This collection of poems explores themes of time and space, energy, entropy and decay, and the frames we use to resist the inevitable trend toward disorder that defines a human experience of the observable universe.

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The thesis focuses on intercultural comparison of temporality models. The time in this research is being examined as a social-cultural category: as the basic component of the social system determining its entire dynamics and serving the purpose of organization and synchronization of its inner components. It intends to capture the cultural function of temporality model, its connection with the economical, historical, cosmological and religious system of the society and with its inner stratification. The focal point of the thesis lies in the comparison of the cyclical temporality models (as we find them among the indigenous nations and archaic cultures) with linear quantitative models of time within the modern societies (especially the Western civilization) and with comparative examination of the "sources" and "purposes" of time in both cultural types. Keywords Time - Culture - Temporality

Fluorescence lifetime sensing using time correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) is a key analytical tool for molecular and cell biology research, medical diagnosis and pharmacological development. However, commercially available TCSPC equipment is bulky, expensive and power hungry, typically requiring iterative software post-processing to calculate the fluorescence lifetime. Furthermore, the technique is restrictively slow due to a low photon throughput limit which is necessary to avoid distortions caused by TCSPC pile-up. An investigation into CMOS compatible multimodule architectures to miniaturise the standard TCSPC set up, allow an increase in photon throughput by overcoming the TCSPC pile-up limit, and provide fluorescence lifetime calculations in real-time is presented. The investigation verifies the operation of the architectures and leads to the selection of optimal parameters for the number of detectors and timing channels required to overcome the TCSPC pile-up limit by at least an order of magnitude. The parameters are used to implement a low power miniaturised sensor in a 130 nm CMOS process, combining single photon detection, multiple channel timing and embedded pre-processing of the fluorescence lifetime, all within a silicon area of < 2 mm2. Single photon detection is achieved using an array of single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) arranged in a digital silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) architecture with a 10 % fill-factor and a compressed 250 ps output pulse, which provides a photon throughput of > 700 MHz. An array of time-interleaved time-to-digital converters (TI-TDCs) with 50 ps resolution and no processing dead-time records up to eight photon events during each excitation period, significantly reducing the effect of TCSPC pile-up. The TCSPC data is then processed using an embedded centre-of-mass method (CMM) pre-calculation to produce single exponential fluorescence lifetime estimations in real-time. The combination of high photon throughput and real-time calculation enables advances in applications such as fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) and time domain fluorescence lifetime activated cell sorting. To demonstrate this, the device is validated in practical bulk sample fluorescence lifetime, FLIM and simulated flow based experiments. Photon throughputs in excess of the excitation frequency are demonstrated for a range of organic and inorganic fluorophores for minimal error in lifetime calculation by CMM (< 5 %).

Little is currently known about the spatial-temporal dynamics of dengue epidemics in arid areas. This study assesses dengue outbreaks that occurred in two arid cities of Mexico, Hermosillo and Navojoa, located in northern state of Sonora. Laboratory confirmed dengue cases from Hermosillo (N=2730) and Navojoa (N=493) were geocoded by residence and assigned neighborhood-level characteristics from the 2010 Mexican census. Kernel density and Space-time cluster analysis was performed to detect high density areas and space-time clusters of dengue. Ordinary Least Square regression was used to assess the changing socioeconomic characteristics of cases over the course of the outbreaks. Both cities exhibited contiguous patterns of space-time clustering. Initial areas of dissemination were characterized in both cities by high population density, high percentage of occupied houses, and lack of healthcare. Future research and control efforts in these regions should consider these space-time and socioeconomic patterns.

In recent years there is a rapid increase in demand for cloud services, as cloud computing has become a flexible platform for hosting microservices over the Internet. Microservices are the core elements of service oriented architecture (SOA) that facilitate the deployment of distributed software systems. As the user requires good quality of service the response time of microservices is critical in assessing the performance of the application from the end user perspective.This thesis work aims at developing a typical service architecture to facilitate the deployment of compute and I/O intensive services. The work also aims at evaluating the service times of these service when their respective subservices are deployed in heterogeneous environments with various loads.The research work has been carried out using an experimental testbed in order to evaluate the performance. The transport level performance metric called Response time is measured. It is the time taken by the server to serve the request sent by the client. Experiments have been conducted based on the objectives that are to be achieved.The results obtained from the experimentation contain the average service times of a service when it is deployed on both virtual and non-virtual environment. The virtual environment is provided by Docker containers. They also include the variation in position of their subservices. From results it can be concluded that the total service times obtained are less in case of non-virtual environments when compared to container environment.

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Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Mathematics / Andrew G. Bennett / "Just In Time Teaching" (JiTT) is a teaching practice that utilizes web based technology to collect information about students' background knowledge prior to attending lecture. Traditionally, students answer either multiple choice, short answer, or brief essay questions outside of class; based on student responses, instructors adjust their lectures "just-in-time." In this study, modified JiTT techniques in the form of online review modules were applied to a first semester calculus course at a large midwestern state university during the spring 2012 term. The review modules covered algebra concepts and skills relevant to the new material presented in calculus lecture (the "just-in-time" adjustment of the calculus lectures was not implemented in this teaching experiment). The reviews were part of the course grade. Instead of being administered purely "just-in-time," the reviews were assigned ahead of time as part of the online homework component of Calculus-I. While previous studies have investigated the use of traditional JiTT techniques in math courses and reported student satisfaction with such teaching tools, these studies have not addressed gains in student achievement with respect to specific calculus topics. The goal of this study was to investigate the latter, and to determine whether timing of the reviews plays a role in bettering student performance. Student progress on weekly Calculus-I online assignments was tracked in spring of 2012 and compared to student scores from weekly Calculus-I online assignments from spring 2011, when modified JiTT instruction was not available. For select Calculus-I online assignments during the spring 2012 term, we discovered that the review modules significantly increased the number of students receiving perfect scores, even when the reviews were not purely administered ``just-in-time." Analysis of performance, success of review assignments, and future implications are also discussed.

Traditional herbicide formulations such as Roundup® contain the active ingredient glyphosate paired with the non-ionic surfactant polyethoxylated tallow amine (POEA). The impacts of POEA in aquatic environments are uncertain. In this study the environmental fate and effects of POEA was evaluated. A mesocosm field study confirmed that POEA dissipated rapidly from the water, but was persisted in the sediment; biological effects were negligible. In the laboratory, histological analysis of gills did not indicate negative effects on gill function in Pimephales promelas exposed to POEA. Proliferation of mucous cells in gills was significantly greater following 7 days of exposure. Liver histology appeared normal following exposures. Mean thiobarbituric reactive substances (TBARS) doubled in minnow livers exposed to 10 µg.L-1 POEA for 7 days; however was not statistically significant. The present study indicates that POEA may persist in sediment and may influence benthic communities over the long term. / May 2016