Auditory neurons selectively respond to frequency and amplitude of sound. In the auditory midbrain, duration-tuned neurons (DTNs) are subsets of neurons that selectively respond to the duration of sound. DTNs may help further understand the neural mechanism underlying temporal processing in the central nervous system. Temporal processing has been shown to play important roles in speech, discriminating species-specific signals, and echolocation. The goal of this thesis is to explore the role of DTNs through single-unit electrophysiological recordings in the auditory midbrain of the big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus). Monotic and dichotic paired-tone stimulation was used to evoke excitatory and inhibitory responses from DTNs. Two stimuli consisted of best duration (BD) excitatory and non-excitatory (NE) tones. In the monotic condition, both tones were presented to the contralateral ear, and when they were close in time, the NE tone always suppressed spikes evoked by the BD tone. In the dichotic condition, the BD tone was presented to the contralateral ear. The NE tone was presented to the ipsilateral ear and suppressed BD tone evoked spiking in ~50% of cells. Properties of the ipsilaterally-evoked inhibition were investigated by varying the frequency of the NE tone from the best excitatory frequency (BEF), throughout a cell’s excitatory bandwidth (eBW). We measured the inhibitory frequency response area, best inhibitory frequency (BIF), and inhibitory bandwidth (iBW) of each cell. We found inhibition became weaker as the frequency of the NE tone moved further from the middle of the eBW. We found that a DTN’s BEF and BIF closely matched, but the eBW was broader than the iBW and overlapped the iBW measured from the same cell. This suggests temporal selectivity of midbrain DTNs are created by monaural inputs, with binaural inputs playing a lesser role in shaping duration selectivity. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

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High speed video has been a significant tool for unraveling the quantitative and qualitative assessment of phenomena that is too fast to readily observe. It was first used in 1852 by William Henry Fox Talbot to settle a dispute with reference to the synchronous position of a horse's hooves while galloping. Since that time private industry, government, and enthusiasts have been measuring dynamic scenarios with high speed video. One challenge that faces the high speed video community is the dynamic range of the sensors. The dynamic range of the sensor is constrained to the bit depth of the analog to digital converter, the deep well capacity of the sensor site, and baseline noise. A typical high speed camera can span a 60 dB dynamic range, 1000:1, natively. More recently the dynamic range has been extended to about 80 dB utilizing different pixel acquisition methods. In this dissertation a method to extend the dynamic range will be presented and demonstrated to extend the dynamic range of a high speed camera system to over 170 dB, about 31,000,000:1. The proposed formation methodology is adaptable to any camera combination, and almost any needed dynamic range. The dramatic increase in the dynamic range is made possible through an adaptation of the current high dynamic range image formation methodologies. Due to the high cost of a high speed camera, a minimum number of cameras are desired to form a high dynamic range high speed video system. With a reduced number of cameras spanning a significant range, the errors on the formation process compound significantly relative to a normal high dynamic range image. The increase in uncertainty is created from the lack of relevant correlated information for final image formation, necessitating the development of a new formation methodology. In the proceeding text the problem statement and background information will be reviewed in depth. The development of a new weighting function, stochastic image formation process, tone map methodology, and optimized multi camera design will be presented. The proposed methodologies' effectiveness will be compared to current methods throughout the text and a final demonstration will be presented. / Ph. D.

The following pages serve as a record of the tracing of wonder in the development of a project for a temple of light and shadow. They recount a search formed through the wading of a chaos that cherishes in its heart a luminous array of color and form; it is a documentation of discovery pulsing forth from intoxicating possibility. Within these wilds of new beginnings, from the countless paths left unventured, there comes to light an order. An arrangement of form brought forth and traced through points, lines then tone, dedicated to light and shadow, its existence and staging of moments within it serving to call forth from concealment, a manifestation of wonder. / Master of Architecture / The following pages serve as a record of the tracing of wonder in the development of a project for a temple of light and shadow. They recount a search formed through the wading of a chaos that cherishes in its heart a luminous array of color and form; it is a documentation of discovery pulsing forth from intoxicating possibility. Within these wilds of new beginnings, from the countless paths left unventured, there comes to light an order. An arrangement of form brought forth and traced through points, lines then tone, dedicated to light and shadow, its existence and staging of moments within it serving to call forth from concealment, a manifestation of wonder.

