Thesis advisor: Elizabeth Kensinger / Individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) tend to have emotional memory biases in the encoding and retrieval of social memories. Research has shown reduced heart rate variability (HRV) in clinical populations suffering from anxiety, including social anxiety. Heightened sympathetic activation—as measured by the electrodermal activity (EDA)—has also been associated with anxiety disorders. The aim of the present study was to examine the relation between HRV, social anxiety, and re-experiencing of emotional autobiographical memories. 44 healthy young adults were recruited from the Boston College campus through SONA. Participants were given an online survey that instructed them to retrieve 40 specific events from the past in response to 40 socially relevant cues. For each event, participants were instructed to provide a brief narrative, make several ratings for the event (on a scale from 1-7), and indicate the specific emotions they experienced both at the time of retrieval and of the event. Approximately one month after the completion of the memory survey, participants engaged in a 2-hour memory retrieval session while undergoing psychophysiological monitoring (heart rate, skin conductance, and respiration). Following the retrieval task, participants completed self-report questionnaires of social anxiety symptom severity and trait emotion regulation strategy (i.e., tendency to reappraise or suppress emotions). The present study found that positive memories had higher re-experiencing ratings as compared to negative memories. Contrary to the original study hypothesis, however, there was no significant interaction between average re-experiencing (or arousal) ratings of positive or negative social autobiographical memories and SAD likelihood. A nonlinear, cubic relationship was found between one of three metrics of HRV and social anxiety symptom severity. A significant effect was found between skin conductance and SAD likelihood, which was likely driven by an almost significance difference in skin conductance between the SAD unlikely and the SAD very probable groups; these findings provide further insight into the relationship between autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning and social anxiety. Further, the present results suggest the intriguing possibility that there may be a nonlinear relationship between HRV and severity of social anxiety. Future research with a larger sample size is needed to corroborate these findings. / Thesis (BS) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Psychology.

The diploma project deals with the construction of the catalogue houses on the outskirts of villages. In addition to the term suburban, the term subrural is introduced, which describes and names this type of construction. At the same time, the project examines the influence of advertising catalogues on the aesthetics of subrural gardens and the activities performed on them. The work comes with a proposal for an alternative subrural locality in the village of Příkazy near Olomouc. Thanks to the minimization of plots, the labor is also minimized and at the same time space is freed for public orchard running through the entire territory. This creates a diffusion of development into the agricultural landscape and on a smaller scale it creates a spectacular space around private gardens. Prefabricated bricks from hobby markets form the architectural expression of the project. From these elements are assembled objects and fragments of fences located in the landscape. At the same time, the fragments form a newly compiled catalogue, according to which inhabitants build their fences.

Internet of Things (IoT) are becoming increasingly popular replacements for their analogue counterparts. However, there is still demand to keep analogue equipment that is already installed, while also having automated monitoring of the equipment, such as analogue water meters. A proposed solution for this problem is to install a battery powered add-on component that can optically read meter values using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and transmit the readings wirelessly. Two ways to do this could be to either offload the OCR process to a server, or to do the OCR processing locally on the add-on component. Since water meters are often located where reception is weak and the add-on component is battery powered, a suitable technology for data transmission could be Long Range (LoRa) because of its low-power and long-range capabilities. Since LoRa has low transfer rate there is a need to keep data transfers small in size, which could make offloading a less favorable alternative compared to local OCR processing. The purpose of this thesis is therefore to research the feasibility, in terms of energy efficiency, of doing local OCR processing on the add-on component. The feasibility condition of this study is defined as being able to continually read an analogue meter for a 10-year lifespan, while consuming under 2600 milliampere hours (mAh) of energy. The two OCR algorithms developed for this study are a specialized OCR algorithm that utilizes pattern matching principles, and a Sum of Absolute Differences (SAD) OCR algorithm. These two algorithms have been compared against each other, to determine which one is more suitable for the system. This comparison yielded that the SAD algorithm was more suitable, and was then studied further by using different image resolutions and settings to determine if it was possible to further reduce energy consumption. The results showed that it was possible to significantly reduce energy consumption by reducing the image resolution. The study also researched the possibility of reducing energy consumption further by not reading all digits on the tested water meter, depending on the measuring frequency and water flow. The study concluded that OCR processing is feasible on an energy critical driven system when reading analouge meters, depending on the measuring frequency.

