Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 1931. / On cover: University of Pennsylvania. Bibliography: p. 193-195.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)-- Worcester Polytechnic Institute. / Keywords: Newton; Picard; periodic solutions; dynamical systems. Includes bibliographical references (p.10-11).

Detection canines represent the fastest and most versatile means of illicit material detection. This research endeavor in its most simplistic form is the improvement of detection canines through training, training aids, and calibration. This study focuses on developing a universal calibration compound for which all detection canines, regardless of detection substance, can be tested daily to ensure that they are working with acceptable parameters. Surrogate continuation aids (SCAs) were developed for peroxide based explosives along with the validation of the SCAs already developed within the International Forensic Research Institute (IFRI) prototype surrogate explosives kit. Storage parameters of the SCAs were evaluated to give recommendations to the detection canine community on the best possible training aid storage solution that minimizes the likelihood of contamination. Two commonly used and accepted detection canine imprinting methods were also evaluated for the speed in which the canine is trained and their reliability. As a result of the completion of this study, SCAs have been developed for explosive detection canine use covering: peroxide based explosives, TNT based explosives, nitroglycerin based explosives, tagged explosives, plasticized explosives, and smokeless powders. Through the use of these surrogate continuation aids a more uniform and reliable system of training can be implemented in the field than is currently used today. By examining the storage parameters of the SCAs, an ideal storage system has been developed using three levels of containment for the reduction of possible contamination. The developed calibration compound will ease the growing concerns over the legality and reliability of detection canine use by detailing the daily working parameters of the canine, allowing for Daubert rules of evidence admissibility to be applied. Through canine field testing, it has been shown that the IFRI SCAs outperform other commercially available training aids on the market. Additionally, of the imprinting methods tested, no difference was found in the speed in which the canines are trained or their reliability to detect illicit materials. Therefore, if the recommendations discovered in this study are followed, the detection canine community will greatly benefit through the use of scientifically validated training techniques and training aids.

The main purpose of this study was to discover if and why some small California secondary schools fail to provide continuation education. The study involved two problems: First, to show the arrangements, methods, and problems encountered in carrying out statutory provisions concerning continuation education in small secondary schools; Second, to determine the attitude of secondary school administrators toward continuation education.

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis proposes a novel method for locating a p-dimensional invariant torus of an n-dimensional map. A set of non-linear equations is formulated and solved using the Newton-Raphson scheme. The method requires a set of sampled points on a guess invariant torus. An interpolant is passed through these points to compute the pointwise shift on the invariant torus, which is used to formulate the equation of invariance for the torus under the given map. The principal application of this method is to locate invariant tori of continuous systems. These tori occur for continuous dynamical systems having quasiperiodic orbits in state space. The discretization of the continuous system in terms of a map is accomplished in terms of its flow function. Results for one-dimensional invariant tori in two and three-dimensional state space and for two-dimensional invariant tori in three and four-dimensional maps are presented. / Master of Science

The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of students enrolled in small community colleges to determine if there was a difference in the degree to which students were engaged based upon their primary enrollment in day or in evening courses. Specifically, the study investigated the amount of time and effort students dedicated to their academic pursuits and the degree to which institutional policies and practices supported them in their efforts to determine whether time of enrollment was a significant factor in predicting engagement. The primary goals of the study were to contribute to the understanding of students' experiences and to provide empirical evidence that might serve as the foundation for program development and reform. The findings from the quantitative analysis revealed a significant predictive relationship between time of enrollment and five of the fourteen engagement variables considered in the study. Enrollment in evening courses was linked to lower levels of engagement in each of these five areas: student effort, academic challenge, support for learners, academic preparation, and school opinions. The results of the study supported the development of a theoretical model that depicts student engagement based upon primary enrollment in evening courses. The model places support for learners at the forefront. Students' opinions are the end result, with each of the other engagement variables being affected by the levels of support perceived by evening students.

