Peoples daily lives and experiences often contain memories and information that they may want to recall again at a later time. Human memory, however, has its limitations and many times it alone may not be sufficient. People sometimes have difficulty recalling salient information and can forget important details over time. To complement what they can remember naturally, people must expend much time and manual effort to record desired content from their lives for future retrieval. Unfortunately, manual methods for capturing information are far from ideal. Over the years, ubiquitous computing researchers have constructed devices and applications to support the automated capture of live experiences and access to those records. At Georgia Tech, we have also investigated the benefits of automated capture and access in over half a dozen projects since 1995. As we encountered challenges in developing these systems, we began to understand how the difficulty of building capture and access systems can prevent exploration of the hard issues intertwined with understanding how capture impacts our everyday lives. These challenges illustrate the need for support structures in building this class of ubiquitous computing systems. This dissertation presents a set of abstractions for a conceptual framework and a focused design process that encourages designers to decompose the design of capture and access applications into a set of concerns that will be easier to develop and to manage. In addition, an implementation of the framework called the INCA Toolkit is discussed, along with a number of capture and access applications that have been built with it. These applications illustrate how the toolkit is used in practice and supports explorations of the capture and access design space.

This study examines the non-linear cointegrated relationship between capture production and the El Nino/La Nina index using the quantile technique proposed by Xiao (2009). According to the annual sample data of 6 Major Fishing Areas in the Pacific Ocean from 1950 to 2008, our empirical findings provide strong evidence that the cointegrating coefficients follow a time-varying process. They also imply that most of these long-run relationships are influenced by potential shocks over time rather than from maintaining a constant effect consistently. Overall, the contributions of this study not only stresses the importance of the quantile property in cointegrated models, but also provides a viewpoint on the long-run approach that the overall El Nino and La Nina act as engines for capture production.

In 2003, the U.S. Department of Energy created regional joint governmentindustry partnerships as part of a larger incentive to develop carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technologies to address the issue of climate change. As part of their missions, DOE and their partners are responsible for creating and distributing public outreach and education materials discussing climate change and CCS technologies. In this dissertation, I sought to evaluate processes for communicating CCS to the public by examining different pathways including direct communication through DOE and regional partnership websites (Chapter I), news media from states with energy projects proposed or underway (Chapter II), and alternative strategies for communication such as an online educational game for youth (Chapter IV). My study also included focus groups in communities where CCS technologies have been piloted to determine public knowledge and acceptance of CCS (Chapter III). In Chapter I, a critique of DOE and partnership websites, I found authority to be a dominant theme throughout DOE and partnership website content, often incorporating technical jargon beyond laymen understanding and, in many cases, targeting industry audiences over the intended public. In Chapter II, I analyzed newspaper articles from the states of Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana and Texas using Luhmann’s social theory and the SPEED framework to determine how CCS has been framed by the media. Findings indicated that political, legal, economic and technical frames dominated, with emphasis on benefits, rather than risks of adoption. I also found that CCS reporting increased dramatically as pilot projects started to come on line. In my study of community acceptance of CCS in the American Southwest, Chapter III, I found that participants focused their conversations on industry and government knowledge, risks and unknowns of CCS and processes for decision-making. These topics also provided an impetus for caution. Skepticism and distrust of government entities and corporations influenced participant willingness to accept storage risks to mitigate for CO2 emissions. After open discussion of pros and cons associated with the technology, however, participants were more willing to consider CCS as an option, indicating a need to talk through the issue and to come to their own conclusions. Finally, in focus groups used to evaluate of an online game titled The Adventures of Carbon Bond, I found that it was difficult for participants to discuss environmental issues with students that are viewed as contentious (i.e. climate change and CCS), but that gaming was a valuable tool for addressing such sensitive subjects. Overall, these four chapters demonstrate that communication of CCS has only reached portions of the public and has not consistently connected with those potentially impacted by the technology. They also show that CCS must overcome numerous barriers to deployment, foremost of which is public acceptance.

