This dissertation includes three components. Component 1 provides an estima- tion procedure for circadian parameters in cyanobacteria. Component 2 explores the relationship between baseline and amplitude by model selection under the framework of smoothing spline. Component 3 investigates properties of hypothesis testing. The following three paragraphs briefly summarize these three components, respectively. Varying coefficient models are frequently used in statistical modeling. We pro- pose a semiparametric varying coefficient periodic model which is suitable to study periodic patterns. This model has ample applications in the study of the cyanobac- teria circadian clock. To achieve the desired flexibility, the model we consider may not be globally identifiable. We propose to perform local approximations by kernel based methods and focus on estimating one solution that is biologically meaningful. Asymptotic properties are developed. Simulations show that the gain by our proce- dure over the commonly used method is substantial. The methodology is illustrated by an application to a cyanobacteria dataset. Smoothing spline can be implemented, but a direct application with the penalty selected by the generalized cross-validation often leads to non-convergence outcomes. We propose an adjusted cross-validation instead, which resolves the difficulties. Biol- ogists believe that the amplitude function of the periodic component is proportional to the baseline function. To verify this belief, we propose a full model without any assumptions regarding such a relationship, and two reduced models with the ratio of baseline and amplitude to be a constant and a quadratic function of time, respectively. We use model selection techniques, Akaike information criterion (AIC) and Schwarz Bayesian information criterion (BIC), to determine the optimal model. Simulations show that AIC and BIC select the correct model with high probabilities. Application to cyanobacteria data shows that the full model is the best model. To investigate the same problem in component 2 by a formal hypothesis testing procedure, we develop kernel based methods. In order to construct the test statistic, we derive the global degree of freedom for the residual sum of squares. Simulations show that the proposed tests perform well. We apply the proposed procedures to the data and conclude that the baseline and amplitude functions share no linear or quadratic relationship.

Thesis (M.A.Ed.)--East Carolina University, 2009. / Presented to the faculty of the School of Art and Design. Advisor: Cynthia Bickley-Green. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed June 22, 2010). Includes bibliographical references.

The author's inaugural dissertation, Marburg. / "Literatur": p. [127-129].

Inaug.-diss.--Berlin. / Vita. "Sonder-abdruck aus 'Zeitschrift für psychologie und physiologie der sinnesorgane.' bd. XVIII."

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My dissertation seeks to bring more attention to speech patterns and rhythm in oratory -- issues that have long been on the fringes of rhetoric scholars' concerns -- by arguing that prose rhythm in Byzantine and Old Slavic sermons was an important tool not only in creating an overall aesthetic experience but also in promoting shared meaning and individual persuasion. The first chapter offers a comparison between the clauses of early to middle Byzantine homilies and their translations into Old Church Slavonic, within a corpus of texts contained in the late tenth-century Codex Suprasliensis. The comparison shows a remarkable correspondence between the number of syllables and accents per clause in both languages. I conclude that the Slavonic translators strove not only to provide literal translations, but also to preserve the rhythmical patterns of the original homilies. The second chapter explores the classical and late antique theoretical underpinnings of rhythm in general and prose rhythm in particular and argues that in late antiquity there was a strong tradition of differentiation between rhythm and meter. Prose rhythm was considered the domain of the rhythmicians (not metricians) and defined by word arrangement and cadence. I argue that the word and its main accent were perceived as the basic unit of prose rhythm -- in addition to clausularcadence, which so far has been considered the main carrier of rhythm. Thus homiletic prose rhythm resembles the accentual rhythms of Byzantine liturgical poetry. Chapter 3 examines Byzantine rhetorical commentaries and scholia on classical literature and concludes that the Byzantine teachers taught accentual rhythm by looking for regular accentual patterns in classical Greek texts and pointing them out to their students, who in turn internalized and reproduced them in their own compositions. My last chapter argues that the same principles were found in the first Slavonic translations of Greek homilies. I conclude that the persistent recurrence of similar rhythmical patterns, even across national and linguistic boundaries, may lead us to think of rhythm as a meaning-bearing component of oratory.

The South Is Following Me Again is a collection of poetry composed over a three-year period, which focuses on my interest in my roots as an ex-patriot from the American South and the growing occurrences of runaway rhythm within my own work as I researched and defined the term. There is a strong theme of ‘Southernism’ that permeates the collection and is evident in the nostalgically atmospheric poems such as “A Haunting”, “Greenhouse Effect”, and “Textually Active” as they present an interesting and somewhat foreboding sense of the South. The collection then moves into a series of four southern dialect poems, which explore phonetically written poetry of a southern family, as it evolves away from the Southern epicentre of the collection. Delicate issues such as Mexican/American immigration in the poem “Immigration Policy”, and deaths and illnesses of friends and lovers in “Poem for a Murdered Friend”, “Radio Therapy”, and “Audience Participation” are dealt with strategically by refusing to sentimentalise or moralise the subject. There are a few poems that deal with love and sex in engaging and playful forms, as can be seen in “Answering God’s Call” and the “Torture Garden” series, which leads characters through a memorable visit to a hardcore fetish night, and marks the point in the collection where the reader is furthest removed from the South. Some of the poems hinge on more intellectually surreal concepts such as “Esoteric”, “The Guards”, “Timeless”, and “Café Tutu Tango” and challenge the reader to disentangle the rhythm from the content of the lines. Moving on from the esoterically obscure, the poems “Travelling Horses”, “Bottoms Up”, and “Bombilation: a cousin of Howl” echo my growing understanding of runaway rhythm as it pushes against the elements that bind together the sense and movement of the lines. Finally, the collection ends with the long, elegiac poem “A Natural Beauty”, which brings together aspects of the American South and the United Kingdom, and in which the rhythms are intertwined with memory to provide an extended release for the reader. The critical element, entitled “Runaway Rhythm 1900-2011”, defines the term “runaway rhythm” as a rhythm that is formed by various nuances of grammar, syntax, and poetic mechanisms to create minute separations between the movement and sense of the lines. In utilising this form of rhythm, the poet encourages the reader to engage with the poem by drawing their attention to the content and theme while simultaneously linking it to the structure. I will be focusing on runaway rhythm in selected works by Marianne Moore, Denise Levertov, Robert Creeley and discussing how it is still used by contemporary poets Adam York and Gerald Stern, and within my own collection.

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Thesis (M.M.) -- Florida State University, 2003. / Advisor: Jane Piper Clendinning, Florida State University, School of Music. Title and description from thesis home page (viewed 9-29-04). Document formatted into pages; contains 76 pages. Includes biographical sketch. Includes bibliographical references.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol. inst., 2001. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.