This thesis aims to better represent a framework for asynchrony. Traditional asynchronous models, particularly those used to simulate cellular automata, have used stochasticity or randomness to generate update times. We claimthat, while they may make good representations of their application, such asynchronousmethods rid themodel of the essence of interesting asynchronous processes. Thus, we attempt to better harness the aspects internal to the decision process of such discretely dynamic cells as those in cellular automata.We propose the maxmin-m model as a suitable model for the asynchronous computation of cellular automata. The model uses maxmin-plus algebra, a special case of which is max-plus algebra. This algebra arises naturally from the cellular automaton requirement that a cell receives the state of its neighbours before updating. The maxmin-m model allows each cell to update after it receives m out of a possible n neighbours' states.The max-plus model shows that, while update times may be asynchronous in real time, there is no loss of information, since the corresponding asynchronous process is bijectively related to the synchronous model. In turn, the cellular automaton output, measured by the Shannon and word entropies, is shown to vary little from the synchronous model. Moreover, this type of asynchrony is simple, i.e. it is deterministically obtained due to the linearity of max-plus algebra.Indeed, the maxmin-m model is also shown to be deterministic and always reaches periodic behaviour. In the long time limit, this model is shown to be represented by a max-plus model, supporting its determinism further. Consequently, the complexity of such a model may be thought to be limited. However, we show through large scale experiments that the case where m is approximately n/2 generates most complex behaviour in terms of large periods and transients to the aforementioned periodic orbits. In particular, the complexity is empirically shown to obey a bell form as a function of m (where m ranges from 1 to n). The resulting cellular automaton simulations indicate a correspondence from the complexity of the update times. Therefore, cellular automaton behaviour may be predictable with the type of asynchrony employed in this thesis.

The act of predicting rhythmic events and coordinating these predictions with motor actions is seen in many elements of human existence (e.g., walking, dancing, or speaking). Several studies have shown that the efficiency of synchronizing actions with an anticipatable repeating stimulus differs between musicians and non-musicians. This difference is particularly evident when examining two commonly measured metrics of synchronization tasks, (a) asynchrony, or the differential in temporal distance between a recurring stimulus and its associated motor reaction; and (b) variability, or the degree to which successive synchronization actions are distanced from each other relative to repeated stimuli. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which differences in asynchrony and variability might be related to the type of musical experiences received in secondary school. It was hypothesized that students who received a greater amount of musical training would exhibit reduced asy / Music Education

abstract: The amount of time series data generated is increasing due to the integration of sensor technologies with everyday applications, such as gesture recognition, energy optimization, health care, video surveillance. The use of multiple sensors simultaneously for capturing different aspects of the real world attributes has also led to an increase in dimensionality from uni-variate to multi-variate time series. This has facilitated richer data representation but also has necessitated algorithms determining similarity between two multi-variate time series for search and analysis. Various algorithms have been extended from uni-variate to multi-variate case, such as multi-variate versions of Euclidean distance, edit distance, dynamic time warping. However, it has not been studied how these algorithms account for asynchronous in time series. Human gestures, for example, exhibit asynchrony in their patterns as different subjects perform the same gesture with varying movements in their patterns at different speeds. In this thesis, we propose several algorithms (some of which also leverage metadata describing the relationships among the variates). In particular, we present several techniques that leverage the contextual relationships among the variates when measuring multi-variate time series similarities. Based on the way correlation is leveraged, various weighing mechanisms have been proposed that determine the importance of a dimension for discriminating between the time series as giving the same weight to each dimension can led to misclassification. We next study the robustness of the considered techniques against different temporal asynchronies, including shifts and stretching. Exhaustive experiments were carried on datasets with multiple types and amounts of temporal asynchronies. It has been observed that accuracy of algorithms that rely on data to discover variate relationships can be low under the presence of temporal asynchrony, whereas in case of algorithms that rely on external metadata, robustness against asynchronous distortions tends to be stronger. Specifically, algorithms using external metadata have better classification accuracy and cluster separation than existing state-of-the-art work, such as EROS, PCA, and naive dynamic time warping. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Computer Science 2015

No description available.

