[pt] Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo avaliar a vida-fadiga de dois ferros fundidos nodulares modificados metalurgicamente, sendo uma classe predominantemente ferrítica e outra.perlítica. Inicialmente, amostra dos dois ferros fundidos nodulares ferrítico e perlítico foram fundidas adotando-se moldação em areia na geometria padrão Y-block. Em seqüência, corpos de prova para ensaios mecânicos e de fadiga foram usinados das amostras ferríticas e perlíticas. Após os ensaios de tração e dureza, realizaram-se análises metalográficas qualitativas e quantitativas em ambos os materiais, com o intuito de se determinar suas características metalúrgicas, tais como contagem, distribuição e classe dos nódulos de grafita, bem como quantidade da matriz ferrítica e perlítica. Dando continuidade a etapa experimental, as curvas tensão versus número de ciclos para a falha do ferro fundido nodular ferrítico e do ferro fundido nodular perlítico foram levantadas por meio de ensaios de flexão rotativa. A vida útil em fadiga dos dois materiais foi relacionada com as suas características metalúrgicas. Quanto a resistência à fadiga, as amostras do ferro fundido nodular perlítico tiveram um melhor comportamento sob carregamento cíclico do que as amostras do ferro fundido nodular ferrítico. Tal comportamento superior foi atribuído a maior microdureza da matriz e a presença da estrutura olho-de-boi. Finalmente, as curvas experimentais tensão versus número de ciclos para a falha dos ferros fundidos nodulares ferrítico e perlítico foram modeladas pela equação de Coffin-Manson, que se mostrou eficiente no tratamento de dados experimentais da vida em fadiga de ambos os materiais. / [en] The objective of the present work was to evaluate the fatigue life of two nodular cast irons with metallurgical modifications and resulting in ferritic and perlitic different classes of material. Initially, samples of both materials were cast in sand moulds adopting the standard Y-block geometry. In the sequence, tensile and fatigue specimens were machined from the ferritic and perlitic samples. After the tensile and hardness tests, the microstructure of the both materials were analyzed by qualitative and quantitative metallography, aiming to characterize their metallurgical aspects as content, distribution and class of graphite nodules, as well as the contents of the ferritic and perlitic matrix. Following the metallurgical characterization, rolating bend fatigue tests were performed in order to estabilish the stress-life curves of the ferritic and perlitic nodular cast irons. Regarding the fatigue resistance, the specimens machined from the perlitic nodular sample showed a longer fatigue life than that related to the ferritic nodular specimens. The longer fatigue life of the perlitic nodular specimens was associated with a higher microhardness of the perlitic matrix and the preserve of the bull`s-eye structure. Finally, the experimental stress-life curves of the ferritic and perlitic nodular cast irons were modeled adopting the Coffin-Manson law, which was considered efficient in fitting experimental fatigue life data of both materials.

Cette thèse est une étude diachronique des deux divinités ophidiennes Nâou et Néhebkaou, essentiellement centrée sur les Textes des Pyramides et les Textes des Sarcophages. Les textes mettent en avant leur lien avec Héliopolis ainsi qu’avec le créateur Rê-Atoum et les autres figures de la théologie locale. Leur rôle dans le jugement des défunts est évident et bien attesté. Néhebkaou est chargé de donner des kaou au défunt, une fois que ce dernier a été prononcé juste. Ce concept, attesté dès la IIe dynastie, semble désigner à la fois l’offrande funéraire et les défunts qui en bénéficie. / This PhD is a diachronic study, mainly focused on the Pyramid Texts and the Coffin Texts, of the two ophidian deities Nâou and Nehebkau. The texts highlight their relationship with the creator Rê-Atum and the other figures of the local theology. Their role in the judgement of the dead is obvious and well documented. Nehebkau is responsible for providing kaou to the deceased, once he has been justified. This concept, documented since the IInd Dynasty, seems to refer to both the funerary offering and to the deceased who benefits.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Case Western Reserve University, 2006. / [School of Medicine] Department of Biochemistry. Includes bibliographical references. Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

This study was made with the express purpose to shine a light on how we use the present to understand the past. My focus was directed at how the view on gender during the last couple of hundred years has influenced how we construct arbitrary gender norms for a Scandinavian bronze age society. To complete this study, I looked at the Swedish gravemound “Hågahögen”, on the outskirts of Uppsala, and compared it to three Danish mounds with similar properties. Hågahögen consists of the cremated remains of one, or possibly two, individuals who have been interpreted as male due to the presence of a sword in the grave. The Danish graves are all located on the Danish mainland, known as Jutland, and are called Egtved, Borum Eshøj and Trindhøj. Due to the extraordinarily well-preserved remains in these graves they proved to be an excellent counter to Hågahögen. Because of this the biological sex of these individuals are not in question, therefore I could use them to compare various arguments and how their sex was being portrayed. My sources consisted of various articles, archaeological textbooks, reports and popular science books. My results show that graves that contain males are generally valued higher than those that contain females. Power is more often attributed to the male remains while the females are often seen as objects to empower males. The women I studied were either seen as mothers, wives or sexual objects. The men were seen as chieftains, kings, ritual masters or they weren’t described in enough detail to conclude a role for them. The individual in Hågahögen was given masculinity because of the sword in the grave, but also due to the implied sway and power over those who built the grave after their death. That sort of power is rarely seen as a feminine trait, therefor it was impossible for the archaeologists of old to see the occupant of the grave as anything other than male.

