The thesis deals with module extension in currently developing project called Time Project 5. Specifically, the Phases, Notification and External Interface module. The thesis is divided into four major chapters. The first chapter introduces theoretical background consisting of backend and frontend technology description. The second chapter serves as determination of customer's expectations in form of functional and nonfunctional requirements gathering. The major focus of the third chapter is on application architecture design of both server and client side together with subcomponents design. Additionally, this chapter is complemented by the data model and Time Project 5 application design. The last, and at the same time, major chapter reveals the actual implementation of mentioned subcomponents including further necessary support features.

A biodiversidade dos rios brasileiros encontra-se sob severa ameaça, em razão da fragmentação e perda de hábitat que os barramentos representam. Até o presente, os aproveitamentos hidrelétricos têm seu licenciamento ambiental condicionado a análises de impacto locais, sem avaliação dos impactos cumulativos de múltiplas barragens em uma bacia hidrográfica, com relação à conservação da diversidade da ictiofauna. Estudos anteriores para subsídio de licenciamento de múltiplas barragens na bacia Taquari-Antas (RS) propuseram cenários alternativos de conservação (número e posição de barragens), quando ainda não havia métricas de conectividade dendrítica desenvolvidas. Entre os problemas identificados naqueles estudos figuram a quantificação dos efeitos cumulativos das barreiras sobre a conectividade da bacia, o estabelecimento de áreas prioritárias para conservação e a influência do número e da posição das barreiras na conservação da biodiversidade aquática em uma bacia. Avaliamos a aplicação de conectividade para mensuração de impactos cumulativos de fragmentação de bacias hidrográficas através de índices de conectividade dendrítica recentemente propostos. Propomos um método genérico e replicável para analisar quantitativamente os efeitos de sucessivos barramentos em relação à conectividade dos hábitats aquáticos em processos de migração e dispersão de peixes em bacias hidrográficas. Utilizamos simulações de cenários de múltiplos barramentos para a avaliação. Propomos também uma sistematização para a simulação de múltiplos barramentos. Além disso, hierarquizamos áreas para conservação por conectividade, aplicamos as novas métricas de conectividade a estudos anteriores e demonstramos casos de cenários de alta conectividade com outras implicações na conservação. Discutimos o amadurecimento do método para aplicação em licenciamento ambiental e planejamento de conservação, bem como limitações atuais e perspectivas para trabalhos futuros. / Biodiversity of Brazilian rivers is nowadays seriously threatened due to fragmentation and habitat loss that impoundments represent. Up to now, hydroelectric power plants have their environmental licensing processes conditioned to local impact analysis, with no evaluation of cumulative impacts of multiple dams in a watershed landscape on the conservation of the integrity of ichthyofauna. Former studies for supporting environmental licensing processes of multiple hydroelectric dams in the Taquaria-Antas basin (RS, Brasil) proposed alternative conservation scenarios (number and position of barriers), in a time when there were no dendritic connectivity metrics developed. Among the problems identified at that time, we point quantification of cumulative effects of multiple barriers on the drainage connectivity, detecting prioritary areas for conservation and detecting the influence of the number and position of the barriers in the catchment for best conservation of aquatic biodiversity. We evaluated the application of connectivity for quantifying the impacts of fragmentation in hydrographic basins through recently proposed indexes. We proposed a replicable and generic method for quantifying the effects of successive impoundments in relation to aquatic habitat connectivity in ecological processes of migration and dispersal of fishes in hydrographic basins. We used multiple barriers scenarios simulation in order to perform the assessments. We also propose a way of systematizing multiple barriers simulations. Moreover, we rank areas for conservation by connectivity, apply the new connectivity metrics on former studies and demonstrate cases of high connectivity scenarios with other implications on conservation. We discuss maturing the method for application on environmental licensing and conservation planning as well as current limitations and perspectives for future studies.

