Sleep deprivation affects the academic performance of online university students, and students who have family responsibilities and a full-time job have a higher prevalence of sleep deprivation. This phenomenological study examined the lived experiences of online university students regarding sleep patterns, sleep deprivation, and the impact on their academic performance. The theoretical foundation for this study was based on the opponent processing model that explains the 2 fundamental processes necessary for individuals to function at their optimum ability: the sleep-wake homeostatic process and the circadian rhythm processes. The research question explored the beliefs and perceptions of 10 online university students, while the sub questions focused on how distractions, social media, family, and work-related duties affected their sleep patterns. Purposeful sampling was used to recruit the participants who were current online university students, with a full time job, a family and family responsibilities. Data were analyzed through pattern coding and structural analysis. Four themes emerged from the analysis of the data: the effects of sleep deprivation, adjustment to daily lives, factors affecting sleep deprivation, and impressions of online education. Results demonstrated that sleep deprivation causes tiredness, sluggish thinking and cranky responses. Positive social change can be achieved if the 10 participants participate in building a community of online university students who will maintain an alumni base that can foster mentoring and empowering others to decrease sleep deprivation that helps in maintaining good academic standards.

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L’ataxie de Friedreich (AF) est une maladie neurodégénérative à transmission autosomique récessive. Cette pathologie se caractérise par une dégénérescence spinocérébelleuse, une cardiomyopathie hypertrophique qui est la cause majeure du décès des patients, et un risque accru de diabète. La mutation majoritaire causant l’AF est une hyper-expansion de triplet GAA dans le premier intron du gène FXN codant la frataxine, une protéine mitochondriale ubiquitaire codée par le génome nucléaire. Ces hyper-expansions instables conduisent à une inhibition de la transcription du gène FXN et donc à une baisse d’expression de la frataxine. Aucun traitement curatif n’est disponible à l’heure actuelle pour cette maladie. Seule une meilleure compréhension de la physiopathologie de l’AF permettra d’envisager le développement de stratégies thérapeutiques efficaces. Plusieurs travaux montrent que la frataxine intervient dans la biosynthèse des centres Fe-S, mais son rôle exact dans cette voie, et sa possible contribution dans d’autres processus biochimiques, doivent encore être élucidés. Par une approche de protéomique quantitative utilisée pour la première fois sur des lignées lymphocytaires issues d’un patient AF et d’un individu non atteint, nous avons pu établir le profil d’expression des protéines associées à un déficit en frataxine. Ces nouvelles données confirment les processus altérés décrits pour l’AF, et ont permis la mise en exergue de nouveaux mécanismes mitochondriaux impactés, comme l’altération de la voie d’importation via CHCHD4. La mitochondrie interagissant avec le réticulum endoplasmique (RE), nous avons analysé et comparé l’impact d’un stress induit par la thapsigargine ciblant le RE sur le profil d’expression des protéines des lymphocytes B AF et contrôles. Ces analyses montrent que le déficit en frataxine rend les mitochondries des cellules de patients AF plus sensibles à un stress du RE, nécessitant la mise en place de réponses adaptatives spécifiques. L’approfondissement des mécanismes altérés associés au déficit en frataxine, avec et sans stress exogène, permettront d’une part, de mieux comprendre la pathogenèse de l’AF et d’autre part, de proposer des stratégies thérapeutiques adaptées. / Friedreich’s ataxia (FRDA) represents the most frequent type of autosomal-recessively inherited ataxia associated with a cardiomyopathy, which is the main cause of the death, and a risk of diabetes. FRDA is caused by mutations in the FXN gene, encoding mitochondrial frataxin, arising from an unstable hyperexpansion of GAA triplet repeats in the first intron of the gene. This hyperexpansion leads to FXN gene silencing and a quantitative decreased expression of frataxin. However despite many efforts to overcome any of these abnormalities, there is currently no efficient treatment to cure or even stop the progression of this disease, mostly because many aspects of the pathological consequences of frataxin depletion are still not fully understood. The precise role of frataxin is still under debate. A key function of frataxin in Fe-S cluster biogenesis has now been clearly pointed out, but how its role in this essential cellular pathway correlates with the pathophysiology of FRDA needs to be further investigated. To better understand the biochemical sequelae of frataxin reduction, global protein expression analysis was performed using quantitative proteomic experiments in Friedreich’s ataxia patient-derived B-lymphocytes as compared to controls. We were able to confirm a subset of changes in these cells and importantly, we observed previously unreported signatures of protein expression. Mitochondria are closed to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and we used quantitative proteomic experiments to screen and analyze the impact of ER stress induced with thapsigargin in Friedreich’s ataxia patient-derived B-lymphocytes as compared to controls. We observed that the frataxin deficiency makes cells more sensitive to ER stress and leads to an up-regulation of specific adaptive mechanisms. The identification of a core set of proteins changing in the FRDA pathogenesis, with or without exogenous stress, is a useful tool in trying to decipher the function(s) of frataxin in order to clarify the metabolic disease process and find future targets for novel therapeutic strategies.

