Les applications de flux de données sont des cibles importantes de l’optimisation de programme en raison de leur haute exigence de calcul et la diversité de leurs domaines d’application: communication, systèmes embarqués, multimédia, etc. L’un des problèmes les plus importants et difficiles dans la conception des langages de programmation destinés à ce genre d’applications est comment les ordonnancer à grain fin à fin d’exploiter les ressources disponibles de la machine.Dans cette thèse on propose un "framework" pour l’ordonnancement à grain fin des applications de flux de données et des boucles imbriquées en général. Premièrement on essaye de paralléliser le nombre maximum de boucles en appliquant le pipeline logiciel. Après on merge le prologue et l’épilogue de chaque boucle (phase) parallélisée pour éviter l’augmentation de la taille du code. Ce processus est un pipeline multidimensionnel, quelques occurrences (ou instructions) sont décalées par des iterations de la boucle interne et d’autres occurrences (instructions) par des iterationsde la boucle externe. Les expériences montrent que l’application de cette technique permet l’amélioration des performances, extraction du parallélisme sans augmenter la taille du code, à la fois dans le cas des applications de flux des donnée et des boucles imbriquées en général. / Applications based on streams, ordered sequences of data values, are important targets of program optimization because of their high computational requirements and the diversity of their application domains: communication, embedded systems, multimedia, etc. One of the most important and difficult problems in special purpose stream language design and implementation is how to schedule these applications in a fine-grain way to exploit available machine resources In this thesis we propose a framework for fine-grain scheduling of streaming applications and nested loops in general. First, we try to pipeline steady state phases (inner loops), by finding the repeated kernel pattern, and executing actor occurrences in parallel as much as possible. Then we merge the kernel prolog and epilog of pipelined phases to move them out of the outer loop. Merging the kernel prolog and epilog means that we shift acotor occurrences, or instructions, from one phase iteration to another and from one outer loop iteration to another, a multidimensional shifting. Experimental shows that our framwork can imporove perfomance, prallelism extraction without increasing the code size, in streaming applications and nested loops in general.

Les algorithmes des systèmes temps réels incluent de plus en plus de nids de boucles, qui sont caractérisés par un temps d’exécution important. De ce fait, plusieurs démarches de parallélisme des boucles imbriquées ont été proposées dans l’objectif de réduire leurs temps d’exécution. Ces démarches peuvent être classifiées selon deux niveaux de granularité : le parallélisme au niveau des itérations et le parallélisme au niveau des instructions. Dans le cas du deuxième niveau de granularité, les techniques visent à atteindre un parallélisme total des instructions appartenant à une même itération. Cependant, le parallélisme est contraint par les dépendances des données inter-itérations ce qui implique le décalage des instructions à travers les boucles imbriquées, provocant ainsi une augmentation du code proportionnelle au niveau du parallélisme. Par conséquent, le parallélisme total au niveau des instructions des nids de boucles engendre des implémentations avec des temps d’exécution non-optimaux et des tailles du code importantes. Les travaux de cette thèse s’intéressent à l’amélioration des stratégies de parallélisme des nids de boucles. Une première contribution consiste à proposer une nouvelle technique de parallélisme au niveau des instructions baptisée « retiming multidimensionnel décalé ». Elle vise à ordonnancer les nids de boucles avec une période de cycle minimale, sans atteindre un parallélisme total. Une deuxième contribution consiste à mettre en pratique notre technique dans le contexte de l’implémentation temps réel embarquée des nids de boucles. L’objectif est de respecter la contrainte du temps d’exécution tout en utilisant un code de taille minimale. Dans ce contexte, nous avons proposé une première démarche d’optimisation qui consiste à utiliser notre technique pour déterminer le niveau parallélisme minimal. Par la suite, nous avons décrit une deuxième démarche permettant de combiner les parallélismes au niveau des instructions et au niveau des itérations, en utilisant notre technique et le « loop striping » / The real time implementation algorithms always include nested loops which require important execution times. Thus, several nested loop parallelism techniques have been proposed with the aim of decreasing their execution times. These techniques can be classified in terms of granularity, which are the iteration level parallelism and the instruction level parallelism. In the case of the instruction level parallelism, the techniques aim to achieve a full parallelism. However, the loop carried dependencies implies shifting instructions in both side of nested loops. Consequently, these techniques provide implementations with non-optimal execution times and important code sizes, which represent limiting factors when implemented on embedded real-time systems. In this work, we are interested on enhancing the parallelism strategies of nested loops. The first contribution consists of purposing a novel instruction level parallelism technique, called “delayed multidimensional retiming”. It aims to scheduling the nested loops with the minimal cycle period, without achieving a full parallelism. The second contribution consists of employing the “delayed multidimensional retiming” when providing nested loop implementations on real time embedded systems. The aim is to respect an execution time constraint while using minimal code size. In this context, we proposed a first approach that selects the minimal instruction parallelism level allowing the execution time constraint respect. The second approach employs both instruction level parallelism and iteration level parallelism, by using the “delayed multidimensional retiming” and the “loop striping”

