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<p>Previous studies have found that DNA flanking low-complexity regions (LCRs) have an increased substitution rate. Here, the substitution rate was confirmed to increase in the vicinity of LCRs in several primate species, including humans. This effect was also found within human sequences from the 1000 Genomes Project. A strong correlation was found between average substitution rate per site and distance from the LCR, as well as between the proportion of genes with gaps in the alignment at each site and distance from the LCR. Along with substitution rates, dN/dS ratios were also determined for each site, and the proportion of sites undergoing negative selection was found to have a negative relationship with distance from the LCR.</p> <p>Low-complexity regions in proteins often form and extend through the gain or loss of repeated units, a process that is dependent on the presence of a relatively pure string of repeats. Any interruption should disrupt the mechanisms of LCR extension and contraction, inhibiting LCR formation. Despite this, several examples have been found of LCR-coding DNA which are interrupted by introns. While many of these LCRs may be the result of two shorter LCRs forming on opposite sides of an intron, shuffling the order of exons showed that more intron-interrupted LCRs exist than would be expected to occur randomly. Another possible explanation for this phenomenon is the apparent movement of either the LCRs or introns, possibly through recombination or the appearance of new splice sites through the gain of repeat units.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)

Recently, video has become one of the most important multimedia resources to be shared in our work and daily life. With the development of high frame rate video (HFV), the write speed from high speed camera array sensor to the massive data storage device has been regarded as the main constraints on HFV applications. In this thesis, some low-complexity compression techniques are proposed for HFV acquisition and transmission. The core technique of our developed codec is the application of Slepian-Wolf coding theorem in video compression. The light-duty encoder employs SW encoding, resulting in lower computational cost. The pixel values are transformed into bit sequences, and then we assemble the bits on same bit plane into 8 bit streams. For each bit plane, there is a statistical BSC being constructed to describe the dependency between the source image and the SI image. Furthermore, an improved coding scheme is applied to exploit the spatial correlation between two consecutive bit planes, which is able to reduce the source coding rates. Different from the encoder, the collaborative heavy-duty decoder shoulders the burden of realizing high reconstruction fidelity. Motion estimation and motion compensation employ the block-matching algorithm to predict the SI image. And then the received syndrome sequence is able to be SW decoded with SI. To realize different compression goals, compression are separated to the original and the downsampled cases. With regard to the compression at the original resolution, it completes after SW decoding. While with respect to compression at reduced resolution, the SW decoded image is necessary to be upsampled by the state-of-the-art learning based SR technique: A+ . Since there are some important image details lost after the resolution resizing, ME and MC is applied to modify the upsampled image again, promoting the reconstruction PSNR. Experimental results show that the proposed low-complexity compression techniques are effective on improving reconstruction fidelity and compression ratio. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

<p> Increasing evidence indicates that giving individuals control over their practice schedule facilitates motor learning (Titzer, Shea, & Romack, 1993; Wu & Magill, 2004, 2005). A recent study within cognitive psychology (Son, 2004) found that individuals massed practice on tasks they judged as hard but spaced practice on tasks they judged as easy. The purpose of this experiment was to examine how self-regulated practice impacts motor learning and the strategies used by individuals as a function of task complexity. Participants were required to move a mouse-driven cursor through a pattern of coloured squares, pausing only long enough in each square to make an appropriate button press (white square=left button, black square=right button). Task complexity (4 easy and 4 hard patterns) was determined by the combined effects of the arrangement of the grid of squares and the hand used to manipulate the mouse (easy =dominant hand, hard=non-dominant hand). Participants were randomly assigned to one of eight groups: blocked, random, self-regulated, and yoked to self-regulated, performing either the easy or hard tasks. The number of switches between patterns were recorded as well as temporal and accuracy measures. The self-regulated groups were ineffective in acquisition, but showed the most stable and improved performance in retention, irrespective of task difficulty. Moreover, although switch strategies of the self-regulated groups differed between and within task complexity, the motor learning advantage was generalized. Taken together, these results reveal that an individual's strategic approach to practice may change as a function of task complexity, with no detriment to motor learning and adds to the growing body of literature that suggests self-regulated practice is an important variable for effective motor learning.</p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

