The following poems are meditations which deal with the experience of sleep—or, more accurately, a sort of fear of sleep, sleep disorder(s), and control, or a lack thereof.

Yu, Xinting. / Thesis Ph.D. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2014. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 188-207). / Abstracts also in Chinese; appendixes in Chinese. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on 14, September, 2016). / Yu, Xinting.

In mammals, circadian rhythms are controlled by an endogenous clock located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). The SCN is part of a wake-promoting pathway in adults involving the dorsomedial hypothalamus (DMH) and locus coeruleus (LC), but little is known about how this circuit develops. Therefore, we examined the neural mechanisms underlying the development of circadian and ultradian sleep-wake rhythms. Circadian rhythms of sleep and wakefulness are exhibited by rats at postnatal day (P)2, but the influence of forebrain structures, including the SCN, has not been examined. In Experiment 1, although precollicular transections at P2 did not alter day-night differences in sleep and wakefulness, transections at P8 did eliminate these differences. In contrast, in Experiment 2, SCN lesions eliminated day-night differences in sleep and wakefulness at P2. These results suggest that the SCN exerts a humoral influence in newborns and gains neural control over brainstem structures over the first postnatal week. Based on the results of Experiments 1 and 2, we hypothesized that neural connections among the SCN, DMH, and LC develop over the first postnatal week. In Experiment 3, we used fluorescent tracers to reveal that connections within this circuit are strengthened and elaborated--and also become bidirectional--between P2 and P8. The results of Experiment 3 indicate that the SCN receives feedback from the LC. To explore the functional mechanisms by which the SCN receives this feedback, in Experiment 4, we deprived pups of sleep at P8 and used cFos to visualize brain areas that became active as a result of forced wakefulness. Our findings in intact pups and those injected with DSP-4, a neurotoxin that targets noradrenergic LC terminals, suggest that forced wakefulness activates the LC, which subsequently activates the DMH and SCN. After connectivity among the SCN, DMH, and LC is established, we tested the functional role of each nucleus in the modulation of sleep and wakefulness. Infants cycle rapidly between states of sleep and wakefulness, resulting in fragmented bouts. Over development, these sleep and wake bouts consolidate and circadian rhythms become evident. Analyses of the statistical distributions of sleep and wake bouts have revealed dramatic changes in the dynamics of sleep-wake activity. Sleep bouts follow an exponential distribution throughout development. In contrast, wake bouts initially follow an exponential distribution, but transition to a power-law distribution around P15. In Experiments 5, 6, and 7, we explored the contributions of the LC, SCN, and DMH, respectively, to this developmental transition. We found that lesions of each area prevented the emergence of power-law wake behavior. Lesions of the SCN and DMH also prevented the expression of nocturnality. Altogether, these findings reveal that neural connections between the SCN and brainstem develop over the first postnatal week. After this connectivity is established, the SCN-DMH-LC pathway is critical for the normal expression of power-law wake behavior and circadian rhythmicity. We suggest that the development of the SCN-DMH-LC circuit is critical for pups to regulate arousal and gain independence from the mother and littermates.

Thesis (M.S. in Human Systems Integration)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2009. / Thesis Advisor(s): Miller, Nita Lewis. Second Reader: McCauley, Michael E. "December 2009." Description based on title screen as viewed on January 26, 2010. Author(s) subject terms: Sleep Efficiency, Sleeping Surface, Acceleration, Motion Effects on Sleep, Actigraphy, Sleep Quality, Shipboard Sleep. Includes bibliographical references (p. 83-87). Also available in print.

Inaug.-diss.--Halle-Wittenberg. / Lebenslauf. Includes Aubrey's, Scott's and Blakeborough's versions of the poem, and a German translation. "Literatur": p. [7]-10.

The tumbling tip vortex effect of a reduced-scale, 1 m diameter, four-bladed rotor during hover is studied using vortex methods, combined with a center of mass analysis approach. Measurements of all three components of the velocity field are acquired using a stereo PIV system synchronized to capture up to 500 degrees of vortex age, with 10 degree wake age offsets, during hover conditions. The nominal operating condition of the rotor is at a rotational rate of 1520RPM, corresponding to ReC = 248,000 with a chord length of 58.5mm. The rotor is operated with a pitch of 7.2± 0.5 degrees and a CT/sigma of 0.045. The far wake vortex tumbling phenomenon is captured and described. It is shown that tip vortices from two blades tumble through approximately 90 degrees of rotation before they coalesce. It is also seen that the constituent parent vortices do not combine to create a stronger daughter vortex as was previously thought to happen. Instead, the merged vortex has a lower large-radius circulation than either of its parent vortices. An accurate characterization and prediction of the trajectory of the far wake vortex tumbling can enhance the ability to predict and alleviate the resuspension of particles during brownout as well as provide a database for far wake validation of CFD codes. / text

The remarkable challenges Finnegans Wake offers to its readers and to the very process of reading are the results of an evolution of Nonsense literature. Despite the unduly "serious" framework of criticism which has been built up around it, Joyce's anomalous last work is a radical "hoax" upon interpretation. The regular confluences of linguistic deconstruction (via word association as well as recurring word and phrase matrices) and ontological metaphor, developed from authors such as Rabelais, Sterne, and Lewis Carroll, are offered by the Wake as tests to the reader's (qua reader) sensibilities. As Nonsense, Finnegans Wake departs from typified modernist modus operandi (metonymic allusion) and instead explores the limits of metaphor. The stakes of Joyce's hoax are of vital interest to the contemporary student of literature and culture, since the Wake dares the reader to find new meanings rather than to project old ones; to exult its eccentricities and its difference; and all the while to call into question (as the text itself does), its authenticity and authority.

Pontomesencephalic tegmental cholinergic neurons were destroyed in cats by local injections of kainic acid in order to assess the role of these neurons in sleep-wakefulness states and in the defining variables of these states: EEG (electroencephalographic) and EMG (electromyographic) amplitude, PGO (ponto-geniculo-occipital) spike rate, REMs (rapid eye movements) and (OBS) olfactory bulb spindles. Loss of cholinergic innervation to forebrain and brainstem structures was also assessed by histochemistry. Histological and histochemical analysis of the brains after the lesion showed a major destruction of the pontomesencephalic cholinergic neurons and a major loss of innervation to thalamic nuclei and brainstem regions, including the reticular formation. Whereas the states of waking and slow wave sleep were relatively unaffected, paradoxical sleep (PS) was reduced or eliminated immediately following the lesions. Two to three weeks later, incipient PS-like episodes returned with a reduced PGO spike rate and REMs, and an elevated EMG amplitude, marking the loss of muscle atonia. Such results suggest pontomesencephalic cholinergic neurons and their projections to thalamic and brainstem regions are important for the expression of PS and its defining variables.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 242-268).

Thesis (D.D.)--Cambridge University. / "Authorities": [1] p. verso p. ix.