The aim of the current study was to examine variations in the impact of ambiguous versus blatant race related stressors on ego depletion in a sample of African American adults. Blatant race related stress was compared with ambiguous race related stress in regards to the relative impact on the constructs of ego depletion and perseverative cognition. Perseverative cognition was also examined as a potential mediating variable in the relationship between race related stress and ego depletion. Additionally, attributional ambiguity was hypothesized to moderate the effect of race related stress on perseverative cognition. The study implemented an experimental design, and assessed the integrity of the proposed moderated mediator model in a sample of 159 African American undergraduate students using MANCOVA and hierarchical multiple regression. Analyses failed to detect significant differences in ambiguous versus blatant race related stressors on perseverative cognition or ego depletion, and did not support the proposed model. Limitations of the study and implications for future research are discussed.

<p>This study examines several emerging topics in supply chain management including the dynamic product substitution, the joint optimization of price and order quantity with demand ambiguity, and the implementation of the environmental and social responsibility (ESR) programs.</p>

O presente trabalho procura descrever e avaliar possibilidades de reconhecimento de ambiguidades rítmicas a partir da perspectiva do ouvinte musical. Adota como principais referenciais: a análise de cenário auditivo, de Bregman (1990); a percepção por categorias, de Clarke (1987); o conceito de relógio interno, de Povel e Essens (1985) e a indução do tempo musical, de Povel e Okkerman (1981); o modelo de regras de preferência, de Lerdahl e Jackendoff (1983), depois desenvolvido por Temperley (2001); os critérios de padrões inerentes e o padrão da linha do tempo, de Kubik (1962); conceitos da psicologia da expectativa, de Huron (2007) e a aplicação de princípios gestálticos a processos cognitivos de percepção do ritmo. Com base neste referencial teórico, propõe parâmetros organizados como fatores endógenos e exógenos para a verificação de aspectos relacionados à maneira como ouvintes médios percebem as articulações rítmicas propostas nos exemplos musicais propostos. Por considerar que os compassos iniciais de uma obra constituem uma fase onde ocorre o processo de indução da percepção métrica, os exemplos musicais são constituídos de análises de trechos iniciais de obras musicais potencialmente ambíguos nomeadamente, Sinfonia n. 5, op. 67 (I), Sonata para piano, op. 14, n. 2 (I), Sonata para piano, op. 109 (I), de Beethoven; Quarteto de cordas, op. 51 n. 1 (I), de Brahms; Sinfonia n. 5, op. 64 (III), de Tchaikovsky. Traz, ainda, um exemplo de ambiguidade entre Ijexá e Drum n´Bass. Na conclusão, defende a ideia de que alguns modelos cognitivos atuais são capazes de justificar percepções auditivas ambíguas. / This study describes and evaluates the recognition of possibilities of rhythmic ambiguity from the perspective of the musical listener. Adopts as main references: the Auditory Scene Analysis, by Bregman (1990); the Categorical Rhythm Perception, by Clarke (1987); internal clock concept, by Povel and Essens (1985), and induction of musical time, by Povel and Okkerman (1981); the preference rule model, by Lerdahl and Jackendoff (1983), later developed by Temperley (2001); Inherent patterns and Timeline pattern criteria, by Kubik (1962); Psychology of Expectation concepts, by Huron (2007), and application of Gestalt principles to cognitive processes of rhythm perception. Based on this theoretical framework it proposes parameters organized as endogenous and exogenous factors to verify aspects related to the perception of proposed articulations by averages listeners, in the proposed rhythmic musical examples. Considering that the initial measures of a work constitute a stage where the induction process of meter perception occurs, the musical examples are made up of initial excerpts analysis from musical works potentially ambiguous namely, Symphony no. 5, op. 67 (I), Piano Sonata, op. 14, no. 2 (I), Piano Sonata, op. 109 (I), by Beethoven; String Quartet, op. 51 no. 1 (I), by Brahms; Symphony no. 5, op. 64 (III), Tchaikovsky. This paper also provides an example of ambiguity between Ijexá pattern and Drum n\'bass pattern. In the conclusion, defends the idea that some current cognitive models are able to justify ambiguous auditory perceptions.

