The work presented in this thesis is a first attempt investigating a new field, exploring the visual effects of movement using light as a continuous time-based medium. Composing over time, temporal patterns - in Textile Design is a practice based research project that investigates the following research question: What does it mean, if time and change – constant movement – becomes part of the textile design expression? The research question has been investigated in a number of experiments that explore the visual effects of movement using light integrated into textile structures as a medium. Thereby, the textile design pattern reveals its composition, not in one moment of time any more, but in fact over time. This thesis aims to create time-based textiles with an emphasis on developing aesthetics of movement – or to establish movement as an aesthetic moment in textile design. Two distinct groups of experiments, colour flow and rhythm exercise, explore a range of different time-based expressions. The experiments have been displayed and explored using woven and braided textile structures which have been construct mainly through the integration of PMMA optical fibres. Through the design processes a first platform and understanding about time as a design material has been developed, which allows composing time-based patterns in light design. New design variables, notions and tools have been defined and established. The achieved new expressions will hopefully lead to discussions on and envisioning of future textiles, opening up the general perception of what textiles are supposed to be like, to show, to express etc., i.e. expands notions of what it means to read a piece of textile work. / <p>Editor: Lars Hallnäs (LHS), Swedish School of Textiles</p>

The work presented in this thesis investigates through practice a new field of textile design exploring the visual effects of moving light as a continuous time-based medium. Thereby, the textile design pattern reveals its composition, not in one moment of time any more, but in fact over time. The thesis consist of four parts: a solo exhibition at the Textile Museum in Borås from 17th February- 28th March 2015, five posters, an interactive thesis including 48 films (download file) and present thesis book. The artefacts displayed in the thesis show a varying range of examples which explore aesthetical possibilities of how light can be integrated as an active part into textile structures, ranging from weaving to braiding techniques, both hand crafted, as well as industrial produced. Thereby three main groups of experiments: colour flow, rhythm exercise, sound_light experiment explore and discuss a range of different time-based expressions. Thus define and establish relevant new design variables and notions, whilst working with time-based design processes. In the following descriptions of these experiments two forms of writing have been used to describe the experiments. One is purely descriptive, neutral form to describe the experiments as such, whereas text titled Research Diary Notes includes reflections and personal comments on the experiences during work on the experiments. The interactive thesis and the exhibited artefacts are an invitation to view new textiles expressions and are an initial guide on the road toward future time-based design works, particularly in the area of light emitting textiles. / <p>Disputationen sker den 17:e mars 2015, kl. 10-12 i Textilmuséet, Textilhögskolan, Skaraborgsvägen 3, Borås. Opponent: Dr Nithikul Nimkulrat, Professor i textildesign, Head of Department of Textile Design, Estonian Academy of Arts.</p><p></p><p>Disputationen genomförs på engelska.</p>

No description available.

Scientists and land managers often focus on the Southeastern Plains and Coastal Plain of the southeastern United States when considering the ecology, restoration, and management of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris P. Mill.) communities and ecosystems. However, the range of this foundation tree species and its associated communities and ecosystems also extend into the Piedmont and Montane Uplands: the Piedmont of Alabama, Georgia, North and South Carolina and Virginia; the Ridge and Valley of Alabama and Georgia; and the Southwestern Appalachians of Alabama. The composition, structure, and dynamics of Piedmont and Montane Uplands longleaf pine communities have been understudied compared to their Southeastern Plains and Coastal Plain counterparts, and knowledge is based on historical accounts and a handful of studies at site-specific scales. The biogeography and ecology of Piedmont and Montane Uplands longleaf pine communities differ significantly from those in the Southeastern Plains and Coastal Plain. My research combines geospatial and ecological approaches to provide insights on current composition, structure, and dynamics of longleaf pine communities in the Southeastern Plains, Piedmont, and Ridge and Valley at multiple scales and highlights differences and similarities with communities in the Coastal Plain. The Piedmont and Montane Uplands longleaf pine communities showed high variation in canopy tree diversity compared to those in the Coastal Plain. Longleaf pine was sometimes the only canopy tree, while in other communities longleaf pine was one constituent in a mixed oak-pine canopy. My study showed that longleaf pine communities were not just restricted to south-facing slopes as previously thought, but were found on northwestern-facing slopes as well. Analysis of tree rings across my study sites showed that as longleaf pine approaches its northern range margin in the Piedmont and Montane Uplands, its radial growth is restricted by minimum temperature especially at longleaf pine's elevational, latitudinal, and longitudinal extremes; at all sties radial growth was influenced by drought and precipitation. At the local scale, I found that an Alabama Piedmont longleaf pine community showed a diameter-class distribution typical of an old-growth site but contrary to current knowledge, diameter was not a good indicator of age. / Ph. D.