Mathematical logic and automata theory are two scientific disciplines with a close relationship that is not only fundamental for many theoretical results but also forms the basis of a coherent methodology for the verification and synthesis of computing systems. This connection goes back to a much longer history in the 1960s, through the fundamental work of Büchi-Elgot-Trakhtenbrot, which shows the expressive equivalence of automata and logical systems such as monadic second-order logic on finite and infinite words. This allowed the handling of specifications (where global system properties are stated), and implementations (which involve the definition of the local steps in order to satisfy the global goals laid out in the specifications) in a single framework. This connection has been extended to and well-investigated for many other structures such as trees, finite pictures, timed words and data words. For many computer science applications, however, quantitative phenomena need to be modelled, as well. Examples are vagueness and uncertainty of a statement, length of time periods, spatial information, and resource consumption. Weighted automata, introduced by Schützenberger, are prominent models for quantitative aspects of systems. The framework of weighted monadic second-order logic over words was first introduced by Droste and Gastin. They gave a characterization of quantitative behavior of weighted finite automata, as semantics of monadic second-order sentences within their logic. Meanwhile, the idea of weighted logics was also applied to devices recognizing more general structures such as weighted tree automata, weighted automata on infinite words or traces. The main goal of this thesis is to give logical characterizations for weighted automata models on pictures and data words as well as for Büchi-tiling systems in the spirit of the classical Büchi-Elgot theorem. As the second goal, we deal with synchronizing problem for data words. Below, we briefly summarize the contents of this thesis. Informally, a two-dimensional string is called a picture and is defined as a rectangular array of symbols taken from a finite alphabet. A two-dimensional language (or picture language) is a set of pictures. Picture languages have been intensively investigated by several research groups. In Chapter 1, we define weighted two-dimensional on-line tessellation automata (W2OTA) taking weights from a new weight structure called picture valuation monoid. This new weighted picture automaton model can be used to model several applications, e.g. the average density of a picture. Such aspects could not be modelled by semiring weighted picture automaton model. The behavior of this automaton model is a picture series mapping pictures over an alphabet to elements of a picture valuation monoid. As one of our main results, we prove a Nivat theorem for W2OTA. It shows that recognizable picture series can be obtained precisely as projections of particularly simple unambiguously recognizable series restricted to unambiguous recognizable picture languages. In addition, we introduce a weighted monadic second-order logic (WMSO) which can model average density of pictures. As the other main result, we show that W2OTA and a suitable fragment of our weighted MSO logic are expressively equivalent. In Chapter 2, we generalize the notion of finite pictures to +ω-pictures, i.e., pictures which have finite number of rows and infinite number of columns. We extend conventional tiling systems with a Büchi acceptance condition in order to define the class of Büchi-tiling recognizable +ω-picture languages. The class of recognizable +ω-picture languages is indeed, a natural generalization of ω-regular languages. We show that the class of all Büchi-tiling recognizable +ω-picture languages has the similar closure properties as the class of tiling recognizable languages of finite pictures: it is closed under projection, union, and intersection, but not under complementation. While for languages of finite pictures, tiling recognizability and EMSO-definability coincide, the situation is quite different for languages of +ω-pictures. In this setting, the notion of tiling recognizability does not even cover the language of all +ω -pictures over Σ = {a, b} in which the letter a occurs at least once – a picture language that can easily be defined in first-order logic. As a consequence, EMSO is too strong for being captured by the class of tiling recognizable +ω-picture languages. On the other hand, EMSO is too weak for being captured by the class of all Büchi-tiling recognizable +ω-picture languages. To obtain a logical characterization of this class, we introduce the logic EMSO∞, which extends EMSO with existential quantification of infinite sets. Additionally, using combinatorial arguments, we show that the Büchi characterization theorem for ω-regular languges does not carry over to the Büchi-tiling recognizable +ω-picture languages. In Chapter 3, we consider the connection between weighted register automata and weighted logic on data words. Data words are sequences of pairs where the first element is taken from a finite alphabet (as in classical words) and the second element is taken from an infinite data domain. Register automata, introduced by Francez and Kaminski, provide a widely studied model for reasoning on data words. These automata can be considered as classical nondeterministic finite automata equipped with a finite set of registers which are used to store data in order to compare them with some data in the future. In this chapter, for quantitative reasoning on data words, we introduce weighted register automata over commutative data semirings equipped with a collection of binary data functions in the spirit of the classical theory of weighted automata. Whereas in the models of register automata known from the literature data are usually compared with respect to equality or a linear order, here we allow data comparison by means of an arbitrary collection of binary data relations. This approach permits easily to incorporate timed automata and weighted timed automata into our framework. Motivated by the seminal Büchi-Elgot-Trakhtenbrot theorem about the expressive equivalence of finite automata and monadic second-order (MSO) logic and by the weighted MSO logic of Droste and Gastin, we introduce weighted MSO logic on data words and give a logical characterization of weighted register automata. In Chapter 4, we study the concept of synchronizing data words in register automata. The synchronizing problem for data words asks whether there exists a data word that sends all states of the register automaton to a single state. The class of register automata that we consider here has a decidable non-emptiness problem, and the subclass of nondeterministic register automata with a single register has a decidable non-universality problem. We provide the complexity bounds of the synchronizing problem in the family of deterministic register automata with k registers (k-DRA), and in the family of nondeterministic register automata with single register (1-NRA), and in general undecidability of the problem in the family of k-NRA. To this end, we prove that, for k-DRA, inputting data words with only 2k + 1 distinct data values, from the infinite data domain, is sufficient to synchronize. Then, we show that the synchronizing problem for k-DRA is in general PSPACE-complete, and it is in NLOGSPACE for 1-DRA. For nondeterministic register automata (NRA), we show that Ackermann(n) distinct data, where n is the number of states of the register automaton, might be necessary to synchronize. Then, by means of a construction, proving that the synchronizing problem and the non-universality problem in 1-NRA are interreducible, we show the Ackermann-completeness of the problem for 1-NRA. However, for k-NRA, in general, we prove that this problem is undecidable due to the unbounded length of synchronizing data words.

