Chemical communication in aquatic organisms has been topic of a large number of studies focusing interactions between organisms via info chemicals. Diel Vertical Migration (DVM) is commonly observed among zooplankton and consists of a single daily ascent with minimum depth reached between sunset and sunrise and a descent with maximum depth attained during the day. DVM was absent or reduced when predators were absent and well developed in their presence. Species of the Daphnia are one of the well investigated group in freshwater environments. Variation in DVM of Daphnia in response to fish kairomone is one of the best studied behavioral strategies. Kairomone, as a term, is described interspecific chemical messengers, the adaptive benefit of which falls on the recipient rather than the emitter. As a result, nature and origin of kairomone is still unclear and needs to be investigated. It was decided that FT-IR technique would be favorable tool for this aim. In this frame, it was conceived that the occurrence of migration adaptation relevant to the seasonal changes in the presence of fish kairomone could be proved and characterized by FT-IR technique. Results of the present study indicate that non-aromatic, secondary amine compound has significant contribution to fish cue. Since other sources other than fish can contribute the natural amine compounds level in fresh water environment, origin and concentration of amines are needed further investigation to determine ecological function of amine.

During multisensory integration, information from distinct sensory systems that refers to the same physical event is combined. For example, the sound and image that an individual generates as s/he interacts with the world, will provide the nervous system with multiple cues which can be integrated to estimate the individual’s position in the environment. However, the information that is perceived through different sensory pathways/systems can be qualitatively different. The information can be redundant and describe the same property of an event in a common reference frame (i.e., the image and sound referring to the individual’s location), or it can be complementary. Combining complementary information can be advantageous in that it extends the range and richness of the information available to the nervous system, but can also be superfluous and unnecessary to the task at hand – i.e. olfactory cues about the individuals perfume can increase the richness of the representation but not necessarily aid in localisation. Over the last century or so, a large body of research has focused on different aspects of multisensory interactions at both the behavioural and neural levels. It is currently unclear whether the mechanisms underlying multisensory interactions for both type of cue are similar or not. Moreover, the evidence for differences in behavioural outcome, dependent on the nature of the cue, is growing. Such cue property effects possibly reflect a processing heuristic for more efficient parsing of the vast amount of sensory information available to the nervous system at any one time. The present thesis assesses the effects of cue properties (i.e., redundant or complementary) on multisensory processing and reports a series of experiments demonstrating that the nature of the cue, defined by the task of the observer, influences whether the cues compete for representation as a result of interacting, or whether instead multisensory information produces an optimal increase in reliability of the event estimate. Moreover, a bridging series of experiments demonstrate the key role of redundancy in inferring that two signals have a common physical cause and should be integrated, despite conflict in the cues. The experiments provide insights into the different strategies adopted by the nervous system and some tentative evidence for possible, distinct underlying mechanisms.

