This thesis is concerned with conventions of pictorialism, viz. the surface of an artwork or the plane of denotation (in my case paper, canvas or wood); and iconic imagery and the depiction of perceptual space that is connotated by marks, colours and forms upon that surface. Most importantly this thesis is concerned with the relationship between these elements and the deconstruction of them. That the reconstruction of the deconstructed language can create expressive iconic structures that perhaps contain conflicting information and elements, but are simultaneously single and self-contained perceptual models of seeing the world, and the things in it, in another way; is a major focus. The thesis is embodied in the paintings and drawings which are documented in the exegesis that follows.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1982. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 130-135). Also available in print.

This thesis presents experimental results of shape’s influence on user’s performance in terms of time and accuracy in shape replication task. The shapes are drawn with mouse, pen and touch input devices. For this purpose, two non-meaningful, semi- randomly generated shapes have been used. The first shape has a combination of straight lines and curves whereas the second shape has curves only. Each of these shapes is presented in four versions namely contour, polygon, narrow tunnel and wide tunnel. A method to compare versions of these shapes with the corresponding versions of user drawn shapes is presented. In general, the results showed that the replication of second shape takes less time and the replicated shape is more accurate when compared to the first shape. In addition, performance of the input devices was found to be dependent upon the shapes and their versions they were used to draw.

A pair of straight-line drawings of a graph is called parallel if, for every edge of the graph, the line segment that represents the edge in one drawing is parallel with the line segment that represents the edge in the other drawing. We study the problem of morphing between pairs of parallel planar drawings of a graph, keeping all intermediate drawings planar and parallel with the source and target drawings. We call such a morph a parallel morph. Parallel morphs have application to graph visualization. The problem of deciding whether two parallel drawings in the plane admit a parallel morph turns out to be NP-hard in general. However, for some restricted classes of graphs and drawings, we can efficiently decide parallel morphability. Our main positive result is that every pair of parallel simple orthogonal drawings in the plane admits a parallel morph. We give an efficient algorithm that computes such a morph. The number of steps required in a morph produced by our algorithm is linear in the complexity of the graph, where a step involves moving each vertex along a straight line at constant speed. We prove that this upper bound on the number of steps is within a constant factor of the worst-case lower bound. We explore the related problem of computing a parallel morph where edges are required to change length monotonically, i.e. to be either non-increasing or non-decreasing in length. Although parallel orthogonally-convex polygons always admit a monotone parallel morph, deciding morphability under these constraints is NP-hard, even for orthogonal polygons. We also begin a study of parallel morphing in higher dimensions. Parallel drawings of trees in any dimension always admit a parallel morph. This is not so for parallel drawings of cycles in 3-space, even if orthogonal. Similarly, not all pairs of parallel orthogonal polyhedra admit a parallel morph, even if they are topological spheres. In fact, deciding parallel morphability turns out to be PSPACE-hard for both parallel orthogonal polyhedra, and parallel orthogonal drawings in 3-space.

A pair of straight-line drawings of a graph is called parallel if, for every edge of the graph, the line segment that represents the edge in one drawing is parallel with the line segment that represents the edge in the other drawing. We study the problem of morphing between pairs of parallel planar drawings of a graph, keeping all intermediate drawings planar and parallel with the source and target drawings. We call such a morph a parallel morph. Parallel morphs have application to graph visualization. The problem of deciding whether two parallel drawings in the plane admit a parallel morph turns out to be NP-hard in general. However, for some restricted classes of graphs and drawings, we can efficiently decide parallel morphability. Our main positive result is that every pair of parallel simple orthogonal drawings in the plane admits a parallel morph. We give an efficient algorithm that computes such a morph. The number of steps required in a morph produced by our algorithm is linear in the complexity of the graph, where a step involves moving each vertex along a straight line at constant speed. We prove that this upper bound on the number of steps is within a constant factor of the worst-case lower bound. We explore the related problem of computing a parallel morph where edges are required to change length monotonically, i.e. to be either non-increasing or non-decreasing in length. Although parallel orthogonally-convex polygons always admit a monotone parallel morph, deciding morphability under these constraints is NP-hard, even for orthogonal polygons. We also begin a study of parallel morphing in higher dimensions. Parallel drawings of trees in any dimension always admit a parallel morph. This is not so for parallel drawings of cycles in 3-space, even if orthogonal. Similarly, not all pairs of parallel orthogonal polyhedra admit a parallel morph, even if they are topological spheres. In fact, deciding parallel morphability turns out to be PSPACE-hard for both parallel orthogonal polyhedra, and parallel orthogonal drawings in 3-space.