Diferentes escalas espaciais, nas quais diferentes fatores variam, podem ser importantes em estudos da biodiversidade. Estrutura e dinâmica de comunidades marinhas epifaunais variam com a latitude, mas como essa variação muda ao longo do tempo é pouco estudada. Investigamos como a estrutura de assembleias de cnidários bentônicos em portos varia temporalmente em uma latitude tropical e uma subtropical e devido a fatores locais. No Brasil, estudamos recrutamento ao longo de quatro trimestres em duas áreas portuárias (Pecém a 3&deg;32&prime;S e Ilhabela a 23&deg;46&prime;S), e ao longo de dois anos em Ilhabela. Verificamos que (1) a riqueza de espécies segue o gradiente latitudinal, com assembleias de cnidários bentônicos mais ricas no Pecém, o local mais tropical; (2) a composição das assembleias varia muito ao longo do tempo, mas é mais constante na latitude tropical e parece ser uma consequência de maior variação sazonal da temperatura na latitude subtropical; (3) as abundâncias dos membros das assembleias de Ilhabela não são sazonalmente definidas; (4) cada local possui diferentes táxons que são mais importantes na estrutura da assembleia; (5) as assembleias em Ilhabela estão estruturadas conforme o microhabitat, interações bióticas e tempo de submersão. Este estudo destaca a importância da perspectiva temporal no entendimento da dinâmica de comunidades, contribui com o entendimento da importância da escala na determinação de padrões em comunidades marinhas e de como impactos humanos no ambiente dificultam a interpretação e previsão de padrões em comunidades / A variety of spatial scales, in which different factors vary, can be important in studies of biodiversity. Structure and dynamics of marine epifaunal communities are known to vary latitudinally, but how that variation changes over time is relatively unstudied. Here we investigate how the structure of fouling assemblages of cnidarians in harbors varies temporally at a tropical and a subtropical latitude and due to local factors. In Brazil, we studied recruitment during four 3 month periods in two harbors (tropical Pecém at 3&deg;32&prime;S and subtropical Ilhabela at 23&deg;46&prime;S) and over two years at Ilhabela. We found that (1) species richness follows a latitudinal gradient with more speciose benthic cnidarian assemblages at tropical Pecém; (2) composition of the assemblages varies widely over time, while being more constant at the tropical latitude and seems to be a consequence of greater seasonal variation in temperature at the subtropical latitude; (3) abundance of members of the assemblages at Ilhabela are not seasonally defined; (4) each site has different taxa that are more important in assemblage structure; (5) assemblages at Ilhabela are structured by microhabitat, biotic interactions and time of submersion. This study highlights the importance of a temporal perspective in understanding community dynamics, contributes to the understanding of the importance of scale in determining patterns of marine communities and how human impacts difficult interpretation and prediction of community patterns

