New archival documentation that was previously unknown details a new understanding concerning the life and death of Lornezino de' Medici.

Esta dissertação trata dos mecanismos de geração do humor no conto “No Kaddish for Weinstein” (ALLEN, 1975). É possível identificar nessa narrativa a forte e frequente presença do humor étnico, mais especificamente do humor judaico-americano. Porém acredita-se que este não seja o único tipo de humor de que o autor faz uso, considerando-se também que o humor possui diversos mecanismos e pode emergir de diversas situações. Por essa razão, há a necessidade de não só identificar o humor característico de Woody Allen, mas também analisar o tipo de narrativa que esse escritor constrói em seus contos. Além disso, é necessário verificar a relevância do conhecimento cultural na construção do humor e nas relações identitárias que constituem as personagens e narradores. Partindo do pressuposto de que o humor de WA é singular, surgem as questões desta pesquisa: (a) Quais são os domínios, estratos e parâmetros que tipificam a narrativa de Allen?, (b) Quais os mecanismos de humor que o autor usa em seus contos?, (c) Que elementos linguísticos, culturais, identitários e cognitivos são peças-chave na construção do humor alleniano? A partir dessas questões, surgem questionamentos derivados: por que o humor e o judaísmo estão conectados? Qual a relação entre eles? O objetivo geral da pesquisa é examinar o humor nos contos de Woody Allen e sua relação com elementos sociocognitivos e identitários da cultura judaica e judaico-americana. Os objetivos específicos são (a) analisar a estrutura narrativa dos contos de WA, (b) identificar as características dos tipos de humor no conto alleniano “No Kaddish for Weinstein”, (c) analisar os elementos linguísticos que fazem emergir o humor no conto em questão, (d) relacionar elementos linguísticos e fatores socioculturais no conto do escritor e (e) relacionar os elementos que constituem o humor alleniano. Entre os vários contos pré-analisados de diferentes coletâneas da produção de Allen, escolheu-se o conto “No Kaddish for Weinstein", por ser uma narrativa que reúne características que estão presentes, em maior ou menor grau, em seus contos como um todo. Embora variem as temáticas narrativas, o conto “No Kaddish for Weinstein" pode ser considerado prototípico. Por prototípico, entende-se a propriedade de reunir, de forma bastante condensada, atributos gerais do estilo narrativo do autor. Os resultados demonstram que o autor utiliza uma ampla variedade de mecanismos geradores de humor, tais como: quebra de expectativa do leitor, punch lines e scripts opostos. Quanto as questões identitárias da cultura judaico-americana, são mais salientes as referências à autodepreciação e a costumes próprios desta cultura. Fica evidente a construção de uma narrativa que demanda a evocação de conhecimentos enciclopédicos (frames) por parte do leitor, sem os quais não é possível reconhecer o humor potencial do conto. Todos esses resultados se encontram relacionados com o tipo de estrutura narratológica do conto, segundo o framework do Sistema Cognitivo da Narrativa de Talmy (2000), principalmente em relação ao perfilamento de um leitor que compartilhe de conhecimentos da cultura judaico-americanca e de referências as mais diversas à história e cultura nova-iorquina. / Submitted by Ana Guimarães Pereira (agpereir@ucs.br) on 2015-03-30T16:36:07Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Cíntia Brunetta Moreira.pdf: 1436905 bytes, checksum: 