A straight line drawing of a graph is an open weak rectangle-of-influence (RI) drawing, if there is no vertex in the relative interior of the axis parallel rectangle induced by the end points of each edge. Despite recent interest of the graph drawing community in rectangle-of-influence drawings, no algorithm is known to test whether a graph has a planar open weak RI-drawing, not even for inner triangulated graphs. In this thesis, we have two major contributions. First we study open weak RI-drawings of plane graphs that must have a non-aligned frame, i.e., the graph obtained from removing the interior of every filled triangle is drawn such that no two vertices have the same coordinate. We introduce a new way to assign labels to angles, i.e., instances of vertices on faces. Using this labeling, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions characterizing those plane graphs that have open weak RI-drawings with non-aligned frame. We also give a polynomial algorithm to construct such a drawing if one exists. Our second major result is a negative result: deciding if a planar graph (i.e., one where we can choose the planar embedding) has an open weak RI-drawing is NP-complete. NP-completeness holds even for open weak RI-drawings with non-aligned frames.

The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) is one of the oldest federal programs in the United States. In 1933, the HABS culture of documentation started with the mission of creating a permanent record of the nation's architectural heritage. Since the inception of the program, the formal documentation methodology has been measured drawings, large-format photographs, and written histories. HABS documentation accentuates the act of drawing as a mediating conversation between the documenter and the historic environment. In a typical HABS project, the documenter is immersed in the historic setting by hand measuring the structure and creating field notes. The documenter's intimate access to the artifact develops his awareness of cultural heritage and helps cultivate an appreciation for the compositional sensibilities of the architectural precedents. However, the HABS culture of documentation has been fine-tuned to incorporate a number of digital technologies into documentation projects. When projects involve issues of logistics, time, and cost, HABS professionals utilize a host of digital methodologies to produce measured drawings. Although HABS prepares deliverables to meet the archival standards of the Library of Congress, the hardware and software necessary to recognize digital files have a limited lifespan that makes them unacceptable for use in the Library. Only measured drawings that use archival ink on stable translucent material, accompanied by negatives on safety film, can be submitted to the Library. Thus, if HABS pursued only digital technologies and deliverables, the effects of this approach on the quality of the documenter's engagement with cultural heritage would pose a significant question. This study addressed the question of how the HABS culture of documentation evolved in regards to drawing and technology, and how this relationship might be transformed in the future. Using HABS as a focus of inquiry is important in order to illuminate similar dynamics in heritage projects that utilize digital technologies. The methodology used in this study included a literature review, participant observations, and an analysis of documentation projects, as well as in-depth interviews with HABS staff, project participants, private practitioners, and academicians. The outcome of the study will be recommendations to heritage professionals for a future that resides in digital means without compromising the qualities that the HABS experience has offered to generation of documenters.

The breakthrough technology in dry fiber fabrication has opened the possibility for using fiber bandwidths all the way from 1.3 to 1.6 £gm. However, the fiber amplifier used in commercial product, such as erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA), can not fully cover the whole fiber bandwidths from 1.3 to 1.6 £gm with a single fiber amplifier. Recently, the Cr4+-doped fiber has shown a broadband emission from 1.3 to 1.6 £gm. Therefore, it is interesting to develop a single fiber amplifier which can operate the wide bandwidth of the 1.3 ~ 1.6 £gm emission. In this study, we have successfully fabricated and measured the Cr-doped fibers by using a commercial drawing-tower technique. The Cr-doped YAG preform was firstly fabricated by a rod-in-tube method. By employing a negative pressure control in drawing-tower technique on the YAG preform, the Cr-doped fibers with a better core circularity and uniformity, and good interface between core and cladding were fabricated. The drawing speed was up to 200m/min. The core diameters were 26 and 16 £gm and the non-circularity was smaller than 3%. The spontaneous emission spectrum showed a broadband emission of 1.2 to 1.6 £gm with the output power density about a few nW/nm. The Cr-doped fibers fabricated by drawing tower are beneficial when integrated with the standard single-mode fibers and broadband WDM couplers for lightwave communication systems. Therefore, the Cr-doped fibers may be used as a broadband fiber amplifier to cover the whole 1.3-1.6 £gm range of silica fibers and have a potential for commercial production and application to lightwave communication systems.

No description available.

Thesis (Honors)--Minot State University, 2002. / Accompanying CD-ROM located in pocket inside the front cover. Also available on the author's website. Address as of 8/19/02: www.metheus.net.