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xii, 55 p. : ill. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / Selective attention refers to perceptual selection and working memory refers to the active maintenance of mental representations. Selective attention and working memory are believed to be two of the most important functions in human cognition and have been intensively investigated in cognitive psychology. However, it is quite recent that the link between attention and working memory has been systematically researched. One question that remains controversial is the effect of working memory on attentional control with inconsistent results reported in the human psychophysical literature, despite clear and strong evidence from physiological studies with nonhuman primates that working memory is the main source of top-down attentional control. The main goal of the current study is to provide a plausible solution to the puzzle of attentional control by introducing the concept of goal-specificity and competition between working memory representations. I hypothesized that the strength of the biasing effect of working memory on attention depends on the specificity of representations in working memory, and developed an experimental paradigm (the goal-specificity paradigm) to test this hypothesis using psychophysical and neuroimaging methods. One of the most important manipulations in the goal-specificity paradigm is how specifically targets in different tasks are defined. The results demonstrate that there is competition between items in working memory for attentional control that is influenced by the specificity of each representation as well as task relevancy. Also, it is shown that the effect of goal-specificity is present in both spatial and temporal domains as revealed by visual search and rapid serial visual presentation tasks. The results suggest the possibility that the negligible effect of working memory in some previous studies may be due to insufficient specificity of the objects in working memory or to the presence of other specifically-defined information in working memory. Furthermore, based on the implication from the current study that goal-specificity has a significant influence on attentional control, I expect that the experimental paradigm introduced in the current study can be utilized as an objective psychophysical measure of attentional control. / Committee in charge: Margaret Sereno, Chairperson, Psychology; Scott Frey, Member, Psychology; Michael Wehr, Member, Psychology; Richard Taylor, Outside Member, Physics

The aim of this thesis with the topic "Strategic analysis" is to elaborate the strategic analysis of the První zemědělská, a.s. Tuněchody company,i.e. to analyse the external and internal environment, to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and last but not least to conceive strategic recommendations. The thesis is divided into two main parts, the theoretical part and the application part.

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Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:48:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 SarahRRS_DISSERT.pdf: 1954614 bytes, checksum: ba3eee36fc3f3f1030a71fa2ad2f605a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-12-13 / Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte / The component-based development of systems revolutionized the software development process, facilitating the maintenance, providing more confiability and reuse. Nevertheless, even with all the advantages of the development of components, their composition is an important concern. The verification through informal tests is not enough to achieve a safe composition, because they are not based on formal semantic models with which we are able to describe precisally a system s behaviour. In this context, formal methods provide ways to accurately specify systems through mathematical notations providing, among other benefits, more safety. The formal method CSP enables the specification of concurrent systems and verification of properties intrinsic to them, as well as the refinement among different models. Some approaches apply constraints using CSP, to check the behavior of composition between components, assisting in the verification of those components in advance. Hence, aiming to assist this process, considering that the software market increasingly requires more automation, reducing work and providing agility in business, this work presents a tool that automatizes the verification of composition among components, in which all complexity of formal language is kept hidden from users. Thus, through a simple interface, the tool BST (BRIC-Tool-Suport) helps to create and compose components, predicting, in advance, undesirable behaviors in the system, such as deadlocks / O desenvolvimento de sistemas baseados em componentes revolucionou o processo de desenvolvimento de software, facilitando a manuten??o, trazendo mais confiabilidade e reutiliza??o. Por?m, mesmo com todas as vantagens atribu?das ao componente, ? necess?rio uma an?lise detalhada de sua composi??o. Realizar verifica??o a partir de testes de software n?o ? o suficiente para se ter uma composi??o segura, pois esses n?o s?o baseados em modelos sem?nticos formais nos quais podemos descrever precisamente o comportamento do sistema. Nesse contexto, os m?todos formais oferecem a possibilidade de especificarmos sistemas de forma precisa, atrav?s de nota??es com forte base matem?tica, trazendo, entre outros benef?cios, mais seguran?a. O m?todo formal CSP possibilita a especifica??o de sistemas concorrentes e verifica??o de propriedades inerentes a tais sistemas, bem como refinamento entre diferentes modelos. Existem abordagens que aplicam restri??es usando CSP, para verificar o comportamento da composi??o entre componentes, auxiliando a verifica??o desses componentes antecipadamente. Visando auxiliar esse processo, tendo em vista que o mercado de software busca cada vez mais automa??o, minimizando trabalhos e trazendo agilidade nos neg?cios, este trabalho apresenta uma ferramenta que automatiza a verifica??o da composi??o entre componentes, onde o conjunto de verifica??es CSP impostas ? gerado e verificado internamente, oculto para o usu?rio. Dessa forma, atrav?s de uma interface simples, a ferramenta BTS (BRIC-Tool-Suport) ajuda a criar e compor componentes, prevendo, com anteced?ncia, comportamentos indesej?veis no sistema, como deadlocks

