Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Pollinia'

The use of polls during election campaigns has become increasingly commonplace, its main purpose being to predict elections results. Some literature highlights evidence that pre-electoral polls increase their predictive accuracy as the time between the interview and Election Day decreases. Understanding why some polls get it right and others get it wrong is important to better ascertain the evolution of election campaigns and voting intentions across time. A considerable literature shows how the quality of poll predictions is affected by a variety of methodological decisions taken by pollsters. This raises the question that underlies this thesis: under what conditions are polls inaccurate as predictors of voters’ behaviour? In order to answer this question, we analyze the last three Italian general elections. The aim of this thesis is to estimate what has the greatest impact on inaccuracy in Italian polling between the house effect and voters sentiment change. To do that, we firstly revise the well-established accuracy measures used so far in order to fit the Italian case and the new accuracy measure proposed for multi-party systems (Bw). Then, we estimate the house effect using OLS and multivariate regression models, where the days and polling houses and the methodologies employed by pollsters are the explanatory variables respectively. To estimate the extent of voters sentiment change in Italian voters, we apply the autoregressive model. The evidence provided by the accuracy measures shows a high presence of inaccuracy in Italian polling. Moreover, the OLS models provide strong evidence of the house effect, whereas the autoregressive model does not confirm the hypothesis of voters sentiment change across time. Therefore, the greater cause of inaccuracy in Italian polling is the house effect rather than any movement in voting intentions in the last three general elections.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2004.<br>Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 202 p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 190-202). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

Mestrado em Mathematical Finance<br>Uma estrutura matemática conveniente para modelar as flutuações estocásticas nos preços de mercado é baseada na teoria das redes de filas de espera. Os polling systems são uma classe especial de modelos de filas de espera. Uma definição clássica de um polling system consiste num sistema com múltiplas filas e um único servidor que muda de fila de acordo com uma determinada polí tica de servi ço. Sabe-se que um polling system é recorrente positivo (admitindo uma única distribuição estacionária) se, e só se, a carga total do sistema for menor do que um. No regime transiente, i.e., carga total maior do que um, foi provado que um polling system com três filas de espera é assimptoticamente periódico para praticamente todas as opções de políticas de serviço. Quando os polling systems têm mais do que três filas de espera, a caracterização do seu comportamento num regime transiente é um assunto em aberto. Tendo como hipótese que o processo é transiente, o objetivo deste trabalho é estudar os padrões periódicos resultantes das trocas entre filas efetuadas pelo servidor. Em particular, esta dissertação tem como finalidade desenvolver técnicas que permitam responder a algumas questões levantadas num recente artigo publicado por I. MacPhee e os seus coautores em 2006.<br>A convenient mathematical framework for modelling the stochastic fluctuations in market prices is based on the theory of queueing networks. A special class of queueing models are the polling systems. A classical polling system consists of multiple queues and a single server that visits the queues following a service policy. It is well known that a polling system is positive recurrent (admitting a unique stationary distribution) if and only if the total loading of the system is less than one. In the transient regime, i.e., total loading greater than one, it has been proved that a polling system with three queues is asymptotically periodic for almost every choice of service policy. When the polling system has more than three queues, characterizing its behaviour in the transient regime is widely open. Under the assumption that the process is transient, the goal of this project is to study the periodic patterns arising from the switching of the server. In particular, this dissertation aims at developing tools to possibly answer some questions raised in a recent article published by I. MacPhee and his coauthors in 2006.<br>info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Since the early 2000s, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) has become a widely popular method of conducting public opinion surveys in the United States. IVR surveys use an automated computer voice to ask survey questions and elicit responses in place of a live interviewer. Previous studies have shown that IVR polls conducted immediately before elections are generally accurate, but have raised questions as to their validity in other contexts. This study examines whether IVR polls generate measurably different levels of candidate support when compared to live interviewer polls, as a result of non-response bias owing to lower response rates in IVR surveys. It did so by comparing polling in 2010 U.S. gubernatorial and U.S. Senate elections that was conducted using both live interviewers and IVR. The findings suggest that in general elections, IVR polls find fewer undecided voters compared to surveys conducted using live interviewers. In primary elections, IVR polls can show larger support than live interview polls for a more ideologically extreme candidate who has high levels of support among more opinionated and engaged voters. Implications are that journalists and other consumers of polling data should take into account whether a poll was conducted using IVR or live interviewers when interpreting results. IVR polls may tend to over-sample more engaged and opinionated voters, often resulting in smaller percentages of undecided respondents, and higher levels of support for specific candidates in certain contexts.<br>Master of Arts

Time-sensitive applications that are also CPU intensive like video games, video playback, eye-candy desktops etc. are increasingly common. These applications run on commodity operating systems that are targeted at diverse hardware, and hence they cannot assume that sufficient CPU is always available. Increasingly, these applications are designed to be adaptive. When executing multiple such applications, the operating system must not only provide good timeliness but also (optionally) allow co-ordinating their adaptations so that applications can deliver uniform fidelity. In this work, we present a starvation-free, fair, process scheduling algorithm that provides predictable and low latency execution without the use of reservations and assists adaptive time sensitive tasks with achieving consistent quality through cooperation. We combine an event-driven application model called cooperative polling with a fair-share scheduler. Cooperative polling allows sharing of timing or priority information across applications via the kernel thus providing good timeliness, and the fair-share scheduler provides fairness and full utilization. Our experiments show that cooperative polling leverages the inherent efficiency advantages of voluntary context switching versus involuntary pre-emption. In CPU saturated conditions, we show that the scheduling responsiveness of cooperative polling is five times better than a well-tuned fair-share scheduler, and orders of magnitude better than the best-effort scheduler used in the mainstream Linux kernel.

