Children’s ability to manipulate objects is the end-point of several important developments. To imagine objects in different positions greatly improves children’s action capabilities. They can relate objects to each other successfully, and plan actions involving more than one object. We know that one-year-olds can insert an object into an aperture. Earlier research has focused on the start and goal of such actions, but ignored the way in between. This thesis shows that children are unable to fit an object into an aperture unless they can imagine the different projections of the object and rotate it in advance. The problem of how to proceed with an object-aperture matching was studied in 14- to 40-month-old children with a box, different holes and a set of fitting wooden blocks. Study I focused on how to orient a single object to make it fit. Studies II and III added a second object or aperture, introducing choice. In Study I there was a huge difference between 18 and 22 months in solving the fitting problem. Successful insertion was related to appropriate pre-adjustments. The older children pre-adjusted the object orientation before arriving at the aperture(s). The younger used a feedback strategy and that did not work for this task. To choose was more difficult than expected; one must not only choose one alternative, but also inhibit the other. Fifteen-month-olds were unable to choose between sizes and shapes, 20-month-olds could choose between sizes, 30-month-olds could choose between sizes and shapes, but not even 40-month-olds could choose between objects with different triangular cross-sections. Finally, the relationships between an object and an aperture, supporting surface or form were investigated. When comparing tasks requiring relationships between an object’s positive and an aperture’s negative form, between a 3D and a 2D, and between two 3D-forms, we found that the main difficulties is relating positive and negative form.

Neuroticism and partner relationship quality are associated with happines. A Swedish longitudinal project was utilized to examine whether these two aspects together determine happiness. Adolescent neuroticism was measured at age 15 witht he High School Personality Questionnaire (HSPQ). Measurements of neurotic manifestations were adminstered at ages 15-18. Adult neuroticism was measured at age 37 using the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ-I). Measures of partner relationship quality and happiness were also administered. An adolescent neurotic dimension and partner relationship quality were related to happiness. Overall, neuroticism appears to be a better predictor of happiness with both direct and indirect effects through the influence on partner relationship quality. / Neuroticism och partnerrelationens kvalitet är två aspekter relaterade till människans livsglädje. Data från ett svenskt longitudinalprojekt användes för att undersöka om dessa tillsammans verkar avgörande för livsglädjen. Ungdomsneuroticism mättes vid 15 års ålder genom High School Personality Questionnaire (HSPQ). Neurotiska manifestationer mättes också mellan 15 och 18 års ålder. Den vuxnes neuroticism mättes sedan vid 37 års ålder med Eysencks Personality Questionnaire (EQP-I). Partnerrelationens kvalitet och livsglädje användes som utfallsmått. En neurotisk dimension från adolescensen och partnerrelationens kvalitet i vuxen ålder var relaterad till livsglädjen. Totalt sett tycks ungdomsneuroticism vara en av de tydligaste förutsägelserna för livsglädjen; dels genom direkt påverkan och dels genom indirekt påverkan via partnerreltionens kvalitet.

Background: Type D personality, or the "distressed personality", is a psychosocial factor associated with negative health outcomes, although its impact in younger populations is unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of Type D personality and the associations between Type D personality and psychosomatic symptoms and musculoskeletal pain among adolescences. Methods: A population-based, self-reported cross-sectional study conducted in Vastmanland, Sweden with a cohort of 5012 students in the age between 15-18 years old. The participants completed the anonymous questionnaire Survey of Adolescent Life in Vastmanland 2008 during class hour. Psychosomatic symptoms and musculoskeletal pain were measured through index measuring the presence of symptoms and how common they were. DS14 and its two component subscales of negative affectivity (NA) and social inhibition (SI) were measured as well. Results: There was a difference depending on sex, where 10.4% among boys and 14.6% among girls (p = < 0.001) were defined as Type D personality. Boys and girls with a Type D personality had an approximately 2-fold increased odds of musculoskeletal pain and a 5-fold increased odds of psychosomatic symptoms. The subscale NA explained most of the relationship between Type D personality and psychosomatic symptoms and musculoskeletal pain. No interaction effect of NA and SI was found. Conclusions: There was a strong association between Type D personality and both psychosomatic symptoms and musculoskeletal pain where adolescent with a type D personality reported more symptoms. The present study contributes to the mapping of the influence of Type D on psychosomatic symptoms and musculoskeletal pain among adolescents.