In the novice hill Beskydy foothills and the plane Ostrava landscape huddle village Rychaltice. This residence is a part of Hukvaldy. It´s here the important connnection with the "landscape of Leoš Janáček." Poetry and Mysticism by this Czech composer was able to catch in his symphonies, are already very slightly visible. The surviving fragments of the original buildings, cottages, farmsteads and barns talking about agricultural tradition of the area. Despite the high activity of collective agriculture and the building tendencies of the past and today, can be found a small piece of land for traditional cultivation. Remains of the old building – a barn that was in II. World War II bomb blast halved in two peaces. Four stone pillars of the original structure were built in cottage. Extant fragment barn belongs, is today on the neighbor's property.The project look into cider house, family house and other. , following the survivors of the barn. The task of the work is to achieve a compact, self-sufficiency and friendliness agricultural area to the surrounding landscape. Homestead should be not only the farmer dwelling, but also a place for hiking, cycling, horse riding. Location in Podbeskydí, near the castle Hukvaldy and good transport links to the main roads, it is the perfect place. The project has however also bring something more - support traditional livelihood and sensitive landscape management.

No description available.

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a common psychiatric disorder associated with considerable suffering. Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) has been shown to be effective but a significant proportion does not respond or relapses, stressing the need of augmenting treatment. Using neuroimaging could elucidate the psychological and neurobiological interaction and may help to improve current therapeutics. To address this issue, functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were repeatedly conducted on individuals with SAD randomised to receive CBT or an active control condition. MRI was performed pre-, and post-treatment, as well as at one-year follow-up. Matched healthy controls were also scanned to be able to evaluate disorder-specific neural responsivity and structural morphology. This thesis aimed at answering three major questions. I) Does the brain’s fear circuitry (e.g., the amygdala) change, with regard to neural response and structural morphology, immediately after CBT? II) Are the immediate changes in the brain still present at long-term follow-up? III) Can neural responsivity in the fear circuitry predict long-term treatment outcome at the level of the individual? Thus, different analytic methods were performed. Firstly, multimodal neuroimaging addressed questions on concomitant changes in neural response and grey matter volume. Secondly, two different experimental functional MRI tasks captured both neural response to emotional faces and self-referential criticism. Thirdly, support vector machine learning (SVM) was used to evaluate neural predictors at the level of the individual. Amygdala responsivity to self-referential criticism was found to be elevated in individuals with SAD, as compared to matched healthy controls, and the neural response was attenuated after effective CBT. In individuals with SAD, amygdala grey matter volume was positively correlated with symptoms of anticipatory speech anxiety, and CBT-induced symptom reduction was associated with decreased grey matter volume of the amygdala. Also, CBT-induced reduction of amygdala grey matter volume was evident both at short- and long-term follow-up. In contrast, the amygdala neural response was weakened immediately after treatment, but not at one-year follow-up. In extension to treatment effects on the brain, pre-treatment connectivity between the amygdala and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) was stronger in long-term CBT non-responders, as compared to long-term CBT responders. Importantly, by use of an SVM algorithm, pre-treatment neural response to self-referential criticism in the dACC accurately predicted (&gt;90%) the clinical response to CBT. In conclusion, modifying the amygdala is a likely mechanism of action in CBT, underlying the anxiolytic effects of this treatment, and the brain’s neural activity during self-referential criticism may be an accurate and clinically relevant predictor of the long-term response to CBT. Along these lines, neuroimaging is a vital tool in clinical psychiatry that could potentially improve clinical decision-making based on an individual’s neural characteristics. / Social ångest är en av de vanligaste psykiska sjukdomarna. Mer än en miljon svenskar bedöms lida av detta. Social ångest leder ofta till svåra konsekvenser för den som drabbas, men även ökade kostnader för samhället har noterats, t ex i form av ökad sjukfrånvaro. Även om många som drabbas inte söker hjälp så finns effektiva behandlingar för social ångest, både farmakologiska och psykologiska behandlingar rekommenderas av Socialstyrelsen. Kognitiv beteendeterapi (KBT) är en evidensbaserad och rekommenderad psykologisk behandling för social ångest. Trots att nuvarande interventioner är effektiva så är det fortfarande en andel individer som inte blir