Time sensitive applications like media players/editors and games are increasingly being deployed on a variety of computing platforms with varying processing power, screen size, etc. Due to varying availability of resources the application has to adapt itself in order to meet its timing constraints. For example a video player might drop frames or resize them depending on the available Central Processing Unit (CPU) and screen size. Therefore these applications are both CPU intensive and time sensitive. Existing systems are incapable of dealing with applications with both these requirements. Most solutions either require an estimation of CPU usage (not possible for adaptive applications) or they suffer from starvation problems. We present a system which consists of an event driven way of structuring time sensitive applications and a kernel scheduler which helps the applications meet their timing constraints. Our approach, called ‘cooperative polling’, enables the applications to share timing information with each other and the kernel in order to meet their timing requirements, while still maintaining long term fairness. Our system is also capable of dealing with timing requirements which arise indirectly (not specified by the application) via Input Output (I/O), etc. As part of our evaluation we mod ified an adaptive video player application and the display subsystem for Linux to use our cooperative polling approach We also extended the display server to im plement a mechanism by which clients can convey their timing requirements to the server. Our evaluations show that this approach achieves event dispatch latency two orders of magnitude lower than existing schedulers, while still maintaining overall fairness and low overhead. We also show that the programming effort needed to convert an existing event based application to use our approach is quite trivial.

Traditional reliable unicast protocols (e.g., TCP), known as sender-initiated schemes, do not scale well for one-to-many reliable multicast due mainly to implosion losses caused by excessive rate of feedback packets arriving from receivers. So, recent multicast protocols have been devised following the receiver- initiated approach: scalability (in terms of control traffic, protocol state and end-systems processing requirements) is achieved by making the sender independent from receivers; the sender does not know the membership of the destination group. However, this comes with a cost: the lack of knowledge about and control of receivers at the sender has negative implications with respect to throughput, network cost (bandwidth required), and degree of reliability offered to applications. This thesis follows an alternative approach: instead of adopting the receiver-initiated scheme, it greatly enhances the scalability of the sender-initiated scheme, by means of polling-based feedback and hierarchy. The resulting protocol is named PRMP: polling-based Reliable Multicast protocol. Its unique implosion avoidance mechanism polls receivers at carefully planned timing instants achieving a low and uniformly distributed rate of feedback packets. The sender retains controls of receivers: the main PRMP mechanisms are based on a one-to-many sliding window mechanism, which efficiently and elegantly extends the abstraction from reliable unicasting to reliable multicasting. The error control mechanism of PRMP incorporates the use of NACKs and selective, cumulative acknowledgment of packets; additionally, it can wait and judiciously decide between multicast and selective unicast retransmissions. The flow control mechanism prevents unnecessary losses caused by the overrunning of receivers, despite variations in round-trip times and application speeds. The scalability provided by the polling mechanism is further extended by an hierarchic organization to exploit distributed processing and local recovery: receivers are organized according to a tree-structure. However, unlike other tree-based protocols, PRMP is "fully-hierarchic": each parent node forwards data via multicast to its children, and retains/explores the control of and knowledge about its children while autonomously applying error, flow, congestion and session controls in the communication with them. Two congestion control mechanisms, one window-based and another rate-based, have been incorporated to PRMP. As shown through simulation experiments, the resulting protocol q,chieves high though put with cost- effective reliable multicasting. They also show the scalability and effectiveness of PRMP mechanisms. PRMP can achieve reliable multicast with the same kind of reliability guarantees provided by TCP but without incurring prohibitive costs in terms of network cost or recovery latency found in other protocols.

On aborde dans cette these les problemes du calcul des conditions necessaires et suffisantes d'ergodicite et du comportement en limite thermodynamique de certains systemes a polling decrivant l'evolution de reseaux de transport. Le modele propose dans le premier chapitre se presente comme une variante a routage markovien, ou les serveurs arrivant a une file vide attendent la prochaine arrivee de client a cette file (e. G. Probleme du taxi). Sous des hypotheses assez larges de stationnarite pour les processus d'arrivee et de service, on montre que le reseau ne peut etre que transient ou recurrent-nul. On obtient en outre une classification complete de chaque file ainsi que des theoremes limites apres renormalisation temporelle ad-hoc. L'abondante litterature consacree a l'etude des systemes a polling montre qu'il est tres difficile voire impossible meme dans les cas les plus simples, de calculer la mesure invariante de tels systemes. Dans cette perspective, on demontre, dans le deuxieme chapitre, la propagation du chaos pour une suite de modeles a polling symetriques a n files et v serveurs lorsque n et v tendent simultanement vers l'infini. On peut alors caracteriser completement la dynamique et le regime stationnaire d'un p-uplet arbitraire de files. Dans la derniere partie, on traite de l'extension de ces resultats au cas ou chaque reseau est constitue d'un nombre fini de sous-systemes symetriques.

