Mass.

Дисертаційна робота присвячена розробці чисельних і аналітичних методів розрахунку коефіцієнта інтенсивності напружень, (КІН) для некласичних проблем механіки руйнування, зокрема, для тріщин складної форми та для тріщин в тонкостінних конструкціях з врахуванням геометричної нелінійності, (ГН). Представлена модифікація методу Вільямса, що враховує затухаючі на нескінченності члени. Досліджено межі та надані рекомендації щодо застосування даного методу. Розроблено аналітичний метод розрахунку КІН в трубах з довгими осьовими поверхневими тріщинами з врахуванням ГН в залежності від внутрішнього тиску. Наведено результати верифікації величин КІН з отриманими в роботі чисельними розв’язками МСЕ. Побудовані чисельні моделі для розрахунку КІН та розкриття берегів тріщин в ГН постановці для наскрізних тріщин в залежності від змінної величини осьової сили. Побудована апроксимаційна формула, що описує вплив ГН ефекту для узагальненої осьової сили та безрозмірної довжини тріщини. Показана значимість ефекту для реальних лабораторних експериментів. Розроблено універсальний напіваналітичний метод розв’язку інтегро-диференційного рівняння теорії пружності для плоских тріщин нормального відриву довільної форми. Для перевірки аналітичних результатів побудовані чисельні моделі МСЕ для тріщин різної форми, наприклад, для прямокутної, внутрішньої півелітичної тріщини, тощо, та проведено співставлення результатів. Проведені практичні розрахунки КІН в часі для елементів конструкцій АЕС для різних сценаріїв протікання аварійних ситуацій. Створено ряд імітаційних моделей з вбудованою тріщиною, для якої розрахунки КІН проводилися методами нелінійної механіки руйнування. Для тріщин, що проходять через наплавлений матеріал, де відбувається стрибки напружень, обґрунтовано застосування методу функцій впливу, для чого розроблено аналітико-чисельну процедуру, що використовує частково неперервні базові закони навантаження.
The dissertation is dedicated to the development of numerical and analytical methods for calculating the stress intensity factor (SIF) for nonclassical problems of fracture mechanics, in particular, for cracks of complex shape and for cracks in thin structures with taking into account geometric nonlinearity (GN) and their applications in various industries, in particular, for nuclear power plants, for calculation of the elements of the reactor unit. A modification of Williams's method is presented, which describes the stress state in the crack tip. For modification of the classical approach in the considered method the additional members were presented, which are infinite in the crack tip, but attenuate at infinity. The main idea of the method is to divide the whole area of the body into two separate parts – internal one, which embraces the tip of the crack, and the external one. In the inner area, only the classic Williams functions are used, and in the outer area both the classical members and additional ones are used. At the boundary between the selected subdomains, the conjugation conditions are to be fulfilled, the essence of which is to equalize here the stresses and displacements. The very high efficiency of this method is shown for bodies that have the shape of a circle, or are infinite, where almost exact values (up to 6-7 digits) are achieved when using no more than 12-16 members of the expansion. However, for a very elongated rectangular body the method gives much worse results, and the error can reach up to 2%. The practical significance of the proposed approach consists in the obtaining the simple and effective tool for testing the capabilities of commercial packages for calculating the parameters of fracture mechanics, which, as we know, do not always provide the correct results for case when load is applied on the crack surfaces. A thin-walled pipe with a long surface crack is considered. The pipe, surface of which may contain the initial deviation form ideal circle, is loaded by inner pressure. In first time the problem of determining the SIF was considered in a geometrically nonlinear formulation, when changes in the geometry of the body in the process of deformation are accounted for linear material behavior. Based on the Chen-Finnie method, which considers the crack as concentrated compliance, and on original solution for geometrically nonlinear behavior of curved initially distorted beam, the compact analytical formulas are obtained, which gives the value of SIF for each value of inner pressure. Comparison of the analytical results with those obtained by careful numerical FEM analysis, on the one hand, showed their good correspondence, and therefore the accuracy and efficiency of both the analytical and numerical procedures are confirmed. On the other hand, for the first time in the scientific literature, the value of SIF in a geometrically nonlinear formulation are obtained for surface cracks in slightly distorted cylindrical shell with surface long crack. It was shown that even for perfectly circular pipes having the cracks with depth up to half of the thickness of pipe walls, loaded by moderate level of inner pressure, the geometrical nonlinear values of SIF can be 10-15% less than those at linear approach application. This is very significant practical result. Another geometrically nonlinear problem is numerically investigated by known commercial FEM software for the through crack, which is loaded by a significant value of additional longitudinal force (the main factor of geometric nonlinearity considered) and small value of internal pressure (linear consideration). This statement distinguished this task from research conducted at NASA (USA), where the pressure and axial force were proportional as to pipe with closed ends. The geometric nonlinearity of the study is investigated through an