Between Formenlehre and Cognition: A Puzzle-Based Investigation into the Perceptibility of Classical Syntax

A hybrid of theory-based analysis and empirical enquiry, this dissertation seeks to investigate the perceptibility of Classical syntax, ultimately striving to bridge the knowledge gaps that have long existed between the fields of analysis and cognitive science. In particular, the study looks to address the following unknowns: 1) recognition of initial tonic; 2) recognition of tight-knit and loose thematic constructions; and 3) understanding of the contextual nature of cadence. The study centres on the reconstruction of Classical piano sonatas that have been segmented into puzzle pieces using form-functional and sonata theories, an approach that enables the application of syntactical and formal perspectives in an empirical setting, thus giving this study its novelty. The following were hypothesised: 1) sequential accuracy, the ability to process Classical syntax and level of formal training are linearly related; 2) functional recognition, however, is found in any individual familiar with Western musical style regardless of educational background; 3) understanding of Classical syntax is largely Mozartean. The experiments were carried out virtually and were targeted at subjects that were representative of the spectrum of theoretical expertise. Results collected confirm the ability of subjects to organise formal functions, discern initial tonic given a random mix of harmonic shades, recognise the difference between tight-knit and loose themes and their significance, as well as the prevalence of Mozartean idiom in the cognitive faculty and the linear relationship between expertise and accuracy. Inasmuch as these findings strongly suggest that form-functional relationships are audible, the dissertation argues for the incorporation of both analysis and empirical science in music education, a combination that results in a richer understanding and deeper appreciation of musical processes

Visual analytics methods for shape analysis of biomedical images exemplified on rodent skull morphology

In morphometrics and its application fields like medicine and biology experts are interested in causal relations of variation in organismic shape to phylogenetic, ecological, geographical, epidemiological or disease factors - or put more succinctly by Fred L. Bookstein, morphometrics is "the study of covariances of biological form". In order to reveal causes for shape variability, targeted statistical analysis correlating shape features against external and internal factors is necessary but due to the complexity of the problem often not feasible in an automated way. Therefore, a visual analytics approach is proposed in this thesis that couples interactive visualizations with automated statistical analyses in order to stimulate generation and qualitative assessment of hypotheses on relevant shape features and their potentially affecting factors. To this end long established morphometric techniques are combined with recent shape modeling approaches from geometry processing and medical imaging, leading to novel visual analytics methods for shape analysis. When used in concert these methods facilitate targeted analysis of characteristic shape differences between groups, co-variation between different structures on the same anatomy and correlation of shape to extrinsic attributes. Here a special focus is put on accurate modeling and interactive rendering of image deformations at high spatial resolution, because that allows for faithful representation and communication of diminutive shape features, large shape differences and volumetric structures. The utility of the presented methods is demonstrated in case studies conducted together with a collaborating morphometrics expert. As exemplary model structure serves the rodent skull and its mandible that are assessed via computed tomography scans

Sudden change, society and urban form

Rapid changes in the environment create situations which man has never previously experienced or anticipated. Situations such as social revolutions, migrations to new places, or disasters often require that society re- organises itself in a short period of time, breaks the continuity with its past and reaches a new state of stability. This re- organisation is responsible for the emergence of a whole series of psychological and social effects. The main objective of this study is to explain the nature of the changes in urban form which occur in such situations.One of the major assertions of this thesis is that continuity is an inner characteristic of the self- It is one characteristic of the temporal dimension of life and not a reflection of a continuity in the spatial dimension. Therefore, the contribution of the designer is to maintain the temporal continuity of cities while explaining the spatial transformations through models based on discontinuous behaviour.The cultural development and the physiological limitations of man to rapid change are taken as evidence in the demonstration of the extent of the problem. Within this context, radical change in the formation of the environment is shown to be are expression of the human mind and not the direct effect of changes in the environmental forces. For that reason, the effect of sudden change in the environment is studied in relation to the concept of time: the direction between past, present and future.As this assumption does not require any kind of spatial continuity, a model based on discontinuity is used to evaluate the transformation of cities in circumstances of rapid change