5f270e4ff2f3d61937e25705566549f3 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-30T16:36:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Cíntia Brunetta Moreira.pdf: 1436905 bytes, checksum: 5f270e4ff2f3d61937e25705566549f3 (MD5) / This dissertation is about humor mechanisms generation present in the short story “No Kaddish for Weinstein” (ALLEN, 1975). It is possible to identify in the narrative the frequent presence of ethnic humor, more specifically the Jewish-American humor. However, it is believed that this is not the only type of humor the author uses, considering also that humor can emerge from many different mechanisms and situations. For this reason, there is the necessity of not only identifying the characteristic humor of Woody Allen, but also the necessity of analyzing the narrative type built by the author in his short stories. Besides all that, it is necessary to verify the relevance of cultural background in humor generation, as well as in identity relations within characters and narrators. The research questions derive from the presupposition that the humor created by Allen is singular, they are: (a) what are the domains, strata and parameters that typify Allen’s narrative?, (b) what are the humor mechanisms that the author uses in his short stories?, (c) what linguistic, cultural, identity and cognitive elements are essential in the Allenian humor? Other questions rise from these interrogations: why humor and Judaism are connected? What is the relation between them? The general objective of this research is to examine the humor present in Allen’s short stories and its relation with sociocognitive and identity elements of Jewish culture. The specific objectives are (a) to analyze the narrative structure in Allen’s short stories, (b) to identify the characteristics of the type of humor in Allen’s “No Kaddish for Weinstein”, (c) analyze what linguistic elements make humor rise in Allen’s referred short story, (d) make relations between linguistic and sociocultural elements in Allen’s short story and (e) make relations between the elements that constitute allenian humor. Among the many short stories pre-analyzed from different collection books produced by Woody Allen, “No Kaddish for Weinstein” was chosen for being a narrative that encompasses the characteristics that are present, in higher or lower degree, in all his short stories as a whole. Although the narrative themes vary, the short story “No Kaddish for Weinstein" can be considered prototypical. By prototypical it is understood the property of encompassing, in a condensed manner, the general requisites of the narrative style of the author. The results demonstrate that the author makes use of a great variety of humor mechanisms, among them: rupture of the reader’s expectation, punch lines e opposite scripts. In relation to the identity issues of Jewish-American culture, the references to selfhatred and habits are more relevant. It is evident, the construction of a narrative that demands from the reader the evocation of encyclopedic knowledge (frames). Without the recognition of these frames it is not possible to recognize the potential humor of the short story. All the results are related with the narratologic structure type of the short story, according to the framework of the Cognitive Approach to the Analysis of Narrative by Talmy (2000). This is mainly because it permits designing a reader’s profile that shares the knowledges concerning the Jewish-american and New Yorker culture, moreover references about history.