förbättrade. Det finns en stor andel studier som visar att individer med social ångest, i jämförelse med friska individer, karakteriseras av överdriven aktivitet i ett nätverk som har till uppgift att tolka och reagera på hotfull information. Denna aktivitet är lokaliserad i rädslonätverket där området amygdala spelar en central roll. Det finns ett behov att utveckla nuvarande behandlingar och denna avhandling syftar till att öka vår förståelse för en neurobiologisk verkningsmekanism bakom KBT för social ångest. I detta forskningsprojekt har magnetresonanstomografi (MRT) använts för att undersöka personer som lider av social ångest. Upprepade mätningar har genomförts, innan, efter, och vid uppföljning ett år efter ångestlindrande behandling. Utöver detta har individer som inte lider av social ångest undersökts för att förstå hur patienter skiljer sig från friska personer, men också för att undersöka om behandlingen normaliserar patientens hjärna. Under tiden som deltagarna undersöktes med MRT genomfördes två experiment för att ta reda på hur hjärnan reagerar på affektiv information. Deltagarna tittade på bilder med ansikten som uttrycker emotioner, t ex arga och rädda ansiktsuttryck, samt information som innehöll kritiska kommentarer riktade till personen själv eller någon annan, t ex ”ingen tycker om dig” eller ”hon är inkompetent”. Strukturella bilder på deltagarnas hjärnor har också samlats in vid varje mättillfälle. Utöver detta fick alla deltagare instruktioner om att de efter MRT skulle hålla en muntlig presentation inför en publik. Denna uppgift är oftast den värsta tänkbara för individer med social ångest, och syftet med uppgiften var att relatera hjärnans struktur och aktivitet till hur mycket ångest som individerna upplevde inför denna situation. I arbetet med denna avhandling har tre frågor ställts. a) Uppstår strukturella och funktionella förändringar i rädslonätverket direkt efter avslutad KBT (Studie I och II)? b) Är de tidiga förändringarna efter behandlingen även kvarstående ett år senare (Studie III)? c) Kan hjärnans reaktioner i rädslonätverket förutspå vilka individer som kommer att bli förbättrade av en ångestlindrande psykologisk behandling på lång sikt? Resultat från studierna i denna avhandling sammanfattas nedan: Reaktioner till självriktad kritik i amygdala är överdrivna hos individer med social ångest, i jämförelse med friska individer Reaktioner i amygdala minskar efter att individerna blivit behandlade med KBT och minskningarna korrelerar till minskade symptom av social ångest Den strukturella volymen av amygdala korrelerar positivt med hur mycket ångest individerna upplever inför en muntlig presentation, och minskningen av dessa symptom korrelerar även med hur mycket volymen av amygdala minskar efter KBT Minskningen av amygdalavolym och den samtidigt minskade reaktiviteten i amygdala till självriktad kritik är korrelerade. Medieringsanalyser antyder att det är den minskade volymen som driver förhållandet mellan minskad reaktivitet och minskad ångest inför att hålla en muntlig presentation Den strukturella minskningen av amygdala ses både direkt efter behandlingens avslut, men även vid uppföljning ett år senare. Hjärnans reaktivitet till självriktad kritik i amygdala minskar direkt efter behandling, men är inte kvarstående vid uppföljning ett år senare Kopplingen mellan hjärnans reaktivitet till självriktad kritik i amygdala och dorsala främre cingulum var starkare hos de som inte blev förbättrade (jämfört med de som blev bättre) av en ångestlindrande behandling på lång sikt Med hjälp av en stödvektormaskin (en. support vector machine learning) och ett mönster av hjärnaktivitet i dorsala främre cingulum innan behandling påbörjades, predicerades (med 92% träffsäkerhet) vilka individer som ett år senare var fortsatt förbättrade av en effektiv psykologisk behandling Utifrån dessa observationer är slutsatserna att strukturell och funktionell påverkan på amygdala är en möjlig neurobiologisk mekanism för minskad social ångest efter KBT, samt att reaktivitet i främre cingulum kan ge kliniskt relevant data om vem som kommer att bli förbättrad av en psykologisk behandling. Denna information kan potentiellt vara viktig i framtidens psykiatri för att utveckla existerande behandlingar, men även för att stödja klinikers beslutsfattande huruvida en viss individ bör erbjudas en specifik behandling eller ej. / <p>Illustration on the cover by Jan Lööf. Cover image printed with permission from Jan Lööf and Bonnier Carlsen Förlag. The cover was art directed by Staffan Lager.</p><p>The thesis is reprinted and the previous ISBN was 9789176856888.</p>