incremental increase in loads and the corresponding recalculation of the SIF for the already taken into account changes in the deformed geometry (curvature). A number of tasks for determining the SIF for different pipe radii and dimensionless force values were calculated. Dimensionless parameters, which characterize the deviation of the values of SIF from the linear one, are numerically determined. Application of least square method allowed to suggest the simplified analytical formula for calculation of these deviations. These results are of great theoretical and practical importance. In particular, it is shown that for real pipes the neglecting by influence of axial force in usual approach may lead to 4-6% error of SIF determination. It is noted that additional account for large values of pressure, possible plastic deformations, may further reduce the actual values of SIF. Thus, the significance of the problems and the need for further research in this direction are shown. The necessity of analysis of flat cracks of non-canonical shape in three-dimensional bodies is noted. This is due to the fact that almost all existing solutions in the literature and reference results in normative documents are given for cracks that have shape of an ellipse or its part. However, real cracks detected by non-destructive testing are irregularly shaped cracks. Therefore, it is necessary to create the analytical methods that would allow to assess the impact of the crack shape, and to verify them with careful numerical procedures by FEM. For this purpose, flat internal cracks in infinite 3D body are considered. The formulation of problems for them is reduced to well-known integro-differential equation of the theory of elasticity. Note, that exact fundamental analytical solutions of which exist only for a circular crack and only for some simple laws of loading for an elliptic crack. A universal semi-analytical method for solving the integro-differential equation of the theory of elasticity for plane cracks of normal separation of arbitrary shape has been developed. It is proposed to consider the displacement of the crack edges as a product of a certain function of the crack shape, which satisfy to known asymptotic behavior of the displacement field near the crack front, and a certain polynomial series. As for the functions of the form, three variants of their choice were investigated - a) classical, which depends on the squares of ratio of radial coordinate of the considered point, and the corresponding coordinate of contour point; b) multiplicative, based on the product of equations describing the straight sections of the crack contour, and c) the original Oore-Burns function, which is an integral of the crack contour from the inverse square of the distance of the considered point to each point of the contour. The results showed that the greatest accuracy is achieved by application of hypersingular approach with Oore-Burns function of form. The verification of results was performed for elliptic crack, semielliptic inner crack, rectangular crack. The results were compared with numerical ones calculated by FEM. Practical calculations of SIF dependance with time for NPP reactor ant its elements for different scenarios of emergency situations are carried out. A number of simulation models with a built-in crack have been created, for which SIF calculations were performed by nonlinear FEM analysis. For cracks going through the cladding, where stress jumps occur, the method of influence functions is elaborated, and analytical-numerical procedure used piece-wise continuous basic laws of loading. Practical calculations were performed for the nozzle of reactor vessel, the cylindrical part of vessel, the core barrel and core baffle. These calculations were used to justify the extension of the service life of several units of Ukrainian NPPs.
Диссертационная работа посвящена разработке численных и аналитических методов расчета коэффициента интенсивности напряжений, (КИН) для неклассических проблем механики разрушения, в частности, для трещин сложной формы и для трещин в тонкостенных конструкциях с учетом геометрической нелинейности, (ГН). Представлена модификация метода Вильямса, что учитывает затухающие на бесконечности члены. Исследованы границы и даны рекомендации о применении данного метода. Разработан аналитический метод расчета КИН в трубах с длинными осевыми поверхностными трещинами с учетом ГН в зависимости от внутреннего давления. Результаты хорошо коррелируют с полученными в роботе численными решениями МКЭ. Построены численные модели для расчета КИН и раскрытия берегов трещин в ГН постановке для сквозных трещин в зависимости от переменной величины осевой силы. Построена апроксимационная формула, что описывает влияние ГН эффекта для обобщенной осевой силы и безразмерной длины трещины. Показана значимость эффекта для реальных лабораторных экспериментов. Разработан универсальный полуаналитический метод решения интегро-дифференциального уравнения теории упругости для плоских трещин нормального отрыва произвольной формы. Для проверки аналитических результатов построены численные модели МКЭ для трещин разной формы, например, для прямоугольной, внутренней полуэллиптической трещины, и др., и проведено сопоставление результатов. Проведены практические расчеты КИН во времени для элементов конструкций АЭС для разных сценариев прохождения аварийных ситуаций. Для этого создан ряд имитационных моделей со встроенной трещиной, для которой расчеты КИН проводили методами нелинейной механики разрушения. Для трещин, что проходят через наплавленный материал, где происходят скачки напряжений, обосновано применение метода функций влияния, для чего разработано аналитико-численную процедуру, что использует частично непрерывные базовые законы нагружения.