<p>Passive acoustic monitoring is being used more frequently to examine the occurrence, distribution, and habitat use of cetaceans. Long-term recordings from passive acoustic recorders allow the examination of diel, seasonal, and inter-annual variation in the occurrence of vocalizing marine mammals. With the increased use of passive acoustics as a tool for studying marine mammals, the ability to classify calls to the species level is becoming more important. While studies have found distinctive vocalizations in some cetacean species, further work is required in order to differentiate the vocalizations of delphinid species. I sought to classify odontocete vocalizations to species and to describe temporal variation and depth-related differences in the occurrence of cetacean vocal events detected in archival passive acoustic recordings in Onslow Bay, North Carolina. To determine if odontocete species in offshore waters of North Carolina could be distinguished by their whistles and clicks, I used a towed hydrophone array to make acoustic recordings of species encountered during concurrent visual and acoustic surveys between 2007 and 2010. I recorded whistles from four species (Atlantic spotted dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, rough-toothed dolphins, and short-finned pilot whales) and clicks from five species (Risso's dolphins in addition to the four species listed above). After running a classification and regression tree (CART) analysis on 22 measured variables from the contours of four species' whistles, I generated an optimal classification tree that had a correct classification rate of 74.2%. My results indicate that species-specificity exists in the four species' whistles. My examination of the spectral structure of clicks showed that only Risso's dolphins produced clicks with distinctive spectral banding patterns, although I found that other click parameters, particularly peak and center frequency, might be useful in differentiating the other species. I then used the distinctive banding pattern that I observed in Risso's dolphin clicks to identify this species in recordings made by archival passive acoustic recorders that were deployed at various times and locations between 2007 and 2010. I used these recordings to determine how vocal events varied temporally and spatially in Onslow Bay. My analysis of vocal events observed in these recordings showed that Risso's dolphins, sperm whales, and other delphinids are present in Onslow Bay throughout the year; Kogia spp. occur sporadically; and fin and minke whales produce calls that can be detected only between late fall and early spring. I also detected low-frequency downsweeps and two types of low-frequency pulse trains produced by unknown species. After looking at the occurrence of fin whale 20-Hz pulses in relation to downsweeps, I suggest that the downsweeps are produced by sei whales due to the lack of overlap in occurrence. When I looked for diel patterns in the odontocete vocal events, I found a nocturnal increase in the occurrence of clicks from Risso's dolphins and sperm whales, but no diel variation in Kogia clicks. I also found that unidentified delphinids showed either an increase in click events at dawn or at night, depending on the time of year and recording location. Finally, my analysis of acoustic data from five recorders deployed in three different depth ranges revealed that there was greater unidentified delphinid and sperm whale vocal activity on recorders located in deep waters, suggesting a greater diversity and density of animals in deeper waters of Onslow Bay. Together, the results of my dissertation demonstrate the value of passive acoustic monitoring in understanding the distribution and temporal trends in cetacean occurrence, and highlight the importance of classifying sounds to the species level in order to better understand the temporal and spatial patterns found.</p> / Dissertation

In this thesis I will be concerned with linking the observed speechsignal to the configuration of articulators.Due to the potentially rapid motion of the articulators, the speechsignal can be highly non-stationary. The typical linear analysistechniques that assume quasi-stationarity may not have sufficienttime-frequency resolution to determine the place of articulation.I argue that the traditional low and high-level primitives of speechprocessing, frequency and phonemes, are inadequate and should bereplaced by a representation with three layers: 1. short pitch periodresonances and other spatio-temporal patterns 2. articulatorconfiguration trajectories 3. syllables. The patterns indicatearticulator configuration trajectories (how the tongue, jaws, etc. aremoving), which are interpreted as syllables and words.My patterns are an alternative to frequency. I use shorttime-domain features of the sound waveform, which can be extractedfrom each vowel pitch period pattern, to identify the positions of thearticulators with high reliability. These features are importantbecause by capitalizing on detailed measurements within a single pitchperiod, the rapid articulator movements can be tracked. No linearsignal processing approach can achieve the combination of sensitivityto short term changes and measurement accuracy resulting from thesenonlinear techniques.The measurements I use are neurophysiologically plausible: theauditory system could be using similar methods.I have demonstrated this approach by constructing a robust techniquefor categorizing the English voiced stops as the consonants B, D, or Gbased on the vocalic portions of their releases. The classificationrecognizes 93.5%, 81.8% and 86.1% of the b, d and gto ae transitions with false positive rates 2.9%, 8.7% and2.6% respectively.