The Atchafalaya River Basin (ARB) in Louisiana is the principal distributary of the Mississippi River, and it contains the largest contiguous area of baldcypress-water tupelo swamp forests in North America. After designation of the ARB as a federal floodway following the destructive 1927 Mississippi River (MR) flood, it was extensively modified to accommodate a substantial portion of the MR flow (~30%) to mitigate flooding in southern Louisiana. The resulting reach to system scale modifications for regional flood mitigation, navigation, and hydrocarbon extraction have substantially altered the lateral connectivity between the AR and its floodplain wetlands, threatening the ecological integrity of this globally-important ecosystem. Multiple stakeholder groups agree that restoring flow connectivity is essential to maintaining the basin’s water quality and forest health, and several flow-connectivity enhancement projects (hereafter, project elements) have been proposed by the Atchafalaya Basin Program’s Technical Advisory Group within the Flat Lake Water Management Unit (FLWMU) study area to increase lateral hydrologic connectivity within the management unit and beyond. Additionally, a new flow prescription to improve floodplain habitat has recently been suggested for the ARB. Flow into the ARB is now regulated through the Old River Control Structure (ORCS; operational in 1963), and represents the opportunity for large-scale flow experiments to enhance a multitude of ecosystem services that have been degraded due to anthropogenic alteration. For this study, I compiled existing datasets and constructed a 1D2D hydraulic model to evaluate: 1) if the suggested flow prescription would have the desired inundation impacts; 2) whether the proposed project elements would improve lateral connectivity in the FLWMU; and 3) whether recommended project elements would increase the area suitable for baldcypress recruitment in the study area. To examine the first two research questions above, I examined two scenarios – a baseline scenario to examine current conditions (no restoration projects), and a full-implementation scenario, where all proposed project elements that could be examined at the model resolution were implemented. Comparison of the modeling results for the baseline scenario to the suggested flow prescription goals suggests the overbank discharge and the extreme low-flow targets would have the desired impacts of inundating and drying out of the majority of the FLWMU, respectively. Proxy indicators of enhanced flow connectivity suggest that proposed projects will improve water quality, especially at intermediate to high flow conditions, when ~90% of the FLWMU experiences improved drainage as indicated by higher rates of water surface elevation decrease and lower overall system water volume. The stated objectives of the project elements recommended by the Technical Advisory Group are to improve connectivity and water quality, but another important and related restoration goal for stakeholders includes baldcypress restoration. To examine the third objective, I used a model-derived proxy indicator of habitat improvement (depth reduction) at two key discharges, along with other ecological suitability factors, to determine areas most likely to support baldcypress recruitment. Here, I compared baseline conditions to two alternative restoration scenarios – 1) a targeted implementation scenario where 22 project elements were implemented, and 2) the full-implementation scenario, where all projects that could be examined at the model resolution were implemented. Suitable habitat area for both natural and artificial baldcypress recruitment increased under intermediate flow conditions but remained unchanged for higher discharge conditions. For the intermediate discharge scenario, the full-implementation scenario results in a 2 km2 increase in the class considered most suitable for natural baldcypress regeneration within the calculated recruitment band, and a decrease of ~16 km2 in the areas considered least suitable for the entire FLWMU study area. Coupled with the connectivity results, which indicate that nutrient-rich river water will be exchanged between main channels and the backswamp at a greater range of flows, it appears that project implementation alone will benefit baldcypress recruitment, especially artificial regeneration efforts. However, full project implementation coupled with large-scale flow modifications at ORCS would likely provide maximum benefit for baldcypress restoration efforts that seek to increase the area supportive of natural baldcypress regeneration.

Early life stress (ELS) affects the developing brain and impacts capacity for self-regulation and risk for psychopathology. The high spatial resolution of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) confers an advantage for studying specific neural regions posited to link ELS with subsequent functioning. The first chapter in this dissertation reviews the literature establishing the feasibility and utility of fMRI research with infants and young children. This chapter examines methodological issues and outlines the potential for this technique to make unique contributions to understanding how ELS influences brain development. The next two chapters present results from a study that employed a functional activation paradigm and resting state functional connectivity MRI (rs-fcMRI) to examine associations between a common source of ELS, non-physical interparental conflict, and neural functioning during infancy. The functional activation paradigm focused on emotional tone of voice as a stimulus relevant to interparental conflict, which is likely salient to infants. Higher levels of interparental conflict (as reported by mothers) were associated with infants (6 to 12 months of age) showing greater reactivity to very angry versus neutral tone of voice in neural regions associated with processing and regulation of stress and emotion (hypothalamus and rostral anterior cingulate cortex). The rs-fcMRI analysis examined coordinated neural functioning in the absence of stimuli, focusing on the amygdala as a key region for understanding the impact of ELS and the posterior cingulate cortex as part of a group of regions that show higher levels of activity in the absence of stimuli (the default network). The results replicate previous work characterizing the default network in infants and provide novel evidence for the functional connectivity of the amydgala and amygdala subregions during infancy. Interparental conflict was associated with variation in the connectivity of both regions. Thus levels of interparental conflict were associated with neural reactivity to a stressor-relevant stimulus and with patterns of coordinated neural functioning in the absence of such stimuli. These results provide support for the utility of using fMRI with infants to examine early emerging associations between common forms of ELS and brain functioning. This dissertation includes previously published and co-authored material. / 2016-10-17