This dissertation examines the techniques and themes of William Burroughs by placing him in the American Pragmatist tradition. Chapter One presents a pragmatic critical approach to literature based on Richard Rorty and John Dewey, focusing on the primacy of narration over argumentation, redescription and dialectic, the importance of texts as experiences, the end-products of textual experiences, and the role of critic as guide to experience rather than judge. Chapter Two uses this pragmatic critical lens to focus on the writing techniques of William Burroughs as a part of the American Pragmatist tradition, with most of the focus on his controversial cut-up technique. Burroughs is a writer who upsets many of the traditional expectations of the literary writing community, just as Rorty challenges the conventions of the philosophical discourse community. Chapter Three places Burroughs within a liberal democratic tradition with respect to Rorty and John Stuart Mill. Burroughs is a champion of individual liberty; this chapter shows how Burroughs' works are meant to edify readers about the social, political, biological, and technological systems which work to control individuals and limit their liberties and understandings. The chapter also shows how Burroughs' works help liberate readers from all control systems, and examines the alternative societies he envisions which work to uphold, rather than subvert, the freedom of human beings. Chapter Four concludes by suggesting some of the implications of Burroughs' work in literature, society, and politics, and by showing the value and importance of Pragmatism to the study of American literature and culture.

Cellular DNA is condensed and stored with the help of proteins, especially histones. This mix of DNA and proteins is termed chromatin. Manipulations of chromatin include post-translational modifications (PTMs) of histone proteins, such as the addition of methyl or acetyl groups, and the movement of histones by chromatin remodeling complexes to control how tightly or which regions of DNA are condensed or exposed. These actions can impact gene expression and thus influence the differentiation of tissues during development. I investigated if the enzyme protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5), which mono- or symmetrically dimethylates arginine, is acting on histones during early development in Xenopus laevis. I also investigated if Williams syndrome transcription factor (WSTF) occurs within chromatin remodeling complexes during early development in X. laevis. WSTF interacts with the protein ISWI in early embryos, indicating it is part of a chromatin remodeling complex during this period of development.