Esta dissertação trata dos mecanismos de geração do humor no conto “No Kaddish for Weinstein” (ALLEN, 1975). É possível identificar nessa narrativa a forte e frequente presença do humor étnico, mais especificamente do humor judaico-americano. Porém acredita-se que este não seja o único tipo de humor de que o autor faz uso, considerando-se também que o humor possui diversos mecanismos e pode emergir de diversas situações. Por essa razão, há a necessidade de não só identificar o humor característico de Woody Allen, mas também analisar o tipo de narrativa que esse escritor constrói em seus contos. Além disso, é necessário verificar a relevância do conhecimento cultural na construção do humor e nas relações identitárias que constituem as personagens e narradores. Partindo do pressuposto de que o humor de WA é singular, surgem as questões desta pesquisa: (a) Quais são os domínios, estratos e parâmetros que tipificam a narrativa de Allen?, (b) Quais os mecanismos de humor que o autor usa em seus contos?, (c) Que elementos linguísticos, culturais, identitários e cognitivos são peças-chave na construção do humor alleniano? A partir dessas questões, surgem questionamentos derivados: por que o humor e o judaísmo estão conectados? Qual a relação entre eles? O objetivo geral da pesquisa é examinar o humor nos contos de Woody Allen e sua relação com elementos sociocognitivos e identitários da cultura judaica e judaico-americana. Os objetivos específicos são (a) analisar a estrutura narrativa dos contos de WA, (b) identificar as características dos tipos de humor no conto alleniano “No Kaddish for Weinstein”, (c) analisar os elementos linguísticos que fazem emergir o humor no conto em questão, (d) relacionar elementos linguísticos e fatores socioculturais no conto do escritor e (e) relacionar os elementos que constituem o humor alleniano. Entre os vários contos pré-analisados de diferentes coletâneas da produção de Allen, escolheu-se o conto “No Kaddish for Weinstein", por ser uma narrativa que reúne características que estão presentes, em maior ou menor grau, em seus contos como um todo. Embora variem as temáticas narrativas, o conto “No Kaddish for Weinstein" pode ser considerado prototípico. Por prototípico, entende-se a propriedade de reunir, de forma bastante condensada, atributos gerais do estilo narrativo do autor. Os resultados demonstram que o autor utiliza uma ampla variedade de mecanismos geradores de humor, tais como: quebra de expectativa do leitor, punch lines e scripts opostos. Quanto as questões identitárias da cultura judaico-americana, são mais salientes as referências à autodepreciação e a costumes próprios desta cultura. Fica evidente a construção de uma narrativa que demanda a evocação de conhecimentos enciclopédicos (frames) por parte do leitor, sem os quais não é possível reconhecer o humor potencial do conto. Todos esses resultados se encontram relacionados com o tipo de estrutura narratológica do conto, segundo o framework do Sistema Cognitivo da Narrativa de Talmy (2000), principalmente em relação ao perfilamento de um leitor que compartilhe de conhecimentos da cultura judaico-americanca e de referências as mais diversas à história e cultura nova-iorquina. / This dissertation is about humor mechanisms generation present in the short story “No Kaddish for Weinstein” (ALLEN, 1975). It is possible to identify in the narrative the frequent presence of ethnic humor, more specifically the Jewish-American humor. However, it is believed that this is not the only type of humor the author uses, considering also that humor can emerge from many different mechanisms and situations. For this reason, there is the necessity of not only identifying the characteristic humor of Woody Allen, but also the necessity of analyzing the narrative type built by the author in his short stories. Besides all that, it is necessary to verify the relevance of cultural background in humor generation, as well as in identity relations within characters and narrators. The research questions derive from the presupposition that the humor created by Allen is singular, they are: (a) what are the domains, strata and parameters that typify Allen’s narrative?, (b) what are the humor mechanisms that the author uses in his short stories?, (c) what linguistic, cultural, identity and cognitive elements are essential in the Allenian humor? Other questions rise from these interrogations: why humor and Judaism are connected? What is the relation between them? The general objective of this research is to examine the humor present in Allen’s short stories and its relation with sociocognitive and identity elements of Jewish culture. The specific objectives are (a) to analyze the narrative structure in Allen’s short stories, (b) to identify the characteristics of the type of humor in Allen’s “No Kaddish for Weinstein”, (c) analyze what linguistic elements make humor rise in Allen’s referred short story, (d) make relations between linguistic and sociocultural elements in Allen’s short story and (e) make relations between the elements that constitute allenian humor. Among the many short stories pre-analyzed from different collection books produced by Woody Allen, “No Kaddish for Weinstein” was chosen for being a narrative that encompasses the characteristics that are present, in higher or lower degree, in all his short stories as a whole. Although the narrative themes vary, the short story “No Kaddish for Weinstein" can be considered prototypical. By prototypical it is understood the property of encompassing, in a condensed manner, the general requisites of the narrative style of the author. The results demonstrate that the author makes use of a great variety of humor mechanisms, among them: rupture of the reader’s expectation, punch lines e opposite scripts. In relation to the identity issues of Jewish-American culture, the references to selfhatred and habits are more relevant. It is evident, the construction of a narrative that demands from the reader the evocation of encyclopedic knowledge (frames). Without the recognition of these frames it is not possible to recognize the potential humor of the short story. All the results are related with the narratologic structure type of the short story, according to the framework of the Cognitive Approach to the Analysis of Narrative by Talmy (2000). This is mainly because it permits designing a reader’s profile that shares the knowledges concerning the Jewish-american and New Yorker culture, moreover references about history.

Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2008. / Ann M. Pearman, committee chair; Candace L. Kemp, Elisabeth O. Burgess, committee members. Title from file title page. Description based on contents viewed Sept. 4, 2009. Includes bibliographical references (p. 101-103).

L'objet de cette thèse porte sur le problème de Cauchy singulier dans le domaine complexe. Il s'agit d'étudier les singularités de la solution du problème pour trois classes d'équations aux dérivées partielles. Cette thèse s'inscrit dans la continuité des travaux initiés par Jean Leray et son école. Pour décrire les singularités de la solution, on cherche la solution sous la forme d'un développement asymptotique de fonctions hypergéométriques de Gauss. Comme les singularités sont portées par les fonctions hypergéométriques, l'étude de la ramification de la solution se ramène à celle de ces fonctions. / This thesis deals with the singular Cauchy problem in the complex domain. We study the singularities of the solution of the problem for three classes of partial differential equations. This thesis is a continuation of the work initiated by Jean Leray and his school. To describe the singularities of the solution, we seek the solution in the form of asymptotic an expansion of Gauss hypergeometric functions. As the singularities are carried by the hypergeometric functions, the study of the ramification of the solution reduces to that of these functions.

No description available.

While transnational rebellion and rebel recruitment have received much attention in previous literature, the combination of the two, transnational rebel recruitment, has been relatively understudied. This study aims to cover this research gap by further developing Jeremy Weinstein’s theory on resource endowments to test their effect on transnational rebel recruitment. It seeks to answer the research question: “How do resource endowments impact transnational rebel recruitment?”. A distinction will be made between domestic and transnational rebel groups to test the theoretical argument. It will be argued that rebel groups can have a variation in their economic and social endowments, which both have a domestic an transnational variant. The main hypothesis reads: transnational rebel groups that have much transnational resource endowments are more likely to recruit transnationally. This study will employ a structured focused comparison on strategically picked cases using Mill’s method of difference. The selected cases that will be compared are the transnational rebel group NPFL in Liberia (1989-1995) and the domestic rebel group NRA in Uganda (1981-1986). This study finds support for the theory and the main hypothesis.

Pulsed infrared light therapy (PILT) has been shown to increase peripheral sensation in diabetic patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN). However, most studies last for very short periods, with the subjects receiving only 6-20 treatments. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an eight-week course of PILT in reversing long-standing, profound DPN in patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Twenty-two subjects with a diagnosis of type 1 (n=2) or type 2 (n=20) diabetes participated in the study. PILT was administered to one foot chosen at random with the other foot serving as a within-subject control (no treatment). Patients underwent 24 treatments (3 times/week, for eight weeks) for 30 min per treatment. Changes in peripheral protective sensation (PPS) were measured using Semmes-Weinstein monofilaments (SWM) ranging from 3.7 to 6.48. PILT improved PPS even in patients with long-standing chronic neuropathies whose initial pre-study sensation was not measurable with a 200-g SWM. PILT significantly improves PPS. While the exact mechanism of action is not understood, infrared light may improve peripheral neuropathies by improving foot perfusion by stimulating nitric oxide production.

Damage to the nervous system may cause sensorimotor impairment, often resulting in chronic neuropathic pain. Phantom limb pain affects multiple amputees and the treatment options are limited. A promising treatment option to reduce chronic pain is by training sensory discrimination. At the Center for Bionics and Pain Research, a sensory training device has been developed. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a technique to stimulate different regions of the cerebral cortex. In studies, anodal tDCS of the sensorimotor cortex has shown to improve tactile acuity. Until now, the effect of the sensory discrimination training, performed with the sensory training device, in combination with tDCS has not been tested. The purpose of this master’s thesis was to determine the effect of tDCS applied on the sensorimotor cortex on the outcomes of sensory discrimination training. The purpose was also to compare the effect of two different methods of stimulation, namely conventional and High Definition tDCS. 16 able-bodied participants underwent three single sessions with 40 minutes of sensory discrimination training: one session combined with conventional tDCS, one session combined with High Definition tDCS and one session without tDCS. The tactile acuity was determined by the two-point discrimination test and the Semmes-Weinstein monofilament test, prior to and one hour after each session. This study showed that 40 minutes of sensory discrimination training was sufficient to improve the two-point discrimination in the sensory trained areas, compared to the sensory untrained areas (p=0.02). However, the improvement in two-point discrimination was not statistically significant between the interventions, i.e. the improvement in two-point discrimination for the sessions with brain modulation was not statistically significant compared to the session without brain modulation. The monofilament assessments showed an improvement in monofilament score for the sensory untrained skin patches (p=0.053). This study concluded that single sessions of training was enough to improve two-point discrimination but not monofilament score at the site of stimulation. This study lays a foundation for what parameters to include in future studies.

