This study was designed to compare the clinical effectiveness of EMG biofeedback and progressive relaxation training in the treatment of muscle tension headache. These procedures also were compared with a treatment-element control group. Results from this study indicated that EMG biofeedback, progressive relaxation, and the control procedures all led to significant improvements across sessions on EMG and most self-report measures. There was little evidence that either treatment technique was superior to the other or to the control procedures. Although in most cases there were rather large numerical differences between groups, these differences generally were not statistically significant. Analysis of correlations between EMG and self-report data revealed a pattern of variable but generally nonsignificant relationships. However, for the biofeedback and progressive relaxation groups, there were a number of highly significant correlations. The pattern of correlations suggested that the relationship between EMG tension and subjective headache pain may be better predicted by something other than a strict linear model.

Previous research suggested that sleep onset insomnia was significantly reduced with the use of relaxation techniques; however, the majority of these studies used college student populations with mild to moderate insomnia. The objective of the present study was to assess the effectiveness of using muscle relaxation training in a clinical population known to have sleeping difficulties—cancer patients. Results of this study suggest that muscle relaxation training is an effective technique to reduce sleep onset insomnia in cancer patients, and perhaps also in any clinical group. The technique seems especially promising since it was shown to be effective with severe insomniacs suffering severe medical problems. Results of the study were discussed in terms of possible explanations for the efficacy of the treatment, potential uses of the technique with other clinical populations, and ease of teaching nonpsychologist health professionals to treat with muscle relaxation training.

Les ELISA (Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay) sont une des technologies analytiques les plus utilisées dans la recherche et les applications biomédicales. Leur production nécessite la construction de films d’anticorps sur des surfaces constituées le plus souvent de polystyrène. La haute hydrophobie du polystyrène assure une adhésion forte et spontanée des anticorps permettant ainsi d’y construire facilement une monocouche d’anticorps. L’amélioration des ELISA passe certainement par l’amélioration et la compréhension des mécanismes physico-chimiques à l’œuvre lors de l’immobilisation des anticorps sur le polystyrène. Dans ce but, ce travail présente un essai de théorisation appuyé par des simulations numériques et des estimations expérimentales par microscopie à force atomique (AFM) et ELISA. En faisant référence à l’effet hydrophobe, la thermodynamique des processus irréversibles permet premièrement d’expliciter les raisons de l’adhésion des anticorps sur le polystyrène. Deuxièmement, des simulations numériques dans le cadre du modèle des additions séquentielles aléatoires (RSA) montrent la façon dont peuvent se saturer les surfaces en favorisant certaines orientations d’anticorps recherchées dans le cadre de l’ELISA. Finalement, l’amélioration du modèle RSA en un modèle RSA+R tenant compte des changements d’orientations par relaxation des anticorps illustre le lien entre les conditions de dépôt et la structure de la monocouche obtenue. Ces éléments semblent corroborés par l’expérience / ELISA (Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay) are widely used analytical technologies in research and biomedical fields. Their implementation require to build antibodies thin films onto predominantly composed polystyrene surfaces. The high hydrophobicity of polystyrene ensures spontaneous and strong antibodies adhesion allowing to easily build antibodies monolayers. ELISA improvements lie most probably throughout improvements and comprehension of physico-chemical mecanisms on which antibodies immobilization on polystyrene are relied. In this way, our work explains a therozation essay emphasized by numerical modelling and experimental estimations by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and ELISA. Keeping in mind the so-called hydrophobic effect, thermodynamics of irrversible processes allows in a first time explaining reasons of antibodies adhesion on polystyrene. In a second time, numerical modelling in the field of random sequential additions model (RSA) show a way of surfaces saturation involving a strong trend to favor some antibodies orientations expected for ELISA. Finally, a RSA improvement in a RSA+R model taking into account orientational changes by the way of relaxation shows a link between deposition conditions and obtained monolayer structure. Such results seem to be strongly correlated with experimental facts

The problem of this study was to compare performances of college students given relaxation instructions and those not given those instructions on a paired-associate learning task. The results indicated that relaxation instructions alone produced a decrement in recall. When subjects received relaxation instructions as well as the suggestion that relaxation enhances learning, the decrement did not occur. Thus, situational demand characteristics appeared to be a significant variable in determining what effect relaxation instructions had on recall.