O Transtorno de Ansiedade Social (TAS) consiste em um medo acentuado e persistente de situações sociais ou de desempenho nas quais o indivíduo poderia sentir vergonha. Dentre os transtornos de ansiedade, o TAS é um dos mais prevalecentes, sendo considerado o quinto transtorno mais incapacitante, contudo, a busca por tratamento é muito baixa. Diferentes estudos clínicos randomizados evidenciam que a TCCG apresenta resultados satisfatórios e duradouros, sendo considerada padrão ouro de intervenção para TAS, porém, ainda assim, uma parcela de pacientes com TAS não respondem ao tratamento. Assim sendo, o objetivo deste trabalho foi investigar o efeito de uma intervenção em grupo de exposição com alto custo social em pacientes com TAS sobre variáveis psicológicas e também sobre a qualidade de memória. A intervenção utilizada nesse estudo foi a proposta por Hofmann e Otto (2008). Dentre as variáveis psicológicas estudadas foram avaliadas mudanças em sintomas de ansiedade social, ansiedade, medo da avaliação negativa, esquiva e desconforto social, depressão e sintomas de transtornos psiquiátricos comuns. Participaram desse estudo 58 adultos, compondo três grupos experimentais diferentes: o grupo de comparação sem TAS, que consiste em participantes sem sintomas clínicos, o grupo de comparação com TAS, que são participantes portadores de TAS os quais não realizaram a intervenção durante a pesquisa (grupo lista de espera) e o grupo de portadores de TAS participaram da intervenção (grupo TCCG). Um pesquisador independente ao estudo realizou a distribuição aleatória dos participantes com TAS entre os grupos TCCG e lista de espera. Foram realizadas avaliações no pré e pós-teste através do Inventário de Fobia Social (SPIN), Inventários de Ansiedade e Depressão de Beck (BAI e BDI-II), Escala de Medo da Avaliação Negativa (FNE), Escala de Esquiva e Desconforto Social (SADS), Questionário sobre a saúde do paciente (PHQ-9), Questionário de Autorrelato (SRQ) e teste de falsas memórias. Assim, os resultados encontrados evidenciam que a intervenção alcançou redução significativa nos sintomas de ansiedade social, ansiedade geral, depressão e sintomas de transtornos mentais comuns, mostrando que foi uma intervenção efetiva. Além disso, os escores relacionados à ansiedade geral, depressão e sintomas de transtornos mentais comuns, após a intervenção foram equiparados com o escore obtidos pelo grupo de participantes saudáveis, evidenciando a excelente eficácia do processo de intervenção. A eficácia também pode ser constatada a partir da mensuração do tamanho de efeito grande encontrado no estudo relacionado ao principal instrumento de avaliação de TAS utilizado (SPIN), ou seja, esse estudo evidenciou que a forma psicoterápica utilizada atingiu o objetivo esperado da intervenção considerada padrão ouro. No que concerne às medidas relacionadas à qualidade de memória, a hipótese inicial relacionava-se à teoria de que os indivíduos ansiosos sociais apresentariam um número maior de falsas memórias e/ou uma redução de memórias verdadeiras, porém essa hipótese não foi confirmada. / Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) consists of a marked and persistent fear of social or performance situations in which the individual could feel shame. Among the anxiety disorders, SAD is one of the most prevalent, considered the fifth most disabling disorder, however, the search for treatment is very low. Different randomized clinical trials show that Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy (CBGT) presents satisfactory and long-lasting results, which is considered the gold standard of intervention for SAD, however, a portion of patients with SAD do not respond to treatment. Thus, the objective of this study was to investigate the effect of a group intervention related to high social cost exposure in patients with SAD about psychological variables and memory quality. The intervention used in this study was proposed by Hofmann and Otto (2008). Among the psychological variables studied changes in symptoms of social anxiety, anxiety, fear of negative evaluation, avoidance and social discomfort, depression and symptoms of common psychiatric disorders were evaluated. Fifty-five adults participated in this study, composing three different experimental groups: the comparison group without SAD, which consists of participants without clinical symptoms, the comparison group with SAD, participants with SAD who did not receive intervention during the research (Waitlist control condition), and the group of SAD patients who participated in the intervention. An independent researcher to study distributed randomly the participants with SAD between CBGT or Waitlist condition. Assessments were made at pre and post-test using Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), Fear of Negative Evaluation (FNE), Social Avoidance and Distress Scale (SADS), Patient Health-Questionnaire (PHQ-9), Self-Report Questionnaire (SRQ), and false memories test in the three groups. The results showed that the intervention achieved a significant reduction in the symptoms of social anxiety, general anxiety, depression and symptoms of common mental disorders, showing that it was an effective intervention. In addition, the scores related to general anxiety, depression and common mental disorder symptoms after the intervention were similar to the scores obtained by the group of healthy participants, evidencing the excellent efficacy of the intervention process. Efficacy can also be seen from the measurement of the large effect size found in the study evaluated by the main evaluation instrument of SAD used (SPIN), this study achieved the expected goal of the gold standard considered intervention. Concerning measures related to memory quality, the initial hypothesis was that social anxious individuals would present a greater number of false memories and / or a reduction of true memories, but this hypothesis was not confirmed.

