Cette thèse s'appuie sur deux branches des systèmes dynamiques : la théorie du nombre de rotation des endomorphismes du cercle de degré un et des applications de l'anneau déviant la verticale, ainsi que la théorie des systèmes non-uniformément hyperboliques. Nous nous intéressons tout d'abord à une classe d'applications bimodales du cercle, dilatantes et affines par morceaux. Chaque application de cette famille possède un nombre de rotation presque sûr : c'est le nombre de rotation de presque tout point du cercle. Nous étudions sa régularité et montrons que le nombre de rotation presque sûr est irrationnel pour un ensemble de paramètres de mesure totale. Nous considérons ensuite les applications de l'anneau qui dévient la verticale et plus particulièrement les applications bimodales de la famille d'Arnol'd épaissie. Un rôle essentiel est joué par les orbites de torsion nulle. Elles permettent de montrer que l'ensemble des applications qui possèdent un nombre de rotation fixé, forme dans l'espace des paramètres une langue d'Arnol'd bordée par deux surfaces. La frontière des langues rationnelles est associée à des bifurcations selle-noeud et homoclines. Nous obtenons enfin des estimations sur la taille de l'ensemble de rotation et de l'attracteur de Birkhoff. L'appendice est consacré aux bifurcations selles-noeud d'ensembles hyperboliques localement maximaux dont la direction instable est de dimension un. Cette bifurcation préserve la décomposition géométrique de l'espace tangent en espaces stables et instables. En revanche, l'expansion dans la direction instable dégénère près d'une orbite périodique. Nous obtenons alors une bifurcation de codimension un.

Background: Software Development Effort Estimation is a process that focuses on estimating the required effort to develop a software project with a minimal budget. Estimating effort includes interpretation of required manpower, resources, time and schedule. Project managers are responsible for estimating the required effort. A model that can predict software development effort efficiently comes in hand and acts as a decision support system for the project managers to enhance the precision in estimating effort. Therefore, the context of this study is to increase the efficiency in estimating software development effort. Objective: The main objective of this thesis is to identify an effective ensemble method to build and implement it, in estimating software development effort. Apart from this, parameter tuning is also implemented to improve the performance of the model. Finally, we compare the results of the developed model with the existing models. Method: In this thesis, we have adopted two research methods. Initially, a Literature Review was conducted to gain knowledge on the existing studies, machine learning techniques, datasets, ensemble methods that were previously used in estimating Software Development Effort. Then a controlled Experiment was conducted in order to build an ensemble model and to evaluate the performance of the ensemble model for determining if the developed model has a better performance when compared to the existing models.   Results: After conducting literature review and collecting evidence, we have decided to build and implement stacked generalization ensemble method in this thesis, with the help of individual machine learning techniques like Support vector regressor (SVR), K-Nearest Neighbors regressor (KNN), Decision Tree Regressor (DTR), Linear Regressor (LR), Multi-Layer Perceptron Regressor (MLP) Random Forest Regressor (RFR), Gradient Boosting Regressor (GBR), AdaBoost Regressor (ABR), XGBoost Regressor (XGB). Likewise, we have decided to implement Randomized Parameter Optimization and SelectKbest function to implement feature section. Datasets like COCOMO81, MAXWELL, ALBERCHT, DESHARNAIS were used. Results of the experiment show that the developed ensemble model performs at its best, for three out of four datasets. Conclusion: After evaluating and analyzing the results obtained, we can conclude that the developed model works well with the datasets that have continuous, numeric type of values. We can also conclude that the developed ensemble model outperforms other existing models when implemented with COCOMO81, MAXWELL, ALBERCHT datasets.