Modelos de escolha perante incertezas incorporando ambiguidade se tornaram uma tema importante de pesquisa após a apresentação do Paradoxo de Ellsberg. O intuito do presente trabalho é contribuir para essa área do conhecimento através de uma análise mais detalhada do modelo de preferências Bewley Variacional. Primeiro foi feita uma revisão bibliográfica da literatura, culminando no modelo em questão e finalmente sugerindo uma abordagem do axioma da independência / Models of choice with uncertainty that allows for ambiguity to be present have become an important subject of research after Ellsbergs Paradox. This work aims to contribute to this area of knowledge through a more detailed analysis of the model Variational Bewley Preferences. First we present a survey of the literature, then analyse and finally suggest a further understanding of Faros model with respect to the independence axiom

As atividades que envolvem jogos na sala de aula, além de propiciarem o prazer, o desafio e a curiosidade, podem proporcionar o engajamento do aluno no processo ensino-aprendizagem e na construção de conceitos matemáticos. Essa afirmação pode parecer trivial, mas não é tão simples assim. Por parte do professor, a reflexão sobre a inserção de jogos em sua prática contribui para uma tomada de consciência sobre sua função mediadora nos processos de aprendizagem e para uma progressiva segurança e autonomia na mediação dos mesmos. O objetivo deste estudo é refletir sobre a ambigüidade do conceito de jogo, e elaborar a consideração de que as crenças constituídas ao longo da história de vida e formação do professor determinam o seu conceito sobre o jogo na escola. Consideramos fundamental discutir o paradoxo do jogo educativo ao se pesquisar o jogo na escola e refletir a prática do professor. Caso contrário, propostas bem fundamentadas e interessantes não atingem o professor em sua prática e não são introduzidas na escola. O primeiro eixo da pesquisa irá centrar-se nos pressupostos teóricos sobre o fenômeno em questão, buscando elementos para discutir o que é o jogo na escola, quais suas finalidades e qual o papel do professor. O segundo eixo utiliza a história oral como metodologia de pesquisa e busca desvelar na fala de uma professora, com sua história de vida, contrapontos para a discussão do tema. No encontro desses dois eixos procuramos nos aproximar do conceito de jogo na escola e ponderar o papel do educador. / The activities involving games in the classroom, in addition to providing the pleasure, the challenge and curiosity, can provide the engagement of the student in the teaching-learning process and the construction of mathematical concepts. That may seem trivial, but it is not as simple case. For the teacher, the debate on the inclusion of games in their practice contributes to an awareness of their role on mediating in the processes of learning and a progressive security and autonomy in mediation of them. The objective of this study is to reflect on the ambiguity of the concept of the game, and prepare the consideration of the believes that formed during the life story of the teacher training and determine its concept on the game at the school. We discuss the fundamental \"paradox of the educational game\" when searching the game in school and reflect the practice of teaching. Otherwise, well reasoned and interesting proposals do not affect the teacher in their practice and are not made in school. The first axis of the research will focus on the theoretical assumptions about the phenomenon in question, seeking evidence to discuss what is the game at school, what their purpose and what the role of the teacher. The second uses the oral history and methodology of research and search unveiling the talk of a teacher, with its history of life, counterpoints to the discussion of the subject. At the meeting of these two axes trying to bring the concept of the game in school and consider the role of educator.