A comparação e seleção de modelos estatísticos desempenham um papel fundamental dentro da análise econométrica. No que se trata especificamente da avaliação de modelos não aninhados, o procedimento de teste denominado de J-Teste aparece como uma ferramenta de uso freqüente nessa literatura. De acordo com apontamentos, entre os anos de 1984 e 2004 o J-Teste foi citado em 497 artigos pertinentes. Diferentemente do J-Teste, as abordagens Bayesianas possuem um potencial de aplicabilidade ainda pouco explorado na literatura, dado que são metodologicamente coerentes com os procedimentos inferenciais da econometria. Nesse sentido, o objetivo do presente trabalho é o de avaliar a aplicabilidade do procedimento de teste Bayesiano FBST para a comparação de modelos econométricos não aninhados. Implementando-se o FBST para os mesmos dados de estudos estatísticos relevantes na Teoria Econômica, tais como Bremmer (2003) (Curva de Phillips) e Caporale e Grier (2000) (determinação da taxa de juros real), constata-se que os resultados obtidos apontam para conclusões semelhantes daquelas delineadas com a utilização do J-Teste. Além disso, ao se utilizar a noção de função poder para avaliar ambos os procedimentos de teste, observa-se que sob certas condições as chances de erro expressas pelo Erro Tipo I e Erro Tipo II se tornam relativamente próximas. / The comparison and selection of statistical models play an important role in econometric analysis. Dealing with evaluation of non nested models, the test procedure called J-Test is a frequently used tool in the literature. Accordingly to statistics, between the years 1894 and 2004 the J-Test was cited on 497 pertinent articles. Differently from J-Test, the Bayesian theories have an unexplored applicability potential in the literature, once they are methodologically coherent with the standard procedures of inference in econometrics. In this sense, the objective of this essay is to evaluate the applicability of the Bayesian procedure FBST to comparison of non nested econometric models. Implementing the FBST to the same data of some relevant statistical studies in Economic Theory, like Bremmer (2003) (Phillips Curve) and Caporale and Grier (2000) (real interest rate determination), it can be seen that the results obtained point to the same conclusions as that attained with J-Test utilization. Besides that, when implementing the power function to evaluate both test procedures, it can be observed that under some conditions the error chances expressed by Error Type I and Error Type II become relatively close.

