A música tem sido utilizada na pesquisa de percepção subjetiva de tempo por apresentar características de estrutura temporal, como o ritmo, o andamento, os acentos musicais, entre outros. A combinação destes elementos durante a escuta musical suscita a ativação de processos de atenção e memória envolvidos no processamento da percepção temporal. Face à diversidade de elementos que compõem a estrutura da música erudita ocidental, a utilização de uma análise multidimensional (MDS) tem contribuído para a pesquisa na área de cognição musical uma vez que delimita dimensões a partir de uma representação perceptual. A MDS provém de uma família de técnicas de análise de proximidade de dados, que é obtida por meio do julgamento do participante, que compara vários objetos (estímulos) em vários traços (elementos), concomitantemente. A utilização desta técnica visou identificar dimensões que influenciaram a percepção subjetiva de tempo durante uma tarefa de apreciação musical. 48 participantes (músicos e não músicos) ouviram 16 trechos musicais (20 segundos) do repertório erudito ocidental e os associaram às durações de 16, 18, 20, 22 e 24 segundos. Através da MDS foi gerada uma solução bidimensional representando a distribuição dos trechos musicais em função do julgamento de similaridade temporal. Uma análise musicológica foi realizada para avaliar os elementos musicais comuns encontrados nos trechos agrupados próximos. Foram identificados os elementos andamento, intensidade, densidade timbral e tensão, tanto para os músicos como para os não músicos. Foram identificadas duas dimensões complementares, 1) tensão e densidade timbral e 2) andamento e intensidade para os participantes músicos e 1) andamento e intensidade e 2) densidade timbral para os participantes não músicos, como responsáveis pela alteração na percepção subjetiva de tempo durante a apreciação de música erudita ocidental. / Music has been used in the research of subjective time perception because of its characteristics of temporal structure, as the rhythm, the tempo, the musical accents and others. The combination of these elements during musical listening task excite the activation of attention and memory processes involved in processing of the temporal perception. Due to the diversity of parameters which compose the structure of western erudite music, the use of a multidimensional scaling (MDS) contributed for the research in the musical cognition area once delimits dimensions from a perceptual representation The multidimensional scaling (MDS) comes from a family of analysis techniques of data proximity which is obtained by the participant judgment who compares some objects (stimuli) in some traces (elements), concomitantly. The use of this technique aimed at to identifying dimensions that influenced the subjective time perception during a musical appreciation task. 48 participants (musicians and non-musicians) were listen 16 musical excerpts (20 seconds) of the western erudite repertoire and associate them with the durations of 16, 18, 20, 22 and 24 seconds. Through the MDS a 2 dimensional solution was generated representing the distribution of the musical excerpts in function of the time similarity judgment. A musicology analysis was carried out to evaluate the common musical elements found in the grouped excerpts. It was identified the elements tempo, intensity, timbral density and tension, as much for the musicians as for non musicians. Two complementary dimensions had been identified, 1) tempo and intensity and 2) tension and timbral density for the participants musicians and 1) tempo and intensity and 2) timbral density for the participants non musicians, as responsible for the alteration in the subjective time perception during the appreciation of western erudite music.

Materialism has an ugly face. The dominant view of materialism regards materialists as self-prioritizing individuals who oppose collective and prosocial goals in favor of a lifestyle led by money, possessions, and status. The present research argues that there is a side of materialism that is concerned with collective-oriented interests. We examine the nature and consequences of collective-oriented materialism - the belief system that ascribes importance to possessions for their symbolic and signaling capacities to construct desirable social attributes. Drawing from cultural and consumer theories, we find considerable support that materialists espouse a collective-oriented quality to an otherwise self-oriented interest towards possessions.

