El objetivo de este trabajo es estudiar el proceso de asimilación de sonoridad a diferentes velocidades de habla en catalán e inglés y, más concretamente observar y analizar la asimilación de sonoridad cuando dos consonantes que tienen una especificación fonológica de sonoridad distinta coocurren a través de palabras. Además, el estudio se propone evaluar modelos descriptivos actuales con el fin de determinar cómo explican los datos obtenidos en el experimento. Se realizó un experimento usando datos acústicos, electropalatográficos y electoglotográficos simultáneos. Las secuencias estudiadas son de 4 tipos:1) Secuencias de obstruyentes donde C1 es fonológicamente sorda y C2 es fonológicamente sonora.2) Secuencias de obstruyentes donde C1 es fonológicamente sonora y C2 es fonológicamente sorda.3) Secuencies de sonorante seguida de obstruyente.4) Secuencias de obstruyente seguida de sonorante.Se observó que en las secuencias de obstruyentes en catalán los hablantes tienden a anticipar el gesto de sonoridad de C2 a C1, tanto en las secuencias de oclusivas como en las secuencias de fricativa seguida de oclusiva. Así, el proceso es regresivo y categórico, lo cual es congruente con la existencia de una regla de asimilación de sonoridad en catalán. También se observó que los hablantes catalanes pueden mostrar anticipación parcial del gesto de sonoridad de C2, lo cual muestra que la asimilación de sonoridad puede ser un proceso gradual en catalán. Así pues, parece que la regla de asimilación de sonoridad es opcional. Los datos del catalán reflejan dos procesos distintos: por un lado, la asimilación completa y regresiva de sonoridad en las secuencias de obstruyentes es el resultado de una regla que implica la reorganización a alto nivel de las instrucciones motoras. Por otro lado, los casos de asimilación parcial podrían ser debidos a factores de implementación fonética.En inglés se observó que no existe una regla fonológica de asimilación de sonoridad en las secuencias de obstruyentes. La coordinación de los gestos orales y glotales durante la constricción máxima es un proceso gradual. En las secuencias que combinan sonorantes y obstruyentes, el gesto de sonoridad coincide con la transición de C1 a C2 en ambas lenguas. Además, se observa que puede haber asimilación completa de sonoridad en las secuencias obstruyente - sonorante en catalán. Esto sugiere que la regla de asimilación regresiva de sonoridad podría extenderse a este tipo de secuencias, por lo menos en algunos hablantes catalanes.Finalmente, se sugiere que los modelos conocidos como Articulatory Phonology y Windows Theory pueden dar cuenta de la coordinación de los gestos orales y glotales en catalán e inglés. / The present study intends to analyze the process of voicing assimilation across different speaking rates in Catalan and English. More specifically, it aims at observing and characterizing voicing assimilation when two consonants that have a different phonological specification for voicing co-occur across word boundaries. Furthermore, this study intends to evaluate current descriptive frameworks, in order to see how they account for the data obtained in the experiment. An experiment was carried out using simultaneous acoustic, electroglottographic and electropalatographic data. The sequences were of 4 types:1) Obstruent sequences where C1 was phonologically voiceless and C2 was phonologically voiced, e.g., 'fat gap', 'this doll'.2) Obstruent sequences where C1 was phonologically voiced and C2 was phonologically voiceless, e.g., 'sad gap', 'his toll'.3) Sequences of sonorant plus voiceless obstruent, e.g., 'full cap', 'long sip'.4) Sequences of voiceless obstruent plus sonorant, e.g., 'thick lap', 'this nut'.It was found that in Catalan obstruent sequences that differ in their phonological specification for voicing, speakers tend to anticipate the voicing gesture of C2 to C1, both in stop sequences and in fricative - stop sequences. Thus, the process is regressive and categorical, which is congruent with a rule of voicing assimilation in Catalan. Evidence was also found that speakers can display partial anticipation of the voicing gesture of C2, which shows that voicing assimilation may also be a gradient process in this language. Thus, the voicing assimilation rule seems to be optional. The Catalan data thus seem to reflect two different processes. On one hand, complete regressive voicing assimilation in obstruent sequences seems to be the result of a rule involving higher-level reorganization of motor commands. On the other hand, cases of partial assimilation may result from phonetic implementation factors.In English, it was found that there is no phonological rule of voicing assimilation in obstruent sequences. Rather, the coordination of oral and glottal gestures during the maximal constriction is a gradient process that may result from anticipatory overlap - sensitive to time constraints - and inertial effects . In sequences of consonants where nasals and laterals combine with obstruents, the voicing gesture seems to be switched at the transition from C1 to C2 in both languages. In addition, evidence was found for complete assimilation of voicing in Catalan obstruent - sonorant sequences, suggesting the extension of the regressive voicing assimilation rule for obstruents to these sequences, at least for some speakers.Finally, it is suggested that Articulatory Phonology and Keating's Windows Theory account for the coordination of oral and glottal gestures in Catalan and English.

