The aim of this thesis is to develop and explore models in, and related to, the sufficient cause framework, and additive interaction. Additive interaction is closely connected with public health interventions and can be used to make inferences about the sufficient causes in order to find the mechanisms behind an outcome, for instance a disease. In paper A we extend the additive interaction, and interventions, to include continuous exposures. We show that there does not exist a model that does not lead to inconsistent conclusions about the interaction. The sufficient cause framework can also be expressed using Boolean functions, which is expanded upon in paper B. In this paper we define a new model based on the multifactor potential outcome model (MFPO) and independence of causal influence models (ICI). In paper C we discuss the modeling and estimation of additive interaction in relation to if the exposures are harmful or protective conditioned on some other exposure. If there is uncertainty about the effects direction there can be errors in the testing of the interaction effect. / Målet med denna avhandling är att utveckla, och utforska modeller i det så kallade sufficent cause ramverket, och additiv interaktion. Additiv interaktion är nära kopplat till interventioner inom epidemiology och sociologi, men kan också användas för statistiska tester för sufficient causes för att förstå mekanimser bakom ett utfall, tex en sjukdom. I artikel A så expanderar vi modellen för additiv interaktion och interventioner till att också inkludera kontinuerliga variabler. Vi visar att det inte finns någon modell som inte leder till motsägelser i slutsatsen om interaktionen. Sufficient cause ramverket kan också utryckas via Boolska funktioner, vilket byggs vidare på i artikel B. I den artikeln definerar vi en modell baserad på mutltifactor potential outcome modellen (MFPO) och independence of causal influence modellen (ICI). I artikel C diskuterar vi modelleringen och estimering av additiv interaktion i relation till om variablerna har skadlig eller skyddande effekt betingat på någon annan variabel. Om det finns osäkerhet kring en effekts riktning så kan det leda till fel i testerna för den additiva interaktionen. / <p>Examinator: Professor Henrik Hult, Matematik, KTH</p>

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T18:39:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Luciano Aparecido dos Santos.pdf: 931046 bytes, checksum: 9a7552d3cb9b9621ebbb5cf772fb8851 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-08-06 / As a reflex of the changes happened in the last decades in the process of globalization of the economy and of the development of the international markets, it was necessary a change in the process of generation of the accounting information in which accounting has been pressed by the demands of new markets, its potential investors and analysts to supply financial statements in an efficient and effective way for the best interpretation and decision in this market in high performance. As we insert the accounting in this globalization context, the accounting information becomes more and more relevant and of great importance in the decision process. Faced with the economic globalization of the markets, it is necessary the adoption of rules and accounting patterns globally used and accepted, allowing a comparative of the accounting information for the decisorial process. The IASB (International Accounting Standard Board) was responsible for the elaboration of international rules already in convergence process in more than 100 countries all over the world. In Brazil, with the publication of the Law number 11.638/07, being in force from January 1st, 2008, and later with the changes coming from the Law number 11.941/09, there was an important step in the process of convergence of their rules with the international patterns through the creation of the Committee of Accounting Pronouncements (CPC), responsible organ for the emission of accounting pronouncements in consonance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). This study aims to identify the materiality of the impacts of the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in financial statements and in companies performance, presenting the significant differences in accounts of Balance Sheet and of Incoming