<p>Ispitano je prisustvo toksičnih cijanobakterija u različitim ekosistemima sa teritorije&nbsp;Republike Srbije i analizirane su negativne posledice koje mogu da prouzrokuju ovi&nbsp;mikroorganizmi. Formirana je Baza podataka cijanobakterija u Srbiji koja prilaže veliki broj bitnih&nbsp; i korisnih informacija iz preko 70 literaturnih izvora o prostiranju i učestalosti pojave cijanobakterija i njihovih toksina u periodu od 130 godina, kao i njihovih efekata na živi svet u vodenim ekosistemima, ali i &scaron;ire. Istraživana su 64 vodena ekosistema, uključujući reke, jezera, bare, kanale, ribnjake, akumulacije za navodnjavanje, akumulacije za snabdevanje vodom za piće i akumulacije sa drugom namenom, gde je najče&scaron;će cvetalo pet vrsta cijanobakterija i to:&nbsp;<em> Microcystis aeruginosa,&nbsp; Aphanizomenon flos-aquae</em>,&nbsp; <em>Planktothrix agardhii,&nbsp; Microcystis flos-aquae</em>&nbsp; i<em>&nbsp; Planktothrix rubescens</em>&nbsp; koje ujedno i &scaron;ire svoj areal rasprostranjenja na teritoriji Republike Srbije. U brojnim vodenim telima detektovani su mikrocistini i to u visokim koncentracijama.</p><p>Istraživanje vodenog ekosistema Ludo&scaron; sa teritorije Republike Srbije vr&scaron;eno je da bi se ustanovilo prisustvo i uticaj cijanobakterija i cijanotoksina na druge biljne i životinjske organizme u prirodnim uslovima. Trofički status jezera Ludo&scaron; najče&scaron;će je eutrofan, a cvetanje cijanobakterija kontinuirano jo&scaron; od 1970. godine. Tokom 2011. i 2012. godine&nbsp; vrste<em> Limnothrix&nbsp; redekei&nbsp;</em> i&nbsp;<em> Pseudanabaena&nbsp; limnetica</em>&nbsp; nađene&nbsp; u&nbsp; cvetanju. Detektovano je i prisustvo mikrocistina/nodularina i saksitoksina u biomasi i vodi, a mikrocistini su detektovani i u tkivu vodenih biljaka (trske&nbsp;<em> Phragmites communis</em>, rogoza&nbsp; <em>Typha latifolia</em>&nbsp; i ljubičastog lokvanja<em> Nymphaea elegans</em>) i ribi (<em>Carassius gibelio</em>) iz jezera Ludo&scaron;. Histolo&scaron;kim pregledom tkiva ribe&nbsp; pronađene su naizraženije promene u jetri, bubrezima i &scaron;krgama, a primećene su i na crevima.</p><p>Testiranjem biolo&scaron;kih lesnih pokorica sa teritorije Vojvodine nisu detektovani&nbsp;mikrocistini/nodularini, a nije detektovana ni toksičnost uzoraka. Pretpostavlja se da su koncentracije cijanotoksina ispod granica detekcije ili ih nema u testiranim biolo&scaron;kim lesnim pokoricama. Razvojem novih metoda i optimizacijom postojećih za detekciju cijanotoksina u biolo&scaron;kim lesnim pokoricama i drugim terestričnim ekosistemima potrebno je proveriti dobijene rezultate.</p><p>Proučavanjem svojstva 84 soja cijanobakterija iz NSCCC, koji potiču iz terestričnih i&nbsp;vodenih ekosistema sa teritorije Republike Srbije, dobijena je intracelularna toksičnost u eksponencijalnoj i stacionarnoj fazi rasta, kao i ekstracelularna toksičnost &nbsp;kod jednog soja koji potiče sa terestričnog ekosistema. Dobijeni su i pozitivni rezultati &nbsp;na prisustvo mikrocistina, nodularina ili/i saksitoksina kod 34,1% terestričnih i 55,5% vodenih sojeva koji potiču sa teritorije Republike Srbije. Rezultati ukazuju na&nbsp; potencijalnu opasnost pojave ovih&nbsp; mikroorganizama i njihovih toksičnih metabolita u različitim ekosistemima sa teritorije Republike Srbije.</p><p>Eksperimentalno je potvrđena akumulacija mikrocistina u račiću<em>&nbsp; Daphnia pulex&nbsp; </em>usled ishrane toksičnim sojem iz NSCCC, zbog čega upotreba ove vrste račića u izvođenju biolo&scaron;kih testova za testiranje prisustva cijanotoksina treba da se preispita.&nbsp; &Scaron;tavi&scaron;e, veliki broj jedinki dafnija (92,2%) koristio je istraživane sojeve iz NSCCC za ishranu, odnosno ishrana je bila moguća sa svim vodenim i sa gotovo 90% terestričnih sojeva, &scaron;to može poslužiti kao osnov za dalja istraživanja prevencije cvetanja.</p><p>S obzirom na mogućnost ishrane račića&nbsp;<em> Daphnia&nbsp; sp</em>. cijanobakterijama, kompleks&nbsp;<br />ribnjaka sa teritorije Republike Srbije kori&scaron;ćen je za istraživanje potencijalnog načina&nbsp;<br />prevencije pojave i cvetanja cijanobakterija u zavisnosti od pravovremenog uno&scaron;enja&nbsp;<br />pomenutog račića. Na osnovu koncentracije hlorofila&nbsp; a&nbsp; i trofičkog statusa,&nbsp; kvalitativne i kvantitativne analize cijanobakterija, toksičnosti vode&nbsp; i prisustva cijanotoksina mikrocistina/nodularina i saksitoksina, potvrđeno je smanjenje cvetanja cijanobakterija i drugih negativnih efekata u eksperimentalnim jezerima u odnosu na kontrolna. Ukoliko pak dođe do cvetanja i proizvodnje toksina&nbsp; ijanobakterija u vodenim ekosistemima, zbog ozbiljnost pojave i mogućih negativnih posledica po zdravlje ljudi, neohodno je uvesti postupke eliminacije ćelija&nbsp; cijanobakterija i njihovih &nbsp;toksina u praksu pri obradi&nbsp; otpadnih voda i preči&scaron;ćavanja vode iz povr&scaron;inskih akumulacija u Republici Srbiji.