Cette thèse porte sur l'étude des performances d'estimateurs en traitement du signal, et s'attache en particulier à étudier les bornes inférieures de l'erreur quadratique moyenne (EQM) pour l'estimation de points de rupture, afin de caractériser le comportement d'estimateurs, tels que celui du maximum de vraisemblance (dans le contexte fréquentiste), mais surtout du maximum a posteriori ou de la moyenne conditionnelle (dans le contexte bayésien). La difficulté majeure provient du fait que, pour un signal échantillonné, les paramètres d'intérêt (à savoir les points de rupture) appartiennent à un espace discret. En conséquence, les résultats asymptotiques classiques (comme la normalité asymptotique du maximum de vraisemblance) ou la borne de Cramér-Rao ne s'appliquent plus. Quelques résultats sur la distribution asymptotique du maximum de vraisemblance provenant de la communauté mathématique sont actuellement disponibles, mais leur applicabilité à des problèmes pratiques de traitement du signal n'est pas immédiate. Si l'on décide de concentrer nos efforts sur l'EQM des estimateurs comme indicateur de performance, un travail important autour des bornes inférieures de l'EQM a été réalisé ces dernières années. Plusieurs études ont ainsi permis de proposer des inégalités plus précises que la borne de Cramér-Rao. Ces dernières jouissent en outre de conditions de régularité plus faibles, et ce, même en régime non asymptotique, permettant ainsi de délimiter la plage de fonctionnement optimal des estimateurs. Le but de cette thèse est, d'une part, de compléter la caractérisation de la zone asymptotique (en particulier lorsque le rapport signal sur bruit est élevé et/ou pour un nombre d'observations infini) dans un contexte d'estimation de points de rupture. D'autre part, le but est de donner les limites fondamentales de l'EQM d'un estimateur dans la plage non asymptotique. Les outils utilisés ici sont les bornes inférieures de l’EQM de la famille Weiss-Weinstein qui est déjà connue pour être plus précise que la borne de Cramér-Rao dans les contextes, entre autres, de l’analyse spectrale et du traitement d’antenne. Nous fournissons une forme compacte de cette famille dans le cas d’un seul et de plusieurs points de ruptures puis, nous étendons notre analyse aux cas où les paramètres des distributions sont inconnus. Nous fournissons également une analyse de la robustesse de cette famille vis-à-vis des lois a priori utilisées dans nos modèles. Enfin, nous appliquons ces bornes à plusieurs problèmes pratiques : données gaussiennes, poissonniennes et processus exponentiels. / This thesis deals with the study of estimators' performance in signal processing. The focus is the analysis of the lower bounds on the Mean Square Error (MSE) for abrupt change-point estimation. Such tools will help to characterize performance of maximum likelihood estimator in the frequentist context but also maximum a posteriori and conditional mean estimators in the Bayesian context. The main difficulty comes from the fact that, when dealing with sampled signals, the parameters of interest (i.e., the change points) lie on a discrete space. Consequently, the classical large sample theory results (e.g., asymptotic normality of the maximum likelihood estimator) or the Cramér-Rao bound do not apply. Some results concerning the asymptotic distribution of the maximum likelihood only are available in the mathematics literature but are currently of limited interest for practical signal processing problems. When the MSE of estimators is chosen as performance criterion, an important amount of work has been provided concerning lower bounds on the MSE in the last years. Then, several studies have proposed new inequalities leading to tighter lower bounds in comparison with the Cramér-Rao bound. These new lower bounds have less regularity conditions and are able to handle estimators’ MSE behavior in both asymptotic and non-asymptotic areas. The goal of this thesis is to complete previous results on lower bounds in the asymptotic area (i.e. when the number of samples and/or the signal-to-noise ratio is high) for change-point estimation but, also, to provide an analysis in the non-asymptotic region. The tools used here will be the lower bounds of the Weiss-Weinstein family which are already known in signal processing to outperform the Cramér-Rao bound for applications such as spectral analysis or array processing. A closed-form expression of this family is provided for a single and multiple change points and some extensions are given when the parameters of the distributions on each segment are unknown. An analysis in terms of robustness with respect to the prior influence on our models is also provided. Finally, we apply our results to specific problems such as: Gaussian data, Poisson data and exponentially distributed data.