Hypertension occurs in nearly 10% of pregnancies, and is associated with infant and maternal morbidity and mortality. Prior studies of non-pregnant adults have demonstrated the effectiveness of a variety of relaxation therapies in reducing blood pressure. A pilot randomized controlled trial was conducted, the purposes of which were 1) to provide preliminary evidence regarding the usefulness of guided imagery (GI) in reducing blood pressure in hypertensive pregnant women, and 2) to answer feasibility questions for a larger trial. Pregnant women with hypertension prior to 37 weeks gestation (n = 69) were randomized to either 15-minute periods of guided imagery (n = 34), or of quiet rest (QR) (n = 35), twice daily for four weeks or until delivery, whichever came first. Daytime ambulatory mean arterial pressure (MAP), systolic and diastolic blood pressures, anxiety, rest and GI use were measured weekly, to a maximum of four weeks. Sixty women completed at least one week in the study; 46.4% completed four weeks. Compliance was excellent. Intention to treat analysis was used. In the unadjusted analysis, women allocated to GI had significantly lower average daytime ambulatory mean MAP elevations from baseline to their last week of study participation than women allocated to quiet rest (GI: M = 1.58 mmHg, SD = 7.63; QR: M = 5.93 mmHg, SD = 6.55; t = 2.36, p = .02). However, the effect was no longer statistically significant (p = 0.14) when adjusted for baseline mean arterial pressure and gestation. There was no statistically significant difference in the numbers of women who were prescribed antihypertensive medication after randomization (GI: n = 16, QR: n = 13, X2 = 0.74, p = .46). There was also no evidence of an effect of guided imagery on anxiety. Nearly 90% (n = 26) of the guided imagery group indicated they would use it again, either in a subsequent pregnancy or during stressful life events. Given the ease of use, low cost, acceptability to women, and lack of risk of guided imagery, an adequately-powered randomized controlled trial is warranted.

The subject of this thesis is the application of Support Vector Machines on two totally different applications, facial expressions recognition and remote sensing. The basic idea of kernel algorithms is to transpose input data in a higher dimensional space, the feature space, in which linear operations on the data can be processed more easily. These operations in the feature space can be expressed in terms of input data thanks to the kernel functions. Support Vector Machines is a classifier using this kernel method by computing, in the feature space and on basis of examples of the different classes, hyperplanes that separate the classes. The hyperplanes in the feature space correspond to non linear surfaces in the input space. Concerning facial expressions, the aim is to train and test a classifier able to recognise, on basis of some pictures of faces, which emotion (among these six ones: anger, disgust, fear, joy, sad, and surprise) that is expressed by the person in the picture. In this application, each picture has to be seen has a point in an N-dimensional space where N is the number of pixels in the image. The second application is the detection of camouflage nets hidden in vegetation using a hyperspectral image taken by an aircraft. In this case the classification is computed for each pixel, represented by a vector whose elements are the different frequency bands of this pixel.

