Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-08T16:18:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Diele.pdf: 1205275 bytes, checksum: 1e1958313e7636dd1c4b73f67fb5df5a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-08-29 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / In the present investigation was intended to observe and analyze the graphic representation of four (4) blind children. The goal was to pinpoint the existing differences in the logic process of those who were born blind (nearly totally blind) and those who lost their sight at some age (older totally blind). The research took place at the Escola de Educação Especial Professor Osny Macedo Saldanha , kept by the Instituto Paranaense de Cegos , in which the researcher is the Arts Program Teacher since 2006. At first, a social historical profile is rescued and presented, based on daily basis reports of the Art classes, pointing the importance of mediation in this process. This research was fundamented in some aspects about children s drawings pointed by the Authors Luquet (1969), Darras (1998), Gombrich (1999), Arnheim (1980), Wilson & Wilson (1997) and Cox (2007). Three drawing teaching methods for blind children are also presented: Duarte s (2005) research, the methodology created by Bardisa (1992), and the notes about the practice of tactile drawings made by Lima (2001). The investigation took place with a pre-collection that consisted in: propositions of drawing their own bodies, drawings off the top of their heads objects, drawings after touching miniatures, and drawings places and actions. From the pre-collection, a history based on the students daily lives was created, containing drawings elements already known by them, but this time presented as a text to be drawn. In the data collection it was observed that: a) nearly totally blind and older totally blind students use different resources of graphic representation; b) the narrative is necessary in the understanding of the graphic representation of the nearly totally blind; c) the older totally blind s drawings that had previous experiences drawing resemble the nearly totally blind s drawings; d) teaching a blind child to draw requires a systematic teaching method; e) the way students were stimulated as a child and the social-historical-cultural context that they live in are determinant in their capacity of representing the world by drawing / Na presente investigação, buscou-se observar e analisar a representação gráfica de quatro alunos cegos já iniciados no desenho. O objetivo foi apontar as diferenças presentes nos processos de raciocínio entre aqueles que nasceram cegos (cegos precoces) e aqueles que perderam a visão com determinada idade (cegos tardios). A pesquisa ocorreu nas dependências da Escola de Educação Especial Professor Osny Macedo Saldanha, mantida pelo Instituto Paranaense de Cegos, na qual a pesquisadora é professora de Artes desde 2006. No primeiro momento, é apresentado um resgate histórico-social com relatos de vivências das aulas de Artes, salientando a importância da mediação neste processo. Esta pesquisa fundamentou-se em alguns aspectos do desenho infantil apontados pelos autores Luquet (1969), Darras (1998), Gombrich (1999), Arnheim (1980), Wilson e Wilson (1997) e Cox (2007). São apresentadas também três propostas metodológicas de ensino de desenho para cegos: a pesquisa de Duarte (2005), a metodologia criada por Bardisa (1992) e os apontamentos dos treinos de desenhos táteis realizados por Lima (2001). A investigação iniciou-se com uma précoleta que consistiu em: proposições do desenho de seu corpo, desenhos de memória de objetos, desenhos no contato com miniaturas e desenhos de espaços e ações. A partir da pré-coleta, foi criada uma história baseada no dia a dia dos alunos, contendo elementos de desenho já conhecidos por eles, mas que agora estavam apresentados em forma de um texto a ser ilustrado. Observou-se na coleta de dados que: a) alunos cegos precoces e tardios utilizam recursos diferentes de representação gráfica; b) a narrativa se faz necessária no entendimento da representação gráfica dos alunos cegos precoces; c) os desenhos dos alunos cegos tardios que tiveram experiências anteriores com o desenho se assemelham aos desenhos de crianças videntes; d) ensinar desenho para uma criança cega requer um método de ensino sistemático; e) a forma com que os alunos foram estimulados quando pequenos e o contexto sócio-histórico-cultural em que vivem são determinantes na sua capacidade de representar o mundo pelo desenho

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The methods of statistical physics are increasingly being employed in a range of interdisciplinary areas. In particular, aspects of complex biological processes have been elucidated by bringing the problems down to the level of simple interactions studied in a statistical sense. In nonequilibrium statistical physics, a one dimensional lattice model known as the totally asymmetric simple exclusion processes (TASEP) has become prominent as a tool for modelling various cellular transport processes. Indeed the context in which the TASEP was first introduced (MacDonald et. al., 1968) was to model ribosome motion along mRNA during protein synthesis. In this work I study a variation of the TASEP in which particles hop along a one dimensional lattice which extends as they reach the end. We introduce this model to describe the unique growth dynamics of filamentous fungi, whereby a narrow fungal filament extends purely from its tip region while being supplied with growth materials from behind the tip. We find that the steady state behaviour of our model reflects that of the TASEP, however there is an additional phase where a dynamic shock is present in the system. I show through Monte Carlo simulation and theoretical analysis that the qualitative behaviour of this model can be predicted with a simple mean-field approximation, while the details of the phase behaviour are accurate only in a refined approximation which takes into account some correlations. I also discuss a further refined mean-field approximation and give a heuristic argument for our results. Next I present an extension of the model which allows the particles to interact with a second lattice, on which they diffuse in either direction. A first order meanfield continuum approximation suggests that the steady states of this system will exhibit some novel behaviour. Through Monte Carlo simulation I discuss the qualitative changes that arise due to the on-off dynamics. Finally I study a model for a second biological phenomenon: the length fluctuations of microtubules. The model describes stochastic polymerisation events at the tip of a microtubule. Using a mean-field theory, we find a transition between regimes where the microtubule grows on average, and where the length remains finite. For low rates of polymerisation and depolymerisation, the transition is in good agreement with Monte Carlo simulation.