Graph augmentation concerns the addition of edges to a graph to satisfy some connectivity property of a graph. Previous research in this field has been preoccupied with edge augmentation; however the research in this document focuses on the addition of vertices to a graph to satisfy a specific connectivity property: ensuring that all the nodes of the graph are contained within cycles. A distinction is made between graph augmentation (edge addition), and graph enlargement (vertex addition). This document expands on previous research into a graph matching problem known as the “shoe matching problem” and the role of a graph enlargement algorithm in finding this solution. The aim of this research was to develop new and efficient algorithms to solve the graph enlargement problem as applied to the shoe matching problem and to improve on the naïve algorithm of Sanders. Three new algorithms focusing on graph enlargement and the shoe matching problem are presented, with positive results overall. The new enlargement algorithms: cost-optimised, matrix, and subgraph, succeeded in deriving the best result (least number of total nodes required) in 37%, 53%, and 57% of cases respectively (measured across 120 cases). In contrast, Sanders’s algorithm has a success rate of only 20%; thus the new algorithms have a varying success rate of approximately 2 to 3 times that of Sanders’s algorithm. / Computing / M. Sc. Computing

O presente trabalho estuda o modelo de Blume-Capel na rede aleatória e também analisa a inclusão de um termo de campo cristalino aleatório e de um termo de campo local aleatório. Ao resolver o modelo na rede aleatória, uma técnica de conectividade finita foi utilizada, na qual cada spin é conectado a um número finito de outros spins. Os spins foram conectados de acordo com uma distribuição de Poisson, os termos de campo aleatório seguiram uma distribuição bimodal e as interações entre os spins foram consideradas uniformes. Desse modo, só há desordem nas conexões entre os spins. O foco desse trabalho foi determinar como a natureza da transição de fase é alterada com a conectividade e se há um comportamento reentrante das linhas de transição de fase. A técnica de réplicas é usada para obter equações de ponto de sela para a distribuição de campos locais. Um Ansatz de simetria de réplicas foi utilizado para a função de ordem e esse foi escrito em termos de uma distribuição bidimensional de campos efetivos, onde uma das componentes é associada com um termo linear dos spins e a outra com o termo de campo cristalino. Com isso, equações para as funções de ordem e a energia livre podem ser obtidas. Uma técnica de dinâmica populacional é usada para resolver numericamente a equação auto-consistente para a distribuição de campos locais e outros parâmetros, como a magnetização, a atividade da rede e a energia livre. Os resultados indicam que a natureza da transição ferromagnética-paramagnética, a posição do ponto tricrítico e a existência de reentrância dependem fortemente do valor da conectividade e, nos casos com um termo de campo aleatório, dependem da intensidade dos campos aleatórios. No caso em que o campo cristalino é aleatório, o ponto tricrítico é suprimido para valores acima de um certo valor de aleatoriedade. / The present work studies the Blume-Capel model in a random network and also analyses the inclusion of a random crystal-field term and a random field term. To solve the model in a random network a finite connectivity technique is used, in which each spin is connected to a finite number of other spins. The spins were connected according a Poisson distribution, the random field terms followed a bimodal distribution and the bonds between the spins were considered uniform. Thus, there is only a connection disorder. The focus of this work was on determining how the nature of the phase transition changes with the connectivity and the random fields and if there is a reentrant behavior of the phase boundaries. The replica technique is used to obtain saddle-point equations for the effective local-field distribution. The replica symmetric Ansatz for the order function is written in terms of a two-dimensional effective-field distribution, where one of the components is associated with a linear form in the spins and the other with the crystal-field term. This allows one to derive equations for the order function and for the free-energy. A population dynamics procedure is used to solve numerically a self-consistency equation for the distribution of the local field and with it some physical parameters, like magnetization and free-energy. The results obtained indicate that the nature of the F-P transition, the location of the tricritical point and the presence of a reentrant phase depend strongly on the connectivity. In the cases with a random field term, those are also dependent on the intensity of the fields. For the case with a random crystal-field term, the tricritical point is supressed above a certain value of randomness.