La version intégrale de cette thèse est disponible uniquement pour consultation individuelle à la Bibliothèque de musique de l’Université de Montréal (http://www.bib.umontreal.ca/MU). / Cette thèse de doctorat comprend l’analyse, les partitions et les enregistrements sonores de plusieurs compositions musicales écrites et improvisées qui furent enregistrées au cours des années 2009 et 2010. Elle vise le développement des éléments de détermination d’un langage musical personnel. Pour ce faire, divers outils furent mis en place, tels que le développement d’un système mélodico harmonique flexible et l’expansion de la palette sonore du vibraphone, grâce à la maîtrise du bending tone. Le corps de cet ouvrage se divise donc en deux parties consacrées à l’élaboration du système de superposition arborescente et à l’aspect soliste recherchant la flexibilité, la virtuosité et l’élargissement des possibilités liées au son de cet instrument de musique. Les concepts élaborés sont appuyés par des illustrations, des références aux partitions et des exemples musicaux ciblés de type jazz et de type classique occidental. / This doctoral thesis involves the analysis, scores and sound recordings of several composed and improvised musical compositions recorded during the years 2009 – 2010. Its main objective is the development of elements determining a personal musical language. To achieve this objective, different tools were put in place such as the development of a flexible harmonic and melodic system and the expansion of the multitude of sound effects of the vibraphone, both achieved by mastering the “bending tone”. The body of this document is divided in two parts devoted to the elaboration of a system of superposition of the different changes that can be brought to the core element and the aspect of the soloist searching for flexibility, virtuosity and the diversity of sounds linked to this particular instrument. The concepts elaborated are supported by illustrations, score references and targeted musical examples including jazz and western classical styles.

MA, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, 2012 / This research-report presents a theoretical exploration of musical encoding which has its basis in general semiotic theory. By examining what this reveals about the problematic and mysterious issue of music’s meaning, I argue that the most visceral and direct form of it is found in the manner in which the composer shapes a certain kind of temporal experience (erlebnis) which is engendered by the music itself. This reveals that sensations of goal-directed movement, closure, tension and release are shaped in a phenomenological way against a background of continuity that is established by metrical cyclicity and phrasal periodisation. As a result, the interpretation of certain kinds of accumulative structural effects generated by the gestural (rhythmic and melodic/harmonic) inflections of the temporal and intonational planes become meaningful in a rhetorical, affective (affekten) and topical sense. A study of Ngqoko (Xhosa) overtone-music, as a case study into African indigenous music (as opposed to the examples cited of Western art music), shows that an intensification of the relationships between pitch and rhythm that exist in speech-tone results in the formation of melody and a culturally embedded vocabulary of intonations. I argue that this resultant edifice exists in the music of most cultures and that this ultimately serves as the basis of musical encoding. Therefore musical meaning develops in ways that are completely intrinsic to music.