L'assimilation de données est une composante essentielle du système de prévision numérique du temps et consiste à trouver un état de l'atmosphère, l'analyse, qui est compatible avec les différentes sources d'observations, la dynamique de l'atmosphère et un état antérieur du modèle. Dans ce processus, il est important de bien caractériser l'erreur associée à chaque source d'information (observations, ébauche) afin de mieux décrire les conditions initiales. La matrice de covariance des erreurs de prévisions joue un rôle clé dans le processus d'assimilation de données car elle détermine la nature de la correction apportée par l'analyse. Cette matrice étant trop grande pour être représentée explicitement, elle est modélisée sous la forme d'une suite d'opérateurs relativement simples. Les modèles de covariance d'erreurs de prévisions utilisées dans un 3D-Var sont généralement stationnaires et ne considèrent pas des variations dues à la nature de l'écoulement. En présence d'instabilité, une petite erreur dans les conditions initiales connaîtra une croissance rapide. Pour contrôler cette croissance d'erreur à courte échéance, il est nécessaire d'apporter des corrections à l'analyse dans des régions localisées selon une structure spatiale très particulière. L'assimilation adaptative 3D-Var considère une formulation différente des covariances d'erreur de prévision qui permet d'inclure les fonctions de structure basées sur des fonctions de sensibilité a posteriori et a priori définissant la structure de changements aux conditions initiales qui ont le plus d'impact sur une prévision d'échéance donnée. Dans le cadre de cette thèse, des fonctions de sensibilité sont introduites comme fonctions de structure dans l'assimilation 3D-Var. La définition d'une fonction de structure appropriée pour un système d'assimilation vise à simultanément concorder aux observations disponibles et améliorer la qualité des prévisions. L'observabilité des fonctions de structure par les observations est tout d'abord présentée et analysée dans le cadre plus simple d'une analyse variationnelle 1D (1D-Var) pour être ensuite introduite dans le 3D-Var d'Environnement Canada. L'amplitude de la correction est caractérisée par un seul paramètre défini par l'ensemble des observations disponibles. Les résultats montrent que si le rapport entre l'amplitude du signal et l'erreur d'observation est très faible, les observations ne sont pas en mesure de détecter les instabilités atmosphériques qui peuvent croître très rapidement. Dans cette perspective, l'assimilation pourra seulement extraire l'information contenue dans les structures atmosphériques déjà évoluées. Dans un deuxième temps, nous présentons une nouvelle méthode permettant d'estimer l'impact des observations dans les analyses 3D/4D-Var basé sur le Degrees of freedom for signal. Le contenu en informations des observations est calculé en employant les statistiques a posteriori, à partir des écarts des observations à l'ébauche et à l'analyse. Les résultats montrent que le DFS estimé en utilisant les statistiques a posteriori est identique avec celui obtenu à partir des statistiques a priori. Ce diagnostic permet de comparer l'importance de différents types d'observations pour les expériences d'assimilation 3D et 4D-Var incluant toutes les observations assimilées opérationnellement. En particulier, cette étude s'intéresse à l'évaluation du réseau canadien d'observations et il est appliqué aux Observing System Experiments (OSEs) effectués à Environnement Canada pour les mois de janvier et février 2007. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Assimilation de données, Dépendance à l'écoulement, 3D-Var, DFS, OSEs.