A música tem sido utilizada na pesquisa de percepção subjetiva de tempo por apresentar características de estrutura temporal, como o ritmo, o andamento, os acentos musicais, entre outros. A combinação destes elementos durante a escuta musical suscita a ativação de processos de atenção e memória envolvidos no processamento da percepção temporal. Face à diversidade de elementos que compõem a estrutura da música erudita ocidental, a utilização de uma análise multidimensional (MDS) tem contribuído para a pesquisa na área de cognição musical uma vez que delimita dimensões a partir de uma representação perceptual. A MDS provém de uma família de técnicas de análise de proximidade de dados, que é obtida por meio do julgamento do participante, que compara vários objetos (estímulos) em vários traços (elementos), concomitantemente. A utilização desta técnica visou identificar dimensões que influenciaram a percepção subjetiva de tempo durante uma tarefa de apreciação musical. 48 participantes (músicos e não músicos) ouviram 16 trechos musicais (20 segundos) do repertório erudito ocidental e os associaram às durações de 16, 18, 20, 22 e 24 segundos. Através da MDS foi gerada uma solução bidimensional representando a distribuição dos trechos musicais em função do julgamento de similaridade temporal. Uma análise musicológica foi realizada para avaliar os elementos musicais comuns encontrados nos trechos agrupados próximos. Foram identificados os elementos andamento, intensidade, densidade timbral e tensão, tanto para os músicos como para os não músicos. Foram identificadas duas dimensões complementares, 1) tensão e densidade timbral e 2) andamento e intensidade para os participantes músicos e 1) andamento e intensidade e 2) densidade timbral para os participantes não músicos, como responsáveis pela alteração na percepção subjetiva de tempo durante a apreciação de música erudita ocidental. / Music has been used in the research of subjective time perception because of its characteristics of temporal structure, as the rhythm, the tempo, the musical accents and others. The combination of these elements during musical listening task excite the activation of attention and memory processes involved in processing of the temporal perception. Due to the diversity of parameters which compose the structure of western erudite music, the use of a multidimensional scaling (MDS) contributed for the research in the musical cognition area once delimits dimensions from a perceptual representation The multidimensional scaling (MDS) comes from a family of analysis techniques of data proximity which is obtained by the participant judgment who compares some objects (stimuli) in some traces (elements), concomitantly. The use of this technique aimed at to identifying dimensions that influenced the subjective time perception during a musical appreciation task. 48 participants (musicians and non-musicians) were listen 16 musical excerpts (20 seconds) of the western erudite repertoire and associate them with the durations of 16, 18, 20, 22 and 24 seconds. Through the MDS a 2 dimensional solution was generated representing the distribution of the musical excerpts in function of the time similarity judgment. A musicology analysis was carried out to evaluate the common musical elements found in the grouped excerpts. It was identified the elements tempo, intensity, timbral density and tension, as much for the musicians as for non musicians. Two complementary dimensions had been identified, 1) tempo and intensity and 2) tension and timbral density for the participants musicians and 1) tempo and intensity and 2) timbral density for the participants non musicians, as responsible for the alteration in the subjective time perception during the appreciation of western erudite music.

Alcohol expectancies have been shown to be predictive of risk for alcohol problems. Experimental research studies have challenged participants' expectancies with the end result demonstrating a mediational effect on participant drinking. Cognitive research using priming and word recognition tasks have led to the theory that expectancies operate in an associative network. Using dissimilarities information this network has been mapped using multidimensional scaling. The current techniques for collecting dissimilarities information directly in alcohol expectancy research has been limited to the use of the paired comparisons tasks. In order to investigate the utility of a different similarities task a comparison was made between a card sorting task and paired comparisons. The overall comparisons of matrices and Individual Difference Scaling (INDSCAL; Carroll & Chang, 1970) results followed the expected trends and generally supported the hypotheses that the two methods would provide essentially the same information. However, a possible method effect for gender was observed. The method effect was seen when comparing across methods within the females dichotomized by drinker category. Further studies are necessary to replicate these findings and to attempt to identify which method has the effect.

本文自美國人口普查局 (United States Census Bureau) 取得多達十萬筆的勞工資料，然而在如此大量的勞工資料中因維度的詛咒，所以我們無法使用傳統的資料探勘的方法分析資料，而且傳統的序述統計也無法提供一個好的分析方向，因此我們藉由 Tzeng et al (2008) 所提出的分解與結合多元尺度法 (Split-and-combine Multidimensional Scaling, SC-MDS) 為分析方法來剖析此資料。多元尺度法主要的目的有二：第一，使資料展現在空間中，並以資料點與點之間的距離表示其相關性；第二，降低資料維度避免維度的詛咒。SC-MDS 提供我們在分析此大資料相關聯性時的優先順序為年齡、學歷、性別；並結合職位資訊聯合資料庫 (Occupational Information Network)分析在此架構下不同分類的勞工在其就業的職位特質上的差異。我們發現了教育程度會影響性別間在勞工職位特質上的差異，且這些差異的數量又會隨年齡的增加而增加；教育程度在各個年齡層都對勞工職位特質產生很大的差異；最後，青年與壯年的勞工在職位特質上相較於壯年與中年勞工相似，並對以上產生相似或差異的原因提出解釋。 / A big labor data from United States Census Bureau will occur two problems. First, since the big data issue, we can not use the traditional method of data mining. Second, the descriptive statistics can not offer an explicit analysis, so we use Split-and-combine Multidimensional Scaling (SC-MDS), which is proposed by Tzeng et al (2008) to mining this labor data. MDS has two main purposes: First, Express data similarity by the distance between each pair points in spatial configuration. Second, Reducing data dimension to aviod the curse of dimension. After SC-MDS, the big labor data can be analysed by age, education and sex. We combine this order and the Occupational Information Network data base to develope the differences in occupational characteristics. We find the following phenomenon: first, differences are increasing with ages. Second, eduction do impact labors' characteristics in every ages. Third, the youth labors are more similar in occupational characteristics than olders. Finally, we try to explain the results above.