Despite the well-recognized importance of interpersonal relationships within the work environment, there is no comprehensive approach or set of studies that provide a complete picture. As a step towards providing a complete picture, this research presents a qualitative exploratory study of how people experience the work environment through task and work-social interactions and through policies and norms present in the work environment. The purpose of this study is to understand the overall work experience from purely work-social and purely task network perspective. A semi-structured question-based set of interviews were performed among professionals from a Canadian university alumni society. The transcripts of the interviews were then manually coded and analyzed using statistical methods. The study found an overall higher level of positive responses for co-workers in the work-social network, as well as a preference for work-social co-workers in building a team for a hypothetical company. The study also found a general willingness to select only the best ranked co-workers from task network, whereas a leniency towards the selection of co-workers from work-social network was observed despite their lower ranking. At the same time, the study identified some of the most desirable attributes of fellow co-workers both in the task and work-social networks from an employee’s perspective. The significance of the people and team was found more important to the employees than factors such as specific task performed or compensation. This exploratory study provided insights into how employees view their co-workers and their work environment.

Antibacterial activities in the salivary glands of female mosquitoes Aedes aegypti were investigated in this study. The mean salivary bacteriolytic activity, during a period of 14-day of female mosquitoes exposed to five different concentrations of Gram-positive bacteria Micrococcus lysodeikticus in the sucrose meal, was detected by a lysoplate method. A logarithmic regression (R²=0.73) fits the different levels of bacteriolytic activity during the entire period. As the concentration of bacteria in the sugar meal increases, the level of mean salivary bacteriolytic activity increases. A maximum level of bacteriolytic factor may exist in the salivary gland when the concentration of M. lysodeikticus in the sucrose meal exceeds 0.6 g/100 ml. One way analysis of variance and multiple range analysis for the different levels of bacteriolytic activity further validate this finding. The mortality of mosquitoes in the different treatments was not affected by the quanti ties of this nonpathogenic bacteria in the sugar meal. Salivary bacteriostatic activity of female mosquitoes against Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli was not detectable in our study, despite positive preliminary results. / Graduation date: 1993

Kara Walker, winner of the MacArthur “Genius” award and the Smithsonian Lucelia award, is one of the most critically acclaimed contemporary African American artists. Her work, especially her cut-paper silhouettes depicting grotesque antebellum scenes, has inspired as much outrage from an older generation of Black artists as acclaim from the mainstream media. This thesis gives an overview of the artist’s life, analysis of some of her works, and an examination of the controversy her work has caused. In the conclusion, I introduce the next generation of Black American artists, self-proclaimed “Art Stars,” including Atlanta artist Fahamu Pecou.

A power transformer is one of the most important and expensive components in any power system. Power transformers can be exposed to a wide variety of abnormal conditions and faults. Internal turn-to-turn faults are the most difficult types of faults to detect within the power transformer. The IEEE Standards documents have revealed that there is no one standard way to protect all power transformers against minor internal faults such as turn-to-turn faults and at the same time to satisfy basic protection requirements: sensitivity, selectivity, and speed.<p> This thesis presents a new, simple and efficient protection technique which is based on negative sequence currents. Using this protection technique, it is possible to detect minor internal turn-to-turn faults in power transformers. Also, it can differentiate between internal and external faults. The discrimination is achieved by comparing the phase shift between two phasors of total negative sequence current. The new protection technique is being studied via an extensive simulation study using PSCAD®/EMTDC 1 software in a three-phase power system and is also being compared with a traditional differential algorithm.<p> Relay performance under different numbers of shorted turns of the power transformer, different connections of the transformer, different values of the fault resistances, and different values of the system parameters was investigated. The results indicate that the new technique can provide a fast and sensitive approach for identifying minor internal turn-to-turn faults in power transformers.

