Projecting performance of applications and hardware is important to several market segments—hardware designers, software developers, supercomputing centers, and end users. Hardware designers estimate performance of current applications on future systems when designing new hardware. Software developers make performance estimates to evaluate performance of their code on different architectures and input datasets. Supercomputing centers try to optimize the process of matching computing resources to computing needs. End users requesting time on supercomputers must provide estimates of their application’s run time, and incorrect estimates can lead to wasted supercomputing resources and time. However, application performance is challenging to predict because it is affected by several factors in application code, specifications of system hardware, choice of compilers, compiler flags, and libraries. This dissertation uses statistical techniques to model and optimize performance of scientific applications across different computer processors. The first study in this research offers statistical models that predict performance of an application across different input datasets prior to application execution. These models guide end users to select parameters that produce optimal application performance during execution. The second study offers a suite of statistical models that predict performance of a new application on a new processor. Both studies present statistical techniques that can be generalized to analyze, optimize, and predict performance of diverse computation- and data-intensive applications on different hardware.

The purpose of this document is to investigate how trumpet students at the University of North Texas experience music performance anxiety and to find out how professors prepare students for controlling music performance anxiety experiences. The interviewees were ten undergraduates and ten graduate students, as well as three trumpet professors who teach at the University of North Texas. The questionnaire responses of the student interviewees were examined, and literature is provided that address the most common performance related psychological and physiological symptoms experienced by the trumpet students. Effective and healthy strategies are discussed that were offered by the trumpet professors, and suggestions are made regarding potential benefits and detriments of trumpet performance anxiety.

This study analyses, over a three-year period, a theatre programme with forensic psychiatric patients and staff at Fort England psychiatric hospital in Grahamstown/Makhanda, South Africa. Framed as a ‘theatrical playground', programme sessions were structured around theatre games, improvisation and devised theatre processes that culminated in playmaking at the end of each session. Participation in the group was voluntary and constructed to allow involvement in theatrical play on its own terms, set apart from the therapeutic and rehabilitation agendas that govern the institution. By means of a conceptually-driven critical analysis of the empirical practice, the study explores the ethical tensions and possibilities of locating all participants as political actors with agency to develop the stories, characters, and images they choose for themselves. It juxtaposes the democratic principles of the theatre space with the oppression and control of psychiatry when viewed as a Total Institution. I draw on the work of Michel Foucault and Erving Goffman in order to conceptualise a history and critique of psychiatry, and to contextualise how colonial psychiatry developed in South Africa. I compare manifestations of power and control that are part of forensic psychiatric practices with the political possibilities of different resistant theatre spaces, such as the work of the Olimpias artist collective and the Madness Hotel (Vitor Pordeus). I show how these examples, and the theatre project researched here, approach all participants as authors and makers of and on the world. I deploy a Vygotskian lens to discern how participants collectively create a Zone of Proximal Development, which explains the profound shifts in learning and skills observed in participants considered as low functioning or beyond treatment or rehabilitation. The study analyses three aspects of the practice: video documentation of selected workshops and performances; interviews with patient and staff participants; and my reflective practitioner field notes - in order to build the case for the radically humanising effect of the theatre playground. My analysis of key moments in the theatre practice highlights the ways in which patient-participants perform ‘a head taller' than clinical staff's expectations, when offered opportunities to experiment with relationships by means of embodied practices in a creative process set apart from the therapeutic gaze. Reflective and critical analysis of the practice reveals three types of experience in particular: first, hope as an overall affect that aligns with a recovery approach to mental health; secondly, how participation is experienced as humanising by disrupting and playing with institutionalised roles and bodies; and finally, how permission to play with the roles, narratives, and the power structures of psychiatry as an institution, reoriented participants as political actors in relation to the forensic hospital and the wider world. These experiences challenge the stigma and positioning of forensic psychiatric patients as incapable, outside of culture and humanity, and reposition them as legitimate knowers and creators.

This study aimed to explore the lived experiences of expert performing musicians and the relationship between the flow and clutch optimal performance states. Five professional pianists were interviewed to gain an understanding of their experiences of optimal performance states during performance. The study took a constructivist-interpretivist approach situated in the phenomenological paradigm. It made use of multiple case studies, and data were gathered through semi-structured interviews. The data were analysed through Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), as proposed by Smith, Flower and Larkin (2009). Three superordinate themes were identified: Performance-related experiences of flow; The experience of clutch and choke during performance; and Coping skill and performance conditions, which were all discussed relative to ten subordinate themes. It was found that flow and clutch experiences in a music context are predominantly similar to those found in other contexts such as sport. Flow and clutch experiences in a musical context were shown to be distinctive from other fields due to specific task completion requirements. By comparing findings to the proposed Integrated Model of Flow and Clutch by Swann et al. (2017b, 2017c), findings show that the model adequately represents flow as an antecedent of clutch in a music context, and the results provide detailed insights on the experience of optimal performance states in expert performing musicians. The study concludes that clutch is a deeper element of flow, and these optimal performance states are experienced in many similar and distinctive ways compared to existing research in sport psychology. Various non-cognitive traits play a large role in an individual’s ability to obtain and successfully maintain flow and clutch performance states. / Dissertation (MMus (Performing Art))--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Music / MMus (Performing Art) / Unrestricted