L’analyse de stabilité en régime transitoire du réseau de transport électrique permet de contrôler le bon retour au régime stationnaire du système soumis à une perturbation. Cette analyse systématique des systèmes de réseaux en développement permet notamment d’optimiser la production et la consommation de l’énergie électrique, et de protéger les équipements tels que les centrales électriques, les transformateurs, les lignes haute-tension, etc. Afin d’améliorer la stabilité, la robustesse et la viabilité de ces systèmes, la tendance est à l’interconnexion des réseaux de transport régionaux et nationaux, et ainsi, au développement et à l’analyse de systèmes toujours plus grands. Le problème de stabilité électrique peut être simulé numériquement grâce à l’intégration d’un système d’équations algébro-différentielles non-linéaire et raide. Lorsque le problème traité est très grand, la simulation numérique devient très coûteuse en temps de calcul et ralentit considérablement le travail des professionnels du secteur. Cette thèse a pour but de proposer, d’étudier, et de développer des méthodes innovantes de calcul parallèle pour la résolution des systèmes d’équations différentielles issus de la simulation de grands réseaux électriques tel que le réseau européen. Dans ce manuscrit, on livre une analyse des propriétés de ces systèmes assez spécifiques : creux, irréguliers, non-linéaires, raides et hétérogènes. On discute notamment de la structure particulière de ces systèmes qui rend attrayante l’application d’une méthode de décomposition de domaine. On étudie ainsi plusieurs méthodes de parallélisation en espace : la parallélisation fine de chaque opération coûteuse, la résolution du système non-linéaire par décomposition en sous-réseaux faiblement couplés, d’abord sur chaque étape d’intégration, puis par méthode de relaxation d’ondes. On aborde aussi la parallélisation en temps de type algorithme Pararéel ainsi qu’une méthode parallèle espace-temps bénéficiant des propriétés couplées des méthodes de relaxation d’ondes et de Pararéel. Dans ces travaux, nous proposons des méthodes assurant la convergence rapide des méthodes de décomposition de domaine quel que soit le nombre de sous-domaines et de processeurs employés. Nous introduisons pour cela des techniques de préconditionnement en espace adéquates afin d’améliorer la scalabilité des méthodes de parallélisation envisagées. / Power system transient stability analysis enables to control the return to equilibrium of the system subjected to a disturbance. This systematic analysis of developing transport networks allows to optimize the production and the consumption of electric power and to protect the equipments such as power plants, transformers, highvoltage lines and so on. In order to improve the stability, the robustness, and the sustainability of these systems, a worldwide trend is to interconnect regional and national transport networks. This leads to analyze ever larger systems. The power-stability problem can be numerically simulated owing to the integration of a differential-algebraic system which is nonlinear and stiff. When considering a very large problem, numerical simulation is very time consuming and significantly slows down the work of professionals. This thesis aims at studying innovative parallel computing methods for the resolution of differential systems arising from the transient stability analysis of large power systems such as the European Transport Network. In this manuscript, we first deliver an analysis of the properties of these rather specific systems: sparse, irregular, nonlinear, stiff, and heterogeneous. We discuss the particular structure of these systems making the application of a domain decomposition method interesting. Thus, we study several space parallelization methods: the fine parallelization of each costly tasks, the resolution of the nonlinear system by decomposition into weakly coupled subnetworks, first on each integration step separately, and then by waveform relaxation method. We also address the time parallelization with a Parareal-based algorithm and a space-time parallel method which benefits from the coupled properties of waveform relaxation and Parareal methods. In this work, we focus on methods which ensure a fast convergence of domain decomposition methods whatever the number of subdomains/processors used. In order to achieve such a goal, we introduce space preconditioning techniques to improve the scalability of the parallelization methods considered.

