In this work, a model of computation for shared memory parallelism is presented. To address fundamental constraints of modern memory systems, the presented model constrains how parallelism interacts with memory access patterns and in doing so provides a method for design and analysis of algorithms that estimates reliable execution time based on a few architectural parameters. This model is presented as an alternative to modern thread based models that focus on computational concurrency but rely on reactive hardware policies to hide and amortize memory latency. Since modern processors use reactive mechanisms and heuristics to deduce the data access requirement of computations, the memory access costs of these threaded programs may be difficult to predict reliably. This research presents the Queue Streaming Model (QSM) that aims to address these shortcomings by providing a prescriptive mechanism to achieve latency-amortized and predictable-cost data access. Further, the work presents application of the QSM to algorithms commonly used in a number of applications. These algorithms include structured regular computations represented by merge sort, unstructured irregular computations represented by sparse matrix dense vector multiplication, and dynamic computations represented by MapReduce. The analysis of these algorithms reveal architectural tradeoffs between memory system bottlenecks and algorithm design. The techniques described in this dissertation reveal a general software approach that could be used to construct more general irregular applications, provided they can be transformed into a relational query form. It demonstrates that the QSM can be used to design algorithms that enhance utilization of memory system resources by structuring concurrency and memory accesses such that system bandwidths are balanced and latency is amortized. Finally, the benefit of applying the QSM algorithm to the Euler inviscid flow solver is demonstrated through experiments on the Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5-2680 v2 processor using ten cores. The transformation produced a speed-up of 25% over an optimized OpenMP implementation having identical computational structure.

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[pt] As ações de valor tendem a ter retornos mais altos, em média. Seu desempenho é particularmente mais forte quando o spread de valor, definido pelas diferenças nos índices B/M, entre ações de valor e crescimento é maior. Neste artigo, mostramos que essa previsibilidade se torna ainda mais forte quando contabilizamos o spread no crescimento, medido pelas expectativas de curto prazo, expectativas de longo prazo e crescimento passado. Utilizamos as expectativas dos analistas com relação ao lucro de cada empresa para construir uma série de proxies para as expectativas de crescimento de lucros. Concluímos que adicionar a razão de crescimento aumenta muito o poder preditivo também em testes fora da amostra. / [en] Value stocks tend to have higher returns on average. Their performance is particularly stronger when the value spread, defined by differences in B/M ratios, between value and growth stocks is wider. In this paper, we show that this predictability becomes even stronger when we account for the spread in growth, measured by short-term expectations, long-term expectations, and past growth. We use analyst expectations on individual firm s earnings to construct a range of proxies for earnings growth expectations. We find that adding the growth spread greatly increases the predictive power also in out-of-sample tests.

Previous research has shown that expected market returns vary over time and that this variation can be predicted by variables such as dividend yields and book-to-market ratios (Fama and French (1989); Campbell and Thompson (2008)). Further, macroeconomic variables affect asset returns (Flannery and Protopapadikas (2002)). We investigate whether the investment decisions of mutual fund investors incorporate information about future stock returns contained in predictive and macroeconomic variables. If investors incorporate this information, then variation in flows should be related to that in predictive variables and macroeconomic variables. Using quarterly flow data from 1951Q4 to 2007Q4, we find that both predictive and macroeconomic variables have a relatively small impact on flows. Our results suggest that fund investors, as a group, fail to adequately incorporate the information contained in these variables. Existing literature documents that (i) an asymmetric low-performance relationship creates an incentive for managers to extract rents from shareholders, and (ii) managers respond to such incentives by strategically altering portfolio risk. Using the semiparametric regression model proposed by Chevalier and Ellison (1997), we show that the flow-performance relationship has become linear in recent years (2000-2009) and fund managers no longer respond to such incentives. Fund managers, however, change portfolio risk in response to past performance; such changes have a positive impact on fund performance and are indicative of a better alignment of interests between managers and shareholders. / Ph. D.

Many researchers seem to think that Construction Grammar posits the existence of only wholly idiosyncratic constructions. However, this misconception betrays a deep misunderstanding of the approach because it glosses over the fact that constructions rarely if ever emerge sui generis. Rather, Construction Grammar aims to balance the fact that some linguistic uses cannot be fully predicted from other well-established uses with the fact that extensions of a construction, while not predictable, are motivated by other senses in the constructional network. This paper illustrates this idea by providing an analysis of the Spanish completive reflexive marker se.