Statement, aiming to answer to the central question: Has the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) generated impact on Equity and Profit and Loss Statement of the open capital entities listed in BOVESPA, Air Transport segment? To such purpose, it was chosen the methodology of research and of exploratory nature with descriptive studies, which provides to the researcher a larger inclusion of the occurred facts in relation to a direct research. The comparative analysis of the financial statements of the companies object of this study demonstrates that the financial statements elaborated in agreement with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) present a larger level of disclosure when compared with the old adopted pattern BR GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles). The obtained conclusion is that the process of adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) has generated impacts in the Equity and Profit and Loss Statement and in several processes and controls of the companies object of this study / Como reflexo das mudanças ocorridas nas últimas décadas no processo de globalização da economia e do desenvolvimento dos mercados internacionais, fez-se necessário uma mudança no processo de geração das informações contábeis, em que a contabilidade tem sido pressionada por meio das exigências dos novos mercados, seus potenciais investidores e analistas a fornecer demonstrações contábeis de forma eficiente e eficaz para a melhor interpretação e tomada de decisões neste mercado em alta performance. Ao inserirmos a contabilidade neste contexto de globalização, a informação contábil torna-se cada vez mais relevante e de suma importância no processo decisório. Frente à globalização econômica dos mercados, faz-se necessária a adoção de normas e padrões contábeis utilizados e aceitos mundialmente, permitindo um comparativo das informações contábeis para o processo decisorial. O IASB (International Accounting Standard Board) ficou responsável pela elaboração de normas internacionais que já estão em processo de convergência em mais de 100 países em todo o mundo. No Brasil, com a publicação da Lei n.º 11.638/07, vigorando a partir de 1.º de janeiro de 2008, e, posteriormente, com as alterações emanadas da Lei n.º 11.941/09, deu-se um importante passo no processo de convergência de suas normas com os padrões internacionais por meio da criação do Comitê de Pronunciamentos Contábeis (CPC), órgão responsável pela emissão de pronunciamentos contábeis em consonância com as Normas Internacionais de Contabilidade (IFRS). O estudo tem por objetivo identificar a materialidade dos impactos da adoção das Normas Internacionais de Contabilidade (IFRS) nas demonstrações contábeis e no desempenho das empresas, apresentando as diferenças significativas em contas do Balanço Patrimonial e da Demonstração de Resultados, buscando responder à questão-problema: A adoção das Normas Internacionais de Contabilidade (IFRS) gerou impacto no Patrimônio Líquido e no Resultado do Exercício das Entidades de capital aberto listadas na BOVESPA do segmento de Transporte Aéreos? Para tanto, foi escolhida a metodologia de pesquisa de natureza exploratória com estudos descritivos, que proporciona ao pesquisador uma maior cobertura dos fatos ocorridos em relação a uma pesquisa direta. A análise comparativa das demonstrações contábeis das empresas-objeto deste estudo evidencia que as demonstrações financeiras elaboradas de acordo com os padrões IFRS apresentam um nível de divulgação maior quando comparadas com o antigo padrão adotado BR GAAP. A conclusão obtida é que o processo de adoção das Normas Internacionais de Contabilidade (IFRS) gerou impactos no Patrimônio Líquido e no Resultado do Exercício e em diversos processos e controles das empresas-objeto de estudo