This thesis arises out of a participant-observational study of narrative histories of people's experiences in Catholic residential schools in Saskatchewan. All the Elders interviewed are First Nations Anisin&#257b&#275^l people, most of whom live on five reserves north-west of Yorkton. All are recognized Elders². The Elders have the common experience of having had at least one youth (or a young relative between the ages of ten to twenty-five years old) in their immediate families commit one of these acts of violence: murder, manslaughter, infanticide, or suicide. The Elders also had the shared personal experiences of being in residential schools.<p> One research objective was to evaluate the influence of historical residential school experience upon subsequent attitudes to violence by youth in their family units. I formulated the study as an empirical test for a number of reasons: i) to examine a principal conclusion of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (1996) that documented the high rate of suicide among Aboriginal youth is a consequence of psycho-social dysfunction arising out of the residential school experience; ii) to review government policies of colonalization that led to personal abuse of Aboriginal youth in parochial residential schools, abuses that have contributed to lasting social problems for Aboriginal peoples; and iii) to study the healing movement. A Government policy lead to personal abuse that lead to a social problem.<p> The common theme that emerges out of the collective experiences of Elders is the common history of abuse suffered by Aboriginal students at parochial residential schools, the wholesale destruction of the Aboriginal family unit, and "social dysfunction" within the Aboriginal community caused by church and state for ideological and political objectives. My argument focuses on genocide and not justice issues, and it is framed by my own experiences as an Aboriginal woman who survived residential school.<p> <b>¹ Anisin&#257b&#275 means a beautiful people who are Saulteaux speaking people living in Saskatchewan whose ancestors signed Treaty Four.<p> ² All are recognized Elders in my mind. In my culture if you as a person, in this case myself, consider some person as an expert or as an Elder, who is to argue with me and say my opinion does not count. For example I chose a woman from my tribe and my clan to give me the correct spellings to the Saulteaux words I use in my thesis. In my culture you do not name yourself as an Elder, other people do that. Some Elders get widely known by many people, others are known as Elders in their immediate clans and tribes. Therefore in my thesis, they are Elders in my eyes because they have experiential wisdom.</b><p>

Britain and France adapted two different integration models, namely assimilationist and multiculturalism to integrate their immigrants. These two big models of integration have distinctive characteristics to integrate immigrants. There is a general claim that multiculturalism model is the best for integrating immigrants in terms of actual integration, however, some argue the opposite, that French assimilationist model is ‘better off.’ This study examines these controversial claims by looking at the level to which immigrants are integrated in economic, social, political, cultural dimensions of integration and attitudes towards immigrants in Britain and France. Within a given theoretical framework, this study compares the overall competency level of immigrants’ integration in terms of actual integration between British multiculturalism model and French assimilationist model and validate that both these two big models of integration have reached a comparable level of integration and they do not have any decisive impact on actual integration.

Production from a hydrocarbon reservoir is typically supported by water or carbon dioxide (CO2) injection. CO2 injection into hydrocarbon reservoirs is also a promising solution for reducing environmental hazards from the release of green house gases into the earth’s atmosphere. Numerical simulators are used for designing and predicting the complex behavior of systems under such scenarios. Two key steps in such studies are forward modeling for performance prediction based on simulation studies using reservoir models and inverse modeling for updating reservoir models using the data collected from field. The viability of time-lapse seismic monitoring using an integrated modeling of fluid flow, including chemical reactions, and seismic response is examined. A comprehensive simulation of the gas injection process accounting for the phase behavior of CO2-reservoir fluids, the associated precipitation/dissolution reactions, and the accompanying changes in porosity and permeability is performed. The simulation results are then used to model the changes in seismic response with time. The general observation is that gas injection decreases bulk density and wave velocity of the host rock system. Another key topic covered in this work is the data assimilation study for hydrocarbon reservoirs using Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF). Some critical issues related to EnKF based history matching are explored, primarily for a large field with substantial production history. A novel and efficient approach based on spectral clustering to select ‘optimal’ initial ensemble members is proposed. Also, well-specific black-oil or compositional streamline trajectories are used for covariance localization. Approach is applied to the Weyburn field, a large carbonate reservoir in Canada. The approach for optimal member selection is found to be effective in reducing the ensemble size which was critical for this large-scale field application. Streamline-based covariance localization is shown to play a very important role by removing spurious covariances between any well and far-off cell permeabilities. Finally, time-lapse seismic study is done for the Weyburn field. Sensitivity of various bulk seismic parameters viz velocity and impedance is calculated with respect to different simulation parameters. Results show large correlation between porosity and seismic parameters. Bulk seismic parameters are sensitive to net overburden pressure at its low values. Time-lapse changes in pore-pressure lead to changes in bulk parameters like velocity and impedance.