A mentoria como caminho para a paz no Afeganistão:o caso das OMLT-D

O estudo sobre o conflito do Afeganistão encerra em si uma panóplia de problemáticas. É no apoio ao desenvolvimento operacional do Afghanistan National Army, parte fundamental da estratégia da Organização do Tratado do Atlântico Norte, que se insere o presente Trabalho de Investigação Aplicada “A mentoria como caminho para a paz no Afeganistão: o caso das OMLT-D”. É uma visão na terceira pessoa que investigou a importância do apoio ao desenvolvimento da Kabul Capital Division 111 desempenhado pelas Operational Mentor and Liaison Teams de Divisão. Tem como objetivo identificar o papel destas para a segurança regional no Afeganistão e no criar de condições para prossecução da estratégia de transição da International Security Assistance Force. A pergunta inerente à problemática estudada é “Qual o papel das Operational Mentor and Liaison Teams de Divisão no apoio ao desenvolvimento operacional da Kabul Capital Division 111, para o segurança regional e transição da International Security Assistance Force?”, que se refere à mentoria realizada pelas Forças Armadas Portuguesas entre Março de 2009 e Maio de 2012. Para responder às perguntas identificadas o trabalho recorreu a uma abordagem metodológica hipotético-dedutiva, pelo método de estudo de caso. Utilizadas as técnicas de recolha de dados a partir de dados documentais preexistentes e entrevistas semidiretivas, e também utilizou as técnicas de análise de dados de Delphi e de decisão estatística indutiva. Concluiu-se que o papel das Operational Mentor and Liaison Teams de Divisão no apoio ao desenvolvimento operacional da Divisão afegã, para a segurança da província de Kabul foi positivo, diminuindo o número de ataques e incidentes inimigos em 47%. Por outro lado, na transição da International Security Assistance Force fez aumentar o nível de transição das unidades afegãs, ocorrendo a transição de força. Verificou-se também que a mentoria portuguesa desempenhou um papel importante no caminho para a paz afegã, onde contribuiu diretamente para a transição da responsabilidade na segurança para a Kabul Capital Division 111 e num âmbito indireto aumentou o nível de segurança regional.Abstract The study of the conflict in Afghanistan has in itself a mass of problems. It is on the issue of supporting the development of the Afghanistan National Army, a major part of the strategy of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which concerns this Academic Student Research Work “Mentoring as a vehicle for building peace in Afghanistan: The Case Study of Portuguese OMLT-D”. This study investigates the importance of supporting the development of Kabul Capital Division 111 developed by the Operational Mentor and Liaison Teams Division and aims to identify the role of these for the regional security in Afghanistan and the ongoing strategy of transition from International Security Assistance Force, to Afghan security. The inherent problem was studied through the question “What is the role of the Operational Mentor and Liaison Teams Division in supporting the development of operational Kabul Capital Division 111, for regional security and the transition of the International Security Assistance Force?”, Which refers to the mentoring carried out by the Portuguese armed forces between March 2009 and May 2012. To answer the questions identified, this study used a methodological approach hypothetical-deductive method case study. The techniques of collecting data were from semidiretive interviews and existing data documents, it also uses the techniques of data analysis of Delphi and inductive statistical decision methods. It concludes that the role of the Operational Mentor and Liaison Teams Division in supporting the development of operational Division Afghan security in the province of Kabul is positive, it has decreased the number of enemy initiated attacks by 47%. On the other hand, the transition from International Security Assistance Force has increased the level of transition of Afghan units. The Portuguese mentoring plays an important role on the path to Afghan peace, which directly contributes to the transition of responsibility for the Kabul Capital Division 111 and in part indirectly increases the level of regional security

