In this work, I will describe a new statistical tool: the canonical bicoherence, which is a combination of the canonical coherence and the bicoherence. I will provide its definitions, properties, estimation by multitaper methods and statistics, and estimate the variance of the estimates by the weighted jackknife method. I will discuss its applicability and usefulness in nonlinear quadratic phase coupling detection and analysis for multivariate random processes. Furthermore, I will develop the time-varying canonical bicoherence for the nonlinear analysis of non-stationary random processes. In this thesis, the canonical bicoherence is mainly applied in two types of data: a) three-component geomagnetic field data, and b) high-dimensional brain electroencephalogram data. Both results obtained will be linked with physical or physiological interpretations. In particular, this thesis is the first work where the novel method of ``canonical bicoherence'' is introduced and applied to the nonlinear quadratic phase coupling detection and analysis for multivariate random processes. / Thesis (Ph.D, Mathematics & Statistics) -- Queen's University, 2008-10-31 15:03:57.596

The majority of laboratory testing errors originate in the pre-analytical phase. While the causes and frequencies of pre-analytical errors are well characterized, there are few studies investigating the cost of these errors. The objective of this research was to build a model to quantify the cost of pre-analytical errors occurring during inpatient complete blood count (CBC) testing at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre (Sunnybrook). The resultant cost model accounts for the costs of materials, resources, and personnel-time consumed in the CBC testing process. In 2011, pre-analytical errors in inpatient CBC testing cost Sunnybrook $43,462, and represented a loss of 775 employee hours due to laboratory test repetition and error-related activities. This cost model represents the minimum cost of a pre-analytical error, as costs extraneous to the laboratory were beyond the study scope. Future studies investigating downstream effects of pre-analytical errors and the costs associated with them should be conducted.

The majority of laboratory testing errors originate in the pre-analytical phase. While the causes and frequencies of pre-analytical errors are well characterized, there are few studies investigating the cost of these errors. The objective of this research was to build a model to quantify the cost of pre-analytical errors occurring during inpatient complete blood count (CBC) testing at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre (Sunnybrook). The resultant cost model accounts for the costs of materials, resources, and personnel-time consumed in the CBC testing process. In 2011, pre-analytical errors in inpatient CBC testing cost Sunnybrook $43,462, and represented a loss of 775 employee hours due to laboratory test repetition and error-related activities. This cost model represents the minimum cost of a pre-analytical error, as costs extraneous to the laboratory were beyond the study scope. Future studies investigating downstream effects of pre-analytical errors and the costs associated with them should be conducted.

Inom nätverksbranchen finns en strävan att gå från proprietära lösningar till en öppen standard för hård- och mjukvara. En term för detta är Whiteboxing och det innebär att användaren ges möjlighet att plocka ihop komponenter efter behov, och själv välja vilken mjukvara som används. I sin enklaste form byggs en Whiteboxrouter av en konventionell PC med två nätverkskort och en mjukvarubaserad routingapplikation. Företaget ÅF är intresserade av att veta hur Whitebox-lösningar för routrar står sig prestandamässigt i relation till konventionella routerlösningar med Application Specific Integrated Circuit. Detta arbete har undersökt prestandan genom att mäta throughput och goodput hos en Cisco 2911-router, en Whiteboxrouter med mjukvaran pfSense, samt en Whiteboxrouter som körde pfSense virtualiserat på ESXi. Dessutom undersöktes respektive konfigurations prestanda när trafiken skickades över IPsec VPN. För mätningarna användes filöverföringar med FTP och mätprogrammet Iperf3. Målet med arbetet var att skapa ett beslutsunderlag som klargjorde eventuella prestandaskillnader och utarbetade rekommendationer för framtida val av routerlösning. Resultatet visade att vid generell paketförmedling var prestandan mellan routrarna relativt jämn, dock rekommenderas den virtualiserade Whiteboxroutern då den fick det bästa resultatet. När trafiken sedan krypterades med IPsec VPN var det stora prestandaskillnader mellan enheterna. Bäst prestanda fick Whiteboxroutern. Författaren ser en vinning med Whitebox-tekniken i stort då den medger att serverutrustning som ska utrangeras på grund av prestandakrav, istället kan fungera som nätverksutrustning (routrar och brandväggar) och fortsätta användas under en större del av den tekniska livslängden. Detta kan på sikt leda till minskad miljöpåverkan och besparingar för företaget.