Wireless communication systems require advanced techniques at the transmitter and at the receiver that improve the performance in hostile radio environments. The received signal is significantly distorted due to the dynamic nature of the wireless channel caused by multipath fading and Doppler spread. In order to mitigate the negative impact of the channel to the received signal quality, techniques as equalization and diversity are usually employed in the system design. During the transmission, the phenomenon of inter-symbol interference (ISI) occurs at the receiver due to the time dispersion of the involved channels. Hence, several delayed replicas of previous symbols interfere with the current symbol. Equalization is usually employed in order to combat the effect of the ISI. Several implementations for equalization filters have been proposed, including linear and non-linear processing, providing complexity-performance trade-offs. It is known that the length of the equalization filter determines the complexity of the technique. Since the wireless channels are characterized by long and sparse impulse responses, the conventional equalizers require high computational complexity due to the large size of their filters. In this dissertation, we have further investigated the long standing problem of equalization in light of the recently derived theory of compressed sampling (CS) for sparse and redundant representations. The developed heuristic algorithms for equalization, can exploit either the sparsity of the channel impulse response (CIR), or the sparsity of the equalizer filters, in order to derive efficient implementation designs. To this end, building on basis pursuit and matching pursuit techniques new equalization schemes have been proposed that exhibit considerable computational savings, increased performance properties and short training sequence requirements. Our main contribution for this part is the Stochastic Gradient Pursuit algorithm for sparse adaptive equalization. An alternative approach to combat ISI is based on the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system. In this system, the entire channel is divided into many narrow subchannels, so as the transmitted signals to be orthogonal to each other, despite their spectral overlap. However, in the case of doubly selective channels, the Doppler effect destroys the orthogonality between subcarriers. Thus, similarly to ISI, the effect of intercarrier interference (ICI) is introduced at the receiver, where symbols which belong to other subcarriers interfere with the current one. Considering this problem, we have developed iterative algorithms which recursively cancels the ICI at the receiver, providing performance-complexity trade-offs. For low or medium Doppler spreads, the typical approach is to approximate the frequency-domain channel matrix with a banded one. On this premise, we derived reduced-rank preconditioned conjugate gradient (PCG) algorithms in order to estimate the equalization matrix with a reduced number of iterations. Also developed an improved PCG algorithm with the same complexity order, using the Galerkin projections theory. However, in rapidly changing environments, a severe ICI is introduced and the banded approximation results in significant performance degradation. In order to recover this performance loss, we developed regularized estimation framework for ICI equalization, with linear complexity with respect the the number of the subcarriers. Moreover, we proposed a new equalization technique which has the potential to completely cancel the ICI. This approach works in a successive manner through a number of stages, conveying from the fully-connected ordered successive interference cancellation architecture (OSIC) in order to fully suppress the residual interference at each stage of the equalizer. On the other hand, diversity can improve the performance of the communication system by sending the information symbols through multiple signal paths, each of which fades independently. One approach to obtain diversity is through cooperative transmission, considering a group of nearby terminals (relays) as forming one virtual antenna array and applying a spatial beamforming technique so as to optimize the communication via them. Such beamforming techniques differ from their classical counterparts where the array elements are located in a common processing unit, due to the distribution of the relays in the space. In this setting, we developed new distributed algorithms which enable the relay cooperation for the computation of the beamforming weights leveraging the computational abilities of the relays. Each relay can estimate only the corresponding entry of the principal eigenvector, combining data from its network neighbours. The proposed algorithms are applied to two distributed beamforming schemes for relay