Previous research has shown that cognitive reappraisal, an emotion regulation strategy, has beneficial effects on emotion experience during strategy engagement. The present study extends this work by investigating whether cognitive reappraisal impacts the anticipation of an aversive event during, and five days following, strategy engagement. Emotion profiles, including psychophysiological and self-report indices, were also examined to assess whether reappraisal inhibits affective responses. Participants underwent habituation and simple discriminatory fear conditioning. Stimuli were pictures of a snake and a spider. Two days later participants returned to the laboratory and were either i) cued to engage in cognitive reappraisal while imagining the stimuli ii) exposed to the stimuli with no reappraisal instructions iii) exposed to the stimuli while engaging in cognitive reappraisal or iv) had an experience unrelated to the stimuli (control condition). Participants returned to the lab five days later and were exposed to both pictures paralleling initial habituation and conditioning protocols. It was found that cognitive reappraisal during exposure reduced expectancy of the UCS faster than exposure alone and resulted in lower mean skin conductance response (SCR) for those low, but not high, in fear of snakes. Five days later participants in the intervention conditions, compared to the control condition, demonstrated less anticipation of the UCS and smaller emotion-modulated startle magnitudes to the UCS. These findings suggest that cognitive reappraisal may be an effective tool for reducing anticipation of an aversive event and can result in enduring fear inhibition. This may have important implications for the treatment of individuals with anxiety disorders. The present study also examined the relationship between cardiac vagal control, indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), and subsequent sympathetic arousal during fear conditioning, indexed by SCR. Results demonstrate that participants with low, compared to high, resting RSA had larger SCRs during habituation and conditioning trials. In addition, participants with lower RSA showed greater SCR reactivity following UCS presentation to both conditioned stimuli, suggesting that those with the lower RSA initially differentiated less between the UCS paired and unpaired images. These findings are consistent with theories that associate faster recovery from emotionally demanding situations with greater cardiac vagal control.

In this dissertation, I investigate three different issues related to signalling and price dynamics in mergers and acquisitions. The first issue is whether the act of raising capital signals an increase in takeover probability for a forthcoming target. Analysing target returns under event-study methodology, I find that this is indeed the case, as was initially pre-supposed by financial journalists. The second issue is whether the observed increase in target returns which are associated with the increase in takeover probability can be attributed to the actions of sophisticated traders, either via information leakage or through the adept analysis of publicly available information. An examination of price-volume dynamics reveals that investors incorporate the increased likelihood of a takeover attempt into target firm returns without necessarily resorting to illegal insider trading. The final issue is whether this public signal of raising capital impacts the target price runup and takeover premium in a meaningful way. Multivariate regression analysis reveals substantial support that raising capital close in proximity to the acquisition announcement date is associated with significant increases in both target firm returns as well as takeover premiums paid by acquiring firms. In sum, these three essays provide evidence which supports the notion that raising capital can act as both a statistically and economically significant signal to all market participants of a forthcoming takeover attempt. / Thesis (Ph.D, Management) -- Queen's University, 2011-08-12 10:35:35.142

Drawing on ethnographic and visual anthropological data, this dissertation explores the anticipated and unanticipated effects of youth-targeted health and development programmes in rural Malawi. Contemporary development programmes are anticipatory in nature: they are focused on managing health, behaviour, education and social relations today in ways that are believed to open opportunities for some distant and better future. Working with rural youth who “just stay,” an idiom youth use to describe their “failure” to make progress towards desired futures, I show how discourses and ideals espoused in anticipatory programmes including human rights, education, gender and love are slippery concepts. As they percolate through this particular social, political, historical and demographic context and into the imaginaries of young people, these discourses often become something new and unexpected. In particular I show how: i) a discursive elision occurs between the rights discourse and other markers of modernity and youth take up their “right” to wear modern clothing and drink commercial alcohol, ii) selfish behaviours including alcoholism and womanising surface in boys’ self-constructions as innate tendencies rather than part of a socially produced and constantly shifting construction of masculinity, iii) audit cultures, critical to the operation of anticipatory programmes, reduce gender equality to something “countable,” which, in turn, alters programme activities, leads to performances by participants and filters into youth subjectivities, and iv) discourses on modern and “healthy” loves, free from HIV/AIDS, lead to re-arrangements in romantic relations and friendships that provide new and positive opportunities for women not always available in customary marriages. By privileging the future over the present and the past, programmes overlook numerous structural barriers to improving the lives of the youth who “just stay.” I argue that the unanticipated effects of these programmes constitute and give rise to several invisible forms of violence. On the other hand, however, some effects are generative of new and positive subjectivities and relationships that are egregiously overlooked by programmes. This ignorance prevents programmes from building upon positive effects to generate desired change and sometimes even undermines their own stated goals.

