Languages occasionally have syntactic constructions that are difficult, if not impossible, to describe using a context-free grammar. One such construction is a crossing dependency. Crossing dependencies have been well studied for Dutch and Swiss German (Huybregts, 1976; Shieber, 1985), and recently for Tagalog (Maclachlan and Rambow, 2003). In this paper I propose that Persian exhibits crossing dependencies. In this SOV language, a light verb construction in the future tense becomes interrupted by a future auxiliary verb, which agrees with its subject in person and number. The future auxiliary also splits passive constructions in a similar manner. These forms present interesting challenges for computational models of language. I will discuss implications of this phenomenon within current formal and linguistic theories.

Studies of seismic and impact loading on foundation piles is an important and a focused interest in the engineering world today. Because of seismic and other natural events are unpredictable, uncontrollable and potentially unsafe it is a vital study to understand the behavior and relationship structures in motion have on there foundation. Statnamic Loading has become a popular method of studying this relationship in a controlled environment. Two groups of 9 and 15 driven hollow pipe piles were tested in saturated clay at the Salt Lake City Airport in July of 2002. The 9-pile group (3x3 configuration) was separated at 5.65 pile diameters and the 15-pile group (3x5 configuration) was separated at 3.92 pile diameters. The testing consisted of five target deflections. Each target deflection consisted of 15 cyclic lateral static loadings and a 16th lateral statnamic load. This study focuses on the statnamic loading. Damping ratios ranged from 23 to 50 percent for the 15-pile group and 29 to 49 percent for the 9-pile group. Both pile groups increased in damping as the deflections increased. The optimized mass in motion for the entire system was found to be roughly 21,000kg for the 15-pile group and 14,000 kg for the 9-pile group. Stiffness for the 15-pile group started at 50kN/mm and ended at 21kN/mm. The 9-pile group ranged from 28kN/mm to 12kN/mm.

The design, analysis, construction and flight testing of a miniature Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) tail-sitter Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) prototype is presented in detail. Classic aircraft design methods were combined with numerical analysis to estimate the aircraft performance and flight characteristics. The numerical analysis employed a propeller blade-element theory coupled with momentum equations to predict the influence of a propeller slipstream on the freestream flow field, then the aircraft was analyzed using 3-D vortex lifting-line theory to model finite wings immersed in the flow field. Four prototypes were designed, built, and tested and the evolution of these prototypes is presented. The final prototype design is discussed in detail. A method for sizing control surfaces for a tail-sitter was defined. The final prototype successfully demonstrated controllability both in horizontal flight and vertical flight. Significant contributions included the development of a control system that was effective in hover as well as descending vertical flight, and the development of a strong but light weight airframe. The aircraft had a payload weight fraction of 14.5% and a maximum dimension of one meter, making it the smallest tail-sitter UAV to carry a useful payload. This project is expected to provide a knowledge base for the future design of small electric VTOL tail-sitter aircraft and to provide an airframe for future use in tail-sitter research.

Quad-rotor micro-UAVs have become an important tool in the field of indoor UAV research. Indoor flight poses problems not experienced in outdoor applications. The ability to be location- and movement-aware is paramount because of the close proximity of obstacles (walls, doorways, desks). The Helio-copter, an indoor quad-rotor platform that utilizes a compact FPGA board called Helios has been developed in the Robotic Vision Lab at Brigham Young University. Helios allows researchers to perform on-board vision processing and feature tracking without the aid of a ground station or wireless transmission. Using this on-board feature tracking system a drift stabilization control system has been developed that allows indoor flight of the Helio-copter without tethers. The Helio-copter uses an IMU to maintain level attitude while processing camera images on the FPGA. The FPGA then computes translation, scale, and rotation deviations from camera image feedback. An on-board system has been developed to control yaw, altitude and drift based solely on the vision sensors. Preliminary testing shows the Helio-copter capable of maintaining level, stable flight within a 6 foot by 6 foot area for over 40 seconds without human intervention using basic PID loop structures with minor tuning. The integration of the vision system into the control structures is explained.