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Orientador: Lilian Teresa Bucken Gobbi / Banca: Rosana Mattioli / Banca: Renato de Moraes / Resumo: A capacidade de ajustar a velocidade de progressão é um importante mecanismo que adapta a atividade locomotora para mudanças nas demandas do ambiente. Essa capacidade está comprometida na doença de Parkinson e dicas visuais dinâmicas são efetivas na melhora da locomoção. Neste contexto, o objetivo do presente estudo foi analisar a influência da dica visual dinâmica, em diferentes condições de velocidade, no padrão do andar de indivíduos com doença de Parkinson. Para tanto, 15 idosos com doença de Parkinson foram convidados a percorrer uma passarela de 8 m e manter uma distância personalizada (estatura do participante) de uma faixa móvel em três diferentes velocidades: lenta (VL), preferida (VP) e rápida (VR). Duas câmeras digitais fizeram o registro do deslocamento dos marcadores reflexivos dos participantes e da faixa a 60 Hz. As variáveis mensuradas foram: comprimento da passada (CP), largura do passo (LP), cadência (CAD), duração da passada (DP), duração da fase de duplo suporte (DDS), duração da fase de suporte simples (DSS) e duração da fase de balanço (DB), ângulos do tornozelo, joelho e quadril no contato do calcanhar (ATC, AJC, AQC respectivamente), ângulos do tornozelo, joelho e quadril na retirada do pé (ATR, AJR, AQR respectivamente) e as amplitudes de movimento durante a passada nas articulações do tornozelo (AMPLTOR), joelho (AMPLJOE) e quadril (AMPLQUA). Foram empregadas análises de multivariância (MANOVA) e análises de regressão múltipla (stepwise) para o tratamento estatístico e o nível de significância mantido em p<0,05. Os participantes modularam 71,55% das tentativas. A MANOVA revelou não haver diferença no padrão de andar entre as condições ML e VP. Entre as condições sob dica visual, a MANOVA revelou diferença entre os padrões para as variáveis espaciais e temporais. O teste de Tukey apontou diferença entre os parâmetros nas tentativas moduladas, com exceção de LP. . / Abstract: The capacity to adjust the progression velocity is an important mechanism that adapts the locomotor activity to changes in environment demands. This capacity is compromised in Parkinson‟s disease patients and dynamic visual cues are effective to promote improvements in the locomotor behavior. In this context, the purpose of this study was to analyze the influence of the dynamic visual cue under different velocity conditions in the walking pattern of Parkinson‟s disease patients. In order to do that, 15 older adults with Parkinson‟s disease were invited to walk on a 8 m pathway keeping a personalized distance (their stature) of a mobile stripe under three different velocity conditions: slow (SV), preferred (PV), and fast (FV). Two digital video camcorders registered the trajectories of the reflective markers and the stripe at 60 Hz. The following dependent variables were calculated: stride length (SL), step width (SW), cadence (CAD), stride duration (SD), duration of double support (DDS), duration of the single support (DSS), swing phase duration (SPD); ankle, knee, and hip angles at heel contact (AHC, KHC, HHC, respectively); ankle, knee, and hip angles at toe off (ATO, KTO, HTO, respectively); and the motion amplitudes of ankle (AMA), knee (KMA), and hip (HMA) during the stride. The locomotor pattern were analyzed by means of multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA) and multiple regression analyses (stepwise) as a statistical procedure and the significance level was maintained in p< 0.05. Participants modulated 71,55% of trials. The MANOVA revealed no walking pattern difference between FW and PV conditions. Among the visual cue conditions, the MANOVA revealed differences among the patterns for spatial and temporal variables. Tukey‟s test showed differences on the modulated trials for all parameters excepted for SW. As the velocity increased it was observed an increased in SL, CAD, DSS, and SPD as well as the decreased of SD and DDS. On... / Mestre

Object recognition is a hugely researched domain that employs methods derived from mathematics, physics and biology. This thesis combines the approaches for object classification that base on two features – color and shape. Color is represented by color histograms and shape by skeletal graphs. Four hybrids are proposed which combine those approaches in different manners and the hybrids are then tested to find out which of them gives best results. / Mail the author at radoslaw.cichocki(at)gmail.com