Efficient algorithms and data structures for compressive sensing

Wegen der kontinuierlich anwachsenden Anzahl von Sensoren, und den stetig wachsenden Datenmengen, die jene produzieren, stößt die konventielle Art Signale zu verarbeiten, beruhend auf dem Nyquist-Kriterium, auf immer mehr Hindernisse und Probleme. Die kürzlich entwickelte Theorie des Compressive Sensing (CS) formuliert das Versprechen einige dieser Hindernisse zu beseitigen, indem hier allgemeinere Signalaufnahme und -rekonstruktionsverfahren zum Einsatz kommen können. Dies erlaubt, dass hierbei einzelne Abtastwerte komplexer strukturierte Informationen über das Signal enthalten können als dies bei konventiellem Nyquistsampling der Fall ist. Gleichzeitig verändert sich die Signalrekonstruktion notwendigerweise zu einem nicht-linearen Vorgang und ebenso müssen viele Hardwarekonzepte für praktische Anwendungen neu überdacht werden. Das heißt, dass man zwischen der Menge an Information, die man über Signale gewinnen kann, und dem Aufwand für das Design und Betreiben eines Signalverarbeitungssystems abwägen kann und muss. Die hier vorgestellte Arbeit trägt dazu bei, dass bei diesem Abwägen CS mehr begünstigt werden kann, indem neue Resultate vorgestellt werden, die es erlauben, dass CS einfacher in der Praxis Anwendung finden kann, wobei die zu erwartende Leistungsfähigkeit des Systems theoretisch fundiert ist. Beispielsweise spielt das Konzept der Sparsity eine zentrale Rolle, weshalb diese Arbeit eine Methode präsentiert, womit der Grad der Sparsity eines Vektors mittels einer einzelnen Beobachtung geschätzt werden kann. Wir zeigen auf, dass dieser Ansatz für Sparsity Order Estimation zu einem niedrigeren Rekonstruktionsfehler führt, wenn man diesen mit einer Rekonstruktion vergleicht, welcher die Sparsity des Vektors unbekannt ist. Um die Modellierung von Signalen und deren Rekonstruktion effizienter zu gestalten, stellen wir das Konzept von der matrixfreien Darstellung linearer Operatoren vor. Für die einfachere Anwendung dieser Darstellung präsentieren wir eine freie Softwarearchitektur und demonstrieren deren Vorzüge, wenn sie für die Rekonstruktion in einem CS-System genutzt wird. Konkret wird der Nutzen dieser Bibliothek, einerseits für das Ermitteln von Defektpositionen in Prüfkörpern mittels Ultraschall, und andererseits für das Schätzen von Streuern in einem Funkkanal aus Ultrabreitbanddaten, demonstriert. Darüber hinaus stellen wir für die Verarbeitung der Ultraschalldaten eine Rekonstruktionspipeline vor, welche Daten verarbeitet, die im Frequenzbereich Unterabtastung erfahren haben. Wir beschreiben effiziente Algorithmen, die bei der Modellierung und der Rekonstruktion zum Einsatz kommen und wir leiten asymptotische Resultate für die benötigte Anzahl von Messwerten, sowie die zu erwartenden Lokalisierungsgenauigkeiten der Defekte her. Wir zeigen auf, dass das vorgestellte System starke Kompression zulässt, ohne die Bildgebung und Defektlokalisierung maßgeblich zu beeinträchtigen. Für die Lokalisierung von Streuern mittels Ultrabreitbandradaren stellen wir ein CS-System vor, welches auf einem Random Demodulators basiert. Im Vergleich zu existierenden Messverfahren ist die hieraus resultierende Schätzung der Kanalimpulsantwort robuster gegen die Effekte von zeitvarianten Funkkanälen. Um den inhärenten Modellfehler, den gitterbasiertes CS begehen muss, zu beseitigen, zeigen wir auf wie Atomic Norm Minimierung es erlaubt ohne die Einschränkung auf ein endliches und diskretes Gitter R-dimensionale spektrale Komponenten aus komprimierten Beobachtungen zu schätzen. Hierzu leiten wir eine R-dimensionale Variante des ADMM her, welcher dazu in der Lage ist die Signalkovarianz in diesem allgemeinen Szenario zu schätzen. Weiterhin zeigen wir, wie dieser Ansatz zur Richtungsschätzung mit realistischen Antennenarraygeometrien genutzt werden kann. In diesem Zusammenhang präsentieren wir auch eine Methode, welche mittels Stochastic gradient descent Messmatrizen ermitteln kann, die sich gut für Parameterschätzung eignen. Die hieraus resultierenden Kompressionsverfahren haben die Eigenschaft, dass