Trabalho Complementar apresentado à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de licenciada em Ciências da Nutrição<br>Background: Population is ageing worldwide. With increasing age, institutionalization becomes a necessity for many older subjects. The adductor pollicis muscle thickness (APMT) is associated with muscle protein status, has shown to be correlated with nutritional parameters and was found to discriminate undernutrition status. Objectives: To evaluate the validity of APMT to screen undernutrition in institutionalized older adults. It is intended to study the association between APMT, from dominant and non-dominant hands, with undernutrition, and to define gender-specific APMT cutoff values for undernutrition screening. Participants and Methods: An observational analytic transversal study was conducted between May and July of 2018 in six nursing homes for older adults in the north of Portugal. A total of 104 subjects were enrolled. Socio-demographic and nutritional indicators were obtained. APMT was measured in dominant and non-dominant hands using a skinfold caliper. Mini Nutritional Assessment - full form (MNA) was used to evaluate undernutrition status. Two different multivariable linear regression models were constructed to identify variables possibly associated with dominant and non-dominant APMT (dependent variables). Gender-specific Receiver Operating Characteristic analysis was conducted to evaluate the performance of APMT for correctly screening undernutrition or its risk, on the basis of participants' classification by MNA (not undernourished versus undernutrition and undernutrition risk). Results: The present study sample is composed of 31 men (29.8%) and 73 (70.2%) women, age ranged from 65 to 93 years old, mean (standard deviation) =82 (7) years. APMT was inversely associated with undernutrition or undernutrition risk: dominant APMT β=-0.284 (95% confidence intervals: -3.513; -0.896) and non-dominant APMT β=-0.207 (-2.977; -0.172), after adjustment for gender, age and education. Women’ cutoff value obtained for dominant APMT was 10.5 mm, with a sensitivity equal to 96.9% and a specificity equal to 24.0%. For non-dominant APMT these values were 11.5 mm, 78.1% and 38.0%, respectively. For men, dominant APMT cutoff value, sensitivity and specificity were respectively 14.5 mm, 100.0% and 29.0%, whereas for non-dominant APMT these values were 17.5 mm, 61.5% and 78.0%. Conclusions: Relevant evidence regarding the validity of APMT as an undernutrition screening method for the institutionalized older adults was achieved. After adjustment for potential confounding variables, dominant and non-dominant APMT were found to be inversely associated with undernutrition or its risk. Moreover, APMT cutoff values were defined. In general, dominant APMT provided for better diagnostic values. These cutoffs need further validation.<br>Introdução: Mundialmente verifica-se o envelhecimento da população. Com o aumento da idade, a institucionalização torna-se uma necessidade para muitos idosos. A espessura do músculo adutor do polegar (EMAP) está associada com o estado proteico muscular e mostrou correlacionar-se com parâmetros nutricionais e descriminar o estado nutricional. Objetivos: Avaliar a validade do EMAP para o rastreio da desnutrição de idosos institucionalizados. Pretende-se estudar a associação entre o EMAP, da mão dominante e da mão não-dominante, com a desnutrição e definir pontos de corte do EMAP específicos para o género para o rastreio da desnutrição. Participantes e Métodos: Realizou-se um estudo analítico transversal observacional entre maio e julho de 2018, em seis lares para idosos no norte de Portugal. Foram incluídos 104 indivíduos. Obtiveram-se indicadores sociodemográficos e nutricionais. Mediu-se o EMAP na mão dominante e mão não dominante com um lipocalibrador. Utilizou-se o Mini Nutritional Assessment – Full form (MNA) para avaliar o estado de desnutrição. Foram construídos dois modelos de regressão linear multivariável diferentes para identificar variáveis possivelmente associadas com o EMAP dominante e não dominante (variáveis dependentes). Conduziu-se a análise Receiver Operating Characteristic, estratificada para o género, para avaliar o desempenho do EMAP como método de rastreio da desnutrição ou do risco de desnutrição, com base na classificação pelo MNA (sem desnutrição versus desnutrição e risco de desnutrição). Resultados: A amostra do presente estudo é composta por 31 homens (29,8%) e 73 (70,2%) mulheres, com idades entre os 65 e os 93 anos, média (desvio-padrão) = 82 (7) anos. O EMAP associou-se inversamente com a desnutrição ou risco de desnutrição: EMAP dominante β=-0,284 (intervalo de confiança a 95%: -3,513; -0,896) e APMT não dominante β=-0,207 (-2,977; -0,172), após ajuste para género, idade e educação. O ponto de corte obtido do EMAP dominante para as mulheres foi 10,5 mm, com sensibilidade igual a 96,9% e especificidade igual a 24,0%. Para o APMT não-dominante, esses valores foram 11,5 mm, 78,1% e 38,0%, respetivamente. Para os homens, o ponto de corte do EMAP dominante foi 14,5 mm, com sensibilidade e especificidade iguais a 100,0% e 29,0%, enquanto que estes valores para o EMAP não-dominante foram 17,5 mm, 61,5% e 78,0%. Conclusões: Encontrou-se evidência relevante sobre a validade do EMAP como método de rastreio de desnutrição para idosos institucionalizados. Após o ajuste para potenciais confundidores, o EMAP dominante e não dominante associaram-se inversamente com a desnutrição ou risco de desnutrição. Para além disso, definiram-se pontos de corte do EMAP para o rastreio da desnutrição ou risco. De modo geral, o EMAP dominante forneceu melhores valores diagnósticos. Os pontos de corte encontrados necessitam de validação externa.<br>N/A

This paper provides preliminary information on consumer opinions and perceptions on various mental health issues. Recognizing that citizen in-put is an essential marketing tool for responsive and accountable program planning, the Canadian Mental Health Association - B.C. Division, is in the process of acquiring consumer data as part of its information bank. This pilot study has provided a 'dry run' of what is expected for future research projects. Through telephone interviews with 46 Vancouver City telephone subscribers and mail-out questionnaires to 46 community service: personnel, the Canadian Mental Health Association was able to acquire some relevant information to aid in its decision-making process for planning mental health educational programs. The majority of survey respondents, for example, feel that information on coping with stress is the most important to them while information on the more serious, mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, is least important. This has important implications for program planning if the organization is to enlist public support and market its services to a broader clientele. Focusing on promoting mental health and functional competence versus mental illness focused is recommended if the Canadian Mental Health Association hopes to attract normal population groups as its consumers. Furthermore, learning through friendship and familial support is the most desirable, and helping professionals should not place too much emphasis on pamphlets alone as an educational tool. Other implications arising from the consumer data are discussed in this paper. For the most part, the consumer data has served to verify assumptions about what decision-makers already know ... but the research process is able to ground such assumptions into fact ... and this helps to further legitimize and speed up action. This pilot study serves as an initial starting point for the organization in its attempt to incorporate consumer research as part of its overall planning process.<br>Arts, Faculty of<br>Social Work, School of<br>Graduate

Den ökade användningen av nätuppkopplade mobilapplikationer har resulterat i en överbelastning i 3G-nätet. Förslag för att avlasta nätet har bland annat varit genom alternativa uppkopplingar, vilket innebär en uppoffring av 3G-nätets tillgänglighet. Detta leder till frågor om andra avlastningsmetoder. Arbetets målsättning var att se hur en applikations datatrafik påverkas av att klassiska intervallanrop ersätts av avvaktande AJAX-anrop. Detta görs genom att implementera respektive anropsmetod i två identiska alfapetapplikationer. Mätdata erhölls genom att låta användare spela längre omgångar av respektive applikation, vilket även genererar realistiska uppdateringar. Resultaten visar att den klientgenererade bandbreddskonsumtionen minskas vid användning av avvaktande AJAX-anrop. Detta gör den, i kontrast med klassiska intervallanrop, till en möjlig avlastningsmetod.

Do the physical settings in which a voter casts their ballot affect their vote choices? Every state uses a variety of polling locations for the administration of election: churches, schools, libraries, fire stations, and etcetera. The literature on priming effects and voting is massive, but very little research examines the impact of the venue in which a ballot is cast has on voters’ decisions. In this study I argue that polling venues situated on church, school, or veteran’s association property influences the proportion of votes cast in favor of ballot measures related to each institution. I test these hypotheses using precinct level election results and population data from California’s 2008 general election and find results supporting, or suggesting, such a relationship.