Our senses are our mind's window to the outside world and determine how we perceive our environment.Sensory systems are complex multi-level systems that have to solve a multitude of tasks that allow us to understand our surroundings.However, questions on various levels and scales remain to be answered ranging from low-level neural responses to behavioral functions on the highest level.Modeling can connect different scales and contribute towards tackling these questions by giving insights into perceptual processes and interactions between processing stages.In this thesis, numerical simulations of spiking neural networks are used to deal with two essential functions that sensory systems have to solve: pattern recognition and prediction.The focus of this thesis lies on the question as to how neural network connectivity can be used in order to achieve these crucial functions.The guiding ideas of the models presented here are grounded in the probabilistic interpretation of neural signals, Hebbian learning principles and connectionist ideas.The main results are divided into four parts.The first part deals with the problem of pattern recognition in a multi-layer network inspired by the early mammalian olfactory system with biophysically detailed neural components.Learning based on Hebbian-Bayesian principles is used to organize the connectivity between and within areas and is demonstrated in behaviorally relevant tasks.Besides recognition of artificial odor patterns, phenomena like concentration invariance, noise robustness, pattern completion and pattern rivalry are investigated.It is demonstrated that learned recurrent cortical connections play a crucial role in achieving pattern recognition and completion.The second part is concerned with the prediction of moving stimuli in the visual system.The problem of motion-extrapolation is studied using different recurrent connectivity patterns.The main result shows that connectivity patterns taking the tuning properties of cells into account can be advantageous for solving the motion-extrapolation problem.The third part focuses on the predictive or anticipatory response to an approaching stimulus.Inspired by experimental observations, particle filtering and spiking neural network frameworks are used to address the question as to how stimulus information is transported within a motion sensitive network.In particular, the question if speed information is required to build up a trajectory dependent anticipatory response is studied by comparing different network connectivities.Our results suggest that in order to achieve a dependency of the anticipatory response to the trajectory length, a connectivity that uses both position and speed information seems necessary.The fourth part combines the self-organization ideas from the first part with motion perception as studied in the second and third parts.There, the learning principles used in the olfactory system model are applied to the problem of motion anticipation in visual perception.Similarly to the third part, different connectivities are studied with respect to their contribution to anticipate an approaching stimulus.The contribution of this thesis lies in the development and simulation of large-scale computational models of spiking neural networks solving prediction and pattern recognition tasks in biophysically plausible frameworks. / <p>QC 20150504</p>

L'objectif de ce travail était de questionner l'anticipation dans les sports de balle en prenant support de l'activité tennis. Pour anticiper, les informations utilisées peuvent provenir de deux sources principales : d'une part, la gestuelle de l'adversaire et d'autre part, des connaissances tactiques sur le jeu, les probabilités ou le contexte.Pour réaliser ce travail, nous nous sommes appuyés sur " l'approche de la performance experte " d'Ericsson et Smith (1991). Dans une première étude, nous avons réalisé une analyse in situ de l'anticipation chez des joueurs de tennis de haut niveau Les résultats de cette première étude ont montré que les joueurs anticipent essentiellement quand ils sont en situation défavorable et que le risque de perdre le point est grand. De plus, deux fenêtres temporelles distinctes d'anticipation sont apparues : une fenêtre précoce dans laquelle le taux de réussite est important et les informations utilisées peuvent être en lien avec les aspects tactiques ; une fenêtre plus tardive dans laquelle le taux de réussite est plus faible et les informations utilisées peuvent être en lien avec la gestuelle adverse.Dans une deuxième étape, nous avons mis en place des protocoles expérimentaux permettant d'étudier ces deux fenêtres temporelles et ces différentes sources d'informations. Dans l'étude N°2, nous avons fait varier la disponibilité de l'information gestuelle en fonction de la pertinence de l'information tactique. Les résultats obtenus ont montré que seuls les experts étaient capables d'utiliser de l'information sur la posture et la gestuelle de l'adversaire afin d'anticiper. Dans l'étude N°3, nous avons manipulé la quantité d'information tactique présente dans le point en contrôlant la durée de présentation précédant la réponse. Les résultats n'ont pas montré de différences dans la justesse des anticipations entre les différents temps de présentation. Cependant, le temps de réponse était plus court dans la condition où le temps de présentation était le plus long indiquant donc des prises de décision plus rapide pour anticiper dans cette condition.Enfin, dans une troisième étape, nous avons réalisé un protocole d'entraînement afin d'essayer d'améliorer l'anticipation basée sur les connaissances tactiques et probabilistiques en lien avec un adversaire particulier. Celui-ci a permis une amélioration de la performance d'anticipation et une diminution du temps de réponse pour le groupe apprentissage spécifique.Les résultats obtenus à travers ce travail fournissent des données quantitatives sur l'anticipation experte en tennis permettant la mise en place de tâches représentatives. De plus, ils suggèrent l'existence de moments clés d'utilisation des différentes sources d'informations disponibles afin d'anticiper. Pour finir, il semble possible d'améliorer les habiletés d'anticipation, même chez des joueurs experts, en mettant en place des protocoles d'entraînement. Ce travail ouvre des perspectives de recherche nombreuses qui pourront permettre par exemple de formaliser de manière plus précise la nature des informations utilisées pour anticiper.