Incoherent scatter radar (ISR) systems allow researchers to peer into the ionosphere via remote sensing of intrinsic plasma parameters. ISR sensors have been used since the 1950s and until the past decade were mainly equipped with a single mechanically steerable antenna. As such, the ability to develop a two or three dimensional picture of the plasma parameters in the ionosphere has been constrained by the relatively slow mechanical steering of the antennas. A newer class of systems using electronically steerable array (ESA) antennas have broken the chains of this constraint, allowing researchers to create 3-D reconstructions of plasma parameters. There have been many studies associated with reconstructing 3-D fields of plasma parameters, but there has not been a systematic analysis into the sampling issues that arise. Also, there has not been a systematic study as to how to reconstruct these plasma parameters in an optimum sense as opposed to just using different forms of interpolation. The research presented here forms a framework that scientists and engineers can use to plan experiments with ESA ISR capabilities and to better analyze the resulting data. This framework attacks the problem of space-time sampling by ESA ISR systems from the point of view of signal processing, simulation and inverse theoretic image reconstruction. We first describe a physics based model of incoherent scatter from the ionospheric plasma, along with processing methods needed to create the plasma parameter measurements. Our approach leads to development of the space-time ambiguity function, forming a theoretical foundation of the forward model for ISR. This forward model is novel in that it takes into account the shape of the antenna beam and scanning method along with integration time to develop the proper statistics for a desired measurement precision. Once the forward model is developed, we present the simulation method behind the Simulator for ISR (SimISR). SimISR uses input plasma parameters over space and time and creates complex voltage samples in a form similar to that produced by a real ISR system. SimISR allows researchers to evaluate different experiment configurations in order to efficiently and accurately sample specific phenomena. We present example simulations using input conditions derived from a multi-fluid ionosphere model and reconstructions using standard interpolation techniques. Lastly, methods are presented to invert the space-time ambiguity function using techniques from image reconstruction literature. These methods are tested using SimISR to quantify accurate plasma parameter reconstruction over a simulated ionospheric region.

Atualmente, é comum que usuários levem em consideração a localização geográfica dos documentos, é dizer considerar o escopo geográfico que está sendo tratado no contexto do documento, nos processos de Recuperação de Informação. No entanto, os sistemas convencionais de extração de informação que estão baseados em palavras-chave não consideram que as palavras podem representar entidades geográficas espacialmente relacionadas com outras entidades nos documentos. Para resolver esse problema, é necessário viabilizar o georreferenciamento dos textos, ou seja, identificar as entidades geográficas presentes e associá-las com sua correta localização espacial. A identificação e desambiguação das entidades geográficas apresenta desafios importantes, principalmente do ponto de vista linguístico, já que um topônimo, pode possuir variados tipos de ambiguidade associados. Esse problema de ambiguidade causa ruido nos processos de recuperação de informação, já que o mesmo termo pode ter informação relevante ou irrelevante associada. Assim, a principal estratégia para superar os problemas de ambiguidade, compreende a identificação de evidências que auxiliem na identificação e desambiguação das localidades nos textos. O presente trabalho propõe uma metodologia que permite identificar e determinar a cobertura espacial dos documentos, denominada SpatialCIM. A metodologia SpatialCIM tem o objetivo de organizar os processos de resolução de topônimos. Assim, o principal objetivo deste trabalho é avaliar e selecionar técnicas de desambiguação que permitam resolver a ambiguidade dos topônimos nos textos. Para isso, foram propostas e desenvolvidas as abordagens de (1)Desambiguação por Pontos e a (2)Desambiguação Textual e Estrutural. Essas abordagens, exploram duas técnicas diferentes de desambiguação de topônimos, as quais, geram e desambiguam os caminhos geográficos associados aos topônimos reconhecidos para cada documento. Assim, a hipótese desta pesquisa é que o uso das técnicas de desambiguação de topônimos viabilizam uma melhor localização espacial dos documentos. A partir dos resultados obtidos neste trabalho, foi possível demonstrar que as técnicas de desambiguação melhoram a precisão e revocação na classificação espacial dos documentos. Demonstrou-se