MSc., Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, 2011 / The behaviour and physiology of every insect, during all developmental stages, is largely determined by temperature. Metabolic rate, flight activity, nutrition, growth rate, oviposition and longevity can all be correlated to temperature. Consequently, insect development occurs within a definite temperature range which can be experimentally determined. This serves as a basis from which models that estimate insect growth, development and reproduction can be formulated. Such studies on temperature-dependent development are therefore important for understanding predator-prey relationships and insect population dynamics relevant in epidemiology, pest management and biological control of weeds and insect pests. The biological control of water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes (Pontederiaceae), in South Africa currently relies on six established agents. However, the results of this programme do not compare well with the achievements made elsewhere. This has been attributed to a number of constraining factors, chief among which is a wide variety of climatic regions, low minimum temperatures and a high incidence of frosting which slows the build-up of natural enemy populations. This research verified and augmented the thermal tolerance data available for three of South Africa’s more efficacious agents used against water hyacinth, namely Neochetina eichhorniae, N. bruchi (Curculionidae) and Eccritotarsus catarinensis (Miridae). Using these data, plant productivity and insect activity was modelled against fine-scale temperature data incorporating three distinct microclimates from 14 field sites distributed throughout South Africa’s climatic regions. Water hyacinth and its natural enemies were found to be negatively affected by low average temperatures. However, the relative consequences for each species at a population level were quite different. Similar thresholds for development, close to 10°C, meant that periods available for growth in areas where temperature is limiting were roughly the same for both plant and insects. Nevertheless, although plant growth largely ceased each winter and aerial parts were often extensively damaged from frost, low temperatures rarely led to significant plant mortality. By contrast, reduced insect recruitment coupled with a high susceptibility to cold- and frost-induced mortality of all life-history stages, pushed insect populations into winter bottlenecks and even caused local extinctions. The ability to overwinter effectively appears to the primary cause for limited control in colder regions. Surviving post-winter insect populations were therefore small, inflicted minimal damage due to reduced feeding rates, and were generally asynchronous with the recovery of water hyacinth. This asynchronous development translated into a lag period of roughly 42 days between the onset of water hyacinth growth and the time at which the plant was subjected to meaningful herbivory. Free from early season herbivory, coupled with the fact that vegetative reproduction continued through winter, water hyacinth populations were able to quickly recover and outpaced the detrimental affects caused by insect feeding well into the growth season. The implications for supplementary management strategies are also discussed in light of these outcomes.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea-Hypopnea Syndrome (OSAHS) is a serious sleep disordered affecting up to 24% of men and 9% of woman in the middle aged population. The current standard for the OSAHS diagnosis is Polysomnography (PSG), which refers to the continuous monitoring of multiple physiological variables over the course of a night. The main outcomes of the PSG test are the OSAHS severity measures, such as the Respiratory Disturbance Index (RDI), Arousal Index, Latencies and other information to determine the macro sleep architecture (MSA), which is defined by Wake, Rapid-eye-movement (REM) and non-REM states of sleep. The MSA results are essential for computing the diagnostic measures reported in a PSG. The existing methods of the MSA analysis require the recording of 5-7 electrophysiological signals, including the Electroencephalogram (EEG), Electroculogram (EOG), and the Electromyogram (EMG). Sleep clinicians have to depend on the manual scoring of the overnight data records using the criteria given by Rechtschaffen and Kales (R&K, 1968). The manual analysis of MSA is tedious, subjective and suffers from inter- and intra-scorer variability. Additionally, the RDI and the Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI) parameters although used as the primary measures of the OSAHS severity, suffers from subjectivity, low reproducibility and a poor correlation with the symptoms of OSAHS. Sleep is essentially a neuropsychological phenomenon, and the EEG remains the best technique for the functional imaging of the brain during sleep. The EEG is the direct result of the neuronal activity of the brain. However, despite the potential, the wealth of information available in the EEG signal remains virtually untapped in current OSAHS diagnosis. Although the EEG is extensively used in traditional sleep analysis, its usage is mainly limited to staging sleep, based on the four-decade old R&K criteria. This thesis addresses these issues plaguing the PSG. We develop a novel, fully-automated algorithm (Higher-order Estimated Sleep States, HESS-algorithm) for the MSA analysis, which requires only one channel of the EEG data. We also develop an objective MSA analysis technique that uses a single, one-dimensional slice of the Bispectrum of the EEG, representing a nonlinear transformation of a system function that can be considered as the EEG generator. The agreement between the human and the proposed technology was found to be in the range of 70%-87%, which are similar to those, possible between expert human scorers. The ability of the HESS algorithm to compute the MSA parameters reliably and objectively will make a dramatic impact on the diagnosis and treatment of OSAHS and other sleep diseases, such as insomnia. The proposed technology uses low-computation-load Bispectrum techniques independent of R&K Criteria (1968) making real-time automated analysis a reality. In the thesis we also propose a new index (the IHSI) to characterise the severity of sleep apnea. The new index is based on the hemispherical asymmetry of the brain and is computed from the EEG coherence analysis. We achieved a significant (p=0.0001) accuracy of up to 91% in classifying patients into apneic and non-apneic group. Our statistical analysis results show that the IHSI carries potential for providing us with a reproducible measure to assist in diagnosing of OSAHS. With the proposed methods in this thesis it may be possible to develop the technology that will not only attempt to screen the OSAHS patients but will be able to provide OSAHS diagnosis with detailed sleep architecture via home based test. These technologies will simplify the instrumentation dramatically and will make possible to extend EEG/MSA analysis to portable systems as well.

