This thesis develops methodologies for the construction of various types of optimal designs with applications in maximum likelihood estimation and factorial structure design. The methodologies are applied to some real data sets throughout the thesis. We start with a broad review of optimal design theory including various types of optimal designs along with some fundamental concepts. We then consider a class of optimization problems and determine the optimality conditions. An important tool is the directional derivative of a criterion function. We study extensively the properties of the directional derivatives. In order to determine the optimal designs, we consider a class of multiplicative algorithms indexed by a function, which satisfies certain conditions. The most important and popular design criterion in applications is D-optimality. We construct such designs for various regression models and develop some useful strategies for better convergence of the algorithms. The remaining thesis is devoted to some important applications of optimal design theory. We first consider the problem of determining maximum likelihood estimates of the cell probabilities under the hypothesis of marginal homogeneity in a square contingency table. We formulate the Lagrangian function and remove the Lagrange parameters by substitution. We then transform the problem to one of maximizing some functions of the cell probabilities simultaneously. We apply this problem to some real data sets, namely, a US Migration data, and a data on grading of unaided distance vision. We solve another estimation problem to determine the maximum likelihood estimation of the parameters of the latent variable models such as Bradley-Terry model where the data come from a paired comparisons experiment. We approach this problem by considering the observed frequency having a binomial distribution and then replacing the binomial parameters in terms of optimal design weights. We apply this problem to a data set from American League Baseball Teams. Finally, we construct some optimal structure designs for comparing test treatments with a control. We introduce different structure designs and establish their properties using the incidence and characteristic matrices. We also develop methods of obtaining optimal R-type structure designs and show how such designs are trace, A- and MV-optimal. / October 2016

Each of us has knowledge but it is not complete. When we come together to listen, we learn, we grow in understanding and we can analyze better the course that needs to be taken. One thing I learned over the past several years is that words and their interpretation have power. Grand Bayou community member This dissertation examines the question of change in the non-community people who have interacted or come into contact with the Grand Bayou Participatory Action Research (PAR) project. Who Changes?, a book on institutionalizing participation in development, raises the issu of "where is the change?" in a participatory project (Blackburn1998). Fischer (2000), Forester (1992), and Wildavsky (1979) indicate that a participatory process is beneficial to all stages of planning policy development, and analysis. However, planners, academics, and practitioners who work with high risk communities are often of different cultures, values, and lived experience than those of the community. Despite the best intentions of these professionals, these differences may at times cause a disconnect from or a dismissal of the community's knowledge, values or validity claims as the participatory process transpires. The outside experts often fail to learn from the local communities or use the community's expertise. The Grand Bayou Participatory Action Research (PAR) project, funded in part by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, investigated the viability of PAR in a post-disaster recovery project. The NSF report revealed that the community did gain agency and political effectiveness; the study and evaluation, however, did not focus on the outside collaborators and their change. Freirian and Habermasian theories of conscientization and critical hermeneutics would assume that those engaged with the project have changed in some way through their learning experience and that change may be emancipatory. The change builds on a core tenet of PAR in developing relational knowledge while honoring the other. This study used a case study methodology utilizing multiple sources of evidence to explore the answer to this question. A better understanding of the change in outside collaborators in a PAR project can be helpful in developing a more holistic participatory community planning process.

Thesis advisor: Celeste Wells / This study examined the influence of a popular Youtuber in creating social discourse surrounding concepts of health, fitness, and beauty, employing a case study approach of the popular Youtube channel, Blogilates. Both visual and rhetorical analyses were conducted on the titles and thumbnail images of the top 50 most viewed Blogilates videos, and 10 videos were studied in depth. The findings established the concept of a unique power relationship between Youtubers and their viewers, which also explains the marked dissonance between the discourse posited by the channel’s marketing and the discourse posited in the actual video content. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Communication.

OpenStereo foi desenvolvido originalmente para preencher uma lacuna entre aplicativos de anáalise para geologia estrutural, como um software livre, gratuito e multi-plataforma. Ao longo dos anos ele adquiriu um grande núumero de usuários, com citações regulares. Este trabalho objetivou a reestruturação do OpenStereo como um todo, mudando-o para uma nova estrutura de interface gráfica e construíndo-o do zero visando desempenho, estabilidade e facilidade de manutenção e extensão. Diversas novas funcionalidades foram incluídas tais como projetos, conversão de notação de atitudes, ajuste de pequenos círculos, extração de atitudes de modelos tridimensionais e conversão de shapefiles de linhas para dados circulares. A pesquisa gerou dois subprodutos principais: um novo método gráfico para ajuste de pequenos círculos e a biblioteca de análise de dados estruturais Auttitude. / OpenStereo was originally developed to fill a gap among software packages for structural geology analysis, as a free open source cross-platform software. Over the years it has acquired a great number of users, with regular citations. This work aimed to restructure OpenStereo as a whole, changing to a new graphical interface framework and building it from the ground up for speed, stability, ease of maintenance and extension. Many new functionalities were also included, such as project management, structural attitudes notation handling, small circle fitting, extractions of attitudes from three-dimensional models and conversion of lines shapefiles to circular data. The research involved had two main byproducts, a new graphical method for small circle data fitting and a directional data analysis library, Auttitude.