We consider the problem of optimizing a polling system, i.e., of optimally sequencing a server in a multi-class queueing system with switch-over times in order to minimize a linear objective function of the waiting times. The problem has important applications in computer, communication, production and transportation networks. We propose nonlinear programming relaxations that provide strong lower bounds to the optimal cost for all static policies. We also obtain lower bounds for dynamic policies as well, which are primarily useful under light traffic conditions and/or small switch-over times. We conjecture that the lower bounds developed in this paper for the class of static policies are also valid for dynamic policies under heavy traffic conditions. We use the information from the lower bound and integer programming techniques to construct static policies that are very close (0-3%) to the lower bounds. We compare numerically our proposed policies with static policies proposed in the literature as well as with dynamic policies and find that the policies we propose outperform all static policies proposed in the literature and at least in heavier traffic outperform dynamic policies as well.

Mobile applications are having a bigger role in our society than ever before. Many of these applications is relying heavily on internet usage, and due to the fact that smartphones have a limited battery capacity it is crucial that these network consuming applications are energy efficient. The traditional usage for communicating with a server is by using the HTTP protocol and a request/response model, but this can be rather limited because the server cannot send out data without the client's request. There are several ways to solve this problem, one widely used method is HTTP-Long Polling. Another protocol that has grown in popularity during the last years is the Websocket protocol, which works in a slightly different manner. The Websocket protocol supports two-way communication, commonly referred to as duplex, by default. This means that both the server and the client can send data to each other simultaneously and without the other parts request. Websocket has been proven more effective in many areas in various benchmarks, but whether it is more energy efficient on mobile platforms remains unclear and will thus be the topic of this thesis. To compare these protocols a mobile application has been developed for iOS and Android. These applications examine the energy efficiency of the two protocols by receiving short messages in a frequent interval from a server application written in Node.js. To measure energy impact of these protocols XCode Energy Report were used for iOS and Android’s built in battery monitor for Android. The result shows that the Websocket protocol was the more energy efficient alternative, especially for iOS. The implementation for Android shown that the choice of protocol did not have too much of an impact the energy consumption.<br>I dagens samhälle används mobilapplikationer i en större utsträckning än aldrig förr. Många av dessa mobilapplikationer använder sig friskt av mobiltelefonens nätverk, och eftersom mobiltelefoner har en begränsad batterikapacitet är det extra viktigt att dessa nätverkskrävande mobilapplikationer är så energisnåla som möjligt. Traditionellt sett har nätverksprotokollet HTTP använts för att skicka och ta emot data, men detta kan bli problematiskt då servern är beroende av att klienten frågar om data innan den kan skickas ut. Detta innebär att servern själv inte kan initiera en kommunikation med klienten. För att lösa detta problem finns det olika sätt som har kommit fram under åren; HTTP-Long Polling är en av dem. Ett annat protokoll som har växt sig populärt de senaste åren är Websocket, som fungerar på ett annat sätt. Websockets har standardiserat stöd för tvåvägskommunikation, eller duplex, vilket innebär att servern och klienten kan skicka data till varandra samtidigt och oberoende av att den andra parten har frågat om den. Websocket har visat sig vara effektivare inom många områden, men hur dessa kan påverka energiförbrukning när de implementeras på mobiltelefoner står oklart, det är detta den här studien syftar till att undersöka. För att undersöka denna skillnad har två mobilapplikationer utvecklats, en till Android och en till iOS. Dessa mobilapplikationer undersöker de olika protokollens energieffektivitet genom att ta emot meddelanden frekvent från en server skriven i Node.js. För att mäta hur väl de olika protokollen presterade användes XCode Energy Report för iOS och Androids inbyggda batteriförbruknings-översikt. Resultaten som erhölls var att Websocket var det mest energieffektiva alternativet, denna skillnad var dock extra tydlig på implementationen för iOS. Implementationen för Android visade att valet av protokoll inte hade en allt för stor betydelse för mobilapplikationens energiförbrukning, det bibliotek som användes för Websocket var väldigt mycket mindre effektivt än det som testades på iOS.

<p> In the State of Michigan both the democrat primary and the general elections were more inaccurate than any scientific polls have been since the early 20^th century. This thesis explored two questions. The first was, how wrong were the polls in the 2016 Michigan presidential election? The second was, how and in what ways might pollsters have made different analyses in forecasting the same election? This qualitative study was conducted using primary research through interviews with pollsters who conducted polls of the 2016 elections in the State of Michigan. The findings showed that the polls were wrong and that polling could be improved through the integration of new technologies in voter contact methods, changes in demographic sample weighting procedures based on voter enthusiasm, and better interpretation of polls by public opinion research consumers.</p><p>

During the 2016 presidential election, public opinion polls consistently showed a lead in the popular vote and Electoral College for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. Following Trump's surprise victory, the political pundits and public at large began to question the accuracy of modern public opinion polling. Fielding a representative sample, convoluted and opaque methodologies, the sheer amount of polls, and both the media's and general public's inability to interpret poll results are among the flaws of the polling industry. An alternative or supplement to traditional polling practices is necessary. This thesis seeks to investigate whether Google Trends can be effectively used as a measure of public opinion during presidential elections. This study gathers polling data from the 2016 presidential election from states that were considered swing states. Specifically, this study examines six total polls, three from states that swung in the way the polls predicted they would – Nevada and Virginia – and three from states that swung against the prediction – Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Answers to the "Most Important Issue" question in each poll are compared to their corresponding topics in Google Trends by calculating Pearson product moment correlations for each pair. Results indicated that in states that swung as predicted, Google Trends was an effective supplement to traditional public opinion polls. In states that did not swing as predicted, Google Trends was not an effective supplement. Implications of these results and future considerations for the polling industry and Google are discussed.<br>Master of Arts

This study examined the effects of communication mode, both face-to-face (FTF) and computer-mediated communication (CMC), and polling on cooperation in a commons dilemma. Sixty-seven six-person groups used FISH, a computer program that uses a fishing metaphor to simulate a commons dilemma. Next, groups had a 10-minute discussion period, either FTF or via CMC, in which they devised a strategy for the second FISH session. Groups were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: FTF, no-poll CMC, end-poll CMC, and two-poll CMC. The polls allowed members to determine others' intended behavior, thus enhancing perceived consensus. Finally, groups used the FISH program again. Results indicted that experimental condition influenced consensus, with end-poll CMC groups reaching consensus most often, followed by FTF, two-poll CMC, and no-poll CMC groups. However, groups did not differ across experimental condition on resource pool sustainability or group profit. FTF groups were more satisfied with group performance than no-poll CMC groups and two-poll CMC and FTF groups had similar levels of satisfaction. The strategy the group decided to implement in the second FISH session had a significant effect on group profit but not resource pool sustainability. Thus, the harvest strategy implemented by the group may have been a stronger predictor of performance than experimental condition.

