Suppose that <b>X</b> and <b>Y</b> are Banach couples and suppose that there is a bounded linear couple map Q from <b>Y</b> to <b>X</b> which has the property that Q restricted to the endpoint spaces is injective and the images of the endpointspaces of <b>Y</b> are closed in the endpoint spaces of <b>X</b>, then we say that <b>Y</b> is a subcouple of <b>X.</b> If F is an interpolation functor we want to know how F(<b>Y</b>) is related to F(<b>X</b>). In particular we want to know for which F it holds that Q is an injection that maps F(<b>Y</b>) onto a closed subspace of F(<b>X</b>). In recent years interest has been paid to subcouples of finite codimension and in particular to subcouples of codimension one. We will in this thesis present an interpolation theory for subcouples of codimension one and then generalize it to finite codimension. Our theory will include both a larger class of couples and a larger class of interpolation functors than earlier results. The interpolation method that will be considered is the regular real method. Our general theory will imply older results by Kalton, Ivanov and Löfström. We will use the theory to answer questions about Hardy-type inequalities that were raised by Krugljak, Maligranda and Persson in 1999 and our new theory will also answer a question concerning interpolation of Banach algebras.

Con la reducción de los niveles de plomo en sangre desde una media de 3,8 μg/dL que tenían los niños de la Comunidad de Madrid en el año 1995 a una media de 1,1 μg/dL que tienen en al año 2010, se han dejado de perder entre 135.391 y 144.153 puntos de cociente intelectual (CI) entre los niños de 7-8 años, sin tener en cuenta los puntos que se pierden en el tramo por debajo de los 2,4 μg/dL, que a fecha de hoy, no está cuantificado. La capacidad de producción ganada a lo largo de la vida laboral (o los beneficios obtenidos derivados de la disminución de los niveles de plomo en la sangre de los niños de la Comunidad de Madrid), se estima en un abanico que se encontraría entre los 626,4 y los 865,4 millones de euros para toda la vida laboral de los niños de la cohorte de 7-8 años de edad. / With the reduction in blood lead levels from a mean of 3.8 mg / dL who were children of the Community of Madrid in 1995 to an average of 1.1 mg / dL who are in the year 2010, have stopped losing between 135,391 and 144,153 points of intelligence quotient (IQ) among children aged 7-8 years, regardless of the points lost in the section below 2.4 mg / dL, which date, not quantified. Production capacity gained throughout working life (or proceeds derived from the reduction of lead levels in the blood of the children of the Community of Madrid), is estimated in a range that would be among the 626,4 to 865,4 million euros for the entire career of the cohort of children 7-8 years old.

L'intelligence humaine devient parfois l'objet de critiques et de préjugés de la part de gens qui la méconnaissent, les niveaux et les champs de celle-ci peuvent alors être perçus comme des tabous puisqu'ils sous-entendent une comparaison, une compétition, une supériorité des capacités intellectuelles ou une diminution du potentiel selon le cas. De plus, lorsqu'un élève intellectuellement doué démontre des indices de sous performance scolaire et de troubles d'adaptation, son entourage est parfois perplexe puisqu'il est commun de penser que les gens intelligents ont tout pour réussir aisément. Enfin, dans des circonstances où d'autres personnes supérieurement intelligentes ont des écarts de comportement ou se démarquent dans certaines réalisations, il est courant d'entendre la populaire phrase «le génie frise la folie». La question du lien entre l'intelligence et l'adaptation ne semble donc pas faire l'unanimité. Depuis plusieurs années au Québec, on reconnaît la pertinence d'intervenir auprès des individus en difficulté d'apprentissage ou marginalisés par des problèmes sociaux ou d'adaptation. Toutefois, lorsqu'il s'agit d'élèves doués ou talentueux sur le plan scolaire, le débat devient facilement émotif alors qu'on en vient souvent à des arguments selon lesquels ces enfants n'auraient pas de problèmes ou du moins, qu'ils en ont moins. De tels arguments peuvent mener à penser qu'on ne devrait pas financer des services particuliers à leur égard. Pour tenter de répondre au paradoxe qui semble persister dans l'opinion populaire ainsi que dans certaines études, selon lesquelles les jeunes qui sont extrêmement doués auraient des problèmes à s'adapter socialement, le présent mémoire s'est penché sur la question de l'adaptation des élèves intellectuellement doués. Le but du présent mémoire est donc de déterminer s'il existe un lien entre le niveau supérieur d'intelligence et certaines difficultés d'adaptation sociale; plus particulièrement concernant les troubles de l'adaptation dans leur environnement scolaire. Le présent mémoire utilisera les données recueillies dans le cadre de l'évaluation de la Stratégie d'intervention agir autrement (SIAA), qui est une mesure visant à favoriser la réussite scolaire des élèves des 196 écoles secondaires les plus défavorisées au Québec. Celle-ci est d'ailleurs promue par le Ministère de l'Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport du Québec. Il s'agit donc d'un devis d'analyses secondaires de données recueillies dans le cadre d'un protocole de recherche évaluative (Janosz et al, 2002). Ce protocole s'appuie sur un devis longitudinal qui s'étale sur cinq ans (2002 à 2007). Dans le cadre du présent mémoire, seules les données recueillies lors des deux premières années seront utilisées (2002-2003 et 2002-2004), les autres données n'étant pas encore disponibles au moment de la rédaction du mémoire. Ce mémoire tentera donc de déterminer dans quelle mesure les élèves intellectuellement doués s'adaptent et en quoi leur quotient intellectuel les protège ou leur nuit en cours de cheminement scolaire et social à l'école secondaire. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Intelligence, Réussite scolaire, Doué, Adaptation scolaire, Adaptation sociale, Adolescents, Quotient intellectuel, Talent, Apprentissage, Environnement scolaire, Classes spéciales, Enfants intellectuellement doués, Développement, Test, Mesure, Quotient intellectuel, Dyssynchronie.