L’objectif de cette thèse est d’étudier le comportement en temps long de certains processus de Markov déterministes par morceaux (PDMP) dont le flot suivi par la composante spatiale commute aléatoirement entre plusieurs flots possédant un unique équilibre attractif (éventuellement le même pour chaque flot). Nous donnerons dans un premier temps un exemple d’étude d’un tel processus construit dans le plan à partir de flots associés à des équations différentielles linéaires stables où il est déjà possible d’observer des comportements contre-intuitifs. La deuxième partie de ce manuscrit est dédiée à l’étude et la comparaison de deux modèles de compétition pour une ressource dans un environnement hétérogène. Le premier modèle est un modèle alétoire simulant l’hétérogénéité temporelle d’un environnement sur les espèces en compétition à l’aide d’un PDMP. Son étude utilise des outils maintenant classiques sur l’étude des PDMP. Le deuxième modèle est un modèle déterministe (présentant sous forme d’un système d’équations différentielles) modélisant l’impact de l’hétérogénéité spatiale d’un environnement sur ces mêmes espèces. Nous verrons que malgré leur nature très différente, le comportement en temps long de ces deux systèmes est relativement similaire et est essentiellement déterminé par le signe des taux d’invasion de chacune des espèces qui sont des quantités dépendant exclusivement des paramètres du système et modélisant la vitesse de croissance (ou de décroissance) de ces espèces lorsqu’elles sont au bord de l’extinction. / The objective of this thesis is to study the long time behaviour of some piecewise deterministic Markov processes (PDMP). The flow followed by the spatial component of these processes switches randomly between several flow converging towards an equilibrium point (not necessarily the same for each flow). We will first give an example of such a process built in the plan from two linear stable differential equations and we will see that its stability depends strongly on the switching times. The second part of this thesis is dedicated to the study and comparison of two competition models in a heterogeneous environment. The first model is a probabilistic model where we build a PDMP simulating the effect of the temporal heterogeneity of an environment over the species in competition. Its study uses classical tools in this field. The second model is a deterministic model simulating the effect of the spatial heterogeneity of an environment over the same species. Despite the fact that the nature of the two models is very different, we will see that their long time behavior is very similar. We define for both model several quantities called invasion rates modelizing the growth (or decreasing) rate speed of a species when it is near to extinction and we will see that the signs of these invasion rates fully describes the long time behavior for both systems.

Cette thèse est consacrée à l’étude des systèmes d’équations différentielles ordinaires, et ceux aux dérivées partielles paraboliques issus de modèles de dynamique des populations et de la biologie. L’objectif principal est de faire l’analyse mathématique, la simulation numérique ainsi que l’identification des diffusions croisées dans les modèles construits. Nous présentons d’abord un système de réaction-diffusion modélisant la croissance de plantes en compétition spatiale dans un milieu saturé. Nous effectuons par la suite l’étude théorique et numérique de tels systèmes, ainsi que l’étude des problèmes d’identification des termes de diffusions croisées. Ensuite, nous proposons un modèle proie-prédateur de type Leslie-Gower modifié avec une fonction de réponse de type Crowley-Martin. Nous étudions dans un premier temps la dynamique temporelle globale du modèle considéré, et nous présentons des simulations numériques pour illustrer les résultats théoriques. En outre, nous introduisons la dimension spatiale dans le modèle dynamique considéré, et nous effectuons une analyse théorique complète de la dynamique spatio-temporelle du modèle. / This thesis is devoted to the study of ordinary differential systems, and systems of non linear parabolic PDEs resulting from models of population dynamics and biology. The main objective is to perform mathematical analysis, numerical simulations, and identification of cross-diffusion in built models. We first present a reaction-diffusion system that models the spatial competition of plants in a saturated environment. We then perform a theoretical and a numerical study of such systems, and handle the identification of cross-diffusion problem. Secondly, we propose a modified Leslie-Gower-type predator-prey model with a Crowley-Martin type functional response. Within this context, we study the global temporal dynamics of the considered model, and present numerical simulations as illustration of the theoretical results. Finally, we introduce the spatial dimension in the previous dynamical model, and perform a comprehensive theoretical analysis of the spatio-temporal model.