Visual art and written text have been described as historical sisters, linguistic twins and warlike enemies. These attempts to exclusively define the capabilities of each medium are inherently limited, contradictory and inaccurate. A better understanding of their individual capability and cooperative possibility can be achieved by examining the ways in which each functions in relation to the other on the composite page. William Blake's designs provide an excellent arena in which the functional interaction between the arts can be observed. Blake's visual additions to the poetry of Thomas Gray, Robert Blair and Edward Young demonstrate that the visual image is capable of interrupting the stability of exclusive textual meaning. However, this does not undermine the capability of either medium to assert meaningful possibility. Rather, the excess of Blake's visual imagery amidst another's poetic page produces a pluralisation of media and representative potential that avoids the extremes of hierarchical definition and all-inclusive meaninglessness. In contrast, Blake's own composites feature visual art and textual expression that both contribute to an overall evasion of definitive interpretation. However, their unpredictable interrelations and inconsistencies amplify and distort one another on the composite page, sustaining a relationship that is neither exclusively harmonic nor discordant. Thus, the non-synthetic "marriage" of contrary states that provides the subject matter of the Songs and the Marriage is also an accurate model for the overall relationship between visual art and text in Blake's designs. A consideration of historical context reveals the contradictory currents that direct and antagonise Blake's designs and suggests that the perception of the relationship between the "Sister Arts" often depends on such temporal conditions. While acknowledging the limitations imposed by historical circumstance, this study also recognises that late eighteenth-century uncertainties encourage innovative reconceptualisations of composite interaction. In both form and content, Blake's designs contain yet contend with a variety of perspectives, and are invaluable examples of the individual and interactive plenitude that visual art and text are capable of. Overall, Blake's work highlights the unique role that the multi-media space plays in creative and critical efforts to understand the functional capability of each representative medium.

How plants from a common species pool form community has been considered from a variety of approaches. A promising approach involves the search for assembly rules based on plant functional traits. This approach has potential to provide insight into community and ecosystem processes In this research. a general and simple conceptual model based on life forms and independent of species is used as a framework for assessing the internal structure of plant communities. Plant functional traits are used to identify patterns within and between plant communities in the contrasting environments of Camp Williams, Utah, and Camp Grayling, Michigan. The conceptual model has three different functional types formed by one to three functional groups. A functional group, made up of species with similar life form, is analogous to a vegetation stratum. A functional type, consisting of one or more functional groups. is analogous to a community or vegetation type. Correspondence analysis (CA) and analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicate that richness, species diversity, and trait diversity are essentially independent of functional type and are, for example, fairly consistent regardless of climatic regime or structural complexity. Cover. on the other hand. increases with the number of functional groups in a functional type. Consistent patterns and trends for sets of functional traits support the view that assembly rules may account for internal structure in plant communities. The consistent association of sets of traits with functional groups even in taxonomically dissimilar communities suggests that the functional traits are related to fundamental ecological processes that shape these communities. Ambiguity in some of the results might be explained by extending the analysis to additional installations that replicate the climatic conditions found at Camp Williams and Camp Grayling.

I have proved that prevarication is a current that initiates the evil actions that are committed. I have traced some of the oblique, dishonest euphemisms used by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in their language in their attempt to deceive themselves and others of their intentions. This linguistic device sharpens our awareness of their prevarication and avoidance of facing the truth, and their attempt at self-deception and equivocation. They enter into physical and spiritual duplicity. The Witches are structurally important and function in contributing to the ambiguous action of the play, and initiate the symbolism of darkness and evil that prevails. Macbeth's echoic diction links him to the forces of equivocation. Banquo dismisses their information, whereas Macbeth's empathy with the Witches and his ripeness for corruption result in the same information becoming disinformation to him. Macbeth's prevarication continues in order to secure his position obtained through heinous crimes and his lack of integrity in a world where it is difficult to distinguish appearance and reality. Lady Macbeth reveals she is in corrupt collusion with Macbeth, is a prevaricator by means of obliquity and mutual intrigue, and shows her shrewdness and hypocrisy towards Duncan. She undermines logic, imagination and metaphysics and overpowers Macbeth's indecision to commit the murder, as she acts as a "thorn" to his conscience challenging his manhood and courage. Macbeth is coerced into acceding to the murder as a result of Lady Macbeth's bombastic exposure of the frailties violated by evil. The images of blood and sight merge when Macbeth sees his horrific hands after the murder a murder that symbolically "murders" sleep. Shakespeare uses the Porter to indicate the "equivocator" is synonymous with Macbeth, the prevaricator. Storms accompany the central action of the murder of Duncan, and the tremendous upheaval of nature reflects the tempest roaring within Macbeth. Macbeth's swollen, puffed up, deceptive language in his false declaration of his mourning for the loss of Duncan, illustrates his ability to prevaricate at his best. After Duncan's murder, Macbeth continues to secure his power and security by his desperate series of futile murders, which he commits without a moral self-catechismal examination of his conscience: he prevaricates with impunity. From their earlier close intimate association there is a deterioration in the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth: their ways have separated through guilt and lack of trust. Lady Macbeth declines to a languid, exhausted woman in the sleep-walking scene, as she recalls her past crimes and atrocities. Her personal confusion, anguish and disorientation result in a cataclysmic shudder that leads to her physical and spiritual implosion. Macbeth remains physically aggressive. His tactics for his physical confrontation with death are irrevocable: he suffers an isolated spiritual implosion in his virtual negation of life. I have shown that Macbeth is an orchestrated composition in which prevarication is the tool used for furthering ambition that motivates the action of the drama.
Thesis (MA)--PU vir CHO, 1986

