VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Contributions to a study of the printed dictionary in France before 1539

A Carthusian monk at a priory near Abbeville, France, laid down his pen on April 30, 1440, ending twenty years' work writing a Latin-French dictionary which is remarkable for its size, organization and comprehensiveness. Compiled by a cleric and based on a long tradition of medieval grammars and lexica, the Dictionarius of Firmin Le Ver would be the last of a line of manuscript bilingual dictionaries written in France. In 1539, a Parisian editor and printer produced a bilingual dictionary which is equally remarkable--for its organization, and for the fact that it is the first printed dictionary in which French is the language of entry. Based on a humanist tradition which sought to return the Latin language to its classical roots, the Dictionaire Francoislatin of Robert Estienne is intended to assist students in their apprenticeship in Latin. Nonetheless, the French definitions illustrate the adequacy of the vernacular to express the nuances of Latin meaning, and at the same time they provide a synchronic record of early sixteenth century French. The Dictionaire Francoislatin is, understandably, regarded as the corner-stone of modern French lexicography. The century which separates Le Ver's Dictionarius from Estienne's Dictionaire Francoislatin is a brief period in the long history of Western lexicography, but it is the bridge between two different cultures: medieval and humanist. Our study follows the transition from the manuscript to the printed tradition through examination of four families of bilingual Latin-French dictionaries printed in France during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century. We look at their sources, both bilingual Latin-French and monolingual Latin dictionaries, and at their lexicographical methodology. We also identify internal relationships among successive editions of each dictionary, as well as external relationships among the four families.
Expression of constitutive hsc70 and stress-inducible hsp70 mRNA and protein in the rabbit central nervous system

The induction of hsp70 has been established as a useful marker of cellular stress in the mammalian nervous system. In addition, studies have indicated a role for members of the hsp70 gene family in protecting cells from the lethal effects of heat and other stresses. In this thesis the stress response is examined in the rabbit nervous system following a physiologically relevant heat shock using hsc70 and hsp70-specific riboprobes and antibodies. A rapid and transient induction of hsp70 mRNA and protein was observed following hyperthermic stress. Tissue-specific differences in the magnitude of induction of hsp70 protein were observed. Induction was greatest in non-neural tissues compared to regions of the rabbit nervous system. In unstressed animals, abundant levels of hsc70 protein were detected in brain regions whereas lower levels were detected in non-neural tissues. In addition to hsc70, basal levels of inducible hsp70 isoforms were also observed in control animals. At the cellular level, distinct patterns of hsc70 and hsp70 expression were observed in the rabbit brain. In control animals, hsc70 mRNA and protein exhibited a neuronal pattern of expression. In response to hyperthermia, large neuronal cells (Purkinje neurons, deep cerebellar nuclei of the cerebellum and motor neurons of the spinal cord), which expressed high constitutive levels of hsc70, showed a dampened or delayed accumulation of hsp70 mRNA. Hsp70 protein was not detected in these neurons. Glial cells, which show little detectable levels of hsc70, demonstrate a robust induction of hsp70. To further evaluate the neuronal stress response, nuclear translocation of hsc70 and hsp70 protein was used as an additional indicator of cellular stress. Following a 2-3$\sp\circ$C increase in body temperature, non-neuronal cell types (ependymal cells and oligodendrocytes) exhibited features of a stress response. In contrast, several neuronal cell types (Purkinje, cortical, dentate granule and thalamic neurons) required an increased degree of hyperthermia (3.4 $\pm$.2$\sp\circ$C) before eliciting a feature of the stress response, namely nuclear translocation of hsc70 protein. Taken together, these results suggest that the neural heat shock response may occur in stages depending on the level of stress on individual cell populations and existing cellular levels of hsps.
The shell game, who's under what? : morphological evolution and trajectories through morphospace exemplified with species of lambis

Morphological space provides a means of analysing the physical forms of organisms. Mathematical modeling allows patterns generated by biological processes to be analysed. And cladistic methodology permits the formulation of phylogenetic hypotheses concerning groups of organisms. In this dissertation, a synthesis of analytical techniques is developed, in which morphological space, mathematical modeling, and cladistic methodology are combined to reconstruct evolutionary history. In particular, new methods for tracking changes in shape during ontogeny and for positioning cladogram nodes in three dimensions extend the concept of morphological space to accommodate results of ontogenic and cladistic analyses. This approach to the study of morphological evolution integrates developmental and phylogenetic information and permits the formulation of hypotheses of ancestral forms. Species of the genus Lambis (Mollusca: Gastropoda) are analysed to exemplify the approach. In the development of the synthesis, current generic classification of the family Strombidae is unsupportable and current subgeneric classification within the genus Lambis is untenable. During evolution of members within a clade containing all species currently classified in Lambis and some in the genus Strombus, morphological change consisted predominantly of an increase in vertical dimensions of whorls. The change was greatest early in the history of the group and diminished thereafter.
Writes of passage, Dante, Joyce and the dynamics of literary initiation