networks. In the first scheme, the beamforming vector is computed through minimization of a total transmit power subject to the receiver quality-of-service (QoS) constraint. In the second scheme, the beamforming weights are obtained through maximization of the receiver SNR subject to a total transmit power constraint. Moreover, the proposed algorithms operate blindly, implying that no training data are required to be transmitted to the relays, and adaptively, exhibiting a quite short convergence period. / Τα συστήματα ασύρματων επικοινωνιών απαιτούν εξειδικευμένες τεχνικές στον πομπό και στον δέκτη, οι οποίες να βελτιώνουν την απόδοση του συστήματος σε εχθρικά περιβάλλοντα ασύρματης μετάδοσης. Λόγω της δυναμικής φύσης του ασύρματου καναλιού, που περιγράφεται από τα φαινόμενα της απόσβεσης, της πολυδιόδευσης και του Doppler, το λαμβανόμενο σήμα είναι παραμορφωμένο σε σημαντικό βαθμό. Για να αναιρέσουμε αυτήν την αρνητική επίδραση του καναλιού στην ποιότητα του λαμβανόμενου σήματος, κατά τον σχεδιασμό του συστήματος συνήθως υιοθετούνται τεχνικές όπως η ισοστάθμιση και η ποικιλομορφία. Ένα φαινόμενο που προκύπτει στο δέκτη ενός ασύρματου συστήματος επικοινωνίας, λόγω της χρονικής διασποράς που παρουσιάζουν τα κανάλια, είναι η διασυμβολική παρεμβολή, όπου χρονικά καθυστερημένα αντίγραφα προηγούμενων συμβόλων παρεμβάλουν με το τρέχων σύμβολο. Ένας τρόπος για την αντιμετώπιση του φαινομένου αυτού, είναι μέσω της ισοστάθμισης στο δέκτη, όπου χρησιμοποιώντας γραμμικές και μη-γραμμικές τεχνικές επεξεργασίας, τα μεταδιδόμενα σύμβολα ανιχνεύονται από το ληφθέν σήμα. Ωστόσο, συνήθως τα ασύρματα κανάλια χαρακτηρίζονται από κρουστικές αποκρούσεις μεγάλου μήκους αλλά λίγων μη μηδενικών συντελεστών, και σε αυτήν την περίπτωση η υπολογιστική πολυπλοκότητα των συνήθων τεχνικών είναι πολύ υψηλή. Στα πλαίσια αυτής της διατριβής, αναπτύχθηκαν νέοι ευριστικοί αλγόριθμοι για το πρόβλημα της ισοστάθμισης, οι οποίοι εκμεταλλεύονται είτε την αραιότητα της κρουστικής απόκρισης είναι την αραιότητα του αντιστρόφου φίλτρου, προκειμένου να παραχθούν αποδοτικές υλοποιήσεις. Θεωρώντας τον μη γραμμικό ισοσταθμιστή ανατροφοδότησης-απόφασης, έχει δειχθεί ότι κάτω από συνήθεις υποθέσεις για τους συντελεστές της κρουστικής απόκρισης του καναλιού, το εμπρόσθιο φίλτρο και το φίλτρο ανατροφοδότησης μπορούν να αναπαρασταθούν από αραιά διανύσματα. Για τον σκοπό αυτό, τεχνικές Συμπιεσμένης Καταγραφής, οι οποίες έχουν χρησιμοποιηθεί κατα κόρον σε προβλήματα ταυτοποίησης συστήματος, μπορούν να βελτιώσουν σε μεγάλο βαθμό την απόδοση κλασσικών ισοσταθμιστών που δεν λαμβάνουν υπόψιν τους την αραιότητα των διανυσμάτων. Έχοντας ως βάση τις τεχνικές basis pursuit και matching pursuit, αναπτύχθηκαν νέα σχήματα ισοσταθμιστών τα οποία παρουσιάζουν αξιοσημείωτη μείωση στο υπολογιστικό κόστος. Επίσης, αντίθετα με τη συνήθη πρακτική ταυτοποίησης συστήματος, αναπτύχθηκε νέος ευριστικό αλγόριθμος για το πρόβλημα αραιής προσαρμοστικής ισοστάθμισης, με την ονομασία Stochastic Gradient Pursuit. Επιπλέον, ο αλγόριθμος αυτός επεκτάθηκε και για την περίπτωση όπου ο αριθμός των μη μηδενικών στοιχείων του ισοσταθμιστή είναι άγνωστος. Μία διαφορετική προσέγγιση για την αντιμετώπιση του φαινομένου της διασυμβολικής παρεμβολής είναι μέσω του συστήματος orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), όπου το συνολικό κανάλι χωρίζεται σε πολλά στενά υπο-κανάλια, με τέτοιον τρόπο ώστε τα μεταδιδόμενα σήματα να είναι ορθογώνια μεταξύ τους, παρότι παρουσιάζουν φασματική επικάλυψη. Ωστόσο, σε χρονικά και συχνοτικά επιλεκτικά κανάλια, το φαινόμενο Doppler καταστρέφει την ορθογωνιότητα των υπο-καναλιών. Σε αυτήν την περίπτωση, παρόμοια με το φαινόμενο της διασυμβολικής παρεμβολής, εμφανίζεται το φαινόμενο της διακαναλικής παρεμβολής, όπου τα σύμβολα που ανήκουν σε διαφορετικά υπο-κανάλια παρεμβάλουν στο τρέχον. Θεωρώντας αυτό το πρόβλημα, αναπτύχθηκαν νέα σχήματα ισοστάθμισης που ακυρώνουν διαδοχικά την παρεμβολή αυτή, παρέχοντας έναν συμβιβασμό μεταξύ της απόδοσης και της πολυπλοκότητας. Στις περιπτώσεις όπου το φαινόμενο Doppler δεν είναι τόσο ισχυρό, η συνήθης τακτική είναι η προσέγγιση του πίνακα του καναλιού με έναν πίνακα ζώνης. Με αυτό το σκεπτικό, αναπτύχθηκαν αλγόριθμοι μειωμένης τάξης που βασίζονται στην επαναληπτική μέθοδο preconditioned conjugate gradient (PCG), προκειμένου να εκτιμήσουμε τον πίνακα ισοστάθμισης με έναν μειωμένο αριθμό