O mercado de Educação Superior privado no Brasil apresenta altos índices de concentração, caracterizando-se como um oligopólio, podendo, portanto, ser estudado sob a ótica da Teoria dos Jogos. Uma das técnicas existentes para abordar este tipo de mercado é conhecida por Análise Conjunta Baseada em Escolhas (Choice Based Conjoint Analysis), que permite estimar as utilidades atribuídas para cada característica dos produtos, prevendo o desejo de cada produto gerado pela combinação dos seus atributos, possibilitando, assim, simular como as decisões de uma amostra de respondentes seriam distribuídas em um mercado simulado entre dois ou mais produtos competidores. Esses modelos, porém, limitam-se a maximizar a receita individual de cada produto, de forma isolada, não levando em conta a possibilidade das firmas terem interesses em maximizar a soma de dois ou mais produtos de forma conjunta. Isso se torna necessário, por exemplo, quando uma empresa comercializa dois produtos que competem no mesmo mercado. Com o objetivo de maximizar a receita conjunta de dois ou mais produtos, foi desenvolvido um método alternativo, baseado em Programação Não-Linar, que foi aplicado em uma cidade brasileira e em um país centro-americano. A comparação dos resultados do modelo desenvolvido com os do modelo tradicional evidencia que o modelo desenvolvido apresenta melhores resultados – soma das receitas das firmas de interesse – gerando uma taxa de crescimento na receita 3% maior, no caso brasileiro e 75% maior no estudo centro-americano. O modelo desenvolvido pode ser adaptado e utilizado em outros mercados oligopolistas ou para otimizar diferentes funções-objetivo. / The Brazilian Higher Education private market shows high levels of concentration and can be considered an oligopoly. Therefore, one can study it as a Game Theory problem. Choice Based Conjoint Analysis – a technic that can be used to approach this kind of market – can estimates the utilities of each products’ features and predict the desire of each product generated by the combination of its attributes. Such technic can simulate how the decisions of a sample of respondents would be distributed among the products of a market made of two or more competitor. These models, however, only maximize the revenues of individual products, not considering the possibility of firms wanting to maximize the sum of the revenue of two or more products. This is useful, for instance, when a company trends two or more products that compete in the same market. An alternative method, based on nonlinear programming, was developed, in order to maximize the conjoint revenue of two or more products and it was applied in a Brazilian city and in a Central American country. Comparing both models – the traditional versus the developed one –, we can see that the developed model shows better outcomes – ie, sum of both companies’ revenues – resulting in a revenue increase rate 3% higher in the Brazilian case and 75% higher in the Central American study. This model can be fitted to other oligopolistic markets or to optimize others objective functions.

