<p>When researchers work on time series or sequence, certain fundamental questions will naturally arise. One of them will be whether the series or sequence exhibits a gradual trend over time. In this thesis, we propose a test statistic based on moving order statistics and establish an exact procedure to test for the presence of monotone trends. We show that the test statistic under the null hypothesis that there is no trend follows the closed skew normal distribution. An efficient algorithm is then developed to generate realizations from this null distribution. A simulation study is conducted to evaluate the proposed test under the alternative hypotheses with linear, logarithmic and quadratic trend functions. Finally, a practical example is provided to illustrate the proposed test procedure.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)

This study represents the behavioural component of a larger project investigating the life history tactics, physiological resource allocation and behavioural time budgeting of a genetically engineered animal. The "supermouse" is a transgenic strain (mMT-1/rGH) that has one chromosome genetically engineered with extra copies of rat growth hormone genes, each fused to a metallothionein-1 promoter. The GH transgenes are permanently incorporated into the genome of the mouse and are inherited as a block, in a Mendelian manner. "Supermice" exhibit an accelerated growth rate and reach body weights twice that of their normal siblings: both transgenic mice and normal mice are obtained by crossing transgenic males to normal females. Although there must be increased costs associated with achieving their higher growth rate, these: mice show no increases in their specific feeding rates. Consequently there must be a reallocation of resources among various physiological and behavioural demands. The reality of such tradeoffs is known as the Principle of Allocation and predicts that reductions in behavioural activities might be one avenue for realizing extra growth. To test this, six components of the behavioural time budget (resting, locomotion, wheel running, feeding, drinking and grooming) were compared between transgenic and normal mice. Infra-red videocameras recorded the activities of individual male mice in artificial enclosures over 24 hours. The time spent in each bout of activity was recorded and compared. Transgenic mice out-slept their normal counterparts by 126% (an increase of 3.4 h) and were only 53.83% as active in terms of locomotion and wheel running as normal mice. Pooling the data revealed that on average, large mice spent more time at rest and less time engaged in locomotion. Slight but significant decreases in time spent drinking and grooming were also found. Transgenic mice spent only 77.01% as much time drinking, and 69.01% as much time grooming as normal mice. No difference in the amount of time spent feeding was found. / Thesis / Master of Science (MS)

Neuroendocrine tumours generally show an overexpression of somatostatin receptors on their cell membranes, mainly subtype 2. This is taken advantage of in diagnosis and therapy by using synthetic somatostatin analogues that can be labelled with radionuclides to visualize and treat tumours with an overexpression of somatostatin receptors. The method traditionally used for visualization is somatostatin receptor scintigraphy (SRS) with 111In-DTPA-octreotide but this method is gradually being substituted by 68Ga-DOTATOC PET/CT. To evaluate patients for peptide receptor radionuclide therapy, it is mandatory for the patient to be examined by both methods. In the evaluation, the tumours are graded according to the Krenning scale on the images from the SRS. Patients with sufficient tumour uptake of somatostatin analogues are eligible for peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT). The aim of this study was to compare the tumour’s Krenning scores from SRS to the Krenning scores, quantitative indices and TNR-values from the 68Ga-DOTATOC PET/CT images. This was done to investigate if the Krenning scale could be applied to PET/CT enabling the patient to undergo only PET/CT for diagnosis and evaluation prior to PRRT. This study, including 28 patients, found no strong correlation between the Krenning scores from the SRS and the scores from 68Ga-DOTATOC PET/CT. However, a better correlation was shown between the Krenning scores from SRS and TNR-values where the quantitative indices SUVmax and SUVmean were divided with the SUVmean of the spleen. These findings could be worth exploring further in future studies, incorporating larger number of patients.

Three-dimensional gravity-capillary steady waves on water of finite-depth, which are uniformly translating in a horizontal propagation direction and periodic in a transverse direction, are considered. The exact Euler equations are formulated as a spatial dynamic system in which the variable used for the propagating direction is the time-like variable. The existence of the solutions of the system is determined by two non-dimensional constants: the Bond number b and λ (the inverse of the square of the Froude number). The property of Sobolev spaces and the spectral analysis show that the spectrum of the linear part consists of isolated eigenvalues of finite algebraic multiplicity and the number of purely imaginary eigenvalues are finite. The distribution of eigenvalues is described by b and λ. Assume that C₁ is the curve in (b,λ)-plane on which the first two eigenvalues for three-dimensional waves collide at the imaginary axis, and that the intersection point of the curve C₁ with the line λ=1 is (b₀,1) where b₀>0. Two cases (b₀,1) and (b,λ) â C₁ where 0< b< b₀ are investigated. A center-manifold reduction technique and a normal form analysis are applied to show that for each case the dynamical system can be reduced to a system of ordinary differential equations with finite dimensions. The dominant system for the case (b₀,1) is coupled Schrödinger-KdV equations while it is a Schrödinger equation for another case (b,λ) â C₁. Then, from the existence of the homoclinic orbit connecting to the two-dimensional periodic solution (called generalized solitary wave) for the dominant system, it is obtained that such generalized solitary wave solution persists for the original system by using the perturbation method and adjusting some appropriate constants. / Ph. D.