For size miniaturization and cost reduction, the design of dual band devices has become an emerging research area in recent years. A desirable dual-band solution should offer size compactness, high performance (e.g. low insertion loss) and compatible with conventional printed circuit broad (PCB) technology, especially microstrip lines. / In this research, several new devices, including rat-race coupler, power divider and crossover junction, capable of operating at dual frequency bands are proposed. These structures involve only simple branch-line sections and a minimal number of shunt stubs. All characteristic impedances are ranged from 20 O to 100 O. Most designs can operate with wide frequency spacing between the two bands. These designs offer low insertion loss as well as good return loss performances, and are small in size, in compared to the broadband approach. For design purposes, explicit closed-form equations are derived for the evaluation of circuit parameters. In addition, the usable range of these devices with respect to frequency band separation is examined. For verification, various prototypes are constructed by using microstrip technology and in-house fabrication facilities. Both simulated and measured results are presented and compared with state-of-the-art examples. / Microwave passive couplers are widely used in microwave and millimeter-wave applications and communication systems. Common examples are branch line coupler, rat race coupler, power divider, and crossover junction. They are used for the dividing, combining and re-directing of signal power. / Very often, a passive coupler utilizes simple quarter-wavelength transmission lines for implementation which will lead to narrow-band operation. Therefore, it is difficult to deploy such circuit for wide-band or multi-band applications. Multi-section topologies may be used to broaden the operating bandwidth, with which the major drawbacks are enlarged circuit size and the requirement of extreme high (or low) branch-line characteristic impedances. Both are not attractive for mass and low cost production. Conventional design approaches are, therefore, not suitable for modern communication systems with multi-band operation. / Wong, Fai Leung. / Adviser: Michael Cheng. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-06, Section: B, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-122). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