<p>Amazonia contains the largest remaining tracts of undisturbed tropical forest on earth, and is thus critical to international nature conservation and carbon sequestration efforts. Amazonian forests are notoriously difficult to study, however, due to their species richness and inaccessibility. This has limited efforts to produce the accurate, high-resolution biodiversity maps needed for conservation and development. The aims of the research described here were to identify efficient solutions to the problems of tropical forest inventory; to use these methods to identify floristic patterns and their causes in western Amazonia; and propose new means to map floristic patterns in these forests.</p><p> Using tree inventories in the vicinity of Iquitos, Peru, I and a colleague systematically evaluated methods for rapid tropical forest inventory. Of these, inventory of particular taxonomic groups, or taxonomic scope inventory, was the most efficient, and was able to capture a majority of the pattern observed by traditional inventory techniques with one-fifth to one-twentieth the number of stems and species. Based on the success of this approach, I and colleagues specifically evaluated two plant groups, the Pteridophytes (ferns and fern allies) and the Melastomataceae (a family of shrubs and small trees), for use in rapid inventory. Floristic patterns based on inventories from either group were significantly associated with those based on the tree flora, and inventories of Pteridophytes in particular were in most cases able to capture the majority of floristic patterns identified by tree inventories. These findings indicate that Pteridophyte and Melastomataceae inventories are useful tools for rapid tropical forest inventory.</p><p> Using Pteridophyte and Melastomataceae inventories from 138 sites in northwestern Amazonia, combined with satellite data and soil sampling, I and colleagues studied the causes of vegetation patterns in western Amazonian forests. On the basis of these data, we identified a floristic discontinuity of at least 300km in northern Peru, corresponding to a 15-fold difference in soil cation concentrations and an erosion-generated geological boundary. On the basis of this finding, we assembled continent-scale satellite image mosaics, and used these to search for additional discontinuities in western Amazonia. These mosaics indicate a floristic and geological discontinuity of at least 1500km western Brasil, driven by similar erosional processes identified in our study area. We suggest that this represents a chemical and ecological boundary between western and central Amazonia.</p><p> Using a second network of 52 pteridophyte and soil inventories in northwestern Amazonia, we further studied the role of geology in generating floristic pattern. Consistent with earlier findings, we found that two widespread geological formations in western Amazonia differ eight-fold difference in soil cation concentrations and in a majority of their species. Difference in elevation, used as a surrogate for geological formation, furthermore explained up to one-third of the variation in plant species composition between these formations. Significant correlations between elevation, and cation concentrations and soil texture, confirmed that differences in species composition between these formations are driven by differences in soil properties. On the basis of these findings, we were able to use SRTM elevation data to accurately model species composition throughout our study area.</p><p> I argue that Amazonian forests are partitioned into large-area units on the basis of geological formations and their edaphic properties. This finding has implications for both the ecology and evolution of these forests, and suggests that conservation strategies be implemented on a region-by-region basis. Fortunately, the methods described here provide a means for generating accurate and detailed maps of floristic patterns in these vast and remote forests.</p> / Dissertation

The purpose of this research was to investigate the influence of imagery strategy in learning performance. According to imagery and memory theory and imagination effect, using imagery strategy can help students integrate different information, reduce cognitive loading and the capacity of working memory, enhance schema acquisition and encoding the information to long-term memory. A total of 181 undergraduates and graduates were randomly assigned in the imagery group, transcribe group, note group, and study group. We found that there was no difference between imagery and transcribe group; however, the learning performance of imagery group was better than note group and study group. One week later, there was no difference between four groups. In the feedback of this research, the participant in imagery group thought the imagery strategy was interesting and cost few time than transcribe group. Finally, the primary findings were discussed and educational implications were provided.

The previous research have found that consumers' choices of vacations may be significantly influenced by mental imagery processing, which is considered to be high elaboration cognitive processing. Mental imagery is defined as an experience that significantly resembles the experience of perceiving some object, event, or scene, but which occurs in the absence of the appropriate stimuli for the relevant object, event, or scene. This study first aims to identify imagery-eliciting Web site features and second, to test their influence on persuasion-related outcomes such as attitude strength, confidence, and attitude resistance. Finally, this study investigates the role of individual processing style (e.g., visualizer or verbalizer) as a moderator variable. A total of 252 subjects participated in a Web-based experiment to examine the influence of selected Web site features on individual imagery processing and its effect on consumers’ attitudes and expectations. It involved a 2 (narrative vs. expository text) × 2 (pictures vs. no picture) × 2 (sounds vs. no sound) full factorial between-subjects design. The data was analyzed primarily using a structural equation modeling methodology. Structural model results revealed that the mental imagery construct strongly influenced the communication effects, which were represented by attitude strength and attitude confidence. In addition, the results of the study found that the communication effects had a significant impact on attitude resistance. This implies that the stronger attitude creates stronger resistance to a negative impact. In the context of the influence of Web site features (e.g., narrative text, pictures, and sound) inducing mental imagery processing, only pictures have a significant effect on mental imagery processing, which support positive effects of concrete pictures on mental imagery processing. In conclusion, the findings of this study show that mental imagery processing is important. Thus, we need to continue to investigate what forms of Web site designs and features best support imagery processing. More specifically, tourism marketers need to understand how certain stimuli influence mental imagery processing, and then they need to enhance Web site designs to capture potential customers.