The main purpose of the present study is to investigate whether learning and ways of understanding subject content and structure differ between successful and less successful students—i.e. in terms of their grade point average—in upper secondary school. A second issue is whether different subjects and disciplines—i.e. science on the one hand and humanities/social sciences on the other—make different demands on students. Data were gathered through interviews with a total of 36 students in two classes at two periods of their schooling. Additional data were gathered from interviews with teachers in the two classes and a sample of the tests given to the classes. Both classes receive instruction in science as well as humanities/social sciences but in one class (N) the emphasis is on science whereas in the other (S) the emphasis is on humanities/social sciences. A common characteristic of successful students is that they adjust to the teacher’s way of structuring the subject by means of a deep approach and a pronounced cue-seeking. They also play a dominant role in classroom communication. Less successful students more frequently use a surface or procedural approach to learning, are less sensitive for cues, do not adjust to the structure of subjects as presented by the teachers and do not participate to the same extent in classroom communication. The characteristics for successful students are very stable over time. As for the less successful students, there is a difference between N- and S-students. A majority of the S-students who use a surface approach in the first year change towards a deep approach later in their schooling, whereas the procedural approach of N-students is stable. It is concluded that the stability shown by the successful students can be explained in that their deep approach reflects their understanding that subject structure may vary and cue-seeking for these students signifies an awareness of and subsequent adjustment to the particular structure presented by the teachers. By understanding the structure according to teachers’ intentions, successful students are able to participate in classroom communication, eventually establishing a joint discourse. The differences between a change of learning for S- and N-students could be interpreted in light of differences in subject structure and instruction between subjects. In humanities/social sciences, classroom communication and the presentation of alternative interpretations of subject matter play a prominent role in instruction, and students who initially use a surface approach might get guidance to alternative ways of understanding the subject matter and subject structure. In the science subjects in the N-programme, the presentation of alternative interpretations is not  as common. These subjects also have a hierarchical structure, and understanding the basic fundamentals is a prerequisite for understanding later topics. For the students who initially use a surface approach in these hierarchically ordered subjects, learning becomes a matter of memorising more and more disconnected facts in what might seem to be disjointed courses.

Cocaine users display impaired inhibitory control. The influence of cocaine-related stimuli on inhibitory control has not been assessed. The Attentional Bias-Behavioral Activation (ABBA) task uses cocaine and neutral images as cues to determine if drug-related images impair inhibitory control in cocaine users. This dissertation was designed to assess the influence of cocaine images on inhibitory control in cocaine users through the conduct of studies designed to address four aims. The first aim was to demonstrate that cocaine users display impaired inhibitory control following cocaine images compared to neutral images on the ABBA task. This was accomplished through the conduct of two experiments. The first experiment piloted the ABBA task and cocaine users completed the cocaine go (n = 15) or neutral go condition (n = 15) of the task. The second experiment consisted of two studies designed to develop a within-subjects methodology for using the ABBA task. In the first study, cocaine users completed either the cocaine go (n = 20) or neutral go (n = 20) condition of the ABBA task and all participants also completed the Cued Go/No-Go task, with geometric shapes as cues. In the second study, cocaine users (n = 18) completed the cocaine go condition of the ABBA task and a modified version of the ABBA task with all neutral images as cues to further refine a possible within-subjects methodology. The second aim was to demonstrate that inhibitory failures occur most often when cues are presented for short compared to longer durations of time. Data collected during other protocols (n = 91) were combined to investigate the influence of stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA; i.e., the amount of time a cue is presented before a target indicated a response should be executed or withheld) on inhibitory control following cocaine-related and neutral cues on the ABBA task. The third aim was to demonstrate impaired inhibitory control following cocaine images on the ABBA task is specific to cocaine users. Cocaine users (data collected in the second experiment of the first aim) and non-using control participants (n = 16) completed the cocaine go and all neutral conditions of the ABBA task and the Cued Go/No-Go task. The fourth aim was to demonstrate the feasibility and acceptability of inhibitory control training to cocaine-related stimuli with cocaine users. A small pilot clinical trial was conducted and cocaine users were randomly assigned to complete inhibitory control training to cocaine images or geometric shapes. Cocaine images impaired inhibitory control on the ABBA task, as demonstrated by an increased proportion of inhibitory failures in the cocaine go condition compared to the neutral go condition in Experiments 1, 2, and 4. The proportion of inhibitory failures following cocaine images in Experiment 4 was increased at short (i.e., 100, 200) compared to long SOAs. Cocaine images also impaired inhibitory control compared to the Cued Go/No-Go Task in Experiment 2, however there were no differences in the proportion of inhibitory failures between the cocaine go and all neutral conditions of the ABBA task. There were no differences between cocaine users and controls in Experiment 3 for the proportion of inhibitory failures on the ABBA or Cued Go/No-Go tasks, but controls responded faster indicating a speed/accuracy trade off occurred in the control group. Inhibitory control training as an approach to improve treatment outcomes is feasible, as indicated by attendance and accuracy on the training task, and participants rated the overall procedure as satisfactory in Experiment 5. A better understanding of inhibitory control in the presence of cocaine related cues could be crucial to better understand how drug cues contribute to the risk for relapse and the continued use of drugs because both occur in the presence of drug cues.