by Choi Kup Sze. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references. / Acknowledgement / Abstract / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1-1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Introduction --- p.1-1 / Chapter 1.2 --- References --- p.1-6 / Chapter 2. --- Theory of Optical Waveguides --- p.2-1 / Chapter 2.1 --- Theory of Planar Slab Waveguides --- p.2-2 / Chapter 2.2 --- Theory of Channel Dielectric Waveguides --- p.2-13 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Marcatili's Method --- p.2-13 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Effective Index Method --- p.2-20 / Chapter 2.3 --- References --- p.2-24 / Chapter 3. --- A Numerical Method for Optical Waveguides --- p.3-1 / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.3-1 / Chapter 3.2 --- two-dimensional Fourier Series Expansion Method --- p.3-2 / Chapter 3.3 --- References --- p.3-13 / Chapter 4. --- Theory of Directional Couplers --- p.4-1 / Chapter 4.1 --- Dual-Channel Coupler --- p.4-1 / Chapter 4.2 --- Multi-channel Directional Coupler --- p.4-8 / Chapter 4.3 --- References --- p.4-9 / Chapter 5. --- Waveguide Formation by Ion Implantation --- p.5-1 / Chapter 5.1 --- Introduction --- p.5-1 / Chapter 5.2 --- Physics of Ion Implantation --- p.5-3 / Chapter 5.3 --- Lattice Damage and Annealing --- p.5-5 / Chapter 5.3.1 --- Lattice Damage --- p.5-5 / Chapter 5.3.2 --- Annealing --- p.5-6 / Chapter 5.4 --- Index Change due to Implantation --- p.5-8 / Chapter 5.5 --- Waveguide Processing Techniques --- p.5-10 / Chapter 5.5.1 --- Photolithography --- p.5-10 / Chapter 5.5.2 --- Processing Techniques --- p.5-11 / Chapter 5.6 --- References --- p.5-13 / Chapter 6. --- Optical Loss in Waveguides --- p.6-1 / Chapter 6.1 --- Loss Mechanisms in Optical Waveguides --- p.6-1 / Chapter 6.2 --- Principle of Propagation Loss Measurement --- p.6-4 / Chapter 6.2.1 --- Cut-back Method --- p.6-5 / Chapter 6.2.2 --- Scattering Light Method --- p.6-7 / Chapter 6.2.3 --- Fabry-Perot Interference Technique --- p.6-9 / Chapter 6.3 --- References --- p.6-16 / Chapter 7. --- Fabrication and Measurement of Optical Waveguides --- p.7-1 / Chapter 7.1 --- Fabrication of Optical Waveguides --- p.7-1 / Chapter 7.1.1 --- Fabrication of waveguides in GaAs by MeV oxygen ion implantation --- p.7-1 / Chapter 7.1.2 --- Waveguide End Facet Preparation --- p.7-4 / Chapter 7.2 --- Measurement of Optical Waveguides --- p.7-7 / Chapter 7.2.1 --- Laser Sources --- p.7-7 / Chapter 7.2.2 --- Guided Wave Excitation --- p.7-10 / Chapter 7.2.3 --- Intensity Profile Measurement --- p.7-17 / Chapter 7.2.4 --- Coupling Coefficient Measurement --- p.7-20 / Chapter 7.2.5 --- Propagation Loss Measurement --- p.7-25 / Chapter 7.3 --- References --- p.7-34 / Chapter 8. --- Results and Discussions --- p.8-1 / Chapter 8.1 --- Near Field Pattern Measurement --- p.8-1 / Chapter 8.2 --- Discussion on the Index Change of the Implanted GaAs --- p.8-5 / Chapter 8.3 --- Propagation Loss Measurement --- p.8-8 / Chapter 8.4 --- Observation of Optical Coupling in Directional Coupler --- p.8-14 / Chapter 8.5 --- References --- p.8-19 / Chapter 9. --- Conclusion --- p.9-1 / Chapter 10. --- Improvement and Extension --- p.10-1 / Appendix 1 Evaluation of the product〈n2 φuvφu'v'〉 --- p.A1-1 / Appendix 2 Transmission of Lossy Fabry-Perot Cavity --- p.A2-1 / Appendix 3 Effective Index versus Index Difference --- p.A3-1 / Appendix 4 Effect of Temperature on the Transmission of a Fabry-Perot Cavity --- p.A4-1 / Appendix 5 Evaluation of An from the Near Field Pattern --- p.A5-1

Major depressive disorder is one of the most common mental health conditions in the world while obesity, a condition tied to numerous chronic conditions throughout the lifespan, is at epidemic levels throughout most of the world. Adolescence is a crucial transition period for physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development. Adolescents, particularly girls, are at high risk of developing depression and obesity. Some studies suggest that obesity is a risk factor for the development of depression while others suggest that depression alters health habits, thereby leading to obesity. The overall goal of this work is to examine both of these questions in adolescent girls and further to explore whether the relationship between obesity (and other related risk factors) and depression is a bi-directional one. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Growth and Health Study (NGHS) is an observational study of 2379 adolescent black and white girls. Height and weight was measured annually (and used to estimate body mass index) over 10 years from early to late adolescence. Diet and other risk factors were also measured longitudinally over 10 years. Depression was measured twice using the Centers for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D): first at exam 8 and then at the final exam (exam 10). Multivariable logistic regression and longitudinal (repeated measures) mixed models were used to control for potential confounding by age, socio-economic status, physical activity, hours of television/video watching per day, and dietary factors. The first objective was to determine whether young adolescent girls who were already overweight or obese had a higher risk for developing depression during the follow-up exams in later adolescence. Overall, the prevalence of moderate (or worse) depression was much higher in girls who were classified as obese (474% with depression) than either overweight (37.8%) or normal-weight (34.3%) girls. After adjusting for baseline age, race, SES, television/video hour per day), physical activity level, diet quality (using Healthy Eating Index scores), and percent of energy from protein, obese girls had a 68% increase risk of subsequent depression (95% CI: 1.17 to 2.39) compared with normal weight girls. There was no increased depression risk for overweight girls. The risk of incident depression associated with obesity was the same for blacks and whites in the study. Finally, after controlling further for a measure of self-worth (using the Harter Scales), the effect of obesity was somewhat attenuated. The second objective of the study was to explore other risk factors for depression in these adolescent girls. In these analyses, several factors from the early adolescent years predicted the development of later depression (moderate or worse). These included hours spent watching television (risk increased by 6% for each additional hour watched per day), white race, SES, obesity, and self-worth score. While the self-worth score ranged only from 1 to 4, there was nearly a 60% reduction in risk for each increase of one point in the score. Thus, self-worth was a particularly important predictor, with higher self-worth scores protecting these girls from incident depression. The final objective of this work was to examine the change in behavioral risk factors associated with prevalent depression at exam 8. Depressed (vs. non-depressed) girls who were not obese at exam 8 were approximately 75% more likely to become obese by exam 10. The results of this study support a finding of a bi-directional relationship between obesity and depression in adolescent girls.