também o impacto positivo do uso de uma ferramenta linguística no processo de reconhecimento das entidades geográficas. Assim, foi demostrada a utilidade dos processos de desambiguação para a obtenção da cobertura espacial dos documentos / Currently, it is usual that users take into account the geographical localization of the documents in the Information Retrieval process. However, the conventional information retrieval systems based on key-word matching do not consider which words can represent geographical entities that are spatially related to other entities in the documents. To solve this problem, it is necessary to enable the geo-referencing of texts by identifying the geographical entities present in text and associate them with their correct spatial location. The identification and disambiguation of the geographical entities present major challenges mainly from the linguistic point of view, since one location can have different types of associated ambiguity. The ambiguity problem causes noise in the process of information retrieval, since the same term may have relevant or irrelevant information associated. Thus, the main strategy to overcome these problems, include the identification of evidence to assist in the identification and disambiguation of locations in the texts. This study proposes a methodology that allows the identification and spatial localization of the documents, denominated SpatialCIM. The SpatialCIM methodology has the objective to organize the Topônym Resolution process. Therefore the main objective of this study is to evaluate and select disambiguation techniques that allow solving the toponym ambiguity in texts. Therefore, we proposed and developed the approaches of (1) Disambiguation for Points and (2) Textual and Structural Disambiguation. These approaches exploit two different techniques of toponym disambiguation, which generate and desambiguate the associated paths with the recognized geographical toponym for each document. Therefore the hypothesis is, that the use of the toponyms disambiguation techniques enable a better spatial localization of documents. From the results it was possible to demonstrate that the disambiguation techniques improve the precision and recall for the spatial classification of documents. The positive effect of using a linguistic tool for the process of geographical entities recognition was also demonstrated. Thus, it was proved the usefulness of the disambiguation process for obtaining a spatial coverage of the document

Tsai, Ya Ching. / Thesis submitted in: December 2008. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-160). / Abstracts in English and Chinese; includes Chinese characters. / Acknowledgement --- p.i / Abstract --- p.ii / 摘要 --- p.iii / Table of contents --- p.iv / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Objective --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Ambiguity detection --- p.3 / Chapter 1.3 --- Definition of ambiguity --- p.3 / Chapter 1.3.1 --- Lexical ambiguity --- p.4 / Chapter 1.3.2 --- Structural ambiguity --- p.5 / Chapter 1.4 --- Structure of the thesis --- p.8 / Chapter 2. --- Literature Review --- p.9 / Chapter 2.1 --- Prosodic phonology --- p.9 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Prosodic hierarchy --- p.9 / Chapter 2.1.1.1 --- "Syllable, foot and phonological word" --- p.10 / Chapter 2.1.1.2 --- Clitics --- p.13 / Chapter 2.1.1.3 --- Clitic group --- p.16 / Chapter 2.1.1.4 --- Phonological phrase --- p.19 / Chapter 2.1.1.5 --- Intonational phrase --- p.26 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Organization of prosodic structure --- p.27 / Chapter 2.1.2.1 --- Stress clash --- p.28 / Chapter 2.1.2.2 --- Eurhythmic rule --- p.29 / Chapter 2.1.2.3 --- Stress-timing vs. syllable-timing --- p.31 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- Syntax and phonology interaction --- p.33 / Chapter 2.2 --- Prosodic disambiguation --- p.35 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Previous studies and preliminary findings --- p.35 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Disambiguation strategies --- p.36 / Chapter 2.2.2.1 --- Intonational phrasing --- p.37 / Chapter 2.1.2.2 --- Accent placement --- p.38 / Chapter 2.2.2.3 --- Pause insertion and lengthening --- p.40 / Chapter 2.2.2.4 --- Pitch reset --- p.41 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- Examples of prosodic disambiguation devices in Italian --- p.42 / Chapter 2.2.4 --- Examples of prosodic disambiguation devices in Chinese --- p.45 / Chapter 2.2.5 --- Different approaches in accounting for disambiguation --- p.48 / Chapter 2.2.5.1 --- Syntactic approach --- p.51 / Chapter 2.2.5.2 --- Prosodic approach --- p.52 / Chapter 3. --- Methodology --- p.55 / Chapter 3.1 --- ToBI Annotation System --- p.55 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- ToBI for Italian --- p.57 