</p> / <p>The presence of toxic&nbsp; cyanobacteria in different ecosystems from the territory of the Republic of Serbia was analyzed as well as the negative consequences that may be causeed by these microorganisms. Serbian Cyanobacterial Data Base was formed where great number of important and useful information from over 70 literary sources regarding the distribution and frequency of cyanobacteria and their toxins over a period of 130 years, as well as their effects on wildlife in aquatic ecosystems, and beyond was presented. The study consisted of 64 aquatic ecosystems, including rivers, lakes, ponds, canals, irrigation reservoirs, reservoirs for drinking water supply and reservoirs with other purpose, where five species of cyanobacteria <em>Microcystis aeruginosa,&nbsp; Aphanizomenon flos-aquae,&nbsp; Planktothrix agardhii,&nbsp; Microcystis flosaquae&nbsp;</em> and&nbsp; <em>Planktothrix rubescens</em>&nbsp; frequently bloomed, and also expanded their area of distribution on the territory of the Republic of Serbia. In many water bodies microcystins were detected in high concentrations.</p><p>Research into aquatic ecosystem Ludo&scaron;, located on the territory of the Republic of Serbia, was performed in order to determine the presence and effect of cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins on other plant and animal organisms in natural conditions. Trophic status of&nbsp; the lake Ludo&scaron; was usually eutrophic, and cyanobacteria bloom is constant since 1970. During 2011 and 2012, the species <em>Limnothrix&nbsp; redekei</em>&nbsp; and&nbsp; <em>Pseudanabaena&nbsp; limnetica&nbsp;</em> were found in blooming. Presence of microcystins/nodularin and saxitoxin was detected in&nbsp; biomass and water, and microcystins were detected in tissues of aquatic plants (reed <em>Phragmites communis,</em> cattail&nbsp;<em>Typha latifolia&nbsp;</em>and royalblue waterlily&nbsp; <em>Nymphaea elegans</em>) and fish (<em>Carassius gibelio</em>) from the lake Ludo&scaron;. Histological examination of tissue showed most prominent changes in liver, kidney and gills, and alterations were also observed in the intestine.</p><p>Testing of the biological loess crust from Vojvodina showed no presence of microcystins/nodularin and toxicity of samples was not detected as well. It is assumed that cyanotoxin concentrations were below detection limit or are absent from the tested biological loess crusts. The development of new methods and optimization of existing ones for detection of cyanotoxins in biological loess crustsand&nbsp; other terrestrial ecosystems is necessary in order to revise obtained results.</p><p>Research of the properties from 84 strains of cyanobacteria from NSCCC originating&nbsp;from terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems from the territory of the Republic of &nbsp;Serbia, resulte d inintracellular toxicity in exponential and stationary growth phase, as &nbsp;well as extracellular toxicity of a strain originating from terrestrial ecosystems. The obtained results were positive for the presence of microcystins, nodularin and/or saxitoxin&nbsp; for 34.1% terrestrial and 55.5% aquatic strains originating from the territory of the Republic of Serbia. These results demonstrate the potential risk of occurrence of these microorganisms and their metabolites in different ecosystems from the territory of the Republic of Serbia.</p><p>Accumulation of microcystins in shrimp <em>Daphnia pulex</em>&nbsp;after feeding with toxic strain&nbsp;from NSCCC was experimentally confirmed, indicating that the use of this species of shrimp in biological tests which determine the presence of cyanotoxins needs to be revisited. Moreover, a large number of&nbsp;<em>Daphnia&nbsp; individuals </em>(92.2%) used the investigated strains of NSCCC for food, and the feeding was possible with all &nbsp;the water strains and nearly 90% of terrestrial strains, which can serve as a basis for further research of bloom prevention.</p><p>With regard to the possibility shrimp <em>Daphnia&nbsp;</em>sp. feeding with cyanobacteria, a&nbsp;complex of ponds from the territory of the Republic of Serbia was used to explore &nbsp;potential ways of prevention the occurrence and blooming of cyanobacteria, depending on the timely introduction of the aforementioned shrimp. Based on the concentrations of chlorophyll&nbsp; a&nbsp; and trophic status, qualitative and quantitative analysis of cyanobacteria, the toxicity of water and the presence of&nbsp; cyanotoxins microcystins/nodularin and saxitoxin, reduction in blooming cyanobacteria and other negative effects in the experimental lakes when compared to the control lakes was confirmed. If the blooming regardless occurres as well as production of cyanobacterial &nbsp;toxins in aquatic ecosystems, due to the seriousness of the phenomenon and the possible negative consequences for human health, it would be necessary to introduce &nbsp;procedures for the elimination of cells of cyanobacteria and their toxins into practice in waste water treatment and purification of water from surface reservoirs in the Republic of Serbia.</p>