L’œuvre de Rabelais connaît, dès la parution de Pantagruel en 1532, une postérité exceptionnelle, qui lui attire autant d’éloges que de blâmes de la part de ses contemporains. Au-delà de cette réception critique, elle est également l’objet d’un phénomène d’imitation d’une ampleur considérable, puisque l’on retrouve, chez la majorité des auteurs de l’époque, des réminiscences du corpus rabelaisien. Entre 1532 et 1619, il existe toute une série de singes de Rabelais dont les œuvres s’inscrivent dans trois grandes tendances imitatives. La première correspond à un ensemble d’écrits entretenant une relation d’émulation explicite avec la chronique pantagruéline, qu’il s’agisse de pasticher les genres littéraires dont elle relève ou encore d’en proposer une expansion transfictionnelle. D’autres auteurs offrent, dans ce que l’on peut identifier comme une deuxième tendance, des productions littéraires originales dans lesquelles il est possible de relever un nombre significatif d’emprunts à l’œuvre de Rabelais, ou tentent de placer sous son égide des ouvrages apocryphes, par le biais de mises en scènes éditoriales. Certains autres singes, relevant de la troisième tendance, ont choisi de faire de Rabelais une autorité narrative, que ce soit dans le domaine de la Querelle des femmes, dans celui de la science, ou encore dans le contexte des conflits religieux et politiques qui déchiraient alors l’Europe. Ces ouvrages sont autant de jalons de la réception de Rabelais qui permettent de mettre en lumière les relations intertextuelles, souvent polyphoniques, qui unissent le corpus rabelaisien et pararabelaisien, et de mieux comprendre comment son œuvre est lue et comprise à son époque. / Since the publication of Pantagruel in 1532, François Rabelais has known a great posterity, which attracted him as much praise as blame from his coevals. In addition to this reception, his works were also the subject of a widespread practice of imitation, shown by the fact that traces of the Rabelaisian chronicles can be found in the writings of most of the authors of his time. A whole series of imitations of Rabelais in the most various literary genres exists between 1532 and 1619. These texts can be categorized in three tendencies of imitation. The first comprises those who share the most explicit relation of emulation with Rabelais’s writings. They either pastiche a literary genre characteristic of the Pantagruelian chronicle, or they continue the adventures of its protagonists. A second lot of texts offers more personal productions in which it is nonetheless possible to find a certain number of elements taken from Rabelais’s works, or falsely presents itself as authentic even though these texts are apocryphal. Finally, some of Rabelais’s apes use his writings as a narrative authority in the Women’s Quarrel, in the field of science, or in the religious and political conflicts that shook the European Renaissance. The works of Rabelais’s imitators each are markers of his reception that shed light on the Rabelaisian and pararabelaisian intertextuality and polyphony. They help appreciate the way his books were read and understood in his times.

Cette thèse porte sur un problème couplé des lanceurs, à savoir une manœuvre de l'attitude couplée avec la trajectoire minimisant le temps de manœuvre. La difficulté de ce problème vient essentiellement du phénomène de chattering et du couplage des dynamiques n'ayant pas la même échelle de temps. Avec une analyse géométrique des extrémales venant de l'application du principe du maximum de pontryagin, nous donnons des conditions suffisantes sous lesquelles le phénomène de chattering se produit, pour des systèmes affines bi-entrée. Nons appliquons ensuite ce résultat à notre problème, et montrons que le phénomène de chattering arrive pour les trajectoires optimales, pour certaines données terminales. A l'aide de cette analyse théorique préliminaire, nous mettons en œuvre une méthode de résolution indirecte efficace, combinée à une méthode de continuation prédicteur-correcteur. En cas de chattering, deux stratégies sous-optimales sont proposées: soit une méthode directe dont le contrôle est approché par un contrôle constant par morceaux, soit en stoppant la continuation avant l'échec dû au chattering. Avec le tir multiple et plusieurs paramètres de continuations supplémentaires, cette méthode de résolution est appliquée à chercher une manœuvre de pull-up avec des contraintes sur l'état en minimisant le temps-énergie pour des lanceurs aéroportés. Les résultats numériques permettent de mettre en évidence l'efficacité et la robustesse de notre méthode de résolution. / In this thesis, we investigate the minimum time control problem for the control and guidance of a launch vehicle, whose motion is described by its attitude kinematics and dynamics but also by its trajectory dynamics. The difficulty of this problem is essentially due to the chattering phenomenon and to the coupling of dynamics of different time scales. With a refined geometric study of the extremals coming from the application of the pontryagin maximum principle, we establish a general result for bi-input control-affine systems, providing sufficient conditions under which the chattering phenomenon occurs. We show how this result can be applied to our problem. Based on this preliminary theoretical analysis, we implement an efficient indirect numerical method, combined with numerical predictor-corrector continuation, in order to compute numerically the optimal solutions of the problem. In case of chattering, two sub-optimal strategies are designed: one is a direct method in which the control is approximated by a piecewise constant control, and the other consists of stopping the continuation procedure before its failure due to chattering. With several additional numerical continuation steps, we apply finally the developed indirect approach to the minimum time-energy pull-up maneuver problem, in which state constraints are also considered, for airborne launchers. Numerical simulations illustrate the efficiency and robustness of our method.