Advances in the development of simple and cheap sensors give new possibilities with large sensor network deployments in monitoring and surveillance applications. Commonly, the sensor positions are not known, specifically, when sensors are randomly spread in a big area. Low cost sensors are constructed with as few components as possible to keep price and energy consumption down. This implies that self-positioning and communication capabilities are low. So the question: “How do you localize such sensors with good precision with a feasible approach?” is central. When no information is available a stable and robust localization algorithm is needed. In this thesis an acoustic sensor network is considered. With a movable acoustic source a well-defined and audible signal is transmitted at different spots. The sensors measure the time of arrival which corresponds to distance. A two-step sensor localization approach is applied that utilizes the estimated distances. A novel approach in the first step is presented to incorporate more measurements and gain more position information. Localization and ranging performance is evaluated with simulations and data collected at field trials. The results show that the novel approach attains higher accuracy and robustness.

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 64 pages. / Thesis (M.A.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: Alcohol expectancies have been shown to be predictive of risk for alcohol problems. Experimental research studies have challenged participants' expectancies with the end result demonstrating a mediational effect on participant drinking. Cognitive research using priming and word recognition tasks have led to the theory that expectancies operate in an associative network. Using dissimilarities information this network has been mapped using multidimensional scaling. The current techniques for collecting dissimilarities information directly in alcohol expectancy research has been limited to the use of the paired comparisons tasks. In order to investigate the utility of a different similarities task a comparison was made between a card sorting task and paired comparisons. / ABSTRACT: The overall comparisons of matrices and Individual Difference Scaling (INDSCAL; Carroll & Chang, 1970) results followed the expected trends and generally supported the hypotheses that the two methods would provide essentially the same information. However, a possible method effect for gender was observed. The method effect was seen when comparing across methods within the females dichotomized by drinker category. Further studies are necessary to replicate these findings and to attempt to identify which method has the effect. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

During oil-sands mining all vegetation cover, soil, overburden and oil-sand is removed, leaving pits several kilometres wide and hundreds of metres deep. These pits are reclaimed by a variety of treatments using mineral soil or a mixed peat and mineral soil as the capping layer and planted with trees with natural colonisation from adjacent sites. A number of reclamation treatments covering different age classes were compared with a range of natural forest ecotypes to identify the age at which the treatments become similar to a natural site with respect to vegetation composition and key soil attributes relevant to nutrient cycling. Ecosystem function was estimated from plant community composition, litter decomposition, development of an organic layer and bio-available nutrients. Key response variables including moisture, pH, C:N ratios, bio-available nutrients and ground-cover were analysed by non-metric multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis to discover which reclamation treatments were moving towards or merging with natural forest ecotypes and at what age this occurs. On reclaimed sites, bio-available nutrients including nitrate generally were above the natural range of variability but ammonium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and manganese were generally very low and limiting to ecosystem development. Plant diversity was similar to natural sites from 5 years to 30 years after reclamation, but declined as reclaimed sites approached canopy closure. Grass and forb leaf litters decomposed faster than aspen or pine in the first year, but decomposition on one reclamation treatment fell below the natural range of variability. Development of an organic layer appeared to be facilitated by the presence of shrubs, while forbs correlated negatively with first-year decomposition of aspen litter. The better restoration amendments for tailings sands involved repeated fertilisation of peat: mineral mixtures in the early years of plant establishment, these became similar to a target ecotype at about 25 years. Good results were also shown by subsoil laid over non-saline overburden and fertilised once, these became similar to a target ecotype at about 15 years. Other treatments receiving a single application of fertiliser remain entrenched in the early reclamation phase for up to 25 years.

During oil-sands mining all vegetation cover, soil, overburden and oil-sand is removed, leaving pits several kilometres wide and hundreds of metres deep. These pits are reclaimed by a variety of treatments using mineral soil or a mixed peat and mineral soil as the capping layer and planted with trees with natural colonisation from adjacent sites. A number of reclamation treatments covering different age classes were compared with a range of natural forest ecotypes to identify the age at which the treatments become similar to a natural site with respect to vegetation composition and key soil attributes relevant to nutrient cycling. Ecosystem function was estimated from plant community composition, litter decomposition, development of an organic layer and bio-available nutrients. Key response variables including moisture, pH, C:N ratios, bio-available nutrients and ground-cover were analysed by non-metric multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis to discover which reclamation treatments were moving towards or merging with natural forest ecotypes and at what age this occurs. On reclaimed sites, bio-available nutrients including nitrate generally were above the natural range of variability but ammonium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and manganese were generally very low and limiting to ecosystem development. Plant diversity was similar to natural sites from 5 years to 30 years after reclamation, but declined as reclaimed sites approached canopy closure. Grass and forb leaf litters decomposed faster than aspen or pine in the first year, but decomposition on one reclamation treatment fell below the natural range of variability. Development of an organic layer appeared to be facilitated by the presence of shrubs, while forbs correlated negatively with first-year decomposition of aspen litter. The better restoration amendments for tailings sands involved repeated fertilisation of peat: mineral mixtures in the early years of plant establishment, these became similar to a target ecotype at about 25 years. Good results were also shown by subsoil laid over non-saline overburden and fertilised once, these became similar to a target ecotype at about 15 years. Other treatments receiving a single application of fertiliser remain entrenched in the early reclamation phase for up to 25 years.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2005. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file viewed on (July 19, 2006) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.