This work describes the design, synthesis and operation of a (R,R)-(+)-hydrobenzoin-diacetic acid molecular walker attached to polyether tracks containing 2, 3 or 4 secondary alcohol footholds. A macrocycle-the walker attached to a 2-foothold track by two ester linkages-was regioselectively hydrolysed by lipase AS. The resultant seco¬-acid was recyclised using Yamaguchi chemistry, demonstrating a bipedal walker stepping off, and on to, a track. These conditions were extended to tracks containing 3 and 4 alcohol footholds and the design of a 3-foothold track that incorporated a pentaethylene glycol chain. Using an information type Brownian ratchet mechanism, ~90% of walkers stepped away from the starting position, and ~68% of walkers took 2 steps to a foothold 16 atoms away. Importantly only smaller or equal to4% of walkers were found to completely detach from the track per operation cycle.

在現代通信系統，無線服務的需求不斷增加，帶動了通信系統，支持多標準的操作需要。 雙波段或多波段操作幾乎都是必要的，能夠提供這些操作的微波器件已成為減小尺寸和降低成本有吸引力的解決方案。 / 分支線耦合器是用於微波和毫米波應用的最流行的無源電路之一。它們通常用於平衡放大器和混頻器去實現良好的回波損耗以及隔離。其中一個至關重要的部份是設計一個可以靈活作多波段分配的分支線耦合器。 / 傳統上，完全平面的實施，雙波段分支線耦合器可以通過短截線，階梯阻抗線，耦合線等不同的分佈式結構實現。不同的設計方案已在這幾年來出現。窄帶操作和複雜的電路設計，是以前的設計的主要缺點。雖然，在理論上，多節技術可以拓寬帶寬，但它的主要缺點是電路的面積變大了及使用極端低/高傳輸線阻抗。因此，它不是一個大量和低成本生產的解決方案。 / 在這項研究中，設計了全新的並增強了性能的雙波段分支線耦合器(零分貝和三分貝的功率分裂)。這些設計能在兩個指定的頻帶有不平等的工作帶寛。通過正確選擇雙頻四分之一波長阻抗變換器的電氣長度和線路阻抗，傳輸相位斜率將能夠被控制並給出帶寬不對稱的特點，其性能可以進一步擴展，涵蓋了廣泛的應用。 / 以上所有設計都只需要單層線路版的制作及可實現的傳輸線阻抗。應用奇/偶模式分析所給出設計公式。這些設計具有低損耗，佈局靈活，緊密的尺寸大小的特性。這些設計己經使用標準微帶的結構實現其特點，其結果得到了實驗結果的進一步驗證。分支線耦合器只需要更小的節數就能實現相同的性能。 / In modern communication systems, the increasing demand for wireless services has driven the need for communication systems that support multi-standard operations. Dual-/Multi- band operation is almost a necessity and the adoption of microwave multi-band devices has become an attractive solution towards size and cost reduction of RF frontend designs. / Branch-line coupler is one of the most popular passive circuits used for microwave and millimeter-wave applications. They are commonly used in balanced amplifiers, phase-shifter, mixer and frequency multipliers for achieving good return loss, as well as isolation. It is therefore essential to have a branch-line coupler with multi-band operation. / Traditionally, for fully planar implementation, the construction of dual-band branch-line couplers are usually accomplished by distributed structures based upon shunt-stub, stepped-impedance line, coupled line etc. Narrow-band operation and circuit complexity are the major drawbacks for these previous designs. Although, in theory, the available bandwidth may be broadened by multi-section configurations, its major tradeoffs are the enlarged circuit size as well as the extreme line dimensions involved. Therefore, it is not preferable to mass and low cost production. / In this research, advanced designs of dual-band branch-line coupler (0 dB and 3 dB power splitting) with enhanced performances are presented. By proper selection of the number of sections, electrical lengths and line impedances of appropriate branch-lines of the coupler, its performance can be further extended to cover a wide range of applications. / All the proposed circuits require only single-layer fabrication and realizable line impedance. Closed form design formulas are made available by the application of even/odd- mode formulation. They feature low loss, flexible layout and compact size. The designs have been implemented and characterized using standard microstrip, and verified experimentally. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Yeung, Sung. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 92-95). / Abstracts also in Chinese. / Abstract --- p.ii / 摘要 --- p.iii / Acknowledgement --- p.iv / Table of Content --- p.v / Lists of Figures --- p.viii / Lists of Tables --- p.xii / Chapter Chapter 1 --- : Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Research Motivation and Objective --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Original Contribution --- p.3 / Chapter 1.3 --- Research Approach, Assumptions and Limitations --- p.4 / Chapter 1.4 --- Overview of the Thesis Organization --- p.5 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- : Review of Microwave Coupler Design --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1 --- Coupler Design Fundamental --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Coupler Design with Equal Power Splitting --- p.7 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Coupler Design with Unequal Power Splitting --- p.12 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- 0-dB Coupler or Crossover --- p.16 / Chapter 2.1.4 --- Coupler Design with Size Miniaturization --- p.18 / Chapter 2.1.5 --- Wide Band Coupler Design --- p.21 / Chapter 2.2 --- Dual-Band and Multi-Band Branch-line Coupler --- p.25 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Dual-Band Couplers Based on Composite Right/Left-Handed Transmission Line --- p.25 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Dual-Band Couplers with Shunt Stubs --- p.28 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- Dual-Band Coupler Based on Stepped-Impedance-Stub-Line --- p.30 / Chapter 2.2.4 --- Dual-Band Coupler with Port Extensions --- p.33 / Chapter 2.2.5 --- Tri-Band Coupler Based on Matching Network --- p.35 / Chapter 2.2.6 --- Multi-passband Branch-line Coupler Design --- p.37 / Chapter 2.3 --- Summary --- p.39 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- : A Novel Dual-band 0-dB Branch-line Coupler Design --- p.40 / Chapter 3.1 --- Proposed Circuit --- p.40 / Chapter 3.2 --- Analysis of Single-band 0-dB Branch-line Coupler --- p.43 / Chapter 3.3 --- Single- to Dual-band Conversion --- p.52 / Chapter 3.4 --- Experimental Results --- p.55 / Chapter 3.5 --- Summary --- p.58 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- : A Novel Dual-band 3-dB Branch-line Coupler with Unequal Bandwidth --- p.59 / Chapter 4.1 --- Proposed Dual-band Impedance Transformer: --- p.59 / Chapter 4.2 --- Single-band 3-dB Coupler Design --- p.65 / Chapter 4.3 --- Dual-band 3-dB Coupler Design --- p.70 / Chapter 4.4 --- Experimental Results --- p.76 / Chapter 4.4.1 --- Equal bandwidth design --- p.76 / Chapter 4.4.2 --- Unequal bandwidth design --- p.78 / Chapter 4.5 --- Summary --- p.81 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- : A Novel Dual-band 0-dB Branch-line Coupler Design with Unequal Bandwidth --- p.82 / Chapter 5.1 --- Proposed Circuit --- p.82 / Chapter 5.2 --- Analysis and Formulation --- p.84 / Chapter 5.3 --- Simulation Results --- p.85 / Chapter 5.4 --- Experimental Results --- p.87 / Chapter 5.5 --- Summary --- p.89 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- : Conclusion and Recommendation for Future Work --- p.90 / Chapter 6.1 --- Conclusion --- p.90 / Chapter 6.2 --- Recommendation for future work --- p.91 / References --- p.92 / Author’s Publications --- p.96 / Chapter Appendix 1: --- Brief Summary of Design Approaches of Hybrids Couplers --- p.97 / Chapter Appendix 2: --- Transformation between S- and ABCD- parameters for two-port network --- p.99

Recent work has shown that flow estimation from a pair of images can be formulated as a supervised learning task to be resolved with convolutional neural networks (CNN). However, the basic straightforward CNN methods estimate optical flow with motion and occlusion boundary blur. To tackle this problem, we propose a tiny diagnostic dataset called FlowClevr to quickly evaluate various modules that can use to enhance standard CNN architectures. Based on the experiments of the FlowClevr dataset, we find that a deformable module can improve model prediction accuracy by around 30% to 100% in most tasks and more significantly reduce boundary blur. Based on these results, we are able to design modifications to various existing network architectures improving their performance. Compared with the original model, the model with the deformable module clearly reduces boundary blur and achieves a large improvement on the MPI sintel dataset, an omni-directional stereo (ODS) and a novel omni-directional optical flow dataset.