επαναλήψεων. Επίσης, αναπτύχθηκαν τεχνικές που βασίζονται σε προβολές Galerkin για την βελτίωση της απόδοσης των συστημάτων χωρίς να αυξάνουν σημαντικά την πολυπλοκότητα. Ωστόσο, για τις περιπτώσεις όπου το φαινόμενο Doppler έχει ισχυρή επίδραση στο δέκτη του τηλεπικοινωνιακού συστήματος, όπως στις περιπτώσεις πολύ δυναμικών καναλιών, τότε η προσέγγιση με τον πίνακα ζώνης μειώνει σημαντικά την απόδοση του συστήματος. Με στόχο να ανακτήσουμε την απώλεια αυτή, αναπτύχθηκαν τεχνικές κανονικοποιημένης εκτίμησης, με γραμμική πολυπλοκότητα σε σχέση με τον αριθμό των υπο-καναλιών. Επιπρόσθετα, αναπτύχθηκε ένα νέο σχήμα ισοστάθμισης που έχει την δυνατότητα να ακυρώσει πλήρως την διακαναλική παρεμβολή. Το συγκεκριμένο σχήμα λειτουργεί βασιζόμενο σε έναν αριθμό διαδοχικών σταδίων, ακολουθώντας την φιλοσοφία της αρχιτεκτονικής fully-connected ordered successive interference cancellation (OSIC), με στόχο να μειώσει την εναπομείναντα παρεμβολή σε κάθε στάδιο του ισοσταθμιστή Η απόδοση ενός τηλεπικοινωνιακού συστήματος μπορεί επίσης να βελτιωθεί με την χρήση τεχνικών ποικιλομορφίας, δηλαδή με την μετάδοση των συμβόλων μέσω πολλών ανεξάρτητων μονοπατιών. Μία τεχνική ποικιλομορφίας είναι η συνεργατική μετάδοση, όπου μία ομάδα κοντινών τερματικών (relays) σχηματίζουν μία εικονική συστοιχία κεραιών και τεχνικές διαμόρφωσης λοβού μετάδοσης χρησιμοποιούνται προκειμένου να βελτιστοποιηθεί η επικοινωνία μέσω των τερματικών. Οι συγκεκριμένες τεχνικές διαμόρφωσης λοβού μετάδοσης, διαφέρουν από τις κλασσικές όπου η συστοιχία κεραιών βρίσκεται τοποθετημένη σε έναν κόμβο, καθώς τα τερματικά κατανέμονται στον χώρο. Υπό αυτές τις συνθήκες, αναπτύχθηκαν κατανεμημένοι αλγόριθμοι οι οποίοι εκμεταλλεύονται την επικοινωνία και τις υπολογιστικές δυνατότητες των τερματικών για τον υπολογισμό των συνιστωσών του διανύσματος διαμόρφωσης λοβού μετάδοσης. Κάθε τερματικό εκτιμά μόνο την αντίστοιχη συνιστώσα από το κύριο ιδιοδιάνυσμα, συνδιάζοντας δεδομένα από τα γειτονικά τερματικά. Οι προτεινόμενοι αλγόριθμοι εφαρμόστηκαν σε δύο σχήματα κατανεμημένης μετάδοσης μέσω ενδιάμεσων κόμβων. Στο πρώτο σχήμα, τα βάρη του διανύσματος διαμόρφωσης λοβού μετάδοσης υπολογίστηκαν με βάση την ελαχιστοποίηση της συνολικής ισχύος μετάδοσης υπό τον περιορισμό συγκεκριμένου κατωφλίου για την ποιότητα του λαμβανόμενου σήματος. Στο δεύτερο σχήμα, υπολογίστηκαν μεγιστοποιώντας την ποιότητα του λαμβανόμενου σήματος υπό τον περιορισμό ενός κατωφλίου για την συνολική ισχύ μετάδοσης. Επιπλέον, οι αλγόριθμοι που αναπτύχθηκαν λειτουργούν τυφλά, δηλαδή χωρίς φάση εκπαίδευσης, και προσαρμοστικά με μικρό διάστημα σύγκλισης.

Η ΒΥΠ διαθέτει αντίτυπο της διατριβής σε έντυπη μορφή στο βιβλιοστάσιο διδακτορικών διατριβών που βρίσκεται στο ισόγειο του κτιρίου της. / Τα ψηφιακά συστήματα UWB (Ultra Wide-Band) παρέχουν τη δυνατότητα ασύρματης μετάδοσης σε πολύ υψηλό ρυθμό. Λόγω του μεγάλου εύρους ζώνης, το κανάλι εισάγει πολλαπλές ανακλάσεις οι οποίες φέρουν μεγάλο ποσοστό της ωφέλιμης ενέργειας του μεταδιδόμενου σήματος. Η ικανότητα του δέκτη για σύλληψη όσο το δυνατόν περισσότερης ωφέλιμης ενέργειας έχει αντίκτυπο στη συνολική απόδοση του συστήματος. Η χρήση της τεχνικής διαμόρφωσης με πολύπλεξη συχνότητας ορθογωνίων φερουσών (OFDM), που στην συγκεκριμένη περίπτωση (UWB) συνδυάζεται με πολυζωνική (Multi-band) μετάδοση, απλοποιεί τη διαχείριση του συνολικού φάσματος συχνοτήτων. Όμως η διαμόρφωση OFDM παρουσιάζει ιδιαίτερη ευαισθησία σε προβλήματα τόσο διασυμβολικής παρεμβολής (ISI) όσο και διακαναλικής παρεμβολής (ICI), λόγω του έντονου διασκορπιστικού χαρακτήρα του καναλιού καθώς επίσης και τυχόν αποκλίσεων που εμφανίζονται στους ταλαντωτές πομπού-δέκτη. Τα παραπάνω επιβάλλουν τη χρήση σύνθετων αλγορίθμων συγχρονισμού και συντονισμού (time and frequency synchronization) μεταξύ πομπού και δέκτη για την ομαλή λειτουργία. Στα πλαίσια της διπλωματικής αυτής θα πραγματοποιηθεί επιλογή κατάλληλων αλγορίθμων για τα προαναφερθέντα προβλήματα, οι οποίοι θα πρέπει να πληρούν τις προδιαγραφές του υπό διαμόρφωση διεθνούς προτύπου 802.15.3α και θα αναπτυχθούν βέλτιστες αρχιτεκτονικές VLSI, με στόχο τόσο το χαμηλό κόστος υλοποίησης όσο και την χαμηλή κατανάλωση ισχύος. / In this project have been studied the low power VLSI architecture for synchronization algorithms in Multi-band UWB Wireless systems. The main issues are timing and frequency synchronization algorithms.