[ES] La tesis doctoral que a continuación se expone, presenta una investigación de índole artística y didáctica bajo la propuesta de realización de un estudio dirigido a los alumnos que cursan estudios superiores de percusión. Esta investigación se centra en la práctica pedagógica de los recursos musicales, tanto técnicos como interpretativos, a partir de las primeras composiciones escritas para ensemble de percusión. Con la introducción de una temática totalmente novedosa en cuanto al objeto de estudio, esta tesis se ocupa principalmente de la aplicación de estudios exploratorios. Estudios que muestran inicialmente la situación actual del tema tratado y posteriormente conducen al logro de aspectos teóricos y documentales a través de la implementación y comparación de nuevas propuestas metodológicas experimentales. La adaptación e incorporación de estas aportaciones didácticas contribuye a la apertura de nuevos campos de investigación dentro de la didáctica musical, así como al desarrollo de una innovación metodológica necesaria que haga frente al todavía muy extendido uso de la metodología tradicional dentro de los estudios musicales superiores. Asimismo, la redacción de esta tesis doctoral secunda la creación de nuevo conocimiento científico que conforma, transmite y optimiza la difusión del proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje de los estudios superiores de música, convirtiéndose en una herramienta de renovación educativa que interviene en la ampliación de la producción investigadora de los centros de enseñanza superior musical. / [CA] La tesi doctoral que a continuació s'exposa presenta una investigació d'índole artística i didàctica, sota la proposta de realització d'un estudi dirigit als alumnes que cursen estudis superiors de percussió. Aquesta investigació es centra en la pràctica pedagògica dels recursos musicals, tant tècnics com interpretatius, a partir de les primeres composicions escrites per a ensemble de percussió. Amb la introducció d'una temàtica totalment nova pel que fa a l'objecte d'estudi, aquesta tesi s'ocupa principalment de l'aplicació d'estudis exploratoris. Estudis que mostren inicialment la situació actual del tema tractat i posteriorment condueixen a la consecució d'aspectes teòrics i documentals a través de la implementació i comparació de noves propostes metodològiques experimentals. L'adaptació i incorporació d'aquestes aportacions didàctiques contribueix a l'obertura de nous camps d'investigació dins de la didàctica musical, així com al desenvolupament d'una innovació metodològica necessària que faça front a l'encara molt estès ús de la metodologia tradicional dins els estudis musicals superiors. Tanmateix, la redacció d'aquesta tesi doctoral secunda la creació de nou coneixement científic que conforma, transmet i optimitza la difusió del procés d'ensenyament-aprenentatge dels estudis superiors de música, convertint-se en una eina de renovació educativa que intervé en l'ampliació de la producció investigadora dels centres d'ensenyament superior musical. / [EN] The doctoral thesis that is exposed below, presents research on artistic and didactic proposal of carrying out a study aimed at students who are pursuing higher percussion studies focused on the didactic practice of musical resources, both technical and interpretive, from the first compositions written for percussion ensemble. By introducing a totally new object of study, this research deals mainly with the application of exploratory studies. These studies initially show the current situation of the topic and subsequently lead to the achievement of theoretical and documentary aspects through the implementation and comparison of new experimental methodological proposals. The adaptation and incorporation of these new didactic contributions provides new research fields within music didactics, as well as to the development of a necessary methodological innovation that addresses the still very widespread use of traditional methodology within higher musical studies. In addition, this doctoral thesis contributes to the creation of new scientific knowledge that shapes, conveys and optimizes the dissemination of the teaching-learning process of higher music studies, becoming a tool for educational renewal that intervenes in the expansion of research at higher music schools. / Marzal Raga, LM. (2022). Aprendizaje cooperativo y enseñanza performativa para ensemble de percusión en los estudios superiores de música de la Comunidad Valenciana [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/185776 / TESIS