The current state of much research on written patient education materials (WPEM) suggests that they are written in a manner that is too difficult even for educated patients to understand and remember. Much of the research in this area is focused on modification of the readability of WPEM, which has shown to be relatively ineffective. In this study, an attempt was made to determine if a theory-based method in revising WPEM for improved comprehensibility and memorability was effective. The effectiveness of three versions of WPEM regarding breast self-exams (BSEs) was examined; the original version without illustrations obtained from the American Cancer Society website, a version that was written at a lower readability level as measured by the Flesch-Kincaid readability formula, and a version with a lower readability level as measured by the Flesch-Kincaid readability formula and the increased use of concrete language as suggested by Dual Coding Theory. The researcher compared the percentage of recall of idea units recalled by 76 participants at two time periods: immediately after reading the randomly assigned version of WPEM and seven days after the initial reading. The WPEM that contained the lower readability level and concrete language was most recalled by participants both at immediate recall and delayed recall. In fact, the delayed recall of the WPEM that contained the lower readability level and concrete language after the seven-day period was almost equivalent to the immediate recall of the participants in the other two groups. A significant main effect was found for the forms of WPEM, F(2, 73) = 27.69, p = .00, n2 p = .43 with an observed power of 1.00. A significant main effect was found for time, F(1, 73) = 161.94, p <.00, n2 p = .69 with an observed power of 1.00. A significant interaction of WPEM and time was found, F(2, 73) = 5.07, p = .01, n2 p = .12 with an observed power of .80. Reported levels of frequency of performing BSEs and levels of confidence in performing BSEs were also analyzed using the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test in relation to the three WPEM versions over time. Reported frequency was significantly greater after seven days, regardless of form of WPEM (WPEM A, p = .32; WPEM B, p = 1.00; WPEM C, p = .74). Levels of confidence were significantly greater after seven days, regardless of form of WPEM (WPEM A, p = ..02; WPEM B, p = .00; WPEM C, p = .00). Overall results indicate that combining reduced readability and increased concrete language is beneficial. The writing of WPEMs in a way that patients can understand should be supported by a theory, and infusing Dual Coding Theory in the writing of selected WPEMs may be beneficial for patients.

In this study, the performances of the optical sensors and instruments carried on both ground-based and airborne platforms were evaluated for monitoring crop growing status, detecting the vegetation response to aerial applied herbicides, and identifying crop nitrogen status. Geostatistical analysis on remotely sensed data was conducted to investigate spatial structure of crop canopy normalized difference vegetation index and multispectral imagery. A computerized crop monitoring system was developed that combined sensors and instruments that measured crop structure and spectral data with a global positioning system. The integrated crop monitoring system was able to collect real-time, multi-source, multi-form, and crop related data simultaneously as the tractor-mounted system moved through the field. This study firstly used remotely sensed data to evaluate glyphosate efficacy on weeds applied with conventional and emerging aerial spray nozzles. A weedy field was In this study, the performances of the optical sensors and instruments carried on both ground-based and airborne platforms were evaluated for monitoring crop growing status, detecting the vegetation response to aerial applied herbicides, and identifying crop nitrogen status. Geostatistical analysis on remotely sensed data was conducted to investigate spatial structure of crop canopy normalized difference vegetation index and multispectral imagery. A computerized crop monitoring system was developed that combined sensors and instruments that measured crop structure and spectral data with a global positioning system. The integrated crop monitoring system was able to collect real-time, multi-source, multi-form, and crop related data simultaneously as the tractor-mounted system moved through the field. This study firstly used remotely sensed data to evaluate glyphosate efficacy on weeds applied with conventional and emerging aerial spray nozzles. A weedy field was set up in three blocks and four aerial spray technology treatments were tested. Spectral reflectance measurements were taken using ground-based sensors from all the plots at 1, 8, and 17 days after treatment. The results indicated that the differences among the treatments could be detected with spectral data. This study could provide applicators with guidance equipment configurations that can result in herbicide savings and optimized applications in other crops. The main focus of this research was to apply sensor fusion technology to ground-based and airborne imagery data. Experimental plots cropped with cotton and soybean plants were set up with different nitrogen application rates. The multispectral imagery was acquired by an airborne imaging system over crop field; at the same period, leaf chlorophyll content and spectral reflectance measurements were gathered with chlorophyll meter and spectroradiometer at canopy level on the ground, respectively. Statistical analyses were applied on the data from individual sensor for discrimination with respect to the nitrogen treatment levels. Multisensor data fusion was performed at data level. The results showed that the data fusion of airborne imagery with ground-based data were capable of improving the performance of remote sensing data on detection of crop nitrogen status. The method may be extended to other types of data, and data fusion can be performed at feature or decision level.