Posttraumatic stress disorder is a debilitating anxiety disorder that can develop in the aftermath of a traumatic or life–threatening event involving extreme horror, intense fear or bodily harm. The disorder is typified by a symptom triad consisting of re–experiencing, hyperarousal and avoidance symptoms. Approximately 15–25% of trauma–exposed individuals go on to develop PTSD, depending on the nature and severity of the trauma. Although dysfunctional adaptive responses exist in multiple neurobiological pathways in the disorder, e.g. glutamate, GABA, glucocortocoids and serotonin, the noradrenergic system is particularly prominent and represents an important pharmacological target in attempts at preventing the development of PTSD posttrauma. However, current literature shows opposing and conflicting results regarding the effect of selective noradrenergic agents in memory processing, and the effect of modulation of selective noradrenergic receptors are spread over diverse protocols and paradigms of learning and fear also employing different strains of animals. Fear conditioning is a behavioural paradigm that uses associative learning to study the neural mechanisms underlying learning, memory and fear. It is useful in investigating the underpinnings of disorders associated with maladaptive fear responses. Performing fear conditioning experiments with the aim of applying it to an animal model of PTSD, and relating these behavioural responses to a defined neural mechanism, will assist both in the elucidation of the underlying pathology of the disease, as well as the development of more effective treatment. This project has set about to re–examine the diverse and complex role of noradrenergic receptors in the conditioned fear response with relevance to PTSD. To the best of my knowledge, this study represents the first attempt at studying a range of noradrenergic compounds with diverse actions and their ability to modify conditioned fear in a single animal model. This work thus introduces greater consistency and comparative relevance not currently available in the literature, and will also provide much needed pre–clinical evidence in support of treatment strategies targeting the noradrenergic system in the prevention of PTSD posttrauma. The first objective of this study was to set up and validate a passive avoidance fear conditioning protocol under our laboratory conditions using the Gemini Avoidance System. The noradrenergic system plays a prominent role in memory consolidation and fear conditioning, while administration of –adrenergic blockers, such as propranolol, have been shown to abolish learning and fear conditioning in both humans and animals. Propranolol has also demonstrated clinical value in preventing the progression of acute traumatic stress syndrome immediately posttrauma to full–blown PTSD. To confer predictive validity to our model, the centrally active –adrenergic antagonist, propranolol, and the non–centrally acting –adrenergic antagonist, nadolol, were administered to Wistar rats after passive avoidance fear conditioning training in the Gemini Avoidance System. Wistar rats were used because of their recognised enhanced sensitivity to stress. Evidence from this pilot study confirmed that propranolol 10 mg/kg significantly inhibits the consolidation of learned fear in rats, whereas nadolol is ineffective. This effectively validated our protocol and the apparatus for further application in this study and also confirmed the importance of a central mechanism of action for –adrenoceptor blockade in the possible application of these drugs in preventing the development of PTSD posttrauma. The second objective of this study was to investigate the role of 1–, 2–, 1–, and 2–receptors in a conditioned fear passive avoidance paradigm. This was done in order to investigate how selective pharmacological modulation of these receptors may modify the conditioned fear response, and whether any of these receptor systems might exert opposing effects in passive fear conditioning. Various centrally active noradrenergic agents were employed over a 3–tiered dose response design, including the 1–antagonist, prazosin, the 2–agonist, guanfacine, the 2–antagonist, yohimbine, the 1–antagonist, betaxolol and the 2–antagonist ICI 118551. The effect of post–exposure administration of these drugs on conditioned fear was compared to that of propranolol 10 mg/kg. Selected doses of betaxolol (10 mg/kg) and ICI 118551 (1 mg/kg) attenuated fear conditioning to an extent comparable to propranolol, as did prazosin (0.1 mg/kg). Yohimbine tended to boster fear learning at all doses tested, albeit not significantly, while guanfacine did not produce any significant effect on memory retention at any of the doses studied. This latter observation was surprising since yohimbine tended to bolster fear conditioning while earlier studies indicate that 2–agonism impairs conditioned fear. Concluding, this study has conferred validity to our passive avoidance model and has provided greater insight into the separate roles of noradrenergic receptors in contextual conditioned fear learning. The study has provided supportive evidence for a key role for both 1– and 2–antagonism, as well as 1–antagonism, in inhibiting fear memory consolidation and hence as viable secondary treatment options to prevent the development of PTSD posttrauma. However, further study is required to delineate the precise role of the 2–receptor in this regard. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Pharmacology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Posttraumatic stress disorder is a debilitating anxiety disorder that can develop in the aftermath of a traumatic or life–threatening event involving extreme horror, intense fear or bodily harm. The disorder is typified by a symptom triad consisting of re–experiencing, hyperarousal and avoidance symptoms. Approximately 15–25% of trauma–exposed individuals go on to develop PTSD, depending on the nature and severity of the trauma. Although dysfunctional adaptive responses exist in multiple neurobiological pathways in the disorder, e.g. glutamate, GABA, glucocortocoids and serotonin, the noradrenergic system is particularly prominent and represents an important pharmacological target in attempts at preventing the development of PTSD posttrauma. However, current literature shows opposing and conflicting results regarding the effect of selective noradrenergic agents in memory processing, and the effect of modulation of selective noradrenergic receptors are spread over diverse protocols and paradigms of learning and fear also employing different strains of animals. Fear conditioning is a behavioural paradigm that uses associative learning to study the neural mechanisms underlying learning, memory and fear. It is useful in investigating the underpinnings of disorders associated with maladaptive fear responses. Performing fear conditioning experiments with the aim of applying it to an animal model of PTSD, and relating these behavioural responses to a defined neural mechanism, will assist both in the elucidation of the underlying pathology of the disease, as well as the development of more effective treatment. This project has set about to re–examine the diverse and complex role of noradrenergic receptors in the conditioned fear response with relevance to PTSD. To the best of my knowledge, this study represents the first attempt at studying a range of noradrenergic compounds with diverse actions and their ability to modify conditioned fear in a single animal model. This work thus introduces greater consistency and comparative relevance not currently available in the literature, and will also provide much needed pre–clinical evidence in support of treatment strategies targeting the noradrenergic system in the prevention of PTSD posttrauma. The first objective of this study was to set up and validate a passive avoidance fear conditioning protocol under our laboratory conditions using the Gemini Avoidance System. The noradrenergic system plays a prominent role in memory consolidation and fear conditioning, while administration of –adrenergic blockers, such as propranolol, have been shown to abolish learning and fear conditioning in both humans and animals. Propranolol has also demonstrated clinical value in preventing the progression of acute traumatic stress syndrome immediately posttrauma to full–blown PTSD. To confer predictive validity to our model, the centrally active –adrenergic antagonist, propranolol, and the non–centrally acting –adrenergic antagonist, nadolol, were administered to Wistar rats after passive avoidance fear conditioning training in the Gemini Avoidance System. Wistar rats were used because of their recognised enhanced sensitivity to stress. Evidence from this pilot study confirmed that propranolol 10 mg/kg significantly inhibits the consolidation of learned fear in rats, whereas nadolol is ineffective. This effectively validated our protocol and the apparatus for further application in this study and also confirmed the importance of a central mechanism of action for –adrenoceptor blockade in the possible application of these drugs in preventing the development of PTSD posttrauma. The second objective of this study was to investigate the role of 1–, 2–, 1–, and 2–receptors in a conditioned fear passive avoidance paradigm. This was done in order to investigate how selective pharmacological modulation of these receptors may modify the conditioned fear response, and whether any of these receptor systems might exert opposing effects in passive fear conditioning. Various centrally active noradrenergic agents were employed over a 3–tiered dose response design, including the 1–antagonist, prazosin, the 2–agonist, guanfacine, the 2–antagonist, yohimbine, the 1–antagonist, betaxolol and the 2–antagonist ICI 118551. The effect of post–exposure administration of these drugs on conditioned fear was compared to that of propranolol 10 mg/kg. Selected doses of betaxolol (10 mg/kg) and ICI 118551 (1 mg/kg) attenuated fear conditioning to an extent comparable to propranolol, as did prazosin (0.1 mg/kg). Yohimbine tended to boster fear learning at all doses tested, albeit not significantly, while guanfacine did not produce any significant effect on memory retention at any of the doses studied. This latter observation was surprising since yohimbine tended to bolster fear conditioning while earlier studies indicate that 2–agonism impairs conditioned fear. Concluding, this study has conferred validity to our passive avoidance model and has provided greater insight into the separate roles of noradrenergic receptors in contextual conditioned fear learning. The study has provided supportive evidence for a key role for both 1– and 2–antagonism, as well as 1–antagonism, in inhibiting fear memory consolidation and hence as viable secondary treatment options to prevent the development of PTSD posttrauma. However, further study is required to delineate the precise role of the 2–receptor in this regard. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Pharmacology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

No description available.

