During September through December 1989, I successfully completed an internship in the Performing Arts Department at the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) in New Orleans, Louisiana. Ms. Elena Ronquillo, Director of Performing Arts at the CAC, acted as my on-site supervisor. She has held this position since August 1988 when the administrative structure of the CAC was reorganized. Previously, she has held the position of Coordinator of the Interdisciplinary/New Genres Department. The Performing Arts Department of the CAC incorporates Theatre, Music and Interdisciplinary Performance. My position as an intern in the Performing Arts Department included the following; 1) interim assistant to Ms. Ronquillo; 2) production coordinator for a major Interdisciplinary Performance, Rachel's Brain by Rachel Rosenthal; 3) pre-production coordinator for a major Theatre production, Brilliant Traces. This report discusses my experiences while I worked with the CAC administration, including specific challenges encountered while I performed assigned duties and tasks in the Performing Arts Department. Recommendations for improvement of specific problems I encountered are discussed. Finally, I discussed my contributions as an intern to the administrative and production aspects of the CAC's Performing Arts Department.

Since its first measurement in 1679, the usefulness of the location of whole body centre of mass (COM) data has progressed from having largely theoretical value into being an instrument with several diagnostic and applied scientific uses. This thesis describes first the biomechanical and measurement theory foundation of COM research and then details the historical development of methods to measure COM location and the various applied uses of this variable. Original research data presented in this thesis then go on to provide the first direct measurements of COM movement in walking humans. A second study quantifies the accuracy of the most commonly used current technique to quantify COM location (the kinematic segmental method) by determining the limits of agreement between it and a direct measurement method (the reaction-board), in lying and running subjects. In the latter studies a novel reaction-board measurement method is developed making use of life-sized projections of subjects in various stride positions and used to place runners into recumbent static running positions. These data demonstrate that reaction-board and segmental methods report COM locations with a mean difference of 1.6cm and agree to within limits of 6.0cm for the location of COM in recumbent individuals. The final study described in this thesis compares single COM measurements made using two kinematic segmental methods (models) to a direct suspension technique of measuring COM location. The suspension technique used is adapted from the original method of determining COM location upon which kinematic segmental methods derive their origin. The data show that both cadaver-derived kinematic models of COM, and kinematic models derived from live human data, differ from a direct COM suspension method, and that cadaver based estimates display greater accuracy (agreement with the direct suspension method). This study also uniquely provides information on the effect of whole body mass, body fat or body water on the accuracy of segmental models in male subjects.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Operations Research Center, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 113-118). / For many vehicles, obstacles, and targets, coordination of a fleet of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is a very complicated optimization problem, and the computation time typically increases very rapidly with the problem size. Previous research proposed an approach to decompose this large problem into task assignment and trajectory problems, while capturing key features of the coupling between them. This enabled the control architecture to solve an assignment problem first to determine a sequence of waypoints for each vehicle to visit, and then concentrate on designing paths to visit these pre-assigned waypoints. Although this approach greatly simplifies the problem, the task assignment optimization was still too slow for real-time UAV operations. This thesis presents a new approach to the task assignment problem that is much better suited for replanning in a dynamic battlefield. The approach, called the Receding Horizon Task Assignment (RHTA) algorithm, is shown to achieve near-optimal performance with computational times that are feasible for real-time implementation. Further, this thesis extends the RHTA algorithm to account for the risk, noise, and uncertainty typically associated with the UAV environment. This work also provides new insights on the distinction between UAV coordination and cooperation. The benefits of these improvements to the UAV task assignment algorithms are demonstrated in several simulations and on two hardware platforms. / by Mehdi Alighanbari. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Operations Research Center, 2001. / "June 2001." / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 67). / by Young Jae Jang. / S.M.

Every triangle has a unique point, called the conformal center, from which a random (Brownian motion) path is equally likely to first exit the triangle through each of its three sides. We use concepts from complex analysis, including harmonic measure and the Schwarz-Christoffel map, to locate this point. We could not obtain an elementary closed form expression for the conformal center, but we show some series expressions for its coordinates. These expressions yield some new hypergeometric series identities. Using Maple in conjunction with a homemade Java program, we numerically evaluated these series expressions and compared the conformal center to the known geometric triangle centers. Although the conformal center does not exactly coincide with any of these other centers, it appears to always lie very close to the Second Morley point. We empirically quantify the distance between these points in two different ways. In addition to triangles, certain other special polygons and circles also have conformal centers. We discuss how to determine whether such a center exists, and where it will be found.