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- ToBI for Mandarin --- p.58 / Chapter 3.2 --- Assumptions and research questions --- p.60 / Chapter 3.3 --- Production experiment --- p.62 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Chinese --- p.64 / Chapter 3.3.1.1 --- Experiment procedure --- p.65 / Chapter 3.3.1.2 --- A preview of the various syntactic ambiguities --- p.66 / Chapter 3.3.1.2.1 --- Pro-drop ambiguity --- p.70 / Chapter 3.3.1.2.2 --- Polysemous de --- p.73 / Chapter 3.3.1.2.3 --- Modifier grouping ambiguity --- p.76 / Chapter 3.3.1.2.4 --- Attachment ambiguity --- p.77 / Chapter 3.3.1.3 --- The role of intonational phrasing in prosodic disambiguation --- p.78 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Italian --- p.81 / Chapter 3.3.2.1 --- Experiment procedure --- p.82 / Chapter 3.3.2.2 --- A preview of the various syntactic ambiguities --- p.85 / Chapter 3.3.2.2.1 --- Pro-drop ambiguity --- p.86 / Chapter 3.3.2.2.2 --- Modifier grouping ambiguity --- p.90 / Chapter 3.3.2.2.3 --- Attachment ambiguity --- p.91 / Chapter 3.3.2.2.4 --- Relative clause ambiguity --- p.94 / Chapter 3.3.2.2.5 --- Homographic ambiguity --- p.96 / Chapter 3.3.2.3 --- Salience of accent placement --- p.98 / Chapter 3.3.2.4 --- Universality of semantic ambiguity --- p.100 / Chapter 3.4 --- Perception experiment --- p.101 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- Experiment procedure --- p.102 / Chapter 3.4.2 --- Discussion --- p.104 / Chapter 3.4.2.1 --- Better prediction by the prosodic approach --- p.106 / Chapter 3.4.2.2 --- The preferred reading effect --- p.106 / Chapter 3.4.2.3 --- Peculiarity of two toneless suffixes and how it is reflected in prosody --- p.110 / Chapter 3.4.2.4 --- Parenthetical expressions as an intonational phrase? --- p.112 / Chapter 3.5 --- General discussion --- p.114 / Chapter 4. --- Conclusion --- p.119 / Chapter 4.1 --- Summary --- p.119 / Chapter 4.2 --- Significance --- p.127 / Chapter 4.3 --- Limitations and future perspectives --- p.127 / Appendices / Appendix I --- p.129 / Appendix II --- p.131 / Appendix III --- p.143 / Appendix IV --- p.145 / Appendix V --- p.153 / Appendix VI --- p.154 / Appendix VII --- p.156 / Bibliography --- p.157 / List of Figures / Figure 2.1 Pitch reset --- p.42 / Figure 2.2 Major intonation group --- p.42 / "Figure 3.1 ToBI transcription of the English sentence If he can, then there´ةs no argument about it" --- p.57 / "Figure 3.2 ToBIt transcription of the Italian sentence No, no, niente. Disse. Un lieve capogiro" --- p.58 / Figure 3.3 M一ToBI transcription of the Mandarin sentence Weili mailarou --- p.59 / Figure 3.4 The wave form of Speaker T reading (2a) from Appendix III --- p.83 / Figure 3.5 Annotation example of Speaker T reading (2a) from Appendix III --- p.83 / Figure 3.6 Percentage of correct responses according to ambiguity types --- p.110 / List of Tables / Table 2.1 Relations between the syntactic and prosodic structures of ambiguous sentences & percentage of responses corresponding to intended meaning of ambiguous sentences --- p.53 / Table 2.2 Italian examples of different types of ambiguous sentences --- p.54 / Table 3.1 Chinese ambiguity based on Nespor and Vogel´ةs ten relation types --- p.64 / Table 3.2 Performance of the Chinese informants at real or potential I boundaries --- p.68 / Table 3.3 Performance of the Italian informants at intermediate and intonational phrase boundaries --- p.84 / Table 3.4 Percentage of responses corresponding to intended meaning --- p.105

While new agricultural technologies may lead to substantial yield improvements, the take-up rates in developing countries have frequently been low. There are many possible reasons why a farmer might refrain from adopting a new technology, and literature has pointed to several possible reasons in different settings. A key area for research is to understand what policies could encourage higher adoption rates. This thesis studies the research question by using a case study of fertiliser adoption in cocoa farming in Ghana. Chapter I investigates whether returns to fertiliser in cocoa farming are high and whether farmers' adoption decisions can be explained by comparative advantage. Chapter I uses data from Ghana to measure the returns to fertiliser using a correlated random model and static and dynamic panel models of homogeneous returns to fertiliser. The estimated returns in different models are positive, high and strongly significant statistically. The chapter also presents a correlated random effects model of heterogeneous technology, which allows for farmer-specific comparative advantage. The effect of the comparative advantage is found not to be statistically significant. Chapter II explores the fertiliser investment decisions and risk preferences of Ghanaian cocoa farmers in a framed field experiment. The experimental subjects decided whether to invest in fertiliser, and the fertiliser return