The Riverside Energy Efficiency Laboratory at Texas A&M University conducts sound quality testing for the Home Ventilating Institute. When the Home Ventilating Institute initially established their sound quality test, the semi-reverberant sound chamber to conduct the sound quality tests was built at the Riverside Energy Efficiency Laboratory. The Home Ventilating Institute created a standard to specify the procedure for sound quality testing. This standard contained high consideration for performance, reliability, and accuracy. The standard was based on several ANSI standards for sound testing procedures, sound setup and equipment standards, and sound rating calculations. The Riverside Energy Efficiency Laboratory presently continues sound quality testing for the Home Ventilating Institute using the semi-reverberant sound chamber. The standard has been revised and updated due to developments for better sound quality test result representation. Resourceful data to assist with further developments comes from the semi-reverberant sound chamber's characteristics. This thesis's purpose was to conduct an analysis of the performance for the semi-reverberant sound chamber. The sound chamber's sound transmission loss was determined using a fan source with known sound power across the 24 tested 1/3 octave frequency bands, 50 Hz - 10,000 Hz. The sound pressure was recorded inside the chamber and outside the chamber at the sound source. The sound source was placed at three different locations around the sound chamber. In addition, the sound pressure was measured in real time to study the amount of sound pressure fluctuation and maximum amplitude. The background noise was measured inside the sound chamber for these tests. The sound transmission loss profiles were identical for each location. The lowest two 1/3 octave bands, 50 Hz and 63 Hz, have low transmission losses. The profile jumps up at the following 1/3 octave band and increases with a peak around 1600 Hz before slightly decreasing. The profile of the sound pressure in the time domain showed similar results. The most fluctuation with the greatest peaks was present in the lower 1/3 octave frequency bands, and diminished the higher the 1/3 octave frequency band. Sound sources around the sound chamber can be evaluated to determine whether an impact is possible on the sound quality tests from these results. The impact of modifications to the sound chamber can use the transmission loss values to help determine the expected performance increase.

3D animation has developed rapidly in the multimedia nowadays, in computer games, virtual reality and films. Therefore, how to make a 3D model which is really true to life, especially in the facial expressions, and can have vivid actions, is a significant issue. At the present time, the methods to construct 3D facial model are divided into two categories: one is based on computer graphic technology, like geometric function, polygon, or simple geometric shapes, the other one is using hardware to measure a real face by laser scanning system, and three-dimensional digitizer. Moreover, the method to acquire the 3D facial expression primarily are applied as following: keyframing, motion capture, and simulation. The research covers two areas: 1. Use two CCDs to digitalize the facial expressions of a real person simultaneously from both right and left side, and save the obtained standard image. Then, get the feature match points from the two standard images in the space domain, and by using the Stereo to attain the ¡§depth information¡¨ which helps to build 3D facial model. 2. Use one CCD to continuously digitalize two facial expressions and get the feature match points¡¦ coordinates in the time domain to calculate the motion vector. By combining the ¡§depth information¡¨ from space domain and the motion vector from the time domain, the 3D facial model¡¦s motion sequence can be therefore obtained. If sufficient digitalized facial expressions are processed by the 3D facial model¡¦s motion sequence, a database could be built. By matching the feature points between the 2D test image and 2D standard image in the database, the standard image¡¦s ¡§depth information¡¨ and motion vector can be used and turn the test image into 3D model which can also imitate the facial expressions of the standard images sequences. The method to match the feature points between the test image and standard images in the database can be entirely processed by computers, and as a result eliminate unnecessary human resources.

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In this thesis, a system called Video Looping is developed to analyze human cyclic motions. Video Looping allows users to extract human cyclic motion from a given video sequence. This system analyzes similarities from a large amount of live footage to find the point of smooth transition. The final cyclic loop is created using only a few output images. Video Looping is useful not only to learn and understand human movements, but also to apply the cyclic loop to various artistic applications. To provide practical animation references, the output images are presented as photo plate sequences to visualize human cyclic motion similar to Eadweard Muybridge's image sequences. The final output images can be used to create experimental projects such as composited multiple video loops or small size of web animations. Furthermore, they can be imported into animation packages, and animators can create keyframe animations by tracing them in 3D software.

Direct observation of the child remains an essential part of the gold standard clinical practice in the diagnosis, assessment, and treatment planning for children with Autism and related developmental conditions. Clinical professionals acknowledge that observing behavior in the natural environment is crucial to obtain an accurate and comprehensive assessment of child behavior. However, direct observation in the natural environment is not feasible for wide-scale implementation into clinical practice. Another key challenge with respect to autism diagnosis is that there is significant time lag (about 20-60 months) between age at which parents first get concerned and the age at which the child finally gets diagnosed. Delay in diagnosis can lead to delay in invaluable early interventions which could impact a child’s future developmental outcomes. A capture and access solution can play a role to fill these gaps. This thesis presents the design, development, and evaluation of a Clinician-directed Capture and Access System that can enable parents to easily collect in-home behavior specimens that have clinical utility and clinicians to use this data to complete a diagnostic assessment for autism. Analogous to a traditional lab specimen collection and assessment procedure, this approach involves three steps: 1) the clinician’s prescription of behavior specimens to be collected; 2) in-home collection and remote sharing of prescribed behavior specimens by parents; and 3) diagnostic assessment of behavior specimens by a remote and qualified clinician. The contributions of this thesis are as follows: a) identified potential opportunities and challenges specific to the design and adoption of a technology solution that enables in-home behavior specimen collection and diagnostic assessment for autism; b) identified key features and functionalities of a smart-phone based Capture System that can enable parents to easy collect in-home behavior specimens that have clinical utility; c) identified key features and functionalities of the web-based Access System that facilitate clinicians to complete remote diagnostic assessment based on in-home behavior specimens.; d) demonstrated through an end-to-end study with parents and clinicians that parents can easily capture behavior specimens through the Capture System and clinicians can complete remote autism diagnostic assessment based on in-home behavior specimens via the Access System.

Onchocerciasis, or river blindness, has historically represented one of the significant neglected tropical diseases on the planet in terms of socio-economic impact. The discovery that ivermectin was a safe and effective treatment for onchocerciasis, together with the decision of the manufacturer to donate the drug for the treatment of this disease became the basis for several large international programs to control and eventually eliminate the infection. These programs have managed to virtually eliminate transmission of the parasite causing Onchocerca volvulus from many foci in Africa and the Americas. Verifying that transmission has been halted requires sensitive and specific assays to detect the presence of the parasite. The gold standard to accomplish this has been to employ a PCR assay targeting a specific repeated sequence family encoded in the genome of O. volvulus to screen for the presence of the parasite in pools of vector black flies. While this assay is highly sensitive, obtaining the high specificity required to document an absence of transmission requires an independent confirmatory assay. To meet this need, an independent PCR assay targeting the cytochrome B (cytB) gene of the O. volvulus mitochondrion was developed. This assay could detect O. volvulus mitochondrial DNA purified by magnetic bead capture using the primers for the cytB gene and from the nuclear encoded repeated sequence DNA targeted in the primary assay. These preliminary data suggest that the mitochondrial PCR assay may be employed as a confirmatory assay to detect O. volvulus in pools of vector flies.

Anthropogenic CO₂ captured from a coal-fired power plant can be used for an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operation while mitigating the atmospheric impact of CO₂ emissions. Concern about climate change caused by CO₂ emissions has increased the motivation to develop carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) projects to reduce the atmospheric impact of coal and other fossil fuel combustion. Enhanced oil recovery operations are typically constrained by the supply of CO₂, so there is interest from oil producers to use large-volume anthropogenic (LVA) CO₂ for tertiary oil production. The intermittency of LVA CO2 emissions creates an area of concern for both oil producers and electric utilities that may enter into a CO₂ supply contract for EOR. An oil producer wants to know if intermittency from a non-standard source of CO₂ will impact oil production from the large volume being captured. Since the electric utility must supply electricity on an as-needed basis, the CO₂ emissions are inherently intermittent on a daily and seasonal basis. The electric utility needs to know if the intermittent supply of CO₂ would reduce its value compared to CO₂ delivered to the oil field at a constant rate. This research creates an experimental test scenario where one coal-fired power plant captures 90% of its CO₂ emissions which is then delivered through a pipeline to an EOR operation. Using real emissions data from a coal-fired power plant and simplified data from an actual EOR reservoir, a series of reservoir simulations were done to address and analyze potential operational interference for an EOR operator injecting large-volume, intermittent CO₂ characteristic of emissions from a coal-fired power plant. The test case simulations in this study show no significant impact to oil production from CO₂ intermittency. Oil recovery, in terms of CO₂ injection, is observed to be a function of the total pore volumes injected. The more CO₂ that is injected, the more oil that is produced and the frequency or rate at which a given volume is injected does not impact net oil production. Anthropogenic CO₂ sources can eliminate CO₂ supply issues that constrain an EOR operation. By implementing this nearly unlimited supply of CO₂, oil production should increase compared to smaller-volume or water-alternating-gas (WAG) injection strategies used today. Mobility ratio and reservoir heterogeneity have a considerable impact on oil recovery. Prediction of CO₂ breakthrough at the production wells seems to be more accurate when derived from the mobility ratio between CO₂ and reservoir oil. The degree of heterogeneity within the reservoir has a more direct impact on oil recovery and sweep efficiency over time. The volume of CO₂ being injected can eventually invade lower permeability regions, reducing the impact of reservoir heterogeneity on oil recovery. This concept should mobilize a larger volume of oil than a conventional volume-limited or WAG injection strategy that may bypass or block these lower permeability regions. Besides oil recovery, a reservoir's performance in this study is defined by its CO₂ injectivity over time. Elevated injection pressures associated with the large-volume CO₂ source can substantially impact the ability for an oil reservoir to store LVA CO₂. As CO₂, a less viscous fluid, replaces produced oil and water, the average reservoir pressure slowly declines which improves injectivity. This gradual improvement in injectivity is mostly occupied by the increasing volume of recycled CO₂. Sweep efficiency is critical towards minimizing the impact of CO₂ recycling on reservoir storage potential. Deep, large, and permeable oil reservoirs are more capable of accepting LVA CO₂, with less risk of fracturing the reservoir or overlying confining unit. The depth of the reservoir will directly dictate the injection pressure threshold in the oil reservoir as the fracture pressure increases with depth. If EOR operations are designed to sequester all the CO₂ delivered to the field, additional injection capacity and design strategies are needed. / text