O mercado de Educação Superior privado no Brasil apresenta altos índices de concentração, caracterizando-se como um oligopólio, podendo, portanto, ser estudado sob a ótica da Teoria dos Jogos. Uma das técnicas existentes para abordar este tipo de mercado é conhecida por Análise Conjunta Baseada em Escolhas (Choice Based Conjoint Analysis), que permite estimar as utilidades atribuídas para cada característica dos produtos, prevendo o desejo de cada produto gerado pela combinação dos seus atributos, possibilitando, assim, simular como as decisões de uma amostra de respondentes seriam distribuídas em um mercado simulado entre dois ou mais produtos competidores. Esses modelos, porém, limitam-se a maximizar a receita individual de cada produto, de forma isolada, não levando em conta a possibilidade das firmas terem interesses em maximizar a soma de dois ou mais produtos de forma conjunta. Isso se torna necessário, por exemplo, quando uma empresa comercializa dois produtos que competem no mesmo mercado. Com o objetivo de maximizar a receita conjunta de dois ou mais produtos, foi desenvolvido um método alternativo, baseado em Programação Não-Linar, que foi aplicado em uma cidade brasileira e em um país centro-americano. A comparação dos resultados do modelo desenvolvido com os do modelo tradicional evidencia que o modelo desenvolvido apresenta melhores resultados – soma das receitas das firmas de interesse – gerando uma taxa de crescimento na receita 3% maior, no caso brasileiro e 75% maior no estudo centro-americano. O modelo desenvolvido pode ser adaptado e utilizado em outros mercados oligopolistas ou para otimizar diferentes funções-objetivo. / The Brazilian Higher Education private market shows high levels of concentration and can be considered an oligopoly. Therefore, one can study it as a Game Theory problem. Choice Based Conjoint Analysis – a technic that can be used to approach this kind of market – can estimates the utilities of each products’ features and predict the desire of each product generated by the combination of its attributes. Such technic can simulate how the decisions of a sample of respondents would be distributed among the products of a market made of two or more competitor. These models, however, only maximize the revenues of individual products, not considering the possibility of firms wanting to maximize the sum of the revenue of two or more products. This is useful, for instance, when a company trends two or more products that compete in the same market. An alternative method, based on nonlinear programming, was developed, in order to maximize the conjoint revenue of two or more products and it was applied in a Brazilian city and in a Central American country. Comparing both models – the traditional versus the developed one –, we can see that the developed model shows better outcomes – ie, sum of both companies’ revenues – resulting in a revenue increase rate 3% higher in the Brazilian case and 75% higher in the Central American study. This model can be fitted to other oligopolistic markets or to optimize others objective functions.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-02-05T14:46:46Z No. of bitstreams: 1 eloisaelenanoe.pdf: 1720624 bytes, checksum: d1d97f9c41154e82675297c3f47df894 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-02-05T15:30:25Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 eloisaelenanoe.pdf: 1720624 bytes, checksum: d1d97f9c41154e82675297c3f47df894 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-02-05T15:30:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 eloisaelenanoe.pdf: 1720624 bytes, checksum: d1d97f9c41154e82675297c3f47df894 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-08-21 / Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo investigar o processo de ampliação do Programa de Intervenção Pedagógica (PIP) da Secretaria de Estado de Educação de Minas Gerais para os Anos Finais do Ensino Fundamental (PIP/CBC) nas Escolas Estaduais da Superintendência Regional de Ensino de Ubá (SRE/Ubá), a partir da atuação dos Analistas Regionais. A investigação busca articular os planos macro e micro, sob o viés da abordagem do ciclo de políticas, formulada pelo autor Stephen Ball, partindo do Programa de Governo “Choque de Gestão (contexto de influência); da análise de principais documentos legais que subsidiam o PIP (contexto de produção de texto); de como os educadores se apropriaram das diretrizes do PIP (contexto da prática) e quais foram seus resultados (contexto de resultados/efeitos). A pesquisa abrangeu o período de agosto de 2011 a dezembro de 2013. No processo de ampliação do PIP, interessa saber se os resultados dos escolares melhoraram em decorrência de uma prática de intervenção pedagógica adequada e se os Conteúdos Básicos Comuns se materializaram no contexto da prática. Os resultados apontaram para a importância da reestruturação do trabalho dos analistas regionais, em vista de se promover a melhoria do acompanhamento às escolas e das ações relacionadas à Gestão Pedagógica. No último capítulo é proposto uma formação continuada para estes stakeholders com objetivo de desenvolver competências na área de implementação e na área de organização. / This research aims to ascertain the enlargement process of the State Department of Education of Pedagogical Intervention Program (PIP) for the last period of basic education (PIP/CBC) in public schools engaged with Ubá Educational Management (SRE), based on the performance Regional Analysts. This investigation demands to articulate macro and micro spheres, by the bias of the policy cycle approach, such as proposed by Stephen Ball, from the Government Program "Management Shock", of the Minas Gerais State (influency context); analysis of key legal documents that support the PIP (text production context); how educators understood the PIP/CBC (practice context) and what your results (results/effects context). The research covered the period in August, 2011 to December 2013. In the enlargement process of the PIP, need to know whether the results of the students improved as a result of a practice of appropriate educational intervention and the curriculum model (CBC) materialized in the context of practice. The results point the importance to restructuration in the work of the regional analysis, that promote improved the advice to schools and that actions related to educational management. In the last chapter, is presented an idea of intervention to these stakeholders continuing training for the purpose of developing implementing skills and organization skills.