The aim of this study is to conduct an objective investigation into the provenance of De Doctrina Christiana, a theological treatise attributed to Milton since its discovery in 1823. This attribution was questioned in 1991 provoking a series of papers, one of which makes a plea for an objective analysis, which I aim to supply. I begin by reviewing critically some techniques that have recently been applied to stylometry. They include methods from artificial intelligence, linguistics and statistics. The chapter concludes with an investigation into the QSUM technique, finding it to be invalid. As De Doctrina Christiana is written in neo-Latin I examine previous work carried out in Latin, then turn to historical issues and examine issues including censorship and the physical characteristics of the manuscript. The text is the only theological work in the extant Milton canon. As genre as well as authorship affects style, I consider theories of genre which influence the choice of suitable control texts. Chapter seven deals with the methodology used in the study. The analysis follows in a hierarchical structure. I establish which techniques distinguish between Milton and the control texts while maintaining the internal consistency of the authors. It is found that the most-frequently-occurring words are good discriminators. I then use this technique to examine De Doctrina Christiana and the Milton and control texts. A clear difference is found between texts from polemic and exegetical genres, and samples from De Doctrina Christiana form into two groups. This heterogeneity forms the third part of the analysis. No apparent difference is found between sections of the text with different amanuenses, but the Epistle appears to be markedly more Miltonic than the rest. In addition, postulated insertions into chapter X of Book I appear to have a Miltonic influence. I conclude by examining the hypothesis of a Ramist ordering to the text.

This thesis uses the cohort of 2005 school-leavers in the National Pupil Database to present an economic analysis of the effects of secondary school admissions in England on pupil sorting and achievement. The first part of the thesis exploits the availability of pupil postcodes to examine the impact of current school admissions arrangements on residential and school stratification. It produces data from a thought experiment whereby pupils currently in schools are reallocated to a new school based strictly on proximity to school. Through this simulation the role of the housing market in producing socially stratified schooling can be identified. A survey of school admissions policies is used to show that religious (and to a lesser extent Foundation) schools have intakes that are signifcantly more advantaged than their local neighbourhood, and that they achieve these intakes through the use of explicit potentially selective admissions criteria. The second part of the thesis adds to evidence on whether policies intended to increase parental choice raise pupil achievement via competition between schools. Quantitative evidence on school competition in England is evaluated alongside the existing international literature. A regression discontinuity design is employed to examine the legacy effects of the Grant-Maintained schools policy on area-wide educational outcomes at age 16. Pupil fixed-effects test score growth models and historical instrumental variables are used to identify the causal impact of religious schools on their neighbouring schools. This econometric analysis fails to lend support to claims that encouraging schools to compete for pupils is a route to improving standards. The thesis concludes that the current English secondary school arrangements have resulted in a system that is stratified and inequitable, without measurable efficiency gains induced by competition between schools for pupils.

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