This thesis aims to examine both the extent to which political opinion polling can contribute to democratic processes in different countries, and the degree to which polling is tied to the developing processes of restructuring and transition which contemporary advanced societies are tending to undergo. Specifically, the examination will focus on political opinion polling in both 'late-capitalist' and 'post-communist' societies. In doing so, it will consider two key related issues: firstly, how shifting political contexts impact upon the ability of polls to carry out their perceived tasks of measuring public opinion and contributing to political democratisation; and secondly, whether polls extend or inhibit democratic processes. The principal concept around which this analysis is organised is that of 'Complex Politics'. This has as its core an analytical framework which focuses upon those aspects of political systems similar to both late-capitalist and post-communist societies, which impinge directly upon political opinion polling. These are Political Culture, Party Systems, Mechanisms for Political Participation, and the Policy Process. It is argued that, despite the obvious differences in context and recent history, the complexity of contemporary political envirorunents in which polls operate in both types of political system are such as to display broadly similar problems for pollsters. In order to project the course of development of polling, the likely issues that pollsters will need to address in the future, and the shape and nature of the links between polling and the processes of democratisation in late-capitalist societies, it is instructive to refer to the current experiences of pollsters and polling in the transitional states of Central and Eastern Europe. As the processes of political pluralisation and restructuring take place in these former communist societies, this will help to identify the major problems which pollsters are likely to face in countries such as Britain and elsewhere in continental Europe when attempting to gauge political opinions, beliefs, orientations and behaviour as their own societies become more variable and complex.

In the wake of the 2016 election, the polling industry has no shortage of critics. While these are difficult times for the industry as a whole, there are exciting innovations happening that will serve to benefit and revitalize the industry for years. One of these exciting innovations is Probability Proportional to Size (PPS) sampling. I will elaborate on what PPS sampling is and provide a mathematical foundation for its use in polling. I also discuss what some of the myriad of issues plaguing the polling industry are and then show how PPS sampling can be used to remedy many of these ills. Finally, I look at a real-world application of PPS sampling. The Mia Love internal polling team, Y2 Analytics, granted me access to their PPS data. I use it to show that we can accurately model the electorate using PPS samples and that polls conducted by this method are at least as accurate as other polls using simple random samples.

Thesis (MScEng)--University of Stellenbosch, 2004.<br>ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis investigates and develops some aspects of low speed wireless telemetry applications. The system configuration is one of a single master, controlling and communicating with multiple slave stations over a radio network. The aim of this thesis is to develop a narrow band wireless communications network based on a protocol with slotted time base, utilizing standard, off the shelf hardware. The idea is to investigate different strategies for improvement of data throughput performance under conditions of both low- and high loading, using this basic protocol. Such strategies may, amongst others include collision detection, flow control and pre-scheduling algorithms. This thesis will also show the how the non-adaptive system's data throughput performance can be improved using an adaptive system under low- and high loading. Half-duplex communication mode will be used for data communication.<br>AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis ondersoek en ontwikkel sommige aspekte van laespoed radiotelemetrie toepassings. Die stelselkonfigurasie is een van 'n enkel meesterstasie wat met 'Il aantal buitestasies kommunikeer oor 'n radionetwerk. Die doel van die tesis is om 'n tydgegleufde protokol te ontwikkel vir nouband radiotoepassings, deur gebruik te maak van standaard, maklik beskikbare hardeware. Die doel is om verskillende benaderings te ondersoek vir die verbetering van datadeurset onder toestande van beide hoë- en lae belading. Sulke strategieë mag botsingsdeteksie, vloeibeheer en voor-skedulering insluit. Die tesis salook aandui hoe die data deurset van die nie-aanpasbare metode verbeter kan word, deur gebruik te maak van 'n aanpasbare metode vir beide beladingstipes. Die kommunikasiestelsel is half-dupleks gebaseer.

Då webben nu består av dynamiska hemsidor och kraftfulla applikation blir ävenkraven på kommunikationshastigheter större. Detta arbe har tittat på den äldre ochpoppulära tekniken Long Polling och ställt den i förhållande till HTML5s nyawebsocket API. Igenom att bygga ett multiplayer spel för webbläsaren utan någrapluggins ställdes teknikerna mot varandra för att se vilken som presterade bäst ochvisade sig mest effektiv för användning i den typen av applikation. WebSockets visadesig klara av alla tester med marginal mot de värden relaterad forskning visat på ärminimum kraven för att kunna realisera realtidsapplikationer. Long Polling föll kortoch visade sig vara svagare på alla punkter i förhållande till WebSockets.