Canadian composer Istvan Anhalt (1919-2012) wrote four operas: La Tourangelle (1975), Winthrop (1986), Traces (Tikkun) (1996), and Millennial Mall (1999). The overarching thematic structure of these works represents the composer’s historical and personal exploration of identity construction and the immigrant experience. This thesis focuses on the first opera in the cycle, La Tourangelle, which premiered at the MacMillan Theatre in Toronto in 1975. Specifically, it builds a chronology of the opera’s history from a study of previously unpublished primary source documents (mainly folder E,32 from Library and Archives Canada, containing personal correspondences and professional correspondences, with the addition of other folders containing source materials, and libretto manuscripts) dated 1970 to 1975. In addition to revealing budding friendships and professional respect, the documents provide invaluable insights into the various phases of Anhalt’s creative process. The thesis chronicles each phase of the process, from both personal and musical points of view, from contract negotiations, monastery visits, lending of resources, humble requests for feedback, recording of multimedia components, and rehearsals, to the premiere and its initial reception. The chronicle reveals Anhalt’s non-linear creative process for La Tourangelle which involves multiple collaborations and reciprocal influences.

Some CBC parameters have been implicated in individual susceptibility to death, both in heart disease and cardiac surgery populations. The cellular elements of blood are widely affected during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), technique used in cardiac surgery. A Complete Blood Count called Risk Score (CBC-RS) was calculated from the average of the deviations of the various elements of the CBC and has been previously validated and published. The CBC-RS showed as excellent predictor of death from all causes in large healthy and cardiovascular risk populations. Despite the effect of CPB on the blood cells, there is no acknowledgement from the prior assessment of this score in the surgical setting. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of CBC-RS in the surgical risk prediction (mortality and morbidity) in patients undergoing cardiac surgery with CPB. For this, it was evaluated a historical cohort of 428 patients undergoing cardiac surgery with CPB. The individual CBC-RS was calculated using the collected blood count of patients preoperatively. Logistic regression and statistical C analyzed the predictive accuracy of this score. The primary endpoint was in-hospital mortality (all-cause) and secondary outcomes included the majors and bleeding complications. In our study, CBC-RS was a predictor of hospital mortality (OR = 1.28 for each score increments, 95% CI = 1123-1458, p <0.001) and secondary outcomes (OR = 1.208, 95% CI = 1.103 to 1.323, p <0.001). The areas under the curve (AUC) was 0.697 (p <0.001) and 0.636 (p <0.001) for both the primary and secondary endpoints, respectively. In multivariate analysis, after adjustment for other risk predictors (EuroSCORE II and CPB time), the CBC-RS remained significant and was the strongest predictor of mortality. Therefore, the CBC-RS proved to be an independent predictor of mortality and surgical complications during hospitalization. It may be a useful tool in risk assessment of patients undergoing cardiac surgery. / Dentre os diversos parâmetros fornecidos pelo hemograma, alguns já foram implicados em aumento da suscetibilidade individual à morte, tanto em pacientes com patologias cardíacas quanto os submetidos à cirurgia cardíaca. Os elementos celulares do sangue são amplamente afetados durante a circulação extracorpórea (CEC), técnica usada nas cirurgias cardíacas. Um escore calculado a partir dos desvios da média dos diversos componentes do hemograma foi previamente validado, publicado e chamado de Complete