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal. / Les objectifs pincipaux sont de caractériser le déclin visuo-constructif lié au vieillissement normal et de comparer ce profil à celui observé chez des patients atteints de démence de type Alzheimer à la lumière d'un cadre cognitif du traitement graphique. De telles études visent, entre autres, à l'identification d'outils neuropsychologiques d'évaluation qui permettront de valider le diagnostic de maladie d'Alzheimer du vivant du patient. Dans un premier temps, nous développons un cadre théorique illustrant le caractère multifactoriel du traitement graphique. Dans un deuxième temps, à partir de ce cadre théorique, nous évaluons directement chez les populations vieillissantes normales et atteintes de démence de type Alzheimer (DTA) trois habiletés sous-jacentes à la copie de figures. L'évaluation de ces dernières dans la DTA permettrait d'observer des différences entre les patients en début d'évolution, compte tenu de l'hétérogénéité dans la DT A, et de caractériser les différents profils de détérioration visuo-constructive selon la sévérité de la démence. Dans un but diagnostic, la comparaison des performances visuo-constructives des personnes âgées normales avec celles des patients DTA devraient apporter des indices de différenciations. Vingt-quatre sujets de plus de 60 ans et 13 jeunes adultes de moins de 40 ans, de scolarités similaires, ont participé à une première étude. De plus, huit patients qui rencontrent le diagnostic de démence de type Alzheimer probable et 24 sujets contrôles d'âge et de niveau d'éducation similaires ont participé à une deuxième étude. Tous les sujets ont été soumis à plusieurs tâches mesurant des habiletés visuo-constructives sous­tendant la copie de figures : tâches d'exploration visuelle, de jugement des relations spatiales coordonnées et catégorielles, de planification graphique. Dans la première étude, les performances des sujets âgés sur chaque habileté visuo­constructive sont significativement moins bonnes que celles des jeunes adultes, tel qu'analysées par le test t. De plus, seules les tâches de balayage visuel sont moins sensibles à l'âge. Dans la deuxième étude, la comparaison de groupes avec le test Mann-Whitney U montre que les patients DT A ont significativement plus de difficultés que les contrôles dans la copie de figures aux niveaux de l'exploration visuelle, du jugement des relations spatiales catégorielles et coordonnées, mais pas de la planification graphique. L'analyse des performances individuelles révèle que ce profil visuo-constructif demeure chez tous les patients présentant une apraxie visuo-constructive (AC), indépendamment de la sévérité de la démence. De plus, la sévérité des troubles visuo-constructifs évolue de façon homogène selon la sévérité de la démence. Les tâches d'exploration visuelle sont toutefois plus sensibles à la sévérité de la démence que les tâches de jugement des relations spatiales. Des variabilités individuelles sont également observées sans être forcément reliées à la sévérité de la démence. Des patients présentent des difficultés à juger davantage les relations spatiales catégorielles que coordonnées et d'autres patients présentent le profil inverse. De même, un patient ne présente pas de difficultés à copier des figures. Ces résultats suggèrent que les habiletés visuo-constructives évaluées ne permettent pas de distinguer qualitativement le vieillissement visuo-constructif normal de l' AC dans la DT A. De plus, la première manifestation de la DTA pourrait ne pas inclure l' AC étant donné que le patient le moins atteint cognitivement avait des performances quantitativement et qualitativement similaires à celles des contrôles. De nombreuses études demeurent à être effectuées de façon à mieux caractériser l' AC en début et en cours d'évolution de la DTA. Un modèle du traitement graphique ouvre de nombreuses voies dans l'étude de l'AC dans le vieillissement normal et pathologique. L' AC ne peut plus être considérée comme un trouble uniquement présent ou absent dans la DT A, mais un trouble dont les atteintes évoluent au cours de la maladie.

