This thesis shows the result from investigations of methods that use distance vectors when matching pictures. The distance vectors are available in a distance map made by the Euclidean Distance Transform. The investigated methods use the two characteristic features of the distance vector when matching pictures, length and direction. The length of the vector is used to calculate a value of how good a match is and the direction of the vector is used to predict a transformation to get a better match. The results shows that the number of calculation steps that are used during a search can be reduced compared to matching methods that only uses the distance during the matching.

This thesis is broadly divided in two parts. In the first part we give a survey of various distances between metric spaces, namely the uniform distance, Lipschitz distance, Hausdor distance and the Gramoz Hausdor distance. Here we talk about only the most basic of their properties and give a few illustrative examples. As we wish to study collections of metric measure spaces, which are triples (X; d; m) consisting of a complete separable metric space (X; d) and a Boral probability measure m on X, there are discussions about some distances between them. Among the three that we discuss, the transportation and distortion distances were introduced by Sturm. The later, denoted by 2, on the space X2 of all metric measure spaces having finite L2-size is the focus of the second part of this thesis. The second part is an exposition based on the work done by Sturm. Here we prove a number of results on the analytic and geometric properties of (X2; 2). Beginning by noting that (X2; 2) is a non-complete space, we try to understand its completion. Towards this end, the notion of a gauged measure space is useful. These are triples (X; f; m) where X is a Polish space, m a Boral probability measure on X and f a function, also called a gauge, on X X that is symmetric and square integral with respect to the product measure m2. We show that, Theorem 1. The completion of (X2; 2) consists of all gauged measure spaces where the gauges satisfy triangle inequality almost everywhere. We denote the space of all gauged measure spaces by Y. The space X2 can be embedded in Y and the transportation distance 2 extends easily from X2 to Y. These two spaces turn out to have similar geometric properties. On both these spaces 2 is a strictly intrinsic metric; i.e. any two members in them can be joined by a shortest path. But more importantly, using a description of the geodesics in these spaces, the following result is proved. Theorem 2. Both (X2; 2) and (Y; 2) have non-negative curvature in the sense of Alexandrov.

[pt] O Word Mover s Distance (WMD) proposto por Kusner et al. [ICML,2015] é uma função de distância entre documentos que se aproveita das relações semânticas entre palavras extraidas por suas Word Embeddings. Essa função de distância se mostrou bastante eficaz, obtendo taxas de erro estado da arte para problemas de classificação, porém ao mesmo tempo inviável para largas coleções ou grandes documentos devido a ser necessário computar um problema de transporte em um grafo bipartido completo para cada par de documentos. Assumindo algumas hipóteses, que são respaldadas por propriedades empíricas das distâncias entre as Word Embeddings, nós simplificamos o WMD de forma a obter uma nova função de distância o qual requer a solução de um problema de fluxo máximo em um grafo esparço, que pode ser resolvido mais rapidamente do que um problema de transporte em um grafo denso. Nossos experimentos mostram que conseguimos obter ganhos de performance até três ordens de magnitude acima do WMD enquanto mantendo as mesmas taxas de erro na tarefa de classificação de documentos. / [en] The Word Mover s Distance (WMD) proposed in Kusner et. al. [ICML,2015] is a distance between documents that takes advantage of semantic relations among words that are captured by their Word Embeddings. This distance proved to be quite effective, obtaining state-of-the-art error rates for classification tasks, but also impracticable for large collections or documents because it needs to compute a transportation problem on a complete bipartite graph for each pair of documents. By using assumptions, that are supported by empirical properties of the distances between Word Embeddings, we simplify WMD so that we obtain a new distance whose computation requires the solution of a max flow problem in a sparse graph, which can be solved much faster than the transportation problem in a dense graph. Our experiments show that we can obtain a performance gain up to three orders of magnitude over WMD while maintaining the same error rates in document classification tasks.

Doctor of Education / Department of Educational Leadership / Teresa N. Miller / The purpose of this study was to identify current student preferences in order to improve distance education curriculum delivery of the distance education program of the United States Army Command and General Staff College (USACGSC). In this age of rapidly changing contemporary operating environments facing the United States Army, soldiers need up-to-date curriculum in a timely and flexible package with access from remote locations worldwide. This study offered analysis and results from the students’ viewpoints of distance education at the USACGSC. The main research question was: What are student preferences for the delivery of the USACGSC distance education curriculum? To answer this research question, sub-questions needed to be answered. These sub-questions were: (1) What are student preferences for course material delivery? (2) What are student preferences for instructional methods? (3) What are student preferences for collaboration with other students? And (4) What are student preferences for research? The survey data were used to answer the research question and the sub-questions. The data were analyzed using the USACGSC Quality Assurance Office (QAO) standard approved by the USACGSC Deputy Commandant. Based on this study, the researcher recommended making a portion of the USACGSC advanced distributed learning courses face-to-face; making all course material downloadable or issuing course material in print and CD; making coursework self-paced; and making faculty available to all online students.

The primary goal of the register allocation phase in a compiler is to minimize register spills to memory. Spills, in the form of store and load instructions, affect execution time as the processor must wait for the slower memory system to respond. Deciding which registers to spill can benefit from execution frequency information yet when this information is available it is not fully utilized by modern register allocators. We present a register allocator that fully exploits profiling information to mini- mize the runtime costs of spill instructions. We use the Furthest Next Use heuristic, informed by branch probability information to decide which virtual register to spill when required. We extend this heuristic, which under the right conditions can lead to the minimum number of spills, to the control flow graph by computing Expected Distance to next use. The furthest next use heuristic, when applied to the control flow graph, only par- tially determines the best placement of spill instructions. We present an algorithm for optimizing spill instruction placement in the graph that uses block frequency infor- mation to minimize execution costs. Our algorithm quickly finds the best placements for spill instructions using a novel method for solving placement problems. We evaluate our allocator using both static and dynamic profiling information for the SPEC CINT2000 benchmark and compare it to the LLVM allocator. Targeting the ARMv7 architecture, we find average reductions in numbers of store and load instructions of 36% and 50%, respectively, using static profiling and 52% and 52% using dynamic profiling. We have also seen an overall improvement in benchmark speed. / Graduate

La téléréadaptation, une application de la télésanté, qui se définit par le suivi thérapeutique d'un patient par un clinicien via un lien Internet, est en pleine émergence au Québec et au Canada. Que ce soit pour procéder à une consultation ou pour prodiguer des traitements, il est inévitable pour le clinicien d'effectuer éventuellement une évaluation de la condition de l'usager. Actuellement, aucune étude ne s'est intéressée à l'évaluation physique d'une condition orthopédique d'un centre de services vers le domicile du patient. Le but de cette étude est de: Objectif 1. Démontrer la faisabilité d'une évaluation en téléréadaptation à l'aide de tests cliniques auprès de personnes présentant des conditions orthopédiques au membre inférieur pour les variables suivantes: état de la cicatrice, présence de signes inflammatoires (gonflement articulaire) et circulatoires, les amplitudes articulaires de la hanche et du genou (flexion et extension), la force globale aux membres inférieurs, la capacité de se mouvoir, la description de la marche ainsi que l'équilibre. Objectif 2. Comparer les données d'évaluation d'une condition orthopédique au membre inférieur prises par le physiothérapeute en téléréadaptation à celles recueillies par le physiothérapeute en observation face-à-face (mesure étalon). Matériel et méthodes. Il s'agit d'un devis de validité de critère où l'évaluation du physiothérapeute, réalisée au domicile du patient (mesure étalon), a été comparée à l'évaluation, des mêmes variables, effectuée en téléréadaptation à l'aide d'un système de visioconférence. L'étude a été effectuée auprès d'hommes et de femmes (n=17) en phase de réadaptation ayant une atteinte physique de type orthopédique affectant la fonction des membres inférieurs. Deux conditions expérimentales ont été exploitées. Un sous-groupe de notre échantillon (n=7) a été évalué dans un environnement contrôlé, soit sans la présence d'obstacles et avec une luminosité appropriée pour les systèmes de visioconférence. Concernant l'autre sous-groupe (n=1D), l'évaluation en téléréadaptation a été réalisée au domicile du patient dans des conditions réelles. L'intérêt de procéder aux évaluations dans deux environnements différents est pour mieux comprendre l'influence potentielle des environnements domiciliaires sur la faisabilité et la validité des tests inclus dans le protocole. Les tests physiques s'intéressaient à dix variables quantifiés à l'aide de sept outils de mesure soit: la cicatrice (New quantitative scale for clinical scar assessment), la mesure du gonflement au genou (bilan circonférentiel), l'amplitude articulaire à la hanche (flexion/extension) et au genou (flexion/extension) à l'aide du goniomètre universel, la force globale aux membres inférieurs (30-sec chair-stand test), la capacité de se mouvoir (Timed up and Go) et la description de la marche (test de Tinetti) ainsi que l'équilibre (test de Berg). Résultats. La comparaison entre les mesures en téléréadaptation et les valeurs étalons a montré d'excellents résultats (Rhô de Spearman) pour le gonflement articulaire (r s =.94), les amplitudes articulaires de la flexion de la hanche (r s =.93) et de la flexion du genou (r s =.82), la la capacité de se mouvoir (r s =.91), la description de la marche (r s =.88) et la force musculaire aux membres inférieurs (r s =.92). Par contre, l'évaluation de la cicatrice (r s =.56) et l'amplitude articulaire de l'extension de la hanche (r s =.19) et du genou (r s =.67) ont démontré des coefficients inférieurs. Un dernier test a présenté des résultats mitigés, soit celui de l'épreuve d'équilibre de Berg (r s =.79). Conclusion. Notre étude a permis de démontrer qu'avec une certaine adaptation, il est possible d'évaluer plusieurs variables cliniques importantes en téléréadaptation au même titre que si nous avions réalisé l'évaluation dans un mode conventionnel en face-à-face. Les coefficients de corrélation ne différaient pas même si le patient était évalué à son domicile ou dans un environnement propice à ce type d'évaluation. En effet, les coefficients de corrélation sont élevés (r s >.79) pour l'ensemble des variables cliniques à l'étude. Seulement l'évaluation de la cicatrice et la mesure de l'extension de la hanche ont obtenu des coefficients de validité sous le seuil clinique acceptable.

BACKGROUND: Resolution of the link between micro- and macroevolution calls for comparing both processes on the same deterministic landscape, such as genomic, metabolic or fitness networks. We apply this perspective to the evolution of carotenoid pigmentation that produces spectacular diversity in avian colors and show that basic structural properties of the underlying carotenoid metabolic network are reflected in global patterns of elaboration and diversification in color displays. Birds color themselves by consuming and metabolizing several dietary carotenoids from the environment. Such fundamental dependency on the most upstream external compounds should intrinsically constrain sustained evolutionary elongation of multi-step metabolic pathways needed for color elaboration unless the metabolic network gains robustness - the ability to synthesize the same carotenoid from an additional dietary starting point. RESULTS: We found that gains and losses of metabolic robustness were associated with evolutionary cycles of elaboration and stasis in expressed carotenoids in birds. Lack of metabolic robustness constrained lineage's metabolic explorations to the immediate biochemical vicinity of their ecologically distinct dietary carotenoids, whereas gains of robustness repeatedly resulted in sustained elongation of metabolic pathways on evolutionary time scales and corresponding color elaboration. CONCLUSIONS: The structural link between length and robustness in metabolic pathways may explain periodic convergence of phylogenetically distant and ecologically distinct species in expressed carotenoid pigmentation; account for stasis in carotenoid colors in some ecological lineages; and show how the connectivity of the underlying metabolic network provides a mechanistic link between microevolutionary elaboration and macroevolutionary diversification. REVIEWERS: This article was reviewed by Junhyong Kim, Eugene Koonin, and Fyodor Kondrashov. For complete reports, see the Reviewers' reports section.

This thesis studies the relationship between type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) and their host galaxies. The sample consists of 527 SNe Ia with redshift z<0.09 discovered by the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF). We obtained high-quality photometric and spectroscopic data of the host galaxies and determined their stellar mass M_stellar, star formation rate (SFR), gas-phase/stellar metallicity, stellar age and SN offset. In the first part of the analysis, we compare the SN Ia photometric properties to the host parameters. Strong correlations between the SN Ia light-curve width (stretch) and the host age/mass/metallicity are found: fainter, faster-declining events tend to be hosted by older/massive/metal-rich galaxies. There is also some evidence that redder SNe Ia explode in higher metallicity galaxies. SNe Ia in higher-mass/metallicity galaxies also appear brighter after stretch/colour corrections than their counterparts in lower mass hosts, and the stronger correlation is with gas-phase metallicity suggesting this may be the more important variable. We also compare the host stellar mass distribution to that in galaxy targeted SN surveys and the high-redshift untargeted Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS). The difference between each stellar mass distribution can be explained by an evolution in the galaxy stellar mass function, coupled with a SN delay-time distribution proportional to t^-1. Finally, we found no significant difference in the mass-metallicity relation of our SN Ia hosts compared to field galaxies, suggesting any metallicity effect on the SN Ia rate is small. In the second part of the analysis, we compare the SN spectral features to the host parameters. We find that SNe Ia with higher Si ii λ6355 velocities tend to explode in more massive galaxies. We study the strength of the high-velocity component of the Ca ii NIR absorption, and find that SNe Ia with a stronger high-velocity component are preferentially hosted by galaxies with a low M_stellar, a blue colour, and a high SFR, and are therefore likely to arise from the youngest progenitor systems. When combined with other studies, our results support the scenario that these high-velocity features are related to an interaction between the SN ejecta and a circumstellar medium (CSM) local to the SN.

This master thesis investigates the problem of making an unmanned aerial vehicle(uav) follow a person or a group of persons while keeping a fixed distance tothe chosen target. The purpose of this thesis is to give a proof of concept prototypeof how such a system would work to achieve that task. The main problemconsists of controlling the uav based on visual input from a camera. With thehelp of a visual object detection and tracking system, the image coordinates ofthe targets can be found. An algorithm was developed to calculate the target’sworld position based on its image coordinates and the world position and orientationof the uav. A control system was implemented that uses that uses thepositional information to set the velocity of the uav, if its position needs to bechanged. Several strategies for handling groups of targets were investigated. Inaddition a simulator was developed that can be used to simulate the image coordinatesof a target when the world position of the target is known. The systemwas tested during live flights, using a high precision motion capture system forreference. The results were mainly positive in showing proof of concept and evenshowing a relatively high level of precision.

The present research examined how individuals’ cultural orientations influenced the relationship between their construal level and temporal distance. There were two studies in this research. Study 1 was composed of two parts. In the first part, the relationship between culture and construal level was examined through the Behavioral Identification Form (BIF). In the second part, the influence of culture on temporal distance and individuals’ construal level was investigated by analyzing participants’ descriptions of their lives. In study 2, the three-way interaction between culture, temporal distance, and the construal-level frame of persuasive messages (desirability vs. feasibility focused message) was investigated. A total of 200 students from two different countries (Korea and the U.S.) participated in the study. A fictitious brand and advertisement were created to examine the interaction. The findings revealed that individuals from an individualistic culture (U.S.) prefer abstract thinking to concrete thinking and focus more on the desirability than the feasibility of an event or object. And the reverse was true for individuals from a collectivistic culture (Korea). When individuals are in a proximal temporal condition, those from a collectivistic culture have a more proximal temporal perspective, and they are more likely to represent the future event in low-level terms. In contrast, individuals from an individualistic culture have a more distal temporal perspective and tend to represent the future event in high-level terms. Consistent results were found in an advertising context. When individuals from a collectivistic culture were in a proximal temporal condition, they tended to show a more favorable attitude toward the advertisement emphasizing the feasibility features of the product. The reverse was true for individuals from an individualistic culture. / text