O Transtorno de Ansiedade Social (TAS) consiste em um medo acentuado e persistente de situações sociais ou de desempenho nas quais o indivíduo poderia sentir vergonha. Dentre os transtornos de ansiedade, o TAS é um dos mais prevalecentes, sendo considerado o quinto transtorno mais incapacitante, contudo, a busca por tratamento é muito baixa. Diferentes estudos clínicos randomizados evidenciam que a TCCG apresenta resultados satisfatórios e duradouros, sendo considerada padrão ouro de intervenção para TAS, porém, ainda assim, uma parcela de pacientes com TAS não respondem ao tratamento. Assim sendo, o objetivo deste trabalho foi investigar o efeito de uma intervenção em grupo de exposição com alto custo social em pacientes com TAS sobre variáveis psicológicas e também sobre a qualidade de memória. A intervenção utilizada nesse estudo foi a proposta por Hofmann e Otto (2008). Dentre as variáveis psicológicas estudadas foram avaliadas mudanças em sintomas de ansiedade social, ansiedade, medo da avaliação negativa, esquiva e desconforto social, depressão e sintomas de transtornos psiquiátricos comuns. Participaram desse estudo 58 adultos, compondo três grupos experimentais diferentes: o grupo de comparação sem TAS, que consiste em participantes sem sintomas clínicos, o grupo de comparação com TAS, que são participantes portadores de TAS os quais não realizaram a intervenção durante a pesquisa (grupo lista de espera) e o grupo de portadores de TAS participaram da intervenção (grupo TCCG). Um pesquisador independente ao estudo realizou a distribuição aleatória dos participantes com TAS entre os grupos TCCG e lista de espera. Foram realizadas avaliações no pré e pós-teste através do Inventário de Fobia Social (SPIN), Inventários de Ansiedade e Depressão de Beck (BAI e BDI-II), Escala de Medo da Avaliação Negativa (FNE), Escala de Esquiva e Desconforto Social (SADS), Questionário sobre a saúde do paciente (PHQ-9), Questionário de Autorrelato (SRQ) e teste de falsas memórias. Assim, os resultados encontrados evidenciam que a intervenção alcançou redução significativa nos sintomas de ansiedade social, ansiedade geral, depressão e sintomas de transtornos mentais comuns, mostrando que foi uma intervenção efetiva. Além disso, os escores relacionados à ansiedade geral, depressão e sintomas de transtornos mentais comuns, após a intervenção foram equiparados com o escore obtidos pelo grupo de participantes saudáveis, evidenciando a excelente eficácia do processo de intervenção. A eficácia também pode ser constatada a partir da mensuração do tamanho de efeito grande encontrado no estudo relacionado ao principal instrumento de avaliação de TAS utilizado (SPIN), ou seja, esse estudo evidenciou que a forma psicoterápica utilizada atingiu o objetivo esperado da intervenção considerada padrão ouro. No que concerne às medidas relacionadas à qualidade de memória, a hipótese inicial relacionava-se à teoria de que os indivíduos ansiosos sociais apresentariam um número maior de falsas memórias e/ou uma redução de memórias verdadeiras, porém essa hipótese não foi confirmada. / Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) consists of a marked and persistent fear of social or performance situations in which the individual could feel shame. Among the anxiety disorders, SAD is one of the most prevalent, considered the fifth most disabling disorder, however, the search for treatment is very low. Different randomized clinical trials show that Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy (CBGT) presents satisfactory and long-lasting results, which is considered the gold standard of intervention for SAD, however, a portion of patients with SAD do not respond to treatment. Thus, the objective of this study was to investigate the effect of a group intervention related to high social cost exposure in patients with SAD about psychological variables and memory quality. The intervention used in this study was proposed by Hofmann and Otto (2008). Among the psychological variables studied changes in symptoms of social anxiety, anxiety, fear of negative evaluation, avoidance and social discomfort, depression and symptoms of common psychiatric disorders were evaluated. Fifty-five adults participated in this study, composing three different experimental groups: the comparison group without SAD, which consists of participants without clinical symptoms, the comparison group with SAD, participants with SAD who did not receive intervention during the research (Waitlist control condition), and the group of SAD patients who participated in the intervention. An independent researcher to study distributed randomly the participants with SAD between CBGT or Waitlist condition. Assessments were made at pre and post-test using Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), Fear of Negative Evaluation (FNE), Social Avoidance and Distress Scale (SADS), Patient Health-Questionnaire (PHQ-9), Self-Report Questionnaire (SRQ), and false memories test in the three groups. The results showed that the intervention achieved a significant reduction in the symptoms of social anxiety, general anxiety, depression and symptoms of common mental disorders, showing that it was an effective intervention. In addition, the scores related to general anxiety, depression and common mental disorder symptoms after the intervention were similar to the scores obtained by the group of healthy participants, evidencing the excellent efficacy of the intervention process. Efficacy can also be seen from the measurement of the large effect size found in the study evaluated by the main evaluation instrument of SAD used (SPIN), this study achieved the expected goal of the gold standard considered intervention. Concerning measures related to memory quality, the initial hypothesis was that social anxious individuals would present a greater number of false memories and / or a reduction of true memories, but this hypothesis was not confirmed.