Blood Count Risk Score (CBC-RS). O CBC-RS se mostrou excelente preditor de morte por todas as causas em grandes populações saudáveis ou com fatores de risco cardiovascular. Apesar do efeito da CEC sobre as células sanguíneas, não se tem conhecimento da avaliação prévia deste escore no contexto cirúrgico. O objetivo do presente trabalho foi avaliar o papel do CBC-RS na predição de risco cirúrgico (mortalidade e morbidade hospitalar) em pacientes submetidos à cirurgia cardíaca com CEC. Para isso, uma coorte histórica de 428 pacientes submetidos à cirurgia cardíaca com CEC foi avaliada. O CBC-RS individual foi calculado utilizando o hemograma coletado dos pacientes no pré-operatório. A acurácia preditora deste escore foi analisada através regressão logística e estatística C. O desfecho primário avaliado foi a mortalidade hospitalar (por todas as causas) e os desfechos secundários incluíram as complicações maiores e sangramento. Em nosso estudo, o CBC-RS foi um preditor de mortalidade hospitalar (OR = 1,28 por cada aumento de pontuação do CBC-RS, IC 95% = 1.123 - 1.458, p <0,001) e dos desfechos secundários (OR = 1,208, IC 95% = 1,103 - 1,323, p <0,001). As áreas sob a curva (AUC) foram 0,697 (p <0,001) e 0,636 (p <0,001) para os desfechos primário e secundário, respectivamente. Na análise multivariada, após ajuste para preditores de risco pré-operatório (EuroSCORE II) e transoperatório (tempo de CEC) conhecidos, o CBC-RS permaneceu significativo e foi o preditor de mortalidade mais forte. Sendo assim, o CBC-RS se mostrou um preditor independente da mortalidade e complicações cirúrgicas no período hospitalar, podendo representar uma ferramenta útil na avaliação de risco de pacientes submetidos à cirurgia cardíaca.

Cross-border cooperation (CBC) influenced the regional development of the border regions. CBC is very much supported by the European Union and its funding policy. Cooperation between border regions is considered as a key to the joined Europe. Since 1989 there is a special programme supporting CBC within the member states of EU. A new programme supporting cross-border cooperation between the member states and the candidates' countries "Phare CBC" was developed in 1993. This paper is focused on selected issues of cross border cooperation of Euroregion Šumava, Pilsner region and South Bohemian region. Euroregion Šumava was established in 1993. It is a voluntary association of cities, villages and other joined organizations intent on the cross border cooperation with similar association on Bavarian and Austrian site of border. These three associations established trilateral Euroregion Šumava{--}Bayericher Wald{--}Mühlviertel. Together they implement the principles of European regional policy. Cross border activities of Euroregion Šumava were analyzed on followed issues: 1. Euroregion budget and its development between 1998{--}2006 2. Projects supported by Small Projects Fund realized by Euroregion 3. Projects realized under the financial support of Small Projects Fund Phare CBC and Interreg IIIA (focusing on the projects´ holders, priority areas and districts) Pilsner and South Bohemian regions were established in 2001 as regional authorities. They provide national and regional service partly financed by their own resources (mainly tax income) and partly by grants received from central authorities. Together they constitute the cohesion region of NUTS 2 "Southwest". Pilsner and South Bohemian regions create joint regional development policy and strategic documents because of implementing Regional operational programme. So far CBC was not part of their common regional policy. Cross border activities are analysed on the projects realised under the Interreg IIIA programme, which was managed by the Secretary of Cohesion region. Special focus is put on the projects´ holders, priority areas and regional aspects. Results of analysis are summarized in graphs, tables and maps.