Purgatory XXV is the pivot around which this comparative study of Dante and Joyce revolves. With the exception of doctrinal studies, this canto has mostly been ignored; yet, it is central to the Divine Comedy. Statius tells Virgil and the pilgrim about the development of the embryo up until the moment when a joyful Creator breathes in a self-reflecting soul and, in that moment, the embryo transforms into a fante, a speaker. In the preceding canto, the Dantean pilgrim recounts that when he senses the spira of Amor, he takes note and records it as poetry. Juxtaposed in the narrative, the divine spira of the embryo canto, and the divine spira inspiring poetics, together establish the essential contribution Purgatorio XXV makes to the poetics of the Commedia. Through close textual analysis, the following study demonstrates that Dante's definition of his poetic practice focuses attention on the embryo canto. Dante has constructed his poem so that the final canto--when he encounters God--is superimposed upon the embryo canto where he first encountered God. Thus, the Divine Comedy is a write of passage: the symbolic death at the poem's conclusion corresponds with the return to the womb of Purgatorio XXV. A Portrait and Ulysses resonate with the dynamics of initiation. The term "dynamic" serves to indicate that the write of passage potentially transforms the reader into a writer. Joyce recognizes the implications of Dante's return to the embryo and he integrates it into his own art of textual transformation. An initiatory focus provides a new forum for analyzing and discussing perennial issues, one of the most dominant in this study being the complex relationship between the intertext that mentors the literary novice and his need to sever this bond that renders him silent while the intertext sings. The question that propels the following study is what sort of initiation does the pilgrim undergo to become the poet?
Sensor planning for object search

This thesis studies the almost-unexplored field of sensor planning for object search. Object search is the task of efficiently searching for a given 3D object in a given 3D environment by an agent equipped with a camera for target detection and, if the environment configuration is not known, a method of calculating depth, like stereo or laser range finder. Sensor planning for object search refers to the task of selecting the sensing parameters so as to bring the target into the field of view of the camera and to make the image of the target easily detected by the available recognition algorithms. In this thesis, the task of sensor planning for object search is formulated as an optimization problem. This problem is proved to be NP-Complete, thus an approximate solution employing a one step look-ahead strategy is proposed. This approximation is equivalent to the optimal solution under certain conditions. The search region is characterized by the probability distribution of the presence of the target. The goal is to find the desired object reliably with minimum effort. The control of the sensing parameters depends on the current state of the search region and the detecting ability of the recognition algorithm. The huge space of possible sensing actions is decomposed into a finite set of actions that must be considered. In order to represent the surrounding environment of the camera and to determine efficiently the sensing parameters over time, a concept called the sensed sphere is proposed, and its construction, using a laser range finder, is derived.
Historical writing in Visigothic Spain from c. 468 to the Arab invasion of 711

The purpose of the present dissertation is to investigate the nature of the historical works composed in Visigothic Spain from the Chronica of the Gallaecian bishop Hydatius written c. 468 to the Arab Invasion of Spain in 711. The limited amount of concrete evidence to have survived with regard to the Visigothic kingdom in Spain, has generally led scholars to treat these historical texts as sources for historical facts rather than to approach them from a historiographical perspective. Alternatively, they have been used, selectively, to support certain thematic arguments. The thesis examines the major extant historical works produced in Spain in this period in an attempt to derive from them the emerging perception throughout the period of the Visigothic presence in the peninsula and its role vis-a-vis external political entities, the Spanish Church and the indigenous population. An attempt is made to identify the ways in which the various kinds of historical works were used to direct and shape perceptions of the Goths and of Gothic history to certain ends, determined by the authors, all of whom held high ecclesiastical office, and to place these works within a larger context of Christian historical writing in its various genres. Chapter 1 contains a general discussion of the nature of historical writing in the medieval period, the selection of texts for the present study, and the historiographical background which preceded and influenced the Iberian authors. Chapter 2 considers how the Chronica of Hydatius reflected the Hispano-Roman reaction to the initial barbarian incursions. In Chapter 3 the focus shifts to the Visigothic period proper with the late-fifth-century chronicle of John of Biclar. Chapter 4 serves as an introduction to Isidore of Seville and an examination of his political and historical theories as they appear in his non-historical writings. Chapter 5 focuses on the various genres of historical writing in which Isidore worked, and the manner in which he used them to direct the historical perceptions of his audience. Chapter 5 examines the narrowing of the focus of historical writing in the later Visigothic period and includes the two major historical works produced in Spain from the death of Isidore to the Arab invasion, the De viris illustribus of Ildefonsus of Toledo and the Historia Wambae of Julian of Toledo. Chapter 6 summarizes the major changes of focus which took place in Spain throughout the Visigothic period.
A multivariate investigation of the timing deficit hypothesis of reading disability