Ensemble-based methods have gained widespread popularity in the field of data assimilation. An ensemble of model realizations encapsulates information about the error correlations driven by the physics and the dynamics of the numerical model. This information can be used to obtain improved estimates of the state of non-linear dynamical systems such as the atmosphere and/or the ocean. This work develops efficient ensemble-based methods for data assimilation. A major bottleneck in ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) implementations is the solution of a linear system at each analysis step. To alleviate it an EnKF implementation based on an iterative Sherman Morrison formula is proposed. The rank deficiency of the ensemble covariance matrix is exploited in order to efficiently compute the analysis increments during the assimilation process. The computational effort of the proposed method is comparable to those of the best EnKF implementations found in the current literature. The stability analysis of the new algorithm is theoretically proven based on the positiveness of the data error covariance matrix. In order to improve the background error covariance matrices in ensemble-based data assimilation we explore the use of shrinkage covariance matrix estimators from ensembles. The resulting filter has attractive features in terms of both memory usage and computational complexity. Numerical results show that it performs better that traditional EnKF formulations. In geophysical applications the correlations between errors corresponding to distant model components decreases rapidly with the distance. We propose a new and efficient implementation of the EnKF based on a modified Cholesky decomposition for inverse covariance matrix estimation. This approach exploits the conditional independence of background errors between distant model components with regard to a predefined radius of influence. Consequently, sparse estimators of the inverse background error covariance matrix can be obtained. This implies huge memory savings during the assimilation process under realistic weather forecast scenarios. Rigorous error bounds for the resulting estimator in the context of data assimilation are theoretically proved. The conclusion is that the resulting estimator converges to the true inverse background error covariance matrix when the ensemble size is of the order of the logarithm of the number of model components. We explore high-performance implementations of the proposed EnKF algorithms. When the observational operator can be locally approximated for different regions of the domain, efficient parallel implementations of the EnKF formulations presented in this dissertation can be obtained. The parallel computation of the analysis increments is performed making use of domain decomposition. Local analysis increments are computed on (possibly) different processors. Once all local analysis increments have been computed they are mapped back onto the global domain to recover the global analysis. Tests performed with an atmospheric general circulation model at a T-63 resolution, and varying the number of processors from 96 to 2,048, reveal that the assimilation time can be decreased multiple fold for all the proposed EnKF formulations.Ensemble-based methods can be used to reformulate strong constraint four dimensional variational data assimilation such as to avoid the construction of adjoint models, which can be complicated for operational models. We propose a trust region approach based on ensembles in which the analysis increments are computed onto the space of an ensemble of snapshots. The quality of the resulting increments in the ensemble space is compared against the gains in the full space. Decisions on whether accept or reject solutions rely on trust region updating formulas. Results based on a atmospheric general circulation model with a T-42 resolution reveal that this methodology can improve the analysis accuracy. / Ph. D.

Studien har som syfte att öka kunskapen och förståelsen om vilken potential professionell gestaltning har i ett socialt förändringsarbete. I studien använder jag mig av en kvalitativ metod då jag intervjuar tre skådespelare från en teaterensemble och genomför en fokusgrupp med socialarbetare. Bearbetning och analys har skett enligt organisationsteori och nyinstitutionell teori. Samspelet inom och mellan de olika grupperna har jag tolkat utifrån den symboliska interaktionistiska teorin. Studien har kommit fram till att socialarbetarna är positiva till de arbetsmetoder som teaterensemblen använder sig av i sin gestaltning. De menar att det sociala arbetet skulle kunna ha hjälp av dessa metoder. Det är den professionella gestaltningens emotionella språk och dialog som är det främsta verktyget för att nå fram till människor och förmågan att beröra. Studien har funnit att det finns knytpunkter som förenar båda dessa professioner till ett potentiellt framtida samarbete. Men studien pekar även på svårigheter med att föra dialog mellan professionerna då organisationernas olika strukturer och omgivningen ställer olika krav på verksamheterna.

La segmentation d'image avec a priori de forme a fait l'objet d'une attention particulière ces dernières années. La plupart des travaux existants reposent sur des espaces de formes linéarisés avec de petits modes de déformations autour d'une forme moyenne. Cette approche n'est pertinente que lorsque les formes sont relativement similaires. Dans cette thèse, nous introduisons un nouveau cadre dans lequel il est possible de manipuler des a priori de formes plus généraux. Nous modélisons une catégorie de formes comme une variété de dimension finie, la variété des formes a priori, que nous analysons à l'aide d'échantillons de formes en utilisant des techniques de réduction de dimension telles que les diffusion maps. Un plongement dans un espace réduit est alors appris à partir des échantillons. Cependant, ce modèle ne fournit pas d'opérateur de projection explicite sur la variété sous-jacente et nous nous attaquons à ce problème. Les contributions de ce travail se divisent en trois parties. Tout d'abord, nous proposons différentes solutions au problème des "out-of-sample" et nous définissons trois forces attirantes dirigées vers la variété. 1. Projection vers le point le plus proche; 2. Projection ayant la même valeur de plongement; 3. Projection à valeur de plongement constant. Ensuite, nous introduisons un terme d'a-priori de formes pour les coutours/régions actifs/ves. Un terme d'énergie non-linéaire est alors construit pour attirer les formes vers la variété. Enfin, nous décrivons un cadre variationnel pour le debruitage de variété. Des résultats sur des objets réels tels que des silhouettes de voitures ou des structures anatomiques montrent les possibilités de notre méthode.