As moléculas que compõem um fluído, devido à autodifusão, encontram-se em constante movimento de translação num meio poroso. Observar a migração dessas moléculas de um poro para outro é fundamental para análise das conectividades do meio, resultado importante para a prospecção de óleo e gás, qualidade de membranas filtros, entre outros processos. Se há distintos tempos de relaxações transversais, T2, para os poros, ocorre quando estes apresentam características físico-químicas ou tamanhos diferentes, um experimento capaz de observar esse efeito de troca entre poros é o chamado T2-T2 Exchange proposto em 1993. Esse experimento, na sua versão original, corresponde a um experimento tridimensional que consome muito tempo para ser executado, inviabilizando, por exemplo, o uso em perfilagem de poços petrolíferos. Desta forma, o grupo propôs diminuir o tempo de execução reduzindo uma dimensão do experimento. Este novo método, novo experimento, foi nomeado de T2-Filtered T2-T2 Exchange, o qual utiliza a primeira parte da sequência de pulsos original como um filtro de T2. Com o objetivo de validar o experimento proposto, surgiu a oportunidade de estudar a técnica T2-T2 Exchange como um todo. No decorrer do trabalho, surgiu mais uma nova aplicação da técnica T2-T2 Exchange, a execução simultânea. Tanto a versão tridimensional do T2-T2 Exchange quando a bidimensional, necessitam de uma ciclagem de fase especial. Neste contexto, foi proposto também a execução simultânea dos experimentos T2-Filtered T2-T2 Exchange e Saturation-Recovery-CPMG, adquirindo os sinais separados e empregando a ciclagem de fases distintas. A fim de validar as propostas T2-Filtered T2-T2 Exchange e execução simultânea, se optou por uma amostra padrão, uma cerâmica de alumina foi saturada com água e, então, estudado os núcleos de hidrogênios. A cerâmica foi manufaturada pelo método de prensagem a seco com adição de agentes porogênicos e sinterização, a qual foi caracterizada via porosimetria por intrusão de mercúrio e imagens por microscópio eletrônico de varredura. Em um campo de 2 tesla, frequência de 85 MHz para os núcleos de hidrogênios, foram executados os experimento Saturation-Recovery-CPMG, T2-T2 Exchange e T2-Filtered T2-T2 Exchange. A análise comparativa entre os mapas de correlação T1-T2 e as curvas de trocas obtidos deste, permitiu validar as propostas. Desta forma, se concluiu que a nova sequência T2-Filtered T2-T2 Exchange proposta, é uma poderosa ferramenta com potencial para aplicação em well-logging. / The molecules that make up a fluid inside a porous media are in constant motion due to self diffusion. Observing this migration inside the media is very interesting for analyzing the connectivity between different regions of the sample, which is of great importance to the field of oil and gas prospection. In the case the sample has pores with distinct transverse relaxation times, T2, which happens when they have distinct physical-chemical properties or sizes, an experiment capable of observing the movement from one distinct pore from the other is the T2-T2 Exchange proposed in 1993. This experiment, in its original version, corresponds to a three dimensional experiment which usually takes a very long time, making it unfeasible for well logging for example. Thus, this work proposes a method to drastically reduce the duration of the experiment by eliminating one of its dimensions. It was named T2-Filtered T2-T2 Exchange. It uses the first part of the original sequence as a T2 filter. To validate the filtered technique, the T2-T2 Exchange technique was vastly studied as a whole. Some phase cycling characteristics of the techniques were observed and in the end led to the development of new proposals. The proposal consists of simultaneously performing both the T2-Filtered T2-T2 Exchange and the Saturation-Recovery-CPMG. For the experimental tests of the sequences, a water saturated alumina ceramic sample was chosen as the standard sample. The ceramic was manufactured by a process of dry pressing with addition of some porogenic agents and followed by sinterization. The sample was characterized by mercury injection capillary pressure and scanning electron microscopy. The NMR experiments were performed on a 2 Tesla magnet corresponding to an 85 MHz frequency for protons and the experiments performed wereT2-T2 Exchange, T2-Filtered T2-T2 Exchange and Saturation-Recovery-CPMG. The comparative analysis between the T1-T2 correlation and the exchange curves obtained allowed the validation of the proposals. It was possible to conclude that the T2-Filtered T2-T2 Exchange technique is a powerful tool with potential application in the well-logging field.

Various modern spectroscopies have been utilized with considerable success in recent years to probe the dynamics of vibrational and reorientational relaxation of molecules in condensed phases. We have studied the temperature dependence of the polarized and depolarized Raman spectra of various modes in the following dihalomethanes: dibromomethane, dichloromethane, dichloromethane-d2, and bromochloromethane. Among other observed trends, we have found the following: Vibrational dephasing times calculated from the bend) and (C-Br stretch) lineshapes are of the same magnitude in CI^B^. The vibrational dephasing time of [C-D(H) stretch] is twice as long in CD2Cl2 as in CH-^C^, and the relaxation time of (C-Cl stretch) is greater in CI^C^ than in CD2CI2. Isotropic relaxation times for all three stretching vibrations are significantly shorter in C^BrCl than in CI^C^ or CI^B^. Application of the Kubo model revealed that derived modulation times are close to equal for equivalent vibrations in the various dihalomethanes. Thus, the more efficient relaxation of the A^ modes in CE^BrCl can be attributed almost entirely to the broader mean squared frequency perturbation of the vibrations in this molecule.