Today, many embedded or cyber-physical systems, e.g., in the automotive domain, comprise several control applications, sharing the same platform. It is well known that such resource sharing leads to complex temporal behaviors that degrades the quality of control, and more importantly, may even jeopardize stability in the worst case, if not properly taken into account. In this thesis, we consider embedded control or cyber-physical systems, where several control applications share the same processing unit. The focus is on the control-scheduling co-design problem, where the controller and scheduling parameters are jointly optimized. The fundamental difference between control applications and traditional embedded applications motivates the need for novel methodologies for the design and optimization of embedded control systems. This thesis is one more step towards correct design and optimization of embedded control systems. Offline and online methodologies for embedded control systems are covered in this thesis. The importance of considering both the expected control performance and stability is discussed and a control-scheduling co-design methodology is proposed to optimize control performance while guaranteeing stability. Orthogonal to this, bandwidth-efficient stabilizing control servers are proposed, which support compositionality, isolation, and resource-efficiency in design and co-design. Finally, we extend the scope of the proposed approach to non-periodic control schemes and address the challenges in sharing the platform with self-triggered controllers. In addition to offline methodologies, a novel online scheduling policy to stabilize control applications is proposed.

<p>The risk assessment process and the subsequent risk management measures need tobe constantly evaluated, updated and improved. This thesis contributes to that workby considering, and suggesting improvements, regarding aspects like userfriendliness,transparency, accuracy, consistency, data reporting, data selection anddata evaluation.The first paper in this thesis reports from an empirical investigation of themotivations, intentions and expectations underlying the development andimplementation of a voluntary industry owned environmental classification systemfor pharmaceuticals. The results show that the purpose of the classification systemis to provide information, no other risk reduction measures are aimed for.The second paper reports from an evaluation of the accuracy and the consistency ofthe environmental risk assessments conducted within the classification system. Theresults show that the guideline recommendations were not followed in several casesand consequently alternative risk ratios could be determined for six of the 36pharmaceutical substances selected for evaluation in this study. When additionaldata from the open scientific literature was included the risk ratio was altered formore than one-third of the risk assessments. Seven of the 36 substances wereassessed and classified by more than one risk assessor. In two of the seven cases,different producers classified the same substance into different classificationcategories.The third paper addresses the question whether non-standard ecotoxicity data couldbe used systematically in environmental risk assessments of pharmaceuticals. Fourdifferent evaluation methods were used to evaluate nine non-standard studies. Theevaluation result from the different methods varied at surprisingly high rate and theevaluation of the non-standard data concluded that the reliability of the data wasgenerally low.</p> / QC 20100929

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-10-04T11:03:19Z No. of bitstreams: 1 José Carlos Abissamra Filho.pdf: 1027017 bytes, checksum: 87280348631952fc79a02adf3395ccc7 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-10-04T11:03:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 José Carlos Abissamra Filho.pdf: 1027017 bytes, checksum: 87280348631952fc79a02adf3395ccc7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-09-20 / According to Michel Foucault’s studies (or, papers based on Michel Foucault studies), there are no defined limits between legality and illegality; legality and illegality do not necessarily oppose each other; on the contrary, their relationship is useful and functional. Legal system follows the same path that drives economics. Distancing itself from the speech which makes it legitimate, the legal system ends up not accomplishing its social goals, not granting safety and predictability, and not restraining itself. The principle of legality, when applied on everyday situations, ends up being used as a tool to violate rights, which means the opposite of sustaining economic order and safety (legal predictability), leading to vulnerability and unpredictability. That might be the reason why legal system’s legitimacy has been gradually challenged. Tolerance is one way to mitigate the legal system’s inaccuracy. Prior to installing a new criminal policy or before adhering to an already existing one, and, before approving a bill, models (legal prototypes) should be created, which could help to mitigate the effects of the legal system’s inaccuracy as well / Segundo estudos de (e a partir de) Michel Foucault, não há limites rígidos entre ilegalidade e legalidade; legalidade e ilegalidade não se opõem necessariamente; ao contrário, muitas vezes, relacionam-se numa articulação útil, funcional. O Direito segue os mesmos fluxos econômicos e políticos da ordem vigente. Distanciando-se do discurso que o legitima, o Direito não cumpre a sua finalidade de pacificação da sociedade; não confere previsibilidade e segurança; enfim, não se contém. O princípio da legalidade, quando aplicado no dia a dia, revela-se como uma autorização para violar direitos, o que significa o contrário de sustentação da ordem econômica e segurança, mas vulnerabilidade e falta de previsibilidade. É provavelmente por isso que a legitimidade do Direito tem sido gradativamente questionada. Tolerância é uma forma de mitigar os efeitos da inidoneidade do Direito; da mesma forma, protótipos legais antes de instalar uma nova política criminal ou de aderir a uma já existente, ou, antes de aprovar um projeto de lei, também poderia ser uma forma de mitigar os efeitos da inidoneidade do Direito