Anxiety levels of partially sighted were compared with totally blind people. Using the Anxiety Scale for the Blind, the primary hypothesis tested was that the partially sighted would manifest more anxiety than would the totally blind. The study was designed to ascertain whether the primary hypothesis would hold within the structure of this study, and to obtain information useful in future anxiety studies of the visually handicapped. A residential center for the blind furnished subjects, facilities, and biographical data. The primary hypothesis lacked statistical significance at the .05 level as did comparisons of anxiety levels by age, sex, economic need, and age at onset. The use of a different instrument may be indicated for future studies.

zoo is an R package providing an S3 class with methods for indexed totally ordered observations, such as irregular time series. Its key design goals are independence of a particular index/time/date class and consistency with base R and the "ts" class for regular time series. This paper describes how these are achieved within zoo and provides several illustrations of the available methods for "zoo" objects which include plotting, merging and binding, several mathematical operations, extracting and replacing data and index, coercion and NA handling. A subclass "zooreg" embeds regular time series into the "zoo" framework and thus bridges the gap between regular and irregular time series classes in R. / Series: Research Report Series / Department of Statistics and Mathematics

Neste trabalho, estabelecemos uma equação que relaciona a curvatura de Ricci de uma variedade riemanniana M e as segundas formas fundamentais de duas folheações ortogonais de dimensões complementares, F e F, definidas em M. Usando essa equação, encontramos uma estimativa da curvatura média da folheação F e uma condição necessária e suficiente para que tal folheação seja totalmente geodésica. Mostramos também uma condição suficiente para que M seja localmente um produto riemanniano das folhas de F e F, se uma das folheações for totalmente umbílica. Por fim, provamos ainda uma fórmula integral válida para tais folheações. / In this work, we and an equation that relates the Ricci curvature of a riemannian manifold M and the second fundamental forms of two orthogonal foliations of complementary dimensions, F and F, defined on M. Using this equation, we and an estimate of the mean curvature of the foliation F and a necessary and suficient condition for the foliation F to be totally geodesic. We also show a suficient condition for the manifold M to be locally a riemannian product of the leaves of F and F, if one of the foliations is totally umbilical. Finally, we also prove an integral formula for such foliations.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento CientÃfico e TecnolÃgico / Nesse trabalho iremos considerar uma hipersuperficie conexa, completa e orientÃvel da esfera unitÃria euclidiana Sn+1 com curvatura de ordem superior constante positiva. Provaremos sob certas condiÃÃes geomÃtricas, que caso a imagem da AplicaÃÃo de Gauss de M estiver contida em um hemisfÃrio fechado,entÃo M Ã uma hipersuperfÃcie totalmente umbÃlica de Sn+1 . / In this work we will consider connected, complete and orientable hyper-surface of the unit euclidean sphere Sn+1 with constant positive high order curvature. We will prove that under certain geometric conditions, if the image of the Gauss mapping of M is contained in a closed hemisphere, then M is atotally umbilic hypersurface of Sn+1.

Neste trabalho, estabelecemos uma equação que relaciona a curvatura de Ricci de uma variedade riemanniana M e as segundas formas fundamentais de duas folheações ortogonais de dimensões complementares, F e F, definidas em M. Usando essa equação, encontramos uma estimativa da curvatura média da folheação F e uma condição necessária e suficiente para que tal folheação seja totalmente geodésica. Mostramos também uma condição suficiente para que M seja localmente um produto riemanniano das folhas de F e F, se uma das folheações for totalmente umbílica. Por fim, provamos ainda uma fórmula integral válida para tais folheações. / In this work, we and an equation that relates the Ricci curvature of a riemannian manifold M and the second fundamental forms of two orthogonal foliations of complementary dimensions, F and F, defined on M. Using this equation, we and an estimate of the mean curvature of the foliation F and a necessary and suficient condition for the foliation F to be totally geodesic. We also show a suficient condition for the manifold M to be locally a riemannian product of the leaves of F and F, if one of the foliations is totally umbilical. Finally, we also prove an integral formula for such foliations.

In this thesis we present some fundamental results regarding orthogonal polynomials and biorthogonal polynomials, the latter defined as in the article "Cauchy Biorthogonal Polynomials", authored by Bertola, Gekhtman, and Szmigielski. We show that total positivity of the kernel can be weakened and how this implies that interlacement for biorthogonal polynomials holds in general. A counterexample is provided showing that in general there does not exist a four-term recurrence relation such as the one found for the Cauchy kernel. As a direct consequence we show that biorthogonal polynomial sequences cannot be considered orthogonal polynomial sequences by an appropriate choice of orthogonality measure. Furthermore, we motivate a conjecture stating that the more general form of interlacement that exists for orthogonal polynomials also exists for biorthogonal polynomials. We end with suggesting some further work that could be of interest.

In this thesis, we extend results of Emerald Stacy to compute an upper bound on the minimal height of a totally p-adic algebraic integer of degree 4 independent of p. We also compute actual values of the minimal height of a totally p-adic algebraic integer of degree 4 for small primes p.