die Schätzgenauigkeit über den gesamten Parameterraum ein möglichst uniformes Verhalten zeigt. Zuletzt zeigen wir auf, dass die Kombination des ADMM und des Stochastic Gradient descent das Design eines CS-Systems ermöglicht, welches in diesem gitterfreien Szenario wünschenswerte Eigenschaften hat.Along with the ever increasing number of sensors, which are also generating rapidly growing amounts of data, the traditional paradigm of sampling adhering the Nyquist criterion is facing an equally increasing number of obstacles. The rather recent theory of Compressive Sensing (CS) promises to alleviate some of these drawbacks by proposing to generalize the sampling and reconstruction schemes such that the acquired samples can contain more complex information about the signal than Nyquist samples. The proposed measurement process is more complex and the reconstruction algorithms necessarily need to be nonlinear. Additionally, the hardware design process needs to be revisited as well in order to account for this new acquisition scheme. Hence, one can identify a trade-off between information that is contained in individual samples of a signal and effort during development and operation of the sensing system. This thesis addresses the necessary steps to shift the mentioned trade-off more to the favor of CS. We do so by providing new results that make CS easier to deploy in practice while also maintaining the performance indicated by theoretical results. The sparsity order of a signal plays a central role in any CS system. Hence, we present a method to estimate this crucial quantity prior to recovery from a single snapshot. As we show, this proposed Sparsity Order Estimation method allows to improve the reconstruction error compared to an unguided reconstruction. During the development of the theory we notice that the matrix-free view on the involved linear mappings offers a lot of possibilities to render the reconstruction and modeling stage much more efficient. Hence, we present an open source software architecture to construct these matrix-free representations and showcase its ease of use and performance when used for sparse recovery to detect defects from ultrasound data as well as estimating scatterers in a radio channel using ultra-wideband impulse responses. For the former of these two applications, we present a complete reconstruction pipeline when the ultrasound data is compressed by means of sub-sampling in the frequency domain. Here, we present the algorithms for the forward model, the reconstruction stage and we give asymptotic bounds for the number of measurements and the expected reconstruction error. We show that our proposed system allows significant compression levels without substantially deteriorating the imaging quality. For the second application, we develop a sampling scheme to acquire the channel Impulse Response (IR) based on a Random Demodulator that allows to capture enough information in the recorded samples to reliably estimate the IR when exploiting sparsity. Compared to the state of the art, this in turn allows to improve the robustness to the effects of time-variant radar channels while also outperforming state of the art methods based on Nyquist sampling in terms of reconstruction error. In order to circumvent the inherent model mismatch of early grid-based compressive sensing theory, we make use of the Atomic Norm Minimization framework and show how it can be used for the estimation of the signal covariance with R-dimensional parameters from multiple compressive snapshots. To this end, we derive a variant of the ADMM that can estimate this covariance in a very general setting and we show how to use this for direction finding with realistic antenna geometries. In this context we also present a method based on a Stochastic gradient descent iteration scheme to find compression schemes that are well suited for parameter estimation, since the resulting sub-sampling has a uniform effect on the whole parameter space. Finally, we show numerically that the combination of these two approaches yields a well performing grid-free CS pipeline