Este estudo objetivou investigar os componentes posturais reativos em resposta a deslocamentos da base de suporte, perturbando o equilíbrio corporal, em função da realização concomitante de uma tarefa supra-postural manual e incerteza sobre a direção de perturbação. Dezesseis adultos jovens de ambos os sexos (M = 26,3 anos; DP = 2,6) participaram do estudo. A tarefa supra-postural consistiu em equilibrar um cilindro sobre uma bandeja (restrição), cujo desempenho foi verificado por meio do deslocamento angular do cilindro. O desempenho na tarefa postural foi avaliado em função da combinação da incerteza sobre a direção de perturbação postural (anterior ou posterior) e restrição imposta pela tarefa supra-postural, requisitando equilíbrio do cilindro ou manutenção de uma bandeja na orientação horizontal. O desempenho na tarefa postural foi avaliado por meio de análises eletromiográfica de músculos anteriores e posteriores da perna direita e cinemática das principais articulações envolvidas nos ajustes da postura e da tarefa supra-postural. Os resultados mostraram que a tarefa supra-postural com restrição em perturbações previsíveis diminuiu a latência de ativação da musculatura agonista reduziu o deslocamento manual no controle na tarefa supra-postural. A tarefa supra-postural com restrição induziu ajustes diferenciados nas articulações do tornozelo, joelho, quadril e ombro em comparação à condição sem restrição. Os resultados sugerem que a tarefa supra-postural com restrição induziu maior automatização postural para reagir rapidamente à perturbação. Estes resultados indicam que o controle de uma tarefa supra-postural é integrado com a manutenção do controle postural em situações de perturbação do equilíbrio corporal. Além disso, esta integração foi mostrada ser dependente da previsibilidade da direção de perturbação postural. Assim, a principal conclusão deste estudo foi que a restrição imposta pela tarefa supra-postural influencia respostas neurofisiológicas reativas associadas ao controle postural, que são potencializadas pela previsibilidade da perturbação postural / This study aimed to investigate the reactive components of postural adjustments in response to displacements of the basis of support, disturbing body balance, as a function of a concomitant manual execution of a supra-postural task and uncertainty about the perturbation direction. Sixteen young adults of both genders (M = 26,3 years; SD = 2,6) participated in the study. The supra-postural task consisted of equilibrating a cylinder on a tray (constraint), whose performance was assessed through cylinder displacement. The performance on stance was evaluated as a function of a combination of uncertainty of direction of postural perturbation (anterior or posterior) and the constraint imposed by the supra-postural task, requiring equilibrium of the cylinder or maintenance of a tray in a horizontal orientation. Performance on stance was assessed through electromyographic analysis of anterior and posterior muscles of the right leg and kinematics of the main joints involved in postural e supra-postural adjustments. The results showed that the supra-postural task in predictable perturbations decreased the activation latency of agonistic muscles and diminished the manual displacement in the supra-postural task. The constraining supra-postural task induced differential adjustments in the ankle, knee, hip and shoulder in comparison with the condition without constraint. The results suggest that the restrictive supra-postural task induced a more automatic postural control to rapidly react to perturbations, generating more efficient postural adjustments. Thus, the present results suggest that the constraining supra-postural task induced more automatic responses. These results indicate that the control of a supra-postural task is integrated with the maintenance of upright stance in situations of balance perturbation. Moreover, this integration was shown to be dependent on predictability of direction of postural perturbation. So, the main conclusion drawn from our results is that the constraint imposed by the supra-postural task influences reactive neurophysiological responses related to postural control, which are enhanced by postural perturbation predictability