Baigiamojo magistro darbo tikslas – ištirti Lietuvos automobilių keliams naudojamų bitumų savybes ir bitumo kiekio įtaką asfalto kokybės rodikliams. Naudojantis eksperimentinių dangų konstrukcijų bandomojo ruožo tyrimų duomenimis, atlikta viršutiniojo asfalto sluoksnio kokybės rodiklių analizė. Atlikus šių duomenų analizę, nustatytas bitumo kiekio ir mišinio fizikinių – mechaninių rodiklių tarpusavio koreliacinis ryšys. Pagal VĮ „Problematikos“ laboratorijoje atliktus bitumų tyrimų duomenis, nustatyta bitumo savybių rodiklių sietis. Tyrimų medžiaga apdorota statistiniu paketu „Statistica“. Pateiktos sunormintos bitumo kiekio ir fizikinių – mechaninių rodiklių vertės, atliktas bitumų kokybės rodiklių vertinimas. Pateiktos išvados ir rekomendacijos. / The main aim of this Master work is to analyse quality parameters of asphalt pavement and quality indicators of bitumen use for Lithuanian Roads. Using the results of the research on experimental pavement structures the quality parameters of the top layer of asphalt was analyzed. The analysis of the data allowed the correlation between the bitumen content and asphalt mixture physical and mechanical indices to be determined. Using the results of the research on „Problematika“ laboratory allowed the correlation between bitumen properties parameters. The research material was processed by means of the statistical software package „Statistica“. Standartized bitumen content and asphalt mixture physical and mechanical indices, bitumen quality indicators were valued. The conclusions and recommendations are provided.

The work undertaken within this thesis is towards the development of a representative set of sequence driven features for the prediction of structural classes of proteins. Proteins are biological molecules that make living things function, to determine the function of a protein the structure must be known because the structure dictates its physical capabilities. A protein is generally classified into one of the four main structural classes, namely all-α, all-β, α + β or α / β, which are based on the arrangements and gross content of the secondary structure elements. Current methods manually assign the structural classes to the protein by manual inspection, which is a slow process. In order to address the problem, this thesis is concerned with the development of automated prediction of structural classes of proteins and extraction of a small but robust set of sequence driven features by using the amino acid indices. The first main study undertook a comprehensive analysis of the largest collection of sequence driven features, which includes an existing set of 1479 descriptor values grouped by ten different feature groups. The results show that composition based feature groups are the most representative towards the four main structural classes, achieving a predictive accuracy of 63.87%. This finding led to the second main study, development of the generalised amino acid composition method (GAAC), where amino acid index values are used to weigh corresponding amino acids. GAAC method results in a higher accuracy of 68.02%. The third study was to refine the amino acid indices database, which resulted in the highest accuracy of 75.52%. The main contributions from this thesis are the development of four computationally extracted sequence driven feature-sets based on the underused amino acid indices. Two of these methods, GAAC and the hybrid method have shown improvement over the usage of traditional sequence driven features in the context of smaller and refined feature sizes and classification accuracy. The development of six non-redundant novel sets of the amino acid indices dataset, of which each are more representative than the original database. Finally, the construction of two large 25% and 40% homology datasets consisting over 5000 and 7000 protein samples, respectively. A public webserver has been developed located at http://www.generalised-protein-sequence-features.com, which allows biologists and bioinformaticians to extract GAAC sequence driven features from any inputted protein sequence.

While it is known that acute and chronic stress can impact cognition, less is known about the immediate impacts of minor frustrations or positive experiences on subsequent behavior and cognition in primates. This study used a novel methodology to engineer both a positive and (slightly) frustrating experience, using the same apparatus, in 15 adult capuchin monkeys. Subjects were presented with a working memory task (DMTS) for 30 minutes after the experimental manipulations (or a control). As predicted, the frustrating task prior to testing resulted in a decrease in performance on the DMTS compared to performance after a positive experience or the control. Contrary to predictions, a positive experience did not facilitate performance to higher levels than the control condition. Manipulations also impacted several behaviors. Although there may be different results in different contexts, these results indicate that even mild negative experiences impact subsequent behavior and cognition in primates.