A comparação e seleção de modelos estatísticos desempenham um papel fundamental dentro da análise econométrica. No que se trata especificamente da avaliação de modelos não aninhados, o procedimento de teste denominado de J-Teste aparece como uma ferramenta de uso freqüente nessa literatura. De acordo com apontamentos, entre os anos de 1984 e 2004 o J-Teste foi citado em 497 artigos pertinentes. Diferentemente do J-Teste, as abordagens Bayesianas possuem um potencial de aplicabilidade ainda pouco explorado na literatura, dado que são metodologicamente coerentes com os procedimentos inferenciais da econometria. Nesse sentido, o objetivo do presente trabalho é o de avaliar a aplicabilidade do procedimento de teste Bayesiano FBST para a comparação de modelos econométricos não aninhados. Implementando-se o FBST para os mesmos dados de estudos estatísticos relevantes na Teoria Econômica, tais como Bremmer (2003) (Curva de Phillips) e Caporale e Grier (2000) (determinação da taxa de juros real), constata-se que os resultados obtidos apontam para conclusões semelhantes daquelas delineadas com a utilização do J-Teste. Além disso, ao se utilizar a noção de função poder para avaliar ambos os procedimentos de teste, observa-se que sob certas condições as chances de erro expressas pelo Erro Tipo I e Erro Tipo II se tornam relativamente próximas. / The comparison and selection of statistical models play an important role in econometric analysis. Dealing with evaluation of non nested models, the test procedure called J-Test is a frequently used tool in the literature. Accordingly to statistics, between the years 1894 and 2004 the J-Test was cited on 497 pertinent articles. Differently from J-Test, the Bayesian theories have an unexplored applicability potential in the literature, once they are methodologically coherent with the standard procedures of inference in econometrics. In this sense, the objective of this essay is to evaluate the applicability of the Bayesian procedure FBST to comparison of non nested econometric models. Implementing the FBST to the same data of some relevant statistical studies in Economic Theory, like Bremmer (2003) (Phillips Curve) and Caporale and Grier (2000) (real interest rate determination), it can be seen that the results obtained point to the same conclusions as that attained with J-Test utilization. Besides that, when implementing the power function to evaluate both test procedures, it can be observed that under some conditions the error chances expressed by Error Type I and Error Type II become relatively close.

One of the most prevalent inherited diseases is cystic fibrosis. This disease is caused by a mutation in a membrane protein, the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR). CFTR is known to function as a chloride channel that regulates the viscosity of mucus that lines the ducts of a number of organs. Generally, most of the prevalent mutations of CFTR are located in one of two nucleotide binding domains, namely, the nucleotide binding domain 1 (NBD1). However, some mutations in nucleotide binding domain 2 (NBD2) can equally cause cystic fibrosis. In this work, a hierarchical graph is built for NBD2. Using this model for NBD2, we examine the consequence of single point mutations on NBD2. We collate the wildtype structure with eight of the most prevalent mutations and observe how the NBD2 is affected by each of these mutations.

Dietary factors may affect development and progression of prostate cancer. Experimental and epidemiological studies have suggested an effect of phytoestrogens on prostate cancer. Lignans are the predominant phytoestrogen in a Western diet. The effects of a diet rich in phytoestrogens and in particular lignans, as compared to a control diet, were assessed in several prostate cancer models. In paper I, 70 athymic nude mice with transplanted subcutaneous LNCaP tumours, an androgen sensitive human prostate cancer cell line, were fed one out of six phytoestrogen rich diets or a control diet after tumour injection. The rye diet, with high lignan content, decreased tumour take and growth, decreased secretion of prostate specific antigen and increased apoptosis. Addition of fat to the rye diet decreased the beneficial effects. In paper II, transgenic mice designed to develop prostate cancer (TRAMP) were fed rye bran or a control diet from the age of four weeks. Rye bran decreased prostate epithelial cell volume by 20%, and increased cell apoptosis by 31% as compared to the control diet. In paper III, we examined the effects of 7-hydroxymatairesinol (HMR), a purified lignan, in nude mice with subcutaneous LNCaP tumours in two different concentrations as compared to a control diet. Mice on the HMR diets had a reduced tumour take rate, lower total tumour volume, increased proportion of non-growing tumours, and increased apoptosis as compared to the control diet. Paper IV was a three week intervention study exploring the effects of rye bran bread vs. a control diet in men with prostate cancer. The men in the rye group had increased levels of plasma enterolactone and in biopsies from the prostate after the intervention an increase in apoptosis was observed in comparison with biopsies obtained before the intervention. In paper V, we examined the association between plasma levels of enterolactone, and risk of prostate cancer in a nested case control study. In the Northern Sweden Health and Disease Cohort, enterolactone concentrations were measured in plasma obtained at a mean time of 5 years before diagnosis from 265 cases of prostate cancer, and from 525 matched controls. We found no significant association between plasma enterolactone and risk of prostate cancer. Men with very low enterolactone levels (bottom decile) however, had significantly higher risk of prostate cancer. Phytoestrogen rich diet including soy, rye bran, substances purified from rye, and a purified lignan (HMR) all inhibited prostate tumour growth. However, it cannot be concluded that the effects observed were due solely to lignans as other components in rye grain such as tannins, phytic acid, ferulic acid, vitamins and minerals may have contributed to the beneficial effects. Thus, additional studies are needed to further elucidate the effects of phytoestrogens on prostate cancer development and progression.