Current research in stuttering suggests that individuals who stutter (IWS) may have a hyperactive error-monitoring system, leading to the exacerbation and anticipation of verbal dysfluencies. Using a neurophysiological marker of error processing known as the feedback error-related negativity, the current thesis involved three studies. First, a pilot study was conducted to ensure that word feedback cues were usable in the current paradigm. Second, a classic virtual T-maze task was used to assess the generic error processing mechanism of IWS. Third, an adaptation of the T-maze was used to assess the integrity of the reinforcement learning system of IWS and their ability to associate reward and error information of personalized problem words with predictive cues. Results suggest preliminary evidence for functional generic error processing in IWS and disrupted error processing when conditioned predictive cues are needed to predict fluent versus dysfluent outcomes. / Graduate

Drawing on ethnographic and visual anthropological data, this dissertation explores the anticipated and unanticipated effects of youth-targeted health and development programmes in rural Malawi. Contemporary development programmes are anticipatory in nature: they are focused on managing health, behaviour, education and social relations today in ways that are believed to open opportunities for some distant and better future. Working with rural youth who “just stay,” an idiom youth use to describe their “failure” to make progress towards desired futures, I show how discourses and ideals espoused in anticipatory programmes including human rights, education, gender and love are slippery concepts. As they percolate through this particular social, political, historical and demographic context and into the imaginaries of young people, these discourses often become something new and unexpected. In particular I show how: i) a discursive elision occurs between the rights discourse and other markers of modernity and youth take up their “right” to wear modern clothing and drink commercial alcohol, ii) selfish behaviours including alcoholism and womanising surface in boys’ self-constructions as innate tendencies rather than part of a socially produced and constantly shifting construction of masculinity, iii) audit cultures, critical to the operation of anticipatory programmes, reduce gender equality to something “countable,” which, in turn, alters programme activities, leads to performances by participants and filters into youth subjectivities, and iv) discourses on modern and “healthy” loves, free from HIV/AIDS, lead to re-arrangements in romantic relations and friendships that provide new and positive opportunities for women not always available in customary marriages. By privileging the future over the present and the past, programmes overlook numerous structural barriers to improving the lives of the youth who “just stay.” I argue that the unanticipated effects of these programmes constitute and give rise to several invisible forms of violence. On the other hand, however, some effects are generative of new and positive subjectivities and relationships that are egregiously overlooked by programmes. This ignorance prevents programmes from building upon positive effects to generate desired change and sometimes even undermines their own stated goals.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:31:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009-06-01Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:41:52Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 bertolini_ev_dr_botfca.pdf: 976816 bytes, checksum: 33d964ee6a502afaba9948bd767da98f (MD5) / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / Cada sistema de manejo do solo é trabalhado de maneira própria, alterando de forma diferenciada as propriedades químicas, físicas e biológicas do solo, podendo requerer modificações nas recomendações e no manejo da adubação. Com o objetivo de avaliar o efeito da antecipação da adubação de semeadura, de dois sistemas de manejo do solo e dois espaçamentos entrelinhas no desempenho da cultura do milho, foi realizado este estudo. O experimento foi instalado e conduzido na Fazenda Experimental Lageado, pertencente à Faculdade de Ciências Agronômicas (FCA) da Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Campus de Botucatu, nos anos agrícolas de 2005/2006 e 2006/2007, em Nitossolo Vermelho Distroférrico. O delineamento experimental utilizado foi de blocos ao acaso com parcelas subsubdivididas e quatro repetições. As parcelas foram constituídas pelos sistemas de manejo do solo (plantio direto e preparo reduzido, caracterizado pela escarificação do solo por meio de equipamento provido de disco de corte da palhada e rolo nivelador/destorroador, trabalhando na profundidade entre 25 e 30 cm), as subparcelas pelas formas de adubação (adubação de pré-semeadura realizada na superfície do solo em área