Lai Wing-sze. / Thesis submitted in: August 2004. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 233-237). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgements --- p.iii / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Rational and Significance --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Scope of analysis --- p.2 / Chapter 1.3 --- Organization --- p.4 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Background --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1 --- Comparison of Cantonese and English consonants --- p.6 / Chapter 2.2 --- Comparison of Cantonese and English vowels --- p.8 / Chapter 2.3 --- Comparison of Cantonese and English syllables --- p.9 / Chapter 2.4 --- Comparison of Cantonese and English autosegments --- p.12 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Literature Review --- p.18 / Chapter 3.1 --- Tone assignment in Cantonese loanwords --- p.18 / Chapter 3.2 --- Relationship between tone and stress --- p.27 / Chapter 3.3 --- Research Questions --- p.31 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Methodology --- p.32 / Chapter 4.1 --- Data Collection and Classification --- p.32 / Chapter 4.2 --- Loanword Verification Task --- p.48 / Chapter 4.3 --- Loanword Creation Task --- p.51 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Investigation of Tonal Patterns --- p.55 / Chapter 5.1 --- Monosyllabic Loanwords --- p.55 / Chapter 5.2 --- Disyllabic Loanwords --- p.59 / Chapter 5.3 --- Summary of Tonal Patterns in Monosyllabic and Disyllabic Loanwords --- p.81 / Chapter 5.4 --- Loanwords with more than two syllables --- p.81 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- Further Evidence on Tonal Patterns --- p.92 / Chapter 6.1 --- Results of Loanword Verification Task --- p.92 / Chapter 6.2 --- Results of Loanword Creation Task --- p.103 / Chapter 6.3 --- Tonal Assignment by New Generation --- p.115 / Chapter Chapter 7 --- Constraints and Rankings in Tone Assignment in Loanwords --- p.116 / Chapter 7.1 --- OT Concepts and Mechanisms --- p.116 / Chapter 7.2 --- Tonal Features --- p.120 / Chapter 7.3 --- My Proposed Account --- p.129 / Chapter 7.4 --- Constraints and Rankings --- p.132 / Chapter 7.5 --- Summary --- p.145 / Chapter Chapter 8 --- Conclusion and Implication --- p.147 / Appendices --- p.150 / Appendix I All collected Loanword Data --- p.150 / Appendix II Eliminated Loanword Data --- p.164 / Appendix III Kept Loanword Data --- p.168 / Appendix IV Initial Loanword Classification --- p.181 / Appendix V Loanword Questionnaire A --- p.198 / Appendix VI Loanword Questionnaire A Script --- p.201 / Appendix VII Loanword Questionnaire B --- p.203 / Appendix VIII More Examples of σ→ σ55 --- p.207 / Appendix IX More Examples of 'σσ --- p.209 / Appendix X More Examples of'σ[ --- p.214 / Appendix XI More Examples of ['σ --- p.217 / Appendix XII Disyllabic Loanwords with Atypical Tonal Patterns --- p.218 / Appendix XIII Disyllabic Loanwords with Other Tonal Influences --- p.220 / Appendix XIV Trisyllabic Loanwords with Atypical Tonal Patterns --- p.222 / Appendix XV Results of Loanword Creation Task --- p.224 / References --- p.233

本論文旨在探討閩南語的三種變調: (1)形容詞重疊變調 , (2) -a後綴變調,和 (3) 輕聲變調. 形容詞重疊變調是在 McCarthy & Prince (1986, 1990) 等人所發展出來的韻律構詞學( Prosodic Morphology) 理論框架下重新分析. 作者認為形容詞三疊是由抑揚格音步前綴而來, 而不是江文瑜教授(1992)所說的音節後綴; 此外,聲調扮演了構詞功能的角色. -a 後綴變調則是運用字構音韻學( Lexical Phonology)理論來分析的. 根據黃宣範教授(1988) 和連金發先生(1995)對-a後綴構詞特性的分類, 作者將-a後綴重新分為六類. 再觀察它們與音韻規則的互動關係, 主張-a後綴構應分屬於三個字構層次中, 此理論的層級排列( Level Ordering) 和嚴格循環論( Strict Cyclicity)也在本章獲得證實. 輕聲變調是採用韻律音韻學(Prosodic Phonology) 來分析的. 作者認為輕聲有兩個規律: 浮游低調展延和原調展延, 且運作於一個(強起)( left-leaded)的音韻片語中, 如此一來,簡化了煩雜的青聲句法結構. 兩個輕聲規律的不同展現於展延節點,方向,屬性,音節數目等方面. 本章的分析技巧也支持了韻律體係在語言系統中的必要性 / This thesis explores three kinds of special tone sandhi in Southern Min: (i) reduplicated adjective tone sandhi, (ii) -a suffix tone sandhi, and (iii)neutral tone sandhi. Reduplicated adjective tone sandhi is analyzed within the framework of prosodic morphology (McCarthy and Prince 1986, 1990). Unlike Chiang's (1992)suffix syllable template, the author argues that AAA is reduplicated by theprefixation of an iambic template.Following Yip (1980), tone may play a morphological role. -a suffix is discussed from the perspective of lehor argues that AAxical phonology. According to the morphological functions figured from Lien (1995) and Huang (1988), six categories of the suffix -a are distinguished. Through the interactions of morphological and phonological rules, the concepts of levelordering and strict cyclicity in lexical phonology are proved necessary in this language. Neutral tone sandhi is investigated in terms of prosodic phonology. Theauthor argues that the domain of neutral tone sandhi is a left-headed phonological phrase, which is more economical than previous syntactic approaches (Cheng 1968; Hong 1995). There are two neutral tone rules: thefloting low tone spreading and the base tone spreading. They are differentin spreading node, direction, order and so on. The analysis supports Yip'stwo-tiered tonal geometry andcallsfor the need of prosodic Hierachy in thelinguistic system.