No description available.

In this thesis, we focus on interference cancelling (IC) detectors for advanced communication systems. The contents of this thesis is divided into the following four parts: 1. Multiuser interference (MUI) cancellation in uplink orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA). 2. Inter-carrier interference (ICI) and inter-symbol interference (ISI) cancellation in space-frequency block coded OFDM (SFBC-OFDM). 3. Single-symbol decodability (SSD) of distributed space-time block codes (DSTBC) in partially-coherent cooperative networks with amplify-and-forward protocol at the relays 4. Interference cancellation in cooperative SFBC-OFDM networks with amplify-and-forward (AF) and decode-and-forward (DF) protocols at the relays. In uplink OFDMA systems, MUI occurs due to different carrier frequency offsets of different users at the receiver. In the first part of the thesis, we present a weighted multistage linear parallel interference cancellation approach to mitigate the effect of this MUI in uplink OFDMA. We also present a minimum mean square error (MMSE) based approach to MUI cancellation in uplink OFDMA. We present a recursion to approach the MMSE solution and show structure-wise and performance-wise comparison with other detectors in the literature. Use of SFBC-OFDM signals is advantageous in high-mobility broadband wireless access, where the channel is highly time- as well as frequency-selective because of which the receiver experiences both ISI as well as ICI. In the second part of the thesis, we are concerned with the detection of SFBC-OFDM signals on time- and frequency-selective MIMO channels. Specifically, we propose and evaluate the performance of an interference cancelling receiver for SFBC-OFDM, which alleviates the effects of ISI and ICI in highly time- and frequency-selective channels The benefits of MIMO techniques can be made possible to user nodes having a single transmit antenna through cooperation among different nodes. In the third part of the thesis, we derive a new set of conditions for a distributed DSTBC to be SSD for a partially-coherent relay channel (PCRC), where the relays have only the phase information of the source-to-relay channels. We also establish several properties of SSD codes for PCRC. In the last part of the thesis, we consider cooperative SFBC-OFDM networks with AF and DF protocols at the relays. In cooperative SFBC-OFDM networks that employ DF protocol, i) ISI occurs at the destination due to violation of the `quasi-static' assumption because of the frequency selectivity of the relay-to-destination channels, and ii) ICI occurs due to imperfect carrier synchronization between the relay nodes and the destination, both of which result in error-floors in the bit error performance at the destination. We propose an interference cancellation algorithm for this system at the destination node, and show that the proposed algorithm effectively mitigates the ISI and ICI effects.

BULA MATARI : Documentaire. En octobre 2003, à l'occasion des Rendez-vous de l'histoire de Blois (France), une exposition de peinture populaire congolaise est organisée à la mairie. Ayant pour thème la mémoire traumatique de la colonisation, l'exposition fut l'objet de plusieurs visites guidées. Ce matin-là, des étudiants du primaire et du lycée s'y étaient rendus. [Conteneur] / KALINDULA : PLEUREURS DES HOMMES : Documentaire. À Libumbashi (R.D. du Congo), des jeunes musiciens s'adonnent depuis plus de trente ans à une tradition d'origine zambienne, la musique kalindula. Marginale en regard des pratiques chrétiennes qui font rage un peu partout dans la ville, c'est à l'occasion des nuits de deuil qu'elle est le plus souvent performée. En aval des pleureuses et des hymnes à la gloire de Jésus, c'est par la poésie, l'humour et la danse que ses protagonistes cherchent à libérer l'esprit de la famille endeuillée. Inspirée des rythmes et des airs traditionnels bembas en même temps que des vedettes africaines et diasporiques de la chanson, cette musique dit tout à la fois la complexité et la vitalité des identités urbaines congolaises. [Conteneur]