A família Asteraceae é constituída de ervas perenes, subarbustos e arbustos, ocorrendo também ervas anuais, lianas e árvores. Pode ser encontrada nos mais diversos habitates, preferencialmente em ambientes campestres, e em condições climáticas variadas, em regiões tropicais, subtropicais e até temperadas. Asteraceae está bem representada na América do Sul, sendo que no Brasil ocorrem 14 tribos, das quais 13 estão presentes no Estado do Rio Grande do Sul (RS). Contudo, embora numerosa, a família apresenta baixa diversidade morfológica do ponto de vista palinológico (estenopolínica). Em trabalhos de palinologia do Quaternário, grãos de pólen da família Asteraceae são geralmente vinculados aos padrões morfológicos pioneiramente descritos com base em material do hemisfério norte, ou ainda, mais generalizadamente, tratados como categorias de hierarquia taxonômica superiores, como “Asteraceae subf. Asteroideae” ou “Asteraceae subf. Cichoroideae”. Como conseqüência, embora com expressiva importância quantitativa, o registro palinológico não expressa a real diversidade da família nos sedimentos. Quanto maior a fidelidade na comparação entre os grãos de pólen da vegetação atual e os registrados nos sítios deposicionais pretéritos, mais seguras serão as reconstituições paleovegetacionais, que embasam, por conseguinte, as interpretações de caráter paleoambiental e paleoclimático. A carência de estudos de caracterização polínica para a flora asterológica do Estado do RS motivou o presente trabalho, a fim de refinar as identificações dos palinomorfos contidos em sedimentos quaternários. Para a palinoflora asterológica brasileira, somente dois tipos foram propostos (tipo Aspilia e tipo Orthopappus angustifolium), descritos para o cerrado, os quais também são utilizados em trabalhos de palinologia do Quaternário. Nesse contexto, este trabalho constitui-se da análise polínica da flora asterológica ocorrente no Estado, através: (i) da descrição polínica, de acordo com os grupos naturais, a partir da coleta e preparação de espécies selecionadas; (ii) do reconhecimento e proposição de tipos morfológicos para a família; (iii) da identificação dos tipos propostos em depósitos sedimentares quaternários, a fim de confirmar a diversidade da família em tempos pretéritos.Dessa forma, o trabalho abrange todas as tribos citadas para a flora asterológica do RS, constituindo o levantamento mais numeroso e completo para qualquer família de angiospermas para a região sul do Brasil, contribuindo para o conhecimento detalhado da morfologia polínica atual dos táxos viventes da família, ocorrente em todas as regiões fisiográficas, principalmente na região da Campanha, Campos de Cima da Serra, Litoral e Serra do Sudeste e, principalmente nos dois primeiros. Um total de 144 espécies, distribuídas em 59 gêneros, são palinologicamentedescritas e ilustradas, a partir de coletas de material botânico (em campo e em herbários), relativas às tribos Barnadesioideae, Mutisieae, Cardueae, Lactuceae, Vernonieae, Plucheeae, Gnaphalieae, Astereae, Anthemideae, Senecioneae, Helenieae, Heliantheae e Eupatorieae. O detalhamento da morfologia polínica dessas espécies permitiu sua divisão em grupos, utilizandose, como característica principal, a estrutura da exina, feição menos variável dentro das tribos ou gêneros desta família. Considerando-se outros critérios distintivos (e.g., dimensões, espessamento da sexina, natureza das aberturas, tipo e forma da ornamentação), as espécies alocadas em cada grupo foram subdividas em “tipos’, quais sejam: Grupo 1: tipos Dasyplhyllum, Schlechtendalia, Chaptalia, Holocheilus, Mutisia, Pamphalea, Perezia, Trixis, Centaurea melitensis; Grupo 2: tipo Centaurea tweediei; Grupo 3: tipos Hypochaeris, Elephantopus, Vernonia brevifolia, Vernonia nudiflora, Vernonia flexuosa; e Grupo 4: tipos Pluchea laxiflora, Pluchea oblongifolia, Pterocaulon, Ambrosia, Chevreulia, Eupatorium, Heliantheae, Baccharis, Senecio, Soliva, Calea, e Eclipta elliptica. Os 27 tipos polínicos reconhecidos são referentes a oito conhecidos previamente da literatura, 10 correspondem a morfologias similares a tipos já descritos em outras regiões, mas cujos gêneros não ocorrem no RS, sendo aqui renomeados com base na flora local e nove tipos são propostos como novos. Além disso, níveis selecionados de perfurações em depósitos quaternários, referentes a localidades já conhecidas da literatura, foram reanalisados, na tentativa de reconhecer os tipos propostos, com base em observações diretas do autor, com atenção somente aos grãos da família Asteraceae, bem como abordados os grãos atribuídos à família, ilustrados em trabalhos. Em todos os casos, observou-se que a diversidade polínica é relativamente maior que aquela expressa por outros autores, tendo sido possível o refinamento taxonômico e a identificação de tipos polínicos adicionais. Os tipos reconhecidos neste trabalho deverão contribuir na identificação da família em depósitos sedimentares, fornecendo subsídios para trabalhos futuros de abordagem paleobiogeográfica e em trabalhos de actuopalinologia com relação ao modo de dispersão em chuvas polínicas e sedimentos mais superficiais.<br>The family Asteraceae comprises perennial herbs to shrubs, and includes also annual herbs, lianas and trees. This family occurs in several habitats, especially in grassland (“campos”), under various climate conditions, in tropical, subtropical, and temperate areas. Asteraceae is well represented in South America, and in Brazil encompasses 14 tribes. Among them, 13 are present in the Rio Grande do Sul State (RS). Although the family bears numerous taxa, it has low palynologic morphology patterns (stenopolinic). In Quaternary palynology works, pollen grains of Asteraceae are generally assigned to the morphologic types previously described to the North Hemisphere, or linked to higher taxonomic categories, such as “Asteraceae subf. Asteroideae” or “Asteraceae subf. Cichoroideae”. Then, the fossil record of this family is not true expressed, although Asteraceae be generally well represented in sedimentary deposits. Accuracy in the identification of fossil pollen grains and comparisons between them and the ones from modern flora supports and gives refinement to paleofloristic reconstructions, allowing improvements on paleoenvironmental and paleoclimate interpretations.Studies on pollen morphology of this family in the RS are needed, inducing this work, which intends improve the refinement on the identification of this family in Quaternary deposits. Only two types were proposed for the Brazilian Asterologic flora (type Aspilia and type Orthopappus angustifolium), which were described from the “Cerrado”, and are commonly used in Quaternary palynological works. In this context, this work constitutes an analysis of the Asterologic flora living in RS, and comprising: (i) pollinic morphology descriptions, according to the natural tribes (genera and species), from collecting and preparation of selected species, (ii) recognition and proposition of morphologic palynologic types to the family, (iii) identification of these types in sedimentary deposits, to know the diversity of this family in past times. This work embraces all tribes noticed of this family to the RS, constituting the more complete and numerous kind of analysis to the Angiosperm in the South of Brazil. Then, it contributes to the improvement on pollinic morphology of the living taxa of Asteraceae, which occurs in all physiographic regions of the RS, mainly in “Campanha”, “Campos de Cima da Serra”, “Litoral” and “Serra do Sudeste”, especially in the two formers. Hundred forty-four species, related to 59 genera, are palynologically described and illustrated, retrieved from collecting of botanic material (in field works and herbarium). These taxa comprise the tribes Barnadesioideae, Mutisieae, Cardueae, Lactuceae, Vernonieae,Plucheeae, Gnaphalieae, Astereae, Anthemideae, Senecioneae, Helenieae, Heliantheae and Eupatorieae. The analysis and the detailing of the pollinic morphology allow the arranging of these species in groups, based on the exine structure, interpreted as the major feature, due it is less variable in the tribes of this family. Furthermore, other features such as dimensions, sexine thickness, apertures and ornamentation patterns, allowed subdivide the species of each group in pollen “types”, as following: Group 1: types Dasyplhyllum, Schlechtendalia, Chaptalia, Holocheilus, Mutisia, Pamphalea, Perezia, Trixis, Centaurea melitensis; Group 2: type Centaurea tweediei; Group 3: types Hypochaeris, Elephantopus, Vernonia brevifolia, Vernonia nudiflora, Vernonia flexuosa; and Group 4: types Plucheae laxiflora, Pluclea oblongifolia, Pterocaulon, Ambrosia, Chevreulia, Eupatorium, Heliantheae, Baccharis, Senecio, Soliva, Calea, and Eclipta elliptica. Among these 27 pollen types, eight are related to ones previously described in the literature, and ten correspond to similar and well known morphologies, but are renamed herein, once the original names referred to them are not living in RS. Besides, nine types are proposed as new. Furthermore, slides of selected core samples, previously studied, were reanalyzed, aiming the identification of these 27 recognized types, based on the direct observation of the present author, regarding only the Asteraceae pollen grains. Other records of this family were also analyzed, based on descriptions and illustrations from available works. These analyses showed the pollen diversity of the family Asteraceae is more significant than expressed by the selected previous reports, due the taxonomic refinement and the record of additional pollen types to each level studied. These pollen types can be used for taxonomic works of sedimentary deposits, furnishing more data to future paleobiogeographic interpretations, as well as for actuopalynology, to the dispersion understanding, helping palynological works of pollen rain and from superficial sediments.

Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2015.<br>Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.<br>Includes bibliographical references (pages 65-67).<br>The rapid development of autonomous vehicles spurred a careful investigation of the potential benefits of all-autonomous transportation networks. Most studies conclude that autonomous systems can enable drastic improvements in performance. A widely studied concept is all-autonomous, collision-free intersections, where vehicles arriving in a traffic intersection with no traffic light adjust their speeds to cross through the intersection as quickly as possible. In this thesis, we propose a coordination control algorithm for this problem, assuming stochastic models for the arrival times of the vehicles. The proposed algorithm provides provable guarantees on safety and performance. More precisely, it is shown that no collisions occur surely, and moreover a rigorous upper bound is provided for the expected wait time. The algorithm is also demonstrated in simulations. The proposed algorithms are inspired by polling systems. In fact, the problem studied in this thesis leads to a new polling system where customers are subject to differential constraints, which may be interesting in its own right.<br>by David Miculescu.<br>S.M.

Today’s web applications make extensive use of APIs between server and client, or server to server in order to provide new information in the form of events. The question was whether the different methods of procuring events are different in how they scale. This study aims to compare performance between webhooks and polling, the two most commonly used pull and push based methods for event notification when scaling up traffic. The purpose is to create a basis for developers when choosing the method for event notification. The comparison has been developed through measurements of typical indicators of good performance for web applications: CPU usage, memory usage and response time. The tests gave indications that webhooks perform better in most circumstances, but further testing is needed in a more well-defined environment to draw a confident conclusion.<br>Dagens webbapplikationer använder sig i stor utsträckning av API:er mellan server och klient, eller server till server för att inhämta ny information i form av events (händelser). Frågan är om de olika metoder som finns för att inhämta events skalar olika bra. Förevarande studie ämnar att jämföra prestanda mellan ”webhooks” och ”polling”, de två mest använda pull- och pushbaserade metoderna för eventnotifikation vid uppskalning av trafik. Syftet är att skapa ett underlag för utvecklare vid valet av metod för eventnotifikation. Jämförelsen har tagits fram genom mätningar av typiska indikatorer för god prestanda hos en webbapplikation: CPU-användning, minnesanvändning och svarstid. Testerna gav indikationer om att webhooks är bättre men det krävs vidare testning i en mer väldefinierad miljö för att dra en säkrare slutsats.

Twenty ASA class I and II patients between the ages of 15 and 64 years undergoing surgical procedures requiring neuromuscular blockade and general anesthesia were selected at random to participate in this study. Patients taking medication known to interfere with neuromuscular blockade were excluded. All patients were given 2 mg of midazolam IV as a premedication. In the operating room, routine monitors were connected and baseline blood pressure, pulse and respirations were recorded with subsequent recordings at 5 and 10 minutes following induction of anesthesia. Indirect stimulation of the ulnar nerve was achieved by placing ECG electrodes 2 cm and 10 cm proximal to the distal end of the ulnar nerve. The same type ECG electrodes were used at the orbicularis oculi muscle group. One electrode was placed 2 cm lateral and 2 cm caudal to the outer canthus of the eye and the second 2 cm caudal to the first. Induction of anesthesia was achieved with mivacurium 0.1 mg/kg IV followed by fentanyl 100 mcg IV and propofol 2 mg/kg IV. The second dose of mivacurium 0.1 mg/kg was administered 30 seconds after the initial dose. Baseline twitch response was started at both monitoring sites using 1 Hz twitch mode with an output of 60 mA. Each patient was monitored until there was a loss of twitch response at either of the two sites. When the twitch response was suppressed at one site, the anesthetist performed direct visual laryngoscopy. If the vocal cords were open, the trachea was intubated. The time of twitch suppression at the second site was also recorded. The data collected from the study was examined using a paired t-test and a comparison of the mean times to loss of twitch at the orbicularis oculi and the adductor pollicis was made. All 20 of the subjects lost the orbicularis oculi motor response to stimulation prior to the loss of motor response to stimulation at the adductor pollicis. The mean time to loss of twitch response was 85 seconds at the orbicularis oculi and 230 seconds at the adductor pollicis. It was concluded that there is a shorter time to loss of twitch response at the orbicularis oculi than at the adductor pollicis using 0.2 mg/kg mivacurium chloride in equally divided doses given 30 seconds apart.