目標解讀在許多不同的模仿理論中均受到重視，並被認為是模仿學習中的關鍵。其中，目標導向的模仿理論認為在模仿過程裡，觀察者會將動作要素以階層關係重組為主要目標和次要目標，在資源有限的情況下，次要目標在模仿中容易被忽略，只重現主要目標。本研究修訂過去研究嬰兒目標導向模仿之作業，探索示範中的動作方向及口語提示線索如何影響嬰兒的目標導向模仿。在實驗1中，嬰兒看到示範者以跳躍或滑行的動作方式將玩偶移動至桌面或盒子裡，結果發現嬰兒會在沒有盒子的情境中模仿不同的動作方式，並在有盒子的情境裡模仿示範者的位置選擇。實驗2修訂實驗1的程序，延後呈現運動方向提示目標的時間，結果發現移動路徑的改變會使嬰兒在有盒子情境裡模仿位置選擇的正確性下降。實驗3在示範開始前加入口語提示協助嬰兒區辨目標位置，並使用與實驗2相同的移動路徑，結果發現口語提示無法增加有盒子情境位置選擇的正確性，反而使無盒子情境中模仿動作方式的表現減少。嬰兒的模仿行為不能完全用目標導向模仿理論中目標的階層排序解釋，示範情境、溝通互動以及語言等不同線索皆可能影響嬰兒推理目標的方式，改變模仿的傾向。 / The goal-directed theory of imitation claims that infants imitate an action by decomposing it into separate and hierarchically organized goals. When resources are limited, infants ignore less important goals to reproduce main goals. The evidence of this theory is that infants prefer to imitate action outcomes over styles when an external goal was present. In contrast, infants take action styles as major goals when there was no observable outcome. In this research, we investigated how movement direction and verbal information influence the goal-directed imitation process. In Experiment 1, we replicated the goal-choice imitation task used in previous research. 18-month-old infants observed an adult moving a toy animal in different action styles (slide or hop) into one of the two boxes (box condition) or onto the table (no-box condition).The results showed that infants imitated the action styles in no-box condition and matched the location choice in box condition. In Experiment 2, we modify the task by delaying the timing of movement direction cue for goal choice. Infants imitated the box choices less accurately after observing the modified demonstration. In Experiment 3, we verbalized the actor’s goal to investigate whether the goal choice errors in Experiment 2 are due to the lack of goal salience. We found no increase for the accuracy of matching location in the box condition but a decrease for the imitation of action styles in the no-box condition. In addition to the tendency to imitate different goals in different conditions, the study suggests important roles of movement direction and verbal cues in infants’ goal-directed imitation.

This thesis argues that how-to manuals and cue sheets are indicative of ideal performance practice amongst musicians from the silent film era. Pre-scored music was widely practiced amongst musicians. How-to manuals and cue sheets helped the musician accurately and consistently accompany a film. Authors of period manuals include W. Tyacke George, Edith Lang and George West, Ernst Luz and George Tootell. Compilers of cue sheet include James C. Bradford, Ernst Luz, Edward Kilenyi and Michael P. Krueger. Cue by cue analyses of The Cat and the Canary and The Gaucho show a high repetition of music, establishing continuity between the music played and the image on the screen. This shows how compilers associated music and film. These manuals and cue sheets prove that the musician community strove for a close connection between the image on screen and accompaniment. By 1920, arbitrary improvisation was unacceptable.

This study aimed to test the effectiveness of classroom translations of some laboratory procedures for teaching simple auditory discriminations to learners with developmental disabilities. Three participants with autism and mental retardation were trained to make topographically distinct responses in the presence of two different stimuli, either a pure tone and silence, or two tones. A portable electronic piano keyboard was used to produce tones. Delayed prompt and differential reinforcement procedures were used to teach the responses. None of the participants performed the discriminations accurately without prompting despite numerous revisions to the procedures.