A number of recent successful authorship studies have relied on a statistical analysis of language features based on function words. However, stylometry has not been extensively applied to Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatic questions. To determine the effectiveness of such an approach in this field, language features are studied in twenty-four plays by Shakespeare and eight by Fletcher. The goal is to develop procedures that might be used to determine the authorship of individual scenes in The Two Noble Kinsmen and Henry VIII. Homonyms, spelling variants and contracted forms in old-spelling dramatic texts present problems for a computer analysis. A program that uses a system of pre-edit codes and replacement /expansion lists was developed to prepare versions of the texts in which all forms of common words can be recognized automatically. To evaluate some procedures for determining authorship developed by A. Q. Morton and his colleagues, occurrences of 30 common collocations and 5 proportional pairs are analyzed in the texts. Within-author variation for these features is greater than had been found in previous studies. Univariate chi-square tests are shown to be of limited usefulness because of the statistical distribution of these textual features and correlation between pairs of features. The best of the collocations do not discriminate as well as most of the individual words from which they are composed. Turning to the rate of occurrence of individual words and groups of words, distinctiveness ratios and t-tests are used to select variables that best discriminate between Shakespeare and Fletcher. Variation due to date of composition and genre within the Shakespeare texts is examined. A multivariate and distributionfree discriminant analysis procedure (using kernel estimation) is introduced. The classifiers based on the best marker words and the kernel method are not greatly affected by characterization and perform well for samples as short as 500 words. When the final procedure is used to assign the 459 scenes of known authorship (containing at least 500 words)almost 112 95% are assigned to the correct author. Only two scenes are incorrectly classified, and 4.8% of the scenes cannot be assigned to either author by the procedure. When applied to individual scenes of at least 500 words in The Two Noble Kinsmen and Henry VIII, the procedure indicates that both plays are collaborations and generally supports the usual division. However, the marker words in a number of scenes often attributed to Fletcher are very much closer to Shakespeare's pattern of use. These scenes include TNK IV.iii and H8 I.iii, IV.i-ii and V.iv.

Erasmus Mundus Masters “Crossways in European Humanities” June 2011
The approach to canon formation adopted in this analysis will be to discuss it as a matter of institutionalisation of literature in relation to education and theatre, and in that respect it will be treated more as a phenomenon that distributes cultural ideologies, rather than as something that represents aesthetic principles. Following Raymond Williams who defines art as a set of socio-cultural relationships and the social practices that derive from them, as well as that at given historical circumstances different forms of artistic production are considered to be art, or simply significant works of art perceived as high culture, while others are subordinate, or marginalized forms of (artistic) production, we can argue that it is impossible to detach not only the definition of art, but also its production and reproduction (by means of its canonization), from the ongoing sociocultural and political processes, and that the construction of the canon, and especially the national canon, depends largely on the social context.