Studies of Mexican American integration have come to a methodological and theoretical impasse. Conventional investigations have provided limited insight as they are outsider-based perspectives examining native-born minorities within the context of the immigrant experience and race-cycle paradigms. Grounded in cultural ideologies and nationalist narratives, dominant descriptions of minorities have created a conceptual straight that circumscribes the discourse to assimilationists’ models of integration. Moreover, studies of marginal groups produce negative consequences by highlighting cultural differences that tautologically reinforce the grounds for exclusions. Little grounded work has been conducted specifically looking at racialized native-born minorities and the dynamics of their generational process of integration. Through embedded ethnography and the narratives of subject participants, this research provides direct insight into processes of contemporary integration and the social structural accommodation of native-born Mexican Americans. As a means of sidestepping conceptual barriers, this discussion theoretically frames the integration of Mexican American professionals within the context of modernity and liberal human development. By responding to the above critiques, this paper presents an alternative approach to the analysis and explanation of the roots of race-cycle paradigms in the first section. The second section establishes the context for the research and explains the basis for the papers structure and conceptual arguments. As a means of moving the discourse away from established models, the third section provides a critical overview of the classical and contemporary literature on minority integration through a process of textual deconstruction. In addition, the section also constructs a theoretical dynamic between structural determinations and individual adaptations to modernity that promotes integration. The fourth section describes the non-traditional method of data collection that provides direct insight into the processes of native-born minority cultural and structural incorporation. Through participant voices, the fifth section describes how individual interactions and institutional forces are shaping the social place that Mexican American professionals have created on the borderlands of American culture and society. What the interpretive findings suggest in the last section is that they are constructing and re-defining their own social and cultural place out of the elements that modern society provides and not as race-cycle theory predicts.

This study developed a parameterization method to investigate the impacts of inhomogeneous land surfaces on mesoscale model simulations using a high-resolution 1-d PBL model. Then, the 1-d PBL model was used to investigate the inhomogeneity-caused model errors in applying the GOES satellite skin temperature assimilation technique into the MM5 over the Houston metropolitan area (HOU). In order to investigate the surface inhomogeneity impacts on the surface fluxes and PBL variables over HOU, homo- and inhomogeneous 1-d PBL model simulations were performed over HOU and compared to each other. The 1-d PBL model was constructed so that the surface inhomogeneities were able to be represented within model grid elements using a methodology similar to Avissar and Pielke (1989). The surface inhomogeneities over HOU were defined using 30-m resolution land cover data produced by Global Environment Management (GEM), Inc. The inhomogeneity parameterization method developed in the 1-d model was applied to a standard MM5 simulation to test the applicability of the parameterization to 3-d mesoscale model simulations. From the 1-d simulations it was inferred that the surface inhomogeneities would enhance the sensible heat flux by about 36 % and reduce the latent heat flux by about 25 %, thereby inducing the warmer (0.7 %) and drier (-1.0 %) PBL and the colder and moister PBL top induced by greater turbulent diffusivities. The 3-d application of the inhomogeneity parameterization indicated consistent results with the 1-d in general, with additional effects of advection and differential local circulation. The original GOES simulation was warmer compared to observations over HOU than over surrounding areas. The satellite data assimilation itself would lead to a warm bias due to erroneous estimation of gridpoint-mean skin temperature by the satellite, but 1-d simulations indicate that the impact of this error should be much weaker than what was observed. It seems that, unless the already existing warm and dry bias of the MM5 is corrected, the inhomogeneity parameterization in the MM5 would adversely affect the MM5 performance. Therefore, consideration of the surface inhomogeneities in the urban area needs to be confined to the GOES skin temperature retrieval errors at the moment.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Texas at Arlington, 2008.

Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-195).

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1976.