Diferentes escalas espaciais, nas quais diferentes fatores variam, podem ser importantes em estudos da biodiversidade. Estrutura e dinâmica de comunidades marinhas epifaunais variam com a latitude, mas como essa variação muda ao longo do tempo é pouco estudada. Investigamos como a estrutura de assembleias de cnidários bentônicos em portos varia temporalmente em uma latitude tropical e uma subtropical e devido a fatores locais. No Brasil, estudamos recrutamento ao longo de quatro trimestres em duas áreas portuárias (Pecém a 3&deg;32&prime;S e Ilhabela a 23&deg;46&prime;S), e ao longo de dois anos em Ilhabela. Verificamos que (1) a riqueza de espécies segue o gradiente latitudinal, com assembleias de cnidários bentônicos mais ricas no Pecém, o local mais tropical; (2) a composição das assembleias varia muito ao longo do tempo, mas é mais constante na latitude tropical e parece ser uma consequência de maior variação sazonal da temperatura na latitude subtropical; (3) as abundâncias dos membros das assembleias de Ilhabela não são sazonalmente definidas; (4) cada local possui diferentes táxons que são mais importantes na estrutura da assembleia; (5) as assembleias em Ilhabela estão estruturadas conforme o microhabitat, interações bióticas e tempo de submersão. Este estudo destaca a importância da perspectiva temporal no entendimento da dinâmica de comunidades, contribui com o entendimento da importância da escala na determinação de padrões em comunidades marinhas e de como impactos humanos no ambiente dificultam a interpretação e previsão de padrões em comunidades / A variety of spatial scales, in which different factors vary, can be important in studies of biodiversity. Structure and dynamics of marine epifaunal communities are known to vary latitudinally, but how that variation changes over time is relatively unstudied. Here we investigate how the structure of fouling assemblages of cnidarians in harbors varies temporally at a tropical and a subtropical latitude and due to local factors. In Brazil, we studied recruitment during four 3 month periods in two harbors (tropical Pecém at 3&deg;32&prime;S and subtropical Ilhabela at 23&deg;46&prime;S) and over two years at Ilhabela. We found that (1) species richness follows a latitudinal gradient with more speciose benthic cnidarian assemblages at tropical Pecém; (2) composition of the assemblages varies widely over time, while being more constant at the tropical latitude and seems to be a consequence of greater seasonal variation in temperature at the subtropical latitude; (3) abundance of members of the assemblages at Ilhabela are not seasonally defined; (4) each site has different taxa that are more important in assemblage structure; (5) assemblages at Ilhabela are structured by microhabitat, biotic interactions and time of submersion. This study highlights the importance of a temporal perspective in understanding community dynamics, contributes to the understanding of the importance of scale in determining patterns of marine communities and how human impacts difficult interpretation and prediction of community patterns

This study investigates the variation in the spatial patterns of Diptera and Collembola throughout the forest canopy due to seasonal changes in temperature and humidity in the monsoon climate of West Africa. There is a very distinct turnover in climate from the end of the dry season (the hottest and driest time of the year) to the beginning of the rains and this coincides with significant increases and decreases in the overall abundance of many forest dwelling Diptera and Collembola species. The study investigates spatial patterns on two gradients; vertically from the ground to the high canopy and laterally from the edge of the forest to the core, with the added complexity of the affects of anthropogenic burning of adjacent savannah. The results show that seasonality and the starting of the rains significantly affect both the overall abundance and the spatial patterns, providing species with a strategic change in habitat niche. During seasonal conditions that are less conducive to species' overall abundance, spatial patterns are suppressed by environmental conditions. However when environmental conditions are optimum for increased species abundance, spatial patterns are only suppressed by the availability of resources within the habitat (feeding or reproductive resources for example). Successive late burning events may have changed the structure of the forest edge introducing a significantly more open forest structure changing environmental conditions and thus creating a habitat more suitable for species which prefer lower humidity and higher temperatures.

No description available.