Since the early fifties “open form” has become a generic description for many different compositional concepts having in common musical outcomes which to a certain degree are indeterminate. The introduction looks into different meanings given to “form” in music and gives a historical survey of the origins of compositional indeterminacy. Next, the concept of “open form” is elaborated into a territory which is usually not associated with it: jazz. The introduction is followed by five case studies. Folio (1952-54) by Earle Brown is considered to contain the first intentionally “open form” works. It is driven by improvisational ideas, either at the compositional stage or at the interpretative stage. Brown's affinity with jazz also offers connections to other topics of the thesis. Miles Davis' Ife (1972) may at first seem like an odd inclusion in this study, but it is not. Its only oddity could be that of all the works discussed it has no score. But it is a composition; it is recognizable throughout its various incarnations and repeatable, and its outcome is indeterminate. Adam Rudolph did not conceive Ostinatos of Circularity as an “open form” work, but it is an indeterminate composition: it does have a score the musical result of which depends on the decisions made by the composer/conductor during the performance as well as the choices made by the performers. In Peter Zummo's Experimenting with Household Chemicals the performers play the same, often ambiguous, score, moving in the same direction at their own speed and discretion. The lack of synchronicity and the ambiguous notation result in a very elastic organic form. Anne La Berge refers to her recent works as “guided improvisations”. The scores mainly consist of suggestive text materials, software preset descriptions and rudimentary verbal indications, leaving major decisions to the performers. The last chapter is about my own work. It presents seven works (the scores of which can be found in the accompanying portfolio), composed between 2007 and 2011. Each of these works uses the score as a “field” through which the performers roam.

This thesis takes issue with the standard critical attribution to Milton of a backward Aristotelian scientific paradigm for his work, demonstrating that body and soul represented in Paradise Lost are inscribed in terms of radical contemporary medical theories of vitalism. Milton’s close friendship with his doctor, Nathan Paget, links him to Paget’s colleague, Francis Glisson, Regius Professor of Physic at Cambridge University, an academic and practising physician who was closely involved in cutting-edge contemporary medical research. Not only can Glisson’s heretical notion of the energetic, living nature of substance be seen to match the dynamic scale of nature represented in Paradise Lost, but in fact Milton’s animist materialism corresponds precisely to the chemical innovations made by Glisson in the anatomy of blood and bodily fluids and spirits. Exploring Milton’s representation of body and soul, spirit and matter, in the light of these contemporary medical innovations, this thesis focuses upon the way that his theodicy is supported by this most heretical natural philosophy. Milton’s vital anatomia animata is shown to be central to the harmonious integration of science and theology in Paradise Lost; it complements the literalism of the poem and provides a non-satanic logic of self-determination. Beginning with the basic evidence of Milton’s materialism of the soul in the Christian Doctrine, the first chapter correlates the theological assertions made with the language of natural philosophy that Milton uses to make them. The next chapter addresses the problem of the antinomy between the material soul proposed by Milton and the Aristotelian terminology with which he describes it, arguing that the latter is more heterogeneous than literary critics have acknowledged. The third chapter examines several versions of vitalism in order to delineate a working, medical model of the active matter presupposed by Milton’s body-soul composites and the wider natural philosophy of Paradise Lost. This model of active matter and spirit is then used in chapter four to illuminate the representation of Creation, demonstrating the acute accuracy with which Milton’s Creation draws upon contemporary medical research into conception. Chapter five extends the analysis to compare early notions of chemical digestion with the metabolic transformations of paradise. The final chapter demonstrates that the physiological and psychological corruptions of the Fall correspond to the effects of the putrid or poisonous ferment, while Milton’s representation of regeneration calls upon the vital, generative anatomia animata.

<p>U radu se detaljno istražuju odnosi između funkcije i forme savre-<br />menog stana, kao i promene kroz koje prolazi. Istraživanje je zasnova-<br />no na razumevanju pojmova stana i doma kroz različite diskurse.<br />Multidisciplinarnim pristupom uspostavljene su mnoge istražene<br />veze između životnih stilova i savremenih informacionih i komuni-<br />kacionih tehnologija, koje utiču na promenu koncepta stanovanja i stva-<br />ranje mnoštva različitih atmosfera stana. Ovo mnoštvo je u radu<br />korišćeno ne samo kao metodološko načelo, već je posmatrano i kao<br />materijalno mnoštvo različitih oblika stanovanja koje treba prepo-<br />znati kroz diskurse o stanovanju. Promišljanjem ove pojave shvata se<br />da su singularnosti (npr. stambena jedinica) istovremeno i mnoštva,<br />odnosno da je svaki stan uvek jedno konkretno postojanje, kroz koje<br />struji (a pogotovo danas) mnoštvo arhitektonskih diskursa.</p> / <p>This thesis explores in detail the relationships between function and form of<br />contemporary dwelling, as well as the changes it goes through. It is based on<br />understanding the notions of the dwelling and home through different<br />discourses. Multidisciplinary approach established many explored connections<br />between life styles and contemporary Information and Communication<br />Technologies, which affect the change of the concept of a dwelling and<br />creation of many different atmospheres within a dwelling. This multitude is<br />used here as the methodological principle but is also observed as the<br />material myriad of different forms of housing that should be recognized<br />through discourses on dwelling. Reflecting on this phenomenon it is recognized<br />that singularities (i.e. dwelling unit) are also multitudes at the same<br />time, therefore every dwelling is always one concrete existence that has<br />many architectural discourses streaming through it, especially today.</p>

Sculptural Textiles is a material investigation exploring sculptural possibilities for machine woven textiles. Two important factors are yarn combinations and textile construction, and how these two together can result in fabrics that can be manipulated by hand into shapes and thus adaptable to various settings. The essence of this project is in the meeting between contrasts such as shiny-dull, elastic-stiff, transparent-opaque, natural and synthetic and how these meetings can create sculptural qualities. The project is aiming to create a range of sculptural textiles as well as being an exploration in material. Construction and density are tools to bring forth the beauty and function of the materials. The result is a range of textiles showing that small changes in material and construction can lead to different sculptural characteristics.