Within the confines of this study, numerical simulations of time dependent variation of downdrag forces on the diaphragm walls are analyzed for a generic soil site, where consolidation is not completed. As part of the first generic scenario, consolidation of a clayey site due to the application of the embankment is assessed. Then two sets of diaphragm walls, with and without bitumen coating, are analyzed. For comparison purposes, conventional analytical calculation methods (i.e., rigid-plastic and elastic-plastic soil models) are also used, the results of which, establish a good basis of comparison with finite-element based simulation results. Additionaly, the same generic cases are also analyzed during the stages of excavation, when diaphragm walls are laterally loaded. As the concluding remark, on the basis of time dependent stress and displacement responses of bitumen coated and uncoated diaphragm walls, it was observed that negative skin friction is a rather complex time-dependent soil-structure and loading interaction problem. This problem needs to be assessed through methods capable of modeling the complex nature of the interaction. Current analytical methods may significantly over-estimate the amount of negative skin friction applied on the system, hence they are judged to be over-conservative. However, if negative skin friction is accompanied by partial unloading as expected in diaphragm walls or piles used for deep excavations, then they may be subject to adverse combinations of axial load and moment, which may produce critical combinations expressed in interaction diagrams. Neglecting the axial force and moment interaction may produce unconservative results.

Artificial Immune Systems (AIS) are class of computational intelligent methods developed based on the principles and processes of the biological immune system. AIS methods are categorized mainly into four types according to the inspired principles and processes of immune system. These categories are clonal selection, negative selection, immune network and danger theory. The approach of negative selection algorithm (NSA) is one of the major AIS models. NSA is a supervised learning algorithm based on the imitation of the T cells maturation process in thymus. In this imitation, detectors are used to mimic the cells, and the process of T cells maturation is simulated to generate detectors. Then, NSA classifies the specified data either as normal (self) data or as anomalous (non-self) data. In this classification task, NSA methods can make two kinds of classification errors: a self data is classified as anomalous, and a non-self data is classified as normal data. In this thesis, a novel negative selection method, variable shaped detector (V-shaped detector), is proposed to increase the classification accuracy, or in other words decreasing classification errors. In V-shaped detector, new approaches are introduced to define self and represent detectors. V-shaped detector uses the combination of Local Outlier Factor (LOF) and kth nearest neighbor (k-NN) to determine a different radius for each self sample, thus it becomes possible to model the self space using self samples and their radii. Besides, the cubic b-spline is proposed to generate a variable shaped detector. In detector representation, the application of cubic spline is meaningful, when the edge points are used. Hence, Edge Detection (ED) algorithm is developed to find the edge points of the given self samples. V-shaped detector was tested using different data sets and compared with the well-known one-class classification method, SVM, and the similar popular negative selection method, NSA with variable-sized detector termed V-detector. The experiments show that the proposed method generates reasonable and comparable results.

A power transformer is one of the most important and expensive components in any power system. Power transformers can be exposed to a wide variety of abnormal conditions and faults. Internal turn-to-turn faults are the most difficult types of faults to detect within the power transformer. The IEEE Standards documents have revealed that there is no one standard way to protect all power transformers against minor internal faults such as turn-to-turn faults and at the same time to satisfy basic protection requirements: sensitivity, selectivity, and speed.<p> This thesis presents a new, simple and efficient protection technique which is based on negative sequence currents. Using this protection technique, it is possible to detect minor internal turn-to-turn faults in power transformers. Also, it can differentiate between internal and external faults. The discrimination is achieved by comparing the phase shift between two phasors of total negative sequence current. The new protection technique is being studied via an extensive simulation study using PSCAD®/EMTDC 1 software in a three-phase power system and is also being compared with a traditional differential algorithm.<p> Relay performance under different numbers of shorted turns of the power transformer, different connections of the transformer, different values of the fault resistances, and different values of the system parameters was investigated. The results indicate that the new technique can provide a fast and sensitive approach for identifying minor internal turn-to-turn faults in power transformers.