This thesis presents a multivariate investigation of the temporal processing deficit hypothesis of reading failure. The temporal processing deficit hypothesis proposes that the underlying cause of the phonological deficit that characterizes developmental dyslexia is an impaired timing mechanism. Thirty reading-disabled adults, thirty-two normally achieving adults and thirty-one normally achieving children were administered a comprehensive battery that included a wide range of timing tasks, in addition to reading and phonological measures. Although dyslexics performed more poorly than normally achieving adults on most of the timing tasks, their performance was not influenced by rate. Similarly, although the dyslexics' performance revealed the typical pattern of impaired phonological awareness and pseudoword reading relative to reading level matched children, the disabled readers outperformed the children on the timing tasks. Finally, with the exception of RAN performance, the timing tasks shared little variance with phonological awareness and contributed little unique variance to word reading. Although these findings undermine the timing deficit hypothesis, they do provide evidence for the involvement of word retrieval deficits in developmental dyslexia.
A Reconstruction of Anick's Fibration S²n-¹ --> T²n-¹(pr) --> omega S²n+¹

A long standing conjecture in homotopy theory was the existence of a fibration $S\sp{2n-1}\longrightarrow T\sp{2n-1}(p\sp{r})\longrightarrow\Omega S\sp{2n+1}.$ Recent unrefereed work of Anick proved that such a fibration exists for $p\ge5.$ However, his construction has two major drawbacks. First, it is inaccessible even to specialists and second, its difficulty hinders one from learning any more about the properties of the space $T\sp{2n-1}(p\sp{r}).$ The central result of the thesis is to obtain a reconstruction of the fibration for primes $p\ge3$ which is much simpler and more accessible. Equally beneficial is how the new construction enables one to determine several key properties of the space $T\sp{2n-1}(p\sp{r}),$ which were conjectured jointly by Anick and Gray. Specifically: (i) For primes $p\ge3,\ T\sp{2n-1}(p\sp{r})$ satisfies the following universal property: given a map $P\sp{2n}(p\sp{r})\longrightarrow Z$ from a Moore space into a homotopy commutative, homotopy associative H-space Z satisfying a certain exponent condition, there exists an extension to a unique H-map $T\sp{2n-1}(p\sp{r})\longrightarrow Z,$ (ii) For primes $p\ge5,\ T\sp{2n-1}(p\sp{r})$ is a homotopy commutative, homotopy associative H-space, and (iii) Combining (i) and (ii) it can be shown that when $p\ge5,\ T\sp{2n-1}(p\sp{r})$ has an H-space exponent of $p\sp{r}.$ Beyond the stated fibration, the existence of $T\sp{2np-1}(p)$ has significance by being a potential candidate for a double classifying space of the fiber of the double suspension, $S\sp{2n-1}\ {\buildrel{E\sp2}\over{\longrightarrow}}\ \Omega\sp2S\sp{2n+1}.$ Such a double classifying space would have important implications in understanding the homotopy groups of spheres. One hopes that with the better understanding of $T\sp{2n-1}(p\sp{r})$ given by the reconstruction this question can be resolved.
Portal imaging with amorphous selenium, a signal and noise analysis and comparison with fluoroscopic systems

Conformal radiation therapy is being developed to increase cancer patient survival by closely tailoring the radiation dose distribution to match the shape of the tumour. For conformal therapy to be effective, improved patient position verification through portal imaging is required. Existing portal imaging systems produce poor images. By increasing the optical coupling, the x-ray quantum noise in a fluoroscopic portal imaging system was measured for the first time and compared to other sources of noise. It is shown that fluoroscopic systems are dominated by noise in the vacuum tube camera and although significant improvements in the SNR can be made by reducing this source of noise, practical clinical systems can only be made quantum noise limited up to a spatial frequency which is too low to optimize the dose distribution. Flat panel imaging systems currently show promise for improving image quality beyond that possible for fluoroscopic systems. Some of these systems use a photoconductor known as amorphous selenium (a-Se) as the sensor. Thus the signal and noise properties of a-Se for portal imaging are explored. Measurements of the charge signal produced by a-Se irradiated by x-rays showed that the x-ray sensitivity (charge produced per energy absorbed) increased somewhat with energy. This was interpreted as a linear energy transfer (LET) dependence. Two recombination models (geminate and columnar) were compared with the data but neither mechanism alone could explain the results. It was concluded that both mechanisms were occurring at high LET but only geminate was present at low LET. This was shown to be consistent with an existing microdosimeuic model. Next, a Monte Carlo code that simulates photon-electron transpon was used to model the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of a metal plate + a-Se layer. The model was verified by measuring the SNR-of the a-Se target of a vidicon directly irradiated by $\sp{60}$Co $\gamma$-rays. The model a-Se detector was found to be capable of producing images with better SNR than a fluoroscopic system or a metal plate + phosphor primary detector. Finally, the image quality of the latent image on a-Se is demonstrated by using a photoinduced discharge readout of an a-Se layer.
Fractal image compression using pyramids