This dissertation aims to contribute to the field of economics of competition policy by analyzing the demand structure and the market power in the Turkish beverage industry and in the cola market in particular. First, a demand system for the beverage products has been estimated by using a multi-stage linearized Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS). Using the own-price elasticity of cola in a SSNIP test (Small but Significant Non-Transitory Increase in Price), it is shown that cola market consists of a distinct relevant product market. Then, the demand elasticities of cola products at brand and package level have been estimated by the simple and nested logit models. Finally, the estimated demand elasticities of cola products have been used in measuring the degree of market power and predicting the effects of a hypothetical merger between Pepsi and Cola Turca by using a merger simulation technique. The results show that all cola suppliers have large price-cost margins for most of their products. Prices of the merging parties increase in average by 15 - 21% after the merger. The merger also causes the market price to increase by 16- 22% and consumer surplus to decrease by nearly 5% in average. Finally, depending on these results, the thesis recommends a stricter merger control criterion than dominance criterion for competition policy in Turkey.

In this work, we study some generalized multipartite access structures and linear secret sharing schemes for their realizations. Given a multipartite set of participants with m compartments (or levels) and m conditions to be satisfied by an authorized set, we firstly examine the intermediary access structures arousing from the natural case concerning that any c out of m of these conditions suffice, instead of requiring anyone or all of the m conditions simultaneously, yielding to generalizations for both the compartmented and hierarchical cases. These are realized essentially by employing a series of Lagrange interpolations and a simple frequently-used connective tool called access structure product, as well as some known constructions for existing ideal schemes. The resulting schemes are non-ideal but perfect. We also consider nested multipartite access structures, where we let a compartment to be defined within another, so that the access structure is composed of some multipartite substructures. We extend formerly employed bivariate interpolation techniques to multivariate interpolation, in order to realize such access structures. The generic scheme we consider is perfect with a high probability such as 1-O(1/q) on a finite field F_q. In particular, we propose a non-nested generalization for the conventional compartmented access structures, which depicts a stronger way of controlling the additional participants.