Modern applications of XML use automata operating on unranked trees. A common definition of tree automata operating on unranked trees uses a set of vertical states that define the bottom-up computation, and the transitions on vertical states are determined by so called horizontal languages recognized by finite automata on strings. The bottom-up computation of an unranked tree automaton may be either deterministic or nondeterministic, and further variants arise depending on whether the horizontal string languages defining the transitions are represented by DFAs or NFAs. There is also an alternative syntactic definition of determinism introduced by Cristau et al. It is known that a deterministic tree automaton with the smallest total number of states does not need to be unique nor have the smallest possible number of vertical states. We consider the question by how much we can reduce the total number of states by introducing additional vertical states. We give an upper bound for the state trade-off for deterministic tree automata where the horizontal languages are defined by DFAs, and a lower bound construction that, for variable sized alphabets, is close to the upper bound. We establish upper and lower bounds for the state complexity of conversions between different types of deterministic and nondeterministic unranked tree automata. The bounds are, usually, tight for the numbers of vertical states. Because a minimal deterministic unranked tree automaton need not be unique, establishing lower bounds for the number of horizontal states, that is, the combined size of DFAs used to define the horizontal languages, is challenging. Based on existing lower bound results for unambiguous finite automata we develop a lower bound criterion for the number of horizontal states. We consider the state complexity of operations on regular unranked tree languages. The concatenation of trees can be defined either as a sequential or a parallel operation. Furthermore, there are two essentially different ways to iterate sequential concatenation. We establish tight state complexity bounds for concatenation-like operations. In particular, for sequential concatenation and bottom-up iterated concatenation the bounds differ by an order of magnitude from the corresponding state complexity bounds for regular string languages. / Thesis (Ph.D, Computing) -- Queen's University, 2012-01-04 14:48:02.916

This thesis addresses aspects of voice characteristics in operatic and musical theatre singing. The common aim of the studies was to identify respiratory, phonatory and resonatory characteristics accounting for salient voice timbre differences between singing styles. The velopharyngeal opening (VPO) was analyzed in professional operatic singers, using nasofiberscopy. Differing shapes of VPOs suggested that singers may use a VPO to fine-tune the vocal tract resonance characteristics and hence voice timbre. A listening test revealed no correlation between rated nasal quality and the presence of a VPO. The voice quality referred to as “throaty”, a term sometimes used for characterizing speech and “non-classical” vocalists, was examined with respect to subglottal pressure (Psub) and formant frequencies. Vocal tract shapes were determined by magnetic resonance imaging. The throaty versions of four vowels showed a typical narrowing of the pharynx. Throatiness was characterized by increased first formant frequency and lowering of higher formants. Also, voice source parameter analyses suggested a hyper-functional voice production. Female musical theatre singers typically use two vocal registers (chest and head). Voice source parameters, including closed-quotient, peak-to-peak pulse amplitude, maximum flow declination rate, and normalized amplitude quotient (NAQ), were analyzed at ten equally spaced subglottal pressures representing a wide range of vocal loudness. Chest register showed higher values in all glottal parameters except for NAQ. Operatic baritone singer voices were analyzed in order to explore the informative power of the amplitude quotient (AQ), and its normalized version NAQ, suggested to reflect glottal adduction. Differences in NAQ were found between fundamental frequency values while AQ was basically unaffected. Voice timbre differs between musical theatre and operatic singers. Measurements of voice source parameters as functions of subglottal pressure, covering a wide range of vocal loudness, showed that both groups varied Psub systematically. The musical theatre singers used somewhat higher pressures, produced higher sound pressure levels, and did not show the opera singers’ characteristic clustering of higher formants. Musical theatre and operatic singers show highly controlled and consistent behaviors, characteristic for each style. A common feature is the precise control of subglottal pressure, while laryngeal and vocal tract conditions differ between singing styles. In addition, opera singers tend to sing with a stronger voice source fundamental than musical theatre singers. / <p>QC 20100812</p>