When we probe into how on-line games affect the interaction between teenagers and their families, we find that the parents¡¦ teaching attitude is the key factor of affecting the children¡¦s behavior in the games. If the parents and the children have a better interaction, or even they can play the games together, then the development of the children are comparatively healthier and better. From the analysis of this study, we see that on-line games did not bring about bad effects to the children, on the contrary, under the guidance of the parents, the children can successfully go in and out the world of on-line games. Such an unharmed result is just what most of the parents like to see: not to indulge, not to be deceived, not to contract bad habits from bad friends and so on. However, comparatively, the children¡¦s experience in on-line games could lack spirit of adventure. No matter in a fictitious or a concrete society, the grownups have a higher capacity of awakening after all. The guidance of the parents can inspire unlimited possibilities in the children, and they can ward off the chance of getting hurt under the parents¡¦ protection. ¡§Defeat is the motivation of growth; deception is the turning point of development!¡¨ Don¡¦t forget to reserve the room for defeat during the process of children guidance and assistance. When the grownups shake off the self-centered and subjective viewpoints, they are conscious of a transformation of a hero. In the fictitious world, making a mistake is a rare chance to launch an unexpected discovery, and life starts to liaise the unknown power. Regardless of old or young, and which life stage you are at, conjuration can always unveil the overture of mythic transformation. When you fulfill a spiritual trial and ritual, it is like you are experiencing a circle of death and resurrection. Experiences are past concepts and modes of thinking in a familiar living domain which are applicative no more, and it is time to cross the threshold. After returning I hope to provide some corresponded and balanced viewpoints to the past one-way discourse, and let the teenagers to show more distinctive features of themselves.

This thesis examines the performance of some dim target detection algorithms in low-SNR imaging scenarios. In the past research, there have been numerous attempts for detection and tracking barely visible targets for military surveillance applications with infrared sensors. In this work, two of these algorithms are analyzed via extensive simulations. In one of these approaches, dynamic programming is exploited to coherently integrate the visible energy of dim targets over possible relative directions, whereas the other method is a Bayesian formulation for which the target likelihood is updated along time to be able to detect a target moving in any direction. Extensive experiments are conducted for these methods by using synthetic image sequences, as well as some real test data. The simulation results indicate that it is possible to detect dim targets in quite low-SNR conditions. Moreover, the performance might further increase, in case of incorporating any a priori information about the target trajectory.

The present study lays bare the relationship between nature and the individual in the novels of D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf through an analysis of their uses of natural images. It starts with an overview of the different view points of different critics who have studied these writers&rsquo / uses of nature and the way these writers treat nature. This critical overview eventually affirmed that the relationship between the individual and nature is central to these writers&rsquo / uses of nature. Being modernist writers, D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf are both interested in the psychology of individuals. Although they differ in their ways of depiction, they employ natural imagery to depict the psychology of the individuals, which can be defined as their Romantic sensibility toward nature. In both writers, though nature is more central to Lawrence&rsquo / s works than to those of Woolf&rsquo / s, nature is of great importance in the creation and representation of characters. Through their contact with nature, their characters experience self-realization as they reveal their hidden selves and as they find ties between their selves and nature. More specifically, this study tries to examine how Lawrence and Woolf depict nature in order to reveal the psychology of characters in relation to their experiencing self-realization in Lawrence&rsquo / s Women in Love (1920) and The Plumed Serpent (1926) and Woolf&rsquo / s The Voyage Out (1915) and Orlando: A Biography (1928).