Evidence suggests that human time perception is likely to reflect an ensemble of recent temporal experience. For example, prolonged exposure to consistent temporal patterns can adaptively realign the perception of event order, both within and between sensory modalities (e.g. Fujisaki et al., 2004 Nat. Neurosci., 7, 773-778). In addition, the observation that 'a watched pot never boils' serves to illustrate the fact that dynamic shifts in our attentional state can also produce marked distortions in our temporal estimates. In the current study we provide evidence for a hitherto unknown link between adaptation, temporal perception and our attentional state. We show that our ability to use recent sensory history as a perceptual baseline for ongoing temporal judgments is subject to striking top-down modulation via shifts in the observer's selective attention. Specifically, attending to the temporal structure of asynchronous auditory and visual adapting stimuli generates a substantial increase in the temporal recalibration induced by these stimuli. We propose a conceptual framework accounting for our findings whereby attention modulates the perceived salience of temporal patterns. This heightened salience allows the formation of audiovisual perceptual 'objects', defined solely by their temporal structure. Repeated exposure to these objects induces high-level pattern adaptation effects, akin to those found in visual and auditory domains (e.g. Leopold & Bondar (2005) Fitting the Mind to the World: Adaptation and Aftereffects in High-Level Vision. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 189-211; Schweinberger et al. (2008) Curr. Biol., 18, 684-688). / Wellcome Trust, College of Optometrists

Submitted by Nadir Basilio (nadirsb@uninove.br) on 2018-06-21T18:36:20Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Fernanda Dultra Dias.pdf: 1137972 bytes, checksum: 8be1c4f185164e0cb296225d70598e1b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-06-21T18:36:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fernanda Dultra Dias.pdf: 1137972 bytes, checksum: 8be1c4f185164e0cb296225d70598e1b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-12-18 / Introduction: The VMNI has been showing an adjuvant treatment resource for patients with stable COPD or exacerbation. However little is known about the action that the NIV promotes in thoracic and abdominal and mobility if it is able to promote improvement of asynchrony. Objectives: to evaluate the effects of the NIV in thoracic and abdominal mobility, comparing variables in spontaneous breathing and during the use of NIV in patients with COPD by OEP. Methods: Two groups of individuals (GC with 14 healthy and COPD with 16 patients) were assessed in relation to the thoracic-abdominal asynchrony, respiratory and àcontrubuição variables of each thoracic compartment using a Plethysmograph SPOS System (BTS, Italy) in spontaneous breathing and with two VMNI modes. Results: Patients with COPD evaluated presented ATA in home, we also observed that the COPD asynchrony in all compartments in relation to healthy, which in turn has always maintained its AF next to zero and when it observes only the COPD group, using both methods of VMNI promote decrease of asynchrony in compartment CTS vs. ABD and the key changes found in the COPD group are related to the distribution of aid and action of each compartment toracico. Conclusion: There are ATA in patients with COPD, even at home, the degree of airway obstruction of these patients correlates with the presence of asynchronous Thoracoabdominal, the use of VMNI in the mode continuous positive airway pressure is able to improve thoracic abdominal synchrony in patients with COPD, as well as the use of some blood pressure to A6 led and that the VMNI is able to promote changes in compartmental contribution without promoting significant changes in respiratory variables in patients with COPD compared with age-matched healthy. / Introdução: A VMNI vem se mostrando um recurso adjuvante ao tratamento de pacientes com DPOC estável ou na exacerbação.No entanto pouco se sabe sobre a ação que a VNI promove na mobilidade tóraco abdominal e se é capaz de promover melhora da assincronia