This thesis is a collection of three essays with contributions to the intergenerational and intra-generational mobility literature. The essay on full risk insurance and measurement error examines the likelihood that measurement error may reconcile observed departures from perfect rank immobility in insurable consumption with the mobility predictions of full risk insurance, by generating spurious rank-breaking transitions. The essay shows that under certain assumptions full risk insurance predicts perfect rank immobility and that there exists ranges of error covariance matrices for which the mobility predictions of full risk insurance plus measurement error can not be rejected in the Peruvian data. A novel approach to test these mobility predictions is presented. The essay on discrete time-states Markov chain models applied to welfare dynamics shows that models with higher order may fit data better than the popular first-order, stationary model, and that the order of the chain, in turn, affects the estimation of equilibrium distributions. A best-practice methodology to conduct homogeneity tests between two samples with different optimal order is proposed, and an index by Shorrocks, based on the trace of the transition matrix, is extended to discrete Markov chain models with higher order. The essay on cohort heterogeneity in intergenerational mobility of education shows how cohort heterogeneity affects the analysis of cross-group homogeneity and long-term prospects of a welfare variable, based on transition matrix analysis. The essay compares the transition matrices of Peruvian groups divided by gender and ethnicity and finds genuine reductions in heterogeneity of the mobility regimes between male and female and between indigenous and non-indigenous groups among the youngest cohorts. The essay proposes a methodology to conduct first-order stochastic dominance analysis with equilibrium distributions and shows that among the youngest cohorts past stochastic dominance of male over females and non-indigenous over indigenous disappear in the long term.

It was the purpose of this study to determine the relationship between a subject's performance as revealed by intellectual indices of the Rorschach, his intellectual ability as revealed by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, and academic success or failure in the form of promotion or nonpromotion.

Excess fine sediment from human activity is a major pollutant to streams across the U.S.; however, distinguishing human-induced sedimentation from natural fine sediment is complex. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently implemented a protocol for the quantitative field assessment of human-induced sedimentation using measurements of stream geomorphology. Macroinvertebrate community composition, streambed sediment stability, and sediment composition were studied at 49 sites in the James River watershed in central Virginia. Sediment composition was found to be a stronger driver of community composition than sediment stability. Although I was not able to show that macroinvertebrate metrics were related to sediment stability independently of actual fine sediment composition, some metrics, including percent Ephemeridae, a family of burrowing mayflies (order = Ephemeroptera) show promise as valuable tools for regional biologists and resource managers to discriminate among streams considered impaired for sediment pollution.

Adolescents with cancer are surviving at improved rates with levels of psychopathology in line with their healthy peers. Thus, recent psycho-oncology research is focusing on finding significant predictors to their positive adjustment and psychosocial functioning. The author examined adolescent cancer survivors (n = 50; diagnosis age = 10 – 21; 2 – 10 years post-diagnosis) to test the mediation effects of positive emotionns (satisfaction with life, subjective happiness, and optimism) and time perspective on the outcome variables quality of life and benefit finding with demographic/medical variables (gender, number of treatments received for cancer, and previous psychotherapy) as independent variables. Results indicated that positive emotions fully mediated the relationship between the number of treatments received for cancer and quality of life and partially mediated the relationship between having engaged in psychotherapy and quality of life with adolescent cancer survivors. Importantly, results indicated that patients' with a relapse diagnosis scored significantly different than those with no relapse diagnosis on quality of life. Although positive emotions were significantly associated with scores on benefit finding in a positive direction, benefit finding did not fit two of the four criteria for mediation. Time perspective indices did not meet full criteria for significant mediation with the relationships between independent and outcome variables. Regarding time perspective indices, significant associations included: prior participating in psychotherapy was associated with higher scores on a Past-Negative time perspective, the more treatments received for cancer was associated with higher scores on a Present-Focused time perspective, and higher scores on the Past-Negative time perspective was associated with lower scores on benefit finding. Discussion centers on the use of evidence-based interventions that cultivate positive emotions with adolescent cancer survivors and the utility of implementing quality of life assessment in pediatric medical settings. Continued emphasis is placed on larger sample sizes via multi-center cooperation that may better illustrate adjustment difficulties within subgroups of this population (i.e. relapse diagnosis). Future research considerations are provided for the constructs of time perspective and benefit finding.