[pt] Esta dissertação faz uma leitura do terror na obra do cineasta José Mojica Marins. A condição - instável - e a trajetória - incomum - deste cineasta maldito na história do cinema nacional passa por uma lógica de esfumaçamento compulsório, onde o diretor se viu obrigado a investir em novos campos: o texto, a televisão, o rádio e, mais recentemente, a Internet, para poder continuar insistindo/investindo na árdua tarefa de roteirizar, produzir e lançar seus mais de 30 filmes. A intenção é entender porque sua história se deu desta forma. Que semelhanças e diferenças guarda com os clássicos de terror? Até que ponto pode ser considerado um descendente do teatro francês do Grand Guignol? Muito mais do que desfiar conceitos fechados sobre a literatura do fantástico abordando os ingredientes das ficções, a idéia é fazer uma análise do terror em seus aspectos contemporâneos e culturais, traçando um paralelo com a biografia do diretor. / [en] This dissertation reads the horror in the film maker s José Mojica Marins work. The unstable condition and the uncommon career of this dammed film maker in the history of the Brazilian movie industry passes as a compulsory evanescence logic, where the director was forced to explore new fields: text, television, radio and, more recently, the Internet, in order to keep on insisting/investing in the arduous task of making scripts, producing and releasing his more than 30 films. The intention is to understand why his history happened this way. What similarities and differences does it keep with the classics? To what extent can he be considered as a descendent of the French theatre of the Grand Guignol? Much more than analyse narrow concepts about the fantastic literature approaching fictions ingredients, the idea is to make an analysis of the horror in its contemporary and cultural aspects relating it to the director s biography.

Ce travail vise à démontrer le caractère essentiel du référent de la naissance dans les croyances funéraires de l’Égypte ancienne, ainsi que les modalités de sa mise en œuvre. Les grandes compositions funéraires égyptiennes, depuis les Textes des Pyramides jusqu’aux livres royaux du Nouvel Empire, sont riches d’allusions à une destinée post-mortem envisagée comme une seconde naissance, calquée plus ou moins fidèlement sur le processus biologique de la première. Roi ou particulier, le mort est porté en gestation par une ou plusieurs mères divines, puis est remis au monde dans l’au-delà, son cordon ombilical est coupé, il est lavé, allaité et soigné à l’image d’un nouveau-né. À ces aspects pragmatiques se mêlent de nombreux éléments mythiques, le modèle biologique étant parfois largement réinterprété, ce qui témoigne de l’interpénétration du plan individuel et du domaine cosmique. Grâce à ce procédé cyclique, le défunt accède non seulement à l’autre monde, mais il y est aussi vivant éternellement. / This work aims at demonstrating that referring to birth and its practical modalities is an essential aspect of Ancient Egypt’s funeral beliefs. From the Pyramid Texts to the royal books of New Kingdom, the great funeral writings of Egypt are full of allusions to post mortem fate viewed as a second birth, the latter copying more or less exactly the biological process of the first. Be he king or ordinary man, the dead is carried in gestation by one or several divine mothers and is born again in the other world ; there, his umbilical cord is cut, he is washed, fed and cared for like a new born child. Numerous mythical elements add to the purely practical, however, thus reinventing the biological model and showing the intermingling of both the worldly and cosmic levels. Thanks to this cyclical process, the dead not only reaches the other world but, also, accesses to eternal life.