Nectarivorous hummingbirds subsist almost exclusively on a mixture of sucrose, glucose and fructose found in floral nectar. Previous studies have shown that hummingbirds can fuel hovering flight almost exclusively using recently ingested sucrose. However, the relative capacities for the direct utilization of glucose and fructose by hovering hummingbirds remain unknown. 13C-enriched solutions of glucose and fructose were administered separately. Exhaled breath samples were collected using feeder-mask respirometry and sent for subsequent mass spectrometric analysis. I found hovering hummingbirds transition from exclusively oxidizing endogenous fatty acids when fasted, to oxidizing newly ingested carbohydrates when given access to either glucose or fructose solutions. Interestingly, the amount ingested, fractional turnover of stable carbon isotope signatures, amount oxidized, energy expended and proportion of hovering metabolism supported by each hexose, were each similar between glucose and fructose. These results demonstrate hovering hummingbirds’ ability to utilize fructose and glucose equally.

Nectarivorous hummingbirds subsist almost exclusively on a mixture of sucrose, glucose and fructose found in floral nectar. Previous studies have shown that hummingbirds can fuel hovering flight almost exclusively using recently ingested sucrose. However, the relative capacities for the direct utilization of glucose and fructose by hovering hummingbirds remain unknown. 13C-enriched solutions of glucose and fructose were administered separately. Exhaled breath samples were collected using feeder-mask respirometry and sent for subsequent mass spectrometric analysis. I found hovering hummingbirds transition from exclusively oxidizing endogenous fatty acids when fasted, to oxidizing newly ingested carbohydrates when given access to either glucose or fructose solutions. Interestingly, the amount ingested, fractional turnover of stable carbon isotope signatures, amount oxidized, energy expended and proportion of hovering metabolism supported by each hexose, were each similar between glucose and fructose. These results demonstrate hovering hummingbirds’ ability to utilize fructose and glucose equally.

The aim of this thesis is to research the influence of phonological and morphological awareness on reading of primary school children (second to fifth grade). Until recently, the research of morphological influence on reading had received little attention by researchers and educators. The thesis is divided into two parts ? the theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part is concern with the characteristic of dependent variables (reading speed, reading comprehension) and independent variables (phonological and morphological awareness). It also sheds light on reading literacy. The practical part is concern with the research of these effects. There have been set up the targets and hypotheses and characterized the sample of examined children. It has been also described the testing methods themselves, which had been used, as well as the procedure at the tests assignment. Especially the research results and their interpretation were introduced in the thesis.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-08T14:44:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 2623035 bytes, checksum: 1fd2bee41d7d6f90a4bc156f6fb3d821 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-04-30 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The aim of this study was to analyze the spatial concentration of economic specialization in Rio Grande do Norte. The analysis variable was the number of formal jobs in 2000 and 2010 obtained from the Annual Social Information - RAIS, provided by the Ministry of Labor and Employment - MTE. To achieve this objective we have used instruments of regional analysis, more precisely the location quotient and coefficient of specialization. The analysis of the coefficients showed strong spatial concentration/spatial location of some economic activities within certain micro. Another aspect observed was the very strong presence of the economic sector of public administration in quantitative formal jobs each micro as well as the growth of the trade and services, respectively, in line with what also occurred in Brazil. / O objetivo deste trabalho foi analisar a concentração espacial e a especialização econômica no Rio Grande do Norte. A variável de análise foi o número de empregos formais nos anos de 2000 e 2010 obtidos na Relação Anual de Informações Sociais RAIS, providos pelo Ministério do Trabalho e Emprego MTE. Para alcançar tal objetivo foram utilizados instrumentos de análise regional, mais precisamente o quociente locacional e o coeficiente de especialização. A análise dos coeficientes espaciais mostrou forte concentração/localização espacial de algumas atividades econômicas dentro de determinadas microrregiões. Outro aspecto bastante observável foi a grande presença do setor econômico da administração pública no quantitativo de empregos formais de cada microrregião, bem como o crescimento do setor de comércio e serviços, respectivamente, em linha do que ocorreu também no Brasil.

