The neural processes used to extract perceptual features of vocal calls, and subsequently to re-integrate those features to form a coherent auditory object, are poorly understood. In this thesis, extracellular recordings were carried out in order to investigate how the temporal envelope, pitch, timbre and spatial location of communication sounds are represented by neurons in two core and three belt areas of ferret (Mustela putorius furo) auditory cortex. Potential neural underpinnings of auditory perception were tested using neurometric analysis to relate the reliability of neural responses to the performance of ferret and human listeners on psychophysical tasks. I found that human listeners' discrimination of the temporal envelopes of vocalization sounds matched the best neurometrics calculated from the temporal spiking patterns of ferret cortical neurons. Neurometric scores based on the spike rates of cortical neurons accounted for ferrets' discrimination of the pitch of artificial vowels. I show that most auditory cortical neurons are modulated by a number of stimulus features, rather than being tuned to only one feature. Neurons in the core auditory cortical fields often respond uniquely to particular combinations of pitch and timbre features, while those in belt regions respond more linearly to feature combinations. Subtle differences in the sensitivity of neurons to pitch, timbre and azimuthal cues were found across cortical areas and depths. These results suggest that auditory cortical neurons provide widely distributed representations of vocalizations, and a single neuron can often use combinations of spike rate and temporal spiking responses to encode multiple sound features.

Description of the cell cycle features of neural progenitors during late stages of neurogenesis in a gyrencephalic mammal, the ferret.

No description available.

iv Summary Schmidt hammer is the instrument which is used for the assessment of rock mechanical properties and this instrument is classified as the indirect method. This method is based on the assessment of rebound value (R) of the Schmidt hammer, which is measurred by the amount of rebound of the impact plunger from the surface of tested rock. Schmidt hammer is called as the non-destructive method of rock assessment and it is called as in situ testing method as well. The main objective of this work is provement, that Schmidt hammer testing is destructive method and define degree of damage which is caused in the rock mass. Sedimentary rocks were used for the testing, mostly sandstones and arkose sandstones with different types of cement. This made it possible to test the fraction of the rock mass and the relation between fraction and type of cement. The clasts of the rocks had different properties than it was possible to find the relation between grain size and fraction of the rock. Already in procedure of the testing by Schmidt hammer it was obvious, that this metod is definitely destructive. Rock surface after hitting by plunger of Schmidt hammer gains macroscopically observeable destruction. On the surface is the circular track of the plunger and the surface is grinded. It is possible to wipe the small...

In two burials found in the archaeological site of Justin were highlighted human subjects and animals interred, concomitantly, in the mortuary context of prehistoric culture of the Xingó region, between the states of Sergipe and Alagoas. After the archaeological intervention, the skeletons remained in plaster cocoons until the time to be studied. In the second half of the 1990s there was an application of a consolidating substance for morphological preservation of skeletons 119 and 166, whose burials have indicated the presence of animals probably interred in human graves on purpose. This fauna archaeological found in the funerary context of past groups, showed that both the individual 119, which evidenced a ferret (Galictis cuja), as the 166, found with a bird, possibly prey, associated, offered evidence linked funeral activities the symbolic activities, in other words, that culture had a sense of abstractly fauna in which individuals could hold a different social status and the animals would have functions such as psychopomp. / Em dois enterramentos encontrados no sítio arqueológico do Justino foram evidenciados indivíduos humanos e animais inumados, concomitantemente, no contexto mortuário de cultura pré-histórica da região de Xingó, entre os Estados de Sergipe e Alagoas. Após a intervenção arqueológica, os esqueletos permaneceram em casulos de gesso até o momento de serem estudados. Na segunda metade da década de 1990 houve uma aplicação de uma substância consolidante para conservação morfológica dos esqueletos 119 e 166, cujos enterramentos indicaram a presença de animais provavelmente inumados em sepulturas humanas de forma proposital. Essa arqueofauna, encontrada no contexto funerário dos grupos pretéritos, demonstrava que tanto o indivíduo 119, no qual foi evidenciado um furão (Galictis cuja), quanto o 166, encontrado com uma ave, possivelmente de rapina, associada, ofereciam indícios de atividades fúnebres ligadas a atividades simbólicas, ou seja, essa cultura tinha uma percepção da fauna de forma abstrata na qual os indivíduos poderiam deter um status social diferenciado e os animais teriam funções como a de psicopompo.

No description available.