The current study investigated the language behaviour of older adults before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Linguistic complexity (LC)—a measure of lexical and morpho-syntactic richness—is an index of both cognitive functioning and creativity. The increased physical and social isolation during the pandemic yielded reports of heightened levels of creativity as well as cognitive decline, bringing forth two counter-directed predictions: (1) given the threat to cognitive functioning posed by the pandemic, LC may steadily decrease following the onset of the pandemic, or; (2) consistent with the creativity boost reported during lockdowns, LC may be greater after the onset of the pandemic. This work analyzed the syntactic and lexical complexity of texts from the CoSoWELL corpus (v1.0), a collection of personal narratives written by 1028 mature adults (55+) collected at five test sessions spanning before (t1) and after (t2-t5) the beginning of the pandemic. Two lexical variables (type-token ratio; noun-verb ratio) and six syntactic variables (two syntactic variants of type-token ratio; embeddedness; D-ratio; longest dependency path; mean length utterance) were used to calculate LC. All measures saw statistically significant gains from t1 to t2, and further increased across subsequent test sessions. These findings confirmed the second hypothesis and, I argue, support a pandemic-related boost to creativity. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / The COVID-19 pandemic has been isolating, and isolation is a mixed bag: being alone promotes self-reflection and overthinking, and doing too much is linked to stress and mental illness. However, more time spent in solitude is also linked to greater creativity. Creativity means more new ideas, which come through as longer, more detailed sentences, with less repetition. This research looked at stories by older adults about their lives, written before and during the pandemic. Surprisingly, the language in the stories became more descriptive and diverse over time—meaning people were being more creative after COVID-19 hit. In the wake of this lonely storm, one silver lining has emerged: whether in spite of or because of this pandemic, creativity is flourishing.

The need to develop appropriate computer training techniques has led to an explosion of research in information systems. One of the most recent studies was conducted by Compeau and Higgins (1995) in which two training methods were examined in the context of Social Cognitive Learning Theory (Bandura, 1977, 1978). The training methods examined were traditional lecture-based training and behavior modeling. Based on various anomalies found in the Compeau and Higgins study, this paper introduced a moderating variable, task complexity, into their model and also attempted to replicate their original experiment. This study also incorporated an additional training method, Computer Aided Instruction (CAI), which was examined in an experiment by Gist, Schwoerer, and Rosen (1989). It was hypothesized that task complexity has a moderating effect on the relationships between behavior modeling and performance, between behavior modeling and self-efficacy, and between self-efficacy and performance. Finally, an empirical investigation was performed to determine the relative effectiveness of the three training methods examined. To test these hypothesized relationships, an experiment was conducted that examined prior performance, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and actual performance at two levels of task complexity for each of the three training methods. The data were analyzed using a combination of multivariate and univariate analyses of variance and a structural equation modeling software package, AMOS©. Five of the original nine hypotheses from the Compeau and Higgins study were fully supported; however, none of the task complexity and only one of the avoidance behavior hypotheses were supported. Possible causes of this lack of support were multi-dimensionality of constructs or the need to examine task dimensions other than complexity. Relevant findings in this study included (1) a positive significant relationship between behavior modeling and final performance, (2) a positive significant relationship between prior performance and the endogenous constructs in the model: computer self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and final performance, and (3) a ranking of the three training methods in terms of effectiveness. Although behavior modeling produced the best performance results at all levels of task complexity, CAI was equally effective when the level of complexity was high. For low complexity tasks, however, CAI was the least effective method examined. / Ph. D.

Drawing from the meta-construct model of cognition (Ingram, 1984; Ingram & Kendall, 1986), the goal of the present study was to examine whether the structural (i.e., self-complexity; SC, Linville, 1985) and propositional components of schemas (dysfunctional attitudes; DAS, Weissman & Beck, 1978), independently and in interaction with each other and stressors, lead to changes in depressive symptoms. The prediction was that if negative self-attributes across different self-aspects in a specific domain, interpersonal or achievement, are highly distinct (i.e., high negative SC) or if positive self-attributes across different aspects of self are redundant (i.e., low positive SC), then the DAS would be more likely to lead to higher levels of depression when domain-congruent stressors occur. To test the main effect, two-way interaction, and three-way interaction hypotheses, the present study used a two month longitudinal design involving three assessment periods, separated by one month. At the baseline, a total of 189 students participated in the study. Of these students, 163 and 121 students participated in the first and second follow-ups, respectively. Multiple hierarchical regression analyses were used to examine two-way and three-way interactions. Results showed strong support for the predictive power of negative SC with respect to depressive symptomatology. The DAS, on the contrary, was a concurrent factor related to depressive symptoms. Further, the present study did not provide supportive evidence for the diathesis-stress model of depression. Although contradicting expectations, the pattern of relationships between interpersonal negative SC, DAS, distal stressors suggested promising venues for future research. / Ph. D.