The viability of small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as a stable platform for specific application use has been significantly advanced in recent years. Initial focus of lightweight UAV development was to create a craft capable of stable and controllable flight. This is largely a solved problem. Currently, the field has progressed to the point that unmanned aircraft can be carried in a backpack, launched by hand, weigh only a few pounds and be capable of navigating through unrestricted airspace. The most basic use of a UAV is to visually observe the environment and use that information to influence decision making. Previous attempts at using visual information to control a small UAV used an off-board approach where the video stream from an onboard camera was transmitted down to a ground station for processing and decision making. These attempts achieved limited results as the two-way transmission time introduced unacceptable amounts of latency into time-sensitive control algorithms. Onboard image processing offers a low-latency solution that will avoid the negative effects of two-way communication to a ground station. The first part of this thesis will show that onboard visual processing is capable of meeting the real-time control demands of an autonomous vehicle, which will also include the evaluation of potential onboard computing platforms. FPGA-based image processing will be shown to be the ideal technology for lightweight unmanned aircraft. The second part of this thesis will focus on the exact onboard vision system implementation for two proof-of-concept applications. The first application describes the use of machine vision algorithms to locate and track a target landing site for a UAV. GPS guidance was insufficient for this task. A vision system was utilized to localize the target site during approach and provide course correction updates to the UAV. The second application describes a feature detection and tracking sub-system that can be used in higher level application algorithms.

This project looks at the development and use of a new delivery system for broadcast television news and its relation to the Uses and Gratifications and Push/Pull Theories. An in-home study of interactive news was conducted for two weeks, allowing people access to three local and 5 national newscasts via one interactive newscast. Users were able to access the interactive newscast whenever and however they wanted via their television or computer, as long as they had an internet connection. The results of this study show how the system was used,what specific actions were taken, and where the potential lies for further research.

This research proposes an architecture for a cloud-based, multi-user FEA pre-processing system, where multiple engineers can access and operate on the same model in a parallel environment. A prototype is discussed and tested, the results of which show that a multi-user preprocessor, where all computing is done on a central server that is hosted on a high performance system, provides significant benefits to the analysis team. These benefits include a shortened preprocessing time, and potentially higher-quality models.

In this research a variable-stiffness compliant mechanism was developed to generate variable force-displacement profiles at the mechanisms coupler point. The mechanism is based on a compliant Roberts straight-line mechanism, and the stiffness is varied by changing the effective length of the compliant links with an actuated slider. The variable-stiffness mechanism was used in a one-degree-of-freedom haptic interface to demonstrate the effectiveness of varying the stiffness of a compliant mechanism. Unlike traditional haptic interfaces, in which the force is controlled using motors and rigid links, the haptic interface developed in this work displays haptic stiffness via the variable-stiffness compliant mechanism. The force-deflection behavior of the mechanismwas analyzed using the Pseudo-Rigid Body Model (PRBM), and two key parameters, KQ and g,were optimized using finite element analysis (FEA) to match the model with the behavior of the device. One of the key features of the mechanism is that the inherent return-to-zero behavior of the compliant mechanism was used to provide the stiffness feedback felt by the user. A prototype haptic interface was developed capable of simulating the force-displacement profile of Lachmans Test performed on an injured ACL knee. The compliant haptic interface was capable of displaying stiffnesses between 4200 N/m and 7200 N/m.

This study attempted to find if there were a significant difference in the academic achievement in B.Y.U. religion courses between L.D.S. seminary graduates and students who had not attended L.D.S. seminaries.

The growth of direct broadcast satellite television distribution to the home as a viable competitor to cable and terrestrial broadcast has fostered the availability of special interest or niche channels and therefore provided greater choice to the viewer. This study, based on uses and gratifications theory, examined the relationships among ritual and instrumental viewing motivations and satisfactions, viewer religiosity, and viewing attentiveness as they related to the selection of a niche television channel, Brigham Young University Television. The uses and gratification approach provides an appropriate framework for studying "media consumption, the interrelated nature of television user motives, and the relationships among viewing motives and viewing patterns" (Abelman, 1989, p. 57). Data was gathered by way of an online survey of non-random, self-selected BYU Television viewers. Participants answered 67 questions about their motives for choosing to view BYU Television and the gratifications they received from their viewing. The 596 valid responses to the survey were analyzed. The study results are in harmony with previous uses and gratifications studies examining ritual and instrumental viewing patterns. The data found positive relationships between instrumental viewing motives and instrumental viewing satisfactions, as well as instrumental viewing motives and viewing selectivity. There was no support for those hypotheses that dealt with the level of viewing attention as it related to religiosity or instrumental viewing motives. Future topics of study are suggested including the opportunity an expanded media universe provides to increase the depth and breadth of uses and gratification theory, as well as to study the role of niche television services in community building.