Recent advances in travel demand modeling have concentrated on adding behavioral realism by focusing on an individual’s activity participation. And, to account for trip-chaining, tour-based methods are largely replacing trip-based methods. Alongside these advances and innovations in dynamic traffic assignment (DTA) techniques, however, time-of-day (TOD) modeling remains an Achilles’ heel. As congestion worsens and operators turn to variable road pricing, sensors are added to networks, cell phones are GPS-enabled, and DTA techniques become practical, accurate time-of-day forecasts become critical. In addition, most models highlight tradeoffs between travel time and cost, while neglecting variations in travel time. Research into stated and revealed choices suggests that travel time variability can be highly consequential. This dissertation introduces a method for imputing travel time variability information as a continuous function of time-of-day, while utilizing an existing method for imputing average travel times (by TOD). The methods employ ordinary least squares (OLS) regression techniques, and rely on reported travel time information from survey data (typically available to researchers), as well as travel time and distance estimates by origin-destination (OD) pair for free-flow and peak-period conditions from network data. This dissertation also develops two models of activity timing that recognize the imputed average travel times and travel time variability. Both models are based in random utility theory and both recognize potential correlations across time-of-day alternatives. In addition, both models are estimated in a Bayesian framework using Gibbs sampling and Metropolis-Hastings (MH) algorithms, and model estimation relies on San Francisco Bay Area data collected in 2000. The first model is the continuous cross-nested logit (CCNL) and represents tour outbound departure time choice in a continuous context (rather than discretizing time) over an entire day. The model is formulated as a generalization of the discrete cross-nested logit (CNL) for continuous choice and represents the first random utility maximization model to incorporate the ability to capture correlations across alternatives in a continuous choice context. The model is then compared to the continuous logit, which represents a generalization of the multinomial logit (MNL) for continuous choice. Empirical results suggest that the CCNL out-performs the continuous logit in terms of predictive accuracy and reasonableness of predictions for three tolling policy simulations. Moreover, while this dissertation focuses on time-of-day modeling, the CCNL could be used in a number of other continuous choice contexts (e.g., location/destination, vehicle usage, trip durations, and profit-maximizing production). The second model is a bivariate multinomial probit (BVMNP) model. While the model relies on discretization of time (into 30-minute intervals), it captures both key dimensions of a tour’s timing (rather than just one, as in this dissertation’s application of the CCNL model), which is important for tour- and activity-based models of travel demand. The BVMNP’s ability to capture correlations across scheduling alternatives is something no existing two-dimensional choice models of tour timing can claim. Both models represent substantial contributions for continuous choice modeling in transportation, business, biology, and various other fields. In addition, the empirical results of the models evaluated here enhance our understanding of individuals’ time-of-day decisions. For instance, average travel time and its variance are estimated to have a negative effect on workers’ utilities, as expected, but are not found to be that practically relevant here, probably because most workers are rather constrained in their activity scheduling and/or work hours. However, correlations are found to be rather strong in both models, particularly for home-to-work journeys, suggesting that if models fail to accommodate such correlations, biased application results may emerge. / text

This research explores the link between a gravity model and welfare frameworks and then applies the quantitative model system to analyze how trade and welfare is affected by the Minimum Required Performance Limits (MRPL) in the shrimp importing market of European Union. The quantitative model system consists of two parts: first, this study uses the “phi-ness” gravity model to investigate the trade effects of MRPL on EU shrimp market. The “phi-ness” gravity model partitions the standard variables to avoid biased estimation caused by the correlation between time and country fixed effects and policy variables. The Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood (PPML) method is incorporated into the estimation in order to control for the zero valued observations. Second, based on the theoretic foundation of the gravity model, this research sets up the specific nested Constant Elasticity of Substitution (CES) model of consumers’ utility and further explores the linkage between these two models. The nested CES model incorporates the effects of MRPL on consumers’ confidence in domestic food as well as foreign food imported from developed and developing countries. The empirical results confirm a consistent fact with previous empirical studies: stricter MRPL has significant and negative effects on trade integration between EU and trading partners with lower level of food safety standards. The welfare analysis shows that the zero tolerance policy of MRPL standard would dramatically enhance consumers’ demand for domestic shrimps and foreign shrimps imported from developed countries but reduce the quantity of shrimp supplied from developing countries. It is also indicated that the increased level of MRPL lead to an increase in welfare of domestic consumers, suppliers in developing countries, and in total international trade, as well as a decrease in the welfare of domestic suppliers and foreign suppliers from developed countries. The empirical results also indicate that the combination of GM and Welfare Approach can also be applied to research on other standards or other industries.