L'enjeu de cette thèse est l'acquisition automatique de nouveaux sens lexicaux.Nous définissons un modèle théorique sur l'émergence d'un nouveau sens pour une unité lexicale ayant déjà un sens codé. Le phénomène ciblé est la néologie sémantique, ou néosémie, définie comme une variation sémantique marquée en cours de diffusion. Nous la modélisons à partir d'indices quantitatifs articulés à des principes issus de la sémantique textuelle. Le sens codé est représentécomme un ensemble structuré de traits sémantiques. Il est modulé en discours sous l'effet de récurrences d'autres traits. La dynamique du sens est représentée à l'aide de descripteurs de granularité sémantique variable.Ensuite, nous proposons des ressources et outils adaptés, relevant de la linguistique de corpus. Les ressources sont de deux types, lexicographiques pour le sens codé et textuelles pour le sens en discours. En pratique, le Trésor de la Langue Française informatisé fournit les sens codés. Une plateforme transforme ses définitions en ensembles de traits sémantiques. Trois corpus journalistiques des années 2000 servent de ressources textuelles. Les outils mathématiques, essentiellementstatistiques, permettent de jouer sur la structure des ressources, d'extraire des unités saillantes et d'organiser l'information.Enfin, nous établissons les grandes lignes d'une procédure pour allouer de façon semi-automatique un nouveau sens. Elles sont étayées par des expériences illustratives. Le déroulement de la procédure repose sur des niveaux de description de plus en plus fins (domaines, unités lexicales puis traits sémantiques). Il s'appuie sur des jeux de contrastes multiples, permettant de nuancer l'informationsémantique. / The issue at stake is the automated meaning allocation.In a first time, a theoretical scheme is elaborated to describe meaning change for a lexical unit already defined in a lexical resource. We focus on semantic neology, considered as a significant repeted change. Our model relies on quantitative evidence and it is inspired from text semantics. The preexisting meaning is represented as a structured set of semantic features. The context modifies it dueto salient semantic featuresin texts. These dynamic change is comprehended through description strata ranging from coarse-grained to fine-grained semantic units. In a second time, we dwell on relevant resources and tools from corpus linguistics. The resources are dictionaries and text corpus. Concretely, we use the Trésor de la Langue Française informatisé as a dictionary. Its entries are automatically converted into bags of semantic features. The textual dataconsists in three recent journalistic corpus. The resources are considered are mathematic spaces and statistical tools are used to extract significant units and to structure information.In a last time, we give an outline of a process to allocate automatically a new meaning. Experiments illustrate each step. This process relies on multiple levels of description, getting finer and finer.Through this approach, it is possible to qualify the new meaning in a precise and structured way.

"Si le paysage s'est inséré dans l'action politique à toute les échelles, les effets de cette action devraient se faire sentir sur les paysages eux-mêmes. Il faut y voir de plus près." Cet objectif du programme de recherche "politiques publiques et paysages", lancé en 1998 par le Ministère de l'Aménagement, du Territoire et de l'Environnement, invite la communauté scientifique à investir le champ croisé de l'évaluation des paysages et des politiques publiques.Cette recherche doctorale apporte une nouvelle contribution à ce sujet, en reprenant les avancées acquises et les questions demeurées en suspens, et propose une mise en œuvre de l'évaluation par la production d'indicateurs du paysage, normés et comparables. La démarche suivie passe par la mise en place de mesures du paysage dans sa dimension visible, pour livrer aux acteurs publics de deux terrains d'étude franc-comtois une base de connaissance objectivée sur leur paysage. Ces mesures sont obtenues par des méthodes de modélisation de la visibilité, telles qu'elles sont proposées par les SIG, dans la ligne des travaux conduits par le laboratoire ThéMA pour l'approche quantitative et systématique du paysage visible (appliqués, par exemple, à l'étude du prix du paysage au cours de ces dernières années). Elles sont aussi développées de façon plus originale, en mobilisant des ressources en information géographique anciennes et actuelles disponibles pour les collectivités territoriales, avec leurs problèmes particuliers de mise en œuvre. Cette connaissance autorise alors une mise en regard du paysage et des enjeux soulevés par les politiques publiques, pour contribuer à leur évaluation mutuelle. / « If landscape is now part of public action at all scale levels, the effects of this action should be revealed in the landscape itself. We have to look further ». This main goal of the « public policies and landscape » research program, initiated in 1998 by the French ministry of environment, encourages the scientific community to invest both the landscape assessment and public policies research fields.This research aims at bringing a new contribution to this subject, taking into account recent advances and remaining questions. An assessment tool based on standardized and comparable landscape indices is proposed. This approach is based on measures performed on the visible part of the landscape, to deliver a quantitative knowledge to public stakeholders of two study fields in Franche-Comté (France). These measures are obtained through viewshed modelling, commonly implemented in GIS. They're also the result of original coding development using both old and recent geographic resources. This implementation task involved specific methodological issues. Thus, this knowledge allows us to confront landscape and stakes raised by public policies, in order to contribute to their mutual assessment.

1 ABSTRACT The work deals with the use of vegetation indices to study temporal variation in vegetation phenology. The first part was devoted to detailed analysis of domestic and foreign literature, which deals with the work processed in this field. The main research questions were if changed start, end and length of growing period during the analysis period. Other research theme was comparision with ground phenological data. Another objective of this work was search dependencies computed data phenological variables from vegetation indicies with phenological ground data. As a basic data set was used GIMMS set, which distributes the vegetation index NDVI. Other data sets were MERIS MTCI, data MODIS with vegetation indices NDVI, EVI a LAI. The results of analyzes of vegetation phenology show trends in most shifts at the beginning of growing season, where was a shift to an earlier time. Results of the analysis of vegetation remote sensing data with ground-based phenological data ČHMÚ were unfolding always according to the specific forest phenological stations. Interesting results were at the phenological station Svoboda nad Úpou, where the results of trends directives were consistent in almost all data sets. Comparison of process curves vegetation indicies with ground data corresponded most curves at selected...