respiratória. Objetivos: Avaliar os efeitos da VNI na mobilidade e sincronia tóraco-abdominal, comparando as variáveis em respiração espontânea e durante o uso de VNI em pacientes com DPOC por meio da OEP. Método: Dois grupos de indivíduos (GC com 14 saudáveis e DPOC com 16 pacientes) foram avaliados em relação à assincronia toraco-abdominal, às variáveis respiratórias e àcontrubuição de cada compartimento torácico, utilizando-se um pletismógrafo OEP System (BTS, Italy) em respiração espontânea e com aplicação de dois modos de VMNI. Resultados: Os pacientes com DPOC avaliados apresentaram ATA em repouso, observou-se também que o DPOC apresentou assincronia em todos os compartimentos em relação ao Saudável, que por sua vez sempre manteve seu AF próximo a zero e quando se observa somente o grupo DPOC, o uso de ambas as modalidades de VMNI promovem diminuição da assincronia no compartimento CTS vs ABD e as principais alterações encontradas no grupo DPOC estão relacionadas a distribuição da contribuição e ação de cada compartimento toracico. Conclusão: Há ATA em pacientes com DPOC, mesmo em situação de repouso, o grau de obstrução das vias aéreas desses pacientes não se correlaciona com a presença de assincronia toracoabdominal, o uso de VMNI no modo pressão positiva contínua nas vias aéreas é capaz de melhorar a sincronia tóraco-abdominal em pacientes com DPOC, assim como a utilização de alguns níveis pressóricos de Bilevel e que a VMNI é capaz de promover alterações na contribuição compartimental sem promover alterações significativas nas variáveis respiratórias nos pacientes com DPOC comparando com saudáveis pareados por idade.

Climate change can alter ecosystem processes and organismal phenology through both long-term, gradual changes and alteration of disturbance regimes. Because microbes mediate decomposition, and therefore the initial stages of nutrient cycling, soil biogeochemical responses to climate change will be driven by microbial responses to changes in temperature, precipitation, and pulsed climatic events. Improving projections of soil ecological and biogeochemical responses to climate change effects therefore requires greater knowledge of microbial contributions to decomposition. This dissertation examines soil microbial and biogeochemical responses to the long-term and punctuated effects of climate change, as well as improvement to decomposition models following addition of microbial parameters. First, through a climate change mesocosm experiment on two soils, I determined that biogeochemical losses due to warming and snow reduction vary across soil types. Additionally, the length of time with soil microbial activity during plant dormancy increased under warming, and in some cases decreased following snow reduction. Asynchrony length was positively related to carbon and nitrogen loss. Next, I examined soil enzyme activity, carbon and nitrogen biodegradability, and fungal abundance in response to ice storms, an extreme event projected to occur more frequently under climate change in the northeastern United States. Enzyme activity response to ice storm treatments varied by both target nutrient and, for nitrogen, soil horizon. Soil horizons often experienced opposite response of enzyme activity to ice storm treatments, and increasing ice storm frequency also altered the direction of the microbial response. Mid-levels of ice storm treatment additionally increased fungal hyphal abundance. Finally, I added explicit microbial parameters to a global decomposition model that previously incorporated climate and litter quality. The best mass loss model simply added microbial flows between litter quality pools, and addition of a microbial biomass and products pool also improved model performance compared to the traditional implicit microbial model. Collectively, these results illustrate the importance of soil characteristics to the biogeochemical and microbial response to both gradual climate change effects and extreme events. Furthermore, they show that large-scale decomposition models can be improved by adding microbial parameters. This information is relevant to the effects of climate change and microbial activity on biogeochemical cycles.