Research on word learning has focused on childrens ability to identify a target object when given the word form after a minimal number of exposures to novel word-object pairings. However, relatively little research has focused on childrens ability to retrieve the word form when given the target object. The exceptions involve asking children to recall and produce forms, and children typically perform near floor on these measures. In the current study, 3- to 5-year-old children were administered a novel test of word form that allowed for recognition memory and manual responses. Specifically, when asked to label a previously trained object, children were given three forms to choose from: the target, a minimally different form, and a maximally different form. Children demonstrated memory for word forms at three post-training delays: 10 mins (short-term), 23 days (long-term), and 6 months to 1 year (very long-term). However, children performed worse at the very long-term delay than the other time points, and the length of the very long-term delay was negatively related to performance. When in error, children were no more likely to select the minimally different form than the maximally different form at all time points. Overall, these results suggest that children remember word forms that are linked to objects over extended post-training intervals, but that their memory for the forms gradually decreases over time without further exposures. Furthermore, memory traces for word forms do not become less phonologically specific over time; rather children either identify the correct form, or they perform at chance.

A novel reliability evaluation method for large nonlinear engineering systems excited by dynamic loading applied in time domain is presented. For this class of problems, the performance functions are expected to be function of time and implicit in nature. Available first-or second-order reliability method (FORM/SORM) will be challenging to estimate reliability of such systems. Because of its inefficiency, the classical Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) method also cannot be used for large nonlinear dynamic systems. In the proposed approach, only tens instead of hundreds or thousands of deterministic evaluations at intelligently selected points are used to extract the reliability information. A hybrid approach, consisting of the stochastic finite element method (SFEM) developed by the author and his research team using FORM, response surface method (RSM), an interpolation scheme, and advanced factorial schemes, is proposed. The method is clarified with the help of several numerical examples. (C) 2016 Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.

The purpose of this study was to examine (1) whether the Weigl-Goldstein-Scheerer Color Form Test and the Proverbs Test were able to discriminate between a sample of normal patients and a sample of schizophrenic patients, and (2) to determine if there was a significant correlation between these two instruments.

Individually administered intelligence tests are a routine component of psychological assessments of children who may meet criteria for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), learning disorders (LD), or emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). In addition to providing potentially useful test scores, the individual administration of an intelligence test provides an ideal opportunity for observing a child’s behavior in a standardized setting, which may contribute clinically meaningful information to the assessment process. However, little is known about the associations between test scores and test session behavior of children with these disorders. This study examined patterns of test scores and test session observations in groups of children with ADHD, LD, EBD who were administered the Stanford Binet Intelligence Scales, Fifth Edition (SB5), as well as in control children from the SB5 standardization sample. Three hundred and twelve children receiving special education services for ADHD (n = 50), LD (n = 234), EBD (n = 28) and 100 children selected from the SB5 standardization sample were selected from a data set of children who were administered both the SB5 and the Test Observation Form (TOF; a standardized rating form for assessing behavior during cognitive or achievement testing of children). The groups were then compared on SB scores and TOF scores. Associations between test scores and TOF scores in children with ADHD, LD, and EBD and normal controls were also examined. The results of this investigation indicated that children with ADHD, LD, and EBD and normal control children differed on several SB5 and TOF scales. Control children scored higher on all of the SB5 scales than children with LD, and scored higher on many of the SB5 scales than children with ADHD and EBD. Children with EBD demonstrated the most problem behavior during testing, followed by children with ADHD. Children with LD were similar to control children with respect to test session behavior. In addition, several combinations of test scores and test session behavior were able to predict diagnostic group status. Overall, the results of this investigation suggest that test scores and behavioral observations during testing can and should be important components of multi-informant, multi-method assessment of children with ADHD, LD, and EBD.

This thesis presents practical research into sound production on instruments, working collaboratively with players, in order to build an understanding of the sounds available. I have explored the way in which instrumental technique can be extended in such a way as to function as the basis for musical material. The function of ‘figuration’ has also be brought into question, by employing seemingly primitive, residual material pushed to such a degree that it is possible to hear what happens underneath a gesture. Research in this area has been conducted by, among others, Helmut Lachenmann and Rebecca Saunders; I am drawn to the way their work highlights the tangible quality of sound. The exploration of the physicality of sound production inevitably encounters the problem that the finished work becomes a catalogue of extended techniques. My research has drawn on the work of these composers and has attempted to resolve this problem by exploring the way in which texture can suggest ‘line’ and the structural implications of sculpting self-referential material through angular and polarized divisions. This facilitates a Braille-like reading of a sound’s progress by foregrounding a non-thematic sound-surface of resonance and decay. This takes a positive and active approach to the problems of musical language, by questioning the functions and expectations put upon music. The possible solutions have been worked through in a series of works for mixed chamber ensembles, in order to investigate the palette possibilities of fusing instruments in intimate settings.

I take a poetic approach to graphic design practice. It is a subjectivist approach, which recognizes our human right to willful interpretation. Designers navigate form, culture, and history like poets through language. We are subjective, exploratory engines drawing formal inspiration from figural and analogical associations. Subjectivity in graphic design practice is complex, however. Subjectivity privileges the interaction between object and individual. When we designers interpret the literal world with the poet’s omni-directional sensitivity, we intentionally and intuitively create objects that accrete inexhaustible, extra-literal value for their audience.