NMR studies have long been used as a tool to derive structural and dynamic information. Such information has a wide range of applications, and notably is used in the study of structure-activity relationships. The aims of this work were to use NMR spectroscopy to derive structures of the molecules inhibiting the activation of the alternative pathway of the complement portion of the innate immune system (namely, the N-terminus of factor H (FH) and two small peptides, Compstatin 10 and Compstatin 20) and to consider the interdomain dynamics of proteins consisting of three modules theoretically (in silico) and experimentally (for the three N-terminal domains of FH). We focused on the three N-terminal complement control protein (CCP) domains of the important complement regulator, human factor H (i.e. FH1-3). Its three-dimensional solution structure was derived based on nuclear Overhauser effects and residual dipolar couplings (RDCs). Each of the three CCP modules in this structure was similar to the corresponding CCP in the previously derived C3b-bound structure of FH1-4, but the relative orientations of the domains were different. These orientations were additionally different from the interdomain orientations in other molecules that interact with C3b, such as DAF2-4 and CR1-15-17. The measured RDC datasets, collected under three different conditions in media containing magnetically aligned bicelles (disk-like particles formed from phospholipids), were used to estimate interdomain motions in FH1-3. A method in which the data was fitted to a structural ensemble was used to analyze such interdomain flexibility. More than 80% of the conformers of this predominantly extended three-domain molecule exhibit flexions of < 40°. Such segmental flexibility (together with the local dynamics of the hypervariable loop within domain 3) could facilitate recognition of C3b via initial anchoring, as well as eventual reorganization of modules into the conformation captured in the previously solved crystal structure of a C3b complex with FH1-4. The NMR study of the Compstatin analogues revealed unique structural features that had not before been observed in this group of peptides. These features included two b-turns per peptide, neither of which was located in the ‘canonical’ regions in which b-turns were observed in previous molecular dynamics and NMR studies. The structures of Compstatin 10 and Compstatin 20 derived here were consistent with the isothermal calorimetry (ITC) and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) data recorded previously. In the in silico study of interdomain motion of three-domain proteins carried out here, the domains were represented as vectors attached to one another in a linear fashion. They were allowed to undergo Brownian motion biased by the potentials between the sequential vectors. The resulting trajectories were analyzed using model-free and extended model-free formalism. The degree of coupling of the interdomain motion with overall motion was determined, along with a representation of the overall motion. The similarity between the trajectories of the vectors transformed to this overall motion frame and the results obtained from the model-free analysis was determined.

The establishment and maintenance of functional endothelial cells (ECs) on an engineered surface is central to tissue engineering. As the field advances, the role of cellular mechanisms, particularly the adhesive interaction between the surface of implantable devices and biological systems, becomes more relevant in both research and clinical practice. Knowledge of these interactions can address many fundamental biological questions and would provide key design parameters for medical implants. It has been shown that EC functionality and adhesivity, crucial for the re-endothelialization process, can be induced by nanotopographical modification. Therefore, the goal of this dissertation research was to develop an ensemble surface composing of nanoscale features for the enhancement of endothelial cell adhesion. Without adhesion, subsequent vital mechanism involved in cell alignment, elongation or spreading, proliferation, migration, and ECM proteins deposition will not occur.Experiments in support of this goal were broken down into three specific aims. The first aim was to characterize and develop a size-dependent self-assembly (SDSA) nanoarray of Octamer transcription factor 4 as a demonstration to the fabrication of nanoscale feature surface. This nanoparticle array platform was a pilot studied for the second aim, which was the development of an ensemble surface of nanoscale features for endothelial cell adhesion. The third aim was to evaluate and assess EC response to the ensemble surface.Hence, we developed an ensemble surface composed of nanoscale features and adhesive elements for EC adhesivity. By using shear stress as a detachment force, we demonstrated greater cell retention by the ensemble surface than uniform controls. Adhesive interactions and cellular migration through integrin expressions, which are critical to tissue development and wound healing process was also observed. Furthermore, cell viability was relatively sustainable, as indicated by the low expression of apoptotic signaling molecules. The findings presented within this dissertation research can be applicable to blood-contact medical implants and possess the potential for future clinical translation.