This thesis investigates how the burial chamber of the 8th Dynasty pyramid of king Qakare Ibi at Saqqara in Egypt (c. 2109-2107 B.C.) was inscribed. It uses a holistic approach to focus on the textual programme and its unusual aspects in comparison to older pyramids. In doing so, it addresses issues of textual transmission and of scribal practice in the process of inscribing the walls of subterranean chambers in pyramids. The aim is to contextualise the texts of Ibi within the Memphite tradition of Pyamid Texts and the development of mortuary literature on different media from the late third millennium BCE Old Kingdom to the Middle Kingdom in the early second millennium BCE. The first chapter presents the background to this research and information on king Ibi and his pyramid. The second chapter treats research on the arrangement of the texts on the walls of subterranean chambers of royal pyramids of kings and queens and compares the layout of the texts in the pyramid of Ibi with older pyramids. It then discusses in detail one section on the east wall of Ibi, where the order of spells diverges from other transmitted sequences. The unusual combination of spells and the practice of shortening spells is investigated further in the third chapter, where two sections of texts on the south wall are analysed. The fourth chapter explores garbled texts and discusses processes of copying and inscribing the texts onto the walls of pyramids. The fifth chapter analyses the modifications of the writing system in pyramids, especially the mutilation of hieroglyphs, and how this practice relates to the tradition of altering signs in pyramids. Finally, the sixth chapter synthesises the results of the preceding chapters in two sections. The first section summarises the process of inscribing pyramids and contextualises aspects of scribal practices within it. The second section concludes the thesis with a discussion of the features of the textual programme of Ibi and of how it relates to the broader transmission of mortuary literature.

Le double sarcophage de Mésehti, nomarque d’Assiout et grand prêtre d’Anubis et d’Oupouaout, est conservé au Musée du Caire. Sur l’extérieur des couvercles et des parois sont inscrits des textes religieux et funéraires peu habituels et pour partie dérivés des Textes des Pyramides (Livre de Nout). Seul le sarcophage intérieur porte un décor figuré à l’intérieur. Le couvercle du sarcophage intérieur est décoré d’une horloge stellaire diagonale (HSD) associée à deux registres de TS. Mais ces deux sarcophages servent surtout de support à une grande quantité de Textes des Sarcophages. Dans ce corpus, on constate la répétition d’un grand nombre de chapitres, sur une même paroi par le phénomène d’emboîtement et sur des parois différentes par l’association en séries ou séquences. Le choix des textes et de leur enchaînement répond à un souci d’établir un discours relatif au devenir au défunt dans l’au-delà. L’organisation spatiale par le choix des parois et la répétition de certains TS y est subtile et performative. La répétition des TS met en évidence une adaptation des textes à la paroi support et au contexte du discours. À cette mise en espace, à cet aspect discursif, est associée une insertion dans le temps par la présence de l’HSD et par l’établissement d’un cycle de lecture des parois des deux sarcophages. Cette étude de l’organisation du décor et des textes est complétée par une analyse de certains thèmes choisis. / Mesehti was nomarch from Assiut and Great Priest of Anubis and Wepwawet during the Middle Kingdom. His two coffins are now preserved in Cairo Museum. The outer decoration is unusual and inspired by Pyramid Texts (Book of Nut). Only the inner coffin is decorated. We find a Diagonal Star Clock under the lid of this coffin. But, for the most, many spells of Coffin Texts are inscribed inside the two coffins. Many of these spells are repeated on one side with the “setting phenomenon” and on different sides in so called series and sequences. The choice of the spells, their connections and their positions on selected sides and lids demonstrate the discourse about the deceased in the beyond. We find a subtle organization of these CT in the oriented space of the two coffins and in the cycles of time.