Women and the built environment of Najd: case studies: Ar-Riyadh and Ushaigir

The main purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of the phenomenon of women's behaviour within the built environment of Najd in Saudi Arabia. In other words, the aim is to discover the way in which women interact with their built environment and the factors that play a role in this interaction.The need for this study is crucial and initially emerged from a concern that, during the last few decades, drastic changes have occurred in the built environment of Najd which, in turn, produced a mismatch between the social and psychological needs of the people of Najd (women in particular) and their built environment. This mismatch manifests itself in both physical and non -physical forms. The physical form is represented by: completely or partially blocked windows, high walls, unused balconies etc. The social consequences of this mismatch, on the other hand, is clearly visible in the lack of social contacts between neighbours and from the limited involvement of women in outdoor life.The absence of studies examining the phenomenon of environmental behaviour of Najdi women confirms both the need and the importance of this research.This thesis explores Najdi women's behaviour in order to determine the factors that play a role in their interaction with the built environment. The hypothesis is that there is a mismatch which is not just a temporary symptom of the transition towards a fully modernised society. It argues that the mismatch is associated with factors that have relative permanence such as `ird and the Islamic laws and codes. These factors will be difficult, if not impossible, to overcome for many of the subsequent generations, because they are deeply rooted in the culture of the people of Najd.To tackle the problems involved in this study , traditional and contemporary contexts were examined through the application of two different sets of techniques. The data collection connected with the traditional context is dependent upon a reconstruction of the women's way of life and then relate it to the traditional built -environment of Najd. On the other hand, the data concerning the contemporary physical environment is dependent upon immediate observation of that environment.Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used as tools for the data collection and analysis that is mentioned above. Adequate modification and adjustments were made to help serve the purpose of this study.This study provides us with many results. Regarding the contemporary built - environment, it shows that the domain of the women of Najd has been restricted to a very limited area, and that their activities have shifted from outdoor spaces to indoor ones. This shrinkage in women's spatial domain goes beyond the reduction of physical - spaces to include the visual aspect as well. The results also show that women tend to suffer in the contemporary built -environment and that the urban design of the neighbourhood has, environmentally, handicapped women and affected their freedom of movement outsider of their residences as well as restricting their involvement in social and public spheres. Inside the limited domain of the women, this study shows that the existence of non -mahram in the same space as women put even more strain on the women's use of that space.The main influential factors that mediate the women's interactions with their built - environment are the traditional value of 'ird and the Islamic systems of `awra and mahram. these values are still strong and the women pay a great deal of respect to them. These values explain, in different ways, both the suffering, and the satisfaction that women have with their built environment.On the other hand, this study discovered that women traditionally enjoyed more freedom in the use of different urban spaces whether they were public, private or open or closed. Their domain extended, in the past, to encompass most of the traditional settlement without them scarifying their ird or violating the Islamic systems and code of modesty. In general, women in the past, had a higher degree of psycho -social well -being then they do today

Unmet goals of tracking: within-track heterogeneity of students' expectations for

Educational systems are often characterized by some form(s) of ability grouping, like tracking. Although substantial variation in the implementation of these practices exists, it is always the aim to improve teaching efficiency by creating homogeneous groups of students in terms of capabilities and performances as well as expected pathways. If students’ expected pathways (university, graduate school, or working) are in line with the goals of tracking, one might presume that these expectations are rather homogeneous within tracks and heterogeneous between tracks. In Flanders (the northern region of Belgium), the educational system consists of four tracks. Many students start out in the most prestigious, academic track. If they fail to gain the necessary credentials, they move to the less esteemed technical and vocational tracks. Therefore, the educational system has been called a 'cascade system'. We presume that this cascade system creates homogeneous expectations in the academic track, though heterogeneous expectations in the technical and vocational tracks. We use data from the International Study of City Youth (ISCY), gathered during the 2013-2014 school year from 2354 pupils of the tenth grade across 30 secondary schools in the city of Ghent, Flanders. Preliminary results suggest that the technical and vocational tracks show more heterogeneity in student’s expectations than the academic track. If tracking does not fulfill the desired goals in some tracks, tracking practices should be questioned as tracking occurs along social and ethnic lines, causing social inequality

Levels of Cultural Familiarity and Strategy Use in Reading Comprehension

Previous studies have used cross-cultural comparisons to demonstrate the effect of background knowledge on reading comprehension. The present study used a similar approach to study the relations between background knowledge, reading skill and level of use of reading comprehension strategies. Eighty-eight sixth-grade participants in elementary school were equally divided according to reading skill (skilled and less skilled) and country (Bahamas or Canada). Subjects thought aloud while reading culturally familiar and unfamiliar informative texts. Protocols were scored according to the level of strategic action exhibited and according to the condition triggering the action. The results, while confirming the role of knowledge in the construction of meaning, indicated significant country differences in subjects\u27 use of knowledge and in correlations of strategy level with other measures. Results from the Canadian sample confirmed other North American findings: level of strategy use was positively correlated with both reading skill and with comprehension of familiar and unfamiliar texts. However, the Bahamian skilled and less skilled students demonstrated consistently higher levels of strategy and knowledge use on both familiar and unfamiliar stories than did the Canadian students. Furthermore, in the Bahamian sample, level of strategy use was not correlated with reading skill or comprehension. These results raise questions about the generality of relationship between reading strategies and comprehension. Eighty-eight sixth-grade participants in elementary school were equally divided according to reading skill (skilled and less skilled) and country (Bahamas or Canada)