The presented dissertation thesis is focused, as the title suggests, on the analysis of stress state aspects of quasi-brittle fracture. That means the fracture of composite materials with cement matrix (such as concrete, mortar, plaster, etc.), ceramics and other composites. Used methods are based on the theory of multi-parameter linear elastic fracture mechanics, which highlights the importance of considering of several initial terms of Williams power series, approximating the stress and displacement fields in a cracked body, within conducted fracture analyses. Determination of values of coefficients of terms of this series, recalculated into the shape functions serving in most of the conducted stress state analyses, is performed via the so called over-deterministic method. Another tool for the problem solving is nonlinear fracture mechanics, represented primarily by the cohesive crack model, namely the crack band model implemented in the used ATENA software. For the backward reconstruction of stress field in the cracked bodies the application ReFraPro is used. The analytical part deals with various aspects of wedge-splitting test – from the boundary conditions, though various possibilities of nodal selection (required as input variables for the over-deterministic method) up to the advanced (automated) analysis of numerical model. Special chapter includes atypical test specimens designed for adjusting of various levels of constraint of stress and deformation at the propagating crack tip. The study of this geometry and also the subsequent detail analysis reveals important information for real experiments. Backward reconstruction of stress field presents analysis on suitable possibilities of nodal selections as inputs into the procedure of approximation of the crack tip fields and answers the question of the necessity of application of the multi-parameter linear elastic fracture mechanics for certain fracture analyses of specimens from quasi-brittle materials. The th

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Psicologia
Resting state brain networks are associated with a variety of relevant brain functions. Specifically, atypical patterns of functional connectivity in these networks have been reported in several psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders. The nature of the brain connectivity in Williams Syndrome, a rare neurodevelopmental disorder, characterized by a variable and enigmatic profile of cognitive and behavioral characteristics, remains unexplored. The main goal of this research is to evaluate the functional connectivity of resting state networks in individuals with Williams Syndrome. Seven Williams Syndrome participants and seven age and gender matching controls underwent a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging session. Using a region of interest approach, we found altered functional connectivity in areas that correspond to six different networks, namely in the default mode network, dorsal attention network, salience network, sensoriomotor network, visual networks and auditory network. This global pattern of hypoconnectivity in these networks may be underlying their cognitive and behavioral phenotype. Specifically, alterations in the default mode and visual networks may be related with their abnormal social cognition and visual-spatial deficits. This study highlights the importance of studying the resting state networks in development.
As redes neuronais de repouso estão associadas a uma variedade de funções cerebrais importantes. Especificamente, padrões de conectividade funcional anormal nestas redes têm sido reportados pela investigação em diversas perturbações psiquiátricas e neurodesenvolvimentais. A natureza da conectividade funcional no Síndrome de Williams, uma perturbação neurodesenvolvimental rara, caracterizada por um perfil variado e enigmático de características cognitivas e comportamentais, permanece pouco explorada. O principal objetivo deste estudo é colmatar esta lacuna, avaliando a conectividade funcional das redes neuronais de repouso em indivíduos com esta perturbação. Foram submetidos a uma sessão de ressonância magnética funcional sete indivíduos com Síndrome de Williams e sete controlo, emparelhados por sexo e idade. Através da análise de regiões de interesse, detectámos conectividade funcional alterada em áreas que pertencem a seis redes diferentes, nomeadamente à default mode network, salience network, sensoriomotor network, visual networks e à auditory network. O padrão global de hipoconectividade observado nestas redes poderá estar subjacente ao seu fenótipo cognitivo e comportamental. Em específico, as alterações na default mode network e nas visual networks poderão estar relacionadas com a cognição social anormal e os défices visuo-espaciais que caracterizam estes indivíduos. Este estudo destaca a importância da exploração das redes neuronais de repouso no desenvolvimento.

"September 2005"
Bibliography: pages 162-194.
xxi, 194 pages : ill., plates (col.) ; 30 cm.
Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, School of Molecular and Biomedical Science, Discipline of Physiology, 2006?

Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer (DMA) was used to study the frequency dependence of storage and loss modulus of amorphous Pd₄₀Ni₁₀Cu₃₀P₂₀ alloy over a broad frequency range around its glass transition temperature. The amorphous samples were subjected to two testing conditions: constant frequency with continuous heating and isothermal with frequency sweep. The storage modulus E′ exhibited a sigmoidal change from about 90 GPa to a low value of about 0 GPa over the glass transition region. The loss modulus, E″, was characterized by an asymmetrical peak with a smaller slope at the low temperature side than at the high temperature side upon heating. These changes in moduli were associated with mechanical relaxation due to atomic motion. Similar results were also obtained under isothermal condition. The Kohrausch-Williams-Watts function was used to fit the data obtained under the isothermal condition. The peak frequencies obtained were then fitted to the VFT equation and the scaling law equation.
Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)