This thesis developed a new markup language based on eXtensible Markup Language (XML), named as the Unified Programming Markup Language (UPML), which represents an abstraction of programming techniques of popular programming languages, and is used to store the programming semantic information of various programming languages. UPML aims to provide a general software quality analysis platform and as a gateway to translate programs between high-level programming languages. This research created and analyzed the features of UPML and concluded that UPML may have advantages over the traditional and newly appeared methods in software quality analysis and programming language translation. As the proof of concept in building such a software analysis and translation system, this research developed a PHP to UPML transformer. Execution examples showed its correctness of working in the core programming area of popular programming techniques, structure programming (SP) and object-oriented programming (OOP). The PHP implementation can be easily applied to other programming languages that support the same programming techniques. Since UPML is extensible, languages of other programming paradigms beyond the SP and OOP can be easily added. / Related work -- Analysis of programming languages and programming techniques -- Implementation of UPML -- Implementation of a PHP to UPML transformer -- Examples of execution. / Department of Computer Science

Several tools have been developed for the authoring of intensional (context-sensitive) documents; for example. IHTML (Intensional HTML), IML (Intensional Markup Language). and ISE (Intensional Sequential Evaluator). However, at present, it is still very difficult to author intensional markup documents. To ease this difficulty. this thesis presents two new intensional authoring tools. IMP (Intensional Macro Processor) and ICC (Intensional C Compiler). IMP is a powerful yet easy to use macro processor embedded with a JavaScript engine. ICC in turn is an intensional extension to ANSI C. Several applications of IMP and ICC such as WIMPAS. intensional spreadsheet and CGI programming in ICC are discussed in this thesis to illustrate how IMP and ICC facilitate intensional authoring.

Modem construction projects, characterised by severe fragmentation from both geographical and disciplinary perspectives, require accurate and timely sharing of information. Traditional information management systems operate on a textual basis and do not always consider the meaning of information. Current web-based information management technology supports information communication to a reasonable extent but still has many limitations, such as the lack of semanticawareness and poor interoperability of software applications. This research argues that Semantic Web technologies can enhance the efficiency of information management in construction projects by providing content-based and contextspecific information to project team members, and supporting the interoperation between independent applications. A Semantic Web-based Information Management System (Sams) for construction projects was created to demonstrate the above concept. The approach adopted for this research involved creating a new framework for Semantic Web-based information management. This extensible system framework enables the system to merge diverse construction information sources, ontologies and end-user applications into the overall Semantic Web environment. The semantic components developed in this research included a project document's annotation model, a project partner's user profile model, and several lightweight IFC-based ontologies for documented information management. This supports intelligent information management and interoperation between heterogeneous information sources and applications. The system framework, prototype annotations, and ontologies were applied to a concept demonstrator that illustrated how the project documents were annotated, accessed, converted, categorised, and retrieved on the basis of content and context. The demonstrator (named SwiMS) acts as a middleware, which mediates between user needs and the information sources. Information in project partners' documents were mapped and accessed intelligently. This involved the use of rule-based filtering and thus prevented the users from being overwhelmed by irrelevant documents or missing relevant ones in heterogeneous and distributed information sources. It also enabled the adaptation of documents to individual contexts and preferences, and the dynamic composition of various document management services. Evaluation of the system framework and demonstrator revealed that the system enhances the efficiency of construction information management, with the three most beneficial areas being project knowledge management, collaborative design and communication between project team members. The Swims annotations, ontologies and deductive rules are important technologies provide an innovative approach to managing construction information. These enable the information in construction documents, both structured documents and un-structured documents, to be interpretable by computers. This ensures the efficiency and precision of construction information management.

Texture analysis is an important problem in machine vision, with applications in many fields including medical imaging, remote sensing (SAR), automated flaw detection in various products, and document analysis to name but a few. Over the last four decades many techniques for the analysis of textured images have been proposed in the literature for the purposes of classification, segmentation, synthesis and compression. Such approaches include analysis the properties of individual texture elements, using statistical features obtained from the grey-level values of the image itself, random field models, and multichannel filtering. The wavelet transform, a unified framework for the multiresolution decomposition of signals, falls into this final category, and allows a texture to be examined in a number of resolutions whilst maintaining spatial resolution. This thesis explores the use of the wavelet transform to the specific task of texture classification and proposes a number of improvements to existing techniques, both in the area of feature extraction and classifier design. By applying a nonlinear transform to the wavelet coefficients, a better characterisation can be obtained for many natural textures, leading to increased classification performance when using first and second order statistics of these coefficients as features. In the area of classifier design, a combination of an optimal discriminate function and a non-parametric Gaussian mixture model classifier is shown to experimentally outperform other classifier configurations. By modelling the relationships between neighbouring bands of the wavelet trans- form, more information regarding a texture can be obtained. Using such a representation, an efficient algorithm for the searching and retrieval of textured images from a database is proposed, as well as a novel set of features for texture classification. These features are experimentally shown to outperform features proposed in the literature, as well as provide increased robustness to small changes in scale. Determining the script and language of a printed document is an important task in the field of document processing. In the final part of this thesis, the use of texture analysis techniques to accomplish these tasks is investigated. Using maximum a posterior (MAP) adaptation, prior information regarding the nature of script images can be used to increase the accuracy of these methods. Novel techniques for estimating the skew of such documents, normalising text block prior to extraction of texture features and accurately classifying multiple fonts are also presented.

Recent years have seen a surge in the popularity of XML, a markup language for representing semi-structured data. Some of this popularity can be attributed to the success that the semi-structured data model has had in environments where the relational data model has been insufficiently expressive. Concomitant with XMLs growing popularity, the world of database research has seen the rebirth of interest in tree-structured, hierarchical database systems. This thesis analyzes several problems that arise when constructing XML data management systems, particularly in the case where such systems must handle dynamic content. In the first chapter, we consider the problem of incremental schema validation, which arises in almost any XML database system. We build upon previous work by finding several classes of schemas for which very efficient algorithms exist. We also develop an algorithm that works for any schema, and prove that it is optimal. In the second chapter, we turn to the problem of improving query evaluation times on extremely large database systems. In particular, we boost the performance of the structural and twig joins, fundamental XML query evaluation techniques, through the use of an adaptive index. This index tunes itself to the query workload, providing a 20-80% boost in speed for these join operators. The adaptive nature of the index also allows updates to the database to be easily tracked. While accurate selectivity estimation is a critical problem in any database system due to its importance in choosing optimal query plans, there has been very little work on selectivity estimation in the presence of updates. We ask whether it is possible to design a structure for selectivity in XML databases that is updateable, and can return results with theoretically sound error guarantees. Through a combination of lower and upper bounds, we give strong evidence suggesting that this is unlikely in practice. Motivated by these results, we then develop a heuristic selectivity estimation structure for XML databases. This structure is the first such synopsis that can handle all aspects of core XPath, and is also updateable. Our experimental results demonstrate the efficacy of the approach.

Over the last decade out-of-home care in Australia has experienced a period of considerable turmoil as royal commissions, parliamentary inquiries, departmental audits, empirical research and industry reports have highlighted the dire straits of the care system. A constant theme throughout has been the failure of the sector to adequately meet the needs of children and young people in care. Within this context the purpose of this study was to examine the needs of children and young people in care in Australia, giving voice to the full range of stakeholders, whose views were expressed in multiple documentary types. Specifically, the aim was to develop an in-depth understanding of their needs and formulate this into a formal taxonomy of needs. Using document analysis and the constant comparative method within the constructivist paradigm of social inquiry, the study involved analysis of 580 non-traditional, naturalistic and secondary documents relating to out-of-home care in Australia. The document sample consisted of five data types: primary data (letters, submissions to inquiries, transcripts of interviews and public hearings, and personal accounts); secondary data (reports resulting from commissions of inquiries and departmental reviews, audits and investigations); empirical data (the published findings from empirical research); legislative and policy data (legislation, regulation and quality frameworks); and industry and practitioner data (reports by academics, peak bodies and advocacy groups, and writings by out-of-home care practitioners). Further, the document sample included stakeholders from five major groups: children and young people in care (and former wards ); their parents and extended family; carers, agency staff and practitioners; statutory workers; and academics, advocates, and representatives of state and national peak bodies. The findings include a series of prominent themes of care; salient findings that highlight the experiences and needs of children and young people in care; and the taxonomy of needs. The prominent themes include the importance of natural family connectedness, cultural identity and connectedness, and counselling and therapeutic support. Issues relating to placement stability and disruption, safety and protection and, transition from care also featured prominently. The salient findings include an exploration of the overwhelming emotions of care, emotional putdowns, vicarious trauma and the witnessing of violence and abuse in out-of-home care, characteristics of children and young people who survive and thrive in care and beyond, characteristics of quality carers, symptom intolerance, disenfranchised grief – the never-ending story, and the defensive behaviours of children and young people in care. The taxonomy of needs provides a comprehensive overview of the needs of children and young people in care across 89 attributes and 21 attribute sub-categories, within 21 dimensions, and across three domains (the personal, placement, and community-of-care domains). The dimensions in the personal domain include attachment, physical development and health, personal growth, education and vocational attainment, development of the inner-self, and hope in life and for the future. The placement domain includes basic needs, basic entitlements, caring relationships, positive-parenting-practices, activity programming, focused-support, peer-relations and positive group management, and preparation for and transition from care. The community-of-care domain includes clinical intervention, family connectedness and involvement in placement, friends and social outlets, significant others, cultural-religious-spiritual connectedness, departmental worker capacity and support, and after care support. The principal theoretical, practice, and methodological conclusions derived from this study are that children and young people in care in Australia have considerable needs, are largely unable to meet their own needs, and experience harm when their needs are not met. Consequently, the out-of-home care sector has an inescapable obligation to provide for these needs if children and young people in care are to avoid harm and experience personal wellbeing. Further, children and young people in care have experienced considerable need deprivation, and if their needs are not to be forgotten, then a shift to a ‘needs-based’, ‘needs-focused’ paradigm of care is needed to inform out-of-home care policy, service design, and day-to-day practice. And finally, document analysis using non-traditional, naturalistic, and secondary data (representing the full range of stakeholder perspectives) within a constructivist paradigm of inquiry, provides an effective, indeed powerful methodology for exploring the needs of children and young people in care, and for giving voice to the many stakeholders who voices may never have been heard again.

Over the last decade out-of-home care in Australia has experienced a period of considerable turmoil as royal commissions, parliamentary inquiries, departmental audits, empirical research and industry reports have highlighted the dire straits of the care system. A constant theme throughout has been the failure of the sector to adequately meet the needs of children and young people in care. Within this context the purpose of this study was to examine the needs of children and young people in care in Australia, giving voice to the full range of stakeholders, whose views were expressed in multiple documentary types. Specifically, the aim was to develop an in-depth understanding of their needs and formulate this into a formal taxonomy of needs. Using document analysis and the constant comparative method within the constructivist paradigm of social inquiry, the study involved analysis of 580 non-traditional, naturalistic and secondary documents relating to out-of-home care in Australia. The document sample consisted of five data types: primary data (letters, submissions to inquiries, transcripts of interviews and public hearings, and personal accounts); secondary data (reports resulting from commissions of inquiries and departmental reviews, audits and investigations); empirical data (the published findings from empirical research); legislative and policy data (legislation, regulation and quality frameworks); and industry and practitioner data (reports by academics, peak bodies and advocacy groups, and writings by out-of-home care practitioners). Further, the document sample included stakeholders from five major groups: children and young people in care (and former wards ); their parents and extended family; carers, agency staff and practitioners; statutory workers; and academics, advocates, and representatives of state and national peak bodies. The findings include a series of prominent themes of care; salient findings that highlight the experiences and needs of children and young people in care; and the taxonomy of needs. The prominent themes include the importance of natural family connectedness, cultural identity and connectedness, and counselling and therapeutic support. Issues relating to placement stability and disruption, safety and protection and, transition from care also featured prominently. The salient findings include an exploration of the overwhelming emotions of care, emotional putdowns, vicarious trauma and the witnessing of violence and abuse in out-of-home care, characteristics of children and young people who survive and thrive in care and beyond, characteristics of quality carers, symptom intolerance, disenfranchised grief – the never-ending story, and the defensive behaviours of children and young people in care. The taxonomy of needs provides a comprehensive overview of the needs of children and young people in care across 89 attributes and 21 attribute sub-categories, within 21 dimensions, and across three domains (the personal, placement, and community-of-care domains). The dimensions in the personal domain include attachment, physical development and health, personal growth, education and vocational attainment, development of the inner-self, and hope in life and for the future. The placement domain includes basic needs, basic entitlements, caring relationships, positive-parenting-practices, activity programming, focused-support, peer-relations and positive group management, and preparation for and transition from care. The community-of-care domain includes clinical intervention, family connectedness and involvement in placement, friends and social outlets, significant others, cultural-religious-spiritual connectedness, departmental worker capacity and support, and after care support. The principal theoretical, practice, and methodological conclusions derived from this study are that children and young people in care in Australia have considerable needs, are largely unable to meet their own needs, and experience harm when their needs are not met. Consequently, the out-of-home care sector has an inescapable obligation to provide for these needs if children and young people in care are to avoid harm and experience personal wellbeing. Further, children and young people in care have experienced considerable need deprivation, and if their needs are not to be forgotten, then a shift to a ‘needs-based’, ‘needs-focused’ paradigm of care is needed to inform out-of-home care policy, service design, and day-to-day practice. And finally, document analysis using non-traditional, naturalistic, and secondary data (representing the full range of stakeholder perspectives) within a constructivist paradigm of inquiry, provides an effective, indeed powerful methodology for exploring the needs of children and young people in care, and for giving voice to the many stakeholders who voices may never have been heard again.

Over the last decade out-of-home care in Australia has experienced a period of considerable turmoil as royal commissions, parliamentary inquiries, departmental audits, empirical research and industry reports have highlighted the dire straits of the care system. A constant theme throughout has been the failure of the sector to adequately meet the needs of children and young people in care. Within this context the purpose of this study was to examine the needs of children and young people in care in Australia, giving voice to the full range of stakeholders, whose views were expressed in multiple documentary types. Specifically, the aim was to develop an in-depth understanding of their needs and formulate this into a formal taxonomy of needs. Using document analysis and the constant comparative method within the constructivist paradigm of social inquiry, the study involved analysis of 580 non-traditional, naturalistic and secondary documents relating to out-of-home care in Australia. The document sample consisted of five data types: primary data (letters, submissions to inquiries, transcripts of interviews and public hearings, and personal accounts); secondary data (reports resulting from commissions of inquiries and departmental reviews, audits and investigations); empirical data (the published findings from empirical research); legislative and policy data (legislation, regulation and quality frameworks); and industry and practitioner data (reports by academics, peak bodies and advocacy groups, and writings by out-of-home care practitioners). Further, the document sample included stakeholders from five major groups: children and young people in care (and former wards ); their parents and extended family; carers, agency staff and practitioners; statutory workers; and academics, advocates, and representatives of state and national peak bodies. The findings include a series of prominent themes of care; salient findings that highlight the experiences and needs of children and young people in care; and the taxonomy of needs. The prominent themes include the importance of natural family connectedness, cultural identity and connectedness, and counselling and therapeutic support. Issues relating to placement stability and disruption, safety and protection and, transition from care also featured prominently. The salient findings include an exploration of the overwhelming emotions of care, emotional putdowns, vicarious trauma and the witnessing of violence and abuse in out-of-home care, characteristics of children and young people who survive and thrive in care and beyond, characteristics of quality carers, symptom intolerance, disenfranchised grief – the never-ending story, and the defensive behaviours of children and young people in care. The taxonomy of needs provides a comprehensive overview of the needs of children and young people in care across 89 attributes and 21 attribute sub-categories, within 21 dimensions, and across three domains (the personal, placement, and community-of-care domains). The dimensions in the personal domain include attachment, physical development and health, personal growth, education and vocational attainment, development of the inner-self, and hope in life and for the future. The placement domain includes basic needs, basic entitlements, caring relationships, positive-parenting-practices, activity programming, focused-support, peer-relations and positive group management, and preparation for and transition from care. The community-of-care domain includes clinical intervention, family connectedness and involvement in placement, friends and social outlets, significant others, cultural-religious-spiritual connectedness, departmental worker capacity and support, and after care support. The principal theoretical, practice, and methodological conclusions derived from this study are that children and young people in care in Australia have considerable needs, are largely unable to meet their own needs, and experience harm when their needs are not met. Consequently, the out-of-home care sector has an inescapable obligation to provide for these needs if children and young people in care are to avoid harm and experience personal wellbeing. Further, children and young people in care have experienced considerable need deprivation, and if their needs are not to be forgotten, then a shift to a ‘needs-based’, ‘needs-focused’ paradigm of care is needed to inform out-of-home care policy, service design, and day-to-day practice. And finally, document analysis using non-traditional, naturalistic, and secondary data (representing the full range of stakeholder perspectives) within a constructivist paradigm of inquiry, provides an effective, indeed powerful methodology for exploring the needs of children and young people in care, and for giving voice to the many stakeholders who voices may never have been heard again.

Over the last decade out-of-home care in Australia has experienced a period of considerable turmoil as royal commissions, parliamentary inquiries, departmental audits, empirical research and industry reports have highlighted the dire straits of the care system. A constant theme throughout has been the failure of the sector to adequately meet the needs of children and young people in care. Within this context the purpose of this study was to examine the needs of children and young people in care in Australia, giving voice to the full range of stakeholders, whose views were expressed in multiple documentary types. Specifically, the aim was to develop an in-depth understanding of their needs and formulate this into a formal taxonomy of needs. Using document analysis and the constant comparative method within the constructivist paradigm of social inquiry, the study involved analysis of 580 non-traditional, naturalistic and secondary documents relating to out-of-home care in Australia. The document sample consisted of five data types: primary data (letters, submissions to inquiries, transcripts of interviews and public hearings, and personal accounts); secondary data (reports resulting from commissions of inquiries and departmental reviews, audits and investigations); empirical data (the published findings from empirical research); legislative and policy data (legislation, regulation and quality frameworks); and industry and practitioner data (reports by academics, peak bodies and advocacy groups, and writings by out-of-home care practitioners). Further, the document sample included stakeholders from five major groups: children and young people in care (and former wards ); their parents and extended family; carers, agency staff and practitioners; statutory workers; and academics, advocates, and representatives of state and national peak bodies. The findings include a series of prominent themes of care; salient findings that highlight the experiences and needs of children and young people in care; and the taxonomy of needs. The prominent themes include the importance of natural family connectedness, cultural identity and connectedness, and counselling and therapeutic support. Issues relating to placement stability and disruption, safety and protection and, transition from care also featured prominently. The salient findings include an exploration of the overwhelming emotions of care, emotional putdowns, vicarious trauma and the witnessing of violence and abuse in out-of-home care, characteristics of children and young people who survive and thrive in care and beyond, characteristics of quality carers, symptom intolerance, disenfranchised grief – the never-ending story, and the defensive behaviours of children and young people in care. The taxonomy of needs provides a comprehensive overview of the needs of children and young people in care across 89 attributes and 21 attribute sub-categories, within 21 dimensions, and across three domains (the personal, placement, and community-of-care domains). The dimensions in the personal domain include attachment, physical development and health, personal growth, education and vocational attainment, development of the inner-self, and hope in life and for the future. The placement domain includes basic needs, basic entitlements, caring relationships, positive-parenting-practices, activity programming, focused-support, peer-relations and positive group management, and preparation for and transition from care. The community-of-care domain includes clinical intervention, family connectedness and involvement in placement, friends and social outlets, significant others, cultural-religious-spiritual connectedness, departmental worker capacity and support, and after care support. The principal theoretical, practice, and methodological conclusions derived from this study are that children and young people in care in Australia have considerable needs, are largely unable to meet their own needs, and experience harm when their needs are not met. Consequently, the out-of-home care sector has an inescapable obligation to provide for these needs if children and young people in care are to avoid harm and experience personal wellbeing. Further, children and young people in care have experienced considerable need deprivation, and if their needs are not to be forgotten, then a shift to a ‘needs-based’, ‘needs-focused’ paradigm of care is needed to inform out-of-home care policy, service design, and day-to-day practice. And finally, document analysis using non-traditional, naturalistic, and secondary data (representing the full range of stakeholder perspectives) within a constructivist paradigm of inquiry, provides an effective, indeed powerful methodology for exploring the needs of children and young people in care, and for giving voice to the many stakeholders who voices may never have been heard again.

Through the sculptural object, this thesis, in|form: The per formative object, explores the relationships between body and object, viewer and artist, performance and the per formative. By exploring the performativity of an object (and questioning how an object performs in relation to the body), the documented performances activate an inter-relational act between artist and object (I perform the object, the object performs me simultaneously). The work that unfolds from this investigation considers the placement of the viewer’s body in relation to the artist’s. A dialogue is formed between the three bodies: object, artist and viewer, creating a sense of embodiment within the work through this relationship. in|form explores this embodiment through the role of video documentation. The performances are constructed to be viewed solely through the documentation, which creates a discussion between the ‘live’ moment and the documented event, and how the viewer then relates to this. The performances take place as solo acts, but are constructed with the viewer in mind. As the viewer watches the documented performance of the action between artist and object in space, the relational nature of the work creates a second performance which embodies the viewer. This sole action, recorded and then viewed, considers the relational value of the body, specifically engaging with the abstraction of bodily formlessness within the object to reveal a bodily nature. Using the object to trace the movement of the body creates a language that communicates to, and about, both viewer and artist: through the awareness of passing time, through the large scale projection of the documentation, through the bodily nature of the object, and through the performativity of the object’s responsive nature to the artist’s body as the pair navigate through space. in|form explores how the absence of the body (in a literal sense) considers the body as an object bound by time, at once physical yet transient. By tracing the motion of the body through object, the viewer experiences the body through sensibility. Ultimately, the function of the body negotiating as a time-bound object is imitated through the performativity of the object with artist, and the elusiveness of this action emphasized by its documentation.