Fractal image compression is an attractive technique for image coding because of its distinct features and the low bit-rate requirement. In this research, several techniques are introduced to improve the compression performance. Fractal image compression is based on the self-similarity search of the image. The encoding process is computationally intensive. In this thesis, a pyramidal framework is proposed to reduce the encoding complexity. The encoding complexity is reduced by as much as two orders of magnitude. Because the domain-range matching is independent, parallel methods are proposed to further speed up the encoding process. As with any lossy compression schemes, one of the challenges is either to maximize the image quality at a fixed bit rate, or to minimize the rate required for a given quality. To fulfil this purpose, the constant contractive factor in conventional fractal image compression is extended to the case of nonlinear contractive functions, which lead to significantly better reconstructed images and faster decoding than the conventional fractal method. Furthermore, as digital images and video products are designed for human viewing, human visual system (HVS) models are exploited to faithfully reproduce perceptually important information and eliminate the information that the visual system cannot perceive. Based on the human visual system's nonlinear response to luminance and the visual masking effects, a perceptually appropriate metric is defined. The psychophysical raw data on the visual contrast threshold is first interpolated as a function of background luminance and visual angle, and is then used as an error upper bound for perceptually based fractal image compression. The perceptually based method produces visually better reconstructed images than the conventional method and the JPEG standard. To reduce the domain search complexity, the pyramidal search method is also extended for perceptually based fractal image compression. Practical fractal image compression is a block coding. At very low bit rates, fractal method encoded images may exhibit blocking artifacts. Based on the Laplacian pyramidal representation of the image, the thesis presents a general post-processing method to remove the blocking effects.
Control of flexible space structures with localized modes

Flexible space structures are often comprised of weakly-coupled repeating members. When internal coupling is weak, slight physical asymmetries result in the confinement of vibrational modes to limited parts of the structure. This is known as mode localization, and can render the modes of a structural model inaccurate when perfect symmetry is assumed. The problem of controlling structures with localized modes has not been directly investigated, and this thesis is believed to be the first major contribution to this subject. The issues of controllability and observability are discussed, and the role that mode localization plays in determining these properties is elucidated. To achieve controller robustness without great sacrifices in performance, better ways of expressing modal errors are suggested for control methods that use explicit uncertainty models. The relationship between mode localization and performance is explored, revealing how this relationship depends on the chosen control strategy. A mathematical formulation for robust control design is suggested for flexible space structures susceptible to mode localization. The formulation is tested through simulations and experiments. A general procedure for designing control strategies is also recommended.
The P1 plasmid partition protein ParA, roles for ATP binding and hydrolysis in plasmid partition

The P1 prophage plasmid is stably maintained in its bacterial host despite its low copy number. This stability is due in part to an active partition system, par, that encodes the genes for two proteins, ParA and ParB, as well as a cis acting site, parS. ParA is required for at least two roles during partition in vivo. First, ParA represses expression of its own gene as well as parB from a promoter upstream of parA. This repression by ParA is stimulated by ParB. There is a second requirement for ParA that is thought to reflect a direct, as yet undefined role for ParA in the partition process. In vitro, ParA is an ATPase that is stimulated by ParB and by non-specific DNA. In addition, ParA binds the par operon promoter region, consistent with ParA's repressor activity in vivo. In this thesis I examine the effects of ATP binding and hydrolysis on ParA, particularly on ParA interaction with parOP and with ParB. I show that adenine nucleoside di- and triphosphates stimulate ParA DNA binding. ATP hydrolysis is not required for ParA DNA binding and, in fact, inhibits ParA DNA binding. The effects of ATP binding and hydrolysis on ParA-parOP interaction are correlated with changes in ParA conformation including, but not limited to, ParA dimerization. I have also found that ParB stimulates ParA DNA binding in vitro, consistent with ParB's role as a co-repressor in vivo. ParB stimulation of ParA DNA binding requires ATP hydrolysis. However, preliminary results suggest that ATP hydrolysis is not required for physical association of ParA and ParB, therefore ATP must exert its effect on ParA-ParB interaction via a different mechanism. My results have led to a model of ParA repressor function in which ATP binding and ATP hydrolysis have separable roles and have led to the suggestion that ATP binding and hydrolysis have separable roles in ParA's partition function as well.