本論文以優選理論探討上海話之入聲變調，試圖將文獻中所認為表現不規律之入聲變調納入與舒聲變調相容之分析中。本研究認為入聲變調與舒聲變調皆受制於ANCHOR-L(tσ1, Hd)，因此其首音節之基底聲調在輸出值中皆出現於重讀音節。以此觀之，則入聲變調與舒聲變調的差異主要在於節律重音的位置：在舒聲變調中首音節重讀；在入聲變調中重音則後移──在陰入變調中係移至第二音節，在陽入變調中則移至末音節。 本論文提出兩點假設：上海話中舒聲音節為重量音節，入聲音節為輕量音節；節律結構基本上為一位於左端之雙音節音步。據此，本研究提出COINCIDE (LightHd, FT-final)，認為陰入變調中重音所以後移至第二音節是因為重讀之輕量音節傾向於由音步末音節核可(licensing)。另一方面，由於陽入的單字調為曲拱調，與陰入的水平調有別，是以本研究另外提出COINCIDE(Contour, PrWd-final)，此制約顯示陽入變調中重音的遠距移位是為了遵行「曲拱調須由末音節核可」之普遍現象。 綜述之，本論文提供了一個重量音節、節律重音、曲拱調以及邊際位置等韻律顯著位置間彼此對映的實例。此外，本研究亦顯示上海話的連讀變調涉及聲調與重音的互動，是以所提出之分析或許對相關類型之研究亦有所貢獻。 / This thesis offers an Optimality-theory approach to the tone sandhi of checked tones (TSC) in Shanghai, in an attempt to regulate its surface patterns which have long been considered anomaly as opposed to the tone sandhi of smooth tones (TSS). With a reanalysis in the present study, TSC and TSS arguably have in common that their process of tone mapping is both subject to ANCHOR-L(tσ1, Hd), by which the un- derlying tone of the initial syllable ends up at the stressed syllable in the output. It follows that TSC is different from TSS in the way that metrical head is assigned: all domains undergoing TSS are stressed on their initial syllable; only in domains of TSC does the stress move rightwards, either to the second place in the tone sandhi of Yinru (TSYI), or to the final syllable in the tone sandhi of Yangru (TSYA). Given the assumption that checked syllables and smooth syllables in Shanghai are light and heavy, respectively, in terms of moraicity, and that foot-parsing is binary and left-aligned in general, the one-syllable shift of stress in TSYI can be accounted for by positing COINCIDE(LightHd, FT-final), which sets up the preference for light stress- bearing syllables to be licensed foot-finally. On the other hand, given that Yangru in the citation forms represents a rising contour, different from the level tone of Yinru, a licensing constraint, namely COINCIDE(Contour, PrWd-final), is further posited so that the long-distance movement of metrical head observed in TSYA emerges to satisfy the requirement for the retained rising contour to be licensed word-finally. Taken together, this thesis instantiates a remarkable case of the mapping among multiple prominent positions, including heavy syllables, metrical head, contour tones, and edge positions. Also, the present analysis demonstrates that Shanghai tone sandhi involves an interaction between tone and stress, thus a contribution to the general OT tone-prominence typology literature (cf. Zhang 2001, Barnes 2002, De Lacy 2002).