depended on a stochastic weather realisation. An inexpensive index insurance scheme with a positive level of basis risk was found to have a minor positive effect on the fertiliser take-up, but this effect was statistically insignificant. An expensive index insurance scheme with no basis risk was found to have a substantial positive effect, and this effect was strongly significant. The experimental findings suggest that farmers are willing to pay for an index insurance if it successfully shields them from income variability. Chapter III investigates the effect of trust and of an ambiguous environment on fertiliser investments under index insurance. These two behavioural factors were studied by means of a framed field experiment conducted with Ghanaian cocoa farmers. The subjects had an option to invest in a package of fertiliser bundled with index insurance with a positive level of basis risk. The returns depended both on the subjects ́ investment choices and a stochastic weather realization. The key ingredient of the study was that for different subjects, the nature of the basis risk was framed differently. Substantially fewer subjects adopted fertiliser when possible losses of fertiliser investment were framed as resulting from the insurer ́s failure to meet its contract obligations, compared with an alternative in which the losses were framed as resulting from a mismatch between their own weather realizations and those on which the index insurance was based. A large negative effect on fertiliser investments was also found in treatments with either a small or large ambiguity regarding the exact level of basis risk. Both negative treatment effects were strongly significant. This may suggest that technologies with which farmers are relatively more experienced are more likely to be adopted under index insurance schemes. The overall experimental findings provide evidence that trust and ambiguity may be significant factors other than basis risk, limiting the effectiveness of index insurance in promoting agricultural innovation.

Dans ce travail, nous avons traité du genre « roman autobiographique » illustré par trois œuvres algériennes d'expression française: Jacinthe noire de Taos Amrouche, Le Fils du pauvre de Mouloud Feraoun et de L'amour la fantasia de Assia Djebar.Nouvellement défini par la poétique moderne, le roman autobiographique se démarque avanttout avec sa stratégie d'ambiguïté générique. Nous avons repéré cela systématiquement dans nos œuvres, notamment du point de vue structurel, il s'agit des éléments textuels qui fonctionnent comme des opérateurs génériques, tels que le paratexte, l'intertexte, mais aussi les mécanismes d'énonciations sur les axes référentiel et fictionnel.Partant du point de vue du contexte, ce sont d'autres ambiguïtés qui viennent alimenter la nature du genre que nous avons souhaité traiter sous le concept de dualité que le contexte social et individuelle fait apparaître. Ce concept nous l'avons par la suite décliné en concept du double qui affecte essentiellement la figure de l'auteur ainsi que ses personnages.Dépassées cette figure du double, c'est l'unité du Moi et de l'identité personnelle qui se trouvent remises en question. Avant de statuer sur différentes théories qui avaient tentées de mettreen œuvre des pistes de réception qui puissent valider herméneutiquement le genre dans ses divergentes acceptations.Mots clés : Roman autobiographique, fiction, réalité, ambiguïté, dualité, double, identité du Moi, amalgame, réception. / In this piece of work, we have discussed on the ‘autobiographical novel’ as a literary genre exemplified by three Algerian works written in French – namelyTaos Amrouche’s Jacinthe noire de, Mouloud Feraoun’s Le Fils du pauvre and Assia Djebar’s L'amour la fantasia.First and foremost, the autobiographical novel – recently defined by modern poetic – marks itself off from the other genres with its strategy of generic ambiguity. This has been systematically noticed in these works, especially from a structural point of view where text components play the part of generic operators such as paratext, intertext, but also enunciating mechanisms on fictional and referential axes.Starting from the contextual standpoint, other ambiguities nurture the nature of the genre we have wished to tackle through the concept of duality that is unveiled by the social and individual context. This very concept has then been developed into the concept of the double. It affects mostly the figure of the author as well as their characters.Moving beyond the figure of the double amounts to questioning the very unity of the Self and personal identity before rendering a final verdict on various theories that tried to implement reception that may hermeneutically validate the genre in all its diverging acceptations.Keywords: autobiographical novel, fiction, reality, ambiguity, duality, double, self identity, amalgam, reception.