In light of increasing harmful algal blooms and the need to protect human health and aquatic resources, proactive management approaches merit further study. For this purpose I conducted field samplings to characterize plankton community composition and laboratory experiments to test some approaches to new management schemes in the lower Rincon Delta. On site measurements and microscopic analysis showed that environmental parameters and plankton community composition varied considerably among sampling stations and sampling dates. A recent modeling study suggested that manipulation of freshwater inflow to estuaries might prevent phytoplankton blooms and enhance secondary productivity. To test this theory I conducted three semi-continuous design and flow-through incubation design experiments using natural plankton assemblages. I investigated the effect of two different pulsing regimes of inflow and nutrient loading on zooplankton densities, and phytoplankton biomass and diversity. Despite differences in zooplankton structure and phytoplankton community composition between the two experiment designs, the results confirmed that pulsed inflows might alter plankton dynamics. My findings showed that 3-day pulse treatments consistently supported greater zooplankton densities and higher phytoplankton species diversity when compared to 1-day pulse treatments. In addition, accumulation of phytoplankton biovolume remained low during 3-day pulse treatments. Differences in zooplankton performance between 3-day pulse and 1-day pulse inflow treatments were likely due to the ability of phytoplankton to uptake and store greater amounts of nutrients under conditions of 3-day pulse inflow. This resulted in food of higher quality for zooplankton, and might have supported greater zooplankton population growth rates. Additionally, in an attempt to understand the mechanisms leading to high biodiversity in aquatic ecosystems, I built a resource-storage model and studied the effects of resource-storage on competition of multiple phytoplankton species on multiple abiotic resources. I compared this model with a well-established multi-species competition model. My results showed that for certain species combinations a resource-storage-based model can generate dissimilar outcomes when compared to a model without resource-storage.

In light of increasing harmful algal blooms and the need to protect human health and aquatic resources, proactive management approaches merit further study. For this purpose I conducted field samplings to characterize plankton community composition and laboratory experiments to test some approaches to new management schemes in the lower Rincon Delta. On site measurements and microscopic analysis showed that environmental parameters and plankton community composition varied considerably among sampling stations and sampling dates. A recent modeling study suggested that manipulation of freshwater inflow to estuaries might prevent phytoplankton blooms and enhance secondary productivity. To test this theory I conducted three semi-continuous design and flow-through incubation design experiments using natural plankton assemblages. I investigated the effect of two different pulsing regimes of inflow and nutrient loading on zooplankton densities, and phytoplankton biomass and diversity. Despite differences in zooplankton structure and phytoplankton community composition between the two experiment designs, the results confirmed that pulsed inflows might alter plankton dynamics. My findings showed that 3-day pulse treatments consistently supported greater zooplankton densities and higher phytoplankton species diversity when compared to 1-day pulse treatments. In addition, accumulation of phytoplankton biovolume remained low during 3-day pulse treatments. Differences in zooplankton performance between 3-day pulse and 1-day pulse inflow treatments were likely due to the ability of phytoplankton to uptake and store greater amounts of nutrients under conditions of 3-day pulse inflow. This resulted in food of higher quality for zooplankton, and might have supported greater zooplankton population growth rates. Additionally, in an attempt to understand the mechanisms leading to high biodiversity in aquatic ecosystems, I built a resource-storage model and studied the effects of resource-storage on competition of multiple phytoplankton species on multiple abiotic resources. I compared this model with a well-established multi-species competition model. My results showed that for certain species combinations a resource-storage-based model can generate dissimilar outcomes when compared to a model without resource-storage.