The representer theorem from the reproducing kernel Hilbert space theory is the origin of many kernel-based machine learning and signal modelling techniques that are popular today. Most kernel functions used in practical applications behave in a homogeneous manner across the domain of the signal of interest, and they are called stationary kernels. One open problem in the literature is the specification of a non-stationary kernel that is computationally tractable. Some recent works solve large-scale optimization problems to obtain such kernels, and they often suffer from non-identifiability issues in their optimization problem formulation. Many practical problems can benefit from using application-specific prior knowledge on the signal of interest. For example, if one can adequately encode the prior assumption that edge contours are smooth, one does not need to learn a finite-dimensional dictionary from a database of sampled image patches that each contains a circular object in order to up-convert images that contain circular edges. In the first portion of this thesis, we present a novel method for constructing non-stationary kernels that incorporates prior knowledge. A theorem is presented that ensures the result of this construction yields a symmetric and positive-definite kernel function. This construction does not require one to solve any non-identifiable optimization problems. It does require one to manually design some portions of the kernel while deferring the specification of the remaining portions to when an observation of the signal is available. In this sense, the resultant kernel is adaptive to the data observed. We give two examples of this construction technique via the grayscale image up-conversion task where we chose to incorporate the prior assumption that edge contours are smooth. Both examples use a novel local analysis algorithm that summarizes the p-most dominant directions for a given grayscale image patch. The non-stationary properties of these two types of kernels are empirically demonstrated on the Kodak image database that is popular within the image processing research community. Tensors and tensor decomposition methods are gaining popularity in the signal processing and machine learning literature, and most of the recently proposed tensor decomposition methods are based on the tensor power and alternating least-squares algorithms, which were both originally devised over a decade ago. The algebraic approach for the canonical polyadic (CP) symmetric tensor decomposition problem is an exception. This approach exploits the bijective relationship between symmetric tensors and homogeneous polynomials. The solution of a CP symmetric tensor decomposition problem is a set of p rank-one tensors, where p is fixed. In this thesis, we refer to such a set of tensors as a rank-one decomposition with cardinality p. Existing works show that the CP symmetric tensor decomposition problem is non-unique in the general case, so there is no bijective mapping between a rank-one decomposition and a symmetric tensor. However, a proposition in this thesis shows that a particular space of rank-one decompositions, SE, is isomorphic to a space of moment matrices that are called quasi-Hankel matrices in the literature. Optimization over Riemannian manifolds is an area of optimization literature that is also gaining popularity within the signal processing and machine learning community. Under some settings, one can formulate optimization problems over differentiable manifolds where each point is an equivalence class. Such manifolds are called quotient manifolds. This type of formulation can reduce or eliminate some of the sources of non-identifiability issues for certain optimization problems. An example is the learning of a basis for a subspace by formulating the solution space as a type of quotient manifold called the Grassmann manifold, while the conventional formulation is to optimize over a space of full column rank matrices. The second portion of this thesis is about the development of a general-purpose numerical optimization framework over SE. A general-purpose numerical optimizer can solve different approximations or regularized versions of the CP decomposition problem, and they can be applied to tensor-related applications that do not use a tensor decomposition formulation. The proposed optimizer uses many concepts from the Riemannian optimization literature. We present a novel formulation of SE as an embedded differentiable submanifold of the space of real-valued matrices with full column rank, and as a quotient manifold. Riemannian manifold structures and tangent space projectors are derived as well. The CP symmetric tensor decomposition problem is used to empirically demonstrate that the proposed scheme is indeed a numerical optimization framework over SE. Future investigations will concentrate on extending the proposed optimization framework to handle decompositions that correspond to non-symmetric tensors.