In this dissertation I examine mutual fund performance from the points of view of three distinct, but interrelated parties: individual investors, financial advisors, and the boards of directors of mutual fund companies. In the first essay, "Comparing Fund Flow Sensitivity for Load and No-Load Funds Under Different Market States," I compare the flow-performance sensitivity of no-load funds and the three main classes of load fund shares, assuming investment advisors are more likely to guide the decision-making process of load fund investors. I find that load investors are more sensitive to raw fund return than are no-load investors. The flow to performance relation increases during good market states, but portfolios formed from the top performing funds after good market years actually tend to underperform during the following three years. In the second essay, "Mutual Fund Performance and Board Characteristics Relating to Manager Terminations," I examine the timing of the decision to replace fund managers. I find that while returns and flows improve for those funds which replace their managers, very similar improvement is found in funds which do not terminate their managers. However, for mutual fund boards which do choose to replace a poorly performing manager, stronger board governance characteristics are associated with a greater probability of early replacement. In the third essay, "Mutual Fund Performance in Extreme Market States," I examine performance of actively managed mutual funds separately for good and bad states of the market to test whether mutual funds perform differently under different market conditions. I find that the sample of funds performs 2.3 percentage points better in good states over bad on a risk adjusted basis. I also analyze the performance of mutual funds by assuming individual funds are part of a larger, more complete portfolio. The performance of the portfolios closely matches that of the individual funds.

In this dissertation I explore the phenomenon that Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht calls "presence effects" as it is illuminated through encounters with performance art. In Chapter One I describe what is meant by materialities of communication and outline three heuristic features of materiality. In Chapter Two I define performance generally as a mode of action and performance art as a mode of encounter. Chapters Three, Four, and Five utilize the theoretical foundations established in Chapters One and Two to examine the work of three performance artists: Carey Young, Tim Miller and my own performance persona, Reddy the Robot. Finally, in Chapter Six I concretize the potential utility this dissertation may hold for readers interested in materiality, presence, and performance art. Ultimately I argue that tuning into presence effects (as present in performance art and otherwise) can help underscore the value of presence, rethink what limits mean, and highlight the irreducibility of the body.

This thesis intends to explore the strategies, consequences and goals of acting in one of the most celebrated western artforms: opera. Told primarily through a first person narrative, and project based, the research of this piece culminated in three semesters teaching Oprea Workshop through Boyer School of Music at Temple University. Research methods included: Directing work before graduate school; Interviews and surveys with collaborators;Personal observation; and Scholastic work surrounding historic acting teachers. The main finding: My goals as a director and educator mimic many of the acting teachers before me: to connect gestures to the internal life of the performer and to strive towards a more perfect amalgamation of music text and stagecraft in presenting both new work and inherited repertoire for opera. I found disparities not in the goals, but in the “how”. My findings through my work are that the “how” is in bravery, kindness, and empowerment of the singer. Through scaffolded and varied techniques, each performer can cultivate their own collaborative strategies when developing characters and integrating movement into their vocal performances and storytelling. An empowered singer is an effective singer that can live and advocate for better art holistically in this world. / Theater

AbstractHungarian violinists have been influencing the classical music world for centuries, and the lineage of great artists worldwide can often be traced back to Hungarian violinists. Jenö Hubay has been the person who brought this tradition worldwide; his reputation and renown have elevated the Hungarian violin school to the point where it is considered equally as prominent as the other famous schools (German, French or Russian violin school traditions). This dissertation aims to give an overall picture of Hungary historically, how the violin tradition developed through the centuries, and how it has influenced later generations of musicians. The dissertation will first give a brief historical background of Europe in the 19th century. After this first introductory chapter, the dissertation will explore the predecessors of Hubay. Then, the life of Hubay will be examined, from his student years until his mature age. The chapter to follow will discuss his successful teaching, violin method and philosophy. Hubay was known for his detailed approach to teaching the violin, starting from the very basics of posture leading to the complex technical challenges of the left and right hands. Then, the dissertation will discuss how influential Hubay is as a person in Hungary. Finally, the international legacy of the Hubay school will be examined through his successful students. / Music Performance

This study was designed to investigate carbohydrate supplementation during cheerleading training and its effect on performance. Seventeen participants in four trials; one to gather anthropometric data and 1-repetition maximums, one familiarization trial, a carbohydrate trial, and a placebo trial. The exercises used were power snatches from a hang position, push jerks, front squats, and box squats. The exercises most mimicked a standard strength and conditioning practice for cheerleaders. Performance was measured by calculating the difference between pre- and post-training values in vertical jump repetitions, peak power, average power, peak velocity, and average velocity in a power snatch, and a 200-m shuttle sprint. Performance values for carbohydrate and placebo trials were analyzed using a paired sample t-test, which found no significant difference between the carbohydrate and placebo trials.

ASHRAE Standard 139 provides parameters which are used in the desiccant industry to calculate the performance of a desiccant dehumidifier. This performance can be obtained from any manufacturer by means of performance curves or selection software. However, these performance parameters are generally rated at sea-level conditions. Although some manufacturers provide a means for estimating the performance at altitude based on sea-level conditions, there is no set methodology that is accepted by all. The scope of this project involves investigating how the performance parameters are affected by altitude and develop a general methodology that can be applied to any desiccant wheel. Mississippi State University and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory both conducted tests and compared the results. It was found that, by keeping mass flow rate, inlet temperature, and inlet humidity ratio constant between sea-level and altitude, the pressure drop through the wheel was influenced the most by altitude.