Stress has long been reported to play a prominent role in the onset and course of diabetes mellitus. The present study first reviews the literature addressing the impact of stress on this disease, the physiological mechanisms and pathways the stress response might utilize, and psychotherapeutic tacts taken to date to ameliorate this response. A stress management package was then assembled, comprised of relaxation training, hypnosis, stress inoculation training, and imagery induction.

Life events and one's ability to adapt to these events has significant effects on immune functioning. Immunosuppression has been related to a high magnitude of life stress and low adaptive ability. While studies have explored immune response in stressed individuals, no study has approached the area of prevention with low-immunity individuals. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether subjects who self-report stressful lives have lower immunity, and whether "low" immunity subjects under "high" stress could enhance phagocytic activity through biofeedback-assisted relaxation.

Les transistors organiques sont la base de nombreuses applications de l'électronique organique mais leur rendement électrique ainsi que leur stabilité dans le temps sont encore des verrous technologiques devant être levés. De plus, le phénomène de transport de charges dans ces dispositifs reste une notion encore à l'étude même si différents modèles sont utilisés afin d'expliquer l'effet de champ des transistors organiques. C'est dans ce cadre que s'inscrit cette étude portant sur la caractérisation par spectroscopie d'admittance de jonctions Métal/oxyde/semi conducteur organique/métal. Elle a pour but d'analyser le comportement électrostatique du semi conducteur organique. Les mesures de spectroscopie d'admittance ont été réalisées sur une large bande de fréquence (0.1Hz à 1Mhz) dans laquelle les pertes diélectriques mesurées peuvent être associées à des phénomènes d'orientation (oscillation) de dipôles présents dans la structure. Les réponses en fréquences montrent trois types de comportements dynamiques. A basses fréquences, nous avons observé une diffusion ionique, liée au déplacement d'ions H+ à travers la structure. A hautes fréquences, la réponse est due aux imperfections de l'oxyde. Enfin, aux fréquences intermédiaires, la réponse du semi-conducteur organique est identifiée et attribuée à des dipôles permanents. A partir de ces différentes réponses, un modèle analytique est établi et permet de décrire l'ensemble des réponses dynamiques. Le comportement du semi-conducteur est décrit par la somme d'une fonction de type Debye et de type Cole-Cole. L'analyse des paramètres de ce modèle a permis de mettre en évidence l'influence des dipôles permanents sur la permittivité du film de semi-conducteur organique. Enfin, ce modèle a été validé sur différents échantillons à base de pentacène et a été ensuite appliqué au Poly-3-hexylthiophène. / Organic transistors are vital in many applications of organic electronics but the electrical performance and time stability are technological limitation in order to make this technology reliable. Moreover, in these devices, the charge transport phenomenon has not to be clearly understood even if different models are commonly used to explain the field effect in organic transistors. In this context, this thesis talks about the admittance spectroscopy characterization of metal / oxide / organic semiconductor / metal junctions and analysis the organic semiconductor electrostatic behavior.The admittance spectroscopy measurements were performed on a wide frequency range (0.1Hz to 1MHz) in which the measured dielectric loss may be associated with the orientation phenomenon (as oscillation) of dipoles present in the structure.The frequency responses show three dynamic behaviors. At low frequencies (<10Hz), we observed an ionic diffusion, which is related to the ions movement of H+ through the structure. At high frequencies, (>10kHz) the response is due to defects into the oxide. Finally, at intermediate frequencies, the organic semiconductor response is identified and assigned to the permanent dipoles into the bulk. From these responses, an analytical model is developed and used to describe the dynamic responses. The semi-conductor behavior is described by the sum of a Debye and Cole-Cole function type. The analysis of the model parameters has highlighted the influence of permanent dipoles on the organic semiconductor permittivity. Finally, this model has been agreed on different samples based on pentacene and was applied to the Poly-3-hexylthiophene.