This thesis provides a structural and materials engineering explanation for many of the running fractures that occurred in steel structures during the destructive Kobe and Northridge earthquakes in the mid 1990s. A method is developed that allows the ductile endurance of structural steel members subjected to cyclic plastic deformation during earthquakes to be assessed and for pre-necking running fractures to be avoided. The study commenced following the 2000 World Earthquake Conference in Auckland. The conference brought together the findings of the huge research effort, in America, Japan, Europe and New Zealand, that followed the Kobe and Northridge earthquakes. The running fractures that had occurred in steel structures represented an unpredicted failure mode that structural engineers have not known how to predict or suppress through the engineering design process. A clear fundamental understanding of the causes and how to prevent the fractures did not arise from the conference. In fact apparently conflicting results were reported. Full scale cyclic tests in New Zealand on structural assemblies had not resulted in running fractures, whereas tests in American and Japan had. Structural engineers designing earthquake resistant structures rely on constructional steel to be materially homogeneous and nominally tri-linear in behaviour. Steel is expected to behave elastically under regular in-service loading, have a reliable and flat yield stress-strain characteristic, and under overload then develop predictable levels of strain-hardening in conjunction with significant plastic elongation up to its ultimate tensile strength. Steel is expected to eventually fracture after further plastic elongation and necking. Ductile design strategies and methods utilise the plastic elongation characteristics of steel to protect structures in earthquake. Plastic deformation is considered to beneficially dissipate energy generated in the structure by a severe earthquake and also dampen the structure’s response. The occurrence of running fracture without significant cyclic plastic deformation and before section necking in steelwork, therefore undermines the basis of the ductile seismic design approach. The initial part of the thesis is devoted to bringing together the fundamental aspects of materials engineering related to fracture of constructional steel. This is intended to provide a bridge of knowledge for structural engineering practitioners and researchers not fully conversant with materials engineering aspects of fracture. Fracture behaviour in steel is a broad and complex topic that developed rapidly in the twentieth century driven by the demands of technological growth. The unexpected fracture of welded liberty ships at sea in World War 2; the need for reliable long term containment for the nuclear reactors in the 1950s and 1960s; and prevention of fatigue failures in aircraft frames since the 1950s all drove engineering research into steel fracture behaviour. There are many subtle variations in definitions in the published literature on fracture that can be confusing. Therefore an attempt has been made to clarify terminology. The term brittle fracture in particular is only used in this thesis as applying to running fracture when the general or far field tensile stresses are below the yield stress of the steel. The term pre-necking or running fracture is preferred to describe the condition more broadly which may occur prior to and also after general yielding, but before section necking. Running fracture is a manifestation of pre-necking fracture in which insufficient plastic flow is available in the assembly to absorb the energy released upon fracture. The experimental studies investigated the behaviour of constructional steel commonly used in New Zealand, at various levels of plastic strain. This started with Charpy V-Notch (CVN) testing which revealed that a significant transition temperature shift and curve shape change occurs with increasing plastic strain and the associated strain-hardening. This showed that the ability of steel to avoid pre-necking or running fracture reduces as the level of plastic strain-hardening increases. Temperature controlled Crack Tip Opening Displacement (CTOD) testing was then undertaken. The setting of testing temperatures for the CTOD tests were guided by review of the CVN test results, using published CVN to fracture toughness correlation methods. However running cleavage fractures developed in the CTOD specimens at higher than predicted temperatures of 10 oC and 20 oC. These are typical service temperatures for structures in New Zealand and so are very likely to occur at the time of an earthquake. The implication from this is that there are levels of strain-hardening and conditions of material notching constraint that can lead to pre-necking and running fracture in New Zealand fabricated steel structures, under severe earthquake loading. Care was taken in the CTOD testing to monitor and maximise the capture of data electronically using a specially developed Direct Current Potential Drop method. This allowed the test results to be analysed and considered in varying ways, leading to a consistent assessment of the CTOD, crack growth, and the specific work of fracture in each test piece. While CTOD test results have sometimes been published by structural and welding engineering researchers in the wake of Kobe and Northridge, the results were typically of little use for this study as the CTOD initiation point was generally not identified effectively. The effect of remote plastic flow in the specimens was also not adequately accounted for. The CTOD test results were often simply used to help correlate other factors observed by the researchers. Side-grooving of specimens was not reported as having been used in any of the published results reviewed. When conducting