This thesis consists of two parts. The development of a self-adaptive stochastic control system for dynamically positioned vessels is described in Part One. Part Two is the investigation and the development of self-tuning control techniques. In Part One, the dynamic ship positioning control problems and basic components are described. The modelling techniques of low frequency ship motions and wave motions are given. The various Kalman filtering methods are appraised. An optimal state feedback control with integral action for the ship positioning system is proposed, followed by the simplification of the complex control structure to allow easy implementation. A self-tuning Kalman filter is proposed for systems which have low frequency outputs corrupted by high frequency disturbances. This filter is used in the ship positioning system. Simulation results of scalar, multivariable and non-linear cases are given. Part Two begins with the development of an adaptive tracking technique for slowly varying processes with coloured noise disturbances. Estimated results for various wave signals are given. The self-tuning control techniques are overviewed, followed by the development of an explicit multivariable weighted minimum variance controller. Simulation results including the estimation of system time delay are given. Finally, an implicit weighted minimum variance controller for single input-single output system is developed.

Adoption is a social institution that is continually evolving in order to meet the needs of children and adults. The research presented in this dissertation focuses on measuring the current cultural sentiments about the practice of adoption and assessing the stigmatization of adoption and the identities of adoptive parent and adopted child. Drawing from Bruce Link and Jo Phelan's conceptualization of stigma and the assumptions of Affect Control Theory, I provide evidence that adoption and thus adoptive families continue to be stigmatized in the United States. My data indicate that adoptive parents and children are socially differentiated from parents and children who are biologically related. Adopted children, particularly children adopted out of foster care, are perceived more negatively than children who are not. The stereotypical traits predicted by Affect Control Theory for adoptive parents and adopted children indicate that these identities are more negative and notably less powerful than those for biological parents and children. In addition, the expected behavioral patterns between adoptive parents and their adopted children are more ambivalent and less supportive than those of biological children and parents. The predictions made in this work must be tested in future research.

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