I. Extensive experimental and clinical data suggest that certain electrical and structural changes develop in the atria of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). These alterations are commonly referred as atrial remodeling and are considered to play a crucial role in the self-perpetuation of this arrhythmia. a. A hallmark of LA structural remodeling is the LA dilatation which is a predictor for progression to chronic AF and therapeutic failure as well. However, AF is associated not only with LA enlargement but also with asymmetrical changes in the left atrial geometry. b. Furthermore, the electrical remodeling is characterized by slower and asynchronous inter- and intra-atrial conduction that also contributes to the maintenance of AF. Some studies suggested a role of the conduction block in the Bachmann’s bundle, connecting the right and left atrium, in the AF pathophysiology and LA remodeling. II. Echocardiography and especially the tissue Doppler method can provide additional insight into the nature of the LA remodeling, because it allows the characterization of the intrinsic LA velocities. a. Using pulsed-wave tissue Doppler (PW-TDI) is possible to measure the interval from the onset of the surface P wave to the A´ velocity at the lateral mitral annulus as a representation of the total interatrial conduction time (TACT). In number of studies, it was demonstrated that prolonged TACT was associated with new-onset AF, AF after open heart surgery, and AF recurrences after electrical cardioversion and catheter ablation. b. An important limitation of the previous studies is that TACT has never been validated by direct measurements of the true electrical conduction in the LA. Moreover, it was assumed that the activation of the lateral MA must be the latest LA activation site. III. In this study, we sought to evaluate the feasibility of the PW-TDI as a simple and quick method to evaluate the LA asynchrony. For the purpose, we measured the time intervals from the onset of P-wave to the A´ (P-A´) in PW-TDI at 4 different left atrial sites next to mitral annulus (septal, lateral, anterior and inferior) in patients referred for electrophysiological study and catheter ablation because of atrial fibrillation or other arrhythmias. a. The differences between the longest and shortest P-A´ (DLS-PA´), as well as the standard deviation (SD-4PA´) of all 4 values were calculated as indexes for LA asynchrony. Importantly, LA asynchrony in patients with AF was compared with a matched control group of patients without history of AF. b. Moreover, the TACT was validated by comparing it with the actual electrical activation of the left atrium measured directly in the coronary sinus. For this purpose, the intervals between the onset of the P-wave and the local LA activation at the distal electrode pair of a catheter inserted in the coronary sinus were measured. c. Having in mind the ovoid LA shape and asymmetrical changes in LA geometry observed in patients with AF, we hypothesized that the lateral mitral annulus may not always be the latest activation spot. Therefore, we sought to determine the latest LA activation site exhibiting the longest P-A´ interval, as well as to describe the sequence of LA activation in AF patients and non-AF controls. IV. One hundred and thirty patients with AF (AF group) and 70 patients without a history of AF (non-AF control group) were examined prospectively using PW-TDI. a. Both groups were matched for the baseline characteristics, including LA diameter. The P-A´ interval measured with PW-TDI at the lateral LA showed a strong, positive, linear correlation with the P-A activation at the distal poles of the CS catheter at the lateral MA: Pearson r=0.708; P=0.0001. b. Asynchrony in the AF group was more pronounced in comparison to the non-AF control group. Patients in the AF group had longer DLS-PA´ as compared to controls: 37±16 msec. vs. 28±13 msec.; P=0.0001, as well as bigger SD-4PA´: 17±7 msec. vs. 13±5 msec.; P=0.0001. c. Furthermore, distinct patterns of LA activation were observed. Most AF patients (86.5%) showed an upward LA activation with inferior LA breakthrough, whereas the non-AF controls exhibited mostly a downward LA activation (65.5%), spreading from LA roof downwards. d. ROC analysis revealed that P-A´ at anterior LA successfully discriminated patients with AF from the non-AF controls (AUC 0.85, P<0.0001). A cut off value for P-A´ anterior > 55 msec. discriminated between AF patients and controls with 85% sensitivity; 81% specificity; positive predictive value of 0.898, and negative predictive value of 0.707. V. In conclusion, PW-TDI can be reliably used to assess the LA asynchrony. Patients with atrial fibrillation showed greater LA asynchrony in PW-TDI independently from the LA dimensions. For the first time, we described that LA activation showed 3 distinct patterns with the upward LA activation being the most frequently observed in patients with AF. Patients with AF demonstrated a prolonged P-A´ activation time at the anterior left atrium. P-A´ at anterior LA > 55 msec. discriminates between patients with AF and non-AF controls with high sensitivity and specificity. This method can be useful to identity patients at risk for occurrence of new-onset atrial fibrillation, as well as to assess the severity of the LA remodeling in order to improve the selection of patients for catheter ablation.:Table of Contents 1 Background 5 1.1 Mechanisms of initiation and perpetuation of atrial fibrillation 5 1.2 Left atrial remodeling in atrial fibrillation 7 1.3 Echocardiographic assessment of left atrial remodeling 8 1.4 Pathophysiology of interatrial conduction in atrial fibrillation 10 2 Objectives and methods 11 2.1 Study objectives 11 2.2 Methods 11 2.2.1 Echocardiography 13 2.2.2 Electrophysiological study 15 2.2.3 Statistical methods 16 3 Publication 17 4 Discussion 26 5 Limitations 30 6 Conclusion 31 7 Synopsis 32 8 References 36 9 Selbstständigkeitserklärung 47 10 Curriculum vitae and list of publications 48 11 Danksagung /Acknowledgments 56