CTOD test with highly ductile constructional steels it is very difficult to get useful CTOD results if the specimens are not side-grooved, as significant necking and tunnelling will otherwise occur and limit the usefulness of the results. Work by Knott and also by McRobie and Smith was seminal in terms of identifying some critical aspects of plane strain development in CTOD tests, and the links to non-metallic particle density with respect to fracture toughness and CTOD at initiation. Some of their findings with regards to the effect of pre-strain on CTOD initiation were subsequently found to confirm the experimental findings in this study. No effective methodology for prediction of pre-necking or running fracture in a structural member or assembly when subjected to gross plastic cyclic deformation was found to exist in the literature. It was concluded however that the principles of specific work of fracture, and monotonic and cyclic fracture similitude were particularly relevant. These were therefore utilised in the development of the design method proposed in this thesis. The CTOD test results were reviewed, isolating the remote plastic flow component, to determine the critical specific work of fracture property Rc of the steels tested. A meeting with Professor Kuwamura at the University of Tokyo was providential, allowing discussion of his similitude principle, and observations in person of some of the fractured specimens developed during his full scale test series’. Running fractures with cleavage were evident in the specimens, with their tell-tale chevron markings. He had predicted running fracture problems in structures in Japan ahead of the Kobe earthquake and been largely ignored. His insights were subsequently seriously considered in Japan after the earthquake. He and his colleagues developed the principle of structural similitude that relates monotonic fracture displacement ductility to cyclic fracture displacement ductility for a particular assembly. This arose from their observation that running fractures developed from ductile crack formation at blunt notches in structures. The similitude principle has echoes of the Coffin-Manson approach to ductile crack initiated low cycle fracture. The principle of similitude has a log–log relationship as does the Manson-Coffin relationship. So where notch plasticity controls the initiation of fracture in a structural assembly it is conceptually reasonable to expect that the number of cycles to initiation of fracture from a notch will have a log–log relationship to the amplitude of the cyclic strain developed in the notch. Kuwamura found that steel assemblies with lower CVN energy had reduced cyclic fracture endurance than the same assemblies made with steel with higher CVN impact energy. However no method of predicting performance of any particular assembly could be developed from his observations. The benefit of his method primarily relates to the minimising of testing necessary to assess the fracture limited cyclic displacement ductility of a structural assembly. However it doesn’t provide a means for designing a structural assembly to achieve specific levels of ductile endurance other than clearly identifying the need to use steel with good CVN characteristics. The most significant development arising from this thesis is therefore the development of a design method to assess cyclic ductile endurance. The method utilises the specific work of fracture properties obtained from CTOD specimens of the steel in conjunction with a relatively simple fracture mechanics assessment and an elasto-plastic finite element analysis (FEA). The FEA model is used to determine the displacement ductility of the assembly at the calculated onset of pre-necking fracture. The elasto-plastic stress–strain properties of the steel in various pre-strain states required for the FEA may be derived from tensile testing. Kuwamura’s similitude principle is then used to predict cyclic plastic endurance at various constant displacement ductility amplitudes. The method is extended using Miner’s rule to allow for the effects of increasing variable amplitude cyclic plastic loading. In summary the thesis explains why pre-necking and running fractures occur in steel members subjected to cyclic plastic deformation during a severe earthquake. In addition a method for consistently assessing the ability of structural steel assemblies to achieve a specified level of ductile endurance during earthquakes is proposed. The method is verified against published results for a cyclic test of a simple steel member with a crack at mid-span. / Whole document restricted, but available by request, use the feedback form to request access.

Coffin-Lowry Syndrome (CLS), an X-linked form of intellectual disability, is caused by mutations of the RPS6KA3 gene encoding the growth factor regulated kinase RSK2. To understand the consequences of RSK2 deficiency in the hippocampus we performed a comparison of the hippocampal gene expression profiles from Rsk2-KO and WT mice. It revealed differentialexpression of 100 genes, encoding proteins acting in various biological pathways. We further analyzed the consequences of deregulation of one of these genes, Gria2 encoding GluR2, a subunit of the glutamate AMPAR. An abnormal two-fold increased expression of GluR2 was found in the hippocampus of Rsk2-KO mice. Electrophysiology studies showed a reduction of basal AMPAR and NMDAR mediated transmission, in the hippocampus of Rsk2-KO mice. Activity of ERK1/2 was also abnormally increased in the adult hippocampus of Rsk2-KO mice. P-Sp1 level was also significantly higher in RSK2 deficient cells. Together, my results suggested that over expression of GluR2 in RSK2 deficient cells, is caused by increased Sp1 transcriptional activity on the Gria2 gene, which, itself, is the result of ERK1/2 increased signaling.