Modeling species of conservation concern, such as those that are rare, declining, or have a conservation designation (e.g. endangered or threatened), remains an activity filled with uncertainty. Species that are of conservation concern often are found infrequently, in small sample sizes and spatially fragmented distributions, thereby making accurate enumeration difficult and traditional statistical approaches often invalid. For example, there are numerous debates in the ecological literature regarding methodological choices in conservation-based models, such as how to measure functional traits to account for ecosystem function, the impact of including rare species in biological assessments and whether species-specific dispersal can be measured using distance based functions. This thesis attempts to address issues in methodological choices in conservation-based models in two ways. In the first section of the thesis, the impacts of methodological choices on conservation-based models are examined across a broad selection of available approaches, from: measuring functional diversity; to conducting bio-assessments in community ecology; to assessing dispersal in metapopulation analyses. It is the goal of this section to establish the potential for methodological choices to impact conservation-based models, regardless of the scale, study-system or species involved. In the second section of this thesis, the use of consensus methods is developed as a potential tool for reducing uncertainty with methodological choices in conservation-based models. Two separate applications of consensus methods are highlighted, including how consensus methods can reduce uncertainty from choosing a modeling type or to identify when methodological choices may be a problem.

<p>An abstract of a thesis devoted to using helix-coil models to study unfolded states.\\</p><p>Research on polypeptide unfolded states has received much more attention in the last decade or so than it has in the past. Unfolded states are thought to be implicated in various</p><p>misfolding diseases and likely play crucial roles in protein folding equilibria and folding rates. Structural characterization of unfolded states has proven to be</p><p>much more difficult than the now well established practice of determining the structures of folded proteins. This is largely because many core assumptions underlying</p><p>folded structure determination methods are invalid for unfolded states. This has led to a dearth of knowledge concerning the nature of unfolded state conformational</p><p>distributions. While many aspects of unfolded state structure are not well known, there does exist a significant body of work stretching back half a century that</p><p>has been focused on structural characterization of marginally stable polypeptide systems. This body of work represents an extensive collection of experimental</p><p>data and biophysical models associated with describing helix-coil equilibria in polypeptide systems. Much of the work on unfolded states in the last decade has not been devoted</p><p>specifically to the improvement of our understanding of helix-coil equilibria, which arguably is the most well characterized of the various conformational equilibria</p><p>that likely contribute to unfolded state conformational distributions. This thesis seeks to provide a deeper investigation of helix-coil equilibria using modern</p><p>statistical data analysis and biophysical modeling techniques. The studies contained within seek to provide deeper insights and new perspectives on what we presumably</p><p>know very well about protein unfolded states. \\</p><p>Chapter 1 gives an overview of recent and historical work on studying protein unfolded states. The study of helix-coil equilibria is placed in the context</p><p>of the general field of unfolded state research and the basics of helix-coil models are introduced.\\</p><p>Chapter 2 introduces the newest incarnation of a sophisticated helix-coil model. State of the art modern statistical techniques are employed to estimate the energies</p><p>of various physical interactions that serve to influence helix-coil equilibria. A new Bayesian model selection approach is utilized to test many long-standing </p><p>hypotheses concerning the physical nature of the helix-coil transition. Some assumptions made in previous models are shown to be invalid and the new model </p><p>exhibits greatly improved predictive performance relative to its predecessor. \\</p><p>Chapter 3 introduces a new statistical model that can be used to interpret amide exchange measurements. As amide exchange can serve as a probe for residue-specific</p><p>properties of helix-coil ensembles, the new model provides a novel and robust method to use these types of measurements to characterize helix-coil ensembles experimentally</p><p>and test the position-specific predictions of helix-coil models. The statistical model is shown to perform exceedingly better than the most commonly used </p><p>method for interpreting amide exchange data. The estimates of the model obtained from amide exchange measurements on an example helical peptide </p><p>also show a remarkable consistency with the predictions of the helix-coil model. \\</p><p>Chapter 4 involves a study of helix-coil ensembles through the enumeration of helix-coil configurations. Aside from providing new insights into helix-coil ensembles,</p><p>this chapter also introduces a new method by which helix-coil models can be extended to calculate new types of observables. Future work on this approach could potentially</p><p>allow helix-coil models to move into use domains that were previously inaccessible and reserved for other types of unfolded state models that were introduced in chapter 1.</p> / Dissertation