Submitted by Cristiane Chim (cristiane.chim@ucpel.edu.br) on 2017-02-10T11:09:37Z No. of bitstreams: 1 BiancaSilveira.pdf: 2865763 bytes, checksum: 154f3813d9a5ded371c8750e3681ced3 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-02-10T11:09:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 BiancaSilveira.pdf: 2865763 bytes, checksum: 154f3813d9a5ded371c8750e3681ced3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-12-01 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES# / #2075167498588264571# / #600 / The HEVC video compression standard is one of the newest standards. It achieves higher compression ratio compared to existing standards and doubles the compression ratio of the previous standard, the H.264/AVC (Advanced Video Coding). In video encoder, the Motion Estimation and Intra Prediction modules are present and uses intensively the follow similarity metrics for mode decision: the Sum of Absolute Differences and the Sum of Absolute Transformed Differences. The intense use of these metrics represents the major part of the computational complexity of the HEVC video encoder. The aim of this work is to explore hardware architectures for SAD and SATD similarity metrics using power consumption reduction techniques. For the SATD metric two studies were performed: the first study focuses on the architectural exploration at different levels of parallelism of the 8x8 Hadamard Transform; the second study aims at the implementation of architectures based on multiple sizes of the Hadamard Transform. As power reduction techniques, adders compressor were used in the SATD architectures. Adders compressor were also used in different recombinations of SAD metric. All architectures presented in this work were implemented in hardware description language VHDL and synthesized for ASIC in Nangate’s 45nm technology using the Cadence RTL Compiler tool. The power estimation of the architectures was obtained using real inputs extracted from the reference software of the HEVC standard. Comparative analyzes were performed between these architectures, as well as comparisons with architectures state-of-the-art. The architectures using adders/subtractors compressors compared to architectures using adder from the synthesis tool have a power reduction of 16.3 % for the sequential, 21.1 % for the semi-parallel and 26.6 % for the parallel for the SATD based on HT 8x8 and 10.07 % for SATD based on multiple sizes of HT. For the SAD architecture using 8: 2 compressor adders the power reduction was 61.8 %. / O padrão de compressão de vídeo HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) é um dos mais novos padrões desenvolvidos. Ele alcança taxas de compressão de vídeo maiores em relação aos outros padrões já existentes e dobra a taxa de compressão comparado ao padrão anterior, o H.264/AVC (Advanced Video Coding). No codificador de vídeo, os módulos de Estimação de Movimento e Predição Intra estão presentes e utilizam intensamente as seguintes métricas de similaridade para decisão de modo de codificação: a SAD (Sum of Absolute Differences) e a SATD (Sum of Absolute Transformed Differences). O uso intenso destas métricas representa a maior parte da complexidade computacional do codificador de vídeo HEVC. O objetivo deste trabalho é explorar arquiteturas de hardware para as métricas de similaridade SAD e SATD utilizando técnicas de redução do consumo de potência. Para a métrica SATD foram realizados dois estudos: o primeiro estudo foca na exploração arquitetural em diferentes níveis de paralelismo da Transformada Hadamard 8x8; o segundo estudo visa a implementação de arquiteturas baseadas em múltiplos tamanhos da Transformada Hadamard. Como técnicas de redução de potência, foram utilizados somadores compressores nas arquiteturas de SATD. Também foram utilizados somadores compressores em diferentes recombinações em arquitetura da métrica SAD. Todas arquiteturas apresentadas neste trabalho foram implementadas em linguagem de descrição de hardware VHDL e sintetizadas para ASIC na tecnologia 45nm da Nangate utilizando a ferramenta Cadence RTL Compiler. A estimação de potência das arquiteturas foi obtida utilizando entradas reais extraídas do software de referência do padrão HEVC. Foram realizadas análises comparativas entre estas arquiteturas, assim como comparações com arquiteturas estado-daarte. As arquiteturas utilizando somadores/subtratores compressores em comparação às arquiteturas utilizando somadores da ferramenta de síntese apresentam uma redução de potência de 16,3% para a sequencial, 21,1% para a semi-paralela e 26,6% para a paralela para SATD baseada na HT 8x8 e 10,07% para a SATD baseada em múltiplos tamanhos da HT. Para a arquitetura de SAD utilizando somadores compressores 8:2 a redução de potência foi de 61,8%.