total antes da semeadura do milho e adubação convencional) e as subsubparcelas pelos espaçamentos entrelinhas (90 e 45 cm), totalizando 8 tratamentos. Os resultados obtidos foram submetidos ao teste de Tukey a 5% de probabilidade para comparar as médias entre os sistemas de manejo do solo, as formas de adubação, os espaçamentos entrelinhas e os desdobramentos das interações entre esses três fatores. As análises estatísticas demonstraram que o sistema plantio direto apresentou maior densidade do solo e resistência mecânica do solo à penetração, quando comparado ao preparo reduzido. Na operação de adubação de pré-semeadura os sistemas de manejo do solo... / Each soil tillage system is worked in proper way, modifying of differentiated form the chemical, physical and biological soil properties, and may require adaptations of fertilization recommendations and management. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of sowing fertilization anticipation, two soil tillage systems and two row spacing on performance of the corn crop. The experiment was carried out at the “Faculdade de Ciências Agronômicas” (FCA), “Universidade Estadual Paulista” (UNESP), Botucatu-SP campus, from October 2005 to May 2007, in a Dystric Nitosol (FAO, 1974). The experimental design was in randomized blocks with split-split-plots and four repetitions. The main plots consisted of two soil tillage systems (no-tillage and reduced tillage with chisel plow with cut disk and planning roll, working at 25 to 30 cm deep), the split-plots of fertilizer application methods (surface fertilizer application before corn sowing and fertilizer application conventional) and split-split-plots of row spacings (0.90 m and 0.45 m), totalizing 8 treatments. Obtained results were analyzed by Tukey test at 5% of probability for comparing averages. Statistical analysis showed that no-tillage system had higher density as well as mechanical soil resistance to penetration, when compared to reduced tillage. For fertilizer application before corn sowing the soil tillage systems did not influence the traction force, bar power demanded, effective field capacity, demanded time, energy specific consumption and hourly fuel consumption; the reduced tillage showed higher area fuel consumption. For corn sowing it was observed that no-tillage system showed lower traction force, bar power demanded, energy specific consumption, hourly and area consumption of fuel. The 0.45 m row spacing showed higher traction force, bar power demanded, energy specific consumption... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

This work is an evaluation of Linear Quasi-Anticipation in real time domains. The evaluation is performed with experiments in two types of problem domains: pathfinding and Robocup soccer simulation. The experiments gave us valuable insights and made it possible for us to identify key issues concerning linear anticipation in dynamic and real-time domains. These key issues are presented in the report and should be a worthwhile read for anyone interested in hybrid agents, anticipatory systems, and searching in linear time. / Detta arbete är en utvärdering av linjär kvasi anticipering i realtidsdomäner.

The division of resources between a group of people may cause con- flicts: Individuals with varying roles and responsibilities will claim different shares of the surplus to be divided. In this dissertation, we analyze how the decision to form a group will influence the bargaining behaviour of the members of that group. People will act collectively as certain tasks may require the participation of a specific number of individuals before it can be completed. We examine whether certain mechanisms can efficiently promote group formation for the sake of surplus production, and then, what will be the effect of these mechanisms on the behaviour of the group members. For these reasons, we constructed a novel surplus production and distribution interaction which we call the Anticipation Game (AG). The AG can be played between only two players (pairwise interaction) or among more then two players (group interaction). In our study we will analyze both the pairwise AG and the group version of AG, first by obtaining our own empirical data and then by performing a stochastic evolutionary analysis. We aim to provide answers on: i) how will a reputation based partner approval mechanism influence the surplus distribution in both the pairwise and the group AG, ii) will then limitations in obtaining the reputation of a potential partner alter the results of the pairwise AG? iii) will we notice any effect on the behaviour of players when they can repeatedly cooperate with the same partners in group interactions, iv) how natural selection may have shaped the behaviour of players in group formation interactions (both pairwise and group AG evolutionary analysis). / Doctorat en Sciences / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished