The intermontane Ipswich Basin, which is situated 30km south-west of Brisbane, contains coal measures formed in the Late Triassic Epoch following a barren non-depositional period. Coal, tuff, and basalt were deposited along with fluvial dominated sediments. The Ipswich Coal Measures mark the resumption of deposition in eastern Australia after the coal hiatus associated with a series of intense tectonic activity in Gondwanaland during the Permo-Triassic interval. A transtensional tectonic movement at the end of the Middle Triassic deformed the Toogalawah Group before extension led to the formation of the Carnian Ipswich Coal Measures in the east. The Ipswich Coal Measures comprise the Brassall and Kholo Subgroups. The Blackstone Formation, which forms the upper unit of the Brassall Subgroup, contains seven major coal seams. The lower unit of the Brassall Subgroup, the Tivoli Formation, consists of sixteen stratigraphically significant coal seams. The typical thickness of the Blackstone Formation is 240m and the Tivoli Formation is about 500m. The coal seams of the Ipswich Basin differ considerably from those of other continental Triassic basins. However, the coal geology has previously attracted little academic attention and the remaining exposures of the Ipswich coalfield are rapidly disappearing now that mining has ceased. The primary aim of this project was to study the patterns of coal sedimentation and the response of coal seam characteristics to changing depositional environments. The coal accumulated as a peat-mire in an alluvial plain with meandering channel systems. Two types of peat-mire expansion occurred in the basin. Peat-mire aggradation, which is a replacement of water body by the peatmire, was initiated by tectonic subsidence. This type of peat-mire expansion is known as terrestrialisation. It formed thick but laterally limited coal seams in the basin. Whereas, peat-mire progradation was related to paludification and produced widespread coal accumulation in the basin. The coal seams were separated into three main groups based on the mean seam thickness and aerial distribution of one-meter and four-meter thickness contour intervals. Group 1 seams within the one-meter thickness interval are up to 15,000m2 in area, and seams within the four-meter interval have an aerial extent of up to 10,000m2. Group 1A contains the oldest seam with numerous intraseam clastic bands and shows a very high thickness to area ratio, which indicates high subsidence rates. Group 1B seams have moderately high thickness to area ratios. The lower clastic influx and slower subsidence rates favoured peat-mire aggradation. The Group 1A seam is relatively more widespread in aerial extent than seams from Group 1B. Group 1C seams have low mean thicknesses and small areas, suggesting short-lived peat-mires as a result of high clastic influx. Group 2 seams arebetween 15,000 and 35,000m2 in area within the one-meter interval, and between 5,000 and 10,000m2 within the four-meter interval. They have moderately high area to thickness ratios, indicating that peat-mire expansion occurred due to progressively shallower accommodation and a rising groundwater table. Group 3 seams, which have aerial extents from 35,000 to 45,000m2 within the one-meter thickness contour interval and from 10,000 to 25,000m2 within the four-meter interval, show high aerial extent to thickness ratios. They were deposited in quiet depositional environments that favoured prolonged existence of peat-mires. Group 3 seams are all relatively young whereas most Group 1 seams are relatively old seams. All the major fault systems, F1, F2 and F3, trend northwest-southeast. Apart from the West Ipswich Fault (F3), the F1 and F2 systems are broad Palaeozoic basement structures and thus they may not have had a direct influence on the formation of the much younger coal measures. However, the sedimentation patterns appear to relate to these major fault systems. Depocentres of earlier seams in the Tivoli Formation were restricted to the northern part of the basin, marked by the F1 system. A major depocentre shift occurred before the end of the deposition of the Tivoli Formation as a result of subsidence in the south that conformed to the F2 system configuration. The Blackstone Formation depocentres shifted to the east (Depocentre 1) and west (Depocentre 2) simultaneously. This depocentre shift was associated with the flexural subsidence produced by the rejuvenation of the West Ipswich Fault. Coal accumulation mainly occurred in Depocentre 1. Two types of seam splitting occurred in the Ipswich Basin. Sedimentary splitting or autosedimentation was produced by frequent influx of clastic sediments. The fluvial dominant depositional environments created the random distribution of small seam splits. However, the coincidence of seam splits and depocentres found in some of the seams suggests tectonic splitting. Furthermore, the progressive splitting pattern, which displays seam splits overlapping, was associated with continued basin subsidence. The tectonic splitting pattern is more dominant in the Ipswich Basin. Alternating bright bands shown in the brightness profiles are a result of oscillating water cover in the peat-mire. Moderate groundwater level, which was maintained during the development of the peat, reduced the possibility of salinisation and drowning of the peat swamp. On the other hand, a slow continuous rise of the groundwater table, that kept pace with the vertical growth of peat, prevented excessive oxidation of peat. Ipswich coal is bright due to its high vitrinite content. The cutinite content is also high because the dominant flora was pteridosperms of Dicroidium assemblage containing waxy and thick cuticles. Petrographic study revealed that the depositional environment was telmatic with bog forest formed under ombrotrophic to mesotrophic hydrological conditions. The high preservation of woody or structured macerals such as telovitrinite and semifusinite indicates that coal is autochthonous. The high mineral matter content in coal is possibly due to the frequent influx of clastic and volcanic sediments. The Ipswich Basin is part of a much larger Triassic basin extending to Nymboida in New South Wales. Little is known of the coal as it lacks exposures. It is apparently thin to absent except in places like Ipswich and Nymboida. This study suggests that the dominant control on depocentres of thick coal at Ipswich has been the tectonism. Fluvial incursions and volcanism were superimposed on this.

Lors que nous examinons numériquement des phénomènes multiphasiques suite à un accidentgrave dans le réacteur nucléaire, la dimension caractéristique des zones multi-fluides(non-réactifs et réactifs) s’avère beaucoup plus petite que celle du bâtiment réacteur, cequi fait la Simulation Numérique Directe de la configuration à peine réalisable. Autrement,nous proposons de considérer la zone de mélange multiphasique comme une interface infinimentfine. Puis, le solveur de Riemann réactif est inséré dans la Méthode des ÉquationsDiscrètes Réactives (RDEM) pour calculer le front de combustion à grande vitesse représentépar une interface discontinue. Une approche anti-diffusive est ensuite couplée avec laRDEM afin de précisément simuler des interfaces réactives. La robustesse et l’efficacité decette approche en calculant tant des interfaces multiphasiques que des écoulements réactifssont à la fois améliorées grâce à la méthode ici proposée : upwind downwind-controlled splitting(UDCS). UDCS est capable de résoudre précisément des interfaces avec les maillagesnon-structurés multidimensionnels, y compris des fronts réactifs de détonation et de déflagration. / When numerically investigating multiphase phenomena during severe accidents in a reactorsystem, characteristic lengths of the multi-fluid zone (non-reactive and reactive) are foundto be much smaller than the volume of the reactor containment, which makes the directmodeling of the configuration hardly achievable. Alternatively, we propose to consider thephysical multiphase mixture zone as an infinitely thin interface. Then, the reactive Riemannsolver is inserted into the Reactive Discrete Equations Method (RDEM) to compute highspeed combustion waves represented by discontinuous interfaces. An anti-diffusive approachis also coupled with RDEM to accurately simulate reactive interfaces. Increased robustnessand efficiency when computing both multiphase interfaces and reacting flows are achievedthanks to an original upwind downwind-controlled splitting method (UDCS). UDCS is capableof accurately solving interfaces on multi-dimensional unstructured meshes, includingreacting fronts for both deflagration and detonation configurations.

Cette thèse porte sur le comportement en temps long de solutions d’équations de type Vlasov, principalement le modèle Vlasov-HMF. On s’intéresse en particulier au phénomène d’amortissement Landau, prouvé mathématiquement dans divers cadres, pour plusieurs équations de type Vlasov, comme l’équation de Vlasov-Poisson ou le modèle Vlasov-HMF, et présentant certaines analogies avec le phénomène d’amortissement non visqueux pour l’équation d’Euler 2D. Les résultats qui y sont décrits sont les suivants. Le premier est un théorème d’amortissement Landau pour des solutions numériques du modèle Vlasov-HMF, obtenues par discrétisation en temps de ce dernier via des méthodes de splitting. Nous prouvons en outre la convergence des schémas numériques. Le second est un théorème d’amortissment Landau pour des solutions du modéle Vlasov-HMF linéarisé autour d’états stationnaires inhomogènes. Ce théorème est accompagné de nombreuses simulations numériques destinées à étudier numériquement le cas non-linéaire, et semblant mettre en lumière de nouveaux phénomènes. Enfin, le dernier résultat porte sur la discrétisation en temps de l’équation d’Euler 2D par un intégrateur de Crouch-Grossman symplectique. Nous prouvons la convergence du schéma. / This thesis concerns the long time behavior of certain Vlasov equations, mainly the Vlasov- HMF model. We are in particular interested in the celebrated phenomenon of Landau damp- ing, proved mathematically in various frameworks, foar several Vlasov equations, such as the Vlasov-Poisson equation or the Vlasov-HMF model, and exhibiting certain analogies with the inviscid damping phenomenon for the 2D Euler equation. The results described in the document are the following.The first one is a Landau damping theorem for numerical solutions of the Vlasov-HMF model, constructed by means of time-discretizations by splitting methods. We prove more- over the convergence of the schemes. The second result is a Landau damping theorem for solutions of the Vlasov-HMF model linearized around inhomogeneous stationary states. We provide moreover a quite large amount of numerical simulations, which are designed to study numerically the nonlinear case, and which seem to show new phenomenons. The last result is the convergence of a scheme that discretizes in time the 2D Euler equation by means of a symplectic Crouch-Grossmann integrator.

Quantum cryptography is arguably the most successfully applied area of quantum information theory. In this work, We invsetigate the role of quantum indistinguishability in random number generation, quantum temporal correlations, quantum nonlocality and counterfactuality for quantum cryptography. We study quantum protocols for key distribution, and their security in the conventional setting, in the counterfactual paradigm, and finally also in the device-independent scenario as applied to prepare-and-measure schemes. We begin with the interplay of two essential non-classical features like quantum indeterminism and quantum indistinguishability via a process known as bosonic stimulation is discussed. It is observed that the process provides an efficient method for macroscopic extraction of quantum randomness. Next, we propose two counterfactual cryptographic protocols, in which a secret key bit is generated even without the physical transmission of a particle. The first protocol is semicounterfactual in the sense that only one of the key bits is generated using interaction-free measurement. This protocol departs fundamentally from the original counterfactual key distribution protocol in not encoding secret bits in terms of photon polarization. We discuss how the security in the protocol originates from quantum single-particle non-locality. The second protocol is designed for the crypto-task of certificate authorization, where a trusted third party authenticates an entity (e.g., bank) to a client. We analyze the security of both protocols under various general incoherent attack models. The next part of our work includes study of quantum temporal correlations. We consider the use of the Leggett-Garg inequalities for device-independent security appropriate for prepare-and-measure protocols subjected to the higher dimensional attack that would completely undermine standard BB84. In the last part, we introduce the novel concept of nonlocal subspaces constructed using the graph state formalism, and propose their application for quantum information splitting. In particular, we use the stabilizer formalism of graph states to construct degenerate Bell operators, whose eigenspace determines the nonlocal subspace, into which a quantum secret is encoded and shared among an authorized group of agents, or securely transmitted to a designated secret retriever. The security of our scheme arises from the monogamy of quantum correlations. The quantum violation of the Bell-type inequality here is to its algebraic maximum, making this approach inherently suitable for the device-independent scenario.

This thesis deals with mining of relevant information from documents and automatic splitting of multiple documents merged together. Moreover, it describes the design and implementation of software for data mining from documents and for automatic splitting of multiple documents. Methods for acquiring textual data from scanned documents, named entity recognition, document clustering, their supportive algorithms and metrics for automatic splitting of documents are described in this thesis. Furthermore, an algorithm of implemented software is explained and tools and techniques used by this software are described. Lastly, the success rate of the implemented software is evaluated. In conclusion, possible extensions and further development of this thesis are discussed at the end.

Le phénomène de condensation d’un gaz de bosons lorsqu’il est refroidi à zéro degrés Kelvin futdécrit par Einstein en 1925 en s’appuyant sur des travaux de Bose. Depuis lors, de nombreux physiciens,mathématiciens et numériciens se sont intéressés au condensat de Bose-Einstein et à son caractère superfluide. Nous proposons dans cette étude des méthodes numériques ainsi qu’un code informatique pour la simulation d’un condensat de Bose-Einstein en rotation. Le principal modèle mathématique décrivant ce phénomène physique est une équation de Schrödinger présentant une non-linéarité cubique,découverte en 1961 : l’équation de Gross-Pitaevskii (GP). En nous appuyant sur le logiciel FreeFem++,nous nous servons d’une discrétisation spatiale en éléments-finis pour résoudre numériquement cette équation. Une méthode d’adaptation du maillage à la solution et l’utilisation d’éléments-finis d’ordre deux nous permet de résoudre finement le problème et d’explorer des configurations complexes en deux ou trois dimensions d’espace. Pour sa version stationnaire, nous avons développé une méthode de gradient de Sobolev ou une méthode de point intérieur implémentée dans la librairie Ipopt. Pour sa version instationnaire, nous utilisons une méthode de Time-Splitting combinée à un schéma de Crank-Nicolson ou une méthode de relaxation. Afin d’étudier la stabilité dynamique et thermodynamique d’un état stationnaire, le modèle de Bogoliubov-de Gennes propose une linéarisation de l’équation de Gross-Pitaevskii autour de cet état. Nous avons élaboré une méthode permettant de résoudre ce système aux valeurs et vecteurs propres, basée sur un algorithme de Newton ainsi que sur la méthode d’Arnoldi implémentée dans la librairie Arpack. / The phenomenon of condensation of a boson gas when cooled to zero degrees Kelvin was described by Einstein in 1925 based on work by Bose. Since then, many physicists, mathematicians and digitizers have been interested in the Bose-Einstein condensate and its superfluidity. We propose in this study numerical methods as well as a computer code for the simulation of a rotating Bose-Einstein condensate.The main mathematical model describing this phenomenon is a Schrödinger equation with a cubic nonlinearity, discovered in 1961: the Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) equation. By using the software FreeFem++ and a finite elements spatial discretization we solve this equation numerically. The mesh adaptation to the solution and the use of finite elements of order two allow us to solve the problem finely and to explore complex configurations in two or three dimensions of space. For its stationary version, we have developed a Sobolev gradient method or an internal point method implemented in the Ipopt library. .For its unsteady version, we use a Time-Splitting method combined with a Crank-Nicolson scheme ora relaxation method. In order to study the dynamic and thermodynamic stability of a stationary state,the Bogoliubov-de Gennes model proposes a linearization of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation around this state. We have developed a method to solve this eigenvalues and eigenvector system, based on a Newton algorithm as well as the Arnoldi method implemented in the Arpack library.

Die Anwenung von Operator-Splitting-Methoden auf gewöhnliche Differentialgleichungen ist gut etabliert. Für Differential-algebraische Gleichungen und partielle Differential-algebraische Gleichungen unterliegt sie jedoch vielen Einschränkungen aufgrund des Vorhandenseins von Nebenbedingungen. Die räumliche Diskretisierung reduziert PDAEs und lenkt unseren Fokus auf das Konzept der DAEs. Um eine reibungslose Übertragung des Operator-Splittings von ODEs auf DAEs durchzuführen, ist es wichtig, eine geeignete entkoppelte Struktur für das gewünschte Differential-algebraische System zu haben. In dieser Arbeit betrachten wir ein Modell, das partielle Differentialgleichungen für elektromagnetische Bauelemente - modelliert durch die Maxwell-Gleichungen - mit Differential-algebraischen Gleichungen koppelt, die die elementaren Schaltungselemente beschreiben. Nach der räumlichen Diskretisierung der klassischen Formulierung der Maxwell-Gleichungen mit Hilfe der finiten Integrationstechnik formulieren wir das resultierende gekoppelte System als Differential-algebraische Gleichung. Um eine geeignete Entkopplung zu bekommen, verwenden wir den zweigorientierten Loop-Cutset-Ansatz für die Schaltungsmodellierung. Daraus folgt, dass wir in der Lage sind, eine geeignete Operatorzerlegung so zu konstruieren, dass wir eine natürliche topologisch entkoppelte Port-Hamiltonsche DAE-Struktur erhalten. Wir schlagen einen Operator-Splitting-Ansatz für die Schaltungs-DAEs und gekoppelten Feld-Schaltungs-DAEs in entkoppelter Form vor und analysieren seine numerischen Eigenschaften. Darüber hinaus nutzen wir das Hamiltonsche Verhalten der inhärenten gewöhnlichen Differentialgleichung durch die Verwendung expliziter und energieerhaltender Zeitintegrations-methoden. Schließlich führen wir numerische Tests, um das mathematische Modell zu illustrieren und die Konvergenzergebnisse für das vorgeschlagene DAE-Operator-Splitting zu demonstrieren. / Le equazioni algebriche differenziali e algebriche alle derivate parziali hanno avuto un enorme successo come modelli di sistemi dinamici vincolati. Nella modellazione matem- atica, spesso si desidera catturare diversi aspetti di una situazione come le leggi di conservazione della fisica, il trasporto convettivo o la diffusione. Queste aspetti si riflettono nel sistema di equazioni del modello come operatori diversi. La tecnica dell’Operator Splitting si è rivelata una strategia di successo per affrontare problemi così complicati. L’applicazione dei metodi di Operator Splitting alle equazioni differenziali ordinarie (ODE) è ormai una tecnologia ben consolidata. Tuttavia, per equazioni algebriche differenziali (DAE) e algebriche differenziali parziali (PDAE), l’approccio è soggetto a molte restrizioni dovute alla presenza di vincoli e alla proprietà di indice. La discretizzazione spaziale riduce le PDAE e indirizza la nostra attenzione al concetto di DAE. Le DAE emergono in problemi dinamici vincolati come circuiti elettrici o reti di trasporto di energia. Al fine di generalizzare agevolmente la tecnica dell’Operator Splitting dalle ODE alle DAE, è importante avere una struttura disaccoppiata adeguata per il sistema algebrico differenziale desiderato. In questa tesi, consideriamo un modello che accoppia equazioni differenziali alle derivate parziali per dispositivi elettromagnetici -modellati dalle equazioni di Maxwell- con equazioni algebriche differenziali che descrivono gli elementi base del circuito. Dopo aver discretizzato spazialmente la formulazione classica delle equazioni di Maxwell usando la tecnica di integrazione finita, formuliamo il sistema accoppiato risultante come una equazione algebrica differenziale. Interpretando il dispositivo elettromagnetico come un elemento capacitivo, l’indice dell’intero sistema di circuito e campo accoppiato può essere specificato utilizzando le proprietà topologiche del circuito e non supera il valore di due. Per eseguire un disaccoppiamento appropriato, utilizziamo l’approccio loop-cutset per la modellazione dei circuiti. In tal modo siamo in grado di costruire una opportuna decomposizione dell’operatore tale da ottenere una naturale struttura disaccoppiata port-Hamiltonian DAE. Proponiamo un approccio di suddivisione dell’operatore per i DAE a circuito disaccoppiato e a circuito di campo accoppiato utilizzando gli algoritmi di divisione Lie-Trotter e Strang e per analizzare le proprietà numeriche di questi sistemi. Inoltre, sfruttiamo il comportamento hamiltoniano del sistema di equazioni differenziali ordinarie mediante l’utilizzo di metodi di integrazione temporale con esatta conservazione dell’energia. Poggiando sull’analisi di convergenza del metodo di suddivisione dell’operatore ODE, deriviamo i risultati di convergenza per l’approccio proposto che dipendono dall’indice delsistema e quindi dalla sua struttura topologica. Infine, eseguiamo prove numeriche di sistemi circuitali, nonchè sistemi accoppiati a circuito di campo, per testare il modello matematico e dimostrare i risultati di convergenza per la proposta Operator Splitting DAE. / The application of operator splitting methods to ordinary differential equations (ODEs) is well established. However, for differential-algebraic equations (DAEs) and partial differential-algebraic equations (PDAEs), it is subjected to many restrictions due to the presence of constraints. In constrained dynamical problems as electrical circuits or energy transport networks, DAEs arise. In order to perform a smooth transfer of the operator splitting from ODEs to DAEs, it is important to have a suitable decoupled structure for the desired differential-algebraic system. In this thesis, we consider a model which couples partial differential equations for electro- magnetic devices -modeled by Maxwell’s equations- with differential-algebraic equations describing the basic circuit elements. After spatially discretizing the classical formulation of Maxwell’s equations using the finite integration technique, we formulate the resulting coupled system as a differential-algebraic equation. To perform an appropriate decoupling, we use the branch oriented loop-cutset approach for circuit modeling. It follows that we are able to construct a suitable operator decomposition such that we obtain a natural topologically decoupled port-Hamiltonian DAE structure. We propose an operator splitting approach for the decoupled circuit and coupled field- circuit DAEs using the Lie-Trotter and Strang splitting algorithms and analyze its numerical properties. Furthermore, we exploit the Hamiltonian behavior of the system’s inherent ordinary differential equation by the utilization of explicit and energy-preserving time integration methods. Based on the convergence analysis of the ODE operator splitting method, we derive convergence results for the proposed approach that depends on the index of the system and thus on its topological structure. Finally, we perform numerical tests, to underline the mathematical model and to demonstrate the convergence results for the proposed DAE operator splitting.

The heart is one the most important organs in the human body and many other live creatures. The electrical activity in the heart controls the heart function, and many heart diseases are linked to the abnormalities in the electrical activity in the heart. Mathematical equations and computer simulation can be used to model the electrical activity in the heart. The heart models are challenging to solve because of the complexity of the models and the huge size of the problems. Several cell models have been proposed to model the electrical activity in a single heart cell. These models must be coupled with a heart model to model the electrical activity in the entire heart. The bidomain model is a popular model to simulate the propagation of electricity in myocardial tissue. It is a continuum-based model consisting of non-linear ordinary differential equations (ODEs) describing the electrical activity at the cellular scale and a system of partial differential equations (PDEs) describing propagation of electricity at the tissue scale. Because of this multi-scale, ODE/PDE structure of the model, splitting methods that treat the ODEs and PDEs in separate steps are natural candidates as numerical methods. First, we need to solve the problem at the cellular scale using ODE solvers. One of the most popular methods to solve the ODEs is known as the Rush-Larsen (RL) method. Its popularity stems from its improved stability over integrators such as the forward Euler (FE) method along with its easy implementation. The RL method partitions the ODEs into two sets: one for the gating variables, which are treated by an exponential integrator, and another for the remaining equations, which are treated by the FE method. The success of the RL method can be understood in terms of its relatively good stability when treating the gating variables. However, this feature would not be expected to be of benefit on cell models for which the stiffness is not captured by the gating equations. We demonstrate that this is indeed the case on a number of stiff cell models. We further propose a new partitioned method based on the combination of a first-order generalization of the RL method with the FE method. This new method leads to simulations of stiff cell models that are often one or two orders of magnitude faster than the original RL method. After solving the ODEs, we need to use bidomain solvers to solve the bidomain model. Two well-known, first-order time-integration methods for solving the bidomain model are the semi-implicit method and the Godunov operator-splitting method. Both methods decouple the numerical procedure at the cellular scale from that at the tissue scale but in slightly different ways. The methods are analyzed in terms of their accuracy, and their relative performance is compared on one-, two-, and three-dimensional test cases. As suggested by the analysis, the test cases show that the Godunov method is significantly faster than the semi-implicit method for the same level of accuracy, specifically, between 5 and 15 times in the cases presented. Second-order bidomain solvers can generally be expected to be more effective than first-order bidomain solvers under normal accuracy requirements. However, the simplest and the most commonly applied second-order method for the PDE step, the Crank-Nicolson (CN) method, may generate unphysical oscillations. We investigate the performance of a two-stage, L-stable singly diagonally implicit Runge-Kutta method for solving the PDEs of the bidomain model and present a stability analysis. Numerical experiments show that the enhanced stability property of this method leads to more physically realistic numerical simulations compared to both the CN and Backward Euler (BE) methods.

Many real life problems can be formulated as constraint satisfaction problems <i>(CSPs)</i>. Backtracking search algorithms are usually employed to solve <i>CSPs</i> and in backtracking search the choice of branching strategies can be critical since they specify how a search algorithm can instantiate a variable and how a problem can be reduced into subproblems; that is, they define a search tree. In spite of the apparent importance of the branching strategy, there have been only a few empirical studies about different branching strategies and they all have been tested exclusively for numerical constraints. In this thesis, we employ the three most commonly used branching strategies in solving finite domain <i>CSPs</i>. These branching strategies are described as follows: first, a branching strategy with strong commitment assigns its variables in the early stage of the search as in k-Way branching; second, 2-Way branching guides a search by branching one side with assigning a variable and the other with eliminating the assigned value; third, the domain splitting strategy, based on the least commitment principle, branches by dividing a variable's domain rather than by assigning a single value to a variable. In our experiments, we compared the efficiency of different branching strategies in terms of their execution times and the number of choice points in solving finite domain <i>CSPs</i>. Interestingly, our experiments provide evidence that the choice of branching strategy for finite domain problems does not matter much in most cases--provided we are using an effective variable ordering heuristic--as domain splitting and 2-Way branching end up simulating k-Way branching. However, for an optimization problem with large domain size, the branching strategy with the least commitment principle can be more efficient than the other strategies. This empirical study will hopefully interest other practitioners to take different branching schemes into consideration in designing heuristics.

We introduce a simple tree growth process that gives rise to a new two-parameter family of discrete fragmentation trees that extends Ford's alpha model to multifurcating trees and includes the trees obtained by uniform sampling from Duquesne and Le Gall's stable continuum random tree. We call these new trees the alpha-gamma trees. In this thesis, we obtain their splitting rules, dislocation measures both in ranked order and in sized-biased order, and we study their limiting behaviour. We further extend the underlying exchangeable fragmentation processes of such trees into partly exchangeable fragmentation processes by weakening the exchangeability. We obtain the integral representations for the measures associated with partly exchangeable fragmentation processes and subordinator of the tagged fragments. We also embed the trees associated with such processes into continuum random trees and study their limiting behaviour. In the end, we generate a three-parameter family of partly exchangeable trees which contains the family of the alpha-gamma trees and another important two-parameter family based on Poisson-Dirichlet distributions.