In this dissertation, a new approach for determining gaze direction is presented. This approach is based on the existence of a visual axes center for the human eye, the location of which is invariant with respect to the head. The vector from the visual axes center of an eye through the pupil center provides a reliable approximation for a gaze vector. Calibration camera images of human subjects looking at known points on a computer monitor are collected in a non-intrusive manner. Algorithms are applied to the images from two independent cameras whose spatial relationship is known with respect to the monitor. The calibration algorithms allow determination of physical distances between selected facial features visible in the images and the invariant location of the visual axes center for each eye (not visible) with respect to these features. Given these invariant relationships between a subject's facial features and eye visual axes centers, optimization techniques are applied to subsequent images collected from a single camera to obtain the three-dimensional locations of the visible facial features and the visual axes centers, and from these, the gaze direction. The results of experiments conducted to determine the viability and accuracy of the visual axes center approach in determining the gaze direction are presented. The results show that the approach can provide acceptable gaze direction error values when high accuracy (< 1° angular error) is not required. Techniques to improve accuracy are discussed as well as potential limitations of the approach.

The preparations of multinuclear supramolecules assembled from 1,1¡¬-bis(terpyridyl)ferrocene, 1,1¡¬-bis(terpyridyl)biferrocene and 1,1¡¬-bis(terpyridyl)triferrocene (tpy-(fc)n-tpy, n =1-3) redox-active moieties with Ru2+ metal centers are described. The electrochemical measurements of the Ru2+ coordinated tpy-(fc)n-tpy complexes (1a (n=1); 1b (n=2); 1c (n=3)) are dominated by the Ru2+/Ru3+ redox couple (E1/2 from 1.35 to 1.38 V), Fe2+/Fe3+ redox couples (E1/2 from ∼0.4 to ∼1.0 V) and tpy/tpy-/tpy2- redox couples (E1/2 from 1.3 to 1.5 V). The appreciable variations detected in the Fe2+/Fe3+ oxidation potentials indicate that there is an interaction between the spacer and the Ru2+ metal centers. On the coordination of Ru2+ metal centers with tpy-(fc)n-tpy rises to a red-shifted and more intense 1[(d(£k)Fe)6] ¡÷ 1[d(£k)Fe)5(£k*tpyRu)1] transition in the visible region. The observed red-shifted absorption from 526 nm in monomeric [Ru(fctpy)2]2+ complex to ~560 nm in 1b and 1c reveals that there is a qualitative electronic coupling within the ferrocenyl array. The Fe-Fe interactions result in a red characteristic of the 1[(d(£k)Fe)6] ¡÷ 1[d(£k)Fe)5(£k*tpyRu)1] MMLCT transition.

The development of molecular wires where photoactive and electroactive terminals are linked by a large size molecular spacer may open new path in the field of storage and utilization of light energy. An important issue concerns how best to design the spacer that permit controlled transfer of electron along the molecular axis. Our design principle for a molecular wire has to fulfill following criteria : (i) an organometallic redox-active spacer to enhance the capability of transfer information along the molecular axis and (ii) modular synthetic approach to control length. The preparations of multinuclear supramolecular assembled from redox-active biferrocencyl spacer and ruthenium(II) terpyridine chromophore are described. Interestingly, substitution of a methoxy group on terminal terpyridine 4'-position of complex 13 will enhance the electronic coupling between the spacer and Ru2+ metal centers. The detailed properties about complex 13 are described in electrochemical results, UV-visible spectral data, and photo luminescent investigation.

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Because of changing customer requirements and increasing introduction of new products, the retailer¡¦s inventory has to be reduced. In addition, the supplier is facing the problem of more frequent delivery in small batch. All these give rise to the demand for Distribution center¡]DC¡^. In addition to the study of logistics facilities, logistics information system¡]LIS¡^ plays an important role to improve the efficiency of physical distribution. Various market environments require different kinds of DC. The services and operational processes provide in each DC will depend on the orientation of the DC. The differences are to be reflected in the LIS requirements. The findings of this research indicated that both scale and organizational form have contributed to the variation in LIS. The DC that is large in size is often the logistics department of a big company; furthermore, the DC that is small in size is often a third party logistics company. Hence small DCs, while concentrating on the logistics function, do no need the function of purchasing. Large DCs have better performance record in using database, electronic bulletin board system, telephone conference, and video conference. By comparison, small DCs have better use of common distribution network and common information system. In general, problematic internal and external integration, and lack of flexibility are prevalent phenomena in the implementation of LIS. Suggestions could be made that integration with other type of information system is to be emphasized for large DCs. Small DCs, while falling short of resources, will need to form alliance with their partners, which can provide better information resources for daily operations. The user interface of LIS had a significant impact on user satisfaction, and user satisfaction in turn affected the competitive advantage of DC. This indicated that both user interface and user satisfaction should be highlighted in designing LIS. A LIS should be directed to meet user friendly purpose and strategic position in the market, which will exert the system function fully and achieve competitive advantage for the company.