В работе рассмотрены разбиения целых неотрицательных чисел и изучены некоторые детали строения решеток разбиений. Решетка разбиений задается отношением доминирования, которое определяется как покомпонентное доминирование соответственных частичных сумм разбиений. Особое внимание уделено графическим разбиениям. Графическим называется разбиение, которые составлено из степеней вершин графа с добавлением нулей. Проведено исследование множества максимальных графических разбиений, доминирующих заданное графическое разбиение. Для исследования написана компьютерная программа на языке Python, позволяющая проверять гипотезы для разбиений небольших чисел. Основной результат работы – алгоритм построения всех максимальных графических разбиений, доминирующих заданное разбиение и имеющих такой же вес. Этот алгоритм базируется на основной теореме, которая описывает точное строение множества таких максимальных графических разбиений. Приведена программная реализация найденного алгоритма. / The work examines partitions of non-negative integers and studies some details of the structure of partition lattices. The lattice of partitions is given by a dominance relation, which is defined as the component-wise dominance of the corresponding partial sums of partitions. Particular attention is paid to graphical divisions. A graphical partition is a partition that is composed of the degrees of the vertices of the graph with the addition of zeros. A study of the set of maximal graphical partitions that dominate a given graphical partition has been carried out. For the study, a computer program was written in Python, which allows testing hypotheses for partitions of small numbers. The main result of the work is an algorithm for constructing all maximal graphical partitions that dominate a given partition and have the same weight. This algorithm is based on a fundamental theorem that describes the exact structure of the set of such maximal graphical partitions. A software implementation of the found algorithm is given.

This research looks at identifying and classifying changes in evolving software by making simple textual comparisons between groups of source code files. The two areas investigated are software origin analysis and collusion detection. Textual comparison is attractive because it can be used in the same way for many different programming languages. The research includes the first major study using machine learning techniques in the domain of software origin analysis, which looks at the movement of code in an evolving system. The training set for this study, which focuses on restructured files, is created by analysing 89 software systems. Novel features, which capture abstract patterns in the comparisons between source code files, are used to build models which classify restructured files fromunseen systems with a mean accuracy of over 90%. The unseen code is not only in C, the language of the training set, but also in Java and Python, which helps to demonstrate the language independence of the approach. As well as generating features for the machine learning system, textual comparisons between groups of files are used in other ways throughout the system: in filtering to find potentially restructured files, in ranking the possible destinations of the code moved from the restructured files, and as the basis for a new file comparison tool. This tool helps in the demanding task of manually labelling the training data, is valuable to the end user of the system, and is applicable to other file comparison tasks. These same techniques are used to create a new text-based visualisation for use in collusion detection, and to generate a measure which focuses on the unusual similarity between submissions. This measure helps to overcome problems in detecting collusion in data where files are of uneven size, where there is high incidental similarity or where more than one programming language is used. The visualisation highlights interesting similarities between files, making the task of inspecting the texts easier for the user.

No description available.

Existeix certa controvèrsia sobre els efectes del b-carotè com a promotor o protector del càncer de pulmó. A més, el b-carotè, com a precursor de l'àcid retinoic, podria estimular la termogènesi i regular l'adipositat corporal. La fura representa un bon model per estudiar els efectes de la ingesta de b-carotè ja que l'absorbeix de manera pràcticament intacta (semblant als humans). Hem demostrat que el b-carotè ingerit amb altres antioxidants no sembla tenir efectes inductors del càncer ja que no augmenta la proliferació cel·lular al pulmó i a més prevé els efectes del carcinogen benzo[a]pirè. D'altra banda, dosis farmacològiques de b-carotè fan a la fura efectes contraris als de l'àcid retinoic, ja que augmenten l'adipositat i resulten en una menor capacitat termogènica, principalment al teixit adipós retroperitoneal que, a la fura, presenta certes característiques de teixit adipós marró, ja que té un percentatge considerable d'adipòcits multiloculars i expressa quantitats significatives d'UCP1. / Existe controversia sobre los efectos del b-caroteno como promotor o protector del cáncer de pulmón. Además, el b-caroteno, como precursor del ácido retinoico, podría estimular la termogénesis y regular la adiposidad corporal. El hurón representa un buen modelo para estudiar los efectos de la ingesta de b-caroteno pues lo absorbe de manera prácticamente intacta (similar a los humanos). Hemos demostrado que el b-caroteno ingerido con otros antioxidantes no parece tener efectos inductores del cáncer puesto que no aumenta la proliferación celular del pulmón y además previene los efectos del carcinógeno benzo[a]pireno. Por otra parte, dosis farmacológicas de b-caroteno producen en el hurón efectos contrarios a los del ácido retinoico, ya que aumentan la adiposidad y reducen la capacidad termogénica, principalmente del tejido adiposo retroperitoneal que, en el hurón, presenta ciertas características de tejido adiposo marrón, al contener un porcentaje considerable de adipocitos multiloculares y expresar cantidades significativas de UCP1. / The effects of b-carotene promoting or protecting against lung cancer are unclear. Furthermore, b-carotene, as retinoic acid precursor, could induce thermogenesis and regulate body adiposity. The ferret represents a good model to study the effects of oral administration of b-carotene because it absorbs it almost intact (similarly to humans). We have shown that the intake of b-carotene together with other antioxidants does not seem to inducecancer as it does not increase cellular proliferation in lung and prevents the effects of the carcinogen benzo[a]pyrene. In addition, pharmacological b-carotene doses in ferrets have different effects from retinoic acid, increasing adiposity and decreasing thermogenic capacity, especially in the retroperitoneal adipose tissue which, in ferrets, resembles brown adipose tissue, since it has an important percentage of multilocular adipocytes and expresses significant amount of UCP1.