碩士<br>國立中興大學<br>園藝學系<br>85<br>The postharvest oncidium cut flowers were investigated their onset of senescence and the physiological changes after pollinia de-capped from the florets. From the studies we approached possible treatments for better quality and vase life of the cut flowers. After pollinia de-capped and during their scenescent course, high concentration of ethylene was produced by the florets. The more serious the pollinia de-capped rate, the more ethylene was produced and so as respiration rate.the ethylene peak. During senescence, both pollinia de-capped florets and intact florets were detected increased electrolytes leakage rates；while in the latter this phenomenon appeared 2∼3 days later than the former. In the cut flowers with different percentages of pollinia de- capped florets, they showed similar electrolytes leakage rate in them. The pollinia de-capped resulted in lower quality of the cut flowers and shorten vase life. Recut treatment at the third postharvest day enhance the qualities of oncidium cut flowers in various events： the water uptake、better water balance and prolonged performance duration. Though the same treatment did not show apparent positive effect on the vase life of the cut flowers。 Pretreatment with 2mM STS in oncidium cut flowers increased their fresh weights, improved their water uptake and appreciated the value. However, its effect on enhancing the vase life was not evident and deserved to have further studies. Pulse treatment with 2mM STS and deion water respectively in the group of oncidium cut flowers with 30% pollinia de-capped florets, and followed by various concentrations of sucrose solution, the data indicated that the 2mM STS and 6% sucrose solution and the deion water and 4% sucrous solution gained the best results in fresh retension.

碩士<br>國立高雄大學<br>生物科技研究所<br>96<br>Orchid is an economic flowersing crop. It is one of the most important agricultural products for export in Taiwan. Previous study indicated that PFLP (sweet pepper ferredoxin-like protein), an anti-microbial protein, might be able to control the plant diseases via reducing the growth of pathogen. A novel method for selection of transgenic plants utilizing the pflp gene as selection marker and Erwinia carotovora as the selection agent was developed. The Erwinia selection system does not olny solve traditional antibiotic problem but also acceletate the selection progress. In this study, we developed an Erwinia selection system with pollinia transformation to screen transgenic lines of Phalaenopsis. When the genes were first transformed into orchid pollinia via Agrobactium tumefaciens-mediated transformation, 56 %∼70.8% capsule rates could be reached after pollination. When particle bombardment combined with A. tumefaciens-mediated transformation to transfer the genes into pollinia, 60.3 %∼79.1 % capsule rates could be reached after pollination. The concentration of 5×104 CFU/ml infection suspension of E.carotovora was found to be a suitable threshold to screen transformed plants by injecting to the leaves. The survival rates of transformed plants after E. carotovora selection were 46.3 % in PeSOC (＋), 30.3 % in PeUFGT3 (＋), and 24.6 % in PeSOC1(－), individually. For identifying levels of gene expression GUS histochemical staining on transformed plants was performed. The GUS expression rates in transformed plants were 29.8 % in PeSOC(＋), 30.2 % in PeUFGT3 (＋), and 15.5 % in PeSOC1(－), individually. Through PCR analysis of the genomic DNA on some GUS-positive E. carotovora selection system resistant transgenic lines, the specific 0.6 kb DNA fragment of the pflp gene was found in the transformed plants. Comparing with traditional antibiotic selection system, our results suggests Erwinia selection system is a feasible method to be used in the transgenic work of Phalaenopsis.

碩士<br>國立交通大學<br>資訊工程研究所<br>83<br>The objective of this thesis is to present a simulation analysis of polling networks in a clear and concise fashion. Several examples are used to illustrate the simulation skills. First, the polling network is defined. Then the simulation skills for the M/M/1 queueing system and the Poisson process are studied in detail. Finally, we write a simulation program to collect numerical results and show the accuracy of the results obtained from mathematical analysis. On the other hand , the behavior of the system is investigated by simulation and some useful information for the design and optimization of polling network system are reported .

Yes<br>The web environment has been developing remarkably, and much work has been done towards improving web based notification systems, where servers act smartly by notifying and feeding clients with subscribed data. In this paper we have reviewed some of the problems with current solutions to real-time updates of multi user web applications; we introduce a new concept “adaptive polling” based on one AJAX technique “Polling” to reduce the high volume of redundant server connections with reasonable latency, we demonstrated a prototype implementation of the new concept which is then evaluated against the existing one; the positive results clearly indicated more efficiency in terms of client-server bandwidth.

碩士<br>國立臺灣科技大學<br>電子工程系<br>91<br>Abstract On the Cell Base of Wireless Local Area Network(WLAN), the Protocols of Polling Scheme and Carrier Sensing Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance(CSMA/CA) are the two kinds of important Medium Access Control(MAC). When we convey the images and voice through the Digital PocketBased Network, 1% or 2% of the Frame Relay lost is acceptable, but the delay caused by postpone and collision are difficult to meet the requirement of real time data transmission. If using the CSMA/CA, a competition media access protocol, to provide the service will hard to come up with user’s demand. On this situation, the Real Time Data Transmission with Polling Scheme will be the solution in general. Traditionally, the Polling Scheme has the mechanism of query and response on one by one base. When transfer a data frame relay, the system has to take the extra overhead, causing the low performance in a WLAN on broad bandwidth and high volume loading. In this study, Polling In One-Response Separately, PIO-RS, the new medium access control protocol of the Polling Scheme, is trying to improve the dilemma of broadband with high volume loading. Base on the original platform and hardware structure, to upgrade the transmission volume and reduce the delay. By the experiment, we found that the PIO_RS will improve the performance by 2% to 26% and reduce the transmission delay effectively. In the future, the better environment of hardware and bandwidth, PIO-RS will be a smart choice of Polling Scheme for the WLAN.