In this thesis, I have first reviewed biodiversity status and its conservation in Nepal, which indicates the need of linking the gaps between research and conservation of rare and endangered flora and fauna. Using three mountain ungulates as model species (barking deer - Muntiacus muntjak, Himalayan goral - Naemorhedus goral and Himalayan serow - Capricornis thar), I have investigated effects of human disturbances on wildlife distribution in the human-dominated landscapes of western Nepal, spanning from the subtropical Bardia National Park to the mountainous Shey Phoksundo National Park. I have developed habitat suitability maps for these three ungulate species and recommended a conservation priority area for their conservation. A special emphasis was placed on the study of the distribution of Himalayan serow using different factors related to habitat fragmentation, hunting and patch characteristics and connectivity of forest in midhills landscape of Nepal. Finally, wildlife hunting pattern in the region was investigated in order to explore wildlife conservation issues from the social perspective.

abstract: Measuring node centrality is a critical common denominator behind many important graph mining tasks. While the existing literature offers a wealth of different node centrality measures, it remains a daunting task on how to intervene the node centrality in a desired way. In this thesis, we study the problem of minimizing the centrality of one or more target nodes by edge operation. The heart of the proposed method is an accurate and efficient algorithm to estimate the impact of edge deletion on the spectrum of the underlying network, based on the observation that the edge deletion is essentially a local, sparse perturbation to the original network. Extensive experiments are conducted on a diverse set of real networks to demonstrate the effectiveness, efficiency and scalability of our approach. In particular, it is average of 260.95%, in terms of minimizing eigen-centrality, better than the standard matrix-perturbation based algorithm, with lower time complexity. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Computer Science 2016

abstract: Road networks are valuable assets that deteriorate over time and need to be preserved to an acceptable service level. Pavement management systems and pavement condition assessment have been implemented widely to routinely evaluate the condition of the road network, and to make recommendations for maintenance and rehabilitation in due time and manner. The problem with current practices is that pavement evaluation requires qualified raters to carry out manual pavement condition surveys, which can be labor intensive and time consuming. Advances in computing capabilities, image processing and sensing technologies has permitted the development of vehicles equipped with such technologies to assess pavement condition. The problem with this is that the equipment is costly, and not all agencies can afford to purchase it. Recent researchers have developed smartphone applications to address this data collection problem, but only works in a restricted set up, or calibration is recommended. This dissertation developed a simple method to continually and accurately quantify pavement condition of an entire road network by using technologies already embedded in new cars, smart phones, and by randomly collecting data from a population of road users. The method includes the development of a Ride Quality Index (RQI), and a methodology for analyzing the data from multi-factor uncertainty. It also derived a methodology to use the collected data through smartphone sensing into a pavement management system. The proposed methodology was validated with field studies, and the use of Monte Carlo method to estimate RQI from different longitudinal profiles. The study suggested RQI thresholds for different road settings, and a minimum samples required for the analysis. The implementation of this approach could help agencies to continually monitor the road network condition at a minimal cost, thus saving millions of dollars compared to traditional condition surveys. This approach also has the potential to reliably assess pavement ride quality for very large networks in matter of days. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering 2018

La notion de connexité est fondamentale en théorie des graphes. Nous proposons une étude approfondie d'un récent développement dans ce domaine, en ajoutant des contraintes de matroïdes.Dans un premier temps, nous exhibons deux opérations de réduction sur les graphes connectés avec contraintes de matroïdes. Ces opérations permettent de généraliser le théorème de caractérisation de la connectivité de Menger et le théorème de packing d'arborescences d'Edmonds.Cependant, cette extension du théorème d'Edmonds ne garantie plus que les arborescences soient couvrantes. Il a été conjecturé que l'on peut toujours trouver de telles arborescences couvrantes. Nous prouvons cette conjecture dans certains cas particuliers, notamment pour les matroïdes de rang deux et pour les matroïdes transversaux. Nous réfutons cette conjecture dans le cas général en construisant un contre-exemple à plus de 300 sommets, sur une extension parallèle du matroïde de Fano.Enfin, nous explorons d'autres notions de connexité avec contraintes de matroïdes: pour des graphes mixtes, des hypergraphes, et avec condition d'atteignabilité. / The notion of connectivity is fundamental in graph theory. We study thoroughly a recent development in this field, with the addition of matroid constraints.Firstly, we exhibit two reduction operations on connected graphs with matroid constraints. Using these operations, we generalize the Menger's theorem on connectivity and Edmond's theorem on packing of arborescences.However, this extension of Edmond's theorem does not ensure that the arborescences are spanning. It has been conjectured that one can always find such spanning arborescences. We prove this conjecture in some cases, including matroids of rank two and transversal matroids. We disprove this conjecture in the general case by providing a counter-example with more than 300 vertices, on a parallel extension of the Fano matroid.Finally, we explore other generalizations of connectivity with matroid constraints: in mixed graphs, hypergraphs and with reachability conditions.