No / An investigation of the surface current distribution in a normal-mode helical antenna (NMHA) is reported. This enables precise prediction of the performance of NMHAs, since traditional wire-antenna simulations ignore important details, such as non-uniform and transverse current distributions. A moment-method formulation is developed, using two-dimensional basis functions to represent the total non-uniform surface current distribution over the surface of the wire of the helix. Piecewise-sinusoidal basis functions are employed in two normal directions, with an exact kernel formulation and application of Galerkin's solution method. The numerical solution of the singular integrals associated with self-impedance terms was computed with a very low relative error. The surface current distribution was computed for different helix geometries. It was found that the axially-directed component of the current distribution around the surface of the wire was highly non-uniform and that there was also a significant circumferential current flow due to inter-turn capacitance, both effects that are overlooked by standard filamentary current representations.

This dissertation is composed of three articles describing novel approaches for analysis and modeling using multivariate skew-normal and skew-t distributions in econometrics and environmetrics. In the first article we introduce the Heckman selection-t model. Sample selection arises often as a result of the partial observability of the outcome of interest in a study. In the presence of sample selection, the observed data do not represent a random sample from the population, even after controlling for explanatory variables. Heckman introduced a sample-selection model to analyze such data and proposed a full maximum likelihood estimation method under the assumption of normality. The method was criticized in the literature because of its sensitivity to the normality assumption. In practice, data, such as income or expenditure data, often violate the normality assumption because of heavier tails. We first establish a new link between sample-selection models and recently studied families of extended skew-elliptical distributions. This then allows us to introduce a selection-t model, which models the error distribution using a Student’s t distribution. We study its properties and investigate the finite-sample performance of the maximum likelihood estimators for this model. We compare the performance of the selection-t model to the Heckman selection model and apply it to analyze ambulatory expenditures. In the second article we introduce a family of multivariate log-skew-elliptical distributions, extending the list of multivariate distributions with positive support. We investigate their probabilistic properties such as stochastic representations, marginal and conditional distributions, and existence of moments, as well as inferential properties. We demonstrate, for example, that as for the log-t distribution, the positive moments of the log-skew-t distribution do not exist. Our emphasis is on two special cases, the log-skew-normal and log-skew-t distributions, which we use to analyze U.S. precipitation data. Many commonly used statistical methods assume that data are normally distributed. This assumption is often violated in practice which prompted the development of more flexible distributions. In the third article we describe two such multivariate distributions, the skew-normal and the skew-t, and present commands for fitting univariate and multivariate skew-normal and skew-t regressions in the statistical software package Stata.

SILVA, Mirelle Araújo da. A função do Jornal O Lavrador como meio difusor da formação do professor ruralista de Juazeiro do Norte. 2009. 125 f. Dissertação (Mestrado em Educação) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Faculdade de Educação, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação Brasileira, Fortaleza-CE, 2009. / Submitted by Raul Oliveira (raulcmo@hotmail.com) on 2012-08-08T14:07:25Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2009_DIS_MASILVA.pdf: 3275778 bytes, checksum: 235630e41eb2eb6e807eb8631e10a65d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Josineide Góis(josineide@ufc.br) on 2012-08-09T12:15:55Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2009_DIS_MASILVA.pdf: 3275778 bytes, checksum: 235630e41eb2eb6e807eb8631e10a65d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2012-08-09T12:15:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2009_DIS_MASILVA.pdf: 3275778 bytes, checksum: 235630e41eb2eb6e807eb8631e10a65d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / The present work deals with the teacher’s formation in the rural area of the State of Ceará, focusing on the teacher’s ideal of the Normal School of Juazeiro do Norte having as topic of research the newspaper O Lavrador during 1934 through 1974, a period that corresponds to the early years of functioning of that School until its closing. This research found that the foundation of that educational institution had as its main goal to make available to the students a rural education because this objective is directly realated to the historical valorization of the agriculture by the northeastern rural agrarian elite, as a vital way to achieve the progress after 1930 Revolution. The aims of this research were: 1) Set up the commented chronology of the school in order to allow a reflexive appreciation of its trajectory. 2) Understand the pedagogical bases of the school, focusing on the rural thought and the support of the New School directrixes. 3) Try to identify and to analyse the changings and the continuities in the formation proposals of the teachers through the 113 issues published during the period of time mentioned above(1934-1974). We used historic and printed sources, these undestood in their multiple possibilities of materialization, cross reference and interpretation, using as an universe of search 113 editions of the O Lavrador, once this newspaper was published for this very school, and distributed by it in the first year of his foundation. We tried to show the results obtained in the contents examining, emphasizing the attention given by that paper on subjects related to the agricultural worker’s life, main events and pedagogical pactices of the school and the divers articles written by the very students. The five decades studied in which the paper existed, allowed us to delimitate de differences and we were able to identify the following features: 1) 1930 – it was the beginning and also the golden era of the school showing the prestige and the notoriety of the Pedagogical Ruralism had in the education of Ceará State; 1940 – the continuity of the previous decade with intense activities; 3) 1950 – is remembered as the time of the publication of many speeches on Ruralims and the celebration of the birthday of Mrs. Amélia; 4) 1960 – it is the beginning of the decline of the issuing of the newspaper and 5) 1970 – it is the end of the school due to the lack of the rural spirit that animate the school during its entire life. The trajectory of the paper was one of deep finnancial difficulties. The word “fight” is always linked to the celebration of the anniversary of the paper as a demonstration of the finnancial difficulties faced by that institution. / Trata da formação docente no meio rural cearense, enfocando o ideal de professor formado na Escola Normal Rural de Juazeiro do Norte tendo como objeto de pesquisa o Jornal O Lavrador, no período de 1934 à 1974, que compreende os primeiros anos do seu funcionamento e até o fechamento desse Estabelecimento de Ensino. Evidencia que o surgimento da referida Escola, baseia-se no propósito de oferecer aos seus alunos uma educação rural, teve relação estreita com o momento histórico de valorização da agricultura pela elite agrária e nordestina, como meio indispensável para a conquista do progresso, após a Revolução de 1930. Os objetivos desta pesquisa foram: 1) Traçar a cronologia comentada da Escola, possibilitando uma reflexão de sua trajetória; 2) Compreender as bases pedagógicas da Escola, enfocando o pensamento ruralista e o apoio das diretrizes da Escola Nova; e 3) Identificar e analisar as mudanças e continuidades na proposta de formação de professores através do estudo das 113 edições publicadas no período de 1934 a 1974. Utiliza fontes historiográficas e impressas, compreendendo-as em suas múltiplas possibilidades de materialização, cruzamento e interpretação, privilegiando 113 exemplares do periódico Jornal O Lavrador, cujo valor consiste em ter sido produzido pela própria escola, que iniciou sua circulação ainda no primeiro ano de fundação daquela instituição. Apresenta os resultados obtidos na análise de conteúdo realizada, destacando a ênfase dada por aquele jornal aos assuntos ligados à vida do lavrador, principais eventos e práticas pedagógicas da escola e diversos artigos escritos pelos próprios alunos. As cinco décadas estudadas e pelas quais o jornal atravessou, permitiram delimitar diferenças e podemos considerar as seguintes características: 1)1930 – marca o inicio da fase áurea da Escola evidenciando o prestígio e a notoriedade que o Ruralismo Pedagógico ocupava na educação cearense; 2) 1940 – a continuidade da década anterior com intensas atividades; 3) 1950 – é marcado pela publicação de palestras sobre o Ruralismo e a comemoração do aniversário de Dona Amália; 4) 1960 – o início do declínio da publicação dos jornais; e 5) 1970 – o fim da Escola é marcado pela ausência do fervor ruralista que iluminou a Escola durante todo o seu funcionamento. Evidencia A trajetória de circulação do jornal O Lavrador é assinalada por intensas dificuldades no que se refere ao custeamento do periódico. Vale ressaltar, que a palavra luta que sempre aparece vinculada a comemoração do aniversário do periódico demonstrando as dificuldades travadas de cunho econômico.

To extract the best possible information from geodetic and geophysical observations, it is necessary to select a model of the observation errors, mostly the family of Gaussian normal distributions. However, there are alternatives, typically chosen in the framework of robust M-estimation. We give a synopsis of well-known and less well-known models for observation errors and propose to select a model based on information criteria. In this contribution we compare the Akaike information criterion (AIC) and the Anderson Darling (AD) test and apply them to the test problem of fitting a straight line. The comparison is facilitated by a Monte Carlo approach. It turns out that the model selection by AIC has some advantages over the AD test.

To extract the best possible information from geodetic and geophysical observations, it is necessary to select a model of the observation errors, mostly the family of Gaussian normal distributions. However, there are alternatives, typically chosen in the framework of robust M-estimation. We give a synopsis of well-known and less well-known models for observation errors and propose to select a model based on information criteria. In this contribution we compare the Akaike information criterion (AIC) and the Anderson Darling (AD) test and apply them to the test problem of fitting a